Captains,-not half so smart as the gentlemans sitting beside her,—you had better have recollected that the officer went away this morning; yes," she repeated, with a frown, in reply to her husband's broad stare, "he went away this very morning,-and I'm pretty sure," she muttered, in an under-tone, "he'll never come back,-however, there's the room, and quite at your service, gentlefolks, if you can only wait till Peggy and myself have put it a bit to rights; perhaps, the leddy and gentlemans will step into the bar till then."

Glad to be received on any terms, Mrs. Howard left the carriage, Mrs. Evans took charge of a sac de nuit and dressing-case, and Captain Howard, having ascertained that there was stabling unoccupied, went round to see his horses properly put up. In his absence the host seemed disposed to make himself as agreeable as he could to the lady in the bar, and was proceeding to entertain her with some choice observations on the beauties of his native country-a theme a Welshman seldom tires of, -when the voice of the partner of his joys was heard calling to him in no very measured accents. He disappeared with an agility that was surprising in so stout a man, and which we can explain less easily by physical than by moral phenomena. From the noise overhead which almost immediately ensued, Mrs. Howard was inclined to imagine that he had been summoned to separate two combatants, the fighting propensities of the Welsh being more than usually developed when under the influence of crw dda. There was certainly a great deal of striving, and tugging, and scuffling along the floor, and a heavy thump every now and then seemed either to indicate a fray, or that some very obstinate person was causing trouble upstairs. Mrs. Howard felt uncomfortable at · the thought of passing the night in such a noisy place, but the reappearance of her husband soon afterwards dispelled all sense of fear, though she could not help telling him what she had heard, adding

“I am afraid, Charles, we have got into rather a turbulent inn.'

"These Welsh fellows, my love," replied Captain Howard, "are a noisy set at all times, we had a proof of that on the road to-day; but when they get a little ale into their heads, they beat all I ever heard. It is to be hoped they'll soon tire themselves out, and then they'll sleep the sounder for their exertions."

"I am so sorry, dear, you were obliged to go to the stables yourself," said the lady.

"It was just as well I did," returned her husband, "for I am afraid, Isabel, that your favourites would have fared but badly if I had not been by. I found the place readily enough, and the door, luckily for me, was open, but the ostler, whom I discovered with one of the carriage lamps, was dead drunk in one of the stalls, so I had to drag him out into a rather less agreeable corner, while I littered down the gray in his place, and put up the brown horse in the stall beside him. The corn-bin was open, and the rack full of hay, so they're cared for at any rate. As to the carriage, they don't own such a thing as a coach-house, so that it will have to stand in the open air all night; one comfort is that it's fine."

At the close of this colloquy, Mr. and Mrs. Evans came back to the bar together; the host puffed and panted as usual, and the black eyes of the hostess gleamed, and her cheeks flushed as if she too had had her share in the exercise above stairs, but neither of them said a word on the subject. “I dare say you are tired, my leddy," said Mrs. Evans, "but no doubt

you would like to take some supper before you go to bed. What would wish to have?”

you

"Oh," replied Mrs. Howard-" a very little-anything will do for me-a little tea is all I care for.'

"I confess," said Captain Howard, "that I should like something more substantial. What have you got ?"

make

"Why, the gentlemens upstairs have eaten up almost every thing in the house-but the leddy can have some tea, and you, sir, I dare say, can your supper off a beautiful bit of roof-beef. To-morrow morning we shall have plenty again, but to-night, as Heaven shall save me, there is nothing else."

"My heart to goodness," interposed Mr. Evans, "to think that there is nothing but roof-beef."

"I dare say it is very good," said Howard, who was a capital traveller and always took things as he found them, "let us have it as soon as you can, for I'm half famished."

Mr. and Mrs. Evans both bestirred themselves, and though they had many calls upon their attention, the demand for ale and pipes, in an adjoining parlour being immense, soon placed the promised articles on the table, the roof-beef being attended by a large dish of boiled cabbage. It is a very necessary accompaniment, as all will admit who have tasted the hard, smoky, indigestible preparation which forms a staple article of cottage fare in Wales, and is the substitute for the English farmer's bacon.

Appetite gave Captain Howard courage, and he ate what was set before him with as much relish as if he had been dining on one of Soyer's most recherché dishes.

During this divertissement the sounds of revelry began to wax fainter in the parlour, the calls for crw dda were less frequent, the pipes were gradually put out and when, at length, Captain and Mrs. Howard were. shown to their apartment and received their hostess's benison in the shape of that unpronounceable word which means "good-night" in Welsh, the house was comparatively still.

