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Rh sent a message to say that they must choose another to perform the ceremony. The parents, however, obstinately insisted in their decision to have no other clergyman. The banquet and other festivities had meanwhile been so far arranged that they could not be postponed, and so it was agreed that they should be regarded as a confirmation of the lovers being solemnly betrothed. The banquet was protracted till late in the evening, and rings were, as usual, interchanged between the lovers. No sooner had that ceremony taken place than a most piercing shriek was heard by the whole party. Every one started up and ran to the windows, for the voice seemed to come from without; but though the twilight still rendered objects visible, it was impossible to discover any cause for this extraordinary alarm.’

‘Halt there!’ cried the Duke, with a wild laugh. ‘The wild cry at the window is known to me as well as to you. It is borrowed from the Memoirs of Clairon, the French actress, who was in this manner persecuted by one of her deceased lovers. After the cry recollect there was always a clapping of hands. You must not forget that in your ingenious romance.’

‘And for what reason,’ said I, ‘should you conclude that this incident could not happen in the life of any one else but Clairon? Your disbelief of my story seems the more strange as you allude to a well-authenticated fact in her life, which should rather support than invalidate the tenor of my narrative.’

He said no more; and I proceeded.

‘Soon after this remarkable occurrence I happened to request of the bride, who sat opposite to me, that I might be allowed to look at her ring,