I listened with eager attention to the soothing speech of comfort flowing from the reverend lips of my sage companion, and an heavy load was taken from my heart, when he had finished, the clouds of gloominess dispersed by degrees, and a ray of cheerfulness darted through my mind. After half an hour's ride we beheld a large village before us; we agreed to wait there the setting in of night, and then to visit the Haunted Castle secretly.
Our host could not, or perhaps would not answer our inquiries concerning the desolated castle, and we endeavoured in vain to know whether the nightly sportsmen were still housing there or not; my serjeant went abroad to get some information, and was so fortunate to draw from the schoolmaster of the village as much as we wanted to know; returning after an hour with the corroboration of our suspicion, that the spirits residing at the castle had set fire to the desolated village, and thatthey
