A Mysterious Visitor

A MYSTERIOUS VISITOR;

A TALE FOR THE TWILIGHT.

As far as I am myself concerned with the following facts, I am fully prepared to vouch for their authenticity; but the reliance''' to be placed on the other parts of the recital must be at the option of the reader, or his conviction of their apparent truth. I am neither over credulous nor sceptic in matters of a superhuman nature; I would neither implicitly confide in unsupported assertions,

nor dissent from well attested truths; but at the same time I must confess, that although rather inclined to be a non-believer in the supernatural, I have sometimes listened to details of supernatural occurrences so borne out by concurring testimony as almost to fix my wavering faith. It is now nearly thirty years since I was a partial witness to the following circumstance, at my father's house in Edinburgh ; and though, during that period, time and foreign climates may have thinned my locks and furrowed my brow a little, they have never effaced one item of its details from my memory, nor warped the vivid impression which it left upon my recollection. It was in the winter of 18 — the occurrence took place. I remember the time distinctly, by the circumstance of my father being absent with his regiment, which had been ordered to Ireland to reinforce the troops then engaged in quelling the insurgents, who had risen in rebellion in the summer of that year. There was an old retainer of our house, who used at that time to be very frequently about us; she had nursed my younger brother and myself, and the family felt for her all the attachment due to an old

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and faithful inmate. I remember distinctly her appearance; her neatly plaited cap and scarlet ribbon, her white fringed apron and purple quilted petticoat, are all as fresh in my memory as yesterday, and though nearly sixty at the period I speak of, she retained all the activity and good humor of sixteen. Her strength was but little impaired, and as she was but slightly affected by fatigue or watching, she was in the habit of engaging herself as a nursetender in numerous respectable families, who were equally prepossessed in her favor. The winter was drawing near a close, and we were beginning to be anxious for the return of my father, who was expected home about this time; when old Nurse, as we always called her, came to tell us of an engagement she had got to attend a young gentleman,

who was lying dangerously ill in one of the streets of the Old Town; for at that time few of the fine palaces of the New Town had been even thought of, and many a splendid street now covers what was then green fields and waving meadows. She mentioned that a physician, who had always been very kind to her, had recommended her to this duty; but as the patient was in a most critical state, the manner of her attendance was to be very particular. She was to go every evening at eight o'clock, to relieve another who remained during the day, and to be extremely cautious not to speak to the young man, unless it was urgently necessary, nor make any motion which might in the slightest degree disturb the few intervals of rest which he was enabled to enjoy: but she knew neither the name nor the residence of the person she was to wait on. There seemed to be something past the common in all this, and I remember perfectly well my mother desiring her to call soon, and let her know how she was coming on, and any further matter she might be able to learn, but nearly six weeks had elapsed, and we had never once seen or heard of her, when my mother at last resolved on sending to learn whether she was sick, and to say she was longing to see her again. The servant on his return, informed us that poor Nurse had been dangerously ill, and confined to her bed almost ever since she had been from us; but she was now some little better, and had proposed coming to see us the following day. She came accordingly;

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but oh, so altered in so short a time, no one would have believed it! She was almost double, and could not walk without support; her flesh and cheeks were all shrunk away, and her dim lustreless eyes almost lost in their sockets.We were all startled at seeing her:

it seemed that those six weeks had produced greater changes in

her than years of disease in others; but our surprise at the effect was nothing, when compared to that which her recital of the cause excited; when she informed us of it, and as we had never known her to tell a falsehood, we could not avoid placing implicit confidence in her words. She told us that in the evening, according to appointment, the physician had conducted her to the residence of her charge, in one of the narrow streets near the abbey. It was one of those extensive old houses, which seem built for eternity rather than time, and in the constructing of which the founder had consulted convenience and comfort more than show or situation. A flight of high stone steps brought them to the door, and a dark staircase of immense width, fenced with balustres a foot broad, and supported by railings of massy dimensions, led to thechamber of the patient. This was a lofty wainscoated room, with a window sunk a yard deep in the wall, and looking out upon what was once a garden at the rear, but now grown so wild that the weeds and rank grass almost reached the level of the wall which enclosed it. At one end stood an old-fashioned square bed, where the young gentleman lay. It was hung with faded Venetian tapestry, and seemed itself

