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ust a little too large for him, and he could only find one of the t wo horse-

pistols, but, on the w hole, he wa s quite satisfied, and at a quarte r past one

he glided out of the w ainscoting and crept down the corridor. On reaching

the room occupied by the tw ins, which I should mention wa s called the

Blue Bed Chamber, on account of the colour of its hangings, he found the

door just ajar. Wishing to make an effect ive entrance, he flung it w ide open,

whe n a heavy jug of wa ter fell right down on him, wett ing him to the skin,

and just missing his left shoulder by a couple of inches. At the same

moment he heard stifled shrieks of laughter proceeding from the four-post

bed. The shock to his nervous system w as so great that he fled back to his

room as hard as he could go, and the next day he w as laid up with a severe

cold. The only thing that at all consoled him in the w hole affair was the fact

that he had not brought his head w ith him, for, had he done so, the

consequences might have been very serious.

< 13 >

He now gave up all hope of ever frightening this rude American fam ily,

and contented himself, as a rule, w ith creeping about the pa ssages in list

slippers, with a thick red muffler round his throat for fear o f draughts, and a

small arquebuse, in case he should be atta cked by the tw ins. The final blowhe received occurred on the 19th of September. He had gone downstairs to

the great entrance-hall, feeling sure that there, at a ny rate, he w ould be

quite unmolested, and w as amusing himself by making satirical remarks on

the large Saroni photographs of the United Stat es Minister and his wife,

which had now ta ken the place of the Canterville family pictures. He wa s

simply but neat ly clad in a long shroud, spotted w ith c hurchyard mould, had

tied up his jaw wit h a strip of yellow linen, and carried a small lantern and a

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sexton's spade. In fact , he w as dressed for the cha racter of 'Jonas the

Graveless, or the Corpse-Snatc her of Chertsey Barn,' one of his most

remarkable impersonations, and one w hich the Cantervilles had every

reason to remember, as it w as the real origin of their quarrel with their

neighbour, Lord Rufford. It w as about a quarter past t wo o'clock in t he

morning, and, as far as he could ascertain, no one w as stirring. As he wa s

stroiling towards the library, however, to see if there w ere any trace s left

of the bloodstain, suddenly there leaped out on him from a dark corner tw o

figures, who w aved their a rms wildly above their heads, and shrieked out

'BOO!' in his ear.

Seized with a panic, w hich, under the circumstances, w as only natural,

he rushed for the staircase, but found Washington Otis waiting for him

there with the big garden-syringe; and being thus hemmed in by his

enemies on e very side, and driven almost to bay, he vanished into the great

iron stove, which, fortunately for him, wa s not lit, and had to make his wa y

home through the flues and chimneys, arriving at his own room in a terrible

state of dirt, disorder, and despair.

After this he wa s not seen again on any nocturnal expedition. The t wins

lay in wait for him on several occasions, and strew ed the passages wit hnutshells every night t o the great annoyance of their parents and the

servants, but it w as of no avail. It wa s quite e vident that his feelings were

so wounded that he w ould not appear. Mr. Otis consequently resumed his

great w ork on the history of the Democratic Party, on which he had been

engaged for some years; Mrs. Otis organised a w onderful clam -bake, w hich

amazed t he w hole county; the boys took to lac rosse, euchre, poker, and

other American nat ional games; and Virginia rode about the lanes on her

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pony, acc ompanied by the young Duke of Cheshire, w ho had come to spend

the last w eek of his holidays at Canterville Chase. It w as generally

assumed that the ghost had gone aw ay, and, in fact, Mr. Otis w rote a lett er

to that effect to Lord Canterville, w ho, in reply, expressed his great

pleasure at t he new s, and sent his best congratulations to the Minister's

worthy wife.

< 14 >

The Otises, however, we re deceived, for the ghost w as still in the house,

and though now a lmost an invalid, was by no means ready to let mat ters

rest, particularly as he heard that a mong the guests w as the young Duke of

Cheshire, whose grand-uncle, Lord Francis Stilton, had once bet a hundredguineas with Colonel Carbury that he w ould play dice w ith the Cant erville

ghost, and was found the next morning lying on the floor of the card-room

in such a helpless paralytic stat e, that though he lived on to a great age, he

wa s never able to say anything again but 'Double Sixes.' The story was w ell

known a t t he time , though, of course, out of respect t o the fee lings of the

tw o noble families, every attempt w as made t o hush it up; and a full

account of all the circumstances connecte d with it w ill be found in the

third volume of Lord Tatt le's 'Recollections of the Prince Regent a nd hisFriends'. The ghost, t hen, w as naturally very anxious to show that he had

not lost his influence over the Stiltons, with w hom, indeed, he wa s distantly

connected, his own first c ousin having been married en sec ondes noces,

the Sieur de Bulkeley, from whom, as every one know s, the Dukes of

Cheshire are lineally descended. Accordingly, he made arrangements for

appearing to Virginia's little lover in his celebrated impersonation of 'The

Vampire Monk, or, the Bloodless Benedictine,' a performance so horrible