Chapter 1
There is no reason for hiding from the reader that the town in which this singular story commences is situated in Virginia, United States of America. With his permission, we will call this town Whaston, and we will place it in the east, on the right bank of the river Potomac; but we deem it useless to specify the exact whereabouts of Whaston, which does not appear even on the best maps.
On the 12th of March, in the year our story opens, the inhabitants of Whaston that happened to be walking along Exeter Street, after their breakfast, had the pleasure of seeing a horseman ride up the street slowly and then down the steep incline at the same prudent pace, after which performance he stopped on Constitution Square, situated almost in the centre of the town.
This horseman, who was
