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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14195 ***
+
+A STRANGE STORY.
+
+TO WHICH IS ADDED,
+
+THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS.
+
+BY
+
+EDWARD BULWER LYTTON (_LORD LYTTON_.)
+
+
+"To doubt and to be astonished is to recognize our ignorance. Hence it
+is that the lover of wisdom is in a certain sort a lover of mythi
+[Greek: phylomythos pôs], for the subject of mythi is the astonishing
+and marvellous."--SIR W. HAMILTON (after Aristotle), _Lectures on
+Metaphysics_, vol. i. p. 78.
+
+
+
+
+IN TWO VOLUMES.
+
+VOL. II.
+
+BOSTON: LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY. 1897.
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS;
+
+
+OR, THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN.
+
+
+
+
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A friend of mine, who is a man of letters and a philosopher, said to
+me one day, as if between jest and earnest, "Fancy! since we last met
+I have discovered a haunted house in the midst of London."
+
+"Really haunted,--and by what?--ghosts?"
+
+"Well, I can't answer that question; all I know is this: six weeks ago
+my wife and I were in search of a furnished apartment. Passing a quiet
+street, we saw on the window of one of the houses a bill, 'Apartments,
+Furnished.' The situation suited us; we entered the house, liked the
+rooms, engaged them by the week,--and left them the third day. No
+power on earth could have reconciled my wife to stay longer; and I
+don't wonder at it."
+
+"What did you see?"
+
+"Excuse me; I have no desire to be ridiculed as a superstitious
+dreamer,--nor, on the other hand, could I ask you to accept on my
+affirmation what you would hold to be incredible without the evidence
+of your own senses. Let me only say this, it was not so much what we
+saw or heard (in which you might fairly suppose that we were the dupes
+of our own excited fancy, or the victims of imposture in others) that
+drove us away, as it was an undefinable terror which seized both of us
+whenever we passed by the door of a certain unfurnished room, in which
+we neither saw nor heard anything. And the strangest marvel of all
+was, that for once in my life I agreed with my wife, silly woman
+though she be,--and allowed, after the third night, that it was
+impossible to stay a fourth in that house. Accordingly, on the fourth
+morning I summoned the woman who kept the house and attended on us,
+and told her that the rooms did not quite suit us, and we would not
+stay out our week." She said dryly, "I know why; you have stayed
+longer than any other lodger. Few ever stayed a second night; none
+before you a third. But I take it they have been very kind to you."
+
+"'They,--who?' I asked, affecting to smile.
+
+"'Why, they who haunt the house, whoever they are. I don't mind them.
+I remember them many years ago, when I lived in this house, not as a
+servant; but I know they will be the death of me some day. I don't
+care,--I'm old, and must die soon anyhow; and then I shall be with
+them, and in this house still.' The woman spoke with so dreary a
+calmness that really it was a sort of awe that prevented my conversing
+with her further. I paid for my week, and too happy were my wife and I
+to get off so cheaply."
+
+"You excite my curiosity," said I; "nothing I should like better than
+to sleep in a haunted house. Pray give me the address of the one which
+you left so ignominiously."
+
+My friend gave me the address; and when we parted, I walked straight
+towards the house thus indicated.
+
+It is situated on the north side of Oxford Street, in a dull but
+respectable thoroughfare. I found the house shut up,--no bill at the
+window, and no response to my knock. As I was turning away, a
+beer-boy, collecting pewter pots at the neighboring areas, said to me,
+"Do you want any one at that house, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I heard it was to be let."
+
+"Let!--why, the woman who kept it is dead,--has been dead these three
+weeks, and no one can be found to stay there, though Mr. J---- offered
+ever so much. He offered mother, who chars for him, £1 a week just to
+open and shut the windows, and she would not."
+
+"Would not!--and why?"
+
+"The house is haunted; and the old woman who kept it was found dead in
+her bed, with her eyes wide open. They say the devil strangled her."
+
+"Pooh! You speak of Mr. J----. Is he the owner of the house?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Where does he live?"
+
+"In G---- Street, No. ----."
+
+"What is he? In any business?"
+
+"No, sir,--nothing particular; a single gentleman."
+
+I gave the pot-boy the gratuity earned by his liberal information, and
+proceeded to Mr. J----, in G---- Street, which was close by the street
+that boasted the haunted house. I was lucky enough to find Mr. J----
+at home,--an elderly man with intelligent countenance and
+prepossessing manners.
+
+I communicated my name and my business frankly. I said I heard the
+house was considered to be haunted,--that I had a strong desire to
+examine a house with so equivocal a reputation; that I should be
+greatly obliged if he would allow me to hire it, though only for a
+night. I was willing to pay for that privilege whatever he might be
+inclined to ask. "Sir," said Mr. J----, with great courtesy, "the
+house is at your service, for as short or as long a time as you
+please. Rent is out of the question,--the obligation will be on my
+side should you be able to discover the cause of the strange phenomena
+which at present deprive it of all value. I cannot let it, for I
+cannot even get a servant to keep it in order or answer the door.
+Unluckily the house is haunted, if I may use that expression, not only
+by night, but by day; though at night the disturbances are of a more
+unpleasant and sometimes of a more alarming character. The poor old
+woman who died in it three weeks ago was a pauper whom I took out of a
+workhouse; for in her childhood she had been known to some of my
+family, and had once been in such good circumstances that she had
+rented that house of my uncle. She was a woman of superior education
+and strong mind, and was the only person I could ever induce to remain
+in the house. Indeed, since her death, which was sudden, and the
+coroner's inquest, which gave it a notoriety in the neighborhood, I
+have so despaired of finding any person to take charge of the house,
+much more a tenant, that I would willingly let it rent free for a year
+to any one who would pay its rates and taxes."
+
+"How long is it since the house acquired this sinister character?"
+
+"That I can scarcely tell you, but very many years since. The old
+woman I spoke of, said it was haunted when she rented it between
+thirty and forty years ago. The fact is, that my life has been spent
+in the East Indies, and in the civil service of the Company. I
+returned to England last year, on inheriting the fortune of an uncle,
+among whose possessions was the house in question. I found it shut up
+and uninhabited. I was told that it was haunted, that no one would
+inhabit it. I smiled at what seemed to me so idle a story. I spent
+some money in repairing it, added to its old-fashioned furniture a few
+modern articles,--advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He
+was a colonel on half-pay. He came in with his family, a son and a
+daughter, and four or five servants: they all left the house the next
+day; and, although each of them declared that he had seen something
+different from that which had scared the others, a something still was
+equally terrible to all. I really could not in conscience sue, nor
+even blame, the colonel for breach of agreement. Then I put in the old
+woman I have spoken of, and she was empowered to let the house in
+apartments. I never had one lodger who stayed more than three days. I
+do not tell you their stories,--to no two lodgers have there been
+exactly the same phenomena repeated. It is better that you should
+judge for yourself, than enter the house with an imagination
+influenced by previous narratives; only be prepared to see and to hear
+something or other, and take whatever precautions you yourself
+please."
