His brother lay upon his bed, at the upper end of a long bed- chamber. His old housekeeper was there, and others were there: I think three others were there, if not four, and they had been with him since early in the afternoon. He was in white, like the figure - necessarily so, because he had his night-dress on. He looked like the figure - necessarily so, because he looked earnestly at his brother when he saw him come into the room.
But, when his brother reached the bed-side, he slowly raised himself in bed, and looking full upon him, said these words:
′JAMES, YOU HAVE SEEN ME BEFORE, TO-NIGHT - AND YOU KNOW IT!′
And so died!
I waited, when the German courier ceased, to hear something said of
this strange story. The silence was unbroken. I looked round, and
the five couriers were gone: so noiselessly that the ghostly
mountain might have absorbed them into its eternal snows. By this
time, I was by no means in a mood to sit alone in that awful scene,
with the chill air coming solemnly upon me - or, if I may tell the
truth, to sit alone anywhere. So I went back into the convent-
parlour, and, finding the American gentleman still disposed to
relate the biography of the Honourable Ananias Dodger, heard it all
out.
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