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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11700-0.txt b/11700-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22c5d4d --- /dev/null +++ b/11700-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1561 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11700 *** + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 2 + +An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House (1862) + +and + +Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen (1861) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + + +An Authentic Narrative of +a Haunted House + + +[The Editor of the UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE submits the following very +remarkable statement, with every detail of which he has been for some +years acquainted, upon the ground that it affords the most authentic and +ample relation of a series of marvellous phenoma, in nowise connected +with what is technically termed "spiritualism," which he has anywhere +met with. All the persons--and there are many of them living--upon whose +separate evidence some parts, and upon whose united testimony others, of +this most singular recital depend, are, in their several walks of life, +respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation +be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident +here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath +had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of +them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor +begs most pointedly to meet _in limine_ the suspicion, that he is +elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a +mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is +its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own +and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the +name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no +essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but +which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons +interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the +narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative, +which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who +employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the +form of an affidavit.] + + +Within the last eight years--the precise date I purposely omit--I I was +ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to +change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a +house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance +from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it +by a railway. + +Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but +there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house +I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too, +quite a modern one. It formed one in a cheerful row, with small gardens +in front, facing the sea, and commanding sea air and sea views in +perfection. In the rear it had coach-house and stable, and between them +and the house a considerable grass-plot, with some flower-beds, +interposed. + +Our family consisted of my wife and myself, with three children, the +eldest about nine years old, she and the next in age being girls; and +the youngest, between six and seven, a boy. To these were added six +servants, whom, although for certain reasons I decline giving their real +names, I shall indicate, for the sake of clearness, by arbitrary ones. +There was a nurse, Mrs. Southerland; a nursery-maid, Ellen Page; the +cook, Mrs. Greenwood; and the housemaid, Ellen Faith; a butler, whom I +shall call Smith, and his son, James, about two-and-twenty. + +We came out to take possession at about seven o'clock in the evening; +every thing was comfortable and cheery; good fires lighted, the rooms +neat and airy, and a general air of preparation and comfort, highly +conducive to good spirits and pleasant anticipations. + +The sitting-rooms were large and cheerful, and they and the bed-rooms +more than ordinarily lofty, the kitchen and servants' rooms, on the same +level, were well and comfortably furnished, and had, like the rest of +the house, an air of recent painting and fitting up, and a completely +modern character, which imparted a very cheerful air of cleanliness and +convenience. + +There had been just enough of the fuss of settling agreeably to occupy +us, and to give a pleasant turn to our thoughts after we had retired to +our rooms. Being an invalid, I had a small bed to myself--resigning the +four-poster to my wife. The candle was extinguished, but a night-light +was burning. I was coming up stairs, and she, already in bed, had just +dismissed her maid, when we were both startled by a wild scream from her +room; I found her in a state of the extremest agitation and terror. She +insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her +bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define any +thing respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most +distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the +light to disclose more than its dark outline. + +We both endeavoured to re-assure her. The room once more looked so +cheerful in the candlelight, that we were quite uninfluenced by the +contagion of her terrors. The movements and voices of the servants down +stairs still getting things into their places and completing our +comfortable arrangements, had also their effect in steeling us against +any such influence, and we set the whole thing down as a dream, or an +imperfectly-seen outline of the bed-curtains. When, however, we were +alone, my wife reiterated, still in great agitation, her clear assertion +that she had most positively seen, being at the time as completely awake +as ever she was, precisely what she had described to us. And in this +conviction she continued perfectly firm. + +A day or two after this, it came out that our servants were under an +apprehension that, somehow or other, thieves had established a secret +mode of access to the lower part of the house. The butler, Smith, had +seen an ill-looking woman in his room on the first night of our arrival; +and he and other servants constantly saw, for many days subsequently, +glimpses of a retreating figure, which corresponded with that so seen by +him, passing through a passage which led to a back area in which were +some coal-vaults. + +This figure was seen always in the act of retreating, its back turned, +generally getting round the corner of the passage into the area, in a +stealthy and hurried way, and, when closely followed, imperfectly seen +again entering one of the coal-vaults, and when pursued into it, nowhere +to be found. + +The idea of any thing supernatural in the matter had, strange to say, +not yet entered the mind of any one of the servants. They had heard some +stories of smugglers having secret passages into houses, and using their +means of access for purposes of pillage, or with a view to frighten +superstitious people out of houses which they needed for their own +objects, and a suspicion of similar practices here, caused them extreme +uneasiness. The apparent anxiety also manifested by this retreating +figure to escape observation, and her always appearing to make her +egress at the same point, favoured this romantic hypothesis. The men, +however, made a most careful examination of the back area, and of the +coal-vaults, with a view to discover some mode of egress, but entirely +without success. On the contrary, the result was, so far as it went, +subversive of the theory; solid masonry met them on every hand. + +I called the man, Smith, up, to hear from his own lips the particulars +of what he had seen; and certainly his report was very curious. I give +it as literally as my memory enables me:---- + +His son slept in the same room, and was sound asleep; but he lay awake, +as men sometimes will on a change of bed, and having many things on his +mind. He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light +and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw +the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather +low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something--either a cloak +or shawl--on, and wore a bonnet. Her back was turned, and she appeared +to be searching or rummaging for something on the floor, and, without +appearing to observe him, she turned in doing so towards him. The light, +which was more like the intense glow of a coal, as he described it, +being of a deep red colour, proceeded from the hollow of her hand, which +she held beside her head, and he saw her perfectly distinctly. She +appeared middle-aged, was deeply pitted with the smallpox, and blind of +one eye. His phrase in describing her general appearance was, that she +was "a miserable, poor-looking creature." + +He was under the impression that she must be the woman who had been left +by the proprietor in charge of the house, and who had that evening, +after having given up the keys, remained for some little time with the +female servants. He coughed, therefore, to apprize her of his presence, +and turned again towards the wall. When he again looked round she and +the light were gone; and odd as was her method of lighting herself in +her search, the circumstances excited neither uneasiness nor curiosity +in his mind, until he discovered next morning that the woman in question +had left the house long before he had gone to his bed. + +I examined the man very closely as to the appearance of the person who +had visited him, and the result was what I have described. It struck me +as an odd thing, that even then, considering how prone to superstition +persons in his rank of life usually are, he did not seem to suspect any +thing supernatural in the occurrence; and, on the contrary, was +thoroughly persuaded that his visitant was a living person, who had got +into the house by some hidden entrance. + +On Sunday, on his return from his place of worship, he told me that, +when the service was ended, and the congregation making their way slowly +out, he saw the very woman in the crowd, and kept his eye upon her for +several minutes, but such was the crush, that all his efforts to reach +her were unavailing, and when he got into the open street she was gone. +He was quite positive as to his having distinctly seen her, however, +for several minutes, and scouted the possibility of any mistake as to +identity; and fully impressed with the substantial and living reality of +his visitant, he was very much provoked at her having escaped him. He +made inquiries also in the neighbourhood, but could procure no +information, nor hear of any other persons having seen any woman +corresponding with his visitant. + +The cook and the housemaid occupied a bed-room on the kitchen floor. It +had whitewashed walls, and they were actually terrified by the +appearance of the shadow of a woman passing and repassing across the +side wall opposite to their beds. They suspected that this had been +going on much longer than they were aware, for its presence was +discovered by a sort of accident, its movements happening to take a +direction in distinct contrariety to theirs. + +This shadow always moved upon one particular wall, returning after short +intervals, and causing them extreme terror. They placed the candle, as +the most obvious specific, so close to the infested wall, that the flame +all but touched it; and believed for some time that they had effectually +got rid of this annoyance; but one night, notwithstanding this +arrangement of the light, the shadow returned, passing and repassing, as +heretofore, upon the same wall, although their only candle was burning +within an inch of it, and it was obvious that no substance capable of +casting such a shadow could have interposed; and, indeed, as they +described it, the shadow seemed to have no sort of relation to the +position of the light, and appeared, as I have said, in manifest +defiance of the laws of optics. + +I ought to mention that the housemaid was a particularly fearless sort +of person, as well as a very honest one; and her companion, the cook, a +scrupulously religious woman, and both agreed in every particular in +their relation of what occurred. + +Meanwhile, the nursery was not without its annoyances, though as yet of +a comparatively trivial kind. Sometimes, at night, the handle of the +door was turned hurriedly as if by a person trying to come in, and at +others a knocking was made at it. These sounds occurred after the +children had settled to sleep, and while the nurse still remained awake. +Whenever she called to know "who is there," the sounds ceased; but +several times, and particularly at first, she was under the impression +that they were caused by her mistress, who had come to see the children, +and thus impressed she had got up and opened the door, expecting to see +her, but discovering only darkness, and receiving no answer to her +inquiries. + +With respect to this nurse, I must mention that I believe no more +perfectly trustworthy servant was ever employed in her capacity; and, in +addition to her integrity, she was remarkably gifted with sound common +sense. + +One morning, I think about three or four weeks after our arrival, I was +sitting at the parlour window which looked to the front, when I saw the +little iron door which admitted into the small garden that lay between +the window where I was sitting and the public road, pushed open by a +woman who so exactly answered the description given by Smith of the +woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as +instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the +identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and +tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an +eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a +distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that +now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something +stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I +must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off. +Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the +bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang +violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that +intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a +leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front +windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after +her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick +pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man +entered I told him--"the blind woman you described to me has this +instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was, +if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short +time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And, +thereafter, we saw her face no more. + +All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was +not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only +phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear +described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering +with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom +ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was +always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last +stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, _four_--one, two, +three, _four_;" or "one, two, _three_--one, two, _three_," and sometimes +"one, _two_--one, _two_," &c., and this, with intervals and +resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time. + +At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, +much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any +hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed +that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it +frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with +the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my +wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually +troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer +or shorter time. + +Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of +the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children, +greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that +their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their +fears would have made them wretched and troublesome. + +They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden--the house +forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the +other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides. Here, as +it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite +to themselves; and in talking over their days' adventures, as children +will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they +had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in +the garden while they were at play. They assumed that she came in and +went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or +depart. They merely saw a figure--that of a very poor woman, soiled and +ragged--near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently +grubbing in the loose clay in search of something. She did not disturb, +or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession +of her nook of ground. When seen it was always in the same spot, and +similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general +appearance--for they never saw her face--corresponded with that of the +one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen. + +The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for +the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, +his little trouble to report, though it was not much. The stall in +which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she +peremptorily declined to enter. Though a very docile and gentle little +animal, there was no getting her into it. She would snort and rear, and, +in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it. He was +fain, therefore, to place her in another. And on several occasions he +found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear. +Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the +particular case with any superstitious qualms. The mare had evidently +been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the +stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard +outside. + +One morning I was greeted with the intelligence that robbers had +certainly got into the house in the night; and that one of them had +actually been seen in the nursery. The witness, I found, was my eldest +child, then, as I have said, about nine years of age. Having awoke in +the night, and lain awake for some time in her bed, she heard the handle +of the door turn, and a person whom she distinctly saw--for it was a +light night, and the window-shutters unclosed--but whom she had never +seen before, stepped in on tiptoe, and with an appearance of great +caution. He was a rather small man, with a very red face; he wore an +oddly cut frock coat, the collar of which stood up, and trousers, rough +and wide, like those of a sailor, turned up at the ankles, and either +short boots or clumsy shoes, covered with mud. This man listened beside +the nurse's bed, which stood next the door, as if to satisfy himself +that she was sleeping soundly; and having done so for some seconds, he +began to move cautiously in a diagonal line, across the room to the +chimney-piece, where he stood for a while, and so resumed his tiptoe +walk, skirting the wall, until he reached a chest of drawers, some of +which were open, and into which he looked, and began to rummage in a +hurried way, as the child supposed, making search for something worth +taking away. He then passed on to the window, where was a +dressing-table, at which he also stopped, turning over the things upon +it, and standing for some time at the window as if looking out, and then +resuming his walk by the side wall opposite to that by which he had +moved up to the window, he returned in the same way toward the nurse's +bed, so as to reach it at the foot. With its side to the end wall, in +which was the door, was placed the little bed in which lay my eldest +child, who watched his proceedings with the extremest terror. As he drew +near she instinctively moved herself in the bed, with her head and +shoulders to the wall, drawing up her feet; but he passed by without +appearing to observe, or, at least, to care for her presence. +Immediately after the nurse turned in her bed as if about to waken; and +when the child, who had drawn the clothes about her head, again ventured +to peep out, the man was gone. + +The child had no idea of her having seen any thing more formidable than +a thief. With the prowling, cautious, and noiseless manner of proceeding +common to such marauders, the air and movements of the man whom she had +seen entirely corresponded. And on hearing her perfectly distinct and +consistent account, I could myself arrive at no other conclusion than +that a stranger had actually got into the house. I had, therefore, in +the first instance, a most careful examination made to discover any +traces of an entrance having been made by any window into the house. The +doors had been found barred and locked as usual; but no sign of any +thing of the sort was discernible. I then had the various +articles--plate, wearing apparel, books, &c., counted; and after having +conned over and reckoned up every thing, it became quite clear that +nothing whatever had been removed from the house, nor was there the +slightest indication of any thing having been so much as disturbed +there. I must here state that this child was remarkably clear, +intelligent, and observant; and that her description of the man, and of +all that had occurred, was most exact, and as detailed as the want of +perfect light rendered possible. + +I felt assured that an entrance had actually been effected into the +house, though for what purpose was not easily to be conjectured. The +man, Smith, was equally confident upon this point; and his theory was +that the object was simply to frighten us out of the house by making us +believe it haunted; and he was more than ever anxious and on the alert +to discover the conspirators. It often since appeared to me odd. Every +year, indeed, more odd, as this cumulative case of the marvellous +becomes to my mind more and more inexplicable--that underlying my sense +of mystery and puzzle, was all along the quiet assumption that all these +occurrences were one way or another referable to natural causes. I could +not account for them, indeed, myself; but during the whole period I +inhabited that house, I never once felt, though much alone, and often up +very late at night, any of those tremors and thrills which every one has +at times experienced when situation and the hour are favourable. Except +the cook and housemaid, who were plagued with the shadow I mentioned +crossing and recrossing upon the bedroom wall, we all, without +exception, experienced the same strange sense of security, and regarded +these phenomena rather with a perplexed sort of interest and curiosity, +than with any more unpleasant sensations. + +The knockings which I have mentioned at the nursery door, preceded +generally by the sound of a step on the lobby, meanwhile continued. At +that time (for my wife, like myself, was an invalid) two eminent +physicians, who came out occasionally by rail, were attending us. These +gentlemen were at first only amused, but ultimately interested, and very +much puzzled by the occurrences which we described. One of them, at +last, recommended that a candle should be kept burning upon the lobby. +It was in fact a recurrence to an old woman's recipe against ghosts--of +course it might be serviceable, too, against impostors; at all events, +seeming, as I have said, very much interested and puzzled, he advised +it, and it was tried. We fancied that it was successful; for there was +an interval of quiet for, I think, three or four nights. But after that, +the noises--the footsteps on the lobby--the knocking at the door, and +the turning of the handle recommenced in full force, notwithstanding the +light upon the table outside; and these particular phenomena became only +more perplexing than ever. + +The alarm of robbers and smugglers gradually subsided after a week or +two; but we were again to hear news from the nursery. Our second little +girl, then between seven and eight years of age, saw in the night +time--she alone being awake--a young woman, with black, or very dark +hair, which hung loose, and with a black cloak on, standing near the +middle of the floor, opposite the hearthstone, and fronting the foot of +her bed. She appeared quite unobservant of the children and nurse +sleeping in the room. She was very pale, and looked, the child said, +both "sorry and frightened," and with something very peculiar and +terrible about her eyes, which made the child conclude that she was +dead. She was looking, not at, but in the direction of the child's bed, +and there was a dark streak across her throat, like a scar with blood +upon it. This figure was not motionless; but once or twice turned +slowly, and without appearing to be conscious of the presence of the +child, or the other occupants of the room, like a person in vacancy or +abstraction. There was on this occasion a night-light burning in the +chamber; and the child saw, or thought she saw, all these particulars +with the most perfect distinctness. She got her head under the +bed-clothes; and although a good many years have passed since then, she +cannot recall the spectacle without feelings of peculiar horror. + +One day, when the children were playing in the back garden, I asked them +to point out to me the spot where they were accustomed to see the woman +who occasionally showed herself as I have described, near the stable +wall. There was no division of opinion as to this precise point, which +they indicated in the most distinct and confident way. I suggested that, +perhaps, something might be hidden there in the ground; and advised them +digging a hole there with their little spades, to try for it. +Accordingly, to work they went, and by my return in the evening they had +grubbed up a piece of a jawbone, with several teeth in it. The bone was +very much decayed, and ready to crumble to pieces, but the teeth were +quite sound. I could not tell whether they were human grinders; but I +showed the fossil to one of the physicians I have mentioned, who came +out the next evening, and he pronounced them human teeth. The same +conclusion was come to a day or two later by the other medical man. It +appears to me now, on reviewing the whole matter, almost unaccountable +that, with such evidence before me, I should not have got in a labourer, +and had the spot effectually dug and searched. I can only say, that so +it was. I was quite satisfied of the moral truth of every word that had +been related to me, and which I have here set down with scrupulous +accuracy. But I experienced an apathy, for which neither then nor +afterwards did I quite know how to account. I had a vague, but immovable +impression that the whole affair was referable to natural agencies. It +was not until some time after we had left the house, which, by-the-by, +we afterwards found had had the reputation of being haunted before we +had come to live in it, that on reconsideration I discovered the serious +difficulty of accounting satisfactorily for all that had occurred upon +ordinary principles. A great deal we might arbitrarily set down to +imagination. But even in so doing there was, _in limine_, the oddity, +not to say improbability, of so many different persons having nearly +simultaneously suffered from different spectral and other illusions +during the short period for which we had occupied that house, who never +before, nor so far as we learned, afterwards were troubled by any fears +or fancies of the sort. There were other things, too, not to be so +accounted for. The odd knockings in the roof I frequently heard myself. + +There were also, which I before forgot to mention, in the daytime, +rappings at the doors of the sitting-rooms, which constantly deceived +us; and it was not till our "come in" was unanswered, and the hall or +passage outside the door was discovered to be empty, that we learned +that whatever else caused them, human hands did not. All the persons who +reported having seen the different persons or appearances here described +by me, were just as confident of having literally and distinctly seen +them, as I was of having seen the hard-featured woman with the blind +eye, so remarkably corresponding with Smith's description. + +About a week after the discovery of the teeth, which were found, I +think, about two feet under the ground, a friend, much advanced in +years, and who remembered the town in which we had now taken up our +abode, for a very long time, happened to pay us a visit. He +good-humouredly pooh-poohed the whole thing; but at the same time was +evidently curious about it. "We might construct a sort of story," said I +(I am giving, of course, the substance and purport, not the exact words, +of our dialogue), "and assign to each of the three figures who appeared +their respective parts in some dreadful tragedy enacted in this house. +The male figure represents the murderer; the ill-looking, one-eyed woman +his accomplice, who, we will suppose, buried the body where she is now +so often seen grubbing in the earth, and where the human teeth and +jawbone have so lately been disinterred; and the young woman with +dishevelled tresses, and black cloak, and the bloody scar across her +throat, their victim. A difficulty, however, which I cannot get over, +exists in the cheerfulness, the great publicity, and the evident very +recent date of the house." "Why, as to that," said he, "the house is +_not_ modern; it and those beside it formed an old government store, +altered and fitted up recently as you see. I remember it well in my +young days, fifty years ago, before the town had grown out in this +direction, and a more entirely lonely spot, or one more fitted for the +commission of a secret crime, could not have been imagined." + +I have nothing to add, for very soon after this my physician pronounced +a longer stay unnecessary for my health, and we took our departure for +another place of abode. I may add, that although I have resided for +considerable periods in many other houses, I never experienced any +annoyances of a similar kind elsewhere; neither have I made (stupid dog! +you will say), any inquiries respecting either the antecedents or +subsequent history of the house in which we made so disturbed a sojourn. +I was content with what I knew, and have here related as clearly as I +could, and I think it a very pretty puzzle as it stands. + + +[Thus ends the statement, which we abandon to the ingenuity of our +readers, having ourselves no satisfactory explanation to suggest; and +simply repeating the assurance with which we prefaced it, namely, that +we can vouch for the perfect good faith and the accuracy of the +narrator.--E.D.U.M.] + + + + +Ultor De Lacy: +A Legend of Cappercullen + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The Jacobite's Legacy + +In my youth I heard a great many Irish family traditions, more or less +of a supernatural character, some of them very peculiar, and all, to a +child at least, highly interesting. One of these I will now relate, +though the translation to cold type from oral narrative, with all the +aids of animated human voice and countenance, and the appropriate +_mise-en-scène_ of the old-fashioned parlour fireside and its listening +circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of +leafless boughs, with the occasional rattle of the clumsy old +window-frame behind shutter and curtain, as the blast swept by, is at +best a trying one. + +About midway up the romantic glen of Cappercullen, near the point where +the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary converge, upon the then +sequestered and forest-bound range of the Slieve-Felim hills, there +stood, in the reigns of the two earliest Georges, the picturesque and +massive remains of one of the finest of the Anglo-Irish castles of +Munster--perhaps of Ireland. + +It crowned the precipitous edge of the wooded glen, itself half-buried +among the wild forest that covered that long and solitary range. There +was no human habitation within a circle of many miles, except the +half-dozen hovels and the small thatched chapel composing the little +village of Murroa, which lay at the foot of the glen among the +straggling skirts of the noble forest. + +Its remoteness and difficulty of access saved it from demolition. It was +worth nobody's while to pull down and remove the ponderous and clumsy +oak, much less the masonry or flagged roofing of the pile. Whatever +would pay the cost of removal had been long since carried away. The rest +was abandoned to time--the destroyer. + +The hereditary owners of this noble building and of a wide territory in +the contiguous counties I have named, were English--the De Lacys--long +naturalized in Ireland. They had acquired at least this portion of their +estate in the reign of Henry VIII, and held it, with some vicissitudes, +down to the establishment of the revolution in Ireland, when they +suffered attainder, and, like other great families of that period, +underwent a final eclipse. + +The De Lacy of that day retired to France, and held a brief command in +the Irish Brigade, interrupted by sickness. He retired, became a poor +hanger-on of the Court of St. Germains, and died early in the eighteenth +century--as well as I remember, 1705--leaving an only son, hardly twelve +years old, called by the strange but significant name of Ultor. + +At this point commences the marvellous ingredient of my tale. + +When his father was dying, he had him to his bedside, with no one by +except his confessor; and having told him, first, that on reaching the +age of twenty-one, he was to lay claim to a certain small estate in the +county of Clare, in Ireland, in right of his mother--the title-deeds of +which he gave him--and next, having enjoined him not to marry before the +age of thirty, on the ground that earlier marriages destroyed the spirit +and the power of enterprise, and would incapacitate him from the +accomplishment of his destiny--the restoration of his family--he then +went on to open to the child a matter which so terrified him that he +cried lamentably, trembling all over, clinging to the priest's gown with +one hand and to his father's cold wrist with the other, and imploring +him, with screams of horror, to desist from his