“I tried to ascribe it to the bubbling of the hot-water pipe of a washing basin fixed in the dressing-room, as I supposed, against the wall of the bedroom, but saw next day that the basin in question was fixed against the opposite wall of the dressing-room.

[Illustration:  A, Cupboard.  B, Chair.  C, Washing-stand (fixed).]

“The sound was a greatly magnified and humanised edition of what I have several times heard in the drawing-room below the dressing-room, and which has been heard by several of the party together.”

And in a letter dated March 4.—­“I went upstairs at 12.10.  On shutting the door of my room I experienced a curiously cold sensation.  I stood by the fire, which was burning brightly, and shivered to an extent that was quite phenomenal; the fire did not in the least remove the cold shudderings which ran from head to feet.

“I threw the feeling off as best I could, but not entirely.  I read a little and then prayed.  I read the office of compline and my private prayers, and praying according to my custom for all faithful departed, and especially for those who had previously lived in the house or been connected with it.  After this I looked at my watch; it was just upon one o’clock, and I sat for a few minutes in the chair by the fire, when I heard the noise described, behind me.

“I changed my position and placed the chair with its back to a table and facing the door, the candle on the table, and took a book and read; my shuddering sensations had been worse than ever.  Suddenly I looked up, and above the bed, apparently on the wall, I got just a glimpse (like a flash) of a brown wood crucifix:  the wall was quite bare, not a picture, nothing to make it explainable by imperfect light or reflection.  From that time the sensation of cold and shuddering went away:  I don’t say immediately, but I was quite conscious of being reassured.

“About half-an-hour afterwards all feeling of distress of any sort had gone.  I went to bed and to sleep.  My own idea now is, that the sound I heard was an inarticulate cry for help, probably by means of prayer.  The influence I feel was bad, but something overcame it.”

It is desirable to add, as a question of evidence, for comparison of the dates of this and Miss Freer’s subsequent account of the same phenomenon, that a letter from Mr.  “Q.” in Lord Bute’s possession, dated March 16th, begins, “I have no objection to Miss Freer seeing my letter on the subject of the crucifix....”

Mr.  “Q.” also states that his delay in writing to Lord Bute about the crucifix was, that he thought it might be a mental reproduction of one which he sometimes sees in his own home, but that he found on examining the latter that it has a white figure, whereas that of the apparition has the figure of the same brown wood as the cross.  In the private account above referred to Mr.  “Q” writes, “I found that the crucifix at home in