+
+"Have you never had a curiosity yourself to pass a night in that
+house?" "Yes. I passed not a night, but three hours in broad daylight
+alone in that house. My curiosity is not satisfied, but it is
+quenched. I have no desire to renew the experiment. You cannot
+complain, you see, sir, that I am not sufficiently candid; and unless
+your interest be exceedingly eager and your nerves unusually strong, I
+honestly add, that I advise you _not_ to pass a night in that house."
+
+"My interest _is_ exceedingly keen," said I; "and though only a coward
+will boast of his nerves in situations wholly unfamiliar to him, yet
+my nerves have been seasoned in such variety of danger that I have the
+right to rely on them,--even in a haunted house."
+
+Mr. J---- said very little more; he took the keys of the house out of
+his bureau, gave them to me,--and, thanking him cordially for his
+frankness, and his urbane concession to my wish, I carried off my
+prize.
+
+Impatient for the experiment, as soon as I reached home, I summoned my
+confidential servant,--a young man of gay spirits, fearless temper,
+and as free from superstitious prejudice as any one I could think of.
+
+"F----," said I, "you remember in Germany how disappointed we were at
+not finding a ghost in that old castle, which was said to be haunted
+by a headless apparition? Well, I have heard of a house in London
+which, I have reason to hope, is decidedly haunted. I mean to sleep
+there to-night. From what I hear, there is no doubt that something
+will allow itself to be seen or to be heard,--something, perhaps,
+excessively horrible. Do you think if I take you with me, I may rely
+on your presence of mind, whatever may happen?"
+
+"Oh, sir, pray trust me," answered F----, grinning with delight.
+
+"Very well; then here are the keys of the house,--this is the address.
+Go now,--select for me any bedroom you please; and since the house has
+not been inhabited for weeks, make up a good fire, air the bed
+well,--see, of course, that there are candles as well as fuel. Take
+with you my revolver and my dagger,--so much for my weapons; arm
+yourself equally well; and if we are not a match for a dozen ghosts,
+we shall be but a sorry couple of Englishmen."
+
+I was engaged for the rest of the day on business so urgent that I had
+not leisure to think much on the nocturnal adventure to which I had
+plighted my honor. I dined alone, and very late, and while dining,
+read, as is my habit. I selected one of the volumes of Macaulay's
+Essays. I thought to myself that I would take the book with me; there
+was so much of healthfulness in the style, and practical life in the
+subjects, that it would serve as an antidote against the influences of
+superstitious fancy.
+
+Accordingly, about half-past nine, I put the book into my pocket, and
+strolled leisurely towards the haunted house. I took with me a
+favorite dog: an exceedingly sharp, bold, and vigilant
+bull-terrier,--a dog fond of prowling about strange, ghostly corners
+and passages at night in search of rats; a dog of dogs for a ghost.
+
+It was a summer night but chilly, the sky somewhat gloomy and
+overcast. Still there was a moon, faint and sickly but still a moon,
+and if the clouds permitted, after midnight it would be brighter.
+
+I reached the house, knocked, and my servant opened with a cheerful
+smile.
+
+"All right, sir, and very comfortable."
+
+"Oh!" said I, rather disappointed; "have you not seen nor heard
+anything remarkable?"
+
+"Well, sir, I must own I have heard something queer."
+
+"What?--what?"
+
+"The sound of feet pattering behind me; and once or twice small noises
+like whispers close at my ear,--nothing more."
+
+"You are not at all frightened?"
+
+"I! not a bit of it, sir;" and the man's bold look reassured me on one
+point,--namely, that happen what might, he would not desert me.
+
+We were in the hall, the street-door closed, and my attention was now
+drawn to my dog. He had at first run in eagerly enough, but had
+sneaked back to the door, and was scratching and whining to get out.
+After patting him on the head, and encouraging him gently, the dog
+seemed to reconcile himself to the situation, and followed me and
+F---- through the house, but keeping close at my heels instead of
+hurrying inquisitively in advance, which was his usual and normal
+habit in all strange places. We first visited the subterranean
+apartments,--the kitchen and other offices, and especially the
+cellars, in which last there were two or three bottles of wine still
+left in a bin, covered with cobwebs, and evidently, by their
+appearance, undisturbed for many years. It was clear that the ghosts
+were not winebibbers. For the rest we discovered nothing of interest.
+There was a gloomy little backyard, with very high walls. The stones
+of this yard were very damp; and what with the damp, and what with the
+dust and smoke-grime on the pavement, our feet left a slight
+impression where we passed. And now appeared the first strange
+phenomenon witnessed by myself in this strange abode. I saw, just
+before me, the print of a foot suddenly form itself, as it were. I
+stopped, caught hold of my servant, and pointed to it. In advance of
+that footprint as suddenly dropped another. We both saw it. I advanced
+quickly to the place; the footprint kept advancing before me, a small
+footprint,--the foot of a child: the impression was too faint
+thoroughly to distinguish the shape, but it seemed to us both that it
+was the print of a naked foot. This phenomenon ceased when we arrived
+at the opposite wall, nor did it repeat itself on returning. We
+remounted the stairs, and entered the rooms on the ground-floor, a
+dining parlor, a small back-parlor, and a still smaller third room
+that had been probably appropriated to a footman,--all still as death.
+We then visited the drawing-rooms, which seemed fresh and new. In the
+front room I seated myself in an arm-chair. F----  placed on the table
+the candlestick with which he had lighted us. I told him to shut the
+door. As he turned to do so a chair opposite to me moved from the wall
+quickly and noiselessly, and dropped itself about a yard from my own
+chair, immediately fronting it.
+
+"Why, this is better than the turning-tables," said I, with a
+half-laugh; and as I laughed, my dog put back his head and howled.
+
+F---, coming back, had not observed the movement of the chair. He
+employed himself now in stilling the dog. I continued to gaze on the
+chair, and fancied I saw on it a pale, blue, misty outline of a human
+figure, but an outline so indistinct that I could only distrust my own
+vision. The dog now was quiet.
+
+"Put back that chair opposite to me," said I to F---; "put it back to
+the wall."
+
+F---- obeyed. "Was that you, sir?" said he, turning abruptly.
+
+"I!--what?"
+
+"Why, something struck me. I felt it sharply on the shoulder,--just
+here."
+
+"No," said I. "But we have jugglers present, and though we may not
+discover their tricks, we shall catch _them_ before they frighten
+_us_."
