"Some woman, the housekeeper, perhaps, first entered the room alone.

Just as she entered the jamb closed.

The sudden report made her shriek; then, afterwards, the noise of my fall prolonging itself, added to her fright, while her repeated shrieks brought every soul in the house to her, who aghast at seeing her lying in a pale faint, it may be, like a corpse, in a room hung with crape for a man just dead, they also shrieked out, and then with blended lamentations they bore the fainting person away.

Now this will follow; no doubt it _has_ followed ere now:--they believe that the woman saw or heard the spirit of Squire Woodcock.

Since I seem then to understand how all these strange events have occurred, since I seem to know that they have plain common causes, I begin to feel cool and calm again.