out in the house of ****, near the head of the Canongate, and
that it was totally consumed, with the shocking addition that the
daughter of the proprietor, a young lady eminent for beauty and
accomplishments had perished in the flames.

The clergyman had his suspicions; he was timid; the family was of the
first distinction; above all, the deed was done, and could not be
amended. Time wore away, but he became unhappy at being the solitary
depository of this fearful mystery, and, mentioning it to some of his
brethren, the anecdote acquired a sort of publicity. The divine,
however, had long been dead, and the story in some degree forgotten,
when a fire broke out again on the very same spot where the house of
**** had formerly stood, and which was now occupied by buildings of an
inferior description. When the flames were at their height, the tumult
was suddenly suspended by an unexpected apparition. A beautiful
female, in a nightdress, extremely rich, but at least half a century
old, appeared in the very midst of the fire, and uttered these words
in her vernacular idiom: "Anes burned, twice burned; the third time
I'll scare you all." The belief in this apparition was formerly so
strong that on a fire breaking out and seeming to approach the fatal
spot, there was a good deal of anxiety manifested lest the apparition
should make good her denunciation.

But family romance contains many such tales of horror, and one told of
Sir Richard Baker, surnamed "Bloody Baker," is a match even for Blue
Beard's locked chamber. After spending some years abroad in
consequence of a duel, he returned to his old home at Cranbrook, in
Kent; he only brought with him a foreign servant, and these two lived
alone. Very soon strange stories began to be whispered of unearthly
shrieks having been frequently heard at nightfall to issue from his
house, and of persons who were missed and never heard of again. But it
never occurred to anyone to connect incidents of this kind with Sir
Richard Baker, until, one day, he formed an apparent attachment to a
young lady in the neighbourhood, who always wore a great number of
jewels. He had often pressed her to call and see his house, and,
happening to be near it, she determined to surprise him with a visit.
Her companion tried to dissuade her from doing so, but she would not
be turned from her purpose. They knocked at the door, but receiving no
answer determined to enter. At the head of the staircase hung a
parr