moment, and then said to me in a
hurried whisper--

"As I live, Fred, that is the identical bagman who boned my emerald
studs at Jedburgh!"

"You don't mean to say it?"

"Fact, upon my honour! There is no mistaking his globular freetrading
nose. Would it not be possible to object to his evidence on that
ground?"

"Mercy on us! no.--Reflect--there is no conviction."

"True. But he stole them nevertheless. I'll ask him about them when I
cross."

Mr Grobey's narrative, however, as embraced in animated dialogue with
the public prosecutor, threw some new and unexpected light upon the
matter. Grobey was a traveller in the employment of the noted house of
Barnacles, Deadeye, and Company, and perambulated the country for the
benevolent purpose of administering to deficiency of vision. In the
course of his wanderings, he had arrived at the Blenheim, where, after a
light supper of fresh herrings, toasted cheese, and Edinburgh ale,
assisted, _more Bagmannorum_, by several glasses of stiff brandy and
water, he had retired to his apartment to sleep off the labours of the
day. Somnus, however, did not descend that night with his usual
lightness upon Grobey. On the contrary, the deity seemed changed into a
ponderous weight, which lay heavily upon the chest of the moaning and
suffocated traveller; and notwithstanding a paralysis which appeared to
have seized upon his limbs, every external object in the apartment
became visible to him as by the light of a magic lantern. He heard his
watch ticking, like a living creature, upon the dressing-table where he
had left it. His black morocco pocketbook was distinctly visible, beside
the looking-glass, and two spectral boots stood up amidst the varied
shadows of the night. Grobey was very uncomfortable. He began to
entertain the horrid idea that a fiend was hovering, through his
chamber.

All at once he heard the door creaking upon its hinges. There was a
slight rustling of muslin, a low sigh, and then momentary silence.
"What, in the name of John Bright, can that be?" thought the terrified
traveller; but he had not to wait long for explanation. The door opened
slowly--a female figure, arrayed from head to foot in robes of virgin
whiteness, glided in, and fixed her eyes, with an expression of deep
solemnity and menace, upon the countenance of Grobey. He lay breathless
and motionless beneath the spell. This might have lasted for about a
minute, during which time, as Grobey expressed it,