communication. + +But the priest, impressed, no doubt, himself, with its necessity, +compelled him to listen. And then his father showed him a small picture, +from which also the child turned with shrieks, until similarly +constrained to look. They did not let him go until he had carefully +conned the features, and was able to tell them, from memory, the colour +of the eyes and hair, and the fashion and hues of the dress. Then his +father gave him a black box containing this portrait, which was a +full-length miniature, about nine inches long, painted very finely in +oils, as smooth as enamel, and folded above it a sheet of paper, written +over in a careful and very legible hand. + +The deeds and this black box constituted the most important legacy +bequeathed to his only child by the ruined Jacobite, and he deposited +them in the hands of the priest, in trust, till his boy, Ultor, should +have attained to an age to understand their value, and to keep them +securely. + +When this scene was ended, the dying exile's mind, I suppose, was +relieved, for he spoke cheerily, and said he believed he would recover; +and they soothed the crying child, and his father kissed him, and gave +him a little silver coin to buy fruit with; and so they sent him off +with another boy for a walk, and when he came back his father was dead. + +He remained in France under the care of this ecclesiastic until he had +attained the age of twenty-one, when he repaired to Ireland, and his +title being unaffected by his father's attainder, he easily made good +his claim to the small estate in the county of Clare. + +There he settled, making a dismal and solitary tour now and then of the +vast territories which had once been his father's, and nursing those +gloomy and impatient thoughts which befitted the enterprises to which he +was devoted. + +Occasionally he visited Paris, that common centre of English, Irish, and +Scottish disaffection; and there, when a little past thirty, he married +the daughter of another ruined Irish house. His bride returned with him +to the melancholy seclusion of their Munster residence, where she bore +him in succession two daughters--Alice, the elder, dark-eyed and +dark-haired, grave and sensible--Una, four years younger, with large +blue eyes and long and beautiful golden hair. + +Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, +high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in +the isolation and gloom of her lot. At all events she died young, and +the children were left to the sole care of their melancholy and +embittered father. In process of time the girls grew up, tradition says, +beautiful. The elder was designed for a convent, the younger her father +hoped to mate as nobly as her high blood and splendid beauty seemed to +promise, if only the great game on which he had resolved to stake all +succeeded. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Fairies in the Castle + +The Rebellion of '45 came, and Ultor de Lacy was one of the few Irishmen +implicated treasonably in that daring and romantic insurrection. Of +course there were warrants out against him, but he was not to be found. +The young ladies, indeed, remained as heretofore in their father's +lonely house in Clare; but whether he had crossed the water or was still +in Ireland was for some time unknown, even to them. In due course he was +attainted, and his little estate forfeited. It was a miserable +catastrophe--a tremendous and beggarly waking up from a life-long dream +of returning principality. + +In due course the officers of the crown came down to take possession, +and it behoved the young ladies to flit. Happily for them the +ecclesiastic I have mentioned was not quite so confident as their +father, of his winning back the magnificent patrimony of his ancestors; +and by his advice the daughters had been secured twenty pounds a year +each, under the marriage settlement of their parents, which was all that +stood between this proud house and literal destitution. + +Late one evening, as some little boys from the village were returning +from a ramble through the dark and devious glen of Cappercullen, with +their pockets laden with nuts and "frahans," to their amazement and even +terror they saw a light streaming redly from the narrow window of one of +the towers overhanging the precipice among the ivy and the lofty +branches, across the glen, already dim in the shadows of the deepening +night. + +"Look--look--look--'tis the Phooka's tower!" was the general cry, in the +vernacular Irish, and a universal scamper commenced. + +The bed of the glen, strewn with great fragments of rock, among which +rose the tall stems of ancient trees, and overgrown with a tangled +copse, was at the best no favourable ground for a run. Now it was dark; +and, terrible work breaking through brambles and hazels and tumbling +over rocks. Little Shaeen Mull Ryan, the last of the panic rout, +screaming to his mates to wait for him--saw a whitish figure emerge from +the thicket at the base of the stone flight of steps that descended the +side of the glen, close by the castle-wall, intercepting his flight, and +a discordant male voice shrieked---- + +"I have you!" + +At the same time the boy, with a cry of terror, tripped and tumbled; and +felt himself roughly caught by the arm, and hauled to his feet with a +shake. + +A wild yell from the child, and a volley of terror and entreaty +followed. + +"Who is it, Larry; what's the matter?" cried a voice, high in air, from +the turret window, The words floated down through the trees, clear and +sweet as the low notes of a flute. + +"Only a child, my lady; a boy." + +"Is he hurt?" + +"Are you hurted?" demanded the whitish man, who held him fast, and +repeated the question in Irish; but the child only kept blubbering and +crying for mercy, with his hands clasped, and trying to drop on his +knees. + +Larry's strong old hand held him up. He _was_ hurt, and bleeding from +over his eye. + +"Just a trifle hurted, my lady!" + +"Bring him up here." + +Shaeen Mull Ryan gave himself over. He was among "the good people," who +he knew would keep him prisoner for ever and a day. There was no good in +resisting. He grew bewildered, and yielded himself passively to his +fate, and emerged from the glen on the platform above; his captor's +knotted old hand still on his arm, and looked round on the tall +mysterious trees, and the gray front of the castle, revealed in the +imperfect moonlight, as upon the scenery of a dream. + +The old man who, with thin wiry legs, walked by his side, in a dingy +white coat, and blue facings, and great pewter buttons, with his silver +gray hair escaping from under his battered three-cocked hat; and his +shrewd puckered resolute face, in which the boy could read no promise of +sympathy, showing so white and phantom-like in the moonlight, was, as he +thought, the incarnate ideal of a fairy. + +This figure led him in silence under the great arched gateway, and +across the grass-grown court, to the door in the far angle of the +building; and so, in the dark, round and round, up a stone screw stair, +and with a short turn into a large room, with a fire of turf and wood, +burning on its long unused hearth, over which hung a pot, and about it +an old woman with a great wooden spoon was busy. An iron candlestick +supported their solitary candle; and about the floor of the room, as +well as on the table and chairs, lay a litter of all sorts of things; +piles of old faded hangings, boxes, trunks, clothes, pewter-plates, and +cups; and I know not what more. + +But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures +of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of +Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in +keeping. But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, +and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a +higher rank. + +The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal +table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as +he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and _riant_, +with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with +something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as +the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined. + +They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not +English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to +amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled +mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good +people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said---- + +"Do you know who _I_ am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and +this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark +lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family +physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and +woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall +do with _you_, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding +on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his +enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under +ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon +you see through the window--with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, +for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see +how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my +castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys +I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall +belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people +more." + +And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps +before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and +courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm. + +Then, with a little laugh, she said---- + +"My little man, we must mend your head." + +And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to +it. And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little +French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said---- + +"You need not be afraid to eat these--they are very good--and I'll send +my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free. Take him (she addressed +Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge." + +The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the +fairy---- + +"Brave, dear, wild Una! nothing can ever quell your gaiety of heart." + +And Una kissed her merrily on the cheek. + +So the oak door of the room again opened, and Shaeen, with his +conductor, descended the stair. He walked with the scared boy in grim +silence near half way down the wild hill-side toward Murroa, and then he +stopped, and said in Irish---- + +"You never saw the fairies before, my fine fellow, and 'tisn't often +those who once set eyes on us return to tell it. Whoever comes nearer, +night or day, than this stone," and he tapped it with the end of his +cane, "will never see his home again, for we'll keep him till the day of +judgment; goodnight, little gossoon--and away with you." + +So these young ladies, Alice and Una, with two old servants, by their +father's direction, had taken up their abode in a portion of that side +of the old castle which overhung the glen; and with the furniture and +hangings they had removed from their late residence, and with the aid of +glass in the casements and some other indispensable repairs, and a +thorough airing, they made the rooms they had selected just habitable, +as a rude and temporary shelter. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The Priest's Adventures in the Glen + +At first, of course, they saw or heard little of their father. In +general, however, they knew that his plan was to procure some employment +in France, and to remove them there. Their present strange abode was +only an adventure and an episode, and they believed that any day they +might receive instructions to commence their journey. + +After a little while the pursuit relaxed. The government, I believe, did +not care, provided he did not obtrude himself, what became of him, or +where he concealed himself. At all events, the local authorities showed +no disposition to hunt him down. The young ladies' charges on the little +forfeited property were paid without any dispute, and no vexatious +inquiries were raised as to what had become of the furniture and other +personal property which had been carried away from the forfeited house. + +The haunted reputation of the castle--for in those days, in matters of +the marvellous, the oldest were children--secured the little family in +the seclusion they coveted. Once, or sometimes twice a week, old +Laurence, with a shaggy little pony, made a secret expedition to the +city of Limerick, starting before dawn, and returning under the cover of +the night, with his purchases. There was beside an occasional sly +moonlit visit from the old parish priest, and a midnight mass in the old +castle for the little outlawed congregation. + +As the alarm and inquiry subsided, their father made them, now and then, +a brief and stealthy visit. At first these were but of a night's +duration, and with great precaution; but gradually they were extended +and less guarded. Still he was, as the phrase is in Munster, "on his +keeping." He had firearms always by his bed, and had arranged places of +concealment in the castle in the event of a surprise. But no attempt nor +any disposition to molest him appearing, he grew more at ease, if not +more cheerful. + +It came, at last, that he would sometimes stay so long as two whole +months at a time, and then depart as suddenly and mysteriously as he +came. I suppose he had always some promising plot on hand, and his head +full of ingenious treason, and lived on the sickly and exciting dietary +of hope deferred. + +Was there a poetical justice in this, that the little _mĂ©nage_ thus +secretly established, in the solitary and timeworn pile, should have +themselves experienced, but from causes not so easily explicable, those +very supernatural perturbations which they had themselves essayed to +inspire? + +The interruption of the old priest's secret visits was the earliest +consequence of the mysterious interference which now began to display +itself. One night, having left his cob in care of his old sacristan in +the little village, he trudged on foot along the winding pathway, among +the gray rocks and ferns that threaded the glen, intending a ghostly +visit to the fair recluses of the castle, and he lost his way in this +strange fashion. + +There was moonlight, indeed, but it was little more than quarter-moon, +and a long train of funereal clouds were sailing slowly across the +sky--so that, faint and wan as it was, the light seldom shone full out, +and was often hidden for a minute or two altogether. When he reached the +point in the glen where the castle-stairs were wont to be, he could see +nothing of them, and above, no trace of the castle-towers. So, puzzled +somewhat, he pursued his way up the ravine, wondering how his walk had +become so unusually protracted and fatiguing. + +At last, sure enough, he saw the castle as plain as could be, and a +lonely streak of candle-light issuing from the tower, just as usual, +when his visit was expected. But he could not find the stair; and had to +clamber among the rocks and copse-wood the best way he could. But when +he emerged at top, there was nothing but the bare heath. Then the clouds +stole over the moon again, and he moved along with hesitation and +difficulty, and once more he saw the outline of the castle against the +sky, quite sharp and clear. But this time it proved to be a great +battlemented mass of cloud on the horizon. In a few minutes more he was +quite close, all of a sudden, to the great front, rising gray and dim in +the feeble light, and not till he could have struck it with his good oak +"wattle" did he discover it to be only one of those wild, gray frontages +of living rock that rise here and there in picturesque tiers along the +slopes of those solitary mountains. And so, till dawn, pursuing this +mirage of the castle, through pools and among ravines, he wore out a +night of miserable misadventure and fatigue. + +Another night, riding up the glen, so far as the level way at bottom +would allow, and intending to make his nag fast at his customary tree, +he heard on a sudden a horrid shriek at top of the steep rocks above his +head, and something--a gigantic human form, it seemed--came tumbling and +bounding headlong down through the rocks, and fell with a fearful +impetus just before his horse's hoofs and there lay like a huge +palpitating carcass. The horse was scared, as, indeed, was his rider, +too, and more so when this apparently lifeless thing sprang up to his +legs, and throwing his arms apart to bar their further progress, +advanced his white and gigantic face towards them. Then the horse +started about, with a snort of terror, nearly unseating the priest, and +broke away into a furious and uncontrollable gallop. + +I need not recount all the strange and various misadventures which the +honest priest sustained in his endeavours to visit the castle, and its +isolated tenants. They were enough to wear out his resolution, and +frighten him into submission. And so at last these spiritual visits +quite ceased; and fearing to awaken inquiry and suspicion, he thought it +only prudent to abstain from attempting them in the daytime. + +So the young ladies of the castle were more alone than ever. Their +father, whose visits were frequently of long duration, had of late +ceased altogether to speak of their contemplated departure for France, +grew angry at any allusion to it, and they feared, had abandoned the +plan altogether. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Light in the Bell Tower + +Shortly after the discontinuance of the priest's visits, old Laurence, +one night, to his surprise, saw light issuing from a window in the Bell +Tower. It was at first only a tremulous red ray, visible only for a few +minutes, which seemed to pass from the room, through whose window it +escaped upon the courtyard of the castle, and so to lose itself. This +tower and casement were in the angle of the building, exactly +confronting that in which the little outlawed family had taken up their +quarters. + +The whole family were troubled at the appearance of this dull red ray +from the chamber in the Bell Tower. Nobody knew what to make of it. But +Laurence, who had campaigned in Italy with his old master, the young +ladies' grandfather--"the heavens be his bed this night!"--was resolved +to see it out, and took his great horse-pistols with him, and ascended +to the corridor leading to the tower. But his search was vain. + +This light left a sense of great uneasiness among the inmates, and most +certainly it was not pleasant to suspect the establishment of an +independent and possibly dangerous lodger or even colony, within the +walls of the same old building. + +The light very soon appeared again, steadier and somewhat brighter, in +the same chamber. Again old Laurence buckled on his armour, swearing +ominously to himself, and this time bent in earnest upon conflict. The +young ladies watched in thrilling suspense from the great window in +_their_ stronghold, looking diagonally across the court. But as +Laurence, who had entered the massive range of buildings opposite, might +be supposed to be approaching the chamber from which this ill-omened +glare proceeded, it steadily waned, finally disappearing altogether, +just a few seconds before his voice was heard shouting from the arched +window to know which way the light had gone. + +This lighting up of the great chamber of the Bell Tower grew at last to +be of frequent and almost continual recurrence. It was, there, long ago, +in times of trouble and danger, that the De Lacys of those evil days +used to sit in feudal judgment upon captive adversaries, and, as +tradition alleged, often gave them no more time for shrift and prayer, +than it needed to mount to the battlement of the turret over-head, from +which they were forthwith hung by the necks, for a caveat and admonition +to all evil disposed persons viewing the same from the country beneath. + +Old Laurence observed these mysterious glimmerings with an evil and an +anxious eye, and many and various were the stratagems he tried, but in +vain, to surprise the audacious intruders. It is, however, I believe, a +fact that no phenomenon, no matter how startling at first, if prosecuted +with tolerable regularity, and unattended with any new circumstances of +terror, will very long continue to excite alarm or even wonder. + +So the family came to acquiesce in this mysterious light. No harm +accompanied it. Old Laurence, as he smoked his lonely pipe in the +grass-grown courtyard, would cast a disturbed glance at it, as it softly +glowed out through the darking aperture, and mutter a prayer or an oath. +But he had given over the chase as a hopeless business. And Peggy +Sullivan, the old dame of all work, when, by chance, for she never +willingly looked toward the haunted quarter, she caught the faint +reflection of its dull effulgence with the corner of her eye, would sign +herself with the cross or fumble at her beads, and deeper furrows would +gather in her forehead, and her face grow ashen and perturbed. And this +was not mended by the levity with which the young ladies, with whom the +spectre had lost his influence, familiarity, as usual, breeding +contempt, had come to talk, and even to jest, about it. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The Man with the Claret Mark + +But as the former excitement flagged, old Peggy Sullivan produced a new +one; for she solemnly avowed that she had seen a thin-faced man, with an +ugly red mark all over the side of his cheek, looking out of the same +window, just at sunset, before the young ladies returned from their +evening walk. + +This sounded in their ears like an old woman's dream, but still it was +an excitement, jocular in the morning, and just, perhaps, a little +fearful as night overspread the vast and desolate building, but still, +not wholly unpleasant. This little flicker of credulity suddenly, +however, blazed up into the full light of conviction. + +Old Laurence, who was not given to dreaming, and had a cool, hard head, +and an eye like a hawk, saw the same figure, just about the same hour, +when the last level gleam of sunset was tinting the summits of the +towers and the tops of the tall trees that surrounded them. + +He had just entered the court from the great gate, when he heard all at +once the hard peculiar twitter of alarm which sparrows make when a cat +or a hawk invades their safety, rising all round from the thick ivy that +overclimbed the wall on his left, and raising his eyes listlessly, he +saw, with a sort of shock, a thin, ungainly man, standing with his legs +crossed, in the recess of the window from which the light was wont to +issue, leaning with his elbows on the stone mullion, and looking down +with a sort of sickly sneer, his hollow yellow cheeks being deeply +stained on one side with what is called a "claret-mark." + +"I have you at last, you villain!" cried Larry, in a strange rage and +panic: "drop down out of that on the grass here, and give yourself up, +or I'll shoot you." + +The threat was backed with an oath, and he drew from his coat pocket the +long holster pistol he was wont to carry, and covered his man cleverly. + +"I give you while I count ten--one-two-three-four. If you draw back, +I'll fire, mind; five-six--you'd better be lively--seven-eight-nine--one +chance more; will you come down? Then take it--ten!" + +Bang went the pistol. The sinister stranger was hardly fifteen feet +removed from him, and Larry was a dead shot. But this time he made a +scandalous miss, for the shot knocked a little white dust from the stone +wall a full yard at one side; and the fellow never shifted his negligent +posture or qualified his sardonic smile during the procedure. + +Larry was mortified and angry. + +"You'll not get off this time, my tulip!" he said with a grin, +exchanging the smoking weapon for the loaded pistol in reserve. + +"What are you pistolling, Larry?" said a familiar voice close by his +elbow, and he saw his master, accompanied by a handsome young man in a +cloak. + +"That villain, your honour, in the window, there." + +"Why there's nobody there, Larry," said De Lacy, with a laugh, though +that was no common indulgence with him. + +As Larry gazed, the figure somehow dissolved and broke up without +receding. A hanging tuft of yellow and red ivy nodded queerly in place +of the face, some broken and discoloured masonry in perspective took up +the outline and colouring of the arms and figure, and two imperfect red +and yellow lichen streaks carried on the curved tracing of the long +spindle shanks. Larry blessed himself, and drew his hand across his damp +forehead, over his bewildered eyes, and could not speak for a minute. +It was all some devilish trick; he could take his oath he saw every +feature in the fellow's face, the lace and buttons of his cloak and +doublet, and even his long finger nails and thin yellow fingers that +overhung the cross-shaft of the window, where there was now nothing but +a rusty stain left. + +The young gentleman who had arrived with De Lacy, stayed that night and +shared with great apparent relish the homely fare of the family. He was +a gay and gallant Frenchman, and the beauty of the younger lady, and her +pleasantry and spirit, seemed to make his hours pass but too swiftly, +and the moment of parting sad. + +When he had departed early in the morning, Ultor De Lacy had a long talk +with his elder daughter, while the younger was busy with her early dairy +task, for among their retainers this _proles generosa_ reckoned a "kind" +little Kerry cow. + +He told her that he had visited France since he had been last at +Cappercullen, and how good and gracious their sovereign had been, and +how he had arranged a noble alliance for her sister Una. The young +gentleman was of high blood, and though not rich, had, nevertheless, his +acres and his _nom de terre_, besides a captain's rank in the army. He +was, in short, the very gentleman with whom they had parted only that +morning. On what special business he was now in Ireland there was no +necessity that he should speak; but being here he had brought him hither +to present him to his daughter, and found that the impression she had +made was quite what was desirable. + +"You, you know, dear Alice, are promised to a conventual life. Had it +been otherwise--" + +He hesitated for a moment. + +"You are right, dear father," she said, kissing his hand, "I _am_ so +promised, and no earthly tie or allurement has power to draw me from +that holy engagement." + +"Well," he said, returning her caress, "I do not mean to urge you upon +that point. It must not, however, be until Una's marriage has taken +place. That cannot be, for many good reasons, sooner than this time +twelve months; we shall then exchange this strange and barbarous abode +for Paris, where are many eligible convents, in which are entertained as +sisters some of the noblest ladies of France; and there, too, in Una's +marriage will be continued, though not the name, at all events the +blood, the lineage, and the title which, so sure as justice ultimately +governs the course of human events, will be again established, powerful +and honoured in this country, the scene of their ancient glory and +transitory misfortunes. Meanwhile, we must not mention this engagement +to Una. Here she runs no risk of being sought or won; but the mere +knowledge that her hand was absolutely pledged, might excite a +capricious opposition and repining such as neither I nor you would like +to see; therefore be secret." + +The same evening he took Alice with him for a ramble round the castle +wall, while they talked of grave matters, and he as usual allowed her a +dim and doubtful view of some of those cloud-built castles in which he +habitually dwelt, and among which his jaded hopes revived. + +They were walking upon a pleasant short sward of darkest green, on one +side overhung by the gray castle walls, and on the other by the forest +trees that here and there closely approached it, when precisely as they +turned the angle of the Bell Tower, they were encountered by a person +walking directly towards them. The sight of a stranger, with the +exception of the one visitor introduced by her father, was in this place +so absolutely unprecedented, that Alice was amazed and affrighted to +such a degree that for a moment she stood stock-still. + +But there was more in this apparition to excite unpleasant emotions, +than the mere circumstance of its unexpectedness. The figure was very +strange, being that of a tall, lean, ungainly man, dressed in a dingy +suit, somewhat of a Spanish fashion, with a brown laced cloak, and faded +red stockings. He had long lank legs, long arms, hands, and fingers, and +a very long sickly face, with a drooping nose, and a sly, sarcastic +leer, and a great purplish stain over-spreading more than half of one +cheek. + +As he strode past, he touched his cap with his thin, discoloured +fingers, and an ugly side glance, and disappeared round the corner. The +eyes of father and daughter followed him in silence. + +Ultor De Lacy seemed first absolutely terror-stricken, and then suddenly +inflamed with ungovernable fury. He dropped his cane on the ground, drew +his rapier, and, without wasting a thought on his daughter, pursued. + +He just had a glimpse of the retreating figure as it disappeared round +the far angle. The plume, and the lank hair, the point of the +rapier-scabbard, the flutter of the skirt of the cloak, and one red +stocking and heel; and this was the last he saw of him. + +When Alice reached his side, his drawn sword still in his hand, he was +in a state of abject agitation. + +"Thank Heaven, he's gone!" she exclaimed. + +"He's gone," echoed Ultor, with a strange glare. + +"And you are safe," she added, clasping his hand. + +He sighed a great sigh. + +"And you don't think he's coming back?" + +"He!--who?" + +"The stranger who passed us but now. Do you know him, father?" + +"Yes--and--no, child--I know him not--and yet I know him too well. Would +to heaven we could leave this accursed haunt tonight. Cursed be the +stupid malice that first provoked this horrible feud, which no sacrifice +and misery can appease, and no exorcism can quell or even suspend. The +wretch has come from afar with a sure instinct to devour my last +hope--to dog us into our last retreat--and to blast with his triumph the +very dust and ruins of our house. What ails that stupid priest that he +has given over his visits? Are _my_ children to be left without mass or +confession--the sacraments which _guard_ as well as save--because he +once loses his way in a mist, or mistakes a streak of foam in the brook +for a dead man's face? D--n him!" + +"See, Alice, if he won't come," he resumed, "you must only _write_ your +confession to him in full--you and Una. Laurence is trusty, and will +carry it--and we'll get the bishop's--or, if need be, the Pope's leave +for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you +_shall_ have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a +wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know +there's but one safe way--and--and--keep you each a bit of this--(he +opened a small silver box)--about you while you stay here--fold and sew +it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next +your hearts--'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer--and will help, +with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm--and be strict in +fasts, and constant in prayer--_I_ can do nothing--nor devise any help. +The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine." + +And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and +agitated face. + +This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Voices + +Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her +fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent +with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and +quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable +change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in +trifles; and strangely reserved and cold. + +Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this +estrangement--had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before +borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature +so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity? + +Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to +disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to +listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked +for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing +all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and +subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself, +and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice. + +She and Alice slept in the same bedroom--a chamber in a projecting +tower--which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung +round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their +skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if +speaking to herself---- + +"'Tis my last night in this room--I shall sleep no more with Alice." + +"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unkindness?" + +Una looked on her curiously, and half frightened, and then the odd smile +stole over her face like a gleam of moonlight. + +"My poor Alice, what have you to do with it?" she whispered. + +"And why do you talk of sleeping no more with me?" said Alice. + +"Why? Alice dear--no why--no reason--only a knowledge that it must be +so, or Una will die." + +"Die, Una darling!