I know these things, not because I possess any positive memory of them, but rather by inference; for—following the lapse of an indefinite period of time—I found myself standing before the doorway of my modest domicile on Amity Street, with Crockett’s steadying hand grasping one of my elbows. Of the circumstances which ensued I retain only the vaguest and most fragmentary of impressions: ill-defined recollections of the door being flung open by Muddy; of the good woman’s cries of alarm as she perceived my blank eyes, pallid countenance, and blood-spattered attire; of Crockett’s warm reunion with Maryanne Mullany, who—after escorting Virginia back to our abode—had awaited the arrival of the frontiersman; of Muddy’s welcome tidings that Sissy, although deeply distressed by the events of the evening, was now soundly asleep; of Crockett’s prompt and considerate leavetaking, after assuring me that he would return on the morrow for a “pow-wow”; and of Muddy’s strong and indescribably consoling arm wrapped about my shoulders as she assisted me into my bedroom, where—without bothering to exchange my garments for a nightgown—I staggered towards my bed and fell face forward upon my mattress. Instantly, I found myself submerged in a long, profoundly unsettling, and uncannily vivid dream in which the condemned queen Marie Antoinette sat keening in a great wooden-wheeled tumbrel as it clattered through the serpentine streets of Paris on its way to her dread appointment with the “Nation’s Razor”

Awakening with a groan, I found my chamber suffused with sunlight. For several moments, I was incapable of coherent thought. Though possessed of a dim, yet intensely disquieting, sense that events of a highly anomalous nature had occurred the evening before, I could conjure up no definite recollection of them. What precisely had transpired? How had I come to be reposing on top of my bedclothes, instead of comfortably beneath my blankets? And why was I garbed in such extraordinary attire?

All at once, I became aware of an odd and wholly unpleasant sensation on the palms of my hands. Raising them to the level of my eyes, I saw that they were dabbled with reddish-brown stains. At that instant, the truth came rushing back upon me. Leaping from my bed, I hurried to my washstand and vigorously scrubbed away the sanguinary vestiges of the awful atrocity. Then, divesting myself of my bloodsoiled costume, I rapidly changed into my customary attire and strode from the room.