Fitze fled to France, and his friends obtained some kind of a pardon for
him; but when he returned they all gave him the cold shoulder; he was
avoided by everybody, and to add to his discomfort the children of
Slanning sued him in London for compensation.
Meanwhile the guilt in blood weighed heavily upon him, increasing in
intensity as years went on, and the shade of Slanning never left him day
or night, until finally he could not sleep, for the most horrid dreams
awoke him and his screams in the night were awful to hear. Sometimes he
dreamt he was being pursued by the police, then by black demons and
other hideous monsters, while in the background was always the ghost of
the man he had so cruelly murdered.
Late one night a man on horseback, haggard and weary, rode up to the
door of the "Anchor Inn" at Kingston-on-Thames and demanded lodgings for
the night. The landlord and his family were just retiring to rest, and
the landlady, not liking the wild and haggard appearance of their
midnight visitor, at first declined to receive him, but at length agreed
to find him a room. The family were awakened in the night by the lodger
crying in his sleep, and the landlady was greatly alarmed as the noise
was continued at intervals all through the night.
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