of her birth; and
here I must make another digression. The Lady Margaret was the twin
sister of the then Lord of Amhurste, Lord Robert, and my lady and his
lordship had quarrelled--Marian saith, with a great cause, but I cannot
herein forbear also expressing my opinion, which is to the effect that
for that quarrel there was neither cause, justice, nor reason.
Therefore, before those who may chance to read these words, I will lay
bare the facts pertaining to the said quarrel.

It concerned the family ghost, which ghost was said to haunt a certain
blue chamber in the east wing of the castle. Now I myself had never
gainsaid these reports; for although I do not believe in ghosts, I have
a certain respect for them, as they have never offered me any affront,
either by appearing to me or otherwise maltreating me. But Marian, who
like many of her sex seemed to consort naturally with banshees, bogies,
apparitions, and the like, declared to me that at several different and
equally inconvenient times this ghost had presented itself to her,
startling her on two occasions to such an extent that she once let fall
the contents of the broth-bowl on Herne the blood-hound, thereby causing
that beast to maliciously devour two breadths of her new black taffeta
Sunday gown; again, a hot iron wherewith she was pressing out the seams
of Lady Margaret's night-gown. On the second occasion, she fled along
the kitchen hall, shrieking piteously, and preceded by Doll, the kitchen
wench, the latter having in her seeming a certain ghostly appearance, as
she was clad only in her shift, which the draughts in the hall inflated
to a great size. The poor maid fled affrighted into her room and locked
the door behind her; yet when I did essay to assuage the terror of
Mistress Butter, identifying Doll and the blue-room ghost as one and the
same, she thanked me not, but belabored me in her frenzy with the yet
warm iron, which she had instinctively snatched up in her flight;
demanding of me at the same time if I had ever seen Doll's nose spout
fire, and her eyes spit in her head like hot coals. I being of a
necessity compelled to reply "No," Marian further told me that it was
thus that the ghost had comported itself; that, moreover, it was clad
all in a livid blue flame from top to toe, and that it had a banner o'
red sarcenet that streamed out behind like forked lightning. She then
said that this malevolent spirit had struck her with its blazing hand,
and tha