--what can you mean?" + +"Yes, sweet Alice, die, indeed. We must all die some time, you know, +or--or undergo a change; and my time is near--_very_ near--unless I +sleep apart from you." + +"Indeed, Una, sweetheart, I think you _are_ ill, but not near death." + +"Una knows what you think, wise Alice--but she's not mad--on the +contrary, she's wiser than other folks." + +"She's sadder and stranger too," said Alice, tenderly. + +"Knowledge is sorrow," answered Una, and she looked across the room +through her golden hair which she was combing--and through the window, +beyond which lay the tops of the great trees, and the still foliage of +the glen in the misty moonlight. + +"'Tis enough, Alice dear; it must be so. The bed must move hence, or +Una's bed will be low enough ere long. See, it shan't be far though, +only into that small room." + +She pointed to an inner room or closet opening from that in which they +lay. The walls of the building were hugely thick, and there were double +doors of oak between the chambers, and Alice thought, with a sigh, how +completely separated they were going to be. + +However she offered no opposition. The change was made, and the girls +for the first time since childhood lay in separate chambers. A few +nights afterwards Alice awoke late in the night from a dreadful dream, +in which the sinister figure which she and her father had encountered in +their ramble round the castle walls, bore a principal part. + +When she awoke there were still in her ears the sounds which had mingled +in her dream. They were the notes of a deep, ringing, bass voice rising +from the glen beneath the castle walls--something between humming and +singing--listlessly unequal and intermittent, like the melody of a man +whiling away the hours over his work. While she was wondering at this +unwonted minstrelsy, there came a silence, and--could she believe her +ears?--it certainly was Una's clear low contralto--softly singing a bar +or two from the window. Then once more silence--and then again the +strange manly voice, faintly chaunting from the leafy abyss. + +With a strange wild feeling of suspicion and terror, Alice glided to the +window. The moon who sees so many things, and keeps all secrets, with +her cold impenetrable smile, was high in the sky. But Alice saw the red +flicker of a candle from Una's window, and, she thought, the shadow of +her head against the deep side wall of its recess. Then this was gone, +and there were no more sights or sounds that night. + +As they sate at breakfast, the small birds were singing merrily from +among the sun-tipped foliage. + +"I love this music," said Alice, unusually pale and sad; "it comes with +the pleasant light of morning. I remember, Una, when you used to sing, +like those gay birds, in the fresh beams of the morning; that was in the +old time, when Una kept no secret from poor Alice." + +"And Una knows what her sage Alice means; but there are other birds, +silent all day long, and, they say, the sweetest too, that love to sing +by _night_ alone." + +So things went on--the elder girl pained and melancholy--the younger +silent, changed, and unaccountable. + +A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard +a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be +no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the +walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting. +But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made +up the dialogue. + +Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to +enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices +ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her +in her nightdress, candle in hand. + +"Una--Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried +frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck. + +Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her. + +"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly. + +And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding +place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs +in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars +across; no hearth or chimney--nothing but bare walls. + +Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful +inquiry into those of her sister. Una smiled one of her peculiar +sidelong smiles, and said---- + +"Strange dreams! I've been dreaming--so has Alice. She hears and sees +Una's dreams, and wonders--and well she may." + +And she kissed her sister's cheek with a cold kiss, and lay down in her +little bed, her slender hand under her head, and spoke no more. + +Alice, not knowing what to think, went back to hers. + +About this time Ultor De Lacy returned. He heard his elder daughter's +strange narrative with marked uneasiness, and his agitation seemed to +grow rather than subside. He enjoined her, however, not to mention it to +the old servant, nor in presence of anybody she might chance to see, but +only to him and to the priest, if he could be persuaded to resume his +duty and return. The trial, however, such as it was, could not endure +very long; matters had turned out favourably. The union of his younger +daughter might be accomplished within a few months, and in eight or +nine weeks they should be on their way to Paris. + +A night or two after her father's arrival, Alice, in the dead of the +night, heard the well-known strange deep voice speaking softly, as it +seemed, close to her own window on the outside; and Una's voice, clear +and tender, spoke in answer. She hurried to her own casement, and pushed +it open, kneeling in the deep embrasure, and looking with a stealthy and +affrighted gaze towards her sister's window. As she crossed the floor +the voices subsided, and she saw a light withdrawn from within. The +moonbeams slanted bright and clear on the whole side of the castle +overlooking the glen, and she plainly beheld the shadow of a man +projected on the wall as on a screen. + +This black shadow recalled with a horrid thrill the outline and fashion +of the figure in the Spanish dress. There were the cap and mantle, the +rapier, the long thin limbs and sinister angularity. It was so thrown +obliquely that the hands reached to the window-sill, and the feet +stretched and stretched, longer and longer as she looked, toward the +ground, and disappeared in the general darkness; and the rest, with a +sudden flicker, shot downwards, as shadows will on the sudden movement +of a light, and was lost in one gigantic leap down the castle wall. + +"I do not know whether I dream or wake when I hear and see these sights; +but I will ask my father to sit up with me, and we _two_ surely cannot +be mistaken. May the holy saints keep and guard us!" And in her terror +she buried her head under the bed-clothes, and whispered her prayers for +an hour. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Una's Love + +"I have been with Father Denis," said De Lacy, next day, "and he will +come to-morrow; and, thank Heaven! you may both make your confession and +hear mass, and my mind will be at rest; and you'll find poor Una happier +and more like herself." + +But 'tween cup and lip there's many a slip. The priest was not destined +to hear poor Una's shrift. When she bid her sister goodnight she looked +on her with her large, cold, wild eyes, till something of her old human +affections seemed to gather there, and they slowly filled with tears, +which dropped one after the other on her homely dress as she gazed in +her sister's face. + +Alice, delighted, sprang up, and clasped her arms about her neck. "My +own darling treasure,'tis all over; you love your poor Alice again, and +will be happier than ever." + +But while she held her in her embrace Una's eyes were turned towards the +window, and her lips apart, and Alice felt instinctively that her +thoughts were already far away. + +"Hark!--listen!--hush!" and Una, with her delighted gaze fixed, as if +she saw far away beyond the castle wall, the trees, the glen, and the +night's dark curtain, held her hand raised near her ear, and waved her +head slightly in time, as it seemed, to music that reached not Alice's +ear, and smiled her strange pleased smile, and then the smile slowly +faded away, leaving that sly suspicious light behind it which somehow +scared her sister with an uncertain sense of danger; and she sang in +tones so sweet and low that it seemed but a reverie of a song, +recalling, as Alice fancied, the strain to which she had just listened +in that strange ecstasy, the plaintive and beautiful Irish ballad, +"Shule, shule, shule, aroon," the midnight summons of the outlawed Irish +soldier to his darling to follow him. + +Alice had slept little the night before. She was now overpowered with +fatigue; and leaving her candle burning by her bedside, she fell into a +deep sleep. From this she awoke suddenly, and completely, as will +sometimes happen without any apparent cause, and she saw Una come into +the room. She had a little purse of embroidery--her own work--in her +hand; and she stole lightly to the bedside, with her peculiar oblique +smile, and evidently thinking that her sister was asleep. + +Alice was thrilled with a strange terror, and did not speak or move; and +her sister slipped her hand softly under her bolster, and withdrew it. +Then Una stood for while by the hearth, and stretched her hand up to the +mantelpiece, from which she took a little bit of chalk, and Alice +thought she saw her place it in the fingers of a long yellow hand that +was stealthily introduced from her own chamber-door to receive it; and +Una paused in the dark recess of the door, and smiled over her shoulder +toward her sister, and then glided into her room, closing the doors. + +Almost freezing with terror, Alice rose and glided after her, and stood +in her chamber, screaming---- + +"Una, Una, in heaven's name what troubles you?" + +But Una seemed to have been sound asleep in her bed, and raised herself +with a start, and looking upon her with a peevish surprise, said---- + +"What does Alice seek here?" + +"You were in my room, Una, dear; you seem disturbed and troubled." + +"Dreams, Alice. My dreams crossing your brain; only dreams--dreams. Get +you to bed, and sleep." + +And to bed she went, but _not_ to sleep. She lay awake more than an +hour; and then Una emerged once more from her room. This time she was +fully dressed, and had her cloak and thick shoes on, as their rattle on +the floor plainly discovered. She had a little bundle tied up in a +handkerchief in her hand, and her hood was drawn about her head; and +thus equipped, as it seemed, for a journey, she came and stood at the +foot of Alice's bed, and stared on her with a look so soulless and +terrible that her senses almost forsook her. Then she turned and went +back into her own chamber. + +She may have returned; but Alice thought not--at least she did not see +her. But she lay in great excitement and perturbation; and was +terrified, about an hour later, by a knock at her chamber door--not that +opening into Una's room, but upon the little passage from the stone +screw staircase. She sprang from her bed; but the door was secured on +the inside, and she felt relieved. The knock was repeated, and she heard +some one laughing softly on the outside. + +The morning came at last; that dreadful night was over. But Una! Where +was Una? + +Alice never saw her more. On the head of her empty bed were traced in +chalk the words--Ultor De Lacy, Ultor O'Donnell. And Alice found beneath +her own pillow the little purse of embroidery she had seen in Una's +hand. It was her little parting token, and bore the simple +legend--"Una's love!" + +De Lacy's rage and horror were boundless. He charged the priest, in +frantic language, with having exposed his child, by his cowardice and +neglect, to the machinations of the Fiend, and raved and blasphemed like +a man demented. + +It is said that he procured a solemn exorcism to be performed, in the +hope of disenthralling and recovering his daughter. Several times, it is +alleged, she was seen by the old servants. Once on a sweet summer +morning, in the window of the tower, she was perceived combing her +beautiful golden tresses, and holding a little mirror in her hand; and +first, when she saw herself discovered, she looked affrighted, and then +smiled, her slanting, cunning smile. Sometimes, too, in the glen, by +moonlight, it was said belated villagers had met her, always startled +first, and then smiling, generally singing snatches of old Irish +ballads, that seemed to bear a sort of dim resemblance to her melancholy +fate. The apparition has long ceased. But it is said that now and again, +perhaps once in two or three years, late on a summer night, you may +hear--but faint and far away in the recesses of the glen--the sweet, sad +notes of Una's voice, singing those plaintive melodies. This, too, of +course, in time will cease, and all be forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Sister Agnes and the Portrait + +When Ultor De Lacy died, his daughter Alice found among his effects a +small box, containing a portrait such as I have described. When she +looked on it, she recoiled in horror. There, in the plenitude of its +sinister peculiarities, was faithfully portrayed the phantom which lived +with a vivid and horrible accuracy in her remembrance. Folded in the +same box was a brief narrative, stating that, "A.D. 1601, in the month +of December, Walter De Lacy, of Cappercullen, made many prisoners at the +ford of Ownhey, or Abington, of Irish and Spanish soldiers, flying from +the great overthrow of the rebel powers at Kinsale, and among the number +one Roderic O'Donnell, an arch traitor, and near kinsman to that other +O'Donnell who led the rebels; who, claiming kindred through his mother +to De Lacy, sued for his life with instant and miserable entreaty, and +offered great ransom, but was by De Lacy, through great zeal for the +queen, as some thought, cruelly put to death. When he went to the +tower-top, where was the gallows, finding himself in extremity, and no +hope of mercy, he swore that though he could work them no evil before +his death, yet that he would devote himself thereafter to blast the +greatness of the De Lacys, and never leave them till his work was done. +He hath been seen often since, and always for that family perniciously, +insomuch that it hath been the custom to show to young children of that +lineage the picture of the said O'Donnell, in little, taken among his +few valuables, to prevent their being misled by him unawares, so that he +should not have his will, who by devilish wiles and hell-born cunning, +hath steadfastly sought the ruin of that ancient house, and especially +to leave that _stemma generosum_ destitute of issue for the transmission +of their pure blood and worshipful name." + +Old Miss Croker, of Ross House, who was near seventy in the year 1821, +when she related this story to me, had seen and conversed with Alice De +Lacy, a professed nun, under the name of Sister Agnes, in a religious +house in King-street, in Dublin, founded by the famous Duchess of +Tyrconnell, and had the narrative from her own lips. I thought the tale +worth preserving, and have no more to say. + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11700 *** diff --git a/11700-h/11700-h.htm b/11700-h/11700-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3a53b9f --- /dev/null +++ b/11700-h/11700-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1604 @@ +<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3{text-align: center;} + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.full { width: 100%; + size: 5; } + BODY{margin-left: 10%;margin-right: 10%;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11700 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h1> +<br> +<br> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> + +<h1>J. S. LE FANU'S<br> +GHOSTLY TALES,</h1> + +<h2>VOLUME 2</h2> + +<h2>An Authentic Narrative of<br> +a Haunted House (1862)</h2> + +<h3>and</h3> + +<h2>Ultor De Lacy:<br> +<i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i> (1861)</h2> + +<h2>by<br> +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<center> +<a href="#An_Authentic_Narrative">An Authentic Narrative of +a Haunted House</a><br><br> +<a href="#Ultor_De_Lacy">Ultor De Lacy: <i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i></a> +</center> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<a name="An_Authentic_Narrative"></a><h2>An Authentic Narrative of<br> +a Haunted House</h2> + +<p>[The Editor of the UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE submits the following very +remarkable statement, with every detail of which he has been for some +years acquainted, upon the ground that it affords the most authentic and +ample relation of a series of marvellous phenoma, in nowise connected +with what is technically termed "spiritualism," which he has anywhere +met with. All the persons—and there are many of them living—upon whose +separate evidence some parts, and upon whose united testimony others, of +this most singular recital depend, are, in their several walks of life, +respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation +be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident +here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath +had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of +them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor +begs most pointedly to meet <i>in limine</i> the suspicion, that he is +elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a +mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is +its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own +and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the +name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no +essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but +which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons +interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the +narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative, +which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who +employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the +form of an affidavit.]