Grimmest, perhaps, of all the tales in this book of strange stories is one sent to Lord Halifax in 1880 by his uncle, the Rev the Hon. Francis R. Grey. This clergyman had a curate. F. Howson, who vouched for the truth of the following, narrative: –

A clergyman was attending the deathbed of a man who had led a very evil life. In company with the wife of the dying man, the clergyman was watching by the bed when a jet-black mouse crept on to the counterpane. They tried to frighten it away but there it remained; they tried to catch it, but it always evaded them. In spite of all they could do, the mouse stayed on the counterpane until the man died, when it disappeared as suddenly as it had come.

The dead man left behind him a son whose life was as wicked as his father’s had been. When, some years after his father’s death, the young man, too, was dying, it happened that the same clergyman was watching by the bed with the mother. Once more the black mouse appeared, could not be dislodged, stayed until the young man was dead then disappeared.