SPECULATION ON GHOSTS. 429 



train of song behind him, whilst the sweet air borne over fields of 

 clover and meadows of newly-made hay brought freshness and hila- 

 rity to the waking world. It was now about seven o'clock, and as 

 my brother strolled along, sniffing the morning air and turning his 

 eyes from one side to the other, scanning the busy apprentices open- 

 ing their shops, and house-maids scouring the steps of the doors or 

 rubbing the brass knockers that glistened in the morning sun, 

 something struck him that the shape and appearance of the street 

 and houses were not altogether strange to him, and as he passed 

 along an indistinct idea of something like the present scene floated 

 across his brain. ' Surely/ said he to himself, ' there is something 

 marvellous in all this ; I cannot have seen this town before, and yet 

 it somehow calls up an association of former ideas. He had now 

 reached the end of the street, and as he turned down another at right 

 angles a church presented itself directly opposite him ; he started, 

 and for the first time his dream shot across his recollection. He 

 stood gazing for a few seconds wondering at the strange coincidence; 

 he then walked onwards and every step brought something that 

 bore a striking resemblance to the objects of his dream. ' Am I 

 dreaming now/ he inwardly exclaimed, with a slight degree of tre- 

 pidation creeping over him, ' or is the whole scene to be realized ?' 

 He now felt himself as if spell-bound, and giving way to the impulse 

 he hurried on till he reached the identical lane. Nature was pouring 

 forth her richest beauties; but the sparkling fields and feathered 

 choruses were unheeded by my poor brother ; he was not a super- 

 stitious man, and was too much a man of the world to enter deeply 

 into the metaphysical doctrine of spiritual agency, yet as he told me, 

 he felt as if under the influence of enchantment. Although, as he 

 expected, he found the hovel at some distance down the lane in the 

 same condition that he had seen it in his dream, yet when he beheld 

 for the first time its dark and lonely aspect, he started from the 

 loathsome spectacle associated as it was in his dream with a deed of 

 foul mystery. He essayed to reconnoitre the garden, which seemed 

 cold, dark, and neglected, and expected every moment to behold 'the 

 well, but was disappointed this one object was wanting to perfect 

 the prophetic vision. 



As he returned to the inn a thousand strange thoughts came 

 crowding upon him. He could not feel satisfied at the idea of aban- 

 doning the adventure so singularly commenced, and at last came to 

 the conclusion of sifting the affair to the very bottom. While they 

 were at breakfast, his wife, observing his unusual abstraction, eagerly 

 inquired the cause, whereupon he related the whole of his mysterious 

 adventure : at her suggestion he was induced to call in the landlord, 

 that he might furnish them with what information he could respect- 

 ing the house and its inhabitants. The host immediately attended 

 the summons, and, after asking several unimportant questions, which 

 were answered with a circumstantial detail in proportion to their 

 insignificance, my brother came nearer the point by inquiring to 

 whom the cottage belonged which stood by itself in the narrow lane, 

 and what the character and occupation of its tenants. The landlord 

 looked rather surprised at the apparent interest which so wretched a 



