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The University Courier.
and rebuilt. The place now presented a strange, even grotesque appearance. Like some great insect which had but partly cast off its old shell, the newer structure only added to the general gloom of the crumbling mansion.
On a bright afternoon in midwinter a charming young American girl, a distant relative of the family, came to spend the Christmas holidays. This girl, Josephine Blanch, was not more than twenty years old, bright, pretty and unusually attractive. She was one of those reckless, rollicking girls who seem endowed with the characteristics of a boy; who fear nothing, but who, because their spirits are indomitable, seem incapable of fear.
The advent of this young girl seemed to remind the old place of its former happy days. Party after party was given, and the Christmas festivities were a continual round of pleasure.
On Christmas evening, after the guests had all departed and the family had retired, Josephine was passing her invalid aunt's room on her way to bed, when the old lady asked for a little wine. Finding none in the side-board, she took a candle and started for the wine cellar. As has been said, she was not of a timid disposition, and so felt not the slightest fear as she descended the dark stairway. The stairs were of that old fashioned spiral kind, found only in very ancient houses, which ascend from the basement to the very top of the building.
As she descended, the flickering candle cast a feeble yellow light against the walls and made grotesque the ancient staircase. The wine cellar was some distance from the stairs, and as she walked through the damp and lonely rooms, even her bold spirit felt a strange, uncomfortable sensation. So large were some of those underground rooms that the flickering light of the candle scarcely made visible the dark, mossy walls. Nothing could be heard but the echo of her own footsteps and the muffled splash of the river as it beat against the castle walls. With such surrounding, her thoughts naturally turned to stories of dungeons, of fearful underground rooms of torture and damp and dismal prisons. With her mind filled with such
thoughts, she reached the wine room and, having procured the bottle of wine from off a musty shelf, she started to retrace her steps.
As she neared the stairs she thought she heard something beside her own footfalls and the washing of the waves; a dull repeated thud, as if something damp was being dropped or dragged on the wet stone floor. The noise ceased and, thinking it was only her imagination, she began to ascend the stairs. But now again came that same sound. She turned, and in the dim light of the candle she beheld a horrible sight.
At a short distance from her, in the gloom, she beheld on "all fours" the hideously misshapen form of a man. Indeed, it seemed almost a beast as it crouched there, covered with slime and ooze. Its long matted hair hung over its face and shoulders, while its body was clothed in filthy, tattered rags. Although its face was hidden by a long, sordid beard which almost reached the floor, yet a pair of glowing greenish eyes shone out from under shaggy brows and fairly transfixed the girl. Gradually nearer and nearer it came, and with each movement of its flabby feet a dull sound re-echoed through the empty vaults.
She was spell-bound by the sight. The moments seemed ages that she stood there eyeing that terrible monstrosity. At length, mustering all the nervous strength she could command, with an almost superhuman effort she roused herself and dashed up the stairs into the room above.
After some time she composed herself sufficiently to administer the wine to her sick aunt and retired to her room. But she could not sleep. In vain she tried to persuade herself it was all a fancy, a dream. The fearful impression that scene had made upon her she could not shake off. After a feverish night she arose pale and haggard. At the breakfast table she spoke of the incident in the hope that her friends would laugh her out of it, but their faces grew grave. All knew many a ghostly tale of the old mansion, and some had even heard it widespread that the old man knew more of the dis-