+
+We did not stay long in the drawing-rooms,--in fact, they felt so damp
+and so chilly that I was glad to get to the fire upstairs. We locked
+the doors of the drawing-rooms,--a precaution which, I should observe,
+we had taken with all the rooms we had searched below. The bedroom my
+servant had selected for me was the best on the floor,--a large one,
+with two windows fronting the street. The four-posted bed, which took
+up no inconsiderable space, was opposite to the fire, which burned
+clear and bright; a door in the wall to the left, between the bed and
+the window, communicated with the room which my servant appropriated
+to himself. This last was a small room with a sofa-bed, and had no
+communication with the landing-place,--no other door but that which
+conducted to the bedroom I was to occupy. On either side of my
+fireplace was a cupboard without locks, flush with the wall, and
+covered with the same dull-brown paper. We examined these
+cupboards,--only hooks to suspend female dresses, nothing else; we
+sounded the walls,--evidently solid, the outer walls of the building.
+Having finished the survey of these apartments, warmed myself a few
+moments, and lighted my cigar, I then, still accompanied by F----,
+went forth to complete my reconnoitre. In the landing-place there was
+another door; it was closed firmly. "Sir," said my servant, in
+surprise, "I unlocked this door with all the others when I first came;
+it cannot have got locked from the inside, for--"
+
+Before he had finished his sentence, the door, which neither of us
+then was touching, opened quietly of itself. We looked at each other a
+single instant. The same thought seized both,--some human agency might
+be detected here. I rushed in first, my servant followed. A small,
+blank, dreary room without furniture; a few empty boxes and hampers in
+a corner; a small window; the shutters closed; not even a fireplace;
+no other door but that by which we had entered; no carpet on the
+floor, and the floor seemed very old, uneven, worm-eaten, mended here
+and there, as was shown by the whiter patches on the wood; but no
+living being, and no visible place in which a living being could have
+hidden. As we stood gazing round, the door by which we had entered
+closed as quietly as it had before opened; we were imprisoned.
+
+For the first time I felt a creep of undefinable horror. Not so my
+servant. "Why, they don't think to trap us, sir; I could break that
+trumpery door with a kick of my foot."
+
+"Try first if it will open to your hand," said I, shaking off the
+vague apprehension that had seized me, "while I unclosed the shutters
+and see what is without."
+
+I unbarred the shutters,--the window looked on the little backyard I
+have before described; there was no ledge without,--nothing to break
+the sheer descent of the wall. No man getting out of that window would
+have found any footing till he had fallen on the stones below.
+
+F----, meanwhile, was vainly attempting to open the door. He now
+turned round to me and asked my permission to use force. And I should
+here state, in justice to the servant, that, far from evincing any
+superstitious terrors, his nerve, composure, and even gayety amidst
+circumstances so extraordinary, compelled my admiration, and made me
+congratulate myself on having secured a companion in every way fitted
+to the occasion. I willingly gave him the permission he required. But
+though he was a remarkably strong man, his force was as idle as his
+milder efforts; the door did not even shake to his stoutest kick.
+Breathless and panting, he desisted. I then tried the door myself,
+equally in vain. As I ceased from the effort, again that creep of
+horror came over me; but this time it was more cold and stubborn. I
+felt as if some strange and ghastly exhalation were rising up from the
+chinks of that rugged floor, and filling the atmosphere with a
+venomous influence hostile to human life. The door now very slowly and
+quietly opened as of its own accord. We precipitated ourselves into
+the landing-place. We both saw a large, pale light--as large as the
+human figure, but shapeless and unsubstantial--move before us, and
+ascend the stairs that led from the landing into the attics. I
+followed the light, and my servant followed me. It entered, to the
+right of the landing, a small garret, of which the door stood open. I
+entered in the same instant. The light then collapsed into a small
+globule, exceedingly brilliant and vivid, rested a moment on a bed in
+the corner, quivered, and vanished. We approached the bed and examined
+it,--a half-tester, such as is commonly found in attics devoted to
+servants. On the drawers that stood near it we perceived an old faded
+silk kerchief, with the needle still left in a rent half repaired. The
+kerchief was covered with dust; probably it had belonged to the old
+woman who had last died in that house, and this might have been her
+sleeping-room. I had sufficient curiosity to open the drawers: there
+were a few odds and ends of female dress, and two letters tied round
+with a narrow ribbon of faded yellow. I took the liberty to possess
+myself of the letters. We found nothing else in the room worth
+noticing,--nor did the light reappear; but we distinctly heard, as we
+turned to go, a pattering footfall on the floor, just before us. We
+went through the other attics (in all four), the footfall still
+preceding us. Nothing to be seen,--nothing but the footfall heard. I
+had the letters in my hand; just as I was descending the stairs I
+distinctly felt my wrist seized, and a faint, soft effort made to draw
+the letters from my clasp. I only held them the more tightly, and the
+effort ceased.
+
+We regained the bedchamber appropriated to myself, and I then remarked
+that my dog had not followed us when we had left it. He was thrusting
+himself close to the fire, and trembling. I was impatient to examine
+the letters; and while I read them, my servant opened a little box in
+which he had deposited the weapons I had ordered him to bring, took
+them out, placed them on a table close at my bed-head, and then
+occupied himself in soothing the dog, who, however, seemed to heed him
+very little.
+
+The letters were short,--they were dated; the dates exactly
+thirty-five years ago. They were evidently from a lover to his
+mistress, or a husband to some young wife. Not only the terms of
+expression, but a distinct reference to a former voyage, indicated the
+writer to have been a seafarer. The spelling and handwriting were
+those of a man imperfectly educated, but still the language itself was
+forcible. In the expressions of endearment there was a kind of rough,
+wild love; but here and there were dark unintelligible hints at some
+secret not of love,--some secret that seemed of crime. "We ought to
+love each other," was one of the sentences I remember, "for how every
+one else would execrate us if all was known." Again: "Don't let any
+one be in the same room with you at night,--you talk in your sleep."
+And again: "What's done can't be undone; and I tell you there's
+nothing against us unless the dead could come to life." Here there was
+underlined in a better handwriting (a female's), "They do!" At the end
+of the letter latest in date the same female hand had written these
+words: "Lost at sea the 4th of June, the same day as--"
+
+I put down the letters, and began to muse over their contents.
