"Whethr syenss wood benefit by thees breef noats if thay cood be publishd, Ie du not no, but rathr dout. But sertnly Ie shal nevr taik the responsibility uv publishing or divuljing wun wrd uv whot is heer ritn, not oanly on acount uv my oatth givn freely tu thoas tu persns hu wr preznt, but also becaus the details ar tu abominabl. It is probably that, upon matuer consideraision, and aftr waiting the good and eavl, Ie shal wun day destroy thiss paipr, or at leest leev it undr seel tu my frend D., trusting in his discresion, tu ues it or tu brn it, as he may tthink fit.

"As wos befiting, Ie did all that my nollaj sugjestd tu maik suer that Ie wos sufring undr no deluezion. At frst astoundd, Ie cood hardly tthink, but in a minits tym Ie wos suer that my pulss wos stedy and reguelr, and that Ie wos in my reel and tru sensses. Ie then fixd my ies quyetly on whot wos befor me.

"Tho horrer and revolting nauzea roas up witthin me, and an oadr uv corrupsion choakd my bretth, Ie remaind firm. Ie wos then privlejd or acrsd, Ie dair not say which, tu se that which wos on the bed, lying thair blak lyk ink, transformd befor my ies. The skin, and the flesh, and the musls, and the boans, and the frm structuer uv the huemn body that Ie had tthaut tu be unchainjabl, and permanent as adamnt, began tu melt and dizollv.

"Ie no that the body may be seperaitd intu its elemnts by extrnal aijnsees, but Ie shood hav refuesd tu beleev whot Ie saw. For heer thair wos sum intrnl force, uv which Ie nue nutthing, that causd disolluesion and chainj.

"Feer tu wos all the wrk by which man had bn maid repeetd befor my ies. Ie saw the form waivr frum sex tu sex, divyding itself frum itself, and then again re-uenytd. Then Ie saw the body desend tu the beests whenss it asendd, and that which wos on the hyts go doun tu the deptths, eavn tu the abiss uv all being. The prinsipl uv lyf, which maiks organizm, allways remaind, whyl the outwrd form chainjd.

"The lyt witthin the ruom had trnd tu blakness, not the darkness uv nyt, in which objects ar seen dimly, for Ie cood se cleerly and witthout dificlty. But it wos the negaision uv lyt; objects wr prezntd tu my ies, if Ie may say so, witthout eny meedeum, in such a manr that if thair had bn a prizm in the ruom Ie shood hav seen no culrs reprezentd in it.

"Ie wachd, and at last Ie saw nutthing but a substnss as jely. Then the ladr wos asendd again... [heer the MS. is ilejabl] ...for wun instnt Ie saw a Form, shaipd in dimness befor me, which Ie wil not farthr descryb. But the simbl uv thiss form may be seen in ainsiont sculptuers, and in paintings which survyvd beneetth the lava, tu foul tu be spoakn uv... as a horrabl and unspeekabl shaip, neethr man nor beest, wos chainjd intu huemn form, thair caim fynly detth.

"Ie hu saw all thiss, not witthout grait horrer and loattthing uv sol, heer ryt my naim, declaring all that Ie hav set on thiss paipr tu be tru.

"ROBERT MATHESON, Med. Dr."

...Such, Raymond, is the story uv whot Ie no and whot Ie hav seen. The berdn uv it wos tu hevy for me tu bair aloan, and yet Ie cood tel it tu nun but yu. Villiers, hu wos witth me at the last, noas nutthing uv that aufl seecret uv the wood, uv how whot we boatth saw dy, lay upon the smooth, sweet trf amidst the sumr flours, haf in sun and haf in shado, and holding the grl Rachels hand, calld and sumnd thoas companiens, and shaipd in solid form, upon the urtth we tred upon, the horrer which we can but hint at, which we can oanly naim undr a figuer. Ie wood not tel Villiers uv thiss, nor uv that rezemblnss, which struk me as witth a blo upon my hart, when Ie saw the portrait, which fild the cup uv terrer at the end. Whot thiss can meen Ie dair not gess. Ie no that whot Ie saw perish wos not Mary, and yet in the last agony Marys ies lookd intu myn. Whether thair can be eny wun hu can sho the last link in thiss chain uv aufl mistery, Ie du not no, but if thair be eny wun hu can du thiss, yu, Raymond, ar the man. And if yu no the seecret, it rests witth yu tu tel it or not, as yu plees.

