On the day of the execution he was stricken with paralysis and has never spoken since.

From that time to this he has never consented to leave the Grange, where he lives in isolation.
"Wishing you a pleasant night after your tiring journey, "I remain, "Very faithfully, "Jeremy Buggam." I leave my reader to imagine my state of mind when I completed the perusal of the letter.
I have as little belief in the supernatural as anyone, yet I must confess that there was something in the surroundings in which I now found myself which rendered me at least uncomfortable.

My reader may smile if he will, but I assure him that it was with a very distinct feeling of uneasiness that I at length managed to rise to my feet, and, grasping my candle in my hand, to move backward into the bedroom.

As I backed into it something so like a moan seemed to proceed from the closed cupboard that I accelerated my backward movement to a considerable degree.

I hastily blew out the candle, threw myself upon the bed and drew the bedclothes over my head, keeping, however, one eye and one ear still out and available.
How long I lay thus listening to every sound, I cannot tell.