+
+Fearing, however, that the train of thought into which I fell might
+unsteady my nerves, I fully determined to keep my mind in a fit state
+to cope with whatever of marvellous the advancing night might bring
+forth. I roused myself; laid the letters on the table; stirred up the
+fire, which was still bright and cheering; and opened my volume of
+Macaulay. I read quietly enough till about half-past eleven. I then
+threw myself dressed upon the bed, and told my servant he might retire
+to his own room, but must keep himself awake. I bade him leave open
+the door between the two rooms. Thus alone, I kept two candles burning
+on the table by my bed-head. I placed my watch beside the weapons, and
+calmly resumed my Macaulay. Opposite to me the fire burned clear; and
+on the hearthrug, seemingly asleep, lay the dog. In about twenty
+minutes I felt an exceedingly cold air pass by my cheek, like a sudden
+draught. I fancied the door to my right, communicating with the
+landing-place, must have got open; but no,--it was closed. I then
+turned my glance to my left, and saw the flame of the candles
+violently swayed as by a wind. At the same moment the watch beside the
+revolver softly slid from the table,--softly, softly; no visible
+hand,--it was gone. I sprang up, seizing the revolver with the one
+hand, the dagger with the other; I was not willing that my weapons
+should share the fate of the watch. Thus armed, I looked round the
+floor,--no sign of the watch. Three slow, loud, distinct knocks were
+now heard at the bed-head; my servant called out, "Is that you, sir?"
+
+"No; be on your guard."
+
+The dog now roused himself and sat on his haunches, his ears moving
+quickly backwards and forwards. He kept his eyes fixed on me with a
+look so strange that he concentred all my attention on himself. Slowly
+he rose up, all his hair bristling, and stood perfectly rigid, and
+with the same wild stare. I had no time, however, to examine the dog.
+Presently my servant emerged from his room; and if ever I saw horror
+in the human face, it was then. I should not have recognized him had
+we met in the street, so altered was every lineament. He passed by me
+quickly, saying, in a whisper that seemed scarcely to come from his
+lips, "Run, run! it is after me!" He gained the door to the landing,
+pulled it open, and rushed forth. I followed him into the landing
+involuntarily, calling him to stop; but, without heeding me, he
+bounded down the stairs, clinging to the balusters, and taking several
+steps at a time. I heard, where I stood, the street-door open,--heard
+it again clap to. I was left alone in the haunted house.
+
+It was but for a moment that I remained undecided whether or not to
+follow my servant; pride and curiosity alike forbade so dastardly a
+flight. I re-entered my room, closing the door after me, and proceeded
+cautiously into the interior chamber. I encountered nothing to justify
+my servant's terror. I again carefully examined the walls, to see if
+there were any concealed door. I could find no trace of one,--not even
+a seam in the dull-brown paper with which the room was hung. How,
+then, had the THING, whatever it was, which had so scared him,
+obtained ingress except through my own chamber?
+
+I returned to my room, shut and locked the door that opened upon the
+interior one, and stood on the hearth, expectant and prepared. I now
+perceived that the dog had slunk into an angle of the wall, and was
+pressing himself close against it, as if literally striving to force
+his way into it. I approached the animal and spoke to it; the poor
+brute was evidently beside itself with terror. It showed all its
+teeth, the slaver dropping from its jaws, and would certainly have
+bitten me if I had touched it. It did not seem to recognize me.
+Whoever has seen at the Zoological Gardens a rabbit, fascinated by a
+serpent, cowering in a corner, may form some idea of the anguish which
+the dog exhibited. Finding all efforts to soothe the animal in vain,
+and fearing that his bite might be as venomous in that state as in the
+madness of hydrophobia, I left him alone, placed my weapons on the
+table beside the fire, seated myself, and recommenced my Macaulay.
+
+Perhaps, in order not to appear seeking credit for a courage, or
+rather a coolness, which the reader may conceive I exaggerate, I may
+be pardoned if I pause to indulge in one or two egotistical remarks.
+
+As I hold presence of mind, or what is called courage, to be precisely
+proportioned to familiarity with the circumstances that lead to it, so
+I should say that I had been long sufficiently familiar with all
+experiments that appertain to the marvellous. I had witnessed many
+very extraordinary phenomena in various parts of the world,--phenomena
+that would be either totally disbelieved if I stated them, or ascribed
+to supernatural agencies. Now, my theory is that the supernatural is
+the impossible, and that what is called supernatural is only a
+something in the laws of Nature of which we have been hitherto
+ignorant. Therefore, if a ghost rise before me, I have not the right
+to say, "So, then, the supernatural is possible;" but rather, "So,
+then, the apparition of a ghost, is, contrary to received opinion,
+within the laws of Nature,--that is, not supernatural."
+
+Now, in all that I had hitherto witnessed, and indeed in all the
+wonders which the amateurs of mystery in our age record as facts, a
+material living agency is always required. On the Continent you will
+find still magicians who assert that they can raise spirits. Assume
+for the moment that they assert truly, still the living material form
+of the magician is present; and he is the material agency by which,
+from some constitutional peculiarities, certain strange phenomena are
+represented to your natural senses.
+
+Accept, again, as truthful, the tales of spirit-manifestation in
+America,--musical or other sounds; writings on paper, produced by no
+discernible hand; articles of furniture moved without apparent human
+agency; or the actual sight and touch of hands, to which no bodies
+seem to belong,--still there must be found the MEDIUM, or living
+being, with constitutional peculiarities capable of obtaining these
+signs. In fine, in all such marvels, supposing even that there is no
+imposture, there must be a human being like ourselves by whom, or
+through whom, the effects presented to human beings are produced. It
+is so with the now familiar phenomena of mesmerism or electro-biology;
+the mind of the person operated on is affected through a material
+living agent. Nor, supposing it true that a mesmerized patient can
+respond to the will or passes of a mesmerizer a hundred miles distant,
+is the response less occasioned by a material being; it may be through
+a material fluid--call it Electric, call it Odic, call it what you
+will--which has the power of traversing space and passing obstacles,
+that the material effect is communicated from one to the other. Hence,
+all that I had hitherto witnessed, or expected to witness, in this
+strange house, I believed to be occasioned through some agency or
+medium as mortal as myself; and this idea necessarily prevented the
+awe with which those who regard as supernatural things that are not
+within the ordinary operations of Nature, might have been impressed by
+the adventures of that memorable night.
+
+As, then, it was my conjecture that all that was presented, or would
+be presented to my senses, must originate in some human being gifted
+by constitution with the power so to present them, and having some
+motive so to do, I felt an interest in my theory which, in its way,
+was rather philosophical than superstitious. And I can sincerely say
+that I was in as tranquil a temper for observation as any practical
+experimentalist could be in awaiting the effects of some rare, though
+perhaps perilous, chemical combination. Of course, the more I kept my
+mind detached from fancy, the more the temper fitted for observation
+would be obtained; and I therefore riveted eye and thought on the
+strong daylight sense in the page of my Macaulay.
+
+I now became aware that something interposed between the page and the
+light,--the page was over-shadowed. I looked up, and I saw what I
+shall find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.
+
+It was a Darkness shaping itself forth from the air in very undefined
+outline. I cannot say it was of a human form, and yet it had more
+resemblance to a human form, or rather shadow, than to anything else.
