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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Haunters & The Haunted, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Haunters & The Haunted
+       Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Ernest Rhys
+
+Release Date: March 9, 2006 [EBook #17953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTERS & THE HAUNTED ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HAUNTERS & THE HAUNTED
+
+GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL
+
+
+EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
+
+BY ERNEST RHYS
+
+PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY
+DANIEL O'CONNOR, 90 GREAT
+RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1. 1921
+
+     For permission to use copyright stories in this volume, the
+     editor and publishers wish to make special acknowledgments to
+     Messrs Allen & Unwin, Mr Arnold Bennett, Mr E.H. Blakeney, Sir
+     George Douglas, Bart., Dr Greville MacDonald, Mr Arthur Machen,
+     and Mr Thomas Hardy.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+ 1. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER                                 17
+
+ 2. THE OLD NURSE'S STORY                                          40
+
+ 3. THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY                                  54
+
+ 4. A STORY OF RAVENNA                                             58
+
+ 5. TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE                                     67
+
+ 6. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN       83
+
+ 7. THE BOTATHEN GHOST                                            128
+
+ 8. THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX                                  138
+
+ 9. DR DUTHOIT'S VISION                                           143
+
+10. THE SEVEN LIGHTS                                              147
+
+11. THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON                               160
+
+12. DRAKE'S DRUM                                                  169
+
+13. THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM                                        171
+
+14. THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD                                     179
+
+15. THE LIANHAN SHEE                                              181
+
+16. THE HAUNTED COVE                                              216
+
+17. WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE                                       225
+
+
+II. GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE, AND LEGEND
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+18. GLAMIS CASTLE                                                 249
+
+19. POWYS CASTLE                                                  253
+
+20. CROGLIN GRANGE                                                259
+
+21. THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM                                   264
+
+22. THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES                            268
+
+23. THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE                               270
+
+24. CLERK SAUNDERS                                                274
+
+25. DOROTHY DURANT                                                280
+
+26. PEARLIN JEAN                                                  284
+
+27. THE DENTON HALL GHOST                                         287
+
+28. THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY                                      293
+
+29. CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT                                            300
+
+30. THE IRON CAGE                                                 303
+
+31. THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE                                        310
+
+32. THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY                                      317
+
+33. THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL                                 320
+
+34. THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET                                    326
+
+35. THE ALTHEIM REVENANT                                          329
+
+36. SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND                                        331
+
+37. ERICHTHO                                                      334
+
+
+III. OMENS AND PHANTASMS
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+38. PATROKLOS                                                    343
+
+39. VISION OF CROMWELL                                           345
+
+40. LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING                                     346
+
+41. KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE                                          348
+
+42. THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN                          350
+
+43. BEN JONSON'S PREVISION                                       359
+
+44. QUEEN ULRICA                                                 360
+
+45. DENIS MISANGER                                               362
+
+46. THE PIED PIPER                                               365
+
+47. JEANNE D'ARC                                                 367
+
+48. ANNE WALKER                                                  368
+
+49. THE HAND OF GLORY                                            371
+
+50. THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP                                          375
+
+51. THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS                                378
+
+52. THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND                                 379
+
+53. BENDITH EU MAMMAU                                            382
+
+54. THE RED BOOK OF APPIN                                        385
+
+55. THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE                                          387
+
+56. SARAH POLGRAIN                                               390
+
+57. ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER                        393
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In this Ghost Book, M. Larigot, himself a writer of supernatural tales,
+has collected a remarkable batch of documents, fictive or real,
+describing the one human experience that is hardest to make good.
+Perhaps the very difficulty of it has rendered it more tempting to the
+writers who have dealt with the subject. His collection, notably varied
+and artfully chosen as it is, yet by no means exhausts the literature,
+which fills a place apart with its own recognised classics, magic
+masters, and dealers in the occult. Their testimony serves to show that
+the forms by which men and women are haunted are far more diverse and
+subtle than we knew. So much so, that one begins to wonder at last if
+every person is not liable to be "possessed." For, lurking under the
+seeming identity of these visitations, the dramatic differences of their
+entrances and appearances, night and day, are so marked as to suggest
+that the experience is, given the fit temperament and occasion,
+inevitable.
+
+One would even be disposed, accepting this idea, to bring into the
+account, as valid, stories and pieces of literature not usually
+accounted part of the ghostly canon. There are the novels and tales
+whose argument is the tragedy of a haunted mind. Such are Dickens'
+_Haunted Man_, in which the ghost is memory; Hawthorne's _Scarlet
+Letter_, in which the ghost is cruel conscience; and Balzac's _Quest of
+the Absolute_, in which the old Flemish house of Balthasar Claes, in the
+Rue de Paris at Douai, is haunted by a dæmon more potent than that of
+Canidia. One might add some of Balzac's shorter stories, among them
+"The Elixir"; and some of Hawthorne's _Twice-Told Tales_, including
+"Edward Randolph's Portrait." On the French side we might note too that
+terrible graveyard tale of Guy de Maupassant, _La Morte_, in which the
+lover who has lost his beloved keeps vigil at her grave by night in his
+despair, and sees--dreadful resurrection--"que toutes les tombes étaient
+ouvertes, et tous les cadavres en étaient sortis." And why? That they
+might efface the lying legends inscribed on their tombs, and replace
+them with the actual truth. Villiers de l'Isle Adam has in his _Contes
+Cruels_ given us the strange story of Véra, which may be read as a
+companion study to _La Morte_, with another recall from the dead to end
+a lover's obsession. Nature and supernature cross in de l'Isle Adam's
+mystical drama _Axël_ a play which will never hold the stage, masterly
+attempt as it is to dramatise the inexplainable mystery.
+
+Among later tales ought to be reckoned Edith Wharton's _Tales of Men and
+Ghosts_, and Henry James's _The Two Magics_, whose "Turn of the Screw"
+gives us new instances of the evil genii that haunt mortals, in this
+case two innocent children. One remembers sundry folk-tales with the
+same motive--of children bewitched or forespoken--inspiring them. And an
+old charm in Orkney which used to run:
+
+    "Father, Son, Holy Ghost!
+    Bitten sall they be,
+    Bairn, wha have bitten thee!
+    Care to their black vein,
+    Till thou hast thy health again!
+    Mend thou in God's name!"
+
+John Aubrey in his _Miscellanies_ has many naïve evidences of the
+twilight region of consciousness, like that between wake and sleep,
+which tends to fade when we are wideawake; so much so, that we call it
+visionary. Yet it is very real to the haunted folk, to Aubrey's
+correspondent, the Rector of Chedzoy, or to the false love of the Demon
+Lover, or that Mr Bourne of whom Glanvil tells in _The Iron Chest of
+Durley_, or the Bishop Evodius who was St Augustine's friend, or for
+that matter the son of Monica himself. The reality of these visitations
+may seem dim, but the most sceptical of us cannot doubt that, whether
+from some quickened fear of death or impending disaster, from evil
+conscience or swift intensification of vision; whether in the forms of
+beloved sons lost at sea or of other revenants who were held
+indispensably dear in life, the haunters have appeared, to the absolute
+belief of those who saw them or their simulacra.
+
+"It poseth me," said Richard Baxter, "to think of what kind these
+visitants are. Do good spirits dwell then so near us, or are they sent
+on such messages?" The question, indeed, poseth most of us, but we
+cannot leave the inquiry alone. M. Larigot, realising this
+preoccupation, has in the course of his investigations, during many
+years, arrived at the conclusion that there is an Art of the
+Supernatural, apart from the difficult science of psychical research,
+worth cultivating for its own sake. So he has gone to Glanvil and Arise
+Evans and the credulous old books--to Edgar Poe and Lord Lytton and the
+modern writers who tell supernatural tales. He gives us their material
+without positing its unquestionable effect as police-court evidence, and
+if we recognise its artistic interest, he does not mind much if we say
+at last with one great visionary, "Hoc est illusionum." But into those
+realms of illusion we ought not, if he is right, to enter lightly. Those
+who do enter there are warned that, having done so, they will not remain
+the same; they become aware of what Eugenius meant, who said:
+
+    "I am unbody'd by thy Books, and Thee,
+    And in thy papers find my Extasie;
+    Or if I please but to descend a strain,
+    Thy Elements do screen my Soul again.
+
+    I can undress myself by thy bright Glass,
+    And then resume th' Inclosure, as I was.
+    Now I am Earth, and now a Star, and then
+    A Spirit: now a Star, and earth again ..."
+
+We see that there is another aspect to the occultation of Orion, and a
+very ominous one. Aurelius appeared to St. Augustine and made clear a
+dark passage to him in his reading, and that great Divine and Father of
+the Church knew it to be an enlightenment from above. But what of the
+other visitants from regions that are unblessed? Paracelsus has taught
+us to be careful in our dealings with the realities and the phantasies,
+as he would conceive them, of the other world; for "under the Earth do
+wander half-men." And there are other and worse manifestations due to
+Black Magic or Nigromancy, and to the black witches and white and the
+false sorcerers who have violently intruded into the true mystery--"like
+swine broken into a delicate Garden." Against these subtle and powerful
+magicians no weapons, coats of mail, or brigandines will help, no
+shutting of doors or locks; for they penetrate through all things, and
+all things are open to them.
+
+Writing as a physician, Paracelsus sought to anticipate by his
+_Celestial Medicine_ and his _Twelve Signs_ the whole mystery of
+healing, and the cure of the troubled souls and bodies of men and women,
+which are not accorded but at odds with nature and supernature. The
+spirits of discord are indeed always with us; and whether you see them
+as witches, disguised in the living human form, or as monstrous and
+terrifying dream-figures, or as floating impalpable atmospheres, they
+are vigilantly to be guarded against. We know
+
+    "Vervain and dill
+    Hinders witches from their will!"
+
+in the old herbals; but we need new drugs. As for that witch which hath
+haunted all of us, "Maladicta," Lilly in his _Astrology_ has a remedy.
+"Take unguentum populeum, and Vervain and Hypericon, and put a red-hot
+iron into it: You must anoint the back-bone, or wear it in your breast."
+
+The haunting apparitions are not all of earth. Cornelius Agrippa, in his
+book of the Secret Doctrine, shows that they are astral too. The
+familiar spirits of Mars, in his account, are no lovelier than Macbeth's
+witches:--"They appear in a tall body, cholerick, a filthy countenance,
+of colour brown, swarthy or red, having horns, like Harts' Horns, and
+gryphon's claws, and bellowing like wild Bulls."
+
+But the spirits of Mercury are delightful. They indeed are "of colour
+clear and bright, like unto a knight armed,--and the motion of them is
+as it were silver-coloured clouds." So, if Mars has troubled the world,
+as in the unhappy history of our own time, we must hope for the brighter
+forms, and the remedial and aerial messengers of Mercury.
+
+We may seem to have strayed from the proper boundaries in going so far.
+But it is one of the offices of this book to widen the area of research,
+and relate the ghost-story anew to the whole literature of wonder and
+imagination. Such sagas as that which Dr Douglas Hyde has translated
+with consummate art from the Irish, "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse," which
+Mr W.B. Yeats called a little masterpiece; or Boccaccio's story of the
+spectre-hounds that pulled down the daughter of Anastasio, or Scott's
+"Wandering Willie's Tale," or Hawker's "Cruel Coppinger," or Edgar Poe's
+"Fall of the House of Usher," are of their kind not to be beaten. And in
+their own way some of the later records are as telling. One can take the
+book as a text-book of the supernatural, or as a story-book of that
+middle world which has given us the ghosts that Homer and Shakespeare
+conjured up.
+
+    ERNEST RHYS.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
+
+By EDGAR ALLAN POE
+
+    Son coeur est un luth suspendu;
+    Sitôt qu'on le touche il résonne.
+
+    DE BERANGER.
+
+
+During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the
+year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been
+passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of
+country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew
+on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it
+was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of
+insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the
+feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic,
+sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural
+images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before
+me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the
+domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant eye-like windows--upon a
+few rank sedges--and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees--with an
+utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation
+more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the
+bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil.
+There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed
+dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture
+into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to think--what was it
+that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was
+a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies
+that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the
+unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there _are_
+combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus
+affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations
+beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different
+arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the
+picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its
+capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined
+my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in
+unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder
+even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images
+of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and
+eye-like windows.
+
+Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a
+sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of
+my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last
+meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of
+the country--a letter from him--which, in its wildly importunate nature,
+had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of
+nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness--of a mental
+disorder which oppressed him--and of an earnest desire to see me, as his
+best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by
+the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was
+the manner in which all this, and much more, was said--it was the
+apparent _heart_ that went with his request--which allowed me no room
+for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still
+considered a very singular summons.
+
+Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really
+knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and
+habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been
+noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament,
+displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and
+manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive
+charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps
+even more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, of
+musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the
+stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put forth, at
+no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family
+lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling
+and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I
+considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the
+character of the premises with the accredited character of the people,
+and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the
+long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other--it was
+this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent
+undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with the
+name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the
+original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of
+the "House of Usher"--an appellation which seemed to include, in the
+minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family
+mansion.
+
+I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish
+experiment--that of looking down within the tarn--had been to deepen the
+first singular impression. There can be no doubt that the consciousness
+of the rapid increase of my superstition--for why should I not so term
+it?--served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long
+known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a
+basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I again
+uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there
+grew in my mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I
+but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed
+me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about
+the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to
+themselves and their immediate vicinity--an atmosphere which had no
+affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the
+decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn--a pestilent and
+mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.
+
+Shaking off from my spirit what _must_ have been a dream, I scanned more
+narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed
+to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been
+great. Minute _fungi_ overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine
+tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any
+extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and
+there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect
+adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual
+stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality
+of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault,
+with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyond this
+indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of
+instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinising observer might have
+discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof
+of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag
+direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.
+
+Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. A
+servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway of
+the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence,
+through many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the _studio_
+of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I know
+not how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already
+spoken. While the objects around me--while the carvings of the ceilings,
+the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors,
+and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were
+but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my
+infancy--while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all
+this--I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which
+ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the
+physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled
+expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with
+trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and ushered
+me into the presence of his master.
+
+The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows
+were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black
+oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams
+of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and
+served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects
+around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles
+of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark
+draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse,
+comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments
+lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I
+felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and
+irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.
+
+Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying at
+full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which had much in
+it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality--of the constrained
+effort of the _ennuyé_ man of the world. A glance, however, at his
+countenance, convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for
+some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half
+of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered,
+in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with difficulty that
+I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me
+with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face
+had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye
+large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and
+very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate
+Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril, unusual in similar
+formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence,
+of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and
+tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions
+of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be
+forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character
+of these features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay
+so much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor
+of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things
+startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to
+grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated
+rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect
+its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.
+
+In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence--an
+inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble
+and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy--an excessive
+nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeed been
+prepared, no less by his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish
+traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical
+conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and
+sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the
+animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic
+concision--that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding
+enunciation--that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural
+utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the
+irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense
+excitement.
+
+It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnest
+desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. He
+entered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of his
+malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for
+which he despaired to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he
+immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass on. It displayed
+itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed
+them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms, and
+the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered much
+from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone
+endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odours of
+all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint
+light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed
+instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.
+
+To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I shall
+perish," said he, "I _must_ perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus,
+and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future,
+not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of
+any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this
+intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger,
+except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved--in this
+pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive
+when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the
+grim phantasm, FEAR."
+
+I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal
+hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was
+enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling
+which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured
+forth--in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed
+in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated--an influence which some
+peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had,
+by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit--an effect
+which the _physique_ of the grey walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn
+into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the
+_morale_ of his existence.
+
+He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the
+peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more
+natural and far more palpable origin--to the severe and long-continued
+illness--indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution--of a tenderly
+beloved sister--his sole companion for long years--his last and only
+relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can
+never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last
+of the ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, the Lady Madeline
+(for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the
+apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I
+regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread--and
+yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of
+stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a
+door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and
+eagerly the countenance of the brother--but he had buried his face in
+his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary
+wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many
+passionate tears.
+
+The disease of the Lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her
+physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and
+frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical
+character, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borne
+up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself
+finally to bed; but, on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at
+the house, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with
+inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and
+I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus
+probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at least while
+living, would be seen by me no more.
+
+For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or
+myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavours to
+alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together; or
+I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking
+guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more
+unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I
+perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which
+darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all
+objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation
+of gloom.
+
+I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus
+spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail in
+any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or
+of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the way. An
+excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over
+all. His long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among
+other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and
+amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the
+paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded and which grew, touch
+by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more thrillingly,
+because I shuddered knowing not why;--from these paintings (vivid as
+their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more
+than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely
+written words. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs,
+he arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that
+mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least--in the circumstances then
+surrounding me--there arose out of the pure abstractions which the
+hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of
+intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation
+of the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of Fuseli.
+
+One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so
+rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although
+feebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an immensely
+long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and
+without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design
+served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding
+depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any
+portion of its vast extent, and no torch, or other artificial source of
+light, was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout,
+and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate splendour.
+
+I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which
+rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of
+certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow
+limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave
+birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances.
+But the fervid _facility_ of his _impromptus_ could not be so accounted
+for. They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the
+words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself
+with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental
+collectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded as
+observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial
+excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily
+remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it, as he
+gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I
+fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness
+on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her
+throne. The verses, which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very
+nearly, if not accurately, thus:
+
+    I
+
+    In the greenest of our valleys,
+      By good angels tenanted
+    Once a fair and stately palace--
+      Radiant palace--reared its head.
+    In the monarch Thought's dominion--
+      It stood there!
+    Never seraph spread a pinion
+      Over fabric half so fair.
+
+    II
+
+    Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
+      On its roof did float and flow;
+    (This--all this--was in the olden
+      Time long ago)
+    And every gentle air that dallied,
+      In that sweet day,
+    Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
+      A winged odour went away.
+
+    III
+
+    Wanderers in that happy valley
+      Through two luminous windows saw
+    Spirits moving musically
+      To a lute's well tunèd law,
+    Round about a throne, where sitting
+      (Porphyrogene!)
+    In state his glory well befitting,
+      The ruler of the realm was seen.
+
+    IV
+
+    And all with pearl and ruby glowing
+      Was the fair palace door,
+    Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
+      And sparkling evermore,
+    A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
+      Was but to sing,
+    In voices of surpassing beauty,
+      The wit and wisdom of their king.
+
+    V
+
+    But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
+      Assailed the monarch's high estate;
+    (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
+      Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
+    And, round about his home, the glory
+      That blushed and bloomed
+    Is but a dim-remembered story
+      Of the old time entombed.
+
+    VI
+
+    And travellers now within that valley,
+      Through the red-litten windows, see
+    Vast forms that move fantastically
+      To a discordant melody;
+    While, like a rapid ghastly river,
+      Through the pale door,
+    A hideous throng rush out forever,
+      And laugh--but smile no more.
+
+I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led us into a
+train of thought wherein there became manifest an opinion of Usher's
+which I mention not so much on account of its novelty (for other men[1]
+have thought thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he
+maintained it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the
+sentience of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the
+idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under certain
+conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganisation. I lack words to express
+the full extent, or the earnest _abandon_ of his persuasion. The belief,
+however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with the grey
+stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions of the sentience
+had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of
+these stones--in the order of their arrangement, as well as in that of
+the many _fungi_ which overspread them, and of the decayed trees which
+stood around--above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this
+arrangement, and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn.
+Its evidence--the evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said
+(and I here started as he spoke), in the gradual yet certain
+condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the
+walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet
+importunate and terrible influence which for centuries had moulded the
+destinies of his family, and which made _him_ what I now saw him--what
+he was. Such opinions need no comment, and I will make none.
+
+Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of
+the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be supposed, in
+strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over
+such works as the _Ververt et Chartreuse_ of Gresset; the _Belphegor_
+of Machiavelli; the _Heaven and Hell_ of Swedenborg; the _Subterranean
+Voyage of Nicholas Klimm_ by Holberg; the _Chiromancy_ of Robert Flud,
+of Jean D'Indaginé, and of De la Chambre; the _Journey into the Blue
+Distance_ of Tieck; and the _City of the Sun_ of Campanella. One
+favourite volume was a small octavo edition of the _Directorium
+Inquisitorum_, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were
+passages in _Pomponius Mela_, about the old African Satyrs and Ægipans,
+over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight,
+however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious
+book in quarto Gothic--the manual of a forgotten church--the _Vigiliæ
+Mortuorum Chorum Ecclesiæ Maguntinæ_.
+
+I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its
+probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one evening, having
+informed me abruptly that the Lady Madeline was no more, he stated his
+intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight (previously to its
+final interment), in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of
+the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular
+proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The
+brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration
+of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of certain
+obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men, and of the
+remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of the family. I will
+not deny that when I called to mind the sinister countenance of the
+person whom I met upon the staircase, on the day of my arrival at the
+house, I had no desire to oppose what I regarded as at best but a
+harmless, and by no means an unnatural, precaution.
+
+At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangements for
+the temporary entombment. The body having been encoffined, we two alone
+bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which had
+been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in its oppressive
+atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation) was small,
+damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great
+depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which was my
+own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in remote feudal
+times, for the worst purpose of a donjon-keep, and, in later days, as a
+place of deposit for powder, or some other highly combustible substance,
+as a portion of its floor, and the whole interior of a long archway
+through which we reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The
+door, of massive iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense
+weight caused an unusually sharp grating sound as it moved upon its
+hinges.
+
+Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of
+horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin,
+and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between
+the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher,
+divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I
+learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that
+sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between
+them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead--for we could
+not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady in
+the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly
+cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and
+the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so
+terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having
+secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely
+less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.
+
+And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change
+came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend. His
+ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or
+forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and
+objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible,
+a more ghastly hue--but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone
+out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a
+tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterised his
+utterance. There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly
+agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive secret, to divulge
+which he struggled for the necessary courage. At times, again, I was
+obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness,
+for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of
+the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. It
+was no wonder that his condition terrified--that it infected me. I felt
+creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of
+his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions.
+
+It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the
+seventh or eighth day after the placing of the Lady Madeline within the
+donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep came
+not near my couch--while the hours waned and waned away. I struggled to
+reason off the nervousness which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to
+believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering
+influence of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the dark and tattered
+draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising
+tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily
+about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless. An
+irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length, there
+sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm. Shaking
+this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows,
+and, peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber,
+hearkened--I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted
+me--to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses
+of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered by an
+intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on
+my clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep no more during the
+night), and endeavoured to arouse myself from the pitiable condition
+into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the
+apartment.
+
+I had taken but a few turns in this manner, when a light step on an
+adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently recognised it as
+that of Usher. In an instant afterward he rapped, with a gentle touch,
+at my door, and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, as usual,
+cadaverously wan--but, moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in
+his eyes--an evidently restrained _hysteria_ in his whole demeanour. His
+air appalled me--but anything was preferable to the solitude which I had
+so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief.
+
+"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having stared about
+him for some moments in silence--"you have not then seen it?--but, stay!
+you shall." Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his lamp, he
+hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open to the storm.
+
+The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet.
+It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one
+wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently
+collected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violent
+alterations in the direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of
+the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house)
+did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they
+flew careering from all points against each other, without passing away
+into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density did not
+prevent our perceiving this--yet we had no glimpse of the moon or
+stars--nor was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the under
+surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapour, as well as all
+terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural
+light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation
+which hung about and enshrouded the mansion.
+
+"You must not--you shall not behold this!" said I, shudderingly, to
+Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat.
+"These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena
+not uncommon--or it may be that they have their ghastly origin in the
+rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement;--the air is
+chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite
+romances. I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will pass away
+this terrible night together."
+
+The antique volume which I had taken up was the _Mad Trist_ of Sir
+Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite of Usher's more in
+sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth
+and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty
+and spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book
+immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the excitement
+which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history
+of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness
+of the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the
+wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently
+hearkened, to the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated
+myself upon the success of my design.
+
+I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where Ethelred,
+the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for peaceable admission
+into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make good an entrance by
+force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the narrative run thus:
+
+"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now
+mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine which he had
+drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in sooth,
+was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but, feeling the rain upon his
+shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace
+outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the
+door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so
+cracked and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and
+hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the forest."
+
+At the termination of this sentence I started, and, for a moment,
+paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my
+excited fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to me that, from some very
+remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears,
+what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo
+(but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping
+sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond
+doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid
+the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary commingled
+noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in itself, had nothing,
+surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. I continued the
+story:
+
+"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the door, was sore
+enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the maliceful hermit; but,
+in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious demeanour, and
+of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace of gold, with a
+floor of silver; and upon the wall there hung a shield of shining brass
+with this legend enwritten--
+
+    Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;
+    Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;
+
+and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon,
+which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so
+horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred had fain to
+close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, the like
+whereof was never before heard."
+
+Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild
+amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance,
+I did actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found
+it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh,
+protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating sound--the exact
+counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's
+unnatural shriek as described by the romancer.
+
+Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the second and
+most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in
+which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained
+sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the
+sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that he
+had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange
+alteration had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his
+demeanour. From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought
+round his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber;
+and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I saw
+that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His head had
+dropped upon his breast--yet I knew that he was not asleep, from the
+wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a glance of it in profile.
+The motion of his body, too, was at variance with this idea--for he
+rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway.
+Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir
+Launcelot, which thus proceeded:
+
+"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of the
+dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the breaking up
+of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out of
+the way before him, and approached valorously over the silver pavement
+of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth
+tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the
+silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound."
+
+No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a shield of
+brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of
+silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous,
+yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped to
+my feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I
+rushed to the chair on which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before
+him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony
+rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a
+strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his
+lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur,
+as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I at length
+drank in the hideous import of his words.
+
+"Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and _have_ heard it.
+Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard
+it--yet I dared not---oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I dared
+not--I _dared_ not speak! _We have put her living in the tomb!_ Said I
+not that my senses were acute? I _now_ tell you that I heard her first
+feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them--many,
+many days ago--yet I dared not--_I dared not speak!_ And
+now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking of the hermit's door,
+and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!--say,
+rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of
+her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault!
+Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying
+to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair?
+Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
+MADMAN!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out
+his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his
+soul--"MADMAN! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE
+DOOR!"
+
+As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the
+potency of a spell--the huge antique panels to which the speaker
+pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony
+jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust--but then without those doors
+there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the Lady
+Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the
+evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated
+frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon
+the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon
+the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final
+death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the
+terrors he had anticipated.
+
+From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was
+still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old
+causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned
+to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house
+and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full,
+setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once
+barely discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending
+from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base.
+While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened--there came a fierce breath
+of the whirlwind--the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my
+sight--my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder--there
+was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand
+waters--and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and
+silently over the fragments of the "HOUSE OF USHER."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop
+of Landaff.]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE OLD NURSE'S STORY
+
+From "The Portent"
+
+By GEORGE MACDONALD
+
+
+I set out one evening for the cottage of my old nurse, to bid her
+good-bye for many months, probably years. I was to leave the next day
+for Edinburgh, on my way to London, whence I had to repair by coach to
+my new abode--almost to me like the land beyond the grave, so little did
+I know about it, and so wide was the separation between it and my home.
+The evening was sultry when I began my walk, and before I arrived at its
+end, the clouds rising from all quarters of the horizon, and especially
+gathering around the peaks of the mountain, betokened the near approach
+of a thunderstorm. This was a great delight to me. Gladly would I take
+leave of my home with the memory of a last night of tumultuous
+magnificence; followed, probably, by a day of weeping rain, well suited
+to the mood of my own heart in bidding farewell to the best of parents
+and the dearest of homes. Besides, in common with most Scotchmen who are
+young and hardy enough to be unable to realise the existence of coughs
+and rheumatic fevers, it was a positive pleasure to me to be out in
+rain, hail, or snow.
+
+"I am come to bid you good-bye, Margaret, and to hear the story which
+you promised to tell me before I left home: I go to-morrow."
+
+"Do you go so soon, my darling? Well, it will be an awful night to tell
+it in; but, as I promised, I suppose I must."
+
+At the moment, two or three great drops of rain, the first of the
+storm, fell down the wide chimney, exploding in the clear turf-fire.
+
+"Yes, indeed you must," I replied.
+
+After a short pause, she commenced. Of course she spoke in Gaelic; and I
+translate from my recollection of the Gaelic; but rather from the
+impression left upon my mind, than from any recollection of words. She
+drew her chair near the fire, which we had reason to fear would soon be
+put out by the falling rain, and began.
+
+"How old the story is, I do not know. It has come down through many
+generations. My grandmother told it to me as I tell it to you; and her
+mother and my mother sat beside, never interrupting, but nodding their
+heads at every turn. Almost it ought to begin like the fairy tales,
+_Once upon a time_,--it took place so long ago; but it is too dreadful
+and too true to tell like a fairy tale.--There were two brothers, sons
+of the chief of our clan, but as different in appearance and disposition
+as two men could be. The elder was fair-haired and strong, much given to
+hunting and fishing; fighting too, upon occasion, I daresay, when they
+made a foray upon the Saxon, to get back a mouthful of their own. But he
+was gentleness itself to everyone about him, and the very soul of honour
+in all his doings. The younger was very dark in complexion, and tall and
+slender compared to his brother. He was very fond of book-learning,
+which, they say, was an uncommon taste in those times. He did not care
+for any sports or bodily exercises but one; and that, too, was unusual
+in these parts. It was horsemanship. He was a fierce rider, and as much
+at home in the saddle as in his study-chair. You may think that, so long
+ago, there was not much fit room for riding hereabouts; but, fit or not
+fit, he rode. From his reading and riding, the neighbours looked
+doubtfully upon him, and whispered about the black art. He usually
+bestrode a great powerful black horse, without a white hair on him; and
+people said it was either the devil himself, or a demon-horse from the
+devil's own stud. What favoured this notion was that in or out of the
+stable, the brute would let no other than his master go near him.
+Indeed, no one would venture, after he had killed two men, and
+grievously maimed a third, tearing him with his teeth and hoofs like a
+wild beast. But to his master he was obedient as a hound, and would even
+tremble in his presence sometimes.
+
+"The youth's temper corresponded to his habits. He was both gloomy and
+passionate. Prone to anger, he had never been known to forgive. Debarred
+from anything on which he had set his heart, he would have gone mad with
+longing if he had not gone mad with rage. His soul was like the night
+around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red
+levin of wrath, and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion. He must
+have his will: hell might have his soul. Imagine, then, the rage and
+malice in his heart, when he suddenly became aware that an orphan girl,
+distantly related to them, who had lived with them for nearly two years,
+and whom he had loved for almost all that period, was loved by his elder
+brother, and loved him in return. He flung his right hand above his
+head, and swore a terrible oath that if he might not, his brother should
+not, rushed out of the house, and galloped off among the hills.
+
+"The orphan was a beautiful girl, tall, pale, and slender, with
+plentiful dark hair, which, when released from the snood, rippled down
+below her knees. Her appearance formed a strong contrast with that of
+her favoured lover, while there was some resemblance between her and the
+younger brother. This fact seemed, to his fierce selfishness, ground for
+a prior claim.
+
+"It may appear strange that a man like him should not have had instant
+recourse to his superior and hidden knowledge, by means of which he
+might have got rid of his rival with far more of certainty and less of
+risk; but I presume that, for the moment, his passion overwhelmed his
+consciousness of skill. Yet I do not suppose that he foresaw the mode in
+which his hatred was about to operate. At the moment when he learned
+their mutual attachment, probably through a domestic, the lady was on
+her way to meet her lover as he returned from the day's sport. The
+appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose
+dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent. You know the
+place, Duncan, my dear, I daresay."
+
+(Here she gave me a minute description of the spot, with directions how
+to find it.)
+
+"Whether any one saw what I am about to relate, or whether it was put
+together afterwards, I cannot tell. The story is like an old tree--so
+old that it has lost the marks of its growth. But this is how my
+grandmother told it to me. An evil chance led him in the right
+direction. The lovers, startled by the sound of the approaching horse,
+parted in opposite directions along a narrow mountain-path on the edge
+of the ravine. Into this path he struck at a point near where the lovers
+had met, but to opposite sides of which they had now receded; so that he
+was between them on the path. Turning his horse up the course of the
+stream, he soon came in sight of his brother on the ledge before him.
+With a suppressed scream of rage, he rode headlong at him, and, ere he
+had time to make the least defence, hurled him over the precipice. The
+helplessness of the strong man was uttered in one single despairing cry
+as he shot into the abyss. Then all was still. The sound of his fall
+could not reach the edge of the gulf. Divining in a moment that the
+lady, whose name was Elsie, must have fled in the opposite direction, he
+reined his steed on his haunches. He could touch the precipice with his
+bridle-hand half outstretched; his sword-hand half outstretched would
+have dropped a stone to the bottom of the ravine. There was no room to
+wheel. One desperate practibility alone remained. Turning his horse's
+head towards the edge, he compelled him, by means of the powerful bit,
+to rear till he stood almost erect; and so, his body swaying over the
+gulf, with quivering and straining muscles, to turn on his hind legs.
+Having completed the half-circle, he let him drop, and urged him
+furiously in the opposite direction. It must have been by the devil's
+own care that he was able to continue his gallop along that ledge of
+rock.
+
+"He soon caught sight of the maiden. She was leaning, half fainting,
+against the precipice. She had beard her lover's last cry, and, although
+it had conveyed no suggestion of his voice to her ear, she trembled from
+head to foot, and her limbs would bear her no farther. He checked his
+speed, rode gently up to her, lifted her unresisting, laid her across
+the shoulders of his horse, and, riding carefully till he reached a more
+open path, dashed again wildly along the mountain side. The lady's long
+hair was shaken loose, and dropped, trailing on the ground. The horse
+trampled upon it, and stumbled, half dragging her from the saddle-bow.
+He caught her, lifted her up, and looked at her face. She was dead. I
+suppose he went mad. He laid her again across the saddle before him, and
+rode on, reckless whither. Horse, and man, and maiden were found the
+next day, lying at the foot of a cliff, dashed to pieces. It was
+observed that a hind shoe of the horse was loose and broken. Whether
+this had been the cause of his fall, could not be told; but ever when he
+races, as race he will, till the day of doom, along that mountain side,
+his gallop is mingled with the clank of the loose and broken shoe. For,
+like the sin, the punishment is awful; he shall carry about for ages the
+phantom-body of the girl, knowing that her soul is away, sitting with
+the soul of his brother, down in the deep ravine, or scaling with him
+the topmost crags of the towering mountain peaks. There are some who,
+from time to time, see the doomed man careering along the face of the
+mountain, with the lady hanging across the steed; and they say it always
+betokens a storm, such as this which is now raving about us."
+
+I had not noticed till now, so absorbed had I been in her tale, that the
+storm had risen to a very ecstasy of fury.
+
+"They say, likewise, that the lady's hair is still growing; for, every
+time they see her, it is longer than before; and that now such is its
+length and the headlong speed of the horse, that it floats and streams
+out behind, like one of those curved clouds, like a comet's tail, far up
+in the sky; only the cloud is white, and the hair dark as night. And
+they say it will go on growing until the Last Day, when the horse will
+falter, and her hair will gather in; and the horse will fall, and the
+hair will twist, and twine, and wreathe itself like a mist of threads
+about him, and blind him to everything but her. Then the body will rise
+up within it, face to face with him, animated by a fiend, who, twining
+_her_ arms around him, will drag him down to the bottomless pit."
+
+I may mention something which now occurred, and which had a strange
+effect on my old nurse. It illustrates the assertion that we see around
+us only what is within us; marvellous things enough will show themselves
+to the marvellous mood. During a short lull in the storm, just as she
+had finished her story, we heard the sound of iron-shod hoofs
+approaching the cottage. There was no bridle-way into the glen. A knock
+came to the door, and, on opening it, we saw an old man seated on a
+horse, with a long, slenderly-filled sack lying across the saddle before
+him. He said he had lost the path in the storm, and, seeing the light,
+had scrambled down to inquire his way. I perceived at once, from the
+scared and mysterious look of the old woman's eyes, that she was
+persuaded that this appearance had more than a little to do with the
+awful rider, the terrific storm, and myself who had heard the sound of
+the phantom hoofs. As he ascended the hill, she looked after him, with
+wide and pale but unshrinking eyes; then turning in, shut and locked the
+door behind her, as by a natural instinct. After two or three of her
+significant nods, accompanied by the compression of her lips, she
+said:--
+
+"He need not think to take me in, wizard as he is, with his disguises. I
+can see him through them all. Duncan, my dear, when you suspect
+anything, do not be too incredulous. This human demon is, of course, a
+wizard still, and knows how to make himself, as well as anything he
+touches, take a quite different appearance from the real one; only every
+appearance must bear some resemblance, however distant, to the natural
+form. That man you saw at the door, was the phantom of which I have been
+telling you. What he is after now, of course, I cannot tell; but you
+must keep a bold heart, and a firm and wary foot, as you go home
+to-night."
+
+I showed some surprise, I do not doubt, and, perhaps, some fear as well;
+but I only said: "How do you know him, Margaret?"
+
+"I can hardly tell you," she replied; "but I do know him. I think he
+hates me. Often, of a wild night, when there is moonlight enough by
+fits, I see him tearing round this little valley, just on the top
+edge--all round; the lady's hair and the horse's mane and tail driving
+far behind, and mingling, vaporous, with the stormy clouds. About he
+goes, in wild careering gallop; now lost as the moon goes in, then
+visible far round when she looks out again--an airy, pale-grey spectre,
+which few eyes but mine could see; for, as far as I am aware, no one of
+the family but myself has ever possessed the double gift of seeing and
+hearing both. In this case I hear no sound, except now and then a clank
+from the broken shoe. But I did not mean to tell you that I had ever
+seen him. I am not a bit afraid of him. He cannot do more than he may.
+His power is limited; else ill enough would he work, the miscreant."
+
+"But," said I, "what has all this, terrible as it is, to do with the
+fright you took at my telling you that I had heard the sound of the
+broken shoe? Surely you are not afraid of only a storm?"
+
+"No, my boy; I fear no storm. But the fact is, that that sound is seldom
+heard, and never, as far as I know, by any of the blood of that wicked
+man, without betokening some ill to one of the family, and most probably
+to the one who hears it--but I am not quite sure about that. Only some
+evil it does portend, although a long time may elapse before it shows
+itself; and I have a hope it may mean some one else than you."
+
+"Do not wish that," I replied. "I know no one better able to bear it
+than I am; and I hope, whatever it may be, that I only shall have to
+meet it. It must surely be something serious to be so foretold--it can
+hardly be connected with my disappointment in being compelled to be a
+pedagogue instead of a soldier."
+
+"Do not trouble yourself about that, Duncan," replied she. "A soldier
+you must be. The same day you told me of the clank of the broken
+horseshoe, I saw you return wounded from battle, and fall fainting from
+your horse in the street of a great city--only fainting, thank God. But
+I have particular reasons for being uneasy at _your_ hearing that boding
+sound. Can you tell me the day and hour of your birth?"
+
+"No," I replied. "It seems very odd when I think of it, but I really do
+not know even the day."
+
+"Nor any one else, which is stranger still," she answered.
+
+"How does that happen, nurse?"
+
+"We were in terrible anxiety about your mother at the time. So ill was
+she, after you were just born, in a strange, unaccountable way, that you
+lay almost neglected for more than an hour. In the very act of giving
+birth to you, she seemed to the rest around her to be out of her mind,
+so wildly did she talk; but I knew better. I knew that she was fighting
+some evil power; and what power it was, I knew full well; for twice,
+during her pains, I heard the click of the horseshoe. But no one could
+help her. After her delivery, she lay as if in a trance, neither dead,
+nor at rest, but as if frozen to ice, and conscious of it all the while.
+Once more I heard the terrible sound of iron; and, at the moment your
+mother started from her trance, screaming, 'My child! my child!' We
+suddenly became aware that no one had attended to the child, and rushed
+to the place where he lay wrapped in a blanket. Uncovering him, we found
+him black in the face, and spotted with dark spots upon the throat. I
+thought he was dead; but, with great and almost hopeless pains, we
+succeeded in making him breathe, and he gradually recovered. But his
+mother continued dreadfully exhausted. It seemed as if she had spent her
+life for her child's defence and birth. That was you, Duncan, my dear.
+
+"I was in constant attendance upon her. About a week after your birth,
+as near as I can guess, just in the gloaming, I heard yet again the
+awful clank--only once. Nothing followed till about midnight. Your
+mother slept, and you lay asleep beside her. I sat by the bedside. A
+horror fell upon me suddenly, though I neither saw nor heard anything.
+Your mother started from her sleep with a cry, which sounded as if it
+came from far away, out of a dream, and did not belong to this world. My
+blood curdled with fear. She sat up in bed, with wide staring eyes, and
+half-open rigid lips, and, feeble as she was, thrust her arms straight
+out before her with great force, her hands open and lifted up, with the
+palms outwards. The whole action was of one violently repelling another.
+She began to talk wildly as she had done before you were born, but,
+though I seemed to hear and understand it all at the time, I could not
+recall a word of it afterwards. It was as if I had listened to it when
+half asleep. I attempted to soothe her, putting my arms round her, but
+she seemed quite unconscious of my presence, and my arms seemed
+powerless upon the fixed muscles of hers. Not that I tried to constrain
+her, for I knew that a battle was going on of some kind or other, and my
+interference might do awful mischief. I only tried to comfort and
+encourage her. All the time, I was in a state of indescribable cold and
+suffering, whether more bodily or mental I could not tell. But at length
+I heard yet again the clank of the shoe. A sudden peace seemed to fall
+upon my mind--or was it a warm, odorous wind that filled the room? Your
+mother dropped her arms, and turned feebly towards her baby. She saw
+that he slept a blessed sleep. She smiled like a glorified spirit, and
+fell back exhausted on the pillow. I went to the other side of the room
+to get a cordial. When I returned to the bedside, I saw at once that she
+was dead. Her face smiled still, with an expression of the uttermost
+bliss."
+
+Nurse ceased, trembling as overcome by the recollection; and I was too
+much moved and awed to speak. At length, resuming the conversation, she
+said: "You see it is no wonder, Duncan, my dear, if, after all this, I
+should find, when I wanted to fix the date of your birth, that I could
+not determine the day or the hour when it took place. All was confusion
+in my poor brain. But it was strange that no one else could, any more
+than I. One thing only I can tell you about it. As I carried you across
+the room to lay you down--for I assisted at your birth--I happened to
+look up to the window. Then I saw what I did not forget, although I did
+not think of it again till many days after--a bright star was shining on
+the very tip of the thin crescent moon."
+
+"Oh, then," said I, "it is possible to determine the day and the very
+hour when my birth took place."
+
+"See the good of book-learning!" replied she. "When you work it out,
+just let me know, my dear, that I may remember it."
+
+"That I will."
+
+A silence of some moments followed. Margaret resumed:
+
+"I am afraid you will laugh at my foolish fancies, Duncan; but in
+thinking over all these things, as you may suppose I often do, lying
+awake in my lonely bed, the notion sometimes comes to me: What if my
+Duncan be the youth whom his wicked brother hurled into the ravine, come
+again in a new body, to live out his life, cut short by his brother's
+hatred? If so, his persecution of you, and of your mother for your sake,
+is easy to understand. And if so, you will never be able to rest till
+you find your fere, wherever she may have been born on the face of the
+earth. For born she must be, long ere now, for you to find. I misdoubt
+me much, however, if you will find her without great conflict and
+suffering between, for the Powers of Darkness will be against you;
+though I have good hope that you will overcome at last. You must forgive
+the fancies of a foolish old woman, my dear."
+
+I will not try to describe the strange feelings, almost sensations, that
+arose in me while listening to these extraordinary utterances, lest it
+should be supposed I was ready to believe all that Margaret narrated or
+concluded. I could not help doubting her sanity; but no more could I
+help feeling peculiarly moved by her narrative.
+
+Few more words were spoken on either side, but, after receiving renewed
+exhortations to carefulness on the way home, I said good-bye to dear old
+nurse, considerably comforted, I must confess, that I was not doomed to
+be a tutor all my days; for I never questioned the truth of that vision
+and its consequent prophecy.
+
+I went out into the midst of the storm, into the alternating throbs of
+blackness and radiance; now the possessor of no more room than what my
+body filled, and now isolated in world-wide space. And the thunder
+seemed to follow me, bellowing after me as I went.
+
+Absorbed in the story I had heard, I took my way, as I thought,
+homewards. The whole country was well known to me. I should have said,
+before that night, that I could have gone home blindfold. Whether the
+lightning bewildered me and made me take a false turn, I cannot tell,
+for the hardest thing to understand, in intellectual as well as moral
+mistakes, is how we came to go wrong. But after wandering for some time,
+plunged in meditation, and with no warning whatever of the presence of
+inimical powers, a brilliant lightning-flash showed me that at least I
+was not near home. The light was prolonged for a second or two by a
+slight electric pulsation; and by that I distinguished a wide space of
+blackness on the ground in front of me. Once more wrapt in the folds of
+a thick darkness, I dared not move. Suddenly it occurred to me what the
+blackness was, and whither I had wandered. It was a huge quarry, of
+great depth, long disused, and half filled with water. I knew the place
+perfectly. A few more steps would have carried me over the brink. I
+stood still, waiting for the next flash, that I might be quite sure of
+the way I was about to take before I ventured to move. While I stood, I
+fancied I heard a single hollow plunge in the black water far below.
+When the lightning came, I turned, and took my path in another
+direction. After walking for some time across the heath, I fell. The
+fall became a roll, and down a steep declivity I went, over and over,
+arriving at the bottom uninjured.
+
+Another flash soon showed me where I was--in the hollow valley, within a
+couple of hundred yards from nurse's cottage. I made my way towards it.
+There was no light in it, except the feeblest glow from the embers of
+her peat fire. "She is in bed," I said to myself, "and I will not
+disturb her." Yet something drew me towards the little window. I looked
+in. At first I could see nothing. At length, as I kept gazing, I saw
+something, indistinct in the darkness, like an outstretched human form.
+
+By this time the storm had lulled. The moon had been up for some time,
+but had been quite concealed by tempestuous clouds. Now, however, these
+had begun to break up; and, while I stood looking into the cottage, they
+scattered away from the face of the moon, and a faint, vapoury gleam of
+her light, entering the cottage through a window opposite that at which
+I stood, fell directly on the face of my old nurse, as she lay on her
+back outstretched upon chairs, pale as death, and with her eyes closed.
+The light fell nowhere but on her face. A stranger to her habits would
+have thought that she was dead; but she had so much of the appearance
+she had had on a former occasion, that I concluded at once she was in
+one of her trances. But having often heard that persons in such a
+condition ought not to be disturbed, and feeling quite sure she knew
+best how to manage herself, I turned, though reluctantly, and left the
+lone cottage behind me in the night, with the death-like woman lying
+motionless in the midst of it.
+
+I found my way home without any further difficulty, and went to bed,
+where I soon fell asleep, thoroughly wearied, more by the mental
+excitement I had been experiencing, than by the amount of bodily
+exercise I had gone through.
+
+My sleep was tormented with awful dreams; yet, strange to say, I awoke
+in the morning refreshed and fearless. The sun was shining through the
+chinks in my shutters, which had been closed because of the storm, and
+was making streaks and bands of golden brilliancy upon the wall. I had
+dressed and completed my preparations long before I heard the steps of
+the servant who came to call me.
+
+What a wonderful thing waking is! The time of the ghostly moonshine
+passes by, and the great positive sunlight comes. A man who dreams, and
+knows that he is dreaming, thinks he knows what waking is; but knows it
+so little that he mistakes, one after another, many a vague and dim
+change in his dream for an awaking. When the true waking comes at last,
+he is filled and overflowed with the power of its reality. So, likewise,
+one who, in the darkness, lies waiting for the light about to be struck,
+and trying to conceive, with all the force of his imagination, what the
+light will be like, is yet, when the reality flames up before him,
+seized as by a new and unexpected thing, different from and beyond all
+his imagining. He feels as if the darkness were cast to an infinite
+distance behind him. So shall it be with us when we wake from this dream
+of life into the truer life beyond, and find all our present notions of
+being thrown back as into a dim vapoury region of dreamland, where yet
+we thought we knew, and whence we looked forward into the present. This
+must be what Novalis means when he says: "Our life is not a dream; but
+it may become a dream, and perhaps ought to become one."
+
+And so I look back upon the strange history of my past, sometimes asking
+myself: "Can it be that all this has really happened to the same _me_,
+who am now thinking about it in doubt and wonderment?"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY
+
+By THOMAS HARDY
+
+
+"There was something very strange about William's death--very strange
+indeed!" sighed a melancholy man in the back of the van. It was the
+seedman's father, who had hitherto kept silence.
+
+"And what might that have been?" asked Mr Lackland.
+
+"William, as you may know, was a curious, silent man; you could feel
+when he came near 'ee; and if he was in the house or anywhere behind you
+without your seeing him, there seemed to be something clammy in the air,
+as if a cellar door opened close by your elbow. Well, one Sunday, at a
+time that William was in very good health to all appearance, the bell
+that was ringing for church went very heavy all of a sudden; the sexton,
+who told me o't, said he had not known the bell go so heavy in his hand
+for years--it was just as if the gudgeons wanted oiling. That was on the
+Sunday, as I say.
+
+"During the week after, it chanced that William's wife was staying up
+late one night to finish her ironing, she doing the washing for Mr and
+Mrs Hardcome. Her husband had finished his supper, and gone to bed as
+usual some hour or two before. While she ironed she heard him coming
+downstairs; he stopped to put on his boots at the stair-foot, where he
+always left them, and then came on into the living-room where she was
+ironing, passing through it towards the door, this being the only way
+from the staircase to the outside of the house. No word was said on
+either side, William not being a man given to much speaking, and his
+wife being occupied with her work. He went out and closed the door
+behind him. As her husband had now and then gone out in this way at
+night before when unwell, or unable to sleep for want of a pipe, she
+took no particular notice, and continued at her ironing. This she
+finished shortly after, and, as he had not come in, she waited awhile
+for him, putting away the irons and things, and preparing the table for
+his breakfast in the morning. Still he did not return, but supposing him
+not far off, and wanting to go to bed herself, tired as she was, she
+left the door unbarred and went to the stairs, after writing on the back
+of the door with chalk: _Mind and do the door_ (because he was a
+forgetful man).
+
+"To her great surprise, and I might say alarm, on reaching the foot of
+the stairs his boots were standing there as they always stood when he
+had gone to rest. Going up to their chamber, she found him in bed
+sleeping as sound as a rock. How he could have got back again without
+her seeing or hearing him was beyond her comprehension. It could only
+have been by passing behind her very quietly while she was bumping with
+the iron. But this notion did not satisfy her: it was surely impossible
+that she should not have seen him come in through a room so small. She
+could not unravel the mystery, and felt very queer and uncomfortable
+about it. However, she would not disturb him to question him then, and
+went to bed herself.
+
+"He rose and left for his work very early the next morning, before she
+was awake, and she waited his return to breakfast with much anxiety for
+an explanation, for thinking over the matter by daylight made it seem
+only the more startling. When he came in to the meal he said, before she
+could put her question, 'What's the meaning of them words chalked on the
+door?'
+
+"She told him, and asked him about his going out the night before.
+William declared that he had never left the bedroom after entering it,
+having in fact undressed, lain down, and fallen asleep directly, never
+once waking till the clock struck five, and he rose up to go to his
+labour.
+
+"Betty Privett was as certain in her own mind that he did go out as she
+was of her own existence, and was little less certain that he did not
+return. She felt too disturbed to argue with him, and let the subject
+drop as though she must have been mistaken. When she was walking down
+Longpuddle Street later in the day she met Jim Weedle's daughter Nancy,
+and said: 'Well Nancy, you do look sleepy to-day!'
+
+"'Yes, Mrs Privett,' said Nancy. 'Now, don't tell anybody, but I don't
+mind letting you know what the reason o't is. Last night, being Old
+Midsummer Eve, some of us church porch, and didn't get home till near
+one.'
+
+"'Did ye?' says Mrs Privett. 'Old Midsummer yesterday was it? Faith, I
+didn't think whe'r 'twas Midsummer or Michaelmas; I'd too much work to
+do.'
+
+"'Yes. And we were frightened enough, I can tell 'ee by what we saw.'
+
+"'What did ye see?'
+
+"(You may not remember, sir, having gone off to foreign parts so young,
+that on Midsummer Night it is believed hereabout that the faint shapes
+of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at death's door within
+the year can be seen entering the church. Those who get over their
+illness come out again after awhile; those that are doomed to die do not
+return.)
+
+"'What did you see?' asked William's wife.
+
+"'Well,' says Nancy, backwardly--'we needn't tell what we saw or who we
+saw.'
+
+"'You saw my husband,' said Betty Privett in a quiet way.
+
+"'Well, since you put it so,' says Nancy, hanging fire, 'we--thought we
+did see him; but it was darkish and we was frightened, and of course it
+might not have been he.'
+
+"'Nancy, you needn't mind letting it out, though 'tis kept back in
+kindness. And he didn't come out of the church again: I know it as well
+as you.'
+
+"Nancy did not answer yes or no to that, and no more was said. But three
+days after, William Privett was mowing with John Chiles in Mr Hardcome's
+meadow, and in the heat of the day they sat down to their bit o' nunch
+under a tree, and empty their flagon. Afterwards both of 'em fell asleep
+as they sat. John Chiles was the first to wake, and, as he looked
+towards his fellow-mower, he saw one of those great white miller's-souls
+as we call 'em--that is to say, a miller moth--come from William's open
+mouth while he slept and fly straight away. John thought it odd enough,
+as William had worked in a mill for several years when he was a boy. He
+then looked at the sun, and found by the place o't that they had slept a
+long while, and, as William did not wake, John called to him and said it
+was high time to begin work again. He took no notice, and then John went
+up and shook him and found he was dead.
+
+"Now on that very day old Philip Hookhorn was down at Longpuddle Spring,
+dipping up a pitcher of water; and, as he turned away, who should he see
+coming down to the spring on the other side but William, looking very
+pale and old? This surprised Philip Hookhorn very much, for years before
+that time William's little son--his only child--had been drowned in that
+spring while at play there, and this had so preyed upon William's mind
+that he'd never been seen near the spring afterwards, and had been known
+to go half a mile out of his way to avoid the place. On enquiry, it was
+found that William in body could not have stood by the spring, being in
+the mead two miles off; and it also came out that at the time at which
+he was seen at the spring was the very time when he died."
+
+"A rather melancholy story," observed the emigrant, after a minute's
+silence.
+
+"Yes, yes. Well, we must take ups and downs together," said the
+seedman's father.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A STORY OF RAVENNA
+
+By BOCCACCIO
+
+
+Ravenna being a very ancient city in Romagna, there dwelt sometime a
+great number of worthy gentlemen, among whom I am to speak of one more
+especially, named Anastasio, descended from the family of Onesti, who by
+the death of his father, and an uncle of his, was left extraordinarily
+abounding in riches and growing to years fitting for marriage. As young
+gallants are easily apt enough to do, he became enamoured of a very
+beautiful gentlewoman, who was daughter of Messer Paolo Traversario, one
+of the most ancient and noble families in all the country. Nor made he
+any doubt, by his means and industrious endeavour, to derive affection
+from her again, for he carried himself like a braveminded gentleman,
+liberal in his expenses, honest and affable in all his actions, which
+commonly are the true notes of a good nature, and highly to be commended
+in any man. But, howsoever, fortune became his enemy; these laudable
+parts of manhood did not any way friend him, but rather appeared hurtful
+to himself, so cruel, unkind, and almost merely savage did she show
+herself to him, perhaps in pride of her singular beauty or presuming on
+her nobility by birth, both which are rather blemishes than ornaments in
+a woman when they be especially abused. The harsh and uncivil usage in
+her grew very distasteful to Anastasio, and so insufferable that after a
+long time of fruitless service, requited still with nothing but coy
+disdain, desperate resolutions entered into his brain, and often he was
+minded to kill himself. But better thoughts supplanting those furious
+passions, he abstained from such a violent act, and governed by mere
+manly consideration, determined that as she hated him, he would requite
+her with the like, if he could, wherein he became altogether deceived,
+because as his hopes grew to a daily decaying, yet his love enlarged
+itself more and more.
+
+Thus Anastasio persevering still in his bootless affection, and his
+expenses not limited within any compass, it appeared in the judgment of
+his kindred and friends that he was fallen into a mighty consumption,
+both of his body and means. In which respects many times they advised
+him to leave the city of Ravenna, and live in some other place for such
+a while as might set a more moderate stint upon his spendings, and
+bridle the indiscreet course of his love, the only fuel which fed his
+furious fire.
+
+Anastasio held out thus a long time, without lending an ear to such
+friendly counsel; but in the end he was so closely followed by them, as
+being no longer able to deny them, he promised to accomplish their
+request. Whereupon making such extraordinary preparation as if he were
+to set out thence for France or Spain, or else into some further
+country, he mounted on horseback, and accompanied with some few of his
+familiar friends, departed from Ravenna, and rode to a country
+dwelling-house of his own, about three or four miles distant from the
+city, at a place called Chiassi; and there upon a very good green
+erecting divers tents and pavilions, such as great persons make use of
+in the time of progress, he said to his friends which came with him
+thither that there he determined to make his abiding, they all returning
+back unto Ravenna, and coming to visit him again so often as they
+pleased.
+
+Now it came to pass that about the beginning of May, it being then a
+very mild and serene season, and he leading there a much more
+magnificent life than ever he had done before, inviting divers to dine
+with him this day and as many to-morrow, and not to leave him till after
+supper, upon a sudden falling into remembrance of his cruel mistress, he
+commanded all his servants to forbear his company, and suffer him to
+walk alone by himself a while, because he had occasion of private
+meditations, wherein he would not by any means be troubled. It was then
+about the ninth hour of the day, and he walking on solitary all alone,
+having gone some half a mile distance from the tents, entered into a
+grove of pine-trees, never minding dinner-time or anything else, but
+only the unkind requital of his love.
+
+Suddenly he heard the voice of a woman seeming to make most mournful
+complaints, which breaking off his silent considerations, made him to
+lift up his head to know the reason of this noise. When he saw himself
+so far entered into the grove before he could imagine where he was, he
+looked amazedly round about him, and out of a little thicket of bushes
+and briars round engirt with spreading trees, he espied a young damsel
+come running towards him, naked from the middle upward, her hair lying
+on her shoulders, and her fair skin rent and torn with the briars and
+brambles, so that the blood ran trickling down mainly, she weeping,
+wringing her hands, and crying out for mercy so loud as she could. Two
+fierce bloodhounds also followed swiftly after, and where their teeth
+took hold did most cruelly bite her. Last of all, mounted on a lusty
+black courser, came galloping a knight, with a very stern and angry
+countenance, holding a drawn short sword in his hand, giving her very
+dreadful speeches, and threatening every minute to kill her.
+
+This strange and uncouth sight bred in him no mean admiration, as also
+kind compassion to the unfortunate woman, out of which compassion sprung
+an earnest desire to deliver her, if he could, from a death so full of
+anguish and horror; but seeing himself to be without arms, he ran and
+plucked up the plant of a tree, which handling as if it had been a
+staff, he opposed himself against the dogs and the knight, who seeing
+him coming, cried out in this manner to him: "Anastasio, put not thyself
+in any opposition, but refer to my hounds and me to punish this wicked
+woman as she hath justly deserved." And in speaking these words, the
+hounds took fast hold on her body, so staying her until the knight was
+come nearer to her, and alighted from his horse, when Anastasio, after
+some other angry speeches, spake thus to him: "I cannot tell what or who
+thou art, albeit thou takest such knowledge of me, yet I must say it is
+mere cowardice in a knight, being armed as thou art, to offer to kill a
+naked woman, and make thy dogs thus to seize on her, as if she were a
+savage beast; therefore, believe me, I will defend her so far as I am
+able."
+
+"Anastasio," answered the knight, "I am of the same city as thou art,
+and do well remember that thou wast a little lad when I, who was then
+named Guido Anastasio, and thine uncle, became as entirely in love with
+this woman as now thou art with Paolo Traversario's daughter. But
+through her coy disdain and cruelty, such was my heavy fate that
+desperately I slew myself with this short sword which thou beholdest in
+mine hand; for which rash sinful deed I was and am condemned to eternal
+punishment. This wicked woman, rejoicing immeasurably in mine unhappy
+death, remained no long time alive after me, and for her merciless sin
+of cruelty, and taking pleasure in my oppressing torments, dying
+unrepentant, and in pride of her scorn, she had the like sentence of
+condemnation pronounced on her, and was sent to the same place where I
+was condemned.
+
+"There the three impartial judges imposed this further infliction on us
+both--namely, that she should fly in this manner before me, and I, who
+loved her so dearly while I lived, must pursue her as my deadly enemy,
+not like a woman that had a taste of love in her. And so often as I can
+overtake her, I am to kill her with this sword, the same weapon
+wherewith I slew myself. Then am I enjoined therewith to open her
+accursed body, and tear out her heart, with her other inwards, as now
+thou seest me do, which I give to my hounds to feed on. Afterward--such
+is the appointment of the supreme powers--that she re-assumeth life
+again, even as if she had not been dead at all, and falling to the same
+kind of flight, I with my hounds am still to follow her, without any
+respite or intermission. Every Friday, and just at this hour, our course
+is this way, where she suffereth the just punishment inflicted on her.
+Nor do we rest any of the other days, but are appointed unto other
+places, where she cruelly executed her malice against me, who am now, of
+her dear affectionate friend, ordained to be her endless enemy, and to
+pursue her in this manner for so many years as she exercised months of
+cruelty towards me. Hinder me not, then, in being the executioner of
+Divine justice, for all thy interposition is but in vain in seeking to
+cross the appointment of supreme powers."
+
+Anastasio having heard all this discourse, his hair stood upright, like
+porcupines' quills, and his soul was so shaken with the terror, that he
+stepped back to suffer the knight to do what he was enjoined, looking
+yet with mild commiseration on the poor woman, who kneeling most humbly
+before the knight, and sternly seized on by the two bloodhounds, he
+opened her breast with his weapon, drawing forth her heart and bowels,
+which instantly he threw to the dogs, and they devoured them very
+greedily. Soon after the damsel, as if none of this punishment had been
+inflicted on her, started up suddenly, running amain towards the
+seashore, and the hounds swiftly following her, as the knight did the
+like, after he had taken his sword and was mounted on horseback, so that
+Anastasio had soon lost all sight of them, and could not guess what
+could become of them.
+
+After he had heard and observed all these things, he stood a while as
+confounded with fear and pity, like a simple silly man, hoodwinked with
+his own passions, not knowing the subtle enemy's cunning illusions in
+offering false suggestions to the sight, to work his own ends thereby,
+and increase the number of his deceived servants. Forthwith he persuaded
+himself that he might make good use of this woman's tormenting, so
+justly imposed on the knight to prosecute, if thus it should continue
+still every Friday. Wherefore setting a good note or mark upon the
+place, he returned back to his own people, and at such times as he
+thought convenient, sent for divers of his kindred and friends from
+Ravenna, who being present with him, thus he spake to them:
+
+"Dear kinsmen and friends, ye have long while importuned me to
+discontinue my over-doating love to her whom you all think, and I find
+to be my mortal enemy; as also to give over my lavish expenses, wherein
+I confess myself too prodigal; both which requests of yours I will
+condescend to, provided that you will perform one gracious favour for
+me--namely, that on Friday next, Messer Paolo Traversario, his wife,
+daughter, with all other women linked in lineage to them, and such
+beside only as you shall please to appoint, will vouchsafe to accept a
+dinner here with me. As for the reason thereto moving me, you shall then
+more at large be acquainted withal." This appeared no difficult matter
+for them to accomplish. Wherefore being returned to Ravenna, and as they
+found the time answerable to their purpose, they invited such as
+Anastasio had appointed them. And although they found it somewhat a hard
+matter to gain her company whom he had so dearly affected, yet
+notwithstanding, the other women won her along with them.
+
+A most magnificent dinner had Anastasio provided, and the tables were
+covered under the pine-trees, where he saw the cruel lady so pursued and
+slain; directing the guests so in their seating that the young
+gentlewoman, his unkind mistress, sate with her face opposite unto the
+place where the dismal spectacle was to be seen. About the closing up of
+dinner, they began to hear the noise of the poor persecuted woman, which
+drove them all to much admiration, desiring to know what it was, and no
+one resolving them they rose from the tables, and looking directly as
+the noise came to them, they espied the woful woman, the dogs eagerly
+pursuing her; the knight galloping after them with his drawn weapon, and
+came very near unto the company, who cried out with loud exclaims
+against the dogs, and the knights stepped forth in assistance of the
+injured woman.
+
+The knight spake unto them as formerly he had done to Anastasio, which
+made them draw back possessed with fear and admiration, while he acted
+the same cruelty as he did the Friday before, not differing in the least
+degree. Most of the gentlewomen there present, being near allied to the
+unfortunate woman, and likewise to the knight, remembering well both his
+love and death, did shed tears as plentifully as if it had been to the
+very persons themselves in usual performance of the action indeed. Which
+tragical scene being passed over, and the woman and knight gone out of
+their sight, all that had seen this strange accident fell into diversity
+of confused opinions, yet not daring to disclose them, as doubting some
+further danger to ensue thereon.
+
+But beyond all the rest, none could compare in fear and astonishment
+with the cruel young maid affected by Anastasio, who both saw and
+observed all with a more inward apprehension, knowing very well that the
+moral of this dismal spectacle carried a much nearer application to her
+than any other in the company. For now she could call to mind how unkind
+and cruel she had shown herself to Anastasio, even as the other
+gentlewoman formerly did to her lover, still flying from him in great
+contempt and scorn, for which she thought the bloodhounds also pursued
+her at the heels already, and a sword of vengeance to mangle her body.
+This fear grew so powerful upon her, that to prevent the like heavy doom
+from falling on her, she studied, and therein bestowed all the night
+season, how to change her hatred into kind love, which at the length she
+fully obtained, and then purposed to procure in this manner: Secretly
+she sent a faithful chambermaid of her own to greet Anastasio on her
+behalf, humbly entreating him to come see her, because now she was
+absolutely determined to give him satisfaction in all which, with
+honour, he could request of her. Whereto Anastasio answered that he
+accepted her message thankfully, and desired no other favour at her hand
+but that which stood with her own offer, namely, to be his wife in
+honourable marriage. The maid knowing sufficiently that he could not be
+more desirous of the match than her mistress showed herself to be, made
+answer in her name that this motion would be most welcome to her.
+
+Hereupon the gentlewoman herself became the solicitor to her father and
+mother, telling them plainly that she was willing to be the wife of
+Anastasio; which news did so highly content them, that upon the Sunday
+next following the marriage was very worthily solemnised, and they lived
+and loved together very kindly. Thus the Divine bounty, out of the
+malignant enemy's secret machinations, can cause good effects to arise
+and succeed. For from this conceit of fearful imagination in her, not
+only happened this long-desired conversion of a maid so obstinately
+scornful and proud, but likewise all the women of Ravenna, being
+admonished by her example, grew afterward more tractable to men's honest
+motions than ever they showed themselves before. And let me make some
+use hereof, fair ladies, to you not to stand over-nicely conceited of
+your beauty and good parts when men solicit you with their best
+services. Remember then this disdainful gentlewoman, but more
+especially her, who being the death of so kind a lover was therefore
+condemned to perpetual punishment, and he made the minister thereof whom
+she had cast off with coy disdain, from which I wish your minds to be
+free, as mine is ready to do you any acceptable service.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE
+
+[_Translated from the Irish_]
+
+By Dr DOUGLAS HYDE
+
+
+There was once a grown-up lad in the County Leitrim, and he was strong
+and lively, and the son of a rich farmer. His father had plenty of
+money, and he did not spare it on the son. Accordingly, when the boy
+grew up he liked sport better than work, and, as his father had no other
+children, he loved this one so much that he allowed him to do in
+everything just as it pleased himself. He was very extravagant, and he
+used to scatter the gold money as another person would scatter the
+white. He was seldom to be found at home, but if there was a fair, or a
+race, or a gathering within ten miles of him, you were dead certain to
+find him there. And he seldom spent a night in his father's house, but
+he used to be always out rambling, and, like Shawn Bwee long ago, there
+was
+
+    "grádh gach cailin i mbrollach a léine,"
+
+"the love of every girl in the breast of his shirt," and it's many's the
+kiss he got and he gave, for he was very handsome, and there wasn't a
+girl in the country but would fall in love with him, only for him to
+fasten his two eyes on her, and it was for that someone made this _rann_
+on him--
+
+    "Look at the rogue, it's for kisses he's rambling,
+      It isn't much wonder, for that was his way;
+    He's like an old hedgehog, at night he'll be scrambling
+      From this place to that, but he'll sleep in the day."
+
+At last he became very wild and unruly. He wasn't to be seen day or
+night in his father's house, but always rambling or going on his
+_kailee_ (night visit) from place to place and from house to house, so
+that the old people used to shake their heads and say to one another,
+"It's easy seen what will happen to the land when the old man dies; his
+son will run through it in a year, and it won't stand him that long
+itself."
+
+He used to be always gambling and card-playing and drinking, but his
+father never minded his bad habits, and never punished him. But it
+happened one day that the old man was told that the son had ruined the
+character of a girl in the neighbourhood, and he was greatly angry, and
+he called the son to him, and said to him, quietly and sensibly--"Avic,"
+says he, "you know I loved you greatly up to this, and I never stopped
+you from doing your choice thing whatever it was, and I kept plenty of
+money with you, and I always hoped to leave you the house and land, and
+all I had after myself would be gone; but I heard a story of you to-day
+that has disgusted me with you. I cannot tell you the grief that I felt
+when I heard such a thing of you, and I tell you now plainly that unless
+you marry that girl I'll leave house and land and everything to my
+brother's son. I never could leave it to anyone who would make so bad a
+use of it as you do yourself, deceiving women and coaxing girls. Settle
+with yourself now whether you'll marry that girl and get my land as a
+fortune with her, or refuse to marry her and give up all that was coming
+to you; and tell me in the morning which of the two things you have
+chosen."
+
+"Och! _Domnoo Sheery_! father, you wouldn't say that to me, and I such a
+good son as I am. Who told you I wouldn't marry the girl?" says he.
+
+But his father was gone, and the lad knew well enough that he would keep
+his word too; and he was greatly troubled in his mind, for as quiet and
+as kind as the father was, he never went back of a word that he had
+once said, and there wasn't another man in the country who was harder to
+bend than he was.
+
+The boy did not know rightly what to do. He was in love with the girl
+indeed, and he hoped to marry her sometime or other, but he would much
+sooner have remained another while as he was, and follow on at his old
+tricks--drinking, sporting, and playing cards; and, along with that, he
+was angry that his father should order him to marry, and should threaten
+him if he did not do it.
+
+"Isn't my father a great fool," says he to himself. "I was ready enough,
+and only too anxious, to marry Mary; and now since he threatened me,
+faith I've a great mind to let it go another while."
+
+His mind was so much excited that he remained between two notions as to
+what he should do. He walked out into the night at last to cool his
+heated blood, and went on to the road. He lit a pipe, and as the night
+was fine he walked and walked on, until the quick pace made him begin to
+forget his trouble. The night was bright, and the moon half full. There
+was not a breath of wind blowing, and the air was calm and mild. He
+walked on for nearly three hours, when he suddenly remembered that it
+was late in the night, and time for him to turn. "Musha! I think I
+forgot myself," says he; "it must be near twelve o'clock now."
+
+The word was hardly out of his mouth, when he heard the sound of many
+voices, and the trampling of feet on the road before him. "I don't know
+who can be out so late at night as this, and on such a lonely road,"
+said he to himself.
+
+He stood listening, and he heard the voices of many people talking
+through other, but he could not understand what they were saying. "Oh,
+wirra!" says he, "I'm afraid. It's not Irish or English they have; it
+can't be they're Frenchmen!" He went on a couple of yards further, and
+he saw well enough by the light of the moon a band of little people
+coming towards him, and they were carrying something big and heavy with
+them. "Oh, murder!" says he to himself, "sure it can't be that they're
+the good people that's in it!" Every _rib_ of hair that was on his head
+stood up, and there fell a shaking on his bones, for he saw that they
+were coming to him fast.
+
+He looked at them again, and perceived that there were about twenty
+little men in it, and there was not a man at all of them higher than
+about three feet or three feet and a half, and some of them were grey,
+and seemed very old. He looked again, but he could not make out what was
+the heavy thing they were carrying until they came up to him, and then
+they all stood round about him. They threw the heavy thing down on the
+road, and he saw on the spot that it was a dead body.
+
+He became as cold as the Death, and there was not a drop of blood
+running in his veins when an old little grey _maneen_ came up to him and
+said, "Isn't it lucky we met you, Teig O'Kane?"
+
+Poor Teig could not bring out a word at all, nor open his lips, if he
+were to get the world for it, and so he gave no answer.
+
+"Teig O'Kane," said the little grey man again, "isn't it timely you met
+us?"
+
+Teig could not answer him.
+
+"Teig O'Kane," says he, "the third time, isn't it lucky and timely that
+we met you?"
+
+But Teig remained silent, for he was afraid to return an answer, and his
+tongue was as if it was tied to the roof of his mouth.
+
+The little grey man turned to his companions, and there was joy in his
+bright little eye. "And now," says he, "Teig O'Kane hasn't a word, we
+can do with him what we please. Teig, Teig," says he, "you're living a
+bad life, and we can make a slave of you now, and you cannot withstand
+us, for there's no use in trying to go against us. Lift that corpse."
+
+Teig was so frightened that he was only able to utter the two words, "I
+won't"; for as frightened as he was he was obstinate and stiff, the same
+as ever.
+
+"Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse," said the little _maneen_, with a
+wicked little laugh, for all the world like the breaking of a _lock_ of
+dry _kippeens_, and with a little harsh voice like the striking of a
+cracked bell. "Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse--make him lift it"; and
+before the word was out of his mouth they had all gathered round poor
+Teig, and they all talking and laughing through other.
+
+Teig tried to run from them, but they followed him, and a man of them
+stretched out his foot before him as he ran, so that Teig was thrown in
+a heap on the road. Then before he could rise up the fairies caught him,
+some by the hands and some by the feet, and they held him tight, in a
+way that he could not stir, with his face against the ground. Six or
+seven of them raised the body then, and pulled it over to him, and left
+it down on his back. The breast of the corpse was squeezed against
+Teig's back and shoulders, and the arms of the corpse were thrown around
+Teig's neck. Then they stood back from him a couple of yards, and let
+him get up. He rose, foaming at the mouth and cursing, and he shook
+himself, thinking to throw the corpse off his back. But his fear and his
+wonder were great when he found that the two arms had a tight hold round
+his own neck, and that the two legs were squeezing his hips firmly, and
+that, however strongly he tried, he could not throw it off, any more
+than a horse can throw off its saddle. He was terribly frightened then,
+and he thought he was lost. "Ochone! for ever," said he to himself,
+"it's the bad life I'm leading that has given the good people this power
+over me. I promise to God and Mary, Peter and Paul, Patrick and Bridget,
+that I'll mend my ways for as long as I have to live, if I come clear
+out of this danger--and I'll marry the girl."
+
+The little grey man came up to him again, and said he to him, "Now,
+Teig_een_," says he, "you didn't lift the body when I told you to lift
+it, and see how you were made to lift it; perhaps when I tell you to
+bury it, you won't bury it until you're made to bury it!"
+
+"Anything at all that I can do for your honour," said Teig, "I'll do
+it," for he was getting sense already, and if it had not been for the
+great fear that was on him, he never would have let that civil word slip
+out of his mouth.
+
+The little man laughed a sort of laugh again. "You're getting quiet now,
+Teig," says he. "I'll go bail but you'll be quiet enough before I'm done
+with you. Listen to me now, Teig O'Kane, and if you don't obey me in all
+I'm telling you to do, you'll repent it. You must carry with you this
+corpse that is on your back to Teampoll-Démus, and you must bring it
+into the church with you, and make a grave for it in the very middle of
+the church, and you must raise up the flags and put them down again the
+very same way, and you must carry the clay out of the church and leave
+the place as it was when you came, so that no one could know that there
+had been anything changed. But that's not all. Maybe that the body won't
+be allowed to be buried in that church; perhaps some other man has the
+bed, and, if so, it's likely he won't share it with this one. If you
+don't get leave to bury it in Teampoll-Démus, you must carry it to
+Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus, and bury it in the churchyard there; and if you
+don't get it into that place, take it with you to Teampoll-Ronan; and if
+that churchyard is closed on you, take it to Imlogue-Fada; and if you're
+not able to bury it there, you've no more to do than to take it to
+Kill-Breedya, and you can bury it there without hindrance. I cannot tell
+you what one of those churches is the one where you will have leave to
+bury that corpse under the clay, but I know that it will be allowed you
+to bury him at some church or other of them. If you do this work
+rightly, we will be thankful to you, and you will have no cause to
+grieve; but if you are slow or lazy, believe me we shall take
+satisfaction of you."
+
+When the grey little man had done speaking, his comrades laughed and
+clapped their hands together. "Glic! Glic! Hwee! Hwee!" they all cried;
+"go on, go on, you have eight hours before you till daybreak, and if you
+haven't this man buried before the sun rises, you're lost." They struck
+a fist and a foot behind on him, and drove him on in the road. He was
+obliged to walk, and to walk fast, for they gave him no rest.
+
+He thought himself that there was not a wet path, or a dirty _boreen_,
+or a crooked contrary road in the whole county, that he had not walked
+that night. The night was at times very dark, and whenever there would
+come a cloud across the moon he could see nothing, and then he used
+often to fall. Sometimes he was hurt, and sometimes he escaped, but he
+was obliged always to rise on the moment and to hurry on. Sometimes the
+moon would break out clearly, and then he would look behind him and see
+the little people following at his back. And he heard them speaking
+amongst themselves, talking and crying out, and screaming like a flock
+of sea-gulls; and if he was to save his soul he never understood as much
+as one word of what they were saying.
+
+He did not know how far he had walked, when at last one of them cried
+out to him, "Stop here!" He stood, and they all gathered round him.
+
+"Do you see those withered trees over there?" says the old boy to him
+again. "Teampoll-Démus is among those trees, and you must go in there by
+yourself, for we cannot follow you or go with you. We must remain here.
+Go on boldly."
+
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a high wall that was in places half
+broken down, and an old grey church on the inside of the wall, and about
+a dozen withered old trees scattered here and there round it. There was
+neither leaf nor twig on any of them, but their bare crooked branches
+were stretched out like the arms of an angry man when he threatens. He
+had no help for it, but was obliged to go forward. He was a couple of
+hundred yards from the church, but he walked on, and never looked behind
+him until he came to the gate of the churchyard. The old gate was thrown
+down, and he had no difficulty in entering. He turned then to see if any
+of the little people were following him, but there came a cloud over the
+moon, and the night became so dark that he could see nothing. He went
+into the churchyard, and he walked up the old grassy pathway leading to
+the church. When he reached the door, he found it locked. The door was
+large and strong, and he did not know what to do. At last he drew out
+his knife with difficulty, and stuck it in the wood to try if it were
+not rotten, but it was not.
+
+"Now," said he to himself, "I have no more to do; the door is shut, and
+I can't open it."
+
+Before the words were rightly shaped in his own mind, a voice in his ear
+said to him, "Search for the key on the top of the door, or on the
+wall."
+
+He started. "Who is that speaking to me?" he cried, turning round; but
+he saw no one. The voice said in his ear again, "Search for the key on
+the top of the door, or on the wall."
+
+"What's that?" said he, and the sweat running from his forehead; "who
+spoke to me?"
+
+"It's I, the corpse, that spoke to you!" said the voice.
+
+"Can you talk?" said Teig.
+
+"Now and again," said the corpse.
+
+Teig searched for the key, and he found it on the top of the wall. He
+was too much frightened to say any more, but he opened the door wide,
+and as quickly as he could, and he went in, with the corpse on his back.
+It was as dark as pitch inside, and poor Teig began to shake and
+tremble.
+
+"Light the candle," said the corpse.
+
+Teig put his hand in his pocket, as well as he was able, and drew out a
+flint and steel. He struck a spark out of it, and lit a burnt rag he had
+in his pocket. He blew it until it made a flame, and he looked round
+him. The church was very ancient, and part of the wall was broken down.
+The windows were blown in or cracked, and the timber of the seats were
+rotten. There were six or seven old iron candlesticks left there still,
+and in one of these candlesticks Teig found the stump of an old candle,
+and he lit it. He was still looking round him on the strange and horrid
+place in which he found himself, when the cold corpse whispered in his
+ear, "Bury me now, bury me now; there is a spade and turn the ground."
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a spade lying beside the altar. He took
+it up, and he placed the blade under a flag that was in the middle of
+the aisle, and leaning all his weight on the handle of the spade, he
+raised it. When the first flag was raised it was not hard to raise the
+others near it, and he moved three or four of them out of their places.
+The clay that was under them was soft and easy to dig, but he had not
+thrown up more than three or four shovelfuls when he felt the iron touch
+something soft like flesh. He threw up three or four more shovelfuls
+from around it, and then he saw that it was another body that was buried
+in the same place.
+
+"I am afraid I'll never be allowed to bury the two bodies in the same
+hole," said Teig, in his own mind. "You corpse, there on my back," says
+he, "will you be satisfied if I bury you down here?" But the corpse
+never answered him a word.
+
+"That's a good sign," said Teig to himself. "Maybe he's getting quiet,"
+and he thrust the spade down in the earth again. Perhaps he hurt the
+flesh of the other body, for the dead man that was buried there stood up
+in the grave, and shouted an awful shout. "Hoo! hoo!! hoo!!! Go! go!!
+go!!! or you're a dead, dead, dead man!" And then he fell back in the
+grave again. Teig said afterwards, that of all the wonderful things he
+saw that night, that was the most awful to him. His hair stood upright
+on his head like the bristles of a pig, the cold sweat ran off his face,
+and then came a tremour over all his bones, until he thought that he
+must fall.
+
+But after a while he became bolder, when he saw that the second corpse
+remained lying quietly there, and he threw in the clay on it again, and
+he smoothed it overhead, and he laid down the flags carefully as they
+had been before. "It can't be that he'll rise up any more," said he.
+
+He went down the aisle a little further, and drew near to the door, and
+began raising the flags again, looking for another bed for the corpse on
+his back. He took up three or four flags and put them aside, and then he
+dug the clay. He was not long digging until he laid bare an old woman
+without a thread upon her but her shirt. She was more lively than the
+first corpse, for he had scarcely taken any of the clay away from about
+her, when she sat up and began to cry, "Ho, you _bodach_ (clown)! Ha,
+you _bodach_! Where has he been that he got no bed?"
+
+Poor Teig drew back, and when she found that she was getting no answer,
+she closed her eyes gently, lost her vigour, and fell back quietly and
+slowly under the clay. Teig did to her as he had done to the man--he
+threw the clay back on her, and left the flags down overhead.
+
+He began digging again near the door, but before he had thrown up more
+than a couple of shovelfuls, he noticed a man's hand laid bare by the
+spade. "By my soul, I'll go no further, then," said he to himself;
+"what use is it for me?" And he threw the clay in again on it, and
+settled the flags as they had been before.
+
+He left the church then, and his heart was heavy enough, but he shut the
+door and locked it, and left the key where he found it. He sat down on a
+tombstone that was near the door, and began thinking. He was in great
+doubt what he should do. He laid his face between his two hands, and
+cried for grief and fatigue, since he was dead certain at this time that
+he never would come home alive. He made another attempt to loosen the
+hands of the corpse that were squeezed round his neck, but they were as
+tight as if they were clamped; and the more he tried to loosen them, the
+tighter they squeezed him. He was going to sit down once more, when the
+cold, horrid lips of the dead man said to him, "Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus,"
+and he remembered the command of the good people to bring the corpse
+with him to that place if he should be unable to bury it where he had
+been.
+
+He rose up, and looked about him. "I don't know the way," he said.
+
+As soon as he had uttered the word, the corpse stretched out suddenly
+its left hand that had been tightened round his neck, and kept it
+pointing out, showing him the road he ought to follow. Teig went in the
+direction that the fingers were stretched, and passed out of the
+churchyard. He found himself on an old rutty, stony road, and he stood
+still again, not knowing where to turn. The corpse stretched out its
+bony hand a second time, and pointed out to him another road--not the
+road by which he had come when approaching the old church. Teig followed
+that road, and whenever he came to a path or road meeting it, the corpse
+always stretched out its hand and pointed with its fingers, showing him
+the way he was to take.
+
+Many was the cross-road he turned down, and many was the crooked
+_boreen_ he walked, until he saw from him an old burying-ground at last,
+beside the road, but there was neither church nor chapel nor any other
+building in it. The corpse squeezed him tightly, and he stood. "Bury me,
+bury me in the burying-ground," said the voice.
+
+Teig drew over towards the old burying-place, and he was not more than
+about twenty yards from it, when, raising his eyes, he saw hundreds and
+hundreds of ghosts--men, women, and children--sitting on the top of the
+wall round about, or standing on the inside of it, or running backwards
+and forwards, and pointing at him, while he could see their mouths
+opening and shutting as if they were speaking, though he heard no word,
+nor any sound amongst them at all.
+
+He was afraid to go forward, so he stood where he was, and the moment he
+stood, all the ghosts became quiet, and ceased moving. Then Teig
+understood that it was trying to keep him from going in, that they were.
+He walked a couple of yards forwards, and immediately the whole crowd
+rushed together towards the spot to which he was moving, and they stood
+so thickly together that it seemed to him that he never could break
+through them, even though he had a mind to try. But he had no mind to
+try it. He went back broken and dispirited, and when he had gone a
+couple of hundred yards from the burying-ground, he stood again, for he
+did not know what way he was to go. He heard the voice of the corpse in
+his ear, saying, "Teampoll-Ronan," and the skinny hand was stretched out
+again, pointing him out the road.
+
+As tired as he was, he had to walk, and the road was neither short nor
+even. The night was darker than ever, and it was difficult to make his
+way. Many was the toss he got, and many a bruise they left on his body.
+At last he saw Teampoll-Ronan from him in the distance, standing in the
+middle of the burying-ground. He moved over towards it, and thought he
+was all right and safe, when he saw no ghosts nor anything else on the
+wall, and he thought he would never be hindered now from leaving his
+load off him at last. He moved over to the gate, but as he was passing
+in, he tripped on the threshold. Before he could recover himself,
+something that he could not see seized him by the neck, by the hands,
+and by the feet, and bruised him, and shook him, and choked him, until
+he was nearly dead; and at last he was lifted up, and carried more than
+a hundred yards from that place, and then thrown down in an old dyke,
+with the corpse still clinging to him.
+
+He rose up, bruised and sore, but feared to go near the place again, for
+he had seen nothing the time he was thrown down and carried away.
+
+"You corpse, up on my back?" said he, "shall I go over again to the
+churchyard?"--but the corpse never answered him. "That's a sign you
+don't wish me to try it again," said Teig.
+
+He was now in great doubt as to what he ought to do, when the corpse
+spoke in his ear, and said, "Imlogue-Fada."
+
+"Oh, murder!" said Teig, "must I bring you there? If you keep me long
+walking like this, I tell you I'll fall under you."
+
+He went on, however, in the direction the corpse pointed out to him. He
+could not have told, himself, how long he had been going, when the dead
+man behind suddenly squeezed him, and said, "There!"
+
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a little low wall, that was so broken
+down in places that it was no wall at all. It was in a great wide field,
+in from the road; and only for three or four great stones at the
+corners, that were more like rocks than stones, there was nothing to
+show that there was either graveyard or burying-ground there.
+
+"Is this Imlogue-Fada? Shall I bury you here?" said Teig.
+
+"Yes," said the voice.
+
+"But I see no grave or gravestone, only this pile of stones," said Teig.
+
+The corpse did not answer, but stretched out its long fleshless hand to
+show Teig the direction in which he was to go. Teig went on accordingly,
+but he was greatly terrified, for he remembered what had happened to him
+at the last place. He went on, "with his heart in his mouth," as he said
+himself afterwards; but when he came to within fifteen or twenty yards
+of the little low square wall, there broke out a flash of lightning,
+bright yellow and red, with blue streaks in it, and went round about the
+wall in one course, and it swept by as fast as the swallow in the
+clouds, and the longer Teig remained looking at it the faster it went,
+till at last it became like a bright ring of flame round the old
+graveyard, which no one could pass without being burnt by it. Teig never
+saw, from the time he was born, and never saw afterwards, so wonderful
+or so splendid a sight as that was. Round went the flame, white and
+yellow and blue sparks leaping out from it as it went, and although at
+first it had been no more than a thin, narrow line, it increased slowly
+until it was at last a great broad band, and it was continually getting
+broader and higher, and throwing out more brilliant sparks, till there
+was never a colour on the ridge of the earth that was not to be seen in
+that fire; and lightning never shone and flame never flamed that was so
+shining and so bright as that.
+
+Teig was amazed; he was half dead with fatigue, and he had no courage
+left to approach the wall. There fell a mist over his eyes, and there
+came a _soorawn_ in his head, and he was obliged to sit down upon a
+great stone to recover himself. He could see nothing but the light, and
+he could hear nothing but the whirr of it as it shot round the paddock
+faster than a flash of lightning.
+
+As he sat there on the stone, the voice whispered once more in his ear,
+"Kill-Breedya"; and the dead man squeezed him so tightly that he cried
+out. He rose again, sick, tired, and trembling, and went forward as he
+was directed. The wind was cold, and the road was bad, and the load upon
+his back was heavy, and the night was dark, and he himself was nearly
+worn out, and if he had had very much farther to go he must have fallen
+dead under his burden.
+
+At last the corpse stretched out its hand, and said to him, "Bury me
+there."
+
+"This is the last burying-place," said Teig in his own mind; "and the
+little grey man said I'd be allowed to bury him in some of them, so it
+must be this; it can't be but they'll let him in here."
+
+The first, faint streak of the _ring of day_ was appearing in the east,
+and the clouds were beginning to catch fire, but it was darker than
+ever, for the moon was set, and there were no stars.
+
+"Make haste, make haste!" said the corpse; and Teig hurried forward as
+well as he could to the graveyard, which was a little place on a bare
+hill, with only a few graves in it. He walked boldly in through the open
+gate, and nothing touched him, nor did he either hear or see anything.
+He came to the middle of the ground, and then stood up and looked round
+him for a spade or shovel to make a grave. As he was turning round and
+searching, he suddenly perceived what startled him greatly--a newly-dug
+grave right before him. He moved over to it, and looked down, and there
+at the bottom he saw a black coffin. He clambered down into the hole and
+lifted the lid, and found that (as he thought it would be) the coffin
+was empty. He had hardly mounted up out of the hole, and was standing on
+the brink, when the corpse, which had clung to him for more than eight
+hours, suddenly relaxed its hold of his neck, and loosened its shins
+from round his hips, and sank down with a _plop_ into the open coffin.
+
+Teig fell down on his two knees at the brink of the grave, and gave
+thanks to God. He made no delay then, but pressed down the coffin lid in
+its place, and threw in the clay over it with his two hands, and when
+the grave was filled up, he stamped and leaped on it with his feet,
+until it was firm and hard, and then he left the place.
+
+The sun was fast rising as he finished his work, and the first thing he
+did was to return to the road, and look out for a house to rest himself
+in. He found an inn at last; and lay down upon a bed there, and slept
+till night. Then he rose up and ate a little, and fell asleep again till
+morning. When he awoke in the morning he hired a horse and rode home. He
+was more than twenty-six miles from home where he was, and he had come
+all that way with the dead body on his back in one night.
+
+All the people at his own home thought that he must have left the
+country, and they rejoiced greatly when they saw him come back. Everyone
+began asking him where he had been, but he would not tell anyone except
+his father.
+
+He was a changed man from that day. He never drank too much; he never
+lost his money over cards; and especially he would not take the world
+and be out late by himself of a dark night.
+
+He was not a fortnight at home until he married Mary, the girl he had
+been in love with, and it's at their wedding the sport was, and it's he
+was the happy man from that day forward, and it's all I wish that we may
+be as happy as he was.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GLOSSARY.--_Rann_, a stanza; _kailee_ (_céilidhe_), a visit in
+the evening; _wirra_ (_a mhuire_), "Oh, Mary!" an exclamation like the
+French _dame_; _rib_, a single hair (in Irish, _ribe_); _a lock_
+(_glac_), a bundle or wisp, or a little share of anything; _kippeen_
+(_cipín_), a rod or twig; _boreen_ (_bóithrín_), a lane; _bodach_, a
+clown; _soorawn_ (_suarán_), vertigo. _Avic_ (_a Mhic_)=my son, or
+rather, Oh, son. Mic is the vocative of Mac.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN
+
+By SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
+
+
+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 these questions--all I know is this--six weeks ago
+I and my wife 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 a 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
+farther. I paid for my week, and too happy were I and my wife 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 neighbouring areas, said to me, "Do you
+want anyone in that house, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I heard it was to 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 neighbourhood, I have so
+despaired of finding any person to take charge of it, much more a
+tenant, that I would willingly let it rent free for a year to anyone 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, amongst 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
+repainting and roofing it--added to its old-fashioned furniture a few
+modern articles--advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He was
+a colonel retired 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 they deponed that they had all seen something
+different, that something was equally terrible to all. I really could
+not in conscience sue, or 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 anyone 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 honour. I dined alone, and very late, and while dining,
+read, as is my habit. The volume I selected was one 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 favourite
+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--viz. 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 ran 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 wine-bibbers.
+
+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 parlour, a small back-parlour, 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 armchair. 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, flushed 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 it is
+a--"
+
+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 around, 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 open 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 but sheer descent.
+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 gaiety 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 everyone else would execrate us if all
+was known." Again: "Don't let anyone 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 hearth-rug, 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 concentrated 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 recognised him had we met in the
+streets, 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 trying 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 recognise 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 if 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 circumstance 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--_i.e._ 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 mesmerised patient can respond to the will or
+passes of a mesmeriser 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 overshadowed; I looked up, and I saw what I shall
+find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.
+
+It was a Darkness shaping itself out of 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 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 seemed to distinguish 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 men'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 men.
+
+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 the 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 bed-head 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-coloured--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 bloodstain 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 a woman, aged. 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, 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; larvæ 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 concentrated 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
+servants' 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 favourite--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--actually twisted out of the
+vertebræ. 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 comes 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. Not 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 floor, 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:--
+
+     "HONOURED SIR,--I humbly entreat your pardon, though I
+     can scarcely hope that you will think 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, honoured 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 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 know but little of 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_."
+
+"Granting mesmerism, so far carried, to be a fact, you are right. And
+you would infer from this that a mesmeriser might produce the
+extraordinary effects you and others have witnessed over inanimate
+objects--fill the air with sights and sounds?"
+
+"Or impress our senses with the belief in them--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, 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 burnt 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 so 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. They come for little or no
+object--they seldom speak, if they do come; they utter no ideas above
+that of an ordinary person on earth. These 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 notable, 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--viz. 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 fiend-like shapes appear
+in a magic circle, or bodyless 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 may produce
+chemic wonders--in others a natural fluid, call it electricity, and
+these produce electric wonders. But they differ in this from Normal
+Science--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 semisubstance. 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; it 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. Rats 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 bedroom 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 back-yard, 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 afterwards 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 relatives, 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 the 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 neighbours 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 back-yard--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 peculiar 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 colourless volatile essences, of what nature I shall say
+no more than 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 colours 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 most peculiar 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. The strange thing was this--the
+instant I saw the miniature I recognised a startling likeness to one of
+the rarest portraits in the world--the portrait of a man of a rank only
+below that of royalty, who in his own day had made a considerable noise.
+History says little or nothing of him; but search the correspondence of
+his contemporaries, and you find reference to his wild daring, his bold
+profligacy, his restless spirit, his taste for the occult sciences.
+While still in the meridian of life he died and was buried, so say the
+chronicles, in a foreign land. He died in time to escape the grasp of
+the law, for he was accused of crimes which would have given him to the
+headsman.
+
+After his death, the portraits of him, which had been numerous, for he
+had been a munificent encourager of art, were bought up and
+destroyed--it was supposed by his heirs, who might have been glad could
+they have razed his very name from their splendid line. He had enjoyed a
+vast wealth; a large portion of this was believed to have been embezzled
+by a favourite astrologer or soothsayer--at all events, it had
+unaccountably vanished at the time of his death. One portrait alone of
+him was supposed to have escaped the general destruction; I had seen it
+in the house of a collector some months before. It had made on me a
+wonderful impression, as it does on all who behold it--a face never to
+be forgotten; and there was that face in the miniature that lay within
+my hand. True, that in the miniature the man was a few years older than
+in the portrait I had seen, or than the original was even at the time of
+his death. But a few years!--why, between the date in which flourished
+that direful noble and the date in which the miniature was evidently
+painted, there was an interval of more than two centuries. While I was
+thus gazing, silent and wondering, Mr J---- said:
+
+"But is it possible? I have known this man."
+
+"How--where?" I cried.
+
+"In India. He was high in the confidence of the Rajah of ----, and
+wellnigh drew him into a revolt which would have lost the Rajah his
+dominions. The man was a Frenchman--his name de V----, clever, bold,
+lawless. We insisted on his dismissal and banishment: it must be the
+same man--no two faces like his--yet this miniature seems nearly a
+hundred years old."
+
+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. Withinside the lid
+was engraved "Mariana 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 very peculiar, but not strong nor
+displeasing odour, came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood
+that we afterwards discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this
+odour, 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 spilt--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 trap-door; but seeing that nothing more
+happened, they were easily induced to return.
+
+Meanwhile I had opened the tablet: it was bound in a 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---- burnt 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.
+
+But my story is not yet done. A few days after Mr J---- had removed into
+the house, I paid him a visit. We were standing by the open window and
+conversing. A van containing some articles of furniture which he was
+moving from his former house was at the door. I had just urged on him my
+theory that all those phenomena regarded as supermundane had emanated
+from a human brain; adducing the charm, or rather curse, we had found
+and destroyed in support of my philosophy. Mr J---- was observing in
+reply, "That even if mesmerism, or whatever analogous power it might be
+called, could really thus work in the absence of the operator, and
+produce effects so extraordinary, still could those effects continue
+when the operator himself was dead? and if the spell had been wrought,
+and, indeed, the room walled up, more than seventy years ago, the
+probability was, that the operator had long since departed this life";
+Mr J----, I say, was thus answering, when I caught hold of his arm and
+pointed to the street below.
+
+A well-dressed man had crossed from the opposite side, and was accosting
+the carrier in charge of the van. His face, as he stood, was exactly
+fronting our window. It was the face of the miniature we had discovered;
+it was the face of the portrait of the noble three centuries ago.
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Mr J----, "that is the face of de V----, and
+scarcely a day older than when I saw it in the Rajah's court in my
+youth!"
+
+Seized by the same thought, we both hastened downstairs. I was first in
+the street; but the man had already gone. I caught sight of him,
+however, not many yards in advance, and in another moment I was by his
+side.
+
+I had resolved to speak to him, but when I looked into his face I felt
+as if it were impossible to do so. That eye--the eye of the
+serpent--fixed and held me spellbound. And withal, about the man's whole
+person there was a dignity, an air of pride and station and superiority,
+that would have made anyone, habituated to the usages of the world,
+hesitate long before venturing upon a liberty or impertinence. And what
+could I say? what was it I would ask? Thus ashamed of my first impulse,
+I fell a few paces back, still, however, following the stranger,
+undecided what else to do. Meanwhile he turned the corner of the street;
+a plain carriage was in waiting, with a servant out of livery, dressed
+like a _valet-de-place_, at the carriage door. In another moment he had
+stepped into the carriage, and it drove off. I returned to the house. Mr
+J---- was still at the street door. He had asked the carrier what the
+stranger had said to him.
+
+"Merely asked whom that house now belonged to."
+
+The same evening I happened to go with a friend to a place in town
+called the Cosmopolitan Club, a place open to men of all countries, all
+opinions, all degrees. One orders one's coffee, smokes one's cigar. One
+is always sure to meet agreeable, sometimes remarkable, persons.
+
+I had not been two minutes in the room before I beheld at a table,
+conversing with an acquaintance of mine, whom I will designate by the
+initial G----, the man--the Original of the Miniature. He was now
+without his hat, and the likeness was yet more startling, only I
+observed that while he was conversing there was less severity in the
+countenance; there was even a smile, though a very quiet and very cold
+one. The dignity of mien I had acknowledged in the street was also more
+striking; a dignity akin to that which invests some prince of the
+East--conveying the idea of supreme indifference and habitual,
+indisputable, indolent, but resistless power.
+
+G---- soon after left the stranger, who then took up a scientific
+journal, which seemed to absorb his attention.
+
+I drew G---- aside. "Who and what is that gentleman?"
+
+"That? Oh, a very remarkable man indeed. I met him last year amidst the
+caves of Petra--the scriptural Edom. He is the best Oriental scholar I
+know. We joined company, had an adventure with robbers, in which he
+showed a coolness that saved our lives; afterwards he invited me to
+spend a day with him in a house he had bought at Damascus--a house
+buried amongst almond blossoms and roses--the most beautiful thing! He
+had lived there for some years, quite as an Oriental, in grand style. I
+half suspect he is a renegade, immensely rich, very odd; by the by, a
+great mesmeriser. I have seen him with my own eyes produce an effect on
+inanimate things. If you take a letter from your pocket and throw it to
+the other end of the room, he will order it to come to his feet, and you
+will see the letter wriggle itself along the floor till it has obeyed
+his command. 'Pon my honour, 'tis true: I have seen him affect even the
+weather, disperse or collect clouds, by means of a glass tube or wand.
+But he does not like talking of these matters to strangers. He has only
+just arrived in England; says he has not been here for a great many
+years; let me introduce him to you."
+
+"Certainly! He is English, then? What is his name?"
+
+"Oh!--a very homely one--Richards."
+
+"And what is his birth--his family?"
+
+"How do I know? What does it signify?--no doubt some parvenu, but
+rich--so infernally rich!"
+
+G---- drew me up to the stranger, and the introduction was effected. The
+manners of Mr Richards were not those of an adventurous traveller.
+Travellers are in general constitutionally gifted with high animal
+spirits: they are talkative, eager, imperious. Mr Richards was calm and
+subdued in tone, with manners which were made distant by the loftiness
+of punctilious courtesy--the manners of a former age. I observed that
+the English he spoke was not exactly of our day. I should even have said
+that the accent was slightly foreign. But then Mr Richards remarked that
+he had been little in the habit for many years of speaking in his native
+tongue. The conversation fell upon the changes in the aspect of London
+since he had last visited our metropolis. G---- then glanced off to the
+moral changes--literary, social, political--the great men who were
+removed from the stage within the last twenty years--the new great men
+who were coming on. In all this Mr Richards evinced no interest. He had
+evidently read none of our living authors, and seemed scarcely
+acquainted by name with our younger statesmen. Once and only
+once he laughed; it was when G---- asked him whether he had
+any thoughts of getting into Parliament. And the laugh was
+inward--sarcastic--sinister--a sneer raised into a laugh. After a few
+minutes G---- left us to talk to some other acquaintances who had just
+lounged into the room, and I then said quietly:
+
+"I have seen a miniature of you, Mr Richards, in the house you once
+inhabited, and perhaps built, if not wholly, at least in part, in ----
+Street. You passed by that house this morning."
+
+Not till I had finished did I raise my eyes to his, and then his fixed
+my gaze so steadfastly that I could not withdraw it--those fascinating
+serpent eyes. But involuntarily, and if the words that translated my
+thought were dragged from me, I added in a low whisper, "I have been a
+student in the mysteries of life and nature; of those mysteries I have
+known the occult professors. I have the right to speak to you thus." And
+I uttered a certain pass-word.
+
+"Well," said he, dryly, "I concede the right--what would you ask?"
+
+"To what extent human will in certain temperaments can extend?"
+
+"To what extent can thought extend? Think, and before you draw breath
+you are in China!"
+
+"True. But my thought has no power in China."
+
+"Give it expression, and it may have: you may write down a thought
+which, sooner or later, may alter the whole condition of China. What is
+a law but a thought? Therefore thought is infinite--therefore thought
+has power; not in proportion to its value--a bad thought may make a bad
+law as potent as a good thought can make a good one."
+
+"Yes; what you say confirms my own theory. Through invisible currents
+one human brain may transmit its ideas to other human brains with the
+same rapidity as a thought promulgated by visible means. And as thought
+is imperishable--as it leaves its stamp behind it in the natural world
+even when the thinker has passed out of this world--so the thought of
+the living may have power to rouse up and revive the thoughts of the
+dead--such as those thoughts _were in life_--though the thought of the
+living cannot reach the thoughts which the dead _now_ may entertain. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"I decline to answer, if, in my judgment, thought has the limit you
+would fix to it; but proceed. You have a special question you wish to
+put."
+
+"Intense malignity in an intense will, engendered in a peculiar
+temperament, and aided by natural means within the reach of science, may
+produce effects like those ascribed of old to evil magic. It might thus
+haunt the walls of a human habitation with spectral revivals of all
+guilty thoughts and guilty deeds once conceived and done within those
+walls; all, in short, with which the evil will claims _rapport_ and
+affinity--imperfect, incoherent, fragmentary snatches at the old dramas
+acted therein years ago. Thoughts thus crossing each other haphazard, as
+in the nightmare of a vision, growing up into phantom sights and sounds,
+and all serving to create horror, not because those sights and sounds
+are really visitations from a world without, but that they are ghastly
+monstrous renewals of what have been in this world itself, set into
+malignant play by a malignant mortal.
+
+"And it is through the material agency of that human brain that these
+things would acquire even a human power--would strike as with the shock
+of electricity, and might kill, if the thought of the person assailed
+did not rise superior to the dignity of the original assailer--might
+kill the most powerful animal if unnerved by fear, but not injure the
+feeblest man, if, while his flesh crept, his mind stood out fearless.
+Thus, when in old stories we read of a magician rent to pieces by the
+fiends he had evoked--or still more, in Eastern legends, that one
+magician succeeds by arts in destroying another--there may be so far
+truth, that a material being has clothed, from its own evil propensities
+certain elements and fluids, usually quiescent or harmless, with awful
+shape and terrific force--just as the lightning that had lain hidden and
+innocent in the cloud becomes by natural law suddenly visible, takes a
+distinct shape to the eye, and can strike destruction on the object to
+which it is attracted."
+
+"You are not without glimpses of a very mighty secret," said Mr
+Richards, composedly. "According to your view, could a mortal obtain the
+power you speak of, he would necessarily be a malignant and evil being."
+
+"If the power were exercised as I have said, most malignant and most
+evil--though I believe in the ancient traditions that he could not
+injure the good. His will could only injure those with whom it has
+established an affinity, or over whom it forces unresisted sway. I will
+now imagine an example that may be within the laws of nature, yet seem
+wild as the fables of a bewildered monk.
+
+"You will remember that Albertus Magnus, after describing minutely the
+process by which spirits may be invoked and commanded, adds emphatically
+that the process will instruct and avail only to the few--that a _man
+must be born a magician_!--that is, born with a peculiar physical
+temperament, as a man is born a poet. Rarely are men in whose
+constitution lurks this occult power of the highest order of
+intellect;--usually in the intellect there is some twist, perversity, or
+disease. But, on the other hand, they must possess, to an astonishing
+degree, the faculty to concentrate thought on a single object--the
+energic faculty that we call _will_. Therefore, though their intellect
+be not sound, it is exceedingly forcible for the attainment of what it
+desires. I will imagine such a person, pre-eminently gifted with this
+constitution and its concomitant forces. I will place him in the loftier
+grades of society. I will suppose his desires emphatically those of the
+sensualist--he has, therefore, a strong love of life. He is an absolute
+egotist--his will is concentrated in himself--he has fierce passions--he
+knows no enduring, no holy affections, but he can covet eagerly what for
+the moment he desires--he can hate implacably what opposes itself to his
+objects--he can commit fearful crimes, yet feel small remorse--he
+resorts rather to curses upon others, than to penitence for his
+misdeeds. Circumstances, to which his constitution guides him, lead him
+to a rare knowledge of the natural secrets which may serve his egotism.
+He is a close observer where his passions encourage observation, he is a
+minute calculator, not from love of truth, but where love of self
+sharpens his faculties--therefore he can be a man of science.
+
+"I suppose such a being, having by experience learned the power of his
+arts over others, trying what may be the power of will over his own
+frame, and studying all that in natural philosophy may increase that
+power. He loves life, he dreads death; he _wills to live on_. He cannot
+restore himself to youth, he cannot entirely stay the progress of death,
+he cannot make himself immortal in the flesh and blood; but he may
+arrest for a time so prolonged as to appear incredible, if I said
+it--that hardening of the parts which constitutes old age. A year may
+age him no more than an hour ages another. His intense will,
+scientifically trained into system, operates, in short, over the wear
+and tear of his own frame. He lives on. That he may not seem a portent
+and a miracle, he _dies_ from time to time, seemingly, to certain
+persons. Having schemed the transfer of a wealth that suffices to his
+wants, he disappears from one corner of the world, and contrives that
+his obsequies shall be celebrated. He reappears at another corner of the
+world, where he resides undetected, and does not revisit the scenes of
+his former career till all who could remember his features are no more.
+He would be profoundly miserable if he had affections--he has none but
+for himself. No good man would accept his longevity, and to no men, good
+or bad, would he or could he communicate its true secret. Such a man
+might exist; such a man as I have described I see now before me!--Duke
+of ----, in the court of ----, dividing time between lust and brawl,
+alchemists and wizards;--again, in the last century, charlatan and
+criminal, with name less noble, domiciled in the house at which you
+gazed to-day, and flying from the law you had outraged, none knew
+whither; traveller once more revisiting London, with the same earthly
+passions which filled your heart when races now no more walked through
+yonder streets; outlaw from the school of all the nobler and diviner
+mystics; execrable Image of Life in Death and Death in Life, I warn you
+back from the cities and homes of healthful men; back to the ruins of
+departed empires; back to the deserts of nature unredeemed!"
+
+There answered me a whisper so musical, so potently musical, that it
+seemed to enter into my whole being, and subdue me despite myself. Thus
+it said:
+
+"I have sought one like you for the last hundred years. Now I have found
+you, we part not till I know what I desire. The vision that sees through
+the Past, and cleaves through the veil of the Future, is in you at this
+hour; never before, never to come again. The vision of no puling
+fantastic girl, of no sick-bed somnambule, but of a strong man, with a
+vigorous brain. Soar and look forth!"
+
+As he spoke I felt as if I rose out of myself upon eagle wings. All the
+weight seemed gone from air--roofless the room, roofless the dome of
+space. I was not in the body--where I knew not--but aloft over time,
+over earth.
+
+Again I heard the melodious whisper,--"You say right. I have mastered
+great secrets by the power of Will; true, by Will and by Science I can
+retard the process of years: but death comes not by age alone. Can I
+frustrate the accidents which bring death upon the young?"
+
+"No; every accident is a providence. Before a providence snaps every
+human will."
+
+"Shall I die at last, ages and ages hence, by the slow, though
+inevitable, growth of time, or by the cause that I call accident?"
+
+"By a cause you call accident."
+
+"Is not the end still remote?" asked the whisper, with a slight tremor.
+
+"Regarded as my life regards time, it is still remote."
+
+"And shall I, before then, mix with the world of men as I did ere I
+learned these secrets, resume eager interest in their strife and their
+trouble--battle with ambition, and use the power of the sage to win the
+power that belongs to kings?"
+
+"You will yet play a part on the earth that will fill earth with
+commotion and amaze. For wondrous designs have you, a wonder yourself,
+been permitted to live on through the centuries. All the secrets you
+have stored will then have their uses--all that now makes you a stranger
+amidst the generations will contribute then to make you their lord. As
+the trees and the straws are drawn into a whirlpool--as they spin round,
+are sucked to the deep, and again tossed aloft by the eddies, so shall
+races and thrones be plucked into the charm of your vortex. Awful
+Destroyer--but in destroying, made, against your own will, a
+Constructor!"
+
+"And that date, too, is far off?"
+
+"Far off; when it comes, think your end in this world is at hand!"
+
+"How and what is the end? Look east, west, south, and north."
+
+"In the north, where you never yet trod towards the point whence your
+instincts have warned you, there a spectre will seize you. 'Tis Death! I
+see a ship--it is haunted--'tis chased--it sails on. Baffled navies sail
+after that ship. It enters the region of ice. It passes a sky red with
+meteors. Two moons stand on high, over ice-reefs. I see the ship locked
+between white defiles--they are ice-rocks. I see the dead strew the
+decks--stark and livid, green mould on their limbs. All are dead but one
+man--it is you! But years, though so slowly they come, have then scathed
+you. There is the coming of age on your brow, and the will is relaxed
+in the cells of the brain. Still that will, though enfeebled, exceeds
+all that man knew before you, through the will you live on, gnawed with
+famine; and nature no longer obeys you in that death-spreading region;
+the sky is a sky of iron, and the air has iron clamps, and the ice-rocks
+wedge in the ship. Hark how it cracks and groans. Ice will imbed it as
+amber imbeds a straw. And a man has gone forth, living yet, from the
+ship and its dead; and he has clambered up the spikes of an iceberg, and
+the two moons gaze down on his form. That man is yourself; and terror is
+on you--terror; and terror has swallowed your will. And I see swarming
+up the steep ice-rock, grey grisly things. The bears of the north have
+scented their quarry--they come near you and nearer, shambling and
+rolling their bulk. And in that day every moment shall seem to you
+longer than the centuries through which you have passed. And heed
+this--after life, moments continued make the bliss or the hell of
+eternity."
+
+"Hush," said the whisper; "but the day, you assure me, is far off--very
+far! I go back to the almond and rose of Damascus!--sleep!"
+
+The room swam before my eyes. I became insensible. When I recovered, I
+found G---- holding my hand and smiling. He said, "You who have always
+declared yourself proof against mesmerism have succumbed at last to my
+friend Richards."
+
+"Where is Mr Richards?"
+
+"Gone, when you passed into a trance--saying quietly to me, 'Your friend
+will not wake for an hour.'"
+
+I asked, as collectedly as I could, where Mr Richards lodged.
+
+"At the Trafalgar Hotel."
+
+"Give me your arm," said I to G----; "let us call on him; I have
+something to say."
+
+When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that Mr Richards had
+returned twenty minutes before, paid his bill, left directions with his
+servant (a Greek) to pack his effects and proceed to Malta by the
+steamer that should leave Southampton the next day. Mr Richards had
+merely said of his own movements that he had visits to pay in the
+neighbourhood of London, and it was uncertain whether he should be able
+to reach Southampton in time for that steamer; if not, he should follow
+in the next one.
+
+The waiter asked me my name. On my informing him, he gave me a note that
+Mr Richards had left for me, in case I called.
+
+The note was as follows: "I wished you to utter what was in your mind.
+You obeyed. I have therefore established power over you. For three
+months from this day you can communicate to no living man what has
+passed between us--you cannot even show this note to the friend by your
+side. During three months, silence complete as to me and mine. Do you
+doubt my power to lay on you this command?--try to disobey me. At the
+end of the third month, the spell is raised. For the rest I spare you. I
+shall visit your grave a year and a day after it has received you."
+
+So ends this strange story, which I ask no one to believe. I write it
+down exactly three months after I received the above note. I could not
+write it before, nor could I show to G----, in spite of his urgent
+request, the note which I read under the gas-lamp by his side.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE BOTATHEN GHOST
+
+By the Rev. S.R. HAWKER
+
+
+The legend of Parson Rudall and the Botathen Ghost will be recognised by
+many Cornish people as a local remembrance of their boyhood.
+
+It appears from the diary of this learned master of the
+grammar-school--for such was his office, as well as perpetual curate of
+the parish,--"that a pestilential disease did break forth in our town in
+the beginning of the year A.D. 1665; yea, and it likewise
+invaded my school, insomuch that therewithal certain of the chief
+scholars sickened and died." "Among others who yielded to the malign
+influence was Master John Eliot, the eldest son and the worshipful heir
+of Edward Eliot, Esquire of Trebursey, a stripling of sixteen years of
+age, but of uncommon parts and hopeful ingenuity. At his own especial
+motion and earnest desire I did consent to preach his funeral sermon."
+It should be remembered here that, howsoever strange and singular it may
+sound to us that a mere lad should formally solicit such a performance
+at the hands of his master, it was in consonance with the habitual usage
+of those times. The old services for the dead had been abolished by law,
+and in the stead of sacrament and ceremony, month's mind and year's
+mind, the sole substitute which survived was the general desire "to
+partake," as they called it, of a posthumous discourse, replete with
+lofty eulogy and flattering remembrance of the living and the dead. The
+diary proceeds:
+
+"I fulfilled my undertaking and preached over the coffin in the presence
+of a full assemblage of mourners and lachrymose friends. An ancient
+gentleman who was then and there in the church, a Mr Bligh of Botathen,
+was much affected by my discourse, and he was heard to repeat to himself
+certain parentheses therefrom, especially a phrase from Maro Virgilius,
+which I had applied to the deceased youth, 'Et puer ipse fuit cantari
+dignus.'
+
+"The cause wherefore this old gentleman was thus moved by my
+applications was this: He had a first-born and only son--a child who,
+but a very few months before, had been not unworthy of the character I
+drew of young Master Eliot, but who, by some strange accident, had of
+late quite fallen away from his parent's hopes, and become moody, and
+sullen, and distraught. When the funeral obsequies were over, I had no
+sooner come out of the church than I was accosted by this aged parent,
+and he besought me incontinently, with a singular energy, that I would
+resort with him forthwith to his abode at Botathen that very night; nor
+could I have delivered myself from his importunity, had not Mr Eliot
+urged his claim to enjoy my company at his own house. Hereupon I got
+loose, but not until I had pledged a fast assurance that I would pay
+him, faithfully, an early visit the next day."
+
+"The Place," as it was called, of Botathen, where old Mr Bligh resided,
+was a low-roofed gabled manor-house of the fifteenth century, walled and
+mullioned, and with clustered chimneys of dark-grey stone from the
+neighbouring quarries of Ventor-gan. The mansion was flanked by a
+pleasaunce or enclosure in one space, of garden and lawn, and it was
+surrounded by a solemn grove of stag-horned trees. It had the sombre
+aspect of age and of solitude, and looked the very scene of strange and
+supernatural events. A legend might well belong to every gloomy glade
+around, and there must surely be a haunted room somewhere within its
+walls. Hither, according to his appointment, on the morrow, Parson
+Rudall betook himself. Another clergyman, as it appeared, had been
+invited to meet him, who, very soon after his arrival, proposed a walk
+together in the pleasaunce, on the pretext of showing him, as a
+stranger, the walks and trees, until the dinner-bell should strike.
+There, with much prolixity, and with many a solemn pause, his brother
+minister proceeded to "unfold the mystery."
+
+"A singular infelicity," he declared, "had befallen young Master Bligh,
+once the hopeful heir of his parents and of the lands of Botathen.
+Whereas he had been from childhood a blithe and merry boy, 'the
+gladness,' like Isaac of old, of his father's age, he had suddenly of
+late become morose and silent--nay, even austere and stern--dwelling
+apart, always solemn, often in tears. The lad had at first repulsed all
+questions as to the origin of this great change, but of late he had
+yielded to the importunate researches of his parents, and had disclosed
+the secret cause. It appeared that he resorted, every day, by a pathway
+across the fields, to this very clergyman's house, who had charge of his
+education, and grounded him in the studies suitable to his age. In the
+course of his daily walk he had to pass a certain heath or down where
+the road wound along through tall blocks of granite with open spaces of
+grassy sward between. There in a certain spot and always in one and the
+same place, the lad declared that he had encountered, every day, a woman
+with a pale and troubled face, clothed in a long loose garment of
+frieze, with one hand always stretched forth, and the other pressed
+against her side. Her name, he said, was Dorothy Dinglet, for he had
+known her well from his childhood, and she often used to come to his
+parents' house; but that which troubled him was, that she had now been
+dead three years, and he himself had been with the neighbours at her
+burial; so that, as the youth alleged, with great simplicity, since he
+had seen her body laid in the grave, this that he saw every day must
+needs be her soul or ghost. 'Questioned again and again,' said the
+clergyman, 'he never contradicts himself; but he relates the same and
+the simple tale as a thing that cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, the lad's
+observance is keen and calm for a boy of his age. The hair of the
+appearance, sayeth he, is not like anything alive, but it is so soft and
+light that it seemeth to melt away while you look; but her eyes are set,
+and never blink--no, not when the sun shineth full upon her face. She
+maketh no steps, but seemeth to swim along the top of the grass; and her
+hand, which is stretched out alway, seemeth to point at something far
+away, out of sight. It is her continual coming; for she never faileth to
+meet him, and to pass on, that hath quenched his spirits; and although
+he never seeth her by night, yet cannot he get his natural rest.'
+
+"Thus far the clergyman; whereupon the dinner clock did sound, and we
+went into the house. After dinner, when young Master Bligh had withdrawn
+with his tutor, under excuse of their books, the parents did forthwith
+beset me as to my thoughts about their son. Said I, warily, 'The case is
+strange, but by no means impossible. It is one that I will study, and
+fear not to handle, if the lad will be free with me, and fulfil all that
+I desire.' The mother was overjoyed, but I perceived that old Mr Bligh
+turned pale, and was downcast with some thought which, however, he did
+not express. Then they bade that Master Bligh should be called to meet
+me in the pleasaunce forthwith. The boy came, and he rehearsed to me his
+tale with an open countenance, and, withal, a modesty of speech. Verily
+he seemed 'ingenui vultus puer ingenuique pudoris.' Then I signified to
+him my purpose. 'To-morrow,' said I, 'we will go together to the place;
+and if, as I doubt not, the woman shall appear, it will be for me to
+proceed according to knowledge, and by rules laid down in my books.'"
+
+The unaltered scenery of the legend still survives, and, like the field
+of the forty footsteps in another history, the place is still visited by
+those who take interest in the supernatural tales of old. The pathway
+leads along a moorland waste, where large masses of rock stand up here
+and there from the grassy turf, and clumps of heath and gorse weave
+their tapestry of golden purple garniture on every side. Amidst all
+these, and winding along between the rocks, is a natural footway worn by
+the scant, rare tread of the village traveller. Just midway, a somewhat
+larger stretch than usual of green sod expands, which is skirted by the
+path, and which is still identified as the legendary haunt of the
+phantom, by the name of Parson Rudall's Ghost.
+
+But we must draw the record of the first interview between the minister
+and Dorothy from his own words. "We met," thus he writes, "in the
+pleasaunce very early, and before any others in the house were awake;
+and together the lad and myself proceeded towards the field. The youth
+was quite composed, and carried his Bible under his arm, from whence he
+read to me verses, which he said he had lately picked out, to have
+always in his mind. These were Job vii. 14, 'Thou scarest me with
+dreams, and terrifiest me through visions'; and Deuteronomy xxviii. 67,
+'In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it were the evening, and in
+the evening thou shalt say, Would to God it were morning; for the fear
+of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine
+eyes which thou shalt see.'
+
+"I was much pleased with the lad's ingenuity in these pious
+applications, but for mine own part I was somewhat anxious and out of
+cheer. For aught I knew this might be a _dæmonium meridianum_, the most
+stubborn spirit to govern and guide that any man can meet, and the most
+perilous withal. We had hardly reached the accustomed spot, when we both
+saw her at once gliding towards us; punctually as the ancient writers
+describe the motion of their 'lemures, which swoon along the ground,
+neither marking the sand nor bending the herbage.' The aspect of the
+woman was exactly that which had been related by the lad. There was the
+pale and stony face, the strange and misty hair, the eyes firm and
+fixed, that gazed, yet not on us, but something that they saw far, far
+away; one hand and arm stretched out, and the other grasping the girdle
+of her waist. She floated along the field like a sail upon a stream, and
+glided past the spot where we stood, pausingly. But so deep was the awe
+that overcame me, as I stood there in the light of day, face to face
+with a human soul separate from her bones and flesh, that my heart and
+purpose both failed me. I had resolved to speak to the spectre in the
+appointed form of words, but I did not. I stood like one amazed and
+speechless, until she had passed clean out of sight. One thing
+remarkable came to pass. A spaniel dog, the favourite of young Master
+Bligh, had followed us, and lo! when the woman drew nigh, the poor
+creature began to yell and bark piteously, and ran backward and away,
+like a thing dismayed and appalled. We returned to the house, and after
+I had said all that I could to pacify the lad, and to soothe the aged
+people, I took my leave for that time, with a promise that when I had
+fulfilled certain business elsewhere, which I then alleged, I would
+return and take orders to assuage these disturbances and their cause.
+
+"January 7, 1665.--At my own house, I find, by my books, what is
+expedient to be done; and then, Apage, Sathanas!
+
+"January 9, 1665.--This day I took leave of my wife and family, under
+pretext of engagements elsewhere, and made my secret journey to our
+diocesan city, wherein the good and venerable bishop then abode.
+
+"January 10.--_Deo gratias_, in safe arrival at Exeter; craved and
+obtained immediate audience of his lordship; pleading it was for counsel
+and admonition on a weighty and pressing cause; called to the presence;
+made obeisance; and then by command stated my case--the Botathen
+perplexity--which I moved with strong and earnest instances and solemn
+asseverations of that which I had myself seen and heard. Demanded by his
+lordship, what was the succour that I had come to entreat at his hands?
+Replied, licence for my exorcism, that so I might, ministerially, allay
+this spiritual visitant, and thus render to the living and the dead
+release from this surprise. 'But,' said our bishop, 'on what authority
+do you allege that I am intrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as
+is well known, hath abjured certain branches of her ancient power, on
+grounds of perversion and abuse.' 'Nay, my Lord,' I humbly answered,
+'under favour, the seventy-second of the canons ratified and enjoined on
+us, the clergy, anno Domini 1604, doth expressly provide, that "no
+minister, _unless he hath_ the licence of his diocesan bishop, shall
+essay to exorcise a spirit, evil or good." Therefore it was,' I did here
+mildly allege, 'that I did not presume to enter on such a work without
+lawful privilege under your lordship's hand and seal.' Hereupon did our
+wise and learned bishop, sitting in his chair, condescend upon the theme
+at some length with many gracious interpretations from ancient writers
+and from Holy Scripture, and I did humbly rejoin and reply, till the
+upshot was that he did call in his secretary and command him to draw the
+aforesaid faculty, forthwith and without further delay, assigning him a
+form, insomuch that the matter was incontinently done; and after I had
+disbursed into the secretary's hands certain moneys for signitary
+purposes, as the manner of such officers hath always been, the bishop
+did himself affix his signature under the _sigillum_ of his see, and
+deliver the document into my hands. When I knelt down to receive his
+benediction, he softly said, 'Let it be secret, Mr R. Weak brethren!
+weak brethren!'"
+
+This interview with the bishop, and the success with which he
+vanquished his lordship's scruples, would seem to have confirmed Parson
+Rudall very strongly in his own esteem, and to have invested him with
+that courage which he evidently lacked at his first encounter with the
+ghost.
+
+The entries proceed: "January 11, 1665.--Therewithal did I hasten home
+and prepare my instruments, and cast my figures for the onset of the
+next day. Took out my ring of brass, and put it on the index-finger of
+my right hand, with the _scutum Davidis_ traced thereon.
+
+"January 12, 1665.--Rode into the gateway at Botathen, armed at all
+points, but not with Saul's armour, and ready. There is danger from the
+demons, but so there is in the surrounding air every day. At early
+morning then, and alone,--for so the usage ordains,--I betook me towards
+the field. It was void, and I had thereby due time to prepare. First, I
+paced and measured out my circle on the grass. Then did I mark my
+pentacle in the very midst, and at the intersection of the five angles I
+did set up and fix my crutch of _raun_ (rowan). Lastly, I took my
+station south, at the true line of the meridian, and stood facing due
+north. I waited and watched for a long time. At last there was a kind of
+trouble in the air, a soft and rippling sound, and all at once the shape
+appeared, and came on towards me gradually. I opened my parchment
+scroll, and read aloud the command. She paused, and seemed to waver and
+doubt; stood still; then I rehearsed the sentence, sounding out every
+syllable like a chant. She drew near my ring, but halted at first
+outside, on the brink. I sounded again, and now at the third time I gave
+the signal in Syriac,--the speech which is used, they say, where such
+ones dwell and converse in thoughts that glide.
+
+"She was at last obedient, and swam into the midst of the circle, and
+there stood still, suddenly. I saw, moreover, that she drew back her
+pointing hand. All this while I do confess that my knees shook under me,
+and the drops of sweat ran down my flesh like rain. But now, although
+face to face with the spirit, my heart grew calm, and my mind was
+composed. I knew that the pentacle would govern her, and the ring must
+bind, until I gave the word. Then I called to mind the rule laid down of
+old, that no angel or fiend, no spirit, good or evil, will ever speak
+until they have been first spoken to. _N.B._--This is the great law of
+prayer. God Himself will not yield reply until man hath made vocal
+entreaty, once and again. So I went on to demand, as the books advise;
+and the phantom made answer, willingly. Questioned wherefore not at
+rest? Unquiet, because of a certain sin. Asked what, and by whom?
+Revealed it; but it is _sub sigillo_, and therefore _nefas dictu_; more
+anon. Inquired, what sign she could give that she was a true spirit and
+not a false fiend? Stated, before next Yule-tide a fearful pestilence
+would lay waste the land and myriads of souls would be loosened from
+their flesh, until, as she piteously said, 'our valleys will be full.'
+Asked again, why she so terrified the lad? Replied: 'It is the law; we
+must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to receive
+messages and admonitions.' We conversed with many more words, but it is
+not lawful for me to set them down. Pen and ink would degrade and defile
+the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day. I broke
+the ring, and she passed, but to return once more next day. At
+even-song, a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr B. Great
+horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin;
+full acknowledgment before pardon.
+
+"January 13, 1665.--At sunrise I was again in the field. She came in at
+once, and, as it seemed, with freedom. Inquired if she knew my thoughts,
+and what I was going to relate? Answered, 'Nay, we only know what we
+perceive and hear; we cannot see the heart.' Then I rehearsed the
+penitent words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the
+satisfaction he would perform. Then said she, 'Peace in our midst.' I
+went through the proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all as it was
+set down and written in my memoranda; and then, with certain fixed
+rites, I did dismiss that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew,
+gliding towards the west. Neither did she ever afterward appear, but was
+allayed until she shall come in her second flesh to the valley of
+Armageddon on the last day."
+
+These quaint and curious details from the "diurnal" of a simple-hearted
+clergyman of the seventeenth century appear to betoken his personal
+persuasion of the truth of what he saw and said, although the statements
+are strongly tinged with what some may term the superstition, and others
+the excessive belief, of those times. It is a singular fact, however,
+that the canon which authorises exorcism under episcopal licence is
+still a part of the ecclesiastical law of the Anglican Church, although
+it might have a singular effect on the nerves of certain of our bishops
+if their clergy were to resort to them for the faculty which Parson
+Rudall obtained. The general facts stated in his diary are to this day
+matters of belief in that neighbourhood; and it has been always
+accounted a strong proof of the veracity of the Parson and the Ghost,
+that the plague, fatal to so many thousands, did break out in London at
+the close of that very year. We may well excuse a triumphant entry, on a
+subsequent page of the "diurnal," with the date of July 10, 1665: "How
+sorely must the infidels and heretics of this generation be dismayed
+when they know that this Black Death, which is now swallowing its
+thousands in the streets of the great city, was foretold six months
+agone, under the exorcisms of a country minister, by a visible and
+suppliant ghost! And what pleasures and improvements do such deny
+themselves who scorn and avoid all opportunity of intercourse with souls
+separate, and the spirits, glad and sorrowful, which inhabit the unseen
+world!"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX
+
+By ARNOLD BENNETT[2]
+
+
+In the chair which stood before the writing-table in the middle of the
+room sat the figure of Lord Clarenceux. The figure did not move as I
+went in; its back was towards me. At the other end of the room was the
+doorway, which led to the small bedroom, little more than an alcove, and
+the gaze of the apparition was fixed on this doorway. I closed the door
+behind me and locked it, and then stood still. In the looking-glass over
+the mantelpiece I saw a drawn, pale, agitated face, in which all the
+trouble in the world seemed to reside; it was my own face. I was alone
+in the room with the ghost--the ghost which, jealous of my love for the
+woman it had loved, meant to revenge itself by my death. The ghost, did
+I say? I looked at it; no one would have taken it for an apparition.
+Small wonder that till the previous evening I had never suspected it to
+be other than a man. It was dressed in black; it had the very aspect of
+life. I could follow the creases in the black coat, the direction of the
+nap of the silk hat. How well by this time I knew the faultless black
+coat and that impeccable hat! Yet it seemed that I could not examine
+them too closely. I pierced them with the intensity of my fascinated
+glance. Yes, I pierced them, for, showing faintly through the coat, I
+could discern the outline of the table which should have been hidden by
+the man's figure, and through the hat I could see the handle of the
+French window.
+
+As I stood motionless there, solitary in the glow of the electric light
+with this fearful visitor, I began to wish that it would move. I wanted
+to face it--to meet its gaze with my gaze, eye to eye, and will against
+will. The battle between us must start at once, I thought, if I was to
+have any chance of victory, for, moment by moment, I felt my resolution,
+my manliness, my mere physical courage slipping away.
+
+But the apparition did not stir. Impassive, remorseless, sinister, it
+was content to wait, well aware that all suspense was in its favour.
+Then I said to myself that I would cross the room and so attain my
+object. I made a step and drew back, frightened by the sound of a
+creaking board. Absurd! but it was quite a minute before I dared to move
+another step. I had meant to walk straight across to the other door,
+passing in my course close by the occupied chair. I did do not so; I
+kept round by the wall, creeping on tiptoe, and my eye never leaving the
+figure in the chair. I did this in spite of myself, and the manner of my
+action was the first hint of my ultimate defeat.
+
+At length I stood in the doorway leading to the bedroom. I could feel
+the perspiration on my forehead and at the back of my neck. I fronted
+the inscrutable white face of Lord Clarenceux, the lover of Rosetta
+Rosa; I met its awful eyes: dark, invidious, fateful. Ah, those eyes!
+Even in my terror I could read in them all the history and the
+characteristics of Lord Clarenceux. They were the eyes of one who could
+be of the highest and the lowest. Mingled in their hardness was a
+melting softness, with their cruelty a large benevolence, with their
+hate a pitying tenderness, with their spirituality a hellish turpitude.
+They were the eyes of two opposite men, and as I gazed into them they
+reconciled for me the conflicting accounts of Lord Clarenceux which I
+had heard from different people.
+
+But, as far as I was concerned, that night the eyes held nothing but
+cruelty and disaster; though I could detect in them the other qualities,
+these qualities were not for me. We faced each other, the apparition and
+I, and the struggle, silent and bitter as the grave, began. Neither of
+us moved. My arms were folded easily, but my nails pressed into the
+palms of my clenched hands. My teeth were set, my lips tight together,
+my glance unswerving. By sheer strength of endeavour I cast aside my
+fear of defeat, and in my heart I said with the profoundest conviction
+that I would love Rosa though the seven seas and all the continents give
+up their dead to frighten me.
+
+So we remained, for how long I do not know. It may have been only
+minutes--I cannot tell. Then gradually there came over me a feeling that
+the ghost in the chair was growing larger. The ghastly inhuman sneer on
+his thin widening lips assaulted me like a giant's malediction, and the
+light in the room seemed to become more brilliant till it was almost
+blinding. This went on for a time, and once more I pulled myself
+together, collected my scattering senses, and seized again the courage
+of determination which had nearly slipped from me; but I knew that I
+must get away, out of sight of this moveless and diabolic figure, which
+did not speak, but which made known its commands by means of its eyes.
+"Resign her," the eyes said. "Tear your love for her out of your heart!
+Swear that you will never see her again--or I will ruin you utterly, not
+now only but for evermore."
+
+I think I trembled; my eyes answered "No." For some reason which I
+cannot at all explain, I suddenly took off my overcoat, and, drawing
+aside the screen which ran across the corner of the room at my right
+hand, forming a primitive sort of wardrobe, I hung it on one of the
+hooks. I had to feel with my fingers for the hook, because I kept my
+gaze on the figure. "I will go into the bedroom," I said; and I turned
+to pass through the doorway. Then I stopped. If I did so, the eyes of
+the ghost would be upon my back, and I felt that I could only withstand
+that glance by meeting it. To have it on my back.... Doubtless I was
+going mad. However, I went backwards to the doorway, and then rapidly
+stepped out of sight of the apparition and sat down upon the bed.
+Useless! I must return. The mere idea of the empty sitting-room--empty
+with the ghost in it--filled me with a new and considerable fear.
+Horrible happenings might occur in that room, and I must be there to see
+them! Moreover, the ghost's gaze must now fall on nothing; that would be
+too appalling (without doubt I was mad). Its gaze must meet something,
+otherwise it would travel out into space further and further till it had
+left all the stars and waggled aimless in the ether. The notion of such
+a calamity was unbearable. Besides, I was hungry for that gaze. My eyes
+desired those eyes: if that glance did not press against them, they
+would burst from my head and roll on the floor, and I should be
+compelled to go down on my hands and knees and grope in search for them.
+No, no. I must return to the sitting-room. And I returned. The gaze met
+mine in the doorway, and now there was something novel in it--an added
+terror, a more intolerable menace, the silent imprecation so frightful
+that no human being could suffer it. I sank to the ground, and as I did
+so I shrieked; but it was a weird shriek, sounding only within the
+brain, and in reply to that unheard shriek I heard an unheard voice of
+the ghost crying, "Yield!"
+
+I would not yield. Crushed, maddened, tortured, I would not yield. I
+wanted to die. I felt that death would be sweet and truly desirable.
+And, so thinking, I faded into a kind of coma, or rather a state which
+was just short of coma. I had not lost consciousness, but I was
+conscious of nothing but the gaze. "Good-bye, Rosa," I whispered; "I am
+beaten, but my love has not been conquered." The next thing I remember
+was the paleness of the dawn at the window. The apparition had vanished
+for the night, and I was alive. But I knew that I had touched the skirts
+of death. I knew that after such another night I should die.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 2: _The Ghost: a Novel_ (1911).]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+DR DUTHOIT'S VISION
+
+By ARTHUR MACHEN[3]
+
+
+I knew a fine specimen of an English abbé when I was at school at
+Hereford. This was Dr Duthoit, Prebendary of _Consumpta per Sabulum_ in
+Hereford Cathedral, Rector of St Owen's, bookworm and, chiefly,
+rose-grower. He was a middle-aged man when I was a little boy, but he
+suffered me to walk with him in his garden sloping down to the Wye, near
+a pleasaunce of the Vicars Choral, reciting sometimes the poems of
+Traherne, which he had in manuscript, but, for the most part,
+demonstrating his progress in the art of growing a coal-black rose. This
+was the true work of his life, and nearly forty years ago he could show
+blooms whose copper and crimson tints were very near to utter darkness.
+I believe that his ideal was never attained in absolute perfection; and
+perhaps the perfect end and attainment of desire do not prove happiness
+down here below.
+
+After 1880 Prebendary Duthoit and I rarely saw each other, and rarely
+wrote. He was at rest among his roses by the quiet Wye, and I dashed to
+and fro in wilder waters, but each contrived to let the other know that
+he was still alive, and so I was not altogether surprised to see the
+Prebendary's queer, niggly writing on an envelope a week or two ago. He
+said he had heard of a good deal to talk about.... Well, with a popular
+legend with which I am understood to be in some way concerned, and he
+thought that an odd experience of his might possibly interest me. I do
+not give the text of his letter, chiefly because it is full of Latin
+phrases, which I might be called upon to translate.
+
+But the matter is as follows: On the 4th August, the day of the service
+at St Paul's, Dr Duthoit was walking up and down and about that pleasant
+garden on slopes of the Wye. Just above the water his gardener had
+prepared under direction and instruction a plot of ground in a very
+special manner. I do not gather the precise purpose of the operation,
+but it seems that the soil had been very fine and level for a
+superficies of about ten yards. To this place the Prebendary walked,
+slowly and reflectively, wishing to assure himself that his orders had
+been accurately carried out. The plot had been perfectly level the night
+before, but Dr Duthoit wanted to be more than sure about it. But to his
+extreme annoyance, when he turned by the fig-tree, he saw that the plot
+was very far from even. He is an old man, but his sight is good, and at
+a distance of several yards he could discern quite plainly that there
+had been mischief. The chosen plot was in a disgraceful state. At first
+the Prebendary thought that the Custos' sandy tom-cat had scaled the
+wire entanglement on the top of the wall. Then he felt inclined to
+consider the ruin done by Scamp, the Bishop's wire-haired fox-terrier,
+and then, going across, he put on his spectacles and wondered what had
+been at work. For the level which had been so carefully established was
+all undone. At first the Doctor thought it was the mischief of some
+random beast, this confusion of hills and valleys which had taken place
+of the billiard-table of the night before. And then it reminded him of
+the raised maps which he had seen in the Diocesan Training Schools, and
+then it reminded him more distinctly of a sort of picture map which had
+illustrated his morning paper a day or two before. And then he wondered
+violently, because he saw that somebody had, with infinite pains, made
+this garden plot of his into an exact model of Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+It was all so ingenious and perfect that the old clergyman held his
+wrath for the moment, and peered into this miniature intricacy of peaks
+and steeps, and gullies and valleys. He had scarcely gathered himself
+together to wonder who had had the ingenious impudence for the mischief,
+when amazement once more seized him. For he saw now, stooping down, that
+this garden Gallipoli was swarming with life. There were hosts on it and
+about it, and then Dr Duthoit forgot all about what we call the
+realities and facts of life, forgot that this sort of thing does not
+happen, and watched what was happening.
+
+He writes that, queerly enough, he lost all sense of size. He was not a
+Gulliver looking down upon Lilliput; the mounds ten inches high became
+to him actual and lofty summits. The tiny precipices were tremendous.
+And the red ants swarmed to attack the black ants that held the heights
+with savage and desperate fury. He says he panted with excitement as he
+watched the courage of the attack and defence, the savagery of the
+"hand-to-hand" fighting. The black and red fell by myriads, and the
+doctor had persuaded himself that he observed amazing incidents of
+individual heroism. One particular range seemed to be the especial aim
+of the red forces, and they swarmed up victorious and held it for a
+while, and then retreated. The doctor could not quite make out the
+reason of this. He started violently when his man called to him. Roberts
+said he had called for five minutes without getting an answer, and that
+the Dean was in a hurry, with only five minutes to spare. So the
+Prebendary went into the house in a kind of dwam, as the Scots put it,
+and had no notion of what the Dean had to say; and when he got back to
+the garden he found his gardener smoothing the plot with a long rake,
+and raking in a lot of dead ants with the mould. The gardener said it
+was the boys; but the doctor took no notice, and went to the Custos that
+night, and the Custos reading his paper a fortnight later began to think
+that the old Prebendary was a prophet.
+
+And the Prebendary? He ends his letter: "Quod superius est sicut quod
+inferius" ("that which is above is as that which is below"), as the
+Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus testifies, and it is my belief
+that this is a world battle in the sense which we do not appreciate.
+There have been some who have held that the earthly conflict is but a
+reflection of the war in heaven. What if it be reflected infinitely, if
+it penetrate to the uttermost depths of creation? And if a speck of dust
+be a cosmos--the universe--of revolving worlds? There may be battles
+between creatures that no microscope shall ever discover.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 3: _The Little Nations._]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE SEVEN LIGHTS
+
+From WILSON'S "Tales of the Borders"
+
+
+John M'Pherson was a farmer and grazier in Kintyre--a genuine
+Highlander. In person, though of rather low stature than otherwise, he
+was stout, athletic, and active; bold and fearless in disposition, warm
+in temper, friendly, and hospitable--this last to such a degree that his
+house was never without as many strangers and visitors of different
+descriptions, as nearly doubled his own household.
+
+To the vagrant beggar his house and meal-chest were ever open; and to no
+one, whatever his condition, were a night's quarters ever refused.
+M'Pherson's house, in short, formed a kind of focus, with a power to
+draw towards itself all the misery and poverty in the country within a
+circle whose diameter might be reckoned at somewhere about twenty miles.
+The wandering mendicant made it one of his regular stages, and the
+traveller of better degree toiled on his way with increased activity,
+that he might make it his quarters for the night.
+
+Fortunately for the character and credit of M'Pherson's hospitality, his
+wife was of an equally kind and generous disposition with himself; so
+that his absences from home, which were frequent, and sometimes long,
+did not at all affect the treatment of the stranger under his roof, or
+make his welcome less cordial.
+
+But the hospitality exercised at Morvane, which was the name of
+M'Pherson's farm, sometimes, it must be confessed, led to occasional
+small depredations--such as the loss of a pair of blankets, a sheet, or
+a pair of stockings, carried off by the ungrateful vagabonds whom he
+sometimes sheltered. There were, however, one pair of blankets
+abstracted in this way, that found their road back to their owner in
+rather a curious manner.
+
+The morning was thick and misty, when the thief (in the case alluded to)
+decamped with his booty, and continued so during the whole day, so that
+no object, at any distance, however large, could be seen. After toiling
+for several hours, under the impression that he was leaving Morvane far
+behind, the vagabond, who was also a stranger in the country, approached
+a house, with the stolen blankets snugly and carefully bundled on his
+back, and knocked at the door, with the view of seeking a night's
+quarters, as it was now dusk. The door was opened; but by whom, think
+you, good reader? Why, by M'Pherson!
+
+The thief, without knowing it, had landed precisely at the point from
+which he had set out. Being instantly recognised, he was politely
+invited to walk in. To this kind invitation, the thief replied by
+throwing down the blankets, and taking to his heels--thus making, with
+his own hands, a restitution which was very far from being intended.
+Poor M'Pherson, however, did not get all his stolen blankets back in
+this way.
+
+This, however, is a digression. To proceed with our tale. One night,
+when M'Pherson was absent, attending a market at some distance, an
+elderly female appeared at the door, with the usual demand of a night's
+lodging, which, with the usual hospitality of Morvane, was at once
+complied with. The stranger, who was a remarkably tall woman, was
+dressed in widow's weeds, and of rather respectable appearance; her
+deportment was grave, even stern, and altogether she seemed as if
+suffering from some recent affliction.
+
+During the whole of the early part of the evening she sat before the
+fire, with her face buried between her hands, heedless of what was
+passing around her, and was occasionally observed rocking to and fro,
+with that kind of motion that bespeaks great internal anguish. It was
+noticed, however, that she occasionally stole a look at those who were
+in the apartment with her; and it was marked by all (but whether this
+was merely the effect of imagination, for all _felt_ that there was
+something singular and mysterious about the stranger, or was really the
+case, we cannot decide) that, in these furtive glances, there was a
+peculiarly wild and appalling expression. The stranger spoke none,
+however, during the whole night; but continued, from time to time,
+rocking to and fro in the manner already described. Neither could she be
+prevailed upon to partake of any refreshment, although repeatedly
+pressed to do so. All invitations of this kind she declined, with a wave
+of the hand, or a melancholy, yet determined inclination of the head. In
+words she made no reply.
+
+The singular conduct of this woman threw a damp over all who were
+present. They felt chilled, they knew not how; and were sensible of the
+influence of an indefinable terror, for which they could not account.
+For once, therefore, the feeling of comfort and security, of which all
+were conscious who were seated around M'Pherson's cheerful and
+hospitable hearth, was banished, and a scene of awe and dread supplied
+its place.
+
+No one could conjecture who this strange personage was, whence she had
+come, nor whither she was going; nor were there any means of acquiring
+this information, as it was a rule of the house--one of M'Pherson's
+special points of etiquette--that no stranger should ever be questioned
+on such subjects. All being allowed to depart as they came, without
+question or inquiry, there was never anything more known at Morvane,
+regarding any stranger who visited it, than what he himself chose to
+communicate.
+
+Under the painful feelings already described, the inmates of
+M'Pherson's house found, with more than usual satisfaction, the hour for
+retiring to rest arrive. The general attention being called to this
+circumstance by the hostess, everyone hastened to his appointed
+dormitory, with an alacrity which but too plainly showed how glad they
+were to escape from the presence of the mysterious stranger who,
+however, also retired to bed with the rest. The place appointed for her
+to sleep in, was the loft of an outbuilding, as there was no room for
+her accommodation within the house itself; all the spare beds being
+occupied.
+
+We have already said that M'Pherson was from home on the evening of
+which we are speaking, attending a market at some distance. He, however,
+returned shortly after midnight. On arriving at his own house, he was
+much surprised, and not a little alarmed, to perceive a window in one of
+the outhouses blazing with light (it was that in which the stranger
+slept), while all around and within the house was as silent as the tomb.
+Afraid that some accident from fire had taken place, he rode up to the
+building, and standing up in his stirrups--which brought his head on a
+level with the window--looked in, when a sight presented itself that
+made even the stout heart of M'Pherson beat with unusual violence.
+
+In the middle of the floor, extended on her pallet, lay the mysterious
+stranger, surrounded by seven bright and shining lights, arranged at
+equal distances--three on one side of the bed, three on the other, and
+one at the head. M'Pherson gazed steadily at the extraordinary and
+appalling sight for a few seconds, when three of the lights suddenly
+vanished. In an instant afterwards, two more disappeared, and then
+another. There was now only that at the head of the bed remaining. When
+this light had alone been left, M'Pherson saw the person who lay on the
+pallet, raise herself slowly up, and gaze intently on the portentous
+beam, whose light showed, to the terrified onlooker, a ghastly and
+unearthly countenance, surrounded with dishevelled hair, which hung down
+in long, thick, irregular masses over her pale, clayey visage, so as
+almost to conceal it entirely. This light, like all the others, at
+length suddenly disappeared, and with its last gleam the person on the
+couch sank down with a groan that startled M'Pherson from the trance of
+horror into which the extraordinary sight had thrown him. He was a bold
+and fearless man, however; and, therefore, though certainly appalled by
+what he had seen, he made no outcry, nor evinced any other symptom of
+alarm. He resolutely and calmly awaited the conclusion of the
+extraordinary scene; and when the last light had disappeared, he
+deliberately dismounted, led his horse into the stable, put him up,
+entered the house without disturbing any one, and slipped quietly into
+bed, trusting that the morning would bring some explanation of the
+mysterious occurrence of the night; but resolving, at the same time
+that, if it should not, he would mention the circumstance to no one.
+
+On awaking in the morning, M'Pherson asked his wife what strangers were
+in the house, and how they were disposed of, and particularly, who it
+was that slept in the loft of the outhouse. He was told that it was a
+woman in widow's dress, of rather a respectable appearance, but whose
+conduct had been very singular. M'Pherson inquired no further, but
+desired that the woman might be detained till he should see her, as he
+wished to speak with her.
+
+On some one of the domestics, however, going up to her apartment,
+shortly after, to invite her to breakfast, it was found that she was
+gone, no one could tell when or where, as her departure had not been
+seen by any person about the house.
+
+Baulked in his intention of eliciting some explanation of the
+extraordinary circumstance of the preceding night, from the person who
+seemed to have been a party to it, M'Pherson became more strengthened
+in the resolution of keeping the secret to himself, although it made an
+impression upon him which all his natural strength of mind could not
+remove.
+
+At this precise period of our story, M'Pherson had three sons employed
+in the herring fishing, a favourite pursuit in its season, because often
+a lucrative one, of those who live upon or near the coasts of the West
+Highlands.
+
+The three brothers had a boat of their own; and, desirous of making
+their employment as profitable as possible, they, though in sufficiently
+good circumstances to have hired assistance, manned her themselves, and,
+with laudable industry, performed all the drudgery of their laborious
+occupation with their own hands.
+
+Their boat, like all the others employed in the business we are speaking
+of, by the natives of the Highlands, was wherry-rigged; her name--she
+was called after the betrothed of the elder of the three brothers--_The
+Catherine_. The _take_ of herrings, as it is called, it is well known,
+appears in different seasons in different places, sometimes in one loch,
+or arm of the sea, sometimes in another.
+
+In the season to which our story refers, the fishing was in the sound of
+Kilbrannan, where several scores of boats, and amongst those that of the
+M'Phersons, were busily employed in reaping the ocean harvest. When the
+take of herrings appears in this sound, Campbelton Loch, a well-known
+harbour on the west coast of Scotland, is usually made the
+headquarters--a place of rendezvous of the little herring fleet--and to
+this loch they always repair when threatened with a boisterous night,
+although it was not always that they could, in such circumstances,
+succeed in making it.
+
+Such a night as the one alluded to, was that that succeeded the evening
+on which M'Pherson saw the strange lights that form the leading feature
+of our tale. Violent gusts of wind came in rapid succession down the
+sound of Kilbrannan; and a skifting rain, flung fitfully but fiercely
+from the huge black clouds as they hurried along before the tempest that
+already raged above, swept over the face of the angry sea, and seemed to
+impart an additional bitterness to the rising wrath of the incipient
+storm. It was evident, in short, that what sailors call a "dirty night"
+was approaching; and, under this impression, the herring boats left
+their station, and were seen, in the dusk of the evening in question,
+hurrying towards Campbelton Loch. But the storm had arisen in all its
+fury long before the desired haven could be gained. The little fleet was
+dispersed. Some succeeded, however, in making the harbour; others,
+finding this impossible, ran in for the Saddle and Carradale shores, and
+were fortunate enough to effect a landing. All, in short, with the
+exception of one single boat, ultimately contrived to gain a place of
+shelter of some kind. This unhappy exception was _The Catherine_. Long
+after all the others had disappeared from the face of the raging sea,
+she was seen struggling alone with the warring elements, her canvas down
+to within a few feet of her gunwale, and her keel only at times being
+visible. The gallant brothers who manned her, however, had not yet lost
+either heart or hope, although their situation at this moment was but
+too well calculated to deprive them of both. Gravely and steadily, and
+in profound silence, they kept each by his perilous post, and
+endeavoured to make the land on the Campbelton side; but, finding this
+impossible, they put about, and ran before the wind for the island of
+Arran, which lay at the distance of about eight miles. But alarmed, as
+they approached that rugged shore, by the tremendous sea which was
+breaking on it, and which would have instantly dashed their frail bark
+to pieces, they again put about, and made to windward. While the hardy
+brothers were thus contending with their fate, a person mounted on
+horseback was seen galloping wildly along the Carradale shore, his eyes
+ever and anon turned towards the struggling boat with a look of despair
+and mortal agony. It was M'Pherson, the hapless father of the
+unfortunate youths by whom she was manned. There were others, too, of
+their kindred, looking, with failing hearts, on the dreadful sight; for
+all felt that the unequal contest could not continue long, and that the
+boat must eventually go down.
+
+Amongst those who were thus watching, with intense interest and
+speechless agony, the struggle of the doomed bark, was Catherine, the
+beloved of the elder of the brothers, who ran, in wild distraction,
+along the shore, uttering the most heart-rending cries. "Oh, my Duncan!"
+she exclaimed, stretching out her arms towards the pitiless sea. "Oh, my
+beloved, my dearest, come to me, or allow me to come to you that I may
+perish with you!" But Duncan heard her not, although it was very
+possible he might see her, as the distance was not great.
+
+There were, at this moment also, several persons on horseback, friends
+of the young men, galloping along the shore, from point to point, as the
+boat varied her direction, in the vain and desperate hope of being able
+to render, though they knew not how, some assistance to the sufferers.
+But the distracted father, urged on by the wild energy of despair,
+outrode them all, as they made, on one occasion, for a rising ground
+near Carradale, from whence a wider view of the sea could be commanded.
+For this height M'Pherson now pushed, and gained it just in time to see
+his gallant sons, with their little bark, buried in the waves. He had
+not taken his station an instant on the height, when _The Catherine_
+went down, and all on board perished.
+
+The distracted father, when he had seen the last of his unfortunate
+sons, covered his eyes with his hands, and for a moment gave way to the
+bitter agony that racked his soul. His manly breast heaved with
+emotion, and that most affecting of all sounds, the audible sorrowing of
+a strong man, might have been heard at a great distance. It was,
+however, of short continuance. M'Pherson prayed to his God to strengthen
+him in this dread hour of trial, and to enable him to bear with becoming
+fortitude the affliction with which it had pleased Him to visit him; and
+the distressed man derived comfort from the appeal.
+
+"My brave, my beautiful boys!" he said, "you are now with your God, and
+have entered, I trust, on a life of everlasting happiness." Saying this,
+he rode slowly from the fatal spot from which he had witnessed the death
+of his children. It was at this moment, and while musing on the
+misfortune that had befallen him, that the strange occurrence of the
+preceding night recurred, for the first time, to M'Pherson's mind. It
+was obtruded on his recollection by the force of association.
+
+"Can it be possible," he inquired of himself, "that the appearances of
+last night can have any connection with the dreadful events of to-day?
+It must be so," he said; "for three of the lights of my eyes, three of
+the guiding stars of my life, have been this day extinguished." Thus
+reasoned M'Pherson; and, in the mysterious lights which he had seen, he
+saw that the doom of his children had been announced. But there were
+seven, he recollected, and his heart sunk within him as he thought of
+the three gallant boys who were still spared to him. One of them, the
+youngest, was at home with himself, the other two were in the
+Army--soldiers in the 42nd Regiment, which then boasted of many privates
+of birth and education. M'Pherson, however, still kept the appalling
+secret of the mysterious lights to himself, and determined to await,
+with resignation, the fulfilment of the destiny which had been read to
+him, and which he now felt convinced to be inevitable.
+
+The gallant regiment to which M'Pherson's sons belonged was, at this
+period, abroad on active service. It was in America, and formed a part
+of the army which was employed in resisting the encroachments of the
+French on the British territories in that quarter.
+
+The 42nd had, during the campaigns in the western world of that
+period--viz. 1754 and 1758,--distinguished themselves in many a
+sanguinary contest, for their singular bravery and general good conduct;
+and the fame of their exploits rung through their native glens, and was
+spread far and wide over their hills and mountains; for dear was the
+honour of their gallant regiment to the warlike Highlanders. Many
+accounts had arrived, from time to time, in the country, of their
+achievements, and joyfully were they received. But, on the very day
+after the loss of _The Catherine_, a low murmur began to arise, in that
+part of the country which is the scene of our story, of some dreadful
+disaster having befallen the national regiment. No one could say of what
+nature this calamity was; but a buzz went round, whose ominous
+whispering of fearful slaughter made the friends of the absent soldiers
+turn pale. Mothers and sisters wept, and fathers and brothers looked
+grave and shook their heads. The rumour bore that, though there had been
+no loss of honour, there had been a dreadful loss of life. Nay, it was
+said that the regiment had made a mighty acquisition to its fame, but
+that it had been dearly bought.
+
+At length, however, the truth arrived, in a distinct and intelligible
+shape. The well-known and sanguinary affair of Ticonderago had been
+fought; and, in that murderous contest, the 42nd Regiment, which had
+behaved with a gallantry unmatched before in the annals of war, had
+suffered dreadfully--no less than forty-three officers, commissioned and
+non-commissioned, and six hundred and three privates having been killed
+and wounded in that corps alone.
+
+To many a heart and home in the Highlands did this disastrous, though
+glorious intelligence, bring desolation and mourning; and amongst those
+on whom it brought these dismal effects, was M'Pherson of Morvane.
+
+On the third day after the occurrence of the events related at the
+outset of our narrative, a letter, which had come, in the first
+instance, to a gentleman in the neighbourhood, and who also had a son in
+the 42nd, was put into M'Pherson's hands, by a servant of the former.
+
+The man looked feelingly grave as he delivered it, and hurried away
+before it was opened. The letter was sealed with black wax. Poor
+M'Pherson's hand trembled as he opened it. It was from the captain of
+the company to which his sons belonged, informing him that both had
+fallen in the attack on Ticonderago. There was an attempt in the letter
+to soothe the unfortunate father's feelings, and to reconcile him to the
+loss of his gallant boys, in a lengthened detail of their heroic conduct
+during the sanguinary struggle. "Nobly," said the writer, "did your two
+brave sons maintain the honour of their country in the bloody strife.
+Both Hugh and Alister fell--their broadswords in their hands--on the
+very ramparts of Ticonderago, whither they had fought their way with a
+dauntlessness of heart, and a strength of arm, that might have excited
+the envy and admiration of the son of Fingal."
+
+In this account of the noble conduct of his sons the broken-hearted
+father did find some consolation. "Thank God!" he exclaimed, though in a
+tremulous voice, "my brave boys have done their duty, and died as became
+their name, with their swords in their hands, and their enemies in their
+front." But there was one circumstance mentioned in the letter, that
+affected the poor father more than all the rest--this was the
+intimation, that the writer had, in his hands, a sum of money and a gold
+brooch, which his son Alister had bequeathed, the first to his father,
+the latter to his mother, as a token of remembrance. "These," he said,
+"had been deposited with him by the young man previous to the
+engagement, under a presentiment that he should fall."
+
+When he had finished the perusal of the letter, M'Pherson sought his
+wife, whom he found weeping bitterly, for she had already learned the
+fate of her sons. On entering the apartment where she was, he flung his
+arms around her, in an agony of grief, and, choking with emotion,
+exclaimed, that two more of his fair lights had been extinguished by the
+hand of heaven. "One yet remains," he said, "but that, too, must soon
+pass away from before mine eyes. His doom is sealed; but God's will be
+done."
+
+"What mean ye, John?" said his sobbing wife, struck with the prophetic
+tone of his speech--"is the measure of our sorrows not yet filled? Are
+we to lose him, too, who is now our only stay, my fair-haired Ian. Why
+this foreboding of more evil--and whence have you it, John?" she said,
+now looking her husband steadfastly in the face; and with an expression
+of alarm that indicated that entire belief in supernatural intelligence
+regarding coming events, then so general in the Highlands.
+
+Urged by his wife, who implored him to tell her whence he had the
+tidings of her Ian's approaching fate, M'Pherson related to her the
+circumstance of the mysterious lights.
+
+"But there were seven, John," she said, when he had concluded--"how
+comes that?--our children were but six." And immediately added, as if
+some fearful conviction had suddenly forced itself on her mind--"God
+grant that the seventh light may have meant me!"
+
+"God forbid!" exclaimed her husband, on whose mind a similar conviction
+with that with which his wife was impressed, now obtruded itself for the
+first time; that conviction was, that he himself was indicated by the
+seventh light. But neither of the sorrowing pair communicated their
+fears to the other.
+
+Two days subsequent to this, the fair hair of Ian was seen floating on
+the surface of a deep pool, in the water of Bran; a small river that ran
+past the house of Morvane. By what accident the poor boy had fallen into
+the river, was never ascertained. But the pool in which his body was
+found was known to have been one of his favourite fishing stations. One
+only of the mysterious lights now remained without its counterpart; but
+this was not long wanting. Ere the week had expired, M'Pherson was
+killed by a fall from his horse, when returning from the funeral of his
+son, and the symbolical prophecy was fulfilled--and thus concludes the
+story of "The Seven Lights."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON
+
+    "You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
+    The superstitious, idle-headed eld
+    Received and did deliver to our age
+    This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth."
+
+    _Merry Wives of Windsor._
+
+
+The old vicarage-house at Talland, as seen from the Looe road, its low
+roof and grey walls peeping prettily from between the dense boughs of
+ash and elm that environed it, was as picturesque an object as you could
+desire to see. The seclusion of its situation was enhanced by the
+character of the house itself. It was an odd-looking, old-fashioned
+building, erected apparently in an age when asceticism and self-denial
+were more in vogue than at present, with a stern disregard of the
+comfort of the inhabitant, and in utter contempt of received principles
+of taste. As if not secure enough in its retirement, a high wall,
+enclosing a courtelage in front, effectually protected its inmates from
+the prying passenger, and only revealed the upper part of the house,
+with its small Gothic windows, its slated roof, and heavy chimneys
+partly hidden by the evergreen shrubs which grew in the enclosure. Such
+was it until its removal a few years since; and such was it as it lay
+sweetly in the shadows of an autumnal evening one hundred and thirty
+years ago, when a stranger in the garb of a country labourer knocked
+hesitatingly at the wicket gate which conducted to the court. After a
+little delay a servant-girl appeared, and finding that the countryman
+bore a message to the vicar, admitted him within the walls, and
+conducted him along a paved passage to the little, low, damp parlour
+where sat the good man. The Rev. Mr Dodge was in many respects a
+remarkable man. You would have judged as much of him as he sat before
+the fire in his high-back chair, in an attitude of thought, arranging,
+it may have been, the heads of his next Sabbath's discourse. His heavy
+eyebrows, throwing into shade his spacious eyes, and indeed the whole
+contour of his face, marked him as a man of great firmness of character
+and of much moral and personal courage. His suit of sober black and
+full-bottomed periwig also added to his dignity, and gave him an
+appearance of greater age. He was then verging on sixty. The time and
+the place gave him abundant exercise for the qualities we have
+mentioned, for many of his parishioners obtained their livelihood by the
+contraband trade, and were mostly men of unscrupulous and daring
+character, little likely to bear with patience, reflections on the
+dishonesty of their calling. Nevertheless the vicar was fearless in
+reprehending it, and his frank exhortations were, at least, listened to
+on account of the simple honesty of the man, and his well-known kindness
+of heart. The eccentricity of his life, too, had a wonderful effect in
+procuring him the respect, not to say the awe, of a people superstitious
+in a more than ordinary degree. Ghosts in those days had more freedom
+accorded them, or had more business with the visible world than at
+present; and the parson was frequently required by his parishioners to
+draw from the uneasy spirit the dread secret which troubled it, or by
+the aid of the solemn prayers of the church to set it at rest for ever.
+Mr Dodge had a fame as an exorcist, which was not confined to the bounds
+of his parish, nor limited to the age in which he lived.
+
+"Well, my good man, what brings you hither?" said the clergyman to the
+messenger.
+
+"A letter, may it please your reverence, from Mr Mills of Lanreath,"
+said the countryman, handing him a letter.
+
+Mr Dodge opened it and read as follows:--
+
+     "MY DEAR BROTHER DODGE,--I have ventured to trouble
+     you, at the earnest request of my parishioners, with a matter,
+     of which some particulars have doubtless reached you, and which
+     has caused, and is causing, much terror in my neighbourhood.
+     For its fuller explication, I will be so tedious as to recount
+     to you the whole of this strange story as it has reached my
+     ears, for as yet I have not satisfied my eyes of its truth. It
+     has been told me by men of honest and good report (witnesses of
+     a portion of what they relate), with such strong assurances,
+     that it behoves us to look more closely into the matter. There
+     is in the neighbourhood of this village a barren bit of moor
+     which had no owner, or rather more than one, for the lords of
+     the adjoining manors debated its ownership between themselves,
+     and both determined to take it from the poor, who have for many
+     years past regarded it as a common. And truly, it is little to
+     the credit of these gentlemen, that they should strive for a
+     thing so worthless as scarce to bear the cost of law, and yet
+     of no mean value to poor labouring people. The two litigants,
+     however, contested it with as much violence as if it had been a
+     field of great price, and especially one, an old man, (whose
+     thoughts should have been less set on earthly possessions,
+     which he was soon to leave,) had so set his heart on the
+     success of his suit, that the loss of it, a few years back, is
+     said to have much hastened his death. Nor, indeed, after death,
+     if current reports are worthy of credit, does he quit his claim
+     to it; for at night-time his apparition is seen on the moor,
+     to the great terror of the neighbouring villagers. A public
+     path leads by at no great distance from the spot, and on divers
+     occasions has the labourer, returning from his work, been
+     frightened nigh unto lunacy by sight and sounds of a very
+     dreadful character. The appearance is said to be that of a man
+     habited in black, driving a carriage drawn by headless horses.
+     This is, I avow, very marvellous to believe, but it has had so
+     much credible testimony, and has gained so many believers in my
+     parish, that some steps seem necessary to allay the excitement
+     it causes. I have been applied to for this purpose, and my
+     present business is to ask your assistance in this matter,
+     either to reassure the minds of the country people if it be
+     only a simple terror; or, if there be truth in it, to set the
+     troubled spirit of the man at rest. My messenger, who is an
+     industrious, trustworthy man, will give you more information if
+     it be needed, for, from report, he is acquainted with most of
+     the circumstances, and will bring back your advice and promise
+     of assistance.
+
+     "Not doubting of your help herein, I do with my very hearty
+     commendation commit you to God's protection and blessing, and
+     am,--Your very loving brother, ABRAHAM MILLS."
+
+This remarkable note was read and re-read, while the countryman sat
+watching its effects on the parson's countenance, and was surprised that
+it changed not from its usual sedate and settled character. Turning at
+length to the man, Mr Dodge inquired, "Are you, then, acquainted with my
+good friend Mills?"
+
+"I should know him, sir," replied the messenger, "having been sexton to
+the parish for fourteen years, and being, with my family, much beholden
+to the kindness of the rector."
+
+"You are also not without some knowledge of the circumstances related in
+this letter. Have you been an eye-witness to any of those strange
+sights?"
+
+"For myself, sir, I have been on the road at all hours of the night and
+day, and never did I see anything which I could call worse than myself.
+One night my wife and I were awoke by the rattle of wheels, which was
+also heard by some of our neighbours, and we are all assured that it
+could have been no other than the black coach. We have every day such
+stories told in the villages by so many creditable persons, that it
+would not be proper in a plain, ignorant man like me to doubt it."
+
+"And how far," asked the clergyman, "is the moor from Lanreath?"
+
+"About two miles, and please your reverence. The whole parish is so
+frightened, that few will venture far after nightfall, for it has of
+late come much nearer the village. A man who is esteemed a sensible and
+pious man by many, though an Anabaptist in principle, went a few weeks
+back to the moor ('tis called Blackadon) at midnight, in order to lay
+the spirit, being requested thereto by his neighbours, and he was so
+alarmed at what he saw, that he hath been somewhat mazed ever since."
+
+"A fitting punishment for his presumption, if it hath not quite demented
+him," said the parson. "These persons are like those addressed by St
+Chrysostom, fitly called the golden-mouthed, who said, 'Miserable
+wretches that ye be! ye cannot expel a flea, much less a devil!' It will
+be well if it serves no other purpose but to bring back these stray
+sheep to the fold of the Church. So this story has gained much belief in
+the parish?"
+
+"Most believe it, sir, as rightly they should, what hath so many
+witnesses," said the sexton, "though there be some, chiefly young men,
+who set up for being wiser than their fathers, and refuse to credit it,
+though it be sworn to on the book."
+
+"If those things are disbelieved, friend," said the parson, "and without
+inquiry, which your disbeliever is ever the first to shrink from, of
+what worth is human testimony? That ghosts have returned to the earth,
+either for the discovery of murder, or to make restitution for other
+injustice committed in the flesh, or compelled thereto by the
+incantations of sorcery, or to communicate tidings from another world,
+has been testified to in all ages, and many are the accounts which have
+been left us both in sacred and profane authors. Did not Brutus, when in
+Asia, as is related by Plutarch, see----"
+
+Just at this moment the parson's handmaid announced that a person waited
+on him in the kitchen,--or the good clergyman would probably have
+detailed all those cases in history, general and biblical, with which
+his reading had acquainted him, not much, we fear to the edification and
+comfort of the sexton, who had to return to Lanreath, a long and dreary
+road, after nightfall. So, instead, he directed the girl to take him
+with her, and give him such refreshment as he needed, and in the
+meanwhile he prepared a note in answer to Mr Mills, informing him that
+on the morrow he was to visit some sick persons in his parish, but that
+on the following evening he should be ready to proceed with him to the
+moor.
+
+On the night appointed the two clergymen left the Lanreath rectory on
+horseback, and reached the moor at eleven o'clock. Bleak and dismal did
+it look by day, but then there was the distant landscape dotted over
+with pretty homesteads to relieve its desolation. Now, nothing was seen
+but the black patch of sterile moor on which they stood, nothing heard
+but the wind as it swept in gusts across the bare hill, and howled
+dismally through a stunted grove of trees that grew in a glen below
+them, except the occasional baying of dogs from the farmhouses in the
+distance. That they felt at ease, is more than could be expected of
+them; but as it would have shown a lack of faith in the protection of
+Heaven, which it would have been unseemly in men of their holy calling
+to exhibit, they managed to conceal from each other their uneasiness.
+Leading their horses, they trod to and fro through the damp fern and
+heath with firmness in their steps, and upheld each other by remarks on
+the power of that Great Being whose ministers they were, and the might
+of whose name they were there to make manifest. Still slowly and
+dismally passed the time as they conversed, and anon stopped to look
+through the darkness for the approach of their ghostly visitor. In vain.
+Though the night was as dark and murky as ghost could wish, the coach
+and its driver came not.
+
+After a considerable stay, the two clergymen consulted together, and
+determined that it was useless to watch any longer for that night, but
+that they would meet on some other, when perhaps it might please his
+ghostship to appear. Accordingly, with a few words of leave-taking, they
+separated, Mr Mills for the rectory, and Mr Dodge, by a short ride
+across the moor, which shortened his journey by half a mile, for the
+vicarage at Talland.
+
+The vicar rode on at an ambling pace, which his good mare sustained up
+hill and down vale without urging. At the bottom of a deep valley,
+however, about a mile from Blackadon, the animal became very uneasy,
+pricked up her ears, snorted, and moved from side to side of the road,
+as if something stood in the path before her. The parson tightened the
+reins, and applied whip and spur to her sides, but the animal, usually
+docile, became very unruly, made several attempts to turn, and, when
+prevented, threw herself upon her haunches. Whip and spur were applied
+again and again, to no other purpose than to add to the horse's terror.
+To the rider nothing was apparent which could account for the sudden
+restiveness of his beast. He dismounted, and attempted in turns to lead
+or drag her, but both were impracticable, and attended with no small
+risk of snapping the reins. She was remounted with great difficulty, and
+another attempt was made to urge her forward, with the like want of
+success. At length the eccentric clergyman, judging it to be some
+special signal from Heaven, which it would be dangerous to neglect,
+threw the reins on the neck of his steed, which, wheeling suddenly
+round, started backward in a direction towards the moor, at a pace which
+rendered the parson's seat neither a pleasant nor a safe one. In an
+astonishingly short space of time they were once more at Blackadon.
+
+By this time the bare outline of the moor was broken by a large black
+group of objects, which the darkness of the night prevented the parson
+from defining. On approaching this unaccountable appearance, the mare
+was seized with fresh fury, and it was with considerable difficulty that
+she could be brought to face this new cause of fright. In the pauses of
+the horse's prancing, the vicar discovered to his horror the
+much-dreaded spectacle of the black coach and the headless steeds, and,
+terrible to relate, his friend Mr Mills lying prostrate on the ground
+before the sable driver. Little time was left him to call up his courage
+for this fearful emergency; for just as the vicar began to give
+utterance to the earnest prayers which struggled to his lips, the
+spectre shouted, "Dodge is come! I must begone!" and forthwith leaped
+into his chariot, and disappeared across the moor.
+
+The fury of the mare now subsided, and Mr Dodge was enabled to approach
+his friend, who was lying motionless and speechless, with his face
+buried in the heather.
+
+Meanwhile the rector's horse, which had taken fright at the apparition,
+and had thrown his rider to the ground on or near the spot where we have
+left him lying, made homeward at a furious speed, and stopped not until
+he had reached his stable door. The sound of his hoofs as he galloped
+madly through the village awoke the cottagers, many of whom had been
+some hours in their beds. Many eager faces, staring with affright,
+gathered round the rectory, and added, by their various conjectures, to
+the terror and apprehensions of the family.
+
+The villagers, gathering courage as their numbers increased, agreed to
+go in search of the missing clergyman, and started off in a compact
+body, a few on horseback, but the greater number on foot, in the
+direction of Blackadon. There they discovered their rector, supported in
+the arms of Parson Dodge, and recovered so far as to be able to speak.
+Still there was a wildness in his eye, and an incoherency in his speech,
+that showed that his reason was, at least, temporarily unsettled by the
+fright. In this condition he was taken to his home, followed by his
+reverend companion.
+
+Here ended this strange adventure; for Mr Mills soon completely regained
+his reason, Parson Dodge got safely back to Talland, and from that time
+to this nothing has been heard or seen of the black ghost or his
+chariot.[4]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: The Parson Dodge, whose adventure is related, was vicar of
+Talland from 1713 till his death. So that the name as well as the story
+is true to tradition. Bond (_History of East and West Looe_) says of
+him: "About a century since the Rev. Richard Dodge was vicar of this
+parish of Talland, and was, by traditionary account, a very singular
+man. He had the reputation of being deeply skilled in the black art, and
+would raise ghosts, or send them into the Dead Sea, at the nod of his
+head. The common people, not only in his own parish, but throughout the
+neighbourhood, stood in the greatest awe of him, and to meet him on the
+highway at midnight produced the utmost horror; he was then driving
+about the evil spirits; many of them were seen, in all sorts of shapes,
+flying and running before him, and he pursuing them with his whip in a
+most daring manner. Not unfrequently he would be seen in the churchyard
+at dead of night to the terror of passers-by. He was a worthy man, and
+much respected, but had his eccentricities."]
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+DRAKE'S DRUM
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+Sir Francis Drake--who appears to have been especially befriended by his
+demon--is said to drive at night a black hearse drawn by headless
+horses, and urged on by running devils and yelping, headless dogs,
+through Jump, on the road from Tavistock to Plymouth.
+
+Sir Francis, according to tradition, was enabled to destroy the Spanish
+Armada by the aid of the devil. The old admiral went to Devil's Point, a
+well-known promontory jutting into Plymouth Sound. He there cut pieces
+of wood into the water, and by the power of magic and the assistance of
+his demon these became at once well-armed gunboats.
+
+Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey; and on every hand
+we hear of Drake and his familiars.
+
+An extensive building attached to the abbey--which was no doubt used as
+barns and stables after the place had been deprived of its religious
+character--was said to have been built by the devil in three nights.
+After the first night, the butler, astonished at the work done, resolved
+to watch and see how it was performed. Consequently, on the second
+night, he mounted into a large tree, and hid himself between the forks
+of its five branches. At midnight the devil came, driving several teams
+of oxen; and as some of them were lazy, he plucked this tree from the
+ground and used it as a goad. The poor butler lost his senses, and never
+recovered them.
+
+Drake constructed the channel, carrying the waters from Dartmoor to
+Plymouth. Tradition says he went with his demon to Dartmoor, walked into
+Plymouth, and the waters followed him. Even now--as old Betty
+Donithorne, formerly the housekeeper at Buckland Abbey, told me,--if the
+warrior hears the drum which hangs in the hall of the abbey, and which
+accompanied him round the world, he rises and has a revel.
+
+Some few years since a small box was found in a closet which had been
+long closed, containing, it is supposed, family papers. This was to be
+sent to the residence of the inheritor of this property. The carriage
+was at the abbey door, and a man easily lifted the box into it. The
+owner having taken his seat, the coachman attempted to start his horses,
+but in vain. They would not--they could not move. More horses were
+brought, and then the heavy farm-horses, and eventually all the oxen.
+They were powerless to start the carriage. At length a mysterious voice
+was heard, declaring that the box could never be moved from Buckland
+Abbey. It was taken from the carriage easily by one man, and a pair of
+horses galloped off with the carriage.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+Long, long ago a farmer named Lenine lived in Boscean. He had but one
+son, Frank Lenine, who was indulged into waywardness by both his
+parents. In addition to the farm servants, there was one, a young girl,
+Nancy Trenoweth, who especially assisted Mrs Lenine in all the various
+duties of a small farmhouse.
+
+Nancy Trenoweth was very pretty, and although perfectly uneducated, in
+the sense in which we now employ the term education, she possessed many
+native graces, and she had acquired much knowledge, really useful to one
+whose aspirations would probably never rise higher than to be mistress
+of a farm of a few acres. Educated by parents who had certainly never
+seen the world beyond Penzance, her ideas of the world were limited to a
+few miles around the Land's-End. But although her book of nature was a
+small one, it had deeply impressed her mind with its influences. The
+wild waste, the small but fertile valley, the rugged hills, with their
+crowns of cairns, the moors rich in the golden furze and the purple
+heath, the sea-beaten cliffs and the silver sands, were the pages she
+had studied, under the guidance of a mother who conceived, in the
+sublimity of her ignorance, that everything in nature was the home of
+some spirit form. The soul of the girl was imbued with the deeply
+religious dye of her mother's mind, whose religion was only a sense of
+an unknown world immediately beyond our own. The elder Nancy Trenoweth
+exerted over the villagers around her considerable power. They did not
+exactly fear her. She was too free from evil for that; but they were
+conscious of a mental superiority, and yielded without complaining to
+her sway.
+
+The result of this was, that the younger Nancy, although compelled to
+service, always exhibited some pride, from a feeling that her mother was
+a superior woman to any around her.
+
+She never felt herself inferior to her master and mistress, yet she
+complained not of being in subjection to them. There were so many
+interesting features in the character of this young servant girl that
+she became in many respects like a daughter to her mistress. There was
+no broad line of division in those days, in even the manorial hall,
+between the lord and his domestics, and still less defined was the
+position of the employer and the employed in a small farmhouse.
+Consequent on this condition of things, Frank Lenine and Nancy were
+thrown as much together as if they had been brother and sister. Frank
+was rarely checked in anything by his over-fond parents, who were
+especially proud of their son, since he was regarded as the handsomest
+young man in the parish. Frank conceived a very warm attachment for
+Nancy, and she was not a little proud of her lover. Although it was
+evident to all the parish that Frank and Nancy were seriously devoted to
+each other, the young man's parents were blind to it, and were taken by
+surprise when one day Frank asked his father and mother to consent to
+his marrying Nancy.
+
+The Lenines had allowed their son to have his own way from his youth up;
+and now, in a matter which brought into play the strongest of human
+feelings, they were angry because he refused to bend to their wills.
+
+The old man felt it would be a degradation for a Lenine to marry a
+Trenoweth, and, in the most unreasoning manner, he resolved it should
+never be.
+
+The first act was to send Nancy home to Alsia Mill, where her parents
+resided; the next was an imperious command to his son never again to see
+the girl.
+
+The commands of the old are generally powerless upon the young where the
+affairs of the heart are concerned. So were they upon Frank. He who was
+rarely seen of an evening beyond the garden of his father's cottage, was
+now as constantly absent from his home. The house, which was wont to be
+a pleasant one, was strangely altered. A gloom had fallen over all
+things; the father and son rarely met as friends--the mother and her boy
+had now a feeling of reserve. Often there were angry altercations
+between the father and son, and the mother felt she could not become the
+defender of her boy, in his open acts of disobedience, his bold defiance
+of his parents' commands.
+
+Rarely an evening passed that did not find Nancy and Frank together in
+some retired nook. The Holy Well was a favourite meeting-place, and here
+the most solemn vows were made. Locks of hair were exchanged; a
+wedding-ring, taken from the finger of a corpse, was broken, when they
+vowed that they would be united either dead or alive; and they even
+climbed at night the granite-pile at Treryn, and swore by the Logan Rock
+the same strong vow.
+
+Time passed onward unhappily, and as the result of the endeavours to
+quench out the passion by force, it grew stronger under the repressing
+power, and, like imprisoned steam, eventually burst through all
+restraint.
+
+Nancy's parents discovered at length that moonlight meetings between two
+untrained, impulsive youths, had a natural result, and they were now
+doubly earnest in their endeavours to compel Frank to marry their
+daughter.
+
+The elder Lenine could not be brought to consent to this, and he firmly
+resolved to remove his son entirely from what he considered the hateful
+influences of the Trenoweths. He resolved to go to Plymouth, to take
+his son with him, and, if possible, to send him away to sea, hoping thus
+to wean him from his folly, as he considered this love-madness. Frank,
+poor fellow, with the best intentions, was not capable of any sustained
+effort, and consequently he at length succumbed to his father; and, to
+escape his persecution, he entered a ship bound for India, and bade
+adieu to his native land.
+
+Frank could not write, and this happened in days when letters could be
+forwarded only with extreme difficulty, consequently Nancy never heard
+from her lover.
+
+A babe had been born into a troublesome world, and the infant became a
+real solace to the young mother. As the child grew, it became an
+especial favourite with its grandmother; the elder Nancy rejoiced over
+the little prattler, and forgot her cause of sorrow. Young Nancy lived
+for her child, and on the memory of its father. Subdued in spirit she
+was, but her affliction had given force to her character, and she had
+been heard to declare that wherever Frank might be, she was ever present
+with him, whatever might be the temptations of the hour, that her
+influence was all powerful over him for good. She felt that no distance
+could separate their souls, that no time could be long enough to destroy
+the bond between them.
+
+A period of distress fell upon the Trenoweths, and it was necessary that
+Nancy should leave her home once more, and go again into service. Her
+mother took charge of the babe, and she found a situation in the village
+of Kimyall, in the parish of Paul. Nancy, like her mother, contrived by
+force of character to maintain an ascendancy amongst her companions. She
+had formed an acquaintance, which certainly never grew into friendship,
+with some of the daughters of the small farmers around. These girls were
+all full of the superstitions of the time and place.
+
+The winter was coming on, and nearly three years had passed away since
+Frank Lenine left his country. As yet there was no sign. Nor father,
+nor mother, nor maiden had heard of him, and they all sorrowed over his
+absence. The Lenines desired to have Nancy's child, but the Trenoweths
+would not part with it. They went so far even as to endeavour to
+persuade Nancy to live again with them, but Nancy was not at all
+disposed to submit to their wishes.
+
+It was All-Hallows' eve, and two of Nancy's companions persuaded
+her,--no very difficult task,--to go with them and sow hemp-seed.
+
+At midnight the three maidens stole out unperceived into Kimyall
+town-place to perform their incantation. Nancy was the first to sow, the
+others being less bold than she.
+
+Boldly she advanced, saying, as she scattered the seed,--
+
+    "Hemp-seed I sow thee,
+    Hemp-seed grow thee;
+    And he who will my true love be,
+    Come after me
+    And shaw thee."
+
+This was repeated three times, when, looking back over her left
+shoulder, she saw Lenine; but he looked so angry that she shrieked with
+fear, and broke the spell. One of the other girls, however, resolved now
+to make trial of the spell, and the result of her labours was the vision
+of a white coffin. Fear now fell on all, and they went home sorrowful,
+to spend, each one, a sleepless night.
+
+November came with its storms, and during one terrific night a large
+vessel was thrown upon the rocks in Bernowhall Cliff, and, beaten by the
+impetuous waves, she was soon in pieces. Amongst the bodies of the crew
+washed ashore, nearly all of whom had perished, was Frank Lenine. He was
+not dead when found, but the only words he lived to speak were begging
+the people to send for Nancy Trenoweth, that he might make her his wife
+before he died.
+
+Rapidly sinking, Frank was borne by his friends on a litter to Boscean,
+but he died as he reached the town-place. His parents, overwhelmed in
+their own sorrows, thought nothing of Nancy, and without her knowing
+that Lenine had returned, the poor fellow was laid in his last bed, in
+Burian Churchyard.