</p> +<br> + +<p>Within the last eight years—the precise date I purposely omit—I I was +ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to +change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a +house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance +from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it +by a railway.</p> + +<p>Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but +there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house +I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too, +quite a modern one. It formed one in a cheerful row, with small gardens +in front, facing the sea, and commanding sea air and sea views in +perfection. In the rear it had coach-house and stable, and between them +and the house a considerable grass-plot, with some flower-beds, +interposed.</p> + +<p>Our family consisted of my wife and myself, with three children, the +eldest about nine years old, she and the next in age being girls; and +the youngest, between six and seven, a boy. To these were added six +servants, whom, although for certain reasons I decline giving their real +names, I shall indicate, for the sake of clearness, by arbitrary ones. +There was a nurse, Mrs. Southerland; a nursery-maid, Ellen Page; the +cook, Mrs. Greenwood; and the housemaid, Ellen Faith; a butler, whom I +shall call Smith, and his son, James, about two-and-twenty.</p> + +<p>We came out to take possession at about seven o'clock in the evening; +every thing was comfortable and cheery; good fires lighted, the rooms +neat and airy, and a general air of preparation and comfort, highly +conducive to good spirits and pleasant anticipations.</p> + +<p>The sitting-rooms were large and cheerful, and they and the bed-rooms +more than ordinarily lofty, the kitchen and servants' rooms, on the same +level, were well and comfortably furnished, and had, like the rest of +the house, an air of recent painting and fitting up, and a completely +modern character, which imparted a very cheerful air of cleanliness and +convenience.</p> + +<p>There had been just enough of the fuss of settling agreeably to occupy +us, and to give a pleasant turn to our thoughts after we had retired to +our rooms. Being an invalid, I had a small bed to myself—resigning the +four-poster to my wife. The candle was extinguished, but a night-light +was burning. I was coming up stairs, and she, already in bed, had just +dismissed her maid, when we were both startled by a wild scream from her +room; I found her in a state of the extremest agitation and terror. She +insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her +bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define any +thing respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most +distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the +light to disclose more than its dark outline.</p> + +<p>We both endeavoured to re-assure her. The room once more looked so +cheerful in the candlelight, that we were quite uninfluenced by the +contagion of her terrors. The movements and voices of the servants down +stairs still getting things into their places and completing our +comfortable arrangements, had also their effect in steeling us against +any such influence, and we set the whole thing down as a dream, or an +imperfectly-seen outline of the bed-curtains. When, however, we were +alone, my wife reiterated, still in great agitation, her clear assertion +that she had most positively seen, being at the time as completely awake +as ever she was, precisely what she had described to us. And in this +conviction she continued perfectly firm.</p> + +<p>A day or two after this, it came out that our servants were under an +apprehension that, somehow or other, thieves had established a secret +mode of access to the lower part of the house. The butler, Smith, had +seen an ill-looking woman in his room on the first night of our arrival; +and he and other servants constantly saw, for many days subsequently, +glimpses of a retreating figure, which corresponded with that so seen by +him, passing through a passage which led to a back area in which were +some coal-vaults.</p> + +<p>This figure was seen always in the act of retreating, its back turned, +generally getting round the corner of the passage into the area, in a +stealthy and hurried way, and, when closely followed, imperfectly seen +again entering one of the coal-vaults, and when pursued into it, nowhere +to be found.</p> + +<p>The idea of any thing supernatural in the matter had, strange to say, +not yet entered the mind of any one of the servants. They had heard some +stories of smugglers having secret passages into houses, and using their +means of access for purposes of pillage, or with a view to frighten +superstitious people out of houses which they needed for their own +objects, and a suspicion of similar practices here, caused them extreme +uneasiness. The apparent anxiety also manifested by this retreating +figure to escape observation, and her always appearing to make her +egress at the same point, favoured this romantic hypothesis. The men, +however, made a most careful examination of the back area, and of the +coal-vaults, with a view to discover some mode of egress, but entirely +without success. On the contrary, the result was, so far as it went, +subversive of the theory; solid masonry met them on every hand.</p> + +<p>I called the man, Smith, up, to hear from his own lips the particulars +of what he had seen; and certainly his report was very curious. I give +it as literally as my memory enables me:----</p> + +<p>His son slept in the same room, and was sound asleep; but he lay awake, +as men sometimes will on a change of bed, and having many things on his +mind. He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light +and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw +the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather +low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something—either a cloak +or shawl—on, and wore a bonnet. Her back was turned, and she appeared +to be searching or rummaging for something on the floor, and, without +appearing to observe him, she turned in doing so towards him. The light, +which was more like the intense glow of a coal, as he described it, +being of a deep red colour, proceeded from the hollow of her hand, which +she held beside her head, and he saw her perfectly distinctly. She +appeared middle-aged, was deeply pitted with the smallpox, and blind of +one eye. His phrase in describing her general appearance was, that she +was "a miserable, poor-looking creature."</p> + +<p>He was under the impression that she must be the woman who had been left +by the proprietor in charge of the house, and who had that evening, +after having given up the keys, remained for some little time with the +female servants. He coughed, therefore, to apprize her of his presence, +and turned again towards the wall. When he again looked round she and +the light were gone; and odd as was her method of lighting herself in +her search, the circumstances excited neither uneasiness nor curiosity +in his mind, until he discovered next morning that the woman in question +had left the house long before he had gone to his bed.</p> + +<p>I examined the man very closely as to the appearance of the person who +had visited him, and the result was what I have described. It struck me +as an odd thing, that even then, considering how prone to superstition +persons in his rank of life usually are, he did not seem to suspect any +thing supernatural in the occurrence; and, on the contrary, was +thoroughly persuaded that his visitant was a living person, who had got +into the house by some hidden entrance.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, on his return from his place of worship, he told me that, +when the service was ended, and the congregation making their way slowly +out, he saw the very woman in the crowd, and kept his eye upon her for +several minutes, but such was the crush, that all his efforts to reach +her were unavailing, and when he got into the open street she was gone. +He was quite positive as to his having distinctly seen her, however, +for several minutes, and scouted the possibility of any mistake as to +identity; and fully impressed with the substantial and living reality of +his visitant, he was very much provoked at her having escaped him. He +made inquiries also in the neighbourhood, but could procure no +information, nor hear of any other persons having seen any woman +corresponding with his visitant.</p> + +<p>The cook and the housemaid occupied a bed-room on the kitchen floor. It +had whitewashed walls, and they were actually terrified by the +appearance of the shadow of a woman passing and repassing across the +side wall opposite to their beds. They suspected that this had been +going on much longer than they were aware, for its presence was +discovered by a sort of accident, its movements happening to take a +direction in distinct contrariety to theirs.</p> + +<p>This shadow always moved upon one particular wall, returning after short +intervals, and causing them extreme terror. They placed the candle, as +the most obvious specific, so close to the infested wall, that the flame +all but touched it; and believed for some time that they had effectually +got rid of this annoyance; but one night, notwithstanding this +arrangement of the light, the shadow returned, passing and repassing, as +heretofore, upon the same wall, although their only candle was burning +within an inch of it, and it was obvious that no substance capable of +casting such a shadow could have interposed; and, indeed, as they +described it, the shadow seemed to have no sort of relation to the +position of the light, and appeared, as I have said, in manifest +defiance of the laws of optics.</p> + +<p>I ought to mention that the housemaid was a particularly fearless sort +of person, as well as a very honest one; and her companion, the cook, a +scrupulously religious woman, and both agreed in every particular in +their relation of what occurred.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the nursery was not without its annoyances, though as yet of +a comparatively trivial kind. Sometimes, at night, the handle of the +door was turned hurriedly as if by a person trying to come in, and at +others a knocking was made at it. These sounds occurred after the +children had settled to sleep, and while the nurse still remained awake. +Whenever she called to know "who is there," the sounds ceased; but +several times, and particularly at first, she was under the impression +that they were caused by her mistress, who had come to see the children, +and thus impressed she had got up and opened the door, expecting to see +her, but discovering only darkness, and receiving no answer to her +inquiries.</p> + +<p>With respect to this nurse, I must mention that I believe no more +perfectly trustworthy servant was ever employed in her capacity; and, in +addition to her integrity, she was remarkably gifted with sound common +sense.</p> + +<p>One morning, I think about three or four weeks after our arrival, I was +sitting at the parlour window which looked to the front, when I saw the +little iron door which admitted into the small garden that lay between +the window where I was sitting and the public road, pushed open by a +woman who so exactly answered the description given by Smith of the +woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as +instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the +identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and +tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an +eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a +distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that +now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something +stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I +must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off. +Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the +bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang +violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that +intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a +leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front +windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after +her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick +pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man +entered I told him—"the blind woman you described to me has this +instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was, +if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short +time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And, +thereafter, we saw her face no more.</p> + +<p>All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was +not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only +phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear +described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering +with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom +ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was +always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last +stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, <i>four</i>—one, two, +three, <i>four</i>;" or "one, two, <i>three</i>—one, two, <i>three</i>," and sometimes +"one, <i>two</i>—one, <i>two</i>," &c., and this, with intervals and +resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time.</p> + +<p>At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, +much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any +hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed +that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it +frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with +the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my +wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually +troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer +or shorter time.</p> + +<p>Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of +the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children, +greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that +their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their +fears would have made them wretched and troublesome.</p> + +<p>They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden—the house +forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the +other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides. Here, as +it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite +to themselves; and in talking over their days' adventures, as children +will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they +had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in +the garden while they were at play. They assumed that she came in and +went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or +depart. They merely saw a figure—that of a very poor woman, soiled and +ragged—near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently +grubbing in the loose clay in search of something. She did not disturb, +or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession +of her nook of ground. When seen it was always in the same spot, and +similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general +appearance—for they never saw her face—corresponded with that of the +one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen.</p> + +<p>The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for +the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, +his little trouble to report, though it was not much. The stall in +which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she +peremptorily declined to enter. Though a very docile and gentle little +animal, there was no getting her into it. She would snort and rear, and, +in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it. He was +fain, therefore, to place her in another. And on several occasions he +found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear. +Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the +particular case with any superstitious qualms. The mare had evidently +been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the +stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard +outside.