+As it stood, wholly apart and distinct from the air and the light
+around it, its dimensions seemed gigantic, the summit nearly touching
+the ceiling. While I gazed, a feeling of intense cold seized me. An
+iceberg before me could not more have chilled me; nor could the cold
+of an iceberg have been more purely physical. I feel convinced that it
+was not the cold caused by fear. As I continued to gaze, I
+thought--but this I cannot say with precision--that I distinguished
+two eyes looking down on me from the height. One moment I fancied that
+I distinguished them clearly, the next they seemed gone; but still two
+rays of a pale-blue light frequently shot through the darkness, as
+from the height on which I half believed, half doubted, that I had
+encountered the eyes.
+
+I strove to speak,--my voice utterly failed me; I could only think to
+myself, "Is this fear? It is _not_ fear!" I strove to rise,--in vain;
+I felt as if weighed down by an irresistible force. Indeed, my
+impression was that of an immense and overwhelming Power opposed to my
+volition,--that sense of utter inadequacy to cope with a force beyond
+man's, which one may feel _physically_ in a storm at sea, in a
+conflagration, or when confronting some terrible wild beast, or
+rather, perhaps, the shark of the ocean, I felt _morally_. Opposed to
+my will was another will, as far superior to its strength as storm,
+fire, and shark are superior in material force to the force of man.
+
+And now, as this impression grew on me,--now came, at last, horror,
+horror to a degree that no words can convey. Still I retained pride,
+if not courage; and in my own mind I said, "This is horror, but it is
+not fear; unless I fear I cannot be harmed; my reason rejects this
+thing; it is an illusion,--I do not fear." With a violent effort I
+succeeded at last in stretching out my hand towards the weapon on the
+table; as I did so, on the arm and shoulder I received a strange
+shock, and my arm fell to my side powerless. And now, to add to my
+horror, the light began slowly to wane from the candles,--they were
+not, as it were, extinguished, but their flame seemed very gradually
+withdrawn; it was the same with the fire,--the light was extracted
+from the fuel; in a few minutes the room was in utter darkness. The
+dread that came over me, to be thus in the dark with that dark Thing,
+whose power was so intensely felt, brought a reaction of nerve. In
+fact, terror had reached that climax, that either my senses must have
+deserted me, or I must have burst through the spell. I did burst
+through it. I found voice, though the voice was a shriek. I remember
+that I broke forth with words like these, "I do not fear, my soul does
+not fear;" and at the same time I found strength to rise. Still in
+that profound gloom I rushed to one of the windows; tore aside the
+curtain; flung open the shutters; my first thought was--LIGHT. And
+when I saw the moon high, clear, and calm, I felt a joy that almost
+compensated for the previous terror. There was the moon, there was
+also the light from the gas-lamps in the deserted slumberous street. I
+turned to look back into the room; the moon penetrated its shadow very
+palely and partially,--but still there was light. The dark Thing,
+whatever it might be, was gone,--except that I could yet see a dim
+shadow, which seemed the shadow of that shade, against the opposite
+wall.
+
+My eye now rested on the table, and from under the table (which was
+without cloth or cover,--an old mahogany round-table) there rose a
+hand, visible as far as the wrist. It was a hand, seemingly, as much
+of flesh and blood as my own, but the hand of an aged person, lean,
+wrinkled, small too,--a woman's hand. That hand very softly closed on
+the two letters that lay on the table; hand and letters both vanished.
+There then came the same three loud, measured knocks I had heard at
+the bedhead before this extraordinary drama had commenced.
+
+As those sounds slowly ceased, I felt the whole room vibrate sensibly;
+and at the far end there rose, as from the floor, sparks or globules
+like bubbles of light, many colored,--green, yellow, fire-red, azure.
+Up and down, to and fro, hither, thither, as tiny Will-o'-the-Wisps,
+the sparks moved, slow or swift, each at its own caprice. A chair (as
+in the drawing-room below) was now advanced from the wall without
+apparent agency, and placed at the opposite side of the table.
+Suddenly, as forth from the chair, there grew a shape,--a woman's
+shape. It was distinct as a shape of life,--ghastly as a shape of
+death. The face was that of youth, with a strange, mournful beauty;
+the throat and shoulders were bare, the rest of the form in a loose
+robe of cloudy white. It began sleeking its long, yellow hair, which
+fell over its shoulders; its eyes were not turned towards me, but to
+the door; it seemed listening, watching, waiting. The shadow of the
+shade in the background grew darker; and again I thought I beheld the
+eyes gleaming out from the summit of the shadow,--eyes fixed upon that
+shape.
+
+As if from the door, though it did not open, there grew out another
+shape, equally distinct, equally ghastly,--a man's shape, a young
+man's. It was in the dress of the last century, or rather in a
+likeness of such dress (for both the male shape and the female, though
+defined, were evidently unsubstantial, impalpable,--simulacra,
+phantasms); and there was something incongruous, grotesque, yet
+fearful, in the contrast between the elaborate finery, the courtly
+precision of that old-fashioned garb, with its ruffles and lace and
+buckles, and the corpse-like aspect and ghost-like stillness of the
+flitting wearer. Just as the male shape approached the female, the
+dark Shadow started from the wall, all three for a moment wrapped in
+darkness. When the pale light returned, the two phantoms were as if in
+the grasp of the Shadow that towered between them; and there was a
+blood-stain on the breast of the female; and the phantom male was
+leaning on its phantom sword, and blood seemed trickling fast from the
+ruffles, from the lace; and the darkness of the intermediate Shadow
+swallowed them up,--they were gone. And again the bubbles of light
+shot, and sailed, and undulated, growing thicker and thicker and more
+wildly confused in their movements.
+
+The closet door to the right of the fireplace now opened, and from the
+aperture there came the form of an aged woman. In her hand she held
+letters,--the very letters over which I had seen _the_ Hand close; and
+behind her I heard a footstep. She turned round as if to listen, and
+then she opened the letters and seemed to read; and over her shoulder
+I saw a livid face, the face as of a man long drowned,--bloated,
+bleached, seaweed tangled in its dripping hair; and at her feet lay a
+form as of a corpse; and beside the corpse there cowered a child, a
+miserable, squalid child, with famine in its cheeks and fear in its
+eyes. And as I looked in the old woman's face, the wrinkles and lines
+vanished, and it became a face of youth,--hard-eyed, stony, but still
+youth; and the Shadow darted forth, and darkened over these phantoms
+as it had darkened over the last.
+
+Nothing now was left but the Shadow, and on that my eyes were intently
+fixed, till again eyes grew out of the Shadow,--malignant, serpent
+eyes. And the bubbles of light again rose and fell, and in their
+disordered, irregular, turbulent maze, mingled with the wan moonlight.
