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"It may be," thought I, "some one of Pengersick has engaged upon this wickedness on his own account"; and for my Master's credit I resolved to keep watch. I took therefore the porter into my secret, who agreed to let me through the gate towards midnight without telling a soul.

"I was below and busy with the cargo at the time, and knew nothing of her presence on board until we had cleared the harbour." "And at this moment she is a guest of Mr. Milliton's at Pengersick?" pursued Sir Nicholas, still with his eyes upon mine. I bowed, feeling mightily uneasy. "It is most necessary that I should take her evidence and Mr. Milliton's. In all the statements received by me Mr.

The news reached us at Pengersick a little after three o'clock; as I remember because my Master was just then settled to dinner. But he rose at once and gave word to saddle in haste, at the same time bidding me make ready to ride with him, and fifteen others. So we set forth and rode the wind lulling, but the rain coming down steadily and reached Gunwallo Cove with a little daylight to spare.

Said he, after I had beaten him down to a reasonable price, "Twould be easy enough, one would think, to spare an honest man a groat of the fortune Pengersick makes on these dark nights." "Thou lying thief!" said I. "What new slander is this?"

It was in January, 1526, after a tempest lasting three days, that the ship called the Saint Andrew, belonging to the King of Portugal, drove ashore in Gunwallo Cove, a little to the southward of Pengersick.

He said it in English, and few of those who heard him could understand. And after a moment Saint Aubyn, who was a very courteous gentleman for all his hot temper, made answer in the same tongue. "If I cannot take your word, Pengersick," said he, "be sure no searching will satisfy me. But that some of your men have made off with the goods, with or without your knowledge, I am convinced."

With no more suspicion than this I reached Pengersick and, bestowing the stranger in the hall, went off to seek my Master. For the change that came over my dear lord's face as he heard my errand I was in no way prepared. It was terrible. "Paschal," he cried, sinking into a chair and spreading both hands helplessly on the table before him, "it is he! Her time is come, and mine!"

Pengersick in this parish has still some remains of a castle built in the time of Henry VIII. by a man named Milliton, but there was evidently a far older castle here belonging to the Pengersicks, and a cluster of ancient legends gathered around the place. Cornish imagination usually stopped short at folk-lore and gave nothing to literature; in folk-lore it was certainly rich.

I understood now that Pengersick was reported throughout the neighbourhood to be haunted: and such a report is not the worst protection. These vague tales kept aloof the country people who, but for them, had almost certainly happened on the secret. And night after night while I watched, my Master wrestled with the Evil One in his room.

The last time I saw the apparition was on the night of May 10th, 1529, more than three years after my lady's first coming to Pengersick. I was prepared for it: for she had been singing at her window a great part of the afternoon, and I had learnt to be warned by this mood. The night was a dark one, with flying clouds and a stiff breeze blowing up from the south-east.