Page:The Castle of Wolfenbach - Parsons - 1854.djvu/18

 stairs again." "Well, but, Albert, (said she) I must stay in my room, have you more cause for fear than I have?" "No, madam, thank God, I never did harm to man, woman or child." "Then take courage, Albert, I will light your candle, and, as I shall be in the next apartment, and will leave my door open, you may either call to me or go down stairs, if you are a second time alarmed." It was with reluctance he obeyed, and repeatedly desired the doors might remain open.

The lady retired to her room, for some time hesitating whether she should dress herself or go into bed, she at length threw herself down in her night gown, but could not sleep. Strange and various were her conjectures respecting the lights she had seen, and the unaccountable noises she had heard; she was not surprised that the weak minds of the old people should be terrified, or that Albert, who was likewise far advanced in years, above sixty, should shrink from alarms which had given her a momentary terror; but as she did not suffer her mind to dwell on the causes being supernatural, she conceived there must be some mystery which, on the following day, if her health permitted, she resolved, if possible to explore. Towards morning she fell into a profound sleep, undisturbed by groans or noises of any sort.

Albert, who, by his terror and apprehensions of seeing those ghosts that had so greatly frightened him, was prevented from sleeping, got up the moment day appeared and crept down stairs, where he was soon after joined by Joseph. "How have you slept, my good friend? (asked he.) "Slept! (replied the other;) why, who could sleep, d'ye think, when chains were rattling, ghosts roaring and groaning, doors banging with violence enough to shake the foundation of the walls? Lord help me, I would not live in such a place—no, not to be master of the whole estate." "Aye, I knew how it would be, (said Joseph;) it's always the same business when any body