"Of the narrow entrance," answered the lady, "and of the dreadful
gloom. I dare not enter a place which must surely be inhabited by
unquiet souls. The original possessors of these dreadful vaults
will start up before us, and perhaps shut us in for ever." She
spoke, and threw her arms round the neck of her mistress.

"If all your fear be of apparitions," said the Prince, "I will
promise you safety. There is no danger from the dead: he that is
once buried will be seen no more."

"That the dead are seen no more," said Imlac, "I will not undertake
to maintain against the concurrent and unvaried testimony of all
ages and of all nations. There is no people, rude or learned,
among whom apparitions of the dead are not related and believed.
This opinion, which perhaps prevails as far as human nature is
diffused, could become universal only by its truth: those that
never heard of one another would not have agreed in a tale which
nothing but experience can make credible. That it is doubted by
single cavillers can very little weaken the general evidence, and
some who deny it with their tongues confess it by their fears.

"Yet I do not mean to add new terrors to those which have already
seized upon Pekuah. There can be no reason why spectres should
haunt the Pyramid more than other places, or why they should have
power or will to hurt innocence and purity. Our entrance is no
violation of their privileges: we can take nothing from them; how,
then, can we offend them?"

"My dear Pekuah," said the Princess, "I will always go before you,