</p> + +<p>One morning I was greeted with the intelligence that robbers had +certainly got into the house in the night; and that one of them had +actually been seen in the nursery. The witness, I found, was my eldest +child, then, as I have said, about nine years of age. Having awoke in +the night, and lain awake for some time in her bed, she heard the handle +of the door turn, and a person whom she distinctly saw—for it was a +light night, and the window-shutters unclosed—but whom she had never +seen before, stepped in on tiptoe, and with an appearance of great +caution. He was a rather small man, with a very red face; he wore an +oddly cut frock coat, the collar of which stood up, and trousers, rough +and wide, like those of a sailor, turned up at the ankles, and either +short boots or clumsy shoes, covered with mud. This man listened beside +the nurse's bed, which stood next the door, as if to satisfy himself +that she was sleeping soundly; and having done so for some seconds, he +began to move cautiously in a diagonal line, across the room to the +chimney-piece, where he stood for a while, and so resumed his tiptoe +walk, skirting the wall, until he reached a chest of drawers, some of +which were open, and into which he looked, and began to rummage in a +hurried way, as the child supposed, making search for something worth +taking away. He then passed on to the window, where was a +dressing-table, at which he also stopped, turning over the things upon +it, and standing for some time at the window as if looking out, and then +resuming his walk by the side wall opposite to that by which he had +moved up to the window, he returned in the same way toward the nurse's +bed, so as to reach it at the foot. With its side to the end wall, in +which was the door, was placed the little bed in which lay my eldest +child, who watched his proceedings with the extremest terror. As he drew +near she instinctively moved herself in the bed, with her head and +shoulders to the wall, drawing up her feet; but he passed by without +appearing to observe, or, at least, to care for her presence. +Immediately after the nurse turned in her bed as if about to waken; and +when the child, who had drawn the clothes about her head, again ventured +to peep out, the man was gone.</p> + +<p>The child had no idea of her having seen any thing more formidable than +a thief. With the prowling, cautious, and noiseless manner of proceeding +common to such marauders, the air and movements of the man whom she had +seen entirely corresponded. And on hearing her perfectly distinct and +consistent account, I could myself arrive at no other conclusion than +that a stranger had actually got into the house. I had, therefore, in +the first instance, a most careful examination made to discover any +traces of an entrance having been made by any window into the house. The +doors had been found barred and locked as usual; but no sign of any +thing of the sort was discernible. I then had the various +articles—plate, wearing apparel, books, &c., counted; and after having +conned over and reckoned up every thing, it became quite clear that +nothing whatever had been removed from the house, nor was there the +slightest indication of any thing having been so much as disturbed +there. I must here state that this child was remarkably clear, +intelligent, and observant; and that her description of the man, and of +all that had occurred, was most exact, and as detailed as the want of +perfect light rendered possible.</p> + +<p>I felt assured that an entrance had actually been effected into the +house, though for what purpose was not easily to be conjectured. The +man, Smith, was equally confident upon this point; and his theory was +that the object was simply to frighten us out of the house by making us +believe it haunted; and he was more than ever anxious and on the alert +to discover the conspirators. It often since appeared to me odd. Every +year, indeed, more odd, as this cumulative case of the marvellous +becomes to my mind more and more inexplicable—that underlying my sense +of mystery and puzzle, was all along the quiet assumption that all these +occurrences were one way or another referable to natural causes. I could +not account for them, indeed, myself; but during the whole period I +inhabited that house, I never once felt, though much alone, and often up +very late at night, any of those tremors and thrills which every one has +at times experienced when situation and the hour are favourable. Except +the cook and housemaid, who were plagued with the shadow I mentioned +crossing and recrossing upon the bedroom wall, we all, without +exception, experienced the same strange sense of security, and regarded +these phenomena rather with a perplexed sort of interest and curiosity, +than with any more unpleasant sensations.</p> + +<p>The knockings which I have mentioned at the nursery door, preceded +generally by the sound of a step on the lobby, meanwhile continued. At +that time (for my wife, like myself, was an invalid) two eminent +physicians, who came out occasionally by rail, were attending us. These +gentlemen were at first only amused, but ultimately interested, and very +much puzzled by the occurrences which we described. One of them, at +last, recommended that a candle should be kept burning upon the lobby. +It was in fact a recurrence to an old woman's recipe against ghosts—of +course it might be serviceable, too, against impostors; at all events, +seeming, as I have said, very much interested and puzzled, he advised +it, and it was tried. We fancied that it was successful; for there was +an interval of quiet for, I think, three or four nights. But after that, +the noises—the footsteps on the lobby—the knocking at the door, and +the turning of the handle recommenced in full force, notwithstanding the +light upon the table outside; and these particular phenomena became only +more perplexing than ever.</p> + +<p>The alarm of robbers and smugglers gradually subsided after a week or +two; but we were again to hear news from the nursery. Our second little +girl, then between seven and eight years of age, saw in the night +time—she alone being awake—a young woman, with black, or very dark +hair, which hung loose, and with a black cloak on, standing near the +middle of the floor, opposite the hearthstone, and fronting the foot of +her bed. She appeared quite unobservant of the children and nurse +sleeping in the room. She was very pale, and looked, the child said, +both "sorry and frightened," and with something very peculiar and +terrible about her eyes, which made the child conclude that she was +dead. She was looking, not at, but in the direction of the child's bed, +and there was a dark streak across her throat, like a scar with blood +upon it. This figure was not motionless; but once or twice turned +slowly, and without appearing to be conscious of the presence of the +child, or the other occupants of the room, like a person in vacancy or +abstraction. There was on this occasion a night-light burning in the +chamber; and the child saw, or thought she saw, all these particulars +with the most perfect distinctness. She got her head under the +bed-clothes; and although a good many years have passed since then, she +cannot recall the spectacle without feelings of peculiar horror.</p> + +<p>One day, when the children were playing in the back garden, I asked them +to point out to me the spot where they were accustomed to see the woman +who occasionally showed herself as I have described, near the stable +wall. There was no division of opinion as to this precise point, which +they indicated in the most distinct and confident way. I suggested that, +perhaps, something might be hidden there in the ground; and advised them +digging a hole there with their little spades, to try for it. +Accordingly, to work they went, and by my return in the evening they had +grubbed up a piece of a jawbone, with several teeth in it. The bone was +very much decayed, and ready to crumble to pieces, but the teeth were +quite sound. I could not tell whether they were human grinders; but I +showed the fossil to one of the physicians I have mentioned, who came +out the next evening, and he pronounced them human teeth. The same +conclusion was come to a day or two later by the other medical man. It +appears to me now, on reviewing the whole matter, almost unaccountable +that, with such evidence before me, I should not have got in a labourer, +and had the spot effectually dug and searched. I can only say, that so +it was. I was quite satisfied of the moral truth of every word that had +been related to me, and which I have here set down with scrupulous +accuracy. But I experienced an apathy, for which neither then nor +afterwards did I quite know how to account. I had a vague, but immovable +impression that the whole affair was referable to natural agencies. It +was not until some time after we had left the house, which, by-the-by, +we afterwards found had had the reputation of being haunted before we +had come to live in it, that on reconsideration I discovered the serious +difficulty of accounting satisfactorily for all that had occurred upon +ordinary principles. A great deal we might arbitrarily set down to +imagination. But even in so doing there was, <i>in limine</i>, the oddity, +not to say improbability, of so many different persons having nearly +simultaneously suffered from different spectral and other illusions +during the short period for which we had occupied that house, who never +before, nor so far as we learned, afterwards were troubled by any fears +or fancies of the sort. There were other things, too, not to be so +accounted for. The odd knockings in the roof I frequently heard myself.</p> + +<p>There were also, which I before forgot to mention, in the daytime, +rappings at the doors of the sitting-rooms, which constantly deceived +us; and it was not till our "come in" was unanswered, and the hall or +passage outside the door was discovered to be empty, that we learned +that whatever else caused them, human hands did not. All the persons who +reported having seen the different persons or appearances here described +by me, were just as confident of having literally and distinctly seen +them, as I was of having seen the hard-featured woman with the blind +eye, so remarkably corresponding with Smith's description.</p> + +<p>About a week after the discovery of the teeth, which were found, I +think, about two feet under the ground, a friend, much advanced in +years, and who remembered the town in which we had now taken up our +abode, for a very long time, happened to pay us a visit. He +good-humouredly pooh-poohed the whole thing; but at the same time was +evidently curious about it. "We might construct a sort of story," said I +(I am giving, of course, the substance and purport, not the exact words, +of our dialogue), "and assign to each of the three figures who appeared +their respective parts in some dreadful tragedy enacted in this house. +The male figure represents the murderer; the ill-looking, one-eyed woman +his accomplice, who, we will suppose, buried the body where she is now +so often seen grubbing in the earth, and where the human teeth and +jawbone have so lately been disinterred; and the young woman with +dishevelled tresses, and black cloak, and the bloody scar across her +throat, their victim. A difficulty, however, which I cannot get over, +exists in the cheerfulness, the great publicity, and the evident very +recent date of the house." "Why, as to that," said he, "the house is +<i>not</i> modern; it and those beside it formed an old government store, +altered and fitted up recently as you see. I remember it well in my +young days, fifty years ago, before the town had grown out in this +direction, and a more entirely lonely spot, or one more fitted for the +commission of a secret crime, could not have been imagined."</p> + +<p>I have nothing to add, for very soon after this my physician pronounced +a longer stay unnecessary for my health, and we took our departure for +another place of abode. I may add, that although I have resided for +considerable periods in many other houses, I never experienced any +annoyances of a similar kind elsewhere; neither have I made (stupid dog! +you will say), any inquiries respecting either the antecedents or +subsequent history of the house in which we made so disturbed a sojourn. +I was content with what I knew, and have here related as clearly as I +could, and I think it a very pretty puzzle as it stands.</p> +<br> + +<p>[Thus ends the statement, which we abandon to the ingenuity of our +readers, having ourselves no satisfactory explanation to suggest; and +simply repeating the assurance with which we prefaced it, namely, that +we can vouch for the perfect good faith and the accuracy of the +narrator.—E.D.U.M.]</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<a name="Ultor_De_Lacy"></a><h2>Ultor De Lacy:<br> +<i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i></h2> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER I</h4> + +<i><b>The Jacobite's Legacy</b></i> + +<p>In my youth I heard a great many Irish family traditions, more or less +of a supernatural character, some of them very peculiar, and all, to a +child at least, highly interesting. One of these I will now relate, +though the translation to cold type from oral narrative, with all the +aids of animated human voice and countenance, and the appropriate +<i>mise-en-scène</i> of the old-fashioned parlour fireside and its listening +circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of +leafless boughs, with the occasional rattle of the clumsy old +window-frame behind shutter and curtain, as the blast swept by, is at +best a trying one.</p> + +<p>About midway up the romantic glen of Cappercullen, near the point where +the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary converge, upon the then +sequestered and forest-bound range of the Slieve-Felim hills, there +stood, in the reigns of the two earliest Georges, the picturesque and +massive remains of one of the finest of the Anglo-Irish castles of +Munster—perhaps of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It crowned the precipitous edge of the wooded glen, itself half-buried +among the wild forest that covered that long and solitary range. There +was no human habitation within a circle of many miles, except the +half-dozen hovels and the small thatched chapel composing the little +village of Murroa, which lay at the foot of the glen among the +straggling skirts of the noble forest.</p> + +<p>Its remoteness and difficulty of access saved it from demolition. It was +worth nobody's while to pull down and remove the ponderous and clumsy +oak, much less the masonry or flagged roofing of the pile. Whatever +would pay the cost of removal had been long since carried away. The rest +was abandoned to time—the destroyer.</p> + +<p>The hereditary owners of this noble building and of a wide territory in +the contiguous counties I have named, were English—the De Lacys—long +naturalized in Ireland. They had acquired at least this portion of their +estate in the reign of Henry VIII, and held it, with some vicissitudes, +down to the establishment of the revolution in Ireland, when they +suffered attainder, and, like other great families of that period, +underwent a final eclipse.</p> + +<p>The De Lacy of that day retired to France, and held a brief command in +the Irish Brigade, interrupted by sickness. He retired, became a poor +hanger-on of the Court of St. Germains, and died early in the eighteenth +century—as well as I remember, 1705—leaving an only son, hardly twelve +years old, called by the strange but significant name of Ultor.</p> + +<p>At this point commences the marvellous ingredient of my tale.</p> + +<p>When his father was dying, he had him to his bedside, with no one by +except his confessor; and having told him, first, that on reaching the +age of twenty-one, he was to lay claim to a certain small estate in the +county of Clare, in Ireland, in right of his mother—the title-deeds of +which he gave him—and next, having enjoined him not to marry before the +age of thirty, on the ground that earlier marriages destroyed the spirit +and the power of enterprise, and would incapacitate him from the +accomplishment of his destiny—the restoration of his family—he then +went on to open to the child a matter which so terrified him that he +cried lamentably, trembling all over, clinging to the priest's gown with +one hand and to his father's cold wrist with the other, and imploring +him, with screams of horror, to desist from his communication.</p> + +<p>But the priest, impressed, no doubt, himself, with its necessity, +compelled him to listen. And then his father showed him a small picture, +from which also the child turned with shrieks, until similarly +constrained to look. They did not let him go until he had carefully +conned the features, and was able to tell them, from memory, the colour +of the eyes and hair, and the fashion and hues of the dress. Then his +father gave him a black box containing this portrait, which was a +full-length miniature, about nine inches long, painted very finely in +oils, as smooth as enamel, and folded above it a sheet of paper, written +over in a careful and very legible hand.</p> + +<p>The deeds and this black box constituted the most important legacy +bequeathed to his only child by the ruined Jacobite, and he deposited +them in the hands of the priest, in trust, till his boy, Ultor, should +have attained to an age to understand their value, and to keep them +securely.</p> + +<p>When this scene was ended, the dying exile's mind, I suppose, was +relieved, for he spoke cheerily, and said he believed he would recover; +and they soothed the crying child, and his father kissed him, and gave +him a little silver coin to buy fruit with; and so they sent him off +with another boy for a walk, and when he came back his father was dead.</p> + +<p>He remained in France under the care of this ecclesiastic until he had +attained the age of twenty-one, when he repaired to Ireland, and his +title being unaffected by his father's attainder, he easily made good +his claim to the small estate in the county of Clare.</p> + +<p>There he settled, making a dismal and solitary tour now and then of the +vast territories which had once been his father's, and nursing those +gloomy and impatient thoughts which befitted the enterprises to which he +was devoted.