'Is he subject to fits?' said Emily. 'Yes, Signora,' replied Roberto; 'but if I had not, what I saw was
enough to have frightened the Pope himself.' 'What was it?' enquired Emily, trembling. 'I cannot tell what it was, lady, or what I saw, or how it vanished,'
replied the soldier, who seemed to shudder at the recollection.
'Was it the person, whom you followed down the rampart, that has
occasioned you this alarm?' said Emily, endeavouring to conceal her own.
'Person!' exclaimed the man,--'it was the devil, and this is not the
first time I have seen him!' 'Nor will it be the last,' observed one of his comrades, laughing. 'No, no, I warrant not,' said another. 'Well,' rejoined Roberto, 'you may be as merry now, as you please; you
was none so jocose the other night, Sebastian, when you was on watch
with Launcelot.' 'Launcelot need not talk of that,' replied Sebastian, 'let him remember
how he stood trembling, and unable to give the WORD, till the man was
gone, If the man had not come so silently upon us, I would have seized
him, and soon made him tell who he was.' 'What man?' enquired Emily.
'It was no man, lady,' said Launcelot, who stood by, 'but the devil
himself, as my comrade says. What man, who does not live in the castle,
could get within the walls at midnight? Why, I might just as well
pretend to march to Venice, and get among all the Senators, when they
are counselling; and I warrant I should have more chance of getting
out again alive, than any fellow, that we should catch within the gates
after dark. So I think I have proved plainly enough, that this can be
nobody that lives out of the castle; and now I will prove, that it can
be nobody that lives in the castle--for, if he did--why should he be
afraid to be seen? So after this, I hope nobody will pretend to tell
me it was anybody. No, I say again, by holy Pope! it was the devil, and
Sebastian, there, knows this is not the first time we have seen him.'
'When did you see the figure, then, before?' said Emily half smiling,
who, though she thought the conversation somewhat too much, felt an
interest, which would not permit her to conclude it. 'About a week ago, lady,' said Sebastian, taking up the story. 'And where?' 'On the rampart, lady, higher up.'
'Did you pursue it, that it fled?' 'No, Signora. Launcelot and I were on watch together, and every thing
was so still, you might have heard a mouse stir, when, suddenly,
Launcelot says--Sebastian! do you see nothing? I turned my head a
little to the left, as it might be--thus. No, says I. Hush! said
Launcelot,--look yonder--just by the last cannon on the rampart! I
looked, and then thought I did see something move; but there being no
light, but what the stars gave, I could not be certain. We stood quite
silent, to watch it, and presently saw something pass along the castle
wall just opposite to us!' 'Why did you not seize it, then?' cried a soldier, who had scarcely
spoken till now. 'Aye, why did you not seize it?' said Roberto. 'You should have been there to have done that,' replied Sebastian. 'You
would have been bold enough to have taken it by the throat, though it
had been the devil himself; we could not take such a liberty, perhaps,
because we are not so well acquainted with him, as you are. But, as I
was saying, it stole by us so quickly, that we had not time to get rid
of our surprise, before it was gone. Then, we knew it was in vain to
follow. We kept constant watch all that night, but we saw it no more.
Next morning, we told some of our comrades, who were on duty on other
parts of the ramparts, what we had seen; but they had seen nothing, and
laughed at us, and it was not till to-night, that the same figure walked
again.' 'Where did you lose it, friend?' said Emily to Roberto.