the wizard's study
at Derval Court. I have read in Scandinavian legends of an apparition
called the Scin-Laeca, or shining corpse. It is supposed in the northern
superstition, sometimes to haunt sepulchres, sometimes to foretell doom.
It is the spectre of a human body seen in a phosphoric light; and
so exactly did this phantom correspond to the description of such an
apparition in Scandinavian fable that I knew not how to give it a better
name than that of Scin-Laeca,--the shining corpse.

There it was before me, corpse-like, yet not dead; there, as in the
haunted study of the wizard Forman!--the form and the face of Margrave.
Constitutionally, my nerves are strong, and my temper hardy, and now
I was resolved to battle against any impression which my senses might
receive from my own deluding fancies. Things that witnessed for the
first time daunt us witnessed for the second time lose their terror.
I rose from my bed with a bold aspect, I approached the phantom with a
firm step; but when within two paces of it, and my hand outstretched to
touch it, my arm became fixed in air, my feet locked to the ground. I
did not experience fear; I felt that my heart beat regularly, but an
invincible something opposed itself to me. I stood as if turned to
stone. And then from the lips of this phantom there came a voice, but a
voice which seemed borne from a great distance,--very low, muffled, and
yet distinct; I could not even be sure that my ear heard it, or whether
the sound was not conveyed to me by an inner sense.

"I, and I alone, can save and deliver you," said the voice. "I will do
so; and the conditions I ask, in return, are simple and easy."

"Fiend or spectre, or mere delusion of my own brain," cried I, "there
can be no compact between thee and me. I despise thy malice, I reject
thy services; I accept no conditions to escape from the one or to obtain
the other."

"You may give a different answer when I ask again."

The Scin-Laeca slowly waned, and, fading first into a paler shadow, then
vanished. I rejoiced at the reply I had given. Two days elapsed before
Mr. Stanton again came to me; in the interval the Scin-Laeca did not
reappear. I had mustered all my courage, all my common-sense, noted down
all the weak points of the false evidence against me, and felt calm and
supported by the strength of my innocence.

The first few words of the solicitor dashed all my courage to the
ground; for I was anxious to hear news of Lili