+And now from these globules themselves, as from the shell of an egg,
+monstrous things burst out; the air grew filled with them: larvae so
+bloodless and so hideous that I can in no way describe them except to
+remind the reader of the swarming life which the solar microscope
+brings before his eyes in a drop of water,--things transparent,
+supple, agile, chasing each other, devouring each, other; forms like
+nought ever beheld by the naked eye. As the shapes were without
+symmetry, so their movements were without order. In their very
+vagrancies there was no sport; they came round me and round, thicker
+and faster and swifter, swarming over my head, crawling over my right
+arm, which was outstretched in involuntary command against all evil
+beings. Sometimes I felt myself touched, but not by them; invisible
+hands touched me. Once I felt the clutch as of cold, soft fingers at
+my throat. I was still equally conscious that if I gave way to fear I
+should be in bodily peril; and I concentred all my faculties in the
+single focus of resisting stubborn will. And I turned my sight from
+the Shadow; above all, from those strange serpent eyes,--eyes that had
+now become distinctly visible. For there, though in nought else around
+me, I was aware that there was a WILL, and a will of intense,
+creative, working evil, which might crush down my own.
+
+The pale atmosphere in the room began now to redden as if in the air
+of some near conflagration. The larvæ grew lurid as things that live
+in fire. Again the room vibrated; again were heard the three measured
+knocks; and again all things were swallowed up in the darkness of the
+dark Shadow, as if out of that darkness all had come, into that
+darkness all returned.
+
+As the gloom receded, the Shadow was wholly gone. Slowly, as it had
+been withdrawn, the flame grew again into the candles on the table,
+again into the fuel in the grate. The whole room came once more
+calmly, healthfully into sight.
+
+The two doors were still closed, the door communicating with the
+servant's room still locked. In the corner of the wall, into which he
+had so convulsively niched himself, lay the dog. I called to him,--no
+movement; I approached,--the animal was dead: his eyes protruded; his
+tongue out of his mouth; the froth gathered round his jaws. I took him
+in my arms; I brought him to the fire. I felt acute grief for the loss
+of my poor favorite,--acute self-reproach; I accused myself of his
+death; I imagined he had died of fright. But what was my surprise on
+finding that his neck was actually broken. Had this been done in the
+dark? Must it not have been by a hand human as mine; must there not
+have been a human agency all the while in that room? Good cause to
+suspect it. I cannot tell. I cannot do more than state the fact
+fairly; the reader may draw his own inference.
+
+Another surprising circumstance,--my watch was restored to the table
+from which it had been so mysteriously withdrawn; but it had stopped
+at the very moment it was so withdrawn, nor, despite all the skill of
+the watchmaker, has it ever gone since,--that is, it will go in a
+strange, erratic way for a few hours, and then come to a dead stop; it
+is worthless.
+
+Nothing more chanced for the rest of the night. Nor, indeed, had I
+long to wait before the dawn broke. Nor till it was broad daylight did
+I quit the haunted house. Before I did so, I revisited the little
+blind room in which my servant and myself had been for a time
+imprisoned. I had a strong impression--for which I could not
+account--that from that room had originated the mechanism of the
+phenomena, if I may use the term, which had been experienced in my
+chamber. And though I entered it now in the clear day, with the sun
+peering through the filmy window, I still felt, as I stood on its
+floors, the creep of the horror which I had first there experienced
+the night before, and which had been so aggravated by what had passed
+in my own chamber. I could not, indeed, bear to stay more than half a
+minute within those walls. I descended the stairs, and again I heard
+the footfall before me; and when I opened the street door, I thought I
+could distinguish a very low laugh. I gained my own home, expecting to
+find my runaway servant there; but he had not presented himself, nor
+did I hear more of him for three days, when I received a letter from
+him, dated from Liverpool to this effect:--
+
+"HONORED SIR,--I humbly entreat your pardon, though I can scarcely
+hope that you will think that I deserve it, unless--which Heaven
+forbid!--you saw what I did. I feel that it will be years before I can
+recover myself; and as to being fit for service, it is out of the
+question. I am therefore going to my brother-in-law at Melbourne. The
+ship sails to-morrow. Perhaps the long voyage may set me up. I do
+nothing now but start and tremble, and fancy IT is behind me. I humbly
+beg you, honored sir, to order my clothes, and whatever wages are due
+to me, to be sent to my mother's, at Walworth,--John knows her
+address."
+
+The letter ended with additional apologies, somewhat incoherent, and
+explanatory details as to effects that had been under the writer's
+charge. This flight may perhaps warrant a suspicion that the man
+wished to go to Australia, and had been somehow or other fraudulently
+mixed up with the events of the night. I say nothing in refutation of
+that conjecture; rather, I suggest it as one that would seem to many
+persons the most probable solution of improbable occurrences. My
+belief in my own theory remained unshaken. I returned in the evening
+to the house, to bring away in a hack cab the things I had left there,
+with my poor dog's body. In this task I was not disturbed, nor did any
+incident worth note befall me, except that still, on ascending and
+descending the stairs, I heard the same footfall in advance. On
+leaving the house, I went to Mr. J----'s. He was at home. I returned
+him the keys, told him that my curiosity was sufficiently gratified,
+and was about to relate quickly what had passed, when he stopped me,
+and said, though with much politeness, that he had no longer any
+interest in a mystery which none had ever solved.
+
+I determined at least to tell him of the two letters I had read, as
+well as of the extraordinary manner in which they had disappeared; and
+I then inquired if he thought they had been addressed to the woman who
+had died in the house, and if there were anything in her early history
+which could possibly confirm the dark suspicions to which the letters
+gave rise. Mr. J---- seemed startled, and, after musing a few moments,
+answered, "I am but little acquainted with the woman's earlier
+history, except as I before told you, that her family were known to
+mine. But you revive some vague reminiscences to her prejudice. I will
+make inquiries, and inform you of their result. Still, even if we
+could admit the popular superstition that a person who had been either
+the perpetrator or the victim of dark crimes in life could revisit, as
+a restless spirit, the scene in which those crimes had been committed,
+I should observe that the house was infested by strange sights and
+sounds before the old woman died--you smile--what would you say?"
+
+"I would say this, that I am convinced, if we could get to the bottom
+of these mysteries, we should find a living human agency."
+
+"What! you believe it is all an imposture? For what object?"
+
+"Not an imposture in the ordinary sense of the word. If suddenly I
+were to sink into a deep sleep, from which you could not awake me, but
+in that sleep could answer questions with an accuracy which I could
+not pretend to when awake,--tell you what money you had in your
+pocket, nay, describe your very thoughts,--it is not necessarily an
+imposture, any more than it is necessarily supernatural. I should be,
+unconsciously to myself, under a mesmeric influence, conveyed to me
+from a distance by a human being who had acquired power over me by
+previous _rapport_."
+
+"But if a mesmerizer could so affect another living being, can you
+suppose that a mesmerizer could also affect inanimate objects: move
+chairs,--open and shut doors?"