+
+On the night of the funeral, Nancy went, as was her custom, to lock the
+door of the house, and as was her custom too, she looked out into the
+night. At this instant a horseman rode up in hot haste, called her by
+name, and hailed her in a voice that chilled her blood.
+
+The voice was the voice of Lenine. She could never forget that; and the
+horse she now saw was her sweetheart's favourite colt, on which he had
+often ridden at night to Alsia.
+
+The rider was imperfectly seen; but he looked very sorrowful, and
+deathly pale, still Nancy knew him to be Frank Lenine.
+
+He told her that he had just arrived home, and that the first moment he
+was at liberty he had taken horse to fetch his loved one, and to make
+her his bride.
+
+Nancy's excitement was so great, that she was easily persuaded to spring
+on the horse behind him, that they might reach his home before the
+morning.
+
+When she took Lenine's hand a cold shiver passed through her, and as she
+grasped his waist to secure herself in her seat, her arm became as stiff
+as ice. She lost all power of speech, and suffered deep fear, yet she
+knew not why. The moon had arisen, and now burst out in a full flood of
+light, through the heavy clouds which had obscured it. The horse pursued
+its journey with great rapidity, and whenever in weariness it slackened
+its speed, the peculiar voice of the rider aroused its drooping
+energies. Beyond this no word was spoken since Nancy had mounted behind
+her lover. They now came to Trove Bottom, where there was no bridge at
+that time; they dashed into the river. The moon shone full in their
+faces. Nancy looked into the stream, and saw that the rider was in a
+shroud and other grave-clothes. She now knew that she was being carried
+away by a spirit, yet she had no power to save herself; indeed, the
+inclination to do so did not exist.
+
+On went the horse at a furious pace, until they came to the blacksmith's
+shop, near Burian Church-town, when she knew by the light from the forge
+fire thrown across the road that the smith was still at his labours. She
+now recovered speech. "Save me! save me! save me!" she cried with all
+her might. The smith sprang from the door of the smithy, with a red-hot
+iron in his hand, and as the horse rushed by, caught the woman's dress,
+and pulled her to the ground. The spirit, however, also seized Nancy's
+dress in one hand, and his grasp was like that of a vice. The horse
+passed like the wind, and Nancy and the smith were pulled down as far as
+the old Alms-houses, near the churchyard. Here the horse for a moment
+stopped. The smith seized that moment, and with his hot iron burned off
+the dress from the rider's hand, thus saving Nancy, more dead than
+alive; while the rider passed over the wall of the churchyard, and
+vanished on the grave in which Lenine had been laid but a few hours
+before.
+
+The smith took Nancy into his shop, and he soon aroused some of his
+neighbours, who took the poor girl back to Alsia. Her parents laid her
+on her bed. She spoke no word, but to ask for her child, to request her
+mother to give up her child to Lenine's parents, and her desire to be
+buried in his grave. Before the morning light fell on the world Nancy
+had breathed her last breath.
+
+A horse was seen that night to pass through the Church-town like a ball
+from a musket, and in the morning Lenine's colt was found dead in
+Bernowhall Cliff, covered with foam, its eyes forced from its head, and
+its swollen tongue hanging out of its mouth. On Lenine's grave was found
+the piece of Nancy's dress which was left in the spirit's hand when the
+smith burnt her from his grasp.
+
+It is said that one or two of the sailors who survived the wreck related
+after the funeral, how, on the 30th of October, at night, Lenine was
+like one mad; they could scarcely keep him in the ship. He seemed more
+asleep than awake, and, after great excitement, he fell as if dead upon
+the deck, and lay so for hours. When he came to himself, he told them
+that he had been taken to the village of Kimyall, and that if he ever
+married the woman who had cast the spell, he would make her suffer the
+longest day she had to live for drawing his soul out of his body.
+
+Poor Nancy was buried in Lenine's grave, and her companion in sowing
+hemp-seed, who saw the white coffin, slept beside her within the year.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD
+
+By GREVILLE MACDONALD[5]
+
+
+By this corner of the graveyard the red dawn discovered to Jonas a
+little pool of clear water, with mosses and parsley-ferns all around it,
+and so clear and cool-looking that he must drink. The larger part of it
+was still shadowed by the wall. On knees and hands, he put his lips to
+it and drank. The refreshment was wonderful. He rose with a sense that
+he should find the lost sheep yet and bring her home. He looked down
+once more into the clear pool. It was wider than he had thought--indeed,
+he had been mistaken; it was a great tarn on the mountain-side! Then he
+saw that wonderful things were happening on the face of and all round
+the water. What appeared to be little glow-worms were lying motionless
+in groups on the mosses in a still-shadowed region by the side of the
+water. From beneath a low arch in the wall, where the water was slowly
+flowing away in a river, there came, against stream and wave and wind, a
+fishing-boat. Its great red sail was spread, and its pennant shone
+silvery blue in the sun. It came alongside a pier of mossy stones, and
+cast anchor. From it leapt twelve strong young fishermen, all with
+bright faces. They took up the little creatures with the glowing lights,
+and carried them aboard; then back again to other groups, until all were
+gathered in. For they were all sleeping human forms, close-wrapped in
+grave-clothes, but with their light still living, as might be seen by
+anyone who had suffered. When all were safe aboard, the men cast off and
+the boat disappeared under the arch.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: From _How Jonas Found his Enemy: a Romance of the South
+Downs_ (1916).]
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE LIANHAN SHEE
+
+By WILL CARLETON
+
+
+One summer evening Mary Sullivan was sitting at her own well-swept
+hearthstone, knitting feet to a pair of sheep's-grey stockings for
+Bartley, her husband. It was one of those serene evenings in the month
+of June when the decline of day assumes a calmness and repose,
+resembling what we might suppose to have irradiated Eden when our first
+parents sat in it before their fall. The beams of the sun shone through
+the windows in clear shafts of amber light, exhibiting millions of those
+atoms which float to the naked eye within its mild radiance. The dog lay
+barking in his dream at her feet, and the grey cat sat purring placidly
+upon his back, from which even his occasional agitation did not dislodge
+her.
+
+Mrs Sullivan was the wife of a wealthy farmer, and niece to the Rev.
+Felix O'Rourke; her kitchen was consequently large, comfortable, and
+warm. Over where she sat, jutted out the "brace" well lined with bacon;
+to the right hung a well-scoured salt-box, and to the left was the jamb,
+with its little paneless window to admit the light. Within it hung
+several ash rungs, seasoning for flail-sooples, or boulteens, a dozen of
+eel-skins, and several stripes of horse-skin, as hangings for them. The
+dresser was a "parfit white," and well furnished with the usual
+appurtenances. Over the door and on the "threshel" were nailed, "for
+luck," two horse-shoes, that had been found by accident. In a little
+"hole" in the wall, beneath the salt-box, lay a bottle of holy water to
+keep the place purified; and against the copestone of the gable, on the
+outside, grew a large lump of house-leek, as a specific for sore eyes
+and other maladies.
+
+In the corner of the garden were a few stalks of tansy "to kill the
+thievin' worms in the childhre, the crathurs," together with a little
+Rosenoble, Solomon's Seal, and Bugloss, each for some medicinal purpose.
+The "lime wather" Mrs Sullivan could make herself, and the "bog bane"
+for the _linh roe_, or heartburn, grew in their own meadow-drain; so
+that, in fact, she had within her reach a very decent pharmacopoeia,
+perhaps as harmless as that of the profession itself. Lying on the top
+of the salt-box was a bunch of fairy flax, and sewed in the folds of her
+own scapular was the dust of what had once been a four-leaved shamrock,
+an invaluable specific "for seein' the good people," if they happened to
+come within the bounds of vision. Over the door in the inside, over the
+beds, and over the cattle in the outhouses, were placed branches of
+withered palm, that had been consecrated by the priest on Palm Sunday;
+and when the cows happened to calve, this good woman tied, with her own
+hands, a woollen thread about their tails, to prevent them from being
+overlooked by evil eyes, or _elf-shot_ by the fairies, who seem to
+possess a peculiar power over females of every species during the period
+of parturition. It is unnecessary to mention the variety of charms which
+she possessed for that obsolete malady the colic, for toothache,
+headaches, or for removing warts, and taking motes out of the eyes; let
+it suffice to inform our readers that she was well stocked with them;
+and, that in addition to this, she, together with her husband, drank a
+potion made up and administered by an herb-doctor, for preventing for
+ever the slightest misunderstanding or quarrel between man and wife.
+Whether it produced this desirable object or not, our readers may
+conjecture, when we add, that the herb-doctor, after having taken a
+very liberal advantage of their generosity, was immediately compelled to
+disappear from the neighbourhood, in order to avoid meeting with
+Bartley, who had a sharp look-out for him, not exactly on his own
+account, but "in regard," he said, "that it had no effect upon _Mary_,
+at all at all"; whilst Mary, on the other hand, admitted its efficacy
+upon herself, but maintained, "that _Bartley_ was worse nor ever afther
+it."
+
+Such was Mary Sullivan, as she sat at her own hearth, quite alone,
+engaged as we have represented her. What she may have been meditating
+on, we cannot pretend to ascertain; but after some time, she looked
+sharply into the "backstone," or hob, with an air of anxiety and alarm.
+By and by she suspended her knitting, and listened with much
+earnestness, leaning her right ear over to the hob, from whence the
+sounds to which she paid such deep attention proceeded. At length she
+crossed herself devoutly, and exclaimed, "Queen of saints about us!--is
+it back ye are? Well sure there's no use in talkin' bekase they say you
+know what's said of you, or to you--an' we may as well spake yez fair.
+Hem--musha yez are welcome back, crickets, avour-neenee! I hope that,
+not like the last visit ye ped us, yez are comin' for luck now! Moolyeen
+died, any way, soon afther your other _kailyee_, ye crathurs ye. Here's
+the bread, an' the salt, an' the male for yez, an' we wish ye well.
+Eh?--saints above, if it isn't listenin' they are jist like a
+Christhien! Wurrah, but ye are the wise an' the quare crathurs all out!"
+
+She then shook a little holy water over the hob, and muttered to herself
+an Irish charm or prayer against the evils which crickets are often
+supposed by the peasantry to bring with them, and requested, still in
+the words of the charm, that their presence might, on that occasion,
+rather be a presage of good fortune to man and beast belonging to her.
+
+"There now, ye _dhonans_ ye, sure ye can't say that ye're ill-thrated
+here, anyhow, or ever was mocked or made game of in the same family. You
+have got your hansel, an' full an' plenty of it; hopin' at the same time
+that you'll have no rason in life to cut our best clothes from revinge.
+Sure an' I didn't desarve to have my brave stuff _long body_ riddled the
+way it was the last time ye wor here, an' only bekase little Barny, that
+has but the sinse of a _gorsoon_, tould yez in a joke to pack off wid
+yourselves somewhere else. Musha, never heed what the likes of him says;
+sure he's but a _caudy_, that doesn't mane ill, only the bit o'
+divarsion wid yez."
+
+She then resumed her knitting, occasionally stopping, as she changed her
+needles, to listen, with her ear set, as if she wished to augur from the
+nature of their chirping, whether they came for good or evil. This,
+however, seemed to be beyond her faculty of translating their language;
+for after sagely shaking her head two or three times, she knit more
+busily than before.
+
+At this moment, the shadow of a person passing the house darkened the
+window opposite which she sat, and immediately a tall female, of a wild
+dress and aspect, entered the kitchen.
+
+"_Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr_! the blessin' o' goodness upon you,
+dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, addressing her in those kindly phrases
+so peculiar to the Irish language.
+
+Instead of making her any reply, however, the woman, whose eye glistened
+with a wild depth of meaning, exclaimed in low tones, apparently of much
+anguish, "_Husht, husht, dherum_! husht, husht, I say--let me alone--I
+will do it--will you husht? I will, I say--I will--there now--that's
+it--be quiet, an' I will do it--be quiet!" and as she thus spoke she
+turned her face back over her left shoulder, as if some invisible being
+dogged her steps, and stood bending over her.
+
+"_Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr, dherhum areesht_! the blessin' o'
+God on you, honest woman, I say again," said Mrs Sullivan, repeating
+that _sacred_ form of salutation with which the peasantry address each
+other. "'Tis a fine evenin', honest woman, glory be to Him that sent the
+same, and amin! If it was cowld, I'd be axin' you to draw your chair in
+to the fire; but, any way, won't you sit down?"
+
+As she ceased speaking the piercing eye of the strange woman became
+riveted on her with a glare, which, whilst it startled Mrs Sullivan,
+seemed full of an agony that almost abstracted her from external life.
+It was not, however, so wholly absorbing as to prevent it from
+expressing a marked interest, whether for good or evil, in the woman who
+addressed her so hospitably.
+
+"Husht, now--husht," she said, as if aside--"husht, won't you--sure I
+may speak _the thing_ to her--you said it--there now, husht!" And then
+fastening her dark eyes on Mrs Sullivan, she smiled bitterly and
+mysteriously.
+
+"I know you well," she said, without, however, returning the _blessing_
+contained in the usual reply to Mrs Sullivan's salutation--"I know you
+well, Mary Sullivan--husht, now, husht--yes, I know you well, and the
+power of all that you carry about you; but you'd be better than you
+are--and that's well enough _now_--if you had sense to know--ah, ah,
+ah!--what's this!" she exclaimed abruptly, with three distinct shrieks,
+that seemed to be produced by sensations of sharp and piercing agony.
+
+"In the name of goodness, what's over you, honest woman?" inquired Mrs
+Sullivan, as she started from her chair, and ran to her in a state of
+alarm, bordering on terror--"Is it sick you are?"
+
+The woman's face had got haggard, and its features distorted; but in a
+few minutes they resumed their peculiar expression of settled wildness
+and mystery. "Sick!" she replied, licking her parched lips; "_awirck,
+awirck!_ look! look!" and she pointed with a shudder that almost
+convulsed her whole frame, to a lump that rose on her shoulders; this,
+be it what it might, was covered with a red cloak, closely pinned and
+tied with great caution about her body--"'tis here!--I have it!"
+
+"Blessed mother!" exclaimed Mrs Sullivan, tottering over to her chair,
+as finished a picture of horror as the eye could witness, "this day's
+Friday: the saints stand betwixt me an' all harm! Oh, holy Mary, protect
+me! _Nhanim an airh_," in the name of the Father, etc., and she
+forthwith proceeded to bless herself, which she did thirteen times in
+honour of the blessed virgin and the twelve apostles.
+
+"Ay, it's as you see!" replied the stranger bitterly. "It is
+here--husht, now--husht, I say--I will say _the thing_ to her, mayn't I?
+Ay, indeed, Mary Sullivan, 'tis with me always--always. Well, well, no,
+I won't I won't--easy. Oh, blessed saints, easy, and I won't!"
+
+In the meantime Mrs Sullivan had uncorked her bottle of holy water, and
+plentifully bedewed herself with it, as a preservative against this
+mysterious woman and her dreadful secret.
+
+"Blessed mother above!" she ejaculated, "the _Lianhan Shee_!" And as she
+spoke, with the holy water in the palm of her hand, she advanced
+cautiously, and with great terror, to throw it upon the stranger and the
+unearthly thing she bore.
+
+"Don't attempt it!" shouted the other, in tones of mingled fierceness
+and terror; "do you want to give _me_ pain without keeping _yourself_
+anything at all safer? Don't you know _it_ doesn't care about your holy
+water? But I'd suffer for it, an' perhaps so would you."
+
+Mrs Sullivan, terrified by the agitated looks of the woman, drew back
+with affright, and threw the holy water with which she intended to
+purify the other on her own person.
+
+"Why thin, you lost crathur, who or what are you at all?--don't,
+don't--for the sake of all the saints and angels of heaven, don't come
+next or near me--keep your distance--but what are you, or how did you
+come to get that 'good thing' you carry about wid you?"
+
+"Ay, indeed!" replied the woman bitterly, "as if I would or could tell
+you that! I say, you woman, you're doing what's not right in asking me a
+question you ought not let to cross your lips--look to yourself, and
+what's over you."
+
+The simple woman, thinking her meaning literal, almost leaped off her
+seat with terror, and turned up her eyes to ascertain whether or not any
+dreadful appearance had approached her, or hung over her where she sat.
+
+"Woman," said she, "I spoke you kind an' fair, an' I wish you
+well--but----"
+
+"But what?" replied the other--and her eyes kindled into deep and
+profound excitement, apparently upon very slight grounds.
+
+"Why--hem--nothin' at all sure, only----"
+
+"Only what?" asked the stranger, with a face of anguish that seemed to
+torture every feature out of its proper lineaments.
+
+"Dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, whilst the hair began to stand with
+terror upon her head, "sure it's no wondher in life that I'm in a
+perplexity, whin a _Lianhan Shee_ is undher the one roof wid me. 'Tisn't
+that I want to know anything at all about it--the dear forbid I should;
+but I never hard of a person bein' tormented wid it as you are. I always
+used to hear the people say that it thrated its friends well."
+
+"Husht!" said the woman, looking wildly over her shoulder, "I'll not
+tell: it's on myself I'll leave the blame! Why, will you never pity me?
+Am I to be night and day tormented? Oh, you're wicked and cruel for no
+reason!"
+
+"Thry," said Mrs Sullivan, "an' bless yourself; call on God."
+
+"Ah!" shouted the other, "are you going to get me killed?" and as she
+uttered the words, a spasmodic working which must have occasioned great
+pain, even to torture, became audible in her throat; her bosom heaved up
+and down, and her head was bent repeatedly on her breast, as if by
+force.
+
+"Don't mention that name," said she, "in my presence, except you mean to
+drive me to utter distraction. I mean," she continued, after
+considerable effort to recover her former tone and manner--"hear me with
+attention--I mean, woman--you, Mary Sullivan--that if you mention that
+holy name, you might as well keep plunging sharp knives into my heart!
+Husht! peace to me for one minute, tormentor! Spare me something, I'm in
+your power!"
+
+"Will you ate anything?" said Mrs Sullivan; "poor crathur, you look like
+hunger an' distress; there's enough in the house, blessed be them that
+sent it! an' you had betther thry an' take some nourishment, any way";
+and she raised her eyes in a silent prayer of relief and ease for the
+unhappy woman, whose unhallowed association had, in her opinion, sealed
+her doom.
+
+"Will I?--will I?--oh!" she replied, "may you never know misery for
+offering it! Oh, bring me something--some refreshment--some food--for
+I'm dying with hunger."
+
+Mrs Sullivan, who, with all her superstition, was remarkable for charity
+and benevolence, immediately placed food and drink before her, which the
+stranger absolutely devoured--taking care occasionally to secrete under
+the protuberance which appeared behind her neck, a portion of what she
+ate. This, however, she did, not by stealth, but openly; merely taking
+means to prevent the concealed thing from being, by any possible
+accident, discovered.
+
+When the craving of hunger was satisfied, she appeared to suffer less
+from the persecution of her tormentor than before; whether it was, as
+Mrs Sullivan thought, that the food with which she plied it appeased in
+some degree its irritability, or lessened that of the stranger, it was
+difficult to say; at all events, she became more composed; her eyes
+resumed somewhat of a natural expression; each sharp ferocious glare,
+which shot from them with such intense and rapid flashes, partially
+disappeared; her knit brows dilated, and part of a forehead, which had
+once been capacious and handsome, lost the contractions which deformed
+it by deep wrinkles. Altogether the change was evident, and very much
+relieved Mrs Sullivan, who could not avoid observing it.
+
+"It's not that I care much about it, if you'd think it not right o' me,
+but it's odd enough for you to keep the lower part of your face muffled
+up in that black cloth, an' then your forehead, too, is covered down on
+your face a bit. If they're part of the _bargain_,"--and she shuddered
+at the thought,--"between you an' anything that's not good--hem!--I
+think you'd do well to throw thim off o' you, an' turn to thim that can
+protect you from everything that's bad. Now, a scapular would keep all
+the divils in hell from one; an' if you'd----"
+
+On looking at the stranger she hesitated, for the wild expression of her
+eyes began to return.
+
+"Don't begin my punishment again," replied the woman; "make no
+allus----don't make mention in my presence of anything that's good.
+Husht--husht--it's beginning--easy now--easy! No," said she, "I came to
+tell you, that only for my breaking a vow I made to this thing upon me,
+I'd be happy instead of miserable with it. I say, it's a good thing to
+have, if the person will use this bottle," she added, producing one, "as
+I will direct them."
+
+"I wouldn't wish, for my part," replied Mrs Sullivan, "to have anything
+to do wid it--neither act nor part"; and she crossed herself devoutly,
+on contemplating such an unholy alliance as that at which her companion
+hinted.
+
+"Mary Sullivan," replied the other, "I can put good fortune and
+happiness in the way of you and yours. It is for you the good is
+intended; if _you_ don't get both, _no other_ can," and her eyes kindled
+as she spoke like those of the Pyrhoness in the moment of inspiration.
+
+Mrs Sullivan looked at her with awe, fear, and a strong mixture of
+curiosity; she had often heard that the _Lianhan Shee_ had, through
+means of the person to whom it was bound, conferred wealth upon several,
+although it could never render this important service to those who
+exercised direct authority over it. She therefore experienced something
+like a conflict between her fears and a love of that wealth, the
+possession of which was so plainly intimated to her.
+
+"The money," said she, "would be one thing, but to have the _Lianhan
+Shee_ planted over a body's shouldher--och! the saints preserve us!--no,
+not for oceans of hard goold would I have it in my company one minnit.
+But in regard to the money--hem!--why, if it could be managed without
+havin' act or part wid _that thing_, people would do anything in reason
+and fairity."
+
+"You have this day been kind to me," replied the woman, "and that's what
+I can't say of many--dear help me!--husht! Every door is shut in my
+face! Does not every cheek get pale when I am seen? If I meet a
+fellow-creature on the road, they turn into the field to avoid me; if I
+ask for food, it's to a deaf ear I speak; if I am thirsty, they send me
+to the river. What house would shelter me? In cold, in hunger, in
+drought, in storm, and in tempest, I am alone and unfriended, hated,
+feared, an' avoided; starving in the winter's cold, and burning in the
+summer's heat. All this is my fate here; and--oh! oh! oh!--have mercy,
+tormentor--have mercy! I will not lift my thoughts _there_--I'll keep
+the paction--but spare me _now_!"
+
+She turned round as she spoke, seeming to follow an invisible object,
+or, perhaps, attempting to get a more complete view of the mysterious
+being which exercised such a terrible and painful influence over her.
+Mrs Sullivan, also, kept her eye fixed upon the lump, and actually
+believed that she saw it move. Fear of incurring the displeasure of what
+it contained, and a superstitious reluctance harshly to thrust a person
+from her door who had eaten of her food, prevented her from desiring the
+woman to depart.
+
+"In the name of Goodness," she replied, "I will have nothing to do wid
+your gift. Providence, blessed be His name, has done well for me an'
+mine; an' it mightn't be right to go beyant what it has pleased _Him_ to
+give me."
+
+"A rational sentiment!--I mean there's good sense in what you say,"
+answered the stranger: "but you need not be afraid," and she accompanied
+the expression by holding up the bottle and kneeling. "Now," she added,
+"listen to me, and judge for yourself, if what I say, when I swear it,
+can be a lie." She then proceeded to utter oaths of the most solemn
+nature, the purport of which was to assure Mrs Sullivan that drinking of
+the bottle would be attended with no danger.
+
+"You see this little bottle? Drink it. Oh, for my sake and your own,
+drink it; it will give wealth without end to you and to all belonging to
+you. Take one-half of it before sunrise, and the other half when he goes
+down. You must stand while drinking it, with your face to the east, in
+the morning; and at night, to the west. Will you promise to do thus?"
+
+"How would drinkin' the bottle get me money?" inquired Mrs Sullivan, who
+certainly felt a strong tendency of heart to the wealth.
+
+"That I can't tell you now, nor would you understand it, even if I
+could; but you will know all when what I say is complied with."
+
+"Keep your bottle, dacent woman. I wash my hands out of it: the saints
+above guard me from the timptation! I'm sure it's not right, for as I'm
+a sinner, 'tis gettin' stronger every minute widin me! Keep it! I'm loth
+to bid any one that _ett_ o' my bread to go from my hearth, but if you
+go, I'll make it worth your while. Saints above! what's comin' over me?
+In my whole life I never had such a hankerin' afther money! Well, well,
+but it's quare entirely!"
+
+"Will you drink it?" asked her companion. "If it does hurt or harm to
+you or yours, or anything but good, may what is hanging over me be
+fulfilled!" and she extended a thin, but, considering her years, not
+ungraceful arm, in the act of holding out the bottle to her kind
+entertainer.
+
+"For the sake of all that's good and gracious, take it without
+scruple--it is not hurtful, a child might drink every drop that's in it.
+Oh, for the sake of all you love, and of all that love you, take it!"
+and as she urged her the tears streamed down her cheeks.
+
+"No, no," replied Mrs Sullivan, "it'll never cross my lips; not if it
+made me as rich as ould Hendherson, that airs his guineas in the sun,
+for fraid they'd get light by lyin' past."
+
+"I entreat you to take it," said the strange woman.
+
+"Never, never!--once for all--I say, I won't; so spare your breath."
+
+The firmness of the good housewife was not, in fact, to be shaken; so,
+after exhausting all the motives and arguments with which she could urge
+the accomplishment of her design, the strange woman, having again put
+the bottle into her bosom, prepared to depart.
+
+She had now once more become calm, and resumed her seat with the languid
+air of one who has suffered much exhaustion and excitement. She put her
+hand upon her forehead for a few moments, as if collecting her
+faculties, or endeavouring to remember the purport of their previous
+conversation. A slight moisture had broken through her skin, and
+altogether, notwithstanding her avowed criminality in entering into an
+unholy bond, she appeared an object of deep compassion.
+
+In a moment her manner changed again, and her eyes blazed out once more,
+as she asked her alarmed hostess,--
+
+"Again, Mary Sullivan, will you take the gift that I have it in my power
+to give you? ay or no? speak, poor mortal, if you know what is for your
+own good."
+
+Mrs Sullivan's fears, however, had overcome her love of money,
+particularly as she thought that wealth obtained in such a manner could
+not prosper; her only objection being to the means of acquiring it.
+
+"Oh!" said the stranger, "am I doomed never to meet with anyone who will
+take the promise off me by drinking of this bottle. Oh! but I am
+unhappy! What it is to fear--ah! ah!--and keep _His_ commandments. Had
+_I_ done so in my youthful time, I wouldn't now--ah--merciful mother, is
+there no relief? kill me, tormentor; kill me outright, for surely the
+pangs of eternity cannot be greater than those you now make me suffer.
+Woman," said she, and her muscles stood out in extraordinary
+energy--"woman, Mary Sullivan--ay, if you should kill me--blast
+me--where I stand, I will say the word--woman--you have daughters--teach
+them--to fear----" Having got so far, she stopped--her bosom heaved up
+and down--her frame shook dreadfully--her eyeballs became lurid and
+fiery--her hands were clenched, and the spasmodic throes of inward
+convulsion worked the white froth up to her mouth; at length she
+suddenly became like a statue, with this wild supernatural expression
+intense upon her, and with an awful calmness, by far more dreadful than
+excitement could be, concluded by pronouncing in deep husky tones the
+name of God.
+
+Having accomplished this with such a powerful struggle, she turned round
+with pale despair in her countenance and manner, and with streaming eyes
+slowly departed, leaving Mrs Sullivan in a situation not at all to be
+envied.
+
+In a short time the other members of the family, who had been out at
+their evening employments, returned. Bartley, her husband, having
+entered somewhat sooner than his three daughters from milking, was the
+first to come in; presently the girls followed, and in a few minutes
+they sat down to supper, together with the servants, who dropped in one
+by one, after the toil of the day. On placing themselves about the
+table, Bartley as usual took his seat at the head; but Mrs Sullivan,
+instead of occupying hers, sat at the fire in a state of uncommon
+agitation. Every two or three minutes she would cross herself devoutly,
+and mutter such prayers against spiritual influences of an evil nature
+as she could compose herself to remember.
+
+"Thin, why don't you come to your supper, Mary," said the husband,
+"while the sowans are warm? Brave and thick they are this night, any
+way."
+
+His wife was silent, for so strong a hold had the strange woman and her
+appalling secret upon her mind, that it was not till he repeated his
+question three or four times--raising his head with surprise, and
+asking, "Eh, thin, Mary, what's come over you--is it unwell you
+are?"--that she noticed what he said.
+
+"Supper!" she exclaimed; "unwell! 'tis a good right I have to be
+unwell,--I hope nothing bad will happen, any way. Feel my face, Nannie,"
+she added, addressing one of her daughters; "it's as cowld an' wet as a
+limestone--ay, an' if you found me a corpse before you, it wouldn't be
+at all strange."
+
+There was a general pause at the seriousness of this intimation. The
+husband rose from his supper, and went up to the hearth where she sat.
+
+"Turn round to the light," said he; "why, Mary dear, in the name of
+wondher, what ails you? for you're like a corpse sure enough. Can't you
+tell us what has happened, or what put you in such a state? Why,
+childhre, the cowld sweat's teemin' off her!"
+
+The poor woman, unable to sustain the shock produced by her interview
+with the stranger, found herself getting more weak, and requested a
+drink of water; but before it could be put to her lips, she laid her
+head upon the back of the chair and fainted. Grief, and uproar, and
+confusion followed this alarming incident. The presence of mind, so
+necessary on such occasions, was wholly lost; one ran here, and another
+there, all jostling against each other, without being cool enough to
+render her proper assistance. The daughters were in tears, and Bartley
+himself was dreadfully shocked by seeing his wife apparently lifeless
+before him.
+
+She soon recovered, however, and relieved them from the apprehension of
+her death, which they thought had actually taken place. "Mary," said the
+husband, "something quare entirely has happened, or you wouldn't be in
+this state!"
+
+"Did any of you see a strange woman lavin' the house a minute or two
+before ye came in?" she inquired.
+
+"No," they replied, "not a stim of anyone did we see."
+
+"Wurrah dheelish! No?--now is it possible ye didn't?" She then described
+her, but all declared they had seen no such person.
+
+"Bartley, whisper," said she, and beckoning him over to her, in a few
+words she revealed the secret. The husband grew pale and crossed
+himself. "Mother of Saints! childhre," said he, "a _Lianhan Shee_!" The
+words were no sooner uttered than every countenance assumed the
+pallidness of death; and every right hand was raised in the act of
+blessing the person, and crossing the forehead. "_The Lianhan Shee!!_"
+all exclaimed in fear and horror--"This day's Friday; God betwixt us an'
+harm!"
+
+It was now after dusk, and the hour had already deepened into the
+darkness of a calm, moonless, summer night; the hearth, therefore, in a
+short time, became surrounded by a circle, consisting of every person in
+the house; the door was closed and securely bolted;--a struggle for the
+safest seat took place; and to Bartley's shame be it spoken, he lodged
+himself on the hob within the jamb, as the most distant situation from
+the fearful being known as the _Lianhan Shee_. The recent terror,
+however, brooded over them all; their topic of conversation was the
+mysterious visit, of which Mrs Sullivan gave a painfully accurate
+detail; whilst every ear of those who composed her audience was set, and
+every single hair of their heads bristled up, as if awakened into
+distinct life by the story. Bartley looked into the fire soberly, except
+when the cat, in prowling about the dresser, electrified him into a
+start of fear, which sensation went round every link of the living chain
+about the hearth.
+
+The next day the story spread through the whole neighbourhood,
+accumulating in interest and incident as it went. Where it received the
+touches, embellishments, and emendations, with which it was amplified,
+it would be difficult to say: every one told it, forsooth, _exactly_ as
+he heard it from another, but indeed it is not improbable that those
+through whom it passed were unconscious of the additions it had received
+at their hands. It is not unreasonable to suppose that imagination in
+such cases often colours highly without a premeditated design of
+falsehood. Fear and dread, however, accompanied its progress; such
+families as had neglected to keep holy water in their houses borrowed
+some from their neighbours; every old prayer which had become rusty
+from disuse was brightened up--charms were hung about the necks of
+cattle, and gospels about those of children--crosses were placed over
+the doors and windows;--no unclean water was thrown out before sunrise
+or after dusk--
+
+    "E'en those prayed now who never prayed before,
+    And those who always prayed, still prayed the more."
+
+The inscrutable woman who caused such general dismay in the parish was
+an object of much pity. Avoided, feared, and detested, she could find no
+rest for her weary feet, nor any shelter for her unprotected head. If
+she was seen approaching a house, the door and windows were immediately
+closed against her; if met on the way she was avoided as a pestilence.
+How she lived no one could tell, for none would permit themselves to
+know. It was asserted that she existed without meat or drink, and that
+she was doomed to remain possessed of life, the prey of hunger and
+thirst, until she could get some one weak enough to break the spell by
+drinking her hellish draught, to taste which, they said, would be to
+change places with herself, and assume her despair and misery.
+
+There had lived in the country about six months before her appearance in
+it, a man named Stephenson. He was unmarried, and the last of his
+family. This person led a solitary and secluded life, and exhibited
+during the last years of his existence strong symptoms of eccentricity,
+which for some months before his death assumed a character of
+unquestionable derangement. He was found one morning hanging by a halter
+in his own stable, where he had, under the influence of his malady,
+committed suicide. At this time the public press had not, as now,
+familiarised the minds of the people to that dreadful crime, and it was
+consequently looked upon _then_ with an intensity of horror of which we
+can scarcely entertain any adequate notion. His farm remained
+unoccupied, for while an acre of land could be obtained in any other
+quarter, no man would enter upon such unhallowed premises. The house was
+locked up, and it was currently reported that Stephenson and the devil
+each night repeated the hanging scene in the stable; and that when the
+former was committing the "hopeless sin," the halter slipped several
+times from the beam of the stable-loft, when Satan came, in the shape of
+a dark-complexioned man with a hollow voice, and secured the rope until
+Stephenson's end was accomplished.
+
+In this stable did the wanderer take up her residence at night; and when
+we consider the belief of the people in the night-scenes which were
+supposed to occur in it, we need not be surprised at the new features of
+horror which this circumstance superadded to her character. Her presence
+and appearance in the parish were dreadful; a public outcry was soon
+raised against her, which, were it not from fear of her power over their
+lives and cattle, might have ended in her death. None, however, had
+courage to grapple with her, or to attempt expelling her by violence,
+lest a signal vengeance might be taken on any who dared to injure a
+woman that could call in the terrible aid of the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+In this state of feeling they applied to the parish priest, who, on
+hearing the marvellous stories related concerning her, and on
+questioning each man closely upon his authority, could perceive that,
+like most other reports, they were to be traced principally to the
+imagination and fears of the people. He ascertained, however, enough
+from Bartley Sullivan to justify a belief that there was something
+certainly uncommon about the woman; and being of a cold, phlegmatic
+disposition, with some humour, he desired them to go home, if they were
+wise--he shook his head mysteriously as he spoke--"and do the woman no
+injury, if they didn't wish"--and with this abrupt hint he sent them
+about their business.
+
+This, however, did not satisfy them. In the same parish lived a
+suspended priest, called Father Philip O'Dallaghy, who supported
+himself, as most of them do, by curing certain diseases of the
+people--miraculously! He had no other means of subsistence, nor, indeed,
+did he seem strongly devoted to life, or to the pleasures it afforded.
+He was not addicted to those intemperate habits which characterise
+"Blessed Priests" in general; spirits he never tasted, nor any food that
+could be termed a luxury, or even a comfort. His communion with the
+people was brief, and marked by a tone of severe contemptuous
+misanthropy. He seldom stirred abroad except during morning, or in the
+evening twilight, when he might be seen gliding amidst the coming
+darkness, like a dissatisfied spirit. His life was an austere one, and
+his devotional practices were said to be of the most remorseful
+character. Such a man, in fact, was calculated to hold a powerful sway
+over the prejudices and superstitions of the people. This was true. His
+power was considered almost unlimited, and his life one that would not
+disgrace the highest saint in the calendar. There were not wanting some
+persons in the parish who hinted that Father Felix O'Rourke, the parish
+priest, was himself rather reluctant to incur the displeasure, or
+challenge the power of the _Lianhan Shee_, by driving its victim out of
+the parish. The opinion of these persons was, in its distinct
+unvarnished reality, that Father Felix absolutely showed the white
+feather on this critical occasion--that he became shy, and begged leave
+to decline being introduced to this intractable pair--seeming to
+intimate that he did not at all relish adding them to the stock of his
+acquaintances.
+
+Father Philip they considered as a decided contrast to him on this
+point. His stern and severe manner, rugged, and, when occasion demanded,
+daring, they believed suitable to the qualities requisite for
+sustaining such an interview. They accordingly waited on him; and after
+Bartley and his friends had given as faithful a report of the
+circumstances as, considering all things, could be expected, he told
+Bartley he would hear from Mrs Sullivan's own lips the authentic
+narrative. This was quite satisfactory, and what was expected from him.
+As for himself, he appeared to take no particular interest in the
+matter, further than that of allaying the ferment and alarm which had
+spread through the parish.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "she came in to Mary, and she
+alone in the house, and for the matther o' that, I believe she laid
+hands upon her, and tossed and tumbled the crathur, and she but a sickly
+woman, through the four corners of the house. Not that Mary lets an so
+much, for she's afeard; but I know from her way, when she spakes about
+her, that it's thruth, your Reverence."
+
+"But didn't the _Lianhan Shee_," said one of them, "put a sharp-pointed
+knife to her breast, wid a divilish intintion of makin' her give the
+best of atin' an' dhrinkin' the house afforded?"
+
+"She got the victuals, to a sartinty," replied Bartley, "and
+'overlooked' my woman for her pains; for she's not the picture of
+herself since."
+
+Everyone now told some magnified and terrible circumstance, illustrating
+the formidable power of the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+When they had finished, the sarcastic lip of the priest curled into an
+expression of irony and contempt; his brow, which was naturally black
+and heavy, darkened; and a keen, but rather a ferocious-looking, eye
+shot forth a glance, which, while it intimated disdain for those to whom
+it was directed, spoke also of a dark and troubled spirit in himself.
+The man seemed to brook with scorn the degrading situation of a
+religious quack, to which some uncontrollable destiny had doomed him.
+
+"I shall see your wife to-morrow," said he to Bartley; "and after
+hearing the plain account of what happened, I will consider what is best
+to be done with this dark, perhaps unhappy, perhaps guilty character;
+but whether dark, or unhappy, or guilty, I, for one, should not, and
+will not, avoid her. Go, and bring me word to-morrow evening when I can
+see her on the following day. Begone!"
+
+When they withdrew, Father Philip paced his room for some time in
+silence and anxiety.
+
+"Ay," said he, "infatuated people! sunk in superstition and ignorance,
+yet, perhaps, happier in your degradation than those who, in the pride
+of knowledge, can only look back upon a life of crime and misery. What
+is a sceptic? What is an infidel? Men who, when they will not submit to
+moral restraint, harden themselves into scepticism and infidelity,
+until, in the headlong career of guilt, that which was first adopted to
+lull the outcry of conscience, is supported by the pretended pride of
+principle. Principle in a sceptic! Hollow and devilish lie! Would _I_
+have plunged into scepticism, had I not first violated the moral
+sanctions of religion? Never. I became an infidel, because I first
+became a villain! Writhing under a load of guilt, that which I wished
+might be true, I soon forced myself to think true: and now"--he here
+clenched his hands and groaned--"now--ay, now--and hereafter--oh, _that_
+hereafter! Why can I not shake the thoughts of it from my conscience?
+Religion! Christianity! With all the hardness of an infidel's heart, I
+feel your truth; because, if every man were the villain that infidelity
+would make him, then indeed might every man curse God for the existence
+bestowed upon him--as I would, but dare not do. Yet why can I not
+believe? Alas! why should God accept an unrepentant heart? Am I not a
+hypocrite, mocking Him by a guilty pretension to His power, and leading
+the dark into thicker darkness? Then these hands--blood!--broken
+vows!--ha! ha! ha! Well, go--let misery have its laugh, like the light
+that breaks from the thunder-cloud. Prefer Voltaire to Christ; sow the
+wind, and reap the whirlwind, as I have done--ha, ha, ha! Swim,
+world--swim about me! I have lost the ways of Providence, and am dark!
+_She_ awaits me; but I broke the chain that galled us: yet it still
+rankles--still rankles!"
+
+The unhappy man threw himself into a chair in a paroxysm of frenzied
+agony. For more than an hour he sat in the same posture, until he became
+gradually hardened into a stiff, lethargic insensibility, callous and
+impervious to feeling, reason, or religion--an awful transition from a
+visitation of conscience so terrible as that which he had just suffered.
+At length he arose, and by walking moodily about, relapsed into his
+usual gloomy and restless character.
+
+When Bartley went home, he communicated to his wife Father Philip's
+intention of calling on the following day, to hear a correct account of
+the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+"Why, thin," said she, "I'm glad of it, for I intinded myself to go to
+him, any way, to get my new scapular consecrated. How-an'-ever, as he's
+to come, I'll get a set of gospels for the boys an' girls, an' he can
+consecrate all when his hand's in. Aroon, Bartley, they say that man's
+so holy that he can do anything--ay, melt a body off the face o' the
+earth, like snow off a ditch. Dear me, but the power they have is
+strange all out!"
+
+"There's no use in gettin' him anything to ate or dhrink," replied
+Bartley; "he wouldn't take a glass o' whisky once in seven years.
+Throth, myself thinks he's a little too dhry; sure he might be holy
+enough, an' yet take a sup of an odd time. There's Father Felix, an'
+though we all know he's far from bein' so blessed a man as him, yet he
+has friendship an' neighbourliness in him, an' never refuses a glass in
+rason."
+
+"But do you know what I was tould about Father Philip, Bartley?"
+
+"I'll tell you that afther I hear it, Mary, my woman; you won't expect
+me to tell what I don't know?--ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Behave, Bartley, an' quit your jokin' now, at all evints; keep it till
+we're talkin' of somethin' else, an' don't let us be committin' sin,
+maybe, while we're spakin' of what we're spakin' about; but they say
+it's as thrue as the sun to the dial:--the Lent afore last itself it
+was,--he never tasted mate or dhrink durin' the whole seven weeks! Oh,
+you needn't stare! it's well known by thim that has as much sinse as
+you--no, not so much as you'd carry on the point o' this
+knittin'-needle. Well, sure the housekeeper an' the two sarvants
+wondhered--faix, they couldn't do less--an' took it into their heads to
+watch him closely; an' what do you think--blessed be all the saints
+above!--what do you think they _seen_?"
+
+"The Goodness above knows; for me--I don't."
+
+"Why, thin, whin he was asleep they seen a small silk thread in his
+mouth, that came down through the ceilin' from heaven, an' he suckin'
+it, just as a child would his mother's breast whin the crathur 'ud be
+asleep: so that was the way he was supported by the angels! An' I
+remimber myself, though he's a dark, spare, yallow man at all times, yet
+he never looked half so fat an' rosy as he did the same Lent!"
+
+"Glory be to Heaven! Well, well--_it is_ sthrange the power they have!
+As for him, I'd as _lee_ meet St Pether, or St Pathrick himself, as him;
+for one can't but fear him, somehow."
+
+"Fear him! Och, it 'ud be the pity o' thim that 'ud do anything to vex
+or anger that man. Why, his very look 'ud wither thim, till there
+wouldn't be the thrack o' thim on the earth; an' as for his curse, why
+it 'ud scorch thim to ashes!"
+
+As it was generally known that Father Philip was to visit Mrs Sullivan
+the next day, in order to hear an account of the mystery which filled
+the parish with such fear, a very great number of the parishioners were
+assembled in and about Bartley's long before he made his appearance. At
+length he was seen walking slowly down the road, with an open book in
+his hand, on the pages of which he looked from time to time. When he
+approached the house, those who were standing about it assembled in a
+body, and, with one consent, uncovered their heads, and asked his
+blessing. His appearance bespoke a mind ill at ease; his face was
+haggard, and his eyes bloodshot. On seeing the people kneel, he smiled
+with his usual bitterness, and, shaking his hand with an air of
+impatience over them, muttered some words, rather in mockery of the
+ceremony than otherwise. They then rose, and, blessing themselves, put
+on their hats, rubbed the dust off their knees, and appeared to think
+themselves recruited by a peculiar accession of grace.
+
+On entering the house the same form was repeated; and when it was over,
+the best chair was placed for him by Mary's own hands, and the fire
+stirred up, and a line of respect drawn, within which none was to
+intrude, lest he might feel in any degree incommoded.
+
+"My good neighbour," said he to Mrs Sullivan, "what strange woman is
+this, who has thrown the parish into such a ferment? I'm told she paid
+you a visit? Pray sit down."
+
+"I humbly thank your Reverence," said Mary, curtseying lowly, "but I'd
+rather not sit, sir, if you, plase. I hope I know what respect manes,
+your Reverence. Barny Bradagh, I'll thank you to stand up, if you plase,
+an' his Reverence to the fore, Barny."
+
+"I ax your Reverence's pardon, an' yours, too, Mrs Sullivan; sure we
+didn't mane the disrespect, anyhow, sir, plase your Reverence."
+
+"About this woman, and the _Lianhan Shee_," said the priest, without
+noticing Barny's apology. "Pray what do you precisely understand by a
+_Lianhan Shee_?"
+
+"Why, sir," replied Mary, "some sthrange bein' from the good people, or
+fairies, that sticks to some persons. There's a bargain, sir, your
+Reverence, made atween thim; an' the divil, sir, that is, the ould
+boy--the saints about us!--has a hand in it. The _Lianhan Shee_, your
+Reverence, is never seen only by thim it keeps wid; but--hem!--it
+always, wid the help of the ould boy, conthrives, sir, to make the
+person brake the agreement, an' thin it has _thim_ in _its_ power; but
+if they _don't_ brake the agreement, thin _it's_ in _their_ power. If
+they can get anybody to put in their place, they may get out o' the
+bargain; for they can, of a sartainty, give oceans o' money to people,
+but can't take any themselves, plase your Reverence. But sure, where's
+the use o' me to be tellin' your Reverence what you know betther nor
+myself?--an' why shouldn't you, or any one that has the power you have?"
+
+He smiled again at this in his own peculiar manner, and was proceeding
+to inquire more particularly into the nature of the interview between
+them, when the noise of feet, and sounds of general alarm, accompanied
+by a rush of people into the house, arrested his attention, and he
+hastily inquired into the cause of the commotion. Before he could
+receive a reply, however, the house was almost crowded; and it was not
+without considerable difficulty that, by the exertions of Mrs Sullivan
+and Bartley, sufficient order and quiet were obtained to hear distinctly
+what was said.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said several voices at once, "they're comin',
+hot-foot, into the very house to us! Was ever the likes seen! an' they
+must know right well, sir, that you're widin it."
+
+"Who are coming?" he inquired.
+
+"Why, the woman, sir, an' her _good pet_, the _Lianhan Shee_, your
+Reverence!"
+
+"Well," said he, "but why should you all appear so blanched with terror?
+Let her come in, and we shall see how far she is capable of injuring her
+fellow-creatures: some maniac," he muttered, in a low soliloquy, "whom
+the villainy of the world has driven into derangement--some victim to a
+hand like m----. Well, they say there _is_ a Providence, yet such things
+are permitted!"
+
+"He's sayin' a prayer now," observed one of them; "haven't we a good
+right to be thankful that he's in the place wid us while she's in it, or
+dear knows what harm she might do us--maybe _rise_ the wind!"
+
+As the latter speaker concluded, there was a dead silence. The persons
+about the door crushed each other backwards, their feet set out before
+them, and their shoulders laid with violent pressure against those who
+stood behind, for each felt anxious to avoid all danger of contact with
+a being against whose power even a blessed priest found it necessary to
+guard himself by a prayer.
+
+At length a low murmur ran among the people--"Father O'Rourke!--here's
+Father O'Rourke!--he has turned the corner after her, an' they're both
+comin' in." Immediately they entered, but it was quite evident, from the
+manner of the worthy priest, that he was unacquainted with the person of
+this singular being. When they crossed the threshold, the priest
+advanced, and expressed his surprise at the throng of people assembled.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "_that's_ the woman," nodding
+significantly towards her as he spoke, but without looking at her
+person, lest the evil eye he dreaded so much might meet his, and give
+him "the blast."
+
+The dreaded female, on seeing the house in such a crowded state,
+started, paused, and glanced with some terror at the persons assembled.
+Her dress was not altered since her last visit; but her countenance,
+though more meagre and emaciated, expressed but little of the unsettled
+energy which then flashed from her eyes, and distorted her features by
+the depth of that mysterious excitement by which she had been agitated.
+Her countenance was still muffled as before, the awful protuberance rose
+from her shoulders, and the same band which Mrs Sullivan had alluded to
+during their interview, was bound about the upper part of her forehead.
+
+She had already stood upwards of two minutes, during which the fall of a
+feather might be heard, yet none bade God bless her--no kind hand was
+extended to greet her--no heart warmed in affection towards her; on the
+contrary, every eye glanced at her, as a being marked with enmity
+towards God. Blanched faces and knit brows, the signs of fear and
+hatred, were turned upon her; her breath was considered pestilential,
+and her touch paralysis. There she stood, proscribed, avoided, and
+hunted like a tigress, all fearing to encounter, yet wishing to
+exterminate her! Who could she be?--or what had she done, that the
+finger of the Almighty marked her out for such a fearful weight of
+vengeance?
+
+Father Philip rose and advanced a few steps, until he stood confronting
+her. His person was tall, his features dark, severe, and solemn: and
+when the nature of the investigation about to take place is considered,
+it need not be wondered at, that the moment was, to those present, one
+of deep and impressive interest--such as a visible conflict between a
+supposed champion of God and a supernatural being was calculated to
+excite.
+
+"Woman," said he, in his deep stern voice, "tell me who and what you
+are, and why you assume a character of such a repulsive and mysterious
+nature, when it can entail only misery, shame, and persecution on
+yourself? I conjure you, in the name of Him after whose image you are
+created, to speak truly!"
+
+He paused, and the tall figure stood mute before him. The silence was
+dead as death--every breath was hushed--and the persons assembled stood
+immovable as statues! Still she spoke not; but the violent heaving of
+her breast evinced the internal working of some dreadful struggle. Her
+face before was pale--it was now ghastly; her lips became blue, and her
+eyes vacant.
+
+"Speak!" said he; "I conjure you in the name of the power by whom you
+live!"
+
+It is probable that the agitation under which she laboured was produced
+by the severe effort made to sustain the unexpected trial she had to
+undergo.
+
+For some minutes her struggle continued; but having begun at its highest
+pitch, it gradually subsided until it settled in a calmness which
+appeared fixed and awful as the resolution of despair. With breathless
+composure she turned round, and put back that part of her dress which
+concealed her face, except the band on her forehead, which she did not
+remove; having done this, she turned again, and walked calmly towards
+Father Philip, with a deadly smile upon her thin lips. When within a
+step of where he stood, she paused, and, riveting her eyes upon him,
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Who and what am I? The victim of infidelity and you, the bearer of a
+cursed existence, the scoff and scorn of the world, the monument of a
+broken vow and a guilty life, a being scourged by the scorpion lash of
+conscience, blasted by periodical insanity, pelted by the winter's
+storm, scorched by the summer's heat, withered by starvation, hated by
+man, and touched into my inmost spirit by the anticipated tortures of
+future misery. I have no rest for the sole of my foot, no repose for a
+head distracted by the contemplation of a guilty life; I am the unclean
+spirit which walketh to seek rest and findeth none; I am--_what you have
+made me_! Behold," she added, holding up the bottle, "this failed, and I
+live to accuse you. But no, you are my husband--though our union was
+but a guilty form, and I will bury that in silence. You thought me dead,
+and you flew to avoid punishment; did you avoid it? No; the finger of
+God has written pain and punishment upon your brow. I have been in all
+characters, in all shapes, have spoken with the tongue of a peasant,
+moved in my natural sphere, but my knees were smitten, my brain
+stricken, and the wild malady which banishes me from society has been
+upon me for years. Such I am, and such, I say, have you made me. As for
+you, kind-hearted woman, there was nothing in this bottle but pure
+water. The interval of reason returned this day, and having remembered
+glimpses of our conversation, I came to apologise to you, and to explain
+the nature of my unhappy distemper, and to beg a little bread, which I
+have not tasted for two days. I at times conceive myself attended by an
+evil spirit, shaped out by a guilty conscience, and this is the only
+familiar which attends me, and by it I have been dogged into madness
+through every turning of life. Whilst it lasts I am subject to spasms
+and convulsive starts which are exceedingly painful. The lump on my back
+is the robe I wore when innocent in my peaceful convent."
+
+The intensity of general interest was now transferred to Father Philip;
+every face was turned towards him, but he cared not. A solemn stillness
+yet prevailed among all present. From the moment she spoke, her eye drew
+his with the power of a basilisk. His pale face became like marble, not
+a muscle moved; and when she ceased speaking, his bloodshot eyes were
+still fixed upon her countenance with a gloomy calmness like that which
+precedes a tempest. They stood before each other, dreadful counterparts
+in guilt, for truly his spirit was as dark as hers.
+
+At length he glanced angrily around him:--"Well," said he, "what is it
+now, ye poor infatuated wretches, to trust in the sanctity _of man_?
+Learn from me to place the same confidence _in God_ which you place in
+His _guilty creatures_, and you will not lean on a broken reed. Father
+O'Rourke, you, too, witness my disgrace, but not my punishment. It is
+pleasant, no doubt, to have a topic for conversation at your
+Conferences; enjoy it. As for you, Margaret, if society lessen misery,
+we may be less miserable. But the band of your order, and the
+remembrance of your vow is on your forehead, like the mark of Cain--tear
+it off, and let it not blast a man who is the victim of prejudice still,
+nay, of superstition, as well as of guilt; tear it from my sight." His
+eyes kindled fearfully as he attempted to pull it away by force.
+
+She calmly took it off, and he immediately tore it into pieces, and
+stamped upon the fragments as he flung them on the ground.
+
+"Come," said the despairing man--"come--there is a shelter for you, _but
+no peace_!--food, and drink, and raiment, but _no peace_!--NO
+PEACE!" As he uttered these words, in a voice that sank to its
+deepest pitch, he took her hand, and they both departed to his own
+residence.
+
+The amazement and horror of those who were assembled in Bartley's house
+cannot be described. Our readers may be assured that they deepened in
+character as they spread through the parish. An undefined fear of this
+mysterious pair seized upon the people, for their images were associated
+in their minds with darkness and crime, and supernatural communion. The
+departing words of Father Philip rang in their ears: they trembled, and
+devoutly crossed themselves, as fancy again repeated the awful
+exclamation of the priest--"No peace! no peace!"
+
+When Father Philip and his unhappy associate went home, he instantly
+made her a surrender of his small property; but with difficulty did he
+command sufficient calmness to accomplish even this. He was
+distracted--his blood seemed to have been turned to fire--he clenched
+his hands, and he gnashed his teeth, and exhibited the wildest symptoms
+of madness. About ten o'clock he desired fuel for a large fire to be
+brought into the kitchen, and got a strong cord, which he coiled, and
+threw carelessly on the table. The family were then ordered to bed.
+About eleven they were all asleep; and at the solemn hour of twelve he
+heaped additional fuel upon the living turf, until the blaze shone with
+scorching light upon everything around. Dark and desolating was the
+tempest within him, as he paced, with agitated steps, before the
+crackling fire.
+
+"She is risen!" he exclaimed--"the spectre of all my crimes is risen to
+haunt me through life! I _am_ a murderer--yet she lives, and my guilt is
+not the less! The stamp of eternal infamy is upon me--the finger of
+scorn will mark me out--the tongue of reproach will sting me like that
+of the serpent--the deadly touch of shame will cover me like a
+leper--the laws of society will crush the murderer, not the less that
+his wickedness in blood has miscarried: after that comes the black and
+terrible tribunal of the Almighty's vengeance--of His fiery indignation!
+Hush!--What sounds are those? They deepen--they deepen! Is it thunder?
+It cannot be the crackling of the blaze! It _is_ thunder!--but it speaks
+only to _my_ ear! Hush!--Great God, there is a change in my voice! It is
+hollow and supernatural! Could a change have come over me? Am I living?
+Could I have--Hah!--Could I have departed? and am I now at length given
+over to the worm that never dies? If it be at my heart, I may feel it.
+God!--I am damned! Here is a viper twined about my limbs, trying to dart
+its fangs into my heart! Hah!--there are feet pacing in the room, too,
+and I hear voices! I am surrounded by evil spirits! Who's there?--What
+are you?--Speak!--They are silent!--There is no answer! Again comes the
+thunder! But perchance this is not my place of punishment, and I will
+try to leave these horrible spirits!"
+
+He opened the door, and passed out into a small green field that lay
+behind the house. The night was calm, and the silence profound as death.
+Not a cloud obscured the heavens;--the light of the moon fell upon the
+stillness of the scene around him, with all the touching beauty of a
+moonlit midnight in summer. Here he paused a moment, felt his brow, then
+his heart, the palpitations of which fell audibly upon his ear. He
+became somewhat cooler; the images of madness which had swept through
+his stormy brain disappeared, and were succeeded by a lethargic vacancy
+of thought, which almost deprived him of the consciousness of his own
+identity. From the green field he descended mechanically to a little
+glen which opened beside it. It was one of those delightful spots to
+which the heart clingeth. Its sloping sides were clothed with patches of
+wood, on the leaves of which the moonlight glanced with a soft lustre,
+rendered more beautiful by their stillness. That side on which the light
+could not fall, lay in deep shadow, which occasionally gave to the rocks
+and small projecting precipices an appearance of monstrous and unnatural
+life. Having passed through the tangled mazes of the glen, he at length
+reached its bottom, along which ran a brook, such as, in the description
+of the poet,--
+
+    "In the leafy month of June,
+    Unto the sleeping woods all night,
+    Singeth a quiet tune."
+
+Here he stood, and looked upon the green winding margin of the
+streamlet--but its song he heard not. With the workings of a guilty
+conscience, the beautiful in nature can have no association. He looked
+up the glen, but its picturesque windings, soft vistas, and wild
+underwood mingling with grey rocks and taller trees, all mellowed by the
+moon-beams, had no charms for him. He maintained a profound silence--but
+it was not the silence of peace or reflection. He endeavoured to recall
+the scenes of the past day, but could not bring them back to his
+memory. Even the fiery tide of thought, which, like burning lava, seared
+his brain a few moments before, was now cold and hardened. He could
+remember nothing. The convulsion of his mind was over, and his faculties
+were impotent and collapsed.
+
+In this state he unconsciously retraced his steps, and had again reached
+the paddock adjoining his house, when, as he thought, the figure of his
+paramour stood before him. In a moment his former paroxysm returned, and
+with it the gloomy images of a guilty mind, charged with the extravagant
+horrors of brain-struck madness.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed, "the band still on your forehead! Tear it off!"
+
+He caught at the form as he spoke, but there was no resistance to his
+grasp. On looking again towards the spot, it had ceased to be visible.
+The storm within him arose once more; he rushed into the kitchen, where
+the fire blazed out with fiercer heat; again he imagined that the
+thunder came to his ears, but the thunderings which he heard were only
+the voice of conscience. Again his own footsteps and his voice sounded
+in his fancy as the footsteps and voices of fiends, with which his
+imagination peopled the room. His state and his existence seemed to him
+a confused and troubled dream; he tore his hair--threw it on the
+table--and immediately started back with a hollow groan; for his locks,
+which but a few hours before had been as black as the raven's wing, were
+now white as snow!
+
+On discovering this, he gave a low but frantic laugh. "Ha, ha, ha!" he
+exclaimed; "here is another mark--here is food for despair. Silently,
+but surely, did the hand of God work this, as a proof that I am
+hopeless! But I will bear it; I will bear the sight! I now feel myself a
+man blasted by the eye of God Himself! Ha, ha, ha! Food for despair!
+Food for despair!"
+
+Immediately he passed into his own room, and approaching the
+looking-glass beheld a sight calculated to move a statue. His hair had
+become literally white, but the shades of his dark complexion, now
+distorted by terror and madness, flitted, as his features worked under
+the influence of his tremendous passions, into an expression so
+frightful, that deep fear came over himself. He snatched one of his
+razors, and fled from the glass to the kitchen. He looked upon the fire,
+and saw the white ashes lying around its edge.
+
+"Ha!" said he, "the light is come! I see the sign. I am directed, and I
+will follow it. There is yet ONE hope. The immolation! I shall
+be saved, yet so as by fire. It is for this my hair has become
+white;--the sublime warning for my self-sacrifice! The colour of
+ashes!--white--white! It is so!--I will sacrifice my body in material
+fire, to save my soul from that which is eternal! But I had anticipated
+the SIGN! The self-sacrifice is accepted!"
+
+We must here draw a veil over that which ensued, as the description of
+it would be both unnatural and revolting. Let it be sufficient to say,
+that the next morning he was found burnt to a cinder, with the exception
+of his feet and legs, which remained as monuments of, perhaps, the most
+dreadful suicide that ever was committed by man. His razor, too, was
+found bloody, and several clots of gore were discovered about the
+hearth; from which circumstances it was plain that he had reduced his
+strength so much by loss of blood, that when he committed himself to the
+flames, he was unable, even had he been willing, to avoid the fiery and
+awful sacrifice of which he made himself the victim. If anything could
+deepen the impression of fear and awe, already so general among the
+people, it was the unparalleled nature of his death. Its circumstances
+are yet remembered in the parish and county wherein it occurred--_for it
+is no fiction_, gentle reader! and the titular bishop who then presided
+over the diocese declared, that while he lived no person bearing the
+unhappy man's name should ever be admitted to the clerical order.
+
+The shock produced by his death struck the miserable woman into the
+utter darkness of settled derangement. She survived him some years, but
+wandered about through the province, still, according to the
+superstitious belief of the people, tormented by the terrible enmity of
+the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE HAUNTED COVE
+
+By SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS, Bart.
+
+
+Commonplace in itself and showing positive vulgarity in the style in
+which its pleasure-grounds are laid out, Clyffe, near Berwick-on-Tweed,
+has yet one delightful feature of its own,--to wit, a private bay to
+which access is obtained by a tunnel seventy or eighty yards long, cut
+through the soft formation of the cliff from the sloping gardens above.
+The result is that, if you are a visitor at Clyffe, you have your own
+private bathing ground, your own private beach where the children may
+play, without fear of being encroached upon, unless, indeed, a boat
+should be run in among the rocks from seaward. In the early nineties of
+the last century, the only daughter of the house of Clyffe was engaged
+to be married to a young officer quartered at the military depot at
+Berwick. They were a blameless but not particularly interesting couple,
+and one of their hobbies was to meet and promenade on the smooth sands
+of Clyffe bay in the brilliant autumn moonlight. In order to prevent
+possible intrusion from the sea, the seaward end of the tunnel was
+closed by a heavy iron gate, and upon the inner side of this gate the
+Lieutenant was to wait until his fiancée should steal forth bringing
+with her the key which should give access to the beach. It was all very
+foolish and romantic, no doubt, for they might have met just as
+conveniently in the conservatory of Clyffe House, where their privacy
+would have been equally respected, and where Miss Alix's satin shoes
+and diaphanous draperies would have exposed her to no risk of a chill.
+Lovers are like that, however, and had they not been so on this
+occasion, I should have had no story to tell.
+
+Like the exemplary swain he was, Dick arrived early at the
+rendezvous,--that is to say, early in respect to the time agreed upon,
+though, as a matter of fact, it was nearly eleven o'clock. There he lit
+a cigarette, and approaching the heavy iron bars of the locked gate,
+looked forth upon the peaceful scene beyond. It was a perfect night, the
+harvest moon riding through fleecy cloud aloft, whilst the breaking of
+the sea between the rocky points to right and left was soothing in its
+gentle iteration. Dick had been on parade extremely early that morning,
+and, tell it not in Gath! his eyes involuntarily closed. Starting awake
+again, he saw with surprise that, though Alix had not yet come forward,
+he was no longer alone. No! the sacred beach had been invaded, and a
+female figure clad in light draperies was pacing slowly in the moonlight
+betwixt himself and the distant rocks. Who on earth could she be, and
+how had she got there? were the questions he asked himself, his first
+sensation being one of annoyance at so unexpected and so ill-timed an
+intrusion. But as the moments passed and the figure came more clearly
+into view, impatience gave way to curiosity, and curiosity to something
+like awe.
+
+What he saw was the tall and slender form of a young girl whose hands
+were clasped in front of her, and whose eyes were fixed on the ground in
+a pensive, not to say sorrowful, attitude. Clear as was the moonlight,
+at least in the intervals of the moon's passage through the broken
+clouds, her features were not plainly visible; but her every movement
+was instinct with grace. What could she be doing there? Under other
+circumstances, possibly Dick might have felt inclined to pass the gate
+and himself step forth on to the sands. But, besides that the gate was
+locked, he gradually became conscious of a singular delicacy or
+unwillingness to intrude upon the privacy of this solitary,
+inexplicable, and impressive figure. He was content, therefore, to watch
+her noiseless progress, and, as he did so, even his untrained masculine
+eye seemed to note something unusual--out of date, it might be--in the
+fashion of her garments. So perhaps might some old-world portrait have
+appeared, had it stept down from its frame against the wall. This,
+however, stirred him little. What he was not prepared for was the
+gesture of anguish, nay, of positive despair, with which, when about
+opposite him, the figure threw her head back and her arms aloft, as if
+in mute and agonised appeal to Heaven. The action was heart-rending even
+to look on; nor, to a male eye, did it lose aught from the fact that, as
+the moonlight now fell for the first time on her upturned face, it
+showed it to be deathly pale indeed, but also exquisitely lovely.
+Another moment or two, and the graceful and appealing form had passed
+beyond his field of vision, for, as the locked gate stood some little
+way back from the mouth of the tunnel, his view was restricted.
+
+A short time only, though he knew not exactly how long, had passed when
+Alix stood beside him.
+
+"I had some difficulty," she archly explained, "in eluding prying eyes."
+
+For an ardent lover, Dick's greetings were perfunctory; after which,
+being still powerfully under the impression of what he had just seen, he
+told Alix all about it.
+
+"We shall soon see who she is," replied that practical young lady, as
+she placed the heavy key in the cumbrous lock, "and I shall also take
+leave to inform her that this bit of coast is strictly private."
+
+And strictly private it appeared to be when they emerged from the
+tunnel. For though their eyes swept the beach to right and left, and
+though the moon just then was unobscured, they saw no trace of any
+living form.
+
+"She must have landed from a boat," said Alix; but as little trace of a
+boat could they discover.
+
+Still it was quite possible that she might pass unobserved against the
+dark rocks, so they turned first to the right, then to the left, keeping
+a keen look-out for any sign of motion.
+
+They detected nothing.
+
+And by this time I am bound to confess that a slightly uncomplimentary
+suspicion had more than once crossed the brain of Alix. She knew that,
+as a rule, her Dick was a pattern of moderation. But even the most
+prudent may be liable to be occasionally overtaken. And she recalled his
+having mentioned that this was to be a guest-night at the mess. Indeed,
+it was chiefly upon that account that the assignation had been fixed so
+late. This present portentous solemnity was certainly most unlike him.
+Was it possible that the poor fellow had taken just one more
+whisky-and-soda than he could conveniently carry? Outspoken by nature,
+she blurted out her suspicion, which was strengthened rather than the
+reverse by the great earnestness with which he repelled it.
+
+Less convinced than before, Alix then exclaimed: "Look here, Dick! If,
+as you say, the young woman passed this way, she must have left tracks
+on the smooth sand. Where do you say the place was?"
+
+With some uncertainty, Dick then led her to what he took to be the
+place. No tracks were there. He then tried further back from the mouth
+of the tunnel, and with as little success. It was true the tide was
+coming up, but it could scarcely yet have reached footmarks which had
+been imprinted so far inshore as he supposed these to have been.
+
+In a spirit of levity which jarred on him, Alix now recommended her
+lover to go back to his quarters and have a good sleep; and then, having
+again passed through the gate and pushed their way up the tunnel, the
+two young people parted in something very like a tiff.
+
+Dick did not call at Clyffe House the next day, and when he called on
+the day following, Alix met him in a complaisant mood. After all, she
+had no wish to quarrel with him. And very soon she said, "Going back to
+what you told me you had seen the other night, Dick, it occurred to me,
+after you were gone, that it fits in rather curiously with an old story
+connected with this place." And then, at his request, she proceeded to
+tell him how, some thirty years ago, her grandmother had had a favourite
+maid, a friendless orphan girl named Barbara, to whom attached a
+mystery. Barbara was a very lovely creature of refinement and education
+above her station, and she had of course numerous admirers. Young as she
+was, her discretion was faultless, with the sole exception that her
+native amiability and desire to please sometimes betrayed her into
+conduct which meant less than her admirers wished to think it did. Well,
+at last Barbara became plighted to a respectable young fisherman,
+part-owner of a boat sailing from The Greenses, and, though details were
+vague, it was generally understood that, as a consequence, several
+hearts were severely damaged. As Barbara had no relatives, it was
+arranged by her employer that she should remain in her situation until
+the wedding-day and should be married from Clyffe House. Considerable
+preparations had also been made to do honour to the occasion,
+when--judge of the consternation of the inmates of the house!--upon the
+morning of the wedding-day Barbara was not to be found. She was believed
+to have retired to rest on the previous night as usual, yet her bed had
+not been slept in. Nor, although most of her clothes were packed in
+anticipation of her change of domicile, had she apparently taken
+anything with her. Nothing in the least unusual had been observed in her
+demeanour; nor could the unhappy bridegroom suggest any possible motive
+for her conduct. Exhaustive inquiries and exhaustive search were made;
+but, to cut the story short, nothing had ever again been seen or heard
+of the fair Barbara to that day. Her mistress, who had been sincerely
+attached to her, had long mourned for her, and in after times would
+often sing her praises. But, in order to be quite candid, it must be
+acknowledged that there were others, not a few, who declined to believe
+that the girl had come to an untimely end; and, who, knowing that she
+had several suitors, and had sometimes appeared uncertain which to
+favour, preferred to think that she had changed her mind at the last
+moment, and, deciding to throw over her fisherman, had made her escape
+from Clyffe House during the night to join some more eligible swain.
+This would have been a desperate step indeed; nor could her conduct in
+withholding subsequent explanations be absolved of heartlessness. But,
+after all, she was the sort of girl who, where no actual misconduct was
+involved, might easily allow herself to be over-persuaded. And certainly
+the tangled skein of love does sometimes present a knot which must be
+cut rather than untied.
+
+The Lieutenant professed himself profoundly interested in this
+narrative, which he and Alix then proceeded to discuss in all its
+bearings, and more particularly, of course, in its relation to the
+figure seen by him in the cove. It is true that Alix never quite
+believed in the genuineness of the apparition; but, seeing that Dick
+really wished to have it taken seriously, she decided tactfully to
+humour him, and made quite a nine days' wonder of the mysterious
+occurrence. Their own wedding-day was, however, fast drawing on, so they
+soon found other things to talk and think of. To be brief, they were in
+due course married, and, amid the cares and pleasures of wedded life,
+the story, though not forgotten, came to be very seldom referred to. So
+twenty years passed; at the end of which time the Colonel (as he now
+was), accompanied by his wife and several youngsters, paid one of his
+not very frequent visits to his wife's parents at Clyffe House.
+
+On the first night of the visit, after dinner, Alix's father had
+significantly recalled the story of the maid Barbara's disappearance,
+and, after stating that the mystery had now been finally cleared up, had
+gone on to relate the following particulars:--A few days previously
+there had lain at the point of death in the infirmary at Berwick an aged
+fisherman, who had long been known in the seaport town for his solitary
+habits and morose and violent ways. As death drew near, it became
+evident that his mind was sorely troubled, and to one of the nurses or
+doctors who had sought to comfort him he had been led to make the
+acknowledgment that a guilty secret weighed upon his soul, making him
+fearful to confront his Maker. He then told how, as a young man, he had
+passionately loved a pretty servant-girl employed at Clyffe House.
+Misled by those smiles and that graciousness of manner which in the
+guileless amiability of her nature the girl lavished upon all alike, he
+had for a moment imagined himself her favoured suitor. How bitter, then,
+was the blow, and how rude the awakening when he learned that a younger
+brother of his own, a mere boy, was preferred before himself! Nor was it
+only unrequited love that grieved him. No, he believed, or managed to
+persuade himself, that an unfair advantage had been taken of him, by
+which he had been made the lovers' dupe. A silent man, he took no one
+into his confidence, but abode his time until the eve of the
+wedding-day. On that day he had accidentally intercepted a note from the
+girl Barbara, addressed to his brother, in which she had agreed to meet
+her bridegroom of the morrow in the cove below Clyffe House one hour
+before midnight, to spend a final hour together before the momentous
+crisis in their lives. Instantly it had occurred to the elder brother to
+use the knowledge gained from the note in order to make one last
+desperate appeal on his own account to the sweet girl he loved so
+madly. Accordingly he kept back the missive, and, to make assurance
+doubly sure, mixed a soporific drug with his brother's drink when the
+latter came in from fishing. Then, whilst the youngster slumbered
+heavily, he himself embarked in a cockle-boat and, unobserved, rowed
+quietly round the headland, into Clyffe cove, where he ran his boat into
+a safe creek he knew of, and jumped ashore. Poor Barbara had come down
+to the water's edge to meet the boat, and great was her consternation on
+finding herself confronted by the wrong brother.
+
+Then an impassioned scene was enacted, in which the seaman used every
+means of persuasion known to him to get the girl to give up his brother
+and plight herself to him. But though alternately distressed and
+terrified, Barbara had stood her ground, and, gentle and yielding though
+she appeared to be, neither threats nor vows had had the slightest
+effect upon her constancy. And then, of a sudden, the reckless brother
+had "seen red." If he could not have this girl to wife, then neither
+should another, and a moment later her white form lay stretched upon the
+dark rocks at his feet.
+
+The sight brought him to himself. There was no room for doubt that life
+was extinct; and if he was to escape suspicion, he must act at once, for
+the summer night was short and the dread interview had lasted long. He
+accordingly placed the body in the boat, and, having collected several
+heavy stones, proceeded to make use of his seacraft by binding them
+closely and firmly about the poor girl's body by means of her clothing.
+Then he rowed out to sea, some mile or more, and there quietly dropped
+the body overboard. Such, in essentials, was the story told by the dying
+fisherman, and so it had come about that the bride of that fatal morning
+was never seen or heard of more. Though possibly intended to be regarded
+as confidential, certain it is that the confession had leaked out, and
+very soon became public property. For a few days it attracted great
+attention; and then, like other more important things which had preceded
+it, it ceased, save very occasionally, to be alluded to at all. But the
+Colonel never forgot it, any more than he ever forgot the lovely and
+inexplicable vision which had appeared to him for so brief an interval,
+in the moonlight, on the shore below Clyffe House. It is true that he
+seldom referred to it. Nor did that stately dame, who had once been Miss
+Alix and who was now believed to command the regiment, encourage him to
+do so. For she had observed that he was always most ready to tell the
+story after an exceptionally good dinner. And, with her high sense of
+what was due to his rank, she fancied that it made him mildly
+ridiculous. Neither, it might be, had her earliest doubts been ever
+wholly laid to rest. But members of the fair sex, when they are
+practical, are apt to be very practical indeed.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE
+
+By SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+
+Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in
+these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and
+our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He
+was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he was in the
+hills wi' Glencairn in the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when
+King Charles the Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of
+Redgauntlet? He was knighted at Lonon court, wi' the King's ain sword;
+and being a redhot prelatist, he came down here, rampauging like a lion,
+with commissions of lieutenancy (and of lunacy, for what I ken), to put
+down a' the Whigs and Covenanters in the country. Wild wark they made of
+it; for the Whigs were as dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was
+which should first tire the other. Redgauntlet was aye for the strong
+hand; and his name is kend as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or
+Tam Dalyell's. Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the
+puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and bloodhound after
+them, as if they had been sae mony deer. And troth when they fand them,
+they didna mak muckle mair ceremony than a Hielandman wi' a
+roebuck--It was just, "Will ye tak the test?"--if not, "Make
+ready--present--fire!"--and there lay the recusant.
+
+Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared. Men thought he had a
+direct compact with Satan--that he was proof against steel--and that
+bullets happed aff his buff-coat like hailstanes from a hearth--that he
+had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of Carrifragawns[6]--and
+muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon. The best blessing they
+wared on him was, "Deil scowp wi' Redgauntlet!" He wasna a bad maister
+to his ain folk, though, and was weel aneugh liked by his tenants; and
+as for the lackies and troopers that rade out wi' him to the
+persecutions, as the Whigs caa'd those killing times, they wad hae
+drunken themsells blind to his health at ony time.
+
+Now you are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund--they
+ca' the place Primrose-Knowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the
+Redgauntlets, since the riding days, and lang before. It was a pleasant
+bit; and I think the air is callerer and fresher there than ony where
+else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken
+door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the
+place was in; but that's a' wide o' the mark. There dwelt my gudesire,
+Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel he had been in his young
+days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at "Hoopers and
+Girders"--a' Cumberland couldna touch him at "Jockie Lattin"--and he had
+the finest finger for the backlilt between Berwick and Carlisle. The
+like o' Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o'. And so he became
+a Tory, as they ca' it, which we now ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind
+of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae
+ill-will to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin,
+though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting,
+watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that
+he couldna avoid.
+
+Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a' the
+folks about the Castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when
+they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that
+had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and
+stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his
+gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his
+finger.
+
+Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the
+hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not
+a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The
+Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their auld enemies, and
+in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But there were ower mony great
+folks dipped in the same doings, to mak a spick and span new warld. So
+Parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was
+held to hunting foxes instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he
+was. His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it had
+been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists, that used
+to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is certain he began to be
+keener about the rents than his tenants used to find him before, and
+they behoved to be prompt to the rent-day, or else the Laird wasna
+pleased. And he was sic an awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him;
+for the oaths he swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the
+looks that he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.[7]
+
+Weel, my gudesire was nae manager--no that he was a very great
+misguider--but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in
+arrear. He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word and
+piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the
+grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day preceese, or else Steenie
+behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was
+weel-freended, and at last he got the haill scraped thegether--a
+thousand merks--the maist of it was from a neighbour they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik--a sly tod. Laurie had walth o' gear--could hunt wi' the hound
+and rin wi' the hare--and be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind
+stood. He was a professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra
+sough of this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a by time;
+and abune a', he thought he had a gude security for the siller he lent
+my gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose-Knowe.
+
+Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle, wi' a heavy purse and a
+light heart, glad to be out of the Laird's danger. Weel, the first thing
+he learned at the Castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himself into a
+fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve o'clock. It
+wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he
+didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see
+Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the
+Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great,
+ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast
+it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played--ill to please it was,
+and easily angered--ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling,
+and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or
+disturbances in the state. Sir Robert caa'd it Major Weir, after the
+warlock that was burnt;[8] and few folk liked either the name or the
+conditions of the creature--they thought there was something in it by
+ordinar--and my gudesire was not just easy in his mind when the door
+shut on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the Laird,
+Dougal MacCallum, and the Major, a thing that hadna chanced to him
+before.
+
+Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armchair, wi' his
+grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and
+gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as Satan's. Major Weir
+sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat, and the Laird's wig on his
+head; and aye as Sir Robert girned wi' pain, the jackanape girned too,
+like a sheep's-head between a pair of tangs--an ill-faur'd, fearsome
+couple they were. The Laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him,
+and his broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the
+auld fashion of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day and
+night, just as he used to do when he was able to loup on horseback, and
+away after ony of the hill-folk he could get speerings of. Some said it
+was for fear of the Whigs taking vengeance, but I judge it was just his
+auld custom--he wasna gien to fear ony thing. The rental-book, wi' its
+black cover and brass clasps, was lying beside him; and a book of
+sculduddry sangs was put betwixt the leaves, to keep it open at the
+place where it bore evidence against the Goodman of Primrose-Knowe, as
+behind the hand with his mails and duties. Sir Robert gave my gudesire a
+look, as if he would have withered his heart in his bosom. Ye maun ken
+he had a way of bending his brows, that men saw the visible mark of a
+horse-shoe in his forehead, deep-dinted, as if it had been stamped
+there.
+
+"Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?" said Sir Robert.
+"Zounds! if you are----"
+
+My gudesire, with as gude a countenance as he could put on, made a leg,
+and placed the bag of money on the table wi' a dash, like a man that
+does something clever. The Laird drew it to him hastily--"Is it all
+here, Steenie, man?"
+
+"Your honour will find it right," said my gudesire.
+
+"Here, Dougal," said the Laird, "gie Steenie a tass of brandy down
+stairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt."
+
+But they werena weel out of the room, when Sir Robert gied a yelloch
+that garr'd the Castle rock. Back ran Dougal--in flew the livery
+men--yell on yell gied the Laird, ilk ane mair awfu' than the ither. My
+gudesire knew not whether to stand or flee, but he ventured back into
+the parlour, where a' was gaun hirdy-girdie--naebody to say "come in,"
+or "gae out." Terribly the Laird roared for cauld water to his feet, and
+wine to cool his throat; and hell, hell, hell, and its flames, was aye
+the word in his mouth. They brought him water, and when they plunged his
+swoln feet into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folk say that
+it _did_ bubble and sparkle like a seething caldron. He flung the cup at
+Dougal's head, and said he had given him blood instead of burgundy; and,
+sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted blood aff the carpet the neist day.
+The jackanape they caa'd Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was
+mocking its master; my gudesire's head was like to turn--he forgot baith
+siller and receipt, and down stairs he banged; but as he ran, the
+shrieks came faint and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering groan,
+and word gaed through the Castle, that the Laird was dead.
+
+Weel, away came my gudesire, wi' his finger in his mouth, and his best
+hope was, that Dougal had seen the money-bag, and heard the Laird speak
+of writing the receipt. The young Laird, now Sir John, came from
+Edinburgh, to see things put to rights. Sir John and his father never
+gree'd weel. Sir John had been bred an advocate, and afterwards sat in
+the last Scots Parliament and voted for the Union, having gotten, it was
+thought, a rug of the compensations--if his father could have come out
+of his grave, he would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane.
+Some thought it was easier counting with the auld rough Knight than the
+fair-spoken young ane--but mair of that anon.
+
+Dougal MacCallum, poor body, neither grat nor graned, but gaed about the
+house looking like a corpse, but directing, as was his duty, a' the
+order of the grand funeral. Now, Dougal looked aye waur and waur when
+night was coming, and was aye the last to gang to his bed, whilk was in
+a little round just opposite the chamber of dais, whilk his master
+occupied while he was living, and where he now lay in state, as they
+caa'd it, weel-a-day! The night before the funeral, Dougal could keep
+his awn counsel nae langer; he cam doun with his proud spirit, and
+fairly asked auld Hutcheon to sit in his room with him for an hour. When
+they were in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and
+gave another to Hutcheon, and wished him all health and lang life, and
+said that, for himsell, he wasna lang for this world; for that, every
+night since Sir Robert's death, his silver call had sounded from the
+state-chamber, just as it used to do at nights in his lifetime, to call
+Dougal to help to turn him in his bed. Dougal said, that being alone
+with the dead on that floor of the tower (for naebody cared to wake Sir
+Robert Redgauntlet like another corpse), he had never daured to answer
+the call, but that now his conscience checked him for neglecting his
+duty; for, "though death breaks service," said MacCallum, "it shall
+never break my service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next
+whistle, so be you will stand by me, Hutcheon."
+
+Hutcheon had nae will to the wark, but he had stood by Dougal in battle
+and broil, and he wad not fail him at this pinch; so down the carles sat
+ower a stoup of brandy, and Hutcheon, who was something of a clerk,
+would have read a chapter of the Bible; but Dougal would hear naething
+but a blaud of Davie Lindsay, whilk was the waur preparation.
+
+When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the grave, sure aneugh
+the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir Robert was
+blowing it, and up gat the twa auld serving-men, and tottered into the
+room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw aneugh at the first glance;
+for there were torches in the room, which showed him the foul fiend, in
+his ain shape, sitting on the Laird's coffin! Over he cowped as if he
+had been dead. He could not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the
+door, but when he gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and
+getting nae answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead
+within twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed. As for
+the whistle, it was gaen anes and aye; but mony a time was it heard at
+the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld chimneys and
+turrets, where the howlets have their nests. Sir John hushed the matter
+up, and the funeral passed over without mair bogle-wark.
+
+But when a' was ower, and the Laird was beginning to settle his affairs,
+every tenant was called up for his arrears, and my gudesire for the full
+sum that stood against him in the rental-book. Weel, away he trots to
+the Castle, to tell his story, and there he is introduced to Sir John,
+sitting in his father's chair, in deep mourning, with weepers and
+hanging cravat, and a small walking rapier by his side, instead of the
+auld broadsword, that had a hundred-weight of steel about it, what with
+blade, chape, and basket-hilt. I have heard their communing so often
+tauld ower, that I almost think I was there mysell, though I couldna be
+born at the time. (In fact, Alan, my companion mimicked, with a good
+deal of humour, the flattering, conciliating tone of the tenant's
+address, and the hypocritical melancholy of the Laird's reply. His
+grandfather, he said, had, while he spoke, his eye fixed on the
+rental-book, as if it were a mastiff-dog that he was afraid would spring
+up and bite him.)
+
+"I wuss ye joy, sir, of the head seat, and the white loaf, and the braid
+lairdship. Your father was a kind man to friends and followers; muckle
+grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon--his boots, I suld say, for he
+seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils when he had the gout."
+
+"Ay, Steenie," quoth the Laird, sighing deeply and putting his napkin to
+his een, "his was a sudden call, and he will be missed in the country;
+no time to set his house in order--weel prepared Godward, no doubt,
+which is the root of the matter--but left us behind a tangled hesp to
+wind, Steenie.--Hem! hem! We maun go to business, Steenie; much to do,
+and little time to do it in."
+
+Here he opened the fatal volume. I have heard of a thing they call
+Doomsday-book--I am clear it has been a rental of back-ganging tenants.
+
+"Stephen," said Sir John, still in the same soft, sleekit tone of
+voice--"Stephen Stevenson, or Steenson, ye are down here for a year's
+rent behind the hand--due at last term."
+
+_Stephen._ "Please your honour, Sir John, I paid it to your father."
+
+_Sir John._ "Ye took a receipt then, doubtless, Stephen; and can produce
+it?"
+
+_Stephen._ "Indeed I hadna time, an it like your honour; for nae sooner
+had I set doun the siller, and just as his honour Sir Robert, that's
+gaen, drew it till him to count it, and write out the receipt, he was
+ta'en wi' the pains that removed him."
+
+"That was unlucky," said Sir John, after a pause. "But you maybe paid it
+in the presence of somebody. I want but a _talis qualis_ evidence,
+Stephen. I would go ower strictly to work with no poor man."
+
+_Stephen._ "Troth, Sir John, there was naebody in the room but Dougal
+MacCallum the butler. But, as your honour kens, he has e'en followed his
+auld master."
+
+"Very unlucky again, Stephen," said Sir John, without altering his voice
+a single note. "The man to whom ye paid the money is dead--and the man
+who witnessed the payment is dead too--and the siller, which should have
+been to the fore, is neither seen nor heard tell of in the repositories.
+How am I to believe a' this?"
+
+_Stephen._ "I dinna ken, your honour; but there is a bit memorandum note
+of the very coins; for, God help me! I had to borrow out of twenty
+purses; and I am sure that ilka man there set down will take his grit
+oath for what purpose I borrowed the money."
+
+_Sir John._ "I have little doubt ye _borrowed_ the money, Steenie. It is
+the _payment_ to my father that I want to have some proof of."
+
+_Stephen._ "The siller maun be about the house, Sir John. And since your
+honour never got it, and his honour that was canna have ta'en it wi'
+him, maybe some of the family may have seen it."
+
+_Sir John._ "We will examine the servants, Stephen; that is but
+reasonable."
+
+But lackey and lass, and page and groom, all denied stoutly that they
+had ever seen such a bag of money as my gudesire described. What was
+waur, he had unluckily not mentioned to any living soul of them his
+purpose of paying his rent. Ae quean had noticed something under his
+arm, but she took it for the pipes.
+
+Sir John Redgauntlet ordered the servants out of the room, and then said
+to my gudesire, "Now, Steenie, ye see you have fair play; and, as I have
+little doubt ye ken better where to find the siller than ony other body,
+I beg, in fair terms, and for your own sake, that you will end this
+fasherie; for, Stephen, ye maun pay or flit."
+
+"The Lord forgie your opinion," said Stephen, driven almost to his wit's
+end--"I am an honest man."
+
+"So am I, Stephen," said his honour; "and so are all the folks in the
+house, I hope. But if there be a knave amongst us, it must be he that
+tells the story he cannot prove." He paused, and then added, mair
+sternly, "If I understand your trick, sir, you want to take advantage
+of some malicious reports concerning things in this family, and
+particularly respecting my father's sudden death, thereby to cheat me
+out of the money, and perhaps take away my character, by insinuating
+that I have received the rent I am demanding.--Where do you suppose this
+money to be?--I insist upon knowing."
+
+My gudesire saw everything look sae muckle against him, that he grew
+nearly desperate--however, he shifted from one foot to another, looked
+to every corner of the room and made no answer.
+
+"Speak out, sirrah," said the Laird, assuming a look of his father's, a
+very particular ane, which he had when he was angry--it seemed as if the
+wrinkles of his frown made that self-same fearful shape of a horse's
+shoe in the middle of his brow;--"Speak out, sir! I _will_ know your
+thoughts;--do you suppose that I have this money?"
+
+"Far be it frae me to say so," said Stephen.
+
+"Do you charge any of my people with having taken it?"
+
+"I wad be laith to charge them that may be innocent," said my gudesire;
+"and if there be anyone that is guilty, I have nae proof."
+
+"Somewhere the money must be, if there is a word of truth in your
+story," said Sir John; "I ask where you think it is--and demand a
+correct answer?"
+
+"In hell, if you _will_ have my thoughts of it," said my gudesire,
+driven to extremity,--"in hell! with your father, his jackanape, and his
+silver whistle."
+
+Down the stairs he ran (for the parlour was nae place for him after such
+a word), and he heard the Laird swearing blood and wounds behind him, as
+fast as ever did Sir Robert, and roaring for the bailie and the
+baron-officer.
+
+Away rode my gudesire to his chief creditor (him they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik), to try if he could make ony thing out of him; but when he
+tauld his story, he got but the warst word in his wame--thief, beggar,
+and dyvour, were the saftest terms; and to the boot of these hard terms,
+Laurie brought up the auld story of his dipping his hand in the blood of
+God's saunts, just as if a tenant could have helped riding with the
+Laird, and that a laird like Sir Robert Redgauntlet. My gudesire was, by
+this time, far beyond the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie
+were at deil speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse
+Lapraik's doctrine as weel as the man, and said things that garr'd
+folk's flesh grue that heard them;--he wasna just himsell, and he had
+lived wi' a wild set in his day.
+
+At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the wood
+of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say.--I ken the
+wood, but the firs may be black or white for what I can tell.--At the
+entry of the wood there is a wild common, and on the edge of the common,
+a little lonely change-house, that was keepit then by an ostler-wife,
+they suld hae caa'd her Tibbie Faw, and there puir Steenie cried for a
+mutchkin of brandy, for he had had no refreshment the haill day. Tibbie
+was earnest wi' him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o't,
+nor would he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy
+wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each:--the first was, the
+memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie quiet in his
+grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and the second was, a
+health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him back the pock of siller,
+or tell him what came o't, for he saw the haill world was like to regard
+him as a thief and a cheat, and he took that waur than even the ruin of
+his house and hauld.
+
+On he rode, little caring where. It was a dark night turned, and the
+trees made it yet darker, and he let the beast take its ain road through
+the wood; when, all of a sudden, from tired and wearied that it was
+before, the nag began to spring, and flee, and stend, that my gudesire
+could hardly keep the saddle.--Upon the whilk, a horseman, suddenly
+riding up beside him, said, "That's a mettle beast of yours, freend;
+will you sell him?"--So saying, he touched the horse's neck with his
+riding-wand, and it fell into its auld heigh-ho of a stumbling trot.
+"But his spunk's soon out of him, I think," continued the stranger, "and
+that is like mony a man's courage, that thinks he wad do great things
+till he come to the proof."
+
+My gudesire scarce listened to this, but spurred his horse, with "Gude
+e'en to you, freend."
+
+But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his point;
+for, ride as Steenie liked, he was aye beside him at the self-same pace.
+At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half angry; and, to say the
+truth, half feared.
+
+"What is it that ye want with me, freend?" he said. "If ye be a robber,
+I have nae money; if ye be a leal man, wanting company, I have nae heart
+to mirth or speaking; and if ye want to ken the road, I scarce ken it
+mysell."
+
+"If you will tell me your grief," said the stranger, "I am one that,
+though I have been sair miscaa'd in the world, am the only hand for
+helping my freends."
+
+So my gudesire, to ease his ain heart, mair than from any hope of help,
+told him the story from beginning to end.
+
+"It's a hard pinch," said the stranger; "but I think I can help you."
+
+"If you could lend the money, sir, and take a lang day--I ken nae other
+help on earth," said my gudesire.
+
+"But there may be some under the earth," said the stranger. "Come, I'll
+be frank wi' you; I could lend you the money on bond, but you would
+maybe scruple my terms. Now, I can tell you, that your auld Laird is
+disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the wailing of your family,
+and if ye daur venture to go to see him, he will give you the receipt."
+
+My gudesire's hair stood on end at this proposal, but he thought his
+companion might be some humorsome chield that was trying to frighten
+him, and might end with lending him the money. Besides, he was bauld wi'
+brandy, and desperate wi' distress; and he said, he had courage to go to
+the gate of hell, and a step farther, for that receipt.--The stranger
+laughed.
+
+Weel, they rode on through the thickest of the wood, when, all of a
+sudden, the horse stopped at the door of a great house; and, but that he
+knew the place was ten miles off, my father would have thought he was at
+Redgauntlet Castle. They rode into the outer courtyard, through the
+muckle faulding yetts, and aneath the auld portcullis; and the whole
+front of the house was lighted, and there were pipes and fiddles, and as
+much dancing and deray within as used to be in Sir Robert's house at
+Pace and Yule, and such high seasons. They lap off, and my gudesire, as
+seemed to him, fastened his horse to the very ring he had tied him to
+that morning, when he gaed to wait on the young Sir John.
+
+"God!" said my gudesire, "if Sir Robert's death be but a dream!"
+
+He knocked at the ha' door just as he was wont, and his auld
+acquaintance, Dougal MacCallum,--just after his wont, too,--came to open
+the door, and said, "Piper Steenie, are ye there, lad? Sir Robert has
+been crying for you."
+
+My gudesire was like a man in a dream--he looked for the stranger, but
+he was gane for the time. At last he just tried to say, "Ha! Dougal
+Driveower, are ye living? I thought ye had been dead."
+
+"Never fash yoursell wi' me," said Dougal, "but look to yoursell; and
+see ye tak naething frae onybody here, neither meat, drink, or siller,
+except just the receipt that is your ain."
+
+So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel
+kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and there was as
+much singing of profane sangs, and birling of red wine, and speaking
+blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in Redgauntlet Castle when it
+was at the blithest.
+
+But, Lord take us in keeping! what a set of ghastly revellers they were
+that sat round that table!--My gudesire kend mony that had long before
+gane to their place, for often had he piped to the most part in the hall
+of Redgauntlet. There was the fierce Middleton, and the dissolute
+Rothes, and the crafty Lauderdale; and Dalyell, with his bald head and a
+beard to his girdle; and Earlshall, with Cameron's blude on his hand;
+and wild Bonshaw, that tied blessed Mr Cargill's limbs till the blude
+sprang; and Dunbarton Douglas, the twice-turned traitor baith to country
+and king. There was the Bluidy Advocate MacKenyie, who, for his worldly
+wit and wisdom, had been to the rest as a god. And there was
+Claverhouse, as beautiful as when he lived, with his long, dark, curled
+locks, streaming down over his laced buff-coat, and his left hand always
+on his right spule-blade, to hide the wound that the silver bullet had
+made. He sat apart from them all, and looked at them with a melancholy,
+haughty countenance; while the rest hallooed, and sung, and laughed,
+that the room rang. But their smiles were fearfully contorted from time
+to time; and their laughter passed into such wild sounds, as made my
+gudesire's very nails grow blue, and chilled the marrow in his banes.
+
+They that waited at the table were just the wicked serving-men and
+troopers, that had done their work and cruel bidding on earth. There was
+the Lang Lad of the Nethertown, that helped to take Argyle; and the
+Bishop's summoner, that they called the Deil's Rattle-bag; and the
+wicked guardsmen, in their laced coats; and the savage Highland
+Amorites, that shed blood like water; and many a proud serving-man,
+haughty of heart and bloody of hand, cringing to the rich, and making
+them wickeder than they would be; grinding the poor to powder, when the
+rich had broken them to fragments. And mony, mony mair were coming and
+ganging, a' as busy in their vocation as if they had been alive.
+
+Sir Robert Redgauntlet, in the midst of a' this fearful riot, cried, wi'
+a voice like thunder, on Steenie Piper, to come to the board-head where
+he was sitting; his legs stretched out before him, and swathed up with
+flannel, with his holster pistols aside him, while the great broadsword
+rested against his chair, just as my gudesire had seen him the last time
+upon earth--the very cushion for the jackanape was close to him, but the
+creature itsell was not there--it wasna its hour, it's likely; for he
+heard them say as he came forward, "Is not the Major come yet?" And
+another answered, "The jackanape will be here betimes the morn." And
+when my gudesire came forward, Sir Robert, or his ghaist, or the deevil
+in his likeness, said, "Weel, piper, hae ye settled wi' my son for the
+year's rent?"
+
+With much ado my father gat breath to say, that Sir John would not
+settle without his honour's receipt.
+
+"Ye shall hae that for a tune of the pipes, Steenie," said the
+appearance of Sir Robert--"Play us up 'Weel hoddled, Luckie.'"
+
+Now this was a tune my gudesire learned frae a warlock, that heard it
+when they were worshipping Satan at their meetings; and my gudesire had
+sometimes played it at the ranting suppers in Redgauntlet Castle, but
+never very willingly; and now he grew cauld at the very name of it, and
+said, for excuse, he hadna his pipes wi' him.
+
+"MacCallum, ye limb of Beelzebub," said the fearfu' Sir Robert, "bring
+Steenie the pipes that I am keeping for him!"
+
+MacCallum brought a pair of pipes might have served the piper of Donald
+of the Isles. But he gave my gudesire a nudge as he offered them; and
+looking secretly and closely, Steenie saw that the chanter was of steel,
+and heated to a white heat; so he had fair warning not to trust his
+fingers with it. So he excused himself again, and said, he was faint and
+frightened, and had not wind aneugh to fill the bag.
+
+"Then ye maun eat and drink, Steenie," said the figure; "for we do
+little else here; and it's ill speaking between a fou man and a
+fasting."
+
+Now these were the very words that the bloody Earl of Douglas said to
+keep the King's messenger in hand, while he cut the head off MacLellan
+of Bombie, at the Threave Castle;[9] and that put Steenie mair and mair
+on his guard. So he spoke up like a man, and said he came neither to
+eat, or drink, or make minstrelsy; but simply for his ain--to ken what
+was come o' the money he had paid, and to get a discharge for it; and he
+was so stout-hearted by this time, that he charged Sir Robert for
+conscience-sake--(he had no power to say the holy name)--and as he hoped
+for peace and rest, to spread no snares for him, but just to give him
+his ain.
+
+The appearance gnashed its teeth and laughed, but it took from a large
+pocket-book the receipt, and handed it to Steenie. "There is your
+receipt, ye pitiful cur; and for the money, my dog-whelp of a son may go
+look for it in the Cat's Cradle."
+
+My gudesire uttered mony thanks, and was about to retire, when Sir
+Robert roared aloud, "Stop, though, thou sack-doudling son of a whore! I
+am not done with thee. HERE we do nothing for nothing; and you
+must return on this very day twelvemonth, to pay your master the homage
+that you owe me for my protection."
+
+My father's tongue was loosed of a suddenty, and he said aloud, "I refer
+mysell to God's pleasure, and not to yours."
+
+He had no sooner uttered the word than all was dark around him; and he
+sunk on the earth with such a sudden shock, that he lost both breath and
+sense.
+
+How lang Steenie lay there, he could not tell; but when he came to
+himsell, he was lying in the auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet parochine,
+just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon of the auld
+knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head. There was a deep morning fog
+on grass and gravestane around him, and his horse was feeding quietly
+beside the minister's twa cows. Steenie would have thought the whole was
+a dream, but he had the receipt in his hand, fairly written and signed
+by the auld Laird; only the last letters of his name were a little
+disorderly, written like one seized with sudden pain.
+
+Sorely troubled in his mind, he left that dreary place, rode through the
+mist to Redgauntlet Castle, and with much ado he got speech of the
+Laird.
+
+"Well, you dyvour bankrupt," was the first word, "have you brought me my
+rent?"
+
+"No," answered my gudesire, "I have not; but I have brought your honour
+Sir Robert's receipt for it."
+
+"How, sirrah?--Sir Robert's receipt!--You told me he had not given you
+one."
+
+"Will your honour please to see if that bit line is right?"
+
+Sir John looked at every line, and at every letter, with much attention;
+and at last, at the date, which my gudesire had not observed,--"_From
+my appointed place_," he read, "_this twenty-fifth of
+November_."--"What!--That is yesterday!--Villain, thou must have gone to
+hell for this!"
+
+"I got it from your honour's father--whether he be in heaven or hell, I
+know not," said Steenie.
+
+"I will delate you for a warlock to the Privy Council!" said Sir John.
+"I will send you to your master, the devil, with the help of a
+tar-barrel and a torch!"
+
+"I intend to delate mysell to the Presbytery," said Steenie, "and tell
+them all I have seen last night, whilk are things fitter for them to
+judge of than a borrel man like me."
+
+Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full history;
+and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I have told it
+you--word for word, neither more nor less.
+
+Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said, very
+composedly, "Steenie, this story of yours concerns the honour of many a
+noble family besides mine; and if it be a leasing-making, to keep
+yourself out of my danger, the least you can expect is to have a red-hot
+iron driven through your tongue, and that will be as bad as scaulding
+your fingers with a redhot chanter. But yet it may be true, Steenie; and
+if the money cast up, I shall not know what to think of it.--But where
+shall we find the Cat's Cradle? There are cats enough about the old
+house, but I think they kitten without the ceremony of bed or cradle."
+
+"We were best ask Hutcheon," said my gudesire; "he kens a' the odd
+corners about as weel as--another serving-man that is now gane, and that
+I wad not like to name."
+
+Aweel, Hutcheon, when he was asked, told them, that a ruinous turret,
+lang disused, next to the clock-house, only accessible by a ladder, for
+the opening was on the outside, and far above the battlements, was
+called of old the Cat's Cradle.
+
+"There will I go immediately," said Sir John; and he took (with what
+purpose, Heaven kens) one of his father's pistols from the hall-table,
+where they had lain since the night he died, and hastened to the
+battlements.
+
+It was a dangerous place to climb, for the ladder was auld and frail,
+and wanted ane or twa rounds. However, up got Sir John, and entered at
+the turret door, where his body stopped the only little light that was
+in the bit turret. Something flees at him wi' a vengeance, maist dang
+him back ower--bang gaed the knight's pistol, and Hutcheon, that held
+the ladder, and my gudesire that stood beside him, hears a loud
+skelloch. A minute after, Sir John flings the body of the jackanape down
+to them, and cries that the siller is fund, and that they should come up
+and help him. And there was the bag of siller sure aneugh, and mony orra
+things besides, that had been missing for mony a day. And Sir John, when
+he had riped the turret weel, led my gudesire into the dining-parlour,
+and took him by the hand, and spoke kindly to him, and said he was sorry
+he should have doubted his word, and that he would hereafter be a good
+master to him, to make amends.
+
+"And now, Steenie," said Sir John, "although this vision of yours tends,
+on the whole, to my father's credit, as an honest man, that he should,
+even after his death, desire to see justice done to a poor man like you,
+yet you are sensible that ill-dispositioned men might make bad
+constructions upon it, concerning his soul's health. So, I think, we had
+better lay the haill dirdum on that ill-deedie creature, Major Weir, and
+say naething about your dream in the wood of Pitmurkie. You had taken
+ower muckle brandy to be very certain about onything; and, Steenie, this
+receipt," (his hand shook while he held it out,)--"it's but a queer kind
+of document, and we will do best, I think, to put it quietly in the
+fire."
+
+"Od, but for as queer as it is, it's a' the voucher I have for my rent,"
+said my gudesire, who was afraid, it may be, of losing the benefit of
+Sir Robert's discharge.
+
+"I will bear the contents to your credit in the rental-book, and give
+you a discharge under my own hand," said Sir John, "and that on the
+spot. And, Steenie, if you can hold your tongue about this matter, you
+shall sit, from this term downward, at an easier rent."
+
+"Mony thanks to your honour," said Steenie, who saw easily in what
+corner the wind was; "doubtless I will be conformable to all your
+honour's commands; only I would willingly speak wi' some powerful
+minister on the subject, for I do not like the sort of soumons of
+appointment whilk your honour's father----"
+
+"Do not call the phantom my father!" said Sir John, interrupting him.
+
+"Weel, then, the thing that was so like him,"--said my gudesire; "he
+spoke of my coming back to him this time twelvemonth, and it's a weight
+on my conscience."
+
+"Aweel, then," said Sir John, "if you be so much distressed in mind, you
+may speak to our minister of the parish; he is a douce man, regards the
+honour of our family, and the mair that he may look for some patronage
+from me."
+
+Wi' that, my gudesire readily agreed that the receipt should be burnt,
+and the Laird threw it into the chimney with his ain hand. Burn it would
+not for them, though; but away it flew up the lum, wi' a lang train of
+sparks at its tail, and a hissing noise like a squib.
+
+My gudesire gaed down to the manse, and the minister, when he had heard
+the story, said, it was his real opinion, that though my gudesire had
+gaen very far in tampering with dangerous matters, yet, as he had
+refused the devil's arles (for such was the offer of meat and drink),
+and had refused to do homage by piping at his bidding, he hoped, that if
+he held a circumspect walk hereafter, Satan could take little advantage
+by what was come and gane. And, indeed, my gudesire, of his ain accord,
+long forswore baith the pipes and the brandy--it was not even till the
+year was out, and the fatal day passed, that he would so much as take
+the fiddle, or drink usquebaugh or tippenny.
+
+Sir John made up his story about the jackanape as he liked himsell; and
+some believe till this day there was no more in the matter than the
+filching nature of the brute. Indeed, ye'll no hinder some to threap,
+that it was nane o' the Auld Enemy that Dougal and my gudesire saw in
+the Laird's room, but only that wanchancy creature, the Major, capering
+on the coffin; and that, as to the blawing on the Laird's whistle that
+was heard after he was dead, the filthy brute could do that as weel as
+the Laird himsell, if no better. But Heaven kens the truth, whilk first
+came out by the minister's wife, after Sir John and her ain gudeman were
+baith in the moulds. And then my gudesire, wha was failed in his limbs,
+but not in his judgment or memory--at least nothing to speak of--was
+obliged to tell the real narrative to his freends, for the credit of his
+good name. He might else have been charged for a warlock.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 6: A precipitous side of a mountain in Moffatdale.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The caution and moderation of King William III., and his
+principles of unlimited toleration, deprived the Cameronians of the
+opportunity they ardently desired, to retaliate the injuries which they
+had received during the reign of prelacy, and purify the land, as they
+called it, from the pollution of blood. They esteemed the Revolution,
+therefore, only a half measure, which neither comprehended the
+rebuilding the Kirk in its full splendour, nor the revenge of the death
+of the Saints on their persecutors.]
+
+[Footnote 8: A celebrated wizard, executed at Edinburgh for sorcery and
+other crimes.]
+
+[Footnote 9: The reader is referred for particulars to Pitscottie's
+_History of Scotland_.]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE AND LEGEND
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+GLAMIS CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+"The Castle of Glamis, a venerable and majestic pile of buildings," says
+an old Scots Gazetteer, "is situate about one mile north from the
+village, on the flat grounds at the confluence of the Glamis Burn and
+the Dean. There is a print of it given by Slezer in Charles II.'s
+reign--by which it appears to have been anciently much more extensive,
+being a large quadrangular mass of buildings, having two courts in
+front, with a tower in each, and gateway through below them; and on the
+northern side was the principal tower, which now constitutes the central
+portion of the present castle upwards of 100 feet in height. The
+building received the addition of a tower, in one of its angles, for a
+spiral staircase from bottom to top, with conical roofs. The wings were
+added, at the same time, by Patrick Earl of Strathmore, who repaired and
+modernised the structure, under the directions of Inigo Jones. One of
+the wings has been renovated within the last forty years, and other
+additions made, but not in harmony with Earl Patrick's repairs.
+
+"_There is also a secret room in it, only known to two or at most three
+individuals, at the same time, who are bound not to reveal it, unless to
+their successors in the secret._ It has been frequently the object of
+search with the inquisitive, but the search has been in vain. There are
+no records of the castle prior to the tenth century, when it is first
+noticed in connection with the death of Malcolm II. in 1034. Tradition
+says that he was murdered in this castle, and in a room which is still
+pointed out, in the centre of the principal tower; and that the
+murderers lost their way in the darkness of the night, and by the
+breaking of the ice, were drowned in the loch of Forfar. Fordun's
+account is, however, somewhat different and more probable. He states
+that the King was mortally wounded in a skirmish, in the neighbourhood,
+by some of the adherents of Kenneth V."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us turn now to the ghosts of Glamis Castle.
+
+A lady, well known in London society, an artistic and social celebrity,
+wealthy beyond all doubts of the future, a cultivated, clear-headed, and
+indeed slightly matter-of-fact woman, went to stay at Glamis Castle for
+the first time. She was allotted very handsome apartments, just on the
+point of junction between the new buildings--perhaps a hundred or two
+hundred years old--and the very ancient part of the castle. The rooms
+were handsomely furnished; no gaunt carvings grinned from the walls; no
+grim tapestry swung to and fro, making strange figures look still
+stranger by the flickering fire-light; all was smooth, cosy, and modern,
+and the guest retired to bed without a thought of the mysteries of
+Glamis.
+
+In the morning she appeared at the breakfast table quite cheerful and
+self-possessed. To the inquiry how she had slept, she replied: "Well,
+thanks, very well, up to four o'clock in the morning. But your Scottish
+carpenters seem to come to work very early. I suppose they put up their
+scaffolding quickly, though, for they are quiet now." This speech
+produced a dead silence, and the speaker saw with astonishment that the
+faces of members of the family were very pale.
+
+She was asked, as she valued the friendship of all there, never to speak
+to them on that subject again; there had been no carpenters at Glamis
+Castle for months past. This fact, whatever it may be worth, is
+absolutely established, so far as the testimony of a single witness can
+establish anything. The lady was awakened by a loud knocking and
+hammering, as if somebody were putting up a scaffold, and the noise did
+not alarm her in the least. On the contrary, she took it for an
+accident, due to the presumed matutinal habits of the people. She knew,
+of course, that there were stories about Glamis, but had not the
+remotest idea that the hammering she had heard was connected with any
+story. She had regarded it simply as an annoyance, and was glad to get
+to sleep after an unrestful time; but had no notion of the noise being
+supernatural until informed of it at the breakfast-table.
+
+With what particular event in the stormy annals of the Lyon family the
+hammering is connected is quite unknown, except to members of the
+family, but there is no lack of legends, possible and impossible, to
+account for any sights or sounds in the magnificent old feudal edifice.
+
+It is said that once a visitor stayed at Glamis Castle for a few days,
+and, sitting up late one moonlight night, saw a face appear at the
+window opposite to him. The owner of the face--it was very pale, with
+great sorrowful eyes--appeared to wish to attract attention; but
+vanished suddenly from the window, as if plucked suddenly away by
+superior strength. For a long while the horror-stricken guest gazed at
+the window, in the hope that the pale face and great sad eyes would
+appear again. Nothing was seen at the window, but presently horrible
+shrieks penetrated even the thick walls of the castle, and rent the
+night air. An hour later, a dark huddled figure, like that of an old
+decrepit woman, carrying something in a bundle, came into the waning
+moonlight, and presently vanished.
+
+There is a modern story of a stonemason, who was engaged at Glamis
+Castle last century, and who, having discovered more than he should have
+done, was supplied with a handsome competency, upon the conditions that
+he emigrated and kept inviolable the secret he had learned.
+
+The employment of a stonemason is explained by the conditions under
+which the mystery is revealed to successive heirs and factors. The abode
+of the dread secret is in a part of the castle, also haunted by the
+apparition of a bearded man, who flits about at night, but without
+committing any other objectionable action. What connection, if any, the
+bearded spectre may have with the mystery is not even guessed. He hovers
+at night over the couches of children for an instant, and then vanishes.
+The secret itself abides in a room--a secret chamber--the very situation
+of which, beyond a general idea that it is in the most ancient part of
+the castle, is unknown. Where walls are fifteen feet thick, it is not
+impossible to have a chamber so concealed, that none but the initiated
+can guess its position. It was once attempted by a madcap party of
+guests to discover the locality of the secret chamber, by hanging their
+towels out of the window, and thus deciding in favour of any window from
+which no spotless banner waved; but this escapade, which is said to have
+been ill-received by the owners, ended in nothing but a vague conclusion
+that the old square tower must be the spot sought.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+POWYS CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+It had been for some time reported in the neighbourhood that a poor
+unmarried woman, who was a member of the Methodist society; and had
+become serious under their ministry, had seen and conversed with the
+apparition of a gentleman, who had made a strange discovery to her. Mr
+Hampson, being desirous to ascertain if there was any truth in the
+story, sent for the woman, and desired her to give an exact relation of
+the whole affair from her own mouth, and as near the truth as she
+possibly could. She said she was a poor woman who got her living by
+spinning hemp and line; that it was customary for the farmers and
+gentlemen of that neighbourhood to grow a little hemp or line in the
+corner of their fields, for their own home consumption, and as she had a
+good hand at spinning the materials she used to go from house to house
+to inquire for work; that her method was, where they employed her,
+during her stay to have meat and lodging (if she had occasion to sleep
+with them) for her work, and what they pleased to give her besides.
+That, among other places, she happened to call in one day at the Welsh
+Earl Powis's country seat, called Redcastle, to inquire for work, as she
+usually had done before. The quality were at this time in London, and
+had left the steward and his wife, with other servants, as usual, to
+take care of their country residence in their absence. The steward's
+wife set her to work, and in the evening told her that she must stay
+all night with them, as they had more work for her to do next day. When
+bed-time arrived, two or three of the servants in company, with each a
+lighted candle in her hand, conducted her to her lodging. They led her
+to a grand room, with a boarded floor and two sash windows. The room was
+grandly furnished, and had a genteel bed in one corner of it. They had
+made her a good fire, and had placed her a chair and a table before it,
+and a large lighted candle upon the table. They told her that was her
+bedroom, and she might go to sleep when she pleased, they then wished a
+good night and withdrew all together, pulling the door quickly after
+them, so as to hasp the springsneck in the brass lock that was upon it.
+When they were gone she gazed a while at the fine furniture, under no
+small astonishment that they should put such a poor person as her in so
+grand a room and bed, with all the apparatus of fire, chair, table, and
+candle. She was also surprised at the circumstance of the servants
+coming so many together, with each of them a candle; however, after
+gazing about her some little time, she sat down and took out of her
+pocket a small Welsh Bible which she always carried about with her, and
+in which she usually read a chapter--chiefly in the New
+Testament--before she said her prayers and went to bed. While she was
+reading she heard the room door open, and, turning her head, saw a
+gentleman enter in a gold-laced hat and waistcoat, and the rest of his
+dress corresponding therewith. (I think she was very particular in
+describing the rest of his dress to Mr Hampson, and he to me at the
+time, but I have now forgot the other particulars.) He walked down by
+the sash window to the corner of the room, and then returned. When he
+came at the first window in his return (the bottom of which was nearly
+breast-high) he rested his elbow on the bottom of the window, and the
+side of his face upon the palm of his hand, and stood in that leaning
+posture for some time, with his side partly towards her. She looked at
+him earnestly to see if she knew him, but though, from her frequent
+intercourse with them, she had a personal knowledge of all the present
+family, he appeared a stranger to her. She supposed afterwards that he
+stood in this manner to encourage her to speak; but as she did not,
+after some little time he walked off, pulling the door after him as the
+servants had done before. She began now to be much alarmed, concluding
+it to be an apparition and that they had put her there on purpose. This
+was really the case. The room, it seems, had been disturbed for a long
+time, so that nobody could sleep peaceably in it; and as she passed for
+a very serious woman, the servants took it in their heads to put the
+Methodist and spirit together, to see what they would make out of it.
+Startled at this thought, she rose from her chair, and kneeled down by
+the bedside to say her prayers. While she was praying he came in again,
+walked round the room and came close behind her. She had it on her mind
+to speak, but when she attempted it she was so very much agitated that
+she could not utter a word. He walked out of the room again, pulling the
+door shut as before. She begged that God would strengthen her, and not
+suffer her to be tried beyond what she was able to bear; she recovered
+her surprise and thought she felt more confidence and resolution, and
+determined if he came in again she would speak to him if possible. He
+presently came in again, walked round, and came behind her as before;
+she turned her head and said, "Pray, sir, who are you, and what do you
+want?" He put up his finger and said, "Take up the candle and follow me,
+and I will tell you." She got up, took up the candle and followed him
+out of the room. He led her through a long boarded passage, till they
+came to the door of another room which he opened and went in; it was a
+small room, or what might be called a large closet. "As the room was
+small, and I believed him to be a spirit," said she, "I stopped at the
+door; he turned and said, 'Walk in, I will not hurt you'; so I walked
+in. He said, 'Observe what I do'; I said, 'I will.' He stooped and tore
+up one of the boards of the floor, and there appeared under it a box
+with an iron handle in the lid. He said, 'Do you see that box?' I said,
+'Yes, I do.' He then stepped to one side of the room and showed me a
+crevice in the wall, where he said a key was hid that would open it. He
+said, 'This box and key must be taken out, and sent to the Earl in
+London' (naming the Earl and his residence in the city). He said, 'Will
+you see it done?' I said, 'I will do my best to get it done'; and he
+said, 'Do, and I will trouble the house no longer!' He then walked out
+of the room and left me. (He seems to have been a very civil spirit, and
+to have been very careful to affright her as little as possible.) I
+stepped to the room door, and set up a shout. The steward and his wife,
+with the other servants, came to me immediately; all clinging together,
+with a number of lights in their hands. It seems they had all been
+waiting to see the issue of the interview betwixt me and the apparition.
+They asked me what was the matter. I told them the foregoing
+circumstances, and showed them the box. The steward durst not meddle
+with it, but his wife had more courage, and, with the help of the other
+servants, tugged it out, and found the key. She said by their lifting it
+appeared to be pretty heavy, but that she did not see it opened, and
+therefore did not know what it contained--perhaps money, or writings of
+consequence to the family, or both." They took it away with them, and
+she then went to bed and slept peaceably till morning.
+
+It appeared that they sent the box to the Earl in London, with an
+account of the manner of its discovery, and by whom; as the Earl sent
+down orders immediately to his steward to inform the poor woman who had
+been the occasion of its discovery that if she would come and reside in
+his family she would be comfortably provided for during her remaining
+days; or, if she did not choose to reside constantly with them, if she
+would let them know when she wanted assistance, she would be liberally
+supplied at his lordship's expense as long as she lived. And Mr Hampson
+said it was a known fact in the neighbourhood that she had been supplied
+from his lordship's family, from the time the affair was said to have
+happened, and continued to be so at the time she gave Mr Hampson this
+account. She told him that she was so often solicited by curious people
+to relate the story that she was weary of repeating it; but, to oblige
+him, she once more related the particulars, wishing now to have done
+with it. Mr Hampson said she appeared to be a sensible, intelligent
+person, and that he saw no reason to doubt her veracity. I know many
+persons in the present day laugh at such stories, and affect very much
+to doubt their reality, while others totally deny the possibility of
+their existence. However, Scripture and many well-attested relations
+seem to favour the idea, and the present story appeared so singular and
+so well attested, and I had it so near the fountain-head, that I thought
+it might perhaps be worth preserving, and I have therefore taken pains
+to record it. Admitting it to be true, it should seem that the
+consequence to the family of what the hidden box contained was the
+formal cause of the spirit's disquiet, and of its disturbing the house
+so much and so long, in order to bring about the discovery; but why the
+departed spirit should concern itself in the affairs of this world after
+it has left it--or why they should disquiet it so as to cause it to
+reappear and make disturbances, in order to discover and have things
+righted, as in the preceding case,--or why this should be done in some
+cases of apparently less moment, while in other cases much greater
+family injuries seem to be suffered, and no spirit appears to interest
+itself in the case--are circumstances for which we can by no means
+account. A cloud sits deep on futurity; and we are so little acquainted
+with the laws of the spiritual world that we are perhaps incapable, in
+our present state, of comprehending its nature or of giving any
+satisfactory account of these matters.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+CROGLIN GRANGE
+
+From ARCHDEACON HARE'S Autobiography[10]
+
+
+"Fisher," said the Captain, "may sound a very plebeian name, but this
+family is of very ancient lineage, and for many hundreds of years they
+have possessed a very curious old place in Cumberland, which bears the
+weird name of Croglin Grange. The great characteristic of the house is
+that never at any period of its very long existence has it been more
+than one story high, but it has a terrace from which large grounds sweep
+away towards the church in the hollow, and a fine distant view.
+
+"When, in lapse of years, the Fishers outgrew Croglin Grange in family
+and fortune, they were wise enough not to destroy the long-standing
+characteristic of the place by adding another story to the house, but
+they went away to the south, to reside at Thorncombe near Guildford, and
+they let Croglin Grange.
+
+"They were extremely fortunate in their tenants, two brothers and a
+sister. They heard their praises from all quarters. To their poorer
+neighbours they were all that is most kind and beneficent, and their
+neighbours of a higher class spoke of them as a welcome addition to the
+little society of the neighbourhood. On their part the tenants were
+greatly delighted with their new residence. The arrangement of the
+house, which would have been a trial to many, was not so to them. In
+every respect Croglin Grange was exactly suited to them.
+
+"The winter was spent most happily by the new inmates of Croglin
+Grange, who shared in all the little social pleasures of the district,
+and made themselves very popular. In the following summer there was one
+day which was dreadfully, annihilatingly hot. The brothers lay under the
+trees with their books, for it was too hot for any active occupation.
+The sister sat in the verandah and worked, or tried to work, for in the
+intense sultriness of that summer day work was next to impossible. They
+dined early, and after dinner they still sat out in the verandah,
+enjoying the cool air which came with evening, and they watched the sun
+set, and the moon rise over the belt of trees which separated the
+grounds from the churchyard, seeing it mount the heavens till the whole
+lawn was bathed in silver light, across which the long shadows from the
+shrubbery fell as if embossed, so vivid and distinct were they.
+
+"When they separated for the night, all retiring to their rooms on the
+ground-floor (for, as I said, there was no upstairs in that house), the
+sister felt that the heat was still so great that she could not sleep,
+and having fastened her window, she did not close the shutters--in that
+very quiet place it was not necessary--and, propped against the pillows,
+she still watched the wonderful, the marvellous beauty of that summer
+night. Gradually she became aware of two lights, two lights which
+flickered in and out in the belt of trees which separated the lawn from
+the churchyard; and, as her gaze became fixed upon them, she saw them
+emerge, fixed in a dark substance, a definite ghastly _something_, which
+seemed every moment to become nearer, increasing in size and substance
+as it approached. Every now and then it was lost for a moment in the
+long shadows which stretched across the lawn from the trees, and then it
+emerged larger than ever, and still coming on--on. As she watched it,
+the most uncontrollable horror seized her. She longed to get away, but
+the door was close to the window and the door was locked on the inside,
+and while she was unlocking it, she must be for an instant nearer to
+_it_. She longed to scream, but her voice seemed paralysed, her tongue
+glued to the roof of her mouth.
+
+"Suddenly, she never could explain why afterwards, the terrible object
+seemed to turn to one side, seemed to be going round the house, not to
+be coming to her at all, and immediately she jumped out of bed and
+rushed to the door; but as she was unlocking it, she heard scratch,
+scratch, scratch upon the window, and saw a hideous brown face with
+flaming eyes glaring in at her. She rushed back to the bed, but the
+creature continued to scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window. She
+felt a sort of mental comfort in the knowledge that the window was
+securely fastened on the inside. Suddenly the scratching sound ceased,
+and a kind of pecking sound took its place. Then, in her agony, she
+became aware that the creature was unpicking the lead! The noise
+continued, and a diamond pane of glass fell into the room. Then a long
+bony finger of the creature came in and turned the handle of the window,
+and the window opened, and the creature came in; and it came across the
+room, and her terror was so great that she could not scream, and it came
+up to the bed, and it twisted its long, bony fingers into her hair, and
+it dragged her head over the side of the bed, and--it bit her violently
+in the throat.
+
+"As it bit her, her voice was released, and she screamed with all her
+might and main. Her brothers rushed out of their rooms, but the door was
+locked on the inside. A moment was lost while they got a poker and broke
+it open. Then the creature had already escaped through the window, and
+the sister, bleeding violently from a wound in the throat, was lying
+unconscious over the side of the bed. One brother pursued the creature,
+which fled before him through the moonlight with gigantic strides, and
+eventually seemed to disappear over the wall into the churchyard. Then
+he rejoined his brother by the sister's bedside. She was dreadfully
+hurt, and her wound was a very definite one; but she was of strong
+disposition, not either given to romance or superstition, and when she
+came to herself she said, 'What has happened is most extraordinary, and
+I am very much hurt. It seems inexplicable, but of course there is an
+explanation, and we must wait for it. It will turn out that a lunatic
+has escaped from some asylum and found his way here.' The wound healed,
+and she appeared to get well, but the doctor who was sent for would not
+believe that she could bear so terrible a shock so easily, and insisted
+that she must have change, mental and physical; so her brothers took her
+to Switzerland.
+
+"Being a sensible girl, when she went abroad she threw herself at once
+into the interests of the country she was in. She dried plants, she made
+sketches, she went up mountains, and, as autumn came on, she was the
+person who urged that they should return to Croglin Grange. 'We have
+taken it,' she said, 'for seven years, and we have only been there one;
+and we shall always find it difficult to let a house which is only one
+story high, so we had better return there; lunatics do not escape every
+day.' As she urged it, her brothers wished nothing better, and the
+family returned to Cumberland. From there being no upstairs to the house
+it was impossible to make any great change in their arrangements. The
+sister occupied the same room, but it is unnecessary to say she always
+closed her shutters, which, however, as in many old houses, always left
+one top pane of the window uncovered. The brothers moved, and occupied a
+room together, exactly opposite that of their sister, and they always
+kept loaded pistols in their room.
+
+"The winter passed most peacefully and happily. In the following March
+the sister was suddenly awakened by a sound she remembered only too
+well--scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window, and, looking up, she
+saw quite clearly in the topmost pane of the window the same hideous
+brown shrivelled face, with glaring eyes, looking in at her. This time
+she screamed as loud as she could. Her brothers rushed out of their room
+with pistols, and out of the front door. The creature was already
+scudding away across the lawn. One of the brothers fired and hit it in
+the leg, but still with the other leg it continued to make way,
+scrambled over the wall into the churchyard, and seemed to disappear
+into a vault which belonged to a family long extinct.
+
+"The next day the brothers summoned all the tenants of Croglin Grange,
+and in their presence the vault was opened. A horrible scene revealed
+itself. The vault was full of coffins; they had been broken open, and
+their contents, horribly mangled and distorted, were scattered over the
+floor. One coffin alone remained intact. Of that the lid had been
+lifted, but still lay loose upon the coffin. They raised it, and there,
+brown, withered, shrivelled, mummified, but quite entire, was the same
+hideous figure which had looked in at the windows of Croglin Grange,
+with the marks of a recent pistol-shot in the leg; and they did--the
+only thing that can lay a vampire--they burnt it."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 10: _The Story of my Life_ (Allen & Unwin).]
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM
+
+By JOSEPH GLANVIL[11]
+
+
+Concerning the apparition of the Ghost of Major George Sydenham, (late
+of Dulverton in the County of Somerset) to Captain William Dyke, late of
+Skilgate in this County also, and now likewise deceased: Be pleased to
+take the Relation of it as I have it from the worthy and learned Dr Tho.
+Dyke, a near kinsman of the Captain's, thus: Shortly after the Major's
+Death, the Doctor was desired to come to the House, to take care of a
+Child that was there sick, and in his way thither he called on the
+Captain, who was very willing to wait on him to the place, because he
+must, as he said, have gone thither that night, though he had not met
+with so encouraging an opportunity. After their arrival there at the
+House, and the Civility of the People shewn them in that Entertainment,
+they were seasonably conducted to their Lodging, which they desired
+might be together in the same Bed: Where after they had lain a while,
+the Captain knocked, and bids the Servant bring him two of the largest
+and biggest Candles lighted that he could get. Whereupon the Doctor
+enquires what he meant by this? The Captain answers, You know Cousin
+what Disputes my Major and I have had touching the Being of a God, and
+the Immortality of the Soul; in which points we could never yet be
+resolv'd, though we so much sought for and desired it; and therefore it
+was at length fully agreed between us, That he of us that died first,
+should the third Night after his Funeral, between the Hours of Twelve
+and one, come to the little House that is here in the Garden, and there
+give a full account to the Survivor touching these Matters, who should
+be sure to be present there at the set time, and so receive a full
+satisfaction; and this, says the Captain, is the very Night, and I am
+come on purpose to fulfil my promise. The Doctor dissuaded him, minding
+him of the danger of following those strange Counsels, for which we
+could have no Warrant, and that the Devil might by some cunning Device
+make such an advantage of this rash attempt, as might work his utter
+Ruin. The Captain replies, That he had solemnly engag'd, and that
+nothing should discourage him, and adds, that if the Doctor would wake
+awhile with him, he would thank him, if not, he might compose himself to
+his rest; but for his own part he was resolv'd to watch, that he might
+be sure to be present at the Hour appointed: To that purpose he sets his
+watch by him, and as soon as he perceived by it that it was half an Hour
+past 11, he rises, and taking a Candle in each Hand, goes out by a
+back-door, of which he had before gotten the Key, and walks to the
+Garden-house, where he continued two hours and a half, and at his return
+declared, that he had neither saw not heard any thing more than what was
+usual. But I know, said he, that my Major would surely have come, had he
+been able.
+
+About 6 weeks after, the Captain rides to _Eaton_ to place his Son a
+Scholar there, when the Doctor went thither with him. They lodged there
+at an Inn, the Sign was the _Christopher_, and tarried two or three
+Nights, not lying together now as before at _Dulverton_, but in two
+several Chambers. The morning before they went thence, the Captain staid
+in his Chamber longer than he was wont to do before he called upon the
+Doctor. At length he comes into the Doctor's Chamber, but in a Visage
+and Form much differing from himself, with his Hair and Eyes staring,
+and his whole Body shaking and trembling: Whereupon at the Doctor
+wondering, presently demanded: What is the matter Cousin Captain? The
+Captain replies, I have seen my Major: At which the Doctor seeming to
+smile, the Captain immediately confirms it, saying, If ever I saw him in
+my life, I saw him but now: And then he related to the Doctor what had
+passed, thus: This morning after it was light, someone comes to my
+bedside, and suddenly drawing back the Curtains, calls, _Cap. Cap._
+(which was the term of familiarity that the Major used to call the
+Captain by). To whom I replied, _What my Major?_ To which he returns, _I
+could not come at the time appointed, but I am now come to tell you,
+That there is a God, and a very just and terrible one, and if you do not
+turn over a new leaf_, (the very Expressions as is by the Doctor
+punctually remembered) _you will find it so_. The Captain proceeded: On
+the Table by there lay a Sword, which the Major had formerly given me.
+Now after the Apparition had walked a turn or two about the Chamber, he
+took up the Sword, drew it out, and finding it not so clean and bright
+as it ought, _Cap. Cap._ says he, _this Sword did not use to be kept
+after this manner when it was mine_. After which Words he suddenly
+disappeared.
+
+The Captain was not only thoroughly persuaded of what he had thus seen
+and heard, but was from that time observed to be very much affected with
+it: and the Humour that before in him was brisk and jovial, was then
+strangely alter'd; insomuch, as very little Meat would pass down with
+him at Dinner, though at the taking leave of their Friends there was a
+very handsome Treat provided: Yea it was observed that what the Captain
+had thus seen and heard, had a more lasting Influence upon him, and 'tis
+judged by those who were well acquainted with his Conversation, that
+the remembrance of this Passage stuck close to him, and that those words
+of his dead Friend were frequently sounding fresh in his Ears, during
+the remainder of his Life, which was about Two Years.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 11: _Sadducismus Triumphatus._]
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES
+
+From CHRISTMAS' "Phantom World"
+
+
+In the year 1676, about the 13th or 14th of this Month October, in the
+Night, between one and two of the Clock, this _Jesch Claes_, a cripple,
+being in bed with her Husband, who was a Boatman, she was three times
+pulled by her Arm, with which she awaked and cried out, "O Lord! what
+may this be?"
+
+Hereupon she heard an answer in plain words: "Be not afraid, I come in
+the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Your malady which hath for
+many years been upon you shall cease, and it shall be given you from God
+Almighty to walk again. But keep this good news to yourself!" Whereupon
+she cried aloud, "O Lord! that I had a light that I might know what this
+is." Then had she this answer: "There needs no light, the light shall be
+given you from God."
+
+Then came light all over the Room, and she saw a beautiful Youth about
+ten Years of Age, with curled yellow Hair, cloathed in white to the
+Feet, who went from the Bed's-Head to the Chimney with a light, which a
+little after vanished. Hereupon did there did shoot something through
+her Leg, like water, from hip to toe, and when she did find life rising
+up in her dead limb, she fell to crying out, "Lord give me now again the
+feeling, which I have not had in so many years." And farther she
+continued crying and praying to the Lord according to her weak measure.
+
+Yet she continued that day, Wednesday, and the next day Thursday, as
+before till Evening at six a clock. At which time she sate at the Fire
+dressing the Food. Then came as like rushing noise in both her Ears with
+which it was said to her, "_Stand_. Your going is given you again."
+
+Then did she immediately stand up, that had so many years crept, and
+went to the door. Her Husband meeting her, being exceedingly afraid,
+drew back. In the mean time while she cried out, "My dear Husband, I can
+go again."
+
+He thinking it was a Spirit, drew back, saying, "You are not my Wife."
+
+His Wife taking hold of him, said, "My dear Husband, I am the self-same
+that hath been married these thirty years to you. The Almighty God hath
+given me my going again."
+
+But her Husband being amazed, drew back to the side of the Room, till at
+last she clasped her Hand about his Neck. And yet he doubted, and said
+to his Daughter, "Is this your Mother?"
+
+She answered, "Yes, Father! this we plainly see. I had seen her go also
+before you came in."
+
+This befell upon Prince's-Island in Amsterdam, where Jesch Claes lived
+with her husband.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+The haunted room forms part of the old house, with windows looking into
+the court. It adjoins a tower built for defence, for Corby was,
+properly, more a border tower than a castle of any consideration. There
+is a winding staircase in this tower, and the walls are from eight to
+ten feet thick.
+
+When the times became more peaceable, our ancestors enlarged the
+arrow-slit windows, and added to that part of the building which looks
+towards the river Eden; the view of which, with its beautiful banks, we
+now enjoy. But many additions and alterations have been made since that.
+
+To return to the room in question: I must observe that it is by no means
+remote or solitary, being surrounded on all sides by chambers that are
+constantly inhabited. It is accessible by a passage cut through a wall
+eight feet in thickness, and its dimensions are twenty-one by eighteen.
+One side of the wainscotting is covered with tapestry, the remainder is
+decorated with old family pictures, and some ancient pieces of
+embroidery, probably the handiwork of nuns. Over a press, which has
+doors of Venetian glass, is an ancient oaken figure, with a battle-axe
+in his hand, which was one of those formerly placed on the walls of the
+City of Carlisle, to represent guards. There used to be also an
+old-fashioned bed and some dark furniture in this room; but so many were
+the complaints of those who slept there, that I was induced to replace
+some of these articles of furniture by more modern ones, in the hope of
+removing a certain air of gloom, which I thought might have given rise
+to the unaccountable reports of apparitions and extraordinary noises
+which were constantly reaching us. But I regret to say, I did not
+succeed in banishing the nocturnal visitor, which still continues to
+disturb our friends.
+
+I shall pass over numerous instances, and select one as being especially
+remarkable, from the circumstance of the apparition having been seen by
+a clergyman well known and highly respected in this county, who, not six
+weeks ago, repeated the circumstances to a company of twenty persons,
+amongst whom were some who had previously been entire disbelievers in
+such appearances.
+
+The best way of giving you these particulars will be by subjoining an
+extract from my journal, entered at the time the event occurred.
+
+_Sept. 8, 1803._--Amongst other guests invited to Corby Castle came the
+Rev. Henry A., of Redburgh, and rector of Greystoke, with Mrs A., his
+wife, who was a Miss S., of Ulverstone. According to previous
+arrangements, they were to have remained with us some days; but their
+visit was cut short in a very unexpected manner. On the morning after
+their arrival we were all assembled at breakfast, when a chaise and four
+dashed up to the door in such haste that it knocked down part of the
+fence of my flower garden. Our curiosity was, of course, awakened to
+know who could be arriving at so early an hour; when, happening to turn
+my eyes towards Mr A., I observed that he appeared extremely agitated.
+"It is our carriage," said he; "I am very sorry, but we must absolutely
+leave you this morning."
+
+We naturally felt and expressed considerable surprise, as well as
+regret, at this unexpected departure, representing that we had invited
+Colonel and Mrs S., some friends whom Mr A. particularly desired to
+meet, to dine with us on that day. Our expostulations, however, were
+vain; the breakfast was no sooner over than they departed, leaving us in
+consternation to conjecture what could possibly have occasioned so
+sudden an alteration in their arrangements. I really felt quite uneasy
+lest anything should have given them offence; and we reviewed all the
+occurrences of the preceding evening in order to discover, if offence
+there was, whence it had arisen. But our pains were vain; and after
+talking a great deal about it for some days, other circumstances
+banished the matter from our minds.
+
+It was not till we some time afterwards visited the part of the county
+in which Mr A. resides that we learnt the real cause of his sudden
+departure from Corby. The relation of the fact, as it here follows, is
+in his own words:--
+
+"Soon after we went to bed, we fell asleep; it might be between one and
+two in the morning when I awoke. I observed that the fire was totally
+extinguished; but, although that was the case, and we had no light, I
+saw a glimmer in the centre of the room, which suddenly increased to a
+bright flame. I looked out, apprehending that something had caught fire,
+when, to my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, with
+bright locks resembling gold, standing by my bedside, in which position
+he remained some minutes, fixing his eyes upon me with a mild and
+benevolent expression. He then glided gently towards the side of the
+chimney, where it is obvious there is no possible egress, and entirely
+disappeared. I found myself again in total darkness, and all remained
+quiet until the usual hour of rising. I declare this to be a true
+account of what I saw at Corby Castle, upon my word as a clergyman."
+
+Mrs Crowe, alluding to this story in her "Night Side of Nature," said
+that she was acquainted with some of the family and several of the
+friends of the Rev. Henry A., who, she continued, "is still alive,
+though now an old man; and I can most positively assert that his own
+conviction with regard to the nature of this appearance has remained
+ever unshaken. The circumstance made a lasting impression upon his mind,
+and he never willingly speaks of it; but when he does, it is always with
+the greatest seriousness, and he never shrinks from avowing his belief
+that what he saw admits of no other interpretation than the one he then
+put upon it."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+CLERK SAUNDERS
+
+"Border Minstrelsy"
+
+
+    Clerk Saunders and May Margaret
+      Walked owre yon garden green;
+    And sad and heavy was the love
+      That fell them twa between.
+
+    And thro' the dark, and thro' the mirk,
+      And thro' the leaves o' green,
+    He cam that night to Margaret's door,
+      And tirléd at the pin.
+
+    "O wha is that at my bower door,
+      Sae weel my name does ken?"
+    "'Tis I, Clerk Saunders, your true love;
+      You'll open and let me in?"
+
+    "But in may come my seven bauld brithers,
+      Wi' torches burning bright;
+    They'll say--'We hae but ae sister,
+      And behold she's wi' a knight!'"
+
+    "Ye'll tak my brand I bear in hand,
+      And wi' the same ye'll lift the pin;
+    Then ye may swear, and save your aith,
+      That ye ne'er let Clerk Saunders in.
+
+    "Ye'll tak the kerchief in your hand,
+      And wi' the same tie up your een;
+    Then ye may swear and save your aith,
+      Ye saw me na since yestere'en."
+
+    It was about the midnight hour,
+      When they asleep were laid,
+    When in and cam her seven brothers,
+      Wi' torches burning red.
+
+    When in and cam her seven brothers,
+      Wi' torches burning bright;
+    They said, "We hae but ae sister,
+      And behold she's wi' a knight."
+
+    Then out and spak the first o' them,
+      "We'll awa' and lat them be."
+    And out and spak the second o' them,
+      "His father has nae mair than he!"
+
+    And out and spak the third o' them,
+      "I wot they are lovers dear!"
+    And out and spak the fourth o' them,
+      "They hae lo'ed this mony a year!"
+
+    Then out and spak the fifth o' them,
+      "It were sin true love to twain!"
+    "'Twere shame," out spak the sixth o' them,
+      "To slay a sleeping man!"
+
+    Then up and gat the seventh o' them,
+      And never a word spak he;
+    But he has striped his bright brown brand
+      Through Saunders' fair bodie.
+
+    Clerk Saunders started, and Margaret she turned,
+      Into his arms as asleep she lay;
+    And sad and silent was the night,
+      That was atween thir twae.
+
+    And they lay still and sleepit sound,
+      Till the day began to daw;
+    And kindly to him she did say,
+      "It is time, love, you were awa'."
+
+    But he lay still, and sleepit sound,
+      Till the sun began to sheen;
+    She looked atween her and the wa',
+      And dull, dull were his een.
+
+    She turned the blankets to the foot,
+      The sheets unto the wa',
+    And there she saw his bloody wound,
+      And her tears fast doun did fa'.
+
+    Then in and cam her father dear,
+      Said, "Let a' your mournin' be;
+    I'll carry the dead corpse to the clay
+      And then come back and comfort thee.
+
+    "Hold your tongue, my daughter dear,
+      And let your mourning be;
+    I'll wed you to a higher match
+      Than his father's son could be."
+
+    "Gae comfort weel your seven sons, father,
+      For man sall ne'er comfort me;
+    Ye'll marry me wi' the Queen o' Heaven,
+      For wedded I ne'er sall be!"
+
+    The clinking bell gaed through the toun,
+      To carry the dead corse to the clay;
+    And Clerk Saunders stood at Margaret's window,
+      'Twas an hour before the day.
+
+    "O'are ye sleeping, Margaret?" he says,
+      "Or are ye waking presentlie?
+    Gie me my faith and troth again,
+      I wot, true love, I gied to thee.
+
+    "I canna rest, Margaret," he says,
+      "Doun in the grave where I must be,
+    Till ye gie me my faith and troth again,
+      I wot, true love, I gied to thee."
+
+    "Your faith and troth ye sall never get,
+      Nor our true love sall never twin,
+    Until ye come within my bower,
+      And kiss me cheek and chin."
+
+    "My mouth it is full cold, Margaret,
+      It has the smell, now, of the ground;
+    And if I kiss thy comely mouth,
+      To the grave thou will be bound.
+
+    "O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,
+      I wot the wild-fowls are boding day;
+    Gie me my faith and troth again,
+      And let me fare me on my way."
+
+    "Thy faith and troth thou sall na get,
+      And our true love shall never twin,
+    Until ye tell what comes of women,
+      I wot, who die in strong travailing."
+
+    "Their beds are made in the heavens high,
+      Down at the foot of our good Lord's knee,
+    Weel set about wi' gillyflowers;
+      I wot sweet company for to see.
+
+    "O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,
+      I wot the wild-fowl are boding day;
+    The psalms of heaven will soon be sung,
+      And I, ere now, will be missed away."
+
+    Then she has ta'en a crystal wand,
+      And she has stroken her troth thereon,
+    She has given it him out at the shot-window,
+      Wi' mony a sigh and heavy groan.
+
+    "I thank ye, Margaret; I thank ye, Margaret;
+      And aye I thank ye heartilie;
+    Gin ever the dead come for the quick,
+      Be sure, Margaret, I'll come for thee."
+
+    It's hosen, and shoon, and gown, alane,
+      She clam the wa' and after him;
+    Until she cam to the green forest,
+      And there she lost the sight o' him.
+
+    "Is there ony room at your head, Saunders,
+      Is there ony room at your feet?
+    Or ony room at your side, Saunders,
+      Where fain, fain, I wad sleep?"
+
+    "There's nae room at my head, Margaret,
+      There's nae room at my feet;
+    My bed it is full lowly now:
+      'Mang the hungry worms I sleep.
+
+    "Cauld mould is my covering now,
+      But and my winding-sheet;
+    The dew it falls nae sooner down,
+      Than my resting-place is weet.
+
+    "But plait a wand o' the bonnie birk
+      And lay it on my breast;
+    And shed a tear upon my grave,
+      And wish my saul gude rest.
+
+    "And fair Margaret, and rare Margaret,
+      And Margaret o' veritie,
+    Gin e'er ye love anither man,
+      Ne'er love him as ye did me."
+
+    Then up and crew the milk-white cock,
+      And up and crew the gray;
+    Her lover vanished in the air,
+      And she gaed weeping away.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+DOROTHY DURANT
+
+By Mrs CROWE
+
+
+A schoolboy named Bligh, who went to Launceston Grammar School, of which
+the Rev. John Ruddle was headmaster, from being a lad of bright parts
+and no common attainments, became on a sudden moody, dejected, and
+melancholy. His friends, seeing the change without being able to find
+the cause, attributed it to laziness, an aversion to school, or to some
+other motive which he was ashamed to avow. He was led, however, to tell
+his brother, after some time, that in a field through which he passed to
+and from school, he invariably met the apparition of a woman, whom he
+personally knew while living, and who had been dead about eight years.
+Ridicule, threats, persuasions, were alike used in vain by the family to
+induce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Finally, Mr Ruddle was sent
+for, and to him the boy ingenuously told the time, manner, and frequency
+of this appearance. It was in a field called Higher Broomfield. The
+apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire, met him two or
+three times while he passed through the field, glided hastily by him,
+but never spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about two months
+before he took any particular notice of it; at length the appearance
+became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but always
+in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it came
+close to him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
+this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
+returned from it through a lane, in which place, between the quarry pack
+and nursery, it always met him. Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his
+own senses, or to obtain credit with any of his family, he prevailed
+upon Mr Ruddle to accompany him to the place.
+
+"I arose," says this clergyman, "the next morning, and went with him.
+The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in an
+open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the
+field, and had not gone a third part before the spectrum in the shape of
+a woman, with all the circumstances he had described the day before, so
+far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would permit me
+to discover, passed by.
+
+"I was a little surprised at it, and though I had taken up a firm
+resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back;
+yet I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide, and
+therefore, telling him I was satisfied of the truth of his statement, we
+walked to the end of the field and returned--nor did the ghost meet us
+that time but once.
+
+"On the 27th July, 1665, I went to the haunted field by myself, and
+walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned and took
+the other walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, much about the same
+place in which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It
+appeared to move swifter than before, and seemed to be about ten feet
+from me on my right hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it,
+as I had determined with myself beforehand. The evening of this day, the
+parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, I
+proposed to them our going altogether to the place next morning. We
+accordingly met at the stile we had appointed; thence we all four walked
+into the field together. We had not gone more than half the field before
+the ghost made its appearance. It then came over the stile just before
+us, and moved with such rapidity that by the time we had gone six or
+seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my head and ran after it,
+with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over the stile at which we
+entered, and no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at one place and the
+young man at another, but we could discern nothing; whereas I do aver
+that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out
+of sight in that short space of time. Two things I observed in this
+day's appearance: first, a spaniel dog, which had followed the company
+unregarded, barked and ran away as the spectrum passed by; whence it is
+easy to conclude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the
+apparition. Secondly, the motion of the spectrum was not _gradatim_ or
+by steps, or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding, as children
+upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which punctually answers the
+description the ancients give of the motion of these Lamures. This
+ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted, the
+old gentleman and his wife. They well knew this woman, Dorothy Durant,
+in her life-time; were at her burial, and now plainly saw her features
+in this apparition.
+
+"The next morning, being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and
+walked for about an hour's space in meditation and prayer in the field
+next adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the
+haunted field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the
+ghost appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short
+sentences with a loud voice; whereupon it approached me, but slowly, and
+when I came near it moved not. I spoke again, and it answered in a voice
+neither audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified,
+and therefore persisted until it spoke again and gave me satisfaction;
+but the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon the same
+evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and
+after a few words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth
+appear now, nor hath appeared since, nor ever will more to any man's
+disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an
+hour.
+
+"These things are true," concludes the Rev. John Ruddle, "and I know
+them to be so, with as much certainty as eyes and ears can give me; and
+until I can be persuaded that my senses all deceive me about their
+proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive me of the strongest
+inducement to believe the Christian religion, I must and will assert
+that the things contained in this paper are true."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+PEARLIN JEAN
+
+By CHARLES KIRKPATRICK SHARPE
+
+
+It was Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the antiquary, who furnished this
+account of Pearlin Jean's hauntings at Allanbank.
+
+"In my youth," he says, "Pearlin Jean was the most remarkable ghost in
+Scotland, and my terror when a child. Our old nurse, Jenny Blackadder,
+had been a servant at Allanbank, and often heard her rustling in silks
+up and down stairs, and along the passages. She never saw her; but her
+husband did.
+
+"She was a French woman, whom the first baronet of Allanbank, then Mr
+Stuart, met with at Paris, during his tour to finish his education as a
+gentleman. Some people said she was a nun; in which case she must have
+been a Sister of Charity, as she appears not to have been confined to a
+cloister. After some time, young Stuart either became faithless to the
+lady or was suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had got
+into his carriage at the door of the hotel, when his Dido unexpectedly
+made her appearance, and stepping on the forewheel of the coach to
+address her lover, he ordered the postilion to drive on; the consequence
+of which was that the lady fell, and one of the wheels going over her
+forehead, killed her.
+
+"In a dusky autumnal evening, when Mr Stuart drove under the arched
+gateway of Allanbank, he perceived Pearlin Jean sitting on the top, her
+head and shoulders covered with blood.
+
+"After this, for many years, the house was haunted; doors shut and
+opened with great noise at midnight; the rustling of silks and pattering
+of high-heeled shoes were heard in bedrooms and passages. Nurse Jenny
+said there were seven ministers called in together at one time to _lay_
+the spirit; 'but they did no mickle good, my dear.'
+
+"The picture of the ghost was hung between those of her lover and his
+lady, and kept her comparatively quiet; but when taken away, she became
+worse-natured than ever. This portrait was in the present Sir J.G.'s
+possession. I am unwilling to record its fate.
+
+"The ghost was designated Pearlin, from always wearing a great quantity
+of that sort of lace.
+
+"Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Blackadder was her lover (I
+remember Thomas very well), they made an assignation to meet one
+moonlight night in the orchard at Allanbank. True Thomas, of course, was
+the first comer; and seeing a female figure in a light-coloured dress,
+at some distance, he ran forward with open arms to embrace his Jenny;
+when lo and behold! as he neared the spot where the figure stood, it
+vanished; and presently he saw it again at the very end of the orchard,
+a considerable way off. Thomas went home in a fright; but Jenny, who
+came last, and saw nothing, forgave him, and they were married.
+
+"Many years after this, about the year 1790, two ladies paid a visit at
+Allanbank--I think the house was then let--and passed the night there.
+They had never heard a word about the ghost; but they were disturbed the
+whole night with something walking backwards and forwards in their
+bed-chamber. This I had from the best authority."
+
+To this account may be added that a housekeeper, called Betty Norrie,
+who, in more recent times, lived many years at Allanbank, positively
+averred that she, and many other persons, had frequently seen Pearlin
+Jean; and, moreover, stated that they were so used to her as to be no
+longer alarmed at the noises she made.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+THE DENTON HALL GHOST
+
+Local Records
+
+
+A day or two after my arrival at Denton Hall, when all around was yet
+new to me, I had accompanied my friends to a ball given in the
+neighbourhood, and returned heartily fatigued. At this time I need not
+blush, nor you smile, when I say that on that evening I had met, for the
+second time, one with whose destinies my own were doomed to become
+connected.
+
+I think I was sitting upon an antique carved chair, near to the fire, in
+the room where I slept, busied in arranging my hair, and thinking over
+some of the events of the day. Whether I had dropped into a
+half-slumber, I cannot say; but on looking up--for I had my face bent
+toward the fire--there seemed sitting on a similar highbacked chair, on
+the other side of the ancient tiled fireplace, an old lady, whose air
+and dress were so remarkable that to this hour they seem as fresh in my
+memory as they were the day after the vision. She appeared to be dressed
+in a flowered satin gown, of a cut then out of date. It was peaked and
+long-waisted. The fabric of the satin had that extreme of glossy
+stiffness which old fabrics of this kind exhibit. She wore a stomacher.
+On her wrinkled fingers appeared some rings of great size and seeming
+value; but, what was most remarkable, she wore also a satin hood of a
+peculiar shape. It was glossy like the gown, but seemed to be stiffened
+either by whalebone or some other material. Her age seemed considerable,
+and the face, though not unpleasant, was somewhat hard and severe and
+indented with minute wrinkles. I confess that so entirely was my
+attention engrossed by what was passing in my mind, that, though I felt
+mightily confused, I was not startled (in the emphatic sense) by the
+apparition. In fact, I deemed it to be some old lady, perhaps a
+housekeeper, or dependent in the family, and, therefore, though rather
+astonished, was by no means frightened by my visitant, supposing me to
+be awake, which I am convinced was the case, though few persons believe
+me on this point.
+
+My own impression is that I stared somewhat rudely, in the wonder of the
+moment, at the hard, but lady-like features of my aged visitor. But she
+left me small time to think, addressing me in a familiar half-whisper
+and with a constant restless motion of the hand which aged persons, when
+excited, often exhibit in addressing the young. "Well, young lady," said
+my mysterious companion, "and so you've been at yon hall to-night! and
+highly ye've been delighted there! Yet if you could see as I can see, or
+could know as I can know, troth! I guess your pleasure would abate. 'Tis
+well for you, young lady, peradventure, ye see not with my eyes"--and at
+the moment, sure enough, her eyes, which were small, grey, and in no way
+remarkable, twinkled with a light so severe that the effect was
+unpleasant in the extreme. "'Tis well for you and them," she continued,
+"that ye cannot count the cost. Time was when hospitality could be kept
+in England, and the guest not ruin the master of the feast--but that's
+all vanished now: pride and poverty--pride and poverty, young lady, are
+an ill-matched pair, Heaven kens!" My tongue, which had at first almost
+faltered in its office, now found utterance. By a kind of instinct, I
+addressed my strange visitant in her own manner and humour. "And are we,
+then, so much poorer than in days of yore?" were the words that I spoke.
+My visitor seemed half startled at the sound of my voice, as at
+something unaccustomed, and went on, rather answering my question by
+implication than directly: "'Twas not all hollowness then," she
+exclaimed, ceasing somewhat her hollow whisper; "the land was then the
+lord's, and that which _seemed, was_. The child, young lady, was not
+then mortgaged in the cradle, and, mark ye, the bride, when she kneeled
+at the altar, gave not herself up, body and soul, to be the bondswoman
+of the Jew, but to be the helpmate of the spouse." "The Jew!" I
+exclaimed in surprise, for then I understood not the allusion. "Ay,
+young lady! the Jew," was the rejoinder. "'Tis plain ye know not who
+rules. 'Tis all hollow yonder! all hollow, all hollow! to the very
+glitter of the side-board, all false! all false! all hollow! Away with
+such make-believe finery!" And here again the hollow voice rose a
+little, and the dim grey eye glistened. "Ye mortgage the very oaks of
+your ancestors--I saw the planting of them; and now 'tis all painting,
+gilding, varnishing and veneering. Houses call ye them? Whited
+sepulchres, young lady, whited sepulchres. Trust not all that seems to
+glisten. Fair though it seems, 'tis but the product of disease--even as
+is the pearl in your hair, young lady, that glitters in the mirror
+yonder,--not more specious than is all,--ay, _all_ ye have seen
+to-night."
+
+As my strange visitor pronounced these words, I instinctively turned my
+gaze to a large old-fashioned mirror that leaned from the wall of the
+chamber. 'Twas but for a moment. But when I again turned my head, my
+visitant was no longer there! I heard plainly, as I turned, the distinct
+rustle of the silk, as if she had risen and was leaving the room. I
+seemed distinctly to hear this, together with the quick, short, easy
+footstep with which females of rank of that period were taught to glide
+rather than to walk; this I seemed to hear, but of what appeared the
+antique old lady I saw no more. The suddenness and strangeness of this
+event for a moment sent the blood back to my heart. Could I have found
+voice, I should, I think, have screamed, but that was, for a moment,
+beyond my power. A few seconds recovered me. By a sort of impulse I
+rushed to the door, outside which I now heard the footsteps of some of
+the family, when, to my utter astonishment, I found it was--locked! I
+now recollected that I myself locked it before sitting down.
+
+Though somewhat ashamed to give utterance to what I really believed as
+to this matter, the strange adventure of the night was made a subject of
+conversation at the breakfast-table next morning. On the words leaving
+my lips, I saw my host and hostess exchange looks with each other, and
+soon found that the tale I had to tell was not received with the air
+which generally meets such relations. I was not repelled by an angry or
+ill-bred incredulity, or treated as one of diseased fancy, to whom
+silence is indirectly recommended as the alternative of being laughed
+at. In short, it was not attempted to be denied or concealed that I was
+not the first who had been alarmed in a manner, if not exactly similar,
+yet just as mysterious; that visitors, like myself, had actually given
+way to these terrors so far as to quit the house in consequence; and
+that servants were sometimes not to be prevented from sharing in the
+same contagion. At the same time they told me this, my host and hostess
+declared that custom and continued residence had long exempted all
+regular inmates of the mansion from any alarms or terrors. The
+visitations, whatever they were, seemed to be confined to newcomers, and
+to them it was by no means a matter of frequent occurrence.
+
+In the neighbourhood, I found, this strange story was well known; that
+the house was regularly set down as "haunted" all the country round, and
+that the spirit, or goblin, or whatever it was that was embodied in
+these appearances, was familiarly known by the name of "Silky."
+
+At a distance, those to whom I have related my night's adventure have
+one and all been sceptical, and accounted for the whole by supposing me
+to have been half asleep, or in a state resembling somnambulism. All I
+can say is, that my own impressions are directly contrary to this
+supposition; and that I feel as sure that I saw the figure that sat
+before me with my bodily eyes, as I am sure I now see you with them.
+Without affecting to deny that I was somewhat shocked by the adventure,
+I must repeat that I suffered no unreasonable alarm, nor suffered my
+fancy to overcome my better spirit of womanhood.
+
+I certainly slept no more in that room, and in that to which I removed I
+had one of the daughters of my hostess as a companion; but I have never,
+from that hour to this, been convinced that I did not actually encounter
+something more than is natural--if not an actual being in some other
+state of existence. My ears have not been deceived, if my eyes
+were--which, I repeat, I cannot believe.
+
+The warnings so strongly shadowed forth have been too true. The
+gentleman at whose house I that night was a guest has long since filled
+an untimely grave! In that splendid hall, since that time, strangers
+have lorded it--and I myself have long since ceased to think of such
+scenes as I partook of that evening--the envied object of the attention
+of one whose virtues have survived the splendid inheritance to which he
+seemed destined.
+
+Whether this be a tale of delusion and superstition, or something more
+than that, it is, at all events, not without a legend for its
+foundation. There is some obscure and dark rumour of secrets strangely
+obtained and enviously betrayed by a rival sister, ending in deprivation
+of reason and death; and that the betrayer still walks by times in the
+deserted Hall which she rendered tenantless, always prophetic of
+disaster to those she encounters. So has it been with me, certainly; and
+more than me, if those who say it say true. It is many, many years
+since I saw the scene of this adventure; but I have heard that since
+that time the same mysterious visitings have more than once been
+renewed; that midnight curtains have been drawn by an arm clothed in
+rustling silks; and the same form, clad in dark brocade, has been seen
+gliding along the dark corridors of that ancient, grey, and time-worn
+mansion, ever prophetic of death or misfortune.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY
+
+(Doubtfully attributed to CHARLES DICKENS)
+
+
+My wife's sister, Mrs M----, was left a widow at the age of thirty-five,
+with two children, girls, of whom she was passionately fond. She carried
+on the draper's business at Bognor, established by her husband. Being
+still a very handsome woman, there were several suitors for her hand.
+The only favoured one amongst them was a Mr Barton. My wife never liked
+this Mr Barton, and made no secret of her feelings to her sister, whom
+she frequently told that Mr Barton only wanted to be master of the
+little haberdashery shop in Bognor. He was a man in poor circumstances,
+and had no other motive in his proposal of marriage, so my wife thought,
+than to better himself.
+
+On the 23rd of August 1831 Mrs M---- arranged to go with Barton to a
+picnic party at Goodwood Park, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, who had
+kindly thrown open his grounds to the public for the day. My wife, a
+little annoyed at her going out with this man, told her she had much
+better remain at home to look after her children and attend to the
+business. Mrs M----, however, bent on going, made arrangements about
+leaving the shop, and got my wife to promise to see to her little girls
+while she was away.
+
+The party set out in a four-wheeled phaeton, with a pair of ponies
+driven by Mrs M----, and a gig for which I lent the horse.
+
+Now we did not expect them to come back till nine or ten o'clock, at
+any rate. I mention this particularly to show that there could be no
+expectation of their earlier return in the mind of my wife, to account
+for what follows.
+
+At six o'clock that bright summer's evening my wife went out into the
+garden to call the children. Not finding them, she went all round the
+place in her search till she came to the empty stable; thinking they
+might have run in there to play, she pushed open the door; there,
+standing in the darkest corner, she saw Mrs M----. My wife was surprised
+to see her, certainly; for she did not expect her return so soon; but,
+oddly enough, it did not strike her as being singular to see her
+_there_. Vexed as she had felt with her all day for going, and rather
+glad, in her woman's way, to have something entirely different from the
+genuine _casus belli_ to hang a retort upon, my wife said: "Well,
+Harriet, I should have thought another dress would have done quite as
+well for your picnic as that best black silk you have on." My wife was
+the elder of the twain, and had always assumed a little of the air of
+counsellor to her sister. Black silks were thought a great deal more of
+at that time than they are just now, and silk of any kind was held
+particularly inconsistent wear for Wesleyan Methodists, to which
+denomination we belonged.
+
+Receiving no answer, my wife said: "Oh, well, Harriet, if you can't take
+a word of reproof without being sulky, I'll leave you to yourself"; and
+then she came into the house to tell me the party had returned and that
+she had seen her sister in the stable, not in the best of tempers. At
+the moment it did not seem extraordinary to me that my wife should have
+met her sister in the stable.
+
+I waited indoors some time, expecting them to return my horse. Mrs M----
+was my neighbour, and, being always on most friendly terms, I wondered
+that none of the party had come in to tell us about the day's pleasure.
+I thought I would just run in and see how they had got on. To my great
+surprise the servant told me they had not returned. I began, then, to
+feel anxiety about the result. My wife, however, having seen Harriet in
+the stable, refused to believe the servant's assertion; and said there
+was no doubt of their return, but that they had probably left word to
+say they were not come back, in order to offer a plausible excuse for
+taking a further drive, and detaining my horse for another hour or so.
+
+At eleven o'clock Mr Pinnock, my brother-in-law, who had been one of the
+party, came in, apparently much agitated. As soon as she saw him, and
+before he had time to speak, my wife seemed to know what he had to say.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said; "something has happened to Harriet, I
+know!"
+
+"Yes" replied Mr Pinnock; "if you wish to see her alive, you must come
+with me directly to Goodwood."
+
+From what he said it appeared that one of the ponies had never been
+properly broken in; that the man from whom the turn-out was hired for
+the day had cautioned Mrs M---- respecting it before they started; and
+that he had lent it reluctantly, being the only pony to match in the
+stable at the time, and would not have lent it at all had he not known
+Mrs M---- to be a remarkably good whip.
+
+On reaching Goodwood, it seems, the gentlemen of the party had got out,
+leaving the ladies to take a drive round the park in the phaeton. One or
+both of the ponies must then have taken fright at something in the road,
+for Mrs M---- had scarcely taken the reins when the ponies shied. Had
+there been plenty of room she would readily have mastered the
+difficulty; but it was in a narrow road, where a gate obstructed the
+way. Some men rushed to open the gate--too late. The three other ladies
+jumped out at the beginning of the accident; but Mrs M---- still held on
+to the reins, seeking to control her ponies, until, finding it was
+impossible for the men to get the gate open in time, she too sprang
+forward; and at the same instant the ponies came smash on to the gate.
+She had made her spring too late, and fell heavily to the ground on her
+head. The heavy, old-fashioned comb of the period, with which her hair
+was looped up, was driven into her skull by the force of the fall. The
+Duke of Richmond, a witness to the accident, ran to her assistance,
+lifted her up, and rested her head upon his knees. The only words Mrs
+M---- had spoken were uttered at the time: "Good God, my children!" By
+direction of the Duke she was immediately conveyed to a neighbouring
+inn, where every assistance, medical and otherwise, that forethought or
+kindness could suggest was afforded her.
+
+At six o'clock in the evening, the time at which my wife had gone into
+the stable and seen what we now knew had been her spirit, Mrs M----, in
+her sole interval of returning consciousness, had made a violent but
+unsuccessful attempt to speak. From her glance having wandered round the
+room, in solemn awful wistfulness, it had been conjectured she wished to
+see some relative or friend not then present. I went to Goodwood in the
+gig with Mr Pinnock, and arrived in time to see my sister-in-law die at
+two o'clock in the morning. Her only conscious moments had been those in
+which she laboured unsuccessfully to speak, which had occurred at six
+o'clock. She wore a black silk dress.
+
+When we came to dispose of her business, and to wind up her affairs,
+there was scarcely anything left for the two orphan girls. Mrs M----'s
+father, however, being well-to-do, took them to bring up. At his death,
+which happened soon afterwards, his property went to his eldest son, who
+speedily dissipated the inheritance. During a space of two years the
+children were taken as visitors by various relations in turn, and lived
+an unhappy life with no settled home.
+
+For some time I had been debating with myself how to help these
+children, having many boys and girls of my own to provide for. I had
+almost settled to take them myself, bad as trade was with me, at the
+time, and bring them up with my own family, when one day business called
+me to Brighton. The business was so urgent that it necessitated my
+travelling at night.
+
+I set out from Bognor in a close-headed gig on a beautiful moonlight
+winter's night, when the crisp frozen snow lay deep over the earth, and
+its fine glistening dust was whirled about in little eddies on the bleak
+night-wind--driven now and then in stinging powder against my tingling
+cheek, warm and glowing in the sharp air. I had taken my great "Bose"
+(short for "Boatswain") for company. He lay, blinking wakefully,
+sprawled out on the spare seat of the gig beneath a mass of warm rugs.
+
+Between Littlehampton and Worthing is a lonely piece of road, long and
+dreary, through bleak and bare open country, where the snow lay
+knee-deep, sparkling in the moonlight. It was so cheerless that I turned
+round to speak to my dog, more for the sake of hearing the sound of a
+voice than anything else. "Good Bose," I said, patting him, "there's a
+good dog!" Then suddenly I noticed he shivered, and shrank underneath
+the wraps. Then the horse required my attention, for he gave a start,
+and was going wrong, and had nearly taken me into the ditch.
+
+Then I looked up. Walking at my horse's head, dressed in a sweeping
+robe, so white that it shone dazzling against the white snow, I saw a
+lady, her back turned to me, her head bare; her hair dishevelled and
+strayed, showing sharp and black against her white dress.
+
+I was at first so much surprised at seeing a lady, so dressed, exposed
+to the open night, and such a night as this, that I scarcely knew what
+to do. Recovering myself, I called out to know if I could render
+assistance--if she wished to ride? No answer. I drove faster, the horse
+blinking, and shying, and trembling the while, his ears laid back in
+abject terror. Still the figure maintained its position close to my
+horse's head. Then I thought that what I saw was no woman, but perchance
+a man disguised for the purpose of robbing me, seeking an opportunity to
+seize the bridle and stop the horse. Filled with this idea, I said,
+"Good Bose! hi! look at it, boy!" but the dog only shivered as if in
+fright. Then we came to a place where four cross-roads meet.
+
+Determined to know the worst, I pulled up the horse. I fetched Bose,
+unwilling, out by the ears. He was a good dog at anything from a rat to
+a man, but he slunk away that night into the hedge, and lay there, his
+head between his paws, whining and howling. I walked straight up to the
+figure, still standing by the horse's head. As I walked, the figure
+turned, and I saw _Harriet's face_ as plainly as I see you now--white
+and calm--placid, as idealised and beautified by death. I must own that,
+though not a nervous man, in that instant I felt sick and faint. Harriet
+looked me full in the face with a long, eager, silent look. I knew then
+it was her spirit, and felt a strange calm come over me, for I knew it
+was nothing to harm me. When I could speak, I asked what troubled her.
+She looked at me still, never changing that cold fixed stare. Then I
+felt in my mind it was her children, and I said:
+
+"Harriet! is it for your children you are troubled?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Harriet," I continued, "if for these you are troubled, be assured they
+shall never want while I have power to help them. Rest in peace!"
+
+Still no answer.
+
+I put up my hand to wipe from my forehead the cold perspiration which
+had gathered there. When I took my hand away from shading my eyes, the
+figure was gone. I was alone on the bleak snow-covered ground. The
+breeze, that had been hushed before, breathed coolly and gratefully on
+my face, and the cold stars glimmered and sparkled sharply in the far
+blue heavens. My dog crept up to me and furtively licked my hand, as who
+would say, "Good master, don't be angry. I have served you in all but
+this."
+
+I took the children and brought them up till they could help
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT
+
+From DALE OWEN'S "Footfalls"
+
+
+In the month of September 1857 Captain German Wheatcroft, of the 6th
+(Inniskilling) Dragoons, went out to India to join his regiment.
+
+His wife remained in England, residing at Cambridge. On the night
+between the 14th and 15th of November 1857, towards morning, she dreamed
+that she saw her husband, looking anxious and ill; upon which she
+immediately awoke, much agitated. It was bright moonlight; and, looking
+up, she perceived the same figure standing by her bedside. He appeared
+in his uniform, the hands pressed across the breast, the hair
+dishevelled, the face very pale. His large dark eyes were fixed full
+upon her; their expression was that of great excitement, and there was a
+peculiar contraction of the mouth, habitual to him when agitated. She
+saw him, even to each minute particular of his dress, as distinctly as
+she had ever done in her life; and she remembers to have noticed between
+his hands the white of his shirt-bosom, unstained, however, with blood.
+The figure seemed to bend forward, as if in pain, and to make an effort
+to speak; but there was no sound. It remained visible, the wife thinks,
+as long as a minute, and then disappeared.
+
+Her first idea was to ascertain if she was actually awake. She rubbed
+her eyes with the sheet, and felt that the touch was real. Her little
+nephew was in bed with her; she bent over the sleeping child and
+listened to its breathing; the sound was distinct, and she became
+convinced that what she had seen was no dream. It need hardly be added
+that she did not again go to sleep that night.
+
+Next morning she related all this to her mother, expressing her
+conviction, though she had noticed no marks of blood on his dress, that
+Captain Wheatcroft was either killed or grievously wounded. So fully
+impressed was she with the reality of that apparition, that she
+thenceforth refused all invitations. A young friend urged her soon
+afterwards to go with her to a fashionable concert, reminding her that
+she had received from Malta, sent by her husband, a handsome dress
+cloak, which she had never yet worn. But she positively declined,
+declaring that, uncertain as she was whether she was not already a
+widow, she would never enter a place of amusement until she had letters
+from her husband (if indeed he still lived) of a later date than the
+14th of November.
+
+It was on a Tuesday, in the month of December 1857, that the telegram
+regarding the actual fate of Captain Wheatcroft was published in London.
+It was to the effect that he was killed before Lucknow on the
+_fifteenth_ of November.
+
+This news, given in the morning paper, attracted the attention of Mr
+Wilkinson, a London solicitor, who had in charge Captain Wheatcroft's
+affairs. When at a later period this gentleman met the widow, she
+informed him that she had been quite prepared for the melancholy news,
+but that she had felt sure her husband could not have been killed on the
+15th of November, inasmuch as it was during the night between the 14th
+and 15th that he appeared to her.
+
+The certificate from the War Office, however, which it became Mr
+Wilkinson's duty to obtain, confirmed the date given in the telegram,
+its tenor being as follows:--
+
+    "No. 9579/1       WAR OFFICE,
+                       _30th January 1858._
+
+"These are to certify that it appears, by the records in this office,
+that Captain German Wheatcroft of the 6th Dragoon Guards, was killed in
+action on the 15th of November 1857.
+
+    "(_Signed_) B. HAWES."
+
+The difference of longitude between London and Lucknow being about five
+hours, three or four o'clock a.m. in London would be eight or nine
+o'clock a.m. at Lucknow. But it was in the _afternoon_ not in the
+_morning_, as will be seen in the sequel, that Captain Wheatcroft was
+killed. Had he fallen on the 15th, therefore, the apparition to his wife
+would have appeared several hours before the engagement in which he
+fell, and while he was yet alive and well.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+THE IRON CAGE
+
+From Mrs CROWE'S "Night Side of Nature"
+
+
+[As you express a wish to know what credit is to be attached to a tale
+sent forth after a lapse of between thirty and forty years, I will state
+the facts as they were recalled last year by a daughter of Sir William
+A. C----.]
+
+Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother Charles, went abroad
+towards the end of the year 1786. After trying several different places,
+we determined to settle at Lille, where we had letters of introduction
+to several of the best French families. There Sir James left us, and
+after passing a few days in an uncomfortable lodging, we engaged a nice
+large family house, which we liked much, and which we obtained at a very
+low rent, even for that part of the world.
+
+About three weeks after we were established there, I walked one day with
+my mother to the bankers, for the purpose of delivering our letter of
+credit from Sir Robert Herries and drawing some money, which being paid
+in heavy five-frank pieces, we found we could not carry, and therefore
+requested the banker to send, saying, "We live in the Place du Lion
+d'Or." Whereupon he looked surprised, and observed that he knew of no
+house there fit for us, "except, indeed," he added, "the one that has
+been long uninhabited on account of the _revenant_ that walks about it."
+
+He said this quite seriously, and in a natural tone of voice; in spite
+of which we laughed, and were quite entertained at the idea of a ghost;
+but, at the same time, we begged him not to mention the thing to our
+servants, lest they should take any fancies into their heads; and my
+mother and I resolved to say nothing about the matter to anyone. "I
+suppose it is the ghost," said my mother, laughing, "that wakes us so
+often by walking over our heads." We had, in fact, been awakened several
+nights by a heavy foot, which we supposed to be that of one of the
+men-servants, of whom we had three English and four French. The English
+ones, men and women, every one of them, returned ultimately to England
+with us.
+
+A night or two afterwards, being again awakened by the step, my mother
+asked Creswell: "Who slept in the room above us?" "No one, my lady," she
+replied, "it is a large empty garret."
+
+About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came to my mother, one
+morning, and told her that all the French servants talked of going away,
+because there was a _revenant_ in the house; adding, that there seemed
+to be a strange story attached to the place, which was said, together
+with some other property, to have belonged to a young man, whose
+guardian, who was also his uncle, had treated him cruelly, and confined
+him in an iron cage; and as he had subsequently disappeared, it was
+conjectured he had been murdered. This uncle, after inheriting the
+property, had suddenly quitted the house, and sold it to the father of
+the man of whom we had hired it. Since that period, though it had been
+several times let, nobody had ever stayed in it above a week or two;
+and, for a considerable time past, it had had no tenant at all.
+
+"And do you really believe all this nonsense, Creswell?" said my mother.
+
+"Well, I don't know, my lady," answered she, "but there is the iron cage
+in the garret over your bedroom, where you may see it, if you please."
+
+Of course we rose to go, and just at that moment an old officer, with
+his Croix de St Louis, called on us, we invited him to accompany us, and
+we ascended together. We found, as Creswell had said, a large empty
+garret, with bare brick walls, and in the further corner of it stood an
+iron cage, such as wild beasts are kept in, only higher; it was about
+four feet square, and eight in height, and there was an iron ring in the
+wall at the back, to which was attached an old rusty chain, with a
+collar fixed to the end of it! I confess it made my blood creep, when I
+thought of the possibility of any human being having inhabited it! And
+our old friend expressed as much horror as ourselves, assuring us that
+it must certainly have been constructed for some such dreadful purpose.
+As, however, we were no believer in ghosts, we all agreed that the
+noises must proceed from somebody who had an interest in keeping the
+house empty; and since it was very disagreeable to imagine that there
+were secret means of entering it by night, we resolved, as soon as
+possible, to look out for another residence, and, in the meantime, to
+say nothing about the matter to anybody. About ten days after this
+determination, my mother, observing one morning that Creswell, when she
+came to dress her, looked exceedingly pale and ill, inquired if anything
+was the matter with her? "Indeed, my lady," answered she, "we have been
+frightened to death; and neither I nor Mrs Marsh can sleep again in the
+room we are now in."
+
+"Well," returned my mother, "you shall both come and sleep in the little
+spare room next us; but what has alarmed you?"
+
+"Someone, my lady, went through our room in the night; we both saw the
+figure, but we covered our heads with the bed-clothes, and lay in a
+dreadful fright till morning."
+
+On hearing this, I could not help laughing, upon which Creswell burst
+into tears; and seeing how nervous she was, we comforted her by saying
+we had heard of a good house, and that we should very soon abandon our
+present habitation.
+
+A few nights afterwards, my mother requested me and Charles to go into
+her bedroom, and fetch her frame, that she might prepare her work for
+the next day. It was after supper; and we were ascending the stairs by
+the light of a lamp which was always kept burning, when we saw going up
+before us, a tall, thin figure, with hair flowing down his back, and
+wearing a loose powdering gown. We both at once concluded it was my
+sister Hannah, and called out: "It won't do, Hannah! you cannot frighten
+us!" Upon which the figure turned into a recess in the wall; but as
+there was nobody there when we passed, we concluded that Hannah had
+contrived, somehow or other, to slip away and make her escape by the
+back stairs. On telling this to my mother, however, she said, "It is
+very odd, for Hannah went to bed with a headache before you came in from
+your walk"; and sure enough, on going to her room, there we found her
+fast asleep; and Alice, who was at work there, assured us that she had
+been so for more than an hour. On mentioning this circumstance to
+Creswell, she turned quite pale, and exclaimed that that was precisely
+the figure she and Marsh had seen in their bedroom.
+
+About this time my brother Harry came to spend a few days with us, and
+we gave him a room up another pair of stairs, at the opposite end of the
+house. A morning or two after his arrival, when he came down to
+breakfast, he asked my mother, angrily, whether she thought he went to
+bed drunk and could not put out his own candle, that she sent those
+French rascals to watch him. My mother assured him that she had never
+thought of doing such a thing; but he persisted in the accusation,
+adding, "last night I jumped up and opened the door, and by the light of
+the moon, through the skylight, I saw the fellow in his loose gown at
+the bottom of the stairs. If I had not been in my shirt, I would have
+gone after him, and made him remember coming to watch me."
+
+We were now preparing to quit the house, having secured another,
+belonging to a gentleman who was going to spend some time in Italy; but
+a few days before our removal, it happened that a Mr and Mrs Atkyns,
+some English friends of ours, called, to whom we mentioned these strange
+circumstances, observing how extremely unpleasant it was to live in a
+house that somebody found means of getting into, though how they
+contrived it we could not discover, nor what their motive could be,
+except it was to frighten us; observing that nobody could sleep in the
+room Marsh and Creswell had been obliged to give up. Upon this, Mrs
+Atkyns laughed heartily, and said that she should like, of all things,
+to sleep there, if my mother would allow her, adding that, with her
+little terrier, she should not be afraid of any ghost that ever
+appeared. As my mother had, of course, no objection to this fancy of
+hers, Mrs Atkyns requested her husband to ride home with the groom, in
+order that the latter might bring her night-things before the gates of
+the town were shut, as they were then residing a little way in the
+country. Mr Atkyns smiled, and said she was very bold; but he made no
+difficulties, and sent the things, and his wife retired with her dog to
+her room when we retired to ours, apparently without the least
+apprehension.
+
+When she came down in the morning we were immediately struck at seeing
+her look very ill; and, on inquiring if she, too, had been frightened,
+she said she had been awakened in the night by something moving in her
+room, and that, by the light of the night lamp, she saw most distinctly
+a figure, and that the dog, which was very spirited and flew at
+everything, never stirred, although she endeavoured to make him. We saw
+clearly that she had been very much alarmed; and when Mr Atkyns came and
+endeavoured to dissipate the feeling by persuading her that she might
+have dreamt it, she got quite angry. We could not help thinking that she
+had actually seen something; and my mother said, after she was gone,
+that though she could not bring herself to believe it was really a
+ghost, still she earnestly hoped that she might get out of the house
+without seeing this figure which frightened people so much.
+
+We were now within three days of the one fixed for our removal; I had
+been taking a long ride, and being tired, had fallen asleep the moment I
+lay down, but in the middle of the night I was suddenly awakened--I
+cannot tell by what, for the step over our heads we had become so used
+to that it no longer disturbed us. Well, I awoke; I had been lying with
+my face towards my mother, who was asleep beside me, and, as one usually
+does on awaking, I turned to the other side, where, the weather being
+warm, the curtain of the bed was undrawn, as it was also at the foot,
+and I saw standing by a chest of drawers, which were betwixt me and the
+window, a thin, tall figure, in a loose powdering gown, one arm resting
+on the drawers, and the face turned towards me. I saw it quite
+distinctly by the night-light, which burnt clearly; it was a long, thin,
+pale, young face, with oh! such a melancholy expression as can never be
+effaced from my memory! I was, certainly, very much frightened; but my
+great horror was lest my mother should awake and see the figure. I
+turned my head gently towards her, and heard her breathing high in a
+sound sleep. Just then the clock on the stairs struck four. I daresay it
+was nearly an hour before I ventured to look again; and when I did take
+courage to turn my eyes towards the drawers there was nothing, yet I had
+not heard the slightest sound, though I had been listening with the
+greatest intensity.
+
+As you may suppose, I never closed my eyes again; and glad I was when
+Creswell knocked at the door, as she did every morning, for we always
+locked it, and it was my business to get out of bed and let her in. But
+on this occasion, instead of doing so, I called out, "Come in, the door
+is not fastened"; upon which she answered that it was, and I was obliged
+to get out of bed and admit her as usual.
+
+When I told my mother what had happened she was very grateful to me for
+not waking her, and commended me much for my resolution; but as she was
+always my first object, that was not to be wondered at. She, however,
+resolved not to risk another night in the house, and we got out of it
+that very day, after instituting, with the aid of the servants, a
+thorough search, with a view to ascertain whether there was any possible
+means of getting into the rooms except by the usual modes of ingress;
+but our search was vain; none could be discovered.
+
+Considering the number of people that were in the house, the
+fearlessness of the family, and their disinclination to believe in what
+is called the _supernatural_, together with the great interest the owner
+of this large and handsome house must have had in discovering the trick,
+if there had been one, I think it is difficult to find any other
+explanation of this strange story than that the sad and disappointed
+spirit of this poor injured, and probably murdered boy, had never been
+disengaged from its earthly relations, to which regret for its
+frustrated hopes and violated rights still held it attached.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE
+
+From HUNT'S "Romances of the West of England"
+
+
+"Ezekiel Grosse, gent., attorney-at-law," bought the lands of Rosewarne
+from one of the De Rosewarnes, who had become involved in debt by
+endeavouring, without sufficient means, to support the dignity of his
+family. There is reason for believing that Ezekiel was the legal adviser
+of this unfortunate Rosewarne, and that he was not over-honest in his
+transactions with his client. However this may be, Ezekiel Grosse had
+scarcely made Rosewarne his dwelling-place, before he was alarmed by
+noises, at first of an unearthly character, and subsequently, one very
+dark night, by the appearance of the ghost himself in the form of a worn
+and aged man. The first appearance was in the park, but he subsequently
+repeated his visits in the house, but always after dark. Ezekiel Grosse
+was not a man to be terrified at trifles, and for some time he paid but
+slight attention to his nocturnal visitor. Howbeit the repetition of
+visits, and certain mysterious indications on the part of the ghost,
+became annoying to Ezekiel. One night, when seated in his office
+examining some deeds, and being rather irritable, having lost an
+important suit, his visitor approached him, making some strange
+indications which the lawyer could not understand. Ezekiel suddenly
+exclaimed, "In the name of God, what wantest thou?"
+
+"To show thee, Ezekiel Grosse, where the gold for which thou longest
+lies buried."
+
+No one ever lived upon whom the greed of gold was stronger than on
+Ezekiel, yet he hesitated now that his spectral friend had spoken so
+plainly, and trembled in every limb as the ghost slowly delivered
+himself in sepulchral tones of this telling speech.
+
+The lawyer looked fixedly on the spectre; but he dared not utter a word.
+He longed to obtain possession of the secret, yet he feared to ask him
+where he was to find this treasure. The spectre looked as fixedly at the
+poor trembling lawyer, as if enjoying the sight of his terror. At
+length, lifting his finger, he beckoned Ezekiel to follow him, turning
+at the same time to leave the room. Ezekiel was glued to his seat; he
+could not exert strength enough to move, although he desired to do so.
+
+"Come!" said the ghost, in a hollow voice. The lawyer was powerless to
+come.
+
+"Gold!" exclaimed the old man, in a whining tone, though in a louder
+key.
+
+"Where?" gasped Ezekiel.
+
+"Follow me, and I will show thee," said the ghost. Ezekiel endeavoured
+to rise; but it was in vain.
+
+"I command thee, come!" almost shrieked the ghost. Ezekiel felt that he
+was compelled to follow his friend; and by some supernatural power
+rather than his own, he followed the spectre out of the room, and
+through the hall, into the park.
+
+They passed onward through the night--the ghost gliding before the
+lawyer, and guiding him by a peculiar phosphorescent light, which
+appeared to glow from every part of the form, until they arrived at a
+little dell, and had reached a small cairn formed of granite boulders.
