excepting the language to be made use of, was presented to the eye by
the dresses, and persons, and actions of the performers upon the stage.
But as nothing," said Dick, "can be more dull than a long narrative
written upon the plan of a drama, so where you have approached most near
to that species of composition, by indulging in prolonged scenes of mere
conversation, the course of your story has become chill and constrained,
and you have lost the power of arresting the attention and exciting
the imagination, in which upon other occasions you may be considered as
having succeeded tolerably well."

I made my bow in requital of the compliment, which was probably thrown
in by way of placebo, and expressed myself willing at least to make one
trial of a more straightforward style of composition, in which my actors
should do more, and say less, than in my former attempts of this kind.
Dick gave me a patronising and approving nod, and observed that, finding
me so docile, he would communicate, for the benefit of my muse, a
subject which he had studied with a view to his own art.

"The story," he said, "was, by tradition, affirmed to be truth,
although, as upwards of a hundred years had passed away since the events
took place, some doubts upon the accuracy of all the particulars might
be reasonably entertained."

When Dick Tinto had thus spoken, he rummaged his portfolio for the
sketch from which he proposed one day to execute a picture of fourteen
feet by eight. The sketch, which was cleverly executed, to use the
appropriate phrase, represented an ancient hall, fitted up and furnished
in what we now call the taste of Queen Elizabeth's age. The light,
admitted from the upper part of a high casement, fell upon a female
figure of exquisite beauty, who, in an attitude of speechless terror,