It was a large, gloomy room, and had a close, faint smell, which made Mrs. Howard long for the fresh air of the hills over which they had that day travelled, and even wish to be back amongst them, but as this might not be, she contented herself with throwing open the windows, a thing often neglected in the country, and evidently rarely practised at the Golden Harp.

After a farewell look at the brilliant moon which had lighted them on the last part of their way, Howard and his young wife retired to rest, and, thanks to the fatigue of a long day's journey, were soon fast asleep.

Mrs. Howard's slumbers were not, however, destined to be so sound as those of her husband. She could barely have slept two hours, when she awoke under the influence of a very uncomfortable sensation. It was not the result of any dream, as far as she could judge of her impressions, but arose from a kind of terror which appeared suddenly to have seized her, the more distressing as it was perfectly undefinable. She sat up in the bed and looked around her ;-the rushlight was still burning, and cast a broad, fantastic shadow on the opposite wall; her husband's deep breathing assured her that he slept soundly, and although she felt the strongest inclination to wake him and be cheered by the sound of his voice, she made a strong effort and vanquished the selfish desire.

Once more she laid her head on her pillow, and by dint of strenuously

fixing her thoughts on some happy recollection of early days, she gradually became more composed, and the mysterious sense of evil began to fade.

A few moments more and she might have slept again, when a quick, pattering noise, which made her shiver, came sweeping across the room. She listened, but all was quiet for some minutes; at length she heard the noise repeated; it seemed to come from behind the bed, and was like the vibration of a bell-wire without any tingling sound. As long as the object of her dread was the intangible phantasm which so frequently comes to cloud the mind, we know not how or wherefore, Mrs. Howard was no more courageous than the generality of her sex; but where there must needs be a visible agency to produce a particular effect, she no longer felt any thing in the shape of fear.

"I must see what this is," she said to herself, "it is absurd to be alarmed about such a trifle as a jarring bell-wire. I dare say I must have had a nightmare when I first woke. Thank Heaven, dear Charles has not been disturbed, he seems so tired!"

She again rose noiselessly in the bed, and leaning forward held back the curtain and looked out into the room. Nothing stirred, but she waited and listened till, tired of gazing upon a blank wall, she was on the point of lying down again when once more she heard the same vibration. Believing that a cat might have got under the bed, she shook the curtain, and the result answered her expectations, though the object that had disturbed her was nothing so formidable as a cat. The nocturnal visitor was a mouse which, alarmed by the rustling of the curtain, darted from under the bed, scampered across the room, and disappeared with the speed of light beneath the crevice of a closet-door in the furthest corner.

"A mouse, after all!" said Mrs. Howard, smiling,-"the old proverb verified. Fears like these have generally no greater foundation than mine."

With these words she again, and as she hoped for the last time, endeavoured to settle herself to sleep. The attempt, however, was useless, for the mouse, as if to be revenged on the person who had interfered with its amusement, began with its sharp little teeth to gnaw and scrape inside the closet. Mrs. Howard bore this noise patiently for some time, but at last she could endure it no longer, and getting out of bed she walked gently across the room, and shook the handle of the closet-door. In doing so it appeared to her that something pressed against the door itself, which prevented it from moving freely, and impelled by something stronger even than curiosity, she resolved to see what was inside. But before she did so, she paused.

66

Suppose," she thought, "that some one should be concealed within. 1 might be murdered, and Charles, too, before any rescue could come. I had better wake him."

She came back to the bed and laid her hand on her husband's shoulder, whispering his name. He turned on the other side, and uttered one or two broken sentences, still fast asleep.

"Charles!" again whispered his wife.

"My heart to good-ness," he replied with a strong Welsh accent, dreaming, no doubt, of the landlord of the Golden Harp.

"Dearest, there's something in the closet," she said, in a more impressive tone.

"Roof-beef," ejaculated her husband.

The reply seemed so ridiculous that it made her laugh, and for the moment quieted her apprehensions. She reflected, too, that if any body were inside, the mere attempt on her part to rouse her husband would most likely have brought the person from his place of concealment. She could not, however, overcome a feeling of anxiety to which impatience was shortly added, for once more the mouse began to gnaw the wood. Again, then, she rose and crossed the room, seized the handle of the door and turned it rapidly. She had no need to pull the door, for the stay being removed it opened of itself, and she had barely time to step aside, when a huge black coffin came lumbering with a tremendous crash on the floor.

The noise and Mrs. Howard's shriek of alarm effectually awoke Captain Howard, who jumped up in bed, rubbing his eyes and staring with astonishment at seeing his wife in her night-dress, pale as a ghost, and gazing fixedly on the floor. In an instant he was by her side, supporting her in his arms, and inquiring into the cause of her fears. She answered by pointing to the coffin.

