asked a very inquisitive body . The footman made no reply , but ascended the steps of the old house , gave three taps with the iron hammer , and returned to open the coach door . An old man possessed of the heraldic lore so common in that day examined the shield of arms on the panel . `` Azure , a lion 's head erased , between three flowers de luce , '' said he , then whispered the name of the family to whom these bearings belonged . The last inheritor of its honors was recently dead , after a long residence amid the splendor of the British court , where his birth and wealth had given him no mean station . `` He left no child , '' continued the herald , `` and these arms , being in a lozenge , betoken that the coach appertains to his widow . '' Further disclosures , perhaps , might have been made had not the speaker been suddenly struck dumb by the stern eye of an ancient lady who thrust forth her head from the coach , preparing to descend . As she emerged the people saw that her dress was magnificent , and her figure dignified in spite of age and infirmity -- a stately ruin , but with a look at once of pride and wretchedness . Her strong and rigid features had an awe about them unlike that of the white Old Maid , but as of something evil . She passed up the steps , leaning on a gold-headed cane . The door swung open as she ascended , and the light of a torch glittered on the embroidery of her dress and gleamed on the pillars of the porch . After a momentary pause , a glance backward and then a desperate effort , she went in . The decipherer of the coat-of-arms had ventured up the lower step , and , shrinking back immediately , pale and tremulous , affirmed that the torch was held by the very image of old Cæsar . `` But such a hideous grin , '' added he , `` was never seen on the face of mortal man , black or white . It will haunt me till my dying-day . '' Meantime , the coach had wheeled round with a prodigious clatter on the pavement and rumbled up the street , disappearing in the twilight , while the ear still tracked its course . Scarcely was it gone when the people began to question whether the coach and attendants , the ancient lady , the spectre of old Cæsar and the Old Maid herself were not all a strangely-combined delusion with some dark purport in its mystery . The whole town was astir , so that , instead of dispersing , the crowd continually increased , and stood gazing up at the windows of the mansion , now silvered by the brightening moon . The elders , glad to indulge the narrative propensity of age , told of the long-faded splendor of the family , the entertainments they had given and the guests , the greatest of the land , and even titled and noble ones from abroad , who had passed beneath that portal . These graphic reminiscences seemed to call up the ghosts of those to whom they referred .
So strong was the impression XXXXX some of the more imaginative hearers that two or three were seized with trembling fits at one and the same moment , protesting that they had distinctly heard three other raps of the iron knocker .
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