+By this the spectre rested; and when Ezekiel had approached it, and was
+standing on the other side of the cairn, still trembling, the aged man,
+looking fixedly in his face, said, in low tones, "Ezekiel Grosse, thou
+longest for gold, as I did. I won the glittering prize, but I could not
+enjoy it. Heaps of treasure are buried beneath those stones; it is
+thine, if thou diggest for it. Win the gold, Ezekiel. Glitter with the
+wicked ones of the world; and when thou art the most joyous, I will look
+in upon thy happiness." The ghost then disappeared, and as soon as
+Grosse could recover himself from the extreme trepidation,--the result
+of mixed feelings,--he looked about him, and finding himself alone, he
+exclaimed, "Ghost or devil, I will soon prove whether or not thou
+liest!" Ezekiel is said to have heard a laugh, echoing between the
+hills, as he said those words.
+
+The lawyer noted well the spot; returned to his house; pondered on all
+the circumstances of his case; and eventually resolved to seize the
+earliest opportunity, when he might do so unobserved, of removing the
+stones, and examining the ground beneath them.
+
+A few nights after this, Ezekiel went to the little cairn, and by the
+aid of a crowbar, he soon overturned the stones, and laid the ground
+bare. He then commenced digging, and had not proceeded far when his
+spade struck against some other metal. He carefully cleared away the
+earth, and he then felt--for he could not see, having no light with
+him--that he had uncovered a metallic urn of some kind. He found it
+quite impossible to lift it, and he was therefore compelled to cover it
+up again, and to replace the stones sufficiently to hide it from the
+observation of any chance wanderer.
+
+The next night Ezekiel found that this urn, which was of bronze,
+contained gold coins of a very ancient date. He loaded himself with his
+treasure, and returned home. From time to time, at night, as Ezekiel
+found he could do so without exciting the suspicions of his servants, he
+visited the urn, and thus by degrees removed all the treasure to
+Rosewarne House. There was nothing in the series of circumstances which
+had surrounded Ezekiel which he could less understand than the fact,
+that the ghost of the old man had left off troubling him from the moment
+when he had disclosed to him the hiding-place of this treasure.
+
+The neighbouring gentry could not but observe the rapid improvements
+which Ezekiel Grosse made in his mansion, his grounds, in his personal
+appearance, and indeed in everything by which he was surrounded. In a
+short time he abandoned the law, and led in every respect the life of a
+country gentleman. He ostentatiously paraded his power to procure all
+earthly enjoyments, and, in spite of his notoriously bad character, he
+succeeded in drawing many of the landed proprietors around him.
+
+Things went well with Ezekiel. The man who could in those days visit
+London in his own carriage and four was not without a large circle of
+flatterers. The lawyer who had struggled hard, in the outset of life, to
+secure wealth, and who did not always employ the most honest means for
+doing so, now found himself the centre of a circle to whom he could
+preach honesty, and receive from them expressions of the admiration in
+which the world holds the possessor of gold. His old tricks were
+forgotten, and he was put in places of honour. This state of things
+continued for some time; indeed, Grosse's entertainments became more and
+more splendid, and his revels more and more seductive to those he
+admitted to share them with him. The Lord of Rosewarne was the Lord of
+the West. To him everyone bowed the knee: he walked the earth as the
+proud possessor of a large share of the planet.
+
+It was Christmas Eve, and a large gathering there was at Rosewarne. In
+the hall the ladies and gentlemen were in the full enjoyment of the
+dance, and in the kitchen all the tenantry and the servants were
+emulating their superiors. Everything went joyously; but when the mirth
+was in full swing, and Ezekiel felt to the full the influence of wealth,
+it appeared as if all in a moment the chill of death had fallen over
+everyone. The dancers paused, and looked one at another, each one struck
+with the other's paleness; and there, in the middle of the hall,
+everyone saw a strange old man looking angrily, but in silence, at
+Ezekiel Grosse, who was fixed in terror, blank as a statue.
+
+No one had seen this old man enter the hall, yet there he was in the
+midst of them. It was but for a minute, and he was gone. Ezekiel, as if
+a frozen torrent of water had thawed in an instant, recovered himself,
+and roared at them.
+
+"What do you think of that for a Christmas play? Ha, ha, ha! How
+frightened you all look! Butler, hand round the spiced wines! On with
+the dancing, my friends! It was only a trick, ay, and a clever one,
+which I have put upon you. On with your dancing, my friends!"
+
+But with all his boisterous attempts to restore the spirit of the
+evening, Ezekiel could not succeed. There was an influence stronger than
+any he could command; and one by one, framing sundry excuses, his guests
+took their departure, every one of them satisfied that all was not right
+at Rosewarne.
+
+From that Christmas Eve Grosse was a changed man. He tried to be his
+former self; but it was in vain. Again and again he called his gay
+companions around him; but at every feast there appeared one more than
+was desired. An aged man--weird beyond measure--took his place at the
+table in the middle of the feast; and although he spoke not, he exerted
+a miraculous power over all. No one dared to move; no one ventured to
+speak. Occasionally Ezekiel assumed an appearance of courage, which he
+felt not; rallied his guests, and made sundry excuses for the presence
+of his aged friend, whom he represented as having a mental infirmity,
+as being deaf and dumb. On all such occasions the old man rose from the
+table, and looking at the host, laughed a demoniac laugh of joy, and
+departed as quietly as he came.
+
+The natural consequence of this was that Ezekiel Grosse's friends fell
+away from him, and he became a lonely man, amidst his vast
+possessions--his only companion being his faithful clerk, John Call.
+
+The persecuting presence of the spectre became more and more constant;
+and wherever the poor lawyer went, there was the aged man at his side.
+From being one of the finest men in the county, he became a miserably
+attenuated and bowed old man. Misery was stamped on every
+feature--terror was indicated in every movement. At length he appears to
+have besought his ghostly attendant to free him of his presence. It was
+long before the ghost would listen to any terms; but when Ezekiel at
+length agreed to surrender the whole of his wealth to anyone whom the
+spectre might indicate, he obtained a promise that upon this being
+carried out, in a perfectly legal manner, in favour of John Call, that
+he should no longer be haunted.
+
+This was, after numerous struggles on the part of Ezekiel to retain his
+property, or at least some portion of it, legally settled, and John Call
+became possessor of Rosewarne and the adjoining lands. Grosse was then
+informed that this evil spirit was one of the ancestors of the
+Rosewarne, from whom by his fraudulent dealings he obtained the place,
+and that he was allowed to visit the earth again for the purpose of
+inflicting the most condign punishment on the avaricious lawyer. His
+avarice had been gratified, his pride had been pampered to the highest;
+and then he was made a pitiful spectacle, at whom all men pointed, and
+no one pitied. He lived on in misery, but it was for a short time. He
+was found dead; and the country people ever said that his death was a
+violent one; they spoke of marks on his body, and some even asserted
+that the spectre of De Rosewarne was seen rejoicing amidst a crowd of
+devils, as they bore the spirit of Ezekiel over Carn Brea.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY
+
+By JOSEPH GLANVIL[12]
+
+
+Mr _John Bourne_, for his Skill, Care and Honesty, was made by his
+Neighbour _John Mallet_, Esq., of _Enmore_, the chief of his Trustees,
+for his Son _John Mallet_ (Father to Elizabeth, now Countess Dowager of
+_Rochester_) and the rest of his Children in Minority. He had the
+reputation of a worthy good Man, and was commonly taken notice of for an
+habitual Saying, by way of Interjection almost to anything, viz. _You
+say true, you say true, you are in the right._ This Mr Bourne fell sick
+at his House at Durley, in the year 1654, and Dr _Raymond of Oak_ was
+sent for to him, who after some time, gave the said Mr Bourne over. And
+he had not now spoken in twenty-four Hours, when the said Dr Raymond,
+and Mrs _Carlisle_ (Mr Bourne's Nephew's Wife, whose Husband he had made
+one of his Heirs) sitting by his bedside, the Doctor opened the
+Bed-curtains at the Bed's-feet, to give him air; when on a sudden, to
+the Horror and Amazement of Dr Raymond, and Mrs Carlisle, the great Iron
+Chest by the Window, at his Bed's-feet, with three Locks to it (in which
+were all the Writings and Evidences of the said Mr Mallet's Estate),
+began to open, first one Lock, and then another, then the third;
+afterwards the Lid of the Chest, lifted up of itself, and stood wide
+open. Then the patient, Mr Bourne, who had not spoke in 24 Hours, lifted
+himself up also, and looking upon the Chest, cry'd: _You say true, you
+say true, you are in the right, I'll be with you by and by._ So the
+Patient lay down, and spake no more. Then the Chest fell again of
+itself, and lock'd itself, one Lock after another, as the 3 Locks
+opened; and they tried to knock it open, and could not, and Mr Bourne
+died within an Hour after.
+
+_N.B._--This Narrative was sent in a Letter to J.C., directed for Dr H.
+More from Mr Thomas Alcock, of Shear-Hampton; of which in a Letter to
+the said Doctor, he gives this Account. I am, said he, very confident of
+the truth of the Story; for I had it from a very good Lady, the eldest
+daughter of the said John Mallet (whose Trustee Mr Bourne was) and only
+Aunt to the Countess of Rochester, who knew all the parties; and I have
+heard Dr Raymond, and Mr Carlisle, relate it often with amazement, being
+both Persons of Credit.
+
+The curious may be inquisitive what the meaning of the opening of the
+Chest may be, and of Mr Bourne his saying _You say true, etc., I'll be
+with you by and by_. As for the former, it is noted by Paracelsus
+especially, and by others, that there are signs often given of the
+Departure of sick Men lying on their death beds, of which this opening
+of the Iron Coffer or Chest, and closing again, is more than ordinary
+significant, especially if we recall to mind that of Virgil:
+
+    "Olli dura quies oculos & _ferreus_ urget
+    Somnus----"
+
+Though this quaintness is more than is requisite in these Prodigies
+presaging the sick Man's Death. As for the latter, it seems to be
+nothing else but the saying _Amen_ to the Presage, uttered in his
+accustomary form of Speech, as if he should say, you of the invisible
+Kingdom of Spirits, have given the Token of my sudden Departure, and you
+say true, I shall be with you by and by. Which he was enabled so
+assuredly to assent to, upon the advantage of the relaxation of his Soul
+now departing from the Body: Which Diodorus Siculus, lib. 18, notes to
+be the Opinion of Pythagoras and his followers, that it is the privilege
+of the Soul near her Departure, to exercise a fatidical Faculty, and to
+pronounce truly touching things future.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 12: _Sadducismus Triumphatus._]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL
+
+From CHRISTMAS' "Phantom World"
+
+
+"In 1695," said M. Bezuel, "being a schoolboy of about fifteen years of
+age, I became acquainted with the two children of M. Abaquene, attorney,
+schoolboys like myself. The eldest was of my own age, the second was
+eighteen months younger; he was named Desfontaines; we took all our
+walks and all our parties of pleasure together, and whether it was that
+Desfontaines had more affection for me, or that he was more gay,
+obliging, and clever than his brother, I loved him the best.
+
+"In 1696, we were walking both of us in the cloister of the Capuchins.
+He told me that he had lately read a story of two friends who had
+promised each other that the first of them who died should come and
+bring news of his condition to the one still living; that the one who
+died came back to earth, and told his friend surprising things. Upon
+that, Desfontaines told me that he had a favour to ask me; that he
+begged me to grant it instantly; it was to make him a similar promise,
+and on his part he would do the same. I told him that I would not. For
+several months he talked to me of it, often and seriously; I always
+resisted his wish. At last, towards the month of August 1696, as he was
+to leave to go and study at Caen, he pressed me so much with tears in
+his eyes, that I consented to it. He drew out at that moment two little
+papers which he had ready written; one was signed with his blood, in
+which he promised me that in case of his death he would come and bring
+me news of his condition; in the other, I promised him the same thing. I
+pricked my finger; a drop of blood came with which I signed my name. He
+was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me, thanked me a thousand
+times.
+
+"Some time after, he set off with his tutor. Our separation caused us
+much grief, but we wrote to each other now and then, and it was but six
+weeks since I had had a letter from him, when what I am going to relate
+to you happened to me.
+
+"The 31st of July, 1697, one Thursday,--I shall remember it all my
+life,--the late M. Sorteville, with whom I lodged, and who had been very
+kind to me, begged of me to go to a meadow near the Cordeliers, and help
+his people, who were making hay, and to make haste. I had not been there
+a quarter of an hour, when, about half-past two, I all of a sudden felt
+giddy and weak. In vain I lent upon my hay-fork; I was obliged to place
+myself on a little hay, where I was nearly half an hour recovering my
+senses. That passed off; but as nothing of the kind had ever occurred to
+me before, I was surprised at it, and I feared it might be the
+commencement of an illness. Nevertheless, it did not make much
+impression upon me during the remainder of the day. It is true, I did
+not sleep that night so well as usual.
+
+"The next day, at the same hour, as I was conducting to the meadow M. de
+St Simon, the grandson of M. de Sorteville, who was then ten years old,
+I felt myself seized on the way with a similar faintness, and I sat down
+on a stone in the shade. That passed off, and we continued our way;
+nothing more happened to me that day, and at night I had hardly any
+sleep.
+
+"At last, on the morrow, the second day of August, being in the loft
+where they laid up the hay they brought from the meadow, I was taken
+with a similar giddiness and a similar faintness, but still more violent
+than the other. I fainted away completely; one of the men perceived it.
+I have been told that I was asked what was the matter with me, and that
+I replied, 'I have seen what I never should have believed'; but I have
+no recollection of either the question or the answer. That, however,
+accords with what I do remember to have seen just then; as it were
+someone naked to the middle, but whom, however, I did not recognise.
+They helped me down from the ladder. The faintness seized me again; my
+head swam as I was between two rounds of the ladder, and again I
+fainted. They took me down and placed me on a beam which served for a
+seat in the large square of the Capuchins. I sat down on it, and then I
+no longer saw M. de Sorteville nor his domestics, although present; but
+perceiving Desfontaines near the foot of the ladder, who made me a sign
+to come to him, I moved on my seat as if to make room for him; and those
+who saw me and whom I did not see, although my eyes were open, remarked
+this movement.
+
+"As he did not come, I rose to go to him. He advanced towards me, took
+my left arm with his right arm, and led me about thirty paces from
+thence into a retired street, holding me still under the arm. The
+domestics, supposing that my giddiness had passed off, and that I had
+purposely retired, went everyone to their work, except a little servant
+who went and told M. de Sorteville that I was talking all alone. M. de
+Sorteville thought I was tipsy; he drew near, and heard me ask some
+questions, and make some answers, which he has told me since.
+
+"I was there nearly three-quarters of an hour, conversing with
+Desfontaines. 'I promised you,' said he to me, 'that if I died before
+you I would come and tell you of it. I was drowned the day before
+yesterday in the river of Caen, at nearly this same hour. I was out
+walking with such and such a one. It was very warm, and we had a wish to
+bathe; a faintness seized me in the water, and I fell to the bottom.
+The Abbé de Menil-Jean, my comrade, dived to bring me up. I seized hold
+of his foot; but whether he was afraid it might be a salmon, because I
+held him so fast, or that he wished to remount promptly to the surface
+of the water, he shook his legs so roughly, that he gave me a violent
+kick on the breast, which sent me to the bottom of the river, which is
+there very deep.'
+
+"Desfontaines related to me afterwards all that had occurred to them in
+their walk, and the subjects they had conversed upon. It was in vain for
+me to ask him questions--whether he was saved, whether he was damned, if
+he was in purgatory, if I was in a state of grace, and if I should soon
+follow him; he continued to discourse as if he had not heard me, and as
+if he would not hear me.
+
+"I approached him several times to embrace him, but it seemed to me that
+I embraced nothing, and yet I felt very sensibly that he held me tightly
+by the arm, and that when I tried to turn away my head that I might not
+see him, because I could not look at him without feeling afflicted, he
+shook my arm as if to oblige me to look at and listen to him.
+
+"He always appeared to me taller than I had seen him, and taller even
+than he was at the time of his death, although he had grown during the
+eighteen months in which we had not met. I beheld him always naked to
+the middle of his body, his head uncovered, with his fine hair, and a
+white scroll twisted in his hair over his forehead, on which there was
+some writing, but I could only make out the word _In_....
+
+"It was his usual tone of voice. He appeared to me neither gay nor sad,
+but in a calm and tranquil state. He begged of me, when his brother
+returned, to tell him certain things to say to his father and mother. He
+begged me to say the Seven Psalms which had been given him as a penance
+the preceding Sunday, which he had not yet recited; again he recommended
+me to speak to his brother, and then he bade me adieu, saying, as he
+left me, '_Jusques, jusques_' (_till, till_), which was the usual term
+he made use of when at the end of our walk we bade each other good-bye,
+to go home.
+
+"He told me that at the time he was drowned, his brother, who was
+writing a translation, regretted having let him go without accompanying
+him, fearing some accident. He described to me so well where he was
+drowned, and the tree in the avenue of Louvigni on which he had written
+a few words, that two years afterwards, being there with the late
+Chevalier de Getel, one of these who were with him at the time he was
+drowned, I pointed out to him the very spot; and by counting the trees
+in a particular direction which Desfontaines had specified to me, I went
+straight up to the tree, and I found his writing. He (the Chevalier)
+told me also that the article of the Seven Psalms was true, and that on
+coming from confession that they had told each other their penance; and
+since then his brother has told me that it was quite true that at that
+hour he was writing his exercise, and he reproached himself for not
+having accompanied his brother. As nearly a month passed by without my
+being able to do what Desfontaines had told me in regard to his brother,
+he appeared to me again twice before dinner at a country house whither I
+had gone to dine a league from hence. I was very faint. I told them not
+to mind me, that it was nothing, and that I should soon recover myself;
+and I went to a corner of the garden. Desfontaines having appeared to
+me, reproached me for not having yet spoken to his brother, and again
+conversed with me for a quarter of an hour without answering any of my
+questions.
+
+"As I was going in the morning to Notre-Dame de la Victoire, he appeared
+to me again, but for a shorter time, and pressed me always to speak to
+his brother, and left me, saying still, '_Jusques, jusques_,' without
+choosing to reply to my questions.
+
+"It is a remarkable thing that I always felt a pain in that part of my
+arm which he had held me by the first time, until I had spoken to his
+brother. I was three days without being able to sleep, from the
+astonishment and agitation I felt. At the end of the first conversation,
+I told M. de Varonville, my neighbour and schoolfellow, that
+Desfontaines had been drowned; that he himself had just appeared to me
+and told me so. He went away and ran to the parents' house to know if it
+was true; they had just received the news, but by a mistake he
+understood that it was the eldest. He assured me that he had read the
+letter of Desfontaines, and he believed it; but I maintained always that
+it could not be, and that Desfontaines himself had appeared to me. He
+returned, came back, and told me in tears that it was but too true."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The Marquis de Rambouillet, eldest brother of the Duchess of Montauzier,
+and the Marquis de Precy, eldest son of the family of Nantouillet, both
+of them between twenty and thirty, were intimate friends, and went to
+the wars, as in France do all men of quality. As they were conversing
+one day together on the subject of the other world, they promised each
+other that the first who died should come and bring the news to his
+companion. At the end of three months the Marquis de Rambouillet set off
+for Flanders, where the war was then being carried on; and de Precy,
+detained by a high fever, remained at Paris. Six weeks afterwards de
+Precy, at six in the morning, heard the curtains of his bed drawn, and
+turning to see who it was, he perceived the Marquis de Rambouillet in
+his buff vest and boots; he sprung out of bed to embrace him to show his
+joy at his return, but Rambouillet, retreating a few steps, told him
+that these caresses were no longer seasonable, for he only came to keep
+his word with him; that he had been killed the day before on such an
+occasion; that all that was said of the other world was certainly true;
+that he must think of leading a different life; and that he had no time
+to lose, as he would be killed the first action he was engaged in.
+
+It is impossible to express the surprise of the Marquis de Precy at this
+discourse; as he could not believe what he heard, he made several
+efforts to embrace his friend, whom he thought desirous of deceiving
+him, but he embraced only air; and Rambouillet, seeing that he was
+incredulous, showed the wound he had received, which was in the side,
+whence the blood still appeared to flow. After that the phantom
+disappeared, and left de Precy in a state of alarm more easy to
+comprehend than describe; he called at the same time his _valet de
+chambre_, and awakened all the family with his cries. Several persons
+ran to his room, and he related to them what he had just seen. Everyone
+attributed this vision to the violence of the fever, which might have
+deranged his imagination; they begged of him to go to bed again,
+assuring him that he must have dreamt what he told them.
+
+The Marquis, in despair, on seeing that they took him for a visionary,
+related all the circumstances I have just recounted; but it was in vain
+for him to protest that he had seen and heard his friend, being
+wideawake; they persisted in the same idea until the arrival of the post
+from Flanders, which brought the news of the death of the Marquis de
+Rambouillet.
+
+This first circumstance being found true, and in the same manner as de
+Precy had said, those to whom he had related the adventure began to
+think that there might be something in it, because Rambouillet having
+been killed precisely on the eve of the day he had said it, it was
+impossible de Precy should have known of it in a natural way. This event
+having spread in Paris, they thought it was the effect of a disturbed
+imagination, or a made-up story; and whatever might be said by the
+persons who examined the thing seriously, there remained in people's
+minds a suspicion, which time alone could disperse: this depended upon
+what might happen to Marquis de Precy, who was threatened that he should
+be slain in the first engagement; thus everyone regarded his fate as the
+_dénouement_ of the piece; but he soon confirmed everything they had
+doubted the truth of, for as soon as he recovered from his illness he
+would go to the combat of St Antoine, although his father and mother,
+who were afraid of the prophecy, said all they could to prevent him; he
+was killed there, to the great regret of all his family.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+THE ALTHEIM REVENANT
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+A monk of the Abbey of Toussaints relates that on the 9th of September
+1625 a man named John Steinlin died at a place called Altheim, in the
+diocese of Constance. Steinlin was a man in easy circumstances, and a
+common-councilman of his town. Some days after his death he appeared
+during the night to a tailor, named Simon Bauh, in the form of a man
+surrounded by a sombre flame, like that of lighted sulphur, going and
+coming in his own house, but without speaking. Bauh, who was disquieted
+by this sight, resolved to ask him what he could do to serve him. He
+found an opportunity to do so, the 17th of November in the same year,
+1625; for, as he was reposing at night near his stove, a little after
+eleven o'clock, he beheld this spectre environed by fire like sulphur,
+who came into his room, going and coming, shutting and opening the
+windows. The tailor asked him what he desired. He replied, in a hoarse
+interrupted voice, that he could help very much, if he would; "but,"
+added he, "do not promise me to do so, if you are not resolved to
+execute your promises." "I will execute them, if they are not beyond my
+power," replied he.
+
+"I wish, then," replied the spirit, "that you would cause a mass to be
+said, in the Chapel of the Virgin at Rotembourg; I made a vow to that
+intent during my life, and I have not acquitted myself of it. Moreover,
+you must have two masses said at Altheim, the one of the Defunct and the
+other of the Virgin; and as I did not always pay my servants exactly, I
+wish that a quarter of corn should be distributed to the poor." Simon
+promised to satisfy him on all these points. The spectre held out his
+hand, as if to ensure his promise; but Simon, fearing that some harm
+might happen to himself, tendered him the board which came to hand, and
+the spectre having touched it, left the print of his hand with the four
+fingers and thumb, as if fire had been there, and had left a pretty deep
+impression. After that he vanished with so much noise that it was heard
+three houses off.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND
+
+NORTH'S "Plutarch"
+
+
+So soone as Sertorius arriued from Africa, he straight leauied men of
+warre, and with them subdued the people of Spaine fronting upon his
+marches, of which the more part did willingly submit themselues, upon
+the bruit that ran of him to be merciful and courteous, and a valiant
+man besides in present danger. Furthermore, he lacked no fine deuises
+and subtilties to win their goodwills: as among others, the policy, and
+deuise of the hind. There was a poore man of the countrey called Spanus,
+who meeting by chance one day with a hind in his way that had newly
+calued, flying from the hunters, he let the damme go, not being able to
+take her; and running after her calfe tooke it, which was a young hind,
+and of a strange haire, for she was all milk-white. It chanced so, that
+Sertorius was at that time in those parts. So, this poore man presented
+Sertorius with his young hind, which he gladly receiued, and which with
+time he made so tame, that she would come to him when he called her, and
+follow him whereeuer he went, being nothing the wilder for the daily
+sight of such a number of armed souldiers together as they were, nor yet
+afraid of the noise and tumult of the campe. Insomuch as Sertorius by
+little and little made it a miracle, making the simple barbarous people
+beleeue that it was a gift that Diana had sent him, by the which she
+made him understand of many and sundrie things to come: knowing well
+inough of himselfe, that the barbarous people were men easily deceiued,
+and quickly caught by any subtill superstition, besides that by art also
+he brought them to beleeue it as a thing verie true. For when he had any
+secret intelligence giuen him, that the enemies would inuade some part
+of the countries and prouinces subject vnto him, or that they had taken
+any of his forts from him by any intelligence or sudden attempt, he
+straight told them that his hind spake to him as he slept, and had
+warned him both to arme his men, and put himselfe in strength. In like
+manner if he had heard any newes that one of his lieutenants had wonne a
+battell, or that he had any aduantage of his enemies, he would hide the
+messenger, and bring his hind abroad with a garland and coller of
+nosegayes: and then say, it was a token of some good newes comming
+towards him, perswading them withall to be of good cheare; and so did
+sacrifice to the gods, to giue them thankes for the good tidings he
+should heare before it were long. Thus by putting this superstition into
+their heades, he made them the more tractable and obedient to his will,
+in so much as they thought they were not now gouerned any more by a
+stranger wiser than themselues, but were steadfastly perswaded that they
+were rather led by some certaine god.----
+
+Now was Sertorius very heauie, that no man could tell him what was
+become of his white hind: for thereby all his subtilltie and finenesse
+to keepe the barbarous people in obedience was taken away, and then
+specially when they stood in need of most comfort. But by good hap,
+certaine of his souldiers that had lost themselves in the night, met
+with the hind in their way, and knowing her by her colour, tooke her and
+brought her backe againe. Sertorius hearing of her, promised them a good
+reward, so that they would tell no liuing creature that they brought her
+againe, and thereupon made her to be secretly kept. Then within a few
+dayes after, he came abroad among them, and with a pleasant countenance
+told the noble men and chiefe captaines of these barbarous people, how
+the gods had reuealed it to him in his dreame, that he should shortly
+haue a maruellous good thing happen to him: and with these words sate
+downe in his chaire to giue audience. Whereupon they that kept the hind
+not farre from thence, did secretly let her go. The hind being loose,
+when she had spied Sertorius, ranne straight to his chaire with great
+joy, and put her head betwixt his legges, and layed her mouth in his
+right hand, as she before was wont to do. Sertorius also made very much
+of her, and of purpose appeared maruellous glad, shewing much tender
+affection to the hind, as it seemed the water stood in his eyes for joy.
+The barbarous people that stood there by and beheld the same, at the
+first were much amazed therewith, but afterwards when they had better
+bethought themselues, for ioy they clapped their hands together, and
+waited upon Sertorius to his lodging with great and ioyfull shouts,
+saying, and steadfastly beleeuing, that he was a heavenly creature, and
+beloued of the gods.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+ERICHTHO
+
+By E.W. GODWIN. (From Lucan.)
+
+
+When Sextus sought Erichtho he chose his time in the depth of the night,
+when the sun is at its lowermost distance from the upper sky. He took
+for companions the associates of his crimes. Wandering among broken
+graves and crumbling sepulchres, they discovered her, sitting sublime on
+a ragged rock, where Mount Hæmus stretches its roots to the Pharsalic
+field. She was mumbling charms of the Magi and the magical gods. For she
+feared that the war might yet be transferred to other than the Emathian
+fields. The sorceress was busy therefore enchanting the soil of
+Philippi, and scattering on its surface the juice of potent herbs, that
+it might be heaped with carcasses of the dead, and saturated with their
+blood, that Macedon, and not Italy, might receive the bodies of departed
+kings and the bones of the noble, and might be amply peopled with the
+shades of men. Her choicest labour was as to the earth where should be
+deposited the prostrate Pompey, or the limbs of the mighty Cæsar.
+
+Sextus approached, and bespoke her thus: "Oh, glory of Hæmonia, that
+hast the power to divulge the fates of men, or canst turn aside fate
+itself from its prescribed course, I pray thee to exercise thy gift in
+disclosing events to come. Not the meanest of the Roman race am I, the
+offspring of an illustrious chieftain, lord of the world in the one
+case, or in the other the destined heir to my father's calamity. I stand
+on a tremendous and giddy height: snatch me from this posture of doubt;
+let me not blindly rush on, and blindly fall; extort this secret from
+the gods, or force the dead to confess what they know."
+
+To whom the Thessalian crone replied: "If you asked to change the fate
+of an individual, though it were to restore an old man, decrepit with
+age, to vigorous youth, I could comply; but to break the eternal chain
+of causes and consequences exceeds even our power. You seek, however,
+only a foreknowledge of events to come, and you shall be gratified.
+Meanwhile it were best, where slaughter has afforded so ample a field,
+to select the body of one newly deceased, and whose flexible organs
+shall be yet capable of speech, not with lineaments already hardened in
+the sun."
+
+Saying thus, Erichtho proceeded (having first with her art made the
+night itself more dark, and involved her head in a pitchy cloud), to
+explore the field, and examine one by one the bodies of the unburied
+dead. As she approached, the wolves fled before her, and the birds of
+prey, unwillingly sheathing their talons, abandoned their repast, while
+the Thessalian witch, searching into the vital parts of the frames
+before her, at length fixed on one whose lungs were uninjured, and whose
+organs of speech had sustained no wound. The fate of many hung in doubt,
+till she had made her selection. Had the revival of whole armies been
+her will, armies would have stood up obedient to her bidding. She passed
+a hook beneath the jaw of the selected one, and, fastening it to a cord,
+dragged him along over rocks and stones, till she reached a cave,
+overhung by a projecting ridge. A gloomy fissure in the ground was
+there, of a depth almost reaching to the infernal gods, where the
+yew-tree spread thick its horizontal branches, at all times excluding
+the light of the sun. Fearful and withering shade was there, and noisome
+slime cherished by the livelong night. The air was heavy and flagging as
+that of the Tænarian promontory; and hither the god of hell permits his
+ghosts to extend their wanderings. It is doubtful whether the sorceress
+called up the dead to attend her here, or herself descended to the
+abodes of Pluto. She put on a fearful and variegated robe; she covered
+her face with her dishevelled hair, and bound her brow with a wreath of
+vipers.
+
+Meanwhile she observed Sextus afraid, with his eyes fixed on the ground,
+and his companions trembling; and thus she reproached them. "Lay aside,"
+she said, "your vainly-conceived terrors! You shall behold only a living
+and a human figure, whose accents you may listen to with perfect
+security. If this alarms you, what would you say if you should have seen
+the Stygian lakes, and the shores burning with sulphur unconsumed, if
+the Furies stood before you, and Cerberus with his mane of vipers, and
+the Giants chained in eternal adamant? Yet all these you might have
+witnessed unharmed; for all these would quail at the terror of my brow."
+
+She spoke, and next plied the dead body with her arts. She supples his
+wounds, and infuses fresh blood into his veins: she frees his scars from
+the clotted gore, and penetrates them with froth from the moon. She
+mixes whatever nature has engendered in its most fearful caprices, foam
+from the jaws of a mad dog, the entrails of the lynx, the backbone of
+the hyena, and the marrow of a stag that had dieted on serpents, the
+sinews of the remora, and the eyes of a dragon, the eggs of the eagle,
+the flying serpent of Arabia, the viper that guards the pearl in the Red
+Sea, the slough of the hooded snake, and the ashes that remain when the
+phoenix has been consumed. To these she adds all venom that has a
+name, the foliage of herbs over which she has sung her charms, and on
+which she had voided her rheum as they grew.
+
+At length she chants her incantation to the Stygian Gods, in a voice
+compounded of all discords, and altogether alien to human organs. It
+resembles at once the barking of a dog and the howl of a wolf; it
+consists of the hooting of the screech-owl, the yelling of a ravenous
+wild beast, and the fearful hiss of a serpent. It borrows somewhat from
+the roar of tempestuous waves, the hollow rushing of the winds among the
+branches of the forest, and the tremendous crash of deafening thunder.
+
+"Ye Furies," she cries, "and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of the damned,
+and Chaos, for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony of worlds, and
+thou, Pluto, condemned, to an eternity of ungrateful existence, Hell,
+and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shall partake, Proserpine, for
+ever cut off from thy health-giving mother, and horrid Hecate, Cerberus
+curst with incessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon endlessly
+murmuring at the task I impose of bringing back the dead again to the
+land of the living, hear me!--if I call on you with a voice sufficiently
+impious and abominable, if I have never sung this chaunt, unsated with
+human gore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of the
+pregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain, if I have
+placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant on the
+point to be born----
+
+"I ask not of you a ghost, already a tenant of the Tartarean abodes, and
+long familiarised to the shades below, but one who has recently quitted
+the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell; let him
+hear these incantations, and immediately after descend to his destined
+place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of his general,
+having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Do this, as
+you love the very sound and rumour of a civil war!"
+
+Saying this, behold, the ghost of the dead man stood erect before her,
+trembling at the view of his own unanimated limbs, and loth to enter
+again the confines of his wonted prison. He shrinks to invest himself
+with the gored bosom, and the fibres from which death had separated him.
+Unhappy wretch, to whom death had not given the privilege to die!
+Erichtho, impatient at the unlooked-for delay, lashes the unmoving
+corpse with one of her serpents. She calls anew on the powers of hell,
+and threatens to pronounce the dreadful name, which cannot be
+articulated without consequences never to be thought of, nor without the
+direst necessity to be ventured upon.
+
+At length the congealed blood becomes liquid and warm; it oozes from the
+wounds, and creeps steadily along the veins and the members; the fibres
+are called into action beneath the gelid breast, and the nerves once
+more become instinct with life. Life and death are there at once. The
+arteries beat; the muscles are braced; the body raises itself, not by
+degrees, but at a single impulse, and stands erect. The eyelids unclose.
+The countenance is not that of a living subject, but of the dead. The
+paleness of the complexion, the rigidity of the lines, remain; and he
+looks about with an unmeaning stare, but utters no sound. He waits on
+the potent enchantress.
+
+"Speak!" said she, "and ample shall be your reward. You shall not again
+be subject to the art of the magician. I will commit your members to
+such a sepulchre; I will burn your form with such wood, and will chaunt
+such a charm over your funeral pyre, that all incantations shall
+thereafter assail you in vain. Be it enough, that you have once been
+brought back to life! Tripods, and the voice of oracles deal in
+ambiguous responses; but the voice of the dead is perspicuous and
+certain to him who receives it with an unshrinking spirit. Spare not!
+Give names to things; give places a clear designation, speak with a full
+and articulate voice."
+
+Saying this, she added a further spell, qualified to give to him who was
+to answer, a distinct knowledge of that respecting which he was about to
+be consulted. He accordingly delivers the responses demanded of him;
+and, that done, earnestly requires of the witch to be dismissed. Herbs
+and magic rites are necessary, that the corpse may be again unanimated,
+and the spirit never more be liable to be recalled to the realms of day.
+The sorceress constructs the funeral pile; the dead man places himself
+upon it; Erichtho applies the torch, and the charm is ended for ever.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+OMENS AND PHANTASMS
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII
+
+PATROKLOS
+
+HOMER'S _Iliad_ (E.H. Blakeney's translation[13])
+
+
+Then there came unto him the ghost of poor Patroklos, in all things like
+unto the very man, in stature, and fair eyes, and voice; and he was
+arrayed in vesture such as in life he wore. He stood above the hero's
+head and challenged him:--
+
+"Thou sleepest, Achilles, unmindful of me. Not in my lifetime wert thou
+neglectful, but in death. Bury me with all speed; let me pass the gates
+of Hades. Far off the souls, wraiths of the dead, keep me back, nor
+suffer me yet to join them beyond the river; forlorn I wander up and
+down the wide-doored house of Hades. And now give me thy hand, I
+entreat; for never more shall I return from Hades, when once ye have
+given me my meed of fire. Nay, never more shall we sit, at least in
+life, apart from our comrades, taking counsel together; but upon me
+hateful doom hath gaped--doom which was my portion even at birth. Aye
+and to thee thyself also, Achilles, thou peer of the gods, it is fated
+to perish beneath the wall of the wealthy Trojans. Another thing I will
+tell thee, and will straitly charge thee, if peradventure thou wilt
+hearken: lay not my bones apart from thine, Achilles, but side by side;
+for we were brought up together in thy house, when Menoitios brought me,
+a child, from Opöeis to thy father's house because of woeful bloodshed
+on the day when I slew the son of Amphidamas, myself a child,
+unwittingly, but in wrath over our games. Then did Peleus, the knight,
+take me into his home and rear me kindly and name me thy squire. So let
+one urn also hide the bones of us both."
+
+And swift-footed Achilles answered him and said:--
+
+"Why, dearest and best-beloved, hast thou come hither to lay upon me
+these thy several behests? Of a truth I will accomplish all, and bow to
+thy command. But stand nearer, I pray; for a little space let us cast
+our arms about each other, and take our fill of dire sorrow."
+
+With these words he stretched forth his hands to clasp him, but could
+not; for, like a smoke, the spirit vanished earthward with a wailing
+cry. Amazed, Achilles sprang up, and smote his hands together, and spake
+a piteous word:--
+
+"O ye heavens! surely, even among the dead, the soul and wraith are
+something (yet is there no life therein at all). For all night long the
+soul of poor Patroklos stood beside me, crying and making lamentation,
+and bade me do his will; it was the perfect image of himself."
+
+So he spake, and in the hearts of them all roused desire for
+lamentation; and while they yet were mourning about the pitiful corpse
+appeared rosy-fingered dawn.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 13: George Bell & Sons.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX
+
+VISION OF CROMWELL
+
+By "ARISE EVANS"
+
+
+A vision that I had presently after the king's death--I thought that I
+was in a great hall, like the king's hall, or the castle in Winchester,
+and there was none there but a judge that sat upon the bench and myself;
+and as I turned to a window in the north-westward, and looking into the
+palm of my hand, there appeared to me a face, head and shoulders like
+the Lord Fairfax's, and presently it vanished. Again, there arose the
+Lord Cromwell, and he vanished likewise; then arose a young face and he
+had a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another young face
+arose with a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another
+young face arose with a crown upon his head, and vanished in like
+manner; and as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me and looked,
+there did appear no more in it. Then I turned to the judge and said to
+him, there arose in my hand seven, and five of them had crowns; but when
+I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and these appeared no
+more: so I awoke. The interpretation of this vision is, that after the
+Lord Cromwell, there shall be kings again in England, which thing is
+signified unto us by those that arose after him, who were all crowned,
+but the generations to come may look for a change of the blood, and of
+the name in the royal seat, after five kings once passed, 2 Kings x. 30.
+(The words referred to in this text are these:) "And the Lord said unto
+Jehu, because thou hast done well, etc., thy children of the fourth
+generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel."
+
+
+
+
+XL
+
+LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING
+
+By the Rev. JOHN MASTIN
+
+
+In the Rev. John Mastin's _History of Naseby_ is cited a story of an
+apparition that was supposed to have appeared to Charles the First at
+Daintree, near Naseby, previous to the famous battle of that name.
+
+The army of Charles, says the historian, consisting of less than 5000
+foot, and about as many horse, was ordered to Daintree, whither the King
+went with a thorough resolution of fighting. The next day, however, to
+the surprise of Prince Rupert and all the rest of the army, this design
+was given up, and the former one of going to the north resumed. The
+reason of this alteration in his plans was alleged to be some presages
+of ill-fortune which the King had received, and which were related to
+me, says Mr Mastin's authority, by a person of Newark, at that time in
+His Majesty's horse. About two hours after the King had retired to rest,
+said the narrator, some of his attendants hearing an uncommon noise in
+his chamber, went into it, where they found His Majesty sitting up in
+bed and much agitated, but nothing which could have produced the noise
+they fancied they had heard. The King, in a tremulous voice, inquired
+after the cause of their alarm, and told them how much he had been
+disturbed, apparently by a dream, by thinking he had seen an apparition
+of Lord Strafford, who, after upbraiding him for his cruelty, told him
+he was come to return him good for evil, and that he advised him by no
+means to fight the Parliament army that was at that time quartered at
+Northampton, for it was one which the King could never conquer by arms.
+Prince Rupert, in whom courage was the predominant quality, rated the
+King out of his apprehensions the next day, and a resolution was again
+taken to meet the enemy. The next night, however, the apparition
+appeared to him a second time, but with looks of anger assuring him that
+would be the last advice he should be permitted to give him, but that if
+he kept his resolution of fighting he was undone. If His Majesty had
+taken the advice of the friendly ghost, and marched northward the next
+day, where the Parliament had few English forces, and where the Scots
+were becoming very discontented, his affairs might, perhaps, still have
+had a prosperous issue, or if he had marched immediately into the west
+he might afterwards have fought on more equal terms. But the King,
+fluctuating between the apprehensions of his imagination and the
+reproaches of his courage, remained another whole day at Daintree in a
+state of inactivity. The battle of Naseby, fought 14th June 1645, put a
+finishing stroke to the King's affairs. After this he could never get
+together an army fit to look the enemy in the face. He was often heard
+to say that he wished he had taken _the warning_, and not fought at
+Naseby; the meaning of which nobody knew but those to whom he had told
+of the apparition which he had seen at Daintree, and all of whom were,
+subsequently, charged to keep the affair secret.
+
+
+
+
+XLI
+
+KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE
+
+From FERRIER'S "Apparitions"
+
+
+Kotter's first vision was detailed by him, on oath, before the
+magistrates of Sprottaw, in 1619. While he was travelling on foot, in
+open daylight, in June 1616, a man appeared to him, who ordered him to
+inform the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, that great evils were
+impending over Germany, for the punishment of the sins of the people;
+after which he vanished. The same apparition met him at different times,
+and compelled him at length, by threats, to make this public
+declaration.
+
+After this, his visions assumed a more imposing appearance: on one
+occasion the angel (for such he was now confessed to be) showed him
+three suns, filling one half of the heavens; and nine moons, with their
+horns turned towards the east, filling the other half. At the same time,
+a superb fountain of pure water spouted from the arid soil, under his
+feet.
+
+At another time, he beheld a mighty lion, treading on the moon, and
+seven other lions around him, in the clouds.
+
+Sometimes he beheld the encounter of hostile armies, splendidly
+accoutred; sometimes he wandered through palaces, whose only inhabitants
+were devouring monsters; or beheld dragons of enormous size, in various
+scenes of action.
+
+He was at length attended by two angels, in his ecstasy; one of his
+visions at this time was of the most formidable and impressive kind. "On
+the 13th day of September, says he, both the youths returned to me,
+saying, be not afraid, but observe the thing which will be shewn to
+thee. And I suddenly beheld a circle, like the sun, red, and as it were,
+bloody: in which were black and white lines, or spots, so intermingled,
+that sometimes there appeared a greater number of blacks, sometimes of
+white; and this sight continued for some space of time. And when they
+had said to me, Behold! Attend! Fear not! No evil will befal thee! Lo,
+there were three successive peals of thunder, at short intervals, so
+loud and dreadful, that I shuddered all over. But the circle stood
+before me, and the black and white spots were disunited, and the circle
+approached so near that I could have touched it with my hand. And it was
+so beautiful, that I had never in my life seen any thing more agreeable:
+and the white spots were so bright and pleasant, that I could not
+contain my admiration. But the black spots were carried away in cloud of
+horrible darkness, in which I heard a dismal outcry, though I could see
+no one. Yet these words of lamentation were audible: Woe unto us, who
+have committed ourselves unto the black cloud, to be withdrawn from the
+circle coloured with the blood of divine grace, in which the grace of
+God, in his well-beloved Son, had inclosed us."
+
+After several other piteous exclamations, he saw a procession of many
+thousand persons, bearing palms, and singing hymns, but of very small
+stature, enter the red circle, from the black cloud, chanting
+halleluiah.
+
+
+
+
+XLII
+
+THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN
+
+From a _Procés-verbal_
+
+
+The authenticity of the following narrative rests upon a
+_procés-verbal_, drawn out in form, and attested by the signatures of
+four credible witnesses.
+
+Charles XI. was one of the most despotic and, at the same time, one of
+the ablest monarchs that ever ruled the destinies of Sweden. History
+represents him as brave and enlightened, but of a harsh and inflexible
+disposition; regulating his opinions by positive facts, and wholly
+ungifted with imagination. At the period of which we are about to speak,
+death had bereaved him of his Queen, Ulrica Eleonora. Notwithstanding
+the harshness which had marked his conduct to the Princess during her
+lifetime, and which, in the opinion of his subjects, had precipitated
+her into the grave, Charles revered her memory, and appeared more
+affected by her loss than might have been imagined from the natural
+sternness of his character. Subsequently to this event, he became more
+gloomy and taciturn than before, and devoted himself to study with an
+intensity of application that evinced his anxiety to escape the tortures
+of his own painful reflections. Towards the close of a dreary autumnal
+evening, the king, in slippers and _robe de chambre_, was seated before
+a large fire, in a private cabinet of his palace at Stockholm. Near him
+were his grand chamberlain, the Count de Brahe, who was honoured with
+the favourite estimation of his sovereign, and the principal state
+physician, Baumgarten, a learned disciple of Hippocrates, who aimed at
+the reputation of an _esprit fort_, and who would have pardoned a
+disbelief in anything except in the efficacy of his own prescriptions.
+The last-mentioned personage had on that evening been hastily summoned
+to the presence of the monarch, who felt or fancied himself in need of
+his professional skill. The evening was already far advanced, and the
+king, contrary to his wont, delayed bidding the customary "goodnight to
+all,"--the well-understood signal at which his guests always retired.
+With his head bent down, and his eyes fixed upon the decaying embers,
+that gradually withdrew even their mockery of warmth from the spacious
+fireplace, he maintained a strict silence, evidently fatigued with his
+company, yet dreading, though he scarcely knew why, to be left alone.
+The grand chamberlain, who perceived that even his profound remarks
+failed to excite the attention of the monarch, ventured to hint that his
+majesty would do well to seek repose; a gesture of the king retained him
+in his place. The physician, in his turn, hazarded a casual observation
+on the injurious tendency of late hours. The significant innuendoes
+were, however, thrown away on Charles, who replied to them by muttering
+between his teeth, "You may remain; I have no wish to sleep." This
+permission, with which the drowsy courtiers would willingly have
+dispensed, but which was really equivalent to a command, was succeeded
+by an attempt on their part to enliven his majesty with different
+subjects of conversation. No topic, however, that they introduced could
+outlive the second or third phrase. The king was in one of his gloomy
+moods; for royalty, with reverence be it spoken, has its moments of
+merriment and ill-humour, its mixture of sunshine and of cloud; and be
+it known to thee, gentle reader, that ticklish is the position of a
+courtier when majesty is in the dumps. To mend, or rather to mar the
+matter, the grand chamberlain, imagining that the sadness which
+overshadowed the royal brow came from regret, fixed his eyes upon a
+portrait of the queen, hung up in the cabinet, and with a sigh of pathos
+exclaimed, "How striking the resemblance! and who could not recognise
+the expression of majesty and gentleness, that----" "Fudge!" cried the
+king. Conscience had probably something to do with the abruptness of the
+exclamation. The old chamberlain had unwittingly touched a tender chord;
+every allusion to the queen appearing like a tacit reproach to the
+august and widowed spouse. "That portrait," added the king, "is too
+flattering, the queen was far from handsome"; then, as if inwardly
+repentant of his harshness, he rose from his seat and paced the
+apartment with hasty strides, to conceal the tears that had well-nigh
+betrayed his emotion. He sat in the embrasure of a window which looked
+upon the court; the moon was obscured by a thick veil of clouds; not
+even a solitary star twinkled through the darkness. The palace at
+present inhabited by the kings of Sweden was not at that time finished;
+and Charles XI., in whose reign it had been commenced, usually resided
+in an old-fashioned edifice, built something in the shape of a
+horseshoe, and situated at the point of Ritterholm, commanding a view of
+Lake Mader. The royal cabinet was at one of the extremities, nearly
+opposite to the grand hall or council-chamber, in which the States were
+accustomed to assemble when a message or communication from the crown
+was expected. Just at this moment the windows of the council-chamber
+appeared brilliantly illuminated. The king was lost in surprise. He at
+first imagined the light to proceed from the torch of some domestic. Yet
+what could occasion so unseasonable a visit to a place that for a
+considerable time had been closed? Besides, the light was too vivid to
+be produced by one single torch, it might have been attributed to a
+conflagration; but no smoke was perceptible, no noise was heard, the
+window glasses were not broken, everything in short seemed to indicate
+an illumination, such as takes place on public and solemn occasions.
+Charles, without uttering a word, remained gazing at the windows of the
+council-chamber. The Count Brahe, who had already grasped the bell-cord,
+was on the point of summoning a page, in order to ascertain the cause of
+this singular illumination, when the king suddenly prevented him. "I
+will visit the chamber myself," said his majesty; the seriousness of his
+deportment and the paleness of his countenance indicating a strange
+mixture of determination and superstitious awe. He quitted the cabinet
+with the unhesitating step of one resolved to obtain mastery over
+himself; the legislator of etiquette, and the regulator of bodies, each
+with a lighted taper, followed him with fear and trembling. The keeper
+of the keys had already retired to rest; Baumgarten was despatched by
+the king to awaken him, and to order him forthwith to open the doors of
+the council-chamber. Unbounded was the worthy keeper's surprise at the
+unexpected intimation. Benign Providence, however, has ordained monarchs
+to command, and created keepers of keys to obey. The prudent Cerberus
+yawned, dressed himself in haste, and presented himself before his
+sovereign with the insignia of his office, a bunch of keys of various
+dimensions suspended at his girdle. He commenced by opening the door of
+a gallery, which served as a sort of ante-room to the council-chamber.
+The king entered; but his astonishment may be conceived, on finding the
+walls of the building entirely hung with black. "By whose order has this
+been done?" demanded the king in a tone of anger. "Sire," replied the
+trembling keeper of the keys, "I am ignorant; the last time the gallery
+was opened it was wainscoted with oak, as usual, most assuredly these
+hangings are not from your majesty's wardrobe." The king, however, had
+by this time traversed at a rapid pace two-thirds of the gallery,
+without stopping to avail himself of the worshipful warden's
+conjectures. The latter personage and the grand chamberlain followed his
+majesty, whilst the learned doctor lingered a little in the rear.
+"Sire," cried the keeper of the keys, "I beseech your majesty to go no
+farther. As I have a living soul, there is witchcraft in this matter. At
+this hour ... and since the death of the queen, God be gracious to us!
+It is said that her majesty walks every night in this gallery." "Hold,
+Sire!" cried the Count in his turn, "do you not hear a strange noise
+which seems to proceed from the council-chamber? Who can foresee the
+danger to which your majesty may expose your sacred person?" "Forward!"
+replied the resolute monarch in an imperative tone; and as he stopped
+before the door of the council-chamber, "Quick! your keys!" said he to
+the keeper. He pushed the door violently with his foot, and the noise,
+repeated by the echoes of the vaulted roof, resounded through the
+gallery like the report of a cannon. The old keeper trembled; he tried
+one key, then another, but without success; his hand shook, his sight
+was confused. "A soldier, and afraid?" cried Charles with a smile.
+"Come, Count, you must be our usher: open that door." "Sire," replied
+the grand chamberlain stepping backwards, "if your majesty command me to
+walk up to the mouth of a Danish cannon, I will obey on the instant; but
+you will not order me to combat with the devil and his imps?" The
+monarch snatched the keys from the palsied hands of the infirm old
+keeper. "I see," said his majesty in a tone of contempt, "that I must
+finish this adventure"; and before his terrified suite could prevent his
+design, he had already opened the massy oaken door, and penetrated into
+the council-chamber, first pronouncing the usual formula, "with the help
+of God." The companions of his midnight excursion entered along with
+him, prompted by a sentiment of curiosity, stronger on this occasion
+even than terror; their courage too was reinforced by a feeling of
+shame, which forbade them to abandon their sovereign in the hour of
+peril. The council-chamber was illuminated with an immense number of
+torches. The ancient figured tapestry had been replaced by a black
+drapery suspended on the walls, along which were ranged, in regular
+order, and according to the custom of those days, German, Danish, and
+Muscovite banners, trophies of the victories won by the soldiers of
+Gustavus Adolphus. In the middle were distinguished the banners of
+Sweden, covered with black crape. A numerous assemblage was seated on
+the benches of the hall. The four orders of the state--the nobility, the
+clergy, the citizens, and the peasants,--were ranged according to the
+respective disposition assigned to each. All were clothed in black; and
+the multitude of human faces, that shone like so many luminous rays upon
+a dark ground, dazzled the sight to such a degree that, of the four
+individuals who witnessed this extraordinary scene, not one could
+discern amidst the crowd a countenance with which he was familiar; the
+position of the four spectators might have been compared to that of
+actors, who, in presence of a numerous audience, were incapable of
+distinguishing a single face among the confused mass. On the elevated
+throne whence the monarch habitually harangued the assembly of the
+States, was seated a bleeding corpse, invested with the emblems of
+royalty. On the right of this apparition stood a child, a crown upon his
+head and the sceptre in his hand; on the left an aged man, or rather
+another phantom, leaned upon the throne, opposite to which were several
+personages of austere and solemn demeanour, clothed in long black robes,
+and seated before a table covered with thick folios and parchments; from
+the gravity of their deportment the latter seemed to be judges. Between
+the throne and the portion of the council-chamber above which it was
+elevated, were placed an axe and a block covered with black crape. In
+this unearthly assembly none seemed at all conscious of the presence of
+Charles, or of the three individuals by whom he was accompanied. At last
+the oldest of the judges in black robes--he who appeared to discharge
+the functions of president--rising with dignity, struck three times with
+his hand upon an open folio. Profound silence immediately succeeded;
+some youths of distinguished appearance, richly dressed, and with their
+hands fettered behind their backs, were led into the council-chamber by
+a door opposite to that which Charles had opened. Behind them a man of
+vigrous mould held the extremity of the cord with which their hands were
+pinioned. The prisoner who marched in the foremost rank, and whose air
+was more imposing than that of the others, stopped in the midst of the
+council-chamber before the block which he seemed to contemplate with
+haughty disdain. At the same instant the corse seated on the throne was
+agitated by a convulsive tremor, and the purple tide flowed afresh from
+his wounds. The youthful prisoner knelt upon the ground, and laid his
+head upon the block; the fatal axe glittering in the air descended
+swiftly; a stream of blood forced its way even to the platform of the
+throne, and mingled with that of the royal corse; whilst the head of the
+victim, rebounding from the crimson pavement, rolled to the feet of
+Charles, and stained them with blood. Hitherto, astonishment had
+rendered the monarch dumb; but at this horrid spectacle his tongue was
+unloosed. He advanced a few steps towards the platform, and addressing
+himself to the apparition on the left of the corse, boldly pronounced
+the customary abjuration, "If thou art of God, speak; if of the Evil
+One, depart in peace." The phantom replied in slow and emphatic accents,
+"Charles, not under thy reign shall this blood be shed [here the voice
+became indistinct]; five monarchs succeeding thee shall first sit on the
+throne of Sweden. Woe, woe, woe to the blood of Wasa!" Upon this the
+numerous figures composing this extraordinary assemblage became less
+distinct, till at last they resembled a mass of coloured shadows, soon
+after which they disappeared altogether. The fantastic torches were
+extinguished of themselves, and those of Charles and his suite cast
+their dim, flickering light upon the old-fashioned tapestry with which
+the chamber was usually hung, and which was now slightly moved by the
+wind. During some minutes longer a strange sort of melody was heard, a
+harmony compared by one of the eye-witnesses of this unparalleled scene
+to the murmur of the breeze agitating the foliage, and by another to the
+sound emitted by the breaking of a harp-string. All agreed upon one
+point, the duration of the apparition, which they stated to have lasted
+about ten minutes. The black drapery, the decapitated victim, the stream
+of blood which had inundated the platform, all had disappeared with the
+phantoms; every trace had vanished except a crimson spot, which still
+stained the slipper of Charles, and which alone would have sufficed to
+remind him of the horrid vision, had it been possible for any effort to
+erase it from his memory. Returning to his private cabinet, the king
+committed to paper an exact relation of what he had seen, signed it, and
+ordered his companions to do the same. Spite of the precautions taken to
+conceal the contents of this statement from the public, they soon
+transpired, and were generally known, even during the lifetime of
+Charles XI. The original document is still in existence, and its
+authenticity has never been questioned; it concludes with the following
+remarkable words:--"If," says the king, "all that I have just declared
+is not the exact truth, I renounce my hopes of a happier existence which
+I may have merited by some good actions, and by my zeal for the welfare
+of my people and for the maintenance of the religion of my fathers." If
+the reader will call to mind the death of Gustavus III., and the trial
+of his assassin, Ankarstroem, he will observe the intimate connection
+between these events and the circumstances of the extraordinary
+prediction which we have just detailed. The apparition of the young man
+beheaded in the presence of the assembled States prognosticated the
+execution of Ankarstroem. The crowned corse represented Gustavus III.,
+the child, his son and successor, Gustavus Adolphus IV.; and lastly, by
+the old man was designated the uncle of Gustavus IV., the Duke of
+Sudermania, regent of the kingdom and afterwards king, upon the
+deposition of his nephew.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII
+
+BEN JONSON'S PREVISION
+
+DRUMMOND'S "Conversations"
+
+
+Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that "when the king came to
+England, about the time that plague was in London, he being in the
+country, at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Cambden, he saw in a
+vision his eldest son, then a young child and at London, appear unto him
+with the mark of a bloody cross on his forehead, as if it had been cut
+with a sword, at which amazed he prayed unto God, and in the morning he
+came unto Mr Cambden's chamber to tell him, who persuaded him it was but
+an apprehension, at which he should not be dejected. In the meantime
+there came letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the plague.
+He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that growth he
+thinks he shall be at the resurrection."
+
+
+
+
+XLIV
+
+QUEEN ULRICA AND THE COUNTESS STEENBOCK
+
+"Court Records"
+
+
+When Queen Ulrica was dead, her corpse was placed in the usual way in an
+open coffin, in a room hung with black and lighted with numerous wax
+candles; a company of the king's guards did duty in the ante-room. One
+afternoon, the carriage of the Countess Steenbock, first lady of the
+palace, and a particular favourite of the queen's, drove up from
+Stockholm. The officers commanding the guard of honour went to meet the
+countess, and conducted her from the carriage to the door of the room
+where the dead queen lay, which she closed after her.
+
+The long stay of the lady in the death-chamber caused some uneasiness;
+but it was ascribed to the vehemence of her grief; and the officers on
+duty, fearful of disturbing the further effusion of it by their
+presence, left her alone with the corpse. At length, finding that she
+did not return, they began to apprehend that some accident had befallen
+her, and the captain of the guard opened the door. He instantly started
+back, with a face of the utmost dismay. The other officers ran up, and
+plainly perceived, through the half-open door, the deceased queen
+standing upright in her coffin, and ardently embracing the countess. The
+apparition seemed to move, and soon after became enveloped in a dense
+smoke or vapour. When this had cleared away, the body of the queen lay
+in the same position as before, but the countess was nowhere to be
+found. In vain did they search that and the adjoining apartments, while
+some of the party hastened to the door, thinking she must have passed
+unobserved to her carriage; but neither carriage, horses, driver, or
+footmen were to be seen. A messenger was quickly despatched with a
+statement of this extraordinary circumstance to Stockholm, and there he
+learnt that the Countess Steenbock had never quitted the capital, and
+that she died at the very moment when she was seen in the arms of the
+deceased queen.
+
+
+
+
+XLV
+
+DENIS MISANGER
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+On Friday, the first day of May 1705, about five o'clock in the evening,
+Denis Misanger de la Richardiere, eighteen years of age, was attacked
+with an extraordinary malady, which began by a sort of lethargy. They
+gave him every assistance that medicine and surgery could afford. He
+fell afterwards into a kind of furor or convulsion, and they were
+obliged to hold him, and have five or six persons to keep watch over
+him, for fear that he should throw himself out of the windows, or break
+his head against the wall. The emetic which they gave him made him throw
+up a quantity of bile, and for four or five days he remained pretty
+quiet.
+
+At the end of the month of May, they sent him into the country, to take
+the air; and some other circumstances occurred, so unusual, that they
+judged he must be bewitched. And what confirmed this conjecture was,
+that he never had any fever, and retained all his strength,
+notwithstanding all the pains and violent remedies which he had been
+made to take. They asked him if he had not had some dispute with a
+shepherd or some other person suspected of sorcery, or malpractices.
+
+He declared that on the 18th of April preceding, when he was going
+through the village of Noysi on horseback for a ride, his horse stopped
+short in the midst of the _Rue Feret_, opposite the chapel, and he could
+not make him go forward, though he touched him several times with the
+spur. There was a shepherd standing leaning against the chapel, with his
+crook in his hand, and two black dogs at his side. This man said to him,
+"Sir, I advise you to return home, for your horse will not go forward."
+The young La Richardiere, continuing to spur his horse, said to the
+shepherd, "I do not understand what you say." The shepherd replied, in a
+low tone, "I will make you understand." In effect, the young man was
+obliged to get down from his horse, and lead it back by the bridle to
+his father's dwelling in the same village. Then the shepherd cast a
+spell upon him, which was to take effect on the 1st of May, as was
+afterwards known.
+
+During this malady, they caused several masses to be said in different
+places, especially at St Maur des Fosses, at St Amable, and at St
+Esprit. Young La Richardiere was present at some of these masses which
+were said at St Maur; but he declared that he should not be cured till
+Friday, 26th June, on his return from St Maur. On entering his chamber,
+the key of which he had in his pocket, he found there that shepherd,
+seated in his armchair, with his crook, and his two black dogs. He was
+the only person who saw him; none other in the house could perceive him.
+He said even that this man was called Damis, although he did not
+remember that anyone had before this revealed his name to him. He beheld
+him all that day, and all the succeeding night. Towards six o'clock in
+the evening, as he felt his usual sufferings, he fell on the ground,
+exclaiming that the shepherd was upon him, and crushing him; at the same
+time he drew his knife, and aimed five blows at the shepherd's face, of
+which he retained the marks. The invalid told those who were watching
+over him that he was going to be very faint at five different times, and
+begged of them to help him, and move him violently. The thing happened
+as he had predicted.
+
+On Friday, the 26th June, M. de la Richardiere, having gone to the mass
+at St Maur, asserted that he should be cured on that day. After mass,
+the priest put the stole upon his head, and recited the Gospel of St
+John, during which prayer the young man saw St Maur standing, and the
+unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five
+knife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment the youth cried out,
+unintentionally, "A miracle! a miracle!" and asserted that he was cured,
+as in fact he was.
+
+On the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi,
+and amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards,
+the shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with
+the butt-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, "Sir, you are killing
+me!" and fled. The next day this man presented himself again before him,
+and asked his pardon, saying, "I am called Damis; it was I who cast a
+spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of masses and
+prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured at the end of
+eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself, and I can be
+cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray for me."
+
+During all these reports, the _maréchaussée_ had set off in pursuit of
+the shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and thrown
+away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M. de la
+Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having passed
+twenty years without approaching the sacraments, God had given him grace
+to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays he had been
+admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la Richardiere
+received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation of the
+shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to cause a
+requiem mass to be said for him, which was done.
+
+
+
+
+XLVI
+
+THE PIED PIPER
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The following instance is so extraordinary, that I should not repeat it
+if the account were not attested by more than one writer, and also
+preserved in the public monuments of a considerable town of Upper
+Saxony; this town is Hamelin in the principality of Kalenberg, at the
+confluence of the rivers Hamel and Weser.
+
+In the year 1384, this town was infested by such a prodigious multitude
+of rats, that they ravaged all the corn which was laid up in the
+granaries; everything was employed that art and experience could invent
+to chase them away, and whatever is usually employed against this kind
+of animals. At that time there came to the town an unknown person, of
+taller stature than ordinary, dressed in a robe of divers colours, who
+engaged to deliver them from that scourge, for a certain recompense
+which was agreed upon.
+
+Then he drew from his sleeve a flute, at the sound of which all the rats
+came out of their holes and followed him; he led them straight to the
+river, into which they ran and were drowned. On his return he asked for
+the promised reward, which was refused him, apparently on account of the
+facility with which he had exterminated the rats. The next day, which
+was a fête day, he chose the moment when the older inhabitants were at
+church, and by means of another flute which he began to play, all the
+boys in the town above the age of fourteen, to the number of a hundred
+and thirty, assembled round him; he led them to the neighbouring
+mountain, named Kopfelberg, under which is a sewer for the town, and
+where criminals are executed; these boys disappeared and were never seen
+afterwards.
+
+A young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the matter,
+and brought the news of it to the town.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII
+
+JEANNE D'ARC
+
+FERRIER'S "Apparitions"
+
+
+Upon her trial, as it is repeated by Chartier, she spoke with the utmost
+simplicity and firmness of her visions: "Que souvent alloit a une belle
+fontaine au pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nommoit bonne fontaine aux
+Feés Nostre Seigneur, at en icelluy lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils
+avoient fiebvre ils alloient pour recouvrer garison; et la alloit
+souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine
+ombroit; et s'apparurent a elle Ste Katerine et Ste Marguerite qui lui
+dirent qu'elle allast a ung Cappitaine qu'elles lui nommerent, laquelle
+y alla sans prendre congé ni a pere ni a mere; lequel Cappitaine la
+vestit en guise d'homme et l'armoit et lui ceint l'epeé, et luy bailla
+un escuyer et quatre varlets; et en ce point fut monteé sur un bon
+cheval; et en ce point vint aut Roy de France, et lui dit que du
+Commandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et qu'elle le feroit le plus
+grand Seigneur du Monde, et qu'il fut ordonné que tretou ceulx qui lui
+desobeiroient fussent occis sans mercy, et que St Michel et plusieurs
+anges lui avoient baillé une Couronne moult riche pour lui."
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII
+
+ANNE WALKER
+
+Local Records
+
+
+In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the
+county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world,
+and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept
+his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but
+too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a
+mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Clare, in
+Chester-le-Street, and promised to take care both of her and her future
+child. One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with
+Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Clare's door, and told
+her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place
+where she could remain in safety till her confinement was over. They
+would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an
+excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to
+have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire. Fourteen days after, one
+Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been
+engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on going downstairs to go
+home, in the middle of the ground floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled
+hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head.
+Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the
+spectre wanted. "I," said the apparition, "am the spirit of Anne
+Walker"; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particulars which
+I have already related to you. "When I was sent away with Mark Sharp, he
+slew me on such a moor," naming one that Graeme knew, "with a collier's
+pick, threw my body into a coal-pit, and hid the pick under the bank;
+and his shoes and stockings, which were covered with blood, he left in a
+stream." The apparition proceeded to tell Graeme that he must give
+information of this to the nearest justice of peace, and that till this
+was done, he must look to be continually haunted. Graeme went home very
+sad; he dared not bring such a charge against a man of so unimpeachable
+a character as Walker; and yet he as little dared to incur the anger of
+the spirit that had appeared to him. So, as all weak minds will do, he
+went on procrastinating; only he took care to leave his mill early, and
+while in it never to be alone. Notwithstanding this caution on his part,
+one night, just as it began to be dark, the apparition met him again in
+a more terrible shape, and with every circumstance of indignation. Yet
+he did not even then fulfil its injunction; till on St Thomas's eve, as
+he was walking in his garden just after sunset, it threatened him so
+effectually that in the morning he went to a magistrate and revealed the
+whole thing. The place was examined; the body and the pickaxe found; and
+a warrant was granted against Walker and Sharp. They were, however,
+admitted to bail; but in August, 1681, their trial came on before Judge
+Davenport at Durham. Meanwhile the whole circumstances were known over
+all the north of England, and the greatest interest was excited by the
+case. Against Sharp the fact was strong, that his shoes and stockings,
+covered with blood, were found in the place where the murder had been
+committed; but against Walker, except the account received from the
+ghost, there seemed not a shadow of evidence. Nevertheless the judge
+summed up strongly against the prisoners, the jury found them guilty,
+and the judge pronounced sentence upon them that night, a thing which
+was unknown in Durham, either before or after. The prisoners were
+executed, and both died professing their innocence to the last. Judge
+Davenport was much agitated during the trial; and it was believed, says
+the historian, that the spirit had also appeared to him, as if to supply
+in his mind the want of legal evidence. This case is certainly a solemn
+illustration of the mal-administration of justice in an ancient court;
+yet the circumstantial evidence, arising from the appearance of the
+spirit, appears very strong--the finding of the body, and the boots and
+stockings. Yet we need perhaps to live more immediately within the
+circle of the circumstance to pronounce upon it. None of us, however,
+reading this book, would like to take upon ourselves the responsibility
+of those daring jurymen, who durst venture to throw away life upon
+evidence which, strong as it appears to have been, did not come to them,
+but only to one who had borne witness to them.
+
+
+
+
+XLIX
+
+THE HAND OF GLORY
+
+HENDERSON'S "Folk Lore"
+
+
+One evening, between the years 1790 and 1800, a traveller, dressed in
+woman's clothes, arrived at the Old Spital Inn, the place where the mail
+coach changed horses, in High Spital, on Bowes Moor. The traveller
+begged to stay all night, but had to go away so early in the morning
+that if a mouthful of food were set ready for breakfast there was no
+need the family should be disturbed by her departure. The people of the
+house, however, arranged that a servant maid should sit up till the
+stranger was out of the premises, and then went to bed themselves. The
+girl lay down for a nap on the longsettle by the fire, but before she
+shut her eyes she took a good look at the traveller, who was sitting on
+the opposite side of the hearth, and espied a pair of man's trousers
+peeping out from under the gown. All inclination for sleep was now gone;
+however, with great self-command, she feigned it, closed her eyes, and
+even began to snore. On this the traveller got up, pulled out of his
+pocket a dead man's hand, fitted a candle to it, lighted the candle, and
+passed hand and candle several times before the servant girl's face,
+saying as he did so: "Let those who are asleep be asleep, and let those
+who are awake be awake." This done, he placed the light on the table,
+opened the outer door, went down two or three of the steps which led
+from the house to the road, and began to whistle for his companions. The
+girl (who had hitherto had presence of mind enough to remain perfectly
+quiet) now jumped up, rushed behind the ruffian, and pushed him down
+the steps. She then shut the door, locked it, and ran upstairs to try
+and wake the family, but without success: calling, shouting, and shaking
+were alike in vain. The poor girl was in despair, for she heard the
+traveller and his comrades outside the house. So she ran down again,
+seized a bowl of blue (_i.e._ skimmed milk), and threw it over the hand
+and candle; after which she went upstairs again, and awoke the sleepers
+without any difficulty. The landlord's son went to the window, and asked
+the men outside what they wanted. They answered that if the dead man's
+hand were but given them, they would go away quietly, and do no harm to
+anyone. This he refused, and fired among them, and the shot must have
+taken effect, for in the morning stains of blood were traced to a
+considerable distance.
+
+These circumstances were related to my informant, Mr Charles Wastell, in
+the spring of 1861, by an old woman named Bella Parkin, who resided
+close to High Spital, and was actually the daughter of the courageous
+servant-girl.
+
+It is interesting to compare them with the following narrations,
+communicated to me by the Rev. S. Baring Gould:--"Two magicians having
+come to lodge in a public-house with a view to robbing it, asked
+permission to pass the night by the fire, and obtained it. When the
+house was quiet, the servant-girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs
+and looked through the keyhole. She saw the men open a sack, and take
+out a dry, withered hand. They anointed the fingers with some unguent,
+and lighted them. Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not
+light; that was because one of the household was not asleep. The girl
+hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse him. She tried
+every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed sleep. At last,
+stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves were busy over her
+master's strong box, she secured the hand, blew out the flames, and at
+once the whole household was aroused."[14]
+
+But the next story bears a closer resemblance to the Stainmore
+narrative. One dark night, when all was shut up, there came a tap at the
+door of a lone inn in the middle of a barren moor. The door was opened,
+and there stood without, shivering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags
+soaked with rain, and his hands white with cold. He asked piteously for
+a lodging, and it was cheerfully granted him; there was not a spare bed
+in the house, but he could lie on the mat before the kitchen fire, and
+welcome.
+
+So this was settled, and everyone in the house went to bed except the
+cook, who from the back kitchen could see into the large room through a
+pane of glass let into the door. She watched the beggar, and saw him, as
+soon as he was left alone, draw himself up from the floor, seat himself
+at the table, extract from his pocket a brown withered human hand, and
+set it upright in the candlestick. He then anointed the fingers, and
+applying a match to them, they began to flame. Filled with horror, the
+cook rushed up the back stairs, and endeavoured to arouse her master and
+the men of the house. But all was in vain--they slept a charmed sleep;
+so in despair she hastened down again, and placed herself at her post of
+observation.
+
+She saw the fingers of the hand flaming, but the thumb remained
+unlighted, because one inmate of the house was awake. The beggar was
+busy collecting the valuables around him into a large sack, and having
+taken all he cared for in the large room, he entered another. On this
+the woman ran in, and, seizing the light, tried to extinguish the
+flames. But this was not so easy. She blew at them, but they burnt on as
+before. She poured the dregs of a beer-jug over them, but they blazed
+up the brighter. As a last resource, she caught up a jug of milk, and
+dashed it over the four lambent flames, and they died out at once.
+Uttering a loud cry, she rushed to the door of the apartment the beggar
+had entered, and locked it. The whole family was aroused, and the thief
+easily secured and hanged. This tale is told in Northumberland.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 14: Delrio. See also Thorpe's _Mythology_, vol. iii. p. 274.]
+
+
+
+
+L
+
+THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP
+
+Local Records
+
+
+On the threshold of one of the doors of Smithills Hall there is a bloody
+footstep impressed into the door-step, and ruddy as if the bloody foot
+had just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of
+the year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at the
+door-step you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have
+pretended to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew
+redden a cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the finger-tips when you
+touch it? And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the
+appointed night and hour come round....
+
+It is needless to tell you all the strange stories that have survived to
+this day about the old Hall, and how it is believed that the master of
+it, owing to his ancient science, has still a sort of residence there
+and control of the place, and how in one of the chambers there is still
+his antique table, and his chair, and some rude old instruments and
+machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, just as if he might
+still come back to finish some experiment.... One of the chief things to
+which the old lord applied himself was to discover the means of
+prolonging his own life, so that its duration should be indefinite, if
+not infinite; and such was his science that he was believed to have
+attained this magnificent and awful purpose....
+
+The object of the Lord of Smithills Hall was to take a life from the
+course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that,
+great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not
+consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time,
+except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this
+was to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty
+years being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in
+that time, this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied
+the requisition, and he might live on....
+
+There was but one human being whom he cared for--that was a beautiful
+kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had brought up, and dying, left to
+his care.... He saw that she, if anyone, was to be the person whom the
+sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without effect,
+but if he took the life of this one it would make the charm strong and
+good.... He did slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood
+near the house, an old wood that is standing yet, with some of its
+magnificent oaks, and there he plunged a dagger into her heart....
+
+He buried her in the wood, and returned to the house; and, as it
+happened, he had set his right foot in her blood, and his shoe was wet
+in it, and by some miraculous fate it left a track all along the
+wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone steps of the threshold,
+and up into his chamber. The servants saw it the next day, and wondered,
+and whispered, and missed the fair young girl, and looked askance at
+their lord's right foot, and turned pale, all of them....
+
+Next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at what
+he had done ... and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a
+day. But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody
+footstep impressed upon the stone door-step of the Hall.... The legend
+says that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings about the
+world, he left a bloody track behind him.... Once he went to the King's
+Court, and, there being a track up to the very throne, the King frowned
+upon him, so that he never came there any more. Nobody could tell how it
+happened; his foot was not seen to bleed, only there was the bloody
+track behind him....
+
+At last this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back to his own Hall,
+where, living among faithful old servants born in the family, he could
+hush the matter up better than elsewhere.... So home he came, and there
+he saw the bloody track on the door-step, and dolefully went into the
+Hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber,
+and half a dozen others following him behind, gazing, shuddering,
+pointing with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one
+another's pale faces....
+
+By and by he vanished from the old Hall, but not by death; for, from
+generation to generation, they say that a bloody track is seen around
+that house, and sometimes it is traced up into the chambers, so fresh
+that you see he must have passed a short time before.
+
+This is the legend of the Bloody Footstep, which I myself have seen at
+the Hall door.
+
+
+
+
+LI
+
+THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The abbot of Ursperg, in his Chronicle, year 1123, says that in the
+territory of Worms they saw during many days a multitude of armed men,
+on foot and on horseback, going and coming with great noise, like people
+who are going to a solemn assembly. Every day they marched, towards the
+hour of noon, to a mountain, which appeared to be their place of
+rendezvous. Someone in the neighbourhood, bolder than the rest, having
+guarded himself with the sign of the cross, approached one of these
+armed men, conjuring him in the name of God, to declare the meaning of
+this army, and their design. The soldier or phantom replied, "We are not
+what you imagine; we are neither vain phantoms nor true soldiers, we are
+the spirits of those who were killed on this spot a long time ago. The
+arms and horses which you behold are the instruments of our punishment,
+as they were of our sins. We are all on fire, though you can see nothing
+about us which appears inflamed." It is said that they remarked in this
+company the Count Emico, who had been killed a few years before, and who
+declared that he might be extricated from that state by alms and
+prayers.
+
+
+
+
+LII
+
+THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND
+
+"Notes and Queries"
+
+
+When on the weary way to Golgotha, Christ fainting, and overcome under
+the burden of the cross, asked Salathiel, as he was standing at his
+door, for a cup of water to cool His parched throat, he spurned the
+supplication, and bade Him on the faster.
+
+"I go," said the Saviour, "but thou shalt thirst and tarry till I come."
+
+And ever since then, by day and night, through the long centuries he has
+been doomed to wander about the earth, ever craving for water, and ever
+expecting the day of judgment which shall end his toils:
+
+    "Mais toujours le soleil se lève,
+        Toujours, toujours
+    Tourne la terre où moi je cours,
+    Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours!"
+
+Sometimes, during the cold winter nights, the lonely cottager will be
+awoke by a plaintive demand for "Water, good Christian! water for the
+love of God!" And if he looks out into the moonlight, he will see a
+venerable old man in antique raiment, with grey flowing beard, and a
+tall staff, who beseeches his charity with the most earnest gesture. Woe
+to the churl who refuses him water or shelter. My old nurse, who was a
+Warwickshire woman, and, as Sir Walter said of his grandmother, "a most
+_awfu' le'er_," knew a man who boldly cried out, "All very fine, Mr
+Ferguson, but you can't lodge here." And it was decidedly the worst
+thing he ever did in his life, for his best mare fell dead lame, and
+corn went down, I am afraid to say how much per quarter. If, on the
+contrary, you treat him well, and refrain from indelicate inquiries
+respecting his age--on which point he is very touchy--his visit is sure
+to bring good luck. Perhaps years afterwards, when you are on your
+death-bed, he may happen to be passing; and if he _should_, you are
+safe; for three knocks with his staff will make you hale, and he never
+forgets any kindnesses. Many stories are current of his wonderful cures;
+but there is one to be found in Peck's _History of Stamford_ which
+possesses the rare merit of being written by the patient himself. Upon
+Whitsunday, in the year of our Lord 1658, "about six of the clock, just
+after evensong," one Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been long
+wasted with a lingering consumption, was sitting by the fire, reading in
+that delectable book called _Abraham's Suit for Sodom_. He heard a knock
+at the door; and, as his nurse was absent, he crawled to open it
+himself. What he saw there, Samuel shall say in his own style:--"I
+beheld a proper, tall, grave old man. Thus he said: 'Friend, I pray
+thee, give an old pilgrim a cup of small beere!' And I said, 'Sir, I
+pray you, come in and welcome.' And he said, 'I am no Sir, therefore
+call me not Sir; but come in I must, for I cannot pass by thy doore.'"
+
+After finishing the beer: "Friend," he said, "thou art not well." "I
+said, 'No, truly Sir, I have not been well this many yeares.' He said,
+'What is thy disease?' I said, 'A deep consumption, Sir; our doctors
+say, past cure: for, truly, I am a very poor man, and not able to follow
+doctors' councell.' 'Then,' said he, 'I will tell thee what thou shalt
+do; and, by the help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be
+well. To-morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and get there
+two leaves of red sage, and one of bloodworte, and put them into a cup
+of thy small beere. Drink as often as need require, and when the cup is
+empty fill it again, and put in fresh leaves every fourth day, and thou
+shalt see, through our Lord's great goodness and mercy, before twelve
+dayes shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.'"
+
+After this simple prescription, Wallis pressed him to eat: "But he said,
+'No, friend, I will not eat; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very
+seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that which comes from the
+rocke. So, friend, the Lord God be with thee.'"
+
+So saying, he departed, and was never more heard of; but the patient got
+well within the given time, and for many a long day there was war hot
+and fierce among the divines of Stamford, as to whether the stranger was
+an angel or a devil. His dress has been minutely described by honest
+Sam. His coat was purple, and buttoned down to the waist; "his britches
+of the same couler, all new to see to"; his stockings were very white,
+but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth not; his beard and head
+were white, and he had a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy from
+morning to night, "but he had not one spot of dirt upon his cloathes."
+
+Aubrey gives an almost exactly similar relation, the scene of which he
+places in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The Jew there appears in a
+"purple shag gown," and prescribes balm-leaves.
+
+
+
+
+LIII
+
+BENDITH EU MAMMAU[15]
+
+By EDMUND JONES
+
+
+They appeared diverse ways, but their most frequent way of appearing was
+like dancing-companies with musick, or in the form of funerals. When
+they appeared like dancing-companies, they were desirous to entice
+persons into their company, and some were drawn among them and remained
+among them some time, usually a whole year; as did Edmund William Rees,
+a man whom I well knew, and was a neighbour, who came back at the year's
+end, and looked very bad. But either they were not able to give much
+account of themselves, or they durst not give it, only said they had
+been dancing, and that the time was short. But there were some others
+who went with them at night, and returned sometimes at night, and
+sometimes the next morning; especially those persons who took upon them
+to cure the hurts received from the fairies, as Charles Hugh of Coed yr
+Pame, in Langybi parish, and Rissiart Cap Dee, of Aberystruth; for the
+former of these must certainly converse with them, for how else could he
+declare the words which his visitors had spoken a day or days before
+they came to him, to their great surprise and wonder?
+
+And as for Rissiart Cap Dee, so called because he wore a black cap, it
+is said of him that when he lodged in some houses to cure those who
+were hurt by the fairies, he would suddenly rise up in the night, and
+make a very hasty preparation to go downstairs; which when one person
+observ'd, he said, "Go softly, Uncle Richard, least you fall": he made
+answer, "O, here are some to receive me." But when he was called to one
+person, who had inadvertently fallen among the fairies, and had been
+greatly hurt by them, and kept his bed upon it, whose relations had sent
+for the said Rissiart Cap Dee to cure him; who, when he came up to the
+sick man's chamber, the sick man took up a pound-weight stone, which was
+by the bed-side, and threw it at the infernal charmer with all his
+might, saying, "Thou old villain, wast one of the worst of them to hurt
+me!" for he had seen him among them acting his part against him; upon
+which the old charmer went away muttering some words of malevolence
+against him. He lived at the foot of Rhyw Coelbren, and there was a
+large hole in the side of the thatch of his house, thro' which the
+people believed he went out at night to the fairies, and came in from
+them at night; but he pretended it was that he might see the stars at
+night. The house is down long ago. He lived by himself, as did the
+before-mentioned Charles Hugh, who was very famous in the county for his
+cures, and knowledge of things at a distance; which he could not
+possibly know without conversing with evil spirits, who walked the earth
+to and fro. He is yet said to be an affable, friendly man, and cheerful;
+'tis then a pity he should be in alliance with hell, and an agent in the
+kingdom of darkness.
+
+I will only give one instance of his knowledge of things at a distance,
+and of secret things. Henry John Thomas, of the parish of Aberystruth, a
+relation of mine, an honest man, went with the water of a young woman
+whom he courted, and was sick, to the said Charles Hugh, who, as soon as
+he saw Henry John, pleasantly told him, "Ho! you come with your
+sweetheart's water to me." And he told him the very words which they
+had spoken together in a secret place, and described the place where
+they spoke. It was the general opinion in times past, when these things
+were very frequent, that the fairies knew whatever was spoken in the air
+without the houses, not so much what was spoken in the houses. I suppose
+they chiefly knew what was spoken in the air at night. It was also said
+they rather appeared to an uneven number of persons, to one, three,
+five, &c.; and oftener to men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of
+Havodavel, an honest, pious man, who often saw them, declared that they
+appeared with one bigger than the rest, going before them in the
+company.
+
+But they very often appeared in the form of a funeral before the death
+of many persons, with a bier and a black cloth, in the midst of a
+company about it, on every side, before and after it. The instances of
+this were so numerous, that it is plain, and past all dispute, that they
+infallibly foreknew the time of men's death: the difficulty is, whence
+they had this knowledge. It cannot be supposed that either God Himself,
+or His angels, discovered this to these spirits of darkness. For _the
+secrets of the Lord are with those that fear Him_, not with His enemies.
+Psalm xxv. 14. They must therefore have this knowledge from the position
+of the stars at the time of birth, and their influence, which they
+perfectly understand beyond what mortal men can do. We have a constant
+proof of this in the corps candles, whose appearance is an infallible
+sign that death will follow, and they never fail going the way that the
+corps will go to be buried, be the way ever so unlikely that it should
+go through. But to give some instances in Aberystruth Parish.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 15: _A Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the
+Parish of Aberystruth, in the County of Monmouth. To which are added,
+Memoirs of several persons of Note, who lived in the said Parish._ By
+Edmund Jones. Trevecka: printed in the Year 1779.]
+
+
+
+
+LIV
+
+THE RED BOOK OF APPIN
+
+CAMPBELL'S "Tales of the West Highlands"
+
+
+Once upon a time, there lived a man at Appin, Argyllshire, and he took
+to his house an orphan boy. When the boy was grown up, he was sent to
+herd; and upon a day of days, and him herding, there came a fine
+gentleman where he was, who asked him to become his servant, and that he
+would give him plenty to eat and drink, clothes, and great wages. The
+boy told him that he would like very much to get a good suit of clothes,
+but that he would not engage till he would see his master; but the fine
+gentleman would have him engaged without any delay; this the boy would
+not do upon any terms till he would see his master. "Well," says the
+gentleman, "in the meantime write your name in this book." Saying this,
+he puts his hand into his oxter pocket, and pulling out a large red
+book, he told the boy to write his name in the book. This the boy would
+not do; neither would he tell his name, till he would acquaint his
+master first. "Now," says the gentleman, "since you will neither engage,
+or tell your name, till you see your present master, be sure to meet me
+about sunset to-morrow, at a certain place?" The boy promised that he
+would be sure to meet him at the place about sunsetting. When the boy
+came home he told his master what the gentleman said to him. "Poor boy,"
+says he, "a fine master he would make; lucky for you that you neither
+engaged nor wrote your name in his book; but since you promised to meet
+him, you must go; but as you value your life, do as I tell you." His
+master gave him a sword, and at the same time he told him to be sure to
+be at the place mentioned a while before sunset, and to draw a circle
+round himself with the point of the sword in the name of Trinity. "When
+you do this, draw a cross in the centre of the circle, upon which you
+will stand yourself; and do not move out of that position till the
+rising of the sun next morning." He also told him that he would wish him
+to come out of the circle to put his name in the book; but that upon no
+account he was to leave the circle; "but ask the book till you would
+write your name yourself, and when once you get hold of the book keep
+it, he cannot touch a hair of your head, if you keep inside the circle."
+
+So the boy was at the place long before the gentleman made his
+appearance; but sure enough he came after sunset; he tried all his arts
+to get the boy outside the circle, to sign his name in the red book, but
+the boy would not move one foot out from where he stood; but, at the
+long last, he handed the book to the boy, so as to write his name
+therein. The book was no sooner inside the circle than it fell out of
+the gentleman's hand inside the circle; the boy cautiously stretched out
+his hand for the book, and as soon as he got hold of it, he put it in
+his oxter. When the fine gentleman saw that he did not mean to give him
+back the book, he got furious; and at last he transformed himself into
+great many likenesses, blowing fire and brimstone out of his mouth and
+nostrils; at times he would appear as a horse, other times a huge cat,
+and a fearful beast (uille bbeast); he was going round the circle the
+length of the night; when day was beginning to break he let out one
+fearful screech; he put himself in the shape of a large raven, and he
+was soon out of the boy's sight. The boy still remained where he was
+till he saw the sun in the morning, which no sooner he observed, than he
+took to his soles home as fast as he could. He gave the book to his
+master; and this is how the far-famed red book of Appin was got.
+
+
+
+
+LV
+
+THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE
+
+Irish Folk Tales
+
+
+In an age so distant that the precise period is unknown, a chieftain
+named O'Donoghue ruled over the country which surrounds the romantic
+Lough Lean, now called the Lake of Killarney. Wisdom, beneficence, and
+justice distinguished his reign, and the prosperity and happiness of his
+subjects were their natural results. He is said to have been as renowned
+for his warlike exploits as for his pacific virtues; and as a proof that
+his domestic administration was not the less rigorous because it was
+mild, a rocky island is pointed out to strangers, called "O'Donoghue's
+Prison," in which this prince once confined his own son for some act of
+disorder and disobedience.
+
+His end--for it cannot correctly be called his death--was singular and
+mysterious. At one of those splendid feasts for which his court was
+celebrated, surrounded by the most distinguished of his subjects, he was
+engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen in
+ages yet to come. His auditors listened, now rapt in wonder, now fired
+with indignation, burning with shame, or melted into sorrow, as he
+faithfully detailed the heroism, the injuries, the crimes, and the
+miseries of their descendants. In the midst of his predictions he rose
+slowly from his seat, advanced with a solemn, measured, and majestic
+tread to the shore of the lake, and walked forward composedly upon its
+unyielding surface. When he had nearly reached the centre he paused for
+a moment, then, turning slowly round, looked toward his friends, and
+waving his arms to them with the cheerful air of one taking a short
+farewell, disappeared from their view.
+
+The memory of the good O'Donoghue has been cherished by successive
+generations with affectionate reverence; and it is believed that at
+sunrise, on every May-day morning, the anniversary of his departure, he
+revisits his ancient domains: a favoured few only are in general
+permitted to see him, and this distinction is always an omen of good
+fortune to the beholders; when it is granted to many it is a sure token
+of an abundant harvest--a blessing, the want of which during this
+prince's reign was never felt by his people.
+
+Some years have elapsed since the last appearance of O'Donoghue. The
+April of that year had been remarkably wild and stormy; but on
+May-morning the fury of the elements had altogether subsided. The air
+was hushed and still; and the sky, which was reflected in the serene
+lake, resembled a beautiful but deceitful countenance, whose smiles,
+after the most tempestuous emotions, tempt the stranger to believe that
+it belongs to a soul which no passion has ever ruffled.
+
+The first beams of the rising sun were just gilding the lofty summit of
+Glenaa, when the waters near the eastern shore of the lake became
+suddenly and violently agitated, though all the rest of its surface lay
+smooth and still as a tomb of polished marble, the next morning a
+foaming wave darted forward, and, like a proud high-crested war-horse,
+exulting in his strength, rushed across the lake toward Toomies
+mountain. Behind this wave appeared a stately warrior fully armed,
+mounted upon a milk-white steed; his snowy plume waved gracefully from a
+helmet of polished steel, and at his back fluttered a light blue scarf.
+The horse, apparently exulting in his noble burden, sprung after the
+wave along the water, which bore him up like firm earth, while showers
+of spray that glittered brightly in the morning sun were dashed up at
+every bound.
+
+The warrior was O'Donoghue; he was followed by numberless youths and
+maidens, who moved lightly and unconstrained over the watery plain, as
+the moonlight fairies glide through the fields of air; they were linked
+together by garlands of delicious spring flowers, and they timed their
+movements to strains of enchanting melody. When O'Donoghue had nearly
+reached the western side of the lake, he suddenly turned his steed, and
+directed his course along the wood-fringed shore of Glenaa, preceded by
+the huge wave that curled and foamed up as high as the horse's neck,
+whose fiery nostrils snorted above it. The long train of attendants
+followed with playful deviations the track of their leader, and moved on
+with unabated fleetness to their celestial music, till gradually, as
+they entered the narrow strait between Glenaa and Dinis, they became
+involved in the mists which still partially floated over the lake, and
+faded from the view of the wondering beholders: but the sound of their
+music still fell upon the ear, and echo, catching up the harmonious
+strains, fondly repeated and prolonged them in soft and softer tones,
+till the last faint repetition died away, and the hearers awoke as from
+a dream of bliss.
+
+
+
+
+LVI
+
+SARAH POLGRAIN
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+A woman, who had lived in Ludgvan, was executed at Bodmin for the murder
+of her husband. There was but little doubt that she had been urged on to
+the diabolical deed by a horse-dealer, known as Yorkshire Jack, with
+whom, for a long period, she was generally supposed to have been
+criminally acquainted.
+
+Now, it will be remembered that this really happened within the present
+century. One morning, during my residence in Penzance, an old woman from
+Ludgvan called on me with some trifling message. While she was waiting
+for my answer, I made some ordinary remark about the weather.
+
+"It's all owing to Sarah Polgrain," said she.
+
+"Sarah Polgrain," said I; "and who is Sarah Polgrain?"
+
+Then the voluble old lady told me the whole story of the poisoning with
+which we need not, at present, concern ourselves. By and by the tale
+grew especially interesting, and there I resume it.
+
+Sarah had begged that Yorkshire Jack might accompany her to the scaffold
+when she was led forth to execution. This was granted; and on the
+dreadful morning there stood this unholy pair, the fatal beam on which
+the woman's body was in a few minutes to swing, before them.
+
+They kissed each other, and whispered words passed between them.
+
+The executioner intimated that the moment of execution had arrived, and
+that they must part. Sarah Polgrain, looking earnestly into the man's
+eyes, said:
+
+"You will?"
+
+Yorkshire Jack replied, "I will!" and they separated. The man retired
+amongst the crowd, the woman was soon a dead corpse, pendulating in the
+wind.
+
+Years passed on, Yorkshire Jack was never the same man as before, his
+whole bearing was altered. His bold, his dashing air deserted him. He
+walked, or rather wandered, slowly about the streets of the town, or the
+lanes of the country. He constantly moved his head from side to side,
+looking first over one, and then over the other shoulder, as though
+dreading that someone was following him.
+
+The stout man became thin, his ruddy cheeks more pale, and his eyes
+sunken.
+
+At length he disappeared, and it was discovered--for Yorkshire Jack had
+made a confidant of some Ludgvan man--that he had pledged himself,
+"living or dead, to become the husband of Sarah Polgrain, after the
+lapse of years."
+
+To escape, if possible, from himself, Jack had gone to sea in the
+merchant service.
+
+Well, the period had arrived when this unholy promise was to be
+fulfilled. Yorkshire Jack was returning from the Mediterranean in a
+fruit-ship. He was met by the devil and Sarah Polgrain far out at sea,
+off the Land's End. Jack would not accompany them willingly, so they
+followed the ship for days, during all which time she was involved in a
+storm. Eventually Jack was washed from the deck by such a wave as the
+oldest sailor had never seen; and presently, amidst loud thunders and
+flashing lightnings, riding as it were in a black cloud, three figures
+were seen passing onward. These were the devil, Sarah Polgrain, and
+Yorkshire Jack; and this was the cause of the storm.
+
+"It is all true, as you may learn if you will inquire," said the old
+woman; "for many of her kin live in Churchtown."
+
+
+
+
+LVII
+
+ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
+
+GODWIN'S "Lives of the Necromancers"
+
+
+This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fast hold
+of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by the enlightened
+part of the species would now be regarded as worthy only of contempt,
+were then considered as charges of the most flagitious nature. While
+John, Duke of Bedford, the eldest uncle of King Henry VI., was regent of
+France, Humphrey of Gloucester, next brother to Bedford, was Lord
+Protector of the realm of England. Though Henry was now nineteen years
+of age, yet as he was a prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still
+continued to discharge the functions of sovereignty. He was eminently
+endowed with popular qualities, and was a favourite with the majority of
+the nation. He had, however, many enemies, one of the chief of whom was
+Henry Beaufort, great-uncle to the king, and Cardinal of Winchester. One
+of the means employed by this prelate to undermine the power of
+Humphrey, consisted in a charge of witchcraft brought against Eleanor
+Cobham, his wife.
+
+This woman had probably yielded to the delusions which artful persons,
+who saw into the weakness of her character, sought to practise upon her.
+She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have
+indulged in undue familiarity with her before he was a widower. His
+present duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in the
+first instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The Duke of
+Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to the actual
+exercise of the powers of sovereignty, was next heir to the crown in
+case of the king's decease. This weak and licentious woman, being now
+Duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the Lord Protector, directed her
+ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen, and, by way of
+feeding her evil passions, called to her counsels Margery Jourdain,
+commonly called the Witch of Eye, Roger Bolingbroke, an astrologer and
+supposed magician, Thomas Southwel, Canon of St Stephen's, and one John
+Hume, or Hun, a priest. These persons frequently met the duchess in
+secret cabal. They were accused of calling up spirits from the infernal
+world; and they made an image of wax, which they slowly consumed before
+a fire, expecting that, as the image gradually wasted away, so the
+constitution and life of the poor king would decay and finally perish.
+
+Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon his
+information several of these persons were taken into custody. After
+previous examination, on the 25th of July 1441, Bolingbroke was placed
+upon a scaffold before the cross of St Paul's, with a chair curiously
+painted, which was supposed to be one of his implements of necromancy,
+and dressed in mystical attire, and there, before the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, the Cardinal of Winchester, and several other bishops, made
+abjuration of all his unlawful arts.
+
+A short time after, the Duchess of Gloucester having fled to the
+sanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same high
+persons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence against her.
+She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle of Leeds, near
+Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. A commission was
+directed to the lord treasurer, several noblemen, and certain judges of
+both benches, to inquire into all manner of treasons, sorceries, and
+other things that might be hurtful to the king's person, and Bolingbroke
+and Southwel as principals, and the Duchess of Gloucester as accessory,
+were brought before them. Margery Jourdain was arraigned at the same
+time; and she, as a witch and relapsed heretic, was condemned to be
+burned in Smithfield. The Duchess of Gloucester was sentenced to do
+penance on three several days, walking through the streets of London,
+with a lighted taper in her hand, attended by the lord mayor, the
+sheriffs, and a select body of the livery, and then to be banished for
+life to the Isle of Man. Thomas Southwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke
+was hanged at Tyburn on the 18th of November.
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
+
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Haunters & The Haunted, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Haunters & The Haunted
+       Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Ernest Rhys
+
+Release Date: March 9, 2006 [EBook #17953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTERS & THE HAUNTED ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<h1>THE HAUNTERS &amp; THE HAUNTED</h1>
+
+<h2>GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL</h2>
+
+
+<h3>EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION</h3>
+
+<h2>BY ERNEST RHYS</h2>
+
+<p class="center">
+PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY<br />
+DANIEL O'CONNOR, 90 GREAT<br />
+RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1. 1921<br />
+</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>For permission to use copyright stories in this volume, the
+editor and publishers wish to make special acknowledgments to
+Messrs Allen &amp; Unwin, Mr Arnold Bennett, Mr E.H. Blakeney, Sir
+George Douglas, Bart., Dr Greville MacDonald, Mr Arthur Machen,
+and Mr Thomas Hardy.</p></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+
+
+<div class='center'>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="">
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LITERARY_SOURCES">I.</a> GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>PAGE</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 1. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER</td><td align='left'><a href="#I">17</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 2. THE OLD NURSE'S STORY</td><td align='left'><a href="#II">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 3. THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY</td><td align='left'><a href="#III">54</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 4. A STORY OF RAVENNA</td><td align='left'><a href="#IV">58</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 5. TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE</td><td align='left'><a href="#V">67</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 6. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN</td><td align='left'><a href="#VI">83</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 7. THE BOTATHEN GHOST</td><td align='left'><a href="#VII">128</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 8. THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX</td><td align='left'><a href="#VIII">138</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'> 9. DR DUTHOIT'S VISION</td><td align='left'><a href="#IX">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>10. THE SEVEN LIGHTS</td><td align='left'><a href="#X">147</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>11. THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON</td><td align='left'><a href="#XI">160</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>12. DRAKE'S DRUM</td><td align='left'><a href="#XII">169</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>13. THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM</td><td align='left'><a href="#XIII">171</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>14. THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD</td><td align='left'><a href="#XIV">179</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>15. THE LIANHAN SHEE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XV">181</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>16. THE HAUNTED COVE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XVI">216</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>17. WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XVII">225</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LOCAL_RECORDS">II</a>. GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE, AND LEGEND</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>18. GLAMIS CASTLE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XVIII">249</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>19. POWYS CASTLE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XIX">253</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>20. CROGLIN GRANGE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XX">259</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>21. THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXI">264</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>22. THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXII">268</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>23. THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXIII">270</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>24. CLERK SAUNDERS</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXIV">274</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>25. DOROTHY DURANT</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXV">280</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>26. PEARLIN JEAN</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXVI">284</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>27. THE DENTON HALL GHOST</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXVII">287</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>28. THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXVIII">293</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>29. CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXIX">300</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>30. THE IRON CAGE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXX">303</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>31. THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXI">310</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>32. THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXII">317</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>33. THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXIII">320</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>34. THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXIV">326</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>35. THE ALTHEIM REVENANT</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXV">329</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>36. SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXVI">331</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>37. ERICHTHO</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXVII">334</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'><a href="#OMENS_AND_PHANTASMS">III</a>. OMENS AND PHANTASMS</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'></td><td align='left'>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>38. PATROKLOS</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXVIII">343</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>39. VISION OF CROMWELL</td><td align='left'><a href="#XXXIX">345</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>40. LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING</td><td align='left'><a href="#XL">346</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>41. KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLI">348</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>42. THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLII">350</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>43. BEN JONSON'S PREVISION</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLIII">359</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>44. QUEEN ULRICA</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLIV">360</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>45. DENIS MISANGER</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLV">362</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>46. THE PIED PIPER</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLVI">365</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>47. JEANNE D'ARC</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLVII">367</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>48. ANNE WALKER</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLVIII">368</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>49. THE HAND OF GLORY</td><td align='left'><a href="#XLIX">371</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>50. THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP</td><td align='left'><a href="#L">375</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>51. THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS</td><td align='left'><a href="#LI">378</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>52. THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND</td><td align='left'><a href="#LII">379</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>53. BENDITH EU MAMMAU</td><td align='left'><a href="#LIII">382</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>54. THE RED BOOK OF APPIN</td><td align='left'><a href="#LIV">385</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>55. THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE</td><td align='left'><a href="#LV">387</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>56. SARAH POLGRAIN</td><td align='left'><a href="#LVI">390</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align='left'>57. ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER</td><td align='left'><a href="#LVII">393</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION</h2>
+
+
+<p>In this Ghost Book, M. Larigot, himself a writer of supernatural tales,
+has collected a remarkable batch of documents, fictive or real,
+describing the one human experience that is hardest to make good.
+Perhaps the very difficulty of it has rendered it more tempting to the
+writers who have dealt with the subject. His collection, notably varied
+and artfully chosen as it is, yet by no means exhausts the literature,
+which fills a place apart with its own recognised classics, magic
+masters, and dealers in the occult. Their testimony serves to show that
+the forms by which men and women are haunted are far more diverse and
+subtle than we knew. So much so, that one begins to wonder at last if
+every person is not liable to be "possessed." For, lurking under the
+seeming identity of these visitations, the dramatic differences of their
+entrances and appearances, night and day, are so marked as to suggest
+that the experience is, given the fit temperament and occasion,
+inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>One would even be disposed, accepting this idea, to bring into the
+account, as valid, stories and pieces of literature not usually
+accounted part of the ghostly canon. There are the novels and tales
+whose argument is the tragedy of a haunted mind. Such are Dickens'
+<i>Haunted Man</i>, in which the ghost is memory; Hawthorne's <i>Scarlet
+Letter</i>, in which the ghost is cruel conscience; and Balzac's <i>Quest of
+the Absolute</i>, in which the old Flemish house of Balthasar Claes, in the
+Rue de Paris at Douai, is haunted by a d&aelig;mon more potent than that of
+Canidia. One might add some of Balzac's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> shorter stories, among them
+"The Elixir"; and some of Hawthorne's <i>Twice-Told Tales</i>, including
+"Edward Randolph's Portrait." On the French side we might note too that
+terrible graveyard tale of Guy de Maupassant, <i>La Morte</i>, in which the
+lover who has lost his beloved keeps vigil at her grave by night in his
+despair, and sees&mdash;dreadful resurrection&mdash;"que toutes les tombes &eacute;taient
+ouvertes, et tous les cadavres en &eacute;taient sortis." And why? That they
+might efface the lying legends inscribed on their tombs, and replace
+them with the actual truth. Villiers de l'Isle Adam has in his <i>Contes
+Cruels</i> given us the strange story of V&eacute;ra, which may be read as a
+companion study to <i>La Morte</i>, with another recall from the dead to end
+a lover's obsession. Nature and supernature cross in de l'Isle Adam's
+mystical drama <i>Ax&euml;l</i> a play which will never hold the stage, masterly
+attempt as it is to dramatise the inexplainable mystery.</p>
+
+<p>Among later tales ought to be reckoned Edith Wharton's <i>Tales of Men and
+Ghosts</i>, and Henry James's <i>The Two Magics</i>, whose "Turn of the Screw"
+gives us new instances of the evil genii that haunt mortals, in this
+case two innocent children. One remembers sundry folk-tales with the
+same motive&mdash;of children bewitched or forespoken&mdash;inspiring them. And an
+old charm in Orkney which used to run:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Father, Son, Holy Ghost!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bitten sall they be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Bairn, wha have bitten thee!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Care to their black vein,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till thou hast thy health again!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Mend thou in God's name!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>John Aubrey in his <i>Miscellanies</i> has many na&iuml;ve evidences of the
+twilight region of consciousness, like that between wake and sleep,
+which tends to fade when we are wideawake; so much so, that we call it
+visionary. Yet it is very real to the haunted folk, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> Aubrey's
+correspondent, the Rector of Chedzoy, or to the false love of the Demon
+Lover, or that Mr Bourne of whom Glanvil tells in <i>The Iron Chest of
+Durley</i>, or the Bishop Evodius who was St Augustine's friend, or for
+that matter the son of Monica himself. The reality of these visitations
+may seem dim, but the most sceptical of us cannot doubt that, whether
+from some quickened fear of death or impending disaster, from evil
+conscience or swift intensification of vision; whether in the forms of
+beloved sons lost at sea or of other revenants who were held
+indispensably dear in life, the haunters have appeared, to the absolute
+belief of those who saw them or their simulacra.</p>
+
+<p>"It poseth me," said Richard Baxter, "to think of what kind these
+visitants are. Do good spirits dwell then so near us, or are they sent
+on such messages?" The question, indeed, poseth most of us, but we
+cannot leave the inquiry alone. M. Larigot, realising this
+preoccupation, has in the course of his investigations, during many
+years, arrived at the conclusion that there is an Art of the
+Supernatural, apart from the difficult science of psychical research,
+worth cultivating for its own sake. So he has gone to Glanvil and Arise
+Evans and the credulous old books&mdash;to Edgar Poe and Lord Lytton and the
+modern writers who tell supernatural tales. He gives us their material
+without positing its unquestionable effect as police-court evidence, and
+if we recognise its artistic interest, he does not mind much if we say
+at last with one great visionary, "Hoc est illusionum." But into those
+realms of illusion we ought not, if he is right, to enter lightly. Those
+who do enter there are warned that, having done so, they will not remain
+the same; they become aware of what Eugenius meant, who said:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I am unbody'd by thy Books, and Thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And in thy papers find my Extasie;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or if I please but to descend a strain,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Thy Elements do screen my Soul again.<br /></span><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">I can undress myself by thy bright Glass,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And then resume th' Inclosure, as I was.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Now I am Earth, and now a Star, and then<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A Spirit: now a Star, and earth again ..."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>We see that there is another aspect to the occultation of Orion, and a
+very ominous one. Aurelius appeared to St. Augustine and made clear a
+dark passage to him in his reading, and that great Divine and Father of
+the Church knew it to be an enlightenment from above. But what of the
+other visitants from regions that are unblessed? Paracelsus has taught
+us to be careful in our dealings with the realities and the phantasies,
+as he would conceive them, of the other world; for "under the Earth do
+wander half-men." And there are other and worse manifestations due to
+Black Magic or Nigromancy, and to the black witches and white and the
+false sorcerers who have violently intruded into the true mystery&mdash;"like
+swine broken into a delicate Garden." Against these subtle and powerful
+magicians no weapons, coats of mail, or brigandines will help, no
+shutting of doors or locks; for they penetrate through all things, and
+all things are open to them.</p>
+
+<p>Writing as a physician, Paracelsus sought to anticipate by his
+<i>Celestial Medicine</i> and his <i>Twelve Signs</i> the whole mystery of
+healing, and the cure of the troubled souls and bodies of men and women,
+which are not accorded but at odds with nature and supernature. The
+spirits of discord are indeed always with us; and whether you see them
+as witches, disguised in the living human form, or as monstrous and
+terrifying dream-figures, or as floating impalpable atmospheres, they
+are vigilantly to be guarded against. We know</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Vervain and dill<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hinders witches from their will!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>in the old herbals; but we need new drugs. As for that witch which hath
+haunted all of us, "Maladicta," Lilly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> in his <i>Astrology</i> has a remedy.
+"Take unguentum populeum, and Vervain and Hypericon, and put a red-hot
+iron into it: You must anoint the back-bone, or wear it in your breast."</p>
+
+<p>The haunting apparitions are not all of earth. Cornelius Agrippa, in his
+book of the Secret Doctrine, shows that they are astral too. The
+familiar spirits of Mars, in his account, are no lovelier than Macbeth's
+witches:&mdash;"They appear in a tall body, cholerick, a filthy countenance,
+of colour brown, swarthy or red, having horns, like Harts' Horns, and
+gryphon's claws, and bellowing like wild Bulls."</p>
+
+<p>But the spirits of Mercury are delightful. They indeed are "of colour
+clear and bright, like unto a knight armed,&mdash;and the motion of them is
+as it were silver-coloured clouds." So, if Mars has troubled the world,
+as in the unhappy history of our own time, we must hope for the brighter
+forms, and the remedial and aerial messengers of Mercury.</p>
+
+<p>We may seem to have strayed from the proper boundaries in going so far.
+But it is one of the offices of this book to widen the area of research,
+and relate the ghost-story anew to the whole literature of wonder and
+imagination. Such sagas as that which Dr Douglas Hyde has translated
+with consummate art from the Irish, "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse," which
+Mr W.B. Yeats called a little masterpiece; or Boccaccio's story of the
+spectre-hounds that pulled down the daughter of Anastasio, or Scott's
+"Wandering Willie's Tale," or Hawker's "Cruel Coppinger," or Edgar Poe's
+"Fall of the House of Usher," are of their kind not to be beaten. And in
+their own way some of the later records are as telling. One can take the
+book as a text-book of the supernatural, or as a story-book of that
+middle world which has given us the ghosts that Homer and Shakespeare
+conjured up.</p>
+
+<p class="signature">ERNEST RHYS.</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>I</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LITERARY_SOURCES" id="GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LITERARY_SOURCES"></a>GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES</h2>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span></p>
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I</h2>
+
+<h2>THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Edgar Allan Poe</span></h3>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Son c&oelig;ur est un luth suspendu;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Sit&ocirc;t qu'on le touche il r&eacute;sonne.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0 smcap">De Beranger.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the
+year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been
+passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of
+country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew
+on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it
+was&mdash;but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of
+insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the
+feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic,
+sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural
+images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before
+me&mdash;upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the
+domain&mdash;upon the bleak walls&mdash;upon the vacant eye-like windows&mdash;upon a
+few rank sedges&mdash;and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees&mdash;with an
+utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation
+more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium&mdash;the
+bitter lapse into everyday life&mdash;the hideous dropping off of the veil.
+There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart&mdash;an unredeemed
+dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture
+into aught of the sublime. What was it&mdash;I paused to think&mdash;what was it
+that so unnerved me in the contemplation<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> of the House of Usher? It was
+a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies
+that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the
+unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there <i>are</i>
+combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus
+affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations
+beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different
+arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the
+picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its
+capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined
+my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in
+unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down&mdash;but with a shudder
+even more thrilling than before&mdash;upon the remodelled and inverted images
+of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and
+eye-like windows.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a
+sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of
+my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last
+meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of
+the country&mdash;a letter from him&mdash;which, in its wildly importunate nature,
+had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of
+nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness&mdash;of a mental
+disorder which oppressed him&mdash;and of an earnest desire to see me, as his
+best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by
+the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was
+the manner in which all this, and much more, was said&mdash;it was the
+apparent <i>heart</i> that went with his request&mdash;which allowed me no room
+for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still
+considered a very singular summons.</p>
+
+<p>Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> yet I really
+knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and
+habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been
+noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament,
+displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and
+manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive
+charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps
+even more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, of
+musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the
+stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put forth, at
+no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family
+lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling
+and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I
+considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the
+character of the premises with the accredited character of the people,
+and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the
+long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other&mdash;it was
+this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent
+undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with the
+name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the
+original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of
+the "House of Usher"&mdash;an appellation which seemed to include, in the
+minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family
+mansion.</p>
+
+<p>I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish
+experiment&mdash;that of looking down within the tarn&mdash;had been to deepen the
+first singular impression. There can be no doubt that the consciousness
+of the rapid increase of my superstition&mdash;for why should I not so term
+it?&mdash;served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long
+known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a
+basis. And it might have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> been for this reason only, that, when I again
+uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there
+grew in my mind a strange fancy&mdash;a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I
+but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed
+me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about
+the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to
+themselves and their immediate vicinity&mdash;an atmosphere which had no
+affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the
+decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn&mdash;a pestilent and
+mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.</p>
+
+<p>Shaking off from my spirit what <i>must</i> have been a dream, I scanned more
+narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed
+to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been
+great. Minute <i>fungi</i> overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine
+tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any
+extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and
+there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect
+adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual
+stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality
+of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault,
+with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyond this
+indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of
+instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinising observer might have
+discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof
+of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag
+direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.</p>
+
+<p>Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. A
+servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway of
+the hall. A valet, of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence,
+through many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the <i>studio</i>
+of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I know
+not how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already
+spoken. While the objects around me&mdash;while the carvings of the ceilings,
+the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors,
+and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were
+but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my
+infancy&mdash;while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all
+this&mdash;I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which
+ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the
+physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled
+expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with
+trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and ushered
+me into the presence of his master.</p>
+
+<p>The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows
+were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black
+oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams
+of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and
+served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects
+around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles
+of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark
+draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse,
+comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments
+lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I
+felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and
+irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.</p>
+
+<p>Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying at
+full length, and greeted me with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> vivacious warmth which had much in
+it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality&mdash;of the constrained
+effort of the <i>ennuy&eacute;</i> man of the world. A glance, however, at his
+countenance, convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for
+some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half
+of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered,
+in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with difficulty that
+I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me
+with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face
+had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye
+large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and
+very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate
+Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril, unusual in similar
+formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence,
+of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and
+tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions
+of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be
+forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character
+of these features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay
+so much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor
+of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things
+startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to
+grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated
+rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect
+its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.</p>
+
+<p>In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence&mdash;an
+inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble
+and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy&mdash;an excessive
+nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> been
+prepared, no less by his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish
+traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical
+conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and
+sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the
+animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic
+concision&mdash;that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding
+enunciation&mdash;that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural
+utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the
+irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense
+excitement.</p>
+
+<p>It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnest
+desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. He
+entered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of his
+malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for
+which he despaired to find a remedy&mdash;a mere nervous affection, he
+immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass on. It displayed
+itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed
+them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms, and
+the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered much
+from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone
+endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odours of
+all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint
+light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed
+instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.</p>
+
+<p>To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I shall
+perish," said he, "I <i>must</i> perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus,
+and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future,
+not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of
+any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this
+intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> no abhorrence of danger,
+except in its absolute effect&mdash;in terror. In this unnerved&mdash;in this
+pitiable condition&mdash;I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive
+when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the
+grim phantasm, <span class="smcap">Fear</span>."</p>
+
+<p>I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal
+hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was
+enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling
+which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured
+forth&mdash;in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed
+in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated&mdash;an influence which some
+peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had,
+by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit&mdash;an effect
+which the <i>physique</i> of the grey walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn
+into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the
+<i>morale</i> of his existence.</p>
+
+<p>He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the
+peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more
+natural and far more palpable origin&mdash;to the severe and long-continued
+illness&mdash;indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution&mdash;of a tenderly
+beloved sister&mdash;his sole companion for long years&mdash;his last and only
+relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can
+never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last
+of the ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, the Lady Madeline
+(for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the
+apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I
+regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread&mdash;and
+yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of
+stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a
+door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>
+eagerly the countenance of the brother&mdash;but he had buried his face in
+his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary
+wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many
+passionate tears.</p>
+
+<p>The disease of the Lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her
+physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and
+frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical
+character, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borne
+up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself
+finally to bed; but, on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at
+the house, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with
+inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and
+I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus
+probably be the last I should obtain&mdash;that the lady, at least while
+living, would be seen by me no more.</p>
+
+<p>For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or
+myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavours to
+alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together; or
+I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking
+guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more
+unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I
+perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which
+darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all
+objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation
+of gloom.</p>
+
+<p>I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus
+spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail in
+any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or
+of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the way. An
+excited and highly distempered ideality<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> threw a sulphureous lustre over
+all. His long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among
+other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and
+amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the
+paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded and which grew, touch
+by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more thrillingly,
+because I shuddered knowing not why;&mdash;from these paintings (vivid as
+their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more
+than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely
+written words. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs,
+he arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that
+mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least&mdash;in the circumstances then
+surrounding me&mdash;there arose out of the pure abstractions which the
+hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of
+intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation
+of the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of Fuseli.</p>
+
+<p>One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so
+rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although
+feebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an immensely
+long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and
+without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design
+served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding
+depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any
+portion of its vast extent, and no torch, or other artificial source of
+light, was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout,
+and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate splendour.</p>
+
+<p>I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which
+rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of
+certain effects of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow
+limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave
+birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances.
+But the fervid <i>facility</i> of his <i>impromptus</i> could not be so accounted
+for. They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the
+words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself
+with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental
+collectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded as
+observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial
+excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily
+remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it, as he
+gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I
+fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness
+on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her
+throne. The verses, which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very
+nearly, if not accurately, thus:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">I<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">In the greenest of our valleys,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">By good angels tenanted<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Once a fair and stately palace&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Radiant palace&mdash;reared its head.<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In the monarch Thought's dominion&mdash;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">It stood there!<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Never seraph spread a pinion<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Over fabric half so fair.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">II<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Banners yellow, glorious, golden,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">On its roof did float and flow;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(This&mdash;all this&mdash;was in the olden<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Time long ago)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And every gentle air that dallied,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">In that sweet day,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">A winged odour went away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">III<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Wanderers in that happy valley<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through two luminous windows saw<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Spirits moving musically<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To a lute's well tun&egrave;d law,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Round about a throne, where sitting<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">(Porphyrogene!)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In state his glory well befitting,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The ruler of the realm was seen.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">IV<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And all with pearl and ruby glowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Was the fair palace door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And sparkling evermore,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Was but to sing,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">In voices of surpassing beauty,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The wit and wisdom of their king.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">V<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But evil things, in robes of sorrow,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Assailed the monarch's high estate;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">(Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And, round about his home, the glory<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That blushed and bloomed<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Is but a dim-remembered story<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Of the old time entombed.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">VI<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And travellers now within that valley,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through the red-litten windows, see<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Vast forms that move fantastically<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To a discordant melody;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">While, like a rapid ghastly river,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through the pale door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">A hideous throng rush out forever,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And laugh&mdash;but smile no more.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led us into a
+train of thought wherein there became manifest an opinion of Usher's
+which I mention not so much on account of its novelty (for other men<a name="FNanchor_1_1" id="FNanchor_1_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_1_1" class="fnanchor">[1]</a>
+have thought thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he
+maintained it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the
+sentience of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the
+idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under certain
+conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganisation. I lack words to express
+the full extent, or the earnest <i>abandon</i> of his persuasion. The belief,
+however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with the grey
+stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions of the sentience
+had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of
+these stones&mdash;in the order of their arrangement, as well as in that of
+the many <i>fungi</i> which overspread them, and of the decayed trees which
+stood around&mdash;above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this
+arrangement, and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn.
+Its evidence&mdash;the evidence of the sentience&mdash;was to be seen, he said
+(and I here started as he spoke), in the gradual yet certain
+condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the
+walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet
+importunate and terrible influence which for centuries had moulded the
+destinies of his family, and which made <i>him</i> what I now saw him&mdash;what
+he was. Such opinions need no comment, and I will make none.</p>
+
+<p>Our books&mdash;the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of
+the mental existence of the invalid&mdash;were, as might be supposed, in
+strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over
+such works as the <i>Ververt et Chartreuse</i> of Gresset; the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> <i>Belphegor</i>
+of Machiavelli; the <i>Heaven and Hell</i> of Swedenborg; the <i>Subterranean
+Voyage of Nicholas Klimm</i> by Holberg; the <i>Chiromancy</i> of Robert Flud,
+of Jean D'Indagin&eacute;, and of De la Chambre; the <i>Journey into the Blue
+Distance</i> of Tieck; and the <i>City of the Sun</i> of Campanella. One
+favourite volume was a small octavo edition of the <i>Directorium
+Inquisitorum</i>, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were
+passages in <i>Pomponius Mela</i>, about the old African Satyrs and &AElig;gipans,
+over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight,
+however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious
+book in quarto Gothic&mdash;the manual of a forgotten church&mdash;the <i>Vigili&aelig;
+Mortuorum Chorum Ecclesi&aelig; Maguntin&aelig;</i>.</p>
+
+<p>I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its
+probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one evening, having
+informed me abruptly that the Lady Madeline was no more, he stated his
+intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight (previously to its
+final interment), in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of
+the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular
+proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The
+brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration
+of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of certain
+obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men, and of the
+remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of the family. I will
+not deny that when I called to mind the sinister countenance of the
+person whom I met upon the staircase, on the day of my arrival at the
+house, I had no desire to oppose what I regarded as at best but a
+harmless, and by no means an unnatural, precaution.</p>
+
+<p>At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangements for
+the temporary entombment. The body having been encoffined, we two alone
+bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> had
+been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in its oppressive
+atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation) was small,
+damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great
+depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which was my
+own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in remote feudal
+times, for the worst purpose of a donjon-keep, and, in later days, as a
+place of deposit for powder, or some other highly combustible substance,
+as a portion of its floor, and the whole interior of a long archway
+through which we reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The
+door, of massive iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense
+weight caused an unusually sharp grating sound as it moved upon its
+hinges.</p>
+
+<p>Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of
+horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin,
+and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between
+the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher,
+divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I
+learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that
+sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between
+them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead&mdash;for we could
+not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady in
+the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly
+cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and
+the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so
+terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having
+secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely
+less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.</p>
+
+<p>And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change
+came over the features of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> mental disorder of my friend. His
+ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or
+forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and
+objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible,
+a more ghastly hue&mdash;but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone
+out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a
+tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterised his
+utterance. There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly
+agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive secret, to divulge
+which he struggled for the necessary courage. At times, again, I was
+obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness,
+for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of
+the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. It
+was no wonder that his condition terrified&mdash;that it infected me. I felt
+creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of
+his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions.</p>
+
+<p>It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the
+seventh or eighth day after the placing of the Lady Madeline within the
+donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep came
+not near my couch&mdash;while the hours waned and waned away. I struggled to
+reason off the nervousness which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to
+believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering
+influence of the gloomy furniture of the room&mdash;of the dark and tattered
+draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising
+tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily
+about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless. An
+irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length, there
+sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm. Shaking
+this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows,
+and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber,
+hearkened&mdash;I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted
+me&mdash;to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses
+of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered by an
+intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on
+my clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep no more during the
+night), and endeavoured to arouse myself from the pitiable condition
+into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the
+apartment.</p>
+
+<p>I had taken but a few turns in this manner, when a light step on an
+adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently recognised it as
+that of Usher. In an instant afterward he rapped, with a gentle touch,
+at my door, and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, as usual,
+cadaverously wan&mdash;but, moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in
+his eyes&mdash;an evidently restrained <i>hysteria</i> in his whole demeanour. His
+air appalled me&mdash;but anything was preferable to the solitude which I had
+so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief.</p>
+
+<p>"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having stared about
+him for some moments in silence&mdash;"you have not then seen it?&mdash;but, stay!
+you shall." Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his lamp, he
+hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open to the storm.</p>
+
+<p>The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet.
+It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one
+wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently
+collected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violent
+alterations in the direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of
+the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house)
+did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> they
+flew careering from all points against each other, without passing away
+into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density did not
+prevent our perceiving this&mdash;yet we had no glimpse of the moon or
+stars&mdash;nor was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the under
+surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapour, as well as all
+terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural
+light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation
+which hung about and enshrouded the mansion.</p>
+
+<p>"You must not&mdash;you shall not behold this!" said I, shudderingly, to
+Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat.
+"These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena
+not uncommon&mdash;or it may be that they have their ghastly origin in the
+rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement;&mdash;the air is
+chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite
+romances. I will read, and you shall listen;&mdash;and so we will pass away
+this terrible night together."</p>
+
+<p>The antique volume which I had taken up was the <i>Mad Trist</i> of Sir
+Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite of Usher's more in
+sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth
+and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty
+and spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book
+immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the excitement
+which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history
+of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness
+of the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the
+wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently
+hearkened, to the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated
+myself upon the success of my design.</p>
+
+<p>I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where Ethelred,
+the hero of the Trist, having sought in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> vain for peaceable admission
+into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make good an entrance by
+force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the narrative run thus:</p>
+
+<p>"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now
+mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine which he had
+drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in sooth,
+was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but, feeling the rain upon his
+shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace
+outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the
+door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so
+cracked and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and
+hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the forest."</p>
+
+<p>At the termination of this sentence I started, and, for a moment,
+paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my
+excited fancy had deceived me)&mdash;it appeared to me that, from some very
+remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears,
+what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo
+(but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping
+sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond
+doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid
+the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary commingled
+noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in itself, had nothing,
+surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. I continued the
+story:</p>
+
+<p>"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the door, was sore
+enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the maliceful hermit; but,
+in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious demeanour, and
+of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace of gold, with a
+floor of silver; and upon the wall there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> hung a shield of shining brass
+with this legend enwritten&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon,
+which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so
+horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred had fain to
+close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, the like
+whereof was never before heard."</p>
+
+<p>Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild
+amazement&mdash;for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance,
+I did actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found
+it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh,
+protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating sound&mdash;the exact
+counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's
+unnatural shriek as described by the romancer.</p>
+
+<p>Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the second and
+most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in
+which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained
+sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the
+sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that he
+had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange
+alteration had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his
+demeanour. From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought
+round his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber;
+and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I saw
+that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His head had
+dropped upon his breast&mdash;yet I knew that he was not asleep, from the
+wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a glance of it in profile.
+The motion of his body, too, was at variance with this idea&mdash;for he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway.
+Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir
+Launcelot, which thus proceeded:</p>
+
+<p>"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of the
+dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the breaking up
+of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out of
+the way before him, and approached valorously over the silver pavement
+of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth
+tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the
+silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound."</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than&mdash;as if a shield of
+brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of
+silver&mdash;I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous,
+yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped to
+my feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I
+rushed to the chair on which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before
+him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony
+rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a
+strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his
+lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur,
+as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I at length
+drank in the hideous import of his words.</p>
+
+<p>"Not hear it?&mdash;yes, I hear it, and <i>have</i> heard it.
+Long&mdash;long&mdash;long&mdash;many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard
+it&mdash;yet I dared not&mdash;-oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!&mdash;I dared
+not&mdash;I <i>dared</i> not speak! <i>We have put her living in the tomb!</i> Said I
+not that my senses were acute? I <i>now</i> tell you that I heard her first
+feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them&mdash;many, many
+days ago&mdash;yet I dared not&mdash;<i>I dared not speak!</i> And
+now&mdash;to-night&mdash;Ethelred&mdash;ha!<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> ha!&mdash;the breaking of the hermit's door,
+and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!&mdash;say,
+rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of
+her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault!
+Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying
+to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair?
+Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
+<span class="smcap">Madman!</span>" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out
+his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his
+soul&mdash;"<span class="smcap">Madman! I tell you that she now stands without the
+door!</span>"</p>
+
+<p>As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the
+potency of a spell&mdash;the huge antique panels to which the speaker
+pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony
+jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust&mdash;but then without those doors
+there <span class="smcap">did</span> stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the Lady
+Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the
+evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated
+frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon
+the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon
+the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final
+death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the
+terrors he had anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was
+still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old
+causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned
+to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house
+and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full,
+setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once
+barely discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending
+from the roof of the building, in a zigzag<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> direction, to the base.
+While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened&mdash;there came a fierce breath
+of the whirlwind&mdash;the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my
+sight&mdash;my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder&mdash;there
+was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand
+waters&mdash;and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and
+silently over the fragments of the "<span class="smcap">House of Usher</span>."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_1_1" id="Footnote_1_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_1_1"><span class="label">[1]</span></a> Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop
+of Landaff.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II</h2>
+
+<h2>THE OLD NURSE'S STORY</h2>
+
+<h3>From "The Portent"</h3>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">George MacDonald</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>I set out one evening for the cottage of my old nurse, to bid her
+good-bye for many months, probably years. I was to leave the next day
+for Edinburgh, on my way to London, whence I had to repair by coach to
+my new abode&mdash;almost to me like the land beyond the grave, so little did
+I know about it, and so wide was the separation between it and my home.
+The evening was sultry when I began my walk, and before I arrived at its
+end, the clouds rising from all quarters of the horizon, and especially
+gathering around the peaks of the mountain, betokened the near approach
+of a thunderstorm. This was a great delight to me. Gladly would I take
+leave of my home with the memory of a last night of tumultuous
+magnificence; followed, probably, by a day of weeping rain, well suited
+to the mood of my own heart in bidding farewell to the best of parents
+and the dearest of homes. Besides, in common with most Scotchmen who are
+young and hardy enough to be unable to realise the existence of coughs
+and rheumatic fevers, it was a positive pleasure to me to be out in
+rain, hail, or snow.</p>
+
+<p>"I am come to bid you good-bye, Margaret, and to hear the story which
+you promised to tell me before I left home: I go to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you go so soon, my darling? Well, it will be an awful night to tell
+it in; but, as I promised, I suppose I must."</p>
+
+<p>At the moment, two or three great drops of rain, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> first of the
+storm, fell down the wide chimney, exploding in the clear turf-fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed you must," I replied.</p>
+
+<p>After a short pause, she commenced. Of course she spoke in Gaelic; and I
+translate from my recollection of the Gaelic; but rather from the
+impression left upon my mind, than from any recollection of words. She
+drew her chair near the fire, which we had reason to fear would soon be
+put out by the falling rain, and began.</p>
+
+<p>"How old the story is, I do not know. It has come down through many
+generations. My grandmother told it to me as I tell it to you; and her
+mother and my mother sat beside, never interrupting, but nodding their
+heads at every turn. Almost it ought to begin like the fairy tales,
+<i>Once upon a time</i>,&mdash;it took place so long ago; but it is too dreadful
+and too true to tell like a fairy tale.&mdash;There were two brothers, sons
+of the chief of our clan, but as different in appearance and disposition
+as two men could be. The elder was fair-haired and strong, much given to
+hunting and fishing; fighting too, upon occasion, I daresay, when they
+made a foray upon the Saxon, to get back a mouthful of their own. But he
+was gentleness itself to everyone about him, and the very soul of honour
+in all his doings. The younger was very dark in complexion, and tall and
+slender compared to his brother. He was very fond of book-learning,
+which, they say, was an uncommon taste in those times. He did not care
+for any sports or bodily exercises but one; and that, too, was unusual
+in these parts. It was horsemanship. He was a fierce rider, and as much
+at home in the saddle as in his study-chair. You may think that, so long
+ago, there was not much fit room for riding hereabouts; but, fit or not
+fit, he rode. From his reading and riding, the neighbours looked
+doubtfully upon him, and whispered about the black art. He usually
+bestrode a great powerful black horse, without a white hair on him; and
+people said it was either the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> devil himself, or a demon-horse from the
+devil's own stud. What favoured this notion was that in or out of the
+stable, the brute would let no other than his master go near him.
+Indeed, no one would venture, after he had killed two men, and
+grievously maimed a third, tearing him with his teeth and hoofs like a
+wild beast. But to his master he was obedient as a hound, and would even
+tremble in his presence sometimes.</p>
+
+<p>"The youth's temper corresponded to his habits. He was both gloomy and
+passionate. Prone to anger, he had never been known to forgive. Debarred
+from anything on which he had set his heart, he would have gone mad with
+longing if he had not gone mad with rage. His soul was like the night
+around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red
+levin of wrath, and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion. He must
+have his will: hell might have his soul. Imagine, then, the rage and
+malice in his heart, when he suddenly became aware that an orphan girl,
+distantly related to them, who had lived with them for nearly two years,
+and whom he had loved for almost all that period, was loved by his elder
+brother, and loved him in return. He flung his right hand above his
+head, and swore a terrible oath that if he might not, his brother should
+not, rushed out of the house, and galloped off among the hills.</p>
+
+<p>"The orphan was a beautiful girl, tall, pale, and slender, with
+plentiful dark hair, which, when released from the snood, rippled down
+below her knees. Her appearance formed a strong contrast with that of
+her favoured lover, while there was some resemblance between her and the
+younger brother. This fact seemed, to his fierce selfishness, ground for
+a prior claim.</p>
+
+<p>"It may appear strange that a man like him should not have had instant
+recourse to his superior and hidden knowledge, by means of which he
+might have got rid of his rival with far more of certainty and less of
+risk; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> I presume that, for the moment, his passion overwhelmed his
+consciousness of skill. Yet I do not suppose that he foresaw the mode in
+which his hatred was about to operate. At the moment when he learned
+their mutual attachment, probably through a domestic, the lady was on
+her way to meet her lover as he returned from the day's sport. The
+appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose
+dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent. You know the
+place, Duncan, my dear, I daresay."</p>
+
+<p>(Here she gave me a minute description of the spot, with directions how
+to find it.)</p>
+
+<p>"Whether any one saw what I am about to relate, or whether it was put
+together afterwards, I cannot tell. The story is like an old tree&mdash;so
+old that it has lost the marks of its growth. But this is how my
+grandmother told it to me. An evil chance led him in the right
+direction. The lovers, startled by the sound of the approaching horse,
+parted in opposite directions along a narrow mountain-path on the edge
+of the ravine. Into this path he struck at a point near where the lovers
+had met, but to opposite sides of which they had now receded; so that he
+was between them on the path. Turning his horse up the course of the
+stream, he soon came in sight of his brother on the ledge before him.
+With a suppressed scream of rage, he rode headlong at him, and, ere he
+had time to make the least defence, hurled him over the precipice. The
+helplessness of the strong man was uttered in one single despairing cry
+as he shot into the abyss. Then all was still. The sound of his fall
+could not reach the edge of the gulf. Divining in a moment that the
+lady, whose name was Elsie, must have fled in the opposite direction, he
+reined his steed on his haunches. He could touch the precipice with his
+bridle-hand half outstretched; his sword-hand half outstretched would
+have dropped a stone to the bottom of the ravine. There was no room to
+wheel. One desperate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> practibility alone remained. Turning his horse's
+head towards the edge, he compelled him, by means of the powerful bit,
+to rear till he stood almost erect; and so, his body swaying over the
+gulf, with quivering and straining muscles, to turn on his hind legs.
+Having completed the half-circle, he let him drop, and urged him
+furiously in the opposite direction. It must have been by the devil's
+own care that he was able to continue his gallop along that ledge of
+rock.</p>
+
+<p>"He soon caught sight of the maiden. She was leaning, half fainting,
+against the precipice. She had beard her lover's last cry, and, although
+it had conveyed no suggestion of his voice to her ear, she trembled from
+head to foot, and her limbs would bear her no farther. He checked his
+speed, rode gently up to her, lifted her unresisting, laid her across
+the shoulders of his horse, and, riding carefully till he reached a more
+open path, dashed again wildly along the mountain side. The lady's long
+hair was shaken loose, and dropped, trailing on the ground. The horse
+trampled upon it, and stumbled, half dragging her from the saddle-bow.
+He caught her, lifted her up, and looked at her face. She was dead. I
+suppose he went mad. He laid her again across the saddle before him, and
+rode on, reckless whither. Horse, and man, and maiden were found the
+next day, lying at the foot of a cliff, dashed to pieces. It was
+observed that a hind shoe of the horse was loose and broken. Whether
+this had been the cause of his fall, could not be told; but ever when he
+races, as race he will, till the day of doom, along that mountain side,
+his gallop is mingled with the clank of the loose and broken shoe. For,
+like the sin, the punishment is awful; he shall carry about for ages the
+phantom-body of the girl, knowing that her soul is away, sitting with
+the soul of his brother, down in the deep ravine, or scaling with him
+the topmost crags of the towering mountain peaks. There are some who,
+from time to time, see the doomed man careering along<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> the face of the
+mountain, with the lady hanging across the steed; and they say it always
+betokens a storm, such as this which is now raving about us."</p>
+
+<p>I had not noticed till now, so absorbed had I been in her tale, that the
+storm had risen to a very ecstasy of fury.</p>
+
+<p>"They say, likewise, that the lady's hair is still growing; for, every
+time they see her, it is longer than before; and that now such is its
+length and the headlong speed of the horse, that it floats and streams
+out behind, like one of those curved clouds, like a comet's tail, far up
+in the sky; only the cloud is white, and the hair dark as night. And
+they say it will go on growing until the Last Day, when the horse will
+falter, and her hair will gather in; and the horse will fall, and the
+hair will twist, and twine, and wreathe itself like a mist of threads
+about him, and blind him to everything but her. Then the body will rise
+up within it, face to face with him, animated by a fiend, who, twining
+<i>her</i> arms around him, will drag him down to the bottomless pit."</p>
+
+<p>I may mention something which now occurred, and which had a strange
+effect on my old nurse. It illustrates the assertion that we see around
+us only what is within us; marvellous things enough will show themselves
+to the marvellous mood. During a short lull in the storm, just as she
+had finished her story, we heard the sound of iron-shod hoofs
+approaching the cottage. There was no bridle-way into the glen. A knock
+came to the door, and, on opening it, we saw an old man seated on a
+horse, with a long, slenderly-filled sack lying across the saddle before
+him. He said he had lost the path in the storm, and, seeing the light,
+had scrambled down to inquire his way. I perceived at once, from the
+scared and mysterious look of the old woman's eyes, that she was
+persuaded that this appearance had more than a little to do with the
+awful rider, the terrific storm, and myself who had heard the sound of
+the phantom hoofs. As he ascended the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> hill, she looked after him, with
+wide and pale but unshrinking eyes; then turning in, shut and locked the
+door behind her, as by a natural instinct. After two or three of her
+significant nods, accompanied by the compression of her lips, she
+said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"He need not think to take me in, wizard as he is, with his disguises. I
+can see him through them all. Duncan, my dear, when you suspect
+anything, do not be too incredulous. This human demon is, of course, a
+wizard still, and knows how to make himself, as well as anything he
+touches, take a quite different appearance from the real one; only every
+appearance must bear some resemblance, however distant, to the natural
+form. That man you saw at the door, was the phantom of which I have been
+telling you. What he is after now, of course, I cannot tell; but you
+must keep a bold heart, and a firm and wary foot, as you go home
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>I showed some surprise, I do not doubt, and, perhaps, some fear as well;
+but I only said: "How do you know him, Margaret?"</p>
+
+<p>"I can hardly tell you," she replied; "but I do know him. I think he
+hates me. Often, of a wild night, when there is moonlight enough by
+fits, I see him tearing round this little valley, just on the top
+edge&mdash;all round; the lady's hair and the horse's mane and tail driving
+far behind, and mingling, vaporous, with the stormy clouds. About he
+goes, in wild careering gallop; now lost as the moon goes in, then
+visible far round when she looks out again&mdash;an airy, pale-grey spectre,
+which few eyes but mine could see; for, as far as I am aware, no one of
+the family but myself has ever possessed the double gift of seeing and
+hearing both. In this case I hear no sound, except now and then a clank
+from the broken shoe. But I did not mean to tell you that I had ever
+seen him. I am not a bit afraid of him. He cannot do more than he may.
+His power is limited; else ill enough would he work, the miscreant."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But," said I, "what has all this, terrible as it is, to do with the
+fright you took at my telling you that I had heard the sound of the
+broken shoe? Surely you are not afraid of only a storm?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, my boy; I fear no storm. But the fact is, that that sound is seldom
+heard, and never, as far as I know, by any of the blood of that wicked
+man, without betokening some ill to one of the family, and most probably
+to the one who hears it&mdash;but I am not quite sure about that. Only some
+evil it does portend, although a long time may elapse before it shows
+itself; and I have a hope it may mean some one else than you."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not wish that," I replied. "I know no one better able to bear it
+than I am; and I hope, whatever it may be, that I only shall have to
+meet it. It must surely be something serious to be so foretold&mdash;it can
+hardly be connected with my disappointment in being compelled to be a
+pedagogue instead of a soldier."</p>
+
+<p>"Do not trouble yourself about that, Duncan," replied she. "A soldier
+you must be. The same day you told me of the clank of the broken
+horseshoe, I saw you return wounded from battle, and fall fainting from
+your horse in the street of a great city&mdash;only fainting, thank God. But
+I have particular reasons for being uneasy at <i>your</i> hearing that boding
+sound. Can you tell me the day and hour of your birth?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," I replied. "It seems very odd when I think of it, but I really do
+not know even the day."</p>
+
+<p>"Nor any one else, which is stranger still," she answered.</p>
+
+<p>"How does that happen, nurse?"</p>
+
+<p>"We were in terrible anxiety about your mother at the time. So ill was
+she, after you were just born, in a strange, unaccountable way, that you
+lay almost neglected for more than an hour. In the very act of giving
+birth to you, she seemed to the rest around her to be out of her mind,
+so wildly did she talk; but I knew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> better. I knew that she was fighting
+some evil power; and what power it was, I knew full well; for twice,
+during her pains, I heard the click of the horseshoe. But no one could
+help her. After her delivery, she lay as if in a trance, neither dead,
+nor at rest, but as if frozen to ice, and conscious of it all the while.
+Once more I heard the terrible sound of iron; and, at the moment your
+mother started from her trance, screaming, 'My child! my child!' We
+suddenly became aware that no one had attended to the child, and rushed
+to the place where he lay wrapped in a blanket. Uncovering him, we found
+him black in the face, and spotted with dark spots upon the throat. I
+thought he was dead; but, with great and almost hopeless pains, we
+succeeded in making him breathe, and he gradually recovered. But his
+mother continued dreadfully exhausted. It seemed as if she had spent her
+life for her child's defence and birth. That was you, Duncan, my dear.</p>
+
+<p>"I was in constant attendance upon her. About a week after your birth,
+as near as I can guess, just in the gloaming, I heard yet again the
+awful clank&mdash;only once. Nothing followed till about midnight. Your
+mother slept, and you lay asleep beside her. I sat by the bedside. A
+horror fell upon me suddenly, though I neither saw nor heard anything.
+Your mother started from her sleep with a cry, which sounded as if it
+came from far away, out of a dream, and did not belong to this world. My
+blood curdled with fear. She sat up in bed, with wide staring eyes, and
+half-open rigid lips, and, feeble as she was, thrust her arms straight
+out before her with great force, her hands open and lifted up, with the
+palms outwards. The whole action was of one violently repelling another.
+She began to talk wildly as she had done before you were born, but,
+though I seemed to hear and understand it all at the time, I could not
+recall a word of it afterwards. It was as if I had listened to it when
+half asleep. I attempted to soothe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> her, putting my arms round her, but
+she seemed quite unconscious of my presence, and my arms seemed
+powerless upon the fixed muscles of hers. Not that I tried to constrain
+her, for I knew that a battle was going on of some kind or other, and my
+interference might do awful mischief. I only tried to comfort and
+encourage her. All the time, I was in a state of indescribable cold and
+suffering, whether more bodily or mental I could not tell. But at length
+I heard yet again the clank of the shoe. A sudden peace seemed to fall
+upon my mind&mdash;or was it a warm, odorous wind that filled the room? Your
+mother dropped her arms, and turned feebly towards her baby. She saw
+that he slept a blessed sleep. She smiled like a glorified spirit, and
+fell back exhausted on the pillow. I went to the other side of the room
+to get a cordial. When I returned to the bedside, I saw at once that she
+was dead. Her face smiled still, with an expression of the uttermost
+bliss."</p>
+
+<p>Nurse ceased, trembling as overcome by the recollection; and I was too
+much moved and awed to speak. At length, resuming the conversation, she
+said: "You see it is no wonder, Duncan, my dear, if, after all this, I
+should find, when I wanted to fix the date of your birth, that I could
+not determine the day or the hour when it took place. All was confusion
+in my poor brain. But it was strange that no one else could, any more
+than I. One thing only I can tell you about it. As I carried you across
+the room to lay you down&mdash;for I assisted at your birth&mdash;I happened to
+look up to the window. Then I saw what I did not forget, although I did
+not think of it again till many days after&mdash;a bright star was shining on
+the very tip of the thin crescent moon."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then," said I, "it is possible to determine the day and the very
+hour when my birth took place."</p>
+
+<p>"See the good of book-learning!" replied she. "When you work it out,
+just let me know, my dear, that I may remember it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"That I will."</p>
+
+<p>A silence of some moments followed. Margaret resumed:</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid you will laugh at my foolish fancies, Duncan; but in
+thinking over all these things, as you may suppose I often do, lying
+awake in my lonely bed, the notion sometimes comes to me: What if my
+Duncan be the youth whom his wicked brother hurled into the ravine, come
+again in a new body, to live out his life, cut short by his brother's
+hatred? If so, his persecution of you, and of your mother for your sake,
+is easy to understand. And if so, you will never be able to rest till
+you find your fere, wherever she may have been born on the face of the
+earth. For born she must be, long ere now, for you to find. I misdoubt
+me much, however, if you will find her without great conflict and
+suffering between, for the Powers of Darkness will be against you;
+though I have good hope that you will overcome at last. You must forgive
+the fancies of a foolish old woman, my dear."</p>
+
+<p>I will not try to describe the strange feelings, almost sensations, that
+arose in me while listening to these extraordinary utterances, lest it
+should be supposed I was ready to believe all that Margaret narrated or
+concluded. I could not help doubting her sanity; but no more could I
+help feeling peculiarly moved by her narrative.</p>
+
+<p>Few more words were spoken on either side, but, after receiving renewed
+exhortations to carefulness on the way home, I said good-bye to dear old
+nurse, considerably comforted, I must confess, that I was not doomed to
+be a tutor all my days; for I never questioned the truth of that vision
+and its consequent prophecy.</p>
+
+<p>I went out into the midst of the storm, into the alternating throbs of
+blackness and radiance; now the possessor of no more room than what my
+body filled, and now isolated in world-wide space. And the thunder
+seemed to follow me, bellowing after me as I went.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Absorbed in the story I had heard, I took my way, as I thought,
+homewards. The whole country was well known to me. I should have said,
+before that night, that I could have gone home blindfold. Whether the
+lightning bewildered me and made me take a false turn, I cannot tell,
+for the hardest thing to understand, in intellectual as well as moral
+mistakes, is how we came to go wrong. But after wandering for some time,
+plunged in meditation, and with no warning whatever of the presence of
+inimical powers, a brilliant lightning-flash showed me that at least I
+was not near home. The light was prolonged for a second or two by a
+slight electric pulsation; and by that I distinguished a wide space of
+blackness on the ground in front of me. Once more wrapt in the folds of
+a thick darkness, I dared not move. Suddenly it occurred to me what the
+blackness was, and whither I had wandered. It was a huge quarry, of
+great depth, long disused, and half filled with water. I knew the place
+perfectly. A few more steps would have carried me over the brink. I
+stood still, waiting for the next flash, that I might be quite sure of
+the way I was about to take before I ventured to move. While I stood, I
+fancied I heard a single hollow plunge in the black water far below.
+When the lightning came, I turned, and took my path in another
+direction. After walking for some time across the heath, I fell. The
+fall became a roll, and down a steep declivity I went, over and over,
+arriving at the bottom uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>Another flash soon showed me where I was&mdash;in the hollow valley, within a
+couple of hundred yards from nurse's cottage. I made my way towards it.
+There was no light in it, except the feeblest glow from the embers of
+her peat fire. "She is in bed," I said to myself, "and I will not
+disturb her." Yet something drew me towards the little window. I looked
+in. At first I could see nothing. At length, as I kept gazing, I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> saw
+something, indistinct in the darkness, like an outstretched human form.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the storm had lulled. The moon had been up for some time,
+but had been quite concealed by tempestuous clouds. Now, however, these
+had begun to break up; and, while I stood looking into the cottage, they
+scattered away from the face of the moon, and a faint, vapoury gleam of
+her light, entering the cottage through a window opposite that at which
+I stood, fell directly on the face of my old nurse, as she lay on her
+back outstretched upon chairs, pale as death, and with her eyes closed.
+The light fell nowhere but on her face. A stranger to her habits would
+have thought that she was dead; but she had so much of the appearance
+she had had on a former occasion, that I concluded at once she was in
+one of her trances. But having often heard that persons in such a
+condition ought not to be disturbed, and feeling quite sure she knew
+best how to manage herself, I turned, though reluctantly, and left the
+lone cottage behind me in the night, with the death-like woman lying
+motionless in the midst of it.</p>
+
+<p>I found my way home without any further difficulty, and went to bed,
+where I soon fell asleep, thoroughly wearied, more by the mental
+excitement I had been experiencing, than by the amount of bodily
+exercise I had gone through.</p>
+
+<p>My sleep was tormented with awful dreams; yet, strange to say, I awoke
+in the morning refreshed and fearless. The sun was shining through the
+chinks in my shutters, which had been closed because of the storm, and
+was making streaks and bands of golden brilliancy upon the wall. I had
+dressed and completed my preparations long before I heard the steps of
+the servant who came to call me.</p>
+
+<p>What a wonderful thing waking is! The time of the ghostly moonshine
+passes by, and the great positive sunlight comes. A man who dreams, and
+knows that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> he is dreaming, thinks he knows what waking is; but knows it
+so little that he mistakes, one after another, many a vague and dim
+change in his dream for an awaking. When the true waking comes at last,
+he is filled and overflowed with the power of its reality. So, likewise,
+one who, in the darkness, lies waiting for the light about to be struck,
+and trying to conceive, with all the force of his imagination, what the
+light will be like, is yet, when the reality flames up before him,
+seized as by a new and unexpected thing, different from and beyond all
+his imagining. He feels as if the darkness were cast to an infinite
+distance behind him. So shall it be with us when we wake from this dream
+of life into the truer life beyond, and find all our present notions of
+being thrown back as into a dim vapoury region of dreamland, where yet
+we thought we knew, and whence we looked forward into the present. This
+must be what Novalis means when he says: "Our life is not a dream; but
+it may become a dream, and perhaps ought to become one."</p>
+
+<p>And so I look back upon the strange history of my past, sometimes asking
+myself: "Can it be that all this has really happened to the same <i>me</i>,
+who am now thinking about it in doubt and wonderment?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Thomas Hardy</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>"There was something very strange about William's death&mdash;very strange
+indeed!" sighed a melancholy man in the back of the van. It was the
+seedman's father, who had hitherto kept silence.</p>
+
+<p>"And what might that have been?" asked Mr Lackland.</p>
+
+<p>"William, as you may know, was a curious, silent man; you could feel
+when he came near 'ee; and if he was in the house or anywhere behind you
+without your seeing him, there seemed to be something clammy in the air,
+as if a cellar door opened close by your elbow. Well, one Sunday, at a
+time that William was in very good health to all appearance, the bell
+that was ringing for church went very heavy all of a sudden; the sexton,
+who told me o't, said he had not known the bell go so heavy in his hand
+for years&mdash;it was just as if the gudgeons wanted oiling. That was on the
+Sunday, as I say.</p>
+
+<p>"During the week after, it chanced that William's wife was staying up
+late one night to finish her ironing, she doing the washing for Mr and
+Mrs Hardcome. Her husband had finished his supper, and gone to bed as
+usual some hour or two before. While she ironed she heard him coming
+downstairs; he stopped to put on his boots at the stair-foot, where he
+always left them, and then came on into the living-room where she was
+ironing, passing through it towards the door, this being the only way
+from the staircase to the outside of the house. No word was said on
+either side, William not being a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> given to much speaking, and his
+wife being occupied with her work. He went out and closed the door
+behind him. As her husband had now and then gone out in this way at
+night before when unwell, or unable to sleep for want of a pipe, she
+took no particular notice, and continued at her ironing. This she
+finished shortly after, and, as he had not come in, she waited awhile
+for him, putting away the irons and things, and preparing the table for
+his breakfast in the morning. Still he did not return, but supposing him
+not far off, and wanting to go to bed herself, tired as she was, she
+left the door unbarred and went to the stairs, after writing on the back
+of the door with chalk: <i>Mind and do the door</i> (because he was a
+forgetful man).</p>
+
+<p>"To her great surprise, and I might say alarm, on reaching the foot of
+the stairs his boots were standing there as they always stood when he
+had gone to rest. Going up to their chamber, she found him in bed
+sleeping as sound as a rock. How he could have got back again without
+her seeing or hearing him was beyond her comprehension. It could only
+have been by passing behind her very quietly while she was bumping with
+the iron. But this notion did not satisfy her: it was surely impossible
+that she should not have seen him come in through a room so small. She
+could not unravel the mystery, and felt very queer and uncomfortable
+about it. However, she would not disturb him to question him then, and
+went to bed herself.</p>
+
+<p>"He rose and left for his work very early the next morning, before she
+was awake, and she waited his return to breakfast with much anxiety for
+an explanation, for thinking over the matter by daylight made it seem
+only the more startling. When he came in to the meal he said, before she
+could put her question, 'What's the meaning of them words chalked on the
+door?'</p>
+
+<p>"She told him, and asked him about his going out the night before.
+William declared that he had never left the bedroom after entering it,
+having in fact undressed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> lain down, and fallen asleep directly, never
+once waking till the clock struck five, and he rose up to go to his
+labour.</p>
+
+<p>"Betty Privett was as certain in her own mind that he did go out as she
+was of her own existence, and was little less certain that he did not
+return. She felt too disturbed to argue with him, and let the subject
+drop as though she must have been mistaken. When she was walking down
+Longpuddle Street later in the day she met Jim Weedle's daughter Nancy,
+and said: 'Well Nancy, you do look sleepy to-day!'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes, Mrs Privett,' said Nancy. 'Now, don't tell anybody, but I don't
+mind letting you know what the reason o't is. Last night, being Old
+Midsummer Eve, some of us church porch, and didn't get home till near
+one.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Did ye?' says Mrs Privett. 'Old Midsummer yesterday was it? Faith, I
+didn't think whe'r 'twas Midsummer or Michaelmas; I'd too much work to
+do.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Yes. And we were frightened enough, I can tell 'ee by what we saw.'</p>
+
+<p>"'What did ye see?'</p>
+
+<p>"(You may not remember, sir, having gone off to foreign parts so young,
+that on Midsummer Night it is believed hereabout that the faint shapes
+of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at death's door within
+the year can be seen entering the church. Those who get over their
+illness come out again after awhile; those that are doomed to die do not
+return.)</p>
+
+<p>"'What did you see?' asked William's wife.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well,' says Nancy, backwardly&mdash;'we needn't tell what we saw or who we
+saw.'</p>
+
+<p>"'You saw my husband,' said Betty Privett in a quiet way.</p>
+
+<p>"'Well, since you put it so,' says Nancy, hanging fire, 'we&mdash;thought we
+did see him; but it was darkish and we was frightened, and of course it
+might not have been he.'</p>
+
+<p>"'Nancy, you needn't mind letting it out, though 'tis kept back in
+kindness. And he didn't come out of the church again: I know it as well
+as you.'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Nancy did not answer yes or no to that, and no more was said. But three
+days after, William Privett was mowing with John Chiles in Mr Hardcome's
+meadow, and in the heat of the day they sat down to their bit o' nunch
+under a tree, and empty their flagon. Afterwards both of 'em fell asleep
+as they sat. John Chiles was the first to wake, and, as he looked
+towards his fellow-mower, he saw one of those great white miller's-souls
+as we call 'em&mdash;that is to say, a miller moth&mdash;come from William's open
+mouth while he slept and fly straight away. John thought it odd enough,
+as William had worked in a mill for several years when he was a boy. He
+then looked at the sun, and found by the place o't that they had slept a
+long while, and, as William did not wake, John called to him and said it
+was high time to begin work again. He took no notice, and then John went
+up and shook him and found he was dead.</p>
+
+<p>"Now on that very day old Philip Hookhorn was down at Longpuddle Spring,
+dipping up a pitcher of water; and, as he turned away, who should he see
+coming down to the spring on the other side but William, looking very
+pale and old? This surprised Philip Hookhorn very much, for years before
+that time William's little son&mdash;his only child&mdash;had been drowned in that
+spring while at play there, and this had so preyed upon William's mind
+that he'd never been seen near the spring afterwards, and had been known
+to go half a mile out of his way to avoid the place. On enquiry, it was
+found that William in body could not have stood by the spring, being in
+the mead two miles off; and it also came out that at the time at which
+he was seen at the spring was the very time when he died."</p>
+
+<p>"A rather melancholy story," observed the emigrant, after a minute's
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, yes. Well, we must take ups and downs together," said the
+seedman's father.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV</h2>
+
+<h2>A STORY OF RAVENNA</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Boccaccio</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Ravenna being a very ancient city in Romagna, there dwelt sometime a
+great number of worthy gentlemen, among whom I am to speak of one more
+especially, named Anastasio, descended from the family of Onesti, who by
+the death of his father, and an uncle of his, was left extraordinarily
+abounding in riches and growing to years fitting for marriage. As young
+gallants are easily apt enough to do, he became enamoured of a very
+beautiful gentlewoman, who was daughter of Messer Paolo Traversario, one
+of the most ancient and noble families in all the country. Nor made he
+any doubt, by his means and industrious endeavour, to derive affection
+from her again, for he carried himself like a braveminded gentleman,
+liberal in his expenses, honest and affable in all his actions, which
+commonly are the true notes of a good nature, and highly to be commended
+in any man. But, howsoever, fortune became his enemy; these laudable
+parts of manhood did not any way friend him, but rather appeared hurtful
+to himself, so cruel, unkind, and almost merely savage did she show
+herself to him, perhaps in pride of her singular beauty or presuming on
+her nobility by birth, both which are rather blemishes than ornaments in
+a woman when they be especially abused. The harsh and uncivil usage in
+her grew very distasteful to Anastasio, and so insufferable that after a
+long time of fruitless service, requited still with nothing but coy
+disdain, desperate resolutions<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> entered into his brain, and often he was
+minded to kill himself. But better thoughts supplanting those furious
+passions, he abstained from such a violent act, and governed by mere
+manly consideration, determined that as she hated him, he would requite
+her with the like, if he could, wherein he became altogether deceived,
+because as his hopes grew to a daily decaying, yet his love enlarged
+itself more and more.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Anastasio persevering still in his bootless affection, and his
+expenses not limited within any compass, it appeared in the judgment of
+his kindred and friends that he was fallen into a mighty consumption,
+both of his body and means. In which respects many times they advised
+him to leave the city of Ravenna, and live in some other place for such
+a while as might set a more moderate stint upon his spendings, and
+bridle the indiscreet course of his love, the only fuel which fed his
+furious fire.</p>
+
+<p>Anastasio held out thus a long time, without lending an ear to such
+friendly counsel; but in the end he was so closely followed by them, as
+being no longer able to deny them, he promised to accomplish their
+request. Whereupon making such extraordinary preparation as if he were
+to set out thence for France or Spain, or else into some further
+country, he mounted on horseback, and accompanied with some few of his
+familiar friends, departed from Ravenna, and rode to a country
+dwelling-house of his own, about three or four miles distant from the
+city, at a place called Chiassi; and there upon a very good green
+erecting divers tents and pavilions, such as great persons make use of
+in the time of progress, he said to his friends which came with him
+thither that there he determined to make his abiding, they all returning
+back unto Ravenna, and coming to visit him again so often as they
+pleased.</p>
+
+<p>Now it came to pass that about the beginning of May, it being then a
+very mild and serene season, and he leading<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> there a much more
+magnificent life than ever he had done before, inviting divers to dine
+with him this day and as many to-morrow, and not to leave him till after
+supper, upon a sudden falling into remembrance of his cruel mistress, he
+commanded all his servants to forbear his company, and suffer him to
+walk alone by himself a while, because he had occasion of private
+meditations, wherein he would not by any means be troubled. It was then
+about the ninth hour of the day, and he walking on solitary all alone,
+having gone some half a mile distance from the tents, entered into a
+grove of pine-trees, never minding dinner-time or anything else, but
+only the unkind requital of his love.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly he heard the voice of a woman seeming to make most mournful
+complaints, which breaking off his silent considerations, made him to
+lift up his head to know the reason of this noise. When he saw himself
+so far entered into the grove before he could imagine where he was, he
+looked amazedly round about him, and out of a little thicket of bushes
+and briars round engirt with spreading trees, he espied a young damsel
+come running towards him, naked from the middle upward, her hair lying
+on her shoulders, and her fair skin rent and torn with the briars and
+brambles, so that the blood ran trickling down mainly, she weeping,
+wringing her hands, and crying out for mercy so loud as she could. Two
+fierce bloodhounds also followed swiftly after, and where their teeth
+took hold did most cruelly bite her. Last of all, mounted on a lusty
+black courser, came galloping a knight, with a very stern and angry
+countenance, holding a drawn short sword in his hand, giving her very
+dreadful speeches, and threatening every minute to kill her.</p>
+
+<p>This strange and uncouth sight bred in him no mean admiration, as also
+kind compassion to the unfortunate woman, out of which compassion sprung
+an earnest desire to deliver her, if he could, from a death so full of
+anguish and horror; but seeing himself to be without<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> arms, he ran and
+plucked up the plant of a tree, which handling as if it had been a
+staff, he opposed himself against the dogs and the knight, who seeing
+him coming, cried out in this manner to him: "Anastasio, put not thyself
+in any opposition, but refer to my hounds and me to punish this wicked
+woman as she hath justly deserved." And in speaking these words, the
+hounds took fast hold on her body, so staying her until the knight was
+come nearer to her, and alighted from his horse, when Anastasio, after
+some other angry speeches, spake thus to him: "I cannot tell what or who
+thou art, albeit thou takest such knowledge of me, yet I must say it is
+mere cowardice in a knight, being armed as thou art, to offer to kill a
+naked woman, and make thy dogs thus to seize on her, as if she were a
+savage beast; therefore, believe me, I will defend her so far as I am
+able."</p>
+
+<p>"Anastasio," answered the knight, "I am of the same city as thou art,
+and do well remember that thou wast a little lad when I, who was then
+named Guido Anastasio, and thine uncle, became as entirely in love with
+this woman as now thou art with Paolo Traversario's daughter. But
+through her coy disdain and cruelty, such was my heavy fate that
+desperately I slew myself with this short sword which thou beholdest in
+mine hand; for which rash sinful deed I was and am condemned to eternal
+punishment. This wicked woman, rejoicing immeasurably in mine unhappy
+death, remained no long time alive after me, and for her merciless sin
+of cruelty, and taking pleasure in my oppressing torments, dying
+unrepentant, and in pride of her scorn, she had the like sentence of
+condemnation pronounced on her, and was sent to the same place where I
+was condemned.</p>
+
+<p>"There the three impartial judges imposed this further infliction on us
+both&mdash;namely, that she should fly in this manner before me, and I, who
+loved her so dearly while I lived, must pursue her as my deadly enemy,
+not like a woman that had a taste of love in her.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> And so often as I can
+overtake her, I am to kill her with this sword, the same weapon
+wherewith I slew myself. Then am I enjoined therewith to open her
+accursed body, and tear out her heart, with her other inwards, as now
+thou seest me do, which I give to my hounds to feed on. Afterward&mdash;such
+is the appointment of the supreme powers&mdash;that she re-assumeth life
+again, even as if she had not been dead at all, and falling to the same
+kind of flight, I with my hounds am still to follow her, without any
+respite or intermission. Every Friday, and just at this hour, our course
+is this way, where she suffereth the just punishment inflicted on her.
+Nor do we rest any of the other days, but are appointed unto other
+places, where she cruelly executed her malice against me, who am now, of
+her dear affectionate friend, ordained to be her endless enemy, and to
+pursue her in this manner for so many years as she exercised months of
+cruelty towards me. Hinder me not, then, in being the executioner of
+Divine justice, for all thy interposition is but in vain in seeking to
+cross the appointment of supreme powers."</p>
+
+<p>Anastasio having heard all this discourse, his hair stood upright, like
+porcupines' quills, and his soul was so shaken with the terror, that he
+stepped back to suffer the knight to do what he was enjoined, looking
+yet with mild commiseration on the poor woman, who kneeling most humbly
+before the knight, and sternly seized on by the two bloodhounds, he
+opened her breast with his weapon, drawing forth her heart and bowels,
+which instantly he threw to the dogs, and they devoured them very
+greedily. Soon after the damsel, as if none of this punishment had been
+inflicted on her, started up suddenly, running amain towards the
+seashore, and the hounds swiftly following her, as the knight did the
+like, after he had taken his sword and was mounted on horseback, so that
+Anastasio had soon lost all sight of them, and could not guess what
+could become of them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After he had heard and observed all these things, he stood a while as
+confounded with fear and pity, like a simple silly man, hoodwinked with
+his own passions, not knowing the subtle enemy's cunning illusions in
+offering false suggestions to the sight, to work his own ends thereby,
+and increase the number of his deceived servants. Forthwith he persuaded
+himself that he might make good use of this woman's tormenting, so
+justly imposed on the knight to prosecute, if thus it should continue
+still every Friday. Wherefore setting a good note or mark upon the
+place, he returned back to his own people, and at such times as he
+thought convenient, sent for divers of his kindred and friends from
+Ravenna, who being present with him, thus he spake to them:</p>
+
+<p>"Dear kinsmen and friends, ye have long while importuned me to
+discontinue my over-doating love to her whom you all think, and I find
+to be my mortal enemy; as also to give over my lavish expenses, wherein
+I confess myself too prodigal; both which requests of yours I will
+condescend to, provided that you will perform one gracious favour for
+me&mdash;namely, that on Friday next, Messer Paolo Traversario, his wife,
+daughter, with all other women linked in lineage to them, and such
+beside only as you shall please to appoint, will vouchsafe to accept a
+dinner here with me. As for the reason thereto moving me, you shall then
+more at large be acquainted withal." This appeared no difficult matter
+for them to accomplish. Wherefore being returned to Ravenna, and as they
+found the time answerable to their purpose, they invited such as
+Anastasio had appointed them. And although they found it somewhat a hard
+matter to gain her company whom he had so dearly affected, yet
+notwithstanding, the other women won her along with them.</p>
+
+<p>A most magnificent dinner had Anastasio provided, and the tables were
+covered under the pine-trees, where he saw the cruel lady so pursued and
+slain; directing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> guests so in their seating that the young
+gentlewoman, his unkind mistress, sate with her face opposite unto the
+place where the dismal spectacle was to be seen. About the closing up of
+dinner, they began to hear the noise of the poor persecuted woman, which
+drove them all to much admiration, desiring to know what it was, and no
+one resolving them they rose from the tables, and looking directly as
+the noise came to them, they espied the woful woman, the dogs eagerly
+pursuing her; the knight galloping after them with his drawn weapon, and
+came very near unto the company, who cried out with loud exclaims
+against the dogs, and the knights stepped forth in assistance of the
+injured woman.</p>
+
+<p>The knight spake unto them as formerly he had done to Anastasio, which
+made them draw back possessed with fear and admiration, while he acted
+the same cruelty as he did the Friday before, not differing in the least
+degree. Most of the gentlewomen there present, being near allied to the
+unfortunate woman, and likewise to the knight, remembering well both his
+love and death, did shed tears as plentifully as if it had been to the
+very persons themselves in usual performance of the action indeed. Which
+tragical scene being passed over, and the woman and knight gone out of
+their sight, all that had seen this strange accident fell into diversity
+of confused opinions, yet not daring to disclose them, as doubting some
+further danger to ensue thereon.</p>
+
+<p>But beyond all the rest, none could compare in fear and astonishment
+with the cruel young maid affected by Anastasio, who both saw and
+observed all with a more inward apprehension, knowing very well that the
+moral of this dismal spectacle carried a much nearer application to her
+than any other in the company. For now she could call to mind how unkind
+and cruel she had shown herself to Anastasio, even as the other
+gentlewoman formerly did to her lover, still flying from him in great
+contempt and scorn, for which she thought the bloodhounds also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> pursued
+her at the heels already, and a sword of vengeance to mangle her body.
+This fear grew so powerful upon her, that to prevent the like heavy doom
+from falling on her, she studied, and therein bestowed all the night
+season, how to change her hatred into kind love, which at the length she
+fully obtained, and then purposed to procure in this manner: Secretly
+she sent a faithful chambermaid of her own to greet Anastasio on her
+behalf, humbly entreating him to come see her, because now she was
+absolutely determined to give him satisfaction in all which, with
+honour, he could request of her. Whereto Anastasio answered that he
+accepted her message thankfully, and desired no other favour at her hand
+but that which stood with her own offer, namely, to be his wife in
+honourable marriage. The maid knowing sufficiently that he could not be
+more desirous of the match than her mistress showed herself to be, made
+answer in her name that this motion would be most welcome to her.</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon the gentlewoman herself became the solicitor to her father and
+mother, telling them plainly that she was willing to be the wife of
+Anastasio; which news did so highly content them, that upon the Sunday
+next following the marriage was very worthily solemnised, and they lived
+and loved together very kindly. Thus the Divine bounty, out of the
+malignant enemy's secret machinations, can cause good effects to arise
+and succeed. For from this conceit of fearful imagination in her, not
+only happened this long-desired conversion of a maid so obstinately
+scornful and proud, but likewise all the women of Ravenna, being
+admonished by her example, grew afterward more tractable to men's honest
+motions than ever they showed themselves before. And let me make some
+use hereof, fair ladies, to you not to stand over-nicely conceited of
+your beauty and good parts when men solicit you with their best
+services. Remember then this disdainful gentlewoman, but more
+especially<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> her, who being the death of so kind a lover was therefore
+condemned to perpetual punishment, and he made the minister thereof whom
+she had cast off with coy disdain, from which I wish your minds to be
+free, as mine is ready to do you any acceptable service.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V</h2>
+
+<h2>TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE</h2>
+
+<h3>[<i>Translated from the Irish</i>]</h3>
+
+<h3>By Dr <span class="smcap">Douglas Hyde</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>There was once a grown-up lad in the County Leitrim, and he was strong
+and lively, and the son of a rich farmer. His father had plenty of
+money, and he did not spare it on the son. Accordingly, when the boy
+grew up he liked sport better than work, and, as his father had no other
+children, he loved this one so much that he allowed him to do in
+everything just as it pleased himself. He was very extravagant, and he
+used to scatter the gold money as another person would scatter the
+white. He was seldom to be found at home, but if there was a fair, or a
+race, or a gathering within ten miles of him, you were dead certain to
+find him there. And he seldom spent a night in his father's house, but
+he used to be always out rambling, and, like Shawn Bwee long ago, there
+was</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"gr&aacute;dh gach cailin i mbrollach a l&eacute;ine,"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"the love of every girl in the breast of his shirt," and it's many's the
+kiss he got and he gave, for he was very handsome, and there wasn't a
+girl in the country but would fall in love with him, only for him to
+fasten his two eyes on her, and it was for that someone made this <i>rann</i>
+on him&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Look at the rogue, it's for kisses he's rambling,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">It isn't much wonder, for that was his way;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He's like an old hedgehog, at night he'll be scrambling<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">From this place to that, but he'll sleep in the day."<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></div></div>
+
+<p>At last he became very wild and unruly. He wasn't to be seen day or
+night in his father's house, but always rambling or going on his
+<i>kailee</i> (night visit) from place to place and from house to house, so
+that the old people used to shake their heads and say to one another,
+"It's easy seen what will happen to the land when the old man dies; his
+son will run through it in a year, and it won't stand him that long
+itself."</p>
+
+<p>He used to be always gambling and card-playing and drinking, but his
+father never minded his bad habits, and never punished him. But it
+happened one day that the old man was told that the son had ruined the
+character of a girl in the neighbourhood, and he was greatly angry, and
+he called the son to him, and said to him, quietly and sensibly&mdash;"Avic,"
+says he, "you know I loved you greatly up to this, and I never stopped
+you from doing your choice thing whatever it was, and I kept plenty of
+money with you, and I always hoped to leave you the house and land, and
+all I had after myself would be gone; but I heard a story of you to-day
+that has disgusted me with you. I cannot tell you the grief that I felt
+when I heard such a thing of you, and I tell you now plainly that unless
+you marry that girl I'll leave house and land and everything to my
+brother's son. I never could leave it to anyone who would make so bad a
+use of it as you do yourself, deceiving women and coaxing girls. Settle
+with yourself now whether you'll marry that girl and get my land as a
+fortune with her, or refuse to marry her and give up all that was coming
+to you; and tell me in the morning which of the two things you have
+chosen."</p>
+
+<p>"Och! <i>Domnoo Sheery</i>! father, you wouldn't say that to me, and I such a
+good son as I am. Who told you I wouldn't marry the girl?" says he.</p>
+
+<p>But his father was gone, and the lad knew well enough that he would keep
+his word too; and he was greatly troubled in his mind, for as quiet and
+as kind as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> father was, he never went back of a word that he had
+once said, and there wasn't another man in the country who was harder to
+bend than he was.</p>
+
+<p>The boy did not know rightly what to do. He was in love with the girl
+indeed, and he hoped to marry her sometime or other, but he would much
+sooner have remained another while as he was, and follow on at his old
+tricks&mdash;drinking, sporting, and playing cards; and, along with that, he
+was angry that his father should order him to marry, and should threaten
+him if he did not do it.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't my father a great fool," says he to himself. "I was ready enough,
+and only too anxious, to marry Mary; and now since he threatened me,
+faith I've a great mind to let it go another while."</p>
+
+<p>His mind was so much excited that he remained between two notions as to
+what he should do. He walked out into the night at last to cool his
+heated blood, and went on to the road. He lit a pipe, and as the night
+was fine he walked and walked on, until the quick pace made him begin to
+forget his trouble. The night was bright, and the moon half full. There
+was not a breath of wind blowing, and the air was calm and mild. He
+walked on for nearly three hours, when he suddenly remembered that it
+was late in the night, and time for him to turn. "Musha! I think I
+forgot myself," says he; "it must be near twelve o'clock now."</p>
+
+<p>The word was hardly out of his mouth, when he heard the sound of many
+voices, and the trampling of feet on the road before him. "I don't know
+who can be out so late at night as this, and on such a lonely road,"
+said he to himself.</p>
+
+<p>He stood listening, and he heard the voices of many people talking
+through other, but he could not understand what they were saying. "Oh,
+wirra!" says he, "I'm afraid. It's not Irish or English they have; it
+can't be they're Frenchmen!" He went on a couple<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> of yards further, and
+he saw well enough by the light of the moon a band of little people
+coming towards him, and they were carrying something big and heavy with
+them. "Oh, murder!" says he to himself, "sure it can't be that they're
+the good people that's in it!" Every <i>rib</i> of hair that was on his head
+stood up, and there fell a shaking on his bones, for he saw that they
+were coming to him fast.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at them again, and perceived that there were about twenty
+little men in it, and there was not a man at all of them higher than
+about three feet or three feet and a half, and some of them were grey,
+and seemed very old. He looked again, but he could not make out what was
+the heavy thing they were carrying until they came up to him, and then
+they all stood round about him. They threw the heavy thing down on the
+road, and he saw on the spot that it was a dead body.</p>
+
+<p>He became as cold as the Death, and there was not a drop of blood
+running in his veins when an old little grey <i>maneen</i> came up to him and
+said, "Isn't it lucky we met you, Teig O'Kane?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Teig could not bring out a word at all, nor open his lips, if he
+were to get the world for it, and so he gave no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Teig O'Kane," said the little grey man again, "isn't it timely you met
+us?"</p>
+
+<p>Teig could not answer him.</p>
+
+<p>"Teig O'Kane," says he, "the third time, isn't it lucky and timely that
+we met you?"</p>
+
+<p>But Teig remained silent, for he was afraid to return an answer, and his
+tongue was as if it was tied to the roof of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>The little grey man turned to his companions, and there was joy in his
+bright little eye. "And now," says he, "Teig O'Kane hasn't a word, we
+can do with him what we please. Teig, Teig," says he, "you're living a
+bad life, and we can make a slave of you now, and you cannot<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> withstand
+us, for there's no use in trying to go against us. Lift that corpse."</p>
+
+<p>Teig was so frightened that he was only able to utter the two words, "I
+won't"; for as frightened as he was he was obstinate and stiff, the same
+as ever.</p>
+
+<p>"Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse," said the little <i>maneen</i>, with a
+wicked little laugh, for all the world like the breaking of a <i>lock</i> of
+dry <i>kippeens</i>, and with a little harsh voice like the striking of a
+cracked bell. "Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse&mdash;make him lift it"; and
+before the word was out of his mouth they had all gathered round poor
+Teig, and they all talking and laughing through other.</p>
+
+<p>Teig tried to run from them, but they followed him, and a man of them
+stretched out his foot before him as he ran, so that Teig was thrown in
+a heap on the road. Then before he could rise up the fairies caught him,
+some by the hands and some by the feet, and they held him tight, in a
+way that he could not stir, with his face against the ground. Six or
+seven of them raised the body then, and pulled it over to him, and left
+it down on his back. The breast of the corpse was squeezed against
+Teig's back and shoulders, and the arms of the corpse were thrown around
+Teig's neck. Then they stood back from him a couple of yards, and let
+him get up. He rose, foaming at the mouth and cursing, and he shook
+himself, thinking to throw the corpse off his back. But his fear and his
+wonder were great when he found that the two arms had a tight hold round
+his own neck, and that the two legs were squeezing his hips firmly, and
+that, however strongly he tried, he could not throw it off, any more
+than a horse can throw off its saddle. He was terribly frightened then,
+and he thought he was lost. "Ochone! for ever," said he to himself,
+"it's the bad life I'm leading that has given the good people this power
+over me. I promise to God and Mary, Peter and Paul, Patrick and Bridget,
+that I'll mend my<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> ways for as long as I have to live, if I come clear
+out of this danger&mdash;and I'll marry the girl."</p>
+
+<p>The little grey man came up to him again, and said he to him, "Now,
+Teig<i>een</i>," says he, "you didn't lift the body when I told you to lift
+it, and see how you were made to lift it; perhaps when I tell you to
+bury it, you won't bury it until you're made to bury it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Anything at all that I can do for your honour," said Teig, "I'll do
+it," for he was getting sense already, and if it had not been for the
+great fear that was on him, he never would have let that civil word slip
+out of his mouth.</p>
+
+<p>The little man laughed a sort of laugh again. "You're getting quiet now,
+Teig," says he. "I'll go bail but you'll be quiet enough before I'm done
+with you. Listen to me now, Teig O'Kane, and if you don't obey me in all
+I'm telling you to do, you'll repent it. You must carry with you this
+corpse that is on your back to Teampoll-D&eacute;mus, and you must bring it
+into the church with you, and make a grave for it in the very middle of
+the church, and you must raise up the flags and put them down again the
+very same way, and you must carry the clay out of the church and leave
+the place as it was when you came, so that no one could know that there
+had been anything changed. But that's not all. Maybe that the body won't
+be allowed to be buried in that church; perhaps some other man has the
+bed, and, if so, it's likely he won't share it with this one. If you
+don't get leave to bury it in Teampoll-D&eacute;mus, you must carry it to
+Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus, and bury it in the churchyard there; and if you
+don't get it into that place, take it with you to Teampoll-Ronan; and if
+that churchyard is closed on you, take it to Imlogue-Fada; and if you're
+not able to bury it there, you've no more to do than to take it to
+Kill-Breedya, and you can bury it there without hindrance. I cannot tell
+you what one of those churches is the one where you will have leave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> to
+bury that corpse under the clay, but I know that it will be allowed you
+to bury him at some church or other of them. If you do this work
+rightly, we will be thankful to you, and you will have no cause to
+grieve; but if you are slow or lazy, believe me we shall take
+satisfaction of you."</p>
+
+<p>When the grey little man had done speaking, his comrades laughed and
+clapped their hands together. "Glic! Glic! Hwee! Hwee!" they all cried;
+"go on, go on, you have eight hours before you till daybreak, and if you
+haven't this man buried before the sun rises, you're lost." They struck
+a fist and a foot behind on him, and drove him on in the road. He was
+obliged to walk, and to walk fast, for they gave him no rest.</p>
+
+<p>He thought himself that there was not a wet path, or a dirty <i>boreen</i>,
+or a crooked contrary road in the whole county, that he had not walked
+that night. The night was at times very dark, and whenever there would
+come a cloud across the moon he could see nothing, and then he used
+often to fall. Sometimes he was hurt, and sometimes he escaped, but he
+was obliged always to rise on the moment and to hurry on. Sometimes the
+moon would break out clearly, and then he would look behind him and see
+the little people following at his back. And he heard them speaking
+amongst themselves, talking and crying out, and screaming like a flock
+of sea-gulls; and if he was to save his soul he never understood as much
+as one word of what they were saying.</p>
+
+<p>He did not know how far he had walked, when at last one of them cried
+out to him, "Stop here!" He stood, and they all gathered round him.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see those withered trees over there?" says the old boy to him
+again. "Teampoll-D&eacute;mus is among those trees, and you must go in there by
+yourself, for we cannot follow you or go with you. We must remain here.
+Go on boldly."</p>
+
+<p>Teig looked from him, and he saw a high wall that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> in places half
+broken down, and an old grey church on the inside of the wall, and about
+a dozen withered old trees scattered here and there round it. There was
+neither leaf nor twig on any of them, but their bare crooked branches
+were stretched out like the arms of an angry man when he threatens. He
+had no help for it, but was obliged to go forward. He was a couple of
+hundred yards from the church, but he walked on, and never looked behind
+him until he came to the gate of the churchyard. The old gate was thrown
+down, and he had no difficulty in entering. He turned then to see if any
+of the little people were following him, but there came a cloud over the
+moon, and the night became so dark that he could see nothing. He went
+into the churchyard, and he walked up the old grassy pathway leading to
+the church. When he reached the door, he found it locked. The door was
+large and strong, and he did not know what to do. At last he drew out
+his knife with difficulty, and stuck it in the wood to try if it were
+not rotten, but it was not.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said he to himself, "I have no more to do; the door is shut, and
+I can't open it."</p>
+
+<p>Before the words were rightly shaped in his own mind, a voice in his ear
+said to him, "Search for the key on the top of the door, or on the
+wall."</p>
+
+<p>He started. "Who is that speaking to me?" he cried, turning round; but
+he saw no one. The voice said in his ear again, "Search for the key on
+the top of the door, or on the wall."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" said he, and the sweat running from his forehead; "who
+spoke to me?"</p>
+
+<p>"It's I, the corpse, that spoke to you!" said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you talk?" said Teig.</p>
+
+<p>"Now and again," said the corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Teig searched for the key, and he found it on the top of the wall. He
+was too much frightened to say any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> more, but he opened the door wide,
+and as quickly as he could, and he went in, with the corpse on his back.
+It was as dark as pitch inside, and poor Teig began to shake and
+tremble.</p>
+
+<p>"Light the candle," said the corpse.</p>
+
+<p>Teig put his hand in his pocket, as well as he was able, and drew out a
+flint and steel. He struck a spark out of it, and lit a burnt rag he had
+in his pocket. He blew it until it made a flame, and he looked round
+him. The church was very ancient, and part of the wall was broken down.
+The windows were blown in or cracked, and the timber of the seats were
+rotten. There were six or seven old iron candlesticks left there still,
+and in one of these candlesticks Teig found the stump of an old candle,
+and he lit it. He was still looking round him on the strange and horrid
+place in which he found himself, when the cold corpse whispered in his
+ear, "Bury me now, bury me now; there is a spade and turn the ground."
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a spade lying beside the altar. He took
+it up, and he placed the blade under a flag that was in the middle of
+the aisle, and leaning all his weight on the handle of the spade, he
+raised it. When the first flag was raised it was not hard to raise the
+others near it, and he moved three or four of them out of their places.
+The clay that was under them was soft and easy to dig, but he had not
+thrown up more than three or four shovelfuls when he felt the iron touch
+something soft like flesh. He threw up three or four more shovelfuls
+from around it, and then he saw that it was another body that was buried
+in the same place.</p>
+
+<p>"I am afraid I'll never be allowed to bury the two bodies in the same
+hole," said Teig, in his own mind. "You corpse, there on my back," says
+he, "will you be satisfied if I bury you down here?" But the corpse
+never answered him a word.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a good sign," said Teig to himself. "Maybe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> he's getting quiet,"
+and he thrust the spade down in the earth again. Perhaps he hurt the
+flesh of the other body, for the dead man that was buried there stood up
+in the grave, and shouted an awful shout. "Hoo! hoo!! hoo!!! Go! go!!
