may lead to some explanation about a circumstance equally painful
and mysterious. To others, the communication I am about to make,
might place me in the light of a weak-minded, superstitious fool,
who suffered his own imagination to delude and bewilder him; but
you have known me in childhood and youth, and will not suspect me
of having adopted in manhood the feelings and frailties from
which my early years were free." Here he paused, and his friend
replied,--

"Do not doubt my perfect confidence in the truth of your
communication, however strange it may be," replied Lord
Woodville. "I know your firmness of disposition too well, to
suspect you could be made the object of imposition, and am aware
that your honour and your friendship will equally deter you from
exaggerating whatever you may have witnessed."

"Well, then," said the General, "I will proceed with my story as
well as I can, relying upon your candour, and yet distinctly
feeling that I would rather face a battery than recall to my mind
the odious recollections of last night."

He paused a second time, and then perceiving that Lord Woodville
remained silent and in an attitude of attention, he commenced,
though not without obvious reluctance, the history of his night's
adventures in the Tapestried Chamber.

"I undressed and went to bed so soon as your lordship left me
yesterday evening; but the wood in the chimney, which nearly
fronted my bed, blazed brightly and cheerfully, and, aided by a
hundred exciting recollections of my childhood and youth, which