8 REMINISCENCES OF A HUNTSMAN. 



myself were in the habit of going out at night with 

 the keepers, to head them, if the poachers were ex- 

 pected in gangs ; and this fact reminds me of a curious 

 circumstance, attended with some degree of the super- 

 natural, that chanced to my brother and myself at the 

 same time. When a man is alone, a vision of this 

 sort may be set down to fancy; but when two young 

 men, in no state of alarm or nervousness, see the 

 same thing, and make to each other a corresponding 

 remark upon it, it is strange if something more 

 than mere fancy or fantasy has not invited their 

 attention. A gang of poachers was expected, and 

 just before twelve at night, my brother and myself, 

 well armed, went from the passage by the servants' 

 hall to the kitchen, intending to leave the house the 

 back way. I was leading, and had just opened the 

 door, when I saw the tall figure of a woman standing 

 on the other side of the long kitchen table, which 

 runs the whole length of the apartment, and as the 

 door opened, her head turned slowly to look at me. 

 She was in the dress of a servant, even to her shawl 

 and bonnet ; the latter, rather pokewise, shading her 

 features, as she moved noiselessly along the table, 

 as if going towards the fire-place. The light by 

 which I saw her, arose from a steadfast red glare of 

 embers, left in the spacious grate, and as she faced 

 it to look at and move from me, the direct ray from 

 the fire enabled me to remark a more than common 

 indistinctness of feature. Door in hand, the instant 

 I saw her I addressed to my brother the word 

 " Look !" His reply was, " I see her ; there she goes." 

 He, therefore, saw what I saw, as his rejoinder 

 proved. At the moment the chief feeling in my 

 mind was fun, for I took her to be one of the maid- 