+go!!! or you're a dead, dead, dead man!" And then he fell back in the
+grave again. Teig said afterwards, that of all the wonderful things he
+saw that night, that was the most awful to him. His hair stood upright
+on his head like the bristles of a pig, the cold sweat ran off his face,
+and then came a tremour over all his bones, until he thought that he
+must fall.</p>
+
+<p>But after a while he became bolder, when he saw that the second corpse
+remained lying quietly there, and he threw in the clay on it again, and
+he smoothed it overhead, and he laid down the flags carefully as they
+had been before. "It can't be that he'll rise up any more," said he.</p>
+
+<p>He went down the aisle a little further, and drew near to the door, and
+began raising the flags again, looking for another bed for the corpse on
+his back. He took up three or four flags and put them aside, and then he
+dug the clay. He was not long digging until he laid bare an old woman
+without a thread upon her but her shirt. She was more lively than the
+first corpse, for he had scarcely taken any of the clay away from about
+her, when she sat up and began to cry, "Ho, you <i>bodach</i> (clown)! Ha,
+you <i>bodach</i>! Where has he been that he got no bed?"</p>
+
+<p>Poor Teig drew back, and when she found that she was getting no answer,
+she closed her eyes gently, lost her vigour, and fell back quietly and
+slowly under the clay. Teig did to her as he had done to the man&mdash;he
+threw the clay back on her, and left the flags down overhead.</p>
+
+<p>He began digging again near the door, but before he had thrown up more
+than a couple of shovelfuls, he noticed a man's hand laid bare by the
+spade. "By<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> my soul, I'll go no further, then," said he to himself;
+"what use is it for me?" And he threw the clay in again on it, and
+settled the flags as they had been before.</p>
+
+<p>He left the church then, and his heart was heavy enough, but he shut the
+door and locked it, and left the key where he found it. He sat down on a
+tombstone that was near the door, and began thinking. He was in great
+doubt what he should do. He laid his face between his two hands, and
+cried for grief and fatigue, since he was dead certain at this time that
+he never would come home alive. He made another attempt to loosen the
+hands of the corpse that were squeezed round his neck, but they were as
+tight as if they were clamped; and the more he tried to loosen them, the
+tighter they squeezed him. He was going to sit down once more, when the
+cold, horrid lips of the dead man said to him, "Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus,"
+and he remembered the command of the good people to bring the corpse
+with him to that place if he should be unable to bury it where he had
+been.</p>
+
+<p>He rose up, and looked about him. "I don't know the way," he said.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as he had uttered the word, the corpse stretched out suddenly
+its left hand that had been tightened round his neck, and kept it
+pointing out, showing him the road he ought to follow. Teig went in the
+direction that the fingers were stretched, and passed out of the
+churchyard. He found himself on an old rutty, stony road, and he stood
+still again, not knowing where to turn. The corpse stretched out its
+bony hand a second time, and pointed out to him another road&mdash;not the
+road by which he had come when approaching the old church. Teig followed
+that road, and whenever he came to a path or road meeting it, the corpse
+always stretched out its hand and pointed with its fingers, showing him
+the way he was to take.</p>
+
+<p>Many was the cross-road he turned down, and many<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> was the crooked
+<i>boreen</i> he walked, until he saw from him an old burying-ground at last,
+beside the road, but there was neither church nor chapel nor any other
+building in it. The corpse squeezed him tightly, and he stood. "Bury me,
+bury me in the burying-ground," said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>Teig drew over towards the old burying-place, and he was not more than
+about twenty yards from it, when, raising his eyes, he saw hundreds and
+hundreds of ghosts&mdash;men, women, and children&mdash;sitting on the top of the
+wall round about, or standing on the inside of it, or running backwards
+and forwards, and pointing at him, while he could see their mouths
+opening and shutting as if they were speaking, though he heard no word,
+nor any sound amongst them at all.</p>
+
+<p>He was afraid to go forward, so he stood where he was, and the moment he
+stood, all the ghosts became quiet, and ceased moving. Then Teig
+understood that it was trying to keep him from going in, that they were.
+He walked a couple of yards forwards, and immediately the whole crowd
+rushed together towards the spot to which he was moving, and they stood
+so thickly together that it seemed to him that he never could break
+through them, even though he had a mind to try. But he had no mind to
+try it. He went back broken and dispirited, and when he had gone a
+couple of hundred yards from the burying-ground, he stood again, for he
+did not know what way he was to go. He heard the voice of the corpse in
+his ear, saying, "Teampoll-Ronan," and the skinny hand was stretched out
+again, pointing him out the road.</p>
+
+<p>As tired as he was, he had to walk, and the road was neither short nor
+even. The night was darker than ever, and it was difficult to make his
+way. Many was the toss he got, and many a bruise they left on his body.
+At last he saw Teampoll-Ronan from him in the distance, standing in the
+middle of the burying-ground. He moved over towards it, and thought he
+was all right and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> safe, when he saw no ghosts nor anything else on the
+wall, and he thought he would never be hindered now from leaving his
+load off him at last. He moved over to the gate, but as he was passing
+in, he tripped on the threshold. Before he could recover himself,
+something that he could not see seized him by the neck, by the hands,
+and by the feet, and bruised him, and shook him, and choked him, until
+he was nearly dead; and at last he was lifted up, and carried more than
+a hundred yards from that place, and then thrown down in an old dyke,
+with the corpse still clinging to him.</p>
+
+<p>He rose up, bruised and sore, but feared to go near the place again, for
+he had seen nothing the time he was thrown down and carried away.</p>
+
+<p>"You corpse, up on my back?" said he, "shall I go over again to the
+churchyard?"&mdash;but the corpse never answered him. "That's a sign you
+don't wish me to try it again," said Teig.</p>
+
+<p>He was now in great doubt as to what he ought to do, when the corpse
+spoke in his ear, and said, "Imlogue-Fada."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, murder!" said Teig, "must I bring you there? If you keep me long
+walking like this, I tell you I'll fall under you."</p>
+
+<p>He went on, however, in the direction the corpse pointed out to him. He
+could not have told, himself, how long he had been going, when the dead
+man behind suddenly squeezed him, and said, "There!"</p>
+
+<p>Teig looked from him, and he saw a little low wall, that was so broken
+down in places that it was no wall at all. It was in a great wide field,
+in from the road; and only for three or four great stones at the
+corners, that were more like rocks than stones, there was nothing to
+show that there was either graveyard or burying-ground there.</p>
+
+<p>"Is this Imlogue-Fada? Shall I bury you here?" said Teig.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said the voice.</p>
+
+<p>"But I see no grave or gravestone, only this pile of stones," said Teig.</p>
+
+<p>The corpse did not answer, but stretched out its long fleshless hand to
+show Teig the direction in which he was to go. Teig went on accordingly,
+but he was greatly terrified, for he remembered what had happened to him
+at the last place. He went on, "with his heart in his mouth," as he said
+himself afterwards; but when he came to within fifteen or twenty yards
+of the little low square wall, there broke out a flash of lightning,
+bright yellow and red, with blue streaks in it, and went round about the
+wall in one course, and it swept by as fast as the swallow in the
+clouds, and the longer Teig remained looking at it the faster it went,
+till at last it became like a bright ring of flame round the old
+graveyard, which no one could pass without being burnt by it. Teig never
+saw, from the time he was born, and never saw afterwards, so wonderful
+or so splendid a sight as that was. Round went the flame, white and
+yellow and blue sparks leaping out from it as it went, and although at
+first it had been no more than a thin, narrow line, it increased slowly
+until it was at last a great broad band, and it was continually getting
+broader and higher, and throwing out more brilliant sparks, till there
+was never a colour on the ridge of the earth that was not to be seen in
+that fire; and lightning never shone and flame never flamed that was so
+shining and so bright as that.</p>
+
+<p>Teig was amazed; he was half dead with fatigue, and he had no courage
+left to approach the wall. There fell a mist over his eyes, and there
+came a <i>soorawn</i> in his head, and he was obliged to sit down upon a
+great stone to recover himself. He could see nothing but the light, and
+he could hear nothing but the whirr of it as it shot round the paddock
+faster than a flash of lightning.</p>
+
+<p>As he sat there on the stone, the voice whispered once more in his ear,
+"Kill-Breedya"; and the dead man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> squeezed him so tightly that he cried
+out. He rose again, sick, tired, and trembling, and went forward as he
+was directed. The wind was cold, and the road was bad, and the load upon
+his back was heavy, and the night was dark, and he himself was nearly
+worn out, and if he had had very much farther to go he must have fallen
+dead under his burden.</p>
+
+<p>At last the corpse stretched out its hand, and said to him, "Bury me
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"This is the last burying-place," said Teig in his own mind; "and the
+little grey man said I'd be allowed to bury him in some of them, so it
+must be this; it can't be but they'll let him in here."</p>
+
+<p>The first, faint streak of the <i>ring of day</i> was appearing in the east,
+and the clouds were beginning to catch fire, but it was darker than
+ever, for the moon was set, and there were no stars.</p>
+
+<p>"Make haste, make haste!" said the corpse; and Teig hurried forward as
+well as he could to the graveyard, which was a little place on a bare
+hill, with only a few graves in it. He walked boldly in through the open
+gate, and nothing touched him, nor did he either hear or see anything.
+He came to the middle of the ground, and then stood up and looked round
+him for a spade or shovel to make a grave. As he was turning round and
+searching, he suddenly perceived what startled him greatly&mdash;a newly-dug
+grave right before him. He moved over to it, and looked down, and there
+at the bottom he saw a black coffin. He clambered down into the hole and
+lifted the lid, and found that (as he thought it would be) the coffin
+was empty. He had hardly mounted up out of the hole, and was standing on
+the brink, when the corpse, which had clung to him for more than eight
+hours, suddenly relaxed its hold of his neck, and loosened its shins
+from round his hips, and sank down with a <i>plop</i> into the open coffin.</p>
+
+<p>Teig fell down on his two knees at the brink of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> grave, and gave
+thanks to God. He made no delay then, but pressed down the coffin lid in
+its place, and threw in the clay over it with his two hands, and when
+the grave was filled up, he stamped and leaped on it with his feet,
+until it was firm and hard, and then he left the place.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was fast rising as he finished his work, and the first thing he
+did was to return to the road, and look out for a house to rest himself
+in. He found an inn at last; and lay down upon a bed there, and slept
+till night. Then he rose up and ate a little, and fell asleep again till
+morning. When he awoke in the morning he hired a horse and rode home. He
+was more than twenty-six miles from home where he was, and he had come
+all that way with the dead body on his back in one night.</p>
+
+<p>All the people at his own home thought that he must have left the
+country, and they rejoiced greatly when they saw him come back. Everyone
+began asking him where he had been, but he would not tell anyone except
+his father.</p>
+
+<p>He was a changed man from that day. He never drank too much; he never
+lost his money over cards; and especially he would not take the world
+and be out late by himself of a dark night.</p>
+
+<p>He was not a fortnight at home until he married Mary, the girl he had
+been in love with, and it's at their wedding the sport was, and it's he
+was the happy man from that day forward, and it's all I wish that we may
+be as happy as he was.</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p><span class="smcap">Glossary.</span>&mdash;<i>Rann</i>, a stanza; <i>kailee</i> (<i>c&eacute;ilidhe</i>), a visit in
+the evening; <i>wirra</i> (<i>a mhuire</i>), "Oh, Mary!" an exclamation like the
+French <i>dame</i>; <i>rib</i>, a single hair (in Irish, <i>ribe</i>); <i>a lock</i>
+(<i>glac</i>), a bundle or wisp, or a little share of anything; <i>kippeen</i>
+(<i>cip&iacute;n</i>), a rod or twig; <i>boreen</i> (<i>b&oacute;ithr&iacute;n</i>), a lane; <i>bodach</i>, a
+clown; <i>soorawn</i> (<i>suar&aacute;n</i>), vertigo. <i>Avic</i> (<i>a Mhic</i>)=my son, or
+rather, Oh, son. Mic is the vocative of Mac.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Sir Edward Bulwer-Lytton</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A friend of mine, who is a man of letters and a philosopher, said to me
+one day, as if between jest and earnest&mdash;"Fancy! since we last met, I
+have discovered a haunted house in the midst of London."</p>
+
+<p>"Really haunted?&mdash;and by what?&mdash;ghosts?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I can't answer these questions&mdash;all I know is this&mdash;six weeks ago
+I and my wife 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&mdash;liked the
+rooms&mdash;engaged them by the week&mdash;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."</p>
+
+<p>"What did you see?"</p>
+
+<p>"Excuse me&mdash;I have no desire to be ridiculed as a superstitious
+dreamer&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> 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&mdash;silly woman though she
+be&mdash;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.'</p>
+
+<p>"'They&mdash;who?' I asked, affecting a smile.</p>
+
+<p>"'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&mdash;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
+farther. I paid for my week, and too happy were I and my wife to get off
+so cheaply."</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>My friend gave me the address; and when we parted, I walked straight
+towards the house thus indicated.</p>
+
+<p>It is situated on the north side of Oxford Street, in a dull but
+respectable thoroughfare. I found the house shut up&mdash;no bill at the
+window, and no response to my knock. As I was turning away, a beer-boy,
+collecting pewter pots at the neighbouring areas, said to me, "Do you
+want anyone in that house, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I heard it was to let."</p>
+
+<p>"Let!&mdash;why, the woman who kept it is dead&mdash;has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> been dead these three
+weeks, and no one can be found to stay there, though Mr J&mdash;&mdash; offered
+ever so much. He offered mother, who chars for him, &pound;1 a week just to
+open and shut the windows, and she would not."</p>
+
+<p>"Would not!&mdash;and why?"</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"Pooh!&mdash;you speak of Mr J&mdash;&mdash;. Is he the owner of the house?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Where does he live?"</p>
+
+<p>"In G&mdash;&mdash; Street, No. &mdash;&mdash;."</p>
+
+<p>"What is he?&mdash;in any business?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir&mdash;nothing particular; a single gentleman."</p>
+
+<p>I gave the pot-boy the gratuity earned by his liberal information, and
+proceeded to Mr J&mdash;&mdash;, in G&mdash;&mdash;Street, which was close by the street
+that boasted the haunted house. I was lucky enough to find Mr J&mdash;&mdash; at
+home&mdash;an elderly man, with intelligent countenance and prepossessing
+manners.</p>
+
+<p>I communicated my name and my business frankly. I said I heard the house
+was considered to be haunted&mdash;that I had a strong desire to examine a
+house with so equivocal a reputation&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;, 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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> at night the
+disturbances are of a more unpleasant and sometimes of a more alarming
+character.</p>
+
+<p>"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 neighbourhood, I have so
+despaired of finding any person to take charge of it, much more a
+tenant, that I would willingly let it rent free for a year to anyone who
+would pay its rates and taxes."</p>
+
+<p>"How long is it since the house acquired this sinister character?"</p>
+
+<p>"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, amongst 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
+repainting and roofing it&mdash;added to its old-fashioned furniture a few
+modern articles&mdash;advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He was
+a colonel retired 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 they deponed that they had all seen something
+different, that something was equally terrible to all. I really could
+not in conscience sue, or even blame, the colonel for breach of
+agreement.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;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."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you never had a curiosity yourself to pass a night in that house?"</p>
+
+<p>"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
+<i>not</i> to pass a night in that house."</p>
+
+<p>"My interest <i>is</i> 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&mdash;even in a haunted house."</p>
+
+<p>Mr J&mdash;&mdash; said very little more; he took the keys of the house out of his
+bureau, gave them to me,&mdash;and thanking him cordially for his frankness,
+and his urbane concession to my wish, I carried off my prize.</p>
+
+<p>Impatient for the experiment, as soon as I reached home I summoned my
+confidential servant,&mdash;a young man of gay spirits, fearless temper, and
+as free from superstitious prejudice as anyone I could think of.</p>
+
+<p>"F&mdash;&mdash;," 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> 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&mdash;something, perhaps, excessively
+horrible. Do you think, if I take you with me, I may rely on your
+presence of mind, whatever may happen?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir! pray trust me," answered F&mdash;&mdash;, grinning with delight.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well&mdash;then here are the keys of the house&mdash;this is the address. Go
+now&mdash;select for me any bedroom you please; and since the house has not
+been inhabited for weeks, make up a good fire&mdash;air the bed well&mdash;see, of
+course, that there are candles as well as fuel. Take with you my
+revolver and my dagger&mdash;so much for my weapons&mdash;arm yourself equally
+well; and if we are not a match for a dozen ghosts, we shall be but a
+sorry couple of Englishmen."</p>
+
+<p>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 honour. I dined alone, and very late, and while dining,
+read, as is my habit. The volume I selected was one 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.</p>
+
+<p>Accordingly, about half-past nine, I put the book into my pocket, and
+strolled leisurely towards the haunted house. I took with me a favourite
+dog&mdash;an exceedingly sharp, bold, and vigilant bull-terrier&mdash;a dog fond
+of prowling about strange ghostly corners and passages at night in
+search of rats&mdash;a dog of dogs for a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>It was a summer night, but chilly, the sky somewhat gloomy and overcast.
+Still, there was a moon&mdash;faint and sickly, but still a moon&mdash;and if the
+clouds permitted, after midnight it would be brighter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I reached the house, knocked, and my servant opened with a cheerful
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, sir, and very comfortable."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said I, rather disappointed; "have you not seen nor heard anything
+remarkable?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, sir, I must own I have heard something queer."</p>
+
+<p>"What?&mdash;what?"</p>
+
+<p>"The sound of feet pattering behind me; and once or twice small noises
+like whispers close at my ear&mdash;nothing more."</p>
+
+<p>"You are not at all frightened?"</p>
+
+<p>"I! not a bit of it, sir"; and the man's bold look reassured me on one
+point&mdash;viz. that, happen what might, he would not desert me.</p>
+
+<p>We were in the hall, the street-door closed, and my attention was now
+drawn to my dog. He had at first ran 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&mdash;&mdash; 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 wine-bibbers.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> 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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>We remounted the stairs, and entered the rooms on the ground floor, a
+dining parlour, a small back-parlour, and a still smaller third room
+that had been probably appropriated to a footman&mdash;all still as death. We
+then visited the drawing-rooms, which seemed fresh and new. In the front
+room I seated myself in an armchair. F&mdash;&mdash; 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.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, this is better than the turning-tables," said I, with a
+half-laugh&mdash;and as I laughed, my dog put back his head and howled.</p>
+
+<p>F&mdash;&mdash;, 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&mdash;&mdash;; "put it back to the wall."</p>
+
+<p>F&mdash;&mdash; obeyed. "Was that you, sir?" said he, turning abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>"I&mdash;what!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, something struck me. I felt it sharply on the shoulder&mdash;just
+here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"No," said I. "But we have jugglers present, and though we may not
+discover their tricks, we shall catch <i>them</i> before they frighten <i>us</i>."</p>
+
+<p>We did not stay long in the drawing-rooms&mdash;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&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>This last was a small room with a sofa-bed, and had no communication
+with the landing-place&mdash;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, flushed with the wall, and covered with the same
+dull-brown paper. We examined these cupboards&mdash;only hooks to suspend
+female dresses&mdash;nothing else; we sounded the walls&mdash;evidently solid&mdash;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&mdash;&mdash;, 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 it is
+a&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;some human agency might be
+detected here. I rushed in first, my servant followed. A small blank
+dreary room without furniture&mdash;a few<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> empty boxes and hampers in a
+corner&mdash;a small window&mdash;the shutters closed&mdash;not even a fireplace&mdash;no
+other door but that by which we had entered&mdash;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 around, the door by which we had entered closed as quietly as it
+had before opened: we were imprisoned.</p>
+
+<p>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."</p>
+
+<p>"Try first if it will open to your hand," said I, shaking off the vague
+apprehension that had seized me, "while I open the shutters and see what
+is without."</p>
+
+<p>I unbarred the shutters&mdash;the window looked on the little backyard I have
+before described; there was no ledge without&mdash;nothing but sheer descent.
+No man getting out of that window would have found any footing till he
+had fallen on the stones below.</p>
+
+<p>F&mdash;&mdash;, 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 gaiety 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.</p>
+
+<p>As I ceased from the effort, again that creep of horror came over me;
+but this time it was more cold and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> 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&mdash;as large as the human figure, but shapeless and
+unsubstantial&mdash;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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;nor did the
+light reappear; but we distinctly heard, as we turned to go, a pattering
+footfall on the floor&mdash;just before us. We went through the other attics
+(in all, four), the footfall still preceding us. Nothing to be
+seen&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>We regained the bedchamber appropriated to myself,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> 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.</p>
+
+<p>The letters were short&mdash;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&mdash;some secret
+that seemed of crime. "We ought to love each other," was one of the
+sentences I remember, "for how everyone else would execrate us if all
+was known." Again: "Don't let anyone be in the same room with you at
+night&mdash;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&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>I put down the letters, and began to muse over their contents.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;laid the letters on the table&mdash;stirred up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> the fire,
+which was still bright and cheering&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite to me the fire burned clear; and on the hearth-rug, 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&mdash;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&mdash;softly, softly&mdash;no
+visible hand&mdash;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&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; be on your guard."</p>
+
+<p>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 concentrated 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 recognised him had we met in the
+streets, so altered was every lineament. He passed by me quickly, saying
+in a whisper that seemed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> scarcely to come from his lips, "Run&mdash;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&mdash;heard it again clap to. I was left alone in
+the haunted house.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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?</p>
+
+<p>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 trying 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 recognise 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 if in the madness of
+hydrophobia, I left him alone, placed my weapons on the table beside the
+fire, seated myself, and recommenced my Macaulay.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>As I hold presence of mind, or what is called courage, to be precisely
+proportioned to familiarity with the circumstance 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&mdash;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&mdash;<i>i.e.</i> not supernatural."</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>Accept again, as truthful, the tales of Spirit Manifestation in
+America&mdash;musical or other sounds&mdash;writings on paper, produced by no
+discernible hand&mdash;articles of furniture moved without apparent human
+agency&mdash;or the actual sight and touch of hands, to which no bodies seem
+to belong&mdash;still there must be found the <i>medium</i> or living being, with
+constitutional peculiarities capable of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> 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 mesmerised patient can respond to the will or
+passes of a mesmeriser a hundred miles distant, is the response less
+occasioned by a material being; it may be through a material fluid&mdash;call
+it Electric, call it Odic, call it what you will&mdash;which has the power of
+traversing space and passing obstacles, that the material effect is
+communicated from one to the other.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>I now became aware that something interposed between the page and the
+light&mdash;the page was overshadowed; I looked up, and I saw what I shall
+find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.</p>
+
+<p>It was a Darkness shaping itself out of 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 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&mdash;but this I cannot say
+with precision&mdash;that I distinguished two eyes looking down on me from
+the height. One moment I seemed to distinguish 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.</p>
+
+<p>I strove to speak&mdash;my voice utterly failed me; I could only think to
+myself, "Is this fear? it is <i>not</i> fear!" I strove to rise&mdash;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 men's, which
+one may feel <i>physically</i> 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 <i>morally</i>. 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 men.</p>
+
+<p>And now, as this impression grew on me, now came, at last,
+horror&mdash;horror to a degree that no words can<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> 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&mdash;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&mdash;they were not, as it were,
+extinguished, but their flame seemed very gradually withdrawn; it was
+the same with the fire&mdash;the light was extracted from the fuel; in a few
+minutes the room was in utter darkness.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;"I do not fear, my soul does not
+fear"; and at the same time I found the strength to rise. Still in that
+profound gloom I rushed to one of the windows&mdash;tore aside the
+curtain&mdash;flung open the shutters; my first thought was&mdash;<span class="smcap">light</span>.
+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&mdash;but still there was light. The dark Thing, whatever it
+might be, was gone&mdash;except that I could yet see a dim shadow which
+seemed the shadow of that shade, against the opposite wall.</p>
+
+<p>My eye now rested on the table, and from under the table (which was
+without cloth or cover&mdash;an old mahogany round table) there rose a hand,
+visible as far as the wrist.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> It was a hand, seemingly, as much of flesh
+and blood as my own, but the hand of an aged person&mdash;lean, wrinkled,
+small too&mdash;a woman's hand.</p>
+
+<p>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 bed-head before this extraordinary
+drama had commenced.</p>
+
+<p>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-coloured&mdash;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&mdash;a woman's shape. It was distinct as
+a shape of life&mdash;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&mdash;eyes fixed upon that shape.</p>
+
+<p>As if from the door, though it did not open, there grew out another
+shape equally distinct, equally ghastly&mdash;a man's shape&mdash;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&mdash;simulacra&mdash;phantasms; and there was
+something incongruous, grotesque, yet fearful, in the contrast between
+the elaborate finery, the courtly precision of that old-fashioned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> 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 bloodstain 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&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>The closet-door to the right of the fireplace now opened, and from the
+aperture there came the form of a woman, aged. In her hand she held
+letters&mdash;the very letters over which I had seen <i>the</i> Hand close; and
+behind her I heard a footstep. She turned round as if to listen, 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&mdash;bloated,
+bleached&mdash;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&mdash;hard-eyed, stony, but still
+youth; and the Shadow darted forth, and darkened over these phantoms as
+it had darkened over the last.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing now was left but the Shadow, and on that my eyes were intently
+fixed, till again eyes grew out of the Shadow&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> the shell of an egg, monstrous things
+burst out; the air grew filled with them; larv&aelig; 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&mdash;things transparent, supple, agile, chasing each
+other, devouring each other&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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 concentrated all my faculties in the single focus of
+resisting, stubborn will. And I turned my sight from the Shadow&mdash;above
+all, from those strange serpent eyes&mdash;eyes that had now become
+distinctly visible. For there, though in nought else around me, I was
+aware that there was a <i>will</i>, and a will of intense, creative, working
+evil, which might crush down my own.</p>
+
+<p>The pale atmosphere in the room began now to redden as if in the air of
+some near conflagration. The larv&aelig; 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>The two doors were still closed, the door communicating<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> with the
+servants' room still locked. In the corner of the wall, into which he
+had so convulsively niched himself, lay the dog. I called to him&mdash;no
+movement; I approached&mdash;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 favourite&mdash;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&mdash;actually twisted out of the
+vertebr&aelig;. Had this been done in the dark?&mdash;must it not have been by a
+hand human as mine?&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>Another surprising circumstance&mdash;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&mdash;that is, it will go in a strange
+erratic way for a few hours, and then comes to a dead stop&mdash;it is
+worthless.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing more chanced for the rest of the night. Nor, indeed, had I long
+to wait before the dawn broke. Not 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&mdash;for which I could not account&mdash;that from that room
+had originated the mechanism of the phenomena&mdash;if I may use the
+term&mdash;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 floor, the creep of the horror which I had
+first there experienced the night before, and which had been so
+aggravated by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> 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:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Honoured Sir</span>,&mdash;I humbly entreat your pardon, though I
+can scarcely hope that you will think I deserve it,
+unless&mdash;which Heaven forbid!&mdash;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, honoured sir, to order my clothes, and whatever wages
+are due to me, to be sent to my mother's, at Walworth&mdash;John
+knows her address."</p></div>
+
+<p>The letter ended with additional apologies, somewhat incoherent, and
+explanatory details as to effects that had been under the writer's
+charge.</p>
+
+<p>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 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> the stairs I heard the
+same footfall in advance. On leaving the house, I went to Mr J&mdash;&mdash;'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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;&mdash; seemed startled, and, after musing a few moments,
+answered, "I know but little of 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&mdash;you smile&mdash;what would you say?"</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"What! you believe it is all an imposture? For what object?"</p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;tell you what money you had in your pocket&mdash;nay,
+describe your very thoughts&mdash;it is not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> 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 <i>rapport</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Granting mesmerism, so far carried, to be a fact, you are right. And
+you would infer from this that a mesmeriser might produce the
+extraordinary effects you and others have witnessed over inanimate
+objects&mdash;fill the air with sights and sounds?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or impress our senses with the belief in them&mdash;we never having been <i>en
+rapport</i> 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&mdash;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, 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&mdash;that is, over certain thoughts and memories
+that the dead may still retain&mdash;and compel, not that which ought
+properly to be called the <i>soul</i>, 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&mdash;is a very ancient though obsolete
+theory, upon which I will hazard no opinion. But I do not conceive the
+power would be supernatural.</p>
+
+<p>"Let me illustrate what I mean from an experiment which Paracelsus
+describes as not difficult, and which the author of the <i>Curiosities of
+Literature</i> 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 burnt dust of that flower, raise a
+spectrum of the flower,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> just as it seemed in life. It may be the same
+with the human being. The soul has so 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.</p>
+
+<p>"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&mdash;that is,
+of superior emancipated intelligence. They come for little or no
+object&mdash;they seldom speak, if they do come; they utter no ideas above
+that of an ordinary person on earth. These 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&mdash;Shakespeare, Bacon&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>"Nor, what is more notable, 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&mdash;viz. 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 fiend-like shapes appear
+in a magic circle, or bodyless hands rise and remove material objects,
+or a Thing of Darkness, such as presented itself to me, freeze our
+blood&mdash;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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> those may produce
+chemic wonders&mdash;in others a natural fluid, call it electricity, and
+these produce electric wonders. But they differ in this from Normal
+Science&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>"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 semisubstance. 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; it might, for
+aught I know, have sufficed to kill myself, had I been as subjugated by
+terror as the dog&mdash;had my intellect or my spirit given me no
+countervailing resistance in my will."</p>
+
+<p>"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. Rats and
+mice are never found in it."</p>
+
+<p>"The instincts of the brute creation detect influences deadly to their
+existence. Man's reason has a sense less<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> subtle, because it has a
+resisting power more supreme. But enough; do you comprehend my theory?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, though imperfectly&mdash;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?"</p>
+
+<p>"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 bedroom 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&mdash;nay, the whole room pulled down. I
+observe that it is detached from the body of the house, built over the
+small back-yard, and could be removed without injury to the rest of the
+building."</p>
+
+<p>"And you think, if I did that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"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."</p>
+
+<p>"Nay, I am well able to afford the cost; for the rest, allow me to write
+to you."</p>
+
+<p>About ten days afterwards I received a letter from Mr J&mdash;&mdash;, 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 relatives, 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<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> 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."</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;and in the event of the child's death, the sister inherited. The
+child died about six months afterwards&mdash;it was supposed to have been
+neglected and ill-treated. The neighbours 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&mdash;crept out into the back-yard&mdash;tried to scale the
+wall&mdash;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.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;an investment failed&mdash;she went into a small business and became
+insolvent&mdash;then she entered into service, sinking lower and lower, from
+housekeeper down to maid-of-all-work&mdash;never long retaining a place,
+though nothing peculiar against her character was ever alleged. She was
+considered sober,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> honest, and peculiarly quiet in her ways; still
+nothing prospered with her. And so she had dropped into the workhouse,
+from which Mr J&mdash;&mdash; 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.</p>
+
+<p>Mr J&mdash;&mdash; 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.</p>
+
+<p>The day was accordingly fixed. I repaired to the haunted house&mdash;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&mdash;three chairs, an oak settle, a table&mdash;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&mdash;costly steel buckles and
+buttons, like those yet worn in court dresses&mdash;a handsome court
+sword&mdash;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.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>In this safe were three shelves and two small drawers. Ranged on the
+shelves were several small bottles of crystal, hermetically stopped.
+They contained colourless volatile essences, of what nature I shall say
+no more than that they were not poisons&mdash;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&mdash;also a loadstone of great power.</p>
+
+<p>In one of the drawers we found a miniature portrait set in gold, and
+retaining the freshness of its colours 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.</p>
+
+<p>It was a most peculiar face&mdash;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&mdash;the tapering elegance of contour disguising the strength of the
+deadly jaw&mdash;the long, large, terrible eye, glittering and green as the
+emerald&mdash;and withal a certain ruthless calm, as if from the
+consciousness of an immense power. The strange thing was this&mdash;the
+instant I saw the miniature I recognised a startling likeness to one of
+the rarest portraits in the world&mdash;the portrait of a man of a rank only
+below that of royalty, who in his own day had made a considerable noise.
+History says little or nothing of him; but search the correspondence of
+his contemporaries, and you find reference to his wild daring, his bold
+profligacy, his restless spirit, his taste for the occult sciences.
+While still in the meridian of life he died and was buried, so say the
+chronicles, in a foreign land. He died in time to escape the grasp of
+the law, for he was accused of crimes which would have given him to the
+headsman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>After his death, the portraits of him, which had been numerous, for he
+had been a munificent encourager of art, were bought up and
+destroyed&mdash;it was supposed by his heirs, who might have been glad could
+they have razed his very name from their splendid line. He had enjoyed a
+vast wealth; a large portion of this was believed to have been embezzled
+by a favourite astrologer or soothsayer&mdash;at all events, it had
+unaccountably vanished at the time of his death. One portrait alone of
+him was supposed to have escaped the general destruction; I had seen it
+in the house of a collector some months before. It had made on me a
+wonderful impression, as it does on all who behold it&mdash;a face never to
+be forgotten; and there was that face in the miniature that lay within
+my hand. True, that in the miniature the man was a few years older than
+in the portrait I had seen, or than the original was even at the time of
+his death. But a few years!&mdash;why, between the date in which flourished
+that direful noble and the date in which the miniature was evidently
+painted, there was an interval of more than two centuries. While I was
+thus gazing, silent and wondering, Mr J&mdash;&mdash; said:</p>
+
+<p>"But is it possible? I have known this man."</p>
+
+<p>"How&mdash;where?" I cried.</p>
+
+<p>"In India. He was high in the confidence of the Rajah of &mdash;&mdash;, and
+wellnigh drew him into a revolt which would have lost the Rajah his
+dominions. The man was a Frenchman&mdash;his name de V&mdash;&mdash;, clever, bold,
+lawless. We insisted on his dismissal and banishment: it must be the
+same man&mdash;no two faces like his&mdash;yet this miniature seems nearly a
+hundred years old."</p>
+
+<p>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. Withinside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> the lid
+was engraved "Mariana to thee&mdash;Be faithful in life and in death to
+&mdash;&mdash;." 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&mdash;that of his mistress and his rival.
+I said nothing of this to Mr J&mdash;&mdash;, to whom reluctantly I resigned the
+miniature.</p>
+
+<p>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&mdash;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 very peculiar, but not strong nor
+displeasing odour, came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood
+that we afterwards discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this
+odour, it produced a material effect on the nerves. We all felt it, even
+the two workmen who were in the room&mdash;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 spilt&mdash;the saucer was broken&mdash;the compass rolled to the
+end of the room&mdash;and at that instant the walls shook to and fro, as if a
+giant had swayed and rocked them.</p>
+
+<p>The two workmen were so frightened that they ran<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> up the ladder by which
+we had descended from the trap-door; but seeing that nothing more
+happened, they were easily induced to return.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile I had opened the tablet: it was bound in a 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:&mdash;"On all that
+it can reach within these walls&mdash;sentient or inanimate, living or
+dead&mdash;as moves the needle, so work my will! Accursed be the house, and
+restless be the dwellers therein."</p>
+
+<p>We found no more. Mr J&mdash;&mdash; burnt 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.</p>
+
+<p>But my story is not yet done. A few days after Mr J&mdash;&mdash; had removed into
+the house, I paid him a visit. We were standing by the open window and
+conversing. A van containing some articles of furniture which he was
+moving from his former house was at the door. I had just urged on him my
+theory that all those phenomena regarded as supermundane had emanated
+from a human brain; adducing the charm, or rather curse, we had found
+and destroyed in support of my philosophy. Mr J&mdash;&mdash; was observing in
+reply, "That even if mesmerism, or whatever analogous power it might be
+called, could really thus work in the absence of the operator, and
+produce effects so extraordinary, still could those effects continue
+when the operator himself was dead? and if the spell had been wrought,
+and, indeed, the room walled up, more than seventy years ago, the
+probability was, that the operator had long since departed this life";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>
+Mr J&mdash;&mdash;, I say, was thus answering, when I caught hold of his arm and
+pointed to the street below.</p>
+
+<p>A well-dressed man had crossed from the opposite side, and was accosting
+the carrier in charge of the van. His face, as he stood, was exactly
+fronting our window. It was the face of the miniature we had discovered;
+it was the face of the portrait of the noble three centuries ago.</p>
+
+<p>"Good Heavens!" cried Mr J&mdash;&mdash;, "that is the face of de V&mdash;&mdash;, and
+scarcely a day older than when I saw it in the Rajah's court in my
+youth!"</p>
+
+<p>Seized by the same thought, we both hastened downstairs. I was first in
+the street; but the man had already gone. I caught sight of him,
+however, not many yards in advance, and in another moment I was by his
+side.</p>
+
+<p>I had resolved to speak to him, but when I looked into his face I felt
+as if it were impossible to do so. That eye&mdash;the eye of the
+serpent&mdash;fixed and held me spellbound. And withal, about the man's whole
+person there was a dignity, an air of pride and station and superiority,
+that would have made anyone, habituated to the usages of the world,
+hesitate long before venturing upon a liberty or impertinence. And what
+could I say? what was it I would ask? Thus ashamed of my first impulse,
+I fell a few paces back, still, however, following the stranger,
+undecided what else to do. Meanwhile he turned the corner of the street;
+a plain carriage was in waiting, with a servant out of livery, dressed
+like a <i>valet-de-place</i>, at the carriage door. In another moment he had
+stepped into the carriage, and it drove off. I returned to the house. Mr
+J&mdash;&mdash; was still at the street door. He had asked the carrier what the
+stranger had said to him.</p>
+
+<p>"Merely asked whom that house now belonged to."</p>
+
+<p>The same evening I happened to go with a friend to a place in town
+called the Cosmopolitan Club, a place open to men of all countries, all
+opinions, all degrees. One<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> orders one's coffee, smokes one's cigar. One
+is always sure to meet agreeable, sometimes remarkable, persons.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been two minutes in the room before I beheld at a table,
+conversing with an acquaintance of mine, whom I will designate by the
+initial G&mdash;&mdash;, the man&mdash;the Original of the Miniature. He was now
+without his hat, and the likeness was yet more startling, only I
+observed that while he was conversing there was less severity in the
+countenance; there was even a smile, though a very quiet and very cold
+one. The dignity of mien I had acknowledged in the street was also more
+striking; a dignity akin to that which invests some prince of the
+East&mdash;conveying the idea of supreme indifference and habitual,
+indisputable, indolent, but resistless power.</p>
+
+<p>G&mdash;&mdash; soon after left the stranger, who then took up a scientific
+journal, which seemed to absorb his attention.</p>
+
+<p>I drew G&mdash;&mdash; aside. "Who and what is that gentleman?"</p>
+
+<p>"That? Oh, a very remarkable man indeed. I met him last year amidst the
+caves of Petra&mdash;the scriptural Edom. He is the best Oriental scholar I
+know. We joined company, had an adventure with robbers, in which he
+showed a coolness that saved our lives; afterwards he invited me to
+spend a day with him in a house he had bought at Damascus&mdash;a house
+buried amongst almond blossoms and roses&mdash;the most beautiful thing! He
+had lived there for some years, quite as an Oriental, in grand style. I
+half suspect he is a renegade, immensely rich, very odd; by the by, a
+great mesmeriser. I have seen him with my own eyes produce an effect on
+inanimate things. If you take a letter from your pocket and throw it to
+the other end of the room, he will order it to come to his feet, and you
+will see the letter wriggle itself along the floor till it has obeyed
+his command. 'Pon my honour, 'tis true: I have seen him affect even the
+weather, disperse or collect clouds, by means of a glass tube or wand.
+But he does not like talking of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> matters to strangers. He has only
+just arrived in England; says he has not been here for a great many
+years; let me introduce him to you."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly! He is English, then? What is his name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!&mdash;a very homely one&mdash;Richards."</p>
+
+<p>"And what is his birth&mdash;his family?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do I know? What does it signify?&mdash;no doubt some parvenu, but
+rich&mdash;so infernally rich!"</p>
+
+<p>G&mdash;&mdash; drew me up to the stranger, and the introduction was effected. The
+manners of Mr Richards were not those of an adventurous traveller.
+Travellers are in general constitutionally gifted with high animal
+spirits: they are talkative, eager, imperious. Mr Richards was calm and
+subdued in tone, with manners which were made distant by the loftiness
+of punctilious courtesy&mdash;the manners of a former age. I observed that
+the English he spoke was not exactly of our day. I should even have said
+that the accent was slightly foreign. But then Mr Richards remarked that
+he had been little in the habit for many years of speaking in his native
+tongue. The conversation fell upon the changes in the aspect of London
+since he had last visited our metropolis. G&mdash;&mdash; then glanced off to the
+moral changes&mdash;literary, social, political&mdash;the great men who were
+removed from the stage within the last twenty years&mdash;the new great men
+who were coming on. In all this Mr Richards evinced no interest. He had
+evidently read none of our living authors, and seemed scarcely
+acquainted by name with our younger statesmen. Once and only once
+he laughed; it was when G&mdash;&mdash; asked him whether he had any
+thoughts of getting into Parliament. And the laugh was
+inward&mdash;sarcastic&mdash;sinister&mdash;a sneer raised into a laugh. After a few
+minutes G&mdash;&mdash; left us to talk to some other acquaintances who had just
+lounged into the room, and I then said quietly:</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen a miniature of you, Mr Richards, in the house you once
+inhabited, and perhaps built, if not wholly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> at least in part, in &mdash;&mdash;
+Street. You passed by that house this morning."</p>
+
+<p>Not till I had finished did I raise my eyes to his, and then his fixed
+my gaze so steadfastly that I could not withdraw it&mdash;those fascinating
+serpent eyes. But involuntarily, and if the words that translated my
+thought were dragged from me, I added in a low whisper, "I have been a
+student in the mysteries of life and nature; of those mysteries I have
+known the occult professors. I have the right to speak to you thus." And
+I uttered a certain pass-word.</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, dryly, "I concede the right&mdash;what would you ask?"</p>
+
+<p>"To what extent human will in certain temperaments can extend?"</p>
+
+<p>"To what extent can thought extend? Think, and before you draw breath
+you are in China!"</p>
+
+<p>"True. But my thought has no power in China."</p>
+
+<p>"Give it expression, and it may have: you may write down a thought
+which, sooner or later, may alter the whole condition of China. What is
+a law but a thought? Therefore thought is infinite&mdash;therefore thought
+has power; not in proportion to its value&mdash;a bad thought may make a bad
+law as potent as a good thought can make a good one."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; what you say confirms my own theory. Through invisible currents
+one human brain may transmit its ideas to other human brains with the
+same rapidity as a thought promulgated by visible means. And as thought
+is imperishable&mdash;as it leaves its stamp behind it in the natural world
+even when the thinker has passed out of this world&mdash;so the thought of
+the living may have power to rouse up and revive the thoughts of the
+dead&mdash;such as those thoughts <i>were in life</i>&mdash;though the thought of the
+living cannot reach the thoughts which the dead <i>now</i> may entertain. Is
+it not so?"</p>
+
+<p>"I decline to answer, if, in my judgment, thought has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> the limit you
+would fix to it; but proceed. You have a special question you wish to
+put."</p>
+
+<p>"Intense malignity in an intense will, engendered in a peculiar
+temperament, and aided by natural means within the reach of science, may
+produce effects like those ascribed of old to evil magic. It might thus
+haunt the walls of a human habitation with spectral revivals of all
+guilty thoughts and guilty deeds once conceived and done within those
+walls; all, in short, with which the evil will claims <i>rapport</i> and
+affinity&mdash;imperfect, incoherent, fragmentary snatches at the old dramas
+acted therein years ago. Thoughts thus crossing each other haphazard, as
+in the nightmare of a vision, growing up into phantom sights and sounds,
+and all serving to create horror, not because those sights and sounds
+are really visitations from a world without, but that they are ghastly
+monstrous renewals of what have been in this world itself, set into
+malignant play by a malignant mortal.</p>
+
+<p>"And it is through the material agency of that human brain that these
+things would acquire even a human power&mdash;would strike as with the shock
+of electricity, and might kill, if the thought of the person assailed
+did not rise superior to the dignity of the original assailer&mdash;might
+kill the most powerful animal if unnerved by fear, but not injure the
+feeblest man, if, while his flesh crept, his mind stood out fearless.
+Thus, when in old stories we read of a magician rent to pieces by the
+fiends he had evoked&mdash;or still more, in Eastern legends, that one
+magician succeeds by arts in destroying another&mdash;there may be so far
+truth, that a material being has clothed, from its own evil propensities
+certain elements and fluids, usually quiescent or harmless, with awful
+shape and terrific force&mdash;just as the lightning that had lain hidden and
+innocent in the cloud becomes by natural law suddenly visible, takes a
+distinct shape to the eye, and can strike destruction on the object to
+which it is attracted."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are not without glimpses of a very mighty secret," said Mr
+Richards, composedly. "According to your view, could a mortal obtain the
+power you speak of, he would necessarily be a malignant and evil being."</p>
+
+<p>"If the power were exercised as I have said, most malignant and most
+evil&mdash;though I believe in the ancient traditions that he could not
+injure the good. His will could only injure those with whom it has
+established an affinity, or over whom it forces unresisted sway. I will
+now imagine an example that may be within the laws of nature, yet seem
+wild as the fables of a bewildered monk.</p>
+
+<p>"You will remember that Albertus Magnus, after describing minutely the
+process by which spirits may be invoked and commanded, adds emphatically
+that the process will instruct and avail only to the few&mdash;that a <i>man
+must be born a magician</i>!&mdash;that is, born with a peculiar physical
+temperament, as a man is born a poet. Rarely are men in whose
+constitution lurks this occult power of the highest order of
+intellect;&mdash;usually in the intellect there is some twist, perversity, or
+disease. But, on the other hand, they must possess, to an astonishing
+degree, the faculty to concentrate thought on a single object&mdash;the
+energic faculty that we call <i>will</i>. Therefore, though their intellect
+be not sound, it is exceedingly forcible for the attainment of what it
+desires. I will imagine such a person, pre-eminently gifted with this
+constitution and its concomitant forces. I will place him in the loftier
+grades of society. I will suppose his desires emphatically those of the
+sensualist&mdash;he has, therefore, a strong love of life. He is an absolute
+egotist&mdash;his will is concentrated in himself&mdash;he has fierce passions&mdash;he
+knows no enduring, no holy affections, but he can covet eagerly what for
+the moment he desires&mdash;he can hate implacably what opposes itself to his
+objects&mdash;he can commit fearful crimes, yet feel small remorse&mdash;he
+resorts rather to curses upon others,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> than to penitence for his
+misdeeds. Circumstances, to which his constitution guides him, lead him
+to a rare knowledge of the natural secrets which may serve his egotism.
+He is a close observer where his passions encourage observation, he is a
+minute calculator, not from love of truth, but where love of self
+sharpens his faculties&mdash;therefore he can be a man of science.</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose such a being, having by experience learned the power of his
+arts over others, trying what may be the power of will over his own
+frame, and studying all that in natural philosophy may increase that
+power. He loves life, he dreads death; he <i>wills to live on</i>. He cannot
+restore himself to youth, he cannot entirely stay the progress of death,
+he cannot make himself immortal in the flesh and blood; but he may
+arrest for a time so prolonged as to appear incredible, if I said
+it&mdash;that hardening of the parts which constitutes old age. A year may
+age him no more than an hour ages another. His intense will,
+scientifically trained into system, operates, in short, over the wear
+and tear of his own frame. He lives on. That he may not seem a portent
+and a miracle, he <i>dies</i> from time to time, seemingly, to certain
+persons. Having schemed the transfer of a wealth that suffices to his
+wants, he disappears from one corner of the world, and contrives that
+his obsequies shall be celebrated. He reappears at another corner of the
+world, where he resides undetected, and does not revisit the scenes of
+his former career till all who could remember his features are no more.
+He would be profoundly miserable if he had affections&mdash;he has none but
+for himself. No good man would accept his longevity, and to no men, good
+or bad, would he or could he communicate its true secret. Such a man
+might exist; such a man as I have described I see now before me!&mdash;Duke
+of &mdash;&mdash;, in the court of &mdash;&mdash;, dividing time between lust and brawl,
+alchemists and wizards;&mdash;again, in the last century, charlatan and
+criminal, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> name less noble, domiciled in the house at which you
+gazed to-day, and flying from the law you had outraged, none knew
+whither; traveller once more revisiting London, with the same earthly
+passions which filled your heart when races now no more walked through
+yonder streets; outlaw from the school of all the nobler and diviner
+mystics; execrable Image of Life in Death and Death in Life, I warn you
+back from the cities and homes of healthful men; back to the ruins of
+departed empires; back to the deserts of nature unredeemed!"</p>
+
+<p>There answered me a whisper so musical, so potently musical, that it
+seemed to enter into my whole being, and subdue me despite myself. Thus
+it said:</p>
+
+<p>"I have sought one like you for the last hundred years. Now I have found
+you, we part not till I know what I desire. The vision that sees through
+the Past, and cleaves through the veil of the Future, is in you at this
+hour; never before, never to come again. The vision of no puling
+fantastic girl, of no sick-bed somnambule, but of a strong man, with a
+vigorous brain. Soar and look forth!"</p>
+
+<p>As he spoke I felt as if I rose out of myself upon eagle wings. All the
+weight seemed gone from air&mdash;roofless the room, roofless the dome of
+space. I was not in the body&mdash;where I knew not&mdash;but aloft over time,
+over earth.</p>
+
+<p>Again I heard the melodious whisper,&mdash;"You say right. I have mastered
+great secrets by the power of Will; true, by Will and by Science I can
+retard the process of years: but death comes not by age alone. Can I
+frustrate the accidents which bring death upon the young?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; every accident is a providence. Before a providence snaps every
+human will."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I die at last, ages and ages hence, by the slow, though
+inevitable, growth of time, or by the cause that I call accident?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"By a cause you call accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Is not the end still remote?" asked the whisper, with a slight tremor.</p>
+
+<p>"Regarded as my life regards time, it is still remote."</p>
+
+<p>"And shall I, before then, mix with the world of men as I did ere I
+learned these secrets, resume eager interest in their strife and their
+trouble&mdash;battle with ambition, and use the power of the sage to win the
+power that belongs to kings?"</p>
+
+<p>"You will yet play a part on the earth that will fill earth with
+commotion and amaze. For wondrous designs have you, a wonder yourself,
+been permitted to live on through the centuries. All the secrets you
+have stored will then have their uses&mdash;all that now makes you a stranger
+amidst the generations will contribute then to make you their lord. As
+the trees and the straws are drawn into a whirlpool&mdash;as they spin round,
+are sucked to the deep, and again tossed aloft by the eddies, so shall
+races and thrones be plucked into the charm of your vortex. Awful
+Destroyer&mdash;but in destroying, made, against your own will, a
+Constructor!"</p>
+
+<p>"And that date, too, is far off?"</p>
+
+<p>"Far off; when it comes, think your end in this world is at hand!"</p>
+
+<p>"How and what is the end? Look east, west, south, and north."</p>
+
+<p>"In the north, where you never yet trod towards the point whence your
+instincts have warned you, there a spectre will seize you. 'Tis Death! I
+see a ship&mdash;it is haunted&mdash;'tis chased&mdash;it sails on. Baffled navies sail
+after that ship. It enters the region of ice. It passes a sky red with
+meteors. Two moons stand on high, over ice-reefs. I see the ship locked
+between white defiles&mdash;they are ice-rocks. I see the dead strew the
+decks&mdash;stark and livid, green mould on their limbs. All are dead but one
+man&mdash;it is you! But years, though so slowly they come, have then scathed
+you. There is the coming of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> age on your brow, and the will is relaxed
+in the cells of the brain. Still that will, though enfeebled, exceeds
+all that man knew before you, through the will you live on, gnawed with
+famine; and nature no longer obeys you in that death-spreading region;
+the sky is a sky of iron, and the air has iron clamps, and the ice-rocks
+wedge in the ship. Hark how it cracks and groans. Ice will imbed it as
+amber imbeds a straw. And a man has gone forth, living yet, from the
+ship and its dead; and he has clambered up the spikes of an iceberg, and
+the two moons gaze down on his form. That man is yourself; and terror is
+on you&mdash;terror; and terror has swallowed your will. And I see swarming
+up the steep ice-rock, grey grisly things. The bears of the north have
+scented their quarry&mdash;they come near you and nearer, shambling and
+rolling their bulk. And in that day every moment shall seem to you
+longer than the centuries through which you have passed. And heed
+this&mdash;after life, moments continued make the bliss or the hell of
+eternity."</p>
+
+<p>"Hush," said the whisper; "but the day, you assure me, is far off&mdash;very
+far! I go back to the almond and rose of Damascus!&mdash;sleep!"</p>
+
+<p>The room swam before my eyes. I became insensible. When I recovered, I
+found G&mdash;&mdash; holding my hand and smiling. He said, "You who have always
+declared yourself proof against mesmerism have succumbed at last to my
+friend Richards."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mr Richards?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gone, when you passed into a trance&mdash;saying quietly to me, 'Your friend
+will not wake for an hour.'"</p>
+
+<p>I asked, as collectedly as I could, where Mr Richards lodged.</p>
+
+<p>"At the Trafalgar Hotel."</p>
+
+<p>"Give me your arm," said I to G&mdash;&mdash;; "let us call on him; I have
+something to say."</p>
+
+<p>When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that Mr<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> Richards had
+returned twenty minutes before, paid his bill, left directions with his
+servant (a Greek) to pack his effects and proceed to Malta by the
+steamer that should leave Southampton the next day. Mr Richards had
+merely said of his own movements that he had visits to pay in the
+neighbourhood of London, and it was uncertain whether he should be able
+to reach Southampton in time for that steamer; if not, he should follow
+in the next one.</p>
+
+<p>The waiter asked me my name. On my informing him, he gave me a note that
+Mr Richards had left for me, in case I called.</p>
+
+<p>The note was as follows: "I wished you to utter what was in your mind.
+You obeyed. I have therefore established power over you. For three
+months from this day you can communicate to no living man what has
+passed between us&mdash;you cannot even show this note to the friend by your
+side. During three months, silence complete as to me and mine. Do you
+doubt my power to lay on you this command?&mdash;try to disobey me. At the
+end of the third month, the spell is raised. For the rest I spare you. I
+shall visit your grave a year and a day after it has received you."</p>
+
+<p>So ends this strange story, which I ask no one to believe. I write it
+down exactly three months after I received the above note. I could not
+write it before, nor could I show to G&mdash;&mdash;, in spite of his urgent
+request, the note which I read under the gas-lamp by his side.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE BOTATHEN GHOST</h2>
+
+<h3>By the Rev. <span class="smcap">S.R. Hawker</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>The legend of Parson Rudall and the Botathen Ghost will be recognised by
+many Cornish people as a local remembrance of their boyhood.</p>
+
+<p>It appears from the diary of this learned master of the
+grammar-school&mdash;for such was his office, as well as perpetual curate of
+the parish,&mdash;"that a pestilential disease did break forth in our town in
+the beginning of the year <span class="smcap">a.d.</span> 1665; yea, and it likewise
+invaded my school, insomuch that therewithal certain of the chief
+scholars sickened and died." "Among others who yielded to the malign
+influence was Master John Eliot, the eldest son and the worshipful heir
+of Edward Eliot, Esquire of Trebursey, a stripling of sixteen years of
+age, but of uncommon parts and hopeful ingenuity. At his own especial
+motion and earnest desire I did consent to preach his funeral sermon."
+It should be remembered here that, howsoever strange and singular it may
+sound to us that a mere lad should formally solicit such a performance
+at the hands of his master, it was in consonance with the habitual usage
+of those times. The old services for the dead had been abolished by law,
+and in the stead of sacrament and ceremony, month's mind and year's
+mind, the sole substitute which survived was the general desire "to
+partake," as they called it, of a posthumous discourse, replete with
+lofty eulogy and flattering remembrance of the living and the dead. The
+diary proceeds:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I fulfilled my undertaking and preached over the coffin in the presence
+of a full assemblage of mourners and lachrymose friends. An ancient
+gentleman who was then and there in the church, a Mr Bligh of Botathen,
+was much affected by my discourse, and he was heard to repeat to himself
+certain parentheses therefrom, especially a phrase from Maro Virgilius,
+which I had applied to the deceased youth, 'Et puer ipse fuit cantari
+dignus.'</p>
+
+<p>"The cause wherefore this old gentleman was thus moved by my
+applications was this: He had a first-born and only son&mdash;a child who,
+but a very few months before, had been not unworthy of the character I
+drew of young Master Eliot, but who, by some strange accident, had of
+late quite fallen away from his parent's hopes, and become moody, and
+sullen, and distraught. When the funeral obsequies were over, I had no
+sooner come out of the church than I was accosted by this aged parent,
+and he besought me incontinently, with a singular energy, that I would
+resort with him forthwith to his abode at Botathen that very night; nor
+could I have delivered myself from his importunity, had not Mr Eliot
+urged his claim to enjoy my company at his own house. Hereupon I got
+loose, but not until I had pledged a fast assurance that I would pay
+him, faithfully, an early visit the next day."</p>
+
+<p>"The Place," as it was called, of Botathen, where old Mr Bligh resided,
+was a low-roofed gabled manor-house of the fifteenth century, walled and
+mullioned, and with clustered chimneys of dark-grey stone from the
+neighbouring quarries of Ventor-gan. The mansion was flanked by a
+pleasaunce or enclosure in one space, of garden and lawn, and it was
+surrounded by a solemn grove of stag-horned trees. It had the sombre
+aspect of age and of solitude, and looked the very scene of strange and
+supernatural events. A legend might well belong to every gloomy glade
+around, and there must surely be a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> haunted room somewhere within its
+walls. Hither, according to his appointment, on the morrow, Parson
+Rudall betook himself. Another clergyman, as it appeared, had been
+invited to meet him, who, very soon after his arrival, proposed a walk
+together in the pleasaunce, on the pretext of showing him, as a
+stranger, the walks and trees, until the dinner-bell should strike.
+There, with much prolixity, and with many a solemn pause, his brother
+minister proceeded to "unfold the mystery."</p>
+
+<p>"A singular infelicity," he declared, "had befallen young Master Bligh,
+once the hopeful heir of his parents and of the lands of Botathen.
+Whereas he had been from childhood a blithe and merry boy, 'the
+gladness,' like Isaac of old, of his father's age, he had suddenly of
+late become morose and silent&mdash;nay, even austere and stern&mdash;dwelling
+apart, always solemn, often in tears. The lad had at first repulsed all
+questions as to the origin of this great change, but of late he had
+yielded to the importunate researches of his parents, and had disclosed
+the secret cause. It appeared that he resorted, every day, by a pathway
+across the fields, to this very clergyman's house, who had charge of his
+education, and grounded him in the studies suitable to his age. In the
+course of his daily walk he had to pass a certain heath or down where
+the road wound along through tall blocks of granite with open spaces of
+grassy sward between. There in a certain spot and always in one and the
+same place, the lad declared that he had encountered, every day, a woman
+with a pale and troubled face, clothed in a long loose garment of
+frieze, with one hand always stretched forth, and the other pressed
+against her side. Her name, he said, was Dorothy Dinglet, for he had
+known her well from his childhood, and she often used to come to his
+parents' house; but that which troubled him was, that she had now been
+dead three years, and he himself had been with the neighbours at her
+burial; so that, as the youth alleged, with great simplicity, since he
+had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> seen her body laid in the grave, this that he saw every day must
+needs be her soul or ghost. 'Questioned again and again,' said the
+clergyman, 'he never contradicts himself; but he relates the same and
+the simple tale as a thing that cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, the lad's
+observance is keen and calm for a boy of his age. The hair of the
+appearance, sayeth he, is not like anything alive, but it is so soft and
+light that it seemeth to melt away while you look; but her eyes are set,
+and never blink&mdash;no, not when the sun shineth full upon her face. She
+maketh no steps, but seemeth to swim along the top of the grass; and her
+hand, which is stretched out alway, seemeth to point at something far
+away, out of sight. It is her continual coming; for she never faileth to
+meet him, and to pass on, that hath quenched his spirits; and although
+he never seeth her by night, yet cannot he get his natural rest.'</p>
+
+<p>"Thus far the clergyman; whereupon the dinner clock did sound, and we
+went into the house. After dinner, when young Master Bligh had withdrawn
+with his tutor, under excuse of their books, the parents did forthwith
+beset me as to my thoughts about their son. Said I, warily, 'The case is
+strange, but by no means impossible. It is one that I will study, and
+fear not to handle, if the lad will be free with me, and fulfil all that
+I desire.' The mother was overjoyed, but I perceived that old Mr Bligh
+turned pale, and was downcast with some thought which, however, he did
+not express. Then they bade that Master Bligh should be called to meet
+me in the pleasaunce forthwith. The boy came, and he rehearsed to me his
+tale with an open countenance, and, withal, a modesty of speech. Verily
+he seemed 'ingenui vultus puer ingenuique pudoris.' Then I signified to
+him my purpose. 'To-morrow,' said I, 'we will go together to the place;
+and if, as I doubt not, the woman shall appear, it will be for me to
+proceed according to knowledge, and by rules laid down in my books.'"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The unaltered scenery of the legend still survives, and, like the field
+of the forty footsteps in another history, the place is still visited by
+those who take interest in the supernatural tales of old. The pathway
+leads along a moorland waste, where large masses of rock stand up here
+and there from the grassy turf, and clumps of heath and gorse weave
+their tapestry of golden purple garniture on every side. Amidst all
+these, and winding along between the rocks, is a natural footway worn by
+the scant, rare tread of the village traveller. Just midway, a somewhat
+larger stretch than usual of green sod expands, which is skirted by the
+path, and which is still identified as the legendary haunt of the
+phantom, by the name of Parson Rudall's Ghost.</p>
+
+<p>But we must draw the record of the first interview between the minister
+and Dorothy from his own words. "We met," thus he writes, "in the
+pleasaunce very early, and before any others in the house were awake;
+and together the lad and myself proceeded towards the field. The youth
+was quite composed, and carried his Bible under his arm, from whence he
+read to me verses, which he said he had lately picked out, to have
+always in his mind. These were Job vii. 14, 'Thou scarest me with
+dreams, and terrifiest me through visions'; and Deuteronomy xxviii. 67,
+'In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it were the evening, and in
+the evening thou shalt say, Would to God it were morning; for the fear
+of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine
+eyes which thou shalt see.'</p>
+
+<p>"I was much pleased with the lad's ingenuity in these pious
+applications, but for mine own part I was somewhat anxious and out of
+cheer. For aught I knew this might be a <i>d&aelig;monium meridianum</i>, the most
+stubborn spirit to govern and guide that any man can meet, and the most
+perilous withal. We had hardly reached the accustomed spot, when we both
+saw her at once gliding towards us; punctually as the ancient writers
+describe<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> the motion of their 'lemures, which swoon along the ground,
+neither marking the sand nor bending the herbage.' The aspect of the
+woman was exactly that which had been related by the lad. There was the
+pale and stony face, the strange and misty hair, the eyes firm and
+fixed, that gazed, yet not on us, but something that they saw far, far
+away; one hand and arm stretched out, and the other grasping the girdle
+of her waist. She floated along the field like a sail upon a stream, and
+glided past the spot where we stood, pausingly. But so deep was the awe
+that overcame me, as I stood there in the light of day, face to face
+with a human soul separate from her bones and flesh, that my heart and
+purpose both failed me. I had resolved to speak to the spectre in the
+appointed form of words, but I did not. I stood like one amazed and
+speechless, until she had passed clean out of sight. One thing
+remarkable came to pass. A spaniel dog, the favourite of young Master
+Bligh, had followed us, and lo! when the woman drew nigh, the poor
+creature began to yell and bark piteously, and ran backward and away,
+like a thing dismayed and appalled. We returned to the house, and after
+I had said all that I could to pacify the lad, and to soothe the aged
+people, I took my leave for that time, with a promise that when I had
+fulfilled certain business elsewhere, which I then alleged, I would
+return and take orders to assuage these disturbances and their cause.</p>
+
+<p>"January 7, 1665.&mdash;At my own house, I find, by my books, what is
+expedient to be done; and then, Apage, Sathanas!</p>
+
+<p>"January 9, 1665.&mdash;This day I took leave of my wife and family, under
+pretext of engagements elsewhere, and made my secret journey to our
+diocesan city, wherein the good and venerable bishop then abode.</p>
+
+<p>"January 10.&mdash;<i>Deo gratias</i>, in safe arrival at Exeter; craved and
+obtained immediate audience of his lordship; pleading it was for counsel
+and admonition on a weighty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> and pressing cause; called to the presence;
+made obeisance; and then by command stated my case&mdash;the Botathen
+perplexity&mdash;which I moved with strong and earnest instances and solemn
+asseverations of that which I had myself seen and heard. Demanded by his
+lordship, what was the succour that I had come to entreat at his hands?
+Replied, licence for my exorcism, that so I might, ministerially, allay
+this spiritual visitant, and thus render to the living and the dead
+release from this surprise. 'But,' said our bishop, 'on what authority
+do you allege that I am intrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as
+is well known, hath abjured certain branches of her ancient power, on
+grounds of perversion and abuse.' 'Nay, my Lord,' I humbly answered,
+'under favour, the seventy-second of the canons ratified and enjoined on
+us, the clergy, anno Domini 1604, doth expressly provide, that "no
+minister, <i>unless he hath</i> the licence of his diocesan bishop, shall
+essay to exorcise a spirit, evil or good." Therefore it was,' I did here
+mildly allege, 'that I did not presume to enter on such a work without
+lawful privilege under your lordship's hand and seal.' Hereupon did our
+wise and learned bishop, sitting in his chair, condescend upon the theme
+at some length with many gracious interpretations from ancient writers
+and from Holy Scripture, and I did humbly rejoin and reply, till the
+upshot was that he did call in his secretary and command him to draw the
+aforesaid faculty, forthwith and without further delay, assigning him a
+form, insomuch that the matter was incontinently done; and after I had
+disbursed into the secretary's hands certain moneys for signitary
+purposes, as the manner of such officers hath always been, the bishop
+did himself affix his signature under the <i>sigillum</i> of his see, and
+deliver the document into my hands. When I knelt down to receive his
+benediction, he softly said, 'Let it be secret, Mr R. Weak brethren!
+weak brethren!'"</p>
+
+<p>This interview with the bishop, and the success with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> which he
+vanquished his lordship's scruples, would seem to have confirmed Parson
+Rudall very strongly in his own esteem, and to have invested him with
+that courage which he evidently lacked at his first encounter with the
+ghost.</p>
+
+<p>The entries proceed: "January 11, 1665.&mdash;Therewithal did I hasten home
+and prepare my instruments, and cast my figures for the onset of the
+next day. Took out my ring of brass, and put it on the index-finger of
+my right hand, with the <i>scutum Davidis</i> traced thereon.</p>
+
+<p>"January 12, 1665.&mdash;Rode into the gateway at Botathen, armed at all
+points, but not with Saul's armour, and ready. There is danger from the
+demons, but so there is in the surrounding air every day. At early
+morning then, and alone,&mdash;for so the usage ordains,&mdash;I betook me towards
+the field. It was void, and I had thereby due time to prepare. First, I
+paced and measured out my circle on the grass. Then did I mark my
+pentacle in the very midst, and at the intersection of the five angles I
+did set up and fix my crutch of <i>raun</i> (rowan). Lastly, I took my
+station south, at the true line of the meridian, and stood facing due
+north. I waited and watched for a long time. At last there was a kind of
+trouble in the air, a soft and rippling sound, and all at once the shape
+appeared, and came on towards me gradually. I opened my parchment
+scroll, and read aloud the command. She paused, and seemed to waver and
+doubt; stood still; then I rehearsed the sentence, sounding out every
+syllable like a chant. She drew near my ring, but halted at first
+outside, on the brink. I sounded again, and now at the third time I gave
+the signal in Syriac,&mdash;the speech which is used, they say, where such
+ones dwell and converse in thoughts that glide.</p>
+
+<p>"She was at last obedient, and swam into the midst of the circle, and
+there stood still, suddenly. I saw, moreover, that she drew back her
+pointing hand. All this while I do confess that my knees shook under me,
+and the drops of sweat ran down my flesh like rain.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> But now, although
+face to face with the spirit, my heart grew calm, and my mind was
+composed. I knew that the pentacle would govern her, and the ring must
+bind, until I gave the word. Then I called to mind the rule laid down of
+old, that no angel or fiend, no spirit, good or evil, will ever speak
+until they have been first spoken to. <i>N.B.</i>&mdash;This is the great law of
+prayer. God Himself will not yield reply until man hath made vocal
+entreaty, once and again. So I went on to demand, as the books advise;
+and the phantom made answer, willingly. Questioned wherefore not at
+rest? Unquiet, because of a certain sin. Asked what, and by whom?
+Revealed it; but it is <i>sub sigillo</i>, and therefore <i>nefas dictu</i>; more
+anon. Inquired, what sign she could give that she was a true spirit and
+not a false fiend? Stated, before next Yule-tide a fearful pestilence
+would lay waste the land and myriads of souls would be loosened from
+their flesh, until, as she piteously said, 'our valleys will be full.'
+Asked again, why she so terrified the lad? Replied: 'It is the law; we
+must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to receive
+messages and admonitions.' We conversed with many more words, but it is
+not lawful for me to set them down. Pen and ink would degrade and defile
+the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day. I broke
+the ring, and she passed, but to return once more next day. At
+even-song, a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr B. Great
+horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin;
+full acknowledgment before pardon.</p>
+
+<p>"January 13, 1665.&mdash;At sunrise I was again in the field. She came in at
+once, and, as it seemed, with freedom. Inquired if she knew my thoughts,
+and what I was going to relate? Answered, 'Nay, we only know what we
+perceive and hear; we cannot see the heart.' Then I rehearsed the
+penitent words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the
+satisfaction he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> would perform. Then said she, 'Peace in our midst.' I
+went through the proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all as it was
+set down and written in my memoranda; and then, with certain fixed
+rites, I did dismiss that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew,
+gliding towards the west. Neither did she ever afterward appear, but was
+allayed until she shall come in her second flesh to the valley of
+Armageddon on the last day."</p>
+
+<p>These quaint and curious details from the "diurnal" of a simple-hearted
+clergyman of the seventeenth century appear to betoken his personal
+persuasion of the truth of what he saw and said, although the statements
+are strongly tinged with what some may term the superstition, and others
+the excessive belief, of those times. It is a singular fact, however,
+that the canon which authorises exorcism under episcopal licence is
+still a part of the ecclesiastical law of the Anglican Church, although
+it might have a singular effect on the nerves of certain of our bishops
+if their clergy were to resort to them for the faculty which Parson
+Rudall obtained. The general facts stated in his diary are to this day
+matters of belief in that neighbourhood; and it has been always
+accounted a strong proof of the veracity of the Parson and the Ghost,
+that the plague, fatal to so many thousands, did break out in London at
+the close of that very year. We may well excuse a triumphant entry, on a
+subsequent page of the "diurnal," with the date of July 10, 1665: "How
+sorely must the infidels and heretics of this generation be dismayed
+when they know that this Black Death, which is now swallowing its
+thousands in the streets of the great city, was foretold six months
+agone, under the exorcisms of a country minister, by a visible and
+suppliant ghost! And what pleasures and improvements do such deny
+themselves who scorn and avoid all opportunity of intercourse with souls
+separate, and the spirits, glad and sorrowful, which inhabit the unseen
+world!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Arnold Bennett</span><a name="FNanchor_2_2" id="FNanchor_2_2"></a><a href="#Footnote_2_2" class="fnanchor">[2]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the chair which stood before the writing-table in the middle of the
+room sat the figure of Lord Clarenceux. The figure did not move as I
+went in; its back was towards me. At the other end of the room was the
+doorway, which led to the small bedroom, little more than an alcove, and
+the gaze of the apparition was fixed on this doorway. I closed the door
+behind me and locked it, and then stood still. In the looking-glass over
+the mantelpiece I saw a drawn, pale, agitated face, in which all the
+trouble in the world seemed to reside; it was my own face. I was alone
+in the room with the ghost&mdash;the ghost which, jealous of my love for the
+woman it had loved, meant to revenge itself by my death. The ghost, did
+I say? I looked at it; no one would have taken it for an apparition.
+Small wonder that till the previous evening I had never suspected it to
+be other than a man. It was dressed in black; it had the very aspect of
+life. I could follow the creases in the black coat, the direction of the
+nap of the silk hat. How well by this time I knew the faultless black
+coat and that impeccable hat! Yet it seemed that I could not examine
+them too closely. I pierced them with the intensity of my fascinated
+glance. Yes, I pierced them, for, showing faintly through the coat, I
+could discern the outline of the table which should have been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> hidden by
+the man's figure, and through the hat I could see the handle of the
+French window.</p>
+
+<p>As I stood motionless there, solitary in the glow of the electric light
+with this fearful visitor, I began to wish that it would move. I wanted
+to face it&mdash;to meet its gaze with my gaze, eye to eye, and will against
+will. The battle between us must start at once, I thought, if I was to
+have any chance of victory, for, moment by moment, I felt my resolution,
+my manliness, my mere physical courage slipping away.</p>
+
+<p>But the apparition did not stir. Impassive, remorseless, sinister, it
+was content to wait, well aware that all suspense was in its favour.
+Then I said to myself that I would cross the room and so attain my
+object. I made a step and drew back, frightened by the sound of a
+creaking board. Absurd! but it was quite a minute before I dared to move
+another step. I had meant to walk straight across to the other door,
+passing in my course close by the occupied chair. I did do not so; I
+kept round by the wall, creeping on tiptoe, and my eye never leaving the
+figure in the chair. I did this in spite of myself, and the manner of my
+action was the first hint of my ultimate defeat.</p>
+
+<p>At length I stood in the doorway leading to the bedroom. I could feel
+the perspiration on my forehead and at the back of my neck. I fronted
+the inscrutable white face of Lord Clarenceux, the lover of Rosetta
+Rosa; I met its awful eyes: dark, invidious, fateful. Ah, those eyes!
+Even in my terror I could read in them all the history and the
+characteristics of Lord Clarenceux. They were the eyes of one who could
+be of the highest and the lowest. Mingled in their hardness was a
+melting softness, with their cruelty a large benevolence, with their
+hate a pitying tenderness, with their spirituality a hellish turpitude.
+They were the eyes of two opposite men, and as I gazed into them they
+reconciled for me<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> the conflicting accounts of Lord Clarenceux which I
+had heard from different people.</p>
+
+<p>But, as far as I was concerned, that night the eyes held nothing but
+cruelty and disaster; though I could detect in them the other qualities,
+these qualities were not for me. We faced each other, the apparition and
+I, and the struggle, silent and bitter as the grave, began. Neither of
+us moved. My arms were folded easily, but my nails pressed into the
+palms of my clenched hands. My teeth were set, my lips tight together,
+my glance unswerving. By sheer strength of endeavour I cast aside my
+fear of defeat, and in my heart I said with the profoundest conviction
+that I would love Rosa though the seven seas and all the continents give
+up their dead to frighten me.</p>
+
+<p>So we remained, for how long I do not know. It may have been only
+minutes&mdash;I cannot tell. Then gradually there came over me a feeling that
+the ghost in the chair was growing larger. The ghastly inhuman sneer on
+his thin widening lips assaulted me like a giant's malediction, and the
+light in the room seemed to become more brilliant till it was almost
+blinding. This went on for a time, and once more I pulled myself
+together, collected my scattering senses, and seized again the courage
+of determination which had nearly slipped from me; but I knew that I
+must get away, out of sight of this moveless and diabolic figure, which
+did not speak, but which made known its commands by means of its eyes.
+"Resign her," the eyes said. "Tear your love for her out of your heart!
+Swear that you will never see her again&mdash;or I will ruin you utterly, not
+now only but for evermore."</p>
+
+<p>I think I trembled; my eyes answered "No." For some reason which I
+cannot at all explain, I suddenly took off my overcoat, and, drawing
+aside the screen which ran across the corner of the room at my right
+hand, forming a primitive sort of wardrobe, I hung it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> on one of the
+hooks. I had to feel with my fingers for the hook, because I kept my
+gaze on the figure. "I will go into the bedroom," I said; and I turned
+to pass through the doorway. Then I stopped. If I did so, the eyes of
+the ghost would be upon my back, and I felt that I could only withstand
+that glance by meeting it. To have it on my back.... Doubtless I was
+going mad. However, I went backwards to the doorway, and then rapidly
+stepped out of sight of the apparition and sat down upon the bed.
+Useless! I must return. The mere idea of the empty sitting-room&mdash;empty
+with the ghost in it&mdash;filled me with a new and considerable fear.
+Horrible happenings might occur in that room, and I must be there to see
+them! Moreover, the ghost's gaze must now fall on nothing; that would be
+too appalling (without doubt I was mad). Its gaze must meet something,
+otherwise it would travel out into space further and further till it had
+left all the stars and waggled aimless in the ether. The notion of such
+a calamity was unbearable. Besides, I was hungry for that gaze. My eyes
+desired those eyes: if that glance did not press against them, they
+would burst from my head and roll on the floor, and I should be
+compelled to go down on my hands and knees and grope in search for them.
+No, no. I must return to the sitting-room. And I returned. The gaze met
+mine in the doorway, and now there was something novel in it&mdash;an added
+terror, a more intolerable menace, the silent imprecation so frightful
+that no human being could suffer it. I sank to the ground, and as I did
+so I shrieked; but it was a weird shriek, sounding only within the
+brain, and in reply to that unheard shriek I heard an unheard voice of
+the ghost crying, "Yield!"</p>
+
+<p>I would not yield. Crushed, maddened, tortured, I would not yield. I
+wanted to die. I felt that death would be sweet and truly desirable.
+And, so thinking, I faded into a kind of coma, or rather a state which
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> just short of coma. I had not lost consciousness, but I was
+conscious of nothing but the gaze. "Good-bye, Rosa," I whispered; "I am
+beaten, but my love has not been conquered." The next thing I remember
+was the paleness of the dawn at the window. The apparition had vanished
+for the night, and I was alive. But I knew that I had touched the skirts
+of death. I knew that after such another night I should die.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_2_2" id="Footnote_2_2"></a><a href="#FNanchor_2_2"><span class="label">[2]</span></a> <i>The Ghost: a Novel</i> (1911).</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX</h2>
+
+<h2>DR DUTHOIT'S VISION</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Arthur Machen</span><a name="FNanchor_3_3" id="FNanchor_3_3"></a><a href="#Footnote_3_3" class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>I knew a fine specimen of an English abb&eacute; when I was at school at
+Hereford. This was Dr Duthoit, Prebendary of <i>Consumpta per Sabulum</i> in
+Hereford Cathedral, Rector of St Owen's, bookworm and, chiefly,
+rose-grower. He was a middle-aged man when I was a little boy, but he
+suffered me to walk with him in his garden sloping down to the Wye, near
+a pleasaunce of the Vicars Choral, reciting sometimes the poems of
+Traherne, which he had in manuscript, but, for the most part,
+demonstrating his progress in the art of growing a coal-black rose. This
+was the true work of his life, and nearly forty years ago he could show
+blooms whose copper and crimson tints were very near to utter darkness.
+I believe that his ideal was never attained in absolute perfection; and
+perhaps the perfect end and attainment of desire do not prove happiness
+down here below.</p>
+
+<p>After 1880 Prebendary Duthoit and I rarely saw each other, and rarely
+wrote. He was at rest among his roses by the quiet Wye, and I dashed to
+and fro in wilder waters, but each contrived to let the other know that
+he was still alive, and so I was not altogether surprised to see the
+Prebendary's queer, niggly writing on an envelope a week or two ago. He
+said he had heard of a good deal to talk about.... Well, with a popular
+legend with which I am understood to be in some way concerned, and he
+thought that an odd experience of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> his might possibly interest me. I do
+not give the text of his letter, chiefly because it is full of Latin
+phrases, which I might be called upon to translate.</p>
+
+<p>But the matter is as follows: On the 4th August, the day of the service
+at St Paul's, Dr Duthoit was walking up and down and about that pleasant
+garden on slopes of the Wye. Just above the water his gardener had
+prepared under direction and instruction a plot of ground in a very
+special manner. I do not gather the precise purpose of the operation,
+but it seems that the soil had been very fine and level for a
+superficies of about ten yards. To this place the Prebendary walked,
+slowly and reflectively, wishing to assure himself that his orders had
+been accurately carried out. The plot had been perfectly level the night
+before, but Dr Duthoit wanted to be more than sure about it. But to his
+extreme annoyance, when he turned by the fig-tree, he saw that the plot
+was very far from even. He is an old man, but his sight is good, and at
+a distance of several yards he could discern quite plainly that there
+had been mischief. The chosen plot was in a disgraceful state. At first
+the Prebendary thought that the Custos' sandy tom-cat had scaled the
+wire entanglement on the top of the wall. Then he felt inclined to
+consider the ruin done by Scamp, the Bishop's wire-haired fox-terrier,
+and then, going across, he put on his spectacles and wondered what had
+been at work. For the level which had been so carefully established was
+all undone. At first the Doctor thought it was the mischief of some
+random beast, this confusion of hills and valleys which had taken place
+of the billiard-table of the night before. And then it reminded him of
+the raised maps which he had seen in the Diocesan Training Schools, and
+then it reminded him more distinctly of a sort of picture map which had
+illustrated his morning paper a day or two before. And then he wondered
+violently, because he saw that somebody had, with infinite pains, made
+this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> garden plot of his into an exact model of Gallipoli Peninsula.</p>
+
+<p>It was all so ingenious and perfect that the old clergyman held his
+wrath for the moment, and peered into this miniature intricacy of peaks
+and steeps, and gullies and valleys. He had scarcely gathered himself
+together to wonder who had had the ingenious impudence for the mischief,
+when amazement once more seized him. For he saw now, stooping down, that
+this garden Gallipoli was swarming with life. There were hosts on it and
+about it, and then Dr Duthoit forgot all about what we call the
+realities and facts of life, forgot that this sort of thing does not
+happen, and watched what was happening.</p>
+
+<p>He writes that, queerly enough, he lost all sense of size. He was not a
+Gulliver looking down upon Lilliput; the mounds ten inches high became
+to him actual and lofty summits. The tiny precipices were tremendous.
+And the red ants swarmed to attack the black ants that held the heights
+with savage and desperate fury. He says he panted with excitement as he
+watched the courage of the attack and defence, the savagery of the
+"hand-to-hand" fighting. The black and red fell by myriads, and the
+doctor had persuaded himself that he observed amazing incidents of
+individual heroism. One particular range seemed to be the especial aim
+of the red forces, and they swarmed up victorious and held it for a
+while, and then retreated. The doctor could not quite make out the
+reason of this. He started violently when his man called to him. Roberts
+said he had called for five minutes without getting an answer, and that
+the Dean was in a hurry, with only five minutes to spare. So the
+Prebendary went into the house in a kind of dwam, as the Scots put it,
+and had no notion of what the Dean had to say; and when he got back to
+the garden he found his gardener smoothing the plot with a long rake,
+and raking in a lot of dead ants with the mould.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> The gardener said it
+was the boys; but the doctor took no notice, and went to the Custos that
+night, and the Custos reading his paper a fortnight later began to think
+that the old Prebendary was a prophet.</p>
+
+<p>And the Prebendary? He ends his letter: "Quod superius est sicut quod
+inferius" ("that which is above is as that which is below"), as the
+Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus testifies, and it is my belief
+that this is a world battle in the sense which we do not appreciate.
+There have been some who have held that the earthly conflict is but a
+reflection of the war in heaven. What if it be reflected infinitely, if
+it penetrate to the uttermost depths of creation? And if a speck of dust
+be a cosmos&mdash;the universe&mdash;of revolving worlds? There may be battles
+between creatures that no microscope shall ever discover.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_3_3" id="Footnote_3_3"></a><a href="#FNanchor_3_3"><span class="label">[3]</span></a> <i>The Little Nations.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SEVEN LIGHTS</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Wilson's</span> "Tales of the Borders"</h3>
+
+
+<p>John M'Pherson was a farmer and grazier in Kintyre&mdash;a genuine
+Highlander. In person, though of rather low stature than otherwise, he
+was stout, athletic, and active; bold and fearless in disposition, warm
+in temper, friendly, and hospitable&mdash;this last to such a degree that his
+house was never without as many strangers and visitors of different
+descriptions, as nearly doubled his own household.</p>
+
+<p>To the vagrant beggar his house and meal-chest were ever open; and to no
+one, whatever his condition, were a night's quarters ever refused.
+M'Pherson's house, in short, formed a kind of focus, with a power to
+draw towards itself all the misery and poverty in the country within a
+circle whose diameter might be reckoned at somewhere about twenty miles.
+The wandering mendicant made it one of his regular stages, and the
+traveller of better degree toiled on his way with increased activity,
+that he might make it his quarters for the night.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for the character and credit of M'Pherson's hospitality, his
+wife was of an equally kind and generous disposition with himself; so
+that his absences from home, which were frequent, and sometimes long,
+did not at all affect the treatment of the stranger under his roof, or
+make his welcome less cordial.</p>
+
+<p>But the hospitality exercised at Morvane, which was the name of
+M'Pherson's farm, sometimes, it must be confessed, led to occasional
+small depredations&mdash;such<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> as the loss of a pair of blankets, a sheet, or
+a pair of stockings, carried off by the ungrateful vagabonds whom he
+sometimes sheltered. There were, however, one pair of blankets
+abstracted in this way, that found their road back to their owner in
+rather a curious manner.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was thick and misty, when the thief (in the case alluded to)
+decamped with his booty, and continued so during the whole day, so that
+no object, at any distance, however large, could be seen. After toiling
+for several hours, under the impression that he was leaving Morvane far
+behind, the vagabond, who was also a stranger in the country, approached
+a house, with the stolen blankets snugly and carefully bundled on his
+back, and knocked at the door, with the view of seeking a night's
+quarters, as it was now dusk. The door was opened; but by whom, think
+you, good reader? Why, by M'Pherson!</p>
+
+<p>The thief, without knowing it, had landed precisely at the point from
+which he had set out. Being instantly recognised, he was politely
+invited to walk in. To this kind invitation, the thief replied by
+throwing down the blankets, and taking to his heels&mdash;thus making, with
+his own hands, a restitution which was very far from being intended.
+Poor M'Pherson, however, did not get all his stolen blankets back in
+this way.</p>
+
+<p>This, however, is a digression. To proceed with our tale. One night,
+when M'Pherson was absent, attending a market at some distance, an
+elderly female appeared at the door, with the usual demand of a night's
+lodging, which, with the usual hospitality of Morvane, was at once
+complied with. The stranger, who was a remarkably tall woman, was
+dressed in widow's weeds, and of rather respectable appearance; her
+deportment was grave, even stern, and altogether she seemed as if
+suffering from some recent affliction.</p>
+
+<p>During the whole of the early part of the evening she sat before the
+fire, with her face buried between her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> hands, heedless of what was
+passing around her, and was occasionally observed rocking to and fro,
+with that kind of motion that bespeaks great internal anguish. It was
+noticed, however, that she occasionally stole a look at those who were
+in the apartment with her; and it was marked by all (but whether this
+was merely the effect of imagination, for all <i>felt</i> that there was
+something singular and mysterious about the stranger, or was really the
+case, we cannot decide) that, in these furtive glances, there was a
+peculiarly wild and appalling expression. The stranger spoke none,
+however, during the whole night; but continued, from time to time,
+rocking to and fro in the manner already described. Neither could she be
+prevailed upon to partake of any refreshment, although repeatedly
+pressed to do so. All invitations of this kind she declined, with a wave
+of the hand, or a melancholy, yet determined inclination of the head. In
+words she made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>The singular conduct of this woman threw a damp over all who were
+present. They felt chilled, they knew not how; and were sensible of the
+influence of an indefinable terror, for which they could not account.
+For once, therefore, the feeling of comfort and security, of which all
+were conscious who were seated around M'Pherson's cheerful and
+hospitable hearth, was banished, and a scene of awe and dread supplied
+its place.</p>
+
+<p>No one could conjecture who this strange personage was, whence she had
+come, nor whither she was going; nor were there any means of acquiring
+this information, as it was a rule of the house&mdash;one of M'Pherson's
+special points of etiquette&mdash;that no stranger should ever be questioned
+on such subjects. All being allowed to depart as they came, without
+question or inquiry, there was never anything more known at Morvane,
+regarding any stranger who visited it, than what he himself chose to
+communicate.</p>
+
+<p>Under the painful feelings already described, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> inmates of
+M'Pherson's house found, with more than usual satisfaction, the hour for
+retiring to rest arrive. The general attention being called to this
+circumstance by the hostess, everyone hastened to his appointed
+dormitory, with an alacrity which but too plainly showed how glad they
+were to escape from the presence of the mysterious stranger who,
+however, also retired to bed with the rest. The place appointed for her
+to sleep in, was the loft of an outbuilding, as there was no room for
+her accommodation within the house itself; all the spare beds being
+occupied.</p>
+
+<p>We have already said that M'Pherson was from home on the evening of
+which we are speaking, attending a market at some distance. He, however,
+returned shortly after midnight. On arriving at his own house, he was
+much surprised, and not a little alarmed, to perceive a window in one of
+the outhouses blazing with light (it was that in which the stranger
+slept), while all around and within the house was as silent as the tomb.
+Afraid that some accident from fire had taken place, he rode up to the
+building, and standing up in his stirrups&mdash;which brought his head on a
+level with the window&mdash;looked in, when a sight presented itself that
+made even the stout heart of M'Pherson beat with unusual violence.</p>
+
+<p>In the middle of the floor, extended on her pallet, lay the mysterious
+stranger, surrounded by seven bright and shining lights, arranged at
+equal distances&mdash;three on one side of the bed, three on the other, and
+one at the head. M'Pherson gazed steadily at the extraordinary and
+appalling sight for a few seconds, when three of the lights suddenly
+vanished. In an instant afterwards, two more disappeared, and then
+another. There was now only that at the head of the bed remaining. When
+this light had alone been left, M'Pherson saw the person who lay on the
+pallet, raise herself slowly up, and gaze intently on the portentous
+beam, whose light showed, to the terrified onlooker, a ghastly and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+unearthly countenance, surrounded with dishevelled hair, which hung down
+in long, thick, irregular masses over her pale, clayey visage, so as
+almost to conceal it entirely. This light, like all the others, at
+length suddenly disappeared, and with its last gleam the person on the
+couch sank down with a groan that startled M'Pherson from the trance of
+horror into which the extraordinary sight had thrown him. He was a bold
+and fearless man, however; and, therefore, though certainly appalled by
+what he had seen, he made no outcry, nor evinced any other symptom of
+alarm. He resolutely and calmly awaited the conclusion of the
+extraordinary scene; and when the last light had disappeared, he
+deliberately dismounted, led his horse into the stable, put him up,
+entered the house without disturbing any one, and slipped quietly into
+bed, trusting that the morning would bring some explanation of the
+mysterious occurrence of the night; but resolving, at the same time
+that, if it should not, he would mention the circumstance to no one.</p>
+
+<p>On awaking in the morning, M'Pherson asked his wife what strangers were
+in the house, and how they were disposed of, and particularly, who it
+was that slept in the loft of the outhouse. He was told that it was a
+woman in widow's dress, of rather a respectable appearance, but whose
+conduct had been very singular. M'Pherson inquired no further, but
+desired that the woman might be detained till he should see her, as he
+wished to speak with her.</p>
+
+<p>On some one of the domestics, however, going up to her apartment,
+shortly after, to invite her to breakfast, it was found that she was
+gone, no one could tell when or where, as her departure had not been
+seen by any person about the house.</p>
+
+<p>Baulked in his intention of eliciting some explanation of the
+extraordinary circumstance of the preceding night, from the person who
+seemed to have been a party to it,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> M'Pherson became more strengthened
+in the resolution of keeping the secret to himself, although it made an
+impression upon him which all his natural strength of mind could not
+remove.</p>
+
+<p>At this precise period of our story, M'Pherson had three sons employed
+in the herring fishing, a favourite pursuit in its season, because often
+a lucrative one, of those who live upon or near the coasts of the West
+Highlands.</p>
+
+<p>The three brothers had a boat of their own; and, desirous of making
+their employment as profitable as possible, they, though in sufficiently
+good circumstances to have hired assistance, manned her themselves, and,
+with laudable industry, performed all the drudgery of their laborious
+occupation with their own hands.</p>
+
+<p>Their boat, like all the others employed in the business we are speaking
+of, by the natives of the Highlands, was wherry-rigged; her name&mdash;she
+was called after the betrothed of the elder of the three brothers&mdash;<i>The
+Catherine</i>. The <i>take</i> of herrings, as it is called, it is well known,
+appears in different seasons in different places, sometimes in one loch,
+or arm of the sea, sometimes in another.</p>
+
+<p>In the season to which our story refers, the fishing was in the sound of
+Kilbrannan, where several scores of boats, and amongst those that of the
+M'Phersons, were busily employed in reaping the ocean harvest. When the
+take of herrings appears in this sound, Campbelton Loch, a well-known
+harbour on the west coast of Scotland, is usually made the
+headquarters&mdash;a place of rendezvous of the little herring fleet&mdash;and to
+this loch they always repair when threatened with a boisterous night,
+although it was not always that they could, in such circumstances,
+succeed in making it.</p>
+
+<p>Such a night as the one alluded to, was that that succeeded the evening
+on which M'Pherson saw the strange lights that form the leading feature
+of our tale.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> Violent gusts of wind came in rapid succession down the
+sound of Kilbrannan; and a skifting rain, flung fitfully but fiercely
+from the huge black clouds as they hurried along before the tempest that
+already raged above, swept over the face of the angry sea, and seemed to
+impart an additional bitterness to the rising wrath of the incipient
+storm. It was evident, in short, that what sailors call a "dirty night"
+was approaching; and, under this impression, the herring boats left
+their station, and were seen, in the dusk of the evening in question,
+hurrying towards Campbelton Loch. But the storm had arisen in all its
+fury long before the desired haven could be gained. The little fleet was
+dispersed. Some succeeded, however, in making the harbour; others,
+finding this impossible, ran in for the Saddle and Carradale shores, and
+were fortunate enough to effect a landing. All, in short, with the
+exception of one single boat, ultimately contrived to gain a place of
+shelter of some kind. This unhappy exception was <i>The Catherine</i>. Long
+after all the others had disappeared from the face of the raging sea,
+she was seen struggling alone with the warring elements, her canvas down
+to within a few feet of her gunwale, and her keel only at times being
+visible. The gallant brothers who manned her, however, had not yet lost
+either heart or hope, although their situation at this moment was but
+too well calculated to deprive them of both. Gravely and steadily, and
+in profound silence, they kept each by his perilous post, and
+endeavoured to make the land on the Campbelton side; but, finding this
+impossible, they put about, and ran before the wind for the island of
+Arran, which lay at the distance of about eight miles. But alarmed, as
+they approached that rugged shore, by the tremendous sea which was
+breaking on it, and which would have instantly dashed their frail bark
+to pieces, they again put about, and made to windward. While the hardy
+brothers were thus contending with their fate, a person mounted on
+horseback<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> was seen galloping wildly along the Carradale shore, his eyes
+ever and anon turned towards the struggling boat with a look of despair
+and mortal agony. It was M'Pherson, the hapless father of the
+unfortunate youths by whom she was manned. There were others, too, of
+their kindred, looking, with failing hearts, on the dreadful sight; for
+all felt that the unequal contest could not continue long, and that the
+boat must eventually go down.</p>
+
+<p>Amongst those who were thus watching, with intense interest and
+speechless agony, the struggle of the doomed bark, was Catherine, the
+beloved of the elder of the brothers, who ran, in wild distraction,
+along the shore, uttering the most heart-rending cries. "Oh, my Duncan!"
+she exclaimed, stretching out her arms towards the pitiless sea. "Oh, my
+beloved, my dearest, come to me, or allow me to come to you that I may
+perish with you!" But Duncan heard her not, although it was very
+possible he might see her, as the distance was not great.</p>
+
+<p>There were, at this moment also, several persons on horseback, friends
+of the young men, galloping along the shore, from point to point, as the
+boat varied her direction, in the vain and desperate hope of being able
+to render, though they knew not how, some assistance to the sufferers.
+But the distracted father, urged on by the wild energy of despair,
+outrode them all, as they made, on one occasion, for a rising ground
+near Carradale, from whence a wider view of the sea could be commanded.
+For this height M'Pherson now pushed, and gained it just in time to see
+his gallant sons, with their little bark, buried in the waves. He had
+not taken his station an instant on the height, when <i>The Catherine</i>
+went down, and all on board perished.</p>
+
+<p>The distracted father, when he had seen the last of his unfortunate
+sons, covered his eyes with his hands, and for a moment gave way to the
+bitter agony that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> racked his soul. His manly breast heaved with
+emotion, and that most affecting of all sounds, the audible sorrowing of
+a strong man, might have been heard at a great distance. It was,
+however, of short continuance. M'Pherson prayed to his God to strengthen
+him in this dread hour of trial, and to enable him to bear with becoming
+fortitude the affliction with which it had pleased Him to visit him; and
+the distressed man derived comfort from the appeal.</p>
+
+<p>"My brave, my beautiful boys!" he said, "you are now with your God, and
+have entered, I trust, on a life of everlasting happiness." Saying this,
+he rode slowly from the fatal spot from which he had witnessed the death
+of his children. It was at this moment, and while musing on the
+misfortune that had befallen him, that the strange occurrence of the
+preceding night recurred, for the first time, to M'Pherson's mind. It
+was obtruded on his recollection by the force of association.</p>
+
+<p>"Can it be possible," he inquired of himself, "that the appearances of
+last night can have any connection with the dreadful events of to-day?
+It must be so," he said; "for three of the lights of my eyes, three of
+the guiding stars of my life, have been this day extinguished." Thus
+reasoned M'Pherson; and, in the mysterious lights which he had seen, he
+saw that the doom of his children had been announced. But there were
+seven, he recollected, and his heart sunk within him as he thought of
+the three gallant boys who were still spared to him. One of them, the
+youngest, was at home with himself, the other two were in the
+Army&mdash;soldiers in the 42nd Regiment, which then boasted of many privates
+of birth and education. M'Pherson, however, still kept the appalling
+secret of the mysterious lights to himself, and determined to await,
+with resignation, the fulfilment of the destiny which had been read to
+him, and which he now felt convinced to be inevitable.</p>
+
+<p>The gallant regiment to which M'Pherson's sons<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> belonged was, at this
+period, abroad on active service. It was in America, and formed a part
+of the army which was employed in resisting the encroachments of the
+French on the British territories in that quarter.</p>
+
+<p>The 42nd had, during the campaigns in the western world of that
+period&mdash;viz. 1754 and 1758,&mdash;distinguished themselves in many a
+sanguinary contest, for their singular bravery and general good conduct;
+and the fame of their exploits rung through their native glens, and was
+spread far and wide over their hills and mountains; for dear was the
+honour of their gallant regiment to the warlike Highlanders. Many
+accounts had arrived, from time to time, in the country, of their
+achievements, and joyfully were they received. But, on the very day
+after the loss of <i>The Catherine</i>, a low murmur began to arise, in that
+part of the country which is the scene of our story, of some dreadful
+disaster having befallen the national regiment. No one could say of what
+nature this calamity was; but a buzz went round, whose ominous
+whispering of fearful slaughter made the friends of the absent soldiers
+turn pale. Mothers and sisters wept, and fathers and brothers looked
+grave and shook their heads. The rumour bore that, though there had been
+no loss of honour, there had been a dreadful loss of life. Nay, it was
+said that the regiment had made a mighty acquisition to its fame, but
+that it had been dearly bought.</p>
+
+<p>At length, however, the truth arrived, in a distinct and intelligible
+shape. The well-known and sanguinary affair of Ticonderago had been
+fought; and, in that murderous contest, the 42nd Regiment, which had
+behaved with a gallantry unmatched before in the annals of war, had
+suffered dreadfully&mdash;no less than forty-three officers, commissioned and
+non-commissioned, and six hundred and three privates having been killed
+and wounded in that corps alone.</p>
+
+<p>To many a heart and home in the Highlands did this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> disastrous, though
+glorious intelligence, bring desolation and mourning; and amongst those
+on whom it brought these dismal effects, was M'Pherson of Morvane.</p>
+
+<p>On the third day after the occurrence of the events related at the
+outset of our narrative, a letter, which had come, in the first
+instance, to a gentleman in the neighbourhood, and who also had a son in
+the 42nd, was put into M'Pherson's hands, by a servant of the former.</p>
+
+<p>The man looked feelingly grave as he delivered it, and hurried away
+before it was opened. The letter was sealed with black wax. Poor
+M'Pherson's hand trembled as he opened it. It was from the captain of
+the company to which his sons belonged, informing him that both had
+fallen in the attack on Ticonderago. There was an attempt in the letter
+to soothe the unfortunate father's feelings, and to reconcile him to the
+loss of his gallant boys, in a lengthened detail of their heroic conduct
+during the sanguinary struggle. "Nobly," said the writer, "did your two
+brave sons maintain the honour of their country in the bloody strife.
+Both Hugh and Alister fell&mdash;their broadswords in their hands&mdash;on the
+very ramparts of Ticonderago, whither they had fought their way with a
+dauntlessness of heart, and a strength of arm, that might have excited
+the envy and admiration of the son of Fingal."</p>
+
+<p>In this account of the noble conduct of his sons the broken-hearted
+father did find some consolation. "Thank God!" he exclaimed, though in a
+tremulous voice, "my brave boys have done their duty, and died as became
+their name, with their swords in their hands, and their enemies in their
+front." But there was one circumstance mentioned in the letter, that
+affected the poor father more than all the rest&mdash;this was the
+intimation, that the writer had, in his hands, a sum of money and a gold
+brooch, which his son Alister had bequeathed, the first to his father,
+the latter to his mother, as a token of remembrance. "These," he said,
+"had been deposited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> with him by the young man previous to the
+engagement, under a presentiment that he should fall."</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished the perusal of the letter, M'Pherson sought his
+wife, whom he found weeping bitterly, for she had already learned the
+fate of her sons. On entering the apartment where she was, he flung his
+arms around her, in an agony of grief, and, choking with emotion,
+exclaimed, that two more of his fair lights had been extinguished by the
+hand of heaven. "One yet remains," he said, "but that, too, must soon
+pass away from before mine eyes. His doom is sealed; but God's will be
+done."</p>
+
+<p>"What mean ye, John?" said his sobbing wife, struck with the prophetic
+tone of his speech&mdash;"is the measure of our sorrows not yet filled? Are
+we to lose him, too, who is now our only stay, my fair-haired Ian. Why
+this foreboding of more evil&mdash;and whence have you it, John?" she said,
+now looking her husband steadfastly in the face; and with an expression
+of alarm that indicated that entire belief in supernatural intelligence
+regarding coming events, then so general in the Highlands.</p>
+
+<p>Urged by his wife, who implored him to tell her whence he had the
+tidings of her Ian's approaching fate, M'Pherson related to her the
+circumstance of the mysterious lights.</p>
+
+<p>"But there were seven, John," she said, when he had concluded&mdash;"how
+comes that?&mdash;our children were but six." And immediately added, as if
+some fearful conviction had suddenly forced itself on her mind&mdash;"God
+grant that the seventh light may have meant me!"</p>
+
+<p>"God forbid!" exclaimed her husband, on whose mind a similar conviction
+with that with which his wife was impressed, now obtruded itself for the
+first time; that conviction was, that he himself was indicated by the
+seventh light. But neither of the sorrowing pair communicated their
+fears to the other.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Two days subsequent to this, the fair hair of Ian was seen floating on
+the surface of a deep pool, in the water of Bran; a small river that ran
+past the house of Morvane. By what accident the poor boy had fallen into
+the river, was never ascertained. But the pool in which his body was
+found was known to have been one of his favourite fishing stations. One
+only of the mysterious lights now remained without its counterpart; but
+this was not long wanting. Ere the week had expired, M'Pherson was
+killed by a fall from his horse, when returning from the funeral of his
+son, and the symbolical prophecy was fulfilled&mdash;and thus concludes the
+story of "The Seven Lights."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON</h2>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The superstitious, idle-headed eld<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Received and did deliver to our age<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6"><i>Merry Wives of Windsor.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+
+<p>The old vicarage-house at Talland, as seen from the Looe road, its low
+roof and grey walls peeping prettily from between the dense boughs of
+ash and elm that environed it, was as picturesque an object as you could
+desire to see. The seclusion of its situation was enhanced by the
+character of the house itself. It was an odd-looking, old-fashioned
+building, erected apparently in an age when asceticism and self-denial
+were more in vogue than at present, with a stern disregard of the
+comfort of the inhabitant, and in utter contempt of received principles
+of taste. As if not secure enough in its retirement, a high wall,
+enclosing a courtelage in front, effectually protected its inmates from
+the prying passenger, and only revealed the upper part of the house,
+with its small Gothic windows, its slated roof, and heavy chimneys
+partly hidden by the evergreen shrubs which grew in the enclosure. Such
+was it until its removal a few years since; and such was it as it lay
+sweetly in the shadows of an autumnal evening one hundred and thirty
+years ago, when a stranger in the garb of a country labourer knocked
+hesitatingly at the wicket gate which conducted to the court. After a
+little delay a servant-girl<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> appeared, and finding that the countryman
+bore a message to the vicar, admitted him within the walls, and
+conducted him along a paved passage to the little, low, damp parlour
+where sat the good man. The Rev. Mr Dodge was in many respects a
+remarkable man. You would have judged as much of him as he sat before
+the fire in his high-back chair, in an attitude of thought, arranging,
+it may have been, the heads of his next Sabbath's discourse. His heavy
+eyebrows, throwing into shade his spacious eyes, and indeed the whole
+contour of his face, marked him as a man of great firmness of character
+and of much moral and personal courage. His suit of sober black and
+full-bottomed periwig also added to his dignity, and gave him an
+appearance of greater age. He was then verging on sixty. The time and
+the place gave him abundant exercise for the qualities we have
+mentioned, for many of his parishioners obtained their livelihood by the
+contraband trade, and were mostly men of unscrupulous and daring
+character, little likely to bear with patience, reflections on the
+dishonesty of their calling. Nevertheless the vicar was fearless in
+reprehending it, and his frank exhortations were, at least, listened to
+on account of the simple honesty of the man, and his well-known kindness
+of heart. The eccentricity of his life, too, had a wonderful effect in
+procuring him the respect, not to say the awe, of a people superstitious
+in a more than ordinary degree. Ghosts in those days had more freedom
+accorded them, or had more business with the visible world than at
+present; and the parson was frequently required by his parishioners to
+draw from the uneasy spirit the dread secret which troubled it, or by
+the aid of the solemn prayers of the church to set it at rest for ever.
+Mr Dodge had a fame as an exorcist, which was not confined to the bounds
+of his parish, nor limited to the age in which he lived.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my good man, what brings you hither?" said the clergyman to the
+messenger.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"A letter, may it please your reverence, from Mr Mills of Lanreath,"
+said the countryman, handing him a letter.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Dodge opened it and read as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">My dear brother Dodge</span>,&mdash;I have ventured to trouble
+you, at the earnest request of my parishioners, with a matter,
+of which some particulars have doubtless reached you, and which
+has caused, and is causing, much terror in my neighbourhood.
+For its fuller explication, I will be so tedious as to recount
+to you the whole of this strange story as it has reached my
+ears, for as yet I have not satisfied my eyes of its truth. It
+has been told me by men of honest and good report (witnesses of
+a portion of what they relate), with such strong assurances,
+that it behoves us to look more closely into the matter. There
+is in the neighbourhood of this village a barren bit of moor
+which had no owner, or rather more than one, for the lords of
+the adjoining manors debated its ownership between themselves,
+and both determined to take it from the poor, who have for many
+years past regarded it as a common. And truly, it is little to
+the credit of these gentlemen, that they should strive for a
+thing so worthless as scarce to bear the cost of law, and yet
+of no mean value to poor labouring people. The two litigants,
+however, contested it with as much violence as if it had been a
+field of great price, and especially one, an old man, (whose
+thoughts should have been less set on earthly possessions,
+which he was soon to leave,) had so set his heart on the
+success of his suit, that the loss of it, a few years back, is
+said to have much hastened his death. Nor, indeed, after death,
+if current reports are worthy of credit, does he quit his claim
+to it; for at night-time his apparition is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> seen on the moor,
+to the great terror of the neighbouring villagers. A public
+path leads by at no great distance from the spot, and on divers
+occasions has the labourer, returning from his work, been
+frightened nigh unto lunacy by sight and sounds of a very
+dreadful character. The appearance is said to be that of a man
+habited in black, driving a carriage drawn by headless horses.
+This is, I avow, very marvellous to believe, but it has had so
+much credible testimony, and has gained so many believers in my
+parish, that some steps seem necessary to allay the excitement
+it causes. I have been applied to for this purpose, and my
+present business is to ask your assistance in this matter,
+either to reassure the minds of the country people if it be
+only a simple terror; or, if there be truth in it, to set the
+troubled spirit of the man at rest. My messenger, who is an
+industrious, trustworthy man, will give you more information if
+it be needed, for, from report, he is acquainted with most of
+the circumstances, and will bring back your advice and promise
+of assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"Not doubting of your help herein, I do with my very hearty
+commendation commit you to God's protection and blessing, and
+am,&mdash;Your very loving brother,&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; <span class="smcap">Abraham Mills</span>."</p></div>
+
+<p>This remarkable note was read and re-read, while the countryman sat
+watching its effects on the parson's countenance, and was surprised that
+it changed not from its usual sedate and settled character. Turning at
+length to the man, Mr Dodge inquired, "Are you, then, acquainted with my
+good friend Mills?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should know him, sir," replied the messenger, "having been sexton to
+the parish for fourteen years, and being, with my family, much beholden
+to the kindness of the rector."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"You are also not without some knowledge of the circumstances related in
+this letter. Have you been an eye-witness to any of those strange
+sights?"</p>
+
+<p>"For myself, sir, I have been on the road at all hours of the night and
+day, and never did I see anything which I could call worse than myself.
+One night my wife and I were awoke by the rattle of wheels, which was
+also heard by some of our neighbours, and we are all assured that it
+could have been no other than the black coach. We have every day such
+stories told in the villages by so many creditable persons, that it
+would not be proper in a plain, ignorant man like me to doubt it."</p>
+
+<p>"And how far," asked the clergyman, "is the moor from Lanreath?"</p>
+
+<p>"About two miles, and please your reverence. The whole parish is so
+frightened, that few will venture far after nightfall, for it has of
+late come much nearer the village. A man who is esteemed a sensible and
+pious man by many, though an Anabaptist in principle, went a few weeks
+back to the moor ('tis called Blackadon) at midnight, in order to lay
+the spirit, being requested thereto by his neighbours, and he was so
+alarmed at what he saw, that he hath been somewhat mazed ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"A fitting punishment for his presumption, if it hath not quite demented
+him," said the parson. "These persons are like those addressed by St
+Chrysostom, fitly called the golden-mouthed, who said, 'Miserable
+wretches that ye be! ye cannot expel a flea, much less a devil!' It will
+be well if it serves no other purpose but to bring back these stray
+sheep to the fold of the Church. So this story has gained much belief in
+the parish?"</p>
+
+<p>"Most believe it, sir, as rightly they should, what hath so many
+witnesses," said the sexton, "though there be some, chiefly young men,
+who set up for being wiser than their fathers, and refuse to credit it,
+though it be sworn to on the book."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"If those things are disbelieved, friend," said the parson, "and without
+inquiry, which your disbeliever is ever the first to shrink from, of
+what worth is human testimony? That ghosts have returned to the earth,
+either for the discovery of murder, or to make restitution for other
+injustice committed in the flesh, or compelled thereto by the
+incantations of sorcery, or to communicate tidings from another world,
+has been testified to in all ages, and many are the accounts which have
+been left us both in sacred and profane authors. Did not Brutus, when in
+Asia, as is related by Plutarch, see&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Just at this moment the parson's handmaid announced that a person waited
+on him in the kitchen,&mdash;or the good clergyman would probably have
+detailed all those cases in history, general and biblical, with which
+his reading had acquainted him, not much, we fear to the edification and
+comfort of the sexton, who had to return to Lanreath, a long and dreary
+road, after nightfall. So, instead, he directed the girl to take him
+with her, and give him such refreshment as he needed, and in the
+meanwhile he prepared a note in answer to Mr Mills, informing him that
+on the morrow he was to visit some sick persons in his parish, but that
+on the following evening he should be ready to proceed with him to the
+moor.</p>
+
+<p>On the night appointed the two clergymen left the Lanreath rectory on
+horseback, and reached the moor at eleven o'clock. Bleak and dismal did
+it look by day, but then there was the distant landscape dotted over
+with pretty homesteads to relieve its desolation. Now, nothing was seen
+but the black patch of sterile moor on which they stood, nothing heard
+but the wind as it swept in gusts across the bare hill, and howled
+dismally through a stunted grove of trees that grew in a glen below
+them, except the occasional baying of dogs from the farmhouses in the
+distance. That they felt at ease, is more than could be expected of
+them; but as it would have shown a lack of faith in the protection of
+Heaven,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> which it would have been unseemly in men of their holy calling
+to exhibit, they managed to conceal from each other their uneasiness.
+Leading their horses, they trod to and fro through the damp fern and
+heath with firmness in their steps, and upheld each other by remarks on
+the power of that Great Being whose ministers they were, and the might
+of whose name they were there to make manifest. Still slowly and
+dismally passed the time as they conversed, and anon stopped to look
+through the darkness for the approach of their ghostly visitor. In vain.
+Though the night was as dark and murky as ghost could wish, the coach
+and its driver came not.</p>
+
+<p>After a considerable stay, the two clergymen consulted together, and
+determined that it was useless to watch any longer for that night, but
+that they would meet on some other, when perhaps it might please his
+ghostship to appear. Accordingly, with a few words of leave-taking, they
+separated, Mr Mills for the rectory, and Mr Dodge, by a short ride
+across the moor, which shortened his journey by half a mile, for the
+vicarage at Talland.</p>
+
+<p>The vicar rode on at an ambling pace, which his good mare sustained up
+hill and down vale without urging. At the bottom of a deep valley,
+however, about a mile from Blackadon, the animal became very uneasy,
+pricked up her ears, snorted, and moved from side to side of the road,
+as if something stood in the path before her. The parson tightened the
+reins, and applied whip and spur to her sides, but the animal, usually
+docile, became very unruly, made several attempts to turn, and, when
+prevented, threw herself upon her haunches. Whip and spur were applied
+again and again, to no other purpose than to add to the horse's terror.
+To the rider nothing was apparent which could account for the sudden
+restiveness of his beast. He dismounted, and attempted in turns to lead
+or drag her, but both were impracticable, and attended with no small
+risk of snapping the reins. She was remounted with great difficulty, and
+another<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> attempt was made to urge her forward, with the like want of
+success. At length the eccentric clergyman, judging it to be some
+special signal from Heaven, which it would be dangerous to neglect,
+threw the reins on the neck of his steed, which, wheeling suddenly
+round, started backward in a direction towards the moor, at a pace which
+rendered the parson's seat neither a pleasant nor a safe one. In an
+astonishingly short space of time they were once more at Blackadon.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the bare outline of the moor was broken by a large black
+group of objects, which the darkness of the night prevented the parson
+from defining. On approaching this unaccountable appearance, the mare
+was seized with fresh fury, and it was with considerable difficulty that
+she could be brought to face this new cause of fright. In the pauses of
+the horse's prancing, the vicar discovered to his horror the
+much-dreaded spectacle of the black coach and the headless steeds, and,
+terrible to relate, his friend Mr Mills lying prostrate on the ground
+before the sable driver. Little time was left him to call up his courage
+for this fearful emergency; for just as the vicar began to give
+utterance to the earnest prayers which struggled to his lips, the
+spectre shouted, "Dodge is come! I must begone!" and forthwith leaped
+into his chariot, and disappeared across the moor.</p>
+
+<p>The fury of the mare now subsided, and Mr Dodge was enabled to approach
+his friend, who was lying motionless and speechless, with his face
+buried in the heather.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the rector's horse, which had taken fright at the apparition,
+and had thrown his rider to the ground on or near the spot where we have
+left him lying, made homeward at a furious speed, and stopped not until
+he had reached his stable door. The sound of his hoofs as he galloped
+madly through the village awoke the cottagers, many of whom had been
+some hours in their beds. Many eager faces, staring with affright,
+gathered round the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> rectory, and added, by their various conjectures, to
+the terror and apprehensions of the family.</p>
+
+<p>The villagers, gathering courage as their numbers increased, agreed to
+go in search of the missing clergyman, and started off in a compact
+body, a few on horseback, but the greater number on foot, in the
+direction of Blackadon. There they discovered their rector, supported in
+the arms of Parson Dodge, and recovered so far as to be able to speak.
+Still there was a wildness in his eye, and an incoherency in his speech,
+that showed that his reason was, at least, temporarily unsettled by the
+fright. In this condition he was taken to his home, followed by his
+reverend companion.</p>
+
+<p>Here ended this strange adventure; for Mr Mills soon completely regained
+his reason, Parson Dodge got safely back to Talland, and from that time
+to this nothing has been heard or seen of the black ghost or his
+chariot.<a name="FNanchor_4_4" id="FNanchor_4_4"></a><a href="#Footnote_4_4" class="fnanchor">[4]</a></p><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_4_4" id="Footnote_4_4"></a><a href="#FNanchor_4_4"><span class="label">[4]</span></a> The Parson Dodge, whose adventure is related, was vicar of
+Talland from 1713 till his death. So that the name as well as the story
+is true to tradition. Bond (<i>History of East and West Looe</i>) says of
+him: "About a century since the Rev. Richard Dodge was vicar of this
+parish of Talland, and was, by traditionary account, a very singular
+man. He had the reputation of being deeply skilled in the black art, and
+would raise ghosts, or send them into the Dead Sea, at the nod of his
+head. The common people, not only in his own parish, but throughout the
+neighbourhood, stood in the greatest awe of him, and to meet him on the
+highway at midnight produced the utmost horror; he was then driving
+about the evil spirits; many of them were seen, in all sorts of shapes,
+flying and running before him, and he pursuing them with his whip in a
+most daring manner. Not unfrequently he would be seen in the churchyard
+at dead of night to the terror of passers-by. He was a worthy man, and
+much respected, but had his eccentricities."</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII</h2>
+
+<h2>DRAKE'S DRUM</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">William Hunt</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Sir Francis Drake&mdash;who appears to have been especially befriended by his
+demon&mdash;is said to drive at night a black hearse drawn by headless
+horses, and urged on by running devils and yelping, headless dogs,
+through Jump, on the road from Tavistock to Plymouth.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Francis, according to tradition, was enabled to destroy the Spanish
+Armada by the aid of the devil. The old admiral went to Devil's Point, a
+well-known promontory jutting into Plymouth Sound. He there cut pieces
+of wood into the water, and by the power of magic and the assistance of
+his demon these became at once well-armed gunboats.</p>
+
+<p>Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey; and on every hand
+we hear of Drake and his familiars.</p>
+
+<p>An extensive building attached to the abbey&mdash;which was no doubt used as
+barns and stables after the place had been deprived of its religious
+character&mdash;was said to have been built by the devil in three nights.
+After the first night, the butler, astonished at the work done, resolved
+to watch and see how it was performed. Consequently, on the second
+night, he mounted into a large tree, and hid himself between the forks
+of its five branches. At midnight the devil came, driving several teams
+of oxen; and as some of them were lazy, he plucked this tree from the
+ground and used it as a goad. The poor butler lost his senses, and never
+recovered them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Drake constructed the channel, carrying the waters from Dartmoor to
+Plymouth. Tradition says he went with his demon to Dartmoor, walked into
+Plymouth, and the waters followed him. Even now&mdash;as old Betty
+Donithorne, formerly the housekeeper at Buckland Abbey, told me,&mdash;if the
+warrior hears the drum which hangs in the hall of the abbey, and which
+accompanied him round the world, he rises and has a revel.</p>
+
+<p>Some few years since a small box was found in a closet which had been
+long closed, containing, it is supposed, family papers. This was to be
+sent to the residence of the inheritor of this property. The carriage
+was at the abbey door, and a man easily lifted the box into it. The
+owner having taken his seat, the coachman attempted to start his horses,
+but in vain. They would not&mdash;they could not move. More horses were
+brought, and then the heavy farm-horses, and eventually all the oxen.
+They were powerless to start the carriage. At length a mysterious voice
+was heard, declaring that the box could never be moved from Buckland
+Abbey. It was taken from the carriage easily by one man, and a pair of
+horses galloped off with the carriage.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">William Hunt</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Long, long ago a farmer named Lenine lived in Boscean. He had but one
+son, Frank Lenine, who was indulged into waywardness by both his
+parents. In addition to the farm servants, there was one, a young girl,
+Nancy Trenoweth, who especially assisted Mrs Lenine in all the various
+duties of a small farmhouse.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy Trenoweth was very pretty, and although perfectly uneducated, in
+the sense in which we now employ the term education, she possessed many
+native graces, and she had acquired much knowledge, really useful to one
+whose aspirations would probably never rise higher than to be mistress
+of a farm of a few acres. Educated by parents who had certainly never
+seen the world beyond Penzance, her ideas of the world were limited to a
+few miles around the Land's-End. But although her book of nature was a
+small one, it had deeply impressed her mind with its influences. The
+wild waste, the small but fertile valley, the rugged hills, with their
+crowns of cairns, the moors rich in the golden furze and the purple
+heath, the sea-beaten cliffs and the silver sands, were the pages she
+had studied, under the guidance of a mother who conceived, in the
+sublimity of her ignorance, that everything in nature was the home of
+some spirit form. The soul of the girl was imbued with the deeply
+religious dye of her mother's mind, whose religion was only a sense of
+an unknown world immediately beyond our own. The elder Nancy Trenoweth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+exerted over the villagers around her considerable power. They did not
+exactly fear her. She was too free from evil for that; but they were
+conscious of a mental superiority, and yielded without complaining to
+her sway.</p>
+
+<p>The result of this was, that the younger Nancy, although compelled to
+service, always exhibited some pride, from a feeling that her mother was
+a superior woman to any around her.</p>
+
+<p>She never felt herself inferior to her master and mistress, yet she
+complained not of being in subjection to them. There were so many
+interesting features in the character of this young servant girl that
+she became in many respects like a daughter to her mistress. There was
+no broad line of division in those days, in even the manorial hall,
+between the lord and his domestics, and still less defined was the
+position of the employer and the employed in a small farmhouse.
+Consequent on this condition of things, Frank Lenine and Nancy were
+thrown as much together as if they had been brother and sister. Frank
+was rarely checked in anything by his over-fond parents, who were
+especially proud of their son, since he was regarded as the handsomest
+young man in the parish. Frank conceived a very warm attachment for
+Nancy, and she was not a little proud of her lover. Although it was
+evident to all the parish that Frank and Nancy were seriously devoted to
+each other, the young man's parents were blind to it, and were taken by
+surprise when one day Frank asked his father and mother to consent to
+his marrying Nancy.</p>
+
+<p>The Lenines had allowed their son to have his own way from his youth up;
+and now, in a matter which brought into play the strongest of human
+feelings, they were angry because he refused to bend to their wills.</p>
+
+<p>The old man felt it would be a degradation for a Lenine to marry a
+Trenoweth, and, in the most unreasoning manner, he resolved it should
+never be.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>The first act was to send Nancy home to Alsia Mill, where her parents
+resided; the next was an imperious command to his son never again to see
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>The commands of the old are generally powerless upon the young where the
+affairs of the heart are concerned. So were they upon Frank. He who was
+rarely seen of an evening beyond the garden of his father's cottage, was
+now as constantly absent from his home. The house, which was wont to be
+a pleasant one, was strangely altered. A gloom had fallen over all
+things; the father and son rarely met as friends&mdash;the mother and her boy
+had now a feeling of reserve. Often there were angry altercations
+between the father and son, and the mother felt she could not become the
+defender of her boy, in his open acts of disobedience, his bold defiance
+of his parents' commands.</p>
+
+<p>Rarely an evening passed that did not find Nancy and Frank together in
+some retired nook. The Holy Well was a favourite meeting-place, and here
+the most solemn vows were made. Locks of hair were exchanged; a
+wedding-ring, taken from the finger of a corpse, was broken, when they
+vowed that they would be united either dead or alive; and they even
+climbed at night the granite-pile at Treryn, and swore by the Logan Rock
+the same strong vow.</p>
+
+<p>Time passed onward unhappily, and as the result of the endeavours to
+quench out the passion by force, it grew stronger under the repressing
+power, and, like imprisoned steam, eventually burst through all
+restraint.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy's parents discovered at length that moonlight meetings between two
+untrained, impulsive youths, had a natural result, and they were now
+doubly earnest in their endeavours to compel Frank to marry their
+daughter.</p>
+
+<p>The elder Lenine could not be brought to consent to this, and he firmly
+resolved to remove his son entirely from what he considered the hateful
+influences of the Trenoweths. He resolved to go to Plymouth, to take<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>
+his son with him, and, if possible, to send him away to sea, hoping thus
+to wean him from his folly, as he considered this love-madness. Frank,
+poor fellow, with the best intentions, was not capable of any sustained
+effort, and consequently he at length succumbed to his father; and, to
+escape his persecution, he entered a ship bound for India, and bade
+adieu to his native land.</p>
+
+<p>Frank could not write, and this happened in days when letters could be
+forwarded only with extreme difficulty, consequently Nancy never heard
+from her lover.</p>
+
+<p>A babe had been born into a troublesome world, and the infant became a
+real solace to the young mother. As the child grew, it became an
+especial favourite with its grandmother; the elder Nancy rejoiced over
+the little prattler, and forgot her cause of sorrow. Young Nancy lived
+for her child, and on the memory of its father. Subdued in spirit she
+was, but her affliction had given force to her character, and she had
+been heard to declare that wherever Frank might be, she was ever present
+with him, whatever might be the temptations of the hour, that her
+influence was all powerful over him for good. She felt that no distance
+could separate their souls, that no time could be long enough to destroy
+the bond between them.</p>
+
+<p>A period of distress fell upon the Trenoweths, and it was necessary that
+Nancy should leave her home once more, and go again into service. Her
+mother took charge of the babe, and she found a situation in the village
+of Kimyall, in the parish of Paul. Nancy, like her mother, contrived by
+force of character to maintain an ascendancy amongst her companions. She
+had formed an acquaintance, which certainly never grew into friendship,
+with some of the daughters of the small farmers around. These girls were
+all full of the superstitions of the time and place.</p>
+
+<p>The winter was coming on, and nearly three years had passed away since
+Frank Lenine left his country. As yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> there was no sign. Nor father,
+nor mother, nor maiden had heard of him, and they all sorrowed over his
+absence. The Lenines desired to have Nancy's child, but the Trenoweths
+would not part with it. They went so far even as to endeavour to
+persuade Nancy to live again with them, but Nancy was not at all
+disposed to submit to their wishes.</p>
+
+<p>It was All-Hallows' eve, and two of Nancy's companions persuaded
+her,&mdash;no very difficult task,&mdash;to go with them and sow hemp-seed.</p>
+
+<p>At midnight the three maidens stole out unperceived into Kimyall
+town-place to perform their incantation. Nancy was the first to sow, the
+others being less bold than she.</p>
+
+<p>Boldly she advanced, saying, as she scattered the seed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hemp-seed I sow thee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Hemp-seed grow thee;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And he who will my true love be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Come after me<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And shaw thee."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>This was repeated three times, when, looking back over her left
+shoulder, she saw Lenine; but he looked so angry that she shrieked with
+fear, and broke the spell. One of the other girls, however, resolved now
+to make trial of the spell, and the result of her labours was the vision
+of a white coffin. Fear now fell on all, and they went home sorrowful,
+to spend, each one, a sleepless night.</p>
+
+<p>November came with its storms, and during one terrific night a large
+vessel was thrown upon the rocks in Bernowhall Cliff, and, beaten by the
+impetuous waves, she was soon in pieces. Amongst the bodies of the crew
+washed ashore, nearly all of whom had perished, was Frank Lenine. He was
+not dead when found, but the only words he lived to speak were begging
+the people to send for Nancy Trenoweth, that he might make her his wife
+before he died.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Rapidly sinking, Frank was borne by his friends on a litter to Boscean,
+but he died as he reached the town-place. His parents, overwhelmed in
+their own sorrows, thought nothing of Nancy, and without her knowing
+that Lenine had returned, the poor fellow was laid in his last bed, in
+Burian Churchyard.</p>
+
+<p>On the night of the funeral, Nancy went, as was her custom, to lock the
+door of the house, and as was her custom too, she looked out into the
+night. At this instant a horseman rode up in hot haste, called her by
+name, and hailed her in a voice that chilled her blood.</p>
+
+<p>The voice was the voice of Lenine. She could never forget that; and the
+horse she now saw was her sweetheart's favourite colt, on which he had
+often ridden at night to Alsia.</p>
+
+<p>The rider was imperfectly seen; but he looked very sorrowful, and
+deathly pale, still Nancy knew him to be Frank Lenine.</p>
+
+<p>He told her that he had just arrived home, and that the first moment he
+was at liberty he had taken horse to fetch his loved one, and to make
+her his bride.</p>
+
+<p>Nancy's excitement was so great, that she was easily persuaded to spring
+on the horse behind him, that they might reach his home before the
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>When she took Lenine's hand a cold shiver passed through her, and as she
+grasped his waist to secure herself in her seat, her arm became as stiff
+as ice. She lost all power of speech, and suffered deep fear, yet she
+knew not why. The moon had arisen, and now burst out in a full flood of
+light, through the heavy clouds which had obscured it. The horse pursued
+its journey with great rapidity, and whenever in weariness it slackened
+its speed, the peculiar voice of the rider aroused its drooping
+energies. Beyond this no word was spoken since Nancy had mounted behind
+her lover. They now came to Trove Bottom, where there was no bridge at
+that time; they dashed into the river. The moon shone full in their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+faces. Nancy looked into the stream, and saw that the rider was in a
+shroud and other grave-clothes. She now knew that she was being carried
+away by a spirit, yet she had no power to save herself; indeed, the
+inclination to do so did not exist.</p>
+
+<p>On went the horse at a furious pace, until they came to the blacksmith's
+shop, near Burian Church-town, when she knew by the light from the forge
+fire thrown across the road that the smith was still at his labours. She
+now recovered speech. "Save me! save me! save me!" she cried with all
+her might. The smith sprang from the door of the smithy, with a red-hot
+iron in his hand, and as the horse rushed by, caught the woman's dress,
+and pulled her to the ground. The spirit, however, also seized Nancy's
+dress in one hand, and his grasp was like that of a vice. The horse
+passed like the wind, and Nancy and the smith were pulled down as far as
+the old Alms-houses, near the churchyard. Here the horse for a moment
+stopped. The smith seized that moment, and with his hot iron burned off
+the dress from the rider's hand, thus saving Nancy, more dead than
+alive; while the rider passed over the wall of the churchyard, and
+vanished on the grave in which Lenine had been laid but a few hours
+before.</p>
+
+<p>The smith took Nancy into his shop, and he soon aroused some of his
+neighbours, who took the poor girl back to Alsia. Her parents laid her
+on her bed. She spoke no word, but to ask for her child, to request her
+mother to give up her child to Lenine's parents, and her desire to be
+buried in his grave. Before the morning light fell on the world Nancy
+had breathed her last breath.</p>
+
+<p>A horse was seen that night to pass through the Church-town like a ball
+from a musket, and in the morning Lenine's colt was found dead in
+Bernowhall Cliff, covered with foam, its eyes forced from its head, and
+its swollen tongue hanging out of its mouth. On Lenine's grave was found
+the piece of Nancy's dress which was left in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the spirit's hand when the
+smith burnt her from his grasp.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that one or two of the sailors who survived the wreck related
+after the funeral, how, on the 30th of October, at night, Lenine was
+like one mad; they could scarcely keep him in the ship. He seemed more
+asleep than awake, and, after great excitement, he fell as if dead upon
+the deck, and lay so for hours. When he came to himself, he told them
+that he had been taken to the village of Kimyall, and that if he ever
+married the woman who had cast the spell, he would make her suffer the
+longest day she had to live for drawing his soul out of his body.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Nancy was buried in Lenine's grave, and her companion in sowing
+hemp-seed, who saw the white coffin, slept beside her within the year.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Greville MacDonald</span><a name="FNanchor_5_5" id="FNanchor_5_5"></a><a href="#Footnote_5_5" class="fnanchor">[5]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>By this corner of the graveyard the red dawn discovered to Jonas a
+little pool of clear water, with mosses and parsley-ferns all around it,
+and so clear and cool-looking that he must drink. The larger part of it
+was still shadowed by the wall. On knees and hands, he put his lips to
+it and drank. The refreshment was wonderful. He rose with a sense that
+he should find the lost sheep yet and bring her home. He looked down
+once more into the clear pool. It was wider than he had thought&mdash;indeed,
+he had been mistaken; it was a great tarn on the mountain-side! Then he
+saw that wonderful things were happening on the face of and all round
+the water. What appeared to be little glow-worms were lying motionless
+in groups on the mosses in a still-shadowed region by the side of the
+water. From beneath a low arch in the wall, where the water was slowly
+flowing away in a river, there came, against stream and wave and wind, a
+fishing-boat. Its great red sail was spread, and its pennant shone
+silvery blue in the sun. It came alongside a pier of mossy stones, and
+cast anchor. From it leapt twelve strong young fishermen, all with
+bright faces. They took up the little creatures with the glowing lights,
+and carried them aboard; then back again to other groups, until all were
+gathered in. For<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> they were all sleeping human forms, close-wrapped in
+grave-clothes, but with their light still living, as might be seen by
+anyone who had suffered. When all were safe aboard, the men cast off and
+the boat disappeared under the arch.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_5_5" id="Footnote_5_5"></a><a href="#FNanchor_5_5"><span class="label">[5]</span></a> From <i>How Jonas Found his Enemy: a Romance of the South
+Downs</i> (1916).</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE LIANHAN SHEE</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Will Carleton</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>One summer evening Mary Sullivan was sitting at her own well-swept
+hearthstone, knitting feet to a pair of sheep's-grey stockings for
+Bartley, her husband. It was one of those serene evenings in the month
+of June when the decline of day assumes a calmness and repose,
+resembling what we might suppose to have irradiated Eden when our first
+parents sat in it before their fall. The beams of the sun shone through
+the windows in clear shafts of amber light, exhibiting millions of those
+atoms which float to the naked eye within its mild radiance. The dog lay
+barking in his dream at her feet, and the grey cat sat purring placidly
+upon his back, from which even his occasional agitation did not dislodge
+her.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Sullivan was the wife of a wealthy farmer, and niece to the Rev.
+Felix O'Rourke; her kitchen was consequently large, comfortable, and
+warm. Over where she sat, jutted out the "brace" well lined with bacon;
+to the right hung a well-scoured salt-box, and to the left was the jamb,
+with its little paneless window to admit the light. Within it hung
+several ash rungs, seasoning for flail-sooples, or boulteens, a dozen of
+eel-skins, and several stripes of horse-skin, as hangings for them. The
+dresser was a "parfit white," and well furnished with the usual
+appurtenances. Over the door and on the "threshel" were nailed, "for
+luck," two horse-shoes, that had been found by accident. In a little
+"hole" in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> the wall, beneath the salt-box, lay a bottle of holy water to
+keep the place purified; and against the copestone of the gable, on the
+outside, grew a large lump of house-leek, as a specific for sore eyes
+and other maladies.</p>
+
+<p>In the corner of the garden were a few stalks of tansy "to kill the
+thievin' worms in the childhre, the crathurs," together with a little
+Rosenoble, Solomon's Seal, and Bugloss, each for some medicinal purpose.
+The "lime wather" Mrs Sullivan could make herself, and the "bog bane"
+for the <i>linh roe</i>, or heartburn, grew in their own meadow-drain; so
+that, in fact, she had within her reach a very decent pharmacop&oelig;ia,
+perhaps as harmless as that of the profession itself. Lying on the top
+of the salt-box was a bunch of fairy flax, and sewed in the folds of her
+own scapular was the dust of what had once been a four-leaved shamrock,
+an invaluable specific "for seein' the good people," if they happened to
+come within the bounds of vision. Over the door in the inside, over the
+beds, and over the cattle in the outhouses, were placed branches of
+withered palm, that had been consecrated by the priest on Palm Sunday;
+and when the cows happened to calve, this good woman tied, with her own
+hands, a woollen thread about their tails, to prevent them from being
+overlooked by evil eyes, or <i>elf-shot</i> by the fairies, who seem to
+possess a peculiar power over females of every species during the period
+of parturition. It is unnecessary to mention the variety of charms which
+she possessed for that obsolete malady the colic, for toothache,
+headaches, or for removing warts, and taking motes out of the eyes; let
+it suffice to inform our readers that she was well stocked with them;
+and, that in addition to this, she, together with her husband, drank a
+potion made up and administered by an herb-doctor, for preventing for
+ever the slightest misunderstanding or quarrel between man and wife.
+Whether it produced this desirable object or not, our readers may
+conjecture, when we add, that the herb-doctor, after having taken a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>
+very liberal advantage of their generosity, was immediately compelled to
+disappear from the neighbourhood, in order to avoid meeting with
+Bartley, who had a sharp look-out for him, not exactly on his own
+account, but "in regard," he said, "that it had no effect upon <i>Mary</i>,
+at all at all"; whilst Mary, on the other hand, admitted its efficacy
+upon herself, but maintained, "that <i>Bartley</i> was worse nor ever afther
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Such was Mary Sullivan, as she sat at her own hearth, quite alone,
+engaged as we have represented her. What she may have been meditating
+on, we cannot pretend to ascertain; but after some time, she looked
+sharply into the "backstone," or hob, with an air of anxiety and alarm.
+By and by she suspended her knitting, and listened with much
+earnestness, leaning her right ear over to the hob, from whence the
+sounds to which she paid such deep attention proceeded. At length she
+crossed herself devoutly, and exclaimed, "Queen of saints about us!&mdash;is
+it back ye are? Well sure there's no use in talkin' bekase they say you
+know what's said of you, or to you&mdash;an' we may as well spake yez fair.
+Hem&mdash;musha yez are welcome back, crickets, avour-neenee! I hope that,
+not like the last visit ye ped us, yez are comin' for luck now! Moolyeen
+died, any way, soon afther your other <i>kailyee</i>, ye crathurs ye. Here's
+the bread, an' the salt, an' the male for yez, an' we wish ye well.
+Eh?&mdash;saints above, if it isn't listenin' they are jist like a
+Christhien! Wurrah, but ye are the wise an' the quare crathurs all out!"</p>
+
+<p>She then shook a little holy water over the hob, and muttered to herself
+an Irish charm or prayer against the evils which crickets are often
+supposed by the peasantry to bring with them, and requested, still in
+the words of the charm, that their presence might, on that occasion,
+rather be a presage of good fortune to man and beast belonging to her.</p>
+
+<p>"There now, ye <i>dhonans</i> ye, sure ye can't say that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> ye're ill-thrated
+here, anyhow, or ever was mocked or made game of in the same family. You
+have got your hansel, an' full an' plenty of it; hopin' at the same time
+that you'll have no rason in life to cut our best clothes from revinge.
+Sure an' I didn't desarve to have my brave stuff <i>long body</i> riddled the
+way it was the last time ye wor here, an' only bekase little Barny, that
+has but the sinse of a <i>gorsoon</i>, tould yez in a joke to pack off wid
+yourselves somewhere else. Musha, never heed what the likes of him says;
+sure he's but a <i>caudy</i>, that doesn't mane ill, only the bit o'
+divarsion wid yez."</p>
+
+<p>She then resumed her knitting, occasionally stopping, as she changed her
+needles, to listen, with her ear set, as if she wished to augur from the
+nature of their chirping, whether they came for good or evil. This,
+however, seemed to be beyond her faculty of translating their language;
+for after sagely shaking her head two or three times, she knit more
+busily than before.</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, the shadow of a person passing the house darkened the
+window opposite which she sat, and immediately a tall female, of a wild
+dress and aspect, entered the kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr</i>! the blessin' o' goodness upon you,
+dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, addressing her in those kindly phrases
+so peculiar to the Irish language.</p>
+
+<p>Instead of making her any reply, however, the woman, whose eye glistened
+with a wild depth of meaning, exclaimed in low tones, apparently of much
+anguish, "<i>Husht, husht, dherum</i>! husht, husht, I say&mdash;let me alone&mdash;I
+will do it&mdash;will you husht? I will, I say&mdash;I will&mdash;there now&mdash;that's
+it&mdash;be quiet, an' I will do it&mdash;be quiet!" and as she thus spoke she
+turned her face back over her left shoulder, as if some invisible being
+dogged her steps, and stood bending over her.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr, dherhum areesht</i>! the blessin' o'
+God on you, honest woman, I say again,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> said Mrs Sullivan, repeating
+that <i>sacred</i> form of salutation with which the peasantry address each
+other. "'Tis a fine evenin', honest woman, glory be to Him that sent the
+same, and amin! If it was cowld, I'd be axin' you to draw your chair in
+to the fire; but, any way, won't you sit down?"</p>
+
+<p>As she ceased speaking the piercing eye of the strange woman became
+riveted on her with a glare, which, whilst it startled Mrs Sullivan,
+seemed full of an agony that almost abstracted her from external life.
+It was not, however, so wholly absorbing as to prevent it from
+expressing a marked interest, whether for good or evil, in the woman who
+addressed her so hospitably.</p>
+
+<p>"Husht, now&mdash;husht," she said, as if aside&mdash;"husht, won't you&mdash;sure I
+may speak <i>the thing</i> to her&mdash;you said it&mdash;there now, husht!" And then
+fastening her dark eyes on Mrs Sullivan, she smiled bitterly and
+mysteriously.</p>
+
+<p>"I know you well," she said, without, however, returning the <i>blessing</i>
+contained in the usual reply to Mrs Sullivan's salutation&mdash;"I know you
+well, Mary Sullivan&mdash;husht, now, husht&mdash;yes, I know you well, and the
+power of all that you carry about you; but you'd be better than you
+are&mdash;and that's well enough <i>now</i>&mdash;if you had sense to know&mdash;ah, ah,
+ah!&mdash;what's this!" she exclaimed abruptly, with three distinct shrieks,
+that seemed to be produced by sensations of sharp and piercing agony.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of goodness, what's over you, honest woman?" inquired Mrs
+Sullivan, as she started from her chair, and ran to her in a state of
+alarm, bordering on terror&mdash;"Is it sick you are?"</p>
+
+<p>The woman's face had got haggard, and its features distorted; but in a
+few minutes they resumed their peculiar expression of settled wildness
+and mystery. "Sick!" she replied, licking her parched lips; "<i>awirck,
+awirck!</i> look! look!" and she pointed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> with a shudder that almost
+convulsed her whole frame, to a lump that rose on her shoulders; this,
+be it what it might, was covered with a red cloak, closely pinned and
+tied with great caution about her body&mdash;"'tis here!&mdash;I have it!"</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed mother!" exclaimed Mrs Sullivan, tottering over to her chair,
+as finished a picture of horror as the eye could witness, "this day's
+Friday: the saints stand betwixt me an' all harm! Oh, holy Mary, protect
+me! <i>Nhanim an airh</i>," in the name of the Father, etc., and she
+forthwith proceeded to bless herself, which she did thirteen times in
+honour of the blessed virgin and the twelve apostles.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, it's as you see!" replied the stranger bitterly. "It is
+here&mdash;husht, now&mdash;husht, I say&mdash;I will say <i>the thing</i> to her, mayn't I?
+Ay, indeed, Mary Sullivan, 'tis with me always&mdash;always. Well, well, no,
+I won't I won't&mdash;easy. Oh, blessed saints, easy, and I won't!"</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime Mrs Sullivan had uncorked her bottle of holy water, and
+plentifully bedewed herself with it, as a preservative against this
+mysterious woman and her dreadful secret.</p>
+
+<p>"Blessed mother above!" she ejaculated, "the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>!" And as she
+spoke, with the holy water in the palm of her hand, she advanced
+cautiously, and with great terror, to throw it upon the stranger and the
+unearthly thing she bore.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't attempt it!" shouted the other, in tones of mingled fierceness
+and terror; "do you want to give <i>me</i> pain without keeping <i>yourself</i>
+anything at all safer? Don't you know <i>it</i> doesn't care about your holy
+water? But I'd suffer for it, an' perhaps so would you."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Sullivan, terrified by the agitated looks of the woman, drew back
+with affright, and threw the holy water with which she intended to
+purify the other on her own person.</p>
+
+<p>"Why thin, you lost crathur, who or what are you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> at all?&mdash;don't,
+don't&mdash;for the sake of all the saints and angels of heaven, don't come
+next or near me&mdash;keep your distance&mdash;but what are you, or how did you
+come to get that 'good thing' you carry about wid you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, indeed!" replied the woman bitterly, "as if I would or could tell
+you that! I say, you woman, you're doing what's not right in asking me a
+question you ought not let to cross your lips&mdash;look to yourself, and
+what's over you."</p>
+
+<p>The simple woman, thinking her meaning literal, almost leaped off her
+seat with terror, and turned up her eyes to ascertain whether or not any
+dreadful appearance had approached her, or hung over her where she sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Woman," said she, "I spoke you kind an' fair, an' I wish you
+well&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But what?" replied the other&mdash;and her eyes kindled into deep and
+profound excitement, apparently upon very slight grounds.</p>
+
+<p>"Why&mdash;hem&mdash;nothin' at all sure, only&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Only what?" asked the stranger, with a face of anguish that seemed to
+torture every feature out of its proper lineaments.</p>
+
+<p>"Dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, whilst the hair began to stand with
+terror upon her head, "sure it's no wondher in life that I'm in a
+perplexity, whin a <i>Lianhan Shee</i> is undher the one roof wid me. 'Tisn't
+that I want to know anything at all about it&mdash;the dear forbid I should;
+but I never hard of a person bein' tormented wid it as you are. I always
+used to hear the people say that it thrated its friends well."</p>
+
+<p>"Husht!" said the woman, looking wildly over her shoulder, "I'll not
+tell: it's on myself I'll leave the blame! Why, will you never pity me?
+Am I to be night and day tormented? Oh, you're wicked and cruel for no
+reason!"</p>
+
+<p>"Thry," said Mrs Sullivan, "an' bless yourself; call on God."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Ah!" shouted the other, "are you going to get me killed?" and as she
+uttered the words, a spasmodic working which must have occasioned great
+pain, even to torture, became audible in her throat; her bosom heaved up
+and down, and her head was bent repeatedly on her breast, as if by
+force.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't mention that name," said she, "in my presence, except you mean to
+drive me to utter distraction. I mean," she continued, after
+considerable effort to recover her former tone and manner&mdash;"hear me with
+attention&mdash;I mean, woman&mdash;you, Mary Sullivan&mdash;that if you mention that
+holy name, you might as well keep plunging sharp knives into my heart!
+Husht! peace to me for one minute, tormentor! Spare me something, I'm in
+your power!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you ate anything?" said Mrs Sullivan; "poor crathur, you look like
+hunger an' distress; there's enough in the house, blessed be them that
+sent it! an' you had betther thry an' take some nourishment, any way";
+and she raised her eyes in a silent prayer of relief and ease for the
+unhappy woman, whose unhallowed association had, in her opinion, sealed
+her doom.</p>
+
+<p>"Will I?&mdash;will I?&mdash;oh!" she replied, "may you never know misery for
+offering it! Oh, bring me something&mdash;some refreshment&mdash;some food&mdash;for
+I'm dying with hunger."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Sullivan, who, with all her superstition, was remarkable for charity
+and benevolence, immediately placed food and drink before her, which the
+stranger absolutely devoured&mdash;taking care occasionally to secrete under
+the protuberance which appeared behind her neck, a portion of what she
+ate. This, however, she did, not by stealth, but openly; merely taking
+means to prevent the concealed thing from being, by any possible
+accident, discovered.</p>
+
+<p>When the craving of hunger was satisfied, she appeared to suffer less
+from the persecution of her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> tormentor than before; whether it was, as
+Mrs Sullivan thought, that the food with which she plied it appeased in
+some degree its irritability, or lessened that of the stranger, it was
+difficult to say; at all events, she became more composed; her eyes
+resumed somewhat of a natural expression; each sharp ferocious glare,
+which shot from them with such intense and rapid flashes, partially
+disappeared; her knit brows dilated, and part of a forehead, which had
+once been capacious and handsome, lost the contractions which deformed
+it by deep wrinkles. Altogether the change was evident, and very much
+relieved Mrs Sullivan, who could not avoid observing it.</p>
+
+<p>"It's not that I care much about it, if you'd think it not right o' me,
+but it's odd enough for you to keep the lower part of your face muffled
+up in that black cloth, an' then your forehead, too, is covered down on
+your face a bit. If they're part of the <i>bargain</i>,"&mdash;and she shuddered
+at the thought,&mdash;"between you an' anything that's not good&mdash;hem!&mdash;I
+think you'd do well to throw thim off o' you, an' turn to thim that can
+protect you from everything that's bad. Now, a scapular would keep all
+the divils in hell from one; an' if you'd&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>On looking at the stranger she hesitated, for the wild expression of her
+eyes began to return.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't begin my punishment again," replied the woman; "make no
+allus&mdash;&mdash;don't make mention in my presence of anything that's good.
+Husht&mdash;husht&mdash;it's beginning&mdash;easy now&mdash;easy! No," said she, "I came to
+tell you, that only for my breaking a vow I made to this thing upon me,
+I'd be happy instead of miserable with it. I say, it's a good thing to
+have, if the person will use this bottle," she added, producing one, "as
+I will direct them."</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't wish, for my part," replied Mrs Sullivan, "to have anything
+to do wid it&mdash;neither act nor part";<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> and she crossed herself devoutly,
+on contemplating such an unholy alliance as that at which her companion
+hinted.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary Sullivan," replied the other, "I can put good fortune and
+happiness in the way of you and yours. It is for you the good is
+intended; if <i>you</i> don't get both, <i>no other</i> can," and her eyes kindled
+as she spoke like those of the Pyrhoness in the moment of inspiration.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Sullivan looked at her with awe, fear, and a strong mixture of
+curiosity; she had often heard that the <i>Lianhan Shee</i> had, through
+means of the person to whom it was bound, conferred wealth upon several,
+although it could never render this important service to those who
+exercised direct authority over it. She therefore experienced something
+like a conflict between her fears and a love of that wealth, the
+possession of which was so plainly intimated to her.</p>
+
+<p>"The money," said she, "would be one thing, but to have the <i>Lianhan
+Shee</i> planted over a body's shouldher&mdash;och! the saints preserve us!&mdash;no,
+not for oceans of hard goold would I have it in my company one minnit.
+But in regard to the money&mdash;hem!&mdash;why, if it could be managed without
+havin' act or part wid <i>that thing</i>, people would do anything in reason
+and fairity."</p>
+
+<p>"You have this day been kind to me," replied the woman, "and that's what
+I can't say of many&mdash;dear help me!&mdash;husht! Every door is shut in my
+face! Does not every cheek get pale when I am seen? If I meet a
+fellow-creature on the road, they turn into the field to avoid me; if I
+ask for food, it's to a deaf ear I speak; if I am thirsty, they send me
+to the river. What house would shelter me? In cold, in hunger, in
+drought, in storm, and in tempest, I am alone and unfriended, hated,
+feared, an' avoided; starving in the winter's cold, and burning in the
+summer's heat. All this is my fate here; and&mdash;oh! oh! oh!&mdash;have mercy,
+tormentor&mdash;have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> mercy! I will not lift my thoughts <i>there</i>&mdash;I'll keep
+the paction&mdash;but spare me <i>now</i>!"</p>
+
+<p>She turned round as she spoke, seeming to follow an invisible object,
+or, perhaps, attempting to get a more complete view of the mysterious
+being which exercised such a terrible and painful influence over her.
+Mrs Sullivan, also, kept her eye fixed upon the lump, and actually
+believed that she saw it move. Fear of incurring the displeasure of what
+it contained, and a superstitious reluctance harshly to thrust a person
+from her door who had eaten of her food, prevented her from desiring the
+woman to depart.</p>
+
+<p>"In the name of Goodness," she replied, "I will have nothing to do wid
+your gift. Providence, blessed be His name, has done well for me an'
+mine; an' it mightn't be right to go beyant what it has pleased <i>Him</i> to
+give me."</p>
+
+<p>"A rational sentiment!&mdash;I mean there's good sense in what you say,"
+answered the stranger: "but you need not be afraid," and she accompanied
+the expression by holding up the bottle and kneeling. "Now," she added,
+"listen to me, and judge for yourself, if what I say, when I swear it,
+can be a lie." She then proceeded to utter oaths of the most solemn
+nature, the purport of which was to assure Mrs Sullivan that drinking of
+the bottle would be attended with no danger.</p>
+
+<p>"You see this little bottle? Drink it. Oh, for my sake and your own,
+drink it; it will give wealth without end to you and to all belonging to
+you. Take one-half of it before sunrise, and the other half when he goes
+down. You must stand while drinking it, with your face to the east, in
+the morning; and at night, to the west. Will you promise to do thus?"</p>
+
+<p>"How would drinkin' the bottle get me money?" inquired Mrs Sullivan, who
+certainly felt a strong tendency of heart to the wealth.</p>
+
+<p>"That I can't tell you now, nor would you understand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> it, even if I
+could; but you will know all when what I say is complied with."</p>
+
+<p>"Keep your bottle, dacent woman. I wash my hands out of it: the saints
+above guard me from the timptation! I'm sure it's not right, for as I'm
+a sinner, 'tis gettin' stronger every minute widin me! Keep it! I'm loth
+to bid any one that <i>ett</i> o' my bread to go from my hearth, but if you
+go, I'll make it worth your while. Saints above! what's comin' over me?
+In my whole life I never had such a hankerin' afther money! Well, well,
+but it's quare entirely!"</p>
+
+<p>"Will you drink it?" asked her companion. "If it does hurt or harm to
+you or yours, or anything but good, may what is hanging over me be
+fulfilled!" and she extended a thin, but, considering her years, not
+ungraceful arm, in the act of holding out the bottle to her kind
+entertainer.</p>
+
+<p>"For the sake of all that's good and gracious, take it without
+scruple&mdash;it is not hurtful, a child might drink every drop that's in it.
+Oh, for the sake of all you love, and of all that love you, take it!"
+and as she urged her the tears streamed down her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," replied Mrs Sullivan, "it'll never cross my lips; not if it
+made me as rich as ould Hendherson, that airs his guineas in the sun,
+for fraid they'd get light by lyin' past."</p>
+
+<p>"I entreat you to take it," said the strange woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Never, never!&mdash;once for all&mdash;I say, I won't; so spare your breath."</p>
+
+<p>The firmness of the good housewife was not, in fact, to be shaken; so,
+after exhausting all the motives and arguments with which she could urge
+the accomplishment of her design, the strange woman, having again put
+the bottle into her bosom, prepared to depart.</p>
+
+<p>She had now once more become calm, and resumed her seat with the languid
+air of one who has suffered much exhaustion and excitement. She put her
+hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> upon her forehead for a few moments, as if collecting her
+faculties, or endeavouring to remember the purport of their previous
+conversation. A slight moisture had broken through her skin, and
+altogether, notwithstanding her avowed criminality in entering into an
+unholy bond, she appeared an object of deep compassion.</p>
+
+<p>In a moment her manner changed again, and her eyes blazed out once more,
+as she asked her alarmed hostess,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Again, Mary Sullivan, will you take the gift that I have it in my power
+to give you? ay or no? speak, poor mortal, if you know what is for your
+own good."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Sullivan's fears, however, had overcome her love of money,
+particularly as she thought that wealth obtained in such a manner could
+not prosper; her only objection being to the means of acquiring it.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh!" said the stranger, "am I doomed never to meet with anyone who will
+take the promise off me by drinking of this bottle. Oh! but I am
+unhappy! What it is to fear&mdash;ah! ah!&mdash;and keep <i>His</i> commandments. Had
+<i>I</i> done so in my youthful time, I wouldn't now&mdash;ah&mdash;merciful mother, is
+there no relief? kill me, tormentor; kill me outright, for surely the
+pangs of eternity cannot be greater than those you now make me suffer.
+Woman," said she, and her muscles stood out in extraordinary
+energy&mdash;"woman, Mary Sullivan&mdash;ay, if you should kill me&mdash;blast
+me&mdash;where I stand, I will say the word&mdash;woman&mdash;you have daughters&mdash;teach
+them&mdash;to fear&mdash;&mdash;" Having got so far, she stopped&mdash;her bosom heaved up
+and down&mdash;her frame shook dreadfully&mdash;her eyeballs became lurid and
+fiery&mdash;her hands were clenched, and the spasmodic throes of inward
+convulsion worked the white froth up to her mouth; at length she
+suddenly became like a statue, with this wild supernatural expression
+intense upon her, and with an awful calmness, by far more dreadful<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> than
+excitement could be, concluded by pronouncing in deep husky tones the
+name of God.</p>
+
+<p>Having accomplished this with such a powerful struggle, she turned round
+with pale despair in her countenance and manner, and with streaming eyes
+slowly departed, leaving Mrs Sullivan in a situation not at all to be
+envied.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the other members of the family, who had been out at
+their evening employments, returned. Bartley, her husband, having
+entered somewhat sooner than his three daughters from milking, was the
+first to come in; presently the girls followed, and in a few minutes
+they sat down to supper, together with the servants, who dropped in one
+by one, after the toil of the day. On placing themselves about the
+table, Bartley as usual took his seat at the head; but Mrs Sullivan,
+instead of occupying hers, sat at the fire in a state of uncommon
+agitation. Every two or three minutes she would cross herself devoutly,
+and mutter such prayers against spiritual influences of an evil nature
+as she could compose herself to remember.</p>
+
+<p>"Thin, why don't you come to your supper, Mary," said the husband,
+"while the sowans are warm? Brave and thick they are this night, any
+way."</p>
+
+<p>His wife was silent, for so strong a hold had the strange woman and her
+appalling secret upon her mind, that it was not till he repeated his
+question three or four times&mdash;raising his head with surprise, and
+asking, "Eh, thin, Mary, what's come over you&mdash;is it unwell you
+are?"&mdash;that she noticed what he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Supper!" she exclaimed; "unwell! 'tis a good right I have to be
+unwell,&mdash;I hope nothing bad will happen, any way. Feel my face, Nannie,"
+she added, addressing one of her daughters; "it's as cowld an' wet as a
+limestone&mdash;ay, an' if you found me a corpse before you, it wouldn't be
+at all strange."</p>
+
+<p>There was a general pause at the seriousness of this<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> intimation. The
+husband rose from his supper, and went up to the hearth where she sat.</p>
+
+<p>"Turn round to the light," said he; "why, Mary dear, in the name of
+wondher, what ails you? for you're like a corpse sure enough. Can't you
+tell us what has happened, or what put you in such a state? Why,
+childhre, the cowld sweat's teemin' off her!"</p>
+
+<p>The poor woman, unable to sustain the shock produced by her interview
+with the stranger, found herself getting more weak, and requested a
+drink of water; but before it could be put to her lips, she laid her
+head upon the back of the chair and fainted. Grief, and uproar, and
+confusion followed this alarming incident. The presence of mind, so
+necessary on such occasions, was wholly lost; one ran here, and another
+there, all jostling against each other, without being cool enough to
+render her proper assistance. The daughters were in tears, and Bartley
+himself was dreadfully shocked by seeing his wife apparently lifeless
+before him.</p>
+
+<p>She soon recovered, however, and relieved them from the apprehension of
+her death, which they thought had actually taken place. "Mary," said the
+husband, "something quare entirely has happened, or you wouldn't be in
+this state!"</p>
+
+<p>"Did any of you see a strange woman lavin' the house a minute or two
+before ye came in?" she inquired.</p>
+
+<p>"No," they replied, "not a stim of anyone did we see."</p>
+
+<p>"Wurrah dheelish! No?&mdash;now is it possible ye didn't?" She then described
+her, but all declared they had seen no such person.</p>
+
+<p>"Bartley, whisper," said she, and beckoning him over to her, in a few
+words she revealed the secret. The husband grew pale and crossed
+himself. "Mother of Saints! childhre," said he, "a <i>Lianhan Shee</i>!" The
+words were no sooner uttered than every countenance assumed the
+pallidness of death; and every right hand<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> was raised in the act of
+blessing the person, and crossing the forehead. "<i>The Lianhan Shee!!</i>"
+all exclaimed in fear and horror&mdash;"This day's Friday; God betwixt us an'
+harm!"</p>
+
+<p>It was now after dusk, and the hour had already deepened into the
+darkness of a calm, moonless, summer night; the hearth, therefore, in a
+short time, became surrounded by a circle, consisting of every person in
+the house; the door was closed and securely bolted;&mdash;a struggle for the
+safest seat took place; and to Bartley's shame be it spoken, he lodged
+himself on the hob within the jamb, as the most distant situation from
+the fearful being known as the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>. The recent terror,
+however, brooded over them all; their topic of conversation was the
+mysterious visit, of which Mrs Sullivan gave a painfully accurate
+detail; whilst every ear of those who composed her audience was set, and
+every single hair of their heads bristled up, as if awakened into
+distinct life by the story. Bartley looked into the fire soberly, except
+when the cat, in prowling about the dresser, electrified him into a
+start of fear, which sensation went round every link of the living chain
+about the hearth.</p>
+
+<p>The next day the story spread through the whole neighbourhood,
+accumulating in interest and incident as it went. Where it received the
+touches, embellishments, and emendations, with which it was amplified,
+it would be difficult to say: every one told it, forsooth, <i>exactly</i> as
+he heard it from another, but indeed it is not improbable that those
+through whom it passed were unconscious of the additions it had received
+at their hands. It is not unreasonable to suppose that imagination in
+such cases often colours highly without a premeditated design of
+falsehood. Fear and dread, however, accompanied its progress; such
+families as had neglected to keep holy water in their houses borrowed
+some from their neighbours; every old prayer which had become rusty
+from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> disuse was brightened up&mdash;charms were hung about the necks of
+cattle, and gospels about those of children&mdash;crosses were placed over
+the doors and windows;&mdash;no unclean water was thrown out before sunrise
+or after dusk&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"E'en those prayed now who never prayed before,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And those who always prayed, still prayed the more."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The inscrutable woman who caused such general dismay in the parish was
+an object of much pity. Avoided, feared, and detested, she could find no
+rest for her weary feet, nor any shelter for her unprotected head. If
+she was seen approaching a house, the door and windows were immediately
+closed against her; if met on the way she was avoided as a pestilence.
+How she lived no one could tell, for none would permit themselves to
+know. It was asserted that she existed without meat or drink, and that
+she was doomed to remain possessed of life, the prey of hunger and
+thirst, until she could get some one weak enough to break the spell by
+drinking her hellish draught, to taste which, they said, would be to
+change places with herself, and assume her despair and misery.</p>
+
+<p>There had lived in the country about six months before her appearance in
+it, a man named Stephenson. He was unmarried, and the last of his
+family. This person led a solitary and secluded life, and exhibited
+during the last years of his existence strong symptoms of eccentricity,
+which for some months before his death assumed a character of
+unquestionable derangement. He was found one morning hanging by a halter
+in his own stable, where he had, under the influence of his malady,
+committed suicide. At this time the public press had not, as now,
+familiarised the minds of the people to that dreadful crime, and it was
+consequently looked upon <i>then</i> with an intensity of horror of which we
+can scarcely entertain any adequate notion. His farm remained
+unoccupied, for while an acre of land<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> could be obtained in any other
+quarter, no man would enter upon such unhallowed premises. The house was
+locked up, and it was currently reported that Stephenson and the devil
+each night repeated the hanging scene in the stable; and that when the
+former was committing the "hopeless sin," the halter slipped several
+times from the beam of the stable-loft, when Satan came, in the shape of
+a dark-complexioned man with a hollow voice, and secured the rope until
+Stephenson's end was accomplished.</p>
+
+<p>In this stable did the wanderer take up her residence at night; and when
+we consider the belief of the people in the night-scenes which were
+supposed to occur in it, we need not be surprised at the new features of
+horror which this circumstance superadded to her character. Her presence
+and appearance in the parish were dreadful; a public outcry was soon
+raised against her, which, were it not from fear of her power over their
+lives and cattle, might have ended in her death. None, however, had
+courage to grapple with her, or to attempt expelling her by violence,
+lest a signal vengeance might be taken on any who dared to injure a
+woman that could call in the terrible aid of the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>.</p>
+
+<p>In this state of feeling they applied to the parish priest, who, on
+hearing the marvellous stories related concerning her, and on
+questioning each man closely upon his authority, could perceive that,
+like most other reports, they were to be traced principally to the
+imagination and fears of the people. He ascertained, however, enough
+from Bartley Sullivan to justify a belief that there was something
+certainly uncommon about the woman; and being of a cold, phlegmatic
+disposition, with some humour, he desired them to go home, if they were
+wise&mdash;he shook his head mysteriously as he spoke&mdash;"and do the woman no
+injury, if they didn't wish"&mdash;and with this abrupt hint he sent them
+about their business.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>This, however, did not satisfy them. In the same parish lived a
+suspended priest, called Father Philip O'Dallaghy, who supported
+himself, as most of them do, by curing certain diseases of the
+people&mdash;miraculously! He had no other means of subsistence, nor, indeed,
+did he seem strongly devoted to life, or to the pleasures it afforded.
+He was not addicted to those intemperate habits which characterise
+"Blessed Priests" in general; spirits he never tasted, nor any food that
+could be termed a luxury, or even a comfort. His communion with the
+people was brief, and marked by a tone of severe contemptuous
+misanthropy. He seldom stirred abroad except during morning, or in the
+evening twilight, when he might be seen gliding amidst the coming
+darkness, like a dissatisfied spirit. His life was an austere one, and
+his devotional practices were said to be of the most remorseful
+character. Such a man, in fact, was calculated to hold a powerful sway
+over the prejudices and superstitions of the people. This was true. His
+power was considered almost unlimited, and his life one that would not
+disgrace the highest saint in the calendar. There were not wanting some
+persons in the parish who hinted that Father Felix O'Rourke, the parish
+priest, was himself rather reluctant to incur the displeasure, or
+challenge the power of the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>, by driving its victim out of
+the parish. The opinion of these persons was, in its distinct
+unvarnished reality, that Father Felix absolutely showed the white
+feather on this critical occasion&mdash;that he became shy, and begged leave
+to decline being introduced to this intractable pair&mdash;seeming to
+intimate that he did not at all relish adding them to the stock of his
+acquaintances.</p>
+
+<p>Father Philip they considered as a decided contrast to him on this
+point. His stern and severe manner, rugged, and, when occasion demanded,
+daring, they believed suitable to the qualities requisite for
+sustaining<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> such an interview. They accordingly waited on him; and after
+Bartley and his friends had given as faithful a report of the
+circumstances as, considering all things, could be expected, he told
+Bartley he would hear from Mrs Sullivan's own lips the authentic
+narrative. This was quite satisfactory, and what was expected from him.
+As for himself, he appeared to take no particular interest in the
+matter, further than that of allaying the ferment and alarm which had
+spread through the parish.</p>
+
+<p>"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "she came in to Mary, and she
+alone in the house, and for the matther o' that, I believe she laid
+hands upon her, and tossed and tumbled the crathur, and she but a sickly
+woman, through the four corners of the house. Not that Mary lets an so
+much, for she's afeard; but I know from her way, when she spakes about
+her, that it's thruth, your Reverence."</p>
+
+<p>"But didn't the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>," said one of them, "put a sharp-pointed
+knife to her breast, wid a divilish intintion of makin' her give the
+best of atin' an' dhrinkin' the house afforded?"</p>
+
+<p>"She got the victuals, to a sartinty," replied Bartley, "and
+'overlooked' my woman for her pains; for she's not the picture of
+herself since."</p>
+
+<p>Everyone now told some magnified and terrible circumstance, illustrating
+the formidable power of the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>.</p>
+
+<p>When they had finished, the sarcastic lip of the priest curled into an
+expression of irony and contempt; his brow, which was naturally black
+and heavy, darkened; and a keen, but rather a ferocious-looking, eye
+shot forth a glance, which, while it intimated disdain for those to whom
+it was directed, spoke also of a dark and troubled spirit in himself.
+The man seemed to brook with scorn the degrading situation of a
+religious quack, to which some uncontrollable destiny had doomed him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"I shall see your wife to-morrow," said he to Bartley; "and after
+hearing the plain account of what happened, I will consider what is best
+to be done with this dark, perhaps unhappy, perhaps guilty character;
+but whether dark, or unhappy, or guilty, I, for one, should not, and
+will not, avoid her. Go, and bring me word to-morrow evening when I can
+see her on the following day. Begone!"</p>
+
+<p>When they withdrew, Father Philip paced his room for some time in
+silence and anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay," said he, "infatuated people! sunk in superstition and ignorance,
+yet, perhaps, happier in your degradation than those who, in the pride
+of knowledge, can only look back upon a life of crime and misery. What
+is a sceptic? What is an infidel? Men who, when they will not submit to
+moral restraint, harden themselves into scepticism and infidelity,
+until, in the headlong career of guilt, that which was first adopted to
+lull the outcry of conscience, is supported by the pretended pride of
+principle. Principle in a sceptic! Hollow and devilish lie! Would <i>I</i>
+have plunged into scepticism, had I not first violated the moral
+sanctions of religion? Never. I became an infidel, because I first
+became a villain! Writhing under a load of guilt, that which I wished
+might be true, I soon forced myself to think true: and now"&mdash;he here
+clenched his hands and groaned&mdash;"now&mdash;ay, now&mdash;and hereafter&mdash;oh, <i>that</i>
+hereafter! Why can I not shake the thoughts of it from my conscience?
+Religion! Christianity! With all the hardness of an infidel's heart, I
+feel your truth; because, if every man were the villain that infidelity
+would make him, then indeed might every man curse God for the existence
+bestowed upon him&mdash;as I would, but dare not do. Yet why can I not
+believe? Alas! why should God accept an unrepentant heart? Am I not a
+hypocrite, mocking Him by a guilty pretension to His power, and leading
+the dark into thicker darkness?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> Then these hands&mdash;blood!&mdash;broken
+vows!&mdash;ha! ha! ha! Well, go&mdash;let misery have its laugh, like the light
+that breaks from the thunder-cloud. Prefer Voltaire to Christ; sow the
+wind, and reap the whirlwind, as I have done&mdash;ha, ha, ha! Swim,
+world&mdash;swim about me! I have lost the ways of Providence, and am dark!
+<i>She</i> awaits me; but I broke the chain that galled us: yet it still
+rankles&mdash;still rankles!"</p>
+
+<p>The unhappy man threw himself into a chair in a paroxysm of frenzied
+agony. For more than an hour he sat in the same posture, until he became
+gradually hardened into a stiff, lethargic insensibility, callous and
+impervious to feeling, reason, or religion&mdash;an awful transition from a
+visitation of conscience so terrible as that which he had just suffered.
+At length he arose, and by walking moodily about, relapsed into his
+usual gloomy and restless character.</p>
+
+<p>When Bartley went home, he communicated to his wife Father Philip's
+intention of calling on the following day, to hear a correct account of
+the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, thin," said she, "I'm glad of it, for I intinded myself to go to
+him, any way, to get my new scapular consecrated. How-an'-ever, as he's
+to come, I'll get a set of gospels for the boys an' girls, an' he can
+consecrate all when his hand's in. Aroon, Bartley, they say that man's
+so holy that he can do anything&mdash;ay, melt a body off the face o' the
+earth, like snow off a ditch. Dear me, but the power they have is
+strange all out!"</p>
+
+<p>"There's no use in gettin' him anything to ate or dhrink," replied
+Bartley; "he wouldn't take a glass o' whisky once in seven years.
+Throth, myself thinks he's a little too dhry; sure he might be holy
+enough, an' yet take a sup of an odd time. There's Father Felix, an'
+though we all know he's far from bein' so blessed a man as him, yet he
+has friendship an' neighbourliness in him, an' never refuses a glass in
+rason."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"But do you know what I was tould about Father Philip, Bartley?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll tell you that afther I hear it, Mary, my woman; you won't expect
+me to tell what I don't know?&mdash;ha, ha, ha!"</p>
+
+<p>"Behave, Bartley, an' quit your jokin' now, at all evints; keep it till
+we're talkin' of somethin' else, an' don't let us be committin' sin,
+maybe, while we're spakin' of what we're spakin' about; but they say
+it's as thrue as the sun to the dial:&mdash;the Lent afore last itself it
+was,&mdash;he never tasted mate or dhrink durin' the whole seven weeks! Oh,
+you needn't stare! it's well known by thim that has as much sinse as
+you&mdash;no, not so much as you'd carry on the point o' this
+knittin'-needle. Well, sure the housekeeper an' the two sarvants
+wondhered&mdash;faix, they couldn't do less&mdash;an' took it into their heads to
+watch him closely; an' what do you think&mdash;blessed be all the saints
+above!&mdash;what do you think they <i>seen</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"The Goodness above knows; for me&mdash;I don't."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, thin, whin he was asleep they seen a small silk thread in his
+mouth, that came down through the ceilin' from heaven, an' he suckin'
+it, just as a child would his mother's breast whin the crathur 'ud be
+asleep: so that was the way he was supported by the angels! An' I
+remimber myself, though he's a dark, spare, yallow man at all times, yet
+he never looked half so fat an' rosy as he did the same Lent!"</p>
+
+<p>"Glory be to Heaven! Well, well&mdash;<i>it is</i> sthrange the power they have!
+As for him, I'd as <i>lee</i> meet St Pether, or St Pathrick himself, as him;
+for one can't but fear him, somehow."</p>
+
+<p>"Fear him! Och, it 'ud be the pity o' thim that 'ud do anything to vex
+or anger that man. Why, his very look 'ud wither thim, till there
+wouldn't be the thrack o' thim on the earth; an' as for his curse, why
+it 'ud scorch thim to ashes!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As it was generally known that Father Philip was to visit Mrs Sullivan
+the next day, in order to hear an account of the mystery which filled
+the parish with such fear, a very great number of the parishioners were
+assembled in and about Bartley's long before he made his appearance. At
+length he was seen walking slowly down the road, with an open book in
+his hand, on the pages of which he looked from time to time. When he
+approached the house, those who were standing about it assembled in a
+body, and, with one consent, uncovered their heads, and asked his
+blessing. His appearance bespoke a mind ill at ease; his face was
+haggard, and his eyes bloodshot. On seeing the people kneel, he smiled
+with his usual bitterness, and, shaking his hand with an air of
+impatience over them, muttered some words, rather in mockery of the
+ceremony than otherwise. They then rose, and, blessing themselves, put
+on their hats, rubbed the dust off their knees, and appeared to think
+themselves recruited by a peculiar accession of grace.</p>
+
+<p>On entering the house the same form was repeated; and when it was over,
+the best chair was placed for him by Mary's own hands, and the fire
+stirred up, and a line of respect drawn, within which none was to
+intrude, lest he might feel in any degree incommoded.</p>
+
+<p>"My good neighbour," said he to Mrs Sullivan, "what strange woman is
+this, who has thrown the parish into such a ferment? I'm told she paid
+you a visit? Pray sit down."</p>
+
+<p>"I humbly thank your Reverence," said Mary, curtseying lowly, "but I'd
+rather not sit, sir, if you, plase. I hope I know what respect manes,
+your Reverence. Barny Bradagh, I'll thank you to stand up, if you plase,
+an' his Reverence to the fore, Barny."</p>
+
+<p>"I ax your Reverence's pardon, an' yours, too, Mrs Sullivan; sure we
+didn't mane the disrespect, anyhow, sir, plase your Reverence."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"About this woman, and the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>," said the priest, without
+noticing Barny's apology. "Pray what do you precisely understand by a
+<i>Lianhan Shee</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir," replied Mary, "some sthrange bein' from the good people, or
+fairies, that sticks to some persons. There's a bargain, sir, your
+Reverence, made atween thim; an' the divil, sir, that is, the ould
+boy&mdash;the saints about us!&mdash;has a hand in it. The <i>Lianhan Shee</i>, your
+Reverence, is never seen only by thim it keeps wid; but&mdash;hem!&mdash;it
+always, wid the help of the ould boy, conthrives, sir, to make the
+person brake the agreement, an' thin it has <i>thim</i> in <i>its</i> power; but
+if they <i>don't</i> brake the agreement, thin <i>it's</i> in <i>their</i> power. If
+they can get anybody to put in their place, they may get out o' the
+bargain; for they can, of a sartainty, give oceans o' money to people,
+but can't take any themselves, plase your Reverence. But sure, where's
+the use o' me to be tellin' your Reverence what you know betther nor
+myself?&mdash;an' why shouldn't you, or any one that has the power you have?"</p>
+
+<p>He smiled again at this in his own peculiar manner, and was proceeding
+to inquire more particularly into the nature of the interview between
+them, when the noise of feet, and sounds of general alarm, accompanied
+by a rush of people into the house, arrested his attention, and he
+hastily inquired into the cause of the commotion. Before he could
+receive a reply, however, the house was almost crowded; and it was not
+without considerable difficulty that, by the exertions of Mrs Sullivan
+and Bartley, sufficient order and quiet were obtained to hear distinctly
+what was said.</p>
+
+<p>"Plase your Reverence," said several voices at once, "they're comin',
+hot-foot, into the very house to us! Was ever the likes seen! an' they
+must know right well, sir, that you're widin it."</p>
+
+<p>"Who are coming?" he inquired.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Why, the woman, sir, an' her <i>good pet</i>, the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>, your
+Reverence!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said he, "but why should you all appear so blanched with terror?
+Let her come in, and we shall see how far she is capable of injuring her
+fellow-creatures: some maniac," he muttered, in a low soliloquy, "whom
+the villainy of the world has driven into derangement&mdash;some victim to a
+hand like m&mdash;&mdash;. Well, they say there <i>is</i> a Providence, yet such things
+are permitted!"</p>
+
+<p>"He's sayin' a prayer now," observed one of them; "haven't we a good
+right to be thankful that he's in the place wid us while she's in it, or
+dear knows what harm she might do us&mdash;maybe <i>rise</i> the wind!"</p>
+
+<p>As the latter speaker concluded, there was a dead silence. The persons
+about the door crushed each other backwards, their feet set out before
+them, and their shoulders laid with violent pressure against those who
+stood behind, for each felt anxious to avoid all danger of contact with
+a being against whose power even a blessed priest found it necessary to
+guard himself by a prayer.</p>
+
+<p>At length a low murmur ran among the people&mdash;"Father O'Rourke!&mdash;here's
+Father O'Rourke!&mdash;he has turned the corner after her, an' they're both
+comin' in." Immediately they entered, but it was quite evident, from the
+manner of the worthy priest, that he was unacquainted with the person of
+this singular being. When they crossed the threshold, the priest
+advanced, and expressed his surprise at the throng of people assembled.</p>
+
+<p>"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "<i>that's</i> the woman," nodding
+significantly towards her as he spoke, but without looking at her
+person, lest the evil eye he dreaded so much might meet his, and give
+him "the blast."</p>
+
+<p>The dreaded female, on seeing the house in such a crowded state,
+started, paused, and glanced with some terror at the persons assembled.
+Her dress was not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> altered since her last visit; but her countenance,
+though more meagre and emaciated, expressed but little of the unsettled
+energy which then flashed from her eyes, and distorted her features by
+the depth of that mysterious excitement by which she had been agitated.
+Her countenance was still muffled as before, the awful protuberance rose
+from her shoulders, and the same band which Mrs Sullivan had alluded to
+during their interview, was bound about the upper part of her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>She had already stood upwards of two minutes, during which the fall of a
+feather might be heard, yet none bade God bless her&mdash;no kind hand was
+extended to greet her&mdash;no heart warmed in affection towards her; on the
+contrary, every eye glanced at her, as a being marked with enmity
+towards God. Blanched faces and knit brows, the signs of fear and
+hatred, were turned upon her; her breath was considered pestilential,
+and her touch paralysis. There she stood, proscribed, avoided, and
+hunted like a tigress, all fearing to encounter, yet wishing to
+exterminate her! Who could she be?&mdash;or what had she done, that the
+finger of the Almighty marked her out for such a fearful weight of
+vengeance?</p>
+
+<p>Father Philip rose and advanced a few steps, until he stood confronting
+her. His person was tall, his features dark, severe, and solemn: and
+when the nature of the investigation about to take place is considered,
+it need not be wondered at, that the moment was, to those present, one
+of deep and impressive interest&mdash;such as a visible conflict between a
+supposed champion of God and a supernatural being was calculated to
+excite.</p>
+
+<p>"Woman," said he, in his deep stern voice, "tell me who and what you
+are, and why you assume a character of such a repulsive and mysterious
+nature, when it can entail only misery, shame, and persecution on
+yourself? I conjure you, in the name of Him after whose image you are
+created, to speak truly!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He paused, and the tall figure stood mute before him. The silence was
+dead as death&mdash;every breath was hushed&mdash;and the persons assembled stood
+immovable as statues! Still she spoke not; but the violent heaving of
+her breast evinced the internal working of some dreadful struggle. Her
+face before was pale&mdash;it was now ghastly; her lips became blue, and her
+eyes vacant.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" said he; "I conjure you in the name of the power by whom you
+live!"</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that the agitation under which she laboured was produced
+by the severe effort made to sustain the unexpected trial she had to
+undergo.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes her struggle continued; but having begun at its highest
+pitch, it gradually subsided until it settled in a calmness which
+appeared fixed and awful as the resolution of despair. With breathless
+composure she turned round, and put back that part of her dress which
+concealed her face, except the band on her forehead, which she did not
+remove; having done this, she turned again, and walked calmly towards
+Father Philip, with a deadly smile upon her thin lips. When within a
+step of where he stood, she paused, and, riveting her eyes upon him,
+exclaimed,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who and what am I? The victim of infidelity and you, the bearer of a
+cursed existence, the scoff and scorn of the world, the monument of a
+broken vow and a guilty life, a being scourged by the scorpion lash of
+conscience, blasted by periodical insanity, pelted by the winter's
+storm, scorched by the summer's heat, withered by starvation, hated by
+man, and touched into my inmost spirit by the anticipated tortures of
+future misery. I have no rest for the sole of my foot, no repose for a
+head distracted by the contemplation of a guilty life; I am the unclean
+spirit which walketh to seek rest and findeth none; I am&mdash;<i>what you have
+made me</i>! Behold," she added, holding up the bottle, "this failed, and I
+live to accuse you. But no, you are my husband&mdash;though our<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> union was
+but a guilty form, and I will bury that in silence. You thought me dead,
+and you flew to avoid punishment; did you avoid it? No; the finger of
+God has written pain and punishment upon your brow. I have been in all
+characters, in all shapes, have spoken with the tongue of a peasant,
+moved in my natural sphere, but my knees were smitten, my brain
+stricken, and the wild malady which banishes me from society has been
+upon me for years. Such I am, and such, I say, have you made me. As for
+you, kind-hearted woman, there was nothing in this bottle but pure
+water. The interval of reason returned this day, and having remembered
+glimpses of our conversation, I came to apologise to you, and to explain
+the nature of my unhappy distemper, and to beg a little bread, which I
+have not tasted for two days. I at times conceive myself attended by an
+evil spirit, shaped out by a guilty conscience, and this is the only
+familiar which attends me, and by it I have been dogged into madness
+through every turning of life. Whilst it lasts I am subject to spasms
+and convulsive starts which are exceedingly painful. The lump on my back
+is the robe I wore when innocent in my peaceful convent."</p>
+
+<p>The intensity of general interest was now transferred to Father Philip;
+every face was turned towards him, but he cared not. A solemn stillness
+yet prevailed among all present. From the moment she spoke, her eye drew
+his with the power of a basilisk. His pale face became like marble, not
+a muscle moved; and when she ceased speaking, his bloodshot eyes were
+still fixed upon her countenance with a gloomy calmness like that which
+precedes a tempest. They stood before each other, dreadful counterparts
+in guilt, for truly his spirit was as dark as hers.</p>
+
+<p>At length he glanced angrily around him:&mdash;"Well," said he, "what is it
+now, ye poor infatuated wretches, to trust in the sanctity <i>of man</i>?
+Learn from me to place the same confidence <i>in God</i> which you place in
+His <i>guilty<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> creatures</i>, and you will not lean on a broken reed. Father
+O'Rourke, you, too, witness my disgrace, but not my punishment. It is
+pleasant, no doubt, to have a topic for conversation at your
+Conferences; enjoy it. As for you, Margaret, if society lessen misery,
+we may be less miserable. But the band of your order, and the
+remembrance of your vow is on your forehead, like the mark of Cain&mdash;tear
+it off, and let it not blast a man who is the victim of prejudice still,
+nay, of superstition, as well as of guilt; tear it from my sight." His
+eyes kindled fearfully as he attempted to pull it away by force.</p>
+
+<p>She calmly took it off, and he immediately tore it into pieces, and
+stamped upon the fragments as he flung them on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>"Come," said the despairing man&mdash;"come&mdash;there is a shelter for you, <i>but
+no peace</i>!&mdash;food, and drink, and raiment, but <i>no peace</i>!&mdash;<span class="smcap">no
+peace!</span>" As he uttered these words, in a voice that sank to its
+deepest pitch, he took her hand, and they both departed to his own
+residence.</p>
+
+<p>The amazement and horror of those who were assembled in Bartley's house
+cannot be described. Our readers may be assured that they deepened in
+character as they spread through the parish. An undefined fear of this
+mysterious pair seized upon the people, for their images were associated
+in their minds with darkness and crime, and supernatural communion. The
+departing words of Father Philip rang in their ears: they trembled, and
+devoutly crossed themselves, as fancy again repeated the awful
+exclamation of the priest&mdash;"No peace! no peace!"</p>
+
+<p>When Father Philip and his unhappy associate went home, he instantly
+made her a surrender of his small property; but with difficulty did he
+command sufficient calmness to accomplish even this. He was
+distracted&mdash;his blood seemed to have been turned to fire&mdash;he clenched
+his hands, and he gnashed his teeth, and exhibited the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> wildest symptoms
+of madness. About ten o'clock he desired fuel for a large fire to be
+brought into the kitchen, and got a strong cord, which he coiled, and
+threw carelessly on the table. The family were then ordered to bed.
+About eleven they were all asleep; and at the solemn hour of twelve he
+heaped additional fuel upon the living turf, until the blaze shone with
+scorching light upon everything around. Dark and desolating was the
+tempest within him, as he paced, with agitated steps, before the
+crackling fire.</p>
+
+<p>"She is risen!" he exclaimed&mdash;"the spectre of all my crimes is risen to
+haunt me through life! I <i>am</i> a murderer&mdash;yet she lives, and my guilt is
+not the less! The stamp of eternal infamy is upon me&mdash;the finger of
+scorn will mark me out&mdash;the tongue of reproach will sting me like that
+of the serpent&mdash;the deadly touch of shame will cover me like a
+leper&mdash;the laws of society will crush the murderer, not the less that
+his wickedness in blood has miscarried: after that comes the black and
+terrible tribunal of the Almighty's vengeance&mdash;of His fiery indignation!
+Hush!&mdash;What sounds are those? They deepen&mdash;they deepen! Is it thunder?
+It cannot be the crackling of the blaze! It <i>is</i> thunder!&mdash;but it speaks
+only to <i>my</i> ear! Hush!&mdash;Great God, there is a change in my voice! It is
+hollow and supernatural! Could a change have come over me? Am I living?
+Could I have&mdash;Hah!&mdash;Could I have departed? and am I now at length given
+over to the worm that never dies? If it be at my heart, I may feel it.
