The Greatest Supernatural Tales of Sheridan Le Fanu (70+ Titles in One Edition). M. R. James

Large Cat—And the Coach

       Chapter XXXVIII. Strange Guests at the Manor

       Chapter XXXIX. The Bargain, and the New Confederates

       Chapter XL. Dreams—First Impressions—The Man in the Plum-Coloured Suit

       Chapter XLI. Of O'Connor and a Certain Travelling Ecclesiastic—And How the Darkness Overtook Them

       Chapter XLII. The Squires

       Chapter XLIII. The Wild Wood—The Old Mansion-House of Finiskea—Secrets, and a Surprise

       Chapter XLIV. The Doom

       Chapter XLV. The Man in the Cloak—And His Bed-Chamber

       Chapter XLVI. The Double Conference—Old Papers

       Chapter XLVII. "the Jolly Bowlers"—The Double Fray and the Flight

       Chapter XLVIII. The Stained Ruffles

       Chapter XLIX. Old Songs—The Unwelcome Listener—The Baronet's Pledge

       Chapter L. The Press in the Wall

       Chapter LI. Flora Guy

       Chapter LII. Of Mary Ashwoode's Walk to the Lonesome Well—And of What She Saw There—And Showing How Schemes of Peril Began to Close Around Her

       Chapter LIII. The Double Farewell

       Chapter LIV. The Two Chances—The Bribed Courier

       Chapter LV. The Fearful Visitant

       Chapter LVI. Ebenezer Shycock

       Chapter LVII. The Chaplain's Arrival at Morley Court—The Key—And the Booze in the Boudoir

       Chapter LVIII. The Signal

       Chapter LIX. Haste and Peril

       Chapter LX. The Untreasured Chamber

       Chapter LXI. The Cart and the Straw

       Chapter LXII. The Council—Showing What Advice Mr. Audley Gave, and How It Was Taken

       Chapter LXIII. Parting—The Sheltered Village, and the Journey's End

       Chapter LXIV. Mistress Martha and Black M'Guinness

       Chapter LXV. The Conference—Showing How Oliver French Burst Into a Rage and Flung His Cap on the Floor

       Chapter LXVI. The Bed-Chamber

       Chapter LXVII. The Expulsion

       Chapter LXVIII. The Fray

       Chapter LXIX. The Bolted Window

       Chapter LXX. The Baronet's Room

       Chapter LXXI. The Farewell

       Chapter LXXII. The Rope and the Riot in Gallows Green—And the Woods of Ardgillagh by Moonlight

       Chapter LXXIII. The Last Look

       Conclusion

Chapter I.

      The "Cock and Anchor"—Two Horsemen—And a Supper by the Inn Fire

       Table of Contents

      Some time within the first ten years of the last century, there stood in the fair city of Dublin, and in one of those sinuous and narrow streets which lay in the immediate vicinity of the Castle, a goodly and capacious hostelry, snug and sound, and withal carrying in its aspect something staid and aristocratic, and perhaps in nowise the less comfortable that it was rated, in point of fashion, somewhat obsolete. Its structure was quaint and antique; so much so, that had its counterpart presented itself within the precincts of "the Borough," it might fairly have passed itself off for the genuine old Tabard of Geoffry Chaucer.

      The front of the building, facing the street, rested upon a row of massive wooden blocks, set endwise, at intervals of some six or eight feet, and running parallel at about the same distance, to the wall of the lower story of the house, thus forming a kind of rude cloister or open corridor, running the whole length of the building.

      The spaces between these rude pillars were, by a light frame-work of timber, converted into a succession of arches; and by an application of the same ornamental process, the ceiling of this extended porch was made to carry a clumsy but not unpicturesque imitation of groining. Upon this open-work of timber, as we have already said, rested the second story of the building; protruding beyond which again, and supported upon beams whose projecting ends were carved into the semblance of heads hideous as the fantastic monsters of heraldry, arose the third story, presenting a series of tall and fancifully-shaped gables, decorated, like the rest of the building, with an abundance of grotesque timber-work. A wide passage, opening under the corridor which we have described, gave admission into the inn-yard, surrounded partly by the building itself, and partly by the stables and other offices connected with it. Viewed from a little distance, the old fabric presented by no means an unsightly or ungraceful aspect: on the contrary, its very irregularities