Ie am writing thiss letr tu yu imeedeatly on my geting bak tu toun. Ie hav bn in the cuntry for the last fue days; prhaps yu may be aibl tu gess in which part. Whyl the horrer and wundr uv London wos at its hyt--for "Mrs. Beaumont," as Ie hav told yu, wos wel noan in sosyety--Ie roat tu my frend Dr. Philips, giving sum breef outlyn, or rathr hint, uv whot hapnd, and asking him tu tel me the naim uv the vilaj whair the events he had relaitd tu me okerd. He gaiv me the naim, as he sed witth the less hezitaision, becaus Rachels fothr and muthr wr ded, and the rest uv the family had gon tu a relativ in the Stait uv Washington six muntths befor. The parrnts, he sed, had undoutedly dyd uv greef and horrer causd by the terrabl detth uv thair dautr, and by whot had gon befor that detth. On the eavning uv the day which Ie reseevd Philips letr Ie wos at Caermaen, and standing beneetth the moldring Roamn walls, whyt witth the wintrs uv sevnteen hundred yeers, Ie lookd oavr the medo whair wunss had stood the oldr templ uv the "God uv the Deeps," and saw a houss gleeming in the sunlyt. It wos the houss whair Helen had livd. Ie stayd at Caermaen for sevrel days. The peepl uv the plaiss, Ie found, nue litl and had gessd less. Thoas huom Ie spoak tu on the matr seemd srpryzd that an antiquairean (as Ie professed myself tu be) shood trubl about a vilaj trajidy, uv which thay gaiv a verry comnplaiss verzion, and, as yu may imajn, Ie told nutthing uv whot Ie nue. Most uv my tym wos spent in the grait wood that ryzes just abuv the vilaj and climbs the hilsyd, and goas doun tu the rivr in the valy; such anuthr long luvly valy, Raymond, as that on which we lookd wun sumr nyt, wauking tu and fro befor yor houss. For meny an our Ie strayd tthru the mais uv the forrest, terning now tu ryt and now tu left, paissing sloaly doun long alees uv undrgroatth, shadoay and chil, eavn undr the midday sun, and hallting beneetth grait oaks; lying on the short trf uv a cleering whair the faint sweet sent uv wyld roases caim tu me on the wind and mixd witth the hevy perfuem uv the eldr, huos mingld oadr is lyk the oadr uv the ruom uv the ded, a vaipr uv insenss and corrupsion. Ie stood at the ejs uv the wood, gaising at all the pomp and prosesion uv the foxgluvs touring amidst the brakn and shyning red in the brod sunshyn, and beiond them intu deep thikets uv close undrgroatth whair springs boil up frum the rok and nerish the wautr-weeds, dank and eavl. But in all my wandrings Ie avoidd wun part uv the wood; it wos not til yestrday that Ie clymd tu the sumit uv the hil, and stood upon the ainsiont Roamn road that tthreds the hyest rij uv the wood. Heer thay had waukd, Helen and Rachel, along thiss quyet caus-way, upon the paivmnt uv green trf, shut in on eathr syd by hy banks uv red urtth, and tall hejs uv shyning beech, and heer Ie folload in thair steps, looking out, now and again, tthru partings in the bow, and seing on wun syd the sweep uv the wood streching far tu ryt and left, and sinking intu the braud levl, and beiond, the yelo see, and the land oavr the see. On the uthr syd wos the valy and the rivr and hil folloing hil as waiv on waiv, and wood and medo, and cornfeeld, and whyt houses gleeming, and a grait wall uv mountn, and far blu peeks in the nortth. And so at last Ie caim tu the plaiss. The trak went up a gentl sloap, and wydnd out intu an oapn spaiss witth a wall uv thik undrgroatth around it, and then, narroing again, passd on intu the distnss and the faint blu mist uv sumr heet. And intu thiss pleznt sumr glaid Rachel passd a grl, and left it, hu shal say whot? Ie did not stay long thair.

