" Again turning to the General, he
said, "For God's sake, my dear friend, be candid with me, and let
me know the disagreeable particulars which have befallen you
under a roof, where, with consent of the owner, you should have
met nothing save comfort."
The General seemed distressed by this appeal, and paused a moment
before he replied. "My dear lord," he at length said, "what
happened to me last night is of a nature so peculiar and so
unpleasant, that I could hardly bring myself to detail it even to
your lordship, were it not that, independent of my wish to
gratify any request of yours, I think that sincerity on my part
may lead to some explanation about a circumstance equally painful
and mysterious. To others, the communication I am about to make,
might place me in the light of a weak-minded, superstitious fool,
who suffered his own imagination to delude and bewilder him; but
you have known me in childhood and youth, and will not suspect me
of having adopted in manhood the feelings and frailties from
which my early years were free." Here he paused, and his friend
replied,--
"Do not doubt my perfect confidence in the truth of your
communication, however strange it may be," replied Lord
Woodville.
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