"How on earth came this thing here ?" he said.

"It fell out of the closet when I opened the door. It is dreadfully heavy,—I am sure," she whispered, her teeth chattering all the while, "that there is something inside."

"Oh, nonsense, Isabel," returned her husband," that's impossible. Who in the world would think of doing such a thing! I shall put it back in the closet, and then, dearest, we will return to bed."

He stooped down and tried to turn the coffin round, for it had fallen on its face. It was heavier than he thought, and he made a violent effort to place it on its side; in doing so he released the lid, which was not nailed down, and to the unspeakable horror of himself and his wife, out rolled the dead body of a man!

There it lay on the floor, a winding-sheet covering the limbs and the greater part of the body, but the ghastly head exposed, the mouth open, the teeth set, and the eyes unclosed; the corpse of one who had died untended, and been hastily thrust aside-for the accommodation of travellers!

"Hurry on your things, dearest," exclaimed Captain Howard, "this is no place for us to stop in any longer. I'll rouse the house though, before I go." Then hastily dragging a quilt from the bed and throwing it over the dead body, he dressed himself as quickly as he could, interrupting himself only at intervals to ring the bell with all his might.

There was noise enough made to have awakened the seven sleepers, but Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Evans, and their handmaiden, Peggy, slept sounder than those persecuted Christians, and for a very good reason.

They had calculated on the night passing by without any discovery being made of the guest in the closet; he had died suddenly the morning before, and they felt assured would not stir of himself; the thought of a disturbative mouse never entered into their scheme. But they had heard the falling coffin, and all that followed,-were fully alive to the fact that Captain Howard was ringing the bell hard enough to tear it down, and, on that account, they quietly resolved to sleep on and let things take their course. My heart to good-ness," said Mr. Thomas Evans to his spouse, dead officer will not meddle with the living one,-he had much better keep quiet."

66

"Yes, indeed," replied Mrs. Evans, and so they lay still.

"the

Finding that it was useless to expect any one to appear, Captain Howard came to the resolution of at once leaving the defunct tenant in possession of the chamber, and making the best of his way not only out of the Golden Harp, but the town of Cardigan into the bargain. Had he known the intricacies of the house he would assuredly have roused Mr. and Mrs. Evans (who, by-the-by, had selected for their sleeping apartment some remoter place than the bar), but as his knowledge of the mansion was limited to the way to the street-door, he proceeded down stairs, carrying the sac de nuit and dressing-case, and followed by his pale and trembling wife.

The morning was just breaking when they got into the street, and Captain Howard led the way to the carriage, which was standing where he had left it the night before. He placed his wife inside, disposed of their light baggage, and then proceeded to the stable. The ostler was

still lying in the corner, in the same drunken lethargy in which Captain Howard found him. To awaken him was a fruitless endeavour, so, as he had been his own groom on his arrival, he performed the same office on his departure.

A quarter of an hour sufficed for this purpose, and then, without a word of adieu, which indeed would have been thrown away, as there was not a human being visible, he said one or two cheering words to Mrs. Howard, and giving his horses their heads set off at a brisk trot in the direction of Aberystwith.

There is only one thing more to add to this perfectly true story, which is this:

Early on the following morning, as Captain and Mrs. Howard were seated at breakfast at the Marine Hotel, at Aberyswith, a stranger was announced. On being shown in, a wild, staring Welshman presented himself. "You are the gentlemans," said he, "who stopped at Mrs. Evans's at the Golden Harp, in Cardigan ?"

"I am," replied Captain Howard; "and, pray, who are you?" "I am a purpose messenger," replied the stranger, "and my name is Davvyd Jones!"

"Indeed!" returned Howard," and what may you happen to want with me?"

"I have come, sir, from Mrs. Evans; she has sent you her little bill for supper and a night's lodging, with food and fodder for your horses.. I have come all the way myself on foot, sir,-forty miles, I assure you,—to bring the money to her. Yes, indeed, sir."

"Well, Davy Jones," replied Captain Howard, "if Mrs. Evans is so very anxious for the amount of her bill, tell her when you see her that she may go to your namesake and ask him for it. That will do,-you need not stay any longer. Here, waiter, show this fellow out; and, harkee, here are a couple of sovereigns, desire the landlord to divide them amongst some of the most deserving of the poor people in this place. That is the way, Mr. David Jones, that I pay for a night's lodging, when there happens to be a dead body in the room."

We never heard that Mrs. Evans made a second application for her bill; nor did Captain Howard content himself again with a bed-room in Wales without first looking into the closet.