ht. I
answered in the affirmative, and a little boy was commissioned to
show me to my apartment. It was a snug, clean, and comfortable
little old-fashioned room at the top of the castle. As soon as we
had entered, the boy, who appeared to be a shrewd, good-tempered
little fellow, said with a shrug of the shoulder, 'If it was going to
bed I was, it shouldn't be here that you'd catch me.' 'Why?' said I.
'Because,' replied the boy, 'they say that the ould masther's ghost
has been seen sitting on that there chair.' 'And have you seen him?'
'No; but I've heard him washing his hands in that basin often and
often.' 'What is your name, my little fellow?' 'Dennis Mulready,
please your honour.' 'Well, good-night to you.' 'Good-night,
masther; and may the saints keep you from all fairies and brownies,'
said Dennis as he left the room.

As soon as I had laid down I began to think of what the boy had been
telling me, and I confess I felt a strange kind of fear, and once or
twice I even thought I could discern something white through the
darkness which surrounded me. At length, by the help of reason, I
succeeded in mastering these, what some would call idle fancies, and
fell asleep. I had slept about an hour when a strange sound awoke
me, and I saw looking through my curtains a skeleton wrapped in a
white sheet. I was overcome with terror and tried to scream, but my
tongue was paralysed and my whole frame shook with fear. In a deep
hollow voice it said to me, 'Arise, that I may show thee this world's
wonders,' and in an instant I found myself encompassed with clouds
and darkness. But soon the roar of mighty waters fell upon my ear,
and I saw some clouds of spray arising from high falls that rolled in
awful majesty down tremendous precipices, and then foamed and
thundered in the gulf beneath as if they had taken up their unquiet
abode in some giant's cauldron. But soon the scene changed, and I
found myself in the mines of Cracone. There were high pillars and
stately arches, whose glittering splendour was never excelled by the
brightest fairy palaces. There were not many lamps, only those of a
few poor miners, whose rough visages formed a striking contrast to
the dazzling figures and grandeur which surrounded them. But in the
midst of all this magnificence I felt an indescribable s