house, and though now almost an invalid, was by no means ready to
let matters rest, particularly as he heard that among the guests was
the young Duke of Cheshire, whose grand-uncle, Lord Francis Stilton,
had once bet a hundred guineas with Colonel Carbury that he would
play dice with the Canterville ghost, and was found the next morning
lying on the floor of the card-room in such a helpless paralytic
state, that though he lived on to a great age, he was never able to
say anything again but 'Double Sixes.' The story was well known at
the time, though, of course, out of respect to the feelings of the
two noble families, every attempt was made to hush it up; and a full
account of all the circumstances connected with it will be found in
the third volume of Lord Tattle's Recollections of the Prince Regent
and his Friends. The ghost, then, was naturally very anxious to
show that he had not lost his influence over the Stiltons, with
whom, indeed, he was distantly connected, his own first cousin
having been married en secondes noces to the Sieur de Bulkeley, from
whom, as every one knows, the Dukes of Cheshire are lineally
descended. Accordingly, he made arrangements for appearing to
Virginia's little lover in his celebrated impersonation of 'The
Vampire Monk, or, the Bloodless Benedictine,' a performance so
horrible that when old Lady Startup saw it, which she did on one
fatal New Year's Eve, in the year 1764, she went off into the most
piercing shrieks, which culminated in violent apoplexy, and died in
three days, after disinheriting the Cantervilles, who were her
nearest relations, and leaving all her money to her London
apothecary. At the last moment, however, his terror of the twins
prevented his leaving his room, and the little Duke slept in peace
under the great feathered canopy in the Royal Bedchamber, and
dreamed of Virginia.