ain and again he called his gay
companions around him; but at every feast there appeared one more than
was desired. An aged man--weird beyond measure--took his place at the
table in the middle of the feast; and although he spoke not, he exerted
a miraculous power over all. No one dared to move; no one ventured to
speak. Occasionally Ezekiel assumed an appearance of courage, which he
felt not; rallied his guests, and made sundry excuses for the presence
of his aged friend, whom he represented as having a mental infirmity,
as being deaf and dumb. On all such occasions the old man rose from the
table, and looking at the host, laughed a demoniac laugh of joy, and
departed as quietly as he came.

The natural consequence of this was that Ezekiel Grosse's friends fell
away from him, and he became a lonely man, amidst his vast
possessions--his only companion being his faithful clerk, John Call.

The persecuting presence of the spectre became more and more constant;
and wherever the poor lawyer went, there was the aged man at his side.
From being one of the finest men in the county, he became a miserably
attenuated and bowed old man. Misery was stamped on every
feature--terror was indicated in every movement. At length he appears to
have besought his ghostly attendant to free him of his presence. It was
long before the ghost would listen to any terms; but when Ezekiel at
length agreed to surrender the whole of his wealth to anyone whom the
spectre might indicate, he obtained a promise that upon this being
carried out, in a perfectly legal manner, in favour of John Call, that
he should no longer be haunted.

This was, after numerous struggles on the part of Ezekiel to retain his
property, or at least some portion of it, legally settled, and John Call
became possessor of Rosewarne and the adjoining lands. Grosse was then
informed that this evil spirit was one of the ancestors of the
Rosewarne, from whom by his fraudulent dealings he obtained the place,
and that he was allowed to visit the earth again for the purpose of
inflicting the most condign punishment on the avaricious lawyer. His
avarice had been gratified, his pride had been pampered to the highest;
and then he was made a pitiful spectacle, at whom all men pointed, and
no one pitied. He lived on in misery, but it was for a short time. He
was found dead; and the country people ever said that his death was a
violent one; they spoke of marks on his body, and some even asser