"I had been anatomised, but had not yet
had my skeleton put together and re-hung
on an iron hook, when it began to be
whispered that the Bride's Chamber was haunted.
It was haunted, and I was there.

"We were there. She and I were there.
I, in the chair upon the hearth; she, a white
wreck again, trailing itself towards me on the
floor. But, I was the speaker no more. She
was the sole speaker now, and the one word
that she said to me from midnight until
dawn was, 'Live!'

"The youth was there, likewise. In the
tree outside the window. Coming and going
in the moonlight, as the tree bent and gave.
He has, ever since, been there; peeping in
at me in my torment; revealing to me by
snatches, in the pale lights and slatey
shadows where he comes and goes, bare-
headed—a bill-hook, standing edgewise in his
hair.

"In the Bride's Chamber, every night from
midnight until dawn—one month in the year
excepted, as I am going to tell you—he hides
in the tree, and she comes towards me on the
floor; always approaching; never coming
nearer; always visible as if by moonlight,
whether the moon shines or no; always
saying, from midnight until dawn, her one
word, 'Live!'

"But, in the month wherein I was forced
out of this life—this present month of thirty
days—the Bride's Chamber is empty and
quiet. Not so my old dungeon. Not so the
rooms where I was restless and afraid, ten
years. Both are fitfully haunted then. At
One in the morning, I am what you saw me
when the clock struck that hour—One old
man. At Two in the morning, I am Two old
men. At Three, I am Three. By Twelve at
noon, I am Twelve old men, One for every
hundred per cent of old gain. Every one of
the Twelve, with Twelve times my old power
of suffering and agony. From that hour
until Twelve at night, I, Twelve old men in
anguish and fearful foreboding, wait for the
coming of the executioner. At Twelve at
night, I, Twelve old men turned off, swing
invisible outside Lancaster Castle, with
Twelve faces to the wall!

"When the Bride's Chamber was first
haunted, it was known to me that this
punishment would never cease, until I could
make its nature, and my story, known to two
living men together. I waited for the coming
of two living men together into the Bride's
Chamber, years upon years. It was infused
into my knowledge (of the means I am
ignorant) that if two living men, with their eyes
open, could be in the Bride's Chamber at
One in the morning, they would see me
sitting in my chair.

"At length, the whispers that the room
was spiritually troubled, brought two men to
try the adventure. I was scarcely struck
upon the hearth at midnight (I come there
as if the Lightning blasted me into being),
when I heard them ascending the stairs.
Next, I saw them enter. One of them was a
bold, gay, active man, in the prime of life,
some five and forty years of age; the other,
a dozen years younger. They brought
provisions with them in a basket, and bottles.
A young woman accompanied them, with
wood and coals for the lighting of the fire.
When she had lighted it, the bold, gay, active
man accompanied her along the gallery
outside the room, to see her safely down the
staircase, and came back laughing.

"He locked the door, examined the chamber,
put out the contents of the basket on
the table before the fire—little recking of
me, in my appointed station on the hearth,
close to him—and filled the glasses, and
ate and drank. His companion did the
same, and was as cheerful and confident as
be: though he was the leader. When they
had supped, they laid pistols on the table,
turned to the fire, and began to smoke their
pipes of foreign make.

"They had travelled together, and had been
much together, and had an abundance of
subjects in common. In the midst of their
talking and laughing, the younger man
made a reference to the leader's being
always ready for any adventure; that one,
or any other. He replied in these words:

"'Not quite so, Dick; if I am afraid of
nothing else, I am afraid of myself.'

"His companion seeming to grow a little
dull, asked him, in what sense? How?

"'Why, thus,' he returned. 'Here is a
Ghost to be disproved. Well! I cannot,
answer for what my fancy might do if I
were alone here, or what tricks my senses
might play with me if they had me to
themselves. But, in company with another
man, and especially with you, Dick, I would
consent to outface all the Ghosts that were
ever told of in the universe.'

"'I had not the vanity to suppose that I
was of so much importance to-night,' said the
other.

"'Of so much,' rejoined the leader, more
seriously than he had spoken yet, 'that I
would, for the reason I have given, on no
account have undertaken to pass the night
here alone.'

"It was within a few minutes of One.
The head of the younger man had drooped
when he made his last remark, and it
drooped lower now.

"'Keep awake, Dick!' said the leader,
gaily. 'The small hours are the worst.'

"He tried, but his head drooped again.

"'Dick!' urged the leader. 'Keep
awake!'

"'I can't,' he indistinctly muttered. 'I
don't know what strange influence is stealing
over me. I can't.'

"His companion looked at him with a
sudden horror, and I, in my different way,
felt a new horror also; for,it was on the
stroke of One, and I felt that the second