Notwithstanding which, I would not permit the body to be reinterred for several days, until the symptoms of decay became unequivocal, and the most fantastic imagination could no longer cherish a doubt.  This, however, I mention only parenthetically, as I hasten to the conclusion of my narrative.  The circumstance which I have last described found its way to the public, and caused no small sensation at the time.

I drove part of the way home, and then discharged the cab, and walked the remainder.  On my way, with an emotion of ecstasy I cannot describe, I met the good being to whom I owed so much.  I ran to meet him, and felt as if I could throw myself at his feet, and kiss the very ground before him.  I knew by his heavenly countenance he was come to speak comfort and healing to my heart.

With humbleness and gratitude, I drank in his sage and holy discourse.  I need not follow the gracious and delightful exposition of God’s revealed will and character with which he cheered and confirmed my faltering spirit.  A solemn joy, a peace and trust, streamed on my heart.  The wreck and desolation there, lost their bleak and ghastly character, like ruins illuminated by the mellow beams of a solemn summer sunset.

In this conversation, I told him what I had never revealed to any one before—­the absolute terror, in all its stupendous and maddening amplitude, with which I regarded our ill-omened lodger, and my agonised anxiety to rid my house of him.  My companion answered me—­

“I know the person of whom you speak—­he designs no good for you or any other.  He, too, knows me, and I have intimated to him that he must now leave you, and visit you no more.  Be firm and bold, trusting in God, through his Son, like a good soldier, and you will win the victory from a greater and even worse than he—­the unseen enemy of mankind.  You need not see or speak with your evil tenant any more.  Call to him from your hall, in the name of the Most Holy, to leave you bodily, with all that appertains to him, this evening.  He knows that he must go, and will obey you.  But leave the house as soon as may be yourself; you will scarce have peace in it.  Your own remembrances will trouble you and other minds have established associations within its walls and chambers too.”

These words sounded mysteriously in my ears.

Let me say here, before I bring my reminiscences to a close, a word or two about the house in which these detested scenes occurred, and which I did not long continue to inhabit.  What I afterwards learned of it, seemed to supply in part a dim explanation of these words.