+
+"Or impress our senses with the belief in such effects,--we never
+having been _en rapport_ with the person acting on us? No. What is
+commonly called mesmerism could not do this; but there may be a power
+akin to mesmerism, and superior to it,--the power that in the old days
+was called Magic. That such a power may extend to all inanimate
+objects of matter, I do not say; but if so, it would not be against
+Nature,--it would be only a rare power in Nature which might be given
+to constitutions with certain peculiarities, and cultivated by
+practice to an extraordinary degree. That such a power might extend
+over the dead,--that is, over certain thoughts and memories that the
+dead may still retain,--and compel, not that which ought properly to
+be called the SOUL, and which is far beyond human reach, but rather a
+phantom of what has been most earth-stained on earth, to make itself
+apparent to our senses, is a very ancient though obsolete theory upon
+which I will hazard no opinion. But I do not conceive the power would
+be supernatural. Let me illustrate what I mean from an experiment
+which Paracelsus describes as not difficult, and which the author of
+the 'Curiosities of Literature' cites as credible: A flower perishes;
+you burn it. Whatever were the elements of that flower while it lived
+are gone, dispersed, you know not whither; you can never discover nor
+re-collect them. But you can, by chemistry, out of the burned dust of
+that flower, raise a spectrum of the flower, just as it seemed in
+life. It may be the same with the human being. The soul has as much
+escaped you as the essence or elements of the flower. Still you may
+make a spectrum of it. And this phantom, though in the popular
+superstition it is held to be the soul of the departed, must not be
+confounded with the true soul; it is but the eidolon of the dead form.
+Hence, like the best attested stories of ghosts or spirits, the thing
+that most strikes us is the absence of what we hold to be soul,--that
+is, of superior emancipated intelligence. These apparitions come for
+little or no object,--they seldom speak when they do come; if they
+speak, they utter no ideas above those of an ordinary person on earth.
+American spirit-seers have published volumes of communications, in
+prose and verse, which they assert to be given in the names of the
+most illustrious dead: Shakespeare, Bacon,--Heaven knows whom. Those
+communications, taking the best, are certainly not a whit of higher
+order than would be communications from living persons of fair talent
+and education; they are wondrously inferior to what Bacon,
+Shakespeare, and Plato said and wrote when on earth. Nor, what is more
+noticeable, do they ever contain an idea that was not on the earth
+before. Wonderful, therefore, as such phenomena may be (granting them
+to be truthful), I see much that philosophy may question, nothing that
+it is incumbent on philosophy to deny,--namely, nothing supernatural.
+They are but ideas conveyed somehow or other (we have not yet
+discovered the means) from one mortal brain to another. Whether, in so
+doing, tables walk of their own accord, or fiendlike shapes appear in
+a magic circle, or bodiless hands rise and remove material objects, or
+a Thing of Darkness, such as presented itself to me, freeze our
+blood,--still am I persuaded that these are but agencies conveyed, as
+by electric wires, to my own brain from the brain of another. In some
+constitutions there is a natural chemistry, and those constitutions
+may produce chemic wonders,--in others a natural fluid, call it
+electricity, and these may produce electric wonders. But the wonders
+differ from Normal Science in this,--they are alike objectless,
+purposeless, puerile, frivolous. They lead on to no grand results; and
+therefore the world does not heed, and true sages have not cultivated
+them. But sure I am, that of all I saw or heard, a man, human as
+myself, was the remote originator; and I believe unconsciously to
+himself as to the exact effects produced, for this reason: no two
+persons, you say, have ever told you that they experienced exactly the
+same thing. Well, observe, no two persons ever experience exactly the
+same dream. If this were an ordinary imposture, the machinery would be
+arranged for results that would but little vary; if it were a
+supernatural agency permitted by the Almighty, it would surely be for
+some definite end. These phenomena belong to neither class; my
+persuasion is, that they originate in some brain now far distant; that
+that brain had no distinct volition in anything that occurred; that
+what does occur reflects but its devious, motley, ever-shifting,
+half-formed thoughts; in short, that it has been but the dreams of
+such a brain put into action and invested with a semi-substance. That
+this brain is of immense power, that it can set matter into movement,
+that it is malignant and destructive, I believe; some material force
+must have killed my dog; the same force might, for aught I know, have
+sufficed to kill myself, had I been as subjugated by terror as the
+dog,--had my intellect or my spirit given me no countervailing
+resistance in my will."
+
+"It killed your dog,--that is fearful! Indeed it is strange that no
+animal can be induced to stay in that house; not even a cat. Bats and
+mice are never found in it."
+
+"The instincts of the brute creation detect influences deadly to their
+existence. Man's reason has a sense less subtle, because it has a
+resisting power more supreme. But enough; do you comprehend my
+theory?"
+
+"Yes, though imperfectly,--and I accept any crotchet (pardon the
+word), however odd, rather than embrace at once the notion of ghosts
+and hobgoblins we imbibed in our nurseries. Still, to my unfortunate
+house, the evil is the same. What on earth can I do with the house?"
+
+"I will tell you what I would do. I am convinced from my own internal
+feelings that the small, unfurnished room at right angles to the door
+of the bed-room which I occupied, forms a starting-point or receptacle
+for the influences which haunt the house; and I strongly advise you to
+have the walls opened, the floor removed,--nay, the whole room pulled
+down. I observe that it is detached from the body of the house, built
+over the small backyard, and could be removed without injury to the
+rest of the building."
+
+"And you think, if I did that--"
+
+"You would cut off the telegraph wires. Try it. I am so persuaded that
+I am right, that I will pay half the expense if you will allow me to
+direct the operations."
+
+"Nay, I am well able to afford the cost; for the rest allow me to
+write to you."
+
+About ten days after I received a letter from Mr. J----, telling me
+that he had visited the house since I had seen him; that he had found
+the two letters I had described, replaced in the drawer from which I
+had taken them; that he had read them with misgivings like my own;
+that he had instituted a cautious inquiry about the woman to whom I
+rightly conjectured they had been written. It seemed that thirty-six
+years ago (a year before the date of the letters) she had married,
+against the wish of her relations, an American of very suspicious
+character; in fact, he was generally believed to have been a pirate.
+She herself was the daughter of very respectable tradespeople, and had
+served in the capacity of a nursery governess before her marriage. She
+had a brother, a widower, who was considered wealthy, and who had one
+child of about six years old. A month after the marriage the body of
+this brother was found in the Thames, near London Bridge; there seemed
+some marks of violence about his throat, but they were not deemed
+sufficient to warrant the inquest in any other verdict than that of
+"found drowned."