+God!&mdash;I am damned! Here is a viper twined about my limbs, trying to dart
+its fangs into my heart! Hah!&mdash;there are feet pacing in the room, too,
+and I hear voices! I am surrounded by evil spirits! Who's there?&mdash;What
+are you?&mdash;Speak!&mdash;They are silent!&mdash;There is no answer! Again comes the
+thunder! But perchance this is not my place of punishment, and I will
+try to leave these horrible spirits!"</p>
+
+<p>He opened the door, and passed out into a small green<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> field that lay
+behind the house. The night was calm, and the silence profound as death.
+Not a cloud obscured the heavens;&mdash;the light of the moon fell upon the
+stillness of the scene around him, with all the touching beauty of a
+moonlit midnight in summer. Here he paused a moment, felt his brow, then
+his heart, the palpitations of which fell audibly upon his ear. He
+became somewhat cooler; the images of madness which had swept through
+his stormy brain disappeared, and were succeeded by a lethargic vacancy
+of thought, which almost deprived him of the consciousness of his own
+identity. From the green field he descended mechanically to a little
+glen which opened beside it. It was one of those delightful spots to
+which the heart clingeth. Its sloping sides were clothed with patches of
+wood, on the leaves of which the moonlight glanced with a soft lustre,
+rendered more beautiful by their stillness. That side on which the light
+could not fall, lay in deep shadow, which occasionally gave to the rocks
+and small projecting precipices an appearance of monstrous and unnatural
+life. Having passed through the tangled mazes of the glen, he at length
+reached its bottom, along which ran a brook, such as, in the description
+of the poet,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"In the leafy month of June,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Unto the sleeping woods all night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Singeth a quiet tune."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Here he stood, and looked upon the green winding margin of the
+streamlet&mdash;but its song he heard not. With the workings of a guilty
+conscience, the beautiful in nature can have no association. He looked
+up the glen, but its picturesque windings, soft vistas, and wild
+underwood mingling with grey rocks and taller trees, all mellowed by the
+moon-beams, had no charms for him. He maintained a profound silence&mdash;but
+it was not the silence of peace or reflection. He endeavoured to recall
+the scenes of the past day, but could not bring them back<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> to his
+memory. Even the fiery tide of thought, which, like burning lava, seared
+his brain a few moments before, was now cold and hardened. He could
+remember nothing. The convulsion of his mind was over, and his faculties
+were impotent and collapsed.</p>
+
+<p>In this state he unconsciously retraced his steps, and had again reached
+the paddock adjoining his house, when, as he thought, the figure of his
+paramour stood before him. In a moment his former paroxysm returned, and
+with it the gloomy images of a guilty mind, charged with the extravagant
+horrors of brain-struck madness.</p>
+
+<p>"What!" he exclaimed, "the band still on your forehead! Tear it off!"</p>
+
+<p>He caught at the form as he spoke, but there was no resistance to his
+grasp. On looking again towards the spot, it had ceased to be visible.
+The storm within him arose once more; he rushed into the kitchen, where
+the fire blazed out with fiercer heat; again he imagined that the
+thunder came to his ears, but the thunderings which he heard were only
+the voice of conscience. Again his own footsteps and his voice sounded
+in his fancy as the footsteps and voices of fiends, with which his
+imagination peopled the room. His state and his existence seemed to him
+a confused and troubled dream; he tore his hair&mdash;threw it on the
+table&mdash;and immediately started back with a hollow groan; for his locks,
+which but a few hours before had been as black as the raven's wing, were
+now white as snow!</p>
+
+<p>On discovering this, he gave a low but frantic laugh. "Ha, ha, ha!" he
+exclaimed; "here is another mark&mdash;here is food for despair. Silently,
+but surely, did the hand of God work this, as a proof that I am
+hopeless! But I will bear it; I will bear the sight! I now feel myself a
+man blasted by the eye of God Himself! Ha, ha, ha! Food for despair!
+Food for despair!"</p>
+
+<p>Immediately he passed into his own room, and approaching the
+looking-glass beheld a sight calculated to move a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> statue. His hair had
+become literally white, but the shades of his dark complexion, now
+distorted by terror and madness, flitted, as his features worked under
+the influence of his tremendous passions, into an expression so
+frightful, that deep fear came over himself. He snatched one of his
+razors, and fled from the glass to the kitchen. He looked upon the fire,
+and saw the white ashes lying around its edge.</p>
+
+<p>"Ha!" said he, "the light is come! I see the sign. I am directed, and I
+will follow it. There is yet <span class="smcap">one</span> hope. The immolation! I shall
+be saved, yet so as by fire. It is for this my hair has become
+white;&mdash;the sublime warning for my self-sacrifice! The colour of
+ashes!&mdash;white&mdash;white! It is so!&mdash;I will sacrifice my body in material
+fire, to save my soul from that which is eternal! But I had anticipated
+the <span class="smcap">Sign</span>! The self-sacrifice is accepted!"</p>
+
+<p>We must here draw a veil over that which ensued, as the description of
+it would be both unnatural and revolting. Let it be sufficient to say,
+that the next morning he was found burnt to a cinder, with the exception
+of his feet and legs, which remained as monuments of, perhaps, the most
+dreadful suicide that ever was committed by man. His razor, too, was
+found bloody, and several clots of gore were discovered about the
+hearth; from which circumstances it was plain that he had reduced his
+strength so much by loss of blood, that when he committed himself to the
+flames, he was unable, even had he been willing, to avoid the fiery and
+awful sacrifice of which he made himself the victim. If anything could
+deepen the impression of fear and awe, already so general among the
+people, it was the unparalleled nature of his death. Its circumstances
+are yet remembered in the parish and county wherein it occurred&mdash;<i>for it
+is no fiction</i>, gentle reader! and the titular bishop who then presided
+over the diocese declared, that while he lived no person bearing the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+unhappy man's name should ever be admitted to the clerical order.</p>
+
+<p>The shock produced by his death struck the miserable woman into the
+utter darkness of settled derangement. She survived him some years, but
+wandered about through the province, still, according to the
+superstitious belief of the people, tormented by the terrible enmity of
+the <i>Lianhan Shee</i>.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE HAUNTED COVE</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Sir George Douglas</span>, Bart.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Commonplace in itself and showing positive vulgarity in the style in
+which its pleasure-grounds are laid out, Clyffe, near Berwick-on-Tweed,
+has yet one delightful feature of its own,&mdash;to wit, a private bay to
+which access is obtained by a tunnel seventy or eighty yards long, cut
+through the soft formation of the cliff from the sloping gardens above.
+The result is that, if you are a visitor at Clyffe, you have your own
+private bathing ground, your own private beach where the children may
+play, without fear of being encroached upon, unless, indeed, a boat
+should be run in among the rocks from seaward. In the early nineties of
+the last century, the only daughter of the house of Clyffe was engaged
+to be married to a young officer quartered at the military depot at
+Berwick. They were a blameless but not particularly interesting couple,
+and one of their hobbies was to meet and promenade on the smooth sands
+of Clyffe bay in the brilliant autumn moonlight. In order to prevent
+possible intrusion from the sea, the seaward end of the tunnel was
+closed by a heavy iron gate, and upon the inner side of this gate the
+Lieutenant was to wait until his fianc&eacute;e should steal forth bringing
+with her the key which should give access to the beach. It was all very
+foolish and romantic, no doubt, for they might have met just as
+conveniently in the conservatory of Clyffe House, where their privacy
+would have been equally respected, and where Miss Alix's satin shoes
+and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> diaphanous draperies would have exposed her to no risk of a chill.
+Lovers are like that, however, and had they not been so on this
+occasion, I should have had no story to tell.</p>
+
+<p>Like the exemplary swain he was, Dick arrived early at the
+rendezvous,&mdash;that is to say, early in respect to the time agreed upon,
+though, as a matter of fact, it was nearly eleven o'clock. There he lit
+a cigarette, and approaching the heavy iron bars of the locked gate,
+looked forth upon the peaceful scene beyond. It was a perfect night, the
+harvest moon riding through fleecy cloud aloft, whilst the breaking of
+the sea between the rocky points to right and left was soothing in its
+gentle iteration. Dick had been on parade extremely early that morning,
+and, tell it not in Gath! his eyes involuntarily closed. Starting awake
+again, he saw with surprise that, though Alix had not yet come forward,
+he was no longer alone. No! the sacred beach had been invaded, and a
+female figure clad in light draperies was pacing slowly in the moonlight
+betwixt himself and the distant rocks. Who on earth could she be, and
+how had she got there? were the questions he asked himself, his first
+sensation being one of annoyance at so unexpected and so ill-timed an
+intrusion. But as the moments passed and the figure came more clearly
+into view, impatience gave way to curiosity, and curiosity to something
+like awe.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw was the tall and slender form of a young girl whose hands
+were clasped in front of her, and whose eyes were fixed on the ground in
+a pensive, not to say sorrowful, attitude. Clear as was the moonlight,
+at least in the intervals of the moon's passage through the broken
+clouds, her features were not plainly visible; but her every movement
+was instinct with grace. What could she be doing there? Under other
+circumstances, possibly Dick might have felt inclined to pass the gate
+and himself step forth on to the sands. But, besides that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> the gate was
+locked, he gradually became conscious of a singular delicacy or
+unwillingness to intrude upon the privacy of this solitary,
+inexplicable, and impressive figure. He was content, therefore, to watch
+her noiseless progress, and, as he did so, even his untrained masculine
+eye seemed to note something unusual&mdash;out of date, it might be&mdash;in the
+fashion of her garments. So perhaps might some old-world portrait have
+appeared, had it stept down from its frame against the wall. This,
+however, stirred him little. What he was not prepared for was the
+gesture of anguish, nay, of positive despair, with which, when about
+opposite him, the figure threw her head back and her arms aloft, as if
+in mute and agonised appeal to Heaven. The action was heart-rending even
+to look on; nor, to a male eye, did it lose aught from the fact that, as
+the moonlight now fell for the first time on her upturned face, it
+showed it to be deathly pale indeed, but also exquisitely lovely.
+Another moment or two, and the graceful and appealing form had passed
+beyond his field of vision, for, as the locked gate stood some little
+way back from the mouth of the tunnel, his view was restricted.</p>
+
+<p>A short time only, though he knew not exactly how long, had passed when
+Alix stood beside him.</p>
+
+<p>"I had some difficulty," she archly explained, "in eluding prying eyes."</p>
+
+<p>For an ardent lover, Dick's greetings were perfunctory; after which,
+being still powerfully under the impression of what he had just seen, he
+told Alix all about it.</p>
+
+<p>"We shall soon see who she is," replied that practical young lady, as
+she placed the heavy key in the cumbrous lock, "and I shall also take
+leave to inform her that this bit of coast is strictly private."</p>
+
+<p>And strictly private it appeared to be when they emerged from the
+tunnel. For though their eyes swept the beach to right and left, and
+though the moon just then was unobscured, they saw no trace of any
+living form.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"She must have landed from a boat," said Alix; but as little trace of a
+boat could they discover.</p>
+
+<p>Still it was quite possible that she might pass unobserved against the
+dark rocks, so they turned first to the right, then to the left, keeping
+a keen look-out for any sign of motion.</p>
+
+<p>They detected nothing.</p>
+
+<p>And by this time I am bound to confess that a slightly uncomplimentary
+suspicion had more than once crossed the brain of Alix. She knew that,
+as a rule, her Dick was a pattern of moderation. But even the most
+prudent may be liable to be occasionally overtaken. And she recalled his
+having mentioned that this was to be a guest-night at the mess. Indeed,
+it was chiefly upon that account that the assignation had been fixed so
+late. This present portentous solemnity was certainly most unlike him.
+Was it possible that the poor fellow had taken just one more
+whisky-and-soda than he could conveniently carry? Outspoken by nature,
+she blurted out her suspicion, which was strengthened rather than the
+reverse by the great earnestness with which he repelled it.</p>
+
+<p>Less convinced than before, Alix then exclaimed: "Look here, Dick! If,
+as you say, the young woman passed this way, she must have left tracks
+on the smooth sand. Where do you say the place was?"</p>
+
+<p>With some uncertainty, Dick then led her to what he took to be the
+place. No tracks were there. He then tried further back from the mouth
+of the tunnel, and with as little success. It was true the tide was
+coming up, but it could scarcely yet have reached footmarks which had
+been imprinted so far inshore as he supposed these to have been.</p>
+
+<p>In a spirit of levity which jarred on him, Alix now recommended her
+lover to go back to his quarters and have a good sleep; and then, having
+again passed through the gate and pushed their way up the tunnel, the
+two young people parted in something very like a tiff.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Dick did not call at Clyffe House the next day, and when he called on
+the day following, Alix met him in a complaisant mood. After all, she
+had no wish to quarrel with him. And very soon she said, "Going back to
+what you told me you had seen the other night, Dick, it occurred to me,
+after you were gone, that it fits in rather curiously with an old story
+connected with this place." And then, at his request, she proceeded to
+tell him how, some thirty years ago, her grandmother had had a favourite
+maid, a friendless orphan girl named Barbara, to whom attached a
+mystery. Barbara was a very lovely creature of refinement and education
+above her station, and she had of course numerous admirers. Young as she
+was, her discretion was faultless, with the sole exception that her
+native amiability and desire to please sometimes betrayed her into
+conduct which meant less than her admirers wished to think it did. Well,
+at last Barbara became plighted to a respectable young fisherman,
+part-owner of a boat sailing from The Greenses, and, though details were
+vague, it was generally understood that, as a consequence, several
+hearts were severely damaged. As Barbara had no relatives, it was
+arranged by her employer that she should remain in her situation until
+the wedding-day and should be married from Clyffe House. Considerable
+preparations had also been made to do honour to the occasion,
+when&mdash;judge of the consternation of the inmates of the house!&mdash;upon the
+morning of the wedding-day Barbara was not to be found. She was believed
+to have retired to rest on the previous night as usual, yet her bed had
+not been slept in. Nor, although most of her clothes were packed in
+anticipation of her change of domicile, had she apparently taken
+anything with her. Nothing in the least unusual had been observed in her
+demeanour; nor could the unhappy bridegroom suggest any possible motive
+for her conduct. Exhaustive inquiries and exhaustive search were made;
+but, to cut<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> the story short, nothing had ever again been seen or heard
+of the fair Barbara to that day. Her mistress, who had been sincerely
+attached to her, had long mourned for her, and in after times would
+often sing her praises. But, in order to be quite candid, it must be
+acknowledged that there were others, not a few, who declined to believe
+that the girl had come to an untimely end; and, who, knowing that she
+had several suitors, and had sometimes appeared uncertain which to
+favour, preferred to think that she had changed her mind at the last
+moment, and, deciding to throw over her fisherman, had made her escape
+from Clyffe House during the night to join some more eligible swain.
+This would have been a desperate step indeed; nor could her conduct in
+withholding subsequent explanations be absolved of heartlessness. But,
+after all, she was the sort of girl who, where no actual misconduct was
+involved, might easily allow herself to be over-persuaded. And certainly
+the tangled skein of love does sometimes present a knot which must be
+cut rather than untied.</p>
+
+<p>The Lieutenant professed himself profoundly interested in this
+narrative, which he and Alix then proceeded to discuss in all its
+bearings, and more particularly, of course, in its relation to the
+figure seen by him in the cove. It is true that Alix never quite
+believed in the genuineness of the apparition; but, seeing that Dick
+really wished to have it taken seriously, she decided tactfully to
+humour him, and made quite a nine days' wonder of the mysterious
+occurrence. Their own wedding-day was, however, fast drawing on, so they
+soon found other things to talk and think of. To be brief, they were in
+due course married, and, amid the cares and pleasures of wedded life,
+the story, though not forgotten, came to be very seldom referred to. So
+twenty years passed; at the end of which time the Colonel (as he now
+was), accompanied by his wife and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> several youngsters, paid one of his
+not very frequent visits to his wife's parents at Clyffe House.</p>
+
+<p>On the first night of the visit, after dinner, Alix's father had
+significantly recalled the story of the maid Barbara's disappearance,
+and, after stating that the mystery had now been finally cleared up, had
+gone on to relate the following particulars:&mdash;A few days previously
+there had lain at the point of death in the infirmary at Berwick an aged
+fisherman, who had long been known in the seaport town for his solitary
+habits and morose and violent ways. As death drew near, it became
+evident that his mind was sorely troubled, and to one of the nurses or
+doctors who had sought to comfort him he had been led to make the
+acknowledgment that a guilty secret weighed upon his soul, making him
+fearful to confront his Maker. He then told how, as a young man, he had
+passionately loved a pretty servant-girl employed at Clyffe House.
+Misled by those smiles and that graciousness of manner which in the
+guileless amiability of her nature the girl lavished upon all alike, he
+had for a moment imagined himself her favoured suitor. How bitter, then,
+was the blow, and how rude the awakening when he learned that a younger
+brother of his own, a mere boy, was preferred before himself! Nor was it
+only unrequited love that grieved him. No, he believed, or managed to
+persuade himself, that an unfair advantage had been taken of him, by
+which he had been made the lovers' dupe. A silent man, he took no one
+into his confidence, but abode his time until the eve of the
+wedding-day. On that day he had accidentally intercepted a note from the
+girl Barbara, addressed to his brother, in which she had agreed to meet
+her bridegroom of the morrow in the cove below Clyffe House one hour
+before midnight, to spend a final hour together before the momentous
+crisis in their lives. Instantly it had occurred to the elder brother to
+use the knowledge gained from the note in order to make one last
+desperate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> appeal on his own account to the sweet girl he loved so
+madly. Accordingly he kept back the missive, and, to make assurance
+doubly sure, mixed a soporific drug with his brother's drink when the
+latter came in from fishing. Then, whilst the youngster slumbered
+heavily, he himself embarked in a cockle-boat and, unobserved, rowed
+quietly round the headland, into Clyffe cove, where he ran his boat into
+a safe creek he knew of, and jumped ashore. Poor Barbara had come down
+to the water's edge to meet the boat, and great was her consternation on
+finding herself confronted by the wrong brother.</p>
+
+<p>Then an impassioned scene was enacted, in which the seaman used every
+means of persuasion known to him to get the girl to give up his brother
+and plight herself to him. But though alternately distressed and
+terrified, Barbara had stood her ground, and, gentle and yielding though
+she appeared to be, neither threats nor vows had had the slightest
+effect upon her constancy. And then, of a sudden, the reckless brother
+had "seen red." If he could not have this girl to wife, then neither
+should another, and a moment later her white form lay stretched upon the
+dark rocks at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>The sight brought him to himself. There was no room for doubt that life
+was extinct; and if he was to escape suspicion, he must act at once, for
+the summer night was short and the dread interview had lasted long. He
+accordingly placed the body in the boat, and, having collected several
+heavy stones, proceeded to make use of his seacraft by binding them
+closely and firmly about the poor girl's body by means of her clothing.
+Then he rowed out to sea, some mile or more, and there quietly dropped
+the body overboard. Such, in essentials, was the story told by the dying
+fisherman, and so it had come about that the bride of that fatal morning
+was never seen or heard of more. Though possibly intended to be regarded
+as confidential, certain it is that the confession had leaked out, and
+very soon became public property.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> For a few days it attracted great
+attention; and then, like other more important things which had preceded
+it, it ceased, save very occasionally, to be alluded to at all. But the
+Colonel never forgot it, any more than he ever forgot the lovely and
+inexplicable vision which had appeared to him for so brief an interval,
+in the moonlight, on the shore below Clyffe House. It is true that he
+seldom referred to it. Nor did that stately dame, who had once been Miss
+Alix and who was now believed to command the regiment, encourage him to
+do so. For she had observed that he was always most ready to tell the
+story after an exceptionally good dinner. And, with her high sense of
+what was due to his rank, she fancied that it made him mildly
+ridiculous. Neither, it might be, had her earliest doubts been ever
+wholly laid to rest. But members of the fair sex, when they are
+practical, are apt to be very practical indeed.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII</h2>
+
+<h2>WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Sir Walter Scott</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in
+these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and
+our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He
+was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he was in the
+hills wi' Glencairn in the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when
+King Charles the Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of
+Redgauntlet? He was knighted at Lonon court, wi' the King's ain sword;
+and being a redhot prelatist, he came down here, rampauging like a lion,
+with commissions of lieutenancy (and of lunacy, for what I ken), to put
+down a' the Whigs and Covenanters in the country. Wild wark they made of
+it; for the Whigs were as dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was
+which should first tire the other. Redgauntlet was aye for the strong
+hand; and his name is kend as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or
+Tam Dalyell's. Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the
+puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and bloodhound after
+them, as if they had been sae mony deer. And troth when they fand them,
+they didna mak muckle mair ceremony than a Hielandman wi' a
+roebuck&mdash;It was just, "Will ye tak the test?"&mdash;if not, "Make
+ready&mdash;present&mdash;fire!"&mdash;and there lay the recusant.</p>
+
+<p>Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared. Men thought he had a
+direct compact with Satan&mdash;that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> was proof against steel&mdash;and that
+bullets happed aff his buff-coat like hailstanes from a hearth&mdash;that he
+had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of Carrifragawns<a name="FNanchor_6_6" id="FNanchor_6_6"></a><a href="#Footnote_6_6" class="fnanchor">[6]</a>&mdash;and
+muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon. The best blessing they
+wared on him was, "Deil scowp wi' Redgauntlet!" He wasna a bad maister
+to his ain folk, though, and was weel aneugh liked by his tenants; and
+as for the lackies and troopers that rade out wi' him to the
+persecutions, as the Whigs caa'd those killing times, they wad hae
+drunken themsells blind to his health at ony time.</p>
+
+<p>Now you are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund&mdash;they
+ca' the place Primrose-Knowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the
+Redgauntlets, since the riding days, and lang before. It was a pleasant
+bit; and I think the air is callerer and fresher there than ony where
+else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken
+door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the
+place was in; but that's a' wide o' the mark. There dwelt my gudesire,
+Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel he had been in his young
+days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at "Hoopers and
+Girders"&mdash;a' Cumberland couldna touch him at "Jockie Lattin"&mdash;and he had
+the finest finger for the backlilt between Berwick and Carlisle. The
+like o' Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o'. And so he became
+a Tory, as they ca' it, which we now ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind
+of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae
+ill-will to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin,
+though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting,
+watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that
+he couldna avoid.</p>
+
+<p>Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a' the
+folks about the Castle, and was often sent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> for to play the pipes when
+they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that
+had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and
+stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his
+gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his
+finger.</p>
+
+<p>Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the
+hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not
+a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The
+Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their auld enemies, and
+in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But there were ower mony great
+folks dipped in the same doings, to mak a spick and span new warld. So
+Parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was
+held to hunting foxes instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he
+was. His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it had
+been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists, that used
+to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is certain he began to be
+keener about the rents than his tenants used to find him before, and
+they behoved to be prompt to the rent-day, or else the Laird wasna
+pleased. And he was sic an awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him;
+for the oaths he swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the
+looks that he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.<a name="FNanchor_7_7" id="FNanchor_7_7"></a><a href="#Footnote_7_7" class="fnanchor">[7]</a></p>
+
+<p>Weel, my gudesire was nae manager&mdash;no that he was a very great
+misguider&mdash;but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in
+arrear. He got the first brash<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word and
+piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the
+grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day preceese, or else Steenie
+behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was
+weel-freended, and at last he got the haill scraped thegether&mdash;a
+thousand merks&mdash;the maist of it was from a neighbour they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik&mdash;a sly tod. Laurie had walth o' gear&mdash;could hunt wi' the hound
+and rin wi' the hare&mdash;and be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind
+stood. He was a professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra
+sough of this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a by time;
+and abune a', he thought he had a gude security for the siller he lent
+my gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose-Knowe.</p>
+
+<p>Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle, wi' a heavy purse and a
+light heart, glad to be out of the Laird's danger. Weel, the first thing
+he learned at the Castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himself into a
+fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve o'clock. It
+wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he
+didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see
+Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the
+Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great,
+ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast
+it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played&mdash;ill to please it was,
+and easily angered&mdash;ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling,
+and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or
+disturbances in the state. Sir Robert caa'd it Major Weir, after the
+warlock that was burnt;<a name="FNanchor_8_8" id="FNanchor_8_8"></a><a href="#Footnote_8_8" class="fnanchor">[8]</a> and few folk liked either the name or the
+conditions of the creature&mdash;they thought there was something in it by
+ordinar&mdash;and my gudesire was not just easy in his mind when the door<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>
+shut on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the Laird,
+Dougal MacCallum, and the Major, a thing that hadna chanced to him
+before.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armchair, wi' his
+grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and
+gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as Satan's. Major Weir
+sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat, and the Laird's wig on his
+head; and aye as Sir Robert girned wi' pain, the jackanape girned too,
+like a sheep's-head between a pair of tangs&mdash;an ill-faur'd, fearsome
+couple they were. The Laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him,
+and his broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the
+auld fashion of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day and
+night, just as he used to do when he was able to loup on horseback, and
+away after ony of the hill-folk he could get speerings of. Some said it
+was for fear of the Whigs taking vengeance, but I judge it was just his
+auld custom&mdash;he wasna gien to fear ony thing. The rental-book, wi' its
+black cover and brass clasps, was lying beside him; and a book of
+sculduddry sangs was put betwixt the leaves, to keep it open at the
+place where it bore evidence against the Goodman of Primrose-Knowe, as
+behind the hand with his mails and duties. Sir Robert gave my gudesire a
+look, as if he would have withered his heart in his bosom. Ye maun ken
+he had a way of bending his brows, that men saw the visible mark of a
+horse-shoe in his forehead, deep-dinted, as if it had been stamped
+there.</p>
+
+<p>"Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?" said Sir Robert.
+"Zounds! if you are&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire, with as gude a countenance as he could put on, made a leg,
+and placed the bag of money on the table wi' a dash, like a man that
+does something clever. The Laird drew it to him hastily&mdash;"Is it all
+here, Steenie, man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Your honour will find it right," said my gudesire.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Here, Dougal," said the Laird, "gie Steenie a tass of brandy down
+stairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt."</p>
+
+<p>But they werena weel out of the room, when Sir Robert gied a yelloch
+that garr'd the Castle rock. Back ran Dougal&mdash;in flew the livery
+men&mdash;yell on yell gied the Laird, ilk ane mair awfu' than the ither. My
+gudesire knew not whether to stand or flee, but he ventured back into
+the parlour, where a' was gaun hirdy-girdie&mdash;naebody to say "come in,"
+or "gae out." Terribly the Laird roared for cauld water to his feet, and
+wine to cool his throat; and hell, hell, hell, and its flames, was aye
+the word in his mouth. They brought him water, and when they plunged his
+swoln feet into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folk say that
+it <i>did</i> bubble and sparkle like a seething caldron. He flung the cup at
+Dougal's head, and said he had given him blood instead of burgundy; and,
+sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted blood aff the carpet the neist day.
+The jackanape they caa'd Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was
+mocking its master; my gudesire's head was like to turn&mdash;he forgot baith
+siller and receipt, and down stairs he banged; but as he ran, the
+shrieks came faint and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering groan,
+and word gaed through the Castle, that the Laird was dead.</p>
+
+<p>Weel, away came my gudesire, wi' his finger in his mouth, and his best
+hope was, that Dougal had seen the money-bag, and heard the Laird speak
+of writing the receipt. The young Laird, now Sir John, came from
+Edinburgh, to see things put to rights. Sir John and his father never
+gree'd weel. Sir John had been bred an advocate, and afterwards sat in
+the last Scots Parliament and voted for the Union, having gotten, it was
+thought, a rug of the compensations&mdash;if his father could have come out
+of his grave, he would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane.
+Some thought it was easier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> counting with the auld rough Knight than the
+fair-spoken young ane&mdash;but mair of that anon.</p>
+
+<p>Dougal MacCallum, poor body, neither grat nor graned, but gaed about the
+house looking like a corpse, but directing, as was his duty, a' the
+order of the grand funeral. Now, Dougal looked aye waur and waur when
+night was coming, and was aye the last to gang to his bed, whilk was in
+a little round just opposite the chamber of dais, whilk his master
+occupied while he was living, and where he now lay in state, as they
+caa'd it, weel-a-day! The night before the funeral, Dougal could keep
+his awn counsel nae langer; he cam doun with his proud spirit, and
+fairly asked auld Hutcheon to sit in his room with him for an hour. When
+they were in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and
+gave another to Hutcheon, and wished him all health and lang life, and
+said that, for himsell, he wasna lang for this world; for that, every
+night since Sir Robert's death, his silver call had sounded from the
+state-chamber, just as it used to do at nights in his lifetime, to call
+Dougal to help to turn him in his bed. Dougal said, that being alone
+with the dead on that floor of the tower (for naebody cared to wake Sir
+Robert Redgauntlet like another corpse), he had never daured to answer
+the call, but that now his conscience checked him for neglecting his
+duty; for, "though death breaks service," said MacCallum, "it shall
+never break my service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next
+whistle, so be you will stand by me, Hutcheon."</p>
+
+<p>Hutcheon had nae will to the wark, but he had stood by Dougal in battle
+and broil, and he wad not fail him at this pinch; so down the carles sat
+ower a stoup of brandy, and Hutcheon, who was something of a clerk,
+would have read a chapter of the Bible; but Dougal would hear naething
+but a blaud of Davie Lindsay, whilk was the waur preparation.</p>
+
+<p>When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> grave, sure aneugh
+the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir Robert was
+blowing it, and up gat the twa auld serving-men, and tottered into the
+room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw aneugh at the first glance;
+for there were torches in the room, which showed him the foul fiend, in
+his ain shape, sitting on the Laird's coffin! Over he cowped as if he
+had been dead. He could not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the
+door, but when he gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and
+getting nae answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead
+within twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed. As for
+the whistle, it was gaen anes and aye; but mony a time was it heard at
+the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld chimneys and
+turrets, where the howlets have their nests. Sir John hushed the matter
+up, and the funeral passed over without mair bogle-wark.</p>
+
+<p>But when a' was ower, and the Laird was beginning to settle his affairs,
+every tenant was called up for his arrears, and my gudesire for the full
+sum that stood against him in the rental-book. Weel, away he trots to
+the Castle, to tell his story, and there he is introduced to Sir John,
+sitting in his father's chair, in deep mourning, with weepers and
+hanging cravat, and a small walking rapier by his side, instead of the
+auld broadsword, that had a hundred-weight of steel about it, what with
+blade, chape, and basket-hilt. I have heard their communing so often
+tauld ower, that I almost think I was there mysell, though I couldna be
+born at the time. (In fact, Alan, my companion mimicked, with a good
+deal of humour, the flattering, conciliating tone of the tenant's
+address, and the hypocritical melancholy of the Laird's reply. His
+grandfather, he said, had, while he spoke, his eye fixed on the
+rental-book, as if it were a mastiff-dog that he was afraid would spring
+up and bite him.)</p>
+
+<p>"I wuss ye joy, sir, of the head seat, and the white loaf, and the braid
+lairdship. Your father was a kind<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> man to friends and followers; muckle
+grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon&mdash;his boots, I suld say, for he
+seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils when he had the gout."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, Steenie," quoth the Laird, sighing deeply and putting his napkin to
+his een, "his was a sudden call, and he will be missed in the country;
+no time to set his house in order&mdash;weel prepared Godward, no doubt,
+which is the root of the matter&mdash;but left us behind a tangled hesp to
+wind, Steenie.&mdash;Hem! hem! We maun go to business, Steenie; much to do,
+and little time to do it in."</p>
+
+<p>Here he opened the fatal volume. I have heard of a thing they call
+Doomsday-book&mdash;I am clear it has been a rental of back-ganging tenants.</p>
+
+<p>"Stephen," said Sir John, still in the same soft, sleekit tone of
+voice&mdash;"Stephen Stevenson, or Steenson, ye are down here for a year's
+rent behind the hand&mdash;due at last term."</p>
+
+<p><i>Stephen.</i> "Please your honour, Sir John, I paid it to your father."</p>
+
+<p><i>Sir John.</i> "Ye took a receipt then, doubtless, Stephen; and can produce
+it?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Stephen.</i> "Indeed I hadna time, an it like your honour; for nae sooner
+had I set doun the siller, and just as his honour Sir Robert, that's
+gaen, drew it till him to count it, and write out the receipt, he was
+ta'en wi' the pains that removed him."</p>
+
+<p>"That was unlucky," said Sir John, after a pause. "But you maybe paid it
+in the presence of somebody. I want but a <i>talis qualis</i> evidence,
+Stephen. I would go ower strictly to work with no poor man."</p>
+
+<p><i>Stephen.</i> "Troth, Sir John, there was naebody in the room but Dougal
+MacCallum the butler. But, as your honour kens, he has e'en followed his
+auld master."</p>
+
+<p>"Very unlucky again, Stephen," said Sir John, without altering his voice
+a single note. "The man to whom ye<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> paid the money is dead&mdash;and the man
+who witnessed the payment is dead too&mdash;and the siller, which should have
+been to the fore, is neither seen nor heard tell of in the repositories.
+How am I to believe a' this?"</p>
+
+<p><i>Stephen.</i> "I dinna ken, your honour; but there is a bit memorandum note
+of the very coins; for, God help me! I had to borrow out of twenty
+purses; and I am sure that ilka man there set down will take his grit
+oath for what purpose I borrowed the money."</p>
+
+<p><i>Sir John.</i> "I have little doubt ye <i>borrowed</i> the money, Steenie. It is
+the <i>payment</i> to my father that I want to have some proof of."</p>
+
+<p><i>Stephen.</i> "The siller maun be about the house, Sir John. And since your
+honour never got it, and his honour that was canna have ta'en it wi'
+him, maybe some of the family may have seen it."</p>
+
+<p><i>Sir John.</i> "We will examine the servants, Stephen; that is but
+reasonable."</p>
+
+<p>But lackey and lass, and page and groom, all denied stoutly that they
+had ever seen such a bag of money as my gudesire described. What was
+waur, he had unluckily not mentioned to any living soul of them his
+purpose of paying his rent. Ae quean had noticed something under his
+arm, but she took it for the pipes.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John Redgauntlet ordered the servants out of the room, and then said
+to my gudesire, "Now, Steenie, ye see you have fair play; and, as I have
+little doubt ye ken better where to find the siller than ony other body,
+I beg, in fair terms, and for your own sake, that you will end this
+fasherie; for, Stephen, ye maun pay or flit."</p>
+
+<p>"The Lord forgie your opinion," said Stephen, driven almost to his wit's
+end&mdash;"I am an honest man."</p>
+
+<p>"So am I, Stephen," said his honour; "and so are all the folks in the
+house, I hope. But if there be a knave amongst us, it must be he that
+tells the story he cannot prove." He paused, and then added, mair
+sternly, "If I understand your trick, sir, you want to take advantage
+of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> some malicious reports concerning things in this family, and
+particularly respecting my father's sudden death, thereby to cheat me
+out of the money, and perhaps take away my character, by insinuating
+that I have received the rent I am demanding.&mdash;Where do you suppose this
+money to be?&mdash;I insist upon knowing."</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire saw everything look sae muckle against him, that he grew
+nearly desperate&mdash;however, he shifted from one foot to another, looked
+to every corner of the room and made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak out, sirrah," said the Laird, assuming a look of his father's, a
+very particular ane, which he had when he was angry&mdash;it seemed as if the
+wrinkles of his frown made that self-same fearful shape of a horse's
+shoe in the middle of his brow;&mdash;"Speak out, sir! I <i>will</i> know your
+thoughts;&mdash;do you suppose that I have this money?"</p>
+
+<p>"Far be it frae me to say so," said Stephen.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you charge any of my people with having taken it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I wad be laith to charge them that may be innocent," said my gudesire;
+"and if there be anyone that is guilty, I have nae proof."</p>
+
+<p>"Somewhere the money must be, if there is a word of truth in your
+story," said Sir John; "I ask where you think it is&mdash;and demand a
+correct answer?"</p>
+
+<p>"In hell, if you <i>will</i> have my thoughts of it," said my gudesire,
+driven to extremity,&mdash;"in hell! with your father, his jackanape, and his
+silver whistle."</p>
+
+<p>Down the stairs he ran (for the parlour was nae place for him after such
+a word), and he heard the Laird swearing blood and wounds behind him, as
+fast as ever did Sir Robert, and roaring for the bailie and the
+baron-officer.</p>
+
+<p>Away rode my gudesire to his chief creditor (him they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik), to try if he could make ony thing out of him; but when he
+tauld his story, he got but the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> warst word in his wame&mdash;thief, beggar,
+and dyvour, were the saftest terms; and to the boot of these hard terms,
+Laurie brought up the auld story of his dipping his hand in the blood of
+God's saunts, just as if a tenant could have helped riding with the
+Laird, and that a laird like Sir Robert Redgauntlet. My gudesire was, by
+this time, far beyond the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie
+were at deil speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse
+Lapraik's doctrine as weel as the man, and said things that garr'd
+folk's flesh grue that heard them;&mdash;he wasna just himsell, and he had
+lived wi' a wild set in his day.</p>
+
+<p>At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the wood
+of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say.&mdash;I ken the
+wood, but the firs may be black or white for what I can tell.&mdash;At the
+entry of the wood there is a wild common, and on the edge of the common,
+a little lonely change-house, that was keepit then by an ostler-wife,
+they suld hae caa'd her Tibbie Faw, and there puir Steenie cried for a
+mutchkin of brandy, for he had had no refreshment the haill day. Tibbie
+was earnest wi' him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o't,
+nor would he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy
+wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each:&mdash;the first was, the
+memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie quiet in his
+grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and the second was, a
+health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him back the pock of siller,
+or tell him what came o't, for he saw the haill world was like to regard
+him as a thief and a cheat, and he took that waur than even the ruin of
+his house and hauld.</p>
+
+<p>On he rode, little caring where. It was a dark night turned, and the
+trees made it yet darker, and he let the beast take its ain road through
+the wood; when, all of a sudden, from tired and wearied that it was
+before, the nag began to spring, and flee, and stend, that my gudesire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>
+could hardly keep the saddle.&mdash;Upon the whilk, a horseman, suddenly
+riding up beside him, said, "That's a mettle beast of yours, freend;
+will you sell him?"&mdash;So saying, he touched the horse's neck with his
+riding-wand, and it fell into its auld heigh-ho of a stumbling trot.
+"But his spunk's soon out of him, I think," continued the stranger, "and
+that is like mony a man's courage, that thinks he wad do great things
+till he come to the proof."</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire scarce listened to this, but spurred his horse, with "Gude
+e'en to you, freend."</p>
+
+<p>But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his point;
+for, ride as Steenie liked, he was aye beside him at the self-same pace.
+At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half angry; and, to say the
+truth, half feared.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it that ye want with me, freend?" he said. "If ye be a robber,
+I have nae money; if ye be a leal man, wanting company, I have nae heart
+to mirth or speaking; and if ye want to ken the road, I scarce ken it
+mysell."</p>
+
+<p>"If you will tell me your grief," said the stranger, "I am one that,
+though I have been sair miscaa'd in the world, am the only hand for
+helping my freends."</p>
+
+<p>So my gudesire, to ease his ain heart, mair than from any hope of help,
+told him the story from beginning to end.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a hard pinch," said the stranger; "but I think I can help you."</p>
+
+<p>"If you could lend the money, sir, and take a lang day&mdash;I ken nae other
+help on earth," said my gudesire.</p>
+
+<p>"But there may be some under the earth," said the stranger. "Come, I'll
+be frank wi' you; I could lend you the money on bond, but you would
+maybe scruple my terms. Now, I can tell you, that your auld Laird is
+disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the wailing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> of your family,
+and if ye daur venture to go to see him, he will give you the receipt."</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire's hair stood on end at this proposal, but he thought his
+companion might be some humorsome chield that was trying to frighten
+him, and might end with lending him the money. Besides, he was bauld wi'
+brandy, and desperate wi' distress; and he said, he had courage to go to
+the gate of hell, and a step farther, for that receipt.&mdash;The stranger
+laughed.</p>
+
+<p>Weel, they rode on through the thickest of the wood, when, all of a
+sudden, the horse stopped at the door of a great house; and, but that he
+knew the place was ten miles off, my father would have thought he was at
+Redgauntlet Castle. They rode into the outer courtyard, through the
+muckle faulding yetts, and aneath the auld portcullis; and the whole
+front of the house was lighted, and there were pipes and fiddles, and as
+much dancing and deray within as used to be in Sir Robert's house at
+Pace and Yule, and such high seasons. They lap off, and my gudesire, as
+seemed to him, fastened his horse to the very ring he had tied him to
+that morning, when he gaed to wait on the young Sir John.</p>
+
+<p>"God!" said my gudesire, "if Sir Robert's death be but a dream!"</p>
+
+<p>He knocked at the ha' door just as he was wont, and his auld
+acquaintance, Dougal MacCallum,&mdash;just after his wont, too,&mdash;came to open
+the door, and said, "Piper Steenie, are ye there, lad? Sir Robert has
+been crying for you."</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire was like a man in a dream&mdash;he looked for the stranger, but
+he was gane for the time. At last he just tried to say, "Ha! Dougal
+Driveower, are ye living? I thought ye had been dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Never fash yoursell wi' me," said Dougal, "but look to yoursell; and
+see ye tak naething frae onybody here, neither meat, drink, or siller,
+except just the receipt that is your ain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel
+kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and there was as
+much singing of profane sangs, and birling of red wine, and speaking
+blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in Redgauntlet Castle when it
+was at the blithest.</p>
+
+<p>But, Lord take us in keeping! what a set of ghastly revellers they were
+that sat round that table!&mdash;My gudesire kend mony that had long before
+gane to their place, for often had he piped to the most part in the hall
+of Redgauntlet. There was the fierce Middleton, and the dissolute
+Rothes, and the crafty Lauderdale; and Dalyell, with his bald head and a
+beard to his girdle; and Earlshall, with Cameron's blude on his hand;
+and wild Bonshaw, that tied blessed Mr Cargill's limbs till the blude
+sprang; and Dunbarton Douglas, the twice-turned traitor baith to country
+and king. There was the Bluidy Advocate MacKenyie, who, for his worldly
+wit and wisdom, had been to the rest as a god. And there was
+Claverhouse, as beautiful as when he lived, with his long, dark, curled
+locks, streaming down over his laced buff-coat, and his left hand always
+on his right spule-blade, to hide the wound that the silver bullet had
+made. He sat apart from them all, and looked at them with a melancholy,
+haughty countenance; while the rest hallooed, and sung, and laughed,
+that the room rang. But their smiles were fearfully contorted from time
+to time; and their laughter passed into such wild sounds, as made my
+gudesire's very nails grow blue, and chilled the marrow in his banes.</p>
+
+<p>They that waited at the table were just the wicked serving-men and
+troopers, that had done their work and cruel bidding on earth. There was
+the Lang Lad of the Nethertown, that helped to take Argyle; and the
+Bishop's summoner, that they called the Deil's Rattle-bag; and the
+wicked guardsmen, in their laced coats; and the savage Highland
+Amorites, that shed blood like water;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> and many a proud serving-man,
+haughty of heart and bloody of hand, cringing to the rich, and making
+them wickeder than they would be; grinding the poor to powder, when the
+rich had broken them to fragments. And mony, mony mair were coming and
+ganging, a' as busy in their vocation as if they had been alive.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Robert Redgauntlet, in the midst of a' this fearful riot, cried, wi'
+a voice like thunder, on Steenie Piper, to come to the board-head where
+he was sitting; his legs stretched out before him, and swathed up with
+flannel, with his holster pistols aside him, while the great broadsword
+rested against his chair, just as my gudesire had seen him the last time
+upon earth&mdash;the very cushion for the jackanape was close to him, but the
+creature itsell was not there&mdash;it wasna its hour, it's likely; for he
+heard them say as he came forward, "Is not the Major come yet?" And
+another answered, "The jackanape will be here betimes the morn." And
+when my gudesire came forward, Sir Robert, or his ghaist, or the deevil
+in his likeness, said, "Weel, piper, hae ye settled wi' my son for the
+year's rent?"</p>
+
+<p>With much ado my father gat breath to say, that Sir John would not
+settle without his honour's receipt.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye shall hae that for a tune of the pipes, Steenie," said the
+appearance of Sir Robert&mdash;"Play us up 'Weel hoddled, Luckie.'"</p>
+
+<p>Now this was a tune my gudesire learned frae a warlock, that heard it
+when they were worshipping Satan at their meetings; and my gudesire had
+sometimes played it at the ranting suppers in Redgauntlet Castle, but
+never very willingly; and now he grew cauld at the very name of it, and
+said, for excuse, he hadna his pipes wi' him.</p>
+
+<p>"MacCallum, ye limb of Beelzebub," said the fearfu' Sir Robert, "bring
+Steenie the pipes that I am keeping for him!"</p>
+
+<p>MacCallum brought a pair of pipes might have served the piper of Donald
+of the Isles. But he gave my gudesire<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> a nudge as he offered them; and
+looking secretly and closely, Steenie saw that the chanter was of steel,
+and heated to a white heat; so he had fair warning not to trust his
+fingers with it. So he excused himself again, and said, he was faint and
+frightened, and had not wind aneugh to fill the bag.</p>
+
+<p>"Then ye maun eat and drink, Steenie," said the figure; "for we do
+little else here; and it's ill speaking between a fou man and a
+fasting."</p>
+
+<p>Now these were the very words that the bloody Earl of Douglas said to
+keep the King's messenger in hand, while he cut the head off MacLellan
+of Bombie, at the Threave Castle;<a name="FNanchor_9_9" id="FNanchor_9_9"></a><a href="#Footnote_9_9" class="fnanchor">[9]</a> and that put Steenie mair and mair
+on his guard. So he spoke up like a man, and said he came neither to
+eat, or drink, or make minstrelsy; but simply for his ain&mdash;to ken what
+was come o' the money he had paid, and to get a discharge for it; and he
+was so stout-hearted by this time, that he charged Sir Robert for
+conscience-sake&mdash;(he had no power to say the holy name)&mdash;and as he hoped
+for peace and rest, to spread no snares for him, but just to give him
+his ain.</p>
+
+<p>The appearance gnashed its teeth and laughed, but it took from a large
+pocket-book the receipt, and handed it to Steenie. "There is your
+receipt, ye pitiful cur; and for the money, my dog-whelp of a son may go
+look for it in the Cat's Cradle."</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire uttered mony thanks, and was about to retire, when Sir
+Robert roared aloud, "Stop, though, thou sack-doudling son of a whore! I
+am not done with thee. <span class="smcap">Here</span> we do nothing for nothing; and you
+must return on this very day twelvemonth, to pay your master the homage
+that you owe me for my protection."</p>
+
+<p>My father's tongue was loosed of a suddenty, and he said aloud, "I refer
+mysell to God's pleasure, and not to yours."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>He had no sooner uttered the word than all was dark around him; and he
+sunk on the earth with such a sudden shock, that he lost both breath and
+sense.</p>
+
+<p>How lang Steenie lay there, he could not tell; but when he came to
+himsell, he was lying in the auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet parochine,
+just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon of the auld
+knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head. There was a deep morning fog
+on grass and gravestane around him, and his horse was feeding quietly
+beside the minister's twa cows. Steenie would have thought the whole was
+a dream, but he had the receipt in his hand, fairly written and signed
+by the auld Laird; only the last letters of his name were a little
+disorderly, written like one seized with sudden pain.</p>
+
+<p>Sorely troubled in his mind, he left that dreary place, rode through the
+mist to Redgauntlet Castle, and with much ado he got speech of the
+Laird.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you dyvour bankrupt," was the first word, "have you brought me my
+rent?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," answered my gudesire, "I have not; but I have brought your honour
+Sir Robert's receipt for it."</p>
+
+<p>"How, sirrah?&mdash;Sir Robert's receipt!&mdash;You told me he had not given you
+one."</p>
+
+<p>"Will your honour please to see if that bit line is right?"</p>
+
+<p>Sir John looked at every line, and at every letter, with much attention;
+and at last, at the date, which my gudesire had not observed,&mdash;"<i>From
+my appointed place</i>," he read, "<i>this twenty-fifth of
+November</i>."&mdash;"What!&mdash;That is yesterday!&mdash;Villain, thou must have gone to
+hell for this!"</p>
+
+<p>"I got it from your honour's father&mdash;whether he be in heaven or hell, I
+know not," said Steenie.</p>
+
+<p>"I will delate you for a warlock to the Privy Council!" said Sir John.
+"I will send you to your master, the devil, with the help of a
+tar-barrel and a torch!"</p>
+
+<p>"I intend to delate mysell to the Presbytery," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> Steenie, "and tell
+them all I have seen last night, whilk are things fitter for them to
+judge of than a borrel man like me."</p>
+
+<p>Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full history;
+and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I have told it
+you&mdash;word for word, neither more nor less.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said, very
+composedly, "Steenie, this story of yours concerns the honour of many a
+noble family besides mine; and if it be a leasing-making, to keep
+yourself out of my danger, the least you can expect is to have a red-hot
+iron driven through your tongue, and that will be as bad as scaulding
+your fingers with a redhot chanter. But yet it may be true, Steenie; and
+if the money cast up, I shall not know what to think of it.&mdash;But where
+shall we find the Cat's Cradle? There are cats enough about the old
+house, but I think they kitten without the ceremony of bed or cradle."</p>
+
+<p>"We were best ask Hutcheon," said my gudesire; "he kens a' the odd
+corners about as weel as&mdash;another serving-man that is now gane, and that
+I wad not like to name."</p>
+
+<p>Aweel, Hutcheon, when he was asked, told them, that a ruinous turret,
+lang disused, next to the clock-house, only accessible by a ladder, for
+the opening was on the outside, and far above the battlements, was
+called of old the Cat's Cradle.</p>
+
+<p>"There will I go immediately," said Sir John; and he took (with what
+purpose, Heaven kens) one of his father's pistols from the hall-table,
+where they had lain since the night he died, and hastened to the
+battlements.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dangerous place to climb, for the ladder was auld and frail,
+and wanted ane or twa rounds. However, up got Sir John, and entered at
+the turret door, where his body stopped the only little light that was
+in the bit turret. Something flees at him wi' a vengeance, maist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> dang
+him back ower&mdash;bang gaed the knight's pistol, and Hutcheon, that held
+the ladder, and my gudesire that stood beside him, hears a loud
+skelloch. A minute after, Sir John flings the body of the jackanape down
+to them, and cries that the siller is fund, and that they should come up
+and help him. And there was the bag of siller sure aneugh, and mony orra
+things besides, that had been missing for mony a day. And Sir John, when
+he had riped the turret weel, led my gudesire into the dining-parlour,
+and took him by the hand, and spoke kindly to him, and said he was sorry
+he should have doubted his word, and that he would hereafter be a good
+master to him, to make amends.</p>
+
+<p>"And now, Steenie," said Sir John, "although this vision of yours tends,
+on the whole, to my father's credit, as an honest man, that he should,
+even after his death, desire to see justice done to a poor man like you,
+yet you are sensible that ill-dispositioned men might make bad
+constructions upon it, concerning his soul's health. So, I think, we had
+better lay the haill dirdum on that ill-deedie creature, Major Weir, and
+say naething about your dream in the wood of Pitmurkie. You had taken
+ower muckle brandy to be very certain about onything; and, Steenie, this
+receipt," (his hand shook while he held it out,)&mdash;"it's but a queer kind
+of document, and we will do best, I think, to put it quietly in the
+fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Od, but for as queer as it is, it's a' the voucher I have for my rent,"
+said my gudesire, who was afraid, it may be, of losing the benefit of
+Sir Robert's discharge.</p>
+
+<p>"I will bear the contents to your credit in the rental-book, and give
+you a discharge under my own hand," said Sir John, "and that on the
+spot. And, Steenie, if you can hold your tongue about this matter, you
+shall sit, from this term downward, at an easier rent."</p>
+
+<p>"Mony thanks to your honour," said Steenie, who saw easily in what
+corner the wind was; "doubtless I will be conformable to all your
+honour's commands; only I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> would willingly speak wi' some powerful
+minister on the subject, for I do not like the sort of soumons of
+appointment whilk your honour's father&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Do not call the phantom my father!" said Sir John, interrupting him.</p>
+
+<p>"Weel, then, the thing that was so like him,"&mdash;said my gudesire; "he
+spoke of my coming back to him this time twelvemonth, and it's a weight
+on my conscience."</p>
+
+<p>"Aweel, then," said Sir John, "if you be so much distressed in mind, you
+may speak to our minister of the parish; he is a douce man, regards the
+honour of our family, and the mair that he may look for some patronage
+from me."</p>
+
+<p>Wi' that, my gudesire readily agreed that the receipt should be burnt,
+and the Laird threw it into the chimney with his ain hand. Burn it would
+not for them, though; but away it flew up the lum, wi' a lang train of
+sparks at its tail, and a hissing noise like a squib.</p>
+
+<p>My gudesire gaed down to the manse, and the minister, when he had heard
+the story, said, it was his real opinion, that though my gudesire had
+gaen very far in tampering with dangerous matters, yet, as he had
+refused the devil's arles (for such was the offer of meat and drink),
+and had refused to do homage by piping at his bidding, he hoped, that if
+he held a circumspect walk hereafter, Satan could take little advantage
+by what was come and gane. And, indeed, my gudesire, of his ain accord,
+long forswore baith the pipes and the brandy&mdash;it was not even till the
+year was out, and the fatal day passed, that he would so much as take
+the fiddle, or drink usquebaugh or tippenny.</p>
+
+<p>Sir John made up his story about the jackanape as he liked himsell; and
+some believe till this day there was no more in the matter than the
+filching nature of the brute. Indeed, ye'll no hinder some to threap,
+that it was nane o' the Auld Enemy that Dougal and my gudesire saw in
+the Laird's room, but only that wanchancy creature, the Major, capering
+on the coffin; and that, as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> to the blawing on the Laird's whistle that
+was heard after he was dead, the filthy brute could do that as weel as
+the Laird himsell, if no better. But Heaven kens the truth, whilk first
+came out by the minister's wife, after Sir John and her ain gudeman were
+baith in the moulds. And then my gudesire, wha was failed in his limbs,
+but not in his judgment or memory&mdash;at least nothing to speak of&mdash;was
+obliged to tell the real narrative to his freends, for the credit of his
+good name. He might else have been charged for a warlock.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_6_6" id="Footnote_6_6"></a><a href="#FNanchor_6_6"><span class="label">[6]</span></a> A precipitous side of a mountain in Moffatdale.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_7_7" id="Footnote_7_7"></a><a href="#FNanchor_7_7"><span class="label">[7]</span></a> The caution and moderation of King William III., and his
+principles of unlimited toleration, deprived the Cameronians of the
+opportunity they ardently desired, to retaliate the injuries which they
+had received during the reign of prelacy, and purify the land, as they
+called it, from the pollution of blood. They esteemed the Revolution,
+therefore, only a half measure, which neither comprehended the
+rebuilding the Kirk in its full splendour, nor the revenge of the death
+of the Saints on their persecutors.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_8_8" id="Footnote_8_8"></a><a href="#FNanchor_8_8"><span class="label">[8]</span></a> A celebrated wizard, executed at Edinburgh for sorcery and
+other crimes.</p></div>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_9_9" id="Footnote_9_9"></a><a href="#FNanchor_9_9"><span class="label">[9]</span></a> The reader is referred for particulars to Pitscottie's
+<i>History of Scotland</i>.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>II</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LOCAL_RECORDS" id="GHOST_STORIES_FROM_LOCAL_RECORDS"></a>GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE AND LEGEND</h2><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII</h2>
+
+<h2>GLAMIS CASTLE</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+
+<p>"The Castle of Glamis, a venerable and majestic pile of buildings," says
+an old Scots Gazetteer, "is situate about one mile north from the
+village, on the flat grounds at the confluence of the Glamis Burn and
+the Dean. There is a print of it given by Slezer in Charles II.'s
+reign&mdash;by which it appears to have been anciently much more extensive,
+being a large quadrangular mass of buildings, having two courts in
+front, with a tower in each, and gateway through below them; and on the
+northern side was the principal tower, which now constitutes the central
+portion of the present castle upwards of 100 feet in height. The
+building received the addition of a tower, in one of its angles, for a
+spiral staircase from bottom to top, with conical roofs. The wings were
+added, at the same time, by Patrick Earl of Strathmore, who repaired and
+modernised the structure, under the directions of Inigo Jones. One of
+the wings has been renovated within the last forty years, and other
+additions made, but not in harmony with Earl Patrick's repairs.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>There is also a secret room in it, only known to two or at most three
+individuals, at the same time, who are bound not to reveal it, unless to
+their successors in the secret.</i> It has been frequently the object of
+search with the inquisitive, but the search has been in vain. There are
+no records of the castle prior to the tenth century, when it is first
+noticed in connection with the death of Malcolm II. in 1034. Tradition
+says that he was murdered<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> in this castle, and in a room which is still
+pointed out, in the centre of the principal tower; and that the
+murderers lost their way in the darkness of the night, and by the
+breaking of the ice, were drowned in the loch of Forfar. Fordun's
+account is, however, somewhat different and more probable. He states
+that the King was mortally wounded in a skirmish, in the neighbourhood,
+by some of the adherents of Kenneth V."</p>
+
+<hr style='width: 45%;' />
+
+<p>Let us turn now to the ghosts of Glamis Castle.</p>
+
+<p>A lady, well known in London society, an artistic and social celebrity,
+wealthy beyond all doubts of the future, a cultivated, clear-headed, and
+indeed slightly matter-of-fact woman, went to stay at Glamis Castle for
+the first time. She was allotted very handsome apartments, just on the
+point of junction between the new buildings&mdash;perhaps a hundred or two
+hundred years old&mdash;and the very ancient part of the castle. The rooms
+were handsomely furnished; no gaunt carvings grinned from the walls; no
+grim tapestry swung to and fro, making strange figures look still
+stranger by the flickering fire-light; all was smooth, cosy, and modern,
+and the guest retired to bed without a thought of the mysteries of
+Glamis.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning she appeared at the breakfast table quite cheerful and
+self-possessed. To the inquiry how she had slept, she replied: "Well,
+thanks, very well, up to four o'clock in the morning. But your Scottish
+carpenters seem to come to work very early. I suppose they put up their
+scaffolding quickly, though, for they are quiet now." This speech
+produced a dead silence, and the speaker saw with astonishment that the
+faces of members of the family were very pale.</p>
+
+<p>She was asked, as she valued the friendship of all there, never to speak
+to them on that subject again; there had been no carpenters at Glamis
+Castle for months past. This fact, whatever it may be worth, is
+absolutely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> established, so far as the testimony of a single witness can
+establish anything. The lady was awakened by a loud knocking and
+hammering, as if somebody were putting up a scaffold, and the noise did
+not alarm her in the least. On the contrary, she took it for an
+accident, due to the presumed matutinal habits of the people. She knew,
+of course, that there were stories about Glamis, but had not the
+remotest idea that the hammering she had heard was connected with any
+story. She had regarded it simply as an annoyance, and was glad to get
+to sleep after an unrestful time; but had no notion of the noise being
+supernatural until informed of it at the breakfast-table.</p>
+
+<p>With what particular event in the stormy annals of the Lyon family the
+hammering is connected is quite unknown, except to members of the
+family, but there is no lack of legends, possible and impossible, to
+account for any sights or sounds in the magnificent old feudal edifice.</p>
+
+<p>It is said that once a visitor stayed at Glamis Castle for a few days,
+and, sitting up late one moonlight night, saw a face appear at the
+window opposite to him. The owner of the face&mdash;it was very pale, with
+great sorrowful eyes&mdash;appeared to wish to attract attention; but
+vanished suddenly from the window, as if plucked suddenly away by
+superior strength. For a long while the horror-stricken guest gazed at
+the window, in the hope that the pale face and great sad eyes would
+appear again. Nothing was seen at the window, but presently horrible
+shrieks penetrated even the thick walls of the castle, and rent the
+night air. An hour later, a dark huddled figure, like that of an old
+decrepit woman, carrying something in a bundle, came into the waning
+moonlight, and presently vanished.</p>
+
+<p>There is a modern story of a stonemason, who was engaged at Glamis
+Castle last century, and who, having discovered more than he should have
+done, was supplied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> with a handsome competency, upon the conditions that
+he emigrated and kept inviolable the secret he had learned.</p>
+
+<p>The employment of a stonemason is explained by the conditions under
+which the mystery is revealed to successive heirs and factors. The abode
+of the dread secret is in a part of the castle, also haunted by the
+apparition of a bearded man, who flits about at night, but without
+committing any other objectionable action. What connection, if any, the
+bearded spectre may have with the mystery is not even guessed. He hovers
+at night over the couches of children for an instant, and then vanishes.
+The secret itself abides in a room&mdash;a secret chamber&mdash;the very situation
+of which, beyond a general idea that it is in the most ancient part of
+the castle, is unknown. Where walls are fifteen feet thick, it is not
+impossible to have a chamber so concealed, that none but the initiated
+can guess its position. It was once attempted by a madcap party of
+guests to discover the locality of the secret chamber, by hanging their
+towels out of the window, and thus deciding in favour of any window from
+which no spotless banner waved; but this escapade, which is said to have
+been ill-received by the owners, ended in nothing but a vague conclusion
+that the old square tower must be the spot sought.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX</h2>
+
+<h2>POWYS CASTLE</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+
+<p>It had been for some time reported in the neighbourhood that a poor
+unmarried woman, who was a member of the Methodist society; and had
+become serious under their ministry, had seen and conversed with the
+apparition of a gentleman, who had made a strange discovery to her. Mr
+Hampson, being desirous to ascertain if there was any truth in the
+story, sent for the woman, and desired her to give an exact relation of
+the whole affair from her own mouth, and as near the truth as she
+possibly could. She said she was a poor woman who got her living by
+spinning hemp and line; that it was customary for the farmers and
+gentlemen of that neighbourhood to grow a little hemp or line in the
+corner of their fields, for their own home consumption, and as she had a
+good hand at spinning the materials she used to go from house to house
+to inquire for work; that her method was, where they employed her,
+during her stay to have meat and lodging (if she had occasion to sleep
+with them) for her work, and what they pleased to give her besides.
+That, among other places, she happened to call in one day at the Welsh
+Earl Powis's country seat, called Redcastle, to inquire for work, as she
+usually had done before. The quality were at this time in London, and
+had left the steward and his wife, with other servants, as usual, to
+take care of their country residence in their absence. The steward's
+wife set her to work, and in the evening told her that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> must stay
+all night with them, as they had more work for her to do next day. When
+bed-time arrived, two or three of the servants in company, with each a
+lighted candle in her hand, conducted her to her lodging. They led her
+to a grand room, with a boarded floor and two sash windows. The room was
+grandly furnished, and had a genteel bed in one corner of it. They had
+made her a good fire, and had placed her a chair and a table before it,
+and a large lighted candle upon the table. They told her that was her
+bedroom, and she might go to sleep when she pleased, they then wished a
+good night and withdrew all together, pulling the door quickly after
+them, so as to hasp the springsneck in the brass lock that was upon it.
+When they were gone she gazed a while at the fine furniture, under no
+small astonishment that they should put such a poor person as her in so
+grand a room and bed, with all the apparatus of fire, chair, table, and
+candle. She was also surprised at the circumstance of the servants
+coming so many together, with each of them a candle; however, after
+gazing about her some little time, she sat down and took out of her
+pocket a small Welsh Bible which she always carried about with her, and
+in which she usually read a chapter&mdash;chiefly in the New
+Testament&mdash;before she said her prayers and went to bed. While she was
+reading she heard the room door open, and, turning her head, saw a
+gentleman enter in a gold-laced hat and waistcoat, and the rest of his
+dress corresponding therewith. (I think she was very particular in
+describing the rest of his dress to Mr Hampson, and he to me at the
+time, but I have now forgot the other particulars.) He walked down by
+the sash window to the corner of the room, and then returned. When he
+came at the first window in his return (the bottom of which was nearly
+breast-high) he rested his elbow on the bottom of the window, and the
+side of his face upon the palm of his hand, and stood in that leaning
+posture for some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> time, with his side partly towards her. She looked at
+him earnestly to see if she knew him, but though, from her frequent
+intercourse with them, she had a personal knowledge of all the present
+family, he appeared a stranger to her. She supposed afterwards that he
+stood in this manner to encourage her to speak; but as she did not,
+after some little time he walked off, pulling the door after him as the
+servants had done before. She began now to be much alarmed, concluding
+it to be an apparition and that they had put her there on purpose. This
+was really the case. The room, it seems, had been disturbed for a long
+time, so that nobody could sleep peaceably in it; and as she passed for
+a very serious woman, the servants took it in their heads to put the
+Methodist and spirit together, to see what they would make out of it.
+Startled at this thought, she rose from her chair, and kneeled down by
+the bedside to say her prayers. While she was praying he came in again,
+walked round the room and came close behind her. She had it on her mind
+to speak, but when she attempted it she was so very much agitated that
+she could not utter a word. He walked out of the room again, pulling the
+door shut as before. She begged that God would strengthen her, and not
+suffer her to be tried beyond what she was able to bear; she recovered
+her surprise and thought she felt more confidence and resolution, and
+determined if he came in again she would speak to him if possible. He
+presently came in again, walked round, and came behind her as before;
+she turned her head and said, "Pray, sir, who are you, and what do you
+want?" He put up his finger and said, "Take up the candle and follow me,
+and I will tell you." She got up, took up the candle and followed him
+out of the room. He led her through a long boarded passage, till they
+came to the door of another room which he opened and went in; it was a
+small room, or what might be called a large closet. "As the room was
+small, and I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> believed him to be a spirit," said she, "I stopped at the
+door; he turned and said, 'Walk in, I will not hurt you'; so I walked
+in. He said, 'Observe what I do'; I said, 'I will.' He stooped and tore
+up one of the boards of the floor, and there appeared under it a box
+with an iron handle in the lid. He said, 'Do you see that box?' I said,
+'Yes, I do.' He then stepped to one side of the room and showed me a
+crevice in the wall, where he said a key was hid that would open it. He
+said, 'This box and key must be taken out, and sent to the Earl in
+London' (naming the Earl and his residence in the city). He said, 'Will
+you see it done?' I said, 'I will do my best to get it done'; and he
+said, 'Do, and I will trouble the house no longer!' He then walked out
+of the room and left me. (He seems to have been a very civil spirit, and
+to have been very careful to affright her as little as possible.) I
+stepped to the room door, and set up a shout. The steward and his wife,
+with the other servants, came to me immediately; all clinging together,
+with a number of lights in their hands. It seems they had all been
+waiting to see the issue of the interview betwixt me and the apparition.
+They asked me what was the matter. I told them the foregoing
+circumstances, and showed them the box. The steward durst not meddle
+with it, but his wife had more courage, and, with the help of the other
+servants, tugged it out, and found the key. She said by their lifting it
+appeared to be pretty heavy, but that she did not see it opened, and
+therefore did not know what it contained&mdash;perhaps money, or writings of
+consequence to the family, or both." They took it away with them, and
+she then went to bed and slept peaceably till morning.</p>
+
+<p>It appeared that they sent the box to the Earl in London, with an
+account of the manner of its discovery, and by whom; as the Earl sent
+down orders immediately to his steward to inform the poor woman who had
+been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> the occasion of its discovery that if she would come and reside in
+his family she would be comfortably provided for during her remaining
+days; or, if she did not choose to reside constantly with them, if she
+would let them know when she wanted assistance, she would be liberally
+supplied at his lordship's expense as long as she lived. And Mr Hampson
+said it was a known fact in the neighbourhood that she had been supplied
+from his lordship's family, from the time the affair was said to have
+happened, and continued to be so at the time she gave Mr Hampson this
+account. She told him that she was so often solicited by curious people
+to relate the story that she was weary of repeating it; but, to oblige
+him, she once more related the particulars, wishing now to have done
+with it. Mr Hampson said she appeared to be a sensible, intelligent
+person, and that he saw no reason to doubt her veracity. I know many
+persons in the present day laugh at such stories, and affect very much
+to doubt their reality, while others totally deny the possibility of
+their existence. However, Scripture and many well-attested relations
+seem to favour the idea, and the present story appeared so singular and
+so well attested, and I had it so near the fountain-head, that I thought
+it might perhaps be worth preserving, and I have therefore taken pains
+to record it. Admitting it to be true, it should seem that the
+consequence to the family of what the hidden box contained was the
+formal cause of the spirit's disquiet, and of its disturbing the house
+so much and so long, in order to bring about the discovery; but why the
+departed spirit should concern itself in the affairs of this world after
+it has left it&mdash;or why they should disquiet it so as to cause it to
+reappear and make disturbances, in order to discover and have things
+righted, as in the preceding case,&mdash;or why this should be done in some
+cases of apparently less moment, while in other cases much greater
+family injuries seem to be suffered, and no spirit appears to interest
+itself in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> case&mdash;are circumstances for which we can by no means
+account. A cloud sits deep on futurity; and we are so little acquainted
+with the laws of the spiritual world that we are perhaps incapable, in
+our present state, of comprehending its nature or of giving any
+satisfactory account of these matters.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX</h2>
+
+<h2>CROGLIN GRANGE</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Archdeacon Hare's</span> Autobiography<a name="FNanchor_10_10" id="FNanchor_10_10"></a><a href="#Footnote_10_10" class="fnanchor">[10]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>"Fisher," said the Captain, "may sound a very plebeian name, but this
+family is of very ancient lineage, and for many hundreds of years they
+have possessed a very curious old place in Cumberland, which bears the
+weird name of Croglin Grange. The great characteristic of the house is
+that never at any period of its very long existence has it been more
+than one story high, but it has a terrace from which large grounds sweep
+away towards the church in the hollow, and a fine distant view.</p>
+
+<p>"When, in lapse of years, the Fishers outgrew Croglin Grange in family
+and fortune, they were wise enough not to destroy the long-standing
+characteristic of the place by adding another story to the house, but
+they went away to the south, to reside at Thorncombe near Guildford, and
+they let Croglin Grange.</p>
+
+<p>"They were extremely fortunate in their tenants, two brothers and a
+sister. They heard their praises from all quarters. To their poorer
+neighbours they were all that is most kind and beneficent, and their
+neighbours of a higher class spoke of them as a welcome addition to the
+little society of the neighbourhood. On their part the tenants were
+greatly delighted with their new residence. The arrangement of the
+house, which would have been a trial to many, was not so to them. In
+every respect Croglin Grange was exactly suited to them.</p>
+
+<p>"The winter was spent most happily by the new<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> inmates of Croglin
+Grange, who shared in all the little social pleasures of the district,
+and made themselves very popular. In the following summer there was one
+day which was dreadfully, annihilatingly hot. The brothers lay under the
+trees with their books, for it was too hot for any active occupation.
+The sister sat in the verandah and worked, or tried to work, for in the
+intense sultriness of that summer day work was next to impossible. They
+dined early, and after dinner they still sat out in the verandah,
+enjoying the cool air which came with evening, and they watched the sun
+set, and the moon rise over the belt of trees which separated the
+grounds from the churchyard, seeing it mount the heavens till the whole
+lawn was bathed in silver light, across which the long shadows from the
+shrubbery fell as if embossed, so vivid and distinct were they.</p>
+
+<p>"When they separated for the night, all retiring to their rooms on the
+ground-floor (for, as I said, there was no upstairs in that house), the
+sister felt that the heat was still so great that she could not sleep,
+and having fastened her window, she did not close the shutters&mdash;in that
+very quiet place it was not necessary&mdash;and, propped against the pillows,
+she still watched the wonderful, the marvellous beauty of that summer
+night. Gradually she became aware of two lights, two lights which
+flickered in and out in the belt of trees which separated the lawn from
+the churchyard; and, as her gaze became fixed upon them, she saw them
+emerge, fixed in a dark substance, a definite ghastly <i>something</i>, which
+seemed every moment to become nearer, increasing in size and substance
+as it approached. Every now and then it was lost for a moment in the
+long shadows which stretched across the lawn from the trees, and then it
+emerged larger than ever, and still coming on&mdash;on. As she watched it,
+the most uncontrollable horror seized her. She longed to get away, but
+the door was close to the window and the door was locked on the inside,
+and while she was unlocking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> it, she must be for an instant nearer to
+<i>it</i>. She longed to scream, but her voice seemed paralysed, her tongue
+glued to the roof of her mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"Suddenly, she never could explain why afterwards, the terrible object
+seemed to turn to one side, seemed to be going round the house, not to
+be coming to her at all, and immediately she jumped out of bed and
+rushed to the door; but as she was unlocking it, she heard scratch,
+scratch, scratch upon the window, and saw a hideous brown face with
+flaming eyes glaring in at her. She rushed back to the bed, but the
+creature continued to scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window. She
+felt a sort of mental comfort in the knowledge that the window was
+securely fastened on the inside. Suddenly the scratching sound ceased,
+and a kind of pecking sound took its place. Then, in her agony, she
+became aware that the creature was unpicking the lead! The noise
+continued, and a diamond pane of glass fell into the room. Then a long
+bony finger of the creature came in and turned the handle of the window,
+and the window opened, and the creature came in; and it came across the
+room, and her terror was so great that she could not scream, and it came
+up to the bed, and it twisted its long, bony fingers into her hair, and
+it dragged her head over the side of the bed, and&mdash;it bit her violently
+in the throat.</p>
+
+<p>"As it bit her, her voice was released, and she screamed with all her
+might and main. Her brothers rushed out of their rooms, but the door was
+locked on the inside. A moment was lost while they got a poker and broke
+it open. Then the creature had already escaped through the window, and
+the sister, bleeding violently from a wound in the throat, was lying
+unconscious over the side of the bed. One brother pursued the creature,
+which fled before him through the moonlight with gigantic strides, and
+eventually seemed to disappear over the wall into the churchyard. Then
+he rejoined his brother<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> by the sister's bedside. She was dreadfully
+hurt, and her wound was a very definite one; but she was of strong
+disposition, not either given to romance or superstition, and when she
+came to herself she said, 'What has happened is most extraordinary, and
+I am very much hurt. It seems inexplicable, but of course there is an
+explanation, and we must wait for it. It will turn out that a lunatic
+has escaped from some asylum and found his way here.' The wound healed,
+and she appeared to get well, but the doctor who was sent for would not
+believe that she could bear so terrible a shock so easily, and insisted
+that she must have change, mental and physical; so her brothers took her
+to Switzerland.</p>
+
+<p>"Being a sensible girl, when she went abroad she threw herself at once
+into the interests of the country she was in. She dried plants, she made
+sketches, she went up mountains, and, as autumn came on, she was the
+person who urged that they should return to Croglin Grange. 'We have
+taken it,' she said, 'for seven years, and we have only been there one;
+and we shall always find it difficult to let a house which is only one
+story high, so we had better return there; lunatics do not escape every
+day.' As she urged it, her brothers wished nothing better, and the
+family returned to Cumberland. From there being no upstairs to the house
+it was impossible to make any great change in their arrangements. The
+sister occupied the same room, but it is unnecessary to say she always
+closed her shutters, which, however, as in many old houses, always left
+one top pane of the window uncovered. The brothers moved, and occupied a
+room together, exactly opposite that of their sister, and they always
+kept loaded pistols in their room.</p>
+
+<p>"The winter passed most peacefully and happily. In the following March
+the sister was suddenly awakened by a sound she remembered only too
+well&mdash;scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window, and, looking up, she
+saw quite clearly in the topmost pane of the window<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> the same hideous
+brown shrivelled face, with glaring eyes, looking in at her. This time
+she screamed as loud as she could. Her brothers rushed out of their room
+with pistols, and out of the front door. The creature was already
+scudding away across the lawn. One of the brothers fired and hit it in
+the leg, but still with the other leg it continued to make way,
+scrambled over the wall into the churchyard, and seemed to disappear
+into a vault which belonged to a family long extinct.</p>
+
+<p>"The next day the brothers summoned all the tenants of Croglin Grange,
+and in their presence the vault was opened. A horrible scene revealed
+itself. The vault was full of coffins; they had been broken open, and
+their contents, horribly mangled and distorted, were scattered over the
+floor. One coffin alone remained intact. Of that the lid had been
+lifted, but still lay loose upon the coffin. They raised it, and there,
+brown, withered, shrivelled, mummified, but quite entire, was the same
+hideous figure which had looked in at the windows of Croglin Grange,
+with the marks of a recent pistol-shot in the leg; and they did&mdash;the
+only thing that can lay a vampire&mdash;they burnt it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_10_10" id="Footnote_10_10"></a><a href="#FNanchor_10_10"><span class="label">[10]</span></a> <i>The Story of my Life</i> (Allen &amp; Unwin).</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXI" id="XXI"></a>XXI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Joseph Glanvil</span><a name="FNanchor_11_11" id="FNanchor_11_11"></a><a href="#Footnote_11_11" class="fnanchor">[11]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>Concerning the apparition of the Ghost of Major George Sydenham, (late
+of Dulverton in the County of Somerset) to Captain William Dyke, late of
+Skilgate in this County also, and now likewise deceased: Be pleased to
+take the Relation of it as I have it from the worthy and learned Dr Tho.
+Dyke, a near kinsman of the Captain's, thus: Shortly after the Major's
+Death, the Doctor was desired to come to the House, to take care of a
+Child that was there sick, and in his way thither he called on the
+Captain, who was very willing to wait on him to the place, because he
+must, as he said, have gone thither that night, though he had not met
+with so encouraging an opportunity. After their arrival there at the
+House, and the Civility of the People shewn them in that Entertainment,
+they were seasonably conducted to their Lodging, which they desired
+might be together in the same Bed: Where after they had lain a while,
+the Captain knocked, and bids the Servant bring him two of the largest
+and biggest Candles lighted that he could get. Whereupon the Doctor
+enquires what he meant by this? The Captain answers, You know Cousin
+what Disputes my Major and I have had touching the Being of a God, and
+the Immortality of the Soul; in which points we could never yet be
+resolv'd, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> we so much sought for and desired it; and therefore it
+was at length fully agreed between us, That he of us that died first,
+should the third Night after his Funeral, between the Hours of Twelve
+and one, come to the little House that is here in the Garden, and there
+give a full account to the Survivor touching these Matters, who should
+be sure to be present there at the set time, and so receive a full
+satisfaction; and this, says the Captain, is the very Night, and I am
+come on purpose to fulfil my promise. The Doctor dissuaded him, minding
+him of the danger of following those strange Counsels, for which we
+could have no Warrant, and that the Devil might by some cunning Device
+make such an advantage of this rash attempt, as might work his utter
+Ruin. The Captain replies, That he had solemnly engag'd, and that
+nothing should discourage him, and adds, that if the Doctor would wake
+awhile with him, he would thank him, if not, he might compose himself to
+his rest; but for his own part he was resolv'd to watch, that he might
+be sure to be present at the Hour appointed: To that purpose he sets his
+watch by him, and as soon as he perceived by it that it was half an Hour
+past 11, he rises, and taking a Candle in each Hand, goes out by a
+back-door, of which he had before gotten the Key, and walks to the
+Garden-house, where he continued two hours and a half, and at his return
+declared, that he had neither saw not heard any thing more than what was
+usual. But I know, said he, that my Major would surely have come, had he
+been able.</p>
+
+<p>About 6 weeks after, the Captain rides to <i>Eaton</i> to place his Son a
+Scholar there, when the Doctor went thither with him. They lodged there
+at an Inn, the Sign was the <i>Christopher</i>, and tarried two or three
+Nights, not lying together now as before at <i>Dulverton</i>, but in two
+several Chambers. The morning before they went thence, the Captain staid
+in his Chamber longer than he was wont to do before he called upon the
+Doctor. At<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> length he comes into the Doctor's Chamber, but in a Visage
+and Form much differing from himself, with his Hair and Eyes staring,
+and his whole Body shaking and trembling: Whereupon at the Doctor
+wondering, presently demanded: What is the matter Cousin Captain? The
+Captain replies, I have seen my Major: At which the Doctor seeming to
+smile, the Captain immediately confirms it, saying, If ever I saw him in
+my life, I saw him but now: And then he related to the Doctor what had
+passed, thus: This morning after it was light, someone comes to my
+bedside, and suddenly drawing back the Curtains, calls, <i>Cap. Cap.</i>
+(which was the term of familiarity that the Major used to call the
+Captain by). To whom I replied, <i>What my Major?</i> To which he returns, <i>I
+could not come at the time appointed, but I am now come to tell you,
+That there is a God, and a very just and terrible one, and if you do not
+turn over a new leaf</i>, (the very Expressions as is by the Doctor
+punctually remembered) <i>you will find it so</i>. The Captain proceeded: On
+the Table by there lay a Sword, which the Major had formerly given me.
+Now after the Apparition had walked a turn or two about the Chamber, he
+took up the Sword, drew it out, and finding it not so clean and bright
+as it ought, <i>Cap. Cap.</i> says he, <i>this Sword did not use to be kept
+after this manner when it was mine</i>. After which Words he suddenly
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>The Captain was not only thoroughly persuaded of what he had thus seen
+and heard, but was from that time observed to be very much affected with
+it: and the Humour that before in him was brisk and jovial, was then
+strangely alter'd; insomuch, as very little Meat would pass down with
+him at Dinner, though at the taking leave of their Friends there was a
+very handsome Treat provided: Yea it was observed that what the Captain
+had thus seen and heard, had a more lasting Influence upon him, and 'tis
+judged by those who were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> well acquainted with his Conversation, that
+the remembrance of this Passage stuck close to him, and that those words
+of his dead Friend were frequently sounding fresh in his Ears, during
+the remainder of his Life, which was about Two Years.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_11_11" id="Footnote_11_11"></a><a href="#FNanchor_11_11"><span class="label">[11]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXII" id="XXII"></a>XXII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Christmas'</span> "Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the year 1676, about the 13th or 14th of this Month October, in the
+Night, between one and two of the Clock, this <i>Jesch Claes</i>, a cripple,
+being in bed with her Husband, who was a Boatman, she was three times
+pulled by her Arm, with which she awaked and cried out, "O Lord! what
+may this be?"</p>
+
+<p>Hereupon she heard an answer in plain words: "Be not afraid, I come in
+the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Your malady which hath for
+many years been upon you shall cease, and it shall be given you from God
+Almighty to walk again. But keep this good news to yourself!" Whereupon
+she cried aloud, "O Lord! that I had a light that I might know what this
+is." Then had she this answer: "There needs no light, the light shall be
+given you from God."</p>
+
+<p>Then came light all over the Room, and she saw a beautiful Youth about
+ten Years of Age, with curled yellow Hair, cloathed in white to the
+Feet, who went from the Bed's-Head to the Chimney with a light, which a
+little after vanished. Hereupon did there did shoot something through
+her Leg, like water, from hip to toe, and when she did find life rising
+up in her dead limb, she fell to crying out, "Lord give me now again the
+feeling, which I have not had in so many years." And farther she
+continued crying and praying to the Lord according to her weak measure.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>Yet she continued that day, Wednesday, and the next day Thursday, as
+before till Evening at six a clock. At which time she sate at the Fire
+dressing the Food. Then came as like rushing noise in both her Ears with
+which it was said to her, "<i>Stand</i>. Your going is given you again."</p>
+
+<p>Then did she immediately stand up, that had so many years crept, and
+went to the door. Her Husband meeting her, being exceedingly afraid,
+drew back. In the mean time while she cried out, "My dear Husband, I can
+go again."</p>
+
+<p>He thinking it was a Spirit, drew back, saying, "You are not my Wife."</p>
+
+<p>His Wife taking hold of him, said, "My dear Husband, I am the self-same
+that hath been married these thirty years to you. The Almighty God hath
+given me my going again."</p>
+
+<p>But her Husband being amazed, drew back to the side of the Room, till at
+last she clasped her Hand about his Neck. And yet he doubted, and said
+to his Daughter, "Is this your Mother?"</p>
+
+<p>She answered, "Yes, Father! this we plainly see. I had seen her go also
+before you came in."</p>
+
+<p>This befell upon Prince's-Island in Amsterdam, where Jesch Claes lived
+with her husband.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIII" id="XXIII"></a>XXIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+
+<p>The haunted room forms part of the old house, with windows looking into
+the court. It adjoins a tower built for defence, for Corby was,
+properly, more a border tower than a castle of any consideration. There
+is a winding staircase in this tower, and the walls are from eight to
+ten feet thick.</p>
+
+<p>When the times became more peaceable, our ancestors enlarged the
+arrow-slit windows, and added to that part of the building which looks
+towards the river Eden; the view of which, with its beautiful banks, we
+now enjoy. But many additions and alterations have been made since that.</p>
+
+<p>To return to the room in question: I must observe that it is by no means
+remote or solitary, being surrounded on all sides by chambers that are
+constantly inhabited. It is accessible by a passage cut through a wall
+eight feet in thickness, and its dimensions are twenty-one by eighteen.
+One side of the wainscotting is covered with tapestry, the remainder is
+decorated with old family pictures, and some ancient pieces of
+embroidery, probably the handiwork of nuns. Over a press, which has
+doors of Venetian glass, is an ancient oaken figure, with a battle-axe
+in his hand, which was one of those formerly placed on the walls of the
+City of Carlisle, to represent guards. There used to be also<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> an
+old-fashioned bed and some dark furniture in this room; but so many were
+the complaints of those who slept there, that I was induced to replace
+some of these articles of furniture by more modern ones, in the hope of
+removing a certain air of gloom, which I thought might have given rise
+to the unaccountable reports of apparitions and extraordinary noises
+which were constantly reaching us. But I regret to say, I did not
+succeed in banishing the nocturnal visitor, which still continues to
+disturb our friends.</p>
+
+<p>I shall pass over numerous instances, and select one as being especially
+remarkable, from the circumstance of the apparition having been seen by
+a clergyman well known and highly respected in this county, who, not six
+weeks ago, repeated the circumstances to a company of twenty persons,
+amongst whom were some who had previously been entire disbelievers in
+such appearances.</p>
+
+<p>The best way of giving you these particulars will be by subjoining an
+extract from my journal, entered at the time the event occurred.</p>
+
+<p><i>Sept. 8, 1803.</i>&mdash;Amongst other guests invited to Corby Castle came the
+Rev. Henry A., of Redburgh, and rector of Greystoke, with Mrs A., his
+wife, who was a Miss S., of Ulverstone. According to previous
+arrangements, they were to have remained with us some days; but their
+visit was cut short in a very unexpected manner. On the morning after
+their arrival we were all assembled at breakfast, when a chaise and four
+dashed up to the door in such haste that it knocked down part of the
+fence of my flower garden. Our curiosity was, of course, awakened to
+know who could be arriving at so early an hour; when, happening to turn
+my eyes towards Mr A., I observed that he appeared extremely agitated.
+"It is our carriage," said he; "I am very sorry, but we must absolutely
+leave you this morning."</p>
+
+<p>We naturally felt and expressed considerable surprise,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> as well as
+regret, at this unexpected departure, representing that we had invited
+Colonel and Mrs S., some friends whom Mr A. particularly desired to
+meet, to dine with us on that day. Our expostulations, however, were
+vain; the breakfast was no sooner over than they departed, leaving us in
+consternation to conjecture what could possibly have occasioned so
+sudden an alteration in their arrangements. I really felt quite uneasy
+lest anything should have given them offence; and we reviewed all the
+occurrences of the preceding evening in order to discover, if offence
+there was, whence it had arisen. But our pains were vain; and after
+talking a great deal about it for some days, other circumstances
+banished the matter from our minds.</p>
+
+<p>It was not till we some time afterwards visited the part of the county
+in which Mr A. resides that we learnt the real cause of his sudden
+departure from Corby. The relation of the fact, as it here follows, is
+in his own words:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after we went to bed, we fell asleep; it might be between one and
+two in the morning when I awoke. I observed that the fire was totally
+extinguished; but, although that was the case, and we had no light, I
+saw a glimmer in the centre of the room, which suddenly increased to a
+bright flame. I looked out, apprehending that something had caught fire,
+when, to my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, with
+bright locks resembling gold, standing by my bedside, in which position
+he remained some minutes, fixing his eyes upon me with a mild and
+benevolent expression. He then glided gently towards the side of the
+chimney, where it is obvious there is no possible egress, and entirely
+disappeared. I found myself again in total darkness, and all remained
+quiet until the usual hour of rising. I declare this to be a true
+account of what I saw at Corby Castle, upon my word as a clergyman."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Crowe, alluding to this story in her "Night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> Side of Nature," said
+that she was acquainted with some of the family and several of the
+friends of the Rev. Henry A., who, she continued, "is still alive,
+though now an old man; and I can most positively assert that his own
+conviction with regard to the nature of this appearance has remained
+ever unshaken. The circumstance made a lasting impression upon his mind,
+and he never willingly speaks of it; but when he does, it is always with
+the greatest seriousness, and he never shrinks from avowing his belief
+that what he saw admits of no other interpretation than the one he then
+put upon it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIV" id="XXIV"></a>XXIV</h2>
+
+<h2>CLERK SAUNDERS</h2>
+
+<h3>"Border Minstrelsy"</h3>
+
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Clerk Saunders and May Margaret<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Walked owre yon garden green;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sad and heavy was the love<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That fell them twa between.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And thro' the dark, and thro' the mirk,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And thro' the leaves o' green,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">He cam that night to Margaret's door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And tirl&eacute;d at the pin.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O wha is that at my bower door,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Sae weel my name does ken?"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"'Tis I, Clerk Saunders, your true love;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">You'll open and let me in?"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But in may come my seven bauld brithers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wi' torches burning bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They'll say&mdash;'We hae but ae sister,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And behold she's wi' a knight!'"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ye'll tak my brand I bear in hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And wi' the same ye'll lift the pin;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then ye may swear, and save your aith,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That ye ne'er let Clerk Saunders in.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Ye'll tak the kerchief in your hand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And wi' the same tie up your een;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Then ye may swear and save your aith,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ye saw me na since yestere'en."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It was about the midnight hour,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">When they asleep were laid,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">When in and cam her seven brothers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wi' torches burning red.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">When in and cam her seven brothers,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wi' torches burning bright;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">They said, "We hae but ae sister,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And behold she's wi' a knight."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then out and spak the first o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"We'll awa' and lat them be."<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And out and spak the second o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"His father has nae mair than he!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And out and spak the third o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"I wot they are lovers dear!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And out and spak the fourth o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"They hae lo'ed this mony a year!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then out and spak the fifth o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"It were sin true love to twain!"<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"'Twere shame," out spak the sixth o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"To slay a sleeping man!"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then up and gat the seventh o' them,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And never a word spak he;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">But he has striped his bright brown brand<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Through Saunders' fair bodie.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Clerk Saunders started, and Margaret she turned,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Into his arms as asleep she lay;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And sad and silent was the night,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">That was atween thir twae.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">And they lay still and sleepit sound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Till the day began to daw;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And kindly to him she did say,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"It is time, love, you were awa'."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">But he lay still, and sleepit sound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Till the sun began to sheen;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She looked atween her and the wa',<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And dull, dull were his een.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">She turned the blankets to the foot,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">The sheets unto the wa',<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And there she saw his bloody wound,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And her tears fast doun did fa'.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then in and cam her father dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Said, "Let a' your mournin' be;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll carry the dead corpse to the clay<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And then come back and comfort thee.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Hold your tongue, my daughter dear,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And let your mourning be;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">I'll wed you to a higher match<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than his father's son could be."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Gae comfort weel your seven sons, father,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For man sall ne'er comfort me;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Ye'll marry me wi' the Queen o' Heaven,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">For wedded I ne'er sall be!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">The clinking bell gaed through the toun,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To carry the dead corse to the clay;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And Clerk Saunders stood at Margaret's window,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Twas an hour before the day.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O'are ye sleeping, Margaret?" he says,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"Or are ye waking presentlie?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gie me my faith and troth again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot, true love, I gied to thee.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I canna rest, Margaret," he says,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">"Doun in the grave where I must be,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Till ye gie me my faith and troth again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot, true love, I gied to thee."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Your faith and troth ye sall never get,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Nor our true love sall never twin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until ye come within my bower,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And kiss me cheek and chin."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"My mouth it is full cold, Margaret,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">It has the smell, now, of the ground;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And if I kiss thy comely mouth,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">To the grave thou will be bound.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot the wild-fowls are boding day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gie me my faith and troth again,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And let me fare me on my way."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Thy faith and troth thou sall na get,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And our true love shall never twin,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until ye tell what comes of women,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot, who die in strong travailing."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Their beds are made in the heavens high,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Down at the foot of our good Lord's knee,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Weel set about wi' gillyflowers;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot sweet company for to see.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">I wot the wild-fowl are boding day;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The psalms of heaven will soon be sung,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And I, ere now, will be missed away."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then she has ta'en a crystal wand,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And she has stroken her troth thereon,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">She has given it him out at the shot-window,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Wi' mony a sigh and heavy groan.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"I thank ye, Margaret; I thank ye, Margaret;<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And aye I thank ye heartilie;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gin ever the dead come for the quick,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Be sure, Margaret, I'll come for thee."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">It's hosen, and shoon, and gown, alane,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">She clam the wa' and after him;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Until she cam to the green forest,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And there she lost the sight o' him.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Is there ony room at your head, Saunders,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Is there ony room at your feet?<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Or ony room at your side, Saunders,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Where fain, fain, I wad sleep?"<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"There's nae room at my head, Margaret,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">There's nae room at my feet;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">My bed it is full lowly now:<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">'Mang the hungry worms I sleep.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span><br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Cauld mould is my covering now,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">But and my winding-sheet;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">The dew it falls nae sooner down,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Than my resting-place is weet.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"But plait a wand o' the bonnie birk<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And lay it on my breast;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">And shed a tear upon my grave,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And wish my saul gude rest.<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"And fair Margaret, and rare Margaret,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And Margaret o' veritie,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Gin e'er ye love anither man,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">Ne'er love him as ye did me."<br /></span>
+</div><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">Then up and crew the milk-white cock,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And up and crew the gray;<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Her lover vanished in the air,<br /></span>
+<span class="i2">And she gaed weeping away.<br /></span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></div></div>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXV" id="XXV"></a>XXV</h2>
+
+<h2>DOROTHY DURANT</h2>
+
+<h3>By Mrs <span class="smcap">Crowe</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A schoolboy named Bligh, who went to Launceston Grammar School, of which
+the Rev. John Ruddle was headmaster, from being a lad of bright parts
+and no common attainments, became on a sudden moody, dejected, and
+melancholy. His friends, seeing the change without being able to find
+the cause, attributed it to laziness, an aversion to school, or to some
+other motive which he was ashamed to avow. He was led, however, to tell
+his brother, after some time, that in a field through which he passed to
+and from school, he invariably met the apparition of a woman, whom he
+personally knew while living, and who had been dead about eight years.
+Ridicule, threats, persuasions, were alike used in vain by the family to
+induce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Finally, Mr Ruddle was sent
+for, and to him the boy ingenuously told the time, manner, and frequency
+of this appearance. It was in a field called Higher Broomfield. The
+apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire, met him two or
+three times while he passed through the field, glided hastily by him,
+but never spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about two months
+before he took any particular notice of it; at length the appearance
+became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but always
+in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it came
+close to him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
+this unwelcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
+returned from it through a lane, in which place, between the quarry pack
+and nursery, it always met him. Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his
+own senses, or to obtain credit with any of his family, he prevailed
+upon Mr Ruddle to accompany him to the place.</p>
+
+<p>"I arose," says this clergyman, "the next morning, and went with him.
+The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in an
+open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the
+field, and had not gone a third part before the spectrum in the shape of
+a woman, with all the circumstances he had described the day before, so
+far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would permit me
+to discover, passed by.</p>
+
+<p>"I was a little surprised at it, and though I had taken up a firm
+resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back;
+yet I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide, and
+therefore, telling him I was satisfied of the truth of his statement, we
+walked to the end of the field and returned&mdash;nor did the ghost meet us
+that time but once.</p>
+
+<p>"On the 27th July, 1665, I went to the haunted field by myself, and
+walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned and took
+the other walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, much about the same
+place in which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It
+appeared to move swifter than before, and seemed to be about ten feet
+from me on my right hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it,
+as I had determined with myself beforehand. The evening of this day, the
+parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, I
+proposed to them our going altogether to the place next morning. We
+accordingly met at the stile we had appointed; thence we all four walked
+into the field together. We had not gone more than half the field before
+the ghost made its appearance. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> then came over the stile just before
+us, and moved with such rapidity that by the time we had gone six or
+seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my head and ran after it,
+with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over the stile at which we
+entered, and no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at one place and the
+young man at another, but we could discern nothing; whereas I do aver
+that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out
+of sight in that short space of time. Two things I observed in this
+day's appearance: first, a spaniel dog, which had followed the company
+unregarded, barked and ran away as the spectrum passed by; whence it is
+easy to conclude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the
+apparition. Secondly, the motion of the spectrum was not <i>gradatim</i> or
+by steps, or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding, as children
+upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which punctually answers the
+description the ancients give of the motion of these Lamures. This
+ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted, the
+old gentleman and his wife. They well knew this woman, Dorothy Durant,
+in her life-time; were at her burial, and now plainly saw her features
+in this apparition.</p>
+
+<p>"The next morning, being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and
+walked for about an hour's space in meditation and prayer in the field
+next adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the
+haunted field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the
+ghost appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short
+sentences with a loud voice; whereupon it approached me, but slowly, and
+when I came near it moved not. I spoke again, and it answered in a voice
+neither audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified,
+and therefore persisted until it spoke again and gave me satisfaction;
+but the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon the same
+evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span> same place, and
+after a few words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth
+appear now, nor hath appeared since, nor ever will more to any man's
+disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an
+hour.</p>
+
+<p>"These things are true," concludes the Rev. John Ruddle, "and I know
+them to be so, with as much certainty as eyes and ears can give me; and
+until I can be persuaded that my senses all deceive me about their
+proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive me of the strongest
+inducement to believe the Christian religion, I must and will assert
+that the things contained in this paper are true."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVI" id="XXVI"></a>XXVI</h2>
+
+<h2>PEARLIN JEAN</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>It was Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the antiquary, who furnished this
+account of Pearlin Jean's hauntings at Allanbank.</p>
+
+<p>"In my youth," he says, "Pearlin Jean was the most remarkable ghost in
+Scotland, and my terror when a child. Our old nurse, Jenny Blackadder,
+had been a servant at Allanbank, and often heard her rustling in silks
+up and down stairs, and along the passages. She never saw her; but her
+husband did.</p>
+
+<p>"She was a French woman, whom the first baronet of Allanbank, then Mr
+Stuart, met with at Paris, during his tour to finish his education as a
+gentleman. Some people said she was a nun; in which case she must have
+been a Sister of Charity, as she appears not to have been confined to a
+cloister. After some time, young Stuart either became faithless to the
+lady or was suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had got
+into his carriage at the door of the hotel, when his Dido unexpectedly
+made her appearance, and stepping on the forewheel of the coach to
+address her lover, he ordered the postilion to drive on; the consequence
+of which was that the lady fell, and one of the wheels going over her
+forehead, killed her.</p>
+
+<p>"In a dusky autumnal evening, when Mr Stuart drove under the arched
+gateway of Allanbank, he perceived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> Pearlin Jean sitting on the top, her
+head and shoulders covered with blood.</p>
+
+<p>"After this, for many years, the house was haunted; doors shut and
+opened with great noise at midnight; the rustling of silks and pattering
+of high-heeled shoes were heard in bedrooms and passages. Nurse Jenny
+said there were seven ministers called in together at one time to <i>lay</i>
+the spirit; 'but they did no mickle good, my dear.'</p>
+
+<p>"The picture of the ghost was hung between those of her lover and his
+lady, and kept her comparatively quiet; but when taken away, she became
+worse-natured than ever. This portrait was in the present Sir J.G.'s
+possession. I am unwilling to record its fate.</p>
+
+<p>"The ghost was designated Pearlin, from always wearing a great quantity
+of that sort of lace.</p>
+
+<p>"Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Blackadder was her lover (I
+remember Thomas very well), they made an assignation to meet one
+moonlight night in the orchard at Allanbank. True Thomas, of course, was
+the first comer; and seeing a female figure in a light-coloured dress,
+at some distance, he ran forward with open arms to embrace his Jenny;
+when lo and behold! as he neared the spot where the figure stood, it
+vanished; and presently he saw it again at the very end of the orchard,
+a considerable way off. Thomas went home in a fright; but Jenny, who
+came last, and saw nothing, forgave him, and they were married.</p>
+
+<p>"Many years after this, about the year 1790, two ladies paid a visit at
+Allanbank&mdash;I think the house was then let&mdash;and passed the night there.
+They had never heard a word about the ghost; but they were disturbed the
+whole night with something walking backwards and forwards in their
+bed-chamber. This I had from the best authority."</p>
+
+<p>To this account may be added that a housekeeper, called Betty Norrie,
+who, in more recent times, lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> many years at Allanbank, positively
+averred that she, and many other persons, had frequently seen Pearlin
+Jean; and, moreover, stated that they were so used to her as to be no
+longer alarmed at the noises she made.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVII" id="XXVII"></a>XXVII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE DENTON HALL GHOST</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+
+<p>A day or two after my arrival at Denton Hall, when all around was yet
+new to me, I had accompanied my friends to a ball given in the
+neighbourhood, and returned heartily fatigued. At this time I need not
+blush, nor you smile, when I say that on that evening I had met, for the
+second time, one with whose destinies my own were doomed to become
+connected.</p>
+
+<p>I think I was sitting upon an antique carved chair, near to the fire, in
+the room where I slept, busied in arranging my hair, and thinking over
+some of the events of the day. Whether I had dropped into a
+half-slumber, I cannot say; but on looking up&mdash;for I had my face bent
+toward the fire&mdash;there seemed sitting on a similar highbacked chair, on
+the other side of the ancient tiled fireplace, an old lady, whose air
+and dress were so remarkable that to this hour they seem as fresh in my
+memory as they were the day after the vision. She appeared to be dressed
+in a flowered satin gown, of a cut then out of date. It was peaked and
+long-waisted. The fabric of the satin had that extreme of glossy
+stiffness which old fabrics of this kind exhibit. She wore a stomacher.
+On her wrinkled fingers appeared some rings of great size and seeming
+value; but, what was most remarkable, she wore also a satin hood of a
+peculiar shape. It was glossy like the gown, but seemed to be stiffened
+either by whalebone or some other material. Her age seemed considerable,
+and the face, though not unpleasant, was somewhat hard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> and severe and
+indented with minute wrinkles. I confess that so entirely was my
+attention engrossed by what was passing in my mind, that, though I felt
+mightily confused, I was not startled (in the emphatic sense) by the
+apparition. In fact, I deemed it to be some old lady, perhaps a
+housekeeper, or dependent in the family, and, therefore, though rather
+astonished, was by no means frightened by my visitant, supposing me to
+be awake, which I am convinced was the case, though few persons believe
+me on this point.</p>
+
+<p>My own impression is that I stared somewhat rudely, in the wonder of the
+moment, at the hard, but lady-like features of my aged visitor. But she
+left me small time to think, addressing me in a familiar half-whisper
+and with a constant restless motion of the hand which aged persons, when
+excited, often exhibit in addressing the young. "Well, young lady," said
+my mysterious companion, "and so you've been at yon hall to-night! and
+highly ye've been delighted there! Yet if you could see as I can see, or
+could know as I can know, troth! I guess your pleasure would abate. 'Tis
+well for you, young lady, peradventure, ye see not with my eyes"&mdash;and at
+the moment, sure enough, her eyes, which were small, grey, and in no way
+remarkable, twinkled with a light so severe that the effect was
+unpleasant in the extreme. "'Tis well for you and them," she continued,
+"that ye cannot count the cost. Time was when hospitality could be kept
+in England, and the guest not ruin the master of the feast&mdash;but that's
+all vanished now: pride and poverty&mdash;pride and poverty, young lady, are
+an ill-matched pair, Heaven kens!" My tongue, which had at first almost
+faltered in its office, now found utterance. By a kind of instinct, I
+addressed my strange visitant in her own manner and humour. "And are we,
+then, so much poorer than in days of yore?" were the words that I spoke.
+My visitor seemed half startled at the sound of my voice, as at
+something unaccustomed,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span> and went on, rather answering my question by
+implication than directly: "'Twas not all hollowness then," she
+exclaimed, ceasing somewhat her hollow whisper; "the land was then the
+lord's, and that which <i>seemed, was</i>. The child, young lady, was not
+then mortgaged in the cradle, and, mark ye, the bride, when she kneeled
+at the altar, gave not herself up, body and soul, to be the bondswoman
+of the Jew, but to be the helpmate of the spouse." "The Jew!" I
+exclaimed in surprise, for then I understood not the allusion. "Ay,
+young lady! the Jew," was the rejoinder. "'Tis plain ye know not who
+rules. 'Tis all hollow yonder! all hollow, all hollow! to the very
+glitter of the side-board, all false! all false! all hollow! Away with
+such make-believe finery!" And here again the hollow voice rose a
+little, and the dim grey eye glistened. "Ye mortgage the very oaks of
+your ancestors&mdash;I saw the planting of them; and now 'tis all painting,
+gilding, varnishing and veneering. Houses call ye them? Whited
+sepulchres, young lady, whited sepulchres. Trust not all that seems to
+glisten. Fair though it seems, 'tis but the product of disease&mdash;even as
+is the pearl in your hair, young lady, that glitters in the mirror
+yonder,&mdash;not more specious than is all,&mdash;ay, <i>all</i> ye have seen
+to-night."</p>
+
+<p>As my strange visitor pronounced these words, I instinctively turned my
+gaze to a large old-fashioned mirror that leaned from the wall of the
+chamber. 'Twas but for a moment. But when I again turned my head, my
+visitant was no longer there! I heard plainly, as I turned, the distinct
+rustle of the silk, as if she had risen and was leaving the room. I
+seemed distinctly to hear this, together with the quick, short, easy
+footstep with which females of rank of that period were taught to glide
+rather than to walk; this I seemed to hear, but of what appeared the
+antique old lady I saw no more. The suddenness and strangeness of this
+event for a moment sent the blood back to my heart. Could I have found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>
+voice, I should, I think, have screamed, but that was, for a moment,
+beyond my power. A few seconds recovered me. By a sort of impulse I
+rushed to the door, outside which I now heard the footsteps of some of
+the family, when, to my utter astonishment, I found it was&mdash;locked! I
+now recollected that I myself locked it before sitting down.</p>
+
+<p>Though somewhat ashamed to give utterance to what I really believed as
+to this matter, the strange adventure of the night was made a subject of
+conversation at the breakfast-table next morning. On the words leaving
+my lips, I saw my host and hostess exchange looks with each other, and
+soon found that the tale I had to tell was not received with the air
+which generally meets such relations. I was not repelled by an angry or
+ill-bred incredulity, or treated as one of diseased fancy, to whom
+silence is indirectly recommended as the alternative of being laughed
+at. In short, it was not attempted to be denied or concealed that I was
+not the first who had been alarmed in a manner, if not exactly similar,
+yet just as mysterious; that visitors, like myself, had actually given
+way to these terrors so far as to quit the house in consequence; and
+that servants were sometimes not to be prevented from sharing in the
+same contagion. At the same time they told me this, my host and hostess
+declared that custom and continued residence had long exempted all
+regular inmates of the mansion from any alarms or terrors. The
+visitations, whatever they were, seemed to be confined to newcomers, and
+to them it was by no means a matter of frequent occurrence.</p>
+
+<p>In the neighbourhood, I found, this strange story was well known; that
+the house was regularly set down as "haunted" all the country round, and
+that the spirit, or goblin, or whatever it was that was embodied in
+these appearances, was familiarly known by the name of "Silky."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>At a distance, those to whom I have related my night's adventure have
+one and all been sceptical, and accounted for the whole by supposing me
+to have been half asleep, or in a state resembling somnambulism. All I
+can say is, that my own impressions are directly contrary to this
+supposition; and that I feel as sure that I saw the figure that sat
+before me with my bodily eyes, as I am sure I now see you with them.
+Without affecting to deny that I was somewhat shocked by the adventure,
+I must repeat that I suffered no unreasonable alarm, nor suffered my
+fancy to overcome my better spirit of womanhood.</p>
+
+<p>I certainly slept no more in that room, and in that to which I removed I
+had one of the daughters of my hostess as a companion; but I have never,
+from that hour to this, been convinced that I did not actually encounter
+something more than is natural&mdash;if not an actual being in some other
+state of existence. My ears have not been deceived, if my eyes
+were&mdash;which, I repeat, I cannot believe.</p>
+
+<p>The warnings so strongly shadowed forth have been too true. The
+gentleman at whose house I that night was a guest has long since filled
+an untimely grave! In that splendid hall, since that time, strangers
+have lorded it&mdash;and I myself have long since ceased to think of such
+scenes as I partook of that evening&mdash;the envied object of the attention
+of one whose virtues have survived the splendid inheritance to which he
+seemed destined.</p>
+
+<p>Whether this be a tale of delusion and superstition, or something more
+than that, it is, at all events, not without a legend for its
+foundation. There is some obscure and dark rumour of secrets strangely
+obtained and enviously betrayed by a rival sister, ending in deprivation
+of reason and death; and that the betrayer still walks by times in the
+deserted Hall which she rendered tenantless, always prophetic of
+disaster to those she encounters. So has it been with me, certainly; and
+more than me,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> if those who say it say true. It is many, many years
+since I saw the scene of this adventure; but I have heard that since
+that time the same mysterious visitings have more than once been
+renewed; that midnight curtains have been drawn by an arm clothed in
+rustling silks; and the same form, clad in dark brocade, has been seen
+gliding along the dark corridors of that ancient, grey, and time-worn
+mansion, ever prophetic of death or misfortune.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXVIII" id="XXVIII"></a>XXVIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY</h2>
+
+<h3>(Doubtfully attributed to <span class="smcap">Charles Dickens</span>)</h3>
+
+
+<p>My wife's sister, Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;, was left a widow at the age of thirty-five,
+with two children, girls, of whom she was passionately fond. She carried
+on the draper's business at Bognor, established by her husband. Being
+still a very handsome woman, there were several suitors for her hand.
+The only favoured one amongst them was a Mr Barton. My wife never liked
+this Mr Barton, and made no secret of her feelings to her sister, whom
+she frequently told that Mr Barton only wanted to be master of the
+little haberdashery shop in Bognor. He was a man in poor circumstances,
+and had no other motive in his proposal of marriage, so my wife thought,
+than to better himself.</p>
+
+<p>On the 23rd of August 1831 Mrs M&mdash;&mdash; arranged to go with Barton to a
+picnic party at Goodwood Park, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, who had
+kindly thrown open his grounds to the public for the day. My wife, a
+little annoyed at her going out with this man, told her she had much
+better remain at home to look after her children and attend to the
+business. Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;, however, bent on going, made arrangements about
+leaving the shop, and got my wife to promise to see to her little girls
+while she was away.</p>
+
+<p>The party set out in a four-wheeled phaeton, with a pair of ponies
+driven by Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;, and a gig for which I lent the horse.</p>
+
+<p>Now we did not expect them to come back till nine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> or ten o'clock, at
+any rate. I mention this particularly to show that there could be no
+expectation of their earlier return in the mind of my wife, to account
+for what follows.</p>
+
+<p>At six o'clock that bright summer's evening my wife went out into the
+garden to call the children. Not finding them, she went all round the
+place in her search till she came to the empty stable; thinking they
+might have run in there to play, she pushed open the door; there,
+standing in the darkest corner, she saw Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;. My wife was surprised
+to see her, certainly; for she did not expect her return so soon; but,
+oddly enough, it did not strike her as being singular to see her
+<i>there</i>. Vexed as she had felt with her all day for going, and rather
+glad, in her woman's way, to have something entirely different from the
+genuine <i>casus belli</i> to hang a retort upon, my wife said: "Well,
+Harriet, I should have thought another dress would have done quite as
+well for your picnic as that best black silk you have on." My wife was
+the elder of the twain, and had always assumed a little of the air of
+counsellor to her sister. Black silks were thought a great deal more of
+at that time than they are just now, and silk of any kind was held
+particularly inconsistent wear for Wesleyan Methodists, to which
+denomination we belonged.</p>
+
+<p>Receiving no answer, my wife said: "Oh, well, Harriet, if you can't take
+a word of reproof without being sulky, I'll leave you to yourself"; and
+then she came into the house to tell me the party had returned and that
+she had seen her sister in the stable, not in the best of tempers. At
+the moment it did not seem extraordinary to me that my wife should have
+met her sister in the stable.</p>
+
+<p>I waited indoors some time, expecting them to return my horse. Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;
+was my neighbour, and, being always on most friendly terms, I wondered
+that none of the party had come in to tell us about the day's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> pleasure.
+I thought I would just run in and see how they had got on. To my great
+surprise the servant told me they had not returned. I began, then, to
+feel anxiety about the result. My wife, however, having seen Harriet in
+the stable, refused to believe the servant's assertion; and said there
+was no doubt of their return, but that they had probably left word to
+say they were not come back, in order to offer a plausible excuse for
+taking a further drive, and detaining my horse for another hour or so.</p>
+
+<p>At eleven o'clock Mr Pinnock, my brother-in-law, who had been one of the
+party, came in, apparently much agitated. As soon as she saw him, and
+before he had time to speak, my wife seemed to know what he had to say.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter?" she said; "something has happened to Harriet, I
+know!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes" replied Mr Pinnock; "if you wish to see her alive, you must come
+with me directly to Goodwood."</p>
+
+<p>From what he said it appeared that one of the ponies had never been
+properly broken in; that the man from whom the turn-out was hired for
+the day had cautioned Mrs M&mdash;&mdash; respecting it before they started; and
+that he had lent it reluctantly, being the only pony to match in the
+stable at the time, and would not have lent it at all had he not known
+Mrs M&mdash;&mdash; to be a remarkably good whip.</p>
+
+<p>On reaching Goodwood, it seems, the gentlemen of the party had got out,
+leaving the ladies to take a drive round the park in the phaeton. One or
+both of the ponies must then have taken fright at something in the road,
+for Mrs M&mdash;&mdash; had scarcely taken the reins when the ponies shied. Had
+there been plenty of room she would readily have mastered the
+difficulty; but it was in a narrow road, where a gate obstructed the
+way. Some men rushed to open the gate&mdash;too late. The three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> other ladies
+jumped out at the beginning of the accident; but Mrs M&mdash;&mdash; still held on
+to the reins, seeking to control her ponies, until, finding it was
+impossible for the men to get the gate open in time, she too sprang
+forward; and at the same instant the ponies came smash on to the gate.
+She had made her spring too late, and fell heavily to the ground on her
+head. The heavy, old-fashioned comb of the period, with which her hair
+was looped up, was driven into her skull by the force of the fall. The
+Duke of Richmond, a witness to the accident, ran to her assistance,
+lifted her up, and rested her head upon his knees. The only words Mrs
+M&mdash;&mdash; had spoken were uttered at the time: "Good God, my children!" By
+direction of the Duke she was immediately conveyed to a neighbouring
+inn, where every assistance, medical and otherwise, that forethought or
+kindness could suggest was afforded her.</p>
+
+<p>At six o'clock in the evening, the time at which my wife had gone into
+the stable and seen what we now knew had been her spirit, Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;, in
+her sole interval of returning consciousness, had made a violent but
+unsuccessful attempt to speak. From her glance having wandered round the
+room, in solemn awful wistfulness, it had been conjectured she wished to
+see some relative or friend not then present. I went to Goodwood in the
+gig with Mr Pinnock, and arrived in time to see my sister-in-law die at
+two o'clock in the morning. Her only conscious moments had been those in
+which she laboured unsuccessfully to speak, which had occurred at six
+o'clock. She wore a black silk dress.</p>
+
+<p>When we came to dispose of her business, and to wind up her affairs,
+there was scarcely anything left for the two orphan girls. Mrs M&mdash;&mdash;'s
+father, however, being well-to-do, took them to bring up. At his death,
+which happened soon afterwards, his property went to his eldest son, who
+speedily dissipated the inheritance. During a space of two years the
+children were taken as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> visitors by various relations in turn, and lived
+an unhappy life with no settled home.</p>
+
+<p>For some time I had been debating with myself how to help these
+children, having many boys and girls of my own to provide for. I had
+almost settled to take them myself, bad as trade was with me, at the
+time, and bring them up with my own family, when one day business called
+me to Brighton. The business was so urgent that it necessitated my
+travelling at night.</p>
+
+<p>I set out from Bognor in a close-headed gig on a beautiful moonlight
+winter's night, when the crisp frozen snow lay deep over the earth, and
+its fine glistening dust was whirled about in little eddies on the bleak
+night-wind&mdash;driven now and then in stinging powder against my tingling
+cheek, warm and glowing in the sharp air. I had taken my great "Bose"
+(short for "Boatswain") for company. He lay, blinking wakefully,
+sprawled out on the spare seat of the gig beneath a mass of warm rugs.</p>
+
+<p>Between Littlehampton and Worthing is a lonely piece of road, long and
+dreary, through bleak and bare open country, where the snow lay
+knee-deep, sparkling in the moonlight. It was so cheerless that I turned
+round to speak to my dog, more for the sake of hearing the sound of a
+voice than anything else. "Good Bose," I said, patting him, "there's a
+good dog!" Then suddenly I noticed he shivered, and shrank underneath
+the wraps. Then the horse required my attention, for he gave a start,
+and was going wrong, and had nearly taken me into the ditch.</p>
+
+<p>Then I looked up. Walking at my horse's head, dressed in a sweeping
+robe, so white that it shone dazzling against the white snow, I saw a
+lady, her back turned to me, her head bare; her hair dishevelled and
+strayed, showing sharp and black against her white dress.</p>
+
+<p>I was at first so much surprised at seeing a lady, so dressed, exposed
+to the open night, and such a night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> as this, that I scarcely knew what
+to do. Recovering myself, I called out to know if I could render
+assistance&mdash;if she wished to ride? No answer. I drove faster, the horse
+blinking, and shying, and trembling the while, his ears laid back in
+abject terror. Still the figure maintained its position close to my
+horse's head. Then I thought that what I saw was no woman, but perchance
+a man disguised for the purpose of robbing me, seeking an opportunity to
+seize the bridle and stop the horse. Filled with this idea, I said,
+"Good Bose! hi! look at it, boy!" but the dog only shivered as if in
+fright. Then we came to a place where four cross-roads meet.</p>
+
+<p>Determined to know the worst, I pulled up the horse. I fetched Bose,
+unwilling, out by the ears. He was a good dog at anything from a rat to
+a man, but he slunk away that night into the hedge, and lay there, his
+head between his paws, whining and howling. I walked straight up to the
+figure, still standing by the horse's head. As I walked, the figure
+turned, and I saw <i>Harriet's face</i> as plainly as I see you now&mdash;white
+and calm&mdash;placid, as idealised and beautified by death. I must own that,
+though not a nervous man, in that instant I felt sick and faint. Harriet
+looked me full in the face with a long, eager, silent look. I knew then
+it was her spirit, and felt a strange calm come over me, for I knew it
+was nothing to harm me. When I could speak, I asked what troubled her.
+She looked at me still, never changing that cold fixed stare. Then I
+felt in my mind it was her children, and I said:</p>
+
+<p>"Harriet! is it for your children you are troubled?"</p>
+
+<p>No answer.</p>
+
+<p>"Harriet," I continued, "if for these you are troubled, be assured they
+shall never want while I have power to help them. Rest in peace!"</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>I put up my hand to wipe from my forehead the cold perspiration which
+had gathered there. When I took<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> my hand away from shading my eyes, the
+figure was gone. I was alone on the bleak snow-covered ground. The
+breeze, that had been hushed before, breathed coolly and gratefully on
+my face, and the cold stars glimmered and sparkled sharply in the far
+blue heavens. My dog crept up to me and furtively licked my hand, as who
+would say, "Good master, don't be angry. I have served you in all but
+this."</p>
+
+<p>I took the children and brought them up till they could help
+themselves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXIX" id="XXIX"></a>XXIX</h2>
+
+<h2>CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Dale Owen's</span> "Footfalls"</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the month of September 1857 Captain German Wheatcroft, of the 6th
+(Inniskilling) Dragoons, went out to India to join his regiment.</p>
+
+<p>His wife remained in England, residing at Cambridge. On the night
+between the 14th and 15th of November 1857, towards morning, she dreamed
+that she saw her husband, looking anxious and ill; upon which she
+immediately awoke, much agitated. It was bright moonlight; and, looking
+up, she perceived the same figure standing by her bedside. He appeared
+in his uniform, the hands pressed across the breast, the hair
+dishevelled, the face very pale. His large dark eyes were fixed full
+upon her; their expression was that of great excitement, and there was a
+peculiar contraction of the mouth, habitual to him when agitated. She
+saw him, even to each minute particular of his dress, as distinctly as
+she had ever done in her life; and she remembers to have noticed between
+his hands the white of his shirt-bosom, unstained, however, with blood.
+The figure seemed to bend forward, as if in pain, and to make an effort
+to speak; but there was no sound. It remained visible, the wife thinks,
+as long as a minute, and then disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>Her first idea was to ascertain if she was actually awake. She rubbed
+her eyes with the sheet, and felt that the touch was real. Her little
+nephew was in bed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> with her; she bent over the sleeping child and
+listened to its breathing; the sound was distinct, and she became
+convinced that what she had seen was no dream. It need hardly be added
+that she did not again go to sleep that night.</p>
+
+<p>Next morning she related all this to her mother, expressing her
+conviction, though she had noticed no marks of blood on his dress, that
+Captain Wheatcroft was either killed or grievously wounded. So fully
+impressed was she with the reality of that apparition, that she
+thenceforth refused all invitations. A young friend urged her soon
+afterwards to go with her to a fashionable concert, reminding her that
+she had received from Malta, sent by her husband, a handsome dress
+cloak, which she had never yet worn. But she positively declined,
+declaring that, uncertain as she was whether she was not already a
+widow, she would never enter a place of amusement until she had letters
+from her husband (if indeed he still lived) of a later date than the
+14th of November.</p>
+
+<p>It was on a Tuesday, in the month of December 1857, that the telegram
+regarding the actual fate of Captain Wheatcroft was published in London.
+It was to the effect that he was killed before Lucknow on the
+<i>fifteenth</i> of November.</p>
+
+<p>This news, given in the morning paper, attracted the attention of Mr
+Wilkinson, a London solicitor, who had in charge Captain Wheatcroft's
+affairs. When at a later period this gentleman met the widow, she
+informed him that she had been quite prepared for the melancholy news,
+but that she had felt sure her husband could not have been killed on the
+15th of November, inasmuch as it was during the night between the 14th
+and 15th that he appeared to her.</p>
+
+<p>The certificate from the War Office, however, which it became Mr
+Wilkinson's duty to obtain, confirmed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> the date given in the telegram,
+its tenor being as follows:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"No. 9579/1 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;      <span class="smcap">War Office</span>,<br /></span>
+<span class="i6"><i>30th January 1858.</i><br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"These are to certify that it appears, by the records in this office,
+that Captain German Wheatcroft of the 6th Dragoon Guards, was killed in
+action on the 15th of November 1857.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i6">"(<i>Signed</i>) B. <span class="smcap">Hawes</span>."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>The difference of longitude between London and Lucknow being about five
+hours, three or four o'clock a.m. in London would be eight or nine
+o'clock a.m. at Lucknow. But it was in the <i>afternoon</i> not in the
+<i>morning</i>, as will be seen in the sequel, that Captain Wheatcroft was
+killed. Had he fallen on the 15th, therefore, the apparition to his wife
+would have appeared several hours before the engagement in which he
+fell, and while he was yet alive and well.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXX" id="XXX"></a>XXX</h2>
+
+<h2>THE IRON CAGE</h2>
+
+<h3>From Mrs <span class="smcap">Crowe's</span> "Night Side of Nature"</h3>
+
+
+<p>[As you express a wish to know what credit is to be attached to a tale
+sent forth after a lapse of between thirty and forty years, I will state
+the facts as they were recalled last year by a daughter of Sir William
+A. C&mdash;&mdash;.]</p>
+
+<p>Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother Charles, went abroad
+towards the end of the year 1786. After trying several different places,
+we determined to settle at Lille, where we had letters of introduction
+to several of the best French families. There Sir James left us, and
+after passing a few days in an uncomfortable lodging, we engaged a nice
+large family house, which we liked much, and which we obtained at a very
+low rent, even for that part of the world.</p>
+
+<p>About three weeks after we were established there, I walked one day with
+my mother to the bankers, for the purpose of delivering our letter of
+credit from Sir Robert Herries and drawing some money, which being paid
+in heavy five-frank pieces, we found we could not carry, and therefore
+requested the banker to send, saying, "We live in the Place du Lion
+d'Or." Whereupon he looked surprised, and observed that he knew of no
+house there fit for us, "except, indeed," he added, "the one that has
+been long uninhabited on account of the <i>revenant</i> that walks about it."</p>
+
+<p>He said this quite seriously, and in a natural tone of voice; in spite
+of which we laughed, and were quite entertained at the idea of a ghost;
+but, at the same<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> time, we begged him not to mention the thing to our
+servants, lest they should take any fancies into their heads; and my
+mother and I resolved to say nothing about the matter to anyone. "I
+suppose it is the ghost," said my mother, laughing, "that wakes us so
+often by walking over our heads." We had, in fact, been awakened several
+nights by a heavy foot, which we supposed to be that of one of the
+men-servants, of whom we had three English and four French. The English
+ones, men and women, every one of them, returned ultimately to England
+with us.</p>
+
+<p>A night or two afterwards, being again awakened by the step, my mother
+asked Creswell: "Who slept in the room above us?" "No one, my lady," she
+replied, "it is a large empty garret."</p>
+
+<p>About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came to my mother, one
+morning, and told her that all the French servants talked of going away,
+because there was a <i>revenant</i> in the house; adding, that there seemed
+to be a strange story attached to the place, which was said, together
+with some other property, to have belonged to a young man, whose
+guardian, who was also his uncle, had treated him cruelly, and confined
+him in an iron cage; and as he had subsequently disappeared, it was
+conjectured he had been murdered. This uncle, after inheriting the
+property, had suddenly quitted the house, and sold it to the father of
+the man of whom we had hired it. Since that period, though it had been
+several times let, nobody had ever stayed in it above a week or two;
+and, for a considerable time past, it had had no tenant at all.</p>
+
+<p>"And do you really believe all this nonsense, Creswell?" said my mother.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I don't know, my lady," answered she, "but there is the iron cage
+in the garret over your bedroom, where you may see it, if you please."</p>
+
+<p>Of course we rose to go, and just at that moment an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span> old officer, with
+his Croix de St Louis, called on us, we invited him to accompany us, and
+we ascended together. We found, as Creswell had said, a large empty
+garret, with bare brick walls, and in the further corner of it stood an
+iron cage, such as wild beasts are kept in, only higher; it was about
+four feet square, and eight in height, and there was an iron ring in the
+wall at the back, to which was attached an old rusty chain, with a
+collar fixed to the end of it! I confess it made my blood creep, when I
+thought of the possibility of any human being having inhabited it! And
+our old friend expressed as much horror as ourselves, assuring us that
+it must certainly have been constructed for some such dreadful purpose.
+As, however, we were no believer in ghosts, we all agreed that the
+noises must proceed from somebody who had an interest in keeping the
+house empty; and since it was very disagreeable to imagine that there
+were secret means of entering it by night, we resolved, as soon as
+possible, to look out for another residence, and, in the meantime, to
+say nothing about the matter to anybody. About ten days after this
+determination, my mother, observing one morning that Creswell, when she
+came to dress her, looked exceedingly pale and ill, inquired if anything
+was the matter with her? "Indeed, my lady," answered she, "we have been
+frightened to death; and neither I nor Mrs Marsh can sleep again in the
+room we are now in."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," returned my mother, "you shall both come and sleep in the little
+spare room next us; but what has alarmed you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Someone, my lady, went through our room in the night; we both saw the
+figure, but we covered our heads with the bed-clothes, and lay in a
+dreadful fright till morning."</p>
+
+<p>On hearing this, I could not help laughing, upon which Creswell burst
+into tears; and seeing how nervous she was, we comforted her by saying
+we had heard of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> a good house, and that we should very soon abandon our
+present habitation.</p>
+
+<p>A few nights afterwards, my mother requested me and Charles to go into
+her bedroom, and fetch her frame, that she might prepare her work for
+the next day. It was after supper; and we were ascending the stairs by
+the light of a lamp which was always kept burning, when we saw going up
+before us, a tall, thin figure, with hair flowing down his back, and
+wearing a loose powdering gown. We both at once concluded it was my
+sister Hannah, and called out: "It won't do, Hannah! you cannot frighten
+us!" Upon which the figure turned into a recess in the wall; but as
+there was nobody there when we passed, we concluded that Hannah had
+contrived, somehow or other, to slip away and make her escape by the
+back stairs. On telling this to my mother, however, she said, "It is
+very odd, for Hannah went to bed with a headache before you came in from
+your walk"; and sure enough, on going to her room, there we found her
+fast asleep; and Alice, who was at work there, assured us that she had
+been so for more than an hour. On mentioning this circumstance to
+Creswell, she turned quite pale, and exclaimed that that was precisely
+the figure she and Marsh had seen in their bedroom.</p>
+
+<p>About this time my brother Harry came to spend a few days with us, and
+we gave him a room up another pair of stairs, at the opposite end of the
+house. A morning or two after his arrival, when he came down to
+breakfast, he asked my mother, angrily, whether she thought he went to
+bed drunk and could not put out his own candle, that she sent those
+French rascals to watch him. My mother assured him that she had never
+thought of doing such a thing; but he persisted in the accusation,
+adding, "last night I jumped up and opened the door, and by the light of
+the moon, through the skylight, I saw the fellow in his loose gown at
+the bottom<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> of the stairs. If I had not been in my shirt, I would have
+gone after him, and made him remember coming to watch me."</p>
+
+<p>We were now preparing to quit the house, having secured another,
+belonging to a gentleman who was going to spend some time in Italy; but
+a few days before our removal, it happened that a Mr and Mrs Atkyns,
+some English friends of ours, called, to whom we mentioned these strange
+circumstances, observing how extremely unpleasant it was to live in a
+house that somebody found means of getting into, though how they
+contrived it we could not discover, nor what their motive could be,
+except it was to frighten us; observing that nobody could sleep in the
+room Marsh and Creswell had been obliged to give up. Upon this, Mrs
+Atkyns laughed heartily, and said that she should like, of all things,
+to sleep there, if my mother would allow her, adding that, with her
+little terrier, she should not be afraid of any ghost that ever
+appeared. As my mother had, of course, no objection to this fancy of
+hers, Mrs Atkyns requested her husband to ride home with the groom, in
+order that the latter might bring her night-things before the gates of
+the town were shut, as they were then residing a little way in the
+country. Mr Atkyns smiled, and said she was very bold; but he made no
+difficulties, and sent the things, and his wife retired with her dog to
+her room when we retired to ours, apparently without the least
+apprehension.</p>
+
+<p>When she came down in the morning we were immediately struck at seeing
+her look very ill; and, on inquiring if she, too, had been frightened,
+she said she had been awakened in the night by something moving in her
+room, and that, by the light of the night lamp, she saw most distinctly
+a figure, and that the dog, which was very spirited and flew at
+everything, never stirred, although she endeavoured to make him. We saw<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>
+clearly that she had been very much alarmed; and when Mr Atkyns came and
+endeavoured to dissipate the feeling by persuading her that she might
+have dreamt it, she got quite angry. We could not help thinking that she
+had actually seen something; and my mother said, after she was gone,
+that though she could not bring herself to believe it was really a
+ghost, still she earnestly hoped that she might get out of the house
+without seeing this figure which frightened people so much.</p>
+
+<p>We were now within three days of the one fixed for our removal; I had
+been taking a long ride, and being tired, had fallen asleep the moment I
+lay down, but in the middle of the night I was suddenly awakened&mdash;I
+cannot tell by what, for the step over our heads we had become so used
+to that it no longer disturbed us. Well, I awoke; I had been lying with
+my face towards my mother, who was asleep beside me, and, as one usually
+does on awaking, I turned to the other side, where, the weather being
+warm, the curtain of the bed was undrawn, as it was also at the foot,
+and I saw standing by a chest of drawers, which were betwixt me and the
+window, a thin, tall figure, in a loose powdering gown, one arm resting
+on the drawers, and the face turned towards me. I saw it quite
+distinctly by the night-light, which burnt clearly; it was a long, thin,
+pale, young face, with oh! such a melancholy expression as can never be
+effaced from my memory! I was, certainly, very much frightened; but my
+great horror was lest my mother should awake and see the figure. I
+turned my head gently towards her, and heard her breathing high in a
+sound sleep. Just then the clock on the stairs struck four. I daresay it
+was nearly an hour before I ventured to look again; and when I did take
+courage to turn my eyes towards the drawers there was nothing, yet I had
+not heard the slightest sound, though I had been listening with the
+greatest intensity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>As you may suppose, I never closed my eyes again; and glad I was when
+Creswell knocked at the door, as she did every morning, for we always
+locked it, and it was my business to get out of bed and let her in. But
+on this occasion, instead of doing so, I called out, "Come in, the door
+is not fastened"; upon which she answered that it was, and I was obliged
+to get out of bed and admit her as usual.</p>
+
+<p>When I told my mother what had happened she was very grateful to me for
+not waking her, and commended me much for my resolution; but as she was
+always my first object, that was not to be wondered at. She, however,
+resolved not to risk another night in the house, and we got out of it
+that very day, after instituting, with the aid of the servants, a
+thorough search, with a view to ascertain whether there was any possible
+means of getting into the rooms except by the usual modes of ingress;
+but our search was vain; none could be discovered.</p>
+
+<p>Considering the number of people that were in the house, the
+fearlessness of the family, and their disinclination to believe in what
+is called the <i>supernatural</i>, together with the great interest the owner
+of this large and handsome house must have had in discovering the trick,
+if there had been one, I think it is difficult to find any other
+explanation of this strange story than that the sad and disappointed
+spirit of this poor injured, and probably murdered boy, had never been
+disengaged from its earthly relations, to which regret for its
+frustrated hopes and violated rights still held it attached.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXI" id="XXXI"></a>XXXI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Hunt's</span> "Romances of the West of England"</h3>
+
+
+<p>"Ezekiel Grosse, gent., attorney-at-law," bought the lands of Rosewarne
+from one of the De Rosewarnes, who had become involved in debt by
+endeavouring, without sufficient means, to support the dignity of his
+family. There is reason for believing that Ezekiel was the legal adviser
+of this unfortunate Rosewarne, and that he was not over-honest in his
+transactions with his client. However this may be, Ezekiel Grosse had
+scarcely made Rosewarne his dwelling-place, before he was alarmed by
+noises, at first of an unearthly character, and subsequently, one very
+dark night, by the appearance of the ghost himself in the form of a worn
+and aged man. The first appearance was in the park, but he subsequently
+repeated his visits in the house, but always after dark. Ezekiel Grosse
+was not a man to be terrified at trifles, and for some time he paid but
+slight attention to his nocturnal visitor. Howbeit the repetition of
+visits, and certain mysterious indications on the part of the ghost,
+became annoying to Ezekiel. One night, when seated in his office
+examining some deeds, and being rather irritable, having lost an
+important suit, his visitor approached him, making some strange
+indications which the lawyer could not understand. Ezekiel suddenly
+exclaimed, "In the name of God, what wantest thou?"</p>
+
+<p>"To show thee, Ezekiel Grosse, where the gold for which thou longest
+lies buried."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>No one ever lived upon whom the greed of gold was stronger than on
+Ezekiel, yet he hesitated now that his spectral friend had spoken so
+plainly, and trembled in every limb as the ghost slowly delivered
+himself in sepulchral tones of this telling speech.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer looked fixedly on the spectre; but he dared not utter a word.
+He longed to obtain possession of the secret, yet he feared to ask him
+where he was to find this treasure. The spectre looked as fixedly at the
+poor trembling lawyer, as if enjoying the sight of his terror. At
+length, lifting his finger, he beckoned Ezekiel to follow him, turning
+at the same time to leave the room. Ezekiel was glued to his seat; he
+could not exert strength enough to move, although he desired to do so.</p>
+
+<p>"Come!" said the ghost, in a hollow voice. The lawyer was powerless to
+come.</p>
+
+<p>"Gold!" exclaimed the old man, in a whining tone, though in a louder
+key.</p>
+
+<p>"Where?" gasped Ezekiel.</p>
+
+<p>"Follow me, and I will show thee," said the ghost. Ezekiel endeavoured
+to rise; but it was in vain.</p>
+
+<p>"I command thee, come!" almost shrieked the ghost. Ezekiel felt that he
+was compelled to follow his friend; and by some supernatural power
+rather than his own, he followed the spectre out of the room, and
+through the hall, into the park.</p>
+
+<p>They passed onward through the night&mdash;the ghost gliding before the
+lawyer, and guiding him by a peculiar phosphorescent light, which
+appeared to glow from every part of the form, until they arrived at a
+little dell, and had reached a small cairn formed of granite boulders.
+By this the spectre rested; and when Ezekiel had approached it, and was
+standing on the other side of the cairn, still trembling, the aged man,
+looking fixedly in his face, said, in low tones,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span> "Ezekiel Grosse, thou
+longest for gold, as I did. I won the glittering prize, but I could not
+enjoy it. Heaps of treasure are buried beneath those stones; it is
+thine, if thou diggest for it. Win the gold, Ezekiel. Glitter with the
+wicked ones of the world; and when thou art the most joyous, I will look
+in upon thy happiness." The ghost then disappeared, and as soon as
+Grosse could recover himself from the extreme trepidation,&mdash;the result
+of mixed feelings,&mdash;he looked about him, and finding himself alone, he
+exclaimed, "Ghost or devil, I will soon prove whether or not thou
+liest!" Ezekiel is said to have heard a laugh, echoing between the
+hills, as he said those words.</p>
+
+<p>The lawyer noted well the spot; returned to his house; pondered on all
+the circumstances of his case; and eventually resolved to seize the
+earliest opportunity, when he might do so unobserved, of removing the
+stones, and examining the ground beneath them.</p>
+
+<p>A few nights after this, Ezekiel went to the little cairn, and by the
+aid of a crowbar, he soon overturned the stones, and laid the ground
+bare. He then commenced digging, and had not proceeded far when his
+spade struck against some other metal. He carefully cleared away the
+earth, and he then felt&mdash;for he could not see, having no light with
+him&mdash;that he had uncovered a metallic urn of some kind. He found it
+quite impossible to lift it, and he was therefore compelled to cover it
+up again, and to replace the stones sufficiently to hide it from the
+observation of any chance wanderer.</p>
+
+<p>The next night Ezekiel found that this urn, which was of bronze,
+contained gold coins of a very ancient date. He loaded himself with his
+treasure, and returned home. From time to time, at night, as Ezekiel
+found he could do so without exciting the suspicions of his servants, he
+visited the urn, and thus by degrees removed all the treasure to
+Rosewarne House. There was nothing in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> the series of circumstances which
+had surrounded Ezekiel which he could less understand than the fact,
+that the ghost of the old man had left off troubling him from the moment
+when he had disclosed to him the hiding-place of this treasure.</p>
+
+<p>The neighbouring gentry could not but observe the rapid improvements
+which Ezekiel Grosse made in his mansion, his grounds, in his personal
+appearance, and indeed in everything by which he was surrounded. In a
+short time he abandoned the law, and led in every respect the life of a
+country gentleman. He ostentatiously paraded his power to procure all
+earthly enjoyments, and, in spite of his notoriously bad character, he
+succeeded in drawing many of the landed proprietors around him.</p>
+
+<p>Things went well with Ezekiel. The man who could in those days visit
+London in his own carriage and four was not without a large circle of
+flatterers. The lawyer who had struggled hard, in the outset of life, to
+secure wealth, and who did not always employ the most honest means for
+doing so, now found himself the centre of a circle to whom he could
+preach honesty, and receive from them expressions of the admiration in
+which the world holds the possessor of gold. His old tricks were
+forgotten, and he was put in places of honour. This state of things
+continued for some time; indeed, Grosse's entertainments became more and
+more splendid, and his revels more and more seductive to those he
+admitted to share them with him. The Lord of Rosewarne was the Lord of
+the West. To him everyone bowed the knee: he walked the earth as the
+proud possessor of a large share of the planet.</p>
+
+<p>It was Christmas Eve, and a large gathering there was at Rosewarne. In
+the hall the ladies and gentlemen were in the full enjoyment of the
+dance, and in the kitchen all the tenantry and the servants were
+emulating their superiors. Everything went joyously; but when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> the mirth
+was in full swing, and Ezekiel felt to the full the influence of wealth,
+it appeared as if all in a moment the chill of death had fallen over
+everyone. The dancers paused, and looked one at another, each one struck
+with the other's paleness; and there, in the middle of the hall,
+everyone saw a strange old man looking angrily, but in silence, at
+Ezekiel Grosse, who was fixed in terror, blank as a statue.</p>
+
+<p>No one had seen this old man enter the hall, yet there he was in the
+midst of them. It was but for a minute, and he was gone. Ezekiel, as if
+a frozen torrent of water had thawed in an instant, recovered himself,
+and roared at them.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of that for a Christmas play? Ha, ha, ha! How
+frightened you all look! Butler, hand round the spiced wines! On with
+the dancing, my friends! It was only a trick, ay, and a clever one,
+which I have put upon you. On with your dancing, my friends!"</p>
+
+<p>But with all his boisterous attempts to restore the spirit of the
+evening, Ezekiel could not succeed. There was an influence stronger than
+any he could command; and one by one, framing sundry excuses, his guests
+took their departure, every one of them satisfied that all was not right
+at Rosewarne.</p>
+
+<p>From that Christmas Eve Grosse was a changed man. He tried to be his
+former self; but it was in vain. Again and again he called his gay
+companions around him; but at every feast there appeared one more than
+was desired. An aged man&mdash;weird beyond measure&mdash;took his place at the
+table in the middle of the feast; and although he spoke not, he exerted
+a miraculous power over all. No one dared to move; no one ventured to
+speak. Occasionally Ezekiel assumed an appearance of courage, which he
+felt not; rallied his guests, and made sundry excuses for the presence
+of his aged friend, whom he represented as having a mental infirmity,
+as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> being deaf and dumb. On all such occasions the old man rose from the
+table, and looking at the host, laughed a demoniac laugh of joy, and
+departed as quietly as he came.</p>
+
+<p>The natural consequence of this was that Ezekiel Grosse's friends fell
+away from him, and he became a lonely man, amidst his vast
+possessions&mdash;his only companion being his faithful clerk, John Call.</p>
+
+<p>The persecuting presence of the spectre became more and more constant;
+and wherever the poor lawyer went, there was the aged man at his side.
+From being one of the finest men in the county, he became a miserably
+attenuated and bowed old man. Misery was stamped on every
+feature&mdash;terror was indicated in every movement. At length he appears to
+have besought his ghostly attendant to free him of his presence. It was
+long before the ghost would listen to any terms; but when Ezekiel at
+length agreed to surrender the whole of his wealth to anyone whom the
+spectre might indicate, he obtained a promise that upon this being
+carried out, in a perfectly legal manner, in favour of John Call, that
+he should no longer be haunted.</p>
+
+<p>This was, after numerous struggles on the part of Ezekiel to retain his
+property, or at least some portion of it, legally settled, and John Call
+became possessor of Rosewarne and the adjoining lands. Grosse was then
+informed that this evil spirit was one of the ancestors of the
+Rosewarne, from whom by his fraudulent dealings he obtained the place,
+and that he was allowed to visit the earth again for the purpose of
+inflicting the most condign punishment on the avaricious lawyer. His
+avarice had been gratified, his pride had been pampered to the highest;
+and then he was made a pitiful spectacle, at whom all men pointed, and
+no one pitied. He lived on in misery, but it was for a short time. He
+was found dead; and the country people ever said that his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> death was a
+violent one; they spoke of marks on his body, and some even asserted
+that the spectre of De Rosewarne was seen rejoicing amidst a crowd of
+devils, as they bore the spirit of Ezekiel over Carn Brea.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXII" id="XXXII"></a>XXXII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Joseph Glanvil</span><a name="FNanchor_12_12" id="FNanchor_12_12"></a><a href="#Footnote_12_12" class="fnanchor">[12]</a></h3>
+
+
+<p>Mr <i>John Bourne</i>, for his Skill, Care and Honesty, was made by his
+Neighbour <i>John Mallet</i>, Esq., of <i>Enmore</i>, the chief of his Trustees,
+for his Son <i>John Mallet</i> (Father to Elizabeth, now Countess Dowager of
+<i>Rochester</i>) and the rest of his Children in Minority. He had the
+reputation of a worthy good Man, and was commonly taken notice of for an
+habitual Saying, by way of Interjection almost to anything, viz. <i>You
+say true, you say true, you are in the right.</i> This Mr Bourne fell sick
+at his House at Durley, in the year 1654, and Dr <i>Raymond of Oak</i> was
+sent for to him, who after some time, gave the said Mr Bourne over. And
+he had not now spoken in twenty-four Hours, when the said Dr Raymond,
+and Mrs <i>Carlisle</i> (Mr Bourne's Nephew's Wife, whose Husband he had made
+one of his Heirs) sitting by his bedside, the Doctor opened the
+Bed-curtains at the Bed's-feet, to give him air; when on a sudden, to
+the Horror and Amazement of Dr Raymond, and Mrs Carlisle, the great Iron
+Chest by the Window, at his Bed's-feet, with three Locks to it (in which
+were all the Writings and Evidences of the said Mr Mallet's Estate),
+began to open, first one Lock, and then another, then the third;
+afterwards the Lid of the Chest, lifted up of itself, and stood wide
+open. Then the patient, Mr Bourne, who had not spoke in 24 Hours, lifted
+himself up also, and looking upon the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> Chest, cry'd: <i>You say true, you
+say true, you are in the right, I'll be with you by and by.</i> So the
+Patient lay down, and spake no more. Then the Chest fell again of
+itself, and lock'd itself, one Lock after another, as the 3 Locks
+opened; and they tried to knock it open, and could not, and Mr Bourne
+died within an Hour after.</p>
+
+<p><i>N.B.</i>&mdash;This Narrative was sent in a Letter to J.C., directed for Dr H.
+More from Mr Thomas Alcock, of Shear-Hampton; of which in a Letter to
+the said Doctor, he gives this Account. I am, said he, very confident of
+the truth of the Story; for I had it from a very good Lady, the eldest
+daughter of the said John Mallet (whose Trustee Mr Bourne was) and only
+Aunt to the Countess of Rochester, who knew all the parties; and I have
+heard Dr Raymond, and Mr Carlisle, relate it often with amazement, being
+both Persons of Credit.</p>
+
+<p>The curious may be inquisitive what the meaning of the opening of the
+Chest may be, and of Mr Bourne his saying <i>You say true, etc., I'll be
+with you by and by</i>. As for the former, it is noted by Paracelsus
+especially, and by others, that there are signs often given of the
+Departure of sick Men lying on their death beds, of which this opening
+of the Iron Coffer or Chest, and closing again, is more than ordinary
+significant, especially if we recall to mind that of Virgil:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Olli dura quies oculos &amp; <i>ferreus</i> urget<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Somnus&mdash;&mdash;"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Though this quaintness is more than is requisite in these Prodigies
+presaging the sick Man's Death. As for the latter, it seems to be
+nothing else but the saying <i>Amen</i> to the Presage, uttered in his
+accustomary form of Speech, as if he should say, you of the invisible
+Kingdom of Spirits, have given the Token of my sudden Departure, and you
+say true, I shall be with you by and by. Which he was enabled so
+assuredly to assent to, upon the advantage of the relaxation of his Soul
+now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> departing from the Body: Which Diodorus Siculus, lib. 18, notes to
+be the Opinion of Pythagoras and his followers, that it is the privilege
+of the Soul near her Departure, to exercise a fatidical Faculty, and to
+pronounce truly touching things future.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_12_12" id="Footnote_12_12"></a><a href="#FNanchor_12_12"><span class="label">[12]</span></a> <i>Sadducismus Triumphatus.</i></p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIII" id="XXXIII"></a>XXXIII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Christmas</span>' "Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>"In 1695," said M. Bezuel, "being a schoolboy of about fifteen years of
+age, I became acquainted with the two children of M. Abaquene, attorney,
+schoolboys like myself. The eldest was of my own age, the second was
+eighteen months younger; he was named Desfontaines; we took all our
+walks and all our parties of pleasure together, and whether it was that
+Desfontaines had more affection for me, or that he was more gay,
+obliging, and clever than his brother, I loved him the best.</p>
+
+<p>"In 1696, we were walking both of us in the cloister of the Capuchins.
+He told me that he had lately read a story of two friends who had
+promised each other that the first of them who died should come and
+bring news of his condition to the one still living; that the one who
+died came back to earth, and told his friend surprising things. Upon
+that, Desfontaines told me that he had a favour to ask me; that he
+begged me to grant it instantly; it was to make him a similar promise,
+and on his part he would do the same. I told him that I would not. For
+several months he talked to me of it, often and seriously; I always
+resisted his wish. At last, towards the month of August 1696, as he was
+to leave to go and study at Caen, he pressed me so much with tears in
+his eyes, that I consented to it. He drew out at that moment two little
+papers which he had ready written; one was signed with his blood, in
+which he promised me that in case of his death he would come<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> and bring
+me news of his condition; in the other, I promised him the same thing. I
+pricked my finger; a drop of blood came with which I signed my name. He
+was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me, thanked me a thousand
+times.</p>
+
+<p>"Some time after, he set off with his tutor. Our separation caused us
+much grief, but we wrote to each other now and then, and it was but six
+weeks since I had had a letter from him, when what I am going to relate
+to you happened to me.</p>
+
+<p>"The 31st of July, 1697, one Thursday,&mdash;I shall remember it all my
+life,&mdash;the late M. Sorteville, with whom I lodged, and who had been very
+kind to me, begged of me to go to a meadow near the Cordeliers, and help
+his people, who were making hay, and to make haste. I had not been there
+a quarter of an hour, when, about half-past two, I all of a sudden felt
+giddy and weak. In vain I lent upon my hay-fork; I was obliged to place
+myself on a little hay, where I was nearly half an hour recovering my
+senses. That passed off; but as nothing of the kind had ever occurred to
+me before, I was surprised at it, and I feared it might be the
+commencement of an illness. Nevertheless, it did not make much
+impression upon me during the remainder of the day. It is true, I did
+not sleep that night so well as usual.</p>
+
+<p>"The next day, at the same hour, as I was conducting to the meadow M. de
+St Simon, the grandson of M. de Sorteville, who was then ten years old,
+I felt myself seized on the way with a similar faintness, and I sat down
+on a stone in the shade. That passed off, and we continued our way;
+nothing more happened to me that day, and at night I had hardly any
+sleep.</p>
+
+<p>"At last, on the morrow, the second day of August, being in the loft
+where they laid up the hay they brought from the meadow, I was taken
+with a similar giddiness and a similar faintness, but still more violent
+than the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> other. I fainted away completely; one of the men perceived it.
+I have been told that I was asked what was the matter with me, and that
+I replied, 'I have seen what I never should have believed'; but I have
+no recollection of either the question or the answer. That, however,
+accords with what I do remember to have seen just then; as it were
+someone naked to the middle, but whom, however, I did not recognise.
+They helped me down from the ladder. The faintness seized me again; my
+head swam as I was between two rounds of the ladder, and again I
+fainted. They took me down and placed me on a beam which served for a
+seat in the large square of the Capuchins. I sat down on it, and then I
+no longer saw M. de Sorteville nor his domestics, although present; but
+perceiving Desfontaines near the foot of the ladder, who made me a sign
+to come to him, I moved on my seat as if to make room for him; and those
+who saw me and whom I did not see, although my eyes were open, remarked
+this movement.</p>
+
+<p>"As he did not come, I rose to go to him. He advanced towards me, took
+my left arm with his right arm, and led me about thirty paces from
+thence into a retired street, holding me still under the arm. The
+domestics, supposing that my giddiness had passed off, and that I had
+purposely retired, went everyone to their work, except a little servant
+who went and told M. de Sorteville that I was talking all alone. M. de
+Sorteville thought I was tipsy; he drew near, and heard me ask some
+questions, and make some answers, which he has told me since.</p>
+
+<p>"I was there nearly three-quarters of an hour, conversing with
+Desfontaines. 'I promised you,' said he to me, 'that if I died before
+you I would come and tell you of it. I was drowned the day before
+yesterday in the river of Caen, at nearly this same hour. I was out
+walking with such and such a one. It was very warm, and we had a wish to
+bathe; a faintness<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> seized me in the water, and I fell to the bottom.
+The Abb&eacute; de Menil-Jean, my comrade, dived to bring me up. I seized hold
+of his foot; but whether he was afraid it might be a salmon, because I
+held him so fast, or that he wished to remount promptly to the surface
+of the water, he shook his legs so roughly, that he gave me a violent
+kick on the breast, which sent me to the bottom of the river, which is
+there very deep.'</p>
+
+<p>"Desfontaines related to me afterwards all that had occurred to them in
+their walk, and the subjects they had conversed upon. It was in vain for
+me to ask him questions&mdash;whether he was saved, whether he was damned, if
+he was in purgatory, if I was in a state of grace, and if I should soon
+follow him; he continued to discourse as if he had not heard me, and as
+if he would not hear me.</p>
+
+<p>"I approached him several times to embrace him, but it seemed to me that
+I embraced nothing, and yet I felt very sensibly that he held me tightly
+by the arm, and that when I tried to turn away my head that I might not
+see him, because I could not look at him without feeling afflicted, he
+shook my arm as if to oblige me to look at and listen to him.</p>
+
+<p>"He always appeared to me taller than I had seen him, and taller even
+than he was at the time of his death, although he had grown during the
+eighteen months in which we had not met. I beheld him always naked to
+the middle of his body, his head uncovered, with his fine hair, and a
+white scroll twisted in his hair over his forehead, on which there was
+some writing, but I could only make out the word <i>In</i>....</p>
+
+<p>"It was his usual tone of voice. He appeared to me neither gay nor sad,
+but in a calm and tranquil state. He begged of me, when his brother
+returned, to tell him certain things to say to his father and mother. He
+begged me to say the Seven Psalms which had been given him as a penance
+the preceding Sunday, which he had not yet recited; again he recommended
+me to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> speak to his brother, and then he bade me adieu, saying, as he
+left me, '<i>Jusques, jusques</i>' (<i>till, till</i>), which was the usual term
+he made use of when at the end of our walk we bade each other good-bye,
+to go home.</p>
+
+<p>"He told me that at the time he was drowned, his brother, who was
+writing a translation, regretted having let him go without accompanying
+him, fearing some accident. He described to me so well where he was
+drowned, and the tree in the avenue of Louvigni on which he had written
+a few words, that two years afterwards, being there with the late
+Chevalier de Getel, one of these who were with him at the time he was
+drowned, I pointed out to him the very spot; and by counting the trees
+in a particular direction which Desfontaines had specified to me, I went
+straight up to the tree, and I found his writing. He (the Chevalier)
+told me also that the article of the Seven Psalms was true, and that on
+coming from confession that they had told each other their penance; and
+since then his brother has told me that it was quite true that at that
+hour he was writing his exercise, and he reproached himself for not
+having accompanied his brother. As nearly a month passed by without my
+being able to do what Desfontaines had told me in regard to his brother,
+he appeared to me again twice before dinner at a country house whither I
+had gone to dine a league from hence. I was very faint. I told them not
+to mind me, that it was nothing, and that I should soon recover myself;
+and I went to a corner of the garden. Desfontaines having appeared to
+me, reproached me for not having yet spoken to his brother, and again
+conversed with me for a quarter of an hour without answering any of my
+questions.</p>
+
+<p>"As I was going in the morning to Notre-Dame de la Victoire, he appeared
+to me again, but for a shorter time, and pressed me always to speak to
+his brother, and left me, saying still, '<i>Jusques, jusques</i>,' without
+choosing to reply to my questions.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"It is a remarkable thing that I always felt a pain in that part of my
+arm which he had held me by the first time, until I had spoken to his
+brother. I was three days without being able to sleep, from the
+astonishment and agitation I felt. At the end of the first conversation,
+I told M. de Varonville, my neighbour and schoolfellow, that
+Desfontaines had been drowned; that he himself had just appeared to me
+and told me so. He went away and ran to the parents' house to know if it
+was true; they had just received the news, but by a mistake he
+understood that it was the eldest. He assured me that he had read the
+letter of Desfontaines, and he believed it; but I maintained always that
+it could not be, and that Desfontaines himself had appeared to me. He
+returned, came back, and told me in tears that it was but too true."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIV" id="XXXIV"></a>XXXIV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET</h2>
+
+<h3>"The Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>The Marquis de Rambouillet, eldest brother of the Duchess of Montauzier,
+and the Marquis de Precy, eldest son of the family of Nantouillet, both
+of them between twenty and thirty, were intimate friends, and went to
+the wars, as in France do all men of quality. As they were conversing
+one day together on the subject of the other world, they promised each
+other that the first who died should come and bring the news to his
+companion. At the end of three months the Marquis de Rambouillet set off
+for Flanders, where the war was then being carried on; and de Precy,
+detained by a high fever, remained at Paris. Six weeks afterwards de
+Precy, at six in the morning, heard the curtains of his bed drawn, and
+turning to see who it was, he perceived the Marquis de Rambouillet in
+his buff vest and boots; he sprung out of bed to embrace him to show his
+joy at his return, but Rambouillet, retreating a few steps, told him
+that these caresses were no longer seasonable, for he only came to keep
+his word with him; that he had been killed the day before on such an
+occasion; that all that was said of the other world was certainly true;
+that he must think of leading a different life; and that he had no time
+to lose, as he would be killed the first action he was engaged in.</p>
+
+<p>It is impossible to express the surprise of the Marquis de Precy at this
+discourse; as he could not believe what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span> he heard, he made several
+efforts to embrace his friend, whom he thought desirous of deceiving
+him, but he embraced only air; and Rambouillet, seeing that he was
+incredulous, showed the wound he had received, which was in the side,
+whence the blood still appeared to flow. After that the phantom
+disappeared, and left de Precy in a state of alarm more easy to
+comprehend than describe; he called at the same time his <i>valet de
+chambre</i>, and awakened all the family with his cries. Several persons
+ran to his room, and he related to them what he had just seen. Everyone
+attributed this vision to the violence of the fever, which might have
+deranged his imagination; they begged of him to go to bed again,
+assuring him that he must have dreamt what he told them.</p>
+
+<p>The Marquis, in despair, on seeing that they took him for a visionary,
+related all the circumstances I have just recounted; but it was in vain
+for him to protest that he had seen and heard his friend, being
+wideawake; they persisted in the same idea until the arrival of the post
+from Flanders, which brought the news of the death of the Marquis de
+Rambouillet.</p>
+
+<p>This first circumstance being found true, and in the same manner as de
+Precy had said, those to whom he had related the adventure began to
+think that there might be something in it, because Rambouillet having
+been killed precisely on the eve of the day he had said it, it was
+impossible de Precy should have known of it in a natural way. This event
+having spread in Paris, they thought it was the effect of a disturbed
+imagination, or a made-up story; and whatever might be said by the
+persons who examined the thing seriously, there remained in people's
+minds a suspicion, which time alone could disperse: this depended upon
+what might happen to Marquis de Precy, who was threatened that he should
+be slain in the first engagement; thus everyone regarded his fate as the
+<i>d&eacute;nouement</i> of the piece; but he soon confirmed everything they had
+doubted the truth of,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span> for as soon as he recovered from his illness he
+would go to the combat of St Antoine, although his father and mother,
+who were afraid of the prophecy, said all they could to prevent him; he
+was killed there, to the great regret of all his family.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXV" id="XXXV"></a>XXXV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE ALTHEIM REVENANT</h2>
+
+<h3>"The Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>A monk of the Abbey of Toussaints relates that on the 9th of September
+1625 a man named John Steinlin died at a place called Altheim, in the
+diocese of Constance. Steinlin was a man in easy circumstances, and a
+common-councilman of his town. Some days after his death he appeared
+during the night to a tailor, named Simon Bauh, in the form of a man
+surrounded by a sombre flame, like that of lighted sulphur, going and
+coming in his own house, but without speaking. Bauh, who was disquieted
+by this sight, resolved to ask him what he could do to serve him. He
+found an opportunity to do so, the 17th of November in the same year,
+1625; for, as he was reposing at night near his stove, a little after
+eleven o'clock, he beheld this spectre environed by fire like sulphur,
+who came into his room, going and coming, shutting and opening the
+windows. The tailor asked him what he desired. He replied, in a hoarse
+interrupted voice, that he could help very much, if he would; "but,"
+added he, "do not promise me to do so, if you are not resolved to
+execute your promises." "I will execute them, if they are not beyond my
+power," replied he.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish, then," replied the spirit, "that you would cause a mass to be
+said, in the Chapel of the Virgin at Rotembourg; I made a vow to that
+intent during my life, and I have not acquitted myself of it. Moreover,
+you must have two masses said at Altheim, the one of the Defunct and the
+other of the Virgin; and as I did not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> always pay my servants exactly, I
+wish that a quarter of corn should be distributed to the poor." Simon
+promised to satisfy him on all these points. The spectre held out his
+hand, as if to ensure his promise; but Simon, fearing that some harm
+might happen to himself, tendered him the board which came to hand, and
+the spectre having touched it, left the print of his hand with the four
+fingers and thumb, as if fire had been there, and had left a pretty deep
+impression. After that he vanished with so much noise that it was heard
+three houses off.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVI" id="XXXVI"></a>XXXVI</h2>
+
+<h2>SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">North's</span> "Plutarch"</h3>
+
+
+<p>So soone as Sertorius arriued from Africa, he straight leauied men of
+warre, and with them subdued the people of Spaine fronting upon his
+marches, of which the more part did willingly submit themselues, upon
+the bruit that ran of him to be merciful and courteous, and a valiant
+man besides in present danger. Furthermore, he lacked no fine deuises
+and subtilties to win their goodwills: as among others, the policy, and
+deuise of the hind. There was a poore man of the countrey called Spanus,
+who meeting by chance one day with a hind in his way that had newly
+calued, flying from the hunters, he let the damme go, not being able to
+take her; and running after her calfe tooke it, which was a young hind,
+and of a strange haire, for she was all milk-white. It chanced so, that
+Sertorius was at that time in those parts. So, this poore man presented
+Sertorius with his young hind, which he gladly receiued, and which with
+time he made so tame, that she would come to him when he called her, and
+follow him whereeuer he went, being nothing the wilder for the daily
+sight of such a number of armed souldiers together as they were, nor yet
+afraid of the noise and tumult of the campe. Insomuch as Sertorius by
+little and little made it a miracle, making the simple barbarous people
+beleeue that it was a gift that Diana had sent him, by the which she
+made him understand of many and sundrie things to come: knowing well
+inough of himselfe, that the barbarous people were men<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> easily deceiued,
+and quickly caught by any subtill superstition, besides that by art also
+he brought them to beleeue it as a thing verie true. For when he had any
+secret intelligence giuen him, that the enemies would inuade some part
+of the countries and prouinces subject vnto him, or that they had taken
+any of his forts from him by any intelligence or sudden attempt, he
+straight told them that his hind spake to him as he slept, and had
+warned him both to arme his men, and put himselfe in strength. In like
+manner if he had heard any newes that one of his lieutenants had wonne a
+battell, or that he had any aduantage of his enemies, he would hide the
+messenger, and bring his hind abroad with a garland and coller of
+nosegayes: and then say, it was a token of some good newes comming
+towards him, perswading them withall to be of good cheare; and so did
+sacrifice to the gods, to giue them thankes for the good tidings he
+should heare before it were long. Thus by putting this superstition into
+their heades, he made them the more tractable and obedient to his will,
+in so much as they thought they were not now gouerned any more by a
+stranger wiser than themselues, but were steadfastly perswaded that they
+were rather led by some certaine god.&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Now was Sertorius very heauie, that no man could tell him what was
+become of his white hind: for thereby all his subtilltie and finenesse
+to keepe the barbarous people in obedience was taken away, and then
+specially when they stood in need of most comfort. But by good hap,
+certaine of his souldiers that had lost themselves in the night, met
+with the hind in their way, and knowing her by her colour, tooke her and
+brought her backe againe. Sertorius hearing of her, promised them a good
+reward, so that they would tell no liuing creature that they brought her
+againe, and thereupon made her to be secretly kept. Then within a few
+dayes after, he came abroad among them, and with a pleasant countenance
+told the noble men and chiefe captaines of these barbarous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> people, how
+the gods had reuealed it to him in his dreame, that he should shortly
+haue a maruellous good thing happen to him: and with these words sate
+downe in his chaire to giue audience. Whereupon they that kept the hind
+not farre from thence, did secretly let her go. The hind being loose,
+when she had spied Sertorius, ranne straight to his chaire with great
+joy, and put her head betwixt his legges, and layed her mouth in his
+right hand, as she before was wont to do. Sertorius also made very much
+of her, and of purpose appeared maruellous glad, shewing much tender
+affection to the hind, as it seemed the water stood in his eyes for joy.
+The barbarous people that stood there by and beheld the same, at the
+first were much amazed therewith, but afterwards when they had better
+bethought themselues, for ioy they clapped their hands together, and
+waited upon Sertorius to his lodging with great and ioyfull shouts,
+saying, and steadfastly beleeuing, that he was a heavenly creature, and
+beloued of the gods.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVII" id="XXXVII"></a>XXXVII</h2>
+
+<h2>ERICHTHO</h2>
+
+<h3>By E.W. <span class="smcap">Godwin</span>. (From Lucan.)</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Sextus sought Erichtho he chose his time in the depth of the night,
+when the sun is at its lowermost distance from the upper sky. He took
+for companions the associates of his crimes. Wandering among broken
+graves and crumbling sepulchres, they discovered her, sitting sublime on
+a ragged rock, where Mount H&aelig;mus stretches its roots to the Pharsalic
+field. She was mumbling charms of the Magi and the magical gods. For she
+feared that the war might yet be transferred to other than the Emathian
+fields. The sorceress was busy therefore enchanting the soil of
+Philippi, and scattering on its surface the juice of potent herbs, that
+it might be heaped with carcasses of the dead, and saturated with their
+blood, that Macedon, and not Italy, might receive the bodies of departed
+kings and the bones of the noble, and might be amply peopled with the
+shades of men. Her choicest labour was as to the earth where should be
+deposited the prostrate Pompey, or the limbs of the mighty C&aelig;sar.</p>
+
+<p>Sextus approached, and bespoke her thus: "Oh, glory of H&aelig;monia, that
+hast the power to divulge the fates of men, or canst turn aside fate
+itself from its prescribed course, I pray thee to exercise thy gift in
+disclosing events to come. Not the meanest of the Roman race am I, the
+offspring of an illustrious chieftain, lord of the world in the one
+case, or in the other the destined heir to my father's calamity. I stand
+on a tremendous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> and giddy height: snatch me from this posture of doubt;
+let me not blindly rush on, and blindly fall; extort this secret from
+the gods, or force the dead to confess what they know."</p>
+
+<p>To whom the Thessalian crone replied: "If you asked to change the fate
+of an individual, though it were to restore an old man, decrepit with
+age, to vigorous youth, I could comply; but to break the eternal chain
+of causes and consequences exceeds even our power. You seek, however,
+only a foreknowledge of events to come, and you shall be gratified.
+Meanwhile it were best, where slaughter has afforded so ample a field,
+to select the body of one newly deceased, and whose flexible organs
+shall be yet capable of speech, not with lineaments already hardened in
+the sun."</p>
+
+<p>Saying thus, Erichtho proceeded (having first with her art made the
+night itself more dark, and involved her head in a pitchy cloud), to
+explore the field, and examine one by one the bodies of the unburied
+dead. As she approached, the wolves fled before her, and the birds of
+prey, unwillingly sheathing their talons, abandoned their repast, while
+the Thessalian witch, searching into the vital parts of the frames
+before her, at length fixed on one whose lungs were uninjured, and whose
+organs of speech had sustained no wound. The fate of many hung in doubt,
+till she had made her selection. Had the revival of whole armies been
+her will, armies would have stood up obedient to her bidding. She passed
+a hook beneath the jaw of the selected one, and, fastening it to a cord,
+dragged him along over rocks and stones, till she reached a cave,
+overhung by a projecting ridge. A gloomy fissure in the ground was
+there, of a depth almost reaching to the infernal gods, where the
+yew-tree spread thick its horizontal branches, at all times excluding
+the light of the sun. Fearful and withering shade was there, and noisome
+slime cherished by the livelong night. The air was heavy and flagging as
+that of the T&aelig;narian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span> promontory; and hither the god of hell permits his
+ghosts to extend their wanderings. It is doubtful whether the sorceress
+called up the dead to attend her here, or herself descended to the
+abodes of Pluto. She put on a fearful and variegated robe; she covered
+her face with her dishevelled hair, and bound her brow with a wreath of
+vipers.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile she observed Sextus afraid, with his eyes fixed on the ground,
+and his companions trembling; and thus she reproached them. "Lay aside,"
+she said, "your vainly-conceived terrors! You shall behold only a living
+and a human figure, whose accents you may listen to with perfect
+security. If this alarms you, what would you say if you should have seen
+the Stygian lakes, and the shores burning with sulphur unconsumed, if
+the Furies stood before you, and Cerberus with his mane of vipers, and
+the Giants chained in eternal adamant? Yet all these you might have
+witnessed unharmed; for all these would quail at the terror of my brow."</p>
+
+<p>She spoke, and next plied the dead body with her arts. She supples his
+wounds, and infuses fresh blood into his veins: she frees his scars from
+the clotted gore, and penetrates them with froth from the moon. She
+mixes whatever nature has engendered in its most fearful caprices, foam
+from the jaws of a mad dog, the entrails of the lynx, the backbone of
+the hyena, and the marrow of a stag that had dieted on serpents, the
+sinews of the remora, and the eyes of a dragon, the eggs of the eagle,
+the flying serpent of Arabia, the viper that guards the pearl in the Red
+Sea, the slough of the hooded snake, and the ashes that remain when the
+ph&oelig;nix has been consumed. To these she adds all venom that has a
+name, the foliage of herbs over which she has sung her charms, and on
+which she had voided her rheum as they grew.</p>
+
+<p>At length she chants her incantation to the Stygian Gods, in a voice
+compounded of all discords, and altogether alien to human organs. It
+resembles at once the barking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span> of a dog and the howl of a wolf; it
+consists of the hooting of the screech-owl, the yelling of a ravenous
+wild beast, and the fearful hiss of a serpent. It borrows somewhat from
+the roar of tempestuous waves, the hollow rushing of the winds among the
+branches of the forest, and the tremendous crash of deafening thunder.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye Furies," she cries, "and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of the damned,
+and Chaos, for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony of worlds, and
+thou, Pluto, condemned, to an eternity of ungrateful existence, Hell,
+and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shall partake, Proserpine, for
+ever cut off from thy health-giving mother, and horrid Hecate, Cerberus
+curst with incessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon endlessly
+murmuring at the task I impose of bringing back the dead again to the
+land of the living, hear me!&mdash;if I call on you with a voice sufficiently
+impious and abominable, if I have never sung this chaunt, unsated with
+human gore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of the
+pregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain, if I have
+placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant on the
+point to be born&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I ask not of you a ghost, already a tenant of the Tartarean abodes, and
+long familiarised to the shades below, but one who has recently quitted
+the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell; let him
+hear these incantations, and immediately after descend to his destined
+place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of his general,
+having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Do this, as
+you love the very sound and rumour of a civil war!"</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, behold, the ghost of the dead man stood erect before her,
+trembling at the view of his own unanimated limbs, and loth to enter
+again the confines of his wonted prison. He shrinks to invest himself
+with the gored bosom, and the fibres from which death had separated him.
+Unhappy wretch, to whom death had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> not given the privilege to die!
+Erichtho, impatient at the unlooked-for delay, lashes the unmoving
+corpse with one of her serpents. She calls anew on the powers of hell,
+and threatens to pronounce the dreadful name, which cannot be
+articulated without consequences never to be thought of, nor without the
+direst necessity to be ventured upon.</p>
+
+<p>At length the congealed blood becomes liquid and warm; it oozes from the
+wounds, and creeps steadily along the veins and the members; the fibres
+are called into action beneath the gelid breast, and the nerves once
+more become instinct with life. Life and death are there at once. The
+arteries beat; the muscles are braced; the body raises itself, not by
+degrees, but at a single impulse, and stands erect. The eyelids unclose.
+The countenance is not that of a living subject, but of the dead. The
+paleness of the complexion, the rigidity of the lines, remain; and he
+looks about with an unmeaning stare, but utters no sound. He waits on
+the potent enchantress.</p>
+
+<p>"Speak!" said she, "and ample shall be your reward. You shall not again
+be subject to the art of the magician. I will commit your members to
+such a sepulchre; I will burn your form with such wood, and will chaunt
+such a charm over your funeral pyre, that all incantations shall
+thereafter assail you in vain. Be it enough, that you have once been
+brought back to life! Tripods, and the voice of oracles deal in
+ambiguous responses; but the voice of the dead is perspicuous and
+certain to him who receives it with an unshrinking spirit. Spare not!
+Give names to things; give places a clear designation, speak with a full
+and articulate voice."</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, she added a further spell, qualified to give to him who was
+to answer, a distinct knowledge of that respecting which he was about to
+be consulted. He accordingly delivers the responses demanded of him;
+and, that done, earnestly requires of the witch to be dismissed. Herbs
+and magic rites are necessary, that the corpse may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> be again unanimated,
+and the spirit never more be liable to be recalled to the realms of day.
+The sorceress constructs the funeral pile; the dead man places himself
+upon it; Erichtho applies the torch, and the charm is ended for ever.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>III</h2>
+
+<h2><a name="OMENS_AND_PHANTASMS" id="OMENS_AND_PHANTASMS"></a>OMENS AND PHANTASMS<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXVIII" id="XXXVIII"></a>XXXVIII</h2>
+
+<h2>PATROKLOS</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Homer's</span> <i>Iliad</i> (E.H. Blakeney's translation<a name="FNanchor_13_13" id="FNanchor_13_13"></a><a href="#Footnote_13_13" class="fnanchor">[13]</a>)</h3>
+
+
+<p>Then there came unto him the ghost of poor Patroklos, in all things like
+unto the very man, in stature, and fair eyes, and voice; and he was
+arrayed in vesture such as in life he wore. He stood above the hero's
+head and challenged him:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Thou sleepest, Achilles, unmindful of me. Not in my lifetime wert thou
+neglectful, but in death. Bury me with all speed; let me pass the gates
+of Hades. Far off the souls, wraiths of the dead, keep me back, nor
+suffer me yet to join them beyond the river; forlorn I wander up and
+down the wide-doored house of Hades. And now give me thy hand, I
+entreat; for never more shall I return from Hades, when once ye have
+given me my meed of fire. Nay, never more shall we sit, at least in
+life, apart from our comrades, taking counsel together; but upon me
+hateful doom hath gaped&mdash;doom which was my portion even at birth. Aye
+and to thee thyself also, Achilles, thou peer of the gods, it is fated
+to perish beneath the wall of the wealthy Trojans. Another thing I will
+tell thee, and will straitly charge thee, if peradventure thou wilt
+hearken: lay not my bones apart from thine, Achilles, but side by side;
+for we were brought up together in thy house, when Menoitios brought me,
+a child, from Op&ouml;eis to thy father's house because of woeful bloodshed
+on the day when I slew the son of Amphidamas, myself a child,
+unwittingly, but in wrath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span> over our games. Then did Peleus, the knight,
+take me into his home and rear me kindly and name me thy squire. So let
+one urn also hide the bones of us both."</p>
+
+<p>And swift-footed Achilles answered him and said:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, dearest and best-beloved, hast thou come hither to lay upon me
+these thy several behests? Of a truth I will accomplish all, and bow to
+thy command. But stand nearer, I pray; for a little space let us cast
+our arms about each other, and take our fill of dire sorrow."</p>
+
+<p>With these words he stretched forth his hands to clasp him, but could
+not; for, like a smoke, the spirit vanished earthward with a wailing
+cry. Amazed, Achilles sprang up, and smote his hands together, and spake
+a piteous word:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"O ye heavens! surely, even among the dead, the soul and wraith are
+something (yet is there no life therein at all). For all night long the
+soul of poor Patroklos stood beside me, crying and making lamentation,
+and bade me do his will; it was the perfect image of himself."</p>
+
+<p>So he spake, and in the hearts of them all roused desire for
+lamentation; and while they yet were mourning about the pitiful corpse
+appeared rosy-fingered dawn.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_13_13" id="Footnote_13_13"></a><a href="#FNanchor_13_13"><span class="label">[13]</span></a> George Bell &amp; Sons.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XXXIX" id="XXXIX"></a>XXXIX</h2>
+
+<h2>VISION OF CROMWELL</h2>
+
+<h3>By "<span class="smcap">Arise Evans</span>"</h3>
+
+
+<p>A vision that I had presently after the king's death&mdash;I thought that I
+was in a great hall, like the king's hall, or the castle in Winchester,
+and there was none there but a judge that sat upon the bench and myself;
+and as I turned to a window in the north-westward, and looking into the
+palm of my hand, there appeared to me a face, head and shoulders like
+the Lord Fairfax's, and presently it vanished. Again, there arose the
+Lord Cromwell, and he vanished likewise; then arose a young face and he
+had a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another young face
+arose with a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another
+young face arose with a crown upon his head, and vanished in like
+manner; and as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me and looked,
+there did appear no more in it. Then I turned to the judge and said to
+him, there arose in my hand seven, and five of them had crowns; but when
+I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and these appeared no
+more: so I awoke. The interpretation of this vision is, that after the
+Lord Cromwell, there shall be kings again in England, which thing is
+signified unto us by those that arose after him, who were all crowned,
+but the generations to come may look for a change of the blood, and of
+the name in the royal seat, after five kings once passed, 2 Kings x. 30.
+(The words referred to in this text are these:) "And the Lord said unto
+Jehu, because thou hast done well, etc., thy children of the fourth
+generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XL" id="XL"></a>XL</h2>
+
+<h2>LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING</h2>
+
+<h3>By the Rev. <span class="smcap">John Mastin</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>In the Rev. John Mastin's <i>History of Naseby</i> is cited a story of an
+apparition that was supposed to have appeared to Charles the First at
+Daintree, near Naseby, previous to the famous battle of that name.</p>
+
+<p>The army of Charles, says the historian, consisting of less than 5000
+foot, and about as many horse, was ordered to Daintree, whither the King
+went with a thorough resolution of fighting. The next day, however, to
+the surprise of Prince Rupert and all the rest of the army, this design
+was given up, and the former one of going to the north resumed. The
+reason of this alteration in his plans was alleged to be some presages
+of ill-fortune which the King had received, and which were related to
+me, says Mr Mastin's authority, by a person of Newark, at that time in
+His Majesty's horse. About two hours after the King had retired to rest,
+said the narrator, some of his attendants hearing an uncommon noise in
+his chamber, went into it, where they found His Majesty sitting up in
+bed and much agitated, but nothing which could have produced the noise
+they fancied they had heard. The King, in a tremulous voice, inquired
+after the cause of their alarm, and told them how much he had been
+disturbed, apparently by a dream, by thinking he had seen an apparition
+of Lord Strafford, who, after upbraiding him for his cruelty, told him
+he was come to return him good for evil, and that he advised him by no
+means to fight the Parliament army that was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span> at that time quartered at
+Northampton, for it was one which the King could never conquer by arms.
+Prince Rupert, in whom courage was the predominant quality, rated the
+King out of his apprehensions the next day, and a resolution was again
+taken to meet the enemy. The next night, however, the apparition
+appeared to him a second time, but with looks of anger assuring him that
+would be the last advice he should be permitted to give him, but that if
+he kept his resolution of fighting he was undone. If His Majesty had
+taken the advice of the friendly ghost, and marched northward the next
+day, where the Parliament had few English forces, and where the Scots
+were becoming very discontented, his affairs might, perhaps, still have
+had a prosperous issue, or if he had marched immediately into the west
+he might afterwards have fought on more equal terms. But the King,
+fluctuating between the apprehensions of his imagination and the
+reproaches of his courage, remained another whole day at Daintree in a
+state of inactivity. The battle of Naseby, fought 14th June 1645, put a
+finishing stroke to the King's affairs. After this he could never get
+together an army fit to look the enemy in the face. He was often heard
+to say that he wished he had taken <i>the warning</i>, and not fought at
+Naseby; the meaning of which nobody knew but those to whom he had told
+of the apparition which he had seen at Daintree, and all of whom were,
+subsequently, charged to keep the affair secret.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLI" id="XLI"></a>XLI</h2>
+
+<h2>KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE</h2>
+
+<h3>From <span class="smcap">Ferrier's</span> "Apparitions"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Kotter's first vision was detailed by him, on oath, before the
+magistrates of Sprottaw, in 1619. While he was travelling on foot, in
+open daylight, in June 1616, a man appeared to him, who ordered him to
+inform the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, that great evils were
+impending over Germany, for the punishment of the sins of the people;
+after which he vanished. The same apparition met him at different times,
+and compelled him at length, by threats, to make this public
+declaration.</p>
+
+<p>After this, his visions assumed a more imposing appearance: on one
+occasion the angel (for such he was now confessed to be) showed him
+three suns, filling one half of the heavens; and nine moons, with their
+horns turned towards the east, filling the other half. At the same time,
+a superb fountain of pure water spouted from the arid soil, under his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>At another time, he beheld a mighty lion, treading on the moon, and
+seven other lions around him, in the clouds.</p>
+
+<p>Sometimes he beheld the encounter of hostile armies, splendidly
+accoutred; sometimes he wandered through palaces, whose only inhabitants
+were devouring monsters; or beheld dragons of enormous size, in various
+scenes of action.</p>
+
+<p>He was at length attended by two angels, in his ecstasy; one of his
+visions at this time was of the most formidable and impressive kind. "On
+the 13th day of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> September, says he, both the youths returned to me,
+saying, be not afraid, but observe the thing which will be shewn to
+thee. And I suddenly beheld a circle, like the sun, red, and as it were,
+bloody: in which were black and white lines, or spots, so intermingled,
+that sometimes there appeared a greater number of blacks, sometimes of
+white; and this sight continued for some space of time. And when they
+had said to me, Behold! Attend! Fear not! No evil will befal thee! Lo,
+there were three successive peals of thunder, at short intervals, so
+loud and dreadful, that I shuddered all over. But the circle stood
+before me, and the black and white spots were disunited, and the circle
+approached so near that I could have touched it with my hand. And it was
+so beautiful, that I had never in my life seen any thing more agreeable:
+and the white spots were so bright and pleasant, that I could not
+contain my admiration. But the black spots were carried away in cloud of
+horrible darkness, in which I heard a dismal outcry, though I could see
+no one. Yet these words of lamentation were audible: Woe unto us, who
+have committed ourselves unto the black cloud, to be withdrawn from the
+circle coloured with the blood of divine grace, in which the grace of
+God, in his well-beloved Son, had inclosed us."</p>
+
+<p>After several other piteous exclamations, he saw a procession of many
+thousand persons, bearing palms, and singing hymns, but of very small
+stature, enter the red circle, from the black cloud, chanting
+halleluiah.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLII" id="XLII"></a>XLII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN</h2>
+
+<h3>From a <i>Proc&eacute;s-verbal</i></h3>
+
+
+<p>The authenticity of the following narrative rests upon a
+<i>proc&eacute;s-verbal</i>, drawn out in form, and attested by the signatures of
+four credible witnesses.</p>
+
+<p>Charles XI. was one of the most despotic and, at the same time, one of
+the ablest monarchs that ever ruled the destinies of Sweden. History
+represents him as brave and enlightened, but of a harsh and inflexible
+disposition; regulating his opinions by positive facts, and wholly
+ungifted with imagination. At the period of which we are about to speak,
+death had bereaved him of his Queen, Ulrica Eleonora. Notwithstanding
+the harshness which had marked his conduct to the Princess during her
+lifetime, and which, in the opinion of his subjects, had precipitated
+her into the grave, Charles revered her memory, and appeared more
+affected by her loss than might have been imagined from the natural
+sternness of his character. Subsequently to this event, he became more
+gloomy and taciturn than before, and devoted himself to study with an
+intensity of application that evinced his anxiety to escape the tortures
+of his own painful reflections. Towards the close of a dreary autumnal
+evening, the king, in slippers and <i>robe de chambre</i>, was seated before
+a large fire, in a private cabinet of his palace at Stockholm. Near him
+were his grand chamberlain, the Count de Brahe, who was honoured with
+the favourite estimation of his sovereign,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> and the principal state
+physician, Baumgarten, a learned disciple of Hippocrates, who aimed at
+the reputation of an <i>esprit fort</i>, and who would have pardoned a
+disbelief in anything except in the efficacy of his own prescriptions.
+The last-mentioned personage had on that evening been hastily summoned
+to the presence of the monarch, who felt or fancied himself in need of
+his professional skill. The evening was already far advanced, and the
+king, contrary to his wont, delayed bidding the customary "goodnight to
+all,"&mdash;the well-understood signal at which his guests always retired.
+With his head bent down, and his eyes fixed upon the decaying embers,
+that gradually withdrew even their mockery of warmth from the spacious
+fireplace, he maintained a strict silence, evidently fatigued with his
+company, yet dreading, though he scarcely knew why, to be left alone.
+The grand chamberlain, who perceived that even his profound remarks
+failed to excite the attention of the monarch, ventured to hint that his
+majesty would do well to seek repose; a gesture of the king retained him
+in his place. The physician, in his turn, hazarded a casual observation
+on the injurious tendency of late hours. The significant innuendoes
+were, however, thrown away on Charles, who replied to them by muttering
+between his teeth, "You may remain; I have no wish to sleep." This
+permission, with which the drowsy courtiers would willingly have
+dispensed, but which was really equivalent to a command, was succeeded
+by an attempt on their part to enliven his majesty with different
+subjects of conversation. No topic, however, that they introduced could
+outlive the second or third phrase. The king was in one of his gloomy
+moods; for royalty, with reverence be it spoken, has its moments of
+merriment and ill-humour, its mixture of sunshine and of cloud; and be
+it known to thee, gentle reader, that ticklish is the position of a
+courtier when majesty is in the dumps. To mend, or rather to mar the
+matter, the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> grand chamberlain, imagining that the sadness which
+overshadowed the royal brow came from regret, fixed his eyes upon a
+portrait of the queen, hung up in the cabinet, and with a sigh of pathos
+exclaimed, "How striking the resemblance! and who could not recognise
+the expression of majesty and gentleness, that&mdash;" "Fudge!" cried the
+king. Conscience had probably something to do with the abruptness of the
+exclamation. The old chamberlain had unwittingly touched a tender chord;
+every allusion to the queen appearing like a tacit reproach to the
+august and widowed spouse. "That portrait," added the king, "is too
+flattering, the queen was far from handsome"; then, as if inwardly
+repentant of his harshness, he rose from his seat and paced the
+apartment with hasty strides, to conceal the tears that had well-nigh
+betrayed his emotion. He sat in the embrasure of a window which looked
+upon the court; the moon was obscured by a thick veil of clouds; not
+even a solitary star twinkled through the darkness. The palace at
+present inhabited by the kings of Sweden was not at that time finished;
+and Charles XI., in whose reign it had been commenced, usually resided
+in an old-fashioned edifice, built something in the shape of a
+horseshoe, and situated at the point of Ritterholm, commanding a view of
+Lake Mader. The royal cabinet was at one of the extremities, nearly
+opposite to the grand hall or council-chamber, in which the States were
+accustomed to assemble when a message or communication from the crown
+was expected. Just at this moment the windows of the council-chamber
+appeared brilliantly illuminated. The king was lost in surprise. He at
+first imagined the light to proceed from the torch of some domestic. Yet
+what could occasion so unseasonable a visit to a place that for a
+considerable time had been closed? Besides, the light was too vivid to
+be produced by one single torch, it might have been attributed to a
+conflagration; but no smoke was perceptible,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> no noise was heard, the
+window glasses were not broken, everything in short seemed to indicate
+an illumination, such as takes place on public and solemn occasions.
