"The third time, after a still longer pause,
The shadow pass'd away--but where? the hall
Was long, and thus far there was no great cause
To think its vanishing unnatural:
Doors there were many, through which, by the laws
Of physics, bodies, whether short or tall,
Might come or go; but Juan could not state
Through which the spectre seem'd to evaporate.
"He stood, how long he knew not, but it seem'd
An age--expectant, powerless, with his eyes
Strain'd on the spot where first the figure gleam'd:
Then by degrees recall'd his energies,
And would have pass'd the whole off as a dream.
But could not wake; he was, he did surmise,
Waking already, and return'd at length
Back to his chamber, shorn of half his strength."
As I have already observed, it is difficult to determine whether Lord
Byron was really subject to the superstitious fancies which have been
imputed to him, or whether he merely amused himself by giving currency
to them among his domestics and dependents. He certainly never scrupled
to express a belief in supernatural visitations, both verbally and in
his correspondence. If such were his foible, the Rook Cell was an
admirable place to engender these delusions.
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