22 PROFESSOR OWEN ch. I. 



defence of the traffic, when, on a sudden, the 

 attention of both was roused by a sound as of 

 footsteps rapidly approaching the door, which 

 was immediately burst open by a heavy blow. A 

 piercing shriek came from the mother, who 

 rushed into the adjoining bedroom ; the daughter 

 started, and turned towards the cause of the noise 

 and her mother's fright, and saw what she after- 

 wards described as the phantom of a negro slave 

 lying on the floor, which turned its ghastly head 

 and glared for a moment upon her with white 

 protruding eyeballs. A figure in black entered 

 as she fled screaming after her mother. When 

 the two terrified women ventured at length to 

 glance into the room from which they had been 

 scared, all was quiet ; the red glow from the 

 grate showed everything to be as they left it. 

 What could this be except an apparition of the 

 captain with his negro slave, and the old gentle- 

 man himself in black pursuing them ? 



' The mystery of that phantom head,' the Pro- 

 fessor would conclude in tragic tones, ' is known 

 to me alone. The goodly resolves I had made 

 some time previously, after my visit to the tower 

 staircase, to intrude no more into the portals of 

 anatomical science, had vanished : the determina- 

 tion to cut my chosen profession, once and for 

 all, had wavered. Rallied by my fellow-pupils, 

 and excited by some articles in a cyclopaedia to 

 which we had access, my anatomical passion soon 



