The subject of sequestration of the person came up in speaking of a recent lawsuit, and
each of us had a story to tell--a true story, he said. We had been spending the evening
together at an old family mansion in the Rue de Grenelle, just a party of intimate friends.
The old Marquis de la Tour-Samuel, who was eighty-two, rose,and, leaning his elbow on
the mantelpiece, said in his somewhat shaky voice:
"I also know of something strange, so strange that it has haunted me all my life. It is now
fifty-six years since the incident occurred, and yet not a month passes that I do not see it
again in a dream, so great is the impression of fear it has left on my mind. For ten
minutes I experienced such horrible fright that ever since then a sort of constant terror has
remained with me. Sudden noises startle me violently, and objects imperfectly
distinguished at night inspire me with a mad desire to flee from them. In short, I am
afraid of the dark!
"But I would not have acknowledged that before I reached my present age. Now I can say
anything. I have never receded before real danger, ladies. It is, therefore, permissible, at
eighty-two years of age, not to be brave in presence of imaginary danger.
"That affair so completely upset me, caused me such deep and mysterious and terrible
distress, that I never spoke of it to any one. I will now tell it to you exactly as it
happened, without any attempt at explanation.
"In July, 1827, I was stationed at Rouen. One day as I was walking along the quay I met a
man whom I thought I recognized without being able to recall exactly who he was.
Instinctively I made a movement to stop. The stranger perceived it and at once extended
his hand.
"He was a friend to whom I had been deeply attached as a youth. For five years I had not
seen him; he seemed to have aged half a century. His hair was quite white and he walked
bent over as though completely exhausted. He apparently understood my surprise, and he
told me of the misfortune which had shattered his life.
"Having fallen madly in love with a young girl, he had married her, but after a year of
more than earthly happiness she died suddenly of an affection of the heart. He left his
country home on the very day of her burial and came to his town house in Rouen, where
he lived, alone and unhappy, so sad and wretched that he thought constantly of suicide.
"'Since I have found you again in this manner,' he said, 'I will ask you to render me an
important service. It is to go and get me out of the desk in my bedroom--our bedroom--
some papers of which I have urgent need. I cannot send a servant or a business clerk, as
discretion and absolute silence are necessary. As for myself, nothing on earth would
induce me to reenter that house. I will give you the key of the room, which I myself
locked on leaving, and the key of my desk, also a few words for my gardener, telling him