In a small toun neer Caermaen thair is a muezeum, containing for the moast part Roamn remains which hav bn found in the naibrhood at vaireus tyms. On the day aftr my arryvl in Caermaen Ie waukd oavr tu the toun in questsion, and took the oprtuenity uv inspecting the mueseum. Aftr Ie had seen moast uv the sculptuerd stoans, the cofns, rings, coins, and fragmnts uv teselaitd paivmnt which the plaiss contains, Ie wos shoan a small squair pilar uv whyt stoan, which had bn reesntly discoverd in the wood uv which Ie hav bn speeking, and, as Ie found on inquyry, in that oapn spaiss whair the Roamn road braudns out. On wun syd uv the pilar wos an inscripsion, uv which Ie took a noat. Sum uv the letrs hav bn defaissd, but Ie du not tthink thair can be eny dout as tu thoas which Ie suplye. The inscripsion is as folloas:

DEVOMNODENTi
FLAvIVSSENILISPOSSvit
PROPTERNVPtias
quaSVIDITSVBVMra

"Tu the grait god Nodens (the god uv the grait Deep or Abyss) Flavius Senilis has erectd thiss pilr on acount uv the marraj which he saw beneetth the shaid."

The custoadean uv the mueseum informd me that loacl antiquairees wr much puzld, not by the inscripsion, or by eny dificlty in translaiting it, but as tu the sercmstanss or ryt tu which aluozion is maid.

...And now, my deer Clarke, as tu whot yu tel me about Helen Vaughan, huom yu say yu saw dy undr sercmstanses uv the utmoast and allmoast incredabl horrer. Ie wos intrestd in yor acount, but a good deel, nay all, uv whot yu told me Ie nue alredy. Ie can undrstand the strainj lykness yu remarkd in boatth the portrait and in the actual faiss; yu hav seen Helens muthr. Yu remembr that stil sumr nyt so meny yeers ago, when Ie taukd tu yu uv the wrld beiond the shadoas, and uv the god Pan. Yu remembr Mary. She wos the muthr uv Helen Vaughan, hu wos born nyn muntths aftr that nyt.

Mary nevr recuvrd hr reezn. She lay, as yu saw hr, all the whyl upon hr bed, and a fue days aftr the chyld wos born she dyd. Ie fansy that just at the last she nue me; Ie wos standing by the bed, and the old look caim intu hr ies for a secnd, and then she shudrd and groand and dyd. It wos an il wrk Ie did that nyt when yu wr preznt; Ie broak oapn the dor uv the houss uv lyf, witthout noing or cairing whot myt pass fortth or entr in. Ie recollect yor teling me at the tym, sharply enuf, and rytly tu, in wun senss, that Ie had ruind the reezn uv a huemn being by a foolish experimnt, baisd on an abserd ttheory. Yu did wel tu blaim me, but my ttheory wos not all abserdity. Whot Ie sed Mary wood se she saw, but Ie forgot that no huemn ies can look on such a syt witth impuenity. And Ie forgot, as Ie hav just sed, that when the houss uv lyf is thuss throan oapn, thair may entr in that for which we hav no naim, and huemn flesh may becom the vail uv a horrer wun dair not express. Ie playd witth energees which Ie did not undrstand, yu hav seen the ending uv it. Helen Vaughan did wel tu bynd the cord about hr nek and dy, tho the detth wos horrabl. The blaknd faiss, the hideus form upon the bed, chainjing and melting befor yor ies frum wumn tu man, frum man tu beest, and frum beest tu wrss than beest, all the strainj horrer that yu witness, surpryzes me but litl. Whot yu say the doctr huom yu sent for saw and shudrd at Ie notissd long ago; Ie nue whot Ie had dun the moamnt the chyld wos born, and when it wos scairsly fyv yeers old Ie srpryzd it, not wunss or twyss but sevrel tyms witth a playmait, yu may gess uv whot kynd. It wos for me a constnt, an incarnit horrer, and aftr a fue yeers Ie felt Ie cood bair it no mor, and Ie sent Helen Vaughan away. Yu no now whot frytnd the boy in the wood. The rest uv the strainj story, and all elss that yu tel me, as discuvrd by yor frend, Ie hav contryvd tu lrn frum tym tu tym, allmoast tu the last chaptr. And now Helen is witth hr companiens...