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Oh, Ma'am! had you heard what I heard! He gave one groan so deep and so terrible, that I started up and pulled the coverlet off him, to see whether there was not a man under it, so impossible it seemed that a boy should have strength to utter such a sound.

And did you question him?

I tried to do it, Ma'am; but whenever I began to speak, he looked so sternly at me that I dared not persist.—Blessed child! I never saw him look sternly on any one before.

And had you no conversation with him at all the whole night?

No, none. Whenever I said any thing, he covered up his face quickly with the bed-clothes, as if he were going to sleep; and so I could draw nothing from him, good or bad.

There is something very strange in all this: I cannot understand it.—But, hark! there comes the carriage now.