Only Aghadoe Abbey was eerie at night, especially in winter storms, since my cousin Theobald went away.

I have often thought that the curious formation of the house, which has as many rooms beneath the ground as above it, helped to give it an eerie feeling, for one could not but imagine those downstair rooms filled with ghosts.

I had seen the rooms lit dimly once or twice, but for a long time we had not used them, the expense of lighting them with a thousand wax candles glimmering in glittering chandeliers being too great.
But in the days before Cousin Theobald left us I was not afraid.

He slept across the corridor from my room, and I had only to cry out and I knew he would fly to my assistance.
His sword was new at that time, and he was very proud of it.

He turned it about, making it flash in the sunlight, and, said he, "Cousin Bawn, fear nothing; for if anything were to frighten you, either ghost or mortal, I would run it through with my sword.