+Charles, without uttering a word, remained gazing at the windows of the
+council-chamber. The Count Brahe, who had already grasped the bell-cord,
+was on the point of summoning a page, in order to ascertain the cause of
+this singular illumination, when the king suddenly prevented him. "I
+will visit the chamber myself," said his majesty; the seriousness of his
+deportment and the paleness of his countenance indicating a strange
+mixture of determination and superstitious awe. He quitted the cabinet
+with the unhesitating step of one resolved to obtain mastery over
+himself; the legislator of etiquette, and the regulator of bodies, each
+with a lighted taper, followed him with fear and trembling. The keeper
+of the keys had already retired to rest; Baumgarten was despatched by
+the king to awaken him, and to order him forthwith to open the doors of
+the council-chamber. Unbounded was the worthy keeper's surprise at the
+unexpected intimation. Benign Providence, however, has ordained monarchs
+to command, and created keepers of keys to obey. The prudent Cerberus
+yawned, dressed himself in haste, and presented himself before his
+sovereign with the insignia of his office, a bunch of keys of various
+dimensions suspended at his girdle. He commenced by opening the door of
+a gallery, which served as a sort of ante-room to the council-chamber.
+The king entered; but his astonishment may be conceived, on finding the
+walls of the building entirely hung with black. "By whose order has this
+been done?" demanded the king in a tone of anger. "Sire," replied the
+trembling keeper of the keys, "I am ignorant; the last time the gallery
+was opened it was wainscoted with oak, as usual, most assuredly these
+hangings are not from your majesty's wardrobe." The king, however, had
+by this time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> traversed at a rapid pace two-thirds of the gallery,
+without stopping to avail himself of the worshipful warden's
+conjectures. The latter personage and the grand chamberlain followed his
+majesty, whilst the learned doctor lingered a little in the rear.
+"Sire," cried the keeper of the keys, "I beseech your majesty to go no
+farther. As I have a living soul, there is witchcraft in this matter. At
+this hour ... and since the death of the queen, God be gracious to us!
+It is said that her majesty walks every night in this gallery." "Hold,
+Sire!" cried the Count in his turn, "do you not hear a strange noise
+which seems to proceed from the council-chamber? Who can foresee the
+danger to which your majesty may expose your sacred person?" "Forward!"
+replied the resolute monarch in an imperative tone; and as he stopped
+before the door of the council-chamber, "Quick! your keys!" said he to
+the keeper. He pushed the door violently with his foot, and the noise,
+repeated by the echoes of the vaulted roof, resounded through the
+gallery like the report of a cannon. The old keeper trembled; he tried
+one key, then another, but without success; his hand shook, his sight
+was confused. "A soldier, and afraid?" cried Charles with a smile.
+"Come, Count, you must be our usher: open that door." "Sire," replied
+the grand chamberlain stepping backwards, "if your majesty command me to
+walk up to the mouth of a Danish cannon, I will obey on the instant; but
+you will not order me to combat with the devil and his imps?" The
+monarch snatched the keys from the palsied hands of the infirm old
+keeper. "I see," said his majesty in a tone of contempt, "that I must
+finish this adventure"; and before his terrified suite could prevent his
+design, he had already opened the massy oaken door, and penetrated into
+the council-chamber, first pronouncing the usual formula, "with the help
+of God." The companions of his midnight excursion entered along with
+him, prompted by a sentiment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> of curiosity, stronger on this occasion
+even than terror; their courage too was reinforced by a feeling of
+shame, which forbade them to abandon their sovereign in the hour of
+peril. The council-chamber was illuminated with an immense number of
+torches. The ancient figured tapestry had been replaced by a black
+drapery suspended on the walls, along which were ranged, in regular
+order, and according to the custom of those days, German, Danish, and
+Muscovite banners, trophies of the victories won by the soldiers of
+Gustavus Adolphus. In the middle were distinguished the banners of
+Sweden, covered with black crape. A numerous assemblage was seated on
+the benches of the hall. The four orders of the state&mdash;the nobility, the
+clergy, the citizens, and the peasants,&mdash;were ranged according to the
+respective disposition assigned to each. All were clothed in black; and
+the multitude of human faces, that shone like so many luminous rays upon
+a dark ground, dazzled the sight to such a degree that, of the four
+individuals who witnessed this extraordinary scene, not one could
+discern amidst the crowd a countenance with which he was familiar; the
+position of the four spectators might have been compared to that of
+actors, who, in presence of a numerous audience, were incapable of
+distinguishing a single face among the confused mass. On the elevated
+throne whence the monarch habitually harangued the assembly of the
+States, was seated a bleeding corpse, invested with the emblems of
+royalty. On the right of this apparition stood a child, a crown upon his
+head and the sceptre in his hand; on the left an aged man, or rather
+another phantom, leaned upon the throne, opposite to which were several
+personages of austere and solemn demeanour, clothed in long black robes,
+and seated before a table covered with thick folios and parchments; from
+the gravity of their deportment the latter seemed to be judges. Between
+the throne and the portion of the council-chamber above which it was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>
+elevated, were placed an axe and a block covered with black crape. In
+this unearthly assembly none seemed at all conscious of the presence of
+Charles, or of the three individuals by whom he was accompanied. At last
+the oldest of the judges in black robes&mdash;he who appeared to discharge
+the functions of president&mdash;rising with dignity, struck three times with
+his hand upon an open folio. Profound silence immediately succeeded;
+some youths of distinguished appearance, richly dressed, and with their
+hands fettered behind their backs, were led into the council-chamber by
+a door opposite to that which Charles had opened. Behind them a man of
+vigrous mould held the extremity of the cord with which their hands were
+pinioned. The prisoner who marched in the foremost rank, and whose air
+was more imposing than that of the others, stopped in the midst of the
+council-chamber before the block which he seemed to contemplate with
+haughty disdain. At the same instant the corse seated on the throne was
+agitated by a convulsive tremor, and the purple tide flowed afresh from
+his wounds. The youthful prisoner knelt upon the ground, and laid his
+head upon the block; the fatal axe glittering in the air descended
+swiftly; a stream of blood forced its way even to the platform of the
+throne, and mingled with that of the royal corse; whilst the head of the
+victim, rebounding from the crimson pavement, rolled to the feet of
+Charles, and stained them with blood. Hitherto, astonishment had
+rendered the monarch dumb; but at this horrid spectacle his tongue was
+unloosed. He advanced a few steps towards the platform, and addressing
+himself to the apparition on the left of the corse, boldly pronounced
+the customary abjuration, "If thou art of God, speak; if of the Evil
+One, depart in peace." The phantom replied in slow and emphatic accents,
+"Charles, not under thy reign shall this blood be shed [here the voice
+became indistinct]; five monarchs succeeding thee shall first sit on the
+throne of Sweden.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> Woe, woe, woe to the blood of Wasa!" Upon this the
+numerous figures composing this extraordinary assemblage became less
+distinct, till at last they resembled a mass of coloured shadows, soon
+after which they disappeared altogether. The fantastic torches were
+extinguished of themselves, and those of Charles and his suite cast
+their dim, flickering light upon the old-fashioned tapestry with which
+the chamber was usually hung, and which was now slightly moved by the
+wind. During some minutes longer a strange sort of melody was heard, a
+harmony compared by one of the eye-witnesses of this unparalleled scene
+to the murmur of the breeze agitating the foliage, and by another to the
+sound emitted by the breaking of a harp-string. All agreed upon one
+point, the duration of the apparition, which they stated to have lasted
+about ten minutes. The black drapery, the decapitated victim, the stream
+of blood which had inundated the platform, all had disappeared with the
+phantoms; every trace had vanished except a crimson spot, which still
+stained the slipper of Charles, and which alone would have sufficed to
+remind him of the horrid vision, had it been possible for any effort to
+erase it from his memory. Returning to his private cabinet, the king
+committed to paper an exact relation of what he had seen, signed it, and
+ordered his companions to do the same. Spite of the precautions taken to
+conceal the contents of this statement from the public, they soon
+transpired, and were generally known, even during the lifetime of
+Charles XI. The original document is still in existence, and its
+authenticity has never been questioned; it concludes with the following
+remarkable words:&mdash;"If," says the king, "all that I have just declared
+is not the exact truth, I renounce my hopes of a happier existence which
+I may have merited by some good actions, and by my zeal for the welfare
+of my people and for the maintenance of the religion of my fathers." If
+the reader will call to mind the death of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> Gustavus III., and the trial
+of his assassin, Ankarstroem, he will observe the intimate connection
+between these events and the circumstances of the extraordinary
+prediction which we have just detailed. The apparition of the young man
+beheaded in the presence of the assembled States prognosticated the
+execution of Ankarstroem. The crowned corse represented Gustavus III.,
+the child, his son and successor, Gustavus Adolphus IV.; and lastly, by
+the old man was designated the uncle of Gustavus IV., the Duke of
+Sudermania, regent of the kingdom and afterwards king, upon the
+deposition of his nephew.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLIII" id="XLIII"></a>XLIII</h2>
+
+<h2>BEN JONSON'S PREVISION</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Drummond's</span> "Conversations"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that "when the king came to
+England, about the time that plague was in London, he being in the
+country, at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Cambden, he saw in a
+vision his eldest son, then a young child and at London, appear unto him
+with the mark of a bloody cross on his forehead, as if it had been cut
+with a sword, at which amazed he prayed unto God, and in the morning he
+came unto Mr Cambden's chamber to tell him, who persuaded him it was but
+an apprehension, at which he should not be dejected. In the meantime
+there came letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the plague.
+He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that growth he
+thinks he shall be at the resurrection."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLIV" id="XLIV"></a>XLIV</h2>
+
+<h2>QUEEN ULRICA AND THE COUNTESS STEENBOCK</h2>
+
+<h3>"Court Records"</h3>
+
+
+<p>When Queen Ulrica was dead, her corpse was placed in the usual way in an
+open coffin, in a room hung with black and lighted with numerous wax
+candles; a company of the king's guards did duty in the ante-room. One
+afternoon, the carriage of the Countess Steenbock, first lady of the
+palace, and a particular favourite of the queen's, drove up from
+Stockholm. The officers commanding the guard of honour went to meet the
+countess, and conducted her from the carriage to the door of the room
+where the dead queen lay, which she closed after her.</p>
+
+<p>The long stay of the lady in the death-chamber caused some uneasiness;
+but it was ascribed to the vehemence of her grief; and the officers on
+duty, fearful of disturbing the further effusion of it by their
+presence, left her alone with the corpse. At length, finding that she
+did not return, they began to apprehend that some accident had befallen
+her, and the captain of the guard opened the door. He instantly started
+back, with a face of the utmost dismay. The other officers ran up, and
+plainly perceived, through the half-open door, the deceased queen
+standing upright in her coffin, and ardently embracing the countess. The
+apparition seemed to move, and soon after became enveloped in a dense
+smoke or vapour. When this had cleared away,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> the body of the queen lay
+in the same position as before, but the countess was nowhere to be
+found. In vain did they search that and the adjoining apartments, while
+some of the party hastened to the door, thinking she must have passed
+unobserved to her carriage; but neither carriage, horses, driver, or
+footmen were to be seen. A messenger was quickly despatched with a
+statement of this extraordinary circumstance to Stockholm, and there he
+learnt that the Countess Steenbock had never quitted the capital, and
+that she died at the very moment when she was seen in the arms of the
+deceased queen.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLV" id="XLV"></a>XLV</h2>
+
+<h2>DENIS MISANGER</h2>
+
+<h3>"The Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>On Friday, the first day of May 1705, about five o'clock in the evening,
+Denis Misanger de la Richardiere, eighteen years of age, was attacked
+with an extraordinary malady, which began by a sort of lethargy. They
+gave him every assistance that medicine and surgery could afford. He
+fell afterwards into a kind of furor or convulsion, and they were
+obliged to hold him, and have five or six persons to keep watch over
+him, for fear that he should throw himself out of the windows, or break
+his head against the wall. The emetic which they gave him made him throw
+up a quantity of bile, and for four or five days he remained pretty
+quiet.</p>
+
+<p>At the end of the month of May, they sent him into the country, to take
+the air; and some other circumstances occurred, so unusual, that they
+judged he must be bewitched. And what confirmed this conjecture was,
+that he never had any fever, and retained all his strength,
+notwithstanding all the pains and violent remedies which he had been
+made to take. They asked him if he had not had some dispute with a
+shepherd or some other person suspected of sorcery, or malpractices.</p>
+
+<p>He declared that on the 18th of April preceding, when he was going
+through the village of Noysi on horseback for a ride, his horse stopped
+short in the midst of the <i>Rue Feret</i>, opposite the chapel, and he could
+not make him go forward, though he touched him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> several times with the
+spur. There was a shepherd standing leaning against the chapel, with his
+crook in his hand, and two black dogs at his side. This man said to him,
+"Sir, I advise you to return home, for your horse will not go forward."
+The young La Richardiere, continuing to spur his horse, said to the
+shepherd, "I do not understand what you say." The shepherd replied, in a
+low tone, "I will make you understand." In effect, the young man was
+obliged to get down from his horse, and lead it back by the bridle to
+his father's dwelling in the same village. Then the shepherd cast a
+spell upon him, which was to take effect on the 1st of May, as was
+afterwards known.</p>
+
+<p>During this malady, they caused several masses to be said in different
+places, especially at St Maur des Fosses, at St Amable, and at St
+Esprit. Young La Richardiere was present at some of these masses which
+were said at St Maur; but he declared that he should not be cured till
+Friday, 26th June, on his return from St Maur. On entering his chamber,
+the key of which he had in his pocket, he found there that shepherd,
+seated in his armchair, with his crook, and his two black dogs. He was
+the only person who saw him; none other in the house could perceive him.
+He said even that this man was called Damis, although he did not
+remember that anyone had before this revealed his name to him. He beheld
+him all that day, and all the succeeding night. Towards six o'clock in
+the evening, as he felt his usual sufferings, he fell on the ground,
+exclaiming that the shepherd was upon him, and crushing him; at the same
+time he drew his knife, and aimed five blows at the shepherd's face, of
+which he retained the marks. The invalid told those who were watching
+over him that he was going to be very faint at five different times, and
+begged of them to help him, and move him violently. The thing happened
+as he had predicted.</p>
+
+<p>On Friday, the 26th June, M. de la Richardiere, having<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> gone to the mass
+at St Maur, asserted that he should be cured on that day. After mass,
+the priest put the stole upon his head, and recited the Gospel of St
+John, during which prayer the young man saw St Maur standing, and the
+unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five
+knife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment the youth cried out,
+unintentionally, "A miracle! a miracle!" and asserted that he was cured,
+as in fact he was.</p>
+
+<p>On the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi,
+and amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards,
+the shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with
+the butt-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, "Sir, you are killing
+me!" and fled. The next day this man presented himself again before him,
+and asked his pardon, saying, "I am called Damis; it was I who cast a
+spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of masses and
+prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured at the end of
+eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself, and I can be
+cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray for me."</p>
+
+<p>During all these reports, the <i>mar&eacute;chauss&eacute;e</i> had set off in pursuit of
+the shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and thrown
+away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M. de la
+Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having passed
+twenty years without approaching the sacraments, God had given him grace
+to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays he had been
+admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la Richardiere
+received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation of the
+shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to cause a
+requiem mass to be said for him, which was done.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVI" id="XLVI"></a>XLVI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE PIED PIPER</h2>
+
+<h3>"The Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>The following instance is so extraordinary, that I should not repeat it
+if the account were not attested by more than one writer, and also
+preserved in the public monuments of a considerable town of Upper
+Saxony; this town is Hamelin in the principality of Kalenberg, at the
+confluence of the rivers Hamel and Weser.</p>
+
+<p>In the year 1384, this town was infested by such a prodigious multitude
+of rats, that they ravaged all the corn which was laid up in the
+granaries; everything was employed that art and experience could invent
+to chase them away, and whatever is usually employed against this kind
+of animals. At that time there came to the town an unknown person, of
+taller stature than ordinary, dressed in a robe of divers colours, who
+engaged to deliver them from that scourge, for a certain recompense
+which was agreed upon.</p>
+
+<p>Then he drew from his sleeve a flute, at the sound of which all the rats
+came out of their holes and followed him; he led them straight to the
+river, into which they ran and were drowned. On his return he asked for
+the promised reward, which was refused him, apparently on account of the
+facility with which he had exterminated the rats. The next day, which
+was a f&ecirc;te day, he chose the moment when the older inhabitants were at
+church, and by means of another flute which he began to play, all the
+boys in the town above the age of fourteen, to the number of a hundred
+and thirty, assembled round<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> him; he led them to the neighbouring
+mountain, named Kopfelberg, under which is a sewer for the town, and
+where criminals are executed; these boys disappeared and were never seen
+afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>A young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the matter,
+and brought the news of it to the town.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVII" id="XLVII"></a>XLVII</h2>
+
+<h2>JEANNE D'ARC</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Ferrier's</span> "Apparitions"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Upon her trial, as it is repeated by Chartier, she spoke with the utmost
+simplicity and firmness of her visions: "Que souvent alloit a une belle
+fontaine au pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nommoit bonne fontaine aux
+Fe&eacute;s Nostre Seigneur, at en icelluy lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils
+avoient fiebvre ils alloient pour recouvrer garison; et la alloit
+souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine
+ombroit; et s'apparurent a elle Ste Katerine et Ste Marguerite qui lui
+dirent qu'elle allast a ung Cappitaine qu'elles lui nommerent, laquelle
+y alla sans prendre cong&eacute; ni a pere ni a mere; lequel Cappitaine la
+vestit en guise d'homme et l'armoit et lui ceint l'epe&eacute;, et luy bailla
+un escuyer et quatre varlets; et en ce point fut monte&eacute; sur un bon
+cheval; et en ce point vint aut Roy de France, et lui dit que du
+Commandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et qu'elle le feroit le plus
+grand Seigneur du Monde, et qu'il fut ordonn&eacute; que tretou ceulx qui lui
+desobeiroient fussent occis sans mercy, et que St Michel et plusieurs
+anges lui avoient baill&eacute; une Couronne moult riche pour lui."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLVIII" id="XLVIII"></a>XLVIII</h2>
+
+<h2>ANNE WALKER</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+
+<p>In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the
+county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world,
+and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept
+his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but
+too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a
+mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Clare, in
+Chester-le-Street, and promised to take care both of her and her future
+child. One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with
+Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Clare's door, and told
+her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place
+where she could remain in safety till her confinement was over. They
+would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an
+excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to
+have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire. Fourteen days after, one
+Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been
+engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on going downstairs to go
+home, in the middle of the ground floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled
+hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head.
+Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the
+spectre wanted. "I," said the apparition, "am the spirit of Anne
+Walker"; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particulars<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> which
+I have already related to you. "When I was sent away with Mark Sharp, he
+slew me on such a moor," naming one that Graeme knew, "with a collier's
+pick, threw my body into a coal-pit, and hid the pick under the bank;
+and his shoes and stockings, which were covered with blood, he left in a
+stream." The apparition proceeded to tell Graeme that he must give
+information of this to the nearest justice of peace, and that till this
+was done, he must look to be continually haunted. Graeme went home very
+sad; he dared not bring such a charge against a man of so unimpeachable
+a character as Walker; and yet he as little dared to incur the anger of
+the spirit that had appeared to him. So, as all weak minds will do, he
+went on procrastinating; only he took care to leave his mill early, and
+while in it never to be alone. Notwithstanding this caution on his part,
+one night, just as it began to be dark, the apparition met him again in
+a more terrible shape, and with every circumstance of indignation. Yet
+he did not even then fulfil its injunction; till on St Thomas's eve, as
+he was walking in his garden just after sunset, it threatened him so
+effectually that in the morning he went to a magistrate and revealed the
+whole thing. The place was examined; the body and the pickaxe found; and
+a warrant was granted against Walker and Sharp. They were, however,
+admitted to bail; but in August, 1681, their trial came on before Judge
+Davenport at Durham. Meanwhile the whole circumstances were known over
+all the north of England, and the greatest interest was excited by the
+case. Against Sharp the fact was strong, that his shoes and stockings,
+covered with blood, were found in the place where the murder had been
+committed; but against Walker, except the account received from the
+ghost, there seemed not a shadow of evidence. Nevertheless the judge
+summed up strongly against the prisoners, the jury found them guilty,
+and the judge pronounced sentence upon them that night, a thing which
+was unknown<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> in Durham, either before or after. The prisoners were
+executed, and both died professing their innocence to the last. Judge
+Davenport was much agitated during the trial; and it was believed, says
+the historian, that the spirit had also appeared to him, as if to supply
+in his mind the want of legal evidence. This case is certainly a solemn
+illustration of the mal-administration of justice in an ancient court;
+yet the circumstantial evidence, arising from the appearance of the
+spirit, appears very strong&mdash;the finding of the body, and the boots and
+stockings. Yet we need perhaps to live more immediately within the
+circle of the circumstance to pronounce upon it. None of us, however,
+reading this book, would like to take upon ourselves the responsibility
+of those daring jurymen, who durst venture to throw away life upon
+evidence which, strong as it appears to have been, did not come to them,
+but only to one who had borne witness to them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="XLIX" id="XLIX"></a>XLIX</h2>
+
+<h2>THE HAND OF GLORY</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Henderson's</span> "Folk Lore"</h3>
+
+
+<p>One evening, between the years 1790 and 1800, a traveller, dressed in
+woman's clothes, arrived at the Old Spital Inn, the place where the mail
+coach changed horses, in High Spital, on Bowes Moor. The traveller
+begged to stay all night, but had to go away so early in the morning
+that if a mouthful of food were set ready for breakfast there was no
+need the family should be disturbed by her departure. The people of the
+house, however, arranged that a servant maid should sit up till the
+stranger was out of the premises, and then went to bed themselves. The
+girl lay down for a nap on the longsettle by the fire, but before she
+shut her eyes she took a good look at the traveller, who was sitting on
+the opposite side of the hearth, and espied a pair of man's trousers
+peeping out from under the gown. All inclination for sleep was now gone;
+however, with great self-command, she feigned it, closed her eyes, and
+even began to snore. On this the traveller got up, pulled out of his
+pocket a dead man's hand, fitted a candle to it, lighted the candle, and
+passed hand and candle several times before the servant girl's face,
+saying as he did so: "Let those who are asleep be asleep, and let those
+who are awake be awake." This done, he placed the light on the table,
+opened the outer door, went down two or three of the steps which led
+from the house to the road, and began to whistle for his companions. The
+girl (who had hitherto had presence of mind enough to remain perfectly
+quiet) now<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> jumped up, rushed behind the ruffian, and pushed him down
+the steps. She then shut the door, locked it, and ran upstairs to try
+and wake the family, but without success: calling, shouting, and shaking
+were alike in vain. The poor girl was in despair, for she heard the
+traveller and his comrades outside the house. So she ran down again,
+seized a bowl of blue (<i>i.e.</i> skimmed milk), and threw it over the hand
+and candle; after which she went upstairs again, and awoke the sleepers
+without any difficulty. The landlord's son went to the window, and asked
+the men outside what they wanted. They answered that if the dead man's
+hand were but given them, they would go away quietly, and do no harm to
+anyone. This he refused, and fired among them, and the shot must have
+taken effect, for in the morning stains of blood were traced to a
+considerable distance.</p>
+
+<p>These circumstances were related to my informant, Mr Charles Wastell, in
+the spring of 1861, by an old woman named Bella Parkin, who resided
+close to High Spital, and was actually the daughter of the courageous
+servant-girl.</p>
+
+<p>It is interesting to compare them with the following narrations,
+communicated to me by the Rev. S. Baring Gould:&mdash;"Two magicians having
+come to lodge in a public-house with a view to robbing it, asked
+permission to pass the night by the fire, and obtained it. When the
+house was quiet, the servant-girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs
+and looked through the keyhole. She saw the men open a sack, and take
+out a dry, withered hand. They anointed the fingers with some unguent,
+and lighted them. Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not
+light; that was because one of the household was not asleep. The girl
+hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse him. She tried
+every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed sleep. At last,
+stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> were busy over her
+master's strong box, she secured the hand, blew out the flames, and at
+once the whole household was aroused."<a name="FNanchor_14_14" id="FNanchor_14_14"></a><a href="#Footnote_14_14" class="fnanchor">[14]</a></p>
+
+<p>But the next story bears a closer resemblance to the Stainmore
+narrative. One dark night, when all was shut up, there came a tap at the
+door of a lone inn in the middle of a barren moor. The door was opened,
+and there stood without, shivering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags
+soaked with rain, and his hands white with cold. He asked piteously for
+a lodging, and it was cheerfully granted him; there was not a spare bed
+in the house, but he could lie on the mat before the kitchen fire, and
+welcome.</p>
+
+<p>So this was settled, and everyone in the house went to bed except the
+cook, who from the back kitchen could see into the large room through a
+pane of glass let into the door. She watched the beggar, and saw him, as
+soon as he was left alone, draw himself up from the floor, seat himself
+at the table, extract from his pocket a brown withered human hand, and
+set it upright in the candlestick. He then anointed the fingers, and
+applying a match to them, they began to flame. Filled with horror, the
+cook rushed up the back stairs, and endeavoured to arouse her master and
+the men of the house. But all was in vain&mdash;they slept a charmed sleep;
+so in despair she hastened down again, and placed herself at her post of
+observation.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the fingers of the hand flaming, but the thumb remained
+unlighted, because one inmate of the house was awake. The beggar was
+busy collecting the valuables around him into a large sack, and having
+taken all he cared for in the large room, he entered another. On this
+the woman ran in, and, seizing the light, tried to extinguish the
+flames. But this was not so easy. She blew at them, but they burnt on as
+before. She poured the dregs of a beer-jug over them, but they blazed
+up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span> the brighter. As a last resource, she caught up a jug of milk, and
+dashed it over the four lambent flames, and they died out at once.
+Uttering a loud cry, she rushed to the door of the apartment the beggar
+had entered, and locked it. The whole family was aroused, and the thief
+easily secured and hanged. This tale is told in Northumberland.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_14_14" id="Footnote_14_14"></a><a href="#FNanchor_14_14"><span class="label">[14]</span></a> Delrio. See also Thorpe's <i>Mythology</i>, vol. iii. p. 274.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="L" id="L"></a>L</h2>
+
+<h2>THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP</h2>
+
+<h3>Local Records</h3>
+
+<p>On the threshold of one of the doors of Smithills Hall there is a bloody
+footstep impressed into the door-step, and ruddy as if the bloody foot
+had just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of
+the year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at the
+door-step you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have
+pretended to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew
+redden a cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the finger-tips when you
+touch it? And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the
+appointed night and hour come round....</p>
+
+<p>It is needless to tell you all the strange stories that have survived to
+this day about the old Hall, and how it is believed that the master of
+it, owing to his ancient science, has still a sort of residence there
+and control of the place, and how in one of the chambers there is still
+his antique table, and his chair, and some rude old instruments and
+machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, just as if he might
+still come back to finish some experiment.... One of the chief things to
+which the old lord applied himself was to discover the means of
+prolonging his own life, so that its duration should be indefinite, if
+not infinite; and such was his science that he was believed to have
+attained this magnificent and awful purpose....</p>
+
+<p>The object of the Lord of Smithills Hall was to take a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> life from the
+course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that,
+great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not
+consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time,
+except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this
+was to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty
+years being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in
+that time, this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied
+the requisition, and he might live on....</p>
+
+<p>There was but one human being whom he cared for&mdash;that was a beautiful
+kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had brought up, and dying, left to
+his care.... He saw that she, if anyone, was to be the person whom the
+sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without effect,
+but if he took the life of this one it would make the charm strong and
+good.... He did slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood
+near the house, an old wood that is standing yet, with some of its
+magnificent oaks, and there he plunged a dagger into her heart....</p>
+
+<p>He buried her in the wood, and returned to the house; and, as it
+happened, he had set his right foot in her blood, and his shoe was wet
+in it, and by some miraculous fate it left a track all along the
+wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone steps of the threshold,
+and up into his chamber. The servants saw it the next day, and wondered,
+and whispered, and missed the fair young girl, and looked askance at
+their lord's right foot, and turned pale, all of them....</p>
+
+<p>Next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at what
+he had done ... and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a
+day. But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody
+footstep impressed upon the stone door-step of the Hall.... The legend
+says that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings about the
+world, he left a bloody track<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span> behind him.... Once he went to the King's
+Court, and, there being a track up to the very throne, the King frowned
+upon him, so that he never came there any more. Nobody could tell how it
+happened; his foot was not seen to bleed, only there was the bloody
+track behind him....</p>
+
+<p>At last this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back to his own Hall,
+where, living among faithful old servants born in the family, he could
+hush the matter up better than elsewhere.... So home he came, and there
+he saw the bloody track on the door-step, and dolefully went into the
+Hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber,
+and half a dozen others following him behind, gazing, shuddering,
+pointing with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one
+another's pale faces....</p>
+
+<p>By and by he vanished from the old Hall, but not by death; for, from
+generation to generation, they say that a bloody track is seen around
+that house, and sometimes it is traced up into the chambers, so fresh
+that you see he must have passed a short time before.</p>
+
+<p>This is the legend of the Bloody Footstep, which I myself have seen at
+the Hall door.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LI" id="LI"></a>LI</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS</h2>
+
+<h3>"The Phantom World"</h3>
+
+
+<p>The abbot of Ursperg, in his Chronicle, year 1123, says that in the
+territory of Worms they saw during many days a multitude of armed men,
+on foot and on horseback, going and coming with great noise, like people
+who are going to a solemn assembly. Every day they marched, towards the
+hour of noon, to a mountain, which appeared to be their place of
+rendezvous. Someone in the neighbourhood, bolder than the rest, having
+guarded himself with the sign of the cross, approached one of these
+armed men, conjuring him in the name of God, to declare the meaning of
+this army, and their design. The soldier or phantom replied, "We are not
+what you imagine; we are neither vain phantoms nor true soldiers, we are
+the spirits of those who were killed on this spot a long time ago. The
+arms and horses which you behold are the instruments of our punishment,
+as they were of our sins. We are all on fire, though you can see nothing
+about us which appears inflamed." It is said that they remarked in this
+company the Count Emico, who had been killed a few years before, and who
+declared that he might be extricated from that state by alms and
+prayers.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LII" id="LII"></a>LII</h2>
+
+<h2>THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND</h2>
+
+<h3>"Notes and Queries"</h3>
+
+
+<p>When on the weary way to Golgotha, Christ fainting, and overcome under
+the burden of the cross, asked Salathiel, as he was standing at his
+door, for a cup of water to cool His parched throat, he spurned the
+supplication, and bade Him on the faster.</p>
+
+<p>"I go," said the Saviour, "but thou shalt thirst and tarry till I come."</p>
+
+<p>And ever since then, by day and night, through the long centuries he has
+been doomed to wander about the earth, ever craving for water, and ever
+expecting the day of judgment which shall end his toils:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Mais toujours le soleil se l&egrave;ve,<br /></span>
+<span class="i4">Toujours, toujours<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Tourne la terre o&ugrave; moi je cours,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours!"<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Sometimes, during the cold winter nights, the lonely cottager will be
+awoke by a plaintive demand for "Water, good Christian! water for the
+love of God!" And if he looks out into the moonlight, he will see a
+venerable old man in antique raiment, with grey flowing beard, and a
+tall staff, who beseeches his charity with the most earnest gesture. Woe
+to the churl who refuses him water or shelter. My old nurse, who was a
+Warwickshire woman, and, as Sir Walter said of his grandmother, "a most
+<i>awfu' le'er</i>," knew a man who boldly cried out, "All very fine, Mr
+Ferguson, but you can't lodge here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span> And it was decidedly the worst
+thing he ever did in his life, for his best mare fell dead lame, and
+corn went down, I am afraid to say how much per quarter. If, on the
+contrary, you treat him well, and refrain from indelicate inquiries
+respecting his age&mdash;on which point he is very touchy&mdash;his visit is sure
+to bring good luck. Perhaps years afterwards, when you are on your
+death-bed, he may happen to be passing; and if he <i>should</i>, you are
+safe; for three knocks with his staff will make you hale, and he never
+forgets any kindnesses. Many stories are current of his wonderful cures;
+but there is one to be found in Peck's <i>History of Stamford</i> which
+possesses the rare merit of being written by the patient himself. Upon
+Whitsunday, in the year of our Lord 1658, "about six of the clock, just
+after evensong," one Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been long
+wasted with a lingering consumption, was sitting by the fire, reading in
+that delectable book called <i>Abraham's Suit for Sodom</i>. He heard a knock
+at the door; and, as his nurse was absent, he crawled to open it
+himself. What he saw there, Samuel shall say in his own style:&mdash;"I
+beheld a proper, tall, grave old man. Thus he said: 'Friend, I pray
+thee, give an old pilgrim a cup of small beere!' And I said, 'Sir, I
+pray you, come in and welcome.' And he said, 'I am no Sir, therefore
+call me not Sir; but come in I must, for I cannot pass by thy doore.'"</p>
+
+<p>After finishing the beer: "Friend," he said, "thou art not well." "I
+said, 'No, truly Sir, I have not been well this many yeares.' He said,
+'What is thy disease?' I said, 'A deep consumption, Sir; our doctors
+say, past cure: for, truly, I am a very poor man, and not able to follow
+doctors' councell.' 'Then,' said he, 'I will tell thee what thou shalt
+do; and, by the help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be
+well. To-morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and get there
+two leaves of red sage, and one of bloodworte, and put them into a cup
+of thy small beere. Drink as often as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> need require, and when the cup is
+empty fill it again, and put in fresh leaves every fourth day, and thou
+shalt see, through our Lord's great goodness and mercy, before twelve
+dayes shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.'"</p>
+
+<p>After this simple prescription, Wallis pressed him to eat: "But he said,
+'No, friend, I will not eat; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very
+seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that which comes from the
+rocke. So, friend, the Lord God be with thee.'"</p>
+
+<p>So saying, he departed, and was never more heard of; but the patient got
+well within the given time, and for many a long day there was war hot
+and fierce among the divines of Stamford, as to whether the stranger was
+an angel or a devil. His dress has been minutely described by honest
+Sam. His coat was purple, and buttoned down to the waist; "his britches
+of the same couler, all new to see to"; his stockings were very white,
+but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth not; his beard and head
+were white, and he had a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy from
+morning to night, "but he had not one spot of dirt upon his cloathes."</p>
+
+<p>Aubrey gives an almost exactly similar relation, the scene of which he
+places in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The Jew there appears in a
+"purple shag gown," and prescribes balm-leaves.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LIII" id="LIII"></a>LIII</h2>
+
+<h2>BENDITH EU MAMMAU<a name="FNanchor_15_15" id="FNanchor_15_15"></a><a href="#Footnote_15_15" class="fnanchor">[15]</a></h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">Edmund Jones</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>They appeared diverse ways, but their most frequent way of appearing was
+like dancing-companies with musick, or in the form of funerals. When
+they appeared like dancing-companies, they were desirous to entice
+persons into their company, and some were drawn among them and remained
+among them some time, usually a whole year; as did Edmund William Rees,
+a man whom I well knew, and was a neighbour, who came back at the year's
+end, and looked very bad. But either they were not able to give much
+account of themselves, or they durst not give it, only said they had
+been dancing, and that the time was short. But there were some others
+who went with them at night, and returned sometimes at night, and
+sometimes the next morning; especially those persons who took upon them
+to cure the hurts received from the fairies, as Charles Hugh of Coed yr
+Pame, in Langybi parish, and Rissiart Cap Dee, of Aberystruth; for the
+former of these must certainly converse with them, for how else could he
+declare the words which his visitors had spoken a day or days before
+they came to him, to their great surprise and wonder?</p>
+
+<p>And as for Rissiart Cap Dee, so called because he wore a black cap, it
+is said of him that when he lodged in some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> houses to cure those who
+were hurt by the fairies, he would suddenly rise up in the night, and
+make a very hasty preparation to go downstairs; which when one person
+observ'd, he said, "Go softly, Uncle Richard, least you fall": he made
+answer, "O, here are some to receive me." But when he was called to one
+person, who had inadvertently fallen among the fairies, and had been
+greatly hurt by them, and kept his bed upon it, whose relations had sent
+for the said Rissiart Cap Dee to cure him; who, when he came up to the
+sick man's chamber, the sick man took up a pound-weight stone, which was
+by the bed-side, and threw it at the infernal charmer with all his
+might, saying, "Thou old villain, wast one of the worst of them to hurt
+me!" for he had seen him among them acting his part against him; upon
+which the old charmer went away muttering some words of malevolence
+against him. He lived at the foot of Rhyw Coelbren, and there was a
+large hole in the side of the thatch of his house, thro' which the
+people believed he went out at night to the fairies, and came in from
+them at night; but he pretended it was that he might see the stars at
+night. The house is down long ago. He lived by himself, as did the
+before-mentioned Charles Hugh, who was very famous in the county for his
+cures, and knowledge of things at a distance; which he could not
+possibly know without conversing with evil spirits, who walked the earth
+to and fro. He is yet said to be an affable, friendly man, and cheerful;
+'tis then a pity he should be in alliance with hell, and an agent in the
+kingdom of darkness.</p>
+
+<p>I will only give one instance of his knowledge of things at a distance,
+and of secret things. Henry John Thomas, of the parish of Aberystruth, a
+relation of mine, an honest man, went with the water of a young woman
+whom he courted, and was sick, to the said Charles Hugh, who, as soon as
+he saw Henry John, pleasantly told him, "Ho! you come with your
+sweetheart's water to me."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> And he told him the very words which they
+had spoken together in a secret place, and described the place where
+they spoke. It was the general opinion in times past, when these things
+were very frequent, that the fairies knew whatever was spoken in the air
+without the houses, not so much what was spoken in the houses. I suppose
+they chiefly knew what was spoken in the air at night. It was also said
+they rather appeared to an uneven number of persons, to one, three,
+five, &amp;c.; and oftener to men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of
+Havodavel, an honest, pious man, who often saw them, declared that they
+appeared with one bigger than the rest, going before them in the
+company.</p>
+
+<p>But they very often appeared in the form of a funeral before the death
+of many persons, with a bier and a black cloth, in the midst of a
+company about it, on every side, before and after it. The instances of
+this were so numerous, that it is plain, and past all dispute, that they
+infallibly foreknew the time of men's death: the difficulty is, whence
+they had this knowledge. It cannot be supposed that either God Himself,
+or His angels, discovered this to these spirits of darkness. For <i>the
+secrets of the Lord are with those that fear Him</i>, not with His enemies.
+Psalm xxv. 14. They must therefore have this knowledge from the position
+of the stars at the time of birth, and their influence, which they
+perfectly understand beyond what mortal men can do. We have a constant
+proof of this in the corps candles, whose appearance is an infallible
+sign that death will follow, and they never fail going the way that the
+corps will go to be buried, be the way ever so unlikely that it should
+go through. But to give some instances in Aberystruth Parish.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="footnotes"><h3>FOOTNOTES:</h3>
+
+<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_15_15" id="Footnote_15_15"></a><a href="#FNanchor_15_15"><span class="label">[15]</span></a> <i>A Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the
+Parish of Aberystruth, in the County of Monmouth. To which are added,
+Memoirs of several persons of Note, who lived in the said Parish.</i> By
+Edmund Jones. Trevecka: printed in the Year 1779.</p></div>
+</div>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LIV" id="LIV"></a>LIV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE RED BOOK OF APPIN</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Campbell's</span> "Tales of the West Highlands"</h3>
+
+
+<p>Once upon a time, there lived a man at Appin, Argyllshire, and he took
+to his house an orphan boy. When the boy was grown up, he was sent to
+herd; and upon a day of days, and him herding, there came a fine
+gentleman where he was, who asked him to become his servant, and that he
+would give him plenty to eat and drink, clothes, and great wages. The
+boy told him that he would like very much to get a good suit of clothes,
+but that he would not engage till he would see his master; but the fine
+gentleman would have him engaged without any delay; this the boy would
+not do upon any terms till he would see his master. "Well," says the
+gentleman, "in the meantime write your name in this book." Saying this,
+he puts his hand into his oxter pocket, and pulling out a large red
+book, he told the boy to write his name in the book. This the boy would
+not do; neither would he tell his name, till he would acquaint his
+master first. "Now," says the gentleman, "since you will neither engage,
+or tell your name, till you see your present master, be sure to meet me
+about sunset to-morrow, at a certain place?" The boy promised that he
+would be sure to meet him at the place about sunsetting. When the boy
+came home he told his master what the gentleman said to him. "Poor boy,"
+says he, "a fine master he would make; lucky for you that you neither
+engaged nor wrote your name in his book; but since you promised to meet
+him, you must go; but as you value your life, do as I tell you." His
+master gave<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> him a sword, and at the same time he told him to be sure to
+be at the place mentioned a while before sunset, and to draw a circle
+round himself with the point of the sword in the name of Trinity. "When
+you do this, draw a cross in the centre of the circle, upon which you
+will stand yourself; and do not move out of that position till the
+rising of the sun next morning." He also told him that he would wish him
+to come out of the circle to put his name in the book; but that upon no
+account he was to leave the circle; "but ask the book till you would
+write your name yourself, and when once you get hold of the book keep
+it, he cannot touch a hair of your head, if you keep inside the circle."</p>
+
+<p>So the boy was at the place long before the gentleman made his
+appearance; but sure enough he came after sunset; he tried all his arts
+to get the boy outside the circle, to sign his name in the red book, but
+the boy would not move one foot out from where he stood; but, at the
+long last, he handed the book to the boy, so as to write his name
+therein. The book was no sooner inside the circle than it fell out of
+the gentleman's hand inside the circle; the boy cautiously stretched out
+his hand for the book, and as soon as he got hold of it, he put it in
+his oxter. When the fine gentleman saw that he did not mean to give him
+back the book, he got furious; and at last he transformed himself into
+great many likenesses, blowing fire and brimstone out of his mouth and
+nostrils; at times he would appear as a horse, other times a huge cat,
+and a fearful beast (uille bbeast); he was going round the circle the
+length of the night; when day was beginning to break he let out one
+fearful screech; he put himself in the shape of a large raven, and he
+was soon out of the boy's sight. The boy still remained where he was
+till he saw the sun in the morning, which no sooner he observed, than he
+took to his soles home as fast as he could. He gave the book to his
+master; and this is how the far-famed red book of Appin was got.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LV" id="LV"></a>LV</h2>
+
+<h2>THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE</h2>
+
+<h3>Irish Folk Tales</h3>
+
+
+<p>In an age so distant that the precise period is unknown, a chieftain
+named O'Donoghue ruled over the country which surrounds the romantic
+Lough Lean, now called the Lake of Killarney. Wisdom, beneficence, and
+justice distinguished his reign, and the prosperity and happiness of his
+subjects were their natural results. He is said to have been as renowned
+for his warlike exploits as for his pacific virtues; and as a proof that
+his domestic administration was not the less rigorous because it was
+mild, a rocky island is pointed out to strangers, called "O'Donoghue's
+Prison," in which this prince once confined his own son for some act of
+disorder and disobedience.</p>
+
+<p>His end&mdash;for it cannot correctly be called his death&mdash;was singular and
+mysterious. At one of those splendid feasts for which his court was
+celebrated, surrounded by the most distinguished of his subjects, he was
+engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen in
+ages yet to come. His auditors listened, now rapt in wonder, now fired
+with indignation, burning with shame, or melted into sorrow, as he
+faithfully detailed the heroism, the injuries, the crimes, and the
+miseries of their descendants. In the midst of his predictions he rose
+slowly from his seat, advanced with a solemn, measured, and majestic
+tread to the shore of the lake, and walked forward composedly upon its
+unyielding surface. When he had nearly reached the centre he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> paused for
+a moment, then, turning slowly round, looked toward his friends, and
+waving his arms to them with the cheerful air of one taking a short
+farewell, disappeared from their view.</p>
+
+<p>The memory of the good O'Donoghue has been cherished by successive
+generations with affectionate reverence; and it is believed that at
+sunrise, on every May-day morning, the anniversary of his departure, he
+revisits his ancient domains: a favoured few only are in general
+permitted to see him, and this distinction is always an omen of good
+fortune to the beholders; when it is granted to many it is a sure token
+of an abundant harvest&mdash;a blessing, the want of which during this
+prince's reign was never felt by his people.</p>
+
+<p>Some years have elapsed since the last appearance of O'Donoghue. The
+April of that year had been remarkably wild and stormy; but on
+May-morning the fury of the elements had altogether subsided. The air
+was hushed and still; and the sky, which was reflected in the serene
+lake, resembled a beautiful but deceitful countenance, whose smiles,
+after the most tempestuous emotions, tempt the stranger to believe that
+it belongs to a soul which no passion has ever ruffled.</p>
+
+<p>The first beams of the rising sun were just gilding the lofty summit of
+Glenaa, when the waters near the eastern shore of the lake became
+suddenly and violently agitated, though all the rest of its surface lay
+smooth and still as a tomb of polished marble, the next morning a
+foaming wave darted forward, and, like a proud high-crested war-horse,
+exulting in his strength, rushed across the lake toward Toomies
+mountain. Behind this wave appeared a stately warrior fully armed,
+mounted upon a milk-white steed; his snowy plume waved gracefully from a
+helmet of polished steel, and at his back fluttered a light blue scarf.
+The horse, apparently exulting in his noble burden, sprung after the
+wave along the water, which bore him up like firm earth, while showers
+of spray<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> that glittered brightly in the morning sun were dashed up at
+every bound.</p>
+
+<p>The warrior was O'Donoghue; he was followed by numberless youths and
+maidens, who moved lightly and unconstrained over the watery plain, as
+the moonlight fairies glide through the fields of air; they were linked
+together by garlands of delicious spring flowers, and they timed their
+movements to strains of enchanting melody. When O'Donoghue had nearly
+reached the western side of the lake, he suddenly turned his steed, and
+directed his course along the wood-fringed shore of Glenaa, preceded by
+the huge wave that curled and foamed up as high as the horse's neck,
+whose fiery nostrils snorted above it. The long train of attendants
+followed with playful deviations the track of their leader, and moved on
+with unabated fleetness to their celestial music, till gradually, as
+they entered the narrow strait between Glenaa and Dinis, they became
+involved in the mists which still partially floated over the lake, and
+faded from the view of the wondering beholders: but the sound of their
+music still fell upon the ear, and echo, catching up the harmonious
+strains, fondly repeated and prolonged them in soft and softer tones,
+till the last faint repetition died away, and the hearers awoke as from
+a dream of bliss.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LVI" id="LVI"></a>LVI</h2>
+
+<h2>SARAH POLGRAIN</h2>
+
+<h3>By <span class="smcap">William Hunt</span></h3>
+
+
+<p>A woman, who had lived in Ludgvan, was executed at Bodmin for the murder
+of her husband. There was but little doubt that she had been urged on to
+the diabolical deed by a horse-dealer, known as Yorkshire Jack, with
+whom, for a long period, she was generally supposed to have been
+criminally acquainted.</p>
+
+<p>Now, it will be remembered that this really happened within the present
+century. One morning, during my residence in Penzance, an old woman from
+Ludgvan called on me with some trifling message. While she was waiting
+for my answer, I made some ordinary remark about the weather.</p>
+
+<p>"It's all owing to Sarah Polgrain," said she.</p>
+
+<p>"Sarah Polgrain," said I; "and who is Sarah Polgrain?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the voluble old lady told me the whole story of the poisoning with
+which we need not, at present, concern ourselves. By and by the tale
+grew especially interesting, and there I resume it.</p>
+
+<p>Sarah had begged that Yorkshire Jack might accompany her to the scaffold
+when she was led forth to execution. This was granted; and on the
+dreadful morning there stood this unholy pair, the fatal beam on which
+the woman's body was in a few minutes to swing, before them.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>They kissed each other, and whispered words passed between them.</p>
+
+<p>The executioner intimated that the moment of execution had arrived, and
+that they must part. Sarah Polgrain, looking earnestly into the man's
+eyes, said:</p>
+
+<p>"You will?"</p>
+
+<p>Yorkshire Jack replied, "I will!" and they separated. The man retired
+amongst the crowd, the woman was soon a dead corpse, pendulating in the
+wind.</p>
+
+<p>Years passed on, Yorkshire Jack was never the same man as before, his
+whole bearing was altered. His bold, his dashing air deserted him. He
+walked, or rather wandered, slowly about the streets of the town, or the
+lanes of the country. He constantly moved his head from side to side,
+looking first over one, and then over the other shoulder, as though
+dreading that someone was following him.</p>
+
+<p>The stout man became thin, his ruddy cheeks more pale, and his eyes
+sunken.</p>
+
+<p>At length he disappeared, and it was discovered&mdash;for Yorkshire Jack had
+made a confidant of some Ludgvan man&mdash;that he had pledged himself,
+"living or dead, to become the husband of Sarah Polgrain, after the
+lapse of years."</p>
+
+<p>To escape, if possible, from himself, Jack had gone to sea in the
+merchant service.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the period had arrived when this unholy promise was to be
+fulfilled. Yorkshire Jack was returning from the Mediterranean in a
+fruit-ship. He was met by the devil and Sarah Polgrain far out at sea,
+off the Land's End. Jack would not accompany them willingly, so they
+followed the ship for days, during all which time she was involved in a
+storm. Eventually Jack was washed from the deck by such a wave as the
+oldest sailor had never seen; and presently, amidst loud thunders and
+flashing lightnings, riding as it were in a black cloud, three figures
+were seen passing onward.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> These were the devil, Sarah Polgrain, and
+Yorkshire Jack; and this was the cause of the storm.</p>
+
+<p>"It is all true, as you may learn if you will inquire," said the old
+woman; "for many of her kin live in Churchtown."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span></p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="LVII" id="LVII"></a>LVII</h2>
+
+<h2>ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER</h2>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Godwin's</span> "Lives of the Necromancers"</h3>
+
+
+<p>This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fast hold
+of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by the enlightened
+part of the species would now be regarded as worthy only of contempt,
+were then considered as charges of the most flagitious nature. While
+John, Duke of Bedford, the eldest uncle of King Henry VI., was regent of
+France, Humphrey of Gloucester, next brother to Bedford, was Lord
+Protector of the realm of England. Though Henry was now nineteen years
+of age, yet as he was a prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still
+continued to discharge the functions of sovereignty. He was eminently
+endowed with popular qualities, and was a favourite with the majority of
+the nation. He had, however, many enemies, one of the chief of whom was
+Henry Beaufort, great-uncle to the king, and Cardinal of Winchester. One
+of the means employed by this prelate to undermine the power of
+Humphrey, consisted in a charge of witchcraft brought against Eleanor
+Cobham, his wife.</p>
+
+<p>This woman had probably yielded to the delusions which artful persons,
+who saw into the weakness of her character, sought to practise upon her.
+She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have
+indulged in undue familiarity with her before he was a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> widower. His
+present duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in the
+first instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The Duke of
+Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to the actual
+exercise of the powers of sovereignty, was next heir to the crown in
+case of the king's decease. This weak and licentious woman, being now
+Duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the Lord Protector, directed her
+ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen, and, by way of
+feeding her evil passions, called to her counsels Margery Jourdain,
+commonly called the Witch of Eye, Roger Bolingbroke, an astrologer and
+supposed magician, Thomas Southwel, Canon of St Stephen's, and one John
+Hume, or Hun, a priest. These persons frequently met the duchess in
+secret cabal. They were accused of calling up spirits from the infernal
+world; and they made an image of wax, which they slowly consumed before
+a fire, expecting that, as the image gradually wasted away, so the
+constitution and life of the poor king would decay and finally perish.</p>
+
+<p>Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon his
+information several of these persons were taken into custody. After
+previous examination, on the 25th of July 1441, Bolingbroke was placed
+upon a scaffold before the cross of St Paul's, with a chair curiously
+painted, which was supposed to be one of his implements of necromancy,
+and dressed in mystical attire, and there, before the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, the Cardinal of Winchester, and several other bishops, made
+abjuration of all his unlawful arts.</p>
+
+<p>A short time after, the Duchess of Gloucester having fled to the
+sanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same high
+persons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence against her.
+She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle of Leeds, near
+Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. A commission was
+directed to the lord treasurer, several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> noblemen, and certain judges of
+both benches, to inquire into all manner of treasons, sorceries, and
+other things that might be hurtful to the king's person, and Bolingbroke
+and Southwel as principals, and the Duchess of Gloucester as accessory,
+were brought before them. Margery Jourdain was arraigned at the same
+time; and she, as a witch and relapsed heretic, was condemned to be
+burned in Smithfield. The Duchess of Gloucester was sentenced to do
+penance on three several days, walking through the streets of London,
+with a lighted taper in her hand, attended by the lord mayor, the
+sheriffs, and a select body of the livery, and then to be banished for
+life to the Isle of Man. Thomas Southwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke
+was hanged at Tyburn on the 18th of November.</p>
+
+
+<h4>PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.</h4>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Haunters & The Haunted, by Various
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diff --git a/17953.txt b/17953.txt
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+++ b/17953.txt
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Haunters & The Haunted, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Haunters & The Haunted
+       Ghost Stories And Tales Of The Supernatural
+
+Author: Various
+
+Editor: Ernest Rhys
+
+Release Date: March 9, 2006 [EBook #17953]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HAUNTERS & THE HAUNTED ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Josephine Paolucci and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+THE HAUNTERS & THE HAUNTED
+
+GHOST STORIES AND TALES OF THE SUPERNATURAL
+
+
+EDITED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
+
+BY ERNEST RHYS
+
+PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY
+DANIEL O'CONNOR, 90 GREAT
+RUSSELL STREET, W.C.1. 1921
+
+     For permission to use copyright stories in this volume, the
+     editor and publishers wish to make special acknowledgments to
+     Messrs Allen & Unwin, Mr Arnold Bennett, Mr E.H. Blakeney, Sir
+     George Douglas, Bart., Dr Greville MacDonald, Mr Arthur Machen,
+     and Mr Thomas Hardy.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+I. GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+ 1. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER                                 17
+
+ 2. THE OLD NURSE'S STORY                                          40
+
+ 3. THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY                                  54
+
+ 4. A STORY OF RAVENNA                                             58
+
+ 5. TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE                                     67
+
+ 6. THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN       83
+
+ 7. THE BOTATHEN GHOST                                            128
+
+ 8. THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX                                  138
+
+ 9. DR DUTHOIT'S VISION                                           143
+
+10. THE SEVEN LIGHTS                                              147
+
+11. THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON                               160
+
+12. DRAKE'S DRUM                                                  169
+
+13. THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM                                        171
+
+14. THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD                                     179
+
+15. THE LIANHAN SHEE                                              181
+
+16. THE HAUNTED COVE                                              216
+
+17. WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE                                       225
+
+
+II. GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE, AND LEGEND
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+18. GLAMIS CASTLE                                                 249
+
+19. POWYS CASTLE                                                  253
+
+20. CROGLIN GRANGE                                                259
+
+21. THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM                                   264
+
+22. THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES                            268
+
+23. THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE                               270
+
+24. CLERK SAUNDERS                                                274
+
+25. DOROTHY DURANT                                                280
+
+26. PEARLIN JEAN                                                  284
+
+27. THE DENTON HALL GHOST                                         287
+
+28. THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY                                      293
+
+29. CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT                                            300
+
+30. THE IRON CAGE                                                 303
+
+31. THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE                                        310
+
+32. THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY                                      317
+
+33. THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL                                 320
+
+34. THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET                                    326
+
+35. THE ALTHEIM REVENANT                                          329
+
+36. SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND                                        331
+
+37. ERICHTHO                                                      334
+
+
+III. OMENS AND PHANTASMS
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+38. PATROKLOS                                                    343
+
+39. VISION OF CROMWELL                                           345
+
+40. LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING                                     346
+
+41. KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE                                          348
+
+42. THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN                          350
+
+43. BEN JONSON'S PREVISION                                       359
+
+44. QUEEN ULRICA                                                 360
+
+45. DENIS MISANGER                                               362
+
+46. THE PIED PIPER                                               365
+
+47. JEANNE D'ARC                                                 367
+
+48. ANNE WALKER                                                  368
+
+49. THE HAND OF GLORY                                            371
+
+50. THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP                                          375
+
+51. THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS                                378
+
+52. THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND                                 379
+
+53. BENDITH EU MAMMAU                                            382
+
+54. THE RED BOOK OF APPIN                                        385
+
+55. THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE                                          387
+
+56. SARAH POLGRAIN                                               390
+
+57. ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER                        393
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION
+
+
+In this Ghost Book, M. Larigot, himself a writer of supernatural tales,
+has collected a remarkable batch of documents, fictive or real,
+describing the one human experience that is hardest to make good.
+Perhaps the very difficulty of it has rendered it more tempting to the
+writers who have dealt with the subject. His collection, notably varied
+and artfully chosen as it is, yet by no means exhausts the literature,
+which fills a place apart with its own recognised classics, magic
+masters, and dealers in the occult. Their testimony serves to show that
+the forms by which men and women are haunted are far more diverse and
+subtle than we knew. So much so, that one begins to wonder at last if
+every person is not liable to be "possessed." For, lurking under the
+seeming identity of these visitations, the dramatic differences of their
+entrances and appearances, night and day, are so marked as to suggest
+that the experience is, given the fit temperament and occasion,
+inevitable.
+
+One would even be disposed, accepting this idea, to bring into the
+account, as valid, stories and pieces of literature not usually
+accounted part of the ghostly canon. There are the novels and tales
+whose argument is the tragedy of a haunted mind. Such are Dickens'
+_Haunted Man_, in which the ghost is memory; Hawthorne's _Scarlet
+Letter_, in which the ghost is cruel conscience; and Balzac's _Quest of
+the Absolute_, in which the old Flemish house of Balthasar Claes, in the
+Rue de Paris at Douai, is haunted by a daemon more potent than that of
+Canidia. One might add some of Balzac's shorter stories, among them
+"The Elixir"; and some of Hawthorne's _Twice-Told Tales_, including
+"Edward Randolph's Portrait." On the French side we might note too that
+terrible graveyard tale of Guy de Maupassant, _La Morte_, in which the
+lover who has lost his beloved keeps vigil at her grave by night in his
+despair, and sees--dreadful resurrection--"que toutes les tombes etaient
+ouvertes, et tous les cadavres en etaient sortis." And why? That they
+might efface the lying legends inscribed on their tombs, and replace
+them with the actual truth. Villiers de l'Isle Adam has in his _Contes
+Cruels_ given us the strange story of Vera, which may be read as a
+companion study to _La Morte_, with another recall from the dead to end
+a lover's obsession. Nature and supernature cross in de l'Isle Adam's
+mystical drama _Axel_ a play which will never hold the stage, masterly
+attempt as it is to dramatise the inexplainable mystery.
+
+Among later tales ought to be reckoned Edith Wharton's _Tales of Men and
+Ghosts_, and Henry James's _The Two Magics_, whose "Turn of the Screw"
+gives us new instances of the evil genii that haunt mortals, in this
+case two innocent children. One remembers sundry folk-tales with the
+same motive--of children bewitched or forespoken--inspiring them. And an
+old charm in Orkney which used to run:
+
+    "Father, Son, Holy Ghost!
+    Bitten sall they be,
+    Bairn, wha have bitten thee!
+    Care to their black vein,
+    Till thou hast thy health again!
+    Mend thou in God's name!"
+
+John Aubrey in his _Miscellanies_ has many naive evidences of the
+twilight region of consciousness, like that between wake and sleep,
+which tends to fade when we are wideawake; so much so, that we call it
+visionary. Yet it is very real to the haunted folk, to Aubrey's
+correspondent, the Rector of Chedzoy, or to the false love of the Demon
+Lover, or that Mr Bourne of whom Glanvil tells in _The Iron Chest of
+Durley_, or the Bishop Evodius who was St Augustine's friend, or for
+that matter the son of Monica himself. The reality of these visitations
+may seem dim, but the most sceptical of us cannot doubt that, whether
+from some quickened fear of death or impending disaster, from evil
+conscience or swift intensification of vision; whether in the forms of
+beloved sons lost at sea or of other revenants who were held
+indispensably dear in life, the haunters have appeared, to the absolute
+belief of those who saw them or their simulacra.
+
+"It poseth me," said Richard Baxter, "to think of what kind these
+visitants are. Do good spirits dwell then so near us, or are they sent
+on such messages?" The question, indeed, poseth most of us, but we
+cannot leave the inquiry alone. M. Larigot, realising this
+preoccupation, has in the course of his investigations, during many
+years, arrived at the conclusion that there is an Art of the
+Supernatural, apart from the difficult science of psychical research,
+worth cultivating for its own sake. So he has gone to Glanvil and Arise
+Evans and the credulous old books--to Edgar Poe and Lord Lytton and the
+modern writers who tell supernatural tales. He gives us their material
+without positing its unquestionable effect as police-court evidence, and
+if we recognise its artistic interest, he does not mind much if we say
+at last with one great visionary, "Hoc est illusionum." But into those
+realms of illusion we ought not, if he is right, to enter lightly. Those
+who do enter there are warned that, having done so, they will not remain
+the same; they become aware of what Eugenius meant, who said:
+
+    "I am unbody'd by thy Books, and Thee,
+    And in thy papers find my Extasie;
+    Or if I please but to descend a strain,
+    Thy Elements do screen my Soul again.
+
+    I can undress myself by thy bright Glass,
+    And then resume th' Inclosure, as I was.
+    Now I am Earth, and now a Star, and then
+    A Spirit: now a Star, and earth again ..."
+
+We see that there is another aspect to the occultation of Orion, and a
+very ominous one. Aurelius appeared to St. Augustine and made clear a
+dark passage to him in his reading, and that great Divine and Father of
+the Church knew it to be an enlightenment from above. But what of the
+other visitants from regions that are unblessed? Paracelsus has taught
+us to be careful in our dealings with the realities and the phantasies,
+as he would conceive them, of the other world; for "under the Earth do
+wander half-men." And there are other and worse manifestations due to
+Black Magic or Nigromancy, and to the black witches and white and the
+false sorcerers who have violently intruded into the true mystery--"like
+swine broken into a delicate Garden." Against these subtle and powerful
+magicians no weapons, coats of mail, or brigandines will help, no
+shutting of doors or locks; for they penetrate through all things, and
+all things are open to them.
+
+Writing as a physician, Paracelsus sought to anticipate by his
+_Celestial Medicine_ and his _Twelve Signs_ the whole mystery of
+healing, and the cure of the troubled souls and bodies of men and women,
+which are not accorded but at odds with nature and supernature. The
+spirits of discord are indeed always with us; and whether you see them
+as witches, disguised in the living human form, or as monstrous and
+terrifying dream-figures, or as floating impalpable atmospheres, they
+are vigilantly to be guarded against. We know
+
+    "Vervain and dill
+    Hinders witches from their will!"
+
+in the old herbals; but we need new drugs. As for that witch which hath
+haunted all of us, "Maladicta," Lilly in his _Astrology_ has a remedy.
+"Take unguentum populeum, and Vervain and Hypericon, and put a red-hot
+iron into it: You must anoint the back-bone, or wear it in your breast."
+
+The haunting apparitions are not all of earth. Cornelius Agrippa, in his
+book of the Secret Doctrine, shows that they are astral too. The
+familiar spirits of Mars, in his account, are no lovelier than Macbeth's
+witches:--"They appear in a tall body, cholerick, a filthy countenance,
+of colour brown, swarthy or red, having horns, like Harts' Horns, and
+gryphon's claws, and bellowing like wild Bulls."
+
+But the spirits of Mercury are delightful. They indeed are "of colour
+clear and bright, like unto a knight armed,--and the motion of them is
+as it were silver-coloured clouds." So, if Mars has troubled the world,
+as in the unhappy history of our own time, we must hope for the brighter
+forms, and the remedial and aerial messengers of Mercury.
+
+We may seem to have strayed from the proper boundaries in going so far.
+But it is one of the offices of this book to widen the area of research,
+and relate the ghost-story anew to the whole literature of wonder and
+imagination. Such sagas as that which Dr Douglas Hyde has translated
+with consummate art from the Irish, "Teig O'Kane and the Corpse," which
+Mr W.B. Yeats called a little masterpiece; or Boccaccio's story of the
+spectre-hounds that pulled down the daughter of Anastasio, or Scott's
+"Wandering Willie's Tale," or Hawker's "Cruel Coppinger," or Edgar Poe's
+"Fall of the House of Usher," are of their kind not to be beaten. And in
+their own way some of the later records are as telling. One can take the
+book as a text-book of the supernatural, or as a story-book of that
+middle world which has given us the ghosts that Homer and Shakespeare
+conjured up.
+
+    ERNEST RHYS.
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+GHOST STORIES FROM LITERARY SOURCES
+
+
+
+
+I
+
+THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER
+
+By EDGAR ALLAN POE
+
+    Son coeur est un luth suspendu;
+    Sitot qu'on le touche il resonne.
+
+    DE BERANGER.
+
+
+During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the
+year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been
+passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of
+country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew
+on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it
+was--but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of
+insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the
+feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic,
+sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural
+images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before
+me--upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the
+domain--upon the bleak walls--upon the vacant eye-like windows--upon a
+few rank sedges--and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees--with an
+utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation
+more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium--the
+bitter lapse into everyday life--the hideous dropping off of the veil.
+There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart--an unredeemed
+dreariness of thought which no goading of the imagination could torture
+into aught of the sublime. What was it--I paused to think--what was it
+that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was
+a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies
+that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forced to fall back upon the
+unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there _are_
+combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus
+affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations
+beyond our depth. It was possible, I reflected, that a mere different
+arrangement of the particulars of the scene, of the details of the
+picture, would be sufficient to modify, or perhaps to annihilate its
+capacity for sorrowful impression; and, acting upon this idea, I reined
+my horse to the precipitous brink of a black and lurid tarn that lay in
+unruffled lustre by the dwelling, and gazed down--but with a shudder
+even more thrilling than before--upon the remodelled and inverted images
+of the grey sedge, and the ghastly tree-stems, and the vacant and
+eye-like windows.
+
+Nevertheless, in this mansion of gloom I now proposed to myself a
+sojourn of some weeks. Its proprietor, Roderick Usher, had been one of
+my boon companions in boyhood; but many years had elapsed since our last
+meeting. A letter, however, had lately reached me in a distant part of
+the country--a letter from him--which, in its wildly importunate nature,
+had admitted of no other than a personal reply. The MS. gave evidence of
+nervous agitation. The writer spoke of acute bodily illness--of a mental
+disorder which oppressed him--and of an earnest desire to see me, as his
+best, and indeed his only personal friend, with a view of attempting, by
+the cheerfulness of my society, some alleviation of his malady. It was
+the manner in which all this, and much more, was said--it was the
+apparent _heart_ that went with his request--which allowed me no room
+for hesitation; and I accordingly obeyed forthwith what I still
+considered a very singular summons.
+
+Although, as boys, we had been even intimate associates, yet I really
+knew little of my friend. His reserve had been always excessive and
+habitual. I was aware, however, that his very ancient family had been
+noted, time out of mind, for a peculiar sensibility of temperament,
+displaying itself, through long ages, in many works of exalted art, and
+manifested, of late, in repeated deeds of munificent yet unobtrusive
+charity, as well as in a passionate devotion to the intricacies, perhaps
+even more than to the orthodox and easily recognisable beauties, of
+musical science. I had learned, too, the very remarkable fact, that the
+stem of the Usher race, all time-honoured as it was, had put forth, at
+no period, any enduring branch; in other words, that the entire family
+lay in the direct line of descent, and had always, with very trifling
+and very temporary variation, so lain. It was this deficiency, I
+considered, while running over in thought the perfect keeping of the
+character of the premises with the accredited character of the people,
+and while speculating upon the possible influence which the one, in the
+long lapse of centuries, might have exercised upon the other--it was
+this deficiency, perhaps, of collateral issue, and the consequent
+undeviating transmission, from sire to son, of the patrimony with the
+name, which had, at length, so identified the two as to merge the
+original title of the estate in the quaint and equivocal appellation of
+the "House of Usher"--an appellation which seemed to include, in the
+minds of the peasantry who used it, both the family and the family
+mansion.
+
+I have said that the sole effect of my somewhat childish
+experiment--that of looking down within the tarn--had been to deepen the
+first singular impression. There can be no doubt that the consciousness
+of the rapid increase of my superstition--for why should I not so term
+it?--served mainly to accelerate the increase itself. Such, I have long
+known, is the paradoxical law of all sentiments having terror as a
+basis. And it might have been for this reason only, that, when I again
+uplifted my eyes to the house itself, from its image in the pool, there
+grew in my mind a strange fancy--a fancy so ridiculous, indeed, that I
+but mention it to show the vivid force of the sensations which oppressed
+me. I had so worked upon my imagination as really to believe that about
+the whole mansion and domain there hung an atmosphere peculiar to
+themselves and their immediate vicinity--an atmosphere which had no
+affinity with the air of heaven, but which had reeked up from the
+decayed trees, and the grey wall, and the silent tarn--a pestilent and
+mystic vapour, dull, sluggish, faintly discernible, and leaden-hued.
+
+Shaking off from my spirit what _must_ have been a dream, I scanned more
+narrowly the real aspect of the building. Its principal feature seemed
+to be that of an excessive antiquity. The discoloration of ages had been
+great. Minute _fungi_ overspread the whole exterior, hanging in a fine
+tangled web-work from the eaves. Yet all this was apart from any
+extraordinary dilapidation. No portion of the masonry had fallen; and
+there appeared to be a wild inconsistency between its still perfect
+adaptation of parts, and the crumbling condition of the individual
+stones. In this there was much that reminded me of the specious totality
+of old woodwork which has rotted for long years in some neglected vault,
+with no disturbance from the breath of the external air. Beyond this
+indication of extensive decay, however, the fabric gave little token of
+instability. Perhaps the eye of a scrutinising observer might have
+discovered a barely perceptible fissure, which, extending from the roof
+of the building in front, made its way down the wall in a zigzag
+direction, until it became lost in the sullen waters of the tarn.
+
+Noticing these things, I rode over a short causeway to the house. A
+servant in waiting took my horse, and I entered the Gothic archway of
+the hall. A valet, of stealthy step, thence conducted me, in silence,
+through many dark and intricate passages in my progress to the _studio_
+of his master. Much that I encountered on the way contributed, I know
+not how, to heighten the vague sentiments of which I have already
+spoken. While the objects around me--while the carvings of the ceilings,
+the sombre tapestries of the walls, the ebon blackness of the floors,
+and the phantasmagoric armorial trophies which rattled as I strode, were
+but matters to which, or to such as which, I had been accustomed from my
+infancy--while I hesitated not to acknowledge how familiar was all
+this--I still wondered to find how unfamiliar were the fancies which
+ordinary images were stirring up. On one of the staircases, I met the
+physician of the family. His countenance, I thought, wore a mingled
+expression of low cunning and perplexity. He accosted me with
+trepidation and passed on. The valet now threw open a door and ushered
+me into the presence of his master.
+
+The room in which I found myself was very large and lofty. The windows
+were long, narrow, and pointed, and at so vast a distance from the black
+oaken floor as to be altogether inaccessible from within. Feeble gleams
+of encrimsoned light made their way through the trellised panes, and
+served to render sufficiently distinct the more prominent objects
+around; the eye, however, struggled in vain to reach the remoter angles
+of the chamber, or the recesses of the vaulted and fretted ceiling. Dark
+draperies hung upon the walls. The general furniture was profuse,
+comfortless, antique, and tattered. Many books and musical instruments
+lay scattered about, but failed to give any vitality to the scene. I
+felt that I breathed an atmosphere of sorrow. An air of stern, deep, and
+irredeemable gloom hung over and pervaded all.
+
+Upon my entrance, Usher arose from a sofa on which he had been lying at
+full length, and greeted me with a vivacious warmth which had much in
+it, I at first thought, of an overdone cordiality--of the constrained
+effort of the _ennuye_ man of the world. A glance, however, at his
+countenance, convinced me of his perfect sincerity. We sat down; and for
+some moments, while he spoke not, I gazed upon him with a feeling half
+of pity, half of awe. Surely, man had never before so terribly altered,
+in so brief a period, as had Roderick Usher! It was with difficulty that
+I could bring myself to admit the identity of the wan being before me
+with the companion of my early boyhood. Yet the character of his face
+had been at all times remarkable. A cadaverousness of complexion; an eye
+large, liquid, and luminous beyond comparison; lips somewhat thin and
+very pallid, but of a surpassingly beautiful curve; a nose of a delicate
+Hebrew model, but with a breadth of nostril, unusual in similar
+formations; a finely moulded chin, speaking, in its want of prominence,
+of a want of moral energy; hair of a more than web-like softness and
+tenuity; these features, with an inordinate expansion above the regions
+of the temple, made up altogether a countenance not easily to be
+forgotten. And now in the mere exaggeration of the prevailing character
+of these features, and of the expression they were wont to convey, lay
+so much of change that I doubted to whom I spoke. The now ghastly pallor
+of the skin, and the now miraculous lustre of the eye, above all things
+startled and even awed me. The silken hair, too, had been suffered to
+grow all unheeded, and as, in its wild gossamer texture, it floated
+rather than fell about the face, I could not, even with effort, connect
+its arabesque expression with any idea of simple humanity.
+
+In the manner of my friend I was at once struck with an incoherence--an
+inconsistency; and I soon found this to arise from a series of feeble
+and futile struggles to overcome an habitual trepidancy--an excessive
+nervous agitation. For something of this nature I had indeed been
+prepared, no less by his letter, than by reminiscences of certain boyish
+traits, and by conclusions deduced from his peculiar physical
+conformation and temperament. His action was alternately vivacious and
+sullen. His voice varied rapidly from a tremulous indecision (when the
+animal spirits seemed utterly in abeyance) to that species of energetic
+concision--that abrupt, weighty, unhurried, and hollow-sounding
+enunciation--that leaden, self-balanced and perfectly modulated guttural
+utterance, which may be observed in the lost drunkard, or the
+irreclaimable eater of opium, during the periods of his most intense
+excitement.
+
+It was thus that he spoke of the object of my visit, of his earnest
+desire to see me, and of the solace he expected me to afford him. He
+entered, at some length, into what he conceived to be the nature of his
+malady. It was, he said, a constitutional and a family evil, and one for
+which he despaired to find a remedy--a mere nervous affection, he
+immediately added, which would undoubtedly soon pass on. It displayed
+itself in a host of unnatural sensations. Some of these, as he detailed
+them, interested and bewildered me; although, perhaps, the terms, and
+the general manner of the narration had their weight. He suffered much
+from a morbid acuteness of the senses; the most insipid food was alone
+endurable; he could wear only garments of certain texture; the odours of
+all flowers were oppressive; his eyes were tortured by even a faint
+light; and there were but peculiar sounds, and these from stringed
+instruments, which did not inspire him with horror.
+
+To an anomalous species of terror I found him a bounden slave. "I shall
+perish," said he, "I _must_ perish in this deplorable folly. Thus, thus,
+and not otherwise, shall I be lost. I dread the events of the future,
+not in themselves, but in their results. I shudder at the thought of
+any, even the most trivial, incident, which may operate upon this
+intolerable agitation of soul. I have, indeed, no abhorrence of danger,
+except in its absolute effect--in terror. In this unnerved--in this
+pitiable condition--I feel that the period will sooner or later arrive
+when I must abandon life and reason together, in some struggle with the
+grim phantasm, FEAR."
+
+I learned, moreover, at intervals, and through broken and equivocal
+hints, another singular feature of his mental condition. He was
+enchained by certain superstitious impressions in regard to the dwelling
+which he tenanted, and whence, for many years, he had never ventured
+forth--in regard to an influence whose supposititious force was conveyed
+in terms too shadowy here to be re-stated--an influence which some
+peculiarities in the mere form and substance of his family mansion, had,
+by dint of long sufferance, he said, obtained over his spirit--an effect
+which the _physique_ of the grey walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn
+into which they all looked down, had, at length, brought about upon the
+_morale_ of his existence.
+
+He admitted, however, although with hesitation, that much of the
+peculiar gloom which thus afflicted him could be traced to a more
+natural and far more palpable origin--to the severe and long-continued
+illness--indeed to the evidently approaching dissolution--of a tenderly
+beloved sister--his sole companion for long years--his last and only
+relative on earth. "Her decease," he said, with a bitterness which I can
+never forget, "would leave him (him the hopeless and the frail) the last
+of the ancient race of the Ushers." While he spoke, the Lady Madeline
+(for so was she called) passed slowly through a remote portion of the
+apartment, and, without having noticed my presence, disappeared. I
+regarded her with an utter astonishment not unmingled with dread--and
+yet I found it impossible to account for such feelings. A sensation of
+stupor oppressed me, as my eyes followed her retreating steps. When a
+door, at length, closed upon her, my glance sought instinctively and
+eagerly the countenance of the brother--but he had buried his face in
+his hands, and I could only perceive that a far more than ordinary
+wanness had overspread the emaciated fingers through which trickled many
+passionate tears.
+
+The disease of the Lady Madeline had long baffled the skill of her
+physicians. A settled apathy, a gradual wasting away of the person, and
+frequent although transient affections of a partially cataleptical
+character, were the unusual diagnosis. Hitherto she had steadily borne
+up against the pressure of her malady, and had not betaken herself
+finally to bed; but, on the closing in of the evening of my arrival at
+the house, she succumbed (as her brother told me at night with
+inexpressible agitation) to the prostrating power of the destroyer; and
+I learned that the glimpse I had obtained of her person would thus
+probably be the last I should obtain--that the lady, at least while
+living, would be seen by me no more.
+
+For several days ensuing, her name was unmentioned by either Usher or
+myself: and during this period I was busied in earnest endeavours to
+alleviate the melancholy of my friend. We painted and read together; or
+I listened, as if in a dream, to the wild improvisations of his speaking
+guitar. And thus, as a closer and still closer intimacy admitted me more
+unreservedly into the recesses of his spirit, the more bitterly did I
+perceive the futility of all attempt at cheering a mind from which
+darkness, as if an inherent positive quality, poured forth upon all
+objects of the moral and physical universe, in one unceasing radiation
+of gloom.
+
+I shall ever bear about me a memory of the many solemn hours I thus
+spent alone with the master of the House of Usher. Yet I should fail in
+any attempt to convey an idea of the exact character of the studies, or
+of the occupations, in which he involved me, or led me the way. An
+excited and highly distempered ideality threw a sulphureous lustre over
+all. His long improvised dirges will ring for ever in my ears. Among
+other things, I hold painfully in mind a certain singular perversion and
+amplification of the wild air of the last waltz of Von Weber. From the
+paintings over which his elaborate fancy brooded and which grew, touch
+by touch, into vagueness at which I shuddered the more thrillingly,
+because I shuddered knowing not why;--from these paintings (vivid as
+their images now are before me) I would in vain endeavour to educe more
+than a small portion which should lie within the compass of merely
+written words. By the utter simplicity, by the nakedness of his designs,
+he arrested and overawed attention. If ever mortal painted an idea, that
+mortal was Roderick Usher. For me at least--in the circumstances then
+surrounding me--there arose out of the pure abstractions which the
+hypochondriac contrived to throw upon his canvas, an intensity of
+intolerable awe, no shadow of which felt I ever yet in the contemplation
+of the certainly glowing yet too concrete reveries of Fuseli.
+
+One of the phantasmagoric conceptions of my friend, partaking not so
+rigidly of the spirit of abstraction, may be shadowed forth, although
+feebly, in words. A small picture presented the interior of an immensely
+long and rectangular vault or tunnel, with low walls, smooth, white, and
+without interruption or device. Certain accessory points of the design
+served well to convey the idea that this excavation lay at an exceeding
+depth below the surface of the earth. No outlet was observed in any
+portion of its vast extent, and no torch, or other artificial source of
+light, was discernible; yet a flood of intense rays rolled throughout,
+and bathed the whole in a ghastly and inappropriate splendour.
+
+I have just spoken of that morbid condition of the auditory nerve which
+rendered all music intolerable to the sufferer, with the exception of
+certain effects of stringed instruments. It was, perhaps, the narrow
+limits to which he thus confined himself upon the guitar, which gave
+birth, in great measure, to the fantastic character of his performances.
+But the fervid _facility_ of his _impromptus_ could not be so accounted
+for. They must have been, and were, in the notes, as well as in the
+words of his wild fantasias (for he not unfrequently accompanied himself
+with rhymed verbal improvisations), the result of that intense mental
+collectedness and concentration to which I have previously alluded as
+observable only in particular moments of the highest artificial
+excitement. The words of one of these rhapsodies I have easily
+remembered. I was, perhaps, the more forcibly impressed with it, as he
+gave it, because, in the under or mystic current of its meaning, I
+fancied that I perceived, and for the first time, a full consciousness
+on the part of Usher, of the tottering of his lofty reason upon her
+throne. The verses, which were entitled "The Haunted Palace," ran very
+nearly, if not accurately, thus:
+
+    I
+
+    In the greenest of our valleys,
+      By good angels tenanted
+    Once a fair and stately palace--
+      Radiant palace--reared its head.
+    In the monarch Thought's dominion--
+      It stood there!
+    Never seraph spread a pinion
+      Over fabric half so fair.
+
+    II
+
+    Banners yellow, glorious, golden,
+      On its roof did float and flow;
+    (This--all this--was in the olden
+      Time long ago)
+    And every gentle air that dallied,
+      In that sweet day,
+    Along the ramparts plumed and pallid,
+      A winged odour went away.
+
+    III
+
+    Wanderers in that happy valley
+      Through two luminous windows saw
+    Spirits moving musically
+      To a lute's well tuned law,
+    Round about a throne, where sitting
+      (Porphyrogene!)
+    In state his glory well befitting,
+      The ruler of the realm was seen.
+
+    IV
+
+    And all with pearl and ruby glowing
+      Was the fair palace door,
+    Through which came flowing, flowing, flowing
+      And sparkling evermore,
+    A troop of Echoes whose sweet duty
+      Was but to sing,
+    In voices of surpassing beauty,
+      The wit and wisdom of their king.
+
+    V
+
+    But evil things, in robes of sorrow,
+      Assailed the monarch's high estate;
+    (Ah, let us mourn, for never morrow
+      Shall dawn upon him, desolate!)
+    And, round about his home, the glory
+      That blushed and bloomed
+    Is but a dim-remembered story
+      Of the old time entombed.
+
+    VI
+
+    And travellers now within that valley,
+      Through the red-litten windows, see
+    Vast forms that move fantastically
+      To a discordant melody;
+    While, like a rapid ghastly river,
+      Through the pale door,
+    A hideous throng rush out forever,
+      And laugh--but smile no more.
+
+I well remember that suggestions arising from this ballad, led us into a
+train of thought wherein there became manifest an opinion of Usher's
+which I mention not so much on account of its novelty (for other men[1]
+have thought thus), as on account of the pertinacity with which he
+maintained it. This opinion, in its general form, was that of the
+sentience of all vegetable things. But, in his disordered fancy, the
+idea had assumed a more daring character, and trespassed, under certain
+conditions, upon the kingdom of inorganisation. I lack words to express
+the full extent, or the earnest _abandon_ of his persuasion. The belief,
+however, was connected (as I have previously hinted) with the grey
+stones of the home of his forefathers. The conditions of the sentience
+had been here, he imagined, fulfilled in the method of collocation of
+these stones--in the order of their arrangement, as well as in that of
+the many _fungi_ which overspread them, and of the decayed trees which
+stood around--above all, in the long undisturbed endurance of this
+arrangement, and in its reduplication in the still waters of the tarn.
+Its evidence--the evidence of the sentience--was to be seen, he said
+(and I here started as he spoke), in the gradual yet certain
+condensation of an atmosphere of their own about the waters and the
+walls. The result was discoverable, he added, in that silent, yet
+importunate and terrible influence which for centuries had moulded the
+destinies of his family, and which made _him_ what I now saw him--what
+he was. Such opinions need no comment, and I will make none.
+
+Our books--the books which, for years, had formed no small portion of
+the mental existence of the invalid--were, as might be supposed, in
+strict keeping with this character of phantasm. We pored together over
+such works as the _Ververt et Chartreuse_ of Gresset; the _Belphegor_
+of Machiavelli; the _Heaven and Hell_ of Swedenborg; the _Subterranean
+Voyage of Nicholas Klimm_ by Holberg; the _Chiromancy_ of Robert Flud,
+of Jean D'Indagine, and of De la Chambre; the _Journey into the Blue
+Distance_ of Tieck; and the _City of the Sun_ of Campanella. One
+favourite volume was a small octavo edition of the _Directorium
+Inquisitorum_, by the Dominican Eymeric de Gironne; and there were
+passages in _Pomponius Mela_, about the old African Satyrs and AEgipans,
+over which Usher would sit dreaming for hours. His chief delight,
+however, was found in the perusal of an exceedingly rare and curious
+book in quarto Gothic--the manual of a forgotten church--the _Vigiliae
+Mortuorum Chorum Ecclesiae Maguntinae_.
+
+I could not help thinking of the wild ritual of this work, and of its
+probable influence upon the hypochondriac, when, one evening, having
+informed me abruptly that the Lady Madeline was no more, he stated his
+intention of preserving her corpse for a fortnight (previously to its
+final interment), in one of the numerous vaults within the main walls of
+the building. The worldly reason, however, assigned for this singular
+proceeding, was one which I did not feel at liberty to dispute. The
+brother had been led to his resolution (so he told me) by consideration
+of the unusual character of the malady of the deceased, of certain
+obtrusive and eager inquiries on the part of her medical men, and of the
+remote and exposed situation of the burial-ground of the family. I will
+not deny that when I called to mind the sinister countenance of the
+person whom I met upon the staircase, on the day of my arrival at the
+house, I had no desire to oppose what I regarded as at best but a
+harmless, and by no means an unnatural, precaution.
+
+At the request of Usher, I personally aided him in the arrangements for
+the temporary entombment. The body having been encoffined, we two alone
+bore it to its rest. The vault in which we placed it (and which had
+been so long unopened that our torches, half smothered in its oppressive
+atmosphere, gave us little opportunity for investigation) was small,
+damp, and entirely without means of admission for light; lying, at great
+depth, immediately beneath that portion of the building in which was my
+own sleeping apartment. It had been used, apparently, in remote feudal
+times, for the worst purpose of a donjon-keep, and, in later days, as a
+place of deposit for powder, or some other highly combustible substance,
+as a portion of its floor, and the whole interior of a long archway
+through which we reached it, were carefully sheathed with copper. The
+door, of massive iron, had been, also, similarly protected. Its immense
+weight caused an unusually sharp grating sound as it moved upon its
+hinges.
+
+Having deposited our mournful burden upon tressels within this region of
+horror, we partially turned aside the yet unscrewed lid of the coffin,
+and looked upon the face of the tenant. A striking similitude between
+the brother and sister now first arrested my attention; and Usher,
+divining, perhaps, my thoughts, murmured out some few words from which I
+learned that the deceased and himself had been twins, and that
+sympathies of a scarcely intelligible nature had always existed between
+them. Our glances, however, rested not long upon the dead--for we could
+not regard her unawed. The disease which had thus entombed the lady in
+the maturity of youth, had left, as usual in all maladies of a strictly
+cataleptical character, the mockery of a faint blush upon the bosom and
+the face, and that suspiciously lingering smile upon the lip which is so
+terrible in death. We replaced and screwed down the lid, and, having
+secured the door of iron, made our way, with toil, into the scarcely
+less gloomy apartments of the upper portion of the house.
+
+And now, some days of bitter grief having elapsed, an observable change
+came over the features of the mental disorder of my friend. His
+ordinary manner had vanished. His ordinary occupations were neglected or
+forgotten. He roamed from chamber to chamber with hurried, unequal, and
+objectless step. The pallor of his countenance had assumed, if possible,
+a more ghastly hue--but the luminousness of his eye had utterly gone
+out. The once occasional huskiness of his tone was heard no more; and a
+tremulous quaver, as if of extreme terror, habitually characterised his
+utterance. There were times, indeed, when I thought his unceasingly
+agitated mind was labouring with some oppressive secret, to divulge
+which he struggled for the necessary courage. At times, again, I was
+obliged to resolve all into the mere inexplicable vagaries of madness,
+for I beheld him gazing upon vacancy for long hours, in an attitude of
+the profoundest attention, as if listening to some imaginary sound. It
+was no wonder that his condition terrified--that it infected me. I felt
+creeping upon me, by slow yet certain degrees, the wild influences of
+his own fantastic yet impressive superstitions.
+
+It was, especially, upon retiring to bed late in the night of the
+seventh or eighth day after the placing of the Lady Madeline within the
+donjon, that I experienced the full power of such feelings. Sleep came
+not near my couch--while the hours waned and waned away. I struggled to
+reason off the nervousness which had dominion over me. I endeavoured to
+believe that much, if not all of what I felt, was due to the bewildering
+influence of the gloomy furniture of the room--of the dark and tattered
+draperies, which, tortured into motion by the breath of a rising
+tempest, swayed fitfully to and fro upon the walls, and rustled uneasily
+about the decorations of the bed. But my efforts were fruitless. An
+irrepressible tremor gradually pervaded my frame; and, at length, there
+sat upon my very heart an incubus of utterly causeless alarm. Shaking
+this off with a gasp and a struggle, I uplifted myself upon the pillows,
+and, peering earnestly within the intense darkness of the chamber,
+hearkened--I know not why, except that an instinctive spirit prompted
+me--to certain low and indefinite sounds which came, through the pauses
+of the storm, at long intervals, I knew not whence. Overpowered by an
+intense sentiment of horror, unaccountable yet unendurable, I threw on
+my clothes with haste (for I felt that I should sleep no more during the
+night), and endeavoured to arouse myself from the pitiable condition
+into which I had fallen, by pacing rapidly to and fro through the
+apartment.
+
+I had taken but a few turns in this manner, when a light step on an
+adjoining staircase arrested my attention. I presently recognised it as
+that of Usher. In an instant afterward he rapped, with a gentle touch,
+at my door, and entered, bearing a lamp. His countenance was, as usual,
+cadaverously wan--but, moreover, there was a species of mad hilarity in
+his eyes--an evidently restrained _hysteria_ in his whole demeanour. His
+air appalled me--but anything was preferable to the solitude which I had
+so long endured, and I even welcomed his presence as a relief.
+
+"And you have not seen it?" he said abruptly, after having stared about
+him for some moments in silence--"you have not then seen it?--but, stay!
+you shall." Thus speaking, and having carefully shaded his lamp, he
+hurried to one of the casements, and threw it freely open to the storm.
+
+The impetuous fury of the entering gust nearly lifted us from our feet.
+It was, indeed, a tempestuous yet sternly beautiful night, and one
+wildly singular in its terror and its beauty. A whirlwind had apparently
+collected its force in our vicinity; for there were frequent and violent
+alterations in the direction of the wind; and the exceeding density of
+the clouds (which hung so low as to press upon the turrets of the house)
+did not prevent our perceiving the lifelike velocity with which they
+flew careering from all points against each other, without passing away
+into the distance. I say that even their exceeding density did not
+prevent our perceiving this--yet we had no glimpse of the moon or
+stars--nor was there any flashing forth of the lightning. But the under
+surfaces of the huge masses of agitated vapour, as well as all
+terrestrial objects immediately around us, were glowing in the unnatural
+light of a faintly luminous and distinctly visible gaseous exhalation
+which hung about and enshrouded the mansion.
+
+"You must not--you shall not behold this!" said I, shudderingly, to
+Usher, as I led him, with a gentle violence, from the window to a seat.
+"These appearances, which bewilder you, are merely electrical phenomena
+not uncommon--or it may be that they have their ghastly origin in the
+rank miasma of the tarn. Let us close this casement;--the air is
+chilling and dangerous to your frame. Here is one of your favourite
+romances. I will read, and you shall listen;--and so we will pass away
+this terrible night together."
+
+The antique volume which I had taken up was the _Mad Trist_ of Sir
+Launcelot Canning; but I had called it a favourite of Usher's more in
+sad jest than in earnest; for, in truth, there is little in its uncouth
+and unimaginative prolixity which could have had interest for the lofty
+and spiritual ideality of my friend. It was, however, the only book
+immediately at hand; and I indulged a vague hope that the excitement
+which now agitated the hypochondriac, might find relief (for the history
+of mental disorder is full of similar anomalies) even in the extremeness
+of the folly which I should read. Could I have judged, indeed, by the
+wild overstrained air of vivacity with which he hearkened, or apparently
+hearkened, to the words of the tale, I might well have congratulated
+myself upon the success of my design.
+
+I had arrived at that well-known portion of the story where Ethelred,
+the hero of the Trist, having sought in vain for peaceable admission
+into the dwelling of the hermit, proceeds to make good an entrance by
+force. Here, it will be remembered, the words of the narrative run thus:
+
+"And Ethelred, who was by nature of a doughty heart, and who was now
+mighty withal, on account of the powerfulness of the wine which he had
+drunken, waited no longer to hold parley with the hermit, who, in sooth,
+was of an obstinate and maliceful turn, but, feeling the rain upon his
+shoulders, and fearing the rising of the tempest, uplifted his mace
+outright, and, with blows, made quickly room in the plankings of the
+door for his gauntleted hand; and now pulling therewith sturdily, he so
+cracked and ripped, and tore all asunder, that the noise of the dry and
+hollow-sounding wood alarmed and reverberated throughout the forest."
+
+At the termination of this sentence I started, and, for a moment,
+paused; for it appeared to me (although I at once concluded that my
+excited fancy had deceived me)--it appeared to me that, from some very
+remote portion of the mansion, there came, indistinctly, to my ears,
+what might have been, in its exact similarity of character, the echo
+(but a stifled and dull one certainly) of the very cracking and ripping
+sound which Sir Launcelot had so particularly described. It was, beyond
+doubt, the coincidence alone which had arrested my attention; for, amid
+the rattling of the sashes of the casements, and the ordinary commingled
+noises of the still increasing storm, the sound, in itself, had nothing,
+surely, which should have interested or disturbed me. I continued the
+story:
+
+"But the good champion Ethelred, now entering within the door, was sore
+enraged and amazed to perceive no signal of the maliceful hermit; but,
+in the stead thereof, a dragon of a scaly and prodigious demeanour, and
+of a fiery tongue, which sate in guard before a palace of gold, with a
+floor of silver; and upon the wall there hung a shield of shining brass
+with this legend enwritten--
+
+    Who entereth herein, a conqueror hath bin;
+    Who slayeth the dragon, the shield he shall win;
+
+and Ethelred uplifted his mace, and struck upon the head of the dragon,
+which fell before him, and gave up his pesty breath, with a shriek so
+horrid and harsh, and withal so piercing, that Ethelred had fain to
+close his ears with his hands against the dreadful noise of it, the like
+whereof was never before heard."
+
+Here again I paused abruptly, and now with a feeling of wild
+amazement--for there could be no doubt whatever that, in this instance,
+I did actually hear (although from what direction it proceeded I found
+it impossible to say) a low and apparently distant, but harsh,
+protracted, and most unusual screaming or grating sound--the exact
+counterpart of what my fancy had already conjured up for the dragon's
+unnatural shriek as described by the romancer.
+
+Oppressed, as I certainly was, upon the occurrence of the second and
+most extraordinary coincidence, by a thousand conflicting sensations, in
+which wonder and extreme terror were predominant, I still retained
+sufficient presence of mind to avoid exciting, by any observation, the
+sensitive nervousness of my companion. I was by no means certain that he
+had noticed the sounds in question; although, assuredly, a strange
+alteration had, during the last few minutes, taken place in his
+demeanour. From a position fronting my own, he had gradually brought
+round his chair, so as to sit with his face to the door of the chamber;
+and thus I could but partially perceive his features, although I saw
+that his lips trembled as if he were murmuring inaudibly. His head had
+dropped upon his breast--yet I knew that he was not asleep, from the
+wide and rigid opening of the eye as I caught a glance of it in profile.
+The motion of his body, too, was at variance with this idea--for he
+rocked from side to side with a gentle yet constant and uniform sway.
+Having rapidly taken notice of all this, I resumed the narrative of Sir
+Launcelot, which thus proceeded:
+
+"And now, the champion, having escaped from the terrible fury of the
+dragon, bethinking himself of the brazen shield, and of the breaking up
+of the enchantment which was upon it, removed the carcass from out of
+the way before him, and approached valorously over the silver pavement
+of the castle to where the shield was upon the wall; which in sooth
+tarried not for his full coming, but fell down at his feet upon the
+silver floor, with a mighty great and terrible ringing sound."
+
+No sooner had these syllables passed my lips, than--as if a shield of
+brass had indeed, at the moment, fallen heavily upon a floor of
+silver--I became aware of a distinct, hollow, metallic, and clangorous,
+yet apparently muffled reverberation. Completely unnerved, I leaped to
+my feet; but the measured rocking movement of Usher was undisturbed. I
+rushed to the chair on which he sat. His eyes were bent fixedly before
+him, and throughout his whole countenance there reigned a stony
+rigidity. But, as I placed my hand upon his shoulder, there came a
+strong shudder over his whole person; a sickly smile quivered about his
+lips; and I saw that he spoke in a low, hurried, and gibbering murmur,
+as if unconscious of my presence. Bending closely over him, I at length
+drank in the hideous import of his words.
+
+"Not hear it?--yes, I hear it, and _have_ heard it.
+Long--long--long--many minutes, many hours, many days, have I heard
+it--yet I dared not---oh, pity me, miserable wretch that I am!--I dared
+not--I _dared_ not speak! _We have put her living in the tomb!_ Said I
+not that my senses were acute? I _now_ tell you that I heard her first
+feeble movements in the hollow coffin. I heard them--many,
+many days ago--yet I dared not--_I dared not speak!_ And
+now--to-night--Ethelred--ha! ha!--the breaking of the hermit's door,
+and the death-cry of the dragon, and the clangour of the shield!--say,
+rather, the rending of her coffin, and the grating of the iron hinges of
+her prison, and her struggles within the coppered archway of the vault!
+Oh whither shall I fly? Will she not be here anon? Is she not hurrying
+to upbraid me for my haste? Have I not heard her footstep on the stair?
+Do I not distinguish that heavy and horrible beating of her heart?
+MADMAN!" here he sprang furiously to his feet, and shrieked out
+his syllables, as if in the effort he were giving up his
+soul--"MADMAN! I TELL YOU THAT SHE NOW STANDS WITHOUT THE
+DOOR!"
+
+As if in the superhuman energy of his utterance there had been found the
+potency of a spell--the huge antique panels to which the speaker
+pointed, threw slowly back, upon the instant, their ponderous and ebony
+jaws. It was the work of the rushing gust--but then without those doors
+there DID stand the lofty and enshrouded figure of the Lady
+Madeline of Usher. There was blood upon her white robes, and the
+evidence of some bitter struggle upon every portion of her emaciated
+frame. For a moment she remained trembling and reeling to and fro upon
+the threshold, then, with a low moaning cry, fell heavily inward upon
+the person of her brother, and in her violent and now final
+death-agonies, bore him to the floor a corpse, and a victim to the
+terrors he had anticipated.
+
+From that chamber, and from that mansion, I fled aghast. The storm was
+still abroad in all its wrath as I found myself crossing the old
+causeway. Suddenly there shot along the path a wild light, and I turned
+to see whence a gleam so unusual could have issued; for the vast house
+and its shadows were alone behind me. The radiance was that of the full,
+setting, and blood-red moon which now shone vividly through that once
+barely discernible fissure of which I have before spoken as extending
+from the roof of the building, in a zigzag direction, to the base.
+While I gazed, this fissure rapidly widened--there came a fierce breath
+of the whirlwind--the entire orb of the satellite burst at once upon my
+sight--my brain reeled as I saw the mighty walls rushing asunder--there
+was a long tumultuous shouting sound like the voice of a thousand
+waters--and the deep and dank tarn at my feet closed sullenly and
+silently over the fragments of the "HOUSE OF USHER."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 1: Watson, Dr Percival, Spallanzani, and especially the Bishop
+of Landaff.]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+THE OLD NURSE'S STORY
+
+From "The Portent"
+
+By GEORGE MACDONALD
+
+
+I set out one evening for the cottage of my old nurse, to bid her
+good-bye for many months, probably years. I was to leave the next day
+for Edinburgh, on my way to London, whence I had to repair by coach to
+my new abode--almost to me like the land beyond the grave, so little did
+I know about it, and so wide was the separation between it and my home.
+The evening was sultry when I began my walk, and before I arrived at its
+end, the clouds rising from all quarters of the horizon, and especially
+gathering around the peaks of the mountain, betokened the near approach
+of a thunderstorm. This was a great delight to me. Gladly would I take
+leave of my home with the memory of a last night of tumultuous
+magnificence; followed, probably, by a day of weeping rain, well suited
+to the mood of my own heart in bidding farewell to the best of parents
+and the dearest of homes. Besides, in common with most Scotchmen who are
+young and hardy enough to be unable to realise the existence of coughs
+and rheumatic fevers, it was a positive pleasure to me to be out in
+rain, hail, or snow.
+
+"I am come to bid you good-bye, Margaret, and to hear the story which
+you promised to tell me before I left home: I go to-morrow."
+
+"Do you go so soon, my darling? Well, it will be an awful night to tell
+it in; but, as I promised, I suppose I must."
+
+At the moment, two or three great drops of rain, the first of the
+storm, fell down the wide chimney, exploding in the clear turf-fire.
+
+"Yes, indeed you must," I replied.
+
+After a short pause, she commenced. Of course she spoke in Gaelic; and I
+translate from my recollection of the Gaelic; but rather from the
+impression left upon my mind, than from any recollection of words. She
+drew her chair near the fire, which we had reason to fear would soon be
+put out by the falling rain, and began.
+
+"How old the story is, I do not know. It has come down through many
+generations. My grandmother told it to me as I tell it to you; and her
+mother and my mother sat beside, never interrupting, but nodding their
+heads at every turn. Almost it ought to begin like the fairy tales,
+_Once upon a time_,--it took place so long ago; but it is too dreadful
+and too true to tell like a fairy tale.--There were two brothers, sons
+of the chief of our clan, but as different in appearance and disposition
+as two men could be. The elder was fair-haired and strong, much given to
+hunting and fishing; fighting too, upon occasion, I daresay, when they
+made a foray upon the Saxon, to get back a mouthful of their own. But he
+was gentleness itself to everyone about him, and the very soul of honour
+in all his doings. The younger was very dark in complexion, and tall and
+slender compared to his brother. He was very fond of book-learning,
+which, they say, was an uncommon taste in those times. He did not care
+for any sports or bodily exercises but one; and that, too, was unusual
+in these parts. It was horsemanship. He was a fierce rider, and as much
+at home in the saddle as in his study-chair. You may think that, so long
+ago, there was not much fit room for riding hereabouts; but, fit or not
+fit, he rode. From his reading and riding, the neighbours looked
+doubtfully upon him, and whispered about the black art. He usually
+bestrode a great powerful black horse, without a white hair on him; and
+people said it was either the devil himself, or a demon-horse from the
+devil's own stud. What favoured this notion was that in or out of the
+stable, the brute would let no other than his master go near him.
+Indeed, no one would venture, after he had killed two men, and
+grievously maimed a third, tearing him with his teeth and hoofs like a
+wild beast. But to his master he was obedient as a hound, and would even
+tremble in his presence sometimes.
+
+"The youth's temper corresponded to his habits. He was both gloomy and
+passionate. Prone to anger, he had never been known to forgive. Debarred
+from anything on which he had set his heart, he would have gone mad with
+longing if he had not gone mad with rage. His soul was like the night
+around us now, dark, and sultry, and silent, but lighted up by the red
+levin of wrath, and torn by the bellowings of thunder-passion. He must
+have his will: hell might have his soul. Imagine, then, the rage and
+malice in his heart, when he suddenly became aware that an orphan girl,
+distantly related to them, who had lived with them for nearly two years,
+and whom he had loved for almost all that period, was loved by his elder
+brother, and loved him in return. He flung his right hand above his
+head, and swore a terrible oath that if he might not, his brother should
+not, rushed out of the house, and galloped off among the hills.
+
+"The orphan was a beautiful girl, tall, pale, and slender, with
+plentiful dark hair, which, when released from the snood, rippled down
+below her knees. Her appearance formed a strong contrast with that of
+her favoured lover, while there was some resemblance between her and the
+younger brother. This fact seemed, to his fierce selfishness, ground for
+a prior claim.
+
+"It may appear strange that a man like him should not have had instant
+recourse to his superior and hidden knowledge, by means of which he
+might have got rid of his rival with far more of certainty and less of
+risk; but I presume that, for the moment, his passion overwhelmed his
+consciousness of skill. Yet I do not suppose that he foresaw the mode in
+which his hatred was about to operate. At the moment when he learned
+their mutual attachment, probably through a domestic, the lady was on
+her way to meet her lover as he returned from the day's sport. The
+appointed place was on the edge of a deep, rocky ravine, down in whose
+dark bosom brawled and foamed a little mountain torrent. You know the
+place, Duncan, my dear, I daresay."
+
+(Here she gave me a minute description of the spot, with directions how
+to find it.)
+
+"Whether any one saw what I am about to relate, or whether it was put
+together afterwards, I cannot tell. The story is like an old tree--so
+old that it has lost the marks of its growth. But this is how my
+grandmother told it to me. An evil chance led him in the right
+direction. The lovers, startled by the sound of the approaching horse,
+parted in opposite directions along a narrow mountain-path on the edge
+of the ravine. Into this path he struck at a point near where the lovers
+had met, but to opposite sides of which they had now receded; so that he
+was between them on the path. Turning his horse up the course of the
+stream, he soon came in sight of his brother on the ledge before him.
+With a suppressed scream of rage, he rode headlong at him, and, ere he
+had time to make the least defence, hurled him over the precipice. The
+helplessness of the strong man was uttered in one single despairing cry
+as he shot into the abyss. Then all was still. The sound of his fall
+could not reach the edge of the gulf. Divining in a moment that the
+lady, whose name was Elsie, must have fled in the opposite direction, he
+reined his steed on his haunches. He could touch the precipice with his
+bridle-hand half outstretched; his sword-hand half outstretched would
+have dropped a stone to the bottom of the ravine. There was no room to
+wheel. One desperate practibility alone remained. Turning his horse's
+head towards the edge, he compelled him, by means of the powerful bit,
+to rear till he stood almost erect; and so, his body swaying over the
+gulf, with quivering and straining muscles, to turn on his hind legs.
+Having completed the half-circle, he let him drop, and urged him
+furiously in the opposite direction. It must have been by the devil's
+own care that he was able to continue his gallop along that ledge of
+rock.
+
+"He soon caught sight of the maiden. She was leaning, half fainting,
+against the precipice. She had beard her lover's last cry, and, although
+it had conveyed no suggestion of his voice to her ear, she trembled from
+head to foot, and her limbs would bear her no farther. He checked his
+speed, rode gently up to her, lifted her unresisting, laid her across
+the shoulders of his horse, and, riding carefully till he reached a more
+open path, dashed again wildly along the mountain side. The lady's long
+hair was shaken loose, and dropped, trailing on the ground. The horse
+trampled upon it, and stumbled, half dragging her from the saddle-bow.
+He caught her, lifted her up, and looked at her face. She was dead. I
+suppose he went mad. He laid her again across the saddle before him, and
+rode on, reckless whither. Horse, and man, and maiden were found the
+next day, lying at the foot of a cliff, dashed to pieces. It was
+observed that a hind shoe of the horse was loose and broken. Whether
+this had been the cause of his fall, could not be told; but ever when he
+races, as race he will, till the day of doom, along that mountain side,
+his gallop is mingled with the clank of the loose and broken shoe. For,
+like the sin, the punishment is awful; he shall carry about for ages the
+phantom-body of the girl, knowing that her soul is away, sitting with
+the soul of his brother, down in the deep ravine, or scaling with him
+the topmost crags of the towering mountain peaks. There are some who,
+from time to time, see the doomed man careering along the face of the
+mountain, with the lady hanging across the steed; and they say it always
+betokens a storm, such as this which is now raving about us."
+
+I had not noticed till now, so absorbed had I been in her tale, that the
+storm had risen to a very ecstasy of fury.
+
+"They say, likewise, that the lady's hair is still growing; for, every
+time they see her, it is longer than before; and that now such is its
+length and the headlong speed of the horse, that it floats and streams
+out behind, like one of those curved clouds, like a comet's tail, far up
+in the sky; only the cloud is white, and the hair dark as night. And
+they say it will go on growing until the Last Day, when the horse will
+falter, and her hair will gather in; and the horse will fall, and the
+hair will twist, and twine, and wreathe itself like a mist of threads
+about him, and blind him to everything but her. Then the body will rise
+up within it, face to face with him, animated by a fiend, who, twining
+_her_ arms around him, will drag him down to the bottomless pit."
+
+I may mention something which now occurred, and which had a strange
+effect on my old nurse. It illustrates the assertion that we see around
+us only what is within us; marvellous things enough will show themselves
+to the marvellous mood. During a short lull in the storm, just as she
+had finished her story, we heard the sound of iron-shod hoofs
+approaching the cottage. There was no bridle-way into the glen. A knock
+came to the door, and, on opening it, we saw an old man seated on a
+horse, with a long, slenderly-filled sack lying across the saddle before
+him. He said he had lost the path in the storm, and, seeing the light,
+had scrambled down to inquire his way. I perceived at once, from the
+scared and mysterious look of the old woman's eyes, that she was
+persuaded that this appearance had more than a little to do with the
+awful rider, the terrific storm, and myself who had heard the sound of
+the phantom hoofs. As he ascended the hill, she looked after him, with
+wide and pale but unshrinking eyes; then turning in, shut and locked the
+door behind her, as by a natural instinct. After two or three of her
+significant nods, accompanied by the compression of her lips, she
+said:--
+
+"He need not think to take me in, wizard as he is, with his disguises. I
+can see him through them all. Duncan, my dear, when you suspect
+anything, do not be too incredulous. This human demon is, of course, a
+wizard still, and knows how to make himself, as well as anything he
+touches, take a quite different appearance from the real one; only every
+appearance must bear some resemblance, however distant, to the natural
+form. That man you saw at the door, was the phantom of which I have been
+telling you. What he is after now, of course, I cannot tell; but you
+must keep a bold heart, and a firm and wary foot, as you go home
+to-night."
+
+I showed some surprise, I do not doubt, and, perhaps, some fear as well;
+but I only said: "How do you know him, Margaret?"
+
+"I can hardly tell you," she replied; "but I do know him. I think he
+hates me. Often, of a wild night, when there is moonlight enough by
+fits, I see him tearing round this little valley, just on the top
+edge--all round; the lady's hair and the horse's mane and tail driving
+far behind, and mingling, vaporous, with the stormy clouds. About he
+goes, in wild careering gallop; now lost as the moon goes in, then
+visible far round when she looks out again--an airy, pale-grey spectre,
+which few eyes but mine could see; for, as far as I am aware, no one of
+the family but myself has ever possessed the double gift of seeing and
+hearing both. In this case I hear no sound, except now and then a clank
+from the broken shoe. But I did not mean to tell you that I had ever
+seen him. I am not a bit afraid of him. He cannot do more than he may.
+His power is limited; else ill enough would he work, the miscreant."
+
+"But," said I, "what has all this, terrible as it is, to do with the
+fright you took at my telling you that I had heard the sound of the
+broken shoe? Surely you are not afraid of only a storm?"
+
+"No, my boy; I fear no storm. But the fact is, that that sound is seldom
+heard, and never, as far as I know, by any of the blood of that wicked
+man, without betokening some ill to one of the family, and most probably
+to the one who hears it--but I am not quite sure about that. Only some
+evil it does portend, although a long time may elapse before it shows
+itself; and I have a hope it may mean some one else than you."
+
+"Do not wish that," I replied. "I know no one better able to bear it
+than I am; and I hope, whatever it may be, that I only shall have to
+meet it. It must surely be something serious to be so foretold--it can
+hardly be connected with my disappointment in being compelled to be a
+pedagogue instead of a soldier."
+
+"Do not trouble yourself about that, Duncan," replied she. "A soldier
+you must be. The same day you told me of the clank of the broken
+horseshoe, I saw you return wounded from battle, and fall fainting from
+your horse in the street of a great city--only fainting, thank God. But
+I have particular reasons for being uneasy at _your_ hearing that boding
+sound. Can you tell me the day and hour of your birth?"
+
+"No," I replied. "It seems very odd when I think of it, but I really do
+not know even the day."
+
+"Nor any one else, which is stranger still," she answered.
+
+"How does that happen, nurse?"
+
+"We were in terrible anxiety about your mother at the time. So ill was
+she, after you were just born, in a strange, unaccountable way, that you
+lay almost neglected for more than an hour. In the very act of giving
+birth to you, she seemed to the rest around her to be out of her mind,
+so wildly did she talk; but I knew better. I knew that she was fighting
+some evil power; and what power it was, I knew full well; for twice,
+during her pains, I heard the click of the horseshoe. But no one could
+help her. After her delivery, she lay as if in a trance, neither dead,
+nor at rest, but as if frozen to ice, and conscious of it all the while.
+Once more I heard the terrible sound of iron; and, at the moment your
+mother started from her trance, screaming, 'My child! my child!' We
+suddenly became aware that no one had attended to the child, and rushed
+to the place where he lay wrapped in a blanket. Uncovering him, we found
+him black in the face, and spotted with dark spots upon the throat. I
+thought he was dead; but, with great and almost hopeless pains, we
+succeeded in making him breathe, and he gradually recovered. But his
+mother continued dreadfully exhausted. It seemed as if she had spent her
+life for her child's defence and birth. That was you, Duncan, my dear.
+
+"I was in constant attendance upon her. About a week after your birth,
+as near as I can guess, just in the gloaming, I heard yet again the
+awful clank--only once. Nothing followed till about midnight. Your
+mother slept, and you lay asleep beside her. I sat by the bedside. A
+horror fell upon me suddenly, though I neither saw nor heard anything.
+Your mother started from her sleep with a cry, which sounded as if it
+came from far away, out of a dream, and did not belong to this world. My
+blood curdled with fear. She sat up in bed, with wide staring eyes, and
+half-open rigid lips, and, feeble as she was, thrust her arms straight
+out before her with great force, her hands open and lifted up, with the
+palms outwards. The whole action was of one violently repelling another.
+She began to talk wildly as she had done before you were born, but,
+though I seemed to hear and understand it all at the time, I could not
+recall a word of it afterwards. It was as if I had listened to it when
+half asleep. I attempted to soothe her, putting my arms round her, but
+she seemed quite unconscious of my presence, and my arms seemed
+powerless upon the fixed muscles of hers. Not that I tried to constrain
+her, for I knew that a battle was going on of some kind or other, and my
+interference might do awful mischief. I only tried to comfort and
+encourage her. All the time, I was in a state of indescribable cold and
+suffering, whether more bodily or mental I could not tell. But at length
+I heard yet again the clank of the shoe. A sudden peace seemed to fall
+upon my mind--or was it a warm, odorous wind that filled the room? Your
+mother dropped her arms, and turned feebly towards her baby. She saw
+that he slept a blessed sleep. She smiled like a glorified spirit, and
+fell back exhausted on the pillow. I went to the other side of the room
+to get a cordial. When I returned to the bedside, I saw at once that she
+was dead. Her face smiled still, with an expression of the uttermost
+bliss."
+
+Nurse ceased, trembling as overcome by the recollection; and I was too
+much moved and awed to speak. At length, resuming the conversation, she
+said: "You see it is no wonder, Duncan, my dear, if, after all this, I
+should find, when I wanted to fix the date of your birth, that I could
+not determine the day or the hour when it took place. All was confusion
+in my poor brain. But it was strange that no one else could, any more
+than I. One thing only I can tell you about it. As I carried you across
+the room to lay you down--for I assisted at your birth--I happened to
+look up to the window. Then I saw what I did not forget, although I did
+not think of it again till many days after--a bright star was shining on
+the very tip of the thin crescent moon."
+
+"Oh, then," said I, "it is possible to determine the day and the very
+hour when my birth took place."
+
+"See the good of book-learning!" replied she. "When you work it out,
+just let me know, my dear, that I may remember it."
+
+"That I will."
+
+A silence of some moments followed. Margaret resumed:
+
+"I am afraid you will laugh at my foolish fancies, Duncan; but in
+thinking over all these things, as you may suppose I often do, lying
+awake in my lonely bed, the notion sometimes comes to me: What if my
+Duncan be the youth whom his wicked brother hurled into the ravine, come
+again in a new body, to live out his life, cut short by his brother's
+hatred? If so, his persecution of you, and of your mother for your sake,
+is easy to understand. And if so, you will never be able to rest till
+you find your fere, wherever she may have been born on the face of the
+earth. For born she must be, long ere now, for you to find. I misdoubt
+me much, however, if you will find her without great conflict and
+suffering between, for the Powers of Darkness will be against you;
+though I have good hope that you will overcome at last. You must forgive
+the fancies of a foolish old woman, my dear."
+
+I will not try to describe the strange feelings, almost sensations, that
+arose in me while listening to these extraordinary utterances, lest it
+should be supposed I was ready to believe all that Margaret narrated or
+concluded. I could not help doubting her sanity; but no more could I
+help feeling peculiarly moved by her narrative.
+
+Few more words were spoken on either side, but, after receiving renewed
+exhortations to carefulness on the way home, I said good-bye to dear old
+nurse, considerably comforted, I must confess, that I was not doomed to
+be a tutor all my days; for I never questioned the truth of that vision
+and its consequent prophecy.
+
+I went out into the midst of the storm, into the alternating throbs of
+blackness and radiance; now the possessor of no more room than what my
+body filled, and now isolated in world-wide space. And the thunder
+seemed to follow me, bellowing after me as I went.
+
+Absorbed in the story I had heard, I took my way, as I thought,
+homewards. The whole country was well known to me. I should have said,
+before that night, that I could have gone home blindfold. Whether the
+lightning bewildered me and made me take a false turn, I cannot tell,
+for the hardest thing to understand, in intellectual as well as moral
+mistakes, is how we came to go wrong. But after wandering for some time,
+plunged in meditation, and with no warning whatever of the presence of
+inimical powers, a brilliant lightning-flash showed me that at least I
+was not near home. The light was prolonged for a second or two by a
+slight electric pulsation; and by that I distinguished a wide space of
+blackness on the ground in front of me. Once more wrapt in the folds of
+a thick darkness, I dared not move. Suddenly it occurred to me what the
+blackness was, and whither I had wandered. It was a huge quarry, of
+great depth, long disused, and half filled with water. I knew the place
+perfectly. A few more steps would have carried me over the brink. I
+stood still, waiting for the next flash, that I might be quite sure of
+the way I was about to take before I ventured to move. While I stood, I
+fancied I heard a single hollow plunge in the black water far below.
+When the lightning came, I turned, and took my path in another
+direction. After walking for some time across the heath, I fell. The
+fall became a roll, and down a steep declivity I went, over and over,
+arriving at the bottom uninjured.
+
+Another flash soon showed me where I was--in the hollow valley, within a
+couple of hundred yards from nurse's cottage. I made my way towards it.
+There was no light in it, except the feeblest glow from the embers of
+her peat fire. "She is in bed," I said to myself, "and I will not
+disturb her." Yet something drew me towards the little window. I looked
+in. At first I could see nothing. At length, as I kept gazing, I saw
+something, indistinct in the darkness, like an outstretched human form.
+
+By this time the storm had lulled. The moon had been up for some time,
+but had been quite concealed by tempestuous clouds. Now, however, these
+had begun to break up; and, while I stood looking into the cottage, they
+scattered away from the face of the moon, and a faint, vapoury gleam of
+her light, entering the cottage through a window opposite that at which
+I stood, fell directly on the face of my old nurse, as she lay on her
+back outstretched upon chairs, pale as death, and with her eyes closed.
+The light fell nowhere but on her face. A stranger to her habits would
+have thought that she was dead; but she had so much of the appearance
+she had had on a former occasion, that I concluded at once she was in
+one of her trances. But having often heard that persons in such a
+condition ought not to be disturbed, and feeling quite sure she knew
+best how to manage herself, I turned, though reluctantly, and left the
+lone cottage behind me in the night, with the death-like woman lying
+motionless in the midst of it.
+
+I found my way home without any further difficulty, and went to bed,
+where I soon fell asleep, thoroughly wearied, more by the mental
+excitement I had been experiencing, than by the amount of bodily
+exercise I had gone through.
+
+My sleep was tormented with awful dreams; yet, strange to say, I awoke
+in the morning refreshed and fearless. The sun was shining through the
+chinks in my shutters, which had been closed because of the storm, and
+was making streaks and bands of golden brilliancy upon the wall. I had
+dressed and completed my preparations long before I heard the steps of
+the servant who came to call me.
+
+What a wonderful thing waking is! The time of the ghostly moonshine
+passes by, and the great positive sunlight comes. A man who dreams, and
+knows that he is dreaming, thinks he knows what waking is; but knows it
+so little that he mistakes, one after another, many a vague and dim
+change in his dream for an awaking. When the true waking comes at last,
+he is filled and overflowed with the power of its reality. So, likewise,
+one who, in the darkness, lies waiting for the light about to be struck,
+and trying to conceive, with all the force of his imagination, what the
+light will be like, is yet, when the reality flames up before him,
+seized as by a new and unexpected thing, different from and beyond all
+his imagining. He feels as if the darkness were cast to an infinite
+distance behind him. So shall it be with us when we wake from this dream
+of life into the truer life beyond, and find all our present notions of
+being thrown back as into a dim vapoury region of dreamland, where yet
+we thought we knew, and whence we looked forward into the present. This
+must be what Novalis means when he says: "Our life is not a dream; but
+it may become a dream, and perhaps ought to become one."
+
+And so I look back upon the strange history of my past, sometimes asking
+myself: "Can it be that all this has really happened to the same _me_,
+who am now thinking about it in doubt and wonderment?"
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+THE SUPERSTITIOUS MAN'S STORY
+
+By THOMAS HARDY
+
+
+"There was something very strange about William's death--very strange
+indeed!" sighed a melancholy man in the back of the van. It was the
+seedman's father, who had hitherto kept silence.
+
+"And what might that have been?" asked Mr Lackland.
+
+"William, as you may know, was a curious, silent man; you could feel
+when he came near 'ee; and if he was in the house or anywhere behind you
+without your seeing him, there seemed to be something clammy in the air,
+as if a cellar door opened close by your elbow. Well, one Sunday, at a
+time that William was in very good health to all appearance, the bell
+that was ringing for church went very heavy all of a sudden; the sexton,
+who told me o't, said he had not known the bell go so heavy in his hand
+for years--it was just as if the gudgeons wanted oiling. That was on the
+Sunday, as I say.
+
+"During the week after, it chanced that William's wife was staying up
+late one night to finish her ironing, she doing the washing for Mr and
+Mrs Hardcome. Her husband had finished his supper, and gone to bed as
+usual some hour or two before. While she ironed she heard him coming
+downstairs; he stopped to put on his boots at the stair-foot, where he
+always left them, and then came on into the living-room where she was
+ironing, passing through it towards the door, this being the only way
+from the staircase to the outside of the house. No word was said on
+either side, William not being a man given to much speaking, and his
+wife being occupied with her work. He went out and closed the door
+behind him. As her husband had now and then gone out in this way at
+night before when unwell, or unable to sleep for want of a pipe, she
+took no particular notice, and continued at her ironing. This she
+finished shortly after, and, as he had not come in, she waited awhile
+for him, putting away the irons and things, and preparing the table for
+his breakfast in the morning. Still he did not return, but supposing him
+not far off, and wanting to go to bed herself, tired as she was, she
+left the door unbarred and went to the stairs, after writing on the back
+of the door with chalk: _Mind and do the door_ (because he was a
+forgetful man).
+
+"To her great surprise, and I might say alarm, on reaching the foot of
+the stairs his boots were standing there as they always stood when he
+had gone to rest. Going up to their chamber, she found him in bed
+sleeping as sound as a rock. How he could have got back again without
+her seeing or hearing him was beyond her comprehension. It could only
+have been by passing behind her very quietly while she was bumping with
+the iron. But this notion did not satisfy her: it was surely impossible
+that she should not have seen him come in through a room so small. She
+could not unravel the mystery, and felt very queer and uncomfortable
+about it. However, she would not disturb him to question him then, and
+went to bed herself.
+
+"He rose and left for his work very early the next morning, before she
+was awake, and she waited his return to breakfast with much anxiety for
+an explanation, for thinking over the matter by daylight made it seem
+only the more startling. When he came in to the meal he said, before she
+could put her question, 'What's the meaning of them words chalked on the
+door?'
+
+"She told him, and asked him about his going out the night before.
+William declared that he had never left the bedroom after entering it,
+having in fact undressed, lain down, and fallen asleep directly, never
+once waking till the clock struck five, and he rose up to go to his
+labour.
+
+"Betty Privett was as certain in her own mind that he did go out as she
+was of her own existence, and was little less certain that he did not
+return. She felt too disturbed to argue with him, and let the subject
+drop as though she must have been mistaken. When she was walking down
+Longpuddle Street later in the day she met Jim Weedle's daughter Nancy,
+and said: 'Well Nancy, you do look sleepy to-day!'
+
+"'Yes, Mrs Privett,' said Nancy. 'Now, don't tell anybody, but I don't
+mind letting you know what the reason o't is. Last night, being Old
+Midsummer Eve, some of us church porch, and didn't get home till near
+one.'
+
+"'Did ye?' says Mrs Privett. 'Old Midsummer yesterday was it? Faith, I
+didn't think whe'r 'twas Midsummer or Michaelmas; I'd too much work to
+do.'
+
+"'Yes. And we were frightened enough, I can tell 'ee by what we saw.'
+
+"'What did ye see?'
+
+"(You may not remember, sir, having gone off to foreign parts so young,
+that on Midsummer Night it is believed hereabout that the faint shapes
+of all the folk in the parish who are going to be at death's door within
+the year can be seen entering the church. Those who get over their
+illness come out again after awhile; those that are doomed to die do not
+return.)
+
+"'What did you see?' asked William's wife.
+
+"'Well,' says Nancy, backwardly--'we needn't tell what we saw or who we
+saw.'
+
+"'You saw my husband,' said Betty Privett in a quiet way.
+
+"'Well, since you put it so,' says Nancy, hanging fire, 'we--thought we
+did see him; but it was darkish and we was frightened, and of course it
+might not have been he.'
+
+"'Nancy, you needn't mind letting it out, though 'tis kept back in
+kindness. And he didn't come out of the church again: I know it as well
+as you.'
+
+"Nancy did not answer yes or no to that, and no more was said. But three
+days after, William Privett was mowing with John Chiles in Mr Hardcome's
+meadow, and in the heat of the day they sat down to their bit o' nunch
+under a tree, and empty their flagon. Afterwards both of 'em fell asleep
+as they sat. John Chiles was the first to wake, and, as he looked
+towards his fellow-mower, he saw one of those great white miller's-souls
+as we call 'em--that is to say, a miller moth--come from William's open
+mouth while he slept and fly straight away. John thought it odd enough,
+as William had worked in a mill for several years when he was a boy. He
+then looked at the sun, and found by the place o't that they had slept a
+long while, and, as William did not wake, John called to him and said it
+was high time to begin work again. He took no notice, and then John went
+up and shook him and found he was dead.
+
+"Now on that very day old Philip Hookhorn was down at Longpuddle Spring,
+dipping up a pitcher of water; and, as he turned away, who should he see
+coming down to the spring on the other side but William, looking very
+pale and old? This surprised Philip Hookhorn very much, for years before
+that time William's little son--his only child--had been drowned in that
+spring while at play there, and this had so preyed upon William's mind
+that he'd never been seen near the spring afterwards, and had been known
+to go half a mile out of his way to avoid the place. On enquiry, it was
+found that William in body could not have stood by the spring, being in
+the mead two miles off; and it also came out that at the time at which
+he was seen at the spring was the very time when he died."
+
+"A rather melancholy story," observed the emigrant, after a minute's
+silence.
+
+"Yes, yes. Well, we must take ups and downs together," said the
+seedman's father.
+
+
+
+
+IV
+
+A STORY OF RAVENNA
+
+By BOCCACCIO
+
+
+Ravenna being a very ancient city in Romagna, there dwelt sometime a
+great number of worthy gentlemen, among whom I am to speak of one more
+especially, named Anastasio, descended from the family of Onesti, who by
+the death of his father, and an uncle of his, was left extraordinarily
+abounding in riches and growing to years fitting for marriage. As young
+gallants are easily apt enough to do, he became enamoured of a very
+beautiful gentlewoman, who was daughter of Messer Paolo Traversario, one
+of the most ancient and noble families in all the country. Nor made he
+any doubt, by his means and industrious endeavour, to derive affection
+from her again, for he carried himself like a braveminded gentleman,
+liberal in his expenses, honest and affable in all his actions, which
+commonly are the true notes of a good nature, and highly to be commended
+in any man. But, howsoever, fortune became his enemy; these laudable
+parts of manhood did not any way friend him, but rather appeared hurtful
+to himself, so cruel, unkind, and almost merely savage did she show
+herself to him, perhaps in pride of her singular beauty or presuming on
+her nobility by birth, both which are rather blemishes than ornaments in
+a woman when they be especially abused. The harsh and uncivil usage in
+her grew very distasteful to Anastasio, and so insufferable that after a
+long time of fruitless service, requited still with nothing but coy
+disdain, desperate resolutions entered into his brain, and often he was
+minded to kill himself. But better thoughts supplanting those furious
+passions, he abstained from such a violent act, and governed by mere
+manly consideration, determined that as she hated him, he would requite
+her with the like, if he could, wherein he became altogether deceived,
+because as his hopes grew to a daily decaying, yet his love enlarged
+itself more and more.
+
+Thus Anastasio persevering still in his bootless affection, and his
+expenses not limited within any compass, it appeared in the judgment of
+his kindred and friends that he was fallen into a mighty consumption,
+both of his body and means. In which respects many times they advised
+him to leave the city of Ravenna, and live in some other place for such
+a while as might set a more moderate stint upon his spendings, and
+bridle the indiscreet course of his love, the only fuel which fed his
+furious fire.
+
+Anastasio held out thus a long time, without lending an ear to such
+friendly counsel; but in the end he was so closely followed by them, as
+being no longer able to deny them, he promised to accomplish their
+request. Whereupon making such extraordinary preparation as if he were
+to set out thence for France or Spain, or else into some further
+country, he mounted on horseback, and accompanied with some few of his
+familiar friends, departed from Ravenna, and rode to a country
+dwelling-house of his own, about three or four miles distant from the
+city, at a place called Chiassi; and there upon a very good green
+erecting divers tents and pavilions, such as great persons make use of
+in the time of progress, he said to his friends which came with him
+thither that there he determined to make his abiding, they all returning
+back unto Ravenna, and coming to visit him again so often as they
+pleased.
+
+Now it came to pass that about the beginning of May, it being then a
+very mild and serene season, and he leading there a much more
+magnificent life than ever he had done before, inviting divers to dine
+with him this day and as many to-morrow, and not to leave him till after
+supper, upon a sudden falling into remembrance of his cruel mistress, he
+commanded all his servants to forbear his company, and suffer him to
+walk alone by himself a while, because he had occasion of private
+meditations, wherein he would not by any means be troubled. It was then
+about the ninth hour of the day, and he walking on solitary all alone,
+having gone some half a mile distance from the tents, entered into a
+grove of pine-trees, never minding dinner-time or anything else, but
+only the unkind requital of his love.
+
+Suddenly he heard the voice of a woman seeming to make most mournful
+complaints, which breaking off his silent considerations, made him to
+lift up his head to know the reason of this noise. When he saw himself
+so far entered into the grove before he could imagine where he was, he
+looked amazedly round about him, and out of a little thicket of bushes
+and briars round engirt with spreading trees, he espied a young damsel
+come running towards him, naked from the middle upward, her hair lying
+on her shoulders, and her fair skin rent and torn with the briars and
+brambles, so that the blood ran trickling down mainly, she weeping,
+wringing her hands, and crying out for mercy so loud as she could. Two
+fierce bloodhounds also followed swiftly after, and where their teeth
+took hold did most cruelly bite her. Last of all, mounted on a lusty
+black courser, came galloping a knight, with a very stern and angry
+countenance, holding a drawn short sword in his hand, giving her very
+dreadful speeches, and threatening every minute to kill her.
+
+This strange and uncouth sight bred in him no mean admiration, as also
+kind compassion to the unfortunate woman, out of which compassion sprung
+an earnest desire to deliver her, if he could, from a death so full of
+anguish and horror; but seeing himself to be without arms, he ran and
+plucked up the plant of a tree, which handling as if it had been a
+staff, he opposed himself against the dogs and the knight, who seeing
+him coming, cried out in this manner to him: "Anastasio, put not thyself
+in any opposition, but refer to my hounds and me to punish this wicked
+woman as she hath justly deserved." And in speaking these words, the
+hounds took fast hold on her body, so staying her until the knight was
+come nearer to her, and alighted from his horse, when Anastasio, after
+some other angry speeches, spake thus to him: "I cannot tell what or who
+thou art, albeit thou takest such knowledge of me, yet I must say it is
+mere cowardice in a knight, being armed as thou art, to offer to kill a
+naked woman, and make thy dogs thus to seize on her, as if she were a
+savage beast; therefore, believe me, I will defend her so far as I am
+able."
+
+"Anastasio," answered the knight, "I am of the same city as thou art,
+and do well remember that thou wast a little lad when I, who was then
+named Guido Anastasio, and thine uncle, became as entirely in love with
+this woman as now thou art with Paolo Traversario's daughter. But
+through her coy disdain and cruelty, such was my heavy fate that
+desperately I slew myself with this short sword which thou beholdest in
+mine hand; for which rash sinful deed I was and am condemned to eternal
+punishment. This wicked woman, rejoicing immeasurably in mine unhappy
+death, remained no long time alive after me, and for her merciless sin
+of cruelty, and taking pleasure in my oppressing torments, dying
+unrepentant, and in pride of her scorn, she had the like sentence of
+condemnation pronounced on her, and was sent to the same place where I
+was condemned.
+
+"There the three impartial judges imposed this further infliction on us
+both--namely, that she should fly in this manner before me, and I, who
+loved her so dearly while I lived, must pursue her as my deadly enemy,
+not like a woman that had a taste of love in her. And so often as I can
+overtake her, I am to kill her with this sword, the same weapon
+wherewith I slew myself. Then am I enjoined therewith to open her
+accursed body, and tear out her heart, with her other inwards, as now
+thou seest me do, which I give to my hounds to feed on. Afterward--such
+is the appointment of the supreme powers--that she re-assumeth life
+again, even as if she had not been dead at all, and falling to the same
+kind of flight, I with my hounds am still to follow her, without any
+respite or intermission. Every Friday, and just at this hour, our course
+is this way, where she suffereth the just punishment inflicted on her.
+Nor do we rest any of the other days, but are appointed unto other
+places, where she cruelly executed her malice against me, who am now, of
+her dear affectionate friend, ordained to be her endless enemy, and to
+pursue her in this manner for so many years as she exercised months of
+cruelty towards me. Hinder me not, then, in being the executioner of
+Divine justice, for all thy interposition is but in vain in seeking to
+cross the appointment of supreme powers."
+
+Anastasio having heard all this discourse, his hair stood upright, like
+porcupines' quills, and his soul was so shaken with the terror, that he
+stepped back to suffer the knight to do what he was enjoined, looking
+yet with mild commiseration on the poor woman, who kneeling most humbly
+before the knight, and sternly seized on by the two bloodhounds, he
+opened her breast with his weapon, drawing forth her heart and bowels,
+which instantly he threw to the dogs, and they devoured them very
+greedily. Soon after the damsel, as if none of this punishment had been
+inflicted on her, started up suddenly, running amain towards the
+seashore, and the hounds swiftly following her, as the knight did the
+like, after he had taken his sword and was mounted on horseback, so that
+Anastasio had soon lost all sight of them, and could not guess what
+could become of them.
+
+After he had heard and observed all these things, he stood a while as
+confounded with fear and pity, like a simple silly man, hoodwinked with
+his own passions, not knowing the subtle enemy's cunning illusions in
+offering false suggestions to the sight, to work his own ends thereby,
+and increase the number of his deceived servants. Forthwith he persuaded
+himself that he might make good use of this woman's tormenting, so
+justly imposed on the knight to prosecute, if thus it should continue
+still every Friday. Wherefore setting a good note or mark upon the
+place, he returned back to his own people, and at such times as he
+thought convenient, sent for divers of his kindred and friends from
+Ravenna, who being present with him, thus he spake to them:
+
+"Dear kinsmen and friends, ye have long while importuned me to
+discontinue my over-doating love to her whom you all think, and I find
+to be my mortal enemy; as also to give over my lavish expenses, wherein
+I confess myself too prodigal; both which requests of yours I will
+condescend to, provided that you will perform one gracious favour for
+me--namely, that on Friday next, Messer Paolo Traversario, his wife,
+daughter, with all other women linked in lineage to them, and such
+beside only as you shall please to appoint, will vouchsafe to accept a
+dinner here with me. As for the reason thereto moving me, you shall then
+more at large be acquainted withal." This appeared no difficult matter
+for them to accomplish. Wherefore being returned to Ravenna, and as they
+found the time answerable to their purpose, they invited such as
+Anastasio had appointed them. And although they found it somewhat a hard
+matter to gain her company whom he had so dearly affected, yet
+notwithstanding, the other women won her along with them.
+
+A most magnificent dinner had Anastasio provided, and the tables were
+covered under the pine-trees, where he saw the cruel lady so pursued and
+slain; directing the guests so in their seating that the young
+gentlewoman, his unkind mistress, sate with her face opposite unto the
+place where the dismal spectacle was to be seen. About the closing up of
+dinner, they began to hear the noise of the poor persecuted woman, which
+drove them all to much admiration, desiring to know what it was, and no
+one resolving them they rose from the tables, and looking directly as
+the noise came to them, they espied the woful woman, the dogs eagerly
+pursuing her; the knight galloping after them with his drawn weapon, and
+came very near unto the company, who cried out with loud exclaims
+against the dogs, and the knights stepped forth in assistance of the
+injured woman.
+
+The knight spake unto them as formerly he had done to Anastasio, which
+made them draw back possessed with fear and admiration, while he acted
+the same cruelty as he did the Friday before, not differing in the least
+degree. Most of the gentlewomen there present, being near allied to the
+unfortunate woman, and likewise to the knight, remembering well both his
+love and death, did shed tears as plentifully as if it had been to the
+very persons themselves in usual performance of the action indeed. Which
+tragical scene being passed over, and the woman and knight gone out of
+their sight, all that had seen this strange accident fell into diversity
+of confused opinions, yet not daring to disclose them, as doubting some
+further danger to ensue thereon.
+
+But beyond all the rest, none could compare in fear and astonishment
+with the cruel young maid affected by Anastasio, who both saw and
+observed all with a more inward apprehension, knowing very well that the
+moral of this dismal spectacle carried a much nearer application to her
+than any other in the company. For now she could call to mind how unkind
+and cruel she had shown herself to Anastasio, even as the other
+gentlewoman formerly did to her lover, still flying from him in great
+contempt and scorn, for which she thought the bloodhounds also pursued
+her at the heels already, and a sword of vengeance to mangle her body.
+This fear grew so powerful upon her, that to prevent the like heavy doom
+from falling on her, she studied, and therein bestowed all the night
+season, how to change her hatred into kind love, which at the length she
+fully obtained, and then purposed to procure in this manner: Secretly
+she sent a faithful chambermaid of her own to greet Anastasio on her
+behalf, humbly entreating him to come see her, because now she was
+absolutely determined to give him satisfaction in all which, with
+honour, he could request of her. Whereto Anastasio answered that he
+accepted her message thankfully, and desired no other favour at her hand
+but that which stood with her own offer, namely, to be his wife in
+honourable marriage. The maid knowing sufficiently that he could not be
+more desirous of the match than her mistress showed herself to be, made
+answer in her name that this motion would be most welcome to her.
+
+Hereupon the gentlewoman herself became the solicitor to her father and
+mother, telling them plainly that she was willing to be the wife of
+Anastasio; which news did so highly content them, that upon the Sunday
+next following the marriage was very worthily solemnised, and they lived
+and loved together very kindly. Thus the Divine bounty, out of the
+malignant enemy's secret machinations, can cause good effects to arise
+and succeed. For from this conceit of fearful imagination in her, not
+only happened this long-desired conversion of a maid so obstinately
+scornful and proud, but likewise all the women of Ravenna, being
+admonished by her example, grew afterward more tractable to men's honest
+motions than ever they showed themselves before. And let me make some
+use hereof, fair ladies, to you not to stand over-nicely conceited of
+your beauty and good parts when men solicit you with their best
+services. Remember then this disdainful gentlewoman, but more
+especially her, who being the death of so kind a lover was therefore
+condemned to perpetual punishment, and he made the minister thereof whom
+she had cast off with coy disdain, from which I wish your minds to be
+free, as mine is ready to do you any acceptable service.
+
+
+
+
+V
+
+TEIG O'KANE AND THE CORPSE
+
+[_Translated from the Irish_]
+
+By Dr DOUGLAS HYDE
+
+
+There was once a grown-up lad in the County Leitrim, and he was strong
+and lively, and the son of a rich farmer. His father had plenty of
+money, and he did not spare it on the son. Accordingly, when the boy
+grew up he liked sport better than work, and, as his father had no other
+children, he loved this one so much that he allowed him to do in
+everything just as it pleased himself. He was very extravagant, and he
+used to scatter the gold money as another person would scatter the
+white. He was seldom to be found at home, but if there was a fair, or a
+race, or a gathering within ten miles of him, you were dead certain to
+find him there. And he seldom spent a night in his father's house, but
+he used to be always out rambling, and, like Shawn Bwee long ago, there
+was
+
+    "gradh gach cailin i mbrollach a leine,"
+
+"the love of every girl in the breast of his shirt," and it's many's the
+kiss he got and he gave, for he was very handsome, and there wasn't a
+girl in the country but would fall in love with him, only for him to
+fasten his two eyes on her, and it was for that someone made this _rann_
+on him--
+
+    "Look at the rogue, it's for kisses he's rambling,
+      It isn't much wonder, for that was his way;
+    He's like an old hedgehog, at night he'll be scrambling
+      From this place to that, but he'll sleep in the day."
+
+At last he became very wild and unruly. He wasn't to be seen day or
+night in his father's house, but always rambling or going on his
+_kailee_ (night visit) from place to place and from house to house, so
+that the old people used to shake their heads and say to one another,
+"It's easy seen what will happen to the land when the old man dies; his
+son will run through it in a year, and it won't stand him that long
+itself."
+
+He used to be always gambling and card-playing and drinking, but his
+father never minded his bad habits, and never punished him. But it
+happened one day that the old man was told that the son had ruined the
+character of a girl in the neighbourhood, and he was greatly angry, and
+he called the son to him, and said to him, quietly and sensibly--"Avic,"
+says he, "you know I loved you greatly up to this, and I never stopped
+you from doing your choice thing whatever it was, and I kept plenty of
+money with you, and I always hoped to leave you the house and land, and
+all I had after myself would be gone; but I heard a story of you to-day
+that has disgusted me with you. I cannot tell you the grief that I felt
+when I heard such a thing of you, and I tell you now plainly that unless
+you marry that girl I'll leave house and land and everything to my
+brother's son. I never could leave it to anyone who would make so bad a
+use of it as you do yourself, deceiving women and coaxing girls. Settle
+with yourself now whether you'll marry that girl and get my land as a
+fortune with her, or refuse to marry her and give up all that was coming
+to you; and tell me in the morning which of the two things you have
+chosen."
+
+"Och! _Domnoo Sheery_! father, you wouldn't say that to me, and I such a
+good son as I am. Who told you I wouldn't marry the girl?" says he.
+
+But his father was gone, and the lad knew well enough that he would keep
+his word too; and he was greatly troubled in his mind, for as quiet and
+as kind as the father was, he never went back of a word that he had
+once said, and there wasn't another man in the country who was harder to
+bend than he was.
+
+The boy did not know rightly what to do. He was in love with the girl
+indeed, and he hoped to marry her sometime or other, but he would much
+sooner have remained another while as he was, and follow on at his old
+tricks--drinking, sporting, and playing cards; and, along with that, he
+was angry that his father should order him to marry, and should threaten
+him if he did not do it.
+
+"Isn't my father a great fool," says he to himself. "I was ready enough,
+and only too anxious, to marry Mary; and now since he threatened me,
+faith I've a great mind to let it go another while."
+
+His mind was so much excited that he remained between two notions as to
+what he should do. He walked out into the night at last to cool his
+heated blood, and went on to the road. He lit a pipe, and as the night
+was fine he walked and walked on, until the quick pace made him begin to
+forget his trouble. The night was bright, and the moon half full. There
+was not a breath of wind blowing, and the air was calm and mild. He
+walked on for nearly three hours, when he suddenly remembered that it
+was late in the night, and time for him to turn. "Musha! I think I
+forgot myself," says he; "it must be near twelve o'clock now."
+
+The word was hardly out of his mouth, when he heard the sound of many
+voices, and the trampling of feet on the road before him. "I don't know
+who can be out so late at night as this, and on such a lonely road,"
+said he to himself.
+
+He stood listening, and he heard the voices of many people talking
+through other, but he could not understand what they were saying. "Oh,
+wirra!" says he, "I'm afraid. It's not Irish or English they have; it
+can't be they're Frenchmen!" He went on a couple of yards further, and
+he saw well enough by the light of the moon a band of little people
+coming towards him, and they were carrying something big and heavy with
+them. "Oh, murder!" says he to himself, "sure it can't be that they're
+the good people that's in it!" Every _rib_ of hair that was on his head
+stood up, and there fell a shaking on his bones, for he saw that they
+were coming to him fast.
+
+He looked at them again, and perceived that there were about twenty
+little men in it, and there was not a man at all of them higher than
+about three feet or three feet and a half, and some of them were grey,
+and seemed very old. He looked again, but he could not make out what was
+the heavy thing they were carrying until they came up to him, and then
+they all stood round about him. They threw the heavy thing down on the
+road, and he saw on the spot that it was a dead body.
+
+He became as cold as the Death, and there was not a drop of blood
+running in his veins when an old little grey _maneen_ came up to him and
+said, "Isn't it lucky we met you, Teig O'Kane?"
+
+Poor Teig could not bring out a word at all, nor open his lips, if he
+were to get the world for it, and so he gave no answer.
+
+"Teig O'Kane," said the little grey man again, "isn't it timely you met
+us?"
+
+Teig could not answer him.
+
+"Teig O'Kane," says he, "the third time, isn't it lucky and timely that
+we met you?"
+
+But Teig remained silent, for he was afraid to return an answer, and his
+tongue was as if it was tied to the roof of his mouth.
+
+The little grey man turned to his companions, and there was joy in his
+bright little eye. "And now," says he, "Teig O'Kane hasn't a word, we
+can do with him what we please. Teig, Teig," says he, "you're living a
+bad life, and we can make a slave of you now, and you cannot withstand
+us, for there's no use in trying to go against us. Lift that corpse."
+
+Teig was so frightened that he was only able to utter the two words, "I
+won't"; for as frightened as he was he was obstinate and stiff, the same
+as ever.
+
+"Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse," said the little _maneen_, with a
+wicked little laugh, for all the world like the breaking of a _lock_ of
+dry _kippeens_, and with a little harsh voice like the striking of a
+cracked bell. "Teig O'Kane won't lift the corpse--make him lift it"; and
+before the word was out of his mouth they had all gathered round poor
+Teig, and they all talking and laughing through other.
+
+Teig tried to run from them, but they followed him, and a man of them
+stretched out his foot before him as he ran, so that Teig was thrown in
+a heap on the road. Then before he could rise up the fairies caught him,
+some by the hands and some by the feet, and they held him tight, in a
+way that he could not stir, with his face against the ground. Six or
+seven of them raised the body then, and pulled it over to him, and left
+it down on his back. The breast of the corpse was squeezed against
+Teig's back and shoulders, and the arms of the corpse were thrown around
+Teig's neck. Then they stood back from him a couple of yards, and let
+him get up. He rose, foaming at the mouth and cursing, and he shook
+himself, thinking to throw the corpse off his back. But his fear and his
+wonder were great when he found that the two arms had a tight hold round
+his own neck, and that the two legs were squeezing his hips firmly, and
+that, however strongly he tried, he could not throw it off, any more
+than a horse can throw off its saddle. He was terribly frightened then,
+and he thought he was lost. "Ochone! for ever," said he to himself,
+"it's the bad life I'm leading that has given the good people this power
+over me. I promise to God and Mary, Peter and Paul, Patrick and Bridget,
+that I'll mend my ways for as long as I have to live, if I come clear
+out of this danger--and I'll marry the girl."
+
+The little grey man came up to him again, and said he to him, "Now,
+Teig_een_," says he, "you didn't lift the body when I told you to lift
+it, and see how you were made to lift it; perhaps when I tell you to
+bury it, you won't bury it until you're made to bury it!"
+
+"Anything at all that I can do for your honour," said Teig, "I'll do
+it," for he was getting sense already, and if it had not been for the
+great fear that was on him, he never would have let that civil word slip
+out of his mouth.
+
+The little man laughed a sort of laugh again. "You're getting quiet now,
+Teig," says he. "I'll go bail but you'll be quiet enough before I'm done
+with you. Listen to me now, Teig O'Kane, and if you don't obey me in all
+I'm telling you to do, you'll repent it. You must carry with you this
+corpse that is on your back to Teampoll-Demus, and you must bring it
+into the church with you, and make a grave for it in the very middle of
+the church, and you must raise up the flags and put them down again the
+very same way, and you must carry the clay out of the church and leave
+the place as it was when you came, so that no one could know that there
+had been anything changed. But that's not all. Maybe that the body won't
+be allowed to be buried in that church; perhaps some other man has the
+bed, and, if so, it's likely he won't share it with this one. If you
+don't get leave to bury it in Teampoll-Demus, you must carry it to
+Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus, and bury it in the churchyard there; and if you
+don't get it into that place, take it with you to Teampoll-Ronan; and if
+that churchyard is closed on you, take it to Imlogue-Fada; and if you're
+not able to bury it there, you've no more to do than to take it to
+Kill-Breedya, and you can bury it there without hindrance. I cannot tell
+you what one of those churches is the one where you will have leave to
+bury that corpse under the clay, but I know that it will be allowed you
+to bury him at some church or other of them. If you do this work
+rightly, we will be thankful to you, and you will have no cause to
+grieve; but if you are slow or lazy, believe me we shall take
+satisfaction of you."
+
+When the grey little man had done speaking, his comrades laughed and
+clapped their hands together. "Glic! Glic! Hwee! Hwee!" they all cried;
+"go on, go on, you have eight hours before you till daybreak, and if you
+haven't this man buried before the sun rises, you're lost." They struck
+a fist and a foot behind on him, and drove him on in the road. He was
+obliged to walk, and to walk fast, for they gave him no rest.
+
+He thought himself that there was not a wet path, or a dirty _boreen_,
+or a crooked contrary road in the whole county, that he had not walked
+that night. The night was at times very dark, and whenever there would
+come a cloud across the moon he could see nothing, and then he used
+often to fall. Sometimes he was hurt, and sometimes he escaped, but he
+was obliged always to rise on the moment and to hurry on. Sometimes the
+moon would break out clearly, and then he would look behind him and see
+the little people following at his back. And he heard them speaking
+amongst themselves, talking and crying out, and screaming like a flock
+of sea-gulls; and if he was to save his soul he never understood as much
+as one word of what they were saying.
+
+He did not know how far he had walked, when at last one of them cried
+out to him, "Stop here!" He stood, and they all gathered round him.
+
+"Do you see those withered trees over there?" says the old boy to him
+again. "Teampoll-Demus is among those trees, and you must go in there by
+yourself, for we cannot follow you or go with you. We must remain here.
+Go on boldly."
+
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a high wall that was in places half
+broken down, and an old grey church on the inside of the wall, and about
+a dozen withered old trees scattered here and there round it. There was
+neither leaf nor twig on any of them, but their bare crooked branches
+were stretched out like the arms of an angry man when he threatens. He
+had no help for it, but was obliged to go forward. He was a couple of
+hundred yards from the church, but he walked on, and never looked behind
+him until he came to the gate of the churchyard. The old gate was thrown
+down, and he had no difficulty in entering. He turned then to see if any
+of the little people were following him, but there came a cloud over the
+moon, and the night became so dark that he could see nothing. He went
+into the churchyard, and he walked up the old grassy pathway leading to
+the church. When he reached the door, he found it locked. The door was
+large and strong, and he did not know what to do. At last he drew out
+his knife with difficulty, and stuck it in the wood to try if it were
+not rotten, but it was not.
+
+"Now," said he to himself, "I have no more to do; the door is shut, and
+I can't open it."
+
+Before the words were rightly shaped in his own mind, a voice in his ear
+said to him, "Search for the key on the top of the door, or on the
+wall."
+
+He started. "Who is that speaking to me?" he cried, turning round; but
+he saw no one. The voice said in his ear again, "Search for the key on
+the top of the door, or on the wall."
+
+"What's that?" said he, and the sweat running from his forehead; "who
+spoke to me?"
+
+"It's I, the corpse, that spoke to you!" said the voice.
+
+"Can you talk?" said Teig.
+
+"Now and again," said the corpse.
+
+Teig searched for the key, and he found it on the top of the wall. He
+was too much frightened to say any more, but he opened the door wide,
+and as quickly as he could, and he went in, with the corpse on his back.
+It was as dark as pitch inside, and poor Teig began to shake and
+tremble.
+
+"Light the candle," said the corpse.
+
+Teig put his hand in his pocket, as well as he was able, and drew out a
+flint and steel. He struck a spark out of it, and lit a burnt rag he had
+in his pocket. He blew it until it made a flame, and he looked round
+him. The church was very ancient, and part of the wall was broken down.
+The windows were blown in or cracked, and the timber of the seats were
+rotten. There were six or seven old iron candlesticks left there still,
+and in one of these candlesticks Teig found the stump of an old candle,
+and he lit it. He was still looking round him on the strange and horrid
+place in which he found himself, when the cold corpse whispered in his
+ear, "Bury me now, bury me now; there is a spade and turn the ground."
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a spade lying beside the altar. He took
+it up, and he placed the blade under a flag that was in the middle of
+the aisle, and leaning all his weight on the handle of the spade, he
+raised it. When the first flag was raised it was not hard to raise the
+others near it, and he moved three or four of them out of their places.
+The clay that was under them was soft and easy to dig, but he had not
+thrown up more than three or four shovelfuls when he felt the iron touch
+something soft like flesh. He threw up three or four more shovelfuls
+from around it, and then he saw that it was another body that was buried
+in the same place.
+
+"I am afraid I'll never be allowed to bury the two bodies in the same
+hole," said Teig, in his own mind. "You corpse, there on my back," says
+he, "will you be satisfied if I bury you down here?" But the corpse
+never answered him a word.
+
+"That's a good sign," said Teig to himself. "Maybe he's getting quiet,"
+and he thrust the spade down in the earth again. Perhaps he hurt the
+flesh of the other body, for the dead man that was buried there stood up
+in the grave, and shouted an awful shout. "Hoo! hoo!! hoo!!! Go! go!!
+go!!! or you're a dead, dead, dead man!" And then he fell back in the
+grave again. Teig said afterwards, that of all the wonderful things he
+saw that night, that was the most awful to him. His hair stood upright
+on his head like the bristles of a pig, the cold sweat ran off his face,
+and then came a tremour over all his bones, until he thought that he
+must fall.
+
+But after a while he became bolder, when he saw that the second corpse
+remained lying quietly there, and he threw in the clay on it again, and
+he smoothed it overhead, and he laid down the flags carefully as they
+had been before. "It can't be that he'll rise up any more," said he.
+
+He went down the aisle a little further, and drew near to the door, and
+began raising the flags again, looking for another bed for the corpse on
+his back. He took up three or four flags and put them aside, and then he
+dug the clay. He was not long digging until he laid bare an old woman
+without a thread upon her but her shirt. She was more lively than the
+first corpse, for he had scarcely taken any of the clay away from about
+her, when she sat up and began to cry, "Ho, you _bodach_ (clown)! Ha,
+you _bodach_! Where has he been that he got no bed?"
+
+Poor Teig drew back, and when she found that she was getting no answer,
+she closed her eyes gently, lost her vigour, and fell back quietly and
+slowly under the clay. Teig did to her as he had done to the man--he
+threw the clay back on her, and left the flags down overhead.
+
+He began digging again near the door, but before he had thrown up more
+than a couple of shovelfuls, he noticed a man's hand laid bare by the
+spade. "By my soul, I'll go no further, then," said he to himself;
+"what use is it for me?" And he threw the clay in again on it, and
+settled the flags as they had been before.
+
+He left the church then, and his heart was heavy enough, but he shut the
+door and locked it, and left the key where he found it. He sat down on a
+tombstone that was near the door, and began thinking. He was in great
+doubt what he should do. He laid his face between his two hands, and
+cried for grief and fatigue, since he was dead certain at this time that
+he never would come home alive. He made another attempt to loosen the
+hands of the corpse that were squeezed round his neck, but they were as
+tight as if they were clamped; and the more he tried to loosen them, the
+tighter they squeezed him. He was going to sit down once more, when the
+cold, horrid lips of the dead man said to him, "Carrick-fhad-vic-Orus,"
+and he remembered the command of the good people to bring the corpse
+with him to that place if he should be unable to bury it where he had
+been.
+
+He rose up, and looked about him. "I don't know the way," he said.
+
+As soon as he had uttered the word, the corpse stretched out suddenly
+its left hand that had been tightened round his neck, and kept it
+pointing out, showing him the road he ought to follow. Teig went in the
+direction that the fingers were stretched, and passed out of the
+churchyard. He found himself on an old rutty, stony road, and he stood
+still again, not knowing where to turn. The corpse stretched out its
+bony hand a second time, and pointed out to him another road--not the
+road by which he had come when approaching the old church. Teig followed
+that road, and whenever he came to a path or road meeting it, the corpse
+always stretched out its hand and pointed with its fingers, showing him
+the way he was to take.
+
+Many was the cross-road he turned down, and many was the crooked
+_boreen_ he walked, until he saw from him an old burying-ground at last,
+beside the road, but there was neither church nor chapel nor any other
+building in it. The corpse squeezed him tightly, and he stood. "Bury me,
+bury me in the burying-ground," said the voice.
+
+Teig drew over towards the old burying-place, and he was not more than
+about twenty yards from it, when, raising his eyes, he saw hundreds and
+hundreds of ghosts--men, women, and children--sitting on the top of the
+wall round about, or standing on the inside of it, or running backwards
+and forwards, and pointing at him, while he could see their mouths
+opening and shutting as if they were speaking, though he heard no word,
+nor any sound amongst them at all.
+
+He was afraid to go forward, so he stood where he was, and the moment he
+stood, all the ghosts became quiet, and ceased moving. Then Teig
+understood that it was trying to keep him from going in, that they were.
+He walked a couple of yards forwards, and immediately the whole crowd
+rushed together towards the spot to which he was moving, and they stood
+so thickly together that it seemed to him that he never could break
+through them, even though he had a mind to try. But he had no mind to
+try it. He went back broken and dispirited, and when he had gone a
+couple of hundred yards from the burying-ground, he stood again, for he
+did not know what way he was to go. He heard the voice of the corpse in
+his ear, saying, "Teampoll-Ronan," and the skinny hand was stretched out
+again, pointing him out the road.
+
+As tired as he was, he had to walk, and the road was neither short nor
+even. The night was darker than ever, and it was difficult to make his
+way. Many was the toss he got, and many a bruise they left on his body.
+At last he saw Teampoll-Ronan from him in the distance, standing in the
+middle of the burying-ground. He moved over towards it, and thought he
+was all right and safe, when he saw no ghosts nor anything else on the
+wall, and he thought he would never be hindered now from leaving his
+load off him at last. He moved over to the gate, but as he was passing
+in, he tripped on the threshold. Before he could recover himself,
+something that he could not see seized him by the neck, by the hands,
+and by the feet, and bruised him, and shook him, and choked him, until
+he was nearly dead; and at last he was lifted up, and carried more than
+a hundred yards from that place, and then thrown down in an old dyke,
+with the corpse still clinging to him.
+
+He rose up, bruised and sore, but feared to go near the place again, for
+he had seen nothing the time he was thrown down and carried away.
+
+"You corpse, up on my back?" said he, "shall I go over again to the
+churchyard?"--but the corpse never answered him. "That's a sign you
+don't wish me to try it again," said Teig.
+
+He was now in great doubt as to what he ought to do, when the corpse
+spoke in his ear, and said, "Imlogue-Fada."
+
+"Oh, murder!" said Teig, "must I bring you there? If you keep me long
+walking like this, I tell you I'll fall under you."
+
+He went on, however, in the direction the corpse pointed out to him. He
+could not have told, himself, how long he had been going, when the dead
+man behind suddenly squeezed him, and said, "There!"
+
+Teig looked from him, and he saw a little low wall, that was so broken
+down in places that it was no wall at all. It was in a great wide field,
+in from the road; and only for three or four great stones at the
+corners, that were more like rocks than stones, there was nothing to
+show that there was either graveyard or burying-ground there.
+
+"Is this Imlogue-Fada? Shall I bury you here?" said Teig.
+
+"Yes," said the voice.
+
+"But I see no grave or gravestone, only this pile of stones," said Teig.
+
+The corpse did not answer, but stretched out its long fleshless hand to
+show Teig the direction in which he was to go. Teig went on accordingly,
+but he was greatly terrified, for he remembered what had happened to him
+at the last place. He went on, "with his heart in his mouth," as he said
+himself afterwards; but when he came to within fifteen or twenty yards
+of the little low square wall, there broke out a flash of lightning,
+bright yellow and red, with blue streaks in it, and went round about the
+wall in one course, and it swept by as fast as the swallow in the
+clouds, and the longer Teig remained looking at it the faster it went,
+till at last it became like a bright ring of flame round the old
+graveyard, which no one could pass without being burnt by it. Teig never
+saw, from the time he was born, and never saw afterwards, so wonderful
+or so splendid a sight as that was. Round went the flame, white and
+yellow and blue sparks leaping out from it as it went, and although at
+first it had been no more than a thin, narrow line, it increased slowly
+until it was at last a great broad band, and it was continually getting
+broader and higher, and throwing out more brilliant sparks, till there
+was never a colour on the ridge of the earth that was not to be seen in
+that fire; and lightning never shone and flame never flamed that was so
+shining and so bright as that.
+
+Teig was amazed; he was half dead with fatigue, and he had no courage
+left to approach the wall. There fell a mist over his eyes, and there
+came a _soorawn_ in his head, and he was obliged to sit down upon a
+great stone to recover himself. He could see nothing but the light, and
+he could hear nothing but the whirr of it as it shot round the paddock
+faster than a flash of lightning.
+
+As he sat there on the stone, the voice whispered once more in his ear,
+"Kill-Breedya"; and the dead man squeezed him so tightly that he cried
+out. He rose again, sick, tired, and trembling, and went forward as he
+was directed. The wind was cold, and the road was bad, and the load upon
+his back was heavy, and the night was dark, and he himself was nearly
+worn out, and if he had had very much farther to go he must have fallen
+dead under his burden.
+
+At last the corpse stretched out its hand, and said to him, "Bury me
+there."
+
+"This is the last burying-place," said Teig in his own mind; "and the
+little grey man said I'd be allowed to bury him in some of them, so it
+must be this; it can't be but they'll let him in here."
+
+The first, faint streak of the _ring of day_ was appearing in the east,
+and the clouds were beginning to catch fire, but it was darker than
+ever, for the moon was set, and there were no stars.
+
+"Make haste, make haste!" said the corpse; and Teig hurried forward as
+well as he could to the graveyard, which was a little place on a bare
+hill, with only a few graves in it. He walked boldly in through the open
+gate, and nothing touched him, nor did he either hear or see anything.
+He came to the middle of the ground, and then stood up and looked round
+him for a spade or shovel to make a grave. As he was turning round and
+searching, he suddenly perceived what startled him greatly--a newly-dug
+grave right before him. He moved over to it, and looked down, and there
+at the bottom he saw a black coffin. He clambered down into the hole and
+lifted the lid, and found that (as he thought it would be) the coffin
+was empty. He had hardly mounted up out of the hole, and was standing on
+the brink, when the corpse, which had clung to him for more than eight
+hours, suddenly relaxed its hold of his neck, and loosened its shins
+from round his hips, and sank down with a _plop_ into the open coffin.
+
+Teig fell down on his two knees at the brink of the grave, and gave
+thanks to God. He made no delay then, but pressed down the coffin lid in
+its place, and threw in the clay over it with his two hands, and when
+the grave was filled up, he stamped and leaped on it with his feet,
+until it was firm and hard, and then he left the place.
+
+The sun was fast rising as he finished his work, and the first thing he
+did was to return to the road, and look out for a house to rest himself
+in. He found an inn at last; and lay down upon a bed there, and slept
+till night. Then he rose up and ate a little, and fell asleep again till
+morning. When he awoke in the morning he hired a horse and rode home. He
+was more than twenty-six miles from home where he was, and he had come
+all that way with the dead body on his back in one night.
+
+All the people at his own home thought that he must have left the
+country, and they rejoiced greatly when they saw him come back. Everyone
+began asking him where he had been, but he would not tell anyone except
+his father.
+
+He was a changed man from that day. He never drank too much; he never
+lost his money over cards; and especially he would not take the world
+and be out late by himself of a dark night.
+
+He was not a fortnight at home until he married Mary, the girl he had
+been in love with, and it's at their wedding the sport was, and it's he
+was the happy man from that day forward, and it's all I wish that we may
+be as happy as he was.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+GLOSSARY.--_Rann_, a stanza; _kailee_ (_ceilidhe_), a visit in
+the evening; _wirra_ (_a mhuire_), "Oh, Mary!" an exclamation like the
+French _dame_; _rib_, a single hair (in Irish, _ribe_); _a lock_
+(_glac_), a bundle or wisp, or a little share of anything; _kippeen_
+(_cipin_), a rod or twig; _boreen_ (_boithrin_), a lane; _bodach_, a
+clown; _soorawn_ (_suaran_), vertigo. _Avic_ (_a Mhic_)=my son, or
+rather, Oh, son. Mic is the vocative of Mac.
+
+
+
+
+VI
+
+THE HAUNTED AND THE HAUNTERS: OR THE HOUSE AND THE BRAIN
+
+By SIR EDWARD BULWER-LYTTON
+
+
+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 these questions--all I know is this--six weeks ago
+I and my wife 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 a 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
+farther. I paid for my week, and too happy were I and my wife 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 neighbouring areas, said to me, "Do you
+want anyone in that house, sir?"
+
+"Yes, I heard it was to 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, L1 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 neighbourhood, I have so
+despaired of finding any person to take charge of it, much more a
+tenant, that I would willingly let it rent free for a year to anyone 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, amongst 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
+repainting and roofing it--added to its old-fashioned furniture a few
+modern articles--advertised it, and obtained a lodger for a year. He was
+a colonel retired 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 they deponed that they had all seen something
+different, that something was equally terrible to all. I really could
+not in conscience sue, or 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 anyone 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 honour. I dined alone, and very late, and while dining,
+read, as is my habit. The volume I selected was one 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 favourite
+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--viz. 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 ran 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 wine-bibbers.
+
+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 parlour, a small back-parlour, 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 armchair. 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, flushed 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 it is
+a--"
+
+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 around, 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 open 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 but sheer descent.
+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 gaiety 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 everyone else would execrate us if all
+was known." Again: "Don't let anyone 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 hearth-rug, 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 concentrated 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 recognised him had we met in the
+streets, 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 trying 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 recognise 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 if 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 circumstance 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--_i.e._ 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 mesmerised patient can respond to the will or
+passes of a mesmeriser 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 overshadowed; I looked up, and I saw what I shall
+find it very difficult, perhaps impossible, to describe.
+
+It was a Darkness shaping itself out of 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 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 seemed to distinguish 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 men'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 men.
+
+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 the 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 bed-head 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-coloured--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 bloodstain 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 a woman, aged. 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, 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 concentrated 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 larvae 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
+servants' 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 favourite--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--actually twisted out of the
+vertebrae. 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 comes 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. Not 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 floor, 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:--
+
+     "HONOURED SIR,--I humbly entreat your pardon, though I
+     can scarcely hope that you will think 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, honoured 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 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 know but little of 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_."
+
+"Granting mesmerism, so far carried, to be a fact, you are right. And
+you would infer from this that a mesmeriser might produce the
+extraordinary effects you and others have witnessed over inanimate
+objects--fill the air with sights and sounds?"
+
+"Or impress our senses with the belief in them--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, 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 burnt 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 so 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. They come for little or no
+object--they seldom speak, if they do come; they utter no ideas above
+that of an ordinary person on earth. These 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 notable, 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--viz. 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 fiend-like shapes appear
+in a magic circle, or bodyless 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 may produce
+chemic wonders--in others a natural fluid, call it electricity, and
+these produce electric wonders. But they differ in this from Normal
+Science--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 semisubstance. 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; it 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. Rats 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 bedroom 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 back-yard, 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 afterwards 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 relatives, 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 the 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 neighbours 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 back-yard--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 peculiar 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 colourless volatile essences, of what nature I shall say
+no more than 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 colours 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 most peculiar 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. The strange thing was this--the
+instant I saw the miniature I recognised a startling likeness to one of
+the rarest portraits in the world--the portrait of a man of a rank only
+below that of royalty, who in his own day had made a considerable noise.
+History says little or nothing of him; but search the correspondence of
+his contemporaries, and you find reference to his wild daring, his bold
+profligacy, his restless spirit, his taste for the occult sciences.
+While still in the meridian of life he died and was buried, so say the
+chronicles, in a foreign land. He died in time to escape the grasp of
+the law, for he was accused of crimes which would have given him to the
+headsman.
+
+After his death, the portraits of him, which had been numerous, for he
+had been a munificent encourager of art, were bought up and
+destroyed--it was supposed by his heirs, who might have been glad could
+they have razed his very name from their splendid line. He had enjoyed a
+vast wealth; a large portion of this was believed to have been embezzled
+by a favourite astrologer or soothsayer--at all events, it had
+unaccountably vanished at the time of his death. One portrait alone of
+him was supposed to have escaped the general destruction; I had seen it
+in the house of a collector some months before. It had made on me a
+wonderful impression, as it does on all who behold it--a face never to
+be forgotten; and there was that face in the miniature that lay within
+my hand. True, that in the miniature the man was a few years older than
+in the portrait I had seen, or than the original was even at the time of
+his death. But a few years!--why, between the date in which flourished
+that direful noble and the date in which the miniature was evidently
+painted, there was an interval of more than two centuries. While I was
+thus gazing, silent and wondering, Mr J---- said:
+
+"But is it possible? I have known this man."
+
+"How--where?" I cried.
+
+"In India. He was high in the confidence of the Rajah of ----, and
+wellnigh drew him into a revolt which would have lost the Rajah his
+dominions. The man was a Frenchman--his name de V----, clever, bold,
+lawless. We insisted on his dismissal and banishment: it must be the
+same man--no two faces like his--yet this miniature seems nearly a
+hundred years old."
+
+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. Withinside the lid
+was engraved "Mariana 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 very peculiar, but not strong nor
+displeasing odour, came from this drawer, which was lined with a wood
+that we afterwards discovered to be hazel. Whatever the cause of this
+odour, 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 spilt--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 trap-door; but seeing that nothing more
+happened, they were easily induced to return.
+
+Meanwhile I had opened the tablet: it was bound in a 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---- burnt 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.
+
+But my story is not yet done. A few days after Mr J---- had removed into
+the house, I paid him a visit. We were standing by the open window and
+conversing. A van containing some articles of furniture which he was
+moving from his former house was at the door. I had just urged on him my
+theory that all those phenomena regarded as supermundane had emanated
+from a human brain; adducing the charm, or rather curse, we had found
+and destroyed in support of my philosophy. Mr J---- was observing in
+reply, "That even if mesmerism, or whatever analogous power it might be
+called, could really thus work in the absence of the operator, and
+produce effects so extraordinary, still could those effects continue
+when the operator himself was dead? and if the spell had been wrought,
+and, indeed, the room walled up, more than seventy years ago, the
+probability was, that the operator had long since departed this life";
+Mr J----, I say, was thus answering, when I caught hold of his arm and
+pointed to the street below.
+
+A well-dressed man had crossed from the opposite side, and was accosting
+the carrier in charge of the van. His face, as he stood, was exactly
+fronting our window. It was the face of the miniature we had discovered;
+it was the face of the portrait of the noble three centuries ago.
+
+"Good Heavens!" cried Mr J----, "that is the face of de V----, and
+scarcely a day older than when I saw it in the Rajah's court in my
+youth!"
+
+Seized by the same thought, we both hastened downstairs. I was first in
+the street; but the man had already gone. I caught sight of him,
+however, not many yards in advance, and in another moment I was by his
+side.
+
+I had resolved to speak to him, but when I looked into his face I felt
+as if it were impossible to do so. That eye--the eye of the
+serpent--fixed and held me spellbound. And withal, about the man's whole
+person there was a dignity, an air of pride and station and superiority,
+that would have made anyone, habituated to the usages of the world,
+hesitate long before venturing upon a liberty or impertinence. And what
+could I say? what was it I would ask? Thus ashamed of my first impulse,
+I fell a few paces back, still, however, following the stranger,
+undecided what else to do. Meanwhile he turned the corner of the street;
+a plain carriage was in waiting, with a servant out of livery, dressed
+like a _valet-de-place_, at the carriage door. In another moment he had
+stepped into the carriage, and it drove off. I returned to the house. Mr
+J---- was still at the street door. He had asked the carrier what the
+stranger had said to him.
+
+"Merely asked whom that house now belonged to."
+
+The same evening I happened to go with a friend to a place in town
+called the Cosmopolitan Club, a place open to men of all countries, all
+opinions, all degrees. One orders one's coffee, smokes one's cigar. One
+is always sure to meet agreeable, sometimes remarkable, persons.
+
+I had not been two minutes in the room before I beheld at a table,
+conversing with an acquaintance of mine, whom I will designate by the
+initial G----, the man--the Original of the Miniature. He was now
+without his hat, and the likeness was yet more startling, only I
+observed that while he was conversing there was less severity in the
+countenance; there was even a smile, though a very quiet and very cold
+one. The dignity of mien I had acknowledged in the street was also more
+striking; a dignity akin to that which invests some prince of the
+East--conveying the idea of supreme indifference and habitual,
+indisputable, indolent, but resistless power.
+
+G---- soon after left the stranger, who then took up a scientific
+journal, which seemed to absorb his attention.
+
+I drew G---- aside. "Who and what is that gentleman?"
+
+"That? Oh, a very remarkable man indeed. I met him last year amidst the
+caves of Petra--the scriptural Edom. He is the best Oriental scholar I
+know. We joined company, had an adventure with robbers, in which he
+showed a coolness that saved our lives; afterwards he invited me to
+spend a day with him in a house he had bought at Damascus--a house
+buried amongst almond blossoms and roses--the most beautiful thing! He
+had lived there for some years, quite as an Oriental, in grand style. I
+half suspect he is a renegade, immensely rich, very odd; by the by, a
+great mesmeriser. I have seen him with my own eyes produce an effect on
+inanimate things. If you take a letter from your pocket and throw it to
+the other end of the room, he will order it to come to his feet, and you
+will see the letter wriggle itself along the floor till it has obeyed
+his command. 'Pon my honour, 'tis true: I have seen him affect even the
+weather, disperse or collect clouds, by means of a glass tube or wand.
+But he does not like talking of these matters to strangers. He has only
+just arrived in England; says he has not been here for a great many
+years; let me introduce him to you."
+
+"Certainly! He is English, then? What is his name?"
+
+"Oh!--a very homely one--Richards."
+
+"And what is his birth--his family?"
+
+"How do I know? What does it signify?--no doubt some parvenu, but
+rich--so infernally rich!"
+
+G---- drew me up to the stranger, and the introduction was effected. The
+manners of Mr Richards were not those of an adventurous traveller.
+Travellers are in general constitutionally gifted with high animal
+spirits: they are talkative, eager, imperious. Mr Richards was calm and
+subdued in tone, with manners which were made distant by the loftiness
+of punctilious courtesy--the manners of a former age. I observed that
+the English he spoke was not exactly of our day. I should even have said
+that the accent was slightly foreign. But then Mr Richards remarked that
+he had been little in the habit for many years of speaking in his native
+tongue. The conversation fell upon the changes in the aspect of London
+since he had last visited our metropolis. G---- then glanced off to the
+moral changes--literary, social, political--the great men who were
+removed from the stage within the last twenty years--the new great men
+who were coming on. In all this Mr Richards evinced no interest. He had
+evidently read none of our living authors, and seemed scarcely
+acquainted by name with our younger statesmen. Once and only
+once he laughed; it was when G---- asked him whether he had
+any thoughts of getting into Parliament. And the laugh was
+inward--sarcastic--sinister--a sneer raised into a laugh. After a few
+minutes G---- left us to talk to some other acquaintances who had just
+lounged into the room, and I then said quietly:
+
+"I have seen a miniature of you, Mr Richards, in the house you once
+inhabited, and perhaps built, if not wholly, at least in part, in ----
+Street. You passed by that house this morning."
+
+Not till I had finished did I raise my eyes to his, and then his fixed
+my gaze so steadfastly that I could not withdraw it--those fascinating
+serpent eyes. But involuntarily, and if the words that translated my
+thought were dragged from me, I added in a low whisper, "I have been a
+student in the mysteries of life and nature; of those mysteries I have
+known the occult professors. I have the right to speak to you thus." And
+I uttered a certain pass-word.
+
+"Well," said he, dryly, "I concede the right--what would you ask?"
+
+"To what extent human will in certain temperaments can extend?"
+
+"To what extent can thought extend? Think, and before you draw breath
+you are in China!"
+
+"True. But my thought has no power in China."
+
+"Give it expression, and it may have: you may write down a thought
+which, sooner or later, may alter the whole condition of China. What is
+a law but a thought? Therefore thought is infinite--therefore thought
+has power; not in proportion to its value--a bad thought may make a bad
+law as potent as a good thought can make a good one."
+
+"Yes; what you say confirms my own theory. Through invisible currents
+one human brain may transmit its ideas to other human brains with the
+same rapidity as a thought promulgated by visible means. And as thought
+is imperishable--as it leaves its stamp behind it in the natural world
+even when the thinker has passed out of this world--so the thought of
+the living may have power to rouse up and revive the thoughts of the
+dead--such as those thoughts _were in life_--though the thought of the
+living cannot reach the thoughts which the dead _now_ may entertain. Is
+it not so?"
+
+"I decline to answer, if, in my judgment, thought has the limit you
+would fix to it; but proceed. You have a special question you wish to
+put."
+
+"Intense malignity in an intense will, engendered in a peculiar
+temperament, and aided by natural means within the reach of science, may
+produce effects like those ascribed of old to evil magic. It might thus
+haunt the walls of a human habitation with spectral revivals of all
+guilty thoughts and guilty deeds once conceived and done within those
+walls; all, in short, with which the evil will claims _rapport_ and
+affinity--imperfect, incoherent, fragmentary snatches at the old dramas
+acted therein years ago. Thoughts thus crossing each other haphazard, as
+in the nightmare of a vision, growing up into phantom sights and sounds,
+and all serving to create horror, not because those sights and sounds
+are really visitations from a world without, but that they are ghastly
+monstrous renewals of what have been in this world itself, set into
+malignant play by a malignant mortal.
+
+"And it is through the material agency of that human brain that these
+things would acquire even a human power--would strike as with the shock
+of electricity, and might kill, if the thought of the person assailed
+did not rise superior to the dignity of the original assailer--might
+kill the most powerful animal if unnerved by fear, but not injure the
+feeblest man, if, while his flesh crept, his mind stood out fearless.
+Thus, when in old stories we read of a magician rent to pieces by the
+fiends he had evoked--or still more, in Eastern legends, that one
+magician succeeds by arts in destroying another--there may be so far
+truth, that a material being has clothed, from its own evil propensities
+certain elements and fluids, usually quiescent or harmless, with awful
+shape and terrific force--just as the lightning that had lain hidden and
+innocent in the cloud becomes by natural law suddenly visible, takes a
+distinct shape to the eye, and can strike destruction on the object to
+which it is attracted."
+
+"You are not without glimpses of a very mighty secret," said Mr
+Richards, composedly. "According to your view, could a mortal obtain the
+power you speak of, he would necessarily be a malignant and evil being."
+
+"If the power were exercised as I have said, most malignant and most
+evil--though I believe in the ancient traditions that he could not
+injure the good. His will could only injure those with whom it has
+established an affinity, or over whom it forces unresisted sway. I will
+now imagine an example that may be within the laws of nature, yet seem
+wild as the fables of a bewildered monk.
+
+"You will remember that Albertus Magnus, after describing minutely the
+process by which spirits may be invoked and commanded, adds emphatically
+that the process will instruct and avail only to the few--that a _man
+must be born a magician_!--that is, born with a peculiar physical
+temperament, as a man is born a poet. Rarely are men in whose
+constitution lurks this occult power of the highest order of
+intellect;--usually in the intellect there is some twist, perversity, or
+disease. But, on the other hand, they must possess, to an astonishing
+degree, the faculty to concentrate thought on a single object--the
+energic faculty that we call _will_. Therefore, though their intellect
+be not sound, it is exceedingly forcible for the attainment of what it
+desires. I will imagine such a person, pre-eminently gifted with this
+constitution and its concomitant forces. I will place him in the loftier
+grades of society. I will suppose his desires emphatically those of the
+sensualist--he has, therefore, a strong love of life. He is an absolute
+egotist--his will is concentrated in himself--he has fierce passions--he
+knows no enduring, no holy affections, but he can covet eagerly what for
+the moment he desires--he can hate implacably what opposes itself to his
+objects--he can commit fearful crimes, yet feel small remorse--he
+resorts rather to curses upon others, than to penitence for his
+misdeeds. Circumstances, to which his constitution guides him, lead him
+to a rare knowledge of the natural secrets which may serve his egotism.
+He is a close observer where his passions encourage observation, he is a
+minute calculator, not from love of truth, but where love of self
+sharpens his faculties--therefore he can be a man of science.
+
+"I suppose such a being, having by experience learned the power of his
+arts over others, trying what may be the power of will over his own
+frame, and studying all that in natural philosophy may increase that
+power. He loves life, he dreads death; he _wills to live on_. He cannot
+restore himself to youth, he cannot entirely stay the progress of death,
+he cannot make himself immortal in the flesh and blood; but he may
+arrest for a time so prolonged as to appear incredible, if I said
+it--that hardening of the parts which constitutes old age. A year may
+age him no more than an hour ages another. His intense will,
+scientifically trained into system, operates, in short, over the wear
+and tear of his own frame. He lives on. That he may not seem a portent
+and a miracle, he _dies_ from time to time, seemingly, to certain
+persons. Having schemed the transfer of a wealth that suffices to his
+wants, he disappears from one corner of the world, and contrives that
+his obsequies shall be celebrated. He reappears at another corner of the
+world, where he resides undetected, and does not revisit the scenes of
+his former career till all who could remember his features are no more.
+He would be profoundly miserable if he had affections--he has none but
+for himself. No good man would accept his longevity, and to no men, good
+or bad, would he or could he communicate its true secret. Such a man
+might exist; such a man as I have described I see now before me!--Duke
+of ----, in the court of ----, dividing time between lust and brawl,
+alchemists and wizards;--again, in the last century, charlatan and
+criminal, with name less noble, domiciled in the house at which you
+gazed to-day, and flying from the law you had outraged, none knew
+whither; traveller once more revisiting London, with the same earthly
+passions which filled your heart when races now no more walked through
+yonder streets; outlaw from the school of all the nobler and diviner
+mystics; execrable Image of Life in Death and Death in Life, I warn you
+back from the cities and homes of healthful men; back to the ruins of
+departed empires; back to the deserts of nature unredeemed!"
+
+There answered me a whisper so musical, so potently musical, that it
+seemed to enter into my whole being, and subdue me despite myself. Thus
+it said:
+
+"I have sought one like you for the last hundred years. Now I have found
+you, we part not till I know what I desire. The vision that sees through
+the Past, and cleaves through the veil of the Future, is in you at this
+hour; never before, never to come again. The vision of no puling
+fantastic girl, of no sick-bed somnambule, but of a strong man, with a
+vigorous brain. Soar and look forth!"
+
+As he spoke I felt as if I rose out of myself upon eagle wings. All the
+weight seemed gone from air--roofless the room, roofless the dome of
+space. I was not in the body--where I knew not--but aloft over time,
+over earth.
+
+Again I heard the melodious whisper,--"You say right. I have mastered
+great secrets by the power of Will; true, by Will and by Science I can
+retard the process of years: but death comes not by age alone. Can I
+frustrate the accidents which bring death upon the young?"
+
+"No; every accident is a providence. Before a providence snaps every
+human will."
+
+"Shall I die at last, ages and ages hence, by the slow, though
+inevitable, growth of time, or by the cause that I call accident?"
+
+"By a cause you call accident."
+
+"Is not the end still remote?" asked the whisper, with a slight tremor.
+
+"Regarded as my life regards time, it is still remote."
+
+"And shall I, before then, mix with the world of men as I did ere I
+learned these secrets, resume eager interest in their strife and their
+trouble--battle with ambition, and use the power of the sage to win the
+power that belongs to kings?"
+
+"You will yet play a part on the earth that will fill earth with
+commotion and amaze. For wondrous designs have you, a wonder yourself,
+been permitted to live on through the centuries. All the secrets you
+have stored will then have their uses--all that now makes you a stranger
+amidst the generations will contribute then to make you their lord. As
+the trees and the straws are drawn into a whirlpool--as they spin round,
+are sucked to the deep, and again tossed aloft by the eddies, so shall
+races and thrones be plucked into the charm of your vortex. Awful
+Destroyer--but in destroying, made, against your own will, a
+Constructor!"
+
+"And that date, too, is far off?"
+
+"Far off; when it comes, think your end in this world is at hand!"