</p> + +<p>Occasionally he visited Paris, that common centre of English, Irish, and +Scottish disaffection; and there, when a little past thirty, he married +the daughter of another ruined Irish house. His bride returned with him +to the melancholy seclusion of their Munster residence, where she bore +him in succession two daughters—Alice, the elder, dark-eyed and +dark-haired, grave and sensible—Una, four years younger, with large +blue eyes and long and beautiful golden hair.</p> + +<p>Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, +high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in +the isolation and gloom of her lot. At all events she died young, and +the children were left to the sole care of their melancholy and +embittered father. In process of time the girls grew up, tradition says, +beautiful. The elder was designed for a convent, the younger her father +hoped to mate as nobly as her high blood and splendid beauty seemed to +promise, if only the great game on which he had resolved to stake all +succeeded.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER II</h4> + +<i><b>The Fairies in the Castle</b></i> + +<p>The Rebellion of '45 came, and Ultor de Lacy was one of the few Irishmen +implicated treasonably in that daring and romantic insurrection. Of +course there were warrants out against him, but he was not to be found. +The young ladies, indeed, remained as heretofore in their father's +lonely house in Clare; but whether he had crossed the water or was still +in Ireland was for some time unknown, even to them. In due course he was +attainted, and his little estate forfeited. It was a miserable +catastrophe—a tremendous and beggarly waking up from a life-long dream +of returning principality.</p> + +<p>In due course the officers of the crown came down to take possession, +and it behoved the young ladies to flit. Happily for them the +ecclesiastic I have mentioned was not quite so confident as their +father, of his winning back the magnificent patrimony of his ancestors; +and by his advice the daughters had been secured twenty pounds a year +each, under the marriage settlement of their parents, which was all that +stood between this proud house and literal destitution.</p> + +<p>Late one evening, as some little boys from the village were returning +from a ramble through the dark and devious glen of Cappercullen, with +their pockets laden with nuts and "frahans," to their amazement and even +terror they saw a light streaming redly from the narrow window of one of +the towers overhanging the precipice among the ivy and the lofty +branches, across the glen, already dim in the shadows of the deepening +night.</p> + +<p>"Look—look—look—'tis the Phooka's tower!" was the general cry, in the +vernacular Irish, and a universal scamper commenced.</p> + +<p>The bed of the glen, strewn with great fragments of rock, among which +rose the tall stems of ancient trees, and overgrown with a tangled +copse, was at the best no favourable ground for a run. Now it was dark; +and, terrible work breaking through brambles and hazels and tumbling +over rocks. Little Shaeen Mull Ryan, the last of the panic rout, +screaming to his mates to wait for him—saw a whitish figure emerge from +the thicket at the base of the stone flight of steps that descended the +side of the glen, close by the castle-wall, intercepting his flight, and +a discordant male voice shrieked----</p> + +<p>"I have you!"</p> + +<p>At the same time the boy, with a cry of terror, tripped and tumbled; and +felt himself roughly caught by the arm, and hauled to his feet with a +shake.</p> + +<p>A wild yell from the child, and a volley of terror and entreaty +followed.</p> + +<p>"Who is it, Larry; what's the matter?" cried a voice, high in air, from +the turret window, The words floated down through the trees, clear and +sweet as the low notes of a flute.</p> + +<p>"Only a child, my lady; a boy."</p> + +<p>"Is he hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Are you hurted?" demanded the whitish man, who held him fast, and +repeated the question in Irish; but the child only kept blubbering and +crying for mercy, with his hands clasped, and trying to drop on his +knees.</p> + +<p>Larry's strong old hand held him up. He <i>was</i> hurt, and bleeding from +over his eye.</p> + +<p>"Just a trifle hurted, my lady!"</p> + +<p>"Bring him up here."</p> + +<p>Shaeen Mull Ryan gave himself over. He was among "the good people," who +he knew would keep him prisoner for ever and a day. There was no good in +resisting. He grew bewildered, and yielded himself passively to his +fate, and emerged from the glen on the platform above; his captor's +knotted old hand still on his arm, and looked round on the tall +mysterious trees, and the gray front of the castle, revealed in the +imperfect moonlight, as upon the scenery of a dream.</p> + +<p>The old man who, with thin wiry legs, walked by his side, in a dingy +white coat, and blue facings, and great pewter buttons, with his silver +gray hair escaping from under his battered three-cocked hat; and his +shrewd puckered resolute face, in which the boy could read no promise of +sympathy, showing so white and phantom-like in the moonlight, was, as he +thought, the incarnate ideal of a fairy.</p> + +<p>This figure led him in silence under the great arched gateway, and +across the grass-grown court, to the door in the far angle of the +building; and so, in the dark, round and round, up a stone screw stair, +and with a short turn into a large room, with a fire of turf and wood, +burning on its long unused hearth, over which hung a pot, and about it +an old woman with a great wooden spoon was busy. An iron candlestick +supported their solitary candle; and about the floor of the room, as +well as on the table and chairs, lay a litter of all sorts of things; +piles of old faded hangings, boxes, trunks, clothes, pewter-plates, and +cups; and I know not what more.</p> + +<p>But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures +of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of +Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in +keeping. But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, +and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a +higher rank.</p> + +<p>The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal +table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as +he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and <i>riant</i>, +with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with +something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as +the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined.</p> + +<p>They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not +English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to +amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled +mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good +people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said----</p> + +<p>"Do you know who <i>I</i> am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and +this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark +lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family +physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and +woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall +do with <i>you</i>, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding +on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his +enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under +ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon +you see through the window—with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, +for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see +how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my +castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys +I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall +belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people +more."</p> + +<p>And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps +before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and +courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm.</p> + +<p>Then, with a little laugh, she said----</p> + +<p>"My little man, we must mend your head."</p> + +<p>And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to +it. And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little +French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said----</p> + +<p>"You need not be afraid to eat these—they are very good—and I'll send +my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free. Take him (she addressed +Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge."</p> + +<p>The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the +fairy----</p> + +<p>"Brave, dear, wild Una! nothing can ever quell your gaiety of heart."</p> + +<p>And Una kissed her merrily on the cheek.</p> + +<p>So the oak door of the room again opened, and Shaeen, with his +conductor, descended the stair. He walked with the scared boy in grim +silence near half way down the wild hill-side toward Murroa, and then he +stopped, and said in Irish----</p> + +<p>"You never saw the fairies before, my fine fellow, and 'tisn't often +those who once set eyes on us return to tell it. Whoever comes nearer, +night or day, than this stone," and he tapped it with the end of his +cane, "will never see his home again, for we'll keep him till the day of +judgment; goodnight, little gossoon—and away with you."</p> + +<p>So these young ladies, Alice and Una, with two old servants, by their +father's direction, had taken up their abode in a portion of that side +of the old castle which overhung the glen; and with the furniture and +hangings they had removed from their late residence, and with the aid of +glass in the casements and some other indispensable repairs, and a +thorough airing, they made the rooms they had selected just habitable, +as a rude and temporary shelter.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER III</h4> + +<i><b>The Priest's Adventures in the Glen</b></i> + +<p>At first, of course, they saw or heard little of their father. In +general, however, they knew that his plan was to procure some employment +in France, and to remove them there. Their present strange abode was +only an adventure and an episode, and they believed that any day they +might receive instructions to commence their journey.</p> + +<p>After a little while the pursuit relaxed. The government, I believe, did +not care, provided he did not obtrude himself, what became of him, or +where he concealed himself. At all events, the local authorities showed +no disposition to hunt him down. The young ladies' charges on the little +forfeited property were paid without any dispute, and no vexatious +inquiries were raised as to what had become of the furniture and other +personal property which had been carried away from the forfeited house.</p> + +<p>The haunted reputation of the castle—for in those days, in matters of +the marvellous, the oldest were children—secured the little family in +the seclusion they coveted. Once, or sometimes twice a week, old +Laurence, with a shaggy little pony, made a secret expedition to the +city of Limerick, starting before dawn, and returning under the cover of +the night, with his purchases. There was beside an occasional sly +moonlit visit from the old parish priest, and a midnight mass in the old +castle for the little outlawed congregation.</p> + +<p>As the alarm and inquiry subsided, their father made them, now and then, +a brief and stealthy visit. At first these were but of a night's +duration, and with great precaution; but gradually they were extended +and less guarded. Still he was, as the phrase is in Munster, "on his +keeping." He had firearms always by his bed, and had arranged places of +concealment in the castle in the event of a surprise. But no attempt nor +any disposition to molest him appearing, he grew more at ease, if not +more cheerful.</p> + +<p>It came, at last, that he would sometimes stay so long as two whole +months at a time, and then depart as suddenly and mysteriously as he +came. I suppose he had always some promising plot on hand, and his head +full of ingenious treason, and lived on the sickly and exciting dietary +of hope deferred.</p> + +<p>Was there a poetical justice in this, that the little <i>ménage</i> thus +secretly established, in the solitary and timeworn pile, should have +themselves experienced, but from causes not so easily explicable, those +very supernatural perturbations which they had themselves essayed to +inspire?</p> + +<p>The interruption of the old priest's secret visits was the earliest +consequence of the mysterious interference which now began to display +itself. One night, having left his cob in care of his old sacristan in +the little village, he trudged on foot along the winding pathway, among +the gray rocks and ferns that threaded the glen, intending a ghostly +visit to the fair recluses of the castle, and he lost his way in this +strange fashion.</p> + +<p>There was moonlight, indeed, but it was little more than quarter-moon, +and a long train of funereal clouds were sailing slowly across the +sky—so that, faint and wan as it was, the light seldom shone full out, +and was often hidden for a minute or two altogether. When he reached the +point in the glen where the castle-stairs were wont to be, he could see +nothing of them, and above, no trace of the castle-towers. So, puzzled +somewhat, he pursued his way up the ravine, wondering how his walk had +become so unusually protracted and fatiguing.</p> + +<p>At last, sure enough, he saw the castle as plain as could be, and a +lonely streak of candle-light issuing from the tower, just as usual, +when his visit was expected. But he could not find the stair; and had to +clamber among the rocks and copse-wood the best way he could. But when +he emerged at top, there was nothing but the bare heath. Then the clouds +stole over the moon again, and he moved along with hesitation and +difficulty, and once more he saw the outline of the castle against the +sky, quite sharp and clear. But this time it proved to be a great +battlemented mass of cloud on the horizon. In a few minutes more he was +quite close, all of a sudden, to the great front, rising gray and dim in +the feeble light, and not till he could have struck it with his good oak +"wattle" did he discover it to be only one of those wild, gray frontages +of living rock that rise here and there in picturesque tiers along the +slopes of those solitary mountains. And so, till dawn, pursuing this +mirage of the castle, through pools and among ravines, he wore out a +night of miserable misadventure and fatigue.</p> + +<p>Another night, riding up the glen, so far as the level way at bottom +would allow, and intending to make his nag fast at his customary tree, +he heard on a sudden a horrid shriek at top of the steep rocks above his +head, and something—a gigantic human form, it seemed—came tumbling and +bounding headlong down through the rocks, and fell with a fearful +impetus just before his horse's hoofs and there lay like a huge +palpitating carcass. The horse was scared, as, indeed, was his rider, +too, and more so when this apparently lifeless thing sprang up to his +legs, and throwing his arms apart to bar their further progress, +advanced his white and gigantic face towards them. Then the horse +started about, with a snort of terror, nearly unseating the priest, and +broke away into a furious and uncontrollable gallop.</p> + +<p>I need not recount all the strange and various misadventures which the +honest priest sustained in his endeavours to visit the castle, and its +isolated tenants. They were enough to wear out his resolution, and +frighten him into submission. And so at last these spiritual visits +quite ceased; and fearing to awaken inquiry and suspicion, he thought it +only prudent to abstain from attempting them in the daytime.</p> + +<p>So the young ladies of the castle were more alone than ever. Their +father, whose visits were frequently of long duration, had of late +ceased altogether to speak of their contemplated departure for France, +grew angry at any allusion to it, and they feared, had abandoned the +plan altogether.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> + +<i><b>The Light in the Bell Tower</b></i> + +<p>Shortly after the discontinuance of the priest's visits, old Laurence, +one night, to his surprise, saw light issuing from a window in the Bell +Tower. It was at first only a tremulous red ray, visible only for a few +minutes, which seemed to pass from the room, through whose window it +escaped upon the courtyard of the castle, and so to lose itself. This +tower and casement were in the angle of the building, exactly +confronting that in which the little outlawed family had taken up their +quarters.</p> + +<p>The whole family were troubled at the appearance of this dull red ray +from the chamber in the Bell Tower. Nobody knew what to make of it. But +Laurence, who had campaigned in Italy with his old master, the young +ladies' grandfather—"the heavens be his bed this night!"—was resolved +to see it out, and took his great horse-pistols with him, and ascended +to the corridor leading to the tower. But his search was