+
+The American and his wife took charge of the little boy, the deceased
+brother having by his will left his sister the guardian of his only
+child,--and in event of the child's death the sister inherited. The
+child died about six months afterwards,--it was supposed to have been
+neglected and ill-treated. The neighbors deposed to have heard it
+shriek at night. The surgeon who had examined it after death said that
+it was emaciated as if from want of nourishment, and the body was
+covered with livid bruises. It seemed that one winter night the child
+had sought to escape; crept out into the backyard; tried to scale the
+wall; fallen back exhausted; and been found at morning on the stones
+in a dying state. But though there was some evidence of cruelty, there
+was none of murder; and the aunt and her husband had sought to
+palliate cruelty by alleging the exceeding stubbornness and perversity
+of the child, who was declared to be half-witted. Be that as it may,
+at the orphan's death the aunt inherited her brother's fortune. Before
+the first wedded year was out, the American quitted England abruptly,
+and never returned to it. He obtained a cruising vessel, which was
+lost in the Atlantic two years afterwards. The widow was left in
+affluence, but reverses of various kinds had befallen her: a bank
+broke; an investment failed; she went into a small business and became
+insolvent; then she entered into service, sinking lower and lower,
+from housekeeper down to maid-of-all-work,--never long retaining a
+place, though nothing decided against her character was ever alleged.
+She was considered sober, honest, and peculiarly quiet in her ways;
+still nothing prospered with her. And so she had dropped into the
+workhouse, from which Mr. J---- had taken her, to be placed in charge
+of the very house which she had rented as mistress in the first year
+of her wedded life.
+
+Mr. J---- added that he had passed an hour alone in the unfurnished
+room which I had urged him to destroy, and that his impressions of
+dread while there were so great, though he had neither heard nor seen
+anything, that he was eager to have the walls bared and the floors
+removed as I had suggested. He had engaged persons for the work, and
+would commence any day I would name.
+
+The day was accordingly fixed. I repaired to the haunted house,--we
+went into the blind, dreary room, took up the skirting, and then the
+floors. Under the rafters, covered with rubbish, was found a
+trap-door, quite large enough to admit a man. It was closely nailed
+down, with clamps and rivets of iron. On removing these we descended
+into a room below, the existence of which had never been suspected. In
+this room there had been a window and a flue, but they had been
+bricked over, evidently for many years. By the help of candles we
+examined this place; it still retained some mouldering
+furniture,--three chairs, an oak settle, a table,--all of the fashion
+of about eighty years ago. There was a chest of drawers against the
+wall, in which we found, half-rotted away, old-fashioned articles of a
+man's dress, such as might have been worn eighty or a hundred years
+ago by a gentleman of some rank; costly steel buckles and buttons,
+like those yet worn in court-dresses, a handsome court sword; in a
+waistcoat which had once been rich with gold-lace, but which was now
+blackened and foul with damp, we found five guineas, a few silver
+coins, and an ivory ticket, probably for some place of entertainment
+long since passed away. But our main discovery was in a kind of iron
+safe fixed to the wall, the lock of which it cost us much trouble to
+get picked.
+
+In this safe were three shelves and two small drawers. Ranged on the
+shelves were several small bottles of crystal, hermetically stopped.
+They contained colorless, volatile essences, of the nature of which I
+shall only say that they were not poisons,--phosphor and ammonia
+entered into some of them. There were also some very curious glass
+tubes, and a small pointed rod of iron, with a large lump of
+rock-crystal, and another of amber,--also a loadstone of great power.
+
+In one of the drawers we found a miniature portrait set in gold, and
+retaining the freshness of its colors most remarkably, considering the
+length of time it had probably been there. The portrait was that of a
+man who might be somewhat advanced in middle life, perhaps forty-seven
+or forty-eight. It was a remarkable face,--a most impressive face. If
+you could fancy some mighty serpent transformed into man, preserving
+in the human lineaments the old serpent type, you would have a better
+idea of that countenance than long descriptions can convey: the width
+and flatness of frontal; the tapering elegance of contour disguising
+the strength of the deadly jaw; the long, large, terrible eye,
+glittering and green as the emerald,--and withal a certain ruthless
+calm, as if from the consciousness of an immense power.
+
+Mechanically I turned round the miniature to examine the back of it,
+and on the back was engraved a pentacle; in the middle of the pentacle
+a ladder, and the third step of the ladder was formed by the date
+1765. Examining still more minutely, I detected a spring; this, on
+being pressed, opened the back of the miniature as a lid. Within-side
+the lid were engraved, "Marianna to thee. Be faithful in life and in
+death to ----." Here follows a name that I will not mention, but it
+was not unfamiliar to me. I had heard it spoken of by old men in my
+childhood as the name borne by a dazzling charlatan who had made a
+great sensation in London for a year or so, and had fled the country
+on the charge of a double murder within his own house,--that of his
+mistress and his rival. I said nothing of this to Mr. J----, to whom
+reluctantly I resigned the miniature.
+
+We had found no difficulty in opening the first drawer within the iron
+safe; we found great difficulty in opening the second: it was not
+locked, but it resisted all efforts, till we inserted in the chinks
+the edge of a chisel. When we had thus drawn it forth, we found a very
+singular apparatus in the nicest order. Upon a small, thin book, or
+rather tablet, was placed a saucer of crystal; this saucer was filled
+with a clear liquid,--on that liquid floated a kind of compass, with a
+needle shifting rapidly round; but instead of the usual points of a
+compass were seven strange characters, not very unlike those used by
+astrologers to denote the planets. A peculiar but not strong nor
+displeasing odor came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood
+that we afterwards discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this
+odor, it produced a material effect on the nerves. We all felt it,
+even the two workmen who were in the room,--a creeping, tingling
+sensation from the tips of the fingers to the roots of the hair.
+Impatient to examine the tablet, I removed the saucer. As I did so the
+needle of the compass went round and round with exceeding swiftness,
+and I felt a shock that ran through my whole frame, so that I dropped
+the saucer on the floor. The liquid was spilled; the saucer was
+broken; the compass rolled to the end of the room, and at that instant
+the walls shook to and fro, as if a giant had swayed and rocked them.
+
+The two workmen were so frightened that they ran up the ladder by
+which we had descended from the trapdoor; but seeing that nothing more
+happened, they were easily induced to return.
+
+Meanwhile I had opened the tablet: it was bound in plain red leather,
+with a silver clasp; it contained but one sheet of thick vellum, and
+on that sheet were inscribed, within a double pentacle, words in old
+monkish Latin, which are literally to be translated thus: "On all that
+it can reach within these walls, sentient or inanimate, living or
+dead, as moves the needle, so work my will! Accursed be the house, and
+restless be the dwellers therein."
+
+We found no more. Mr. J---- burned the tablet and its anathema. He
+razed to the foundations the part of the building containing the
+secret room with the chamber over it. He had then the courage to
+inhabit the house himself for a month, and a quieter,
+better-conditioned house could not be found in all London.
+Subsequently he let it to advantage, and his tenant has made no
+complaints.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Haunted and the Haunters, by Edward Bulwer Lytton
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14195 ***