+
+"How and what is the end? Look east, west, south, and north."
+
+"In the north, where you never yet trod towards the point whence your
+instincts have warned you, there a spectre will seize you. 'Tis Death! I
+see a ship--it is haunted--'tis chased--it sails on. Baffled navies sail
+after that ship. It enters the region of ice. It passes a sky red with
+meteors. Two moons stand on high, over ice-reefs. I see the ship locked
+between white defiles--they are ice-rocks. I see the dead strew the
+decks--stark and livid, green mould on their limbs. All are dead but one
+man--it is you! But years, though so slowly they come, have then scathed
+you. There is the coming of age on your brow, and the will is relaxed
+in the cells of the brain. Still that will, though enfeebled, exceeds
+all that man knew before you, through the will you live on, gnawed with
+famine; and nature no longer obeys you in that death-spreading region;
+the sky is a sky of iron, and the air has iron clamps, and the ice-rocks
+wedge in the ship. Hark how it cracks and groans. Ice will imbed it as
+amber imbeds a straw. And a man has gone forth, living yet, from the
+ship and its dead; and he has clambered up the spikes of an iceberg, and
+the two moons gaze down on his form. That man is yourself; and terror is
+on you--terror; and terror has swallowed your will. And I see swarming
+up the steep ice-rock, grey grisly things. The bears of the north have
+scented their quarry--they come near you and nearer, shambling and
+rolling their bulk. And in that day every moment shall seem to you
+longer than the centuries through which you have passed. And heed
+this--after life, moments continued make the bliss or the hell of
+eternity."
+
+"Hush," said the whisper; "but the day, you assure me, is far off--very
+far! I go back to the almond and rose of Damascus!--sleep!"
+
+The room swam before my eyes. I became insensible. When I recovered, I
+found G---- holding my hand and smiling. He said, "You who have always
+declared yourself proof against mesmerism have succumbed at last to my
+friend Richards."
+
+"Where is Mr Richards?"
+
+"Gone, when you passed into a trance--saying quietly to me, 'Your friend
+will not wake for an hour.'"
+
+I asked, as collectedly as I could, where Mr Richards lodged.
+
+"At the Trafalgar Hotel."
+
+"Give me your arm," said I to G----; "let us call on him; I have
+something to say."
+
+When we arrived at the hotel, we were told that Mr Richards had
+returned twenty minutes before, paid his bill, left directions with his
+servant (a Greek) to pack his effects and proceed to Malta by the
+steamer that should leave Southampton the next day. Mr Richards had
+merely said of his own movements that he had visits to pay in the
+neighbourhood of London, and it was uncertain whether he should be able
+to reach Southampton in time for that steamer; if not, he should follow
+in the next one.
+
+The waiter asked me my name. On my informing him, he gave me a note that
+Mr Richards had left for me, in case I called.
+
+The note was as follows: "I wished you to utter what was in your mind.
+You obeyed. I have therefore established power over you. For three
+months from this day you can communicate to no living man what has
+passed between us--you cannot even show this note to the friend by your
+side. During three months, silence complete as to me and mine. Do you
+doubt my power to lay on you this command?--try to disobey me. At the
+end of the third month, the spell is raised. For the rest I spare you. I
+shall visit your grave a year and a day after it has received you."
+
+So ends this strange story, which I ask no one to believe. I write it
+down exactly three months after I received the above note. I could not
+write it before, nor could I show to G----, in spite of his urgent
+request, the note which I read under the gas-lamp by his side.
+
+
+
+
+VII
+
+THE BOTATHEN GHOST
+
+By the Rev. S.R. HAWKER
+
+
+The legend of Parson Rudall and the Botathen Ghost will be recognised by
+many Cornish people as a local remembrance of their boyhood.
+
+It appears from the diary of this learned master of the
+grammar-school--for such was his office, as well as perpetual curate of
+the parish,--"that a pestilential disease did break forth in our town in
+the beginning of the year A.D. 1665; yea, and it likewise
+invaded my school, insomuch that therewithal certain of the chief
+scholars sickened and died." "Among others who yielded to the malign
+influence was Master John Eliot, the eldest son and the worshipful heir
+of Edward Eliot, Esquire of Trebursey, a stripling of sixteen years of
+age, but of uncommon parts and hopeful ingenuity. At his own especial
+motion and earnest desire I did consent to preach his funeral sermon."
+It should be remembered here that, howsoever strange and singular it may
+sound to us that a mere lad should formally solicit such a performance
+at the hands of his master, it was in consonance with the habitual usage
+of those times. The old services for the dead had been abolished by law,
+and in the stead of sacrament and ceremony, month's mind and year's
+mind, the sole substitute which survived was the general desire "to
+partake," as they called it, of a posthumous discourse, replete with
+lofty eulogy and flattering remembrance of the living and the dead. The
+diary proceeds:
+
+"I fulfilled my undertaking and preached over the coffin in the presence
+of a full assemblage of mourners and lachrymose friends. An ancient
+gentleman who was then and there in the church, a Mr Bligh of Botathen,
+was much affected by my discourse, and he was heard to repeat to himself
+certain parentheses therefrom, especially a phrase from Maro Virgilius,
+which I had applied to the deceased youth, 'Et puer ipse fuit cantari
+dignus.'
+
+"The cause wherefore this old gentleman was thus moved by my
+applications was this: He had a first-born and only son--a child who,
+but a very few months before, had been not unworthy of the character I
+drew of young Master Eliot, but who, by some strange accident, had of
+late quite fallen away from his parent's hopes, and become moody, and
+sullen, and distraught. When the funeral obsequies were over, I had no
+sooner come out of the church than I was accosted by this aged parent,
+and he besought me incontinently, with a singular energy, that I would
+resort with him forthwith to his abode at Botathen that very night; nor
+could I have delivered myself from his importunity, had not Mr Eliot
+urged his claim to enjoy my company at his own house. Hereupon I got
+loose, but not until I had pledged a fast assurance that I would pay
+him, faithfully, an early visit the next day."
+
+"The Place," as it was called, of Botathen, where old Mr Bligh resided,
+was a low-roofed gabled manor-house of the fifteenth century, walled and
+mullioned, and with clustered chimneys of dark-grey stone from the
+neighbouring quarries of Ventor-gan. The mansion was flanked by a
+pleasaunce or enclosure in one space, of garden and lawn, and it was
+surrounded by a solemn grove of stag-horned trees. It had the sombre
+aspect of age and of solitude, and looked the very scene of strange and
+supernatural events. A legend might well belong to every gloomy glade
+around, and there must surely be a haunted room somewhere within its
+walls. Hither, according to his appointment, on the morrow, Parson
+Rudall betook himself. Another clergyman, as it appeared, had been
+invited to meet him, who, very soon after his arrival, proposed a walk
+together in the pleasaunce, on the pretext of showing him, as a
+stranger, the walks and trees, until the dinner-bell should strike.
+There, with much prolixity, and with many a solemn pause, his brother
+minister proceeded to "unfold the mystery."
+
+"A singular infelicity," he declared, "had befallen young Master Bligh,
+once the hopeful heir of his parents and of the lands of Botathen.
+Whereas he had been from childhood a blithe and merry boy, 'the
+gladness,' like Isaac of old, of his father's age, he had suddenly of
+late become morose and silent--nay, even austere and stern--dwelling
+apart, always solemn, often in tears. The lad had at first repulsed all
+questions as to the origin of this great change, but of late he had
+yielded to the importunate researches of his parents, and had disclosed
+the secret cause. It appeared that he resorted, every day, by a pathway
+across the fields, to this very clergyman's house, who had charge of his
+education, and grounded him in the studies suitable to his age. In the
+course of his daily walk he had to pass a certain heath or down where
+the road wound along through tall blocks of granite with open spaces of
+grassy sward between. There in a certain spot and always in one and the
+same place, the lad declared that he had encountered, every day, a woman
+with a pale and troubled face, clothed in a long loose garment of
+frieze, with one hand always stretched forth, and the other pressed
+against her side. Her name, he said, was Dorothy Dinglet, for he had
+known her well from his childhood, and she often used to come to his
+parents' house; but that which troubled him was, that she had now been
+dead three years, and he himself had been with the neighbours at her
+burial; so that, as the youth alleged, with great simplicity, since he
+had seen her body laid in the grave, this that he saw every day must
+needs be her soul or ghost. 'Questioned again and again,' said the
+clergyman, 'he never contradicts himself; but he relates the same and
+the simple tale as a thing that cannot be gainsaid. Indeed, the lad's
+observance is keen and calm for a boy of his age. The hair of the
+appearance, sayeth he, is not like anything alive, but it is so soft and
+light that it seemeth to melt away while you look; but her eyes are set,
+and never blink--no, not when the sun shineth full upon her face. She
+maketh no steps, but seemeth to swim along the top of the grass; and her
+hand, which is stretched out alway, seemeth to point at something far
+away, out of sight. It is her continual coming; for she never faileth to
+meet him, and to pass on, that hath quenched his spirits; and although
+he never seeth her by night, yet cannot he get his natural rest.'
+
+"Thus far the clergyman; whereupon the dinner clock did sound, and we
+went into the house. After dinner, when young Master Bligh had withdrawn
+with his tutor, under excuse of their books, the parents did forthwith
+beset me as to my thoughts about their son. Said I, warily, 'The case is
+strange, but by no means impossible. It is one that I will study, and
+fear not to handle, if the lad will be free with me, and fulfil all that
+I desire.' The mother was overjoyed, but I perceived that old Mr Bligh
+turned pale, and was downcast with some thought which, however, he did
+not express. Then they bade that Master Bligh should be called to meet
+me in the pleasaunce forthwith. The boy came, and he rehearsed to me his
+tale with an open countenance, and, withal, a modesty of speech. Verily
+he seemed 'ingenui vultus puer ingenuique pudoris.' Then I signified to
+him my purpose. 'To-morrow,' said I, 'we will go together to the place;
+and if, as I doubt not, the woman shall appear, it will be for me to
+proceed according to knowledge, and by rules laid down in my books.'"
+
+The unaltered scenery of the legend still survives, and, like the field
+of the forty footsteps in another history, the place is still visited by
+those who take interest in the supernatural tales of old. The pathway
+leads along a moorland waste, where large masses of rock stand up here
+and there from the grassy turf, and clumps of heath and gorse weave
+their tapestry of golden purple garniture on every side. Amidst all
+these, and winding along between the rocks, is a natural footway worn by
+the scant, rare tread of the village traveller. Just midway, a somewhat
+larger stretch than usual of green sod expands, which is skirted by the
+path, and which is still identified as the legendary haunt of the
+phantom, by the name of Parson Rudall's Ghost.
+
+But we must draw the record of the first interview between the minister
+and Dorothy from his own words. "We met," thus he writes, "in the
+pleasaunce very early, and before any others in the house were awake;
+and together the lad and myself proceeded towards the field. The youth
+was quite composed, and carried his Bible under his arm, from whence he
+read to me verses, which he said he had lately picked out, to have
+always in his mind. These were Job vii. 14, 'Thou scarest me with
+dreams, and terrifiest me through visions'; and Deuteronomy xxviii. 67,
+'In the morning thou shalt say, Would to God it were the evening, and in
+the evening thou shalt say, Would to God it were morning; for the fear
+of thine heart wherewith thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine
+eyes which thou shalt see.'
+
+"I was much pleased with the lad's ingenuity in these pious
+applications, but for mine own part I was somewhat anxious and out of
+cheer. For aught I knew this might be a _daemonium meridianum_, the most
+stubborn spirit to govern and guide that any man can meet, and the most
+perilous withal. We had hardly reached the accustomed spot, when we both
+saw her at once gliding towards us; punctually as the ancient writers
+describe the motion of their 'lemures, which swoon along the ground,
+neither marking the sand nor bending the herbage.' The aspect of the
+woman was exactly that which had been related by the lad. There was the
+pale and stony face, the strange and misty hair, the eyes firm and
+fixed, that gazed, yet not on us, but something that they saw far, far
+away; one hand and arm stretched out, and the other grasping the girdle
+of her waist. She floated along the field like a sail upon a stream, and
+glided past the spot where we stood, pausingly. But so deep was the awe
+that overcame me, as I stood there in the light of day, face to face
+with a human soul separate from her bones and flesh, that my heart and
+purpose both failed me. I had resolved to speak to the spectre in the
+appointed form of words, but I did not. I stood like one amazed and
+speechless, until she had passed clean out of sight. One thing
+remarkable came to pass. A spaniel dog, the favourite of young Master
+Bligh, had followed us, and lo! when the woman drew nigh, the poor
+creature began to yell and bark piteously, and ran backward and away,
+like a thing dismayed and appalled. We returned to the house, and after
+I had said all that I could to pacify the lad, and to soothe the aged
+people, I took my leave for that time, with a promise that when I had
+fulfilled certain business elsewhere, which I then alleged, I would
+return and take orders to assuage these disturbances and their cause.
+
+"January 7, 1665.--At my own house, I find, by my books, what is
+expedient to be done; and then, Apage, Sathanas!
+
+"January 9, 1665.--This day I took leave of my wife and family, under
+pretext of engagements elsewhere, and made my secret journey to our
+diocesan city, wherein the good and venerable bishop then abode.
+
+"January 10.--_Deo gratias_, in safe arrival at Exeter; craved and
+obtained immediate audience of his lordship; pleading it was for counsel
+and admonition on a weighty and pressing cause; called to the presence;
+made obeisance; and then by command stated my case--the Botathen
+perplexity--which I moved with strong and earnest instances and solemn
+asseverations of that which I had myself seen and heard. Demanded by his
+lordship, what was the succour that I had come to entreat at his hands?
+Replied, licence for my exorcism, that so I might, ministerially, allay
+this spiritual visitant, and thus render to the living and the dead
+release from this surprise. 'But,' said our bishop, 'on what authority
+do you allege that I am intrusted with faculty so to do? Our Church, as
+is well known, hath abjured certain branches of her ancient power, on
+grounds of perversion and abuse.' 'Nay, my Lord,' I humbly answered,
+'under favour, the seventy-second of the canons ratified and enjoined on
+us, the clergy, anno Domini 1604, doth expressly provide, that "no
+minister, _unless he hath_ the licence of his diocesan bishop, shall
+essay to exorcise a spirit, evil or good." Therefore it was,' I did here
+mildly allege, 'that I did not presume to enter on such a work without
+lawful privilege under your lordship's hand and seal.' Hereupon did our
+wise and learned bishop, sitting in his chair, condescend upon the theme
+at some length with many gracious interpretations from ancient writers
+and from Holy Scripture, and I did humbly rejoin and reply, till the
+upshot was that he did call in his secretary and command him to draw the
+aforesaid faculty, forthwith and without further delay, assigning him a
+form, insomuch that the matter was incontinently done; and after I had
+disbursed into the secretary's hands certain moneys for signitary
+purposes, as the manner of such officers hath always been, the bishop
+did himself affix his signature under the _sigillum_ of his see, and
+deliver the document into my hands. When I knelt down to receive his
+benediction, he softly said, 'Let it be secret, Mr R. Weak brethren!
+weak brethren!'"
+
+This interview with the bishop, and the success with which he
+vanquished his lordship's scruples, would seem to have confirmed Parson
+Rudall very strongly in his own esteem, and to have invested him with
+that courage which he evidently lacked at his first encounter with the
+ghost.
+
+The entries proceed: "January 11, 1665.--Therewithal did I hasten home
+and prepare my instruments, and cast my figures for the onset of the
+next day. Took out my ring of brass, and put it on the index-finger of
+my right hand, with the _scutum Davidis_ traced thereon.
+
+"January 12, 1665.--Rode into the gateway at Botathen, armed at all
+points, but not with Saul's armour, and ready. There is danger from the
+demons, but so there is in the surrounding air every day. At early
+morning then, and alone,--for so the usage ordains,--I betook me towards
+the field. It was void, and I had thereby due time to prepare. First, I
+paced and measured out my circle on the grass. Then did I mark my
+pentacle in the very midst, and at the intersection of the five angles I
+did set up and fix my crutch of _raun_ (rowan). Lastly, I took my
+station south, at the true line of the meridian, and stood facing due
+north. I waited and watched for a long time. At last there was a kind of
+trouble in the air, a soft and rippling sound, and all at once the shape
+appeared, and came on towards me gradually. I opened my parchment
+scroll, and read aloud the command. She paused, and seemed to waver and
+doubt; stood still; then I rehearsed the sentence, sounding out every
+syllable like a chant. She drew near my ring, but halted at first
+outside, on the brink. I sounded again, and now at the third time I gave
+the signal in Syriac,--the speech which is used, they say, where such
+ones dwell and converse in thoughts that glide.
+
+"She was at last obedient, and swam into the midst of the circle, and
+there stood still, suddenly. I saw, moreover, that she drew back her
+pointing hand. All this while I do confess that my knees shook under me,
+and the drops of sweat ran down my flesh like rain. But now, although
+face to face with the spirit, my heart grew calm, and my mind was
+composed. I knew that the pentacle would govern her, and the ring must
+bind, until I gave the word. Then I called to mind the rule laid down of
+old, that no angel or fiend, no spirit, good or evil, will ever speak
+until they have been first spoken to. _N.B._--This is the great law of
+prayer. God Himself will not yield reply until man hath made vocal
+entreaty, once and again. So I went on to demand, as the books advise;
+and the phantom made answer, willingly. Questioned wherefore not at
+rest? Unquiet, because of a certain sin. Asked what, and by whom?
+Revealed it; but it is _sub sigillo_, and therefore _nefas dictu_; more
+anon. Inquired, what sign she could give that she was a true spirit and
+not a false fiend? Stated, before next Yule-tide a fearful pestilence
+would lay waste the land and myriads of souls would be loosened from
+their flesh, until, as she piteously said, 'our valleys will be full.'
+Asked again, why she so terrified the lad? Replied: 'It is the law; we
+must seek a youth or a maiden of clean life, and under age, to receive
+messages and admonitions.' We conversed with many more words, but it is
+not lawful for me to set them down. Pen and ink would degrade and defile
+the thoughts she uttered, and which my mind received that day. I broke
+the ring, and she passed, but to return once more next day. At
+even-song, a long discourse with that ancient transgressor, Mr B. Great
+horror and remorse; entire atonement and penance; whatsoever I enjoin;
+full acknowledgment before pardon.
+
+"January 13, 1665.--At sunrise I was again in the field. She came in at
+once, and, as it seemed, with freedom. Inquired if she knew my thoughts,
+and what I was going to relate? Answered, 'Nay, we only know what we
+perceive and hear; we cannot see the heart.' Then I rehearsed the
+penitent words of the man she had come up to denounce, and the
+satisfaction he would perform. Then said she, 'Peace in our midst.' I
+went through the proper forms of dismissal, and fulfilled all as it was
+set down and written in my memoranda; and then, with certain fixed
+rites, I did dismiss that troubled ghost, until she peacefully withdrew,
+gliding towards the west. Neither did she ever afterward appear, but was
+allayed until she shall come in her second flesh to the valley of
+Armageddon on the last day."
+
+These quaint and curious details from the "diurnal" of a simple-hearted
+clergyman of the seventeenth century appear to betoken his personal
+persuasion of the truth of what he saw and said, although the statements
+are strongly tinged with what some may term the superstition, and others
+the excessive belief, of those times. It is a singular fact, however,
+that the canon which authorises exorcism under episcopal licence is
+still a part of the ecclesiastical law of the Anglican Church, although
+it might have a singular effect on the nerves of certain of our bishops
+if their clergy were to resort to them for the faculty which Parson
+Rudall obtained. The general facts stated in his diary are to this day
+matters of belief in that neighbourhood; and it has been always
+accounted a strong proof of the veracity of the Parson and the Ghost,
+that the plague, fatal to so many thousands, did break out in London at
+the close of that very year. We may well excuse a triumphant entry, on a
+subsequent page of the "diurnal," with the date of July 10, 1665: "How
+sorely must the infidels and heretics of this generation be dismayed
+when they know that this Black Death, which is now swallowing its
+thousands in the streets of the great city, was foretold six months
+agone, under the exorcisms of a country minister, by a visible and
+suppliant ghost! And what pleasures and improvements do such deny
+themselves who scorn and avoid all opportunity of intercourse with souls
+separate, and the spirits, glad and sorrowful, which inhabit the unseen
+world!"
+
+
+
+
+VIII
+
+THE GHOST OF LORD CLARENCEUX
+
+By ARNOLD BENNETT[2]
+
+
+In the chair which stood before the writing-table in the middle of the
+room sat the figure of Lord Clarenceux. The figure did not move as I
+went in; its back was towards me. At the other end of the room was the
+doorway, which led to the small bedroom, little more than an alcove, and
+the gaze of the apparition was fixed on this doorway. I closed the door
+behind me and locked it, and then stood still. In the looking-glass over
+the mantelpiece I saw a drawn, pale, agitated face, in which all the
+trouble in the world seemed to reside; it was my own face. I was alone
+in the room with the ghost--the ghost which, jealous of my love for the
+woman it had loved, meant to revenge itself by my death. The ghost, did
+I say? I looked at it; no one would have taken it for an apparition.
+Small wonder that till the previous evening I had never suspected it to
+be other than a man. It was dressed in black; it had the very aspect of
+life. I could follow the creases in the black coat, the direction of the
+nap of the silk hat. How well by this time I knew the faultless black
+coat and that impeccable hat! Yet it seemed that I could not examine
+them too closely. I pierced them with the intensity of my fascinated
+glance. Yes, I pierced them, for, showing faintly through the coat, I
+could discern the outline of the table which should have been hidden by
+the man's figure, and through the hat I could see the handle of the
+French window.
+
+As I stood motionless there, solitary in the glow of the electric light
+with this fearful visitor, I began to wish that it would move. I wanted
+to face it--to meet its gaze with my gaze, eye to eye, and will against
+will. The battle between us must start at once, I thought, if I was to
+have any chance of victory, for, moment by moment, I felt my resolution,
+my manliness, my mere physical courage slipping away.
+
+But the apparition did not stir. Impassive, remorseless, sinister, it
+was content to wait, well aware that all suspense was in its favour.
+Then I said to myself that I would cross the room and so attain my
+object. I made a step and drew back, frightened by the sound of a
+creaking board. Absurd! but it was quite a minute before I dared to move
+another step. I had meant to walk straight across to the other door,
+passing in my course close by the occupied chair. I did do not so; I
+kept round by the wall, creeping on tiptoe, and my eye never leaving the
+figure in the chair. I did this in spite of myself, and the manner of my
+action was the first hint of my ultimate defeat.
+
+At length I stood in the doorway leading to the bedroom. I could feel
+the perspiration on my forehead and at the back of my neck. I fronted
+the inscrutable white face of Lord Clarenceux, the lover of Rosetta
+Rosa; I met its awful eyes: dark, invidious, fateful. Ah, those eyes!
+Even in my terror I could read in them all the history and the
+characteristics of Lord Clarenceux. They were the eyes of one who could
+be of the highest and the lowest. Mingled in their hardness was a
+melting softness, with their cruelty a large benevolence, with their
+hate a pitying tenderness, with their spirituality a hellish turpitude.
+They were the eyes of two opposite men, and as I gazed into them they
+reconciled for me the conflicting accounts of Lord Clarenceux which I
+had heard from different people.
+
+But, as far as I was concerned, that night the eyes held nothing but
+cruelty and disaster; though I could detect in them the other qualities,
+these qualities were not for me. We faced each other, the apparition and
+I, and the struggle, silent and bitter as the grave, began. Neither of
+us moved. My arms were folded easily, but my nails pressed into the
+palms of my clenched hands. My teeth were set, my lips tight together,
+my glance unswerving. By sheer strength of endeavour I cast aside my
+fear of defeat, and in my heart I said with the profoundest conviction
+that I would love Rosa though the seven seas and all the continents give
+up their dead to frighten me.
+
+So we remained, for how long I do not know. It may have been only
+minutes--I cannot tell. Then gradually there came over me a feeling that
+the ghost in the chair was growing larger. The ghastly inhuman sneer on
+his thin widening lips assaulted me like a giant's malediction, and the
+light in the room seemed to become more brilliant till it was almost
+blinding. This went on for a time, and once more I pulled myself
+together, collected my scattering senses, and seized again the courage
+of determination which had nearly slipped from me; but I knew that I
+must get away, out of sight of this moveless and diabolic figure, which
+did not speak, but which made known its commands by means of its eyes.
+"Resign her," the eyes said. "Tear your love for her out of your heart!
+Swear that you will never see her again--or I will ruin you utterly, not
+now only but for evermore."
+
+I think I trembled; my eyes answered "No." For some reason which I
+cannot at all explain, I suddenly took off my overcoat, and, drawing
+aside the screen which ran across the corner of the room at my right
+hand, forming a primitive sort of wardrobe, I hung it on one of the
+hooks. I had to feel with my fingers for the hook, because I kept my
+gaze on the figure. "I will go into the bedroom," I said; and I turned
+to pass through the doorway. Then I stopped. If I did so, the eyes of
+the ghost would be upon my back, and I felt that I could only withstand
+that glance by meeting it. To have it on my back.... Doubtless I was
+going mad. However, I went backwards to the doorway, and then rapidly
+stepped out of sight of the apparition and sat down upon the bed.
+Useless! I must return. The mere idea of the empty sitting-room--empty
+with the ghost in it--filled me with a new and considerable fear.
+Horrible happenings might occur in that room, and I must be there to see
+them! Moreover, the ghost's gaze must now fall on nothing; that would be
+too appalling (without doubt I was mad). Its gaze must meet something,
+otherwise it would travel out into space further and further till it had
+left all the stars and waggled aimless in the ether. The notion of such
+a calamity was unbearable. Besides, I was hungry for that gaze. My eyes
+desired those eyes: if that glance did not press against them, they
+would burst from my head and roll on the floor, and I should be
+compelled to go down on my hands and knees and grope in search for them.
+No, no. I must return to the sitting-room. And I returned. The gaze met
+mine in the doorway, and now there was something novel in it--an added
+terror, a more intolerable menace, the silent imprecation so frightful
+that no human being could suffer it. I sank to the ground, and as I did
+so I shrieked; but it was a weird shriek, sounding only within the
+brain, and in reply to that unheard shriek I heard an unheard voice of
+the ghost crying, "Yield!"
+
+I would not yield. Crushed, maddened, tortured, I would not yield. I
+wanted to die. I felt that death would be sweet and truly desirable.
+And, so thinking, I faded into a kind of coma, or rather a state which
+was just short of coma. I had not lost consciousness, but I was
+conscious of nothing but the gaze. "Good-bye, Rosa," I whispered; "I am
+beaten, but my love has not been conquered." The next thing I remember
+was the paleness of the dawn at the window. The apparition had vanished
+for the night, and I was alive. But I knew that I had touched the skirts
+of death. I knew that after such another night I should die.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 2: _The Ghost: a Novel_ (1911).]
+
+
+
+
+IX
+
+DR DUTHOIT'S VISION
+
+By ARTHUR MACHEN[3]
+
+
+I knew a fine specimen of an English abbe when I was at school at
+Hereford. This was Dr Duthoit, Prebendary of _Consumpta per Sabulum_ in
+Hereford Cathedral, Rector of St Owen's, bookworm and, chiefly,
+rose-grower. He was a middle-aged man when I was a little boy, but he
+suffered me to walk with him in his garden sloping down to the Wye, near
+a pleasaunce of the Vicars Choral, reciting sometimes the poems of
+Traherne, which he had in manuscript, but, for the most part,
+demonstrating his progress in the art of growing a coal-black rose. This
+was the true work of his life, and nearly forty years ago he could show
+blooms whose copper and crimson tints were very near to utter darkness.
+I believe that his ideal was never attained in absolute perfection; and
+perhaps the perfect end and attainment of desire do not prove happiness
+down here below.
+
+After 1880 Prebendary Duthoit and I rarely saw each other, and rarely
+wrote. He was at rest among his roses by the quiet Wye, and I dashed to
+and fro in wilder waters, but each contrived to let the other know that
+he was still alive, and so I was not altogether surprised to see the
+Prebendary's queer, niggly writing on an envelope a week or two ago. He
+said he had heard of a good deal to talk about.... Well, with a popular
+legend with which I am understood to be in some way concerned, and he
+thought that an odd experience of his might possibly interest me. I do
+not give the text of his letter, chiefly because it is full of Latin
+phrases, which I might be called upon to translate.
+
+But the matter is as follows: On the 4th August, the day of the service
+at St Paul's, Dr Duthoit was walking up and down and about that pleasant
+garden on slopes of the Wye. Just above the water his gardener had
+prepared under direction and instruction a plot of ground in a very
+special manner. I do not gather the precise purpose of the operation,
+but it seems that the soil had been very fine and level for a
+superficies of about ten yards. To this place the Prebendary walked,
+slowly and reflectively, wishing to assure himself that his orders had
+been accurately carried out. The plot had been perfectly level the night
+before, but Dr Duthoit wanted to be more than sure about it. But to his
+extreme annoyance, when he turned by the fig-tree, he saw that the plot
+was very far from even. He is an old man, but his sight is good, and at
+a distance of several yards he could discern quite plainly that there
+had been mischief. The chosen plot was in a disgraceful state. At first
+the Prebendary thought that the Custos' sandy tom-cat had scaled the
+wire entanglement on the top of the wall. Then he felt inclined to
+consider the ruin done by Scamp, the Bishop's wire-haired fox-terrier,
+and then, going across, he put on his spectacles and wondered what had
+been at work. For the level which had been so carefully established was
+all undone. At first the Doctor thought it was the mischief of some
+random beast, this confusion of hills and valleys which had taken place
+of the billiard-table of the night before. And then it reminded him of
+the raised maps which he had seen in the Diocesan Training Schools, and
+then it reminded him more distinctly of a sort of picture map which had
+illustrated his morning paper a day or two before. And then he wondered
+violently, because he saw that somebody had, with infinite pains, made
+this garden plot of his into an exact model of Gallipoli Peninsula.
+
+It was all so ingenious and perfect that the old clergyman held his
+wrath for the moment, and peered into this miniature intricacy of peaks
+and steeps, and gullies and valleys. He had scarcely gathered himself
+together to wonder who had had the ingenious impudence for the mischief,
+when amazement once more seized him. For he saw now, stooping down, that
+this garden Gallipoli was swarming with life. There were hosts on it and
+about it, and then Dr Duthoit forgot all about what we call the
+realities and facts of life, forgot that this sort of thing does not
+happen, and watched what was happening.
+
+He writes that, queerly enough, he lost all sense of size. He was not a
+Gulliver looking down upon Lilliput; the mounds ten inches high became
+to him actual and lofty summits. The tiny precipices were tremendous.
+And the red ants swarmed to attack the black ants that held the heights
+with savage and desperate fury. He says he panted with excitement as he
+watched the courage of the attack and defence, the savagery of the
+"hand-to-hand" fighting. The black and red fell by myriads, and the
+doctor had persuaded himself that he observed amazing incidents of
+individual heroism. One particular range seemed to be the especial aim
+of the red forces, and they swarmed up victorious and held it for a
+while, and then retreated. The doctor could not quite make out the
+reason of this. He started violently when his man called to him. Roberts
+said he had called for five minutes without getting an answer, and that
+the Dean was in a hurry, with only five minutes to spare. So the
+Prebendary went into the house in a kind of dwam, as the Scots put it,
+and had no notion of what the Dean had to say; and when he got back to
+the garden he found his gardener smoothing the plot with a long rake,
+and raking in a lot of dead ants with the mould. The gardener said it
+was the boys; but the doctor took no notice, and went to the Custos that
+night, and the Custos reading his paper a fortnight later began to think
+that the old Prebendary was a prophet.
+
+And the Prebendary? He ends his letter: "Quod superius est sicut quod
+inferius" ("that which is above is as that which is below"), as the
+Smaragdine Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus testifies, and it is my belief
+that this is a world battle in the sense which we do not appreciate.
+There have been some who have held that the earthly conflict is but a
+reflection of the war in heaven. What if it be reflected infinitely, if
+it penetrate to the uttermost depths of creation? And if a speck of dust
+be a cosmos--the universe--of revolving worlds? There may be battles
+between creatures that no microscope shall ever discover.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 3: _The Little Nations._]
+
+
+
+
+X
+
+THE SEVEN LIGHTS
+
+From WILSON'S "Tales of the Borders"
+
+
+John M'Pherson was a farmer and grazier in Kintyre--a genuine
+Highlander. In person, though of rather low stature than otherwise, he
+was stout, athletic, and active; bold and fearless in disposition, warm
+in temper, friendly, and hospitable--this last to such a degree that his
+house was never without as many strangers and visitors of different
+descriptions, as nearly doubled his own household.
+
+To the vagrant beggar his house and meal-chest were ever open; and to no
+one, whatever his condition, were a night's quarters ever refused.
+M'Pherson's house, in short, formed a kind of focus, with a power to
+draw towards itself all the misery and poverty in the country within a
+circle whose diameter might be reckoned at somewhere about twenty miles.
+The wandering mendicant made it one of his regular stages, and the
+traveller of better degree toiled on his way with increased activity,
+that he might make it his quarters for the night.
+
+Fortunately for the character and credit of M'Pherson's hospitality, his
+wife was of an equally kind and generous disposition with himself; so
+that his absences from home, which were frequent, and sometimes long,
+did not at all affect the treatment of the stranger under his roof, or
+make his welcome less cordial.
+
+But the hospitality exercised at Morvane, which was the name of
+M'Pherson's farm, sometimes, it must be confessed, led to occasional
+small depredations--such as the loss of a pair of blankets, a sheet, or
+a pair of stockings, carried off by the ungrateful vagabonds whom he
+sometimes sheltered. There were, however, one pair of blankets
+abstracted in this way, that found their road back to their owner in
+rather a curious manner.
+
+The morning was thick and misty, when the thief (in the case alluded to)
+decamped with his booty, and continued so during the whole day, so that
+no object, at any distance, however large, could be seen. After toiling
+for several hours, under the impression that he was leaving Morvane far
+behind, the vagabond, who was also a stranger in the country, approached
+a house, with the stolen blankets snugly and carefully bundled on his
+back, and knocked at the door, with the view of seeking a night's
+quarters, as it was now dusk. The door was opened; but by whom, think
+you, good reader? Why, by M'Pherson!
+
+The thief, without knowing it, had landed precisely at the point from
+which he had set out. Being instantly recognised, he was politely
+invited to walk in. To this kind invitation, the thief replied by
+throwing down the blankets, and taking to his heels--thus making, with
+his own hands, a restitution which was very far from being intended.
+Poor M'Pherson, however, did not get all his stolen blankets back in
+this way.
+
+This, however, is a digression. To proceed with our tale. One night,
+when M'Pherson was absent, attending a market at some distance, an
+elderly female appeared at the door, with the usual demand of a night's
+lodging, which, with the usual hospitality of Morvane, was at once
+complied with. The stranger, who was a remarkably tall woman, was
+dressed in widow's weeds, and of rather respectable appearance; her
+deportment was grave, even stern, and altogether she seemed as if
+suffering from some recent affliction.
+
+During the whole of the early part of the evening she sat before the
+fire, with her face buried between her hands, heedless of what was
+passing around her, and was occasionally observed rocking to and fro,
+with that kind of motion that bespeaks great internal anguish. It was
+noticed, however, that she occasionally stole a look at those who were
+in the apartment with her; and it was marked by all (but whether this
+was merely the effect of imagination, for all _felt_ that there was
+something singular and mysterious about the stranger, or was really the
+case, we cannot decide) that, in these furtive glances, there was a
+peculiarly wild and appalling expression. The stranger spoke none,
+however, during the whole night; but continued, from time to time,
+rocking to and fro in the manner already described. Neither could she be
+prevailed upon to partake of any refreshment, although repeatedly
+pressed to do so. All invitations of this kind she declined, with a wave
+of the hand, or a melancholy, yet determined inclination of the head. In
+words she made no reply.
+
+The singular conduct of this woman threw a damp over all who were
+present. They felt chilled, they knew not how; and were sensible of the
+influence of an indefinable terror, for which they could not account.
+For once, therefore, the feeling of comfort and security, of which all
+were conscious who were seated around M'Pherson's cheerful and
+hospitable hearth, was banished, and a scene of awe and dread supplied
+its place.
+
+No one could conjecture who this strange personage was, whence she had
+come, nor whither she was going; nor were there any means of acquiring
+this information, as it was a rule of the house--one of M'Pherson's
+special points of etiquette--that no stranger should ever be questioned
+on such subjects. All being allowed to depart as they came, without
+question or inquiry, there was never anything more known at Morvane,
+regarding any stranger who visited it, than what he himself chose to
+communicate.
+
+Under the painful feelings already described, the inmates of
+M'Pherson's house found, with more than usual satisfaction, the hour for
+retiring to rest arrive. The general attention being called to this
+circumstance by the hostess, everyone hastened to his appointed
+dormitory, with an alacrity which but too plainly showed how glad they
+were to escape from the presence of the mysterious stranger who,
+however, also retired to bed with the rest. The place appointed for her
+to sleep in, was the loft of an outbuilding, as there was no room for
+her accommodation within the house itself; all the spare beds being
+occupied.
+
+We have already said that M'Pherson was from home on the evening of
+which we are speaking, attending a market at some distance. He, however,
+returned shortly after midnight. On arriving at his own house, he was
+much surprised, and not a little alarmed, to perceive a window in one of
+the outhouses blazing with light (it was that in which the stranger
+slept), while all around and within the house was as silent as the tomb.
+Afraid that some accident from fire had taken place, he rode up to the
+building, and standing up in his stirrups--which brought his head on a
+level with the window--looked in, when a sight presented itself that
+made even the stout heart of M'Pherson beat with unusual violence.
+
+In the middle of the floor, extended on her pallet, lay the mysterious
+stranger, surrounded by seven bright and shining lights, arranged at
+equal distances--three on one side of the bed, three on the other, and
+one at the head. M'Pherson gazed steadily at the extraordinary and
+appalling sight for a few seconds, when three of the lights suddenly
+vanished. In an instant afterwards, two more disappeared, and then
+another. There was now only that at the head of the bed remaining. When
+this light had alone been left, M'Pherson saw the person who lay on the
+pallet, raise herself slowly up, and gaze intently on the portentous
+beam, whose light showed, to the terrified onlooker, a ghastly and
+unearthly countenance, surrounded with dishevelled hair, which hung down
+in long, thick, irregular masses over her pale, clayey visage, so as
+almost to conceal it entirely. This light, like all the others, at
+length suddenly disappeared, and with its last gleam the person on the
+couch sank down with a groan that startled M'Pherson from the trance of
+horror into which the extraordinary sight had thrown him. He was a bold
+and fearless man, however; and, therefore, though certainly appalled by
+what he had seen, he made no outcry, nor evinced any other symptom of
+alarm. He resolutely and calmly awaited the conclusion of the
+extraordinary scene; and when the last light had disappeared, he
+deliberately dismounted, led his horse into the stable, put him up,
+entered the house without disturbing any one, and slipped quietly into
+bed, trusting that the morning would bring some explanation of the
+mysterious occurrence of the night; but resolving, at the same time
+that, if it should not, he would mention the circumstance to no one.
+
+On awaking in the morning, M'Pherson asked his wife what strangers were
+in the house, and how they were disposed of, and particularly, who it
+was that slept in the loft of the outhouse. He was told that it was a
+woman in widow's dress, of rather a respectable appearance, but whose
+conduct had been very singular. M'Pherson inquired no further, but
+desired that the woman might be detained till he should see her, as he
+wished to speak with her.
+
+On some one of the domestics, however, going up to her apartment,
+shortly after, to invite her to breakfast, it was found that she was
+gone, no one could tell when or where, as her departure had not been
+seen by any person about the house.
+
+Baulked in his intention of eliciting some explanation of the
+extraordinary circumstance of the preceding night, from the person who
+seemed to have been a party to it, M'Pherson became more strengthened
+in the resolution of keeping the secret to himself, although it made an
+impression upon him which all his natural strength of mind could not
+remove.
+
+At this precise period of our story, M'Pherson had three sons employed
+in the herring fishing, a favourite pursuit in its season, because often
+a lucrative one, of those who live upon or near the coasts of the West
+Highlands.
+
+The three brothers had a boat of their own; and, desirous of making
+their employment as profitable as possible, they, though in sufficiently
+good circumstances to have hired assistance, manned her themselves, and,
+with laudable industry, performed all the drudgery of their laborious
+occupation with their own hands.
+
+Their boat, like all the others employed in the business we are speaking
+of, by the natives of the Highlands, was wherry-rigged; her name--she
+was called after the betrothed of the elder of the three brothers--_The
+Catherine_. The _take_ of herrings, as it is called, it is well known,
+appears in different seasons in different places, sometimes in one loch,
+or arm of the sea, sometimes in another.
+
+In the season to which our story refers, the fishing was in the sound of
+Kilbrannan, where several scores of boats, and amongst those that of the
+M'Phersons, were busily employed in reaping the ocean harvest. When the
+take of herrings appears in this sound, Campbelton Loch, a well-known
+harbour on the west coast of Scotland, is usually made the
+headquarters--a place of rendezvous of the little herring fleet--and to
+this loch they always repair when threatened with a boisterous night,
+although it was not always that they could, in such circumstances,
+succeed in making it.
+
+Such a night as the one alluded to, was that that succeeded the evening
+on which M'Pherson saw the strange lights that form the leading feature
+of our tale. Violent gusts of wind came in rapid succession down the
+sound of Kilbrannan; and a skifting rain, flung fitfully but fiercely
+from the huge black clouds as they hurried along before the tempest that
+already raged above, swept over the face of the angry sea, and seemed to
+impart an additional bitterness to the rising wrath of the incipient
+storm. It was evident, in short, that what sailors call a "dirty night"
+was approaching; and, under this impression, the herring boats left
+their station, and were seen, in the dusk of the evening in question,
+hurrying towards Campbelton Loch. But the storm had arisen in all its
+fury long before the desired haven could be gained. The little fleet was
+dispersed. Some succeeded, however, in making the harbour; others,
+finding this impossible, ran in for the Saddle and Carradale shores, and
+were fortunate enough to effect a landing. All, in short, with the
+exception of one single boat, ultimately contrived to gain a place of
+shelter of some kind. This unhappy exception was _The Catherine_. Long
+after all the others had disappeared from the face of the raging sea,
+she was seen struggling alone with the warring elements, her canvas down
+to within a few feet of her gunwale, and her keel only at times being
+visible. The gallant brothers who manned her, however, had not yet lost
+either heart or hope, although their situation at this moment was but
+too well calculated to deprive them of both. Gravely and steadily, and
+in profound silence, they kept each by his perilous post, and
+endeavoured to make the land on the Campbelton side; but, finding this
+impossible, they put about, and ran before the wind for the island of
+Arran, which lay at the distance of about eight miles. But alarmed, as
+they approached that rugged shore, by the tremendous sea which was
+breaking on it, and which would have instantly dashed their frail bark
+to pieces, they again put about, and made to windward. While the hardy
+brothers were thus contending with their fate, a person mounted on
+horseback was seen galloping wildly along the Carradale shore, his eyes
+ever and anon turned towards the struggling boat with a look of despair
+and mortal agony. It was M'Pherson, the hapless father of the
+unfortunate youths by whom she was manned. There were others, too, of
+their kindred, looking, with failing hearts, on the dreadful sight; for
+all felt that the unequal contest could not continue long, and that the
+boat must eventually go down.
+
+Amongst those who were thus watching, with intense interest and
+speechless agony, the struggle of the doomed bark, was Catherine, the
+beloved of the elder of the brothers, who ran, in wild distraction,
+along the shore, uttering the most heart-rending cries. "Oh, my Duncan!"
+she exclaimed, stretching out her arms towards the pitiless sea. "Oh, my
+beloved, my dearest, come to me, or allow me to come to you that I may
+perish with you!" But Duncan heard her not, although it was very
+possible he might see her, as the distance was not great.
+
+There were, at this moment also, several persons on horseback, friends
+of the young men, galloping along the shore, from point to point, as the
+boat varied her direction, in the vain and desperate hope of being able
+to render, though they knew not how, some assistance to the sufferers.
+But the distracted father, urged on by the wild energy of despair,
+outrode them all, as they made, on one occasion, for a rising ground
+near Carradale, from whence a wider view of the sea could be commanded.
+For this height M'Pherson now pushed, and gained it just in time to see
+his gallant sons, with their little bark, buried in the waves. He had
+not taken his station an instant on the height, when _The Catherine_
+went down, and all on board perished.
+
+The distracted father, when he had seen the last of his unfortunate
+sons, covered his eyes with his hands, and for a moment gave way to the
+bitter agony that racked his soul. His manly breast heaved with
+emotion, and that most affecting of all sounds, the audible sorrowing of
+a strong man, might have been heard at a great distance. It was,
+however, of short continuance. M'Pherson prayed to his God to strengthen
+him in this dread hour of trial, and to enable him to bear with becoming
+fortitude the affliction with which it had pleased Him to visit him; and
+the distressed man derived comfort from the appeal.
+
+"My brave, my beautiful boys!" he said, "you are now with your God, and
+have entered, I trust, on a life of everlasting happiness." Saying this,
+he rode slowly from the fatal spot from which he had witnessed the death
+of his children. It was at this moment, and while musing on the
+misfortune that had befallen him, that the strange occurrence of the
+preceding night recurred, for the first time, to M'Pherson's mind. It
+was obtruded on his recollection by the force of association.
+
+"Can it be possible," he inquired of himself, "that the appearances of
+last night can have any connection with the dreadful events of to-day?
+It must be so," he said; "for three of the lights of my eyes, three of
+the guiding stars of my life, have been this day extinguished." Thus
+reasoned M'Pherson; and, in the mysterious lights which he had seen, he
+saw that the doom of his children had been announced. But there were
+seven, he recollected, and his heart sunk within him as he thought of
+the three gallant boys who were still spared to him. One of them, the
+youngest, was at home with himself, the other two were in the
+Army--soldiers in the 42nd Regiment, which then boasted of many privates
+of birth and education. M'Pherson, however, still kept the appalling
+secret of the mysterious lights to himself, and determined to await,
+with resignation, the fulfilment of the destiny which had been read to
+him, and which he now felt convinced to be inevitable.
+
+The gallant regiment to which M'Pherson's sons belonged was, at this
+period, abroad on active service. It was in America, and formed a part
+of the army which was employed in resisting the encroachments of the
+French on the British territories in that quarter.
+
+The 42nd had, during the campaigns in the western world of that
+period--viz. 1754 and 1758,--distinguished themselves in many a
+sanguinary contest, for their singular bravery and general good conduct;
+and the fame of their exploits rung through their native glens, and was
+spread far and wide over their hills and mountains; for dear was the
+honour of their gallant regiment to the warlike Highlanders. Many
+accounts had arrived, from time to time, in the country, of their
+achievements, and joyfully were they received. But, on the very day
+after the loss of _The Catherine_, a low murmur began to arise, in that
+part of the country which is the scene of our story, of some dreadful
+disaster having befallen the national regiment. No one could say of what
+nature this calamity was; but a buzz went round, whose ominous
+whispering of fearful slaughter made the friends of the absent soldiers
+turn pale. Mothers and sisters wept, and fathers and brothers looked
+grave and shook their heads. The rumour bore that, though there had been
+no loss of honour, there had been a dreadful loss of life. Nay, it was
+said that the regiment had made a mighty acquisition to its fame, but
+that it had been dearly bought.
+
+At length, however, the truth arrived, in a distinct and intelligible
+shape. The well-known and sanguinary affair of Ticonderago had been
+fought; and, in that murderous contest, the 42nd Regiment, which had
+behaved with a gallantry unmatched before in the annals of war, had
+suffered dreadfully--no less than forty-three officers, commissioned and
+non-commissioned, and six hundred and three privates having been killed
+and wounded in that corps alone.
+
+To many a heart and home in the Highlands did this disastrous, though
+glorious intelligence, bring desolation and mourning; and amongst those
+on whom it brought these dismal effects, was M'Pherson of Morvane.
+
+On the third day after the occurrence of the events related at the
+outset of our narrative, a letter, which had come, in the first
+instance, to a gentleman in the neighbourhood, and who also had a son in
+the 42nd, was put into M'Pherson's hands, by a servant of the former.
+
+The man looked feelingly grave as he delivered it, and hurried away
+before it was opened. The letter was sealed with black wax. Poor
+M'Pherson's hand trembled as he opened it. It was from the captain of
+the company to which his sons belonged, informing him that both had
+fallen in the attack on Ticonderago. There was an attempt in the letter
+to soothe the unfortunate father's feelings, and to reconcile him to the
+loss of his gallant boys, in a lengthened detail of their heroic conduct
+during the sanguinary struggle. "Nobly," said the writer, "did your two
+brave sons maintain the honour of their country in the bloody strife.
+Both Hugh and Alister fell--their broadswords in their hands--on the
+very ramparts of Ticonderago, whither they had fought their way with a
+dauntlessness of heart, and a strength of arm, that might have excited
+the envy and admiration of the son of Fingal."
+
+In this account of the noble conduct of his sons the broken-hearted
+father did find some consolation. "Thank God!" he exclaimed, though in a
+tremulous voice, "my brave boys have done their duty, and died as became
+their name, with their swords in their hands, and their enemies in their
+front." But there was one circumstance mentioned in the letter, that
+affected the poor father more than all the rest--this was the
+intimation, that the writer had, in his hands, a sum of money and a gold
+brooch, which his son Alister had bequeathed, the first to his father,
+the latter to his mother, as a token of remembrance. "These," he said,
+"had been deposited with him by the young man previous to the
+engagement, under a presentiment that he should fall."
+
+When he had finished the perusal of the letter, M'Pherson sought his
+wife, whom he found weeping bitterly, for she had already learned the
+fate of her sons. On entering the apartment where she was, he flung his
+arms around her, in an agony of grief, and, choking with emotion,
+exclaimed, that two more of his fair lights had been extinguished by the
+hand of heaven. "One yet remains," he said, "but that, too, must soon
+pass away from before mine eyes. His doom is sealed; but God's will be
+done."
+
+"What mean ye, John?" said his sobbing wife, struck with the prophetic
+tone of his speech--"is the measure of our sorrows not yet filled? Are
+we to lose him, too, who is now our only stay, my fair-haired Ian. Why
+this foreboding of more evil--and whence have you it, John?" she said,
+now looking her husband steadfastly in the face; and with an expression
+of alarm that indicated that entire belief in supernatural intelligence
+regarding coming events, then so general in the Highlands.
+
+Urged by his wife, who implored him to tell her whence he had the
+tidings of her Ian's approaching fate, M'Pherson related to her the
+circumstance of the mysterious lights.
+
+"But there were seven, John," she said, when he had concluded--"how
+comes that?--our children were but six." And immediately added, as if
+some fearful conviction had suddenly forced itself on her mind--"God
+grant that the seventh light may have meant me!"
+
+"God forbid!" exclaimed her husband, on whose mind a similar conviction
+with that with which his wife was impressed, now obtruded itself for the
+first time; that conviction was, that he himself was indicated by the
+seventh light. But neither of the sorrowing pair communicated their
+fears to the other.
+
+Two days subsequent to this, the fair hair of Ian was seen floating on
+the surface of a deep pool, in the water of Bran; a small river that ran
+past the house of Morvane. By what accident the poor boy had fallen into
+the river, was never ascertained. But the pool in which his body was
+found was known to have been one of his favourite fishing stations. One
+only of the mysterious lights now remained without its counterpart; but
+this was not long wanting. Ere the week had expired, M'Pherson was
+killed by a fall from his horse, when returning from the funeral of his
+son, and the symbolical prophecy was fulfilled--and thus concludes the
+story of "The Seven Lights."
+
+
+
+
+XI
+
+THE SPECTRAL COACH OF BLACKADON
+
+    "You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
+    The superstitious, idle-headed eld
+    Received and did deliver to our age
+    This tale of Herne the Hunter for a truth."
+
+    _Merry Wives of Windsor._
+
+
+The old vicarage-house at Talland, as seen from the Looe road, its low
+roof and grey walls peeping prettily from between the dense boughs of
+ash and elm that environed it, was as picturesque an object as you could
+desire to see. The seclusion of its situation was enhanced by the
+character of the house itself. It was an odd-looking, old-fashioned
+building, erected apparently in an age when asceticism and self-denial
+were more in vogue than at present, with a stern disregard of the
+comfort of the inhabitant, and in utter contempt of received principles
+of taste. As if not secure enough in its retirement, a high wall,
+enclosing a courtelage in front, effectually protected its inmates from
+the prying passenger, and only revealed the upper part of the house,
+with its small Gothic windows, its slated roof, and heavy chimneys
+partly hidden by the evergreen shrubs which grew in the enclosure. Such
+was it until its removal a few years since; and such was it as it lay
+sweetly in the shadows of an autumnal evening one hundred and thirty
+years ago, when a stranger in the garb of a country labourer knocked
+hesitatingly at the wicket gate which conducted to the court. After a
+little delay a servant-girl appeared, and finding that the countryman
+bore a message to the vicar, admitted him within the walls, and
+conducted him along a paved passage to the little, low, damp parlour
+where sat the good man. The Rev. Mr Dodge was in many respects a
+remarkable man. You would have judged as much of him as he sat before
+the fire in his high-back chair, in an attitude of thought, arranging,
+it may have been, the heads of his next Sabbath's discourse. His heavy
+eyebrows, throwing into shade his spacious eyes, and indeed the whole
+contour of his face, marked him as a man of great firmness of character
+and of much moral and personal courage. His suit of sober black and
+full-bottomed periwig also added to his dignity, and gave him an
+appearance of greater age. He was then verging on sixty. The time and
+the place gave him abundant exercise for the qualities we have
+mentioned, for many of his parishioners obtained their livelihood by the
+contraband trade, and were mostly men of unscrupulous and daring
+character, little likely to bear with patience, reflections on the
+dishonesty of their calling. Nevertheless the vicar was fearless in
+reprehending it, and his frank exhortations were, at least, listened to
+on account of the simple honesty of the man, and his well-known kindness
+of heart. The eccentricity of his life, too, had a wonderful effect in
+procuring him the respect, not to say the awe, of a people superstitious
+in a more than ordinary degree. Ghosts in those days had more freedom
+accorded them, or had more business with the visible world than at
+present; and the parson was frequently required by his parishioners to
+draw from the uneasy spirit the dread secret which troubled it, or by
+the aid of the solemn prayers of the church to set it at rest for ever.
+Mr Dodge had a fame as an exorcist, which was not confined to the bounds
+of his parish, nor limited to the age in which he lived.
+
+"Well, my good man, what brings you hither?" said the clergyman to the
+messenger.
+
+"A letter, may it please your reverence, from Mr Mills of Lanreath,"
+said the countryman, handing him a letter.
+
+Mr Dodge opened it and read as follows:--
+
+     "MY DEAR BROTHER DODGE,--I have ventured to trouble
+     you, at the earnest request of my parishioners, with a matter,
+     of which some particulars have doubtless reached you, and which
+     has caused, and is causing, much terror in my neighbourhood.
+     For its fuller explication, I will be so tedious as to recount
+     to you the whole of this strange story as it has reached my
+     ears, for as yet I have not satisfied my eyes of its truth. It
+     has been told me by men of honest and good report (witnesses of
+     a portion of what they relate), with such strong assurances,
+     that it behoves us to look more closely into the matter. There
+     is in the neighbourhood of this village a barren bit of moor
+     which had no owner, or rather more than one, for the lords of
+     the adjoining manors debated its ownership between themselves,
+     and both determined to take it from the poor, who have for many
+     years past regarded it as a common. And truly, it is little to
+     the credit of these gentlemen, that they should strive for a
+     thing so worthless as scarce to bear the cost of law, and yet
+     of no mean value to poor labouring people. The two litigants,
+     however, contested it with as much violence as if it had been a
+     field of great price, and especially one, an old man, (whose
+     thoughts should have been less set on earthly possessions,
+     which he was soon to leave,) had so set his heart on the
+     success of his suit, that the loss of it, a few years back, is
+     said to have much hastened his death. Nor, indeed, after death,
+     if current reports are worthy of credit, does he quit his claim
+     to it; for at night-time his apparition is seen on the moor,
+     to the great terror of the neighbouring villagers. A public
+     path leads by at no great distance from the spot, and on divers
+     occasions has the labourer, returning from his work, been
+     frightened nigh unto lunacy by sight and sounds of a very
+     dreadful character. The appearance is said to be that of a man
+     habited in black, driving a carriage drawn by headless horses.
+     This is, I avow, very marvellous to believe, but it has had so
+     much credible testimony, and has gained so many believers in my
+     parish, that some steps seem necessary to allay the excitement
+     it causes. I have been applied to for this purpose, and my
+     present business is to ask your assistance in this matter,
+     either to reassure the minds of the country people if it be
+     only a simple terror; or, if there be truth in it, to set the
+     troubled spirit of the man at rest. My messenger, who is an
+     industrious, trustworthy man, will give you more information if
+     it be needed, for, from report, he is acquainted with most of
+     the circumstances, and will bring back your advice and promise
+     of assistance.
+
+     "Not doubting of your help herein, I do with my very hearty
+     commendation commit you to God's protection and blessing, and
+     am,--Your very loving brother, ABRAHAM MILLS."
+
+This remarkable note was read and re-read, while the countryman sat
+watching its effects on the parson's countenance, and was surprised that
+it changed not from its usual sedate and settled character. Turning at
+length to the man, Mr Dodge inquired, "Are you, then, acquainted with my
+good friend Mills?"
+
+"I should know him, sir," replied the messenger, "having been sexton to
+the parish for fourteen years, and being, with my family, much beholden
+to the kindness of the rector."
+
+"You are also not without some knowledge of the circumstances related in
+this letter. Have you been an eye-witness to any of those strange
+sights?"
+
+"For myself, sir, I have been on the road at all hours of the night and
+day, and never did I see anything which I could call worse than myself.
+One night my wife and I were awoke by the rattle of wheels, which was
+also heard by some of our neighbours, and we are all assured that it
+could have been no other than the black coach. We have every day such
+stories told in the villages by so many creditable persons, that it
+would not be proper in a plain, ignorant man like me to doubt it."
+
+"And how far," asked the clergyman, "is the moor from Lanreath?"
+
+"About two miles, and please your reverence. The whole parish is so
+frightened, that few will venture far after nightfall, for it has of
+late come much nearer the village. A man who is esteemed a sensible and
+pious man by many, though an Anabaptist in principle, went a few weeks
+back to the moor ('tis called Blackadon) at midnight, in order to lay
+the spirit, being requested thereto by his neighbours, and he was so
+alarmed at what he saw, that he hath been somewhat mazed ever since."
+
+"A fitting punishment for his presumption, if it hath not quite demented
+him," said the parson. "These persons are like those addressed by St
+Chrysostom, fitly called the golden-mouthed, who said, 'Miserable
+wretches that ye be! ye cannot expel a flea, much less a devil!' It will
+be well if it serves no other purpose but to bring back these stray
+sheep to the fold of the Church. So this story has gained much belief in
+the parish?"
+
+"Most believe it, sir, as rightly they should, what hath so many
+witnesses," said the sexton, "though there be some, chiefly young men,
+who set up for being wiser than their fathers, and refuse to credit it,
+though it be sworn to on the book."
+
+"If those things are disbelieved, friend," said the parson, "and without
+inquiry, which your disbeliever is ever the first to shrink from, of
+what worth is human testimony? That ghosts have returned to the earth,
+either for the discovery of murder, or to make restitution for other
+injustice committed in the flesh, or compelled thereto by the
+incantations of sorcery, or to communicate tidings from another world,
+has been testified to in all ages, and many are the accounts which have
+been left us both in sacred and profane authors. Did not Brutus, when in
+Asia, as is related by Plutarch, see----"
+
+Just at this moment the parson's handmaid announced that a person waited
+on him in the kitchen,--or the good clergyman would probably have
+detailed all those cases in history, general and biblical, with which
+his reading had acquainted him, not much, we fear to the edification and
+comfort of the sexton, who had to return to Lanreath, a long and dreary
+road, after nightfall. So, instead, he directed the girl to take him
+with her, and give him such refreshment as he needed, and in the
+meanwhile he prepared a note in answer to Mr Mills, informing him that
+on the morrow he was to visit some sick persons in his parish, but that
+on the following evening he should be ready to proceed with him to the
+moor.
+
+On the night appointed the two clergymen left the Lanreath rectory on
+horseback, and reached the moor at eleven o'clock. Bleak and dismal did
+it look by day, but then there was the distant landscape dotted over
+with pretty homesteads to relieve its desolation. Now, nothing was seen
+but the black patch of sterile moor on which they stood, nothing heard
+but the wind as it swept in gusts across the bare hill, and howled
+dismally through a stunted grove of trees that grew in a glen below
+them, except the occasional baying of dogs from the farmhouses in the
+distance. That they felt at ease, is more than could be expected of
+them; but as it would have shown a lack of faith in the protection of
+Heaven, which it would have been unseemly in men of their holy calling
+to exhibit, they managed to conceal from each other their uneasiness.
+Leading their horses, they trod to and fro through the damp fern and
+heath with firmness in their steps, and upheld each other by remarks on
+the power of that Great Being whose ministers they were, and the might
+of whose name they were there to make manifest. Still slowly and
+dismally passed the time as they conversed, and anon stopped to look
+through the darkness for the approach of their ghostly visitor. In vain.
+Though the night was as dark and murky as ghost could wish, the coach
+and its driver came not.
+
+After a considerable stay, the two clergymen consulted together, and
+determined that it was useless to watch any longer for that night, but
+that they would meet on some other, when perhaps it might please his
+ghostship to appear. Accordingly, with a few words of leave-taking, they
+separated, Mr Mills for the rectory, and Mr Dodge, by a short ride
+across the moor, which shortened his journey by half a mile, for the
+vicarage at Talland.
+
+The vicar rode on at an ambling pace, which his good mare sustained up
+hill and down vale without urging. At the bottom of a deep valley,
+however, about a mile from Blackadon, the animal became very uneasy,
+pricked up her ears, snorted, and moved from side to side of the road,
+as if something stood in the path before her. The parson tightened the
+reins, and applied whip and spur to her sides, but the animal, usually
+docile, became very unruly, made several attempts to turn, and, when
+prevented, threw herself upon her haunches. Whip and spur were applied
+again and again, to no other purpose than to add to the horse's terror.
+To the rider nothing was apparent which could account for the sudden
+restiveness of his beast. He dismounted, and attempted in turns to lead
+or drag her, but both were impracticable, and attended with no small
+risk of snapping the reins. She was remounted with great difficulty, and
+another attempt was made to urge her forward, with the like want of
+success. At length the eccentric clergyman, judging it to be some
+special signal from Heaven, which it would be dangerous to neglect,
+threw the reins on the neck of his steed, which, wheeling suddenly
+round, started backward in a direction towards the moor, at a pace which
+rendered the parson's seat neither a pleasant nor a safe one. In an
+astonishingly short space of time they were once more at Blackadon.
+
+By this time the bare outline of the moor was broken by a large black
+group of objects, which the darkness of the night prevented the parson
+from defining. On approaching this unaccountable appearance, the mare
+was seized with fresh fury, and it was with considerable difficulty that
+she could be brought to face this new cause of fright. In the pauses of
+the horse's prancing, the vicar discovered to his horror the
+much-dreaded spectacle of the black coach and the headless steeds, and,
+terrible to relate, his friend Mr Mills lying prostrate on the ground
+before the sable driver. Little time was left him to call up his courage
+for this fearful emergency; for just as the vicar began to give
+utterance to the earnest prayers which struggled to his lips, the
+spectre shouted, "Dodge is come! I must begone!" and forthwith leaped
+into his chariot, and disappeared across the moor.
+
+The fury of the mare now subsided, and Mr Dodge was enabled to approach
+his friend, who was lying motionless and speechless, with his face
+buried in the heather.
+
+Meanwhile the rector's horse, which had taken fright at the apparition,
+and had thrown his rider to the ground on or near the spot where we have
+left him lying, made homeward at a furious speed, and stopped not until
+he had reached his stable door. The sound of his hoofs as he galloped
+madly through the village awoke the cottagers, many of whom had been
+some hours in their beds. Many eager faces, staring with affright,
+gathered round the rectory, and added, by their various conjectures, to
+the terror and apprehensions of the family.
+
+The villagers, gathering courage as their numbers increased, agreed to
+go in search of the missing clergyman, and started off in a compact
+body, a few on horseback, but the greater number on foot, in the
+direction of Blackadon. There they discovered their rector, supported in
+the arms of Parson Dodge, and recovered so far as to be able to speak.
+Still there was a wildness in his eye, and an incoherency in his speech,
+that showed that his reason was, at least, temporarily unsettled by the
+fright. In this condition he was taken to his home, followed by his
+reverend companion.
+
+Here ended this strange adventure; for Mr Mills soon completely regained
+his reason, Parson Dodge got safely back to Talland, and from that time
+to this nothing has been heard or seen of the black ghost or his
+chariot.[4]
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 4: The Parson Dodge, whose adventure is related, was vicar of
+Talland from 1713 till his death. So that the name as well as the story
+is true to tradition. Bond (_History of East and West Looe_) says of
+him: "About a century since the Rev. Richard Dodge was vicar of this
+parish of Talland, and was, by traditionary account, a very singular
+man. He had the reputation of being deeply skilled in the black art, and
+would raise ghosts, or send them into the Dead Sea, at the nod of his
+head. The common people, not only in his own parish, but throughout the
+neighbourhood, stood in the greatest awe of him, and to meet him on the
+highway at midnight produced the utmost horror; he was then driving
+about the evil spirits; many of them were seen, in all sorts of shapes,
+flying and running before him, and he pursuing them with his whip in a
+most daring manner. Not unfrequently he would be seen in the churchyard
+at dead of night to the terror of passers-by. He was a worthy man, and
+much respected, but had his eccentricities."]
+
+
+
+
+XII
+
+DRAKE'S DRUM
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+Sir Francis Drake--who appears to have been especially befriended by his
+demon--is said to drive at night a black hearse drawn by headless
+horses, and urged on by running devils and yelping, headless dogs,
+through Jump, on the road from Tavistock to Plymouth.
+
+Sir Francis, according to tradition, was enabled to destroy the Spanish
+Armada by the aid of the devil. The old admiral went to Devil's Point, a
+well-known promontory jutting into Plymouth Sound. He there cut pieces
+of wood into the water, and by the power of magic and the assistance of
+his demon these became at once well-armed gunboats.
+
+Queen Elizabeth gave Sir Francis Drake Buckland Abbey; and on every hand
+we hear of Drake and his familiars.
+
+An extensive building attached to the abbey--which was no doubt used as
+barns and stables after the place had been deprived of its religious
+character--was said to have been built by the devil in three nights.
+After the first night, the butler, astonished at the work done, resolved
+to watch and see how it was performed. Consequently, on the second
+night, he mounted into a large tree, and hid himself between the forks
+of its five branches. At midnight the devil came, driving several teams
+of oxen; and as some of them were lazy, he plucked this tree from the
+ground and used it as a goad. The poor butler lost his senses, and never
+recovered them.
+
+Drake constructed the channel, carrying the waters from Dartmoor to
+Plymouth. Tradition says he went with his demon to Dartmoor, walked into
+Plymouth, and the waters followed him. Even now--as old Betty
+Donithorne, formerly the housekeeper at Buckland Abbey, told me,--if the
+warrior hears the drum which hangs in the hall of the abbey, and which
+accompanied him round the world, he rises and has a revel.
+
+Some few years since a small box was found in a closet which had been
+long closed, containing, it is supposed, family papers. This was to be
+sent to the residence of the inheritor of this property. The carriage
+was at the abbey door, and a man easily lifted the box into it. The
+owner having taken his seat, the coachman attempted to start his horses,
+but in vain. They would not--they could not move. More horses were
+brought, and then the heavy farm-horses, and eventually all the oxen.
+They were powerless to start the carriage. At length a mysterious voice
+was heard, declaring that the box could never be moved from Buckland
+Abbey. It was taken from the carriage easily by one man, and a pair of
+horses galloped off with the carriage.
+
+
+
+
+XIII
+
+THE SPECTRE BRIDEGROOM
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+Long, long ago a farmer named Lenine lived in Boscean. He had but one
+son, Frank Lenine, who was indulged into waywardness by both his
+parents. In addition to the farm servants, there was one, a young girl,
+Nancy Trenoweth, who especially assisted Mrs Lenine in all the various
+duties of a small farmhouse.
+
+Nancy Trenoweth was very pretty, and although perfectly uneducated, in
+the sense in which we now employ the term education, she possessed many
+native graces, and she had acquired much knowledge, really useful to one
+whose aspirations would probably never rise higher than to be mistress
+of a farm of a few acres. Educated by parents who had certainly never
+seen the world beyond Penzance, her ideas of the world were limited to a
+few miles around the Land's-End. But although her book of nature was a
+small one, it had deeply impressed her mind with its influences. The
+wild waste, the small but fertile valley, the rugged hills, with their
+crowns of cairns, the moors rich in the golden furze and the purple
+heath, the sea-beaten cliffs and the silver sands, were the pages she
+had studied, under the guidance of a mother who conceived, in the
+sublimity of her ignorance, that everything in nature was the home of
+some spirit form. The soul of the girl was imbued with the deeply
+religious dye of her mother's mind, whose religion was only a sense of
+an unknown world immediately beyond our own. The elder Nancy Trenoweth
+exerted over the villagers around her considerable power. They did not
+exactly fear her. She was too free from evil for that; but they were
+conscious of a mental superiority, and yielded without complaining to
+her sway.
+
+The result of this was, that the younger Nancy, although compelled to
+service, always exhibited some pride, from a feeling that her mother was
+a superior woman to any around her.
+
+She never felt herself inferior to her master and mistress, yet she
+complained not of being in subjection to them. There were so many
+interesting features in the character of this young servant girl that
+she became in many respects like a daughter to her mistress. There was
+no broad line of division in those days, in even the manorial hall,
+between the lord and his domestics, and still less defined was the
+position of the employer and the employed in a small farmhouse.
+Consequent on this condition of things, Frank Lenine and Nancy were
+thrown as much together as if they had been brother and sister. Frank
+was rarely checked in anything by his over-fond parents, who were
+especially proud of their son, since he was regarded as the handsomest
+young man in the parish. Frank conceived a very warm attachment for
+Nancy, and she was not a little proud of her lover. Although it was
+evident to all the parish that Frank and Nancy were seriously devoted to
+each other, the young man's parents were blind to it, and were taken by
+surprise when one day Frank asked his father and mother to consent to
+his marrying Nancy.
+
+The Lenines had allowed their son to have his own way from his youth up;
+and now, in a matter which brought into play the strongest of human
+feelings, they were angry because he refused to bend to their wills.
+
+The old man felt it would be a degradation for a Lenine to marry a
+Trenoweth, and, in the most unreasoning manner, he resolved it should
+never be.
+
+The first act was to send Nancy home to Alsia Mill, where her parents
+resided; the next was an imperious command to his son never again to see
+the girl.
+
+The commands of the old are generally powerless upon the young where the
+affairs of the heart are concerned. So were they upon Frank. He who was
+rarely seen of an evening beyond the garden of his father's cottage, was
+now as constantly absent from his home. The house, which was wont to be
+a pleasant one, was strangely altered. A gloom had fallen over all
+things; the father and son rarely met as friends--the mother and her boy
+had now a feeling of reserve. Often there were angry altercations
+between the father and son, and the mother felt she could not become the
+defender of her boy, in his open acts of disobedience, his bold defiance
+of his parents' commands.
+
+Rarely an evening passed that did not find Nancy and Frank together in
+some retired nook. The Holy Well was a favourite meeting-place, and here
+the most solemn vows were made. Locks of hair were exchanged; a
+wedding-ring, taken from the finger of a corpse, was broken, when they
+vowed that they would be united either dead or alive; and they even
+climbed at night the granite-pile at Treryn, and swore by the Logan Rock
+the same strong vow.
+
+Time passed onward unhappily, and as the result of the endeavours to
+quench out the passion by force, it grew stronger under the repressing
+power, and, like imprisoned steam, eventually burst through all
+restraint.
+
+Nancy's parents discovered at length that moonlight meetings between two
+untrained, impulsive youths, had a natural result, and they were now
+doubly earnest in their endeavours to compel Frank to marry their
+daughter.
+
+The elder Lenine could not be brought to consent to this, and he firmly
+resolved to remove his son entirely from what he considered the hateful
+influences of the Trenoweths. He resolved to go to Plymouth, to take
+his son with him, and, if possible, to send him away to sea, hoping thus
+to wean him from his folly, as he considered this love-madness. Frank,
+poor fellow, with the best intentions, was not capable of any sustained
+effort, and consequently he at length succumbed to his father; and, to
+escape his persecution, he entered a ship bound for India, and bade
+adieu to his native land.
+
+Frank could not write, and this happened in days when letters could be
+forwarded only with extreme difficulty, consequently Nancy never heard
+from her lover.
+
+A babe had been born into a troublesome world, and the infant became a
+real solace to the young mother. As the child grew, it became an
+especial favourite with its grandmother; the elder Nancy rejoiced over
+the little prattler, and forgot her cause of sorrow. Young Nancy lived
+for her child, and on the memory of its father. Subdued in spirit she
+was, but her affliction had given force to her character, and she had
+been heard to declare that wherever Frank might be, she was ever present
+with him, whatever might be the temptations of the hour, that her
+influence was all powerful over him for good. She felt that no distance
+could separate their souls, that no time could be long enough to destroy
+the bond between them.
+
+A period of distress fell upon the Trenoweths, and it was necessary that
+Nancy should leave her home once more, and go again into service. Her
+mother took charge of the babe, and she found a situation in the village
+of Kimyall, in the parish of Paul. Nancy, like her mother, contrived by
+force of character to maintain an ascendancy amongst her companions. She
+had formed an acquaintance, which certainly never grew into friendship,
+with some of the daughters of the small farmers around. These girls were
+all full of the superstitions of the time and place.
+
+The winter was coming on, and nearly three years had passed away since
+Frank Lenine left his country. As yet there was no sign. Nor father,
+nor mother, nor maiden had heard of him, and they all sorrowed over his
+absence. The Lenines desired to have Nancy's child, but the Trenoweths
+would not part with it. They went so far even as to endeavour to
+persuade Nancy to live again with them, but Nancy was not at all
+disposed to submit to their wishes.
+
+It was All-Hallows' eve, and two of Nancy's companions persuaded
+her,--no very difficult task,--to go with them and sow hemp-seed.
+
+At midnight the three maidens stole out unperceived into Kimyall
+town-place to perform their incantation. Nancy was the first to sow, the
+others being less bold than she.
+
+Boldly she advanced, saying, as she scattered the seed,--
+
+    "Hemp-seed I sow thee,
+    Hemp-seed grow thee;
+    And he who will my true love be,
+    Come after me
+    And shaw thee."
+
+This was repeated three times, when, looking back over her left
+shoulder, she saw Lenine; but he looked so angry that she shrieked with
+fear, and broke the spell. One of the other girls, however, resolved now
+to make trial of the spell, and the result of her labours was the vision
+of a white coffin. Fear now fell on all, and they went home sorrowful,
+to spend, each one, a sleepless night.
+
+November came with its storms, and during one terrific night a large
+vessel was thrown upon the rocks in Bernowhall Cliff, and, beaten by the
+impetuous waves, she was soon in pieces. Amongst the bodies of the crew
+washed ashore, nearly all of whom had perished, was Frank Lenine. He was
+not dead when found, but the only words he lived to speak were begging
+the people to send for Nancy Trenoweth, that he might make her his wife
+before he died.
+
+Rapidly sinking, Frank was borne by his friends on a litter to Boscean,
+but he died as he reached the town-place. His parents, overwhelmed in
+their own sorrows, thought nothing of Nancy, and without her knowing
+that Lenine had returned, the poor fellow was laid in his last bed, in
+Burian Churchyard.
+
+On the night of the funeral, Nancy went, as was her custom, to lock the
+door of the house, and as was her custom too, she looked out into the
+night. At this instant a horseman rode up in hot haste, called her by
+name, and hailed her in a voice that chilled her blood.
+
+The voice was the voice of Lenine. She could never forget that; and the
+horse she now saw was her sweetheart's favourite colt, on which he had
+often ridden at night to Alsia.
+
+The rider was imperfectly seen; but he looked very sorrowful, and
+deathly pale, still Nancy knew him to be Frank Lenine.
+
+He told her that he had just arrived home, and that the first moment he
+was at liberty he had taken horse to fetch his loved one, and to make
+her his bride.
+
+Nancy's excitement was so great, that she was easily persuaded to spring
+on the horse behind him, that they might reach his home before the
+morning.
+
+When she took Lenine's hand a cold shiver passed through her, and as she
+grasped his waist to secure herself in her seat, her arm became as stiff
+as ice. She lost all power of speech, and suffered deep fear, yet she
+knew not why. The moon had arisen, and now burst out in a full flood of
+light, through the heavy clouds which had obscured it. The horse pursued
+its journey with great rapidity, and whenever in weariness it slackened
+its speed, the peculiar voice of the rider aroused its drooping
+energies. Beyond this no word was spoken since Nancy had mounted behind
+her lover. They now came to Trove Bottom, where there was no bridge at
+that time; they dashed into the river. The moon shone full in their
+faces. Nancy looked into the stream, and saw that the rider was in a
+shroud and other grave-clothes. She now knew that she was being carried
+away by a spirit, yet she had no power to save herself; indeed, the
+inclination to do so did not exist.
+
+On went the horse at a furious pace, until they came to the blacksmith's
+shop, near Burian Church-town, when she knew by the light from the forge
+fire thrown across the road that the smith was still at his labours. She
+now recovered speech. "Save me! save me! save me!" she cried with all
+her might. The smith sprang from the door of the smithy, with a red-hot
+iron in his hand, and as the horse rushed by, caught the woman's dress,
+and pulled her to the ground. The spirit, however, also seized Nancy's
+dress in one hand, and his grasp was like that of a vice. The horse
+passed like the wind, and Nancy and the smith were pulled down as far as
+the old Alms-houses, near the churchyard. Here the horse for a moment
+stopped. The smith seized that moment, and with his hot iron burned off
+the dress from the rider's hand, thus saving Nancy, more dead than
+alive; while the rider passed over the wall of the churchyard, and
+vanished on the grave in which Lenine had been laid but a few hours
+before.
+
+The smith took Nancy into his shop, and he soon aroused some of his
+neighbours, who took the poor girl back to Alsia. Her parents laid her
+on her bed. She spoke no word, but to ask for her child, to request her
+mother to give up her child to Lenine's parents, and her desire to be
+buried in his grave. Before the morning light fell on the world Nancy
+had breathed her last breath.
+
+A horse was seen that night to pass through the Church-town like a ball
+from a musket, and in the morning Lenine's colt was found dead in
+Bernowhall Cliff, covered with foam, its eyes forced from its head, and
+its swollen tongue hanging out of its mouth. On Lenine's grave was found
+the piece of Nancy's dress which was left in the spirit's hand when the
+smith burnt her from his grasp.
+
+It is said that one or two of the sailors who survived the wreck related
+after the funeral, how, on the 30th of October, at night, Lenine was
+like one mad; they could scarcely keep him in the ship. He seemed more
+asleep than awake, and, after great excitement, he fell as if dead upon
+the deck, and lay so for hours. When he came to himself, he told them
+that he had been taken to the village of Kimyall, and that if he ever
+married the woman who had cast the spell, he would make her suffer the
+longest day she had to live for drawing his soul out of his body.
+
+Poor Nancy was buried in Lenine's grave, and her companion in sowing
+hemp-seed, who saw the white coffin, slept beside her within the year.
+
+
+
+
+XIV
+
+THE POOL IN THE GRAVEYARD
+
+By GREVILLE MACDONALD[5]
+
+
+By this corner of the graveyard the red dawn discovered to Jonas a
+little pool of clear water, with mosses and parsley-ferns all around it,
+and so clear and cool-looking that he must drink. The larger part of it
+was still shadowed by the wall. On knees and hands, he put his lips to
+it and drank. The refreshment was wonderful. He rose with a sense that
+he should find the lost sheep yet and bring her home. He looked down
+once more into the clear pool. It was wider than he had thought--indeed,
+he had been mistaken; it was a great tarn on the mountain-side! Then he
+saw that wonderful things were happening on the face of and all round
+the water. What appeared to be little glow-worms were lying motionless
+in groups on the mosses in a still-shadowed region by the side of the
+water. From beneath a low arch in the wall, where the water was slowly
+flowing away in a river, there came, against stream and wave and wind, a
+fishing-boat. Its great red sail was spread, and its pennant shone
+silvery blue in the sun. It came alongside a pier of mossy stones, and
+cast anchor. From it leapt twelve strong young fishermen, all with
+bright faces. They took up the little creatures with the glowing lights,
+and carried them aboard; then back again to other groups, until all were
+gathered in. For they were all sleeping human forms, close-wrapped in
+grave-clothes, but with their light still living, as might be seen by
+anyone who had suffered. When all were safe aboard, the men cast off and
+the boat disappeared under the arch.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 5: From _How Jonas Found his Enemy: a Romance of the South
+Downs_ (1916).]
+
+
+
+
+XV
+
+THE LIANHAN SHEE
+
+By WILL CARLETON
+
+
+One summer evening Mary Sullivan was sitting at her own well-swept
+hearthstone, knitting feet to a pair of sheep's-grey stockings for
+Bartley, her husband. It was one of those serene evenings in the month
+of June when the decline of day assumes a calmness and repose,
+resembling what we might suppose to have irradiated Eden when our first
+parents sat in it before their fall. The beams of the sun shone through
+the windows in clear shafts of amber light, exhibiting millions of those
+atoms which float to the naked eye within its mild radiance. The dog lay
+barking in his dream at her feet, and the grey cat sat purring placidly
+upon his back, from which even his occasional agitation did not dislodge
+her.
+
+Mrs Sullivan was the wife of a wealthy farmer, and niece to the Rev.
+Felix O'Rourke; her kitchen was consequently large, comfortable, and
+warm. Over where she sat, jutted out the "brace" well lined with bacon;
+to the right hung a well-scoured salt-box, and to the left was the jamb,
+with its little paneless window to admit the light. Within it hung
+several ash rungs, seasoning for flail-sooples, or boulteens, a dozen of
+eel-skins, and several stripes of horse-skin, as hangings for them. The
+dresser was a "parfit white," and well furnished with the usual
+appurtenances. Over the door and on the "threshel" were nailed, "for
+luck," two horse-shoes, that had been found by accident. In a little
+"hole" in the wall, beneath the salt-box, lay a bottle of holy water to
+keep the place purified; and against the copestone of the gable, on the
+outside, grew a large lump of house-leek, as a specific for sore eyes
+and other maladies.
+
+In the corner of the garden were a few stalks of tansy "to kill the
+thievin' worms in the childhre, the crathurs," together with a little
+Rosenoble, Solomon's Seal, and Bugloss, each for some medicinal purpose.
+The "lime wather" Mrs Sullivan could make herself, and the "bog bane"
+for the _linh roe_, or heartburn, grew in their own meadow-drain; so
+that, in fact, she had within her reach a very decent pharmacopoeia,
+perhaps as harmless as that of the profession itself. Lying on the top
+of the salt-box was a bunch of fairy flax, and sewed in the folds of her
+own scapular was the dust of what had once been a four-leaved shamrock,
+an invaluable specific "for seein' the good people," if they happened to
+come within the bounds of vision. Over the door in the inside, over the
+beds, and over the cattle in the outhouses, were placed branches of
+withered palm, that had been consecrated by the priest on Palm Sunday;
+and when the cows happened to calve, this good woman tied, with her own
+hands, a woollen thread about their tails, to prevent them from being
+overlooked by evil eyes, or _elf-shot_ by the fairies, who seem to
+possess a peculiar power over females of every species during the period
+of parturition. It is unnecessary to mention the variety of charms which
+she possessed for that obsolete malady the colic, for toothache,
+headaches, or for removing warts, and taking motes out of the eyes; let
+it suffice to inform our readers that she was well stocked with them;
+and, that in addition to this, she, together with her husband, drank a
+potion made up and administered by an herb-doctor, for preventing for
+ever the slightest misunderstanding or quarrel between man and wife.
+Whether it produced this desirable object or not, our readers may
+conjecture, when we add, that the herb-doctor, after having taken a
+very liberal advantage of their generosity, was immediately compelled to
+disappear from the neighbourhood, in order to avoid meeting with
+Bartley, who had a sharp look-out for him, not exactly on his own
+account, but "in regard," he said, "that it had no effect upon _Mary_,
+at all at all"; whilst Mary, on the other hand, admitted its efficacy
+upon herself, but maintained, "that _Bartley_ was worse nor ever afther
+it."
+
+Such was Mary Sullivan, as she sat at her own hearth, quite alone,
+engaged as we have represented her. What she may have been meditating
+on, we cannot pretend to ascertain; but after some time, she looked
+sharply into the "backstone," or hob, with an air of anxiety and alarm.
+By and by she suspended her knitting, and listened with much
+earnestness, leaning her right ear over to the hob, from whence the
+sounds to which she paid such deep attention proceeded. At length she
+crossed herself devoutly, and exclaimed, "Queen of saints about us!--is
+it back ye are? Well sure there's no use in talkin' bekase they say you
+know what's said of you, or to you--an' we may as well spake yez fair.
+Hem--musha yez are welcome back, crickets, avour-neenee! I hope that,
+not like the last visit ye ped us, yez are comin' for luck now! Moolyeen
+died, any way, soon afther your other _kailyee_, ye crathurs ye. Here's
+the bread, an' the salt, an' the male for yez, an' we wish ye well.
+Eh?--saints above, if it isn't listenin' they are jist like a
+Christhien! Wurrah, but ye are the wise an' the quare crathurs all out!"
+
+She then shook a little holy water over the hob, and muttered to herself
+an Irish charm or prayer against the evils which crickets are often
+supposed by the peasantry to bring with them, and requested, still in
+the words of the charm, that their presence might, on that occasion,
+rather be a presage of good fortune to man and beast belonging to her.
+
+"There now, ye _dhonans_ ye, sure ye can't say that ye're ill-thrated
+here, anyhow, or ever was mocked or made game of in the same family. You
+have got your hansel, an' full an' plenty of it; hopin' at the same time
+that you'll have no rason in life to cut our best clothes from revinge.
+Sure an' I didn't desarve to have my brave stuff _long body_ riddled the
+way it was the last time ye wor here, an' only bekase little Barny, that
+has but the sinse of a _gorsoon_, tould yez in a joke to pack off wid
+yourselves somewhere else. Musha, never heed what the likes of him says;
+sure he's but a _caudy_, that doesn't mane ill, only the bit o'
+divarsion wid yez."
+
+She then resumed her knitting, occasionally stopping, as she changed her
+needles, to listen, with her ear set, as if she wished to augur from the
+nature of their chirping, whether they came for good or evil. This,
+however, seemed to be beyond her faculty of translating their language;
+for after sagely shaking her head two or three times, she knit more
+busily than before.
+
+At this moment, the shadow of a person passing the house darkened the
+window opposite which she sat, and immediately a tall female, of a wild
+dress and aspect, entered the kitchen.
+
+"_Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr_! the blessin' o' goodness upon you,
+dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, addressing her in those kindly phrases
+so peculiar to the Irish language.
+
+Instead of making her any reply, however, the woman, whose eye glistened
+with a wild depth of meaning, exclaimed in low tones, apparently of much
+anguish, "_Husht, husht, dherum_! husht, husht, I say--let me alone--I
+will do it--will you husht? I will, I say--I will--there now--that's
+it--be quiet, an' I will do it--be quiet!" and as she thus spoke she
+turned her face back over her left shoulder, as if some invisible being
+dogged her steps, and stood bending over her.
+
+"_Gho manhy dhea ghud, a ban chohr, dherhum areesht_! the blessin' o'
+God on you, honest woman, I say again," said Mrs Sullivan, repeating
+that _sacred_ form of salutation with which the peasantry address each
+other. "'Tis a fine evenin', honest woman, glory be to Him that sent the
+same, and amin! If it was cowld, I'd be axin' you to draw your chair in
+to the fire; but, any way, won't you sit down?"
+
+As she ceased speaking the piercing eye of the strange woman became
+riveted on her with a glare, which, whilst it startled Mrs Sullivan,
+seemed full of an agony that almost abstracted her from external life.
+It was not, however, so wholly absorbing as to prevent it from
+expressing a marked interest, whether for good or evil, in the woman who
+addressed her so hospitably.
+
+"Husht, now--husht," she said, as if aside--"husht, won't you--sure I
+may speak _the thing_ to her--you said it--there now, husht!" And then
+fastening her dark eyes on Mrs Sullivan, she smiled bitterly and
+mysteriously.
+
+"I know you well," she said, without, however, returning the _blessing_
+contained in the usual reply to Mrs Sullivan's salutation--"I know you
+well, Mary Sullivan--husht, now, husht--yes, I know you well, and the
+power of all that you carry about you; but you'd be better than you
+are--and that's well enough _now_--if you had sense to know--ah, ah,
+ah!--what's this!" she exclaimed abruptly, with three distinct shrieks,
+that seemed to be produced by sensations of sharp and piercing agony.
+
+"In the name of goodness, what's over you, honest woman?" inquired Mrs
+Sullivan, as she started from her chair, and ran to her in a state of
+alarm, bordering on terror--"Is it sick you are?"
+
+The woman's face had got haggard, and its features distorted; but in a
+few minutes they resumed their peculiar expression of settled wildness
+and mystery. "Sick!" she replied, licking her parched lips; "_awirck,
+awirck!_ look! look!" and she pointed with a shudder that almost
+convulsed her whole frame, to a lump that rose on her shoulders; this,
+be it what it might, was covered with a red cloak, closely pinned and
+tied with great caution about her body--"'tis here!--I have it!"
+
+"Blessed mother!" exclaimed Mrs Sullivan, tottering over to her chair,
+as finished a picture of horror as the eye could witness, "this day's
+Friday: the saints stand betwixt me an' all harm! Oh, holy Mary, protect
+me! _Nhanim an airh_," in the name of the Father, etc., and she
+forthwith proceeded to bless herself, which she did thirteen times in
+honour of the blessed virgin and the twelve apostles.
+
+"Ay, it's as you see!" replied the stranger bitterly. "It is
+here--husht, now--husht, I say--I will say _the thing_ to her, mayn't I?
+Ay, indeed, Mary Sullivan, 'tis with me always--always. Well, well, no,
+I won't I won't--easy. Oh, blessed saints, easy, and I won't!"
+
+In the meantime Mrs Sullivan had uncorked her bottle of holy water, and
+plentifully bedewed herself with it, as a preservative against this
+mysterious woman and her dreadful secret.
+
+"Blessed mother above!" she ejaculated, "the _Lianhan Shee_!" And as she
+spoke, with the holy water in the palm of her hand, she advanced
+cautiously, and with great terror, to throw it upon the stranger and the
+unearthly thing she bore.
+
+"Don't attempt it!" shouted the other, in tones of mingled fierceness
+and terror; "do you want to give _me_ pain without keeping _yourself_
+anything at all safer? Don't you know _it_ doesn't care about your holy
+water? But I'd suffer for it, an' perhaps so would you."
+
+Mrs Sullivan, terrified by the agitated looks of the woman, drew back
+with affright, and threw the holy water with which she intended to
+purify the other on her own person.
+
+"Why thin, you lost crathur, who or what are you at all?--don't,
+don't--for the sake of all the saints and angels of heaven, don't come
+next or near me--keep your distance--but what are you, or how did you
+come to get that 'good thing' you carry about wid you?"
+
+"Ay, indeed!" replied the woman bitterly, "as if I would or could tell
+you that! I say, you woman, you're doing what's not right in asking me a
+question you ought not let to cross your lips--look to yourself, and
+what's over you."
+
+The simple woman, thinking her meaning literal, almost leaped off her
+seat with terror, and turned up her eyes to ascertain whether or not any
+dreadful appearance had approached her, or hung over her where she sat.
+
+"Woman," said she, "I spoke you kind an' fair, an' I wish you
+well--but----"
+
+"But what?" replied the other--and her eyes kindled into deep and
+profound excitement, apparently upon very slight grounds.
+
+"Why--hem--nothin' at all sure, only----"
+
+"Only what?" asked the stranger, with a face of anguish that seemed to
+torture every feature out of its proper lineaments.
+
+"Dacent woman," said Mrs Sullivan, whilst the hair began to stand with
+terror upon her head, "sure it's no wondher in life that I'm in a
+perplexity, whin a _Lianhan Shee_ is undher the one roof wid me. 'Tisn't
+that I want to know anything at all about it--the dear forbid I should;
+but I never hard of a person bein' tormented wid it as you are. I always
+used to hear the people say that it thrated its friends well."
+
+"Husht!" said the woman, looking wildly over her shoulder, "I'll not
+tell: it's on myself I'll leave the blame! Why, will you never pity me?
+Am I to be night and day tormented? Oh, you're wicked and cruel for no
+reason!"
+
+"Thry," said Mrs Sullivan, "an' bless yourself; call on God."
+
+"Ah!" shouted the other, "are you going to get me killed?" and as she
+uttered the words, a spasmodic working which must have occasioned great
+pain, even to torture, became audible in her throat; her bosom heaved up
+and down, and her head was bent repeatedly on her breast, as if by
+force.
+
+"Don't mention that name," said she, "in my presence, except you mean to
+drive me to utter distraction. I mean," she continued, after
+considerable effort to recover her former tone and manner--"hear me with
+attention--I mean, woman--you, Mary Sullivan--that if you mention that
+holy name, you might as well keep plunging sharp knives into my heart!
+Husht! peace to me for one minute, tormentor! Spare me something, I'm in
+your power!"
+
+"Will you ate anything?" said Mrs Sullivan; "poor crathur, you look like
+hunger an' distress; there's enough in the house, blessed be them that
+sent it! an' you had betther thry an' take some nourishment, any way";
+and she raised her eyes in a silent prayer of relief and ease for the
+unhappy woman, whose unhallowed association had, in her opinion, sealed
+her doom.
+
+"Will I?--will I?--oh!" she replied, "may you never know misery for
+offering it! Oh, bring me something--some refreshment--some food--for
+I'm dying with hunger."
+
+Mrs Sullivan, who, with all her superstition, was remarkable for charity
+and benevolence, immediately placed food and drink before her, which the
+stranger absolutely devoured--taking care occasionally to secrete under
+the protuberance which appeared behind her neck, a portion of what she
+ate. This, however, she did, not by stealth, but openly; merely taking
+means to prevent the concealed thing from being, by any possible
+accident, discovered.
+
+When the craving of hunger was satisfied, she appeared to suffer less
+from the persecution of her tormentor than before; whether it was, as
+Mrs Sullivan thought, that the food with which she plied it appeased in
+some degree its irritability, or lessened that of the stranger, it was
+difficult to say; at all events, she became more composed; her eyes
+resumed somewhat of a natural expression; each sharp ferocious glare,
+which shot from them with such intense and rapid flashes, partially
+disappeared; her knit brows dilated, and part of a forehead, which had
+once been capacious and handsome, lost the contractions which deformed
+it by deep wrinkles. Altogether the change was evident, and very much
+relieved Mrs Sullivan, who could not avoid observing it.
+
+"It's not that I care much about it, if you'd think it not right o' me,
+but it's odd enough for you to keep the lower part of your face muffled
+up in that black cloth, an' then your forehead, too, is covered down on
+your face a bit. If they're part of the _bargain_,"--and she shuddered
+at the thought,--"between you an' anything that's not good--hem!--I
+think you'd do well to throw thim off o' you, an' turn to thim that can
+protect you from everything that's bad. Now, a scapular would keep all
+the divils in hell from one; an' if you'd----"
+
+On looking at the stranger she hesitated, for the wild expression of her
+eyes began to return.
+
+"Don't begin my punishment again," replied the woman; "make no
+allus----don't make mention in my presence of anything that's good.
+Husht--husht--it's beginning--easy now--easy! No," said she, "I came to
+tell you, that only for my breaking a vow I made to this thing upon me,
+I'd be happy instead of miserable with it. I say, it's a good thing to
+have, if the person will use this bottle," she added, producing one, "as
+I will direct them."
+
+"I wouldn't wish, for my part," replied Mrs Sullivan, "to have anything
+to do wid it--neither act nor part"; and she crossed herself devoutly,
+on contemplating such an unholy alliance as that at which her companion
+hinted.
+
+"Mary Sullivan," replied the other, "I can put good fortune and
+happiness in the way of you and yours. It is for you the good is
+intended; if _you_ don't get both, _no other_ can," and her eyes kindled
+as she spoke like those of the Pyrhoness in the moment of inspiration.
+
+Mrs Sullivan looked at her with awe, fear, and a strong mixture of
+curiosity; she had often heard that the _Lianhan Shee_ had, through
+means of the person to whom it was bound, conferred wealth upon several,
+although it could never render this important service to those who
+exercised direct authority over it. She therefore experienced something
+like a conflict between her fears and a love of that wealth, the
+possession of which was so plainly intimated to her.
+
+"The money," said she, "would be one thing, but to have the _Lianhan
+Shee_ planted over a body's shouldher--och! the saints preserve us!--no,
+not for oceans of hard goold would I have it in my company one minnit.
+But in regard to the money--hem!--why, if it could be managed without
+havin' act or part wid _that thing_, people would do anything in reason
+and fairity."
+
+"You have this day been kind to me," replied the woman, "and that's what
+I can't say of many--dear help me!--husht! Every door is shut in my
+face! Does not every cheek get pale when I am seen? If I meet a
+fellow-creature on the road, they turn into the field to avoid me; if I
+ask for food, it's to a deaf ear I speak; if I am thirsty, they send me
+to the river. What house would shelter me? In cold, in hunger, in
+drought, in storm, and in tempest, I am alone and unfriended, hated,
+feared, an' avoided; starving in the winter's cold, and burning in the
+summer's heat. All this is my fate here; and--oh! oh! oh!--have mercy,
+tormentor--have mercy! I will not lift my thoughts _there_--I'll keep
+the paction--but spare me _now_!"
+
+She turned round as she spoke, seeming to follow an invisible object,
+or, perhaps, attempting to get a more complete view of the mysterious
+being which exercised such a terrible and painful influence over her.
+Mrs Sullivan, also, kept her eye fixed upon the lump, and actually
+believed that she saw it move. Fear of incurring the displeasure of what
+it contained, and a superstitious reluctance harshly to thrust a person
+from her door who had eaten of her food, prevented her from desiring the
+woman to depart.
+
+"In the name of Goodness," she replied, "I will have nothing to do wid
+your gift. Providence, blessed be His name, has done well for me an'
+mine; an' it mightn't be right to go beyant what it has pleased _Him_ to
+give me."
+
+"A rational sentiment!--I mean there's good sense in what you say,"
+answered the stranger: "but you need not be afraid," and she accompanied
+the expression by holding up the bottle and kneeling. "Now," she added,
+"listen to me, and judge for yourself, if what I say, when I swear it,
+can be a lie." She then proceeded to utter oaths of the most solemn
+nature, the purport of which was to assure Mrs Sullivan that drinking of
+the bottle would be attended with no danger.
+
+"You see this little bottle? Drink it. Oh, for my sake and your own,
+drink it; it will give wealth without end to you and to all belonging to
+you. Take one-half of it before sunrise, and the other half when he goes
+down. You must stand while drinking it, with your face to the east, in
+the morning; and at night, to the west. Will you promise to do thus?"
+
+"How would drinkin' the bottle get me money?" inquired Mrs Sullivan, who
+certainly felt a strong tendency of heart to the wealth.
+
+"That I can't tell you now, nor would you understand it, even if I
+could; but you will know all when what I say is complied with."
+
+"Keep your bottle, dacent woman. I wash my hands out of it: the saints
+above guard me from the timptation! I'm sure it's not right, for as I'm
+a sinner, 'tis gettin' stronger every minute widin me! Keep it! I'm loth
+to bid any one that _ett_ o' my bread to go from my hearth, but if you
+go, I'll make it worth your while. Saints above! what's comin' over me?
+In my whole life I never had such a hankerin' afther money! Well, well,
+but it's quare entirely!"
+
+"Will you drink it?" asked her companion. "If it does hurt or harm to
+you or yours, or anything but good, may what is hanging over me be
+fulfilled!" and she extended a thin, but, considering her years, not
+ungraceful arm, in the act of holding out the bottle to her kind
+entertainer.
+
+"For the sake of all that's good and gracious, take it without
+scruple--it is not hurtful, a child might drink every drop that's in it.
+Oh, for the sake of all you love, and of all that love you, take it!"
+and as she urged her the tears streamed down her cheeks.
+
+"No, no," replied Mrs Sullivan, "it'll never cross my lips; not if it
+made me as rich as ould Hendherson, that airs his guineas in the sun,
+for fraid they'd get light by lyin' past."
+
+"I entreat you to take it," said the strange woman.
+
+"Never, never!--once for all--I say, I won't; so spare your breath."
+
+The firmness of the good housewife was not, in fact, to be shaken; so,
+after exhausting all the motives and arguments with which she could urge
+the accomplishment of her design, the strange woman, having again put
+the bottle into her bosom, prepared to depart.
+
+She had now once more become calm, and resumed her seat with the languid
+air of one who has suffered much exhaustion and excitement. She put her
+hand upon her forehead for a few moments, as if collecting her
+faculties, or endeavouring to remember the purport of their previous
+conversation. A slight moisture had broken through her skin, and
+altogether, notwithstanding her avowed criminality in entering into an
+unholy bond, she appeared an object of deep compassion.
+
+In a moment her manner changed again, and her eyes blazed out once more,
+as she asked her alarmed hostess,--
+
+"Again, Mary Sullivan, will you take the gift that I have it in my power
+to give you? ay or no? speak, poor mortal, if you know what is for your
+own good."
+
+Mrs Sullivan's fears, however, had overcome her love of money,
+particularly as she thought that wealth obtained in such a manner could
+not prosper; her only objection being to the means of acquiring it.
+
+"Oh!" said the stranger, "am I doomed never to meet with anyone who will
+take the promise off me by drinking of this bottle. Oh! but I am
+unhappy! What it is to fear--ah! ah!--and keep _His_ commandments. Had
+_I_ done so in my youthful time, I wouldn't now--ah--merciful mother, is
+there no relief? kill me, tormentor; kill me outright, for surely the
+pangs of eternity cannot be greater than those you now make me suffer.
+Woman," said she, and her muscles stood out in extraordinary
+energy--"woman, Mary Sullivan--ay, if you should kill me--blast
+me--where I stand, I will say the word--woman--you have daughters--teach
+them--to fear----" Having got so far, she stopped--her bosom heaved up
+and down--her frame shook dreadfully--her eyeballs became lurid and
+fiery--her hands were clenched, and the spasmodic throes of inward
+convulsion worked the white froth up to her mouth; at length she
+suddenly became like a statue, with this wild supernatural expression
+intense upon her, and with an awful calmness, by far more dreadful than
+excitement could be, concluded by pronouncing in deep husky tones the
+name of God.
+
+Having accomplished this with such a powerful struggle, she turned round
+with pale despair in her countenance and manner, and with streaming eyes
+slowly departed, leaving Mrs Sullivan in a situation not at all to be
+envied.
+
+In a short time the other members of the family, who had been out at
+their evening employments, returned. Bartley, her husband, having
+entered somewhat sooner than his three daughters from milking, was the
+first to come in; presently the girls followed, and in a few minutes
+they sat down to supper, together with the servants, who dropped in one
+by one, after the toil of the day. On placing themselves about the
+table, Bartley as usual took his seat at the head; but Mrs Sullivan,
+instead of occupying hers, sat at the fire in a state of uncommon
+agitation. Every two or three minutes she would cross herself devoutly,
+and mutter such prayers against spiritual influences of an evil nature
+as she could compose herself to remember.
+
+"Thin, why don't you come to your supper, Mary," said the husband,
+"while the sowans are warm? Brave and thick they are this night, any
+way."
+
+His wife was silent, for so strong a hold had the strange woman and her
+appalling secret upon her mind, that it was not till he repeated his
+question three or four times--raising his head with surprise, and
+asking, "Eh, thin, Mary, what's come over you--is it unwell you
+are?"--that she noticed what he said.
+
+"Supper!" she exclaimed; "unwell! 'tis a good right I have to be
+unwell,--I hope nothing bad will happen, any way. Feel my face, Nannie,"
+she added, addressing one of her daughters; "it's as cowld an' wet as a
+limestone--ay, an' if you found me a corpse before you, it wouldn't be
+at all strange."
+
+There was a general pause at the seriousness of this intimation. The
+husband rose from his supper, and went up to the hearth where she sat.
+
+"Turn round to the light," said he; "why, Mary dear, in the name of
+wondher, what ails you? for you're like a corpse sure enough. Can't you
+tell us what has happened, or what put you in such a state? Why,
+childhre, the cowld sweat's teemin' off her!"
+
+The poor woman, unable to sustain the shock produced by her interview
+with the stranger, found herself getting more weak, and requested a
+drink of water; but before it could be put to her lips, she laid her
+head upon the back of the chair and fainted. Grief, and uproar, and
+confusion followed this alarming incident. The presence of mind, so
+necessary on such occasions, was wholly lost; one ran here, and another
+there, all jostling against each other, without being cool enough to
+render her proper assistance. The daughters were in tears, and Bartley
+himself was dreadfully shocked by seeing his wife apparently lifeless
+before him.
+
+She soon recovered, however, and relieved them from the apprehension of
+her death, which they thought had actually taken place. "Mary," said the
+husband, "something quare entirely has happened, or you wouldn't be in
+this state!"
+
+"Did any of you see a strange woman lavin' the house a minute or two
+before ye came in?" she inquired.
+
+"No," they replied, "not a stim of anyone did we see."
+
+"Wurrah dheelish! No?--now is it possible ye didn't?" She then described
+her, but all declared they had seen no such person.
+
+"Bartley, whisper," said she, and beckoning him over to her, in a few
+words she revealed the secret. The husband grew pale and crossed
+himself. "Mother of Saints! childhre," said he, "a _Lianhan Shee_!" The
+words were no sooner uttered than every countenance assumed the
+pallidness of death; and every right hand was raised in the act of
+blessing the person, and crossing the forehead. "_The Lianhan Shee!!_"
+all exclaimed in fear and horror--"This day's Friday; God betwixt us an'
+harm!"
+
+It was now after dusk, and the hour had already deepened into the
+darkness of a calm, moonless, summer night; the hearth, therefore, in a
+short time, became surrounded by a circle, consisting of every person in
+the house; the door was closed and securely bolted;--a struggle for the
+safest seat took place; and to Bartley's shame be it spoken, he lodged
+himself on the hob within the jamb, as the most distant situation from
+the fearful being known as the _Lianhan Shee_. The recent terror,
+however, brooded over them all; their topic of conversation was the
+mysterious visit, of which Mrs Sullivan gave a painfully accurate
+detail; whilst every ear of those who composed her audience was set, and
+every single hair of their heads bristled up, as if awakened into
+distinct life by the story. Bartley looked into the fire soberly, except
+when the cat, in prowling about the dresser, electrified him into a
+start of fear, which sensation went round every link of the living chain
+about the hearth.
+
+The next day the story spread through the whole neighbourhood,
+accumulating in interest and incident as it went. Where it received the
+touches, embellishments, and emendations, with which it was amplified,
+it would be difficult to say: every one told it, forsooth, _exactly_ as
+he heard it from another, but indeed it is not improbable that those
+through whom it passed were unconscious of the additions it had received
+at their hands. It is not unreasonable to suppose that imagination in
+such cases often colours highly without a premeditated design of
+falsehood. Fear and dread, however, accompanied its progress; such
+families as had neglected to keep holy water in their houses borrowed
+some from their neighbours; every old prayer which had become rusty
+from disuse was brightened up--charms were hung about the necks of
+cattle, and gospels about those of children--crosses were placed over
+the doors and windows;--no unclean water was thrown out before sunrise
+or after dusk--
+
+    "E'en those prayed now who never prayed before,
+    And those who always prayed, still prayed the more."
+
+The inscrutable woman who caused such general dismay in the parish was
+an object of much pity. Avoided, feared, and detested, she could find no
+rest for her weary feet, nor any shelter for her unprotected head. If
+she was seen approaching a house, the door and windows were immediately
+closed against her; if met on the way she was avoided as a pestilence.
+How she lived no one could tell, for none would permit themselves to
+know. It was asserted that she existed without meat or drink, and that
+she was doomed to remain possessed of life, the prey of hunger and
+thirst, until she could get some one weak enough to break the spell by
+drinking her hellish draught, to taste which, they said, would be to
+change places with herself, and assume her despair and misery.
+
+There had lived in the country about six months before her appearance in
+it, a man named Stephenson. He was unmarried, and the last of his
+family. This person led a solitary and secluded life, and exhibited
+during the last years of his existence strong symptoms of eccentricity,
+which for some months before his death assumed a character of
+unquestionable derangement. He was found one morning hanging by a halter
+in his own stable, where he had, under the influence of his malady,
+committed suicide. At this time the public press had not, as now,
+familiarised the minds of the people to that dreadful crime, and it was
+consequently looked upon _then_ with an intensity of horror of which we
+can scarcely entertain any adequate notion. His farm remained
+unoccupied, for while an acre of land could be obtained in any other
+quarter, no man would enter upon such unhallowed premises. The house was
+locked up, and it was currently reported that Stephenson and the devil
+each night repeated the hanging scene in the stable; and that when the
+former was committing the "hopeless sin," the halter slipped several
+times from the beam of the stable-loft, when Satan came, in the shape of
+a dark-complexioned man with a hollow voice, and secured the rope until
+Stephenson's end was accomplished.
+
+In this stable did the wanderer take up her residence at night; and when
+we consider the belief of the people in the night-scenes which were
+supposed to occur in it, we need not be surprised at the new features of
+horror which this circumstance superadded to her character. Her presence
+and appearance in the parish were dreadful; a public outcry was soon
+raised against her, which, were it not from fear of her power over their
+lives and cattle, might have ended in her death. None, however, had
+courage to grapple with her, or to attempt expelling her by violence,
+lest a signal vengeance might be taken on any who dared to injure a
+woman that could call in the terrible aid of the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+In this state of feeling they applied to the parish priest, who, on
+hearing the marvellous stories related concerning her, and on
+questioning each man closely upon his authority, could perceive that,
+like most other reports, they were to be traced principally to the
+imagination and fears of the people. He ascertained, however, enough
+from Bartley Sullivan to justify a belief that there was something
+certainly uncommon about the woman; and being of a cold, phlegmatic
+disposition, with some humour, he desired them to go home, if they were
+wise--he shook his head mysteriously as he spoke--"and do the woman no
+injury, if they didn't wish"--and with this abrupt hint he sent them
+about their business.
+
+This, however, did not satisfy them. In the same parish lived a
+suspended priest, called Father Philip O'Dallaghy, who supported
+himself, as most of them do, by curing certain diseases of the
+people--miraculously! He had no other means of subsistence, nor, indeed,
+did he seem strongly devoted to life, or to the pleasures it afforded.
+He was not addicted to those intemperate habits which characterise
+"Blessed Priests" in general; spirits he never tasted, nor any food that
+could be termed a luxury, or even a comfort. His communion with the
+people was brief, and marked by a tone of severe contemptuous
+misanthropy. He seldom stirred abroad except during morning, or in the
+evening twilight, when he might be seen gliding amidst the coming
+darkness, like a dissatisfied spirit. His life was an austere one, and
+his devotional practices were said to be of the most remorseful
+character. Such a man, in fact, was calculated to hold a powerful sway
+over the prejudices and superstitions of the people. This was true. His
+power was considered almost unlimited, and his life one that would not
+disgrace the highest saint in the calendar. There were not wanting some
+persons in the parish who hinted that Father Felix O'Rourke, the parish
+priest, was himself rather reluctant to incur the displeasure, or
+challenge the power of the _Lianhan Shee_, by driving its victim out of
+the parish. The opinion of these persons was, in its distinct
+unvarnished reality, that Father Felix absolutely showed the white
+feather on this critical occasion--that he became shy, and begged leave
+to decline being introduced to this intractable pair--seeming to
+intimate that he did not at all relish adding them to the stock of his
+acquaintances.
+
+Father Philip they considered as a decided contrast to him on this
+point. His stern and severe manner, rugged, and, when occasion demanded,
+daring, they believed suitable to the qualities requisite for
+sustaining such an interview. They accordingly waited on him; and after
+Bartley and his friends had given as faithful a report of the
+circumstances as, considering all things, could be expected, he told
+Bartley he would hear from Mrs Sullivan's own lips the authentic
+narrative. This was quite satisfactory, and what was expected from him.
+As for himself, he appeared to take no particular interest in the
+matter, further than that of allaying the ferment and alarm which had
+spread through the parish.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "she came in to Mary, and she
+alone in the house, and for the matther o' that, I believe she laid
+hands upon her, and tossed and tumbled the crathur, and she but a sickly
+woman, through the four corners of the house. Not that Mary lets an so
+much, for she's afeard; but I know from her way, when she spakes about
+her, that it's thruth, your Reverence."
+
+"But didn't the _Lianhan Shee_," said one of them, "put a sharp-pointed
+knife to her breast, wid a divilish intintion of makin' her give the
+best of atin' an' dhrinkin' the house afforded?"
+
+"She got the victuals, to a sartinty," replied Bartley, "and
+'overlooked' my woman for her pains; for she's not the picture of
+herself since."
+
+Everyone now told some magnified and terrible circumstance, illustrating
+the formidable power of the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+When they had finished, the sarcastic lip of the priest curled into an
+expression of irony and contempt; his brow, which was naturally black
+and heavy, darkened; and a keen, but rather a ferocious-looking, eye
+shot forth a glance, which, while it intimated disdain for those to whom
+it was directed, spoke also of a dark and troubled spirit in himself.
+The man seemed to brook with scorn the degrading situation of a
+religious quack, to which some uncontrollable destiny had doomed him.
+
+"I shall see your wife to-morrow," said he to Bartley; "and after
+hearing the plain account of what happened, I will consider what is best
+to be done with this dark, perhaps unhappy, perhaps guilty character;
+but whether dark, or unhappy, or guilty, I, for one, should not, and
+will not, avoid her. Go, and bring me word to-morrow evening when I can
+see her on the following day. Begone!"
+
+When they withdrew, Father Philip paced his room for some time in
+silence and anxiety.
+
+"Ay," said he, "infatuated people! sunk in superstition and ignorance,
+yet, perhaps, happier in your degradation than those who, in the pride
+of knowledge, can only look back upon a life of crime and misery. What
+is a sceptic? What is an infidel? Men who, when they will not submit to
+moral restraint, harden themselves into scepticism and infidelity,
+until, in the headlong career of guilt, that which was first adopted to
+lull the outcry of conscience, is supported by the pretended pride of
+principle. Principle in a sceptic! Hollow and devilish lie! Would _I_
+have plunged into scepticism, had I not first violated the moral
+sanctions of religion? Never. I became an infidel, because I first
+became a villain! Writhing under a load of guilt, that which I wished
+might be true, I soon forced myself to think true: and now"--he here
+clenched his hands and groaned--"now--ay, now--and hereafter--oh, _that_
+hereafter! Why can I not shake the thoughts of it from my conscience?
+Religion! Christianity! With all the hardness of an infidel's heart, I
+feel your truth; because, if every man were the villain that infidelity
+would make him, then indeed might every man curse God for the existence
+bestowed upon him--as I would, but dare not do. Yet why can I not
+believe? Alas! why should God accept an unrepentant heart? Am I not a
+hypocrite, mocking Him by a guilty pretension to His power, and leading
+the dark into thicker darkness? Then these hands--blood!--broken
+vows!--ha! ha! ha! Well, go--let misery have its laugh, like the light
+that breaks from the thunder-cloud. Prefer Voltaire to Christ; sow the
+wind, and reap the whirlwind, as I have done--ha, ha, ha! Swim,
+world--swim about me! I have lost the ways of Providence, and am dark!
+_She_ awaits me; but I broke the chain that galled us: yet it still
+rankles--still rankles!"
+
+The unhappy man threw himself into a chair in a paroxysm of frenzied
+agony. For more than an hour he sat in the same posture, until he became
+gradually hardened into a stiff, lethargic insensibility, callous and
+impervious to feeling, reason, or religion--an awful transition from a
+visitation of conscience so terrible as that which he had just suffered.
+At length he arose, and by walking moodily about, relapsed into his
+usual gloomy and restless character.
+
+When Bartley went home, he communicated to his wife Father Philip's
+intention of calling on the following day, to hear a correct account of
+the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+"Why, thin," said she, "I'm glad of it, for I intinded myself to go to
+him, any way, to get my new scapular consecrated. How-an'-ever, as he's
+to come, I'll get a set of gospels for the boys an' girls, an' he can
+consecrate all when his hand's in. Aroon, Bartley, they say that man's
+so holy that he can do anything--ay, melt a body off the face o' the
+earth, like snow off a ditch. Dear me, but the power they have is
+strange all out!"
+
+"There's no use in gettin' him anything to ate or dhrink," replied
+Bartley; "he wouldn't take a glass o' whisky once in seven years.
+Throth, myself thinks he's a little too dhry; sure he might be holy
+enough, an' yet take a sup of an odd time. There's Father Felix, an'
+though we all know he's far from bein' so blessed a man as him, yet he
+has friendship an' neighbourliness in him, an' never refuses a glass in
+rason."
+
+"But do you know what I was tould about Father Philip, Bartley?"
+
+"I'll tell you that afther I hear it, Mary, my woman; you won't expect
+me to tell what I don't know?--ha, ha, ha!"
+
+"Behave, Bartley, an' quit your jokin' now, at all evints; keep it till
+we're talkin' of somethin' else, an' don't let us be committin' sin,
+maybe, while we're spakin' of what we're spakin' about; but they say
+it's as thrue as the sun to the dial:--the Lent afore last itself it
+was,--he never tasted mate or dhrink durin' the whole seven weeks! Oh,
+you needn't stare! it's well known by thim that has as much sinse as
+you--no, not so much as you'd carry on the point o' this
+knittin'-needle. Well, sure the housekeeper an' the two sarvants
+wondhered--faix, they couldn't do less--an' took it into their heads to
+watch him closely; an' what do you think--blessed be all the saints
+above!--what do you think they _seen_?"
+
+"The Goodness above knows; for me--I don't."
+
+"Why, thin, whin he was asleep they seen a small silk thread in his
+mouth, that came down through the ceilin' from heaven, an' he suckin'
+it, just as a child would his mother's breast whin the crathur 'ud be
+asleep: so that was the way he was supported by the angels! An' I
+remimber myself, though he's a dark, spare, yallow man at all times, yet
+he never looked half so fat an' rosy as he did the same Lent!"
+
+"Glory be to Heaven! Well, well--_it is_ sthrange the power they have!
+As for him, I'd as _lee_ meet St Pether, or St Pathrick himself, as him;
+for one can't but fear him, somehow."
+
+"Fear him! Och, it 'ud be the pity o' thim that 'ud do anything to vex
+or anger that man. Why, his very look 'ud wither thim, till there
+wouldn't be the thrack o' thim on the earth; an' as for his curse, why
+it 'ud scorch thim to ashes!"
+
+As it was generally known that Father Philip was to visit Mrs Sullivan
+the next day, in order to hear an account of the mystery which filled
+the parish with such fear, a very great number of the parishioners were
+assembled in and about Bartley's long before he made his appearance. At
+length he was seen walking slowly down the road, with an open book in
+his hand, on the pages of which he looked from time to time. When he
+approached the house, those who were standing about it assembled in a
+body, and, with one consent, uncovered their heads, and asked his
+blessing. His appearance bespoke a mind ill at ease; his face was
+haggard, and his eyes bloodshot. On seeing the people kneel, he smiled
+with his usual bitterness, and, shaking his hand with an air of
+impatience over them, muttered some words, rather in mockery of the
+ceremony than otherwise. They then rose, and, blessing themselves, put
+on their hats, rubbed the dust off their knees, and appeared to think
+themselves recruited by a peculiar accession of grace.
+
+On entering the house the same form was repeated; and when it was over,
+the best chair was placed for him by Mary's own hands, and the fire
+stirred up, and a line of respect drawn, within which none was to
+intrude, lest he might feel in any degree incommoded.
+
+"My good neighbour," said he to Mrs Sullivan, "what strange woman is
+this, who has thrown the parish into such a ferment? I'm told she paid
+you a visit? Pray sit down."
+
+"I humbly thank your Reverence," said Mary, curtseying lowly, "but I'd
+rather not sit, sir, if you, plase. I hope I know what respect manes,
+your Reverence. Barny Bradagh, I'll thank you to stand up, if you plase,
+an' his Reverence to the fore, Barny."
+
+"I ax your Reverence's pardon, an' yours, too, Mrs Sullivan; sure we
+didn't mane the disrespect, anyhow, sir, plase your Reverence."
+
+"About this woman, and the _Lianhan Shee_," said the priest, without
+noticing Barny's apology. "Pray what do you precisely understand by a
+_Lianhan Shee_?"
+
+"Why, sir," replied Mary, "some sthrange bein' from the good people, or
+fairies, that sticks to some persons. There's a bargain, sir, your
+Reverence, made atween thim; an' the divil, sir, that is, the ould
+boy--the saints about us!--has a hand in it. The _Lianhan Shee_, your
+Reverence, is never seen only by thim it keeps wid; but--hem!--it
+always, wid the help of the ould boy, conthrives, sir, to make the
+person brake the agreement, an' thin it has _thim_ in _its_ power; but
+if they _don't_ brake the agreement, thin _it's_ in _their_ power. If
+they can get anybody to put in their place, they may get out o' the
+bargain; for they can, of a sartainty, give oceans o' money to people,
+but can't take any themselves, plase your Reverence. But sure, where's
+the use o' me to be tellin' your Reverence what you know betther nor
+myself?--an' why shouldn't you, or any one that has the power you have?"
+
+He smiled again at this in his own peculiar manner, and was proceeding
+to inquire more particularly into the nature of the interview between
+them, when the noise of feet, and sounds of general alarm, accompanied
+by a rush of people into the house, arrested his attention, and he
+hastily inquired into the cause of the commotion. Before he could
+receive a reply, however, the house was almost crowded; and it was not
+without considerable difficulty that, by the exertions of Mrs Sullivan
+and Bartley, sufficient order and quiet were obtained to hear distinctly
+what was said.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said several voices at once, "they're comin',
+hot-foot, into the very house to us! Was ever the likes seen! an' they
+must know right well, sir, that you're widin it."
+
+"Who are coming?" he inquired.
+
+"Why, the woman, sir, an' her _good pet_, the _Lianhan Shee_, your
+Reverence!"
+
+"Well," said he, "but why should you all appear so blanched with terror?
+Let her come in, and we shall see how far she is capable of injuring her
+fellow-creatures: some maniac," he muttered, in a low soliloquy, "whom
+the villainy of the world has driven into derangement--some victim to a
+hand like m----. Well, they say there _is_ a Providence, yet such things
+are permitted!"
+
+"He's sayin' a prayer now," observed one of them; "haven't we a good
+right to be thankful that he's in the place wid us while she's in it, or
+dear knows what harm she might do us--maybe _rise_ the wind!"
+
+As the latter speaker concluded, there was a dead silence. The persons
+about the door crushed each other backwards, their feet set out before
+them, and their shoulders laid with violent pressure against those who
+stood behind, for each felt anxious to avoid all danger of contact with
+a being against whose power even a blessed priest found it necessary to
+guard himself by a prayer.
+
+At length a low murmur ran among the people--"Father O'Rourke!--here's
+Father O'Rourke!--he has turned the corner after her, an' they're both
+comin' in." Immediately they entered, but it was quite evident, from the
+manner of the worthy priest, that he was unacquainted with the person of
+this singular being. When they crossed the threshold, the priest
+advanced, and expressed his surprise at the throng of people assembled.
+
+"Plase your Reverence," said Bartley, "_that's_ the woman," nodding
+significantly towards her as he spoke, but without looking at her
+person, lest the evil eye he dreaded so much might meet his, and give
+him "the blast."
+
+The dreaded female, on seeing the house in such a crowded state,
+started, paused, and glanced with some terror at the persons assembled.
+Her dress was not altered since her last visit; but her countenance,
+though more meagre and emaciated, expressed but little of the unsettled
+energy which then flashed from her eyes, and distorted her features by
+the depth of that mysterious excitement by which she had been agitated.
+Her countenance was still muffled as before, the awful protuberance rose
+from her shoulders, and the same band which Mrs Sullivan had alluded to
+during their interview, was bound about the upper part of her forehead.
+
+She had already stood upwards of two minutes, during which the fall of a
+feather might be heard, yet none bade God bless her--no kind hand was
+extended to greet her--no heart warmed in affection towards her; on the
+contrary, every eye glanced at her, as a being marked with enmity
+towards God. Blanched faces and knit brows, the signs of fear and
+hatred, were turned upon her; her breath was considered pestilential,
+and her touch paralysis. There she stood, proscribed, avoided, and
+hunted like a tigress, all fearing to encounter, yet wishing to
+exterminate her! Who could she be?--or what had she done, that the
+finger of the Almighty marked her out for such a fearful weight of
+vengeance?
+
+Father Philip rose and advanced a few steps, until he stood confronting
+her. His person was tall, his features dark, severe, and solemn: and
+when the nature of the investigation about to take place is considered,
+it need not be wondered at, that the moment was, to those present, one
+of deep and impressive interest--such as a visible conflict between a
+supposed champion of God and a supernatural being was calculated to
+excite.
+
+"Woman," said he, in his deep stern voice, "tell me who and what you
+are, and why you assume a character of such a repulsive and mysterious
+nature, when it can entail only misery, shame, and persecution on
+yourself? I conjure you, in the name of Him after whose image you are
+created, to speak truly!"
+
+He paused, and the tall figure stood mute before him. The silence was
+dead as death--every breath was hushed--and the persons assembled stood
+immovable as statues! Still she spoke not; but the violent heaving of
+her breast evinced the internal working of some dreadful struggle. Her
+face before was pale--it was now ghastly; her lips became blue, and her
+eyes vacant.
+
+"Speak!" said he; "I conjure you in the name of the power by whom you
+live!"
+
+It is probable that the agitation under which she laboured was produced
+by the severe effort made to sustain the unexpected trial she had to
+undergo.
+
+For some minutes her struggle continued; but having begun at its highest
+pitch, it gradually subsided until it settled in a calmness which
+appeared fixed and awful as the resolution of despair. With breathless
+composure she turned round, and put back that part of her dress which
+concealed her face, except the band on her forehead, which she did not
+remove; having done this, she turned again, and walked calmly towards
+Father Philip, with a deadly smile upon her thin lips. When within a
+step of where he stood, she paused, and, riveting her eyes upon him,
+exclaimed,--
+
+"Who and what am I? The victim of infidelity and you, the bearer of a
+cursed existence, the scoff and scorn of the world, the monument of a
+broken vow and a guilty life, a being scourged by the scorpion lash of
+conscience, blasted by periodical insanity, pelted by the winter's
+storm, scorched by the summer's heat, withered by starvation, hated by
+man, and touched into my inmost spirit by the anticipated tortures of
+future misery. I have no rest for the sole of my foot, no repose for a
+head distracted by the contemplation of a guilty life; I am the unclean
+spirit which walketh to seek rest and findeth none; I am--_what you have
+made me_! Behold," she added, holding up the bottle, "this failed, and I
+live to accuse you. But no, you are my husband--though our union was
+but a guilty form, and I will bury that in silence. You thought me dead,
+and you flew to avoid punishment; did you avoid it? No; the finger of
+God has written pain and punishment upon your brow. I have been in all
+characters, in all shapes, have spoken with the tongue of a peasant,
+moved in my natural sphere, but my knees were smitten, my brain
+stricken, and the wild malady which banishes me from society has been
+upon me for years. Such I am, and such, I say, have you made me. As for
+you, kind-hearted woman, there was nothing in this bottle but pure
+water. The interval of reason returned this day, and having remembered
+glimpses of our conversation, I came to apologise to you, and to explain
+the nature of my unhappy distemper, and to beg a little bread, which I
+have not tasted for two days. I at times conceive myself attended by an
+evil spirit, shaped out by a guilty conscience, and this is the only
+familiar which attends me, and by it I have been dogged into madness
+through every turning of life. Whilst it lasts I am subject to spasms
+and convulsive starts which are exceedingly painful. The lump on my back
+is the robe I wore when innocent in my peaceful convent."
+
+The intensity of general interest was now transferred to Father Philip;
+every face was turned towards him, but he cared not. A solemn stillness
+yet prevailed among all present. From the moment she spoke, her eye drew
+his with the power of a basilisk. His pale face became like marble, not
+a muscle moved; and when she ceased speaking, his bloodshot eyes were
+still fixed upon her countenance with a gloomy calmness like that which
+precedes a tempest. They stood before each other, dreadful counterparts
+in guilt, for truly his spirit was as dark as hers.
+
+At length he glanced angrily around him:--"Well," said he, "what is it
+now, ye poor infatuated wretches, to trust in the sanctity _of man_?
+Learn from me to place the same confidence _in God_ which you place in
+His _guilty creatures_, and you will not lean on a broken reed. Father
+O'Rourke, you, too, witness my disgrace, but not my punishment. It is
+pleasant, no doubt, to have a topic for conversation at your
+Conferences; enjoy it. As for you, Margaret, if society lessen misery,
+we may be less miserable. But the band of your order, and the
+remembrance of your vow is on your forehead, like the mark of Cain--tear
+it off, and let it not blast a man who is the victim of prejudice still,
+nay, of superstition, as well as of guilt; tear it from my sight." His
+eyes kindled fearfully as he attempted to pull it away by force.
+
+She calmly took it off, and he immediately tore it into pieces, and
+stamped upon the fragments as he flung them on the ground.
+
+"Come," said the despairing man--"come--there is a shelter for you, _but
+no peace_!--food, and drink, and raiment, but _no peace_!--NO
+PEACE!" As he uttered these words, in a voice that sank to its
+deepest pitch, he took her hand, and they both departed to his own
+residence.
+
+The amazement and horror of those who were assembled in Bartley's house
+cannot be described. Our readers may be assured that they deepened in
+character as they spread through the parish. An undefined fear of this
+mysterious pair seized upon the people, for their images were associated
+in their minds with darkness and crime, and supernatural communion. The
+departing words of Father Philip rang in their ears: they trembled, and
+devoutly crossed themselves, as fancy again repeated the awful
+exclamation of the priest--"No peace! no peace!"
+
+When Father Philip and his unhappy associate went home, he instantly
+made her a surrender of his small property; but with difficulty did he
+command sufficient calmness to accomplish even this. He was
+distracted--his blood seemed to have been turned to fire--he clenched
+his hands, and he gnashed his teeth, and exhibited the wildest symptoms
+of madness. About ten o'clock he desired fuel for a large fire to be
+brought into the kitchen, and got a strong cord, which he coiled, and
+threw carelessly on the table. The family were then ordered to bed.
+About eleven they were all asleep; and at the solemn hour of twelve he
+heaped additional fuel upon the living turf, until the blaze shone with
+scorching light upon everything around. Dark and desolating was the
+tempest within him, as he paced, with agitated steps, before the
+crackling fire.
+
+"She is risen!" he exclaimed--"the spectre of all my crimes is risen to
+haunt me through life! I _am_ a murderer--yet she lives, and my guilt is
+not the less! The stamp of eternal infamy is upon me--the finger of
+scorn will mark me out--the tongue of reproach will sting me like that
+of the serpent--the deadly touch of shame will cover me like a
+leper--the laws of society will crush the murderer, not the less that
+his wickedness in blood has miscarried: after that comes the black and
+terrible tribunal of the Almighty's vengeance--of His fiery indignation!
+Hush!--What sounds are those? They deepen--they deepen! Is it thunder?
+It cannot be the crackling of the blaze! It _is_ thunder!--but it speaks
+only to _my_ ear! Hush!--Great God, there is a change in my voice! It is
+hollow and supernatural! Could a change have come over me? Am I living?
+Could I have--Hah!--Could I have departed? and am I now at length given
+over to the worm that never dies? If it be at my heart, I may feel it.
+God!--I am damned! Here is a viper twined about my limbs, trying to dart
+its fangs into my heart! Hah!--there are feet pacing in the room, too,
+and I hear voices! I am surrounded by evil spirits! Who's there?--What
+are you?--Speak!--They are silent!--There is no answer! Again comes the
+thunder! But perchance this is not my place of punishment, and I will
+try to leave these horrible spirits!"
+
+He opened the door, and passed out into a small green field that lay
+behind the house. The night was calm, and the silence profound as death.
+Not a cloud obscured the heavens;--the light of the moon fell upon the
+stillness of the scene around him, with all the touching beauty of a
+moonlit midnight in summer. Here he paused a moment, felt his brow, then
+his heart, the palpitations of which fell audibly upon his ear. He
+became somewhat cooler; the images of madness which had swept through
+his stormy brain disappeared, and were succeeded by a lethargic vacancy
+of thought, which almost deprived him of the consciousness of his own
+identity. From the green field he descended mechanically to a little
+glen which opened beside it. It was one of those delightful spots to
+which the heart clingeth. Its sloping sides were clothed with patches of
+wood, on the leaves of which the moonlight glanced with a soft lustre,
+rendered more beautiful by their stillness. That side on which the light
+could not fall, lay in deep shadow, which occasionally gave to the rocks
+and small projecting precipices an appearance of monstrous and unnatural
+life. Having passed through the tangled mazes of the glen, he at length
+reached its bottom, along which ran a brook, such as, in the description
+of the poet,--
+
+    "In the leafy month of June,
+    Unto the sleeping woods all night,
+    Singeth a quiet tune."
+
+Here he stood, and looked upon the green winding margin of the
+streamlet--but its song he heard not. With the workings of a guilty
+conscience, the beautiful in nature can have no association. He looked
+up the glen, but its picturesque windings, soft vistas, and wild
+underwood mingling with grey rocks and taller trees, all mellowed by the
+moon-beams, had no charms for him. He maintained a profound silence--but
+it was not the silence of peace or reflection. He endeavoured to recall
+the scenes of the past day, but could not bring them back to his
+memory. Even the fiery tide of thought, which, like burning lava, seared
+his brain a few moments before, was now cold and hardened. He could
+remember nothing. The convulsion of his mind was over, and his faculties
+were impotent and collapsed.
+
+In this state he unconsciously retraced his steps, and had again reached
+the paddock adjoining his house, when, as he thought, the figure of his
+paramour stood before him. In a moment his former paroxysm returned, and
+with it the gloomy images of a guilty mind, charged with the extravagant
+horrors of brain-struck madness.
+
+"What!" he exclaimed, "the band still on your forehead! Tear it off!"
+
+He caught at the form as he spoke, but there was no resistance to his
+grasp. On looking again towards the spot, it had ceased to be visible.
+The storm within him arose once more; he rushed into the kitchen, where
+the fire blazed out with fiercer heat; again he imagined that the
+thunder came to his ears, but the thunderings which he heard were only
+the voice of conscience. Again his own footsteps and his voice sounded
+in his fancy as the footsteps and voices of fiends, with which his
+imagination peopled the room. His state and his existence seemed to him
+a confused and troubled dream; he tore his hair--threw it on the
+table--and immediately started back with a hollow groan; for his locks,
+which but a few hours before had been as black as the raven's wing, were
+now white as snow!
+
+On discovering this, he gave a low but frantic laugh. "Ha, ha, ha!" he
+exclaimed; "here is another mark--here is food for despair. Silently,
+but surely, did the hand of God work this, as a proof that I am
+hopeless! But I will bear it; I will bear the sight! I now feel myself a
+man blasted by the eye of God Himself! Ha, ha, ha! Food for despair!
+Food for despair!"
+
+Immediately he passed into his own room, and approaching the
+looking-glass beheld a sight calculated to move a statue. His hair had
+become literally white, but the shades of his dark complexion, now
+distorted by terror and madness, flitted, as his features worked under
+the influence of his tremendous passions, into an expression so
+frightful, that deep fear came over himself. He snatched one of his
+razors, and fled from the glass to the kitchen. He looked upon the fire,
+and saw the white ashes lying around its edge.
+
+"Ha!" said he, "the light is come! I see the sign. I am directed, and I
+will follow it. There is yet ONE hope. The immolation! I shall
+be saved, yet so as by fire. It is for this my hair has become
+white;--the sublime warning for my self-sacrifice! The colour of
+ashes!--white--white! It is so!--I will sacrifice my body in material
+fire, to save my soul from that which is eternal! But I had anticipated
+the SIGN! The self-sacrifice is accepted!"
+
+We must here draw a veil over that which ensued, as the description of
+it would be both unnatural and revolting. Let it be sufficient to say,
+that the next morning he was found burnt to a cinder, with the exception
+of his feet and legs, which remained as monuments of, perhaps, the most
+dreadful suicide that ever was committed by man. His razor, too, was
+found bloody, and several clots of gore were discovered about the
+hearth; from which circumstances it was plain that he had reduced his
+strength so much by loss of blood, that when he committed himself to the
+flames, he was unable, even had he been willing, to avoid the fiery and
+awful sacrifice of which he made himself the victim. If anything could
+deepen the impression of fear and awe, already so general among the
+people, it was the unparalleled nature of his death. Its circumstances
+are yet remembered in the parish and county wherein it occurred--_for it
+is no fiction_, gentle reader! and the titular bishop who then presided
+over the diocese declared, that while he lived no person bearing the
+unhappy man's name should ever be admitted to the clerical order.
+
+The shock produced by his death struck the miserable woman into the
+utter darkness of settled derangement. She survived him some years, but
+wandered about through the province, still, according to the
+superstitious belief of the people, tormented by the terrible enmity of
+the _Lianhan Shee_.
+
+
+
+
+XVI
+
+THE HAUNTED COVE
+
+By SIR GEORGE DOUGLAS, Bart.
+
+
+Commonplace in itself and showing positive vulgarity in the style in
+which its pleasure-grounds are laid out, Clyffe, near Berwick-on-Tweed,
+has yet one delightful feature of its own,--to wit, a private bay to
+which access is obtained by a tunnel seventy or eighty yards long, cut
+through the soft formation of the cliff from the sloping gardens above.
+The result is that, if you are a visitor at Clyffe, you have your own
+private bathing ground, your own private beach where the children may
+play, without fear of being encroached upon, unless, indeed, a boat
+should be run in among the rocks from seaward. In the early nineties of
+the last century, the only daughter of the house of Clyffe was engaged
+to be married to a young officer quartered at the military depot at
+Berwick. They were a blameless but not particularly interesting couple,
+and one of their hobbies was to meet and promenade on the smooth sands
+of Clyffe bay in the brilliant autumn moonlight. In order to prevent
+possible intrusion from the sea, the seaward end of the tunnel was
+closed by a heavy iron gate, and upon the inner side of this gate the
+Lieutenant was to wait until his fiancee should steal forth bringing
+with her the key which should give access to the beach. It was all very
+foolish and romantic, no doubt, for they might have met just as
+conveniently in the conservatory of Clyffe House, where their privacy
+would have been equally respected, and where Miss Alix's satin shoes
+and diaphanous draperies would have exposed her to no risk of a chill.
+Lovers are like that, however, and had they not been so on this
+occasion, I should have had no story to tell.
+
+Like the exemplary swain he was, Dick arrived early at the
+rendezvous,--that is to say, early in respect to the time agreed upon,
+though, as a matter of fact, it was nearly eleven o'clock. There he lit
+a cigarette, and approaching the heavy iron bars of the locked gate,
+looked forth upon the peaceful scene beyond. It was a perfect night, the
+harvest moon riding through fleecy cloud aloft, whilst the breaking of
+the sea between the rocky points to right and left was soothing in its
+gentle iteration. Dick had been on parade extremely early that morning,
+and, tell it not in Gath! his eyes involuntarily closed. Starting awake
+again, he saw with surprise that, though Alix had not yet come forward,
+he was no longer alone. No! the sacred beach had been invaded, and a
+female figure clad in light draperies was pacing slowly in the moonlight
+betwixt himself and the distant rocks. Who on earth could she be, and
+how had she got there? were the questions he asked himself, his first
+sensation being one of annoyance at so unexpected and so ill-timed an
+intrusion. But as the moments passed and the figure came more clearly
+into view, impatience gave way to curiosity, and curiosity to something
+like awe.
+
+What he saw was the tall and slender form of a young girl whose hands
+were clasped in front of her, and whose eyes were fixed on the ground in
+a pensive, not to say sorrowful, attitude. Clear as was the moonlight,
+at least in the intervals of the moon's passage through the broken
+clouds, her features were not plainly visible; but her every movement
+was instinct with grace. What could she be doing there? Under other
+circumstances, possibly Dick might have felt inclined to pass the gate
+and himself step forth on to the sands. But, besides that the gate was
+locked, he gradually became conscious of a singular delicacy or
+unwillingness to intrude upon the privacy of this solitary,
+inexplicable, and impressive figure. He was content, therefore, to watch
+her noiseless progress, and, as he did so, even his untrained masculine
+eye seemed to note something unusual--out of date, it might be--in the
+fashion of her garments. So perhaps might some old-world portrait have
+appeared, had it stept down from its frame against the wall. This,
+however, stirred him little. What he was not prepared for was the
+gesture of anguish, nay, of positive despair, with which, when about
+opposite him, the figure threw her head back and her arms aloft, as if
+in mute and agonised appeal to Heaven. The action was heart-rending even
+to look on; nor, to a male eye, did it lose aught from the fact that, as
+the moonlight now fell for the first time on her upturned face, it
+showed it to be deathly pale indeed, but also exquisitely lovely.
+Another moment or two, and the graceful and appealing form had passed
+beyond his field of vision, for, as the locked gate stood some little
+way back from the mouth of the tunnel, his view was restricted.
+
+A short time only, though he knew not exactly how long, had passed when
+Alix stood beside him.
+
+"I had some difficulty," she archly explained, "in eluding prying eyes."
+
+For an ardent lover, Dick's greetings were perfunctory; after which,
+being still powerfully under the impression of what he had just seen, he
+told Alix all about it.
+
+"We shall soon see who she is," replied that practical young lady, as
+she placed the heavy key in the cumbrous lock, "and I shall also take
+leave to inform her that this bit of coast is strictly private."
+
+And strictly private it appeared to be when they emerged from the
+tunnel. For though their eyes swept the beach to right and left, and
+though the moon just then was unobscured, they saw no trace of any
+living form.
+
+"She must have landed from a boat," said Alix; but as little trace of a
+boat could they discover.
+
+Still it was quite possible that she might pass unobserved against the
+dark rocks, so they turned first to the right, then to the left, keeping
+a keen look-out for any sign of motion.
+
+They detected nothing.
+
+And by this time I am bound to confess that a slightly uncomplimentary
+suspicion had more than once crossed the brain of Alix. She knew that,
+as a rule, her Dick was a pattern of moderation. But even the most
+prudent may be liable to be occasionally overtaken. And she recalled his
+having mentioned that this was to be a guest-night at the mess. Indeed,
+it was chiefly upon that account that the assignation had been fixed so
+late. This present portentous solemnity was certainly most unlike him.
+Was it possible that the poor fellow had taken just one more
+whisky-and-soda than he could conveniently carry? Outspoken by nature,
+she blurted out her suspicion, which was strengthened rather than the
+reverse by the great earnestness with which he repelled it.
+
+Less convinced than before, Alix then exclaimed: "Look here, Dick! If,
+as you say, the young woman passed this way, she must have left tracks
+on the smooth sand. Where do you say the place was?"
+
+With some uncertainty, Dick then led her to what he took to be the
+place. No tracks were there. He then tried further back from the mouth
+of the tunnel, and with as little success. It was true the tide was
+coming up, but it could scarcely yet have reached footmarks which had
+been imprinted so far inshore as he supposed these to have been.
+
+In a spirit of levity which jarred on him, Alix now recommended her
+lover to go back to his quarters and have a good sleep; and then, having
+again passed through the gate and pushed their way up the tunnel, the
+two young people parted in something very like a tiff.
+
+Dick did not call at Clyffe House the next day, and when he called on
+the day following, Alix met him in a complaisant mood. After all, she
+had no wish to quarrel with him. And very soon she said, "Going back to
+what you told me you had seen the other night, Dick, it occurred to me,
+after you were gone, that it fits in rather curiously with an old story
+connected with this place." And then, at his request, she proceeded to
+tell him how, some thirty years ago, her grandmother had had a favourite
+maid, a friendless orphan girl named Barbara, to whom attached a
+mystery. Barbara was a very lovely creature of refinement and education
+above her station, and she had of course numerous admirers. Young as she
+was, her discretion was faultless, with the sole exception that her
+native amiability and desire to please sometimes betrayed her into
+conduct which meant less than her admirers wished to think it did. Well,
+at last Barbara became plighted to a respectable young fisherman,
+part-owner of a boat sailing from The Greenses, and, though details were
+vague, it was generally understood that, as a consequence, several
+hearts were severely damaged. As Barbara had no relatives, it was
+arranged by her employer that she should remain in her situation until
+the wedding-day and should be married from Clyffe House. Considerable
+preparations had also been made to do honour to the occasion,
+when--judge of the consternation of the inmates of the house!--upon the
+morning of the wedding-day Barbara was not to be found. She was believed
+to have retired to rest on the previous night as usual, yet her bed had
+not been slept in. Nor, although most of her clothes were packed in
+anticipation of her change of domicile, had she apparently taken
+anything with her. Nothing in the least unusual had been observed in her
+demeanour; nor could the unhappy bridegroom suggest any possible motive
+for her conduct. Exhaustive inquiries and exhaustive search were made;
+but, to cut the story short, nothing had ever again been seen or heard
+of the fair Barbara to that day. Her mistress, who had been sincerely
+attached to her, had long mourned for her, and in after times would
+often sing her praises. But, in order to be quite candid, it must be
+acknowledged that there were others, not a few, who declined to believe
+that the girl had come to an untimely end; and, who, knowing that she
+had several suitors, and had sometimes appeared uncertain which to
+favour, preferred to think that she had changed her mind at the last
+moment, and, deciding to throw over her fisherman, had made her escape
+from Clyffe House during the night to join some more eligible swain.
+This would have been a desperate step indeed; nor could her conduct in
+withholding subsequent explanations be absolved of heartlessness. But,
+after all, she was the sort of girl who, where no actual misconduct was
+involved, might easily allow herself to be over-persuaded. And certainly
+the tangled skein of love does sometimes present a knot which must be
+cut rather than untied.
+
+The Lieutenant professed himself profoundly interested in this
+narrative, which he and Alix then proceeded to discuss in all its
+bearings, and more particularly, of course, in its relation to the
+figure seen by him in the cove. It is true that Alix never quite
+believed in the genuineness of the apparition; but, seeing that Dick
+really wished to have it taken seriously, she decided tactfully to
+humour him, and made quite a nine days' wonder of the mysterious
+occurrence. Their own wedding-day was, however, fast drawing on, so they
+soon found other things to talk and think of. To be brief, they were in
+due course married, and, amid the cares and pleasures of wedded life,
+the story, though not forgotten, came to be very seldom referred to. So
+twenty years passed; at the end of which time the Colonel (as he now
+was), accompanied by his wife and several youngsters, paid one of his
+not very frequent visits to his wife's parents at Clyffe House.
+
+On the first night of the visit, after dinner, Alix's father had
+significantly recalled the story of the maid Barbara's disappearance,
+and, after stating that the mystery had now been finally cleared up, had
+gone on to relate the following particulars:--A few days previously
+there had lain at the point of death in the infirmary at Berwick an aged
+fisherman, who had long been known in the seaport town for his solitary
+habits and morose and violent ways. As death drew near, it became
+evident that his mind was sorely troubled, and to one of the nurses or
+doctors who had sought to comfort him he had been led to make the
+acknowledgment that a guilty secret weighed upon his soul, making him
+fearful to confront his Maker. He then told how, as a young man, he had
+passionately loved a pretty servant-girl employed at Clyffe House.
+Misled by those smiles and that graciousness of manner which in the
+guileless amiability of her nature the girl lavished upon all alike, he
+had for a moment imagined himself her favoured suitor. How bitter, then,
+was the blow, and how rude the awakening when he learned that a younger
+brother of his own, a mere boy, was preferred before himself! Nor was it
+only unrequited love that grieved him. No, he believed, or managed to
+persuade himself, that an unfair advantage had been taken of him, by
+which he had been made the lovers' dupe. A silent man, he took no one
+into his confidence, but abode his time until the eve of the
+wedding-day. On that day he had accidentally intercepted a note from the
+girl Barbara, addressed to his brother, in which she had agreed to meet
+her bridegroom of the morrow in the cove below Clyffe House one hour
+before midnight, to spend a final hour together before the momentous
+crisis in their lives. Instantly it had occurred to the elder brother to
+use the knowledge gained from the note in order to make one last
+desperate appeal on his own account to the sweet girl he loved so
+madly. Accordingly he kept back the missive, and, to make assurance
+doubly sure, mixed a soporific drug with his brother's drink when the
+latter came in from fishing. Then, whilst the youngster slumbered
+heavily, he himself embarked in a cockle-boat and, unobserved, rowed
+quietly round the headland, into Clyffe cove, where he ran his boat into
+a safe creek he knew of, and jumped ashore. Poor Barbara had come down
+to the water's edge to meet the boat, and great was her consternation on
+finding herself confronted by the wrong brother.
+
+Then an impassioned scene was enacted, in which the seaman used every
+means of persuasion known to him to get the girl to give up his brother
+and plight herself to him. But though alternately distressed and
+terrified, Barbara had stood her ground, and, gentle and yielding though
+she appeared to be, neither threats nor vows had had the slightest
+effect upon her constancy. And then, of a sudden, the reckless brother
+had "seen red." If he could not have this girl to wife, then neither
+should another, and a moment later her white form lay stretched upon the
+dark rocks at his feet.
+
+The sight brought him to himself. There was no room for doubt that life
+was extinct; and if he was to escape suspicion, he must act at once, for
+the summer night was short and the dread interview had lasted long. He
+accordingly placed the body in the boat, and, having collected several
+heavy stones, proceeded to make use of his seacraft by binding them
+closely and firmly about the poor girl's body by means of her clothing.
+Then he rowed out to sea, some mile or more, and there quietly dropped
+the body overboard. Such, in essentials, was the story told by the dying
+fisherman, and so it had come about that the bride of that fatal morning
+was never seen or heard of more. Though possibly intended to be regarded
+as confidential, certain it is that the confession had leaked out, and
+very soon became public property. For a few days it attracted great
+attention; and then, like other more important things which had preceded
+it, it ceased, save very occasionally, to be alluded to at all. But the
+Colonel never forgot it, any more than he ever forgot the lovely and
+inexplicable vision which had appeared to him for so brief an interval,
+in the moonlight, on the shore below Clyffe House. It is true that he
+seldom referred to it. Nor did that stately dame, who had once been Miss
+Alix and who was now believed to command the regiment, encourage him to
+do so. For she had observed that he was always most ready to tell the
+story after an exceptionally good dinner. And, with her high sense of
+what was due to his rank, she fancied that it made him mildly
+ridiculous. Neither, it might be, had her earliest doubts been ever
+wholly laid to rest. But members of the fair sex, when they are
+practical, are apt to be very practical indeed.
+
+
+
+
+XVII
+
+WANDERING WILLIE'S TALE
+
+By SIR WALTER SCOTT
+
+
+Ye maun have heard of Sir Robert Redgauntlet of that Ilk, who lived in
+these parts before the dear years. The country will lang mind him; and
+our fathers used to draw breath thick if ever they heard him named. He
+was out wi' the Hielandmen in Montrose's time; and again he was in the
+hills wi' Glencairn in the saxteen hundred and fifty-twa; and sae when
+King Charles the Second came in, wha was in sic favour as the Laird of
+Redgauntlet? He was knighted at Lonon court, wi' the King's ain sword;
+and being a redhot prelatist, he came down here, rampauging like a lion,
+with commissions of lieutenancy (and of lunacy, for what I ken), to put
+down a' the Whigs and Covenanters in the country. Wild wark they made of
+it; for the Whigs were as dour as the Cavaliers were fierce, and it was
+which should first tire the other. Redgauntlet was aye for the strong
+hand; and his name is kend as wide in the country as Claverhouse's or
+Tam Dalyell's. Glen, nor dargle, nor mountain, nor cave, could hide the
+puir hill-folk when Redgauntlet was out with bugle and bloodhound after
+them, as if they had been sae mony deer. And troth when they fand them,
+they didna mak muckle mair ceremony than a Hielandman wi' a
+roebuck--It was just, "Will ye tak the test?"--if not, "Make
+ready--present--fire!"--and there lay the recusant.
+
+Far and wide was Sir Robert hated and feared. Men thought he had a
+direct compact with Satan--that he was proof against steel--and that
+bullets happed aff his buff-coat like hailstanes from a hearth--that he
+had a mear that would turn a hare on the side of Carrifragawns[6]--and
+muckle to the same purpose, of whilk mair anon. The best blessing they
+wared on him was, "Deil scowp wi' Redgauntlet!" He wasna a bad maister
+to his ain folk, though, and was weel aneugh liked by his tenants; and
+as for the lackies and troopers that rade out wi' him to the
+persecutions, as the Whigs caa'd those killing times, they wad hae
+drunken themsells blind to his health at ony time.
+
+Now you are to ken that my gudesire lived on Redgauntlet's grund--they
+ca' the place Primrose-Knowe. We had lived on the grund, and under the
+Redgauntlets, since the riding days, and lang before. It was a pleasant
+bit; and I think the air is callerer and fresher there than ony where
+else in the country. It's a' deserted now; and I sat on the broken
+door-cheek three days since, and was glad I couldna see the plight the
+place was in; but that's a' wide o' the mark. There dwelt my gudesire,
+Steenie Steenson, a rambling, rattling chiel he had been in his young
+days, and could play weel on the pipes; he was famous at "Hoopers and
+Girders"--a' Cumberland couldna touch him at "Jockie Lattin"--and he had
+the finest finger for the backlilt between Berwick and Carlisle. The
+like o' Steenie wasna the sort that they made Whigs o'. And so he became
+a Tory, as they ca' it, which we now ca' Jacobites, just out of a kind
+of needcessity, that he might belang to some side or other. He had nae
+ill-will to the Whig bodies, and liked little to see the blude rin,
+though, being obliged to follow Sir Robert in hunting and hosting,
+watching and warding, he saw muckle mischief, and maybe did some, that
+he couldna avoid.
+
+Now Steenie was a kind of favourite with his master, and kend a' the
+folks about the Castle, and was often sent for to play the pipes when
+they were at their merriment. Auld Dougal MacCallum, the butler, that
+had followed Sir Robert through gude and ill, thick and thin, pool and
+stream, was specially fond of the pipes, and aye gae my gudesire his
+gude word wi' the Laird; for Dougal could turn his master round his
+finger.
+
+Weel, round came the Revolution, and it had like to have broken the
+hearts baith of Dougal and his master. But the change was not
+a'thegether sae great as they feared, and other folk thought for. The
+Whigs made an unco crawing what they wad do with their auld enemies, and
+in special wi' Sir Robert Redgauntlet. But there were ower mony great
+folks dipped in the same doings, to mak a spick and span new warld. So
+Parliament passed it a' ower easy; and Sir Robert, bating that he was
+held to hunting foxes instead of Covenanters, remained just the man he
+was. His revel was as loud, and his hall as weel lighted, as ever it had
+been, though maybe he lacked the fines of the nonconformists, that used
+to come to stock his larder and cellar; for it is certain he began to be
+keener about the rents than his tenants used to find him before, and
+they behoved to be prompt to the rent-day, or else the Laird wasna
+pleased. And he was sic an awsome body, that naebody cared to anger him;
+for the oaths he swore, and the rage that he used to get into, and the
+looks that he put on, made men sometimes think him a devil incarnate.[7]
+
+Weel, my gudesire was nae manager--no that he was a very great
+misguider--but he hadna the saving gift, and he got twa terms' rent in
+arrear. He got the first brash at Whitsunday put ower wi' fair word and
+piping; but when Martinmas came, there was a summons from the
+grund-officer to come wi' the rent on a day preceese, or else Steenie
+behoved to flit. Sair wark he had to get the siller; but he was
+weel-freended, and at last he got the haill scraped thegether--a
+thousand merks--the maist of it was from a neighbour they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik--a sly tod. Laurie had walth o' gear--could hunt wi' the hound
+and rin wi' the hare--and be Whig or Tory, saunt or sinner, as the wind
+stood. He was a professor in this Revolution warld, but he liked an orra
+sough of this warld, and a tune on the pipes weel aneugh at a by time;
+and abune a', he thought he had a gude security for the siller he lent
+my gudesire ower the stocking at Primrose-Knowe.
+
+Away trots my gudesire to Redgauntlet Castle, wi' a heavy purse and a
+light heart, glad to be out of the Laird's danger. Weel, the first thing
+he learned at the Castle was, that Sir Robert had fretted himself into a
+fit of the gout, because he did not appear before twelve o'clock. It
+wasna a'thegether for sake of the money, Dougal thought; but because he
+didna like to part wi' my gudesire aff the grund. Dougal was glad to see
+Steenie, and brought him into the great oak parlour, and there sat the
+Laird his leesome lane, excepting that he had beside him a great,
+ill-favoured jackanape, that was a special pet of his; a cankered beast
+it was, and mony an ill-natured trick it played--ill to please it was,
+and easily angered--ran about the haill castle, chattering and yowling,
+and pinching, and biting folk, especially before ill-weather, or
+disturbances in the state. Sir Robert caa'd it Major Weir, after the
+warlock that was burnt;[8] and few folk liked either the name or the
+conditions of the creature--they thought there was something in it by
+ordinar--and my gudesire was not just easy in his mind when the door
+shut on him, and he saw himself in the room wi' naebody but the Laird,
+Dougal MacCallum, and the Major, a thing that hadna chanced to him
+before.
+
+Sir Robert sat, or, I should say, lay, in a great armchair, wi' his
+grand velvet gown, and his feet on a cradle; for he had baith gout and
+gravel, and his face looked as gash and ghastly as Satan's. Major Weir
+sat opposite to him, in a red laced coat, and the Laird's wig on his
+head; and aye as Sir Robert girned wi' pain, the jackanape girned too,
+like a sheep's-head between a pair of tangs--an ill-faur'd, fearsome
+couple they were. The Laird's buff-coat was hung on a pin behind him,
+and his broadsword and his pistols within reach; for he keepit up the
+auld fashion of having the weapons ready, and a horse saddled day and
+night, just as he used to do when he was able to loup on horseback, and
+away after ony of the hill-folk he could get speerings of. Some said it
+was for fear of the Whigs taking vengeance, but I judge it was just his
+auld custom--he wasna gien to fear ony thing. The rental-book, wi' its
+black cover and brass clasps, was lying beside him; and a book of
+sculduddry sangs was put betwixt the leaves, to keep it open at the
+place where it bore evidence against the Goodman of Primrose-Knowe, as
+behind the hand with his mails and duties. Sir Robert gave my gudesire a
+look, as if he would have withered his heart in his bosom. Ye maun ken
+he had a way of bending his brows, that men saw the visible mark of a
+horse-shoe in his forehead, deep-dinted, as if it had been stamped
+there.
+
+"Are ye come light-handed, ye son of a toom whistle?" said Sir Robert.
+"Zounds! if you are----"
+
+My gudesire, with as gude a countenance as he could put on, made a leg,
+and placed the bag of money on the table wi' a dash, like a man that
+does something clever. The Laird drew it to him hastily--"Is it all
+here, Steenie, man?"
+
+"Your honour will find it right," said my gudesire.
+
+"Here, Dougal," said the Laird, "gie Steenie a tass of brandy down
+stairs, till I count the siller and write the receipt."
+
+But they werena weel out of the room, when Sir Robert gied a yelloch
+that garr'd the Castle rock. Back ran Dougal--in flew the livery
+men--yell on yell gied the Laird, ilk ane mair awfu' than the ither. My
+gudesire knew not whether to stand or flee, but he ventured back into
+the parlour, where a' was gaun hirdy-girdie--naebody to say "come in,"
+or "gae out." Terribly the Laird roared for cauld water to his feet, and
+wine to cool his throat; and hell, hell, hell, and its flames, was aye
+the word in his mouth. They brought him water, and when they plunged his
+swoln feet into the tub, he cried out it was burning; and folk say that
+it _did_ bubble and sparkle like a seething caldron. He flung the cup at
+Dougal's head, and said he had given him blood instead of burgundy; and,
+sure aneugh, the lass washed clotted blood aff the carpet the neist day.
+The jackanape they caa'd Major Weir, it jibbered and cried as if it was
+mocking its master; my gudesire's head was like to turn--he forgot baith
+siller and receipt, and down stairs he banged; but as he ran, the
+shrieks came faint and fainter; there was a deep-drawn shivering groan,
+and word gaed through the Castle, that the Laird was dead.
+
+Weel, away came my gudesire, wi' his finger in his mouth, and his best
+hope was, that Dougal had seen the money-bag, and heard the Laird speak
+of writing the receipt. The young Laird, now Sir John, came from
+Edinburgh, to see things put to rights. Sir John and his father never
+gree'd weel. Sir John had been bred an advocate, and afterwards sat in
+the last Scots Parliament and voted for the Union, having gotten, it was
+thought, a rug of the compensations--if his father could have come out
+of his grave, he would have brained him for it on his awn hearthstane.
+Some thought it was easier counting with the auld rough Knight than the
+fair-spoken young ane--but mair of that anon.
+
+Dougal MacCallum, poor body, neither grat nor graned, but gaed about the
+house looking like a corpse, but directing, as was his duty, a' the
+order of the grand funeral. Now, Dougal looked aye waur and waur when
+night was coming, and was aye the last to gang to his bed, whilk was in
+a little round just opposite the chamber of dais, whilk his master
+occupied while he was living, and where he now lay in state, as they
+caa'd it, weel-a-day! The night before the funeral, Dougal could keep
+his awn counsel nae langer; he cam doun with his proud spirit, and
+fairly asked auld Hutcheon to sit in his room with him for an hour. When
+they were in the round, Dougal took ae tass of brandy to himsell, and
+gave another to Hutcheon, and wished him all health and lang life, and
+said that, for himsell, he wasna lang for this world; for that, every
+night since Sir Robert's death, his silver call had sounded from the
+state-chamber, just as it used to do at nights in his lifetime, to call
+Dougal to help to turn him in his bed. Dougal said, that being alone
+with the dead on that floor of the tower (for naebody cared to wake Sir
+Robert Redgauntlet like another corpse), he had never daured to answer
+the call, but that now his conscience checked him for neglecting his
+duty; for, "though death breaks service," said MacCallum, "it shall
+never break my service to Sir Robert; and I will answer his next
+whistle, so be you will stand by me, Hutcheon."
+
+Hutcheon had nae will to the wark, but he had stood by Dougal in battle
+and broil, and he wad not fail him at this pinch; so down the carles sat
+ower a stoup of brandy, and Hutcheon, who was something of a clerk,
+would have read a chapter of the Bible; but Dougal would hear naething
+but a blaud of Davie Lindsay, whilk was the waur preparation.
+
+When midnight came, and the house was quiet as the grave, sure aneugh
+the silver whistle sounded as sharp and shrill as if Sir Robert was
+blowing it, and up gat the twa auld serving-men, and tottered into the
+room where the dead man lay. Hutcheon saw aneugh at the first glance;
+for there were torches in the room, which showed him the foul fiend, in
+his ain shape, sitting on the Laird's coffin! Over he cowped as if he
+had been dead. He could not tell how lang he lay in a trance at the
+door, but when he gathered himself, he cried on his neighbour, and
+getting nae answer, raised the house, when Dougal was found lying dead
+within twa steps of the bed where his master's coffin was placed. As for
+the whistle, it was gaen anes and aye; but mony a time was it heard at
+the top of the house on the bartizan, and amang the auld chimneys and
+turrets, where the howlets have their nests. Sir John hushed the matter
+up, and the funeral passed over without mair bogle-wark.
+
+But when a' was ower, and the Laird was beginning to settle his affairs,
+every tenant was called up for his arrears, and my gudesire for the full
+sum that stood against him in the rental-book. Weel, away he trots to
+the Castle, to tell his story, and there he is introduced to Sir John,
+sitting in his father's chair, in deep mourning, with weepers and
+hanging cravat, and a small walking rapier by his side, instead of the
+auld broadsword, that had a hundred-weight of steel about it, what with
+blade, chape, and basket-hilt. I have heard their communing so often
+tauld ower, that I almost think I was there mysell, though I couldna be
+born at the time. (In fact, Alan, my companion mimicked, with a good
+deal of humour, the flattering, conciliating tone of the tenant's
+address, and the hypocritical melancholy of the Laird's reply. His
+grandfather, he said, had, while he spoke, his eye fixed on the
+rental-book, as if it were a mastiff-dog that he was afraid would spring
+up and bite him.)
+
+"I wuss ye joy, sir, of the head seat, and the white loaf, and the braid
+lairdship. Your father was a kind man to friends and followers; muckle
+grace to you, Sir John, to fill his shoon--his boots, I suld say, for he
+seldom wore shoon, unless it were muils when he had the gout."
+
+"Ay, Steenie," quoth the Laird, sighing deeply and putting his napkin to
+his een, "his was a sudden call, and he will be missed in the country;
+no time to set his house in order--weel prepared Godward, no doubt,
+which is the root of the matter--but left us behind a tangled hesp to
+wind, Steenie.--Hem! hem! We maun go to business, Steenie; much to do,
+and little time to do it in."
+
+Here he opened the fatal volume. I have heard of a thing they call
+Doomsday-book--I am clear it has been a rental of back-ganging tenants.
+
+"Stephen," said Sir John, still in the same soft, sleekit tone of
+voice--"Stephen Stevenson, or Steenson, ye are down here for a year's
+rent behind the hand--due at last term."
+
+_Stephen._ "Please your honour, Sir John, I paid it to your father."
+
+_Sir John._ "Ye took a receipt then, doubtless, Stephen; and can produce
+it?"
+
+_Stephen._ "Indeed I hadna time, an it like your honour; for nae sooner
+had I set doun the siller, and just as his honour Sir Robert, that's
+gaen, drew it till him to count it, and write out the receipt, he was
+ta'en wi' the pains that removed him."
+
+"That was unlucky," said Sir John, after a pause. "But you maybe paid it
+in the presence of somebody. I want but a _talis qualis_ evidence,
+Stephen. I would go ower strictly to work with no poor man."
+
+_Stephen._ "Troth, Sir John, there was naebody in the room but Dougal
+MacCallum the butler. But, as your honour kens, he has e'en followed his
+auld master."
+
+"Very unlucky again, Stephen," said Sir John, without altering his voice
+a single note. "The man to whom ye paid the money is dead--and the man
+who witnessed the payment is dead too--and the siller, which should have
+been to the fore, is neither seen nor heard tell of in the repositories.
+How am I to believe a' this?"
+
+_Stephen._ "I dinna ken, your honour; but there is a bit memorandum note
+of the very coins; for, God help me! I had to borrow out of twenty
+purses; and I am sure that ilka man there set down will take his grit
+oath for what purpose I borrowed the money."
+
+_Sir John._ "I have little doubt ye _borrowed_ the money, Steenie. It is
+the _payment_ to my father that I want to have some proof of."
+
+_Stephen._ "The siller maun be about the house, Sir John. And since your
+honour never got it, and his honour that was canna have ta'en it wi'
+him, maybe some of the family may have seen it."
+
+_Sir John._ "We will examine the servants, Stephen; that is but
+reasonable."
+
+But lackey and lass, and page and groom, all denied stoutly that they
+had ever seen such a bag of money as my gudesire described. What was
+waur, he had unluckily not mentioned to any living soul of them his
+purpose of paying his rent. Ae quean had noticed something under his
+arm, but she took it for the pipes.
+
+Sir John Redgauntlet ordered the servants out of the room, and then said
+to my gudesire, "Now, Steenie, ye see you have fair play; and, as I have
+little doubt ye ken better where to find the siller than ony other body,
+I beg, in fair terms, and for your own sake, that you will end this
+fasherie; for, Stephen, ye maun pay or flit."
+
+"The Lord forgie your opinion," said Stephen, driven almost to his wit's
+end--"I am an honest man."
+
+"So am I, Stephen," said his honour; "and so are all the folks in the
+house, I hope. But if there be a knave amongst us, it must be he that
+tells the story he cannot prove." He paused, and then added, mair
+sternly, "If I understand your trick, sir, you want to take advantage
+of some malicious reports concerning things in this family, and
+particularly respecting my father's sudden death, thereby to cheat me
+out of the money, and perhaps take away my character, by insinuating
+that I have received the rent I am demanding.--Where do you suppose this
+money to be?--I insist upon knowing."
+
+My gudesire saw everything look sae muckle against him, that he grew
+nearly desperate--however, he shifted from one foot to another, looked
+to every corner of the room and made no answer.
+
+"Speak out, sirrah," said the Laird, assuming a look of his father's, a
+very particular ane, which he had when he was angry--it seemed as if the
+wrinkles of his frown made that self-same fearful shape of a horse's
+shoe in the middle of his brow;--"Speak out, sir! I _will_ know your
+thoughts;--do you suppose that I have this money?"
+
+"Far be it frae me to say so," said Stephen.
+
+"Do you charge any of my people with having taken it?"
+
+"I wad be laith to charge them that may be innocent," said my gudesire;
+"and if there be anyone that is guilty, I have nae proof."
+
+"Somewhere the money must be, if there is a word of truth in your
+story," said Sir John; "I ask where you think it is--and demand a
+correct answer?"
+
+"In hell, if you _will_ have my thoughts of it," said my gudesire,
+driven to extremity,--"in hell! with your father, his jackanape, and his
+silver whistle."
+
+Down the stairs he ran (for the parlour was nae place for him after such
+a word), and he heard the Laird swearing blood and wounds behind him, as
+fast as ever did Sir Robert, and roaring for the bailie and the
+baron-officer.
+
+Away rode my gudesire to his chief creditor (him they caa'd Laurie
+Lapraik), to try if he could make ony thing out of him; but when he
+tauld his story, he got but the warst word in his wame--thief, beggar,
+and dyvour, were the saftest terms; and to the boot of these hard terms,
+Laurie brought up the auld story of his dipping his hand in the blood of
+God's saunts, just as if a tenant could have helped riding with the
+Laird, and that a laird like Sir Robert Redgauntlet. My gudesire was, by
+this time, far beyond the bounds of patience, and, while he and Laurie
+were at deil speed the liars, he was wanchancie aneugh to abuse
+Lapraik's doctrine as weel as the man, and said things that garr'd
+folk's flesh grue that heard them;--he wasna just himsell, and he had
+lived wi' a wild set in his day.
+
+At last they parted, and my gudesire was to ride hame through the wood
+of Pitmurkie, that is a' fou of black firs, as they say.--I ken the
+wood, but the firs may be black or white for what I can tell.--At the
+entry of the wood there is a wild common, and on the edge of the common,
+a little lonely change-house, that was keepit then by an ostler-wife,
+they suld hae caa'd her Tibbie Faw, and there puir Steenie cried for a
+mutchkin of brandy, for he had had no refreshment the haill day. Tibbie
+was earnest wi' him to take a bite of meat, but he couldna think o't,
+nor would he take his foot out of the stirrup, and took off the brandy
+wholely at twa draughts, and named a toast at each:--the first was, the
+memory of Sir Robert Redgauntlet, and might he never lie quiet in his
+grave till he had righted his poor bond-tenant; and the second was, a
+health to Man's Enemy, if he would but get him back the pock of siller,
+or tell him what came o't, for he saw the haill world was like to regard
+him as a thief and a cheat, and he took that waur than even the ruin of
+his house and hauld.
+
+On he rode, little caring where. It was a dark night turned, and the
+trees made it yet darker, and he let the beast take its ain road through
+the wood; when, all of a sudden, from tired and wearied that it was
+before, the nag began to spring, and flee, and stend, that my gudesire
+could hardly keep the saddle.--Upon the whilk, a horseman, suddenly
+riding up beside him, said, "That's a mettle beast of yours, freend;
+will you sell him?"--So saying, he touched the horse's neck with his
+riding-wand, and it fell into its auld heigh-ho of a stumbling trot.
+"But his spunk's soon out of him, I think," continued the stranger, "and
+that is like mony a man's courage, that thinks he wad do great things
+till he come to the proof."
+
+My gudesire scarce listened to this, but spurred his horse, with "Gude
+e'en to you, freend."
+
+But it's like the stranger was ane that doesna lightly yield his point;
+for, ride as Steenie liked, he was aye beside him at the self-same pace.
+At last my gudesire, Steenie Steenson, grew half angry; and, to say the
+truth, half feared.
+
+"What is it that ye want with me, freend?" he said. "If ye be a robber,
+I have nae money; if ye be a leal man, wanting company, I have nae heart
+to mirth or speaking; and if ye want to ken the road, I scarce ken it
+mysell."
+
+"If you will tell me your grief," said the stranger, "I am one that,
+though I have been sair miscaa'd in the world, am the only hand for
+helping my freends."
+
+So my gudesire, to ease his ain heart, mair than from any hope of help,
+told him the story from beginning to end.
+
+"It's a hard pinch," said the stranger; "but I think I can help you."
+
+"If you could lend the money, sir, and take a lang day--I ken nae other
+help on earth," said my gudesire.
+
+"But there may be some under the earth," said the stranger. "Come, I'll
+be frank wi' you; I could lend you the money on bond, but you would
+maybe scruple my terms. Now, I can tell you, that your auld Laird is
+disturbed in his grave by your curses, and the wailing of your family,
+and if ye daur venture to go to see him, he will give you the receipt."
+
+My gudesire's hair stood on end at this proposal, but he thought his
+companion might be some humorsome chield that was trying to frighten
+him, and might end with lending him the money. Besides, he was bauld wi'
+brandy, and desperate wi' distress; and he said, he had courage to go to
+the gate of hell, and a step farther, for that receipt.--The stranger
+laughed.
+
+Weel, they rode on through the thickest of the wood, when, all of a
+sudden, the horse stopped at the door of a great house; and, but that he
+knew the place was ten miles off, my father would have thought he was at
+Redgauntlet Castle. They rode into the outer courtyard, through the
+muckle faulding yetts, and aneath the auld portcullis; and the whole
+front of the house was lighted, and there were pipes and fiddles, and as
+much dancing and deray within as used to be in Sir Robert's house at
+Pace and Yule, and such high seasons. They lap off, and my gudesire, as
+seemed to him, fastened his horse to the very ring he had tied him to
+that morning, when he gaed to wait on the young Sir John.
+
+"God!" said my gudesire, "if Sir Robert's death be but a dream!"
+
+He knocked at the ha' door just as he was wont, and his auld
+acquaintance, Dougal MacCallum,--just after his wont, too,--came to open
+the door, and said, "Piper Steenie, are ye there, lad? Sir Robert has
+been crying for you."
+
+My gudesire was like a man in a dream--he looked for the stranger, but
+he was gane for the time. At last he just tried to say, "Ha! Dougal
+Driveower, are ye living? I thought ye had been dead."
+
+"Never fash yoursell wi' me," said Dougal, "but look to yoursell; and
+see ye tak naething frae onybody here, neither meat, drink, or siller,
+except just the receipt that is your ain."
+
+So saying, he led the way out through halls and trances that were weel
+kend to my gudesire, and into the auld oak parlour; and there was as
+much singing of profane sangs, and birling of red wine, and speaking
+blasphemy and sculduddry, as had ever been in Redgauntlet Castle when it
+was at the blithest.
+
+But, Lord take us in keeping! what a set of ghastly revellers they were
+that sat round that table!--My gudesire kend mony that had long before
+gane to their place, for often had he piped to the most part in the hall
+of Redgauntlet. There was the fierce Middleton, and the dissolute
+Rothes, and the crafty Lauderdale; and Dalyell, with his bald head and a
+beard to his girdle; and Earlshall, with Cameron's blude on his hand;
+and wild Bonshaw, that tied blessed Mr Cargill's limbs till the blude
+sprang; and Dunbarton Douglas, the twice-turned traitor baith to country
+and king. There was the Bluidy Advocate MacKenyie, who, for his worldly
+wit and wisdom, had been to the rest as a god. And there was
+Claverhouse, as beautiful as when he lived, with his long, dark, curled
+locks, streaming down over his laced buff-coat, and his left hand always
+on his right spule-blade, to hide the wound that the silver bullet had
+made. He sat apart from them all, and looked at them with a melancholy,
+haughty countenance; while the rest hallooed, and sung, and laughed,
+that the room rang. But their smiles were fearfully contorted from time
+to time; and their laughter passed into such wild sounds, as made my
+gudesire's very nails grow blue, and chilled the marrow in his banes.
+
+They that waited at the table were just the wicked serving-men and
+troopers, that had done their work and cruel bidding on earth. There was
+the Lang Lad of the Nethertown, that helped to take Argyle; and the
+Bishop's summoner, that they called the Deil's Rattle-bag; and the
+wicked guardsmen, in their laced coats; and the savage Highland
+Amorites, that shed blood like water; and many a proud serving-man,
+haughty of heart and bloody of hand, cringing to the rich, and making
+them wickeder than they would be; grinding the poor to powder, when the
+rich had broken them to fragments. And mony, mony mair were coming and
+ganging, a' as busy in their vocation as if they had been alive.
+
+Sir Robert Redgauntlet, in the midst of a' this fearful riot, cried, wi'
+a voice like thunder, on Steenie Piper, to come to the board-head where
+he was sitting; his legs stretched out before him, and swathed up with
+flannel, with his holster pistols aside him, while the great broadsword
+rested against his chair, just as my gudesire had seen him the last time
+upon earth--the very cushion for the jackanape was close to him, but the
+creature itsell was not there--it wasna its hour, it's likely; for he
+heard them say as he came forward, "Is not the Major come yet?" And
+another answered, "The jackanape will be here betimes the morn." And
+when my gudesire came forward, Sir Robert, or his ghaist, or the deevil
+in his likeness, said, "Weel, piper, hae ye settled wi' my son for the
+year's rent?"
+
+With much ado my father gat breath to say, that Sir John would not
+settle without his honour's receipt.
+
+"Ye shall hae that for a tune of the pipes, Steenie," said the
+appearance of Sir Robert--"Play us up 'Weel hoddled, Luckie.'"
+
+Now this was a tune my gudesire learned frae a warlock, that heard it
+when they were worshipping Satan at their meetings; and my gudesire had
+sometimes played it at the ranting suppers in Redgauntlet Castle, but
+never very willingly; and now he grew cauld at the very name of it, and
+said, for excuse, he hadna his pipes wi' him.
+
+"MacCallum, ye limb of Beelzebub," said the fearfu' Sir Robert, "bring
+Steenie the pipes that I am keeping for him!"
+
+MacCallum brought a pair of pipes might have served the piper of Donald
+of the Isles. But he gave my gudesire a nudge as he offered them; and
+looking secretly and closely, Steenie saw that the chanter was of steel,
+and heated to a white heat; so he had fair warning not to trust his
+fingers with it. So he excused himself again, and said, he was faint and
+frightened, and had not wind aneugh to fill the bag.
+
+"Then ye maun eat and drink, Steenie," said the figure; "for we do
+little else here; and it's ill speaking between a fou man and a
+fasting."
+
+Now these were the very words that the bloody Earl of Douglas said to
+keep the King's messenger in hand, while he cut the head off MacLellan
+of Bombie, at the Threave Castle;[9] and that put Steenie mair and mair
+on his guard. So he spoke up like a man, and said he came neither to
+eat, or drink, or make minstrelsy; but simply for his ain--to ken what
+was come o' the money he had paid, and to get a discharge for it; and he
+was so stout-hearted by this time, that he charged Sir Robert for
+conscience-sake--(he had no power to say the holy name)--and as he hoped
+for peace and rest, to spread no snares for him, but just to give him
+his ain.
+
+The appearance gnashed its teeth and laughed, but it took from a large
+pocket-book the receipt, and handed it to Steenie. "There is your
+receipt, ye pitiful cur; and for the money, my dog-whelp of a son may go
+look for it in the Cat's Cradle."
+
+My gudesire uttered mony thanks, and was about to retire, when Sir
+Robert roared aloud, "Stop, though, thou sack-doudling son of a whore! I
+am not done with thee. HERE we do nothing for nothing; and you
+must return on this very day twelvemonth, to pay your master the homage
+that you owe me for my protection."
+
+My father's tongue was loosed of a suddenty, and he said aloud, "I refer
+mysell to God's pleasure, and not to yours."
+
+He had no sooner uttered the word than all was dark around him; and he
+sunk on the earth with such a sudden shock, that he lost both breath and
+sense.
+
+How lang Steenie lay there, he could not tell; but when he came to
+himsell, he was lying in the auld kirkyard of Redgauntlet parochine,
+just at the door of the family aisle, and the scutcheon of the auld
+knight, Sir Robert, hanging over his head. There was a deep morning fog
+on grass and gravestane around him, and his horse was feeding quietly
+beside the minister's twa cows. Steenie would have thought the whole was
+a dream, but he had the receipt in his hand, fairly written and signed
+by the auld Laird; only the last letters of his name were a little
+disorderly, written like one seized with sudden pain.
+
+Sorely troubled in his mind, he left that dreary place, rode through the
+mist to Redgauntlet Castle, and with much ado he got speech of the
+Laird.
+
+"Well, you dyvour bankrupt," was the first word, "have you brought me my
+rent?"
+
+"No," answered my gudesire, "I have not; but I have brought your honour
+Sir Robert's receipt for it."
+
+"How, sirrah?--Sir Robert's receipt!--You told me he had not given you
+one."
+
+"Will your honour please to see if that bit line is right?"
+
+Sir John looked at every line, and at every letter, with much attention;
+and at last, at the date, which my gudesire had not observed,--"_From
+my appointed place_," he read, "_this twenty-fifth of
+November_."--"What!--That is yesterday!--Villain, thou must have gone to
+hell for this!"
+
+"I got it from your honour's father--whether he be in heaven or hell, I
+know not," said Steenie.
+
+"I will delate you for a warlock to the Privy Council!" said Sir John.
+"I will send you to your master, the devil, with the help of a
+tar-barrel and a torch!"
+
+"I intend to delate mysell to the Presbytery," said Steenie, "and tell
+them all I have seen last night, whilk are things fitter for them to
+judge of than a borrel man like me."
+
+Sir John paused, composed himsell, and desired to hear the full history;
+and my gudesire told it him from point to point, as I have told it
+you--word for word, neither more nor less.
+
+Sir John was silent again for a long time, and at last he said, very
+composedly, "Steenie, this story of yours concerns the honour of many a
+noble family besides mine; and if it be a leasing-making, to keep
+yourself out of my danger, the least you can expect is to have a red-hot
+iron driven through your tongue, and that will be as bad as scaulding
+your fingers with a redhot chanter. But yet it may be true, Steenie; and
+if the money cast up, I shall not know what to think of it.--But where
+shall we find the Cat's Cradle? There are cats enough about the old
+house, but I think they kitten without the ceremony of bed or cradle."
+
+"We were best ask Hutcheon," said my gudesire; "he kens a' the odd
+corners about as weel as--another serving-man that is now gane, and that
+I wad not like to name."
+
+Aweel, Hutcheon, when he was asked, told them, that a ruinous turret,
+lang disused, next to the clock-house, only accessible by a ladder, for
+the opening was on the outside, and far above the battlements, was
+called of old the Cat's Cradle.
+
+"There will I go immediately," said Sir John; and he took (with what
+purpose, Heaven kens) one of his father's pistols from the hall-table,
+where they had lain since the night he died, and hastened to the
+battlements.
+
+It was a dangerous place to climb, for the ladder was auld and frail,
+and wanted ane or twa rounds. However, up got Sir John, and entered at
+the turret door, where his body stopped the only little light that was
+in the bit turret. Something flees at him wi' a vengeance, maist dang
+him back ower--bang gaed the knight's pistol, and Hutcheon, that held
+the ladder, and my gudesire that stood beside him, hears a loud
+skelloch. A minute after, Sir John flings the body of the jackanape down
+to them, and cries that the siller is fund, and that they should come up
+and help him. And there was the bag of siller sure aneugh, and mony orra
+things besides, that had been missing for mony a day. And Sir John, when
+he had riped the turret weel, led my gudesire into the dining-parlour,
+and took him by the hand, and spoke kindly to him, and said he was sorry
+he should have doubted his word, and that he would hereafter be a good
+master to him, to make amends.
+
+"And now, Steenie," said Sir John, "although this vision of yours tends,
+on the whole, to my father's credit, as an honest man, that he should,
+even after his death, desire to see justice done to a poor man like you,
+yet you are sensible that ill-dispositioned men might make bad
+constructions upon it, concerning his soul's health. So, I think, we had
+better lay the haill dirdum on that ill-deedie creature, Major Weir, and
+say naething about your dream in the wood of Pitmurkie. You had taken
+ower muckle brandy to be very certain about onything; and, Steenie, this
+receipt," (his hand shook while he held it out,)--"it's but a queer kind
+of document, and we will do best, I think, to put it quietly in the
+fire."
+
+"Od, but for as queer as it is, it's a' the voucher I have for my rent,"
+said my gudesire, who was afraid, it may be, of losing the benefit of
+Sir Robert's discharge.
+
+"I will bear the contents to your credit in the rental-book, and give
+you a discharge under my own hand," said Sir John, "and that on the
+spot. And, Steenie, if you can hold your tongue about this matter, you
+shall sit, from this term downward, at an easier rent."
+
+"Mony thanks to your honour," said Steenie, who saw easily in what
+corner the wind was; "doubtless I will be conformable to all your
+honour's commands; only I would willingly speak wi' some powerful
+minister on the subject, for I do not like the sort of soumons of
+appointment whilk your honour's father----"
+
+"Do not call the phantom my father!" said Sir John, interrupting him.
+
+"Weel, then, the thing that was so like him,"--said my gudesire; "he
+spoke of my coming back to him this time twelvemonth, and it's a weight
+on my conscience."
+
+"Aweel, then," said Sir John, "if you be so much distressed in mind, you
+may speak to our minister of the parish; he is a douce man, regards the
+honour of our family, and the mair that he may look for some patronage
+from me."
+
+Wi' that, my gudesire readily agreed that the receipt should be burnt,
+and the Laird threw it into the chimney with his ain hand. Burn it would
+not for them, though; but away it flew up the lum, wi' a lang train of
+sparks at its tail, and a hissing noise like a squib.
+
+My gudesire gaed down to the manse, and the minister, when he had heard
+the story, said, it was his real opinion, that though my gudesire had
+gaen very far in tampering with dangerous matters, yet, as he had
+refused the devil's arles (for such was the offer of meat and drink),
+and had refused to do homage by piping at his bidding, he hoped, that if
+he held a circumspect walk hereafter, Satan could take little advantage
+by what was come and gane. And, indeed, my gudesire, of his ain accord,
+long forswore baith the pipes and the brandy--it was not even till the
+year was out, and the fatal day passed, that he would so much as take
+the fiddle, or drink usquebaugh or tippenny.
