ng at about the same hour, the
apparitions again entered his apartment; and acting as they had previously
done, gazed earnestly at him for some seconds ere they vanished. On the
morning of the third day the trio appeared again, when the gentleman of
the long robe, looking most earnestly at Frantz, pointed to the register,
the children, and the hearthstone; and then, as usual, disappeared under
the same circumstances as before.

Frantz was much distressed; he could not exactly comprehend the meaning of
this dumb show; and yet felt that some dire mystery was connected with
these phantoms, which he was called upon to unravel. After breakfast he
wandered out, and lost in the maze of thought, sauntered, ere he was aware
of it, into the churchyard. Shortly afterwards the church-door was opened
by the sexton, who kept his pickaxe and mattock in a corner of the belfry,
and Frantz remembering that as yet he had not entered the church, followed
him in, and was struck with the appearance of many portraits which hung
round the walls.

"What are these?" said he.

"The pictures, sir, of all your predecessors; know you not, that in some
of our country churches it is the custom to hang up the likenesses of all
the gentlemen who ever held the living?"

Frantz, in a tone of indifference, replied, that he fancied he had heard
of such a thing.

"'Tis, sir," continued the man, "a custom with which you must comply at
any rate. Why, bad as was our last pastor Herr Von Weetzer, he honoured us
so far, that there hangs _his_ picture."

Frantz advanced to view a newly painted portrait, which hung last in the
line of his predecessors; and then the young man started back, changed
colour, and the deadly faintness of terror seized his relaxing frame; for
in it he recognised, exact in costume and features, the perfect likeness
of his adult spectral visiter!

"Good God!" cried Frantz, "how very extraordinary!"

"A nice looking man, sir," said the sexton, not noticing his emotion;
"pity 'tis that he was so wicked."

"Wicked!" exclaimed Frantz, almost unconscious of what he said; "how
wicked?"

"Oh, sir, I can't exactly say how wicked; but a bad gentleman was Mr. Von
Weetzer, that's certain."

"Wicked! well--was he married?" asked Frantz, with apparent unconcern.

"Why, no, sir;" replied the sexton, with a significant look; "people do
say he was not; but if all tales be true that are rife about him, 'tis a
sure thing he ought to have been.