as large as a moderate- sized room. At the other end, and opposite to the foot of the bed, was a fire-place, supported by ponderous stone buttresses, but with no grate, and a few smoldering turf were merely piled on the spacious hearth. There was no door, except that by which she had entered, and no other furniture than a few low chairs, and a table covered with medicines and draughts beside the window. The oak which covered the walls and formed the panels of the ceiling, was as black as time could make it, and the whole apartment, which was kept dark at the suggestion of the physician, was so gloomy that the glimmering of the single candle in the shade of the fire-place could not penetrate it, and cast a faint gleam around, not sad, but absolutely sickening.

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Whilst the doctor was speaking in a low tone to the invalid, Nurse tried to find out some farther particulars from the other attendant, who was tying on her bonnet, and preparing to muffle herself in her plaid before going away; for, as I said before, it was winter and bitterly cold. She could gain no information from her, however, although she had been in the situation for a considerable time. She could not tell the name of the gentleman; she only knew that he was an Oxford student; but no one save herself and the doctor, had ever crossed the threshold to inquire after him, nor had she ever seen any one in the rest of the house, which she believed to be uninhabited. The doctor and she soon went away, after leaving a few unimportant directions. Nurse closed the door behind them, and shivering with the cold, frosty gust of air from the spacious lobby, hastened to her duty, wrapped her cloak about her, drew her seat close to the hearth, replenished the fire, and commenced reading a volume of Mr. Alexander Penden's Prophecies, which she had brought in her pocket. There was no sound to disturb her, except now and then a blast of wind which shook the withered trees in the garden below, or the "death-watch," which ticked incessantly in the wainscoat of the room. In this manner an hour or two elapsed, when, concluding, from the motionless posture of the patient, that he must be asleep, she rose, and taking the light in her hand, moved on tiptoe across the polished oaken floor, to take a survey of his features and appearance. She gently opened the curtains, and bringing the light to bear upon him, started to find that he was still awake; she attempted to apologize for her curiosity by an awkward tender of her services but apology and offer were equally useless; he moved neither limb nor muscle; he made not the faintest reply; he lay motionless on his back, his bright blue eyes glaring fixedly upon her, his underlip fallen, and his mouth apart, his cheek a perfect hollow, and his long, white teeth projecting fearfully from his shrunken lips, whilst his bony hand, covered with wiry sinews, was stretched upon the bed-clothes, and looked more like the claws of a bird than the fingers of a human being. She felt rather uneasy whilst looking at him; but when a slight motion of the eyelids, which the light was too strong for, assured her he was still living, which she was

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half inclined to doubt, she returned to her seat and her book by the fire. As she was directed not to disturb him, and as his medicine was only to be administered in the morning, she had but little to do, and the succeeding two hours passed heavily away; she continued, however, to lighten them by the assistance of Mr. Penden, and by now and then crooning and gazing over the silent flickering progress of her turf fire, till about midnight, as near as she could guess, the gentleman began to breathe heavily and appeared very uneasy; as, however, he spoke nothing, she thought perhaps he was asleep, and was rising to go toward him, when she was surprised to see a lady seated on a chair near the head of the bed beside him. Though something startled at this, she was by no means alarmed, and, making a courtesy, was moving on as she had intended, when the lady raised her arm, and turning the palm of her hand, which was covered with a white glove towards her, motioned -her silently to keep her seatt. She accordingly sat down as before, but she now began to wonder within herself how and when this lady came in: it was true she had not been looking towards the door, and it might have been opened without her perceiving it; but then it was so cold a night, and so late an hour, it was this which made it so remarkable. She turned quietly round, and took a second view of her visitor. She wore a black veil over her bonnet, and, as her face was turned towards the bed of the invalid, she could not in that gloomy chamber perceive her features, but she saw that the shape and turn of her head and neck were graceful and elegant in the extreme; the rest of her person she could not so well discern, as it was enveloped in a green silk gown, and the fashion at that period was not so favorable to a display of figure as now. It occurred to her

that it must be some intimate friend who had called in; but then the woman had told her that no visitors had ever come before; altogether, she could not well understand the matter, but she thought she would observe whether she went off as gently as she had entered; and for that purpose she altered the position of her chair so as to command a view of the door, and fixed herself with her book on her knees, but her eye intently set upon the lady in the

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green gown. In this position she remained for a considerable time, but no alteration took place in the room; the stranger sat evidently gazing on the face of the sick gentleman, whilst he heaved and sighed and breathed in agony as if a night-mare was on him. Nurse a second time moved towards him in order to hold him up in bed, or give him some temporary relief; and a second time the mysterious visitant motioned her to remain quiet; and unwillingly, but by a kind of fascination, she complied, and again commenced her watch. But her position was a painful one, and she sat so long and so quietly that at last her eyes closed for a moment, and when she opened them the lady was gone, and the young man was once more composed, and, after taking something to relieve his breathing he fell into a gentle sleep, from which he had not awakened when her colleague arrived in the morning to take her place, and Nurse returned to her own house about day- break. The following night she was again at her duty; she came rather beyond her time, and found her companion already muffled and waiting impatiently to set out. She lighted her to the stairs, and heard her close the hall door behind her; when, on returning to the room, the wind, as she shut the door, blew out her candle. She relighted it, however, from the dying embers, roused up the fire, and resumed as before, her seat and her volume of propecies.

The night was stormy, the dry crisp sleet hissed on the window, and the wind sighed in heavy gusts down the spacious chimney; whilst the rattling of the shutters, and the occasional clash of a door in some distant part of the house, came with a dim and hollow echo along the dreary, silent passages. She did not feel so comfortable as the night before; the whistling of the wind through the trees made her flesh creep involuntarily; and sometimes the thundering clap of a distant door made her start and drop her book, with a sudden prayer for the protection of heaven. She was thinking within herself of giving up the engagement, and was half resolved to do so on the morrow; when all at once her ear was struck with the heavy throes and agonized breathing of her charge, and, on raising her head, she saw the same lady in the green gown seated in the same position as on the night before. Well, thought she, this is unusually strange; but it immediately struck her that it must

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be some inmate of the house, for what human being could venture out in such a dreary night, and at such an hour? —but then her dress: was neither such as one could wear in the streets on a it

wintry night, nor yet such as they would be likely to have on in the house at that hour; it was, in fact, the fashionable summer costume of that time. She rose and made her a courtesy and spoke to her politely, but got no reply save the waving of her hand, by which she had been silenced before. At length the agitation of the invalid was so increased, that she could not reconcile it to her duty to sit still whilst a stranger was attending him. She accordingly drew nearer to the bed, in spite of the repeated beckonings of the lady, who, as she advanced, drew her veil closer across her face, and retired to the table at the window. Nurse approached the bed, but was terrified on beholding the countenance of her patient: the big drops of cold sweat were rolling down his pale brow; his livid lips were quivering with agony; and, as he motioned her aside, his glaring eyes followed the retreating figure in the green gown. She soon saw that it was in vain to attempt assisting him; he impatiently repulsed every proffer of attention, and she again resumed her seat, while the silent visitor returned to her place by his bedside. Rather piqued at being thus baffled in her intention of kindness, but still putting from her the idea of a supernatural being, the old woman again determined to watch with attention the retreat of the lady, and observe whether she resided in the house, or took her departure by the main door. She almost refrained from winking in order to secure a scrutiny of her motions; but it was all in vain; she could not remember to have taken off her glance for a moment, but still the visitant was gone. It seemed as if she had only changed her thoughts for an instant, and not her eyes, but that change was enough; when she again reverted to the object of her anxiety, the mysterious lady had departed. As on the foregoing night, her patient now became composed, and enjoyed an uninterrupted slumber till the light of morning, now reflected from heaps of dazzling snow, brought with it the female who was to relieve guard at the bed of misery. The following morning Nurse went to the house of the physician who had engaged her, with the determination of giving up the task in which

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she was employed. She felt uneasy at the thought of retaining it, as she had never been similarly situated before; she always had some companion to speak to, or was at least employed in an inhabited house; but besides she was not by any means comfortable in the visits of the nightly stranger. She was disappointed, however, by not finding him at home, and was directed to return at a certain hour; but as she lay down to rest in the meantime, she did not awake till that hour was long past. Nothing then remained but to return for the night, and give warning of her intention on the morrow; and with a heavy, discontented heart she repaired to the gloomy apartment. The physician was already there when she arrived, and received her notice with regret; but was rather surprised when she informed him of the attentions of the strange lady, and the manner in which she had been prevented from performing her duty; he, however, treated it as a common-place occurrence, and suggested that it was some affectionate relative or friend of the patient, of whose connections he knew nothing. At last he took his leave, and Nurse arranged her chair and seated herself to watch, not merely the departure but the arrival of her fair friend. As she had not, however, appeared on the former occasions till the night was far advanced, she did not expect her sooner, and endeavored to occupy her attention till that time by some other means. But it was all in vain, she could only think of the one mysterious circumstance, fix her dim gaze on the blackened treliswork of the ceiling, and start at every trifling sound, which was now doubly audible, as all without was hushed by the noiseless snow in which the streets were imbedded. Again, however, her vigilancewas eluded, and as, wearied with thought, she raised her head with a long-drawn sigh and a yawn of fatigue, she encountered, the green garments of her unsolicited companion. Angry with herself, and at the same time unwilling to accuse herself of remissness, she determined once again that she should not escape unnoticed. There hung a feeling of awe around her whenever she approached this singular being, and when, as before, the lady retired to another quarter of the room as she approached the bed, she had not courage to follow her. Again the same distressing scene of sufliering in her unfortunate charge ensued; he gasped

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and heaved till the noise of his agony made her heart sicken within her; when she drew near his bed his corpse-like features were convulsed with a feeling which seemed to twist their relaxed nerves into the most fearful expression, while his ghastly eyes were straining from their sunken sockets. She spoke, but he answered not; she touched him, but he was cold with terror, and unconscious of any object save the one mysterious being whom his glance followed with steady, fixed intensity. I have often heard my mother say

that Nurse was naturally a woman of very strong feelings, but here she was totally beside herself with anxiety. She thought that the young gentleman was just expiring, and was preparing to leave the room in search of further assistance, when she saw the lady again move toward the bed of the dying man; she bent above him for a moment, whilst his writhings were indescribable; she then moved stately towards the door. Now was the moment! Nurse advanced at the same time, laid her one hand on the latch, whilst with the other she attempted to raise the veil of the stranger, and in the next instant fell lifeless on the floor. As she glanced on the face of the lady, she saw that a lifeless head filled the bonnet; its vacant sockets and ghastly teeth were all that could he seen beneath the folds of the veil. Daylight was breaking the following morning when the other attendant arrived, and found the poor old woman cold and benumbed, stretched upon the floor beside the passage; and when she looked upon the bed of the invalid he lay stiffened and lifeless, as if many hours had elapsed since his spirit had shaken off its mortal coil. One hand was thrown across his eyes, as if to shade them from some object on which he feared to look; and the other grasped the coverlet with convulsive firmness. The remains of the mysterious student were interred in the old Calton burying ground, and I remember, before the new road was made through it, to have often seen his grave; but I never could learn his name, what connection the spirit had with his story, or how he came to be in that melancholy, deserted situation in Edinburgh. I have mentioned at the commencement of this narration that I will vouch for its truth as far as regards myself, and that is merely that I heard the poor old woman herself tell all the

extraordinary circumstances as I have recited them, and a very