+
+Sir John made up his story about the jackanape as he liked himsell; and
+some believe till this day there was no more in the matter than the
+filching nature of the brute. Indeed, ye'll no hinder some to threap,
+that it was nane o' the Auld Enemy that Dougal and my gudesire saw in
+the Laird's room, but only that wanchancy creature, the Major, capering
+on the coffin; and that, as to the blawing on the Laird's whistle that
+was heard after he was dead, the filthy brute could do that as weel as
+the Laird himsell, if no better. But Heaven kens the truth, whilk first
+came out by the minister's wife, after Sir John and her ain gudeman were
+baith in the moulds. And then my gudesire, wha was failed in his limbs,
+but not in his judgment or memory--at least nothing to speak of--was
+obliged to tell the real narrative to his freends, for the credit of his
+good name. He might else have been charged for a warlock.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 6: A precipitous side of a mountain in Moffatdale.]
+
+[Footnote 7: The caution and moderation of King William III., and his
+principles of unlimited toleration, deprived the Cameronians of the
+opportunity they ardently desired, to retaliate the injuries which they
+had received during the reign of prelacy, and purify the land, as they
+called it, from the pollution of blood. They esteemed the Revolution,
+therefore, only a half measure, which neither comprehended the
+rebuilding the Kirk in its full splendour, nor the revenge of the death
+of the Saints on their persecutors.]
+
+[Footnote 8: A celebrated wizard, executed at Edinburgh for sorcery and
+other crimes.]
+
+[Footnote 9: The reader is referred for particulars to Pitscottie's
+_History of Scotland_.]
+
+
+
+
+II
+
+GHOST STORIES FROM LOCAL RECORDS, FOLK LORE AND LEGEND
+
+
+
+
+XVIII
+
+GLAMIS CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+"The Castle of Glamis, a venerable and majestic pile of buildings," says
+an old Scots Gazetteer, "is situate about one mile north from the
+village, on the flat grounds at the confluence of the Glamis Burn and
+the Dean. There is a print of it given by Slezer in Charles II.'s
+reign--by which it appears to have been anciently much more extensive,
+being a large quadrangular mass of buildings, having two courts in
+front, with a tower in each, and gateway through below them; and on the
+northern side was the principal tower, which now constitutes the central
+portion of the present castle upwards of 100 feet in height. The
+building received the addition of a tower, in one of its angles, for a
+spiral staircase from bottom to top, with conical roofs. The wings were
+added, at the same time, by Patrick Earl of Strathmore, who repaired and
+modernised the structure, under the directions of Inigo Jones. One of
+the wings has been renovated within the last forty years, and other
+additions made, but not in harmony with Earl Patrick's repairs.
+
+"_There is also a secret room in it, only known to two or at most three
+individuals, at the same time, who are bound not to reveal it, unless to
+their successors in the secret._ It has been frequently the object of
+search with the inquisitive, but the search has been in vain. There are
+no records of the castle prior to the tenth century, when it is first
+noticed in connection with the death of Malcolm II. in 1034. Tradition
+says that he was murdered in this castle, and in a room which is still
+pointed out, in the centre of the principal tower; and that the
+murderers lost their way in the darkness of the night, and by the
+breaking of the ice, were drowned in the loch of Forfar. Fordun's
+account is, however, somewhat different and more probable. He states
+that the King was mortally wounded in a skirmish, in the neighbourhood,
+by some of the adherents of Kenneth V."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Let us turn now to the ghosts of Glamis Castle.
+
+A lady, well known in London society, an artistic and social celebrity,
+wealthy beyond all doubts of the future, a cultivated, clear-headed, and
+indeed slightly matter-of-fact woman, went to stay at Glamis Castle for
+the first time. She was allotted very handsome apartments, just on the
+point of junction between the new buildings--perhaps a hundred or two
+hundred years old--and the very ancient part of the castle. The rooms
+were handsomely furnished; no gaunt carvings grinned from the walls; no
+grim tapestry swung to and fro, making strange figures look still
+stranger by the flickering fire-light; all was smooth, cosy, and modern,
+and the guest retired to bed without a thought of the mysteries of
+Glamis.
+
+In the morning she appeared at the breakfast table quite cheerful and
+self-possessed. To the inquiry how she had slept, she replied: "Well,
+thanks, very well, up to four o'clock in the morning. But your Scottish
+carpenters seem to come to work very early. I suppose they put up their
+scaffolding quickly, though, for they are quiet now." This speech
+produced a dead silence, and the speaker saw with astonishment that the
+faces of members of the family were very pale.
+
+She was asked, as she valued the friendship of all there, never to speak
+to them on that subject again; there had been no carpenters at Glamis
+Castle for months past. This fact, whatever it may be worth, is
+absolutely established, so far as the testimony of a single witness can
+establish anything. The lady was awakened by a loud knocking and
+hammering, as if somebody were putting up a scaffold, and the noise did
+not alarm her in the least. On the contrary, she took it for an
+accident, due to the presumed matutinal habits of the people. She knew,
+of course, that there were stories about Glamis, but had not the
+remotest idea that the hammering she had heard was connected with any
+story. She had regarded it simply as an annoyance, and was glad to get
+to sleep after an unrestful time; but had no notion of the noise being
+supernatural until informed of it at the breakfast-table.
+
+With what particular event in the stormy annals of the Lyon family the
+hammering is connected is quite unknown, except to members of the
+family, but there is no lack of legends, possible and impossible, to
+account for any sights or sounds in the magnificent old feudal edifice.
+
+It is said that once a visitor stayed at Glamis Castle for a few days,
+and, sitting up late one moonlight night, saw a face appear at the
+window opposite to him. The owner of the face--it was very pale, with
+great sorrowful eyes--appeared to wish to attract attention; but
+vanished suddenly from the window, as if plucked suddenly away by
+superior strength. For a long while the horror-stricken guest gazed at
+the window, in the hope that the pale face and great sad eyes would
+appear again. Nothing was seen at the window, but presently horrible
+shrieks penetrated even the thick walls of the castle, and rent the
+night air. An hour later, a dark huddled figure, like that of an old
+decrepit woman, carrying something in a bundle, came into the waning
+moonlight, and presently vanished.
+
+There is a modern story of a stonemason, who was engaged at Glamis
+Castle last century, and who, having discovered more than he should have
+done, was supplied with a handsome competency, upon the conditions that
+he emigrated and kept inviolable the secret he had learned.
+
+The employment of a stonemason is explained by the conditions under
+which the mystery is revealed to successive heirs and factors. The abode
+of the dread secret is in a part of the castle, also haunted by the
+apparition of a bearded man, who flits about at night, but without
+committing any other objectionable action. What connection, if any, the
+bearded spectre may have with the mystery is not even guessed. He hovers
+at night over the couches of children for an instant, and then vanishes.
+The secret itself abides in a room--a secret chamber--the very situation
+of which, beyond a general idea that it is in the most ancient part of
+the castle, is unknown. Where walls are fifteen feet thick, it is not
+impossible to have a chamber so concealed, that none but the initiated
+can guess its position. It was once attempted by a madcap party of
+guests to discover the locality of the secret chamber, by hanging their
+towels out of the window, and thus deciding in favour of any window from
+which no spotless banner waved; but this escapade, which is said to have
+been ill-received by the owners, ended in nothing but a vague conclusion
+that the old square tower must be the spot sought.
+
+
+
+
+XIX
+
+POWYS CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+It had been for some time reported in the neighbourhood that a poor
+unmarried woman, who was a member of the Methodist society; and had
+become serious under their ministry, had seen and conversed with the
+apparition of a gentleman, who had made a strange discovery to her. Mr
+Hampson, being desirous to ascertain if there was any truth in the
+story, sent for the woman, and desired her to give an exact relation of
+the whole affair from her own mouth, and as near the truth as she
+possibly could. She said she was a poor woman who got her living by
+spinning hemp and line; that it was customary for the farmers and
+gentlemen of that neighbourhood to grow a little hemp or line in the
+corner of their fields, for their own home consumption, and as she had a
+good hand at spinning the materials she used to go from house to house
+to inquire for work; that her method was, where they employed her,
+during her stay to have meat and lodging (if she had occasion to sleep
+with them) for her work, and what they pleased to give her besides.
+That, among other places, she happened to call in one day at the Welsh
+Earl Powis's country seat, called Redcastle, to inquire for work, as she
+usually had done before. The quality were at this time in London, and
+had left the steward and his wife, with other servants, as usual, to
+take care of their country residence in their absence. The steward's
+wife set her to work, and in the evening told her that she must stay
+all night with them, as they had more work for her to do next day. When
+bed-time arrived, two or three of the servants in company, with each a
+lighted candle in her hand, conducted her to her lodging. They led her
+to a grand room, with a boarded floor and two sash windows. The room was
+grandly furnished, and had a genteel bed in one corner of it. They had
+made her a good fire, and had placed her a chair and a table before it,
+and a large lighted candle upon the table. They told her that was her
+bedroom, and she might go to sleep when she pleased, they then wished a
+good night and withdrew all together, pulling the door quickly after
+them, so as to hasp the springsneck in the brass lock that was upon it.
+When they were gone she gazed a while at the fine furniture, under no
+small astonishment that they should put such a poor person as her in so
+grand a room and bed, with all the apparatus of fire, chair, table, and
+candle. She was also surprised at the circumstance of the servants
+coming so many together, with each of them a candle; however, after
+gazing about her some little time, she sat down and took out of her
+pocket a small Welsh Bible which she always carried about with her, and
+in which she usually read a chapter--chiefly in the New
+Testament--before she said her prayers and went to bed. While she was
+reading she heard the room door open, and, turning her head, saw a
+gentleman enter in a gold-laced hat and waistcoat, and the rest of his
+dress corresponding therewith. (I think she was very particular in
+describing the rest of his dress to Mr Hampson, and he to me at the
+time, but I have now forgot the other particulars.) He walked down by
+the sash window to the corner of the room, and then returned. When he
+came at the first window in his return (the bottom of which was nearly
+breast-high) he rested his elbow on the bottom of the window, and the
+side of his face upon the palm of his hand, and stood in that leaning
+posture for some time, with his side partly towards her. She looked at
+him earnestly to see if she knew him, but though, from her frequent
+intercourse with them, she had a personal knowledge of all the present
+family, he appeared a stranger to her. She supposed afterwards that he
+stood in this manner to encourage her to speak; but as she did not,
+after some little time he walked off, pulling the door after him as the
+servants had done before. She began now to be much alarmed, concluding
+it to be an apparition and that they had put her there on purpose. This
+was really the case. The room, it seems, had been disturbed for a long
+time, so that nobody could sleep peaceably in it; and as she passed for
+a very serious woman, the servants took it in their heads to put the
+Methodist and spirit together, to see what they would make out of it.
+Startled at this thought, she rose from her chair, and kneeled down by
+the bedside to say her prayers. While she was praying he came in again,
+walked round the room and came close behind her. She had it on her mind
+to speak, but when she attempted it she was so very much agitated that
+she could not utter a word. He walked out of the room again, pulling the
+door shut as before. She begged that God would strengthen her, and not
+suffer her to be tried beyond what she was able to bear; she recovered
+her surprise and thought she felt more confidence and resolution, and
+determined if he came in again she would speak to him if possible. He
+presently came in again, walked round, and came behind her as before;
+she turned her head and said, "Pray, sir, who are you, and what do you
+want?" He put up his finger and said, "Take up the candle and follow me,
+and I will tell you." She got up, took up the candle and followed him
+out of the room. He led her through a long boarded passage, till they
+came to the door of another room which he opened and went in; it was a
+small room, or what might be called a large closet. "As the room was
+small, and I believed him to be a spirit," said she, "I stopped at the
+door; he turned and said, 'Walk in, I will not hurt you'; so I walked
+in. He said, 'Observe what I do'; I said, 'I will.' He stooped and tore
+up one of the boards of the floor, and there appeared under it a box
+with an iron handle in the lid. He said, 'Do you see that box?' I said,
+'Yes, I do.' He then stepped to one side of the room and showed me a
+crevice in the wall, where he said a key was hid that would open it. He
+said, 'This box and key must be taken out, and sent to the Earl in
+London' (naming the Earl and his residence in the city). He said, 'Will
+you see it done?' I said, 'I will do my best to get it done'; and he
+said, 'Do, and I will trouble the house no longer!' He then walked out
+of the room and left me. (He seems to have been a very civil spirit, and
+to have been very careful to affright her as little as possible.) I
+stepped to the room door, and set up a shout. The steward and his wife,
+with the other servants, came to me immediately; all clinging together,
+with a number of lights in their hands. It seems they had all been
+waiting to see the issue of the interview betwixt me and the apparition.
+They asked me what was the matter. I told them the foregoing
+circumstances, and showed them the box. The steward durst not meddle
+with it, but his wife had more courage, and, with the help of the other
+servants, tugged it out, and found the key. She said by their lifting it
+appeared to be pretty heavy, but that she did not see it opened, and
+therefore did not know what it contained--perhaps money, or writings of
+consequence to the family, or both." They took it away with them, and
+she then went to bed and slept peaceably till morning.
+
+It appeared that they sent the box to the Earl in London, with an
+account of the manner of its discovery, and by whom; as the Earl sent
+down orders immediately to his steward to inform the poor woman who had
+been the occasion of its discovery that if she would come and reside in
+his family she would be comfortably provided for during her remaining
+days; or, if she did not choose to reside constantly with them, if she
+would let them know when she wanted assistance, she would be liberally
+supplied at his lordship's expense as long as she lived. And Mr Hampson
+said it was a known fact in the neighbourhood that she had been supplied
+from his lordship's family, from the time the affair was said to have
+happened, and continued to be so at the time she gave Mr Hampson this
+account. She told him that she was so often solicited by curious people
+to relate the story that she was weary of repeating it; but, to oblige
+him, she once more related the particulars, wishing now to have done
+with it. Mr Hampson said she appeared to be a sensible, intelligent
+person, and that he saw no reason to doubt her veracity. I know many
+persons in the present day laugh at such stories, and affect very much
+to doubt their reality, while others totally deny the possibility of
+their existence. However, Scripture and many well-attested relations
+seem to favour the idea, and the present story appeared so singular and
+so well attested, and I had it so near the fountain-head, that I thought
+it might perhaps be worth preserving, and I have therefore taken pains
+to record it. Admitting it to be true, it should seem that the
+consequence to the family of what the hidden box contained was the
+formal cause of the spirit's disquiet, and of its disturbing the house
+so much and so long, in order to bring about the discovery; but why the
+departed spirit should concern itself in the affairs of this world after
+it has left it--or why they should disquiet it so as to cause it to
+reappear and make disturbances, in order to discover and have things
+righted, as in the preceding case,--or why this should be done in some
+cases of apparently less moment, while in other cases much greater
+family injuries seem to be suffered, and no spirit appears to interest
+itself in the case--are circumstances for which we can by no means
+account. A cloud sits deep on futurity; and we are so little acquainted
+with the laws of the spiritual world that we are perhaps incapable, in
+our present state, of comprehending its nature or of giving any
+satisfactory account of these matters.
+
+
+
+
+XX
+
+CROGLIN GRANGE
+
+From ARCHDEACON HARE'S Autobiography[10]
+
+
+"Fisher," said the Captain, "may sound a very plebeian name, but this
+family is of very ancient lineage, and for many hundreds of years they
+have possessed a very curious old place in Cumberland, which bears the
+weird name of Croglin Grange. The great characteristic of the house is
+that never at any period of its very long existence has it been more
+than one story high, but it has a terrace from which large grounds sweep
+away towards the church in the hollow, and a fine distant view.
+
+"When, in lapse of years, the Fishers outgrew Croglin Grange in family
+and fortune, they were wise enough not to destroy the long-standing
+characteristic of the place by adding another story to the house, but
+they went away to the south, to reside at Thorncombe near Guildford, and
+they let Croglin Grange.
+
+"They were extremely fortunate in their tenants, two brothers and a
+sister. They heard their praises from all quarters. To their poorer
+neighbours they were all that is most kind and beneficent, and their
+neighbours of a higher class spoke of them as a welcome addition to the
+little society of the neighbourhood. On their part the tenants were
+greatly delighted with their new residence. The arrangement of the
+house, which would have been a trial to many, was not so to them. In
+every respect Croglin Grange was exactly suited to them.
+
+"The winter was spent most happily by the new inmates of Croglin
+Grange, who shared in all the little social pleasures of the district,
+and made themselves very popular. In the following summer there was one
+day which was dreadfully, annihilatingly hot. The brothers lay under the
+trees with their books, for it was too hot for any active occupation.
+The sister sat in the verandah and worked, or tried to work, for in the
+intense sultriness of that summer day work was next to impossible. They
+dined early, and after dinner they still sat out in the verandah,
+enjoying the cool air which came with evening, and they watched the sun
+set, and the moon rise over the belt of trees which separated the
+grounds from the churchyard, seeing it mount the heavens till the whole
+lawn was bathed in silver light, across which the long shadows from the
+shrubbery fell as if embossed, so vivid and distinct were they.
+
+"When they separated for the night, all retiring to their rooms on the
+ground-floor (for, as I said, there was no upstairs in that house), the
+sister felt that the heat was still so great that she could not sleep,
+and having fastened her window, she did not close the shutters--in that
+very quiet place it was not necessary--and, propped against the pillows,
+she still watched the wonderful, the marvellous beauty of that summer
+night. Gradually she became aware of two lights, two lights which
+flickered in and out in the belt of trees which separated the lawn from
+the churchyard; and, as her gaze became fixed upon them, she saw them
+emerge, fixed in a dark substance, a definite ghastly _something_, which
+seemed every moment to become nearer, increasing in size and substance
+as it approached. Every now and then it was lost for a moment in the
+long shadows which stretched across the lawn from the trees, and then it
+emerged larger than ever, and still coming on--on. As she watched it,
+the most uncontrollable horror seized her. She longed to get away, but
+the door was close to the window and the door was locked on the inside,
+and while she was unlocking it, she must be for an instant nearer to
+_it_. She longed to scream, but her voice seemed paralysed, her tongue
+glued to the roof of her mouth.
+
+"Suddenly, she never could explain why afterwards, the terrible object
+seemed to turn to one side, seemed to be going round the house, not to
+be coming to her at all, and immediately she jumped out of bed and
+rushed to the door; but as she was unlocking it, she heard scratch,
+scratch, scratch upon the window, and saw a hideous brown face with
+flaming eyes glaring in at her. She rushed back to the bed, but the
+creature continued to scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window. She
+felt a sort of mental comfort in the knowledge that the window was
+securely fastened on the inside. Suddenly the scratching sound ceased,
+and a kind of pecking sound took its place. Then, in her agony, she
+became aware that the creature was unpicking the lead! The noise
+continued, and a diamond pane of glass fell into the room. Then a long
+bony finger of the creature came in and turned the handle of the window,
+and the window opened, and the creature came in; and it came across the
+room, and her terror was so great that she could not scream, and it came
+up to the bed, and it twisted its long, bony fingers into her hair, and
+it dragged her head over the side of the bed, and--it bit her violently
+in the throat.
+
+"As it bit her, her voice was released, and she screamed with all her
+might and main. Her brothers rushed out of their rooms, but the door was
+locked on the inside. A moment was lost while they got a poker and broke
+it open. Then the creature had already escaped through the window, and
+the sister, bleeding violently from a wound in the throat, was lying
+unconscious over the side of the bed. One brother pursued the creature,
+which fled before him through the moonlight with gigantic strides, and
+eventually seemed to disappear over the wall into the churchyard. Then
+he rejoined his brother by the sister's bedside. She was dreadfully
+hurt, and her wound was a very definite one; but she was of strong
+disposition, not either given to romance or superstition, and when she
+came to herself she said, 'What has happened is most extraordinary, and
+I am very much hurt. It seems inexplicable, but of course there is an
+explanation, and we must wait for it. It will turn out that a lunatic
+has escaped from some asylum and found his way here.' The wound healed,
+and she appeared to get well, but the doctor who was sent for would not
+believe that she could bear so terrible a shock so easily, and insisted
+that she must have change, mental and physical; so her brothers took her
+to Switzerland.
+
+"Being a sensible girl, when she went abroad she threw herself at once
+into the interests of the country she was in. She dried plants, she made
+sketches, she went up mountains, and, as autumn came on, she was the
+person who urged that they should return to Croglin Grange. 'We have
+taken it,' she said, 'for seven years, and we have only been there one;
+and we shall always find it difficult to let a house which is only one
+story high, so we had better return there; lunatics do not escape every
+day.' As she urged it, her brothers wished nothing better, and the
+family returned to Cumberland. From there being no upstairs to the house
+it was impossible to make any great change in their arrangements. The
+sister occupied the same room, but it is unnecessary to say she always
+closed her shutters, which, however, as in many old houses, always left
+one top pane of the window uncovered. The brothers moved, and occupied a
+room together, exactly opposite that of their sister, and they always
+kept loaded pistols in their room.
+
+"The winter passed most peacefully and happily. In the following March
+the sister was suddenly awakened by a sound she remembered only too
+well--scratch, scratch, scratch upon the window, and, looking up, she
+saw quite clearly in the topmost pane of the window the same hideous
+brown shrivelled face, with glaring eyes, looking in at her. This time
+she screamed as loud as she could. Her brothers rushed out of their room
+with pistols, and out of the front door. The creature was already
+scudding away across the lawn. One of the brothers fired and hit it in
+the leg, but still with the other leg it continued to make way,
+scrambled over the wall into the churchyard, and seemed to disappear
+into a vault which belonged to a family long extinct.
+
+"The next day the brothers summoned all the tenants of Croglin Grange,
+and in their presence the vault was opened. A horrible scene revealed
+itself. The vault was full of coffins; they had been broken open, and
+their contents, horribly mangled and distorted, were scattered over the
+floor. One coffin alone remained intact. Of that the lid had been
+lifted, but still lay loose upon the coffin. They raised it, and there,
+brown, withered, shrivelled, mummified, but quite entire, was the same
+hideous figure which had looked in at the windows of Croglin Grange,
+with the marks of a recent pistol-shot in the leg; and they did--the
+only thing that can lay a vampire--they burnt it."
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 10: _The Story of my Life_ (Allen & Unwin).]
+
+
+
+
+XXI
+
+THE GHOST OF MAJOR SYDENHAM
+
+By JOSEPH GLANVIL[11]
+
+
+Concerning the apparition of the Ghost of Major George Sydenham, (late
+of Dulverton in the County of Somerset) to Captain William Dyke, late of
+Skilgate in this County also, and now likewise deceased: Be pleased to
+take the Relation of it as I have it from the worthy and learned Dr Tho.
+Dyke, a near kinsman of the Captain's, thus: Shortly after the Major's
+Death, the Doctor was desired to come to the House, to take care of a
+Child that was there sick, and in his way thither he called on the
+Captain, who was very willing to wait on him to the place, because he
+must, as he said, have gone thither that night, though he had not met
+with so encouraging an opportunity. After their arrival there at the
+House, and the Civility of the People shewn them in that Entertainment,
+they were seasonably conducted to their Lodging, which they desired
+might be together in the same Bed: Where after they had lain a while,
+the Captain knocked, and bids the Servant bring him two of the largest
+and biggest Candles lighted that he could get. Whereupon the Doctor
+enquires what he meant by this? The Captain answers, You know Cousin
+what Disputes my Major and I have had touching the Being of a God, and
+the Immortality of the Soul; in which points we could never yet be
+resolv'd, though we so much sought for and desired it; and therefore it
+was at length fully agreed between us, That he of us that died first,
+should the third Night after his Funeral, between the Hours of Twelve
+and one, come to the little House that is here in the Garden, and there
+give a full account to the Survivor touching these Matters, who should
+be sure to be present there at the set time, and so receive a full
+satisfaction; and this, says the Captain, is the very Night, and I am
+come on purpose to fulfil my promise. The Doctor dissuaded him, minding
+him of the danger of following those strange Counsels, for which we
+could have no Warrant, and that the Devil might by some cunning Device
+make such an advantage of this rash attempt, as might work his utter
+Ruin. The Captain replies, That he had solemnly engag'd, and that
+nothing should discourage him, and adds, that if the Doctor would wake
+awhile with him, he would thank him, if not, he might compose himself to
+his rest; but for his own part he was resolv'd to watch, that he might
+be sure to be present at the Hour appointed: To that purpose he sets his
+watch by him, and as soon as he perceived by it that it was half an Hour
+past 11, he rises, and taking a Candle in each Hand, goes out by a
+back-door, of which he had before gotten the Key, and walks to the
+Garden-house, where he continued two hours and a half, and at his return
+declared, that he had neither saw not heard any thing more than what was
+usual. But I know, said he, that my Major would surely have come, had he
+been able.
+
+About 6 weeks after, the Captain rides to _Eaton_ to place his Son a
+Scholar there, when the Doctor went thither with him. They lodged there
+at an Inn, the Sign was the _Christopher_, and tarried two or three
+Nights, not lying together now as before at _Dulverton_, but in two
+several Chambers. The morning before they went thence, the Captain staid
+in his Chamber longer than he was wont to do before he called upon the
+Doctor. At length he comes into the Doctor's Chamber, but in a Visage
+and Form much differing from himself, with his Hair and Eyes staring,
+and his whole Body shaking and trembling: Whereupon at the Doctor
+wondering, presently demanded: What is the matter Cousin Captain? The
+Captain replies, I have seen my Major: At which the Doctor seeming to
+smile, the Captain immediately confirms it, saying, If ever I saw him in
+my life, I saw him but now: And then he related to the Doctor what had
+passed, thus: This morning after it was light, someone comes to my
+bedside, and suddenly drawing back the Curtains, calls, _Cap. Cap._
+(which was the term of familiarity that the Major used to call the
+Captain by). To whom I replied, _What my Major?_ To which he returns, _I
+could not come at the time appointed, but I am now come to tell you,
+That there is a God, and a very just and terrible one, and if you do not
+turn over a new leaf_, (the very Expressions as is by the Doctor
+punctually remembered) _you will find it so_. The Captain proceeded: On
+the Table by there lay a Sword, which the Major had formerly given me.
+Now after the Apparition had walked a turn or two about the Chamber, he
+took up the Sword, drew it out, and finding it not so clean and bright
+as it ought, _Cap. Cap._ says he, _this Sword did not use to be kept
+after this manner when it was mine_. After which Words he suddenly
+disappeared.
+
+The Captain was not only thoroughly persuaded of what he had thus seen
+and heard, but was from that time observed to be very much affected with
+it: and the Humour that before in him was brisk and jovial, was then
+strangely alter'd; insomuch, as very little Meat would pass down with
+him at Dinner, though at the taking leave of their Friends there was a
+very handsome Treat provided: Yea it was observed that what the Captain
+had thus seen and heard, had a more lasting Influence upon him, and 'tis
+judged by those who were well acquainted with his Conversation, that
+the remembrance of this Passage stuck close to him, and that those words
+of his dead Friend were frequently sounding fresh in his Ears, during
+the remainder of his Life, which was about Two Years.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 11: _Sadducismus Triumphatus._]
+
+
+
+
+XXII
+
+THE MIRACULOUS CASE OF JESCH CLAES
+
+From CHRISTMAS' "Phantom World"
+
+
+In the year 1676, about the 13th or 14th of this Month October, in the
+Night, between one and two of the Clock, this _Jesch Claes_, a cripple,
+being in bed with her Husband, who was a Boatman, she was three times
+pulled by her Arm, with which she awaked and cried out, "O Lord! what
+may this be?"
+
+Hereupon she heard an answer in plain words: "Be not afraid, I come in
+the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Your malady which hath for
+many years been upon you shall cease, and it shall be given you from God
+Almighty to walk again. But keep this good news to yourself!" Whereupon
+she cried aloud, "O Lord! that I had a light that I might know what this
+is." Then had she this answer: "There needs no light, the light shall be
+given you from God."
+
+Then came light all over the Room, and she saw a beautiful Youth about
+ten Years of Age, with curled yellow Hair, cloathed in white to the
+Feet, who went from the Bed's-Head to the Chimney with a light, which a
+little after vanished. Hereupon did there did shoot something through
+her Leg, like water, from hip to toe, and when she did find life rising
+up in her dead limb, she fell to crying out, "Lord give me now again the
+feeling, which I have not had in so many years." And farther she
+continued crying and praying to the Lord according to her weak measure.
+
+Yet she continued that day, Wednesday, and the next day Thursday, as
+before till Evening at six a clock. At which time she sate at the Fire
+dressing the Food. Then came as like rushing noise in both her Ears with
+which it was said to her, "_Stand_. Your going is given you again."
+
+Then did she immediately stand up, that had so many years crept, and
+went to the door. Her Husband meeting her, being exceedingly afraid,
+drew back. In the mean time while she cried out, "My dear Husband, I can
+go again."
+
+He thinking it was a Spirit, drew back, saying, "You are not my Wife."
+
+His Wife taking hold of him, said, "My dear Husband, I am the self-same
+that hath been married these thirty years to you. The Almighty God hath
+given me my going again."
+
+But her Husband being amazed, drew back to the side of the Room, till at
+last she clasped her Hand about his Neck. And yet he doubted, and said
+to his Daughter, "Is this your Mother?"
+
+She answered, "Yes, Father! this we plainly see. I had seen her go also
+before you came in."
+
+This befell upon Prince's-Island in Amsterdam, where Jesch Claes lived
+with her husband.
+
+
+
+
+XXIII
+
+THE RADIANT BOY OF CORBY CASTLE
+
+Local Records
+
+
+The haunted room forms part of the old house, with windows looking into
+the court. It adjoins a tower built for defence, for Corby was,
+properly, more a border tower than a castle of any consideration. There
+is a winding staircase in this tower, and the walls are from eight to
+ten feet thick.
+
+When the times became more peaceable, our ancestors enlarged the
+arrow-slit windows, and added to that part of the building which looks
+towards the river Eden; the view of which, with its beautiful banks, we
+now enjoy. But many additions and alterations have been made since that.
+
+To return to the room in question: I must observe that it is by no means
+remote or solitary, being surrounded on all sides by chambers that are
+constantly inhabited. It is accessible by a passage cut through a wall
+eight feet in thickness, and its dimensions are twenty-one by eighteen.
+One side of the wainscotting is covered with tapestry, the remainder is
+decorated with old family pictures, and some ancient pieces of
+embroidery, probably the handiwork of nuns. Over a press, which has
+doors of Venetian glass, is an ancient oaken figure, with a battle-axe
+in his hand, which was one of those formerly placed on the walls of the
+City of Carlisle, to represent guards. There used to be also an
+old-fashioned bed and some dark furniture in this room; but so many were
+the complaints of those who slept there, that I was induced to replace
+some of these articles of furniture by more modern ones, in the hope of
+removing a certain air of gloom, which I thought might have given rise
+to the unaccountable reports of apparitions and extraordinary noises
+which were constantly reaching us. But I regret to say, I did not
+succeed in banishing the nocturnal visitor, which still continues to
+disturb our friends.
+
+I shall pass over numerous instances, and select one as being especially
+remarkable, from the circumstance of the apparition having been seen by
+a clergyman well known and highly respected in this county, who, not six
+weeks ago, repeated the circumstances to a company of twenty persons,
+amongst whom were some who had previously been entire disbelievers in
+such appearances.
+
+The best way of giving you these particulars will be by subjoining an
+extract from my journal, entered at the time the event occurred.
+
+_Sept. 8, 1803._--Amongst other guests invited to Corby Castle came the
+Rev. Henry A., of Redburgh, and rector of Greystoke, with Mrs A., his
+wife, who was a Miss S., of Ulverstone. According to previous
+arrangements, they were to have remained with us some days; but their
+visit was cut short in a very unexpected manner. On the morning after
+their arrival we were all assembled at breakfast, when a chaise and four
+dashed up to the door in such haste that it knocked down part of the
+fence of my flower garden. Our curiosity was, of course, awakened to
+know who could be arriving at so early an hour; when, happening to turn
+my eyes towards Mr A., I observed that he appeared extremely agitated.
+"It is our carriage," said he; "I am very sorry, but we must absolutely
+leave you this morning."
+
+We naturally felt and expressed considerable surprise, as well as
+regret, at this unexpected departure, representing that we had invited
+Colonel and Mrs S., some friends whom Mr A. particularly desired to
+meet, to dine with us on that day. Our expostulations, however, were
+vain; the breakfast was no sooner over than they departed, leaving us in
+consternation to conjecture what could possibly have occasioned so
+sudden an alteration in their arrangements. I really felt quite uneasy
+lest anything should have given them offence; and we reviewed all the
+occurrences of the preceding evening in order to discover, if offence
+there was, whence it had arisen. But our pains were vain; and after
+talking a great deal about it for some days, other circumstances
+banished the matter from our minds.
+
+It was not till we some time afterwards visited the part of the county
+in which Mr A. resides that we learnt the real cause of his sudden
+departure from Corby. The relation of the fact, as it here follows, is
+in his own words:--
+
+"Soon after we went to bed, we fell asleep; it might be between one and
+two in the morning when I awoke. I observed that the fire was totally
+extinguished; but, although that was the case, and we had no light, I
+saw a glimmer in the centre of the room, which suddenly increased to a
+bright flame. I looked out, apprehending that something had caught fire,
+when, to my amazement, I beheld a beautiful boy, clothed in white, with
+bright locks resembling gold, standing by my bedside, in which position
+he remained some minutes, fixing his eyes upon me with a mild and
+benevolent expression. He then glided gently towards the side of the
+chimney, where it is obvious there is no possible egress, and entirely
+disappeared. I found myself again in total darkness, and all remained
+quiet until the usual hour of rising. I declare this to be a true
+account of what I saw at Corby Castle, upon my word as a clergyman."
+
+Mrs Crowe, alluding to this story in her "Night Side of Nature," said
+that she was acquainted with some of the family and several of the
+friends of the Rev. Henry A., who, she continued, "is still alive,
+though now an old man; and I can most positively assert that his own
+conviction with regard to the nature of this appearance has remained
+ever unshaken. The circumstance made a lasting impression upon his mind,
+and he never willingly speaks of it; but when he does, it is always with
+the greatest seriousness, and he never shrinks from avowing his belief
+that what he saw admits of no other interpretation than the one he then
+put upon it."
+
+
+
+
+XXIV
+
+CLERK SAUNDERS
+
+"Border Minstrelsy"
+
+
+    Clerk Saunders and May Margaret
+      Walked owre yon garden green;
+    And sad and heavy was the love
+      That fell them twa between.
+
+    And thro' the dark, and thro' the mirk,
+      And thro' the leaves o' green,
+    He cam that night to Margaret's door,
+      And tirled at the pin.
+
+    "O wha is that at my bower door,
+      Sae weel my name does ken?"
+    "'Tis I, Clerk Saunders, your true love;
+      You'll open and let me in?"
+
+    "But in may come my seven bauld brithers,
+      Wi' torches burning bright;
+    They'll say--'We hae but ae sister,
+      And behold she's wi' a knight!'"
+
+    "Ye'll tak my brand I bear in hand,
+      And wi' the same ye'll lift the pin;
+    Then ye may swear, and save your aith,
+      That ye ne'er let Clerk Saunders in.
+
+    "Ye'll tak the kerchief in your hand,
+      And wi' the same tie up your een;
+    Then ye may swear and save your aith,
+      Ye saw me na since yestere'en."
+
+    It was about the midnight hour,
+      When they asleep were laid,
+    When in and cam her seven brothers,
+      Wi' torches burning red.
+
+    When in and cam her seven brothers,
+      Wi' torches burning bright;
+    They said, "We hae but ae sister,
+      And behold she's wi' a knight."
+
+    Then out and spak the first o' them,
+      "We'll awa' and lat them be."
+    And out and spak the second o' them,
+      "His father has nae mair than he!"
+
+    And out and spak the third o' them,
+      "I wot they are lovers dear!"
+    And out and spak the fourth o' them,
+      "They hae lo'ed this mony a year!"
+
+    Then out and spak the fifth o' them,
+      "It were sin true love to twain!"
+    "'Twere shame," out spak the sixth o' them,
+      "To slay a sleeping man!"
+
+    Then up and gat the seventh o' them,
+      And never a word spak he;
+    But he has striped his bright brown brand
+      Through Saunders' fair bodie.
+
+    Clerk Saunders started, and Margaret she turned,
+      Into his arms as asleep she lay;
+    And sad and silent was the night,
+      That was atween thir twae.
+
+    And they lay still and sleepit sound,
+      Till the day began to daw;
+    And kindly to him she did say,
+      "It is time, love, you were awa'."
+
+    But he lay still, and sleepit sound,
+      Till the sun began to sheen;
+    She looked atween her and the wa',
+      And dull, dull were his een.
+
+    She turned the blankets to the foot,
+      The sheets unto the wa',
+    And there she saw his bloody wound,
+      And her tears fast doun did fa'.
+
+    Then in and cam her father dear,
+      Said, "Let a' your mournin' be;
+    I'll carry the dead corpse to the clay
+      And then come back and comfort thee.
+
+    "Hold your tongue, my daughter dear,
+      And let your mourning be;
+    I'll wed you to a higher match
+      Than his father's son could be."
+
+    "Gae comfort weel your seven sons, father,
+      For man sall ne'er comfort me;
+    Ye'll marry me wi' the Queen o' Heaven,
+      For wedded I ne'er sall be!"
+
+    The clinking bell gaed through the toun,
+      To carry the dead corse to the clay;
+    And Clerk Saunders stood at Margaret's window,
+      'Twas an hour before the day.
+
+    "O'are ye sleeping, Margaret?" he says,
+      "Or are ye waking presentlie?
+    Gie me my faith and troth again,
+      I wot, true love, I gied to thee.
+
+    "I canna rest, Margaret," he says,
+      "Doun in the grave where I must be,
+    Till ye gie me my faith and troth again,
+      I wot, true love, I gied to thee."
+
+    "Your faith and troth ye sall never get,
+      Nor our true love sall never twin,
+    Until ye come within my bower,
+      And kiss me cheek and chin."
+
+    "My mouth it is full cold, Margaret,
+      It has the smell, now, of the ground;
+    And if I kiss thy comely mouth,
+      To the grave thou will be bound.
+
+    "O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,
+      I wot the wild-fowls are boding day;
+    Gie me my faith and troth again,
+      And let me fare me on my way."
+
+    "Thy faith and troth thou sall na get,
+      And our true love shall never twin,
+    Until ye tell what comes of women,
+      I wot, who die in strong travailing."
+
+    "Their beds are made in the heavens high,
+      Down at the foot of our good Lord's knee,
+    Weel set about wi' gillyflowers;
+      I wot sweet company for to see.
+
+    "O, cocks are crawing a merry midnight,
+      I wot the wild-fowl are boding day;
+    The psalms of heaven will soon be sung,
+      And I, ere now, will be missed away."
+
+    Then she has ta'en a crystal wand,
+      And she has stroken her troth thereon,
+    She has given it him out at the shot-window,
+      Wi' mony a sigh and heavy groan.
+
+    "I thank ye, Margaret; I thank ye, Margaret;
+      And aye I thank ye heartilie;
+    Gin ever the dead come for the quick,
+      Be sure, Margaret, I'll come for thee."
+
+    It's hosen, and shoon, and gown, alane,
+      She clam the wa' and after him;
+    Until she cam to the green forest,
+      And there she lost the sight o' him.
+
+    "Is there ony room at your head, Saunders,
+      Is there ony room at your feet?
+    Or ony room at your side, Saunders,
+      Where fain, fain, I wad sleep?"
+
+    "There's nae room at my head, Margaret,
+      There's nae room at my feet;
+    My bed it is full lowly now:
+      'Mang the hungry worms I sleep.
+
+    "Cauld mould is my covering now,
+      But and my winding-sheet;
+    The dew it falls nae sooner down,
+      Than my resting-place is weet.
+
+    "But plait a wand o' the bonnie birk
+      And lay it on my breast;
+    And shed a tear upon my grave,
+      And wish my saul gude rest.
+
+    "And fair Margaret, and rare Margaret,
+      And Margaret o' veritie,
+    Gin e'er ye love anither man,
+      Ne'er love him as ye did me."
+
+    Then up and crew the milk-white cock,
+      And up and crew the gray;
+    Her lover vanished in the air,
+      And she gaed weeping away.
+
+
+
+
+XXV
+
+DOROTHY DURANT
+
+By Mrs CROWE
+
+
+A schoolboy named Bligh, who went to Launceston Grammar School, of which
+the Rev. John Ruddle was headmaster, from being a lad of bright parts
+and no common attainments, became on a sudden moody, dejected, and
+melancholy. His friends, seeing the change without being able to find
+the cause, attributed it to laziness, an aversion to school, or to some
+other motive which he was ashamed to avow. He was led, however, to tell
+his brother, after some time, that in a field through which he passed to
+and from school, he invariably met the apparition of a woman, whom he
+personally knew while living, and who had been dead about eight years.
+Ridicule, threats, persuasions, were alike used in vain by the family to
+induce him to dismiss these absurd ideas. Finally, Mr Ruddle was sent
+for, and to him the boy ingenuously told the time, manner, and frequency
+of this appearance. It was in a field called Higher Broomfield. The
+apparition, he said, appeared dressed in female attire, met him two or
+three times while he passed through the field, glided hastily by him,
+but never spoke. He had thus been occasionally met about two months
+before he took any particular notice of it; at length the appearance
+became more frequent, meeting him both morning and evening, but always
+in the same field, yet invariably moving out of the path when it came
+close to him. He often spoke, but could never get any reply. To avoid
+this unwelcome visitor he forsook the field, and went to school and
+returned from it through a lane, in which place, between the quarry pack
+and nursery, it always met him. Unable to disbelieve the evidence of his
+own senses, or to obtain credit with any of his family, he prevailed
+upon Mr Ruddle to accompany him to the place.
+
+"I arose," says this clergyman, "the next morning, and went with him.
+The field to which he led me I guessed to be about twenty acres, in an
+open country, and about three furlongs from any house. We went into the
+field, and had not gone a third part before the spectrum in the shape of
+a woman, with all the circumstances he had described the day before, so
+far as the suddenness of its appearance and transition would permit me
+to discover, passed by.
+
+"I was a little surprised at it, and though I had taken up a firm
+resolution to speak to it, I had not the power, nor durst I look back;
+yet I took care not to show any fear to my pupil and guide, and
+therefore, telling him I was satisfied of the truth of his statement, we
+walked to the end of the field and returned--nor did the ghost meet us
+that time but once.
+
+"On the 27th July, 1665, I went to the haunted field by myself, and
+walked the breadth of it without any encounter. I then returned and took
+the other walk, and then the spectre appeared to me, much about the same
+place in which I saw it when the young gentleman was with me. It
+appeared to move swifter than before, and seemed to be about ten feet
+from me on my right hand, insomuch that I had not time to speak to it,
+as I had determined with myself beforehand. The evening of this day, the
+parents, the son, and myself, being in the chamber where I lay, I
+proposed to them our going altogether to the place next morning. We
+accordingly met at the stile we had appointed; thence we all four walked
+into the field together. We had not gone more than half the field before
+the ghost made its appearance. It then came over the stile just before
+us, and moved with such rapidity that by the time we had gone six or
+seven steps it passed by. I immediately turned my head and ran after it,
+with the young man by my side. We saw it pass over the stile at which we
+entered, and no farther. I stepped upon the hedge at one place and the
+young man at another, but we could discern nothing; whereas I do aver
+that the swiftest horse in England could not have conveyed himself out
+of sight in that short space of time. Two things I observed in this
+day's appearance: first, a spaniel dog, which had followed the company
+unregarded, barked and ran away as the spectrum passed by; whence it is
+easy to conclude that it was not our fear or fancy which made the
+apparition. Secondly, the motion of the spectrum was not _gradatim_ or
+by steps, or moving of the feet, but by a kind of gliding, as children
+upon ice, or as a boat down a river, which punctually answers the
+description the ancients give of the motion of these Lamures. This
+ocular evidence clearly convinced, but withal strangely affrighted, the
+old gentleman and his wife. They well knew this woman, Dorothy Durant,
+in her life-time; were at her burial, and now plainly saw her features
+in this apparition.
+
+"The next morning, being Thursday, I went very early by myself, and
+walked for about an hour's space in meditation and prayer in the field
+next adjoining. Soon after five I stepped over the stile into the
+haunted field, and had not gone above thirty or forty paces before the
+ghost appeared at the further stile. I spoke to it in some short
+sentences with a loud voice; whereupon it approached me, but slowly, and
+when I came near it moved not. I spoke again, and it answered in a voice
+neither audible nor very intelligible. I was not in the least terrified,
+and therefore persisted until it spoke again and gave me satisfaction;
+but the work could not be finished at this time. Whereupon the same
+evening, an hour after sunset, it met me again near the same place, and
+after a few words on each side it quietly vanished, and neither doth
+appear now, nor hath appeared since, nor ever will more to any man's
+disturbance. The discourse in the morning lasted about a quarter of an
+hour.
+
+"These things are true," concludes the Rev. John Ruddle, "and I know
+them to be so, with as much certainty as eyes and ears can give me; and
+until I can be persuaded that my senses all deceive me about their
+proper objects, and by that persuasion deprive me of the strongest
+inducement to believe the Christian religion, I must and will assert
+that the things contained in this paper are true."
+
+
+
+
+XXVI
+
+PEARLIN JEAN
+
+By CHARLES KIRKPATRICK SHARPE
+
+
+It was Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, the antiquary, who furnished this
+account of Pearlin Jean's hauntings at Allanbank.
+
+"In my youth," he says, "Pearlin Jean was the most remarkable ghost in
+Scotland, and my terror when a child. Our old nurse, Jenny Blackadder,
+had been a servant at Allanbank, and often heard her rustling in silks
+up and down stairs, and along the passages. She never saw her; but her
+husband did.
+
+"She was a French woman, whom the first baronet of Allanbank, then Mr
+Stuart, met with at Paris, during his tour to finish his education as a
+gentleman. Some people said she was a nun; in which case she must have
+been a Sister of Charity, as she appears not to have been confined to a
+cloister. After some time, young Stuart either became faithless to the
+lady or was suddenly recalled to Scotland by his parents, and had got
+into his carriage at the door of the hotel, when his Dido unexpectedly
+made her appearance, and stepping on the forewheel of the coach to
+address her lover, he ordered the postilion to drive on; the consequence
+of which was that the lady fell, and one of the wheels going over her
+forehead, killed her.
+
+"In a dusky autumnal evening, when Mr Stuart drove under the arched
+gateway of Allanbank, he perceived Pearlin Jean sitting on the top, her
+head and shoulders covered with blood.
+
+"After this, for many years, the house was haunted; doors shut and
+opened with great noise at midnight; the rustling of silks and pattering
+of high-heeled shoes were heard in bedrooms and passages. Nurse Jenny
+said there were seven ministers called in together at one time to _lay_
+the spirit; 'but they did no mickle good, my dear.'
+
+"The picture of the ghost was hung between those of her lover and his
+lady, and kept her comparatively quiet; but when taken away, she became
+worse-natured than ever. This portrait was in the present Sir J.G.'s
+possession. I am unwilling to record its fate.
+
+"The ghost was designated Pearlin, from always wearing a great quantity
+of that sort of lace.
+
+"Nurse Jenny told me that when Thomas Blackadder was her lover (I
+remember Thomas very well), they made an assignation to meet one
+moonlight night in the orchard at Allanbank. True Thomas, of course, was
+the first comer; and seeing a female figure in a light-coloured dress,
+at some distance, he ran forward with open arms to embrace his Jenny;
+when lo and behold! as he neared the spot where the figure stood, it
+vanished; and presently he saw it again at the very end of the orchard,
+a considerable way off. Thomas went home in a fright; but Jenny, who
+came last, and saw nothing, forgave him, and they were married.
+
+"Many years after this, about the year 1790, two ladies paid a visit at
+Allanbank--I think the house was then let--and passed the night there.
+They had never heard a word about the ghost; but they were disturbed the
+whole night with something walking backwards and forwards in their
+bed-chamber. This I had from the best authority."
+
+To this account may be added that a housekeeper, called Betty Norrie,
+who, in more recent times, lived many years at Allanbank, positively
+averred that she, and many other persons, had frequently seen Pearlin
+Jean; and, moreover, stated that they were so used to her as to be no
+longer alarmed at the noises she made.
+
+
+
+
+XXVII
+
+THE DENTON HALL GHOST
+
+Local Records
+
+
+A day or two after my arrival at Denton Hall, when all around was yet
+new to me, I had accompanied my friends to a ball given in the
+neighbourhood, and returned heartily fatigued. At this time I need not
+blush, nor you smile, when I say that on that evening I had met, for the
+second time, one with whose destinies my own were doomed to become
+connected.
+
+I think I was sitting upon an antique carved chair, near to the fire, in
+the room where I slept, busied in arranging my hair, and thinking over
+some of the events of the day. Whether I had dropped into a
+half-slumber, I cannot say; but on looking up--for I had my face bent
+toward the fire--there seemed sitting on a similar highbacked chair, on
+the other side of the ancient tiled fireplace, an old lady, whose air
+and dress were so remarkable that to this hour they seem as fresh in my
+memory as they were the day after the vision. She appeared to be dressed
+in a flowered satin gown, of a cut then out of date. It was peaked and
+long-waisted. The fabric of the satin had that extreme of glossy
+stiffness which old fabrics of this kind exhibit. She wore a stomacher.
+On her wrinkled fingers appeared some rings of great size and seeming
+value; but, what was most remarkable, she wore also a satin hood of a
+peculiar shape. It was glossy like the gown, but seemed to be stiffened
+either by whalebone or some other material. Her age seemed considerable,
+and the face, though not unpleasant, was somewhat hard and severe and
+indented with minute wrinkles. I confess that so entirely was my
+attention engrossed by what was passing in my mind, that, though I felt
+mightily confused, I was not startled (in the emphatic sense) by the
+apparition. In fact, I deemed it to be some old lady, perhaps a
+housekeeper, or dependent in the family, and, therefore, though rather
+astonished, was by no means frightened by my visitant, supposing me to
+be awake, which I am convinced was the case, though few persons believe
+me on this point.
+
+My own impression is that I stared somewhat rudely, in the wonder of the
+moment, at the hard, but lady-like features of my aged visitor. But she
+left me small time to think, addressing me in a familiar half-whisper
+and with a constant restless motion of the hand which aged persons, when
+excited, often exhibit in addressing the young. "Well, young lady," said
+my mysterious companion, "and so you've been at yon hall to-night! and
+highly ye've been delighted there! Yet if you could see as I can see, or
+could know as I can know, troth! I guess your pleasure would abate. 'Tis
+well for you, young lady, peradventure, ye see not with my eyes"--and at
+the moment, sure enough, her eyes, which were small, grey, and in no way
+remarkable, twinkled with a light so severe that the effect was
+unpleasant in the extreme. "'Tis well for you and them," she continued,
+"that ye cannot count the cost. Time was when hospitality could be kept
+in England, and the guest not ruin the master of the feast--but that's
+all vanished now: pride and poverty--pride and poverty, young lady, are
+an ill-matched pair, Heaven kens!" My tongue, which had at first almost
+faltered in its office, now found utterance. By a kind of instinct, I
+addressed my strange visitant in her own manner and humour. "And are we,
+then, so much poorer than in days of yore?" were the words that I spoke.
+My visitor seemed half startled at the sound of my voice, as at
+something unaccustomed, and went on, rather answering my question by
+implication than directly: "'Twas not all hollowness then," she
+exclaimed, ceasing somewhat her hollow whisper; "the land was then the
+lord's, and that which _seemed, was_. The child, young lady, was not
+then mortgaged in the cradle, and, mark ye, the bride, when she kneeled
+at the altar, gave not herself up, body and soul, to be the bondswoman
+of the Jew, but to be the helpmate of the spouse." "The Jew!" I
+exclaimed in surprise, for then I understood not the allusion. "Ay,
+young lady! the Jew," was the rejoinder. "'Tis plain ye know not who
+rules. 'Tis all hollow yonder! all hollow, all hollow! to the very
+glitter of the side-board, all false! all false! all hollow! Away with
+such make-believe finery!" And here again the hollow voice rose a
+little, and the dim grey eye glistened. "Ye mortgage the very oaks of
+your ancestors--I saw the planting of them; and now 'tis all painting,
+gilding, varnishing and veneering. Houses call ye them? Whited
+sepulchres, young lady, whited sepulchres. Trust not all that seems to
+glisten. Fair though it seems, 'tis but the product of disease--even as
+is the pearl in your hair, young lady, that glitters in the mirror
+yonder,--not more specious than is all,--ay, _all_ ye have seen
+to-night."
+
+As my strange visitor pronounced these words, I instinctively turned my
+gaze to a large old-fashioned mirror that leaned from the wall of the
+chamber. 'Twas but for a moment. But when I again turned my head, my
+visitant was no longer there! I heard plainly, as I turned, the distinct
+rustle of the silk, as if she had risen and was leaving the room. I
+seemed distinctly to hear this, together with the quick, short, easy
+footstep with which females of rank of that period were taught to glide
+rather than to walk; this I seemed to hear, but of what appeared the
+antique old lady I saw no more. The suddenness and strangeness of this
+event for a moment sent the blood back to my heart. Could I have found
+voice, I should, I think, have screamed, but that was, for a moment,
+beyond my power. A few seconds recovered me. By a sort of impulse I
+rushed to the door, outside which I now heard the footsteps of some of
+the family, when, to my utter astonishment, I found it was--locked! I
+now recollected that I myself locked it before sitting down.
+
+Though somewhat ashamed to give utterance to what I really believed as
+to this matter, the strange adventure of the night was made a subject of
+conversation at the breakfast-table next morning. On the words leaving
+my lips, I saw my host and hostess exchange looks with each other, and
+soon found that the tale I had to tell was not received with the air
+which generally meets such relations. I was not repelled by an angry or
+ill-bred incredulity, or treated as one of diseased fancy, to whom
+silence is indirectly recommended as the alternative of being laughed
+at. In short, it was not attempted to be denied or concealed that I was
+not the first who had been alarmed in a manner, if not exactly similar,
+yet just as mysterious; that visitors, like myself, had actually given
+way to these terrors so far as to quit the house in consequence; and
+that servants were sometimes not to be prevented from sharing in the
+same contagion. At the same time they told me this, my host and hostess
+declared that custom and continued residence had long exempted all
+regular inmates of the mansion from any alarms or terrors. The
+visitations, whatever they were, seemed to be confined to newcomers, and
+to them it was by no means a matter of frequent occurrence.
+
+In the neighbourhood, I found, this strange story was well known; that
+the house was regularly set down as "haunted" all the country round, and
+that the spirit, or goblin, or whatever it was that was embodied in
+these appearances, was familiarly known by the name of "Silky."
+
+At a distance, those to whom I have related my night's adventure have
+one and all been sceptical, and accounted for the whole by supposing me
+to have been half asleep, or in a state resembling somnambulism. All I
+can say is, that my own impressions are directly contrary to this
+supposition; and that I feel as sure that I saw the figure that sat
+before me with my bodily eyes, as I am sure I now see you with them.
+Without affecting to deny that I was somewhat shocked by the adventure,
+I must repeat that I suffered no unreasonable alarm, nor suffered my
+fancy to overcome my better spirit of womanhood.
+
+I certainly slept no more in that room, and in that to which I removed I
+had one of the daughters of my hostess as a companion; but I have never,
+from that hour to this, been convinced that I did not actually encounter
+something more than is natural--if not an actual being in some other
+state of existence. My ears have not been deceived, if my eyes
+were--which, I repeat, I cannot believe.
+
+The warnings so strongly shadowed forth have been too true. The
+gentleman at whose house I that night was a guest has long since filled
+an untimely grave! In that splendid hall, since that time, strangers
+have lorded it--and I myself have long since ceased to think of such
+scenes as I partook of that evening--the envied object of the attention
+of one whose virtues have survived the splendid inheritance to which he
+seemed destined.
+
+Whether this be a tale of delusion and superstition, or something more
+than that, it is, at all events, not without a legend for its
+foundation. There is some obscure and dark rumour of secrets strangely
+obtained and enviously betrayed by a rival sister, ending in deprivation
+of reason and death; and that the betrayer still walks by times in the
+deserted Hall which she rendered tenantless, always prophetic of
+disaster to those she encounters. So has it been with me, certainly; and
+more than me, if those who say it say true. It is many, many years
+since I saw the scene of this adventure; but I have heard that since
+that time the same mysterious visitings have more than once been
+renewed; that midnight curtains have been drawn by an arm clothed in
+rustling silks; and the same form, clad in dark brocade, has been seen
+gliding along the dark corridors of that ancient, grey, and time-worn
+mansion, ever prophetic of death or misfortune.
+
+
+
+
+XXVIII
+
+THE GOODWOOD GHOST STORY
+
+(Doubtfully attributed to CHARLES DICKENS)
+
+
+My wife's sister, Mrs M----, was left a widow at the age of thirty-five,
+with two children, girls, of whom she was passionately fond. She carried
+on the draper's business at Bognor, established by her husband. Being
+still a very handsome woman, there were several suitors for her hand.
+The only favoured one amongst them was a Mr Barton. My wife never liked
+this Mr Barton, and made no secret of her feelings to her sister, whom
+she frequently told that Mr Barton only wanted to be master of the
+little haberdashery shop in Bognor. He was a man in poor circumstances,
+and had no other motive in his proposal of marriage, so my wife thought,
+than to better himself.
+
+On the 23rd of August 1831 Mrs M---- arranged to go with Barton to a
+picnic party at Goodwood Park, the seat of the Duke of Richmond, who had
+kindly thrown open his grounds to the public for the day. My wife, a
+little annoyed at her going out with this man, told her she had much
+better remain at home to look after her children and attend to the
+business. Mrs M----, however, bent on going, made arrangements about
+leaving the shop, and got my wife to promise to see to her little girls
+while she was away.
+
+The party set out in a four-wheeled phaeton, with a pair of ponies
+driven by Mrs M----, and a gig for which I lent the horse.
+
+Now we did not expect them to come back till nine or ten o'clock, at
+any rate. I mention this particularly to show that there could be no
+expectation of their earlier return in the mind of my wife, to account
+for what follows.
+
+At six o'clock that bright summer's evening my wife went out into the
+garden to call the children. Not finding them, she went all round the
+place in her search till she came to the empty stable; thinking they
+might have run in there to play, she pushed open the door; there,
+standing in the darkest corner, she saw Mrs M----. My wife was surprised
+to see her, certainly; for she did not expect her return so soon; but,
+oddly enough, it did not strike her as being singular to see her
+_there_. Vexed as she had felt with her all day for going, and rather
+glad, in her woman's way, to have something entirely different from the
+genuine _casus belli_ to hang a retort upon, my wife said: "Well,
+Harriet, I should have thought another dress would have done quite as
+well for your picnic as that best black silk you have on." My wife was
+the elder of the twain, and had always assumed a little of the air of
+counsellor to her sister. Black silks were thought a great deal more of
+at that time than they are just now, and silk of any kind was held
+particularly inconsistent wear for Wesleyan Methodists, to which
+denomination we belonged.
+
+Receiving no answer, my wife said: "Oh, well, Harriet, if you can't take
+a word of reproof without being sulky, I'll leave you to yourself"; and
+then she came into the house to tell me the party had returned and that
+she had seen her sister in the stable, not in the best of tempers. At
+the moment it did not seem extraordinary to me that my wife should have
+met her sister in the stable.
+
+I waited indoors some time, expecting them to return my horse. Mrs M----
+was my neighbour, and, being always on most friendly terms, I wondered
+that none of the party had come in to tell us about the day's pleasure.
+I thought I would just run in and see how they had got on. To my great
+surprise the servant told me they had not returned. I began, then, to
+feel anxiety about the result. My wife, however, having seen Harriet in
+the stable, refused to believe the servant's assertion; and said there
+was no doubt of their return, but that they had probably left word to
+say they were not come back, in order to offer a plausible excuse for
+taking a further drive, and detaining my horse for another hour or so.
+
+At eleven o'clock Mr Pinnock, my brother-in-law, who had been one of the
+party, came in, apparently much agitated. As soon as she saw him, and
+before he had time to speak, my wife seemed to know what he had to say.
+
+"What is the matter?" she said; "something has happened to Harriet, I
+know!"
+
+"Yes" replied Mr Pinnock; "if you wish to see her alive, you must come
+with me directly to Goodwood."
+
+From what he said it appeared that one of the ponies had never been
+properly broken in; that the man from whom the turn-out was hired for
+the day had cautioned Mrs M---- respecting it before they started; and
+that he had lent it reluctantly, being the only pony to match in the
+stable at the time, and would not have lent it at all had he not known
+Mrs M---- to be a remarkably good whip.
+
+On reaching Goodwood, it seems, the gentlemen of the party had got out,
+leaving the ladies to take a drive round the park in the phaeton. One or
+both of the ponies must then have taken fright at something in the road,
+for Mrs M---- had scarcely taken the reins when the ponies shied. Had
+there been plenty of room she would readily have mastered the
+difficulty; but it was in a narrow road, where a gate obstructed the
+way. Some men rushed to open the gate--too late. The three other ladies
+jumped out at the beginning of the accident; but Mrs M---- still held on
+to the reins, seeking to control her ponies, until, finding it was
+impossible for the men to get the gate open in time, she too sprang
+forward; and at the same instant the ponies came smash on to the gate.
+She had made her spring too late, and fell heavily to the ground on her
+head. The heavy, old-fashioned comb of the period, with which her hair
+was looped up, was driven into her skull by the force of the fall. The
+Duke of Richmond, a witness to the accident, ran to her assistance,
+lifted her up, and rested her head upon his knees. The only words Mrs
+M---- had spoken were uttered at the time: "Good God, my children!" By
+direction of the Duke she was immediately conveyed to a neighbouring
+inn, where every assistance, medical and otherwise, that forethought or
+kindness could suggest was afforded her.
+
+At six o'clock in the evening, the time at which my wife had gone into
+the stable and seen what we now knew had been her spirit, Mrs M----, in
+her sole interval of returning consciousness, had made a violent but
+unsuccessful attempt to speak. From her glance having wandered round the
+room, in solemn awful wistfulness, it had been conjectured she wished to
+see some relative or friend not then present. I went to Goodwood in the
+gig with Mr Pinnock, and arrived in time to see my sister-in-law die at
+two o'clock in the morning. Her only conscious moments had been those in
+which she laboured unsuccessfully to speak, which had occurred at six
+o'clock. She wore a black silk dress.
+
+When we came to dispose of her business, and to wind up her affairs,
+there was scarcely anything left for the two orphan girls. Mrs M----'s
+father, however, being well-to-do, took them to bring up. At his death,
+which happened soon afterwards, his property went to his eldest son, who
+speedily dissipated the inheritance. During a space of two years the
+children were taken as visitors by various relations in turn, and lived
+an unhappy life with no settled home.
+
+For some time I had been debating with myself how to help these
+children, having many boys and girls of my own to provide for. I had
+almost settled to take them myself, bad as trade was with me, at the
+time, and bring them up with my own family, when one day business called
+me to Brighton. The business was so urgent that it necessitated my
+travelling at night.
+
+I set out from Bognor in a close-headed gig on a beautiful moonlight
+winter's night, when the crisp frozen snow lay deep over the earth, and
+its fine glistening dust was whirled about in little eddies on the bleak
+night-wind--driven now and then in stinging powder against my tingling
+cheek, warm and glowing in the sharp air. I had taken my great "Bose"
+(short for "Boatswain") for company. He lay, blinking wakefully,
+sprawled out on the spare seat of the gig beneath a mass of warm rugs.
+
+Between Littlehampton and Worthing is a lonely piece of road, long and
+dreary, through bleak and bare open country, where the snow lay
+knee-deep, sparkling in the moonlight. It was so cheerless that I turned
+round to speak to my dog, more for the sake of hearing the sound of a
+voice than anything else. "Good Bose," I said, patting him, "there's a
+good dog!" Then suddenly I noticed he shivered, and shrank underneath
+the wraps. Then the horse required my attention, for he gave a start,
+and was going wrong, and had nearly taken me into the ditch.
+
+Then I looked up. Walking at my horse's head, dressed in a sweeping
+robe, so white that it shone dazzling against the white snow, I saw a
+lady, her back turned to me, her head bare; her hair dishevelled and
+strayed, showing sharp and black against her white dress.
+
+I was at first so much surprised at seeing a lady, so dressed, exposed
+to the open night, and such a night as this, that I scarcely knew what
+to do. Recovering myself, I called out to know if I could render
+assistance--if she wished to ride? No answer. I drove faster, the horse
+blinking, and shying, and trembling the while, his ears laid back in
+abject terror. Still the figure maintained its position close to my
+horse's head. Then I thought that what I saw was no woman, but perchance
+a man disguised for the purpose of robbing me, seeking an opportunity to
+seize the bridle and stop the horse. Filled with this idea, I said,
+"Good Bose! hi! look at it, boy!" but the dog only shivered as if in
+fright. Then we came to a place where four cross-roads meet.
+
+Determined to know the worst, I pulled up the horse. I fetched Bose,
+unwilling, out by the ears. He was a good dog at anything from a rat to
+a man, but he slunk away that night into the hedge, and lay there, his
+head between his paws, whining and howling. I walked straight up to the
+figure, still standing by the horse's head. As I walked, the figure
+turned, and I saw _Harriet's face_ as plainly as I see you now--white
+and calm--placid, as idealised and beautified by death. I must own that,
+though not a nervous man, in that instant I felt sick and faint. Harriet
+looked me full in the face with a long, eager, silent look. I knew then
+it was her spirit, and felt a strange calm come over me, for I knew it
+was nothing to harm me. When I could speak, I asked what troubled her.
+She looked at me still, never changing that cold fixed stare. Then I
+felt in my mind it was her children, and I said:
+
+"Harriet! is it for your children you are troubled?"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Harriet," I continued, "if for these you are troubled, be assured they
+shall never want while I have power to help them. Rest in peace!"
+
+Still no answer.
+
+I put up my hand to wipe from my forehead the cold perspiration which
+had gathered there. When I took my hand away from shading my eyes, the
+figure was gone. I was alone on the bleak snow-covered ground. The
+breeze, that had been hushed before, breathed coolly and gratefully on
+my face, and the cold stars glimmered and sparkled sharply in the far
+blue heavens. My dog crept up to me and furtively licked my hand, as who
+would say, "Good master, don't be angry. I have served you in all but
+this."
+
+I took the children and brought them up till they could help
+themselves.
+
+
+
+
+XXIX
+
+CAPTAIN WHEATCROFT
+
+From DALE OWEN'S "Footfalls"
+
+
+In the month of September 1857 Captain German Wheatcroft, of the 6th
+(Inniskilling) Dragoons, went out to India to join his regiment.
+
+His wife remained in England, residing at Cambridge. On the night
+between the 14th and 15th of November 1857, towards morning, she dreamed
+that she saw her husband, looking anxious and ill; upon which she
+immediately awoke, much agitated. It was bright moonlight; and, looking
+up, she perceived the same figure standing by her bedside. He appeared
+in his uniform, the hands pressed across the breast, the hair
+dishevelled, the face very pale. His large dark eyes were fixed full
+upon her; their expression was that of great excitement, and there was a
+peculiar contraction of the mouth, habitual to him when agitated. She
+saw him, even to each minute particular of his dress, as distinctly as
+she had ever done in her life; and she remembers to have noticed between
+his hands the white of his shirt-bosom, unstained, however, with blood.
+The figure seemed to bend forward, as if in pain, and to make an effort
+to speak; but there was no sound. It remained visible, the wife thinks,
+as long as a minute, and then disappeared.
+
+Her first idea was to ascertain if she was actually awake. She rubbed
+her eyes with the sheet, and felt that the touch was real. Her little
+nephew was in bed with her; she bent over the sleeping child and
+listened to its breathing; the sound was distinct, and she became
+convinced that what she had seen was no dream. It need hardly be added
+that she did not again go to sleep that night.
+
+Next morning she related all this to her mother, expressing her
+conviction, though she had noticed no marks of blood on his dress, that
+Captain Wheatcroft was either killed or grievously wounded. So fully
+impressed was she with the reality of that apparition, that she
+thenceforth refused all invitations. A young friend urged her soon
+afterwards to go with her to a fashionable concert, reminding her that
+she had received from Malta, sent by her husband, a handsome dress
+cloak, which she had never yet worn. But she positively declined,
+declaring that, uncertain as she was whether she was not already a
+widow, she would never enter a place of amusement until she had letters
+from her husband (if indeed he still lived) of a later date than the
+14th of November.
+
+It was on a Tuesday, in the month of December 1857, that the telegram
+regarding the actual fate of Captain Wheatcroft was published in London.
+It was to the effect that he was killed before Lucknow on the
+_fifteenth_ of November.
+
+This news, given in the morning paper, attracted the attention of Mr
+Wilkinson, a London solicitor, who had in charge Captain Wheatcroft's
+affairs. When at a later period this gentleman met the widow, she
+informed him that she had been quite prepared for the melancholy news,
+but that she had felt sure her husband could not have been killed on the
+15th of November, inasmuch as it was during the night between the 14th
+and 15th that he appeared to her.
+
+The certificate from the War Office, however, which it became Mr
+Wilkinson's duty to obtain, confirmed the date given in the telegram,
+its tenor being as follows:--
+
+    "No. 9579/1       WAR OFFICE,
+                       _30th January 1858._
+
+"These are to certify that it appears, by the records in this office,
+that Captain German Wheatcroft of the 6th Dragoon Guards, was killed in
+action on the 15th of November 1857.
+
+    "(_Signed_) B. HAWES."
+
+The difference of longitude between London and Lucknow being about five
+hours, three or four o'clock a.m. in London would be eight or nine
+o'clock a.m. at Lucknow. But it was in the _afternoon_ not in the
+_morning_, as will be seen in the sequel, that Captain Wheatcroft was
+killed. Had he fallen on the 15th, therefore, the apparition to his wife
+would have appeared several hours before the engagement in which he
+fell, and while he was yet alive and well.
+
+
+
+
+XXX
+
+THE IRON CAGE
+
+From Mrs CROWE'S "Night Side of Nature"
+
+
+[As you express a wish to know what credit is to be attached to a tale
+sent forth after a lapse of between thirty and forty years, I will state
+the facts as they were recalled last year by a daughter of Sir William
+A. C----.]
+
+Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother Charles, went abroad
+towards the end of the year 1786. After trying several different places,
+we determined to settle at Lille, where we had letters of introduction
+to several of the best French families. There Sir James left us, and
+after passing a few days in an uncomfortable lodging, we engaged a nice
+large family house, which we liked much, and which we obtained at a very
+low rent, even for that part of the world.
+
+About three weeks after we were established there, I walked one day with
+my mother to the bankers, for the purpose of delivering our letter of
+credit from Sir Robert Herries and drawing some money, which being paid
+in heavy five-frank pieces, we found we could not carry, and therefore
+requested the banker to send, saying, "We live in the Place du Lion
+d'Or." Whereupon he looked surprised, and observed that he knew of no
+house there fit for us, "except, indeed," he added, "the one that has
+been long uninhabited on account of the _revenant_ that walks about it."
+
+He said this quite seriously, and in a natural tone of voice; in spite
+of which we laughed, and were quite entertained at the idea of a ghost;
+but, at the same time, we begged him not to mention the thing to our
+servants, lest they should take any fancies into their heads; and my
+mother and I resolved to say nothing about the matter to anyone. "I
+suppose it is the ghost," said my mother, laughing, "that wakes us so
+often by walking over our heads." We had, in fact, been awakened several
+nights by a heavy foot, which we supposed to be that of one of the
+men-servants, of whom we had three English and four French. The English
+ones, men and women, every one of them, returned ultimately to England
+with us.
+
+A night or two afterwards, being again awakened by the step, my mother
+asked Creswell: "Who slept in the room above us?" "No one, my lady," she
+replied, "it is a large empty garret."
+
+About a week or ten days after this, Creswell came to my mother, one
+morning, and told her that all the French servants talked of going away,
+because there was a _revenant_ in the house; adding, that there seemed
+to be a strange story attached to the place, which was said, together
+with some other property, to have belonged to a young man, whose
+guardian, who was also his uncle, had treated him cruelly, and confined
+him in an iron cage; and as he had subsequently disappeared, it was
+conjectured he had been murdered. This uncle, after inheriting the
+property, had suddenly quitted the house, and sold it to the father of
+the man of whom we had hired it. Since that period, though it had been
+several times let, nobody had ever stayed in it above a week or two;
+and, for a considerable time past, it had had no tenant at all.
+
+"And do you really believe all this nonsense, Creswell?" said my mother.
+
+"Well, I don't know, my lady," answered she, "but there is the iron cage
+in the garret over your bedroom, where you may see it, if you please."
+
+Of course we rose to go, and just at that moment an old officer, with
+his Croix de St Louis, called on us, we invited him to accompany us, and
+we ascended together. We found, as Creswell had said, a large empty
+garret, with bare brick walls, and in the further corner of it stood an
+iron cage, such as wild beasts are kept in, only higher; it was about
+four feet square, and eight in height, and there was an iron ring in the
+wall at the back, to which was attached an old rusty chain, with a
+collar fixed to the end of it! I confess it made my blood creep, when I
+thought of the possibility of any human being having inhabited it! And
+our old friend expressed as much horror as ourselves, assuring us that
+it must certainly have been constructed for some such dreadful purpose.
+As, however, we were no believer in ghosts, we all agreed that the
+noises must proceed from somebody who had an interest in keeping the
+house empty; and since it was very disagreeable to imagine that there
+were secret means of entering it by night, we resolved, as soon as
+possible, to look out for another residence, and, in the meantime, to
+say nothing about the matter to anybody. About ten days after this
+determination, my mother, observing one morning that Creswell, when she
+came to dress her, looked exceedingly pale and ill, inquired if anything
+was the matter with her? "Indeed, my lady," answered she, "we have been
+frightened to death; and neither I nor Mrs Marsh can sleep again in the
+room we are now in."
+
+"Well," returned my mother, "you shall both come and sleep in the little
+spare room next us; but what has alarmed you?"
+
+"Someone, my lady, went through our room in the night; we both saw the
+figure, but we covered our heads with the bed-clothes, and lay in a
+dreadful fright till morning."
+
+On hearing this, I could not help laughing, upon which Creswell burst
+into tears; and seeing how nervous she was, we comforted her by saying
+we had heard of a good house, and that we should very soon abandon our
+present habitation.
+
+A few nights afterwards, my mother requested me and Charles to go into
+her bedroom, and fetch her frame, that she might prepare her work for
+the next day. It was after supper; and we were ascending the stairs by
+the light of a lamp which was always kept burning, when we saw going up
+before us, a tall, thin figure, with hair flowing down his back, and
+wearing a loose powdering gown. We both at once concluded it was my
+sister Hannah, and called out: "It won't do, Hannah! you cannot frighten
+us!" Upon which the figure turned into a recess in the wall; but as
+there was nobody there when we passed, we concluded that Hannah had
+contrived, somehow or other, to slip away and make her escape by the
+back stairs. On telling this to my mother, however, she said, "It is
+very odd, for Hannah went to bed with a headache before you came in from
+your walk"; and sure enough, on going to her room, there we found her
+fast asleep; and Alice, who was at work there, assured us that she had
+been so for more than an hour. On mentioning this circumstance to
+Creswell, she turned quite pale, and exclaimed that that was precisely
+the figure she and Marsh had seen in their bedroom.
+
+About this time my brother Harry came to spend a few days with us, and
+we gave him a room up another pair of stairs, at the opposite end of the
+house. A morning or two after his arrival, when he came down to
+breakfast, he asked my mother, angrily, whether she thought he went to
+bed drunk and could not put out his own candle, that she sent those
+French rascals to watch him. My mother assured him that she had never
+thought of doing such a thing; but he persisted in the accusation,
+adding, "last night I jumped up and opened the door, and by the light of
+the moon, through the skylight, I saw the fellow in his loose gown at
+the bottom of the stairs. If I had not been in my shirt, I would have
+gone after him, and made him remember coming to watch me."
+
+We were now preparing to quit the house, having secured another,
+belonging to a gentleman who was going to spend some time in Italy; but
+a few days before our removal, it happened that a Mr and Mrs Atkyns,
+some English friends of ours, called, to whom we mentioned these strange
+circumstances, observing how extremely unpleasant it was to live in a
+house that somebody found means of getting into, though how they
+contrived it we could not discover, nor what their motive could be,
+except it was to frighten us; observing that nobody could sleep in the
+room Marsh and Creswell had been obliged to give up. Upon this, Mrs
+Atkyns laughed heartily, and said that she should like, of all things,
+to sleep there, if my mother would allow her, adding that, with her
+little terrier, she should not be afraid of any ghost that ever
+appeared. As my mother had, of course, no objection to this fancy of
+hers, Mrs Atkyns requested her husband to ride home with the groom, in
+order that the latter might bring her night-things before the gates of
+the town were shut, as they were then residing a little way in the
+country. Mr Atkyns smiled, and said she was very bold; but he made no
+difficulties, and sent the things, and his wife retired with her dog to
+her room when we retired to ours, apparently without the least
+apprehension.
+
+When she came down in the morning we were immediately struck at seeing
+her look very ill; and, on inquiring if she, too, had been frightened,
+she said she had been awakened in the night by something moving in her
+room, and that, by the light of the night lamp, she saw most distinctly
+a figure, and that the dog, which was very spirited and flew at
+everything, never stirred, although she endeavoured to make him. We saw
+clearly that she had been very much alarmed; and when Mr Atkyns came and
+endeavoured to dissipate the feeling by persuading her that she might
+have dreamt it, she got quite angry. We could not help thinking that she
+had actually seen something; and my mother said, after she was gone,
+that though she could not bring herself to believe it was really a
+ghost, still she earnestly hoped that she might get out of the house
+without seeing this figure which frightened people so much.
+
+We were now within three days of the one fixed for our removal; I had
+been taking a long ride, and being tired, had fallen asleep the moment I
+lay down, but in the middle of the night I was suddenly awakened--I
+cannot tell by what, for the step over our heads we had become so used
+to that it no longer disturbed us. Well, I awoke; I had been lying with
+my face towards my mother, who was asleep beside me, and, as one usually
+does on awaking, I turned to the other side, where, the weather being
+warm, the curtain of the bed was undrawn, as it was also at the foot,
+and I saw standing by a chest of drawers, which were betwixt me and the
+window, a thin, tall figure, in a loose powdering gown, one arm resting
+on the drawers, and the face turned towards me. I saw it quite
+distinctly by the night-light, which burnt clearly; it was a long, thin,
+pale, young face, with oh! such a melancholy expression as can never be
+effaced from my memory! I was, certainly, very much frightened; but my
+great horror was lest my mother should awake and see the figure. I
+turned my head gently towards her, and heard her breathing high in a
+sound sleep. Just then the clock on the stairs struck four. I daresay it
+was nearly an hour before I ventured to look again; and when I did take
+courage to turn my eyes towards the drawers there was nothing, yet I had
+not heard the slightest sound, though I had been listening with the
+greatest intensity.
+
+As you may suppose, I never closed my eyes again; and glad I was when
+Creswell knocked at the door, as she did every morning, for we always
+locked it, and it was my business to get out of bed and let her in. But
+on this occasion, instead of doing so, I called out, "Come in, the door
+is not fastened"; upon which she answered that it was, and I was obliged
+to get out of bed and admit her as usual.
+
+When I told my mother what had happened she was very grateful to me for
+not waking her, and commended me much for my resolution; but as she was
+always my first object, that was not to be wondered at. She, however,
+resolved not to risk another night in the house, and we got out of it
+that very day, after instituting, with the aid of the servants, a
+thorough search, with a view to ascertain whether there was any possible
+means of getting into the rooms except by the usual modes of ingress;
+but our search was vain; none could be discovered.
+
+Considering the number of people that were in the house, the
+fearlessness of the family, and their disinclination to believe in what
+is called the _supernatural_, together with the great interest the owner
+of this large and handsome house must have had in discovering the trick,
+if there had been one, I think it is difficult to find any other
+explanation of this strange story than that the sad and disappointed
+spirit of this poor injured, and probably murdered boy, had never been
+disengaged from its earthly relations, to which regret for its
+frustrated hopes and violated rights still held it attached.
+
+
+
+
+XXXI
+
+THE GHOST OF ROSEWARNE
+
+From HUNT'S "Romances of the West of England"
+
+
+"Ezekiel Grosse, gent., attorney-at-law," bought the lands of Rosewarne
+from one of the De Rosewarnes, who had become involved in debt by
+endeavouring, without sufficient means, to support the dignity of his
+family. There is reason for believing that Ezekiel was the legal adviser
+of this unfortunate Rosewarne, and that he was not over-honest in his
+transactions with his client. However this may be, Ezekiel Grosse had
+scarcely made Rosewarne his dwelling-place, before he was alarmed by
+noises, at first of an unearthly character, and subsequently, one very
+dark night, by the appearance of the ghost himself in the form of a worn
+and aged man. The first appearance was in the park, but he subsequently
+repeated his visits in the house, but always after dark. Ezekiel Grosse
+was not a man to be terrified at trifles, and for some time he paid but
+slight attention to his nocturnal visitor. Howbeit the repetition of
+visits, and certain mysterious indications on the part of the ghost,
+became annoying to Ezekiel. One night, when seated in his office
+examining some deeds, and being rather irritable, having lost an
+important suit, his visitor approached him, making some strange
+indications which the lawyer could not understand. Ezekiel suddenly
+exclaimed, "In the name of God, what wantest thou?"
+
+"To show thee, Ezekiel Grosse, where the gold for which thou longest
+lies buried."
+
+No one ever lived upon whom the greed of gold was stronger than on
+Ezekiel, yet he hesitated now that his spectral friend had spoken so
+plainly, and trembled in every limb as the ghost slowly delivered
+himself in sepulchral tones of this telling speech.
+
+The lawyer looked fixedly on the spectre; but he dared not utter a word.
+He longed to obtain possession of the secret, yet he feared to ask him
+where he was to find this treasure. The spectre looked as fixedly at the
+poor trembling lawyer, as if enjoying the sight of his terror. At
+length, lifting his finger, he beckoned Ezekiel to follow him, turning
+at the same time to leave the room. Ezekiel was glued to his seat; he
+could not exert strength enough to move, although he desired to do so.
+
+"Come!" said the ghost, in a hollow voice. The lawyer was powerless to
+come.
+
+"Gold!" exclaimed the old man, in a whining tone, though in a louder
+key.
+
+"Where?" gasped Ezekiel.
+
+"Follow me, and I will show thee," said the ghost. Ezekiel endeavoured
+to rise; but it was in vain.
+
+"I command thee, come!" almost shrieked the ghost. Ezekiel felt that he
+was compelled to follow his friend; and by some supernatural power
+rather than his own, he followed the spectre out of the room, and
+through the hall, into the park.
+
+They passed onward through the night--the ghost gliding before the
+lawyer, and guiding him by a peculiar phosphorescent light, which
+appeared to glow from every part of the form, until they arrived at a
+little dell, and had reached a small cairn formed of granite boulders.
+By this the spectre rested; and when Ezekiel had approached it, and was
+standing on the other side of the cairn, still trembling, the aged man,
+looking fixedly in his face, said, in low tones, "Ezekiel Grosse, thou
+longest for gold, as I did. I won the glittering prize, but I could not
+enjoy it. Heaps of treasure are buried beneath those stones; it is
+thine, if thou diggest for it. Win the gold, Ezekiel. Glitter with the
+wicked ones of the world; and when thou art the most joyous, I will look
+in upon thy happiness." The ghost then disappeared, and as soon as
+Grosse could recover himself from the extreme trepidation,--the result
+of mixed feelings,--he looked about him, and finding himself alone, he
+exclaimed, "Ghost or devil, I will soon prove whether or not thou
+liest!" Ezekiel is said to have heard a laugh, echoing between the
+hills, as he said those words.
+
+The lawyer noted well the spot; returned to his house; pondered on all
+the circumstances of his case; and eventually resolved to seize the
+earliest opportunity, when he might do so unobserved, of removing the
+stones, and examining the ground beneath them.
+
+A few nights after this, Ezekiel went to the little cairn, and by the
+aid of a crowbar, he soon overturned the stones, and laid the ground
+bare. He then commenced digging, and had not proceeded far when his
+spade struck against some other metal. He carefully cleared away the
+earth, and he then felt--for he could not see, having no light with
+him--that he had uncovered a metallic urn of some kind. He found it
+quite impossible to lift it, and he was therefore compelled to cover it
+up again, and to replace the stones sufficiently to hide it from the
+observation of any chance wanderer.
+
+The next night Ezekiel found that this urn, which was of bronze,
+contained gold coins of a very ancient date. He loaded himself with his
+treasure, and returned home. From time to time, at night, as Ezekiel
+found he could do so without exciting the suspicions of his servants, he
+visited the urn, and thus by degrees removed all the treasure to
+Rosewarne House. There was nothing in the series of circumstances which
+had surrounded Ezekiel which he could less understand than the fact,
+that the ghost of the old man had left off troubling him from the moment
+when he had disclosed to him the hiding-place of this treasure.
+
+The neighbouring gentry could not but observe the rapid improvements
+which Ezekiel Grosse made in his mansion, his grounds, in his personal
+appearance, and indeed in everything by which he was surrounded. In a
+short time he abandoned the law, and led in every respect the life of a
+country gentleman. He ostentatiously paraded his power to procure all
+earthly enjoyments, and, in spite of his notoriously bad character, he
+succeeded in drawing many of the landed proprietors around him.
+
+Things went well with Ezekiel. The man who could in those days visit
+London in his own carriage and four was not without a large circle of
+flatterers. The lawyer who had struggled hard, in the outset of life, to
+secure wealth, and who did not always employ the most honest means for
+doing so, now found himself the centre of a circle to whom he could
+preach honesty, and receive from them expressions of the admiration in
+which the world holds the possessor of gold. His old tricks were
+forgotten, and he was put in places of honour. This state of things
+continued for some time; indeed, Grosse's entertainments became more and
+more splendid, and his revels more and more seductive to those he
+admitted to share them with him. The Lord of Rosewarne was the Lord of
+the West. To him everyone bowed the knee: he walked the earth as the
+proud possessor of a large share of the planet.
+
+It was Christmas Eve, and a large gathering there was at Rosewarne. In
+the hall the ladies and gentlemen were in the full enjoyment of the
+dance, and in the kitchen all the tenantry and the servants were
+emulating their superiors. Everything went joyously; but when the mirth
+was in full swing, and Ezekiel felt to the full the influence of wealth,
+it appeared as if all in a moment the chill of death had fallen over
+everyone. The dancers paused, and looked one at another, each one struck
+with the other's paleness; and there, in the middle of the hall,
+everyone saw a strange old man looking angrily, but in silence, at
+Ezekiel Grosse, who was fixed in terror, blank as a statue.
+
+No one had seen this old man enter the hall, yet there he was in the
+midst of them. It was but for a minute, and he was gone. Ezekiel, as if
+a frozen torrent of water had thawed in an instant, recovered himself,
+and roared at them.
+
+"What do you think of that for a Christmas play? Ha, ha, ha! How
+frightened you all look! Butler, hand round the spiced wines! On with
+the dancing, my friends! It was only a trick, ay, and a clever one,
+which I have put upon you. On with your dancing, my friends!"
+
+But with all his boisterous attempts to restore the spirit of the
+evening, Ezekiel could not succeed. There was an influence stronger than
+any he could command; and one by one, framing sundry excuses, his guests
+took their departure, every one of them satisfied that all was not right
+at Rosewarne.
+
+From that Christmas Eve Grosse was a changed man. He tried to be his
+former self; but it was in vain. Again and again he called his gay
+companions around him; but at every feast there appeared one more than
+was desired. An aged man--weird beyond measure--took his place at the
+table in the middle of the feast; and although he spoke not, he exerted
+a miraculous power over all. No one dared to move; no one ventured to
+speak. Occasionally Ezekiel assumed an appearance of courage, which he
+felt not; rallied his guests, and made sundry excuses for the presence
+of his aged friend, whom he represented as having a mental infirmity,
+as being deaf and dumb. On all such occasions the old man rose from the
+table, and looking at the host, laughed a demoniac laugh of joy, and
+departed as quietly as he came.
+
+The natural consequence of this was that Ezekiel Grosse's friends fell
+away from him, and he became a lonely man, amidst his vast
+possessions--his only companion being his faithful clerk, John Call.
+
+The persecuting presence of the spectre became more and more constant;
+and wherever the poor lawyer went, there was the aged man at his side.
+From being one of the finest men in the county, he became a miserably
+attenuated and bowed old man. Misery was stamped on every
+feature--terror was indicated in every movement. At length he appears to
+have besought his ghostly attendant to free him of his presence. It was
+long before the ghost would listen to any terms; but when Ezekiel at
+length agreed to surrender the whole of his wealth to anyone whom the
+spectre might indicate, he obtained a promise that upon this being
+carried out, in a perfectly legal manner, in favour of John Call, that
+he should no longer be haunted.
+
+This was, after numerous struggles on the part of Ezekiel to retain his
+property, or at least some portion of it, legally settled, and John Call
+became possessor of Rosewarne and the adjoining lands. Grosse was then
+informed that this evil spirit was one of the ancestors of the
+Rosewarne, from whom by his fraudulent dealings he obtained the place,
+and that he was allowed to visit the earth again for the purpose of
+inflicting the most condign punishment on the avaricious lawyer. His
+avarice had been gratified, his pride had been pampered to the highest;
+and then he was made a pitiful spectacle, at whom all men pointed, and
+no one pitied. He lived on in misery, but it was for a short time. He
+was found dead; and the country people ever said that his death was a
+violent one; they spoke of marks on his body, and some even asserted
+that the spectre of De Rosewarne was seen rejoicing amidst a crowd of
+devils, as they bore the spirit of Ezekiel over Carn Brea.
+
+
+
+
+XXXII
+
+THE IRON CHEST OF DURLEY
+
+By JOSEPH GLANVIL[12]
+
+
+Mr _John Bourne_, for his Skill, Care and Honesty, was made by his
+Neighbour _John Mallet_, Esq., of _Enmore_, the chief of his Trustees,
+for his Son _John Mallet_ (Father to Elizabeth, now Countess Dowager of
+_Rochester_) and the rest of his Children in Minority. He had the
+reputation of a worthy good Man, and was commonly taken notice of for an
+habitual Saying, by way of Interjection almost to anything, viz. _You
+say true, you say true, you are in the right._ This Mr Bourne fell sick
+at his House at Durley, in the year 1654, and Dr _Raymond of Oak_ was
+sent for to him, who after some time, gave the said Mr Bourne over. And
+he had not now spoken in twenty-four Hours, when the said Dr Raymond,
+and Mrs _Carlisle_ (Mr Bourne's Nephew's Wife, whose Husband he had made
+one of his Heirs) sitting by his bedside, the Doctor opened the
+Bed-curtains at the Bed's-feet, to give him air; when on a sudden, to
+the Horror and Amazement of Dr Raymond, and Mrs Carlisle, the great Iron
+Chest by the Window, at his Bed's-feet, with three Locks to it (in which
+were all the Writings and Evidences of the said Mr Mallet's Estate),
+began to open, first one Lock, and then another, then the third;
+afterwards the Lid of the Chest, lifted up of itself, and stood wide
+open. Then the patient, Mr Bourne, who had not spoke in 24 Hours, lifted
+himself up also, and looking upon the Chest, cry'd: _You say true, you
+say true, you are in the right, I'll be with you by and by._ So the
+Patient lay down, and spake no more. Then the Chest fell again of
+itself, and lock'd itself, one Lock after another, as the 3 Locks
+opened; and they tried to knock it open, and could not, and Mr Bourne
+died within an Hour after.
+
+_N.B._--This Narrative was sent in a Letter to J.C., directed for Dr H.
+More from Mr Thomas Alcock, of Shear-Hampton; of which in a Letter to
+the said Doctor, he gives this Account. I am, said he, very confident of
+the truth of the Story; for I had it from a very good Lady, the eldest
+daughter of the said John Mallet (whose Trustee Mr Bourne was) and only
+Aunt to the Countess of Rochester, who knew all the parties; and I have
+heard Dr Raymond, and Mr Carlisle, relate it often with amazement, being
+both Persons of Credit.
+
+The curious may be inquisitive what the meaning of the opening of the
+Chest may be, and of Mr Bourne his saying _You say true, etc., I'll be
+with you by and by_. As for the former, it is noted by Paracelsus
+especially, and by others, that there are signs often given of the
+Departure of sick Men lying on their death beds, of which this opening
+of the Iron Coffer or Chest, and closing again, is more than ordinary
+significant, especially if we recall to mind that of Virgil:
+
+    "Olli dura quies oculos & _ferreus_ urget
+    Somnus----"
+
+Though this quaintness is more than is requisite in these Prodigies
+presaging the sick Man's Death. As for the latter, it seems to be
+nothing else but the saying _Amen_ to the Presage, uttered in his
+accustomary form of Speech, as if he should say, you of the invisible
+Kingdom of Spirits, have given the Token of my sudden Departure, and you
+say true, I shall be with you by and by. Which he was enabled so
+assuredly to assent to, upon the advantage of the relaxation of his Soul
+now departing from the Body: Which Diodorus Siculus, lib. 18, notes to
+be the Opinion of Pythagoras and his followers, that it is the privilege
+of the Soul near her Departure, to exercise a fatidical Faculty, and to
+pronounce truly touching things future.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 12: _Sadducismus Triumphatus._]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIII
+
+THE STRANGE CASE OF M. BEZUEL
+
+From CHRISTMAS' "Phantom World"
+
+
+"In 1695," said M. Bezuel, "being a schoolboy of about fifteen years of
+age, I became acquainted with the two children of M. Abaquene, attorney,
+schoolboys like myself. The eldest was of my own age, the second was
+eighteen months younger; he was named Desfontaines; we took all our
+walks and all our parties of pleasure together, and whether it was that
+Desfontaines had more affection for me, or that he was more gay,
+obliging, and clever than his brother, I loved him the best.
+
+"In 1696, we were walking both of us in the cloister of the Capuchins.
+He told me that he had lately read a story of two friends who had
+promised each other that the first of them who died should come and
+bring news of his condition to the one still living; that the one who
+died came back to earth, and told his friend surprising things. Upon
+that, Desfontaines told me that he had a favour to ask me; that he
+begged me to grant it instantly; it was to make him a similar promise,
+and on his part he would do the same. I told him that I would not. For
+several months he talked to me of it, often and seriously; I always
+resisted his wish. At last, towards the month of August 1696, as he was
+to leave to go and study at Caen, he pressed me so much with tears in
+his eyes, that I consented to it. He drew out at that moment two little
+papers which he had ready written; one was signed with his blood, in
+which he promised me that in case of his death he would come and bring
+me news of his condition; in the other, I promised him the same thing. I
+pricked my finger; a drop of blood came with which I signed my name. He
+was delighted to have my billet, and embracing me, thanked me a thousand
+times.
+
+"Some time after, he set off with his tutor. Our separation caused us
+much grief, but we wrote to each other now and then, and it was but six
+weeks since I had had a letter from him, when what I am going to relate
+to you happened to me.
+
+"The 31st of July, 1697, one Thursday,--I shall remember it all my
+life,--the late M. Sorteville, with whom I lodged, and who had been very
+kind to me, begged of me to go to a meadow near the Cordeliers, and help
+his people, who were making hay, and to make haste. I had not been there
+a quarter of an hour, when, about half-past two, I all of a sudden felt
+giddy and weak. In vain I lent upon my hay-fork; I was obliged to place
+myself on a little hay, where I was nearly half an hour recovering my
+senses. That passed off; but as nothing of the kind had ever occurred to
+me before, I was surprised at it, and I feared it might be the
+commencement of an illness. Nevertheless, it did not make much
+impression upon me during the remainder of the day. It is true, I did
+not sleep that night so well as usual.
+
+"The next day, at the same hour, as I was conducting to the meadow M. de
+St Simon, the grandson of M. de Sorteville, who was then ten years old,
+I felt myself seized on the way with a similar faintness, and I sat down
+on a stone in the shade. That passed off, and we continued our way;
+nothing more happened to me that day, and at night I had hardly any
+sleep.
+
+"At last, on the morrow, the second day of August, being in the loft
+where they laid up the hay they brought from the meadow, I was taken
+with a similar giddiness and a similar faintness, but still more violent
+than the other. I fainted away completely; one of the men perceived it.
+I have been told that I was asked what was the matter with me, and that
+I replied, 'I have seen what I never should have believed'; but I have
+no recollection of either the question or the answer. That, however,
+accords with what I do remember to have seen just then; as it were
+someone naked to the middle, but whom, however, I did not recognise.
+They helped me down from the ladder. The faintness seized me again; my
+head swam as I was between two rounds of the ladder, and again I
+fainted. They took me down and placed me on a beam which served for a
+seat in the large square of the Capuchins. I sat down on it, and then I
+no longer saw M. de Sorteville nor his domestics, although present; but
+perceiving Desfontaines near the foot of the ladder, who made me a sign
+to come to him, I moved on my seat as if to make room for him; and those
+who saw me and whom I did not see, although my eyes were open, remarked
+this movement.
+
+"As he did not come, I rose to go to him. He advanced towards me, took
+my left arm with his right arm, and led me about thirty paces from
+thence into a retired street, holding me still under the arm. The
+domestics, supposing that my giddiness had passed off, and that I had
+purposely retired, went everyone to their work, except a little servant
+who went and told M. de Sorteville that I was talking all alone. M. de
+Sorteville thought I was tipsy; he drew near, and heard me ask some
+questions, and make some answers, which he has told me since.
+
+"I was there nearly three-quarters of an hour, conversing with
+Desfontaines. 'I promised you,' said he to me, 'that if I died before
+you I would come and tell you of it. I was drowned the day before
+yesterday in the river of Caen, at nearly this same hour. I was out
+walking with such and such a one. It was very warm, and we had a wish to
+bathe; a faintness seized me in the water, and I fell to the bottom.
+The Abbe de Menil-Jean, my comrade, dived to bring me up. I seized hold
+of his foot; but whether he was afraid it might be a salmon, because I
+held him so fast, or that he wished to remount promptly to the surface
+of the water, he shook his legs so roughly, that he gave me a violent
+kick on the breast, which sent me to the bottom of the river, which is
+there very deep.'
+
+"Desfontaines related to me afterwards all that had occurred to them in
+their walk, and the subjects they had conversed upon. It was in vain for
+me to ask him questions--whether he was saved, whether he was damned, if
+he was in purgatory, if I was in a state of grace, and if I should soon
+follow him; he continued to discourse as if he had not heard me, and as
+if he would not hear me.
+
+"I approached him several times to embrace him, but it seemed to me that
+I embraced nothing, and yet I felt very sensibly that he held me tightly
+by the arm, and that when I tried to turn away my head that I might not
+see him, because I could not look at him without feeling afflicted, he
+shook my arm as if to oblige me to look at and listen to him.
+
+"He always appeared to me taller than I had seen him, and taller even
+than he was at the time of his death, although he had grown during the
+eighteen months in which we had not met. I beheld him always naked to
+the middle of his body, his head uncovered, with his fine hair, and a
+white scroll twisted in his hair over his forehead, on which there was
+some writing, but I could only make out the word _In_....
+
+"It was his usual tone of voice. He appeared to me neither gay nor sad,
+but in a calm and tranquil state. He begged of me, when his brother
+returned, to tell him certain things to say to his father and mother. He
+begged me to say the Seven Psalms which had been given him as a penance
+the preceding Sunday, which he had not yet recited; again he recommended
+me to speak to his brother, and then he bade me adieu, saying, as he
+left me, '_Jusques, jusques_' (_till, till_), which was the usual term
+he made use of when at the end of our walk we bade each other good-bye,
+to go home.
+
+"He told me that at the time he was drowned, his brother, who was
+writing a translation, regretted having let him go without accompanying
+him, fearing some accident. He described to me so well where he was
+drowned, and the tree in the avenue of Louvigni on which he had written
+a few words, that two years afterwards, being there with the late
+Chevalier de Getel, one of these who were with him at the time he was
+drowned, I pointed out to him the very spot; and by counting the trees
+in a particular direction which Desfontaines had specified to me, I went
+straight up to the tree, and I found his writing. He (the Chevalier)
+told me also that the article of the Seven Psalms was true, and that on
+coming from confession that they had told each other their penance; and
+since then his brother has told me that it was quite true that at that
+hour he was writing his exercise, and he reproached himself for not
+having accompanied his brother. As nearly a month passed by without my
+being able to do what Desfontaines had told me in regard to his brother,
+he appeared to me again twice before dinner at a country house whither I
+had gone to dine a league from hence. I was very faint. I told them not
+to mind me, that it was nothing, and that I should soon recover myself;
+and I went to a corner of the garden. Desfontaines having appeared to
+me, reproached me for not having yet spoken to his brother, and again
+conversed with me for a quarter of an hour without answering any of my
+questions.
+
+"As I was going in the morning to Notre-Dame de la Victoire, he appeared
+to me again, but for a shorter time, and pressed me always to speak to
+his brother, and left me, saying still, '_Jusques, jusques_,' without
+choosing to reply to my questions.
+
+"It is a remarkable thing that I always felt a pain in that part of my
+arm which he had held me by the first time, until I had spoken to his
+brother. I was three days without being able to sleep, from the
+astonishment and agitation I felt. At the end of the first conversation,
+I told M. de Varonville, my neighbour and schoolfellow, that
+Desfontaines had been drowned; that he himself had just appeared to me
+and told me so. He went away and ran to the parents' house to know if it
+was true; they had just received the news, but by a mistake he
+understood that it was the eldest. He assured me that he had read the
+letter of Desfontaines, and he believed it; but I maintained always that
+it could not be, and that Desfontaines himself had appeared to me. He
+returned, came back, and told me in tears that it was but too true."
+
+
+
+
+XXXIV
+
+THE MARQUIS DE RAMBOUILLET
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The Marquis de Rambouillet, eldest brother of the Duchess of Montauzier,
+and the Marquis de Precy, eldest son of the family of Nantouillet, both
+of them between twenty and thirty, were intimate friends, and went to
+the wars, as in France do all men of quality. As they were conversing
+one day together on the subject of the other world, they promised each
+other that the first who died should come and bring the news to his
+companion. At the end of three months the Marquis de Rambouillet set off
+for Flanders, where the war was then being carried on; and de Precy,
+detained by a high fever, remained at Paris. Six weeks afterwards de
+Precy, at six in the morning, heard the curtains of his bed drawn, and
+turning to see who it was, he perceived the Marquis de Rambouillet in
+his buff vest and boots; he sprung out of bed to embrace him to show his
+joy at his return, but Rambouillet, retreating a few steps, told him
+that these caresses were no longer seasonable, for he only came to keep
+his word with him; that he had been killed the day before on such an
+occasion; that all that was said of the other world was certainly true;
+that he must think of leading a different life; and that he had no time
+to lose, as he would be killed the first action he was engaged in.
+
+It is impossible to express the surprise of the Marquis de Precy at this
+discourse; as he could not believe what he heard, he made several
+efforts to embrace his friend, whom he thought desirous of deceiving
+him, but he embraced only air; and Rambouillet, seeing that he was
+incredulous, showed the wound he had received, which was in the side,
+whence the blood still appeared to flow. After that the phantom
+disappeared, and left de Precy in a state of alarm more easy to
+comprehend than describe; he called at the same time his _valet de
+chambre_, and awakened all the family with his cries. Several persons
+ran to his room, and he related to them what he had just seen. Everyone
+attributed this vision to the violence of the fever, which might have
+deranged his imagination; they begged of him to go to bed again,
+assuring him that he must have dreamt what he told them.
+
+The Marquis, in despair, on seeing that they took him for a visionary,
+related all the circumstances I have just recounted; but it was in vain
+for him to protest that he had seen and heard his friend, being
+wideawake; they persisted in the same idea until the arrival of the post
+from Flanders, which brought the news of the death of the Marquis de
+Rambouillet.
+
+This first circumstance being found true, and in the same manner as de
+Precy had said, those to whom he had related the adventure began to
+think that there might be something in it, because Rambouillet having
+been killed precisely on the eve of the day he had said it, it was
+impossible de Precy should have known of it in a natural way. This event
+having spread in Paris, they thought it was the effect of a disturbed
+imagination, or a made-up story; and whatever might be said by the
+persons who examined the thing seriously, there remained in people's
+minds a suspicion, which time alone could disperse: this depended upon
+what might happen to Marquis de Precy, who was threatened that he should
+be slain in the first engagement; thus everyone regarded his fate as the
+_denouement_ of the piece; but he soon confirmed everything they had
+doubted the truth of, for as soon as he recovered from his illness he
+would go to the combat of St Antoine, although his father and mother,
+who were afraid of the prophecy, said all they could to prevent him; he
+was killed there, to the great regret of all his family.
+
+
+
+
+XXXV
+
+THE ALTHEIM REVENANT
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+A monk of the Abbey of Toussaints relates that on the 9th of September
+1625 a man named John Steinlin died at a place called Altheim, in the
+diocese of Constance. Steinlin was a man in easy circumstances, and a
+common-councilman of his town. Some days after his death he appeared
+during the night to a tailor, named Simon Bauh, in the form of a man
+surrounded by a sombre flame, like that of lighted sulphur, going and
+coming in his own house, but without speaking. Bauh, who was disquieted
+by this sight, resolved to ask him what he could do to serve him. He
+found an opportunity to do so, the 17th of November in the same year,
+1625; for, as he was reposing at night near his stove, a little after
+eleven o'clock, he beheld this spectre environed by fire like sulphur,
+who came into his room, going and coming, shutting and opening the
+windows. The tailor asked him what he desired. He replied, in a hoarse
+interrupted voice, that he could help very much, if he would; "but,"
+added he, "do not promise me to do so, if you are not resolved to
+execute your promises." "I will execute them, if they are not beyond my
+power," replied he.
+
+"I wish, then," replied the spirit, "that you would cause a mass to be
+said, in the Chapel of the Virgin at Rotembourg; I made a vow to that
+intent during my life, and I have not acquitted myself of it. Moreover,
+you must have two masses said at Altheim, the one of the Defunct and the
+other of the Virgin; and as I did not always pay my servants exactly, I
+wish that a quarter of corn should be distributed to the poor." Simon
+promised to satisfy him on all these points. The spectre held out his
+hand, as if to ensure his promise; but Simon, fearing that some harm
+might happen to himself, tendered him the board which came to hand, and
+the spectre having touched it, left the print of his hand with the four
+fingers and thumb, as if fire had been there, and had left a pretty deep
+impression. After that he vanished with so much noise that it was heard
+three houses off.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVI
+
+SERTORIUS AND HIS HIND
+
+NORTH'S "Plutarch"
+
+
+So soone as Sertorius arriued from Africa, he straight leauied men of
+warre, and with them subdued the people of Spaine fronting upon his
+marches, of which the more part did willingly submit themselues, upon
+the bruit that ran of him to be merciful and courteous, and a valiant
+man besides in present danger. Furthermore, he lacked no fine deuises
+and subtilties to win their goodwills: as among others, the policy, and
+deuise of the hind. There was a poore man of the countrey called Spanus,
+who meeting by chance one day with a hind in his way that had newly
+calued, flying from the hunters, he let the damme go, not being able to
+take her; and running after her calfe tooke it, which was a young hind,
+and of a strange haire, for she was all milk-white. It chanced so, that
+Sertorius was at that time in those parts. So, this poore man presented
+Sertorius with his young hind, which he gladly receiued, and which with
+time he made so tame, that she would come to him when he called her, and
+follow him whereeuer he went, being nothing the wilder for the daily
+sight of such a number of armed souldiers together as they were, nor yet
+afraid of the noise and tumult of the campe. Insomuch as Sertorius by
+little and little made it a miracle, making the simple barbarous people
+beleeue that it was a gift that Diana had sent him, by the which she
+made him understand of many and sundrie things to come: knowing well
+inough of himselfe, that the barbarous people were men easily deceiued,
+and quickly caught by any subtill superstition, besides that by art also
+he brought them to beleeue it as a thing verie true. For when he had any
+secret intelligence giuen him, that the enemies would inuade some part
+of the countries and prouinces subject vnto him, or that they had taken
+any of his forts from him by any intelligence or sudden attempt, he
+straight told them that his hind spake to him as he slept, and had
+warned him both to arme his men, and put himselfe in strength. In like
+manner if he had heard any newes that one of his lieutenants had wonne a
+battell, or that he had any aduantage of his enemies, he would hide the
+messenger, and bring his hind abroad with a garland and coller of
+nosegayes: and then say, it was a token of some good newes comming
+towards him, perswading them withall to be of good cheare; and so did
+sacrifice to the gods, to giue them thankes for the good tidings he
+should heare before it were long. Thus by putting this superstition into
+their heades, he made them the more tractable and obedient to his will,
+in so much as they thought they were not now gouerned any more by a
+stranger wiser than themselues, but were steadfastly perswaded that they
+were rather led by some certaine god.----
+
+Now was Sertorius very heauie, that no man could tell him what was
+become of his white hind: for thereby all his subtilltie and finenesse
+to keepe the barbarous people in obedience was taken away, and then
+specially when they stood in need of most comfort. But by good hap,
+certaine of his souldiers that had lost themselves in the night, met
+with the hind in their way, and knowing her by her colour, tooke her and
+brought her backe againe. Sertorius hearing of her, promised them a good
+reward, so that they would tell no liuing creature that they brought her
+againe, and thereupon made her to be secretly kept. Then within a few
+dayes after, he came abroad among them, and with a pleasant countenance
+told the noble men and chiefe captaines of these barbarous people, how
+the gods had reuealed it to him in his dreame, that he should shortly
+haue a maruellous good thing happen to him: and with these words sate
+downe in his chaire to giue audience. Whereupon they that kept the hind
+not farre from thence, did secretly let her go. The hind being loose,
+when she had spied Sertorius, ranne straight to his chaire with great
+joy, and put her head betwixt his legges, and layed her mouth in his
+right hand, as she before was wont to do. Sertorius also made very much
+of her, and of purpose appeared maruellous glad, shewing much tender
+affection to the hind, as it seemed the water stood in his eyes for joy.
+The barbarous people that stood there by and beheld the same, at the
+first were much amazed therewith, but afterwards when they had better
+bethought themselues, for ioy they clapped their hands together, and
+waited upon Sertorius to his lodging with great and ioyfull shouts,
+saying, and steadfastly beleeuing, that he was a heavenly creature, and
+beloued of the gods.
+
+
+
+
+XXXVII
+
+ERICHTHO
+
+By E.W. GODWIN. (From Lucan.)
+
+
+When Sextus sought Erichtho he chose his time in the depth of the night,
+when the sun is at its lowermost distance from the upper sky. He took
+for companions the associates of his crimes. Wandering among broken
+graves and crumbling sepulchres, they discovered her, sitting sublime on
+a ragged rock, where Mount Haemus stretches its roots to the Pharsalic
+field. She was mumbling charms of the Magi and the magical gods. For she
+feared that the war might yet be transferred to other than the Emathian
+fields. The sorceress was busy therefore enchanting the soil of
+Philippi, and scattering on its surface the juice of potent herbs, that
+it might be heaped with carcasses of the dead, and saturated with their
+blood, that Macedon, and not Italy, might receive the bodies of departed
+kings and the bones of the noble, and might be amply peopled with the
+shades of men. Her choicest labour was as to the earth where should be
+deposited the prostrate Pompey, or the limbs of the mighty Caesar.
+
+Sextus approached, and bespoke her thus: "Oh, glory of Haemonia, that
+hast the power to divulge the fates of men, or canst turn aside fate
+itself from its prescribed course, I pray thee to exercise thy gift in
+disclosing events to come. Not the meanest of the Roman race am I, the
+offspring of an illustrious chieftain, lord of the world in the one
+case, or in the other the destined heir to my father's calamity. I stand
+on a tremendous and giddy height: snatch me from this posture of doubt;
+let me not blindly rush on, and blindly fall; extort this secret from
+the gods, or force the dead to confess what they know."
+
+To whom the Thessalian crone replied: "If you asked to change the fate
+of an individual, though it were to restore an old man, decrepit with
+age, to vigorous youth, I could comply; but to break the eternal chain
+of causes and consequences exceeds even our power. You seek, however,
+only a foreknowledge of events to come, and you shall be gratified.
+Meanwhile it were best, where slaughter has afforded so ample a field,
+to select the body of one newly deceased, and whose flexible organs
+shall be yet capable of speech, not with lineaments already hardened in
+the sun."
+
+Saying thus, Erichtho proceeded (having first with her art made the
+night itself more dark, and involved her head in a pitchy cloud), to
+explore the field, and examine one by one the bodies of the unburied
+dead. As she approached, the wolves fled before her, and the birds of
+prey, unwillingly sheathing their talons, abandoned their repast, while
+the Thessalian witch, searching into the vital parts of the frames
+before her, at length fixed on one whose lungs were uninjured, and whose
+organs of speech had sustained no wound. The fate of many hung in doubt,
+till she had made her selection. Had the revival of whole armies been
+her will, armies would have stood up obedient to her bidding. She passed
+a hook beneath the jaw of the selected one, and, fastening it to a cord,
+dragged him along over rocks and stones, till she reached a cave,
+overhung by a projecting ridge. A gloomy fissure in the ground was
+there, of a depth almost reaching to the infernal gods, where the
+yew-tree spread thick its horizontal branches, at all times excluding
+the light of the sun. Fearful and withering shade was there, and noisome
+slime cherished by the livelong night. The air was heavy and flagging as
+that of the Taenarian promontory; and hither the god of hell permits his
+ghosts to extend their wanderings. It is doubtful whether the sorceress
+called up the dead to attend her here, or herself descended to the
+abodes of Pluto. She put on a fearful and variegated robe; she covered
+her face with her dishevelled hair, and bound her brow with a wreath of
+vipers.
+
+Meanwhile she observed Sextus afraid, with his eyes fixed on the ground,
+and his companions trembling; and thus she reproached them. "Lay aside,"
+she said, "your vainly-conceived terrors! You shall behold only a living
+and a human figure, whose accents you may listen to with perfect
+security. If this alarms you, what would you say if you should have seen
+the Stygian lakes, and the shores burning with sulphur unconsumed, if
+the Furies stood before you, and Cerberus with his mane of vipers, and
+the Giants chained in eternal adamant? Yet all these you might have
+witnessed unharmed; for all these would quail at the terror of my brow."
+
+She spoke, and next plied the dead body with her arts. She supples his
+wounds, and infuses fresh blood into his veins: she frees his scars from
+the clotted gore, and penetrates them with froth from the moon. She
+mixes whatever nature has engendered in its most fearful caprices, foam
+from the jaws of a mad dog, the entrails of the lynx, the backbone of
+the hyena, and the marrow of a stag that had dieted on serpents, the
+sinews of the remora, and the eyes of a dragon, the eggs of the eagle,
+the flying serpent of Arabia, the viper that guards the pearl in the Red
+Sea, the slough of the hooded snake, and the ashes that remain when the
+phoenix has been consumed. To these she adds all venom that has a
+name, the foliage of herbs over which she has sung her charms, and on
+which she had voided her rheum as they grew.
+
+At length she chants her incantation to the Stygian Gods, in a voice
+compounded of all discords, and altogether alien to human organs. It
+resembles at once the barking of a dog and the howl of a wolf; it
+consists of the hooting of the screech-owl, the yelling of a ravenous
+wild beast, and the fearful hiss of a serpent. It borrows somewhat from
+the roar of tempestuous waves, the hollow rushing of the winds among the
+branches of the forest, and the tremendous crash of deafening thunder.
+
+"Ye Furies," she cries, "and dreadful Styx, ye sufferings of the damned,
+and Chaos, for ever eager to destroy the fair harmony of worlds, and
+thou, Pluto, condemned, to an eternity of ungrateful existence, Hell,
+and Elysium, of which no Thessalian witch shall partake, Proserpine, for
+ever cut off from thy health-giving mother, and horrid Hecate, Cerberus
+curst with incessant hunger, ye Destinies, and Charon endlessly
+murmuring at the task I impose of bringing back the dead again to the
+land of the living, hear me!--if I call on you with a voice sufficiently
+impious and abominable, if I have never sung this chaunt, unsated with
+human gore, if I have frequently laid on your altars the fruit of the
+pregnant mother, bathing its contents with the reeking brain, if I have
+placed on a dish before you the head and entrails of an infant on the
+point to be born----
+
+"I ask not of you a ghost, already a tenant of the Tartarean abodes, and
+long familiarised to the shades below, but one who has recently quitted
+the light of day, and who yet hovers over the mouth of hell; let him
+hear these incantations, and immediately after descend to his destined
+place! Let him articulate suitable omens to the son of his general,
+having so late been himself a soldier of the great Pompey! Do this, as
+you love the very sound and rumour of a civil war!"
+
+Saying this, behold, the ghost of the dead man stood erect before her,
+trembling at the view of his own unanimated limbs, and loth to enter
+again the confines of his wonted prison. He shrinks to invest himself
+with the gored bosom, and the fibres from which death had separated him.
+Unhappy wretch, to whom death had not given the privilege to die!
+Erichtho, impatient at the unlooked-for delay, lashes the unmoving
+corpse with one of her serpents. She calls anew on the powers of hell,
+and threatens to pronounce the dreadful name, which cannot be
+articulated without consequences never to be thought of, nor without the
+direst necessity to be ventured upon.
+
+At length the congealed blood becomes liquid and warm; it oozes from the
+wounds, and creeps steadily along the veins and the members; the fibres
+are called into action beneath the gelid breast, and the nerves once
+more become instinct with life. Life and death are there at once. The
+arteries beat; the muscles are braced; the body raises itself, not by
+degrees, but at a single impulse, and stands erect. The eyelids unclose.
+The countenance is not that of a living subject, but of the dead. The
+paleness of the complexion, the rigidity of the lines, remain; and he
+looks about with an unmeaning stare, but utters no sound. He waits on
+the potent enchantress.
+
+"Speak!" said she, "and ample shall be your reward. You shall not again
+be subject to the art of the magician. I will commit your members to
+such a sepulchre; I will burn your form with such wood, and will chaunt
+such a charm over your funeral pyre, that all incantations shall
+thereafter assail you in vain. Be it enough, that you have once been
+brought back to life! Tripods, and the voice of oracles deal in
+ambiguous responses; but the voice of the dead is perspicuous and
+certain to him who receives it with an unshrinking spirit. Spare not!
+Give names to things; give places a clear designation, speak with a full
+and articulate voice."
+
+Saying this, she added a further spell, qualified to give to him who was
+to answer, a distinct knowledge of that respecting which he was about to
+be consulted. He accordingly delivers the responses demanded of him;
+and, that done, earnestly requires of the witch to be dismissed. Herbs
+and magic rites are necessary, that the corpse may be again unanimated,
+and the spirit never more be liable to be recalled to the realms of day.
+The sorceress constructs the funeral pile; the dead man places himself
+upon it; Erichtho applies the torch, and the charm is ended for ever.
+
+
+
+
+III
+
+OMENS AND PHANTASMS
+
+
+
+
+XXXVIII
+
+PATROKLOS
+
+HOMER'S _Iliad_ (E.H. Blakeney's translation[13])
+
+
+Then there came unto him the ghost of poor Patroklos, in all things like
+unto the very man, in stature, and fair eyes, and voice; and he was
+arrayed in vesture such as in life he wore. He stood above the hero's
+head and challenged him:--
+
+"Thou sleepest, Achilles, unmindful of me. Not in my lifetime wert thou
+neglectful, but in death. Bury me with all speed; let me pass the gates
+of Hades. Far off the souls, wraiths of the dead, keep me back, nor
+suffer me yet to join them beyond the river; forlorn I wander up and
+down the wide-doored house of Hades. And now give me thy hand, I
+entreat; for never more shall I return from Hades, when once ye have
+given me my meed of fire. Nay, never more shall we sit, at least in
+life, apart from our comrades, taking counsel together; but upon me
+hateful doom hath gaped--doom which was my portion even at birth. Aye
+and to thee thyself also, Achilles, thou peer of the gods, it is fated
+to perish beneath the wall of the wealthy Trojans. Another thing I will
+tell thee, and will straitly charge thee, if peradventure thou wilt
+hearken: lay not my bones apart from thine, Achilles, but side by side;
+for we were brought up together in thy house, when Menoitios brought me,
+a child, from Opoeeis to thy father's house because of woeful bloodshed
+on the day when I slew the son of Amphidamas, myself a child,
+unwittingly, but in wrath over our games. Then did Peleus, the knight,
+take me into his home and rear me kindly and name me thy squire. So let
+one urn also hide the bones of us both."
+
+And swift-footed Achilles answered him and said:--
+
+"Why, dearest and best-beloved, hast thou come hither to lay upon me
+these thy several behests? Of a truth I will accomplish all, and bow to
+thy command. But stand nearer, I pray; for a little space let us cast
+our arms about each other, and take our fill of dire sorrow."
+
+With these words he stretched forth his hands to clasp him, but could
+not; for, like a smoke, the spirit vanished earthward with a wailing
+cry. Amazed, Achilles sprang up, and smote his hands together, and spake
+a piteous word:--
+
+"O ye heavens! surely, even among the dead, the soul and wraith are
+something (yet is there no life therein at all). For all night long the
+soul of poor Patroklos stood beside me, crying and making lamentation,
+and bade me do his will; it was the perfect image of himself."
+
+So he spake, and in the hearts of them all roused desire for
+lamentation; and while they yet were mourning about the pitiful corpse
+appeared rosy-fingered dawn.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 13: George Bell & Sons.]
+
+
+
+
+XXXIX
+
+VISION OF CROMWELL
+
+By "ARISE EVANS"
+
+
+A vision that I had presently after the king's death--I thought that I
+was in a great hall, like the king's hall, or the castle in Winchester,
+and there was none there but a judge that sat upon the bench and myself;
+and as I turned to a window in the north-westward, and looking into the
+palm of my hand, there appeared to me a face, head and shoulders like
+the Lord Fairfax's, and presently it vanished. Again, there arose the
+Lord Cromwell, and he vanished likewise; then arose a young face and he
+had a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another young face
+arose with a crown upon his head, and he vanished also; and another
+young face arose with a crown upon his head, and vanished in like
+manner; and as I turned the palm of my hand back again to me and looked,
+there did appear no more in it. Then I turned to the judge and said to
+him, there arose in my hand seven, and five of them had crowns; but when
+I turned my hand, the blood turned to its veins, and these appeared no
+more: so I awoke. The interpretation of this vision is, that after the
+Lord Cromwell, there shall be kings again in England, which thing is
+signified unto us by those that arose after him, who were all crowned,
+but the generations to come may look for a change of the blood, and of
+the name in the royal seat, after five kings once passed, 2 Kings x. 30.
+(The words referred to in this text are these:) "And the Lord said unto
+Jehu, because thou hast done well, etc., thy children of the fourth
+generation shall sit upon the throne of Israel."
+
+
+
+
+XL
+
+LORD STRAFFORD'S WARNING
+
+By the Rev. JOHN MASTIN
+
+
+In the Rev. John Mastin's _History of Naseby_ is cited a story of an
+apparition that was supposed to have appeared to Charles the First at
+Daintree, near Naseby, previous to the famous battle of that name.
+
+The army of Charles, says the historian, consisting of less than 5000
+foot, and about as many horse, was ordered to Daintree, whither the King
+went with a thorough resolution of fighting. The next day, however, to
+the surprise of Prince Rupert and all the rest of the army, this design
+was given up, and the former one of going to the north resumed. The
+reason of this alteration in his plans was alleged to be some presages
+of ill-fortune which the King had received, and which were related to
+me, says Mr Mastin's authority, by a person of Newark, at that time in
+His Majesty's horse. About two hours after the King had retired to rest,
+said the narrator, some of his attendants hearing an uncommon noise in
+his chamber, went into it, where they found His Majesty sitting up in
+bed and much agitated, but nothing which could have produced the noise
+they fancied they had heard. The King, in a tremulous voice, inquired
+after the cause of their alarm, and told them how much he had been
+disturbed, apparently by a dream, by thinking he had seen an apparition
+of Lord Strafford, who, after upbraiding him for his cruelty, told him
+he was come to return him good for evil, and that he advised him by no
+means to fight the Parliament army that was at that time quartered at
+Northampton, for it was one which the King could never conquer by arms.
+Prince Rupert, in whom courage was the predominant quality, rated the
+King out of his apprehensions the next day, and a resolution was again
+taken to meet the enemy. The next night, however, the apparition
+appeared to him a second time, but with looks of anger assuring him that
+would be the last advice he should be permitted to give him, but that if
+he kept his resolution of fighting he was undone. If His Majesty had
+taken the advice of the friendly ghost, and marched northward the next
+day, where the Parliament had few English forces, and where the Scots
+were becoming very discontented, his affairs might, perhaps, still have
+had a prosperous issue, or if he had marched immediately into the west
+he might afterwards have fought on more equal terms. But the King,
+fluctuating between the apprehensions of his imagination and the
+reproaches of his courage, remained another whole day at Daintree in a
+state of inactivity. The battle of Naseby, fought 14th June 1645, put a
+finishing stroke to the King's affairs. After this he could never get
+together an army fit to look the enemy in the face. He was often heard
+to say that he wished he had taken _the warning_, and not fought at
+Naseby; the meaning of which nobody knew but those to whom he had told
+of the apparition which he had seen at Daintree, and all of whom were,
+subsequently, charged to keep the affair secret.
+
+
+
+
+XLI
+
+KOTTER'S RED CIRCLE
+
+From FERRIER'S "Apparitions"
+
+
+Kotter's first vision was detailed by him, on oath, before the
+magistrates of Sprottaw, in 1619. While he was travelling on foot, in
+open daylight, in June 1616, a man appeared to him, who ordered him to
+inform the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, that great evils were
+impending over Germany, for the punishment of the sins of the people;
+after which he vanished. The same apparition met him at different times,
+and compelled him at length, by threats, to make this public
+declaration.
+
+After this, his visions assumed a more imposing appearance: on one
+occasion the angel (for such he was now confessed to be) showed him
+three suns, filling one half of the heavens; and nine moons, with their
+horns turned towards the east, filling the other half. At the same time,
+a superb fountain of pure water spouted from the arid soil, under his
+feet.
+
+At another time, he beheld a mighty lion, treading on the moon, and
+seven other lions around him, in the clouds.
+
+Sometimes he beheld the encounter of hostile armies, splendidly
+accoutred; sometimes he wandered through palaces, whose only inhabitants
+were devouring monsters; or beheld dragons of enormous size, in various
+scenes of action.
+
+He was at length attended by two angels, in his ecstasy; one of his
+visions at this time was of the most formidable and impressive kind. "On
+the 13th day of September, says he, both the youths returned to me,
+saying, be not afraid, but observe the thing which will be shewn to
+thee. And I suddenly beheld a circle, like the sun, red, and as it were,
+bloody: in which were black and white lines, or spots, so intermingled,
+that sometimes there appeared a greater number of blacks, sometimes of
+white; and this sight continued for some space of time. And when they
+had said to me, Behold! Attend! Fear not! No evil will befal thee! Lo,
+there were three successive peals of thunder, at short intervals, so
+loud and dreadful, that I shuddered all over. But the circle stood
+before me, and the black and white spots were disunited, and the circle
+approached so near that I could have touched it with my hand. And it was
+so beautiful, that I had never in my life seen any thing more agreeable:
+and the white spots were so bright and pleasant, that I could not
+contain my admiration. But the black spots were carried away in cloud of
+horrible darkness, in which I heard a dismal outcry, though I could see
+no one. Yet these words of lamentation were audible: Woe unto us, who
+have committed ourselves unto the black cloud, to be withdrawn from the
+circle coloured with the blood of divine grace, in which the grace of
+God, in his well-beloved Son, had inclosed us."
+
+After several other piteous exclamations, he saw a procession of many
+thousand persons, bearing palms, and singing hymns, but of very small
+stature, enter the red circle, from the black cloud, chanting
+halleluiah.
+
+
+
+
+XLII
+
+THE VISION OF CHARLES XI. OF SWEDEN
+
+From a _Proces-verbal_
+
+
+The authenticity of the following narrative rests upon a
+_proces-verbal_, drawn out in form, and attested by the signatures of
+four credible witnesses.
+
+Charles XI. was one of the most despotic and, at the same time, one of
+the ablest monarchs that ever ruled the destinies of Sweden. History
+represents him as brave and enlightened, but of a harsh and inflexible
+disposition; regulating his opinions by positive facts, and wholly
+ungifted with imagination. At the period of which we are about to speak,
+death had bereaved him of his Queen, Ulrica Eleonora. Notwithstanding
+the harshness which had marked his conduct to the Princess during her
+lifetime, and which, in the opinion of his subjects, had precipitated
+her into the grave, Charles revered her memory, and appeared more
+affected by her loss than might have been imagined from the natural
+sternness of his character. Subsequently to this event, he became more
+gloomy and taciturn than before, and devoted himself to study with an
+intensity of application that evinced his anxiety to escape the tortures
+of his own painful reflections. Towards the close of a dreary autumnal
+evening, the king, in slippers and _robe de chambre_, was seated before
+a large fire, in a private cabinet of his palace at Stockholm. Near him
+were his grand chamberlain, the Count de Brahe, who was honoured with
+the favourite estimation of his sovereign, and the principal state
+physician, Baumgarten, a learned disciple of Hippocrates, who aimed at
+the reputation of an _esprit fort_, and who would have pardoned a
+disbelief in anything except in the efficacy of his own prescriptions.
+The last-mentioned personage had on that evening been hastily summoned
+to the presence of the monarch, who felt or fancied himself in need of
+his professional skill. The evening was already far advanced, and the
+king, contrary to his wont, delayed bidding the customary "goodnight to
+all,"--the well-understood signal at which his guests always retired.
+With his head bent down, and his eyes fixed upon the decaying embers,
+that gradually withdrew even their mockery of warmth from the spacious
+fireplace, he maintained a strict silence, evidently fatigued with his
+company, yet dreading, though he scarcely knew why, to be left alone.
+The grand chamberlain, who perceived that even his profound remarks
+failed to excite the attention of the monarch, ventured to hint that his
+majesty would do well to seek repose; a gesture of the king retained him
+in his place. The physician, in his turn, hazarded a casual observation
+on the injurious tendency of late hours. The significant innuendoes
+were, however, thrown away on Charles, who replied to them by muttering
+between his teeth, "You may remain; I have no wish to sleep." This
+permission, with which the drowsy courtiers would willingly have
+dispensed, but which was really equivalent to a command, was succeeded
+by an attempt on their part to enliven his majesty with different
+subjects of conversation. No topic, however, that they introduced could
+outlive the second or third phrase. The king was in one of his gloomy
+moods; for royalty, with reverence be it spoken, has its moments of
+merriment and ill-humour, its mixture of sunshine and of cloud; and be
+it known to thee, gentle reader, that ticklish is the position of a
+courtier when majesty is in the dumps. To mend, or rather to mar the
+matter, the grand chamberlain, imagining that the sadness which
+overshadowed the royal brow came from regret, fixed his eyes upon a
+portrait of the queen, hung up in the cabinet, and with a sigh of pathos
+exclaimed, "How striking the resemblance! and who could not recognise
+the expression of majesty and gentleness, that----" "Fudge!" cried the
+king. Conscience had probably something to do with the abruptness of the
+exclamation. The old chamberlain had unwittingly touched a tender chord;
+every allusion to the queen appearing like a tacit reproach to the
+august and widowed spouse. "That portrait," added the king, "is too
+flattering, the queen was far from handsome"; then, as if inwardly
+repentant of his harshness, he rose from his seat and paced the
+apartment with hasty strides, to conceal the tears that had well-nigh
+betrayed his emotion. He sat in the embrasure of a window which looked
+upon the court; the moon was obscured by a thick veil of clouds; not
+even a solitary star twinkled through the darkness. The palace at
+present inhabited by the kings of Sweden was not at that time finished;
+and Charles XI., in whose reign it had been commenced, usually resided
+in an old-fashioned edifice, built something in the shape of a
+horseshoe, and situated at the point of Ritterholm, commanding a view of
+Lake Mader. The royal cabinet was at one of the extremities, nearly
+opposite to the grand hall or council-chamber, in which the States were
+accustomed to assemble when a message or communication from the crown
+was expected. Just at this moment the windows of the council-chamber
+appeared brilliantly illuminated. The king was lost in surprise. He at
+first imagined the light to proceed from the torch of some domestic. Yet
+what could occasion so unseasonable a visit to a place that for a
+considerable time had been closed? Besides, the light was too vivid to
+be produced by one single torch, it might have been attributed to a
+conflagration; but no smoke was perceptible, no noise was heard, the
+window glasses were not broken, everything in short seemed to indicate
+an illumination, such as takes place on public and solemn occasions.
+Charles, without uttering a word, remained gazing at the windows of the
+council-chamber. The Count Brahe, who had already grasped the bell-cord,
+was on the point of summoning a page, in order to ascertain the cause of
+this singular illumination, when the king suddenly prevented him. "I
+will visit the chamber myself," said his majesty; the seriousness of his
+deportment and the paleness of his countenance indicating a strange
+mixture of determination and superstitious awe. He quitted the cabinet
+with the unhesitating step of one resolved to obtain mastery over
+himself; the legislator of etiquette, and the regulator of bodies, each
+with a lighted taper, followed him with fear and trembling. The keeper
+of the keys had already retired to rest; Baumgarten was despatched by
+the king to awaken him, and to order him forthwith to open the doors of
+the council-chamber. Unbounded was the worthy keeper's surprise at the
+unexpected intimation. Benign Providence, however, has ordained monarchs
+to command, and created keepers of keys to obey. The prudent Cerberus
+yawned, dressed himself in haste, and presented himself before his
+sovereign with the insignia of his office, a bunch of keys of various
+dimensions suspended at his girdle. He commenced by opening the door of
+a gallery, which served as a sort of ante-room to the council-chamber.
+The king entered; but his astonishment may be conceived, on finding the
+walls of the building entirely hung with black. "By whose order has this
+been done?" demanded the king in a tone of anger. "Sire," replied the
+trembling keeper of the keys, "I am ignorant; the last time the gallery
+was opened it was wainscoted with oak, as usual, most assuredly these
+hangings are not from your majesty's wardrobe." The king, however, had
+by this time traversed at a rapid pace two-thirds of the gallery,
+without stopping to avail himself of the worshipful warden's
+conjectures. The latter personage and the grand chamberlain followed his
+majesty, whilst the learned doctor lingered a little in the rear.
+"Sire," cried the keeper of the keys, "I beseech your majesty to go no
+farther. As I have a living soul, there is witchcraft in this matter. At
+this hour ... and since the death of the queen, God be gracious to us!
+It is said that her majesty walks every night in this gallery." "Hold,
+Sire!" cried the Count in his turn, "do you not hear a strange noise
+which seems to proceed from the council-chamber? Who can foresee the
+danger to which your majesty may expose your sacred person?" "Forward!"
+replied the resolute monarch in an imperative tone; and as he stopped
+before the door of the council-chamber, "Quick! your keys!" said he to
+the keeper. He pushed the door violently with his foot, and the noise,
+repeated by the echoes of the vaulted roof, resounded through the
+gallery like the report of a cannon. The old keeper trembled; he tried
+one key, then another, but without success; his hand shook, his sight
+was confused. "A soldier, and afraid?" cried Charles with a smile.
+"Come, Count, you must be our usher: open that door." "Sire," replied
+the grand chamberlain stepping backwards, "if your majesty command me to
+walk up to the mouth of a Danish cannon, I will obey on the instant; but
+you will not order me to combat with the devil and his imps?" The
+monarch snatched the keys from the palsied hands of the infirm old
+keeper. "I see," said his majesty in a tone of contempt, "that I must
+finish this adventure"; and before his terrified suite could prevent his
+design, he had already opened the massy oaken door, and penetrated into
+the council-chamber, first pronouncing the usual formula, "with the help
+of God." The companions of his midnight excursion entered along with
+him, prompted by a sentiment of curiosity, stronger on this occasion
+even than terror; their courage too was reinforced by a feeling of
+shame, which forbade them to abandon their sovereign in the hour of
+peril. The council-chamber was illuminated with an immense number of
+torches. The ancient figured tapestry had been replaced by a black
+drapery suspended on the walls, along which were ranged, in regular
+order, and according to the custom of those days, German, Danish, and
+Muscovite banners, trophies of the victories won by the soldiers of
+Gustavus Adolphus. In the middle were distinguished the banners of
+Sweden, covered with black crape. A numerous assemblage was seated on
+the benches of the hall. The four orders of the state--the nobility, the
+clergy, the citizens, and the peasants,--were ranged according to the
+respective disposition assigned to each. All were clothed in black; and
+the multitude of human faces, that shone like so many luminous rays upon
+a dark ground, dazzled the sight to such a degree that, of the four
+individuals who witnessed this extraordinary scene, not one could
+discern amidst the crowd a countenance with which he was familiar; the
+position of the four spectators might have been compared to that of
+actors, who, in presence of a numerous audience, were incapable of
+distinguishing a single face among the confused mass. On the elevated
+throne whence the monarch habitually harangued the assembly of the
+States, was seated a bleeding corpse, invested with the emblems of
+royalty. On the right of this apparition stood a child, a crown upon his
+head and the sceptre in his hand; on the left an aged man, or rather
+another phantom, leaned upon the throne, opposite to which were several
+personages of austere and solemn demeanour, clothed in long black robes,
+and seated before a table covered with thick folios and parchments; from
+the gravity of their deportment the latter seemed to be judges. Between
+the throne and the portion of the council-chamber above which it was
+elevated, were placed an axe and a block covered with black crape. In
+this unearthly assembly none seemed at all conscious of the presence of
+Charles, or of the three individuals by whom he was accompanied. At last
+the oldest of the judges in black robes--he who appeared to discharge
+the functions of president--rising with dignity, struck three times with
+his hand upon an open folio. Profound silence immediately succeeded;
+some youths of distinguished appearance, richly dressed, and with their
+hands fettered behind their backs, were led into the council-chamber by
+a door opposite to that which Charles had opened. Behind them a man of
+vigrous mould held the extremity of the cord with which their hands were
+pinioned. The prisoner who marched in the foremost rank, and whose air
+was more imposing than that of the others, stopped in the midst of the
+council-chamber before the block which he seemed to contemplate with
+haughty disdain. At the same instant the corse seated on the throne was
+agitated by a convulsive tremor, and the purple tide flowed afresh from
+his wounds. The youthful prisoner knelt upon the ground, and laid his
+head upon the block; the fatal axe glittering in the air descended
+swiftly; a stream of blood forced its way even to the platform of the
+throne, and mingled with that of the royal corse; whilst the head of the
+victim, rebounding from the crimson pavement, rolled to the feet of
+Charles, and stained them with blood. Hitherto, astonishment had
+rendered the monarch dumb; but at this horrid spectacle his tongue was
+unloosed. He advanced a few steps towards the platform, and addressing
+himself to the apparition on the left of the corse, boldly pronounced
+the customary abjuration, "If thou art of God, speak; if of the Evil
+One, depart in peace." The phantom replied in slow and emphatic accents,
+"Charles, not under thy reign shall this blood be shed [here the voice
+became indistinct]; five monarchs succeeding thee shall first sit on the
+throne of Sweden. Woe, woe, woe to the blood of Wasa!" Upon this the
+numerous figures composing this extraordinary assemblage became less
+distinct, till at last they resembled a mass of coloured shadows, soon
+after which they disappeared altogether. The fantastic torches were
+extinguished of themselves, and those of Charles and his suite cast
+their dim, flickering light upon the old-fashioned tapestry with which
+the chamber was usually hung, and which was now slightly moved by the
+wind. During some minutes longer a strange sort of melody was heard, a
+harmony compared by one of the eye-witnesses of this unparalleled scene
+to the murmur of the breeze agitating the foliage, and by another to the
+sound emitted by the breaking of a harp-string. All agreed upon one
+point, the duration of the apparition, which they stated to have lasted
+about ten minutes. The black drapery, the decapitated victim, the stream
+of blood which had inundated the platform, all had disappeared with the
+phantoms; every trace had vanished except a crimson spot, which still
+stained the slipper of Charles, and which alone would have sufficed to
+remind him of the horrid vision, had it been possible for any effort to
+erase it from his memory. Returning to his private cabinet, the king
+committed to paper an exact relation of what he had seen, signed it, and
+ordered his companions to do the same. Spite of the precautions taken to
+conceal the contents of this statement from the public, they soon
+transpired, and were generally known, even during the lifetime of
+Charles XI. The original document is still in existence, and its
+authenticity has never been questioned; it concludes with the following
+remarkable words:--"If," says the king, "all that I have just declared
+is not the exact truth, I renounce my hopes of a happier existence which
+I may have merited by some good actions, and by my zeal for the welfare
+of my people and for the maintenance of the religion of my fathers." If
+the reader will call to mind the death of Gustavus III., and the trial
+of his assassin, Ankarstroem, he will observe the intimate connection
+between these events and the circumstances of the extraordinary
+prediction which we have just detailed. The apparition of the young man
+beheaded in the presence of the assembled States prognosticated the
+execution of Ankarstroem. The crowned corse represented Gustavus III.,
+the child, his son and successor, Gustavus Adolphus IV.; and lastly, by
+the old man was designated the uncle of Gustavus IV., the Duke of
+Sudermania, regent of the kingdom and afterwards king, upon the
+deposition of his nephew.
+
+
+
+
+XLIII
+
+BEN JONSON'S PREVISION
+
+DRUMMOND'S "Conversations"
+
+
+Ben Jonson told Drummond of Hawthornden that "when the king came to
+England, about the time that plague was in London, he being in the
+country, at Sir Robert Cotton's house with old Cambden, he saw in a
+vision his eldest son, then a young child and at London, appear unto him
+with the mark of a bloody cross on his forehead, as if it had been cut
+with a sword, at which amazed he prayed unto God, and in the morning he
+came unto Mr Cambden's chamber to tell him, who persuaded him it was but
+an apprehension, at which he should not be dejected. In the meantime
+there came letters from his wife of the death of that boy in the plague.
+He appeared to him, he said, of a manly shape, and of that growth he
+thinks he shall be at the resurrection."
+
+
+
+
+XLIV
+
+QUEEN ULRICA AND THE COUNTESS STEENBOCK
+
+"Court Records"
+
+
+When Queen Ulrica was dead, her corpse was placed in the usual way in an
+open coffin, in a room hung with black and lighted with numerous wax
+candles; a company of the king's guards did duty in the ante-room. One
+afternoon, the carriage of the Countess Steenbock, first lady of the
+palace, and a particular favourite of the queen's, drove up from
+Stockholm. The officers commanding the guard of honour went to meet the
+countess, and conducted her from the carriage to the door of the room
+where the dead queen lay, which she closed after her.
+
+The long stay of the lady in the death-chamber caused some uneasiness;
+but it was ascribed to the vehemence of her grief; and the officers on
+duty, fearful of disturbing the further effusion of it by their
+presence, left her alone with the corpse. At length, finding that she
+did not return, they began to apprehend that some accident had befallen
+her, and the captain of the guard opened the door. He instantly started
+back, with a face of the utmost dismay. The other officers ran up, and
+plainly perceived, through the half-open door, the deceased queen
+standing upright in her coffin, and ardently embracing the countess. The
+apparition seemed to move, and soon after became enveloped in a dense
+smoke or vapour. When this had cleared away, the body of the queen lay
+in the same position as before, but the countess was nowhere to be
+found. In vain did they search that and the adjoining apartments, while
+some of the party hastened to the door, thinking she must have passed
+unobserved to her carriage; but neither carriage, horses, driver, or
+footmen were to be seen. A messenger was quickly despatched with a
+statement of this extraordinary circumstance to Stockholm, and there he
+learnt that the Countess Steenbock had never quitted the capital, and
+that she died at the very moment when she was seen in the arms of the
+deceased queen.
+
+
+
+
+XLV
+
+DENIS MISANGER
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+On Friday, the first day of May 1705, about five o'clock in the evening,
+Denis Misanger de la Richardiere, eighteen years of age, was attacked
+with an extraordinary malady, which began by a sort of lethargy. They
+gave him every assistance that medicine and surgery could afford. He
+fell afterwards into a kind of furor or convulsion, and they were
+obliged to hold him, and have five or six persons to keep watch over
+him, for fear that he should throw himself out of the windows, or break
+his head against the wall. The emetic which they gave him made him throw
+up a quantity of bile, and for four or five days he remained pretty
+quiet.
+
+At the end of the month of May, they sent him into the country, to take
+the air; and some other circumstances occurred, so unusual, that they
+judged he must be bewitched. And what confirmed this conjecture was,
+that he never had any fever, and retained all his strength,
+notwithstanding all the pains and violent remedies which he had been
+made to take. They asked him if he had not had some dispute with a
+shepherd or some other person suspected of sorcery, or malpractices.
+
+He declared that on the 18th of April preceding, when he was going
+through the village of Noysi on horseback for a ride, his horse stopped
+short in the midst of the _Rue Feret_, opposite the chapel, and he could
+not make him go forward, though he touched him several times with the
+spur. There was a shepherd standing leaning against the chapel, with his
+crook in his hand, and two black dogs at his side. This man said to him,
+"Sir, I advise you to return home, for your horse will not go forward."
+The young La Richardiere, continuing to spur his horse, said to the
+shepherd, "I do not understand what you say." The shepherd replied, in a
+low tone, "I will make you understand." In effect, the young man was
+obliged to get down from his horse, and lead it back by the bridle to
+his father's dwelling in the same village. Then the shepherd cast a
+spell upon him, which was to take effect on the 1st of May, as was
+afterwards known.
+
+During this malady, they caused several masses to be said in different
+places, especially at St Maur des Fosses, at St Amable, and at St
+Esprit. Young La Richardiere was present at some of these masses which
+were said at St Maur; but he declared that he should not be cured till
+Friday, 26th June, on his return from St Maur. On entering his chamber,
+the key of which he had in his pocket, he found there that shepherd,
+seated in his armchair, with his crook, and his two black dogs. He was
+the only person who saw him; none other in the house could perceive him.
+He said even that this man was called Damis, although he did not
+remember that anyone had before this revealed his name to him. He beheld
+him all that day, and all the succeeding night. Towards six o'clock in
+the evening, as he felt his usual sufferings, he fell on the ground,
+exclaiming that the shepherd was upon him, and crushing him; at the same
+time he drew his knife, and aimed five blows at the shepherd's face, of
+which he retained the marks. The invalid told those who were watching
+over him that he was going to be very faint at five different times, and
+begged of them to help him, and move him violently. The thing happened
+as he had predicted.
+
+On Friday, the 26th June, M. de la Richardiere, having gone to the mass
+at St Maur, asserted that he should be cured on that day. After mass,
+the priest put the stole upon his head, and recited the Gospel of St
+John, during which prayer the young man saw St Maur standing, and the
+unhappy shepherd at his left, with his face bleeding from the five
+knife-wounds which he had given him. At that moment the youth cried out,
+unintentionally, "A miracle! a miracle!" and asserted that he was cured,
+as in fact he was.
+
+On the 29th of June, the same M. de la Richardiere returned to Noysi,
+and amused himself with shooting. As he was shooting in the vineyards,
+the shepherd presented himself before him; he hit him on the head with
+the butt-end of his gun. The shepherd cried out, "Sir, you are killing
+me!" and fled. The next day this man presented himself again before him,
+and asked his pardon, saying, "I am called Damis; it was I who cast a
+spell over you which was to have lasted a year. By the aid of masses and
+prayers which have been said for you, you have been cured at the end of
+eight weeks. But the charm has fallen back upon myself, and I can be
+cured of it only by a miracle. I implore you then to pray for me."
+
+During all these reports, the _marechaussee_ had set off in pursuit of
+the shepherd; but he escaped them, having killed his two dogs and thrown
+away his crook. On Sunday, the 13th of September, he came to M. de la
+Richardiere, and related to him his adventure; that after having passed
+twenty years without approaching the sacraments, God had given him grace
+to confess himself at Troyes; and that after divers delays he had been
+admitted to the holy communion. Eight days after, M. de la Richardiere
+received a letter from a woman who said she was a relation of the
+shepherd's, informing him of his death, and begging him to cause a
+requiem mass to be said for him, which was done.
+
+
+
+
+XLVI
+
+THE PIED PIPER
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The following instance is so extraordinary, that I should not repeat it
+if the account were not attested by more than one writer, and also
+preserved in the public monuments of a considerable town of Upper
+Saxony; this town is Hamelin in the principality of Kalenberg, at the
+confluence of the rivers Hamel and Weser.
+
+In the year 1384, this town was infested by such a prodigious multitude
+of rats, that they ravaged all the corn which was laid up in the
+granaries; everything was employed that art and experience could invent
+to chase them away, and whatever is usually employed against this kind
+of animals. At that time there came to the town an unknown person, of
+taller stature than ordinary, dressed in a robe of divers colours, who
+engaged to deliver them from that scourge, for a certain recompense
+which was agreed upon.
+
+Then he drew from his sleeve a flute, at the sound of which all the rats
+came out of their holes and followed him; he led them straight to the
+river, into which they ran and were drowned. On his return he asked for
+the promised reward, which was refused him, apparently on account of the
+facility with which he had exterminated the rats. The next day, which
+was a fete day, he chose the moment when the older inhabitants were at
+church, and by means of another flute which he began to play, all the
+boys in the town above the age of fourteen, to the number of a hundred
+and thirty, assembled round him; he led them to the neighbouring
+mountain, named Kopfelberg, under which is a sewer for the town, and
+where criminals are executed; these boys disappeared and were never seen
+afterwards.
+
+A young girl, who had followed at a distance, was witness of the matter,
+and brought the news of it to the town.
+
+
+
+
+XLVII
+
+JEANNE D'ARC
+
+FERRIER'S "Apparitions"
+
+
+Upon her trial, as it is repeated by Chartier, she spoke with the utmost
+simplicity and firmness of her visions: "Que souvent alloit a une belle
+fontaine au pays de Lorraine, laquelle elle nommoit bonne fontaine aux
+Fees Nostre Seigneur, at en icelluy lieu tous ceulx de pays quand ils
+avoient fiebvre ils alloient pour recouvrer garison; et la alloit
+souvent ladite Jehanne la Pucelle sous un grand arbre qui la fontaine
+ombroit; et s'apparurent a elle Ste Katerine et Ste Marguerite qui lui
+dirent qu'elle allast a ung Cappitaine qu'elles lui nommerent, laquelle
+y alla sans prendre conge ni a pere ni a mere; lequel Cappitaine la
+vestit en guise d'homme et l'armoit et lui ceint l'epee, et luy bailla
+un escuyer et quatre varlets; et en ce point fut montee sur un bon
+cheval; et en ce point vint aut Roy de France, et lui dit que du
+Commandement de lui estoit venue a lui, et qu'elle le feroit le plus
+grand Seigneur du Monde, et qu'il fut ordonne que tretou ceulx qui lui
+desobeiroient fussent occis sans mercy, et que St Michel et plusieurs
+anges lui avoient baille une Couronne moult riche pour lui."
+
+
+
+
+XLVIII
+
+ANNE WALKER
+
+Local Records
+
+
+In the year 1680, at Lumley, a hamlet near Chester-le-Street in the
+county of Durham, there lived one Walker, a man well to do in the world,
+and a widower. A young relation of his, whose name was Anne Walker, kept
+his house, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood, and that with but
+too good cause. A few weeks before this young woman expected to become a
+mother, Walker placed her with her aunt, one Dame Clare, in
+Chester-le-Street, and promised to take care both of her and her future
+child. One evening in the end of November, this man, in company with
+Mark Sharp, an acquaintance of his, came to Dame Clare's door, and told
+her that they had made arrangements for removing her niece to a place
+where she could remain in safety till her confinement was over. They
+would not say where it was; but as Walker bore, in most respects, an
+excellent character, she was allowed to go with him; and he professed to
+have sent her off with Sharp into Lancashire. Fourteen days after, one
+Graeme, a fuller, who lived about six miles from Lumley, had been
+engaged till past midnight in his mill; and on going downstairs to go
+home, in the middle of the ground floor he saw a woman, with dishevelled
+hair, covered with blood, and having five large wounds on her head.
+Graeme, on recovering a little from his first terror, demanded what the
+spectre wanted. "I," said the apparition, "am the spirit of Anne
+Walker"; and proceeded accordingly to tell Graeme the particulars which
+I have already related to you. "When I was sent away with Mark Sharp, he
+slew me on such a moor," naming one that Graeme knew, "with a collier's
+pick, threw my body into a coal-pit, and hid the pick under the bank;
+and his shoes and stockings, which were covered with blood, he left in a
+stream." The apparition proceeded to tell Graeme that he must give
+information of this to the nearest justice of peace, and that till this
+was done, he must look to be continually haunted. Graeme went home very
+sad; he dared not bring such a charge against a man of so unimpeachable
+a character as Walker; and yet he as little dared to incur the anger of
+the spirit that had appeared to him. So, as all weak minds will do, he
+went on procrastinating; only he took care to leave his mill early, and
+while in it never to be alone. Notwithstanding this caution on his part,
+one night, just as it began to be dark, the apparition met him again in
+a more terrible shape, and with every circumstance of indignation. Yet
+he did not even then fulfil its injunction; till on St Thomas's eve, as
+he was walking in his garden just after sunset, it threatened him so
+effectually that in the morning he went to a magistrate and revealed the
+whole thing. The place was examined; the body and the pickaxe found; and
+a warrant was granted against Walker and Sharp. They were, however,
+admitted to bail; but in August, 1681, their trial came on before Judge
+Davenport at Durham. Meanwhile the whole circumstances were known over
+all the north of England, and the greatest interest was excited by the
+case. Against Sharp the fact was strong, that his shoes and stockings,
+covered with blood, were found in the place where the murder had been
+committed; but against Walker, except the account received from the
+ghost, there seemed not a shadow of evidence. Nevertheless the judge
+summed up strongly against the prisoners, the jury found them guilty,
+and the judge pronounced sentence upon them that night, a thing which
+was unknown in Durham, either before or after. The prisoners were
+executed, and both died professing their innocence to the last. Judge
+Davenport was much agitated during the trial; and it was believed, says
+the historian, that the spirit had also appeared to him, as if to supply
+in his mind the want of legal evidence. This case is certainly a solemn
+illustration of the mal-administration of justice in an ancient court;
+yet the circumstantial evidence, arising from the appearance of the
+spirit, appears very strong--the finding of the body, and the boots and
+stockings. Yet we need perhaps to live more immediately within the
+circle of the circumstance to pronounce upon it. None of us, however,
+reading this book, would like to take upon ourselves the responsibility
+of those daring jurymen, who durst venture to throw away life upon
+evidence which, strong as it appears to have been, did not come to them,
+but only to one who had borne witness to them.
+
+
+
+
+XLIX
+
+THE HAND OF GLORY
+
+HENDERSON'S "Folk Lore"
+
+
+One evening, between the years 1790 and 1800, a traveller, dressed in
+woman's clothes, arrived at the Old Spital Inn, the place where the mail
+coach changed horses, in High Spital, on Bowes Moor. The traveller
+begged to stay all night, but had to go away so early in the morning
+that if a mouthful of food were set ready for breakfast there was no
+need the family should be disturbed by her departure. The people of the
+house, however, arranged that a servant maid should sit up till the
+stranger was out of the premises, and then went to bed themselves. The
+girl lay down for a nap on the longsettle by the fire, but before she
+shut her eyes she took a good look at the traveller, who was sitting on
+the opposite side of the hearth, and espied a pair of man's trousers
+peeping out from under the gown. All inclination for sleep was now gone;
+however, with great self-command, she feigned it, closed her eyes, and
+even began to snore. On this the traveller got up, pulled out of his
+pocket a dead man's hand, fitted a candle to it, lighted the candle, and
+passed hand and candle several times before the servant girl's face,
+saying as he did so: "Let those who are asleep be asleep, and let those
+who are awake be awake." This done, he placed the light on the table,
+opened the outer door, went down two or three of the steps which led
+from the house to the road, and began to whistle for his companions. The
+girl (who had hitherto had presence of mind enough to remain perfectly
+quiet) now jumped up, rushed behind the ruffian, and pushed him down
+the steps. She then shut the door, locked it, and ran upstairs to try
+and wake the family, but without success: calling, shouting, and shaking
+were alike in vain. The poor girl was in despair, for she heard the
+traveller and his comrades outside the house. So she ran down again,
+seized a bowl of blue (_i.e._ skimmed milk), and threw it over the hand
+and candle; after which she went upstairs again, and awoke the sleepers
+without any difficulty. The landlord's son went to the window, and asked
+the men outside what they wanted. They answered that if the dead man's
+hand were but given them, they would go away quietly, and do no harm to
+anyone. This he refused, and fired among them, and the shot must have
+taken effect, for in the morning stains of blood were traced to a
+considerable distance.
+
+These circumstances were related to my informant, Mr Charles Wastell, in
+the spring of 1861, by an old woman named Bella Parkin, who resided
+close to High Spital, and was actually the daughter of the courageous
+servant-girl.
+
+It is interesting to compare them with the following narrations,
+communicated to me by the Rev. S. Baring Gould:--"Two magicians having
+come to lodge in a public-house with a view to robbing it, asked
+permission to pass the night by the fire, and obtained it. When the
+house was quiet, the servant-girl, suspecting mischief, crept downstairs
+and looked through the keyhole. She saw the men open a sack, and take
+out a dry, withered hand. They anointed the fingers with some unguent,
+and lighted them. Each finger flamed, but the thumb they could not
+light; that was because one of the household was not asleep. The girl
+hastened to her master, but found it impossible to arouse him. She tried
+every other sleeper, but could not break the charmed sleep. At last,
+stealing down into the kitchen, while the thieves were busy over her
+master's strong box, she secured the hand, blew out the flames, and at
+once the whole household was aroused."[14]
+
+But the next story bears a closer resemblance to the Stainmore
+narrative. One dark night, when all was shut up, there came a tap at the
+door of a lone inn in the middle of a barren moor. The door was opened,
+and there stood without, shivering and shaking, a poor beggar, his rags
+soaked with rain, and his hands white with cold. He asked piteously for
+a lodging, and it was cheerfully granted him; there was not a spare bed
+in the house, but he could lie on the mat before the kitchen fire, and
+welcome.
+
+So this was settled, and everyone in the house went to bed except the
+cook, who from the back kitchen could see into the large room through a
+pane of glass let into the door. She watched the beggar, and saw him, as
+soon as he was left alone, draw himself up from the floor, seat himself
+at the table, extract from his pocket a brown withered human hand, and
+set it upright in the candlestick. He then anointed the fingers, and
+applying a match to them, they began to flame. Filled with horror, the
+cook rushed up the back stairs, and endeavoured to arouse her master and
+the men of the house. But all was in vain--they slept a charmed sleep;
+so in despair she hastened down again, and placed herself at her post of
+observation.
+
+She saw the fingers of the hand flaming, but the thumb remained
+unlighted, because one inmate of the house was awake. The beggar was
+busy collecting the valuables around him into a large sack, and having
+taken all he cared for in the large room, he entered another. On this
+the woman ran in, and, seizing the light, tried to extinguish the
+flames. But this was not so easy. She blew at them, but they burnt on as
+before. She poured the dregs of a beer-jug over them, but they blazed
+up the brighter. As a last resource, she caught up a jug of milk, and
+dashed it over the four lambent flames, and they died out at once.
+Uttering a loud cry, she rushed to the door of the apartment the beggar
+had entered, and locked it. The whole family was aroused, and the thief
+easily secured and hanged. This tale is told in Northumberland.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 14: Delrio. See also Thorpe's _Mythology_, vol. iii. p. 274.]
+
+
+
+
+L
+
+THE BLOODY FOOTSTEP
+
+Local Records
+
+
+On the threshold of one of the doors of Smithills Hall there is a bloody
+footstep impressed into the door-step, and ruddy as if the bloody foot
+had just trodden there; and it is averred that, on a certain night of
+the year, and at a certain hour of the night, if you go and look at the
+door-step you will see the mark wet with fresh blood. Some have
+pretended to say that this appearance of blood was but dew; but can dew
+redden a cambric handkerchief? Will it crimson the finger-tips when you
+touch it? And that is what the bloody footstep will surely do when the
+appointed night and hour come round....
+
+It is needless to tell you all the strange stories that have survived to
+this day about the old Hall, and how it is believed that the master of
+it, owing to his ancient science, has still a sort of residence there
+and control of the place, and how in one of the chambers there is still
+his antique table, and his chair, and some rude old instruments and
+machinery, and a book, and everything in readiness, just as if he might
+still come back to finish some experiment.... One of the chief things to
+which the old lord applied himself was to discover the means of
+prolonging his own life, so that its duration should be indefinite, if
+not infinite; and such was his science that he was believed to have
+attained this magnificent and awful purpose....
+
+The object of the Lord of Smithills Hall was to take a life from the
+course of Nature, and Nature did not choose to be defrauded; so that,
+great as was the power of this scientific man over her, she would not
+consent that he should escape the necessity of dying at his proper time,
+except upon condition of sacrificing some other life for his; and this
+was to be done once for every thirty years that he chose to live, thirty
+years being the account of a generation of man; and if in any way, in
+that time, this lord could be the death of a human being, that satisfied
+the requisition, and he might live on....
+
+There was but one human being whom he cared for--that was a beautiful
+kinswoman, an orphan, whom his father had brought up, and dying, left to
+his care.... He saw that she, if anyone, was to be the person whom the
+sacrifice demanded, and that he might kill twenty others without effect,
+but if he took the life of this one it would make the charm strong and
+good.... He did slay this pure young girl; he took her into the wood
+near the house, an old wood that is standing yet, with some of its
+magnificent oaks, and there he plunged a dagger into her heart....
+
+He buried her in the wood, and returned to the house; and, as it
+happened, he had set his right foot in her blood, and his shoe was wet
+in it, and by some miraculous fate it left a track all along the
+wood-path, and into the house, and on the stone steps of the threshold,
+and up into his chamber. The servants saw it the next day, and wondered,
+and whispered, and missed the fair young girl, and looked askance at
+their lord's right foot, and turned pale, all of them....
+
+Next, the legend says, that Sir Forrester was struck with horror at what
+he had done ... and fled from his old Hall, and was gone full many a
+day. But all the while he was gone there was the mark of a bloody
+footstep impressed upon the stone door-step of the Hall.... The legend
+says that wherever Sir Forrester went, in his wanderings about the
+world, he left a bloody track behind him.... Once he went to the King's
+Court, and, there being a track up to the very throne, the King frowned
+upon him, so that he never came there any more. Nobody could tell how it
+happened; his foot was not seen to bleed, only there was the bloody
+track behind him....
+
+At last this unfortunate lord deemed it best to go back to his own Hall,
+where, living among faithful old servants born in the family, he could
+hush the matter up better than elsewhere.... So home he came, and there
+he saw the bloody track on the door-step, and dolefully went into the
+Hall, and up the stairs, an old servant ushering him into his chamber,
+and half a dozen others following him behind, gazing, shuddering,
+pointing with quivering fingers, looking horror-stricken in one
+another's pale faces....
+
+By and by he vanished from the old Hall, but not by death; for, from
+generation to generation, they say that a bloody track is seen around
+that house, and sometimes it is traced up into the chambers, so fresh
+that you see he must have passed a short time before.
+
+This is the legend of the Bloody Footstep, which I myself have seen at
+the Hall door.
+
+
+
+
+LI
+
+THE GHOSTLY WARRIORS OF WORMS
+
+"The Phantom World"
+
+
+The abbot of Ursperg, in his Chronicle, year 1123, says that in the
+territory of Worms they saw during many days a multitude of armed men,
+on foot and on horseback, going and coming with great noise, like people
+who are going to a solemn assembly. Every day they marched, towards the
+hour of noon, to a mountain, which appeared to be their place of
+rendezvous. Someone in the neighbourhood, bolder than the rest, having
+guarded himself with the sign of the cross, approached one of these
+armed men, conjuring him in the name of God, to declare the meaning of
+this army, and their design. The soldier or phantom replied, "We are not
+what you imagine; we are neither vain phantoms nor true soldiers, we are
+the spirits of those who were killed on this spot a long time ago. The
+arms and horses which you behold are the instruments of our punishment,
+as they were of our sins. We are all on fire, though you can see nothing
+about us which appears inflamed." It is said that they remarked in this
+company the Count Emico, who had been killed a few years before, and who
+declared that he might be extricated from that state by alms and
+prayers.
+
+
+
+
+LII
+
+THE WANDERING JEW IN ENGLAND
+
+"Notes and Queries"
+
+
+When on the weary way to Golgotha, Christ fainting, and overcome under
+the burden of the cross, asked Salathiel, as he was standing at his
+door, for a cup of water to cool His parched throat, he spurned the
+supplication, and bade Him on the faster.
+
+"I go," said the Saviour, "but thou shalt thirst and tarry till I come."
+
+And ever since then, by day and night, through the long centuries he has
+been doomed to wander about the earth, ever craving for water, and ever
+expecting the day of judgment which shall end his toils:
+
+    "Mais toujours le soleil se leve,
+        Toujours, toujours
+    Tourne la terre ou moi je cours,
+    Toujours, toujours, toujours, toujours!"
+
+Sometimes, during the cold winter nights, the lonely cottager will be
+awoke by a plaintive demand for "Water, good Christian! water for the
+love of God!" And if he looks out into the moonlight, he will see a
+venerable old man in antique raiment, with grey flowing beard, and a
+tall staff, who beseeches his charity with the most earnest gesture. Woe
+to the churl who refuses him water or shelter. My old nurse, who was a
+Warwickshire woman, and, as Sir Walter said of his grandmother, "a most
+_awfu' le'er_," knew a man who boldly cried out, "All very fine, Mr
+Ferguson, but you can't lodge here." And it was decidedly the worst
+thing he ever did in his life, for his best mare fell dead lame, and
+corn went down, I am afraid to say how much per quarter. If, on the
+contrary, you treat him well, and refrain from indelicate inquiries
+respecting his age--on which point he is very touchy--his visit is sure
+to bring good luck. Perhaps years afterwards, when you are on your
+death-bed, he may happen to be passing; and if he _should_, you are
+safe; for three knocks with his staff will make you hale, and he never
+forgets any kindnesses. Many stories are current of his wonderful cures;
+but there is one to be found in Peck's _History of Stamford_ which
+possesses the rare merit of being written by the patient himself. Upon
+Whitsunday, in the year of our Lord 1658, "about six of the clock, just
+after evensong," one Samuel Wallis, of Stamford, who had been long
+wasted with a lingering consumption, was sitting by the fire, reading in
+that delectable book called _Abraham's Suit for Sodom_. He heard a knock
+at the door; and, as his nurse was absent, he crawled to open it
+himself. What he saw there, Samuel shall say in his own style:--"I
+beheld a proper, tall, grave old man. Thus he said: 'Friend, I pray
+thee, give an old pilgrim a cup of small beere!' And I said, 'Sir, I
+pray you, come in and welcome.' And he said, 'I am no Sir, therefore
+call me not Sir; but come in I must, for I cannot pass by thy doore.'"
+
+After finishing the beer: "Friend," he said, "thou art not well." "I
+said, 'No, truly Sir, I have not been well this many yeares.' He said,
+'What is thy disease?' I said, 'A deep consumption, Sir; our doctors
+say, past cure: for, truly, I am a very poor man, and not able to follow
+doctors' councell.' 'Then,' said he, 'I will tell thee what thou shalt
+do; and, by the help and power of Almighty God above, thou shalt be
+well. To-morrow, when thou risest up, go into thy garden, and get there
+two leaves of red sage, and one of bloodworte, and put them into a cup
+of thy small beere. Drink as often as need require, and when the cup is
+empty fill it again, and put in fresh leaves every fourth day, and thou
+shalt see, through our Lord's great goodness and mercy, before twelve
+dayes shall be past, thy disease shall be cured and thy body altered.'"
+
+After this simple prescription, Wallis pressed him to eat: "But he said,
+'No, friend, I will not eat; the Lord Jesus is sufficient for me. Very
+seldom doe I drinke any beere neither, but that which comes from the
+rocke. So, friend, the Lord God be with thee.'"
+
+So saying, he departed, and was never more heard of; but the patient got
+well within the given time, and for many a long day there was war hot
+and fierce among the divines of Stamford, as to whether the stranger was
+an angel or a devil. His dress has been minutely described by honest
+Sam. His coat was purple, and buttoned down to the waist; "his britches
+of the same couler, all new to see to"; his stockings were very white,
+but whether linen or jersey, deponent knoweth not; his beard and head
+were white, and he had a white stick in his hand. The day was rainy from
+morning to night, "but he had not one spot of dirt upon his cloathes."
+
+Aubrey gives an almost exactly similar relation, the scene of which he
+places in the Staffordshire Moorlands. The Jew there appears in a
+"purple shag gown," and prescribes balm-leaves.
+
+
+
+
+LIII
+
+BENDITH EU MAMMAU[15]
+
+By EDMUND JONES
+
+
+They appeared diverse ways, but their most frequent way of appearing was
+like dancing-companies with musick, or in the form of funerals. When
+they appeared like dancing-companies, they were desirous to entice
+persons into their company, and some were drawn among them and remained
+among them some time, usually a whole year; as did Edmund William Rees,
+a man whom I well knew, and was a neighbour, who came back at the year's
+end, and looked very bad. But either they were not able to give much
+account of themselves, or they durst not give it, only said they had
+been dancing, and that the time was short. But there were some others
+who went with them at night, and returned sometimes at night, and
+sometimes the next morning; especially those persons who took upon them
+to cure the hurts received from the fairies, as Charles Hugh of Coed yr
+Pame, in Langybi parish, and Rissiart Cap Dee, of Aberystruth; for the
+former of these must certainly converse with them, for how else could he
+declare the words which his visitors had spoken a day or days before
+they came to him, to their great surprise and wonder?
+
+And as for Rissiart Cap Dee, so called because he wore a black cap, it
+is said of him that when he lodged in some houses to cure those who
+were hurt by the fairies, he would suddenly rise up in the night, and
+make a very hasty preparation to go downstairs; which when one person
+observ'd, he said, "Go softly, Uncle Richard, least you fall": he made
+answer, "O, here are some to receive me." But when he was called to one
+person, who had inadvertently fallen among the fairies, and had been
+greatly hurt by them, and kept his bed upon it, whose relations had sent
+for the said Rissiart Cap Dee to cure him; who, when he came up to the
+sick man's chamber, the sick man took up a pound-weight stone, which was
+by the bed-side, and threw it at the infernal charmer with all his
+might, saying, "Thou old villain, wast one of the worst of them to hurt
+me!" for he had seen him among them acting his part against him; upon
+which the old charmer went away muttering some words of malevolence
+against him. He lived at the foot of Rhyw Coelbren, and there was a
+large hole in the side of the thatch of his house, thro' which the
+people believed he went out at night to the fairies, and came in from
+them at night; but he pretended it was that he might see the stars at
+night. The house is down long ago. He lived by himself, as did the
+before-mentioned Charles Hugh, who was very famous in the county for his
+cures, and knowledge of things at a distance; which he could not
+possibly know without conversing with evil spirits, who walked the earth
+to and fro. He is yet said to be an affable, friendly man, and cheerful;
+'tis then a pity he should be in alliance with hell, and an agent in the
+kingdom of darkness.
+
+I will only give one instance of his knowledge of things at a distance,
+and of secret things. Henry John Thomas, of the parish of Aberystruth, a
+relation of mine, an honest man, went with the water of a young woman
+whom he courted, and was sick, to the said Charles Hugh, who, as soon as
+he saw Henry John, pleasantly told him, "Ho! you come with your
+sweetheart's water to me." And he told him the very words which they
+had spoken together in a secret place, and described the place where
+they spoke. It was the general opinion in times past, when these things
+were very frequent, that the fairies knew whatever was spoken in the air
+without the houses, not so much what was spoken in the houses. I suppose
+they chiefly knew what was spoken in the air at night. It was also said
+they rather appeared to an uneven number of persons, to one, three,
+five, &c.; and oftener to men than to women. Thomas William Edmund, of
+Havodavel, an honest, pious man, who often saw them, declared that they
+appeared with one bigger than the rest, going before them in the
+company.
+
+But they very often appeared in the form of a funeral before the death
+of many persons, with a bier and a black cloth, in the midst of a
+company about it, on every side, before and after it. The instances of
+this were so numerous, that it is plain, and past all dispute, that they
+infallibly foreknew the time of men's death: the difficulty is, whence
+they had this knowledge. It cannot be supposed that either God Himself,
+or His angels, discovered this to these spirits of darkness. For _the
+secrets of the Lord are with those that fear Him_, not with His enemies.
+Psalm xxv. 14. They must therefore have this knowledge from the position
+of the stars at the time of birth, and their influence, which they
+perfectly understand beyond what mortal men can do. We have a constant
+proof of this in the corps candles, whose appearance is an infallible
+sign that death will follow, and they never fail going the way that the
+corps will go to be buried, be the way ever so unlikely that it should
+go through. But to give some instances in Aberystruth Parish.
+
+FOOTNOTES:
+
+[Footnote 15: _A Geographical, Historical, and Religious Account of the
+Parish of Aberystruth, in the County of Monmouth. To which are added,
+Memoirs of several persons of Note, who lived in the said Parish._ By
+Edmund Jones. Trevecka: printed in the Year 1779.]
+
+
+
+
+LIV
+
+THE RED BOOK OF APPIN
+
+CAMPBELL'S "Tales of the West Highlands"
+
+
+Once upon a time, there lived a man at Appin, Argyllshire, and he took
+to his house an orphan boy. When the boy was grown up, he was sent to
+herd; and upon a day of days, and him herding, there came a fine
+gentleman where he was, who asked him to become his servant, and that he
+would give him plenty to eat and drink, clothes, and great wages. The
+boy told him that he would like very much to get a good suit of clothes,
+but that he would not engage till he would see his master; but the fine
+gentleman would have him engaged without any delay; this the boy would
+not do upon any terms till he would see his master. "Well," says the
+gentleman, "in the meantime write your name in this book." Saying this,
+he puts his hand into his oxter pocket, and pulling out a large red
+book, he told the boy to write his name in the book. This the boy would
+not do; neither would he tell his name, till he would acquaint his
+master first. "Now," says the gentleman, "since you will neither engage,
+or tell your name, till you see your present master, be sure to meet me
+about sunset to-morrow, at a certain place?" The boy promised that he
+would be sure to meet him at the place about sunsetting. When the boy
+came home he told his master what the gentleman said to him. "Poor boy,"
+says he, "a fine master he would make; lucky for you that you neither
+engaged nor wrote your name in his book; but since you promised to meet
+him, you must go; but as you value your life, do as I tell you." His
+master gave him a sword, and at the same time he told him to be sure to
+be at the place mentioned a while before sunset, and to draw a circle
+round himself with the point of the sword in the name of Trinity. "When
+you do this, draw a cross in the centre of the circle, upon which you
+will stand yourself; and do not move out of that position till the
+rising of the sun next morning." He also told him that he would wish him
+to come out of the circle to put his name in the book; but that upon no
+account he was to leave the circle; "but ask the book till you would
+write your name yourself, and when once you get hold of the book keep
+it, he cannot touch a hair of your head, if you keep inside the circle."
+
+So the boy was at the place long before the gentleman made his
+appearance; but sure enough he came after sunset; he tried all his arts
+to get the boy outside the circle, to sign his name in the red book, but
+the boy would not move one foot out from where he stood; but, at the
+long last, he handed the book to the boy, so as to write his name
+therein. The book was no sooner inside the circle than it fell out of
+the gentleman's hand inside the circle; the boy cautiously stretched out
+his hand for the book, and as soon as he got hold of it, he put it in
+his oxter. When the fine gentleman saw that he did not mean to give him
+back the book, he got furious; and at last he transformed himself into
+great many likenesses, blowing fire and brimstone out of his mouth and
+nostrils; at times he would appear as a horse, other times a huge cat,
+and a fearful beast (uille bbeast); he was going round the circle the
+length of the night; when day was beginning to break he let out one
+fearful screech; he put himself in the shape of a large raven, and he
+was soon out of the boy's sight. The boy still remained where he was
+till he saw the sun in the morning, which no sooner he observed, than he
+took to his soles home as fast as he could. He gave the book to his
+master; and this is how the far-famed red book of Appin was got.
+
+
+
+
+LV
+
+THE GOOD O'DONOGHUE
+
+Irish Folk Tales
+
+
+In an age so distant that the precise period is unknown, a chieftain
+named O'Donoghue ruled over the country which surrounds the romantic
+Lough Lean, now called the Lake of Killarney. Wisdom, beneficence, and
+justice distinguished his reign, and the prosperity and happiness of his
+subjects were their natural results. He is said to have been as renowned
+for his warlike exploits as for his pacific virtues; and as a proof that
+his domestic administration was not the less rigorous because it was
+mild, a rocky island is pointed out to strangers, called "O'Donoghue's
+Prison," in which this prince once confined his own son for some act of
+disorder and disobedience.
+
+His end--for it cannot correctly be called his death--was singular and
+mysterious. At one of those splendid feasts for which his court was
+celebrated, surrounded by the most distinguished of his subjects, he was
+engaged in a prophetic relation of the events which were to happen in
+ages yet to come. His auditors listened, now rapt in wonder, now fired
+with indignation, burning with shame, or melted into sorrow, as he
+faithfully detailed the heroism, the injuries, the crimes, and the
+miseries of their descendants. In the midst of his predictions he rose
+slowly from his seat, advanced with a solemn, measured, and majestic
+tread to the shore of the lake, and walked forward composedly upon its
+unyielding surface. When he had nearly reached the centre he paused for
+a moment, then, turning slowly round, looked toward his friends, and
+waving his arms to them with the cheerful air of one taking a short
+farewell, disappeared from their view.
+
+The memory of the good O'Donoghue has been cherished by successive
+generations with affectionate reverence; and it is believed that at
+sunrise, on every May-day morning, the anniversary of his departure, he
+revisits his ancient domains: a favoured few only are in general
+permitted to see him, and this distinction is always an omen of good
+fortune to the beholders; when it is granted to many it is a sure token
+of an abundant harvest--a blessing, the want of which during this
+prince's reign was never felt by his people.
+
+Some years have elapsed since the last appearance of O'Donoghue. The
+April of that year had been remarkably wild and stormy; but on
+May-morning the fury of the elements had altogether subsided. The air
+was hushed and still; and the sky, which was reflected in the serene
+lake, resembled a beautiful but deceitful countenance, whose smiles,
+after the most tempestuous emotions, tempt the stranger to believe that
+it belongs to a soul which no passion has ever ruffled.
+
+The first beams of the rising sun were just gilding the lofty summit of
+Glenaa, when the waters near the eastern shore of the lake became
+suddenly and violently agitated, though all the rest of its surface lay
+smooth and still as a tomb of polished marble, the next morning a
+foaming wave darted forward, and, like a proud high-crested war-horse,
+exulting in his strength, rushed across the lake toward Toomies
+mountain. Behind this wave appeared a stately warrior fully armed,
+mounted upon a milk-white steed; his snowy plume waved gracefully from a
+helmet of polished steel, and at his back fluttered a light blue scarf.
+The horse, apparently exulting in his noble burden, sprung after the
+wave along the water, which bore him up like firm earth, while showers
+of spray that glittered brightly in the morning sun were dashed up at
+every bound.
+
+The warrior was O'Donoghue; he was followed by numberless youths and
+maidens, who moved lightly and unconstrained over the watery plain, as
+the moonlight fairies glide through the fields of air; they were linked
+together by garlands of delicious spring flowers, and they timed their
+movements to strains of enchanting melody. When O'Donoghue had nearly
+reached the western side of the lake, he suddenly turned his steed, and
+directed his course along the wood-fringed shore of Glenaa, preceded by
+the huge wave that curled and foamed up as high as the horse's neck,
+whose fiery nostrils snorted above it. The long train of attendants
+followed with playful deviations the track of their leader, and moved on
+with unabated fleetness to their celestial music, till gradually, as
+they entered the narrow strait between Glenaa and Dinis, they became
+involved in the mists which still partially floated over the lake, and
+faded from the view of the wondering beholders: but the sound of their
+music still fell upon the ear, and echo, catching up the harmonious
+strains, fondly repeated and prolonged them in soft and softer tones,
+till the last faint repetition died away, and the hearers awoke as from
+a dream of bliss.
+
+
+
+
+LVI
+
+SARAH POLGRAIN
+
+By WILLIAM HUNT
+
+
+A woman, who had lived in Ludgvan, was executed at Bodmin for the murder
+of her husband. There was but little doubt that she had been urged on to
+the diabolical deed by a horse-dealer, known as Yorkshire Jack, with
+whom, for a long period, she was generally supposed to have been
+criminally acquainted.
+
+Now, it will be remembered that this really happened within the present
+century. One morning, during my residence in Penzance, an old woman from
+Ludgvan called on me with some trifling message. While she was waiting
+for my answer, I made some ordinary remark about the weather.
+
+"It's all owing to Sarah Polgrain," said she.
+
+"Sarah Polgrain," said I; "and who is Sarah Polgrain?"
+
+Then the voluble old lady told me the whole story of the poisoning with
+which we need not, at present, concern ourselves. By and by the tale
+grew especially interesting, and there I resume it.
+
+Sarah had begged that Yorkshire Jack might accompany her to the scaffold
+when she was led forth to execution. This was granted; and on the
+dreadful morning there stood this unholy pair, the fatal beam on which
+the woman's body was in a few minutes to swing, before them.
+
+They kissed each other, and whispered words passed between them.
+
+The executioner intimated that the moment of execution had arrived, and
+that they must part. Sarah Polgrain, looking earnestly into the man's
+eyes, said:
+
+"You will?"
+
+Yorkshire Jack replied, "I will!" and they separated. The man retired
+amongst the crowd, the woman was soon a dead corpse, pendulating in the
+wind.
+
+Years passed on, Yorkshire Jack was never the same man as before, his
+whole bearing was altered. His bold, his dashing air deserted him. He
+walked, or rather wandered, slowly about the streets of the town, or the
+lanes of the country. He constantly moved his head from side to side,
+looking first over one, and then over the other shoulder, as though
+dreading that someone was following him.
+
+The stout man became thin, his ruddy cheeks more pale, and his eyes
+sunken.
+
+At length he disappeared, and it was discovered--for Yorkshire Jack had
+made a confidant of some Ludgvan man--that he had pledged himself,
+"living or dead, to become the husband of Sarah Polgrain, after the
+lapse of years."
+
+To escape, if possible, from himself, Jack had gone to sea in the
+merchant service.
+
+Well, the period had arrived when this unholy promise was to be
+fulfilled. Yorkshire Jack was returning from the Mediterranean in a
+fruit-ship. He was met by the devil and Sarah Polgrain far out at sea,
+off the Land's End. Jack would not accompany them willingly, so they
+followed the ship for days, during all which time she was involved in a
+storm. Eventually Jack was washed from the deck by such a wave as the
+oldest sailor had never seen; and presently, amidst loud thunders and
+flashing lightnings, riding as it were in a black cloud, three figures
+were seen passing onward. These were the devil, Sarah Polgrain, and
+Yorkshire Jack; and this was the cause of the storm.
+
+"It is all true, as you may learn if you will inquire," said the old
+woman; "for many of her kin live in Churchtown."
+
+
+
+
+LVII
+
+ELEANOR COBHAM, DUCHESS OF GLOUCESTER
+
+GODWIN'S "Lives of the Necromancers"
+
+
+This was a period in which the ideas of witchcraft had caught fast hold
+of the minds of mankind; and those accusations, which by the enlightened
+part of the species would now be regarded as worthy only of contempt,
+were then considered as charges of the most flagitious nature. While
+John, Duke of Bedford, the eldest uncle of King Henry VI., was regent of
+France, Humphrey of Gloucester, next brother to Bedford, was Lord
+Protector of the realm of England. Though Henry was now nineteen years
+of age, yet as he was a prince of slender capacity, Humphrey still
+continued to discharge the functions of sovereignty. He was eminently
+endowed with popular qualities, and was a favourite with the majority of
+the nation. He had, however, many enemies, one of the chief of whom was
+Henry Beaufort, great-uncle to the king, and Cardinal of Winchester. One
+of the means employed by this prelate to undermine the power of
+Humphrey, consisted in a charge of witchcraft brought against Eleanor
+Cobham, his wife.
+
+This woman had probably yielded to the delusions which artful persons,
+who saw into the weakness of her character, sought to practise upon her.
+She was the second wife of Humphrey, and he was suspected to have
+indulged in undue familiarity with her before he was a widower. His
+present duchess was reported to have had recourse to witchcraft in the
+first instance, by way of securing his wayward inclinations. The Duke of
+Bedford had died in 1435; and Humphrey now, in addition to the actual
+exercise of the powers of sovereignty, was next heir to the crown in
+case of the king's decease. This weak and licentious woman, being now
+Duchess of Gloucester, and wife to the Lord Protector, directed her
+ambition to the higher title and prerogatives of a queen, and, by way of
+feeding her evil passions, called to her counsels Margery Jourdain,
+commonly called the Witch of Eye, Roger Bolingbroke, an astrologer and
+supposed magician, Thomas Southwel, Canon of St Stephen's, and one John
+Hume, or Hun, a priest. These persons frequently met the duchess in
+secret cabal. They were accused of calling up spirits from the infernal
+world; and they made an image of wax, which they slowly consumed before
+a fire, expecting that, as the image gradually wasted away, so the
+constitution and life of the poor king would decay and finally perish.
+
+Hume, or Hun, is supposed to have turned informer, and upon his
+information several of these persons were taken into custody. After
+previous examination, on the 25th of July 1441, Bolingbroke was placed
+upon a scaffold before the cross of St Paul's, with a chair curiously
+painted, which was supposed to be one of his implements of necromancy,
+and dressed in mystical attire, and there, before the Archbishop of
+Canterbury, the Cardinal of Winchester, and several other bishops, made
+abjuration of all his unlawful arts.
+
+A short time after, the Duchess of Gloucester having fled to the
+sanctuary at Westminster, her case was referred to the same high
+persons, and Bolingbroke was brought forth to give evidence against her.
+She was of consequence committed to custody in the castle of Leeds, near
+Maidstone, to take her trial in the month of October. A commission was
+directed to the lord treasurer, several noblemen, and certain judges of
+both benches, to inquire into all manner of treasons, sorceries, and
+other things that might be hurtful to the king's person, and Bolingbroke
+and Southwel as principals, and the Duchess of Gloucester as accessory,
+were brought before them. Margery Jourdain was arraigned at the same
+time; and she, as a witch and relapsed heretic, was condemned to be
+burned in Smithfield. The Duchess of Gloucester was sentenced to do
+penance on three several days, walking through the streets of London,
+with a lighted taper in her hand, attended by the lord mayor, the
+sheriffs, and a select body of the livery, and then to be banished for
+life to the Isle of Man. Thomas Southwel died in prison; and Bolingbroke
+was hanged at Tyburn on the 18th of November.
+
+
+PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN BY NEILL AND CO., LTD., EDINBURGH.
+
+
+
+
+
+
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