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200
Recollections of
[Ch. XVII.

with this old man upon the folly of his ravings was useless; he still persisted in it, and it soon became evident that old Huff was mad, and, though strictly watched, he found an opportunity one fatal morning to destroy himself. An inquest was held on him, felo de se returned as verdict, (for there was much method evinced in his madness,) and his body was ordered to be interred in the spot where three cross roads met. The nearest to the scene where the act was committed was the road leading to the Briars, and there they buried the old man.

I had amongst many other follies a terror of ghosts, and this weakness was well known to the emperor, who, for a considerable time after the suicide of poor Huff, used to frighten me nearly into fits. Every night, just before my hour of retiring to my room, he would call out, "Miss Betsee, ole Huff; ole Huff:" The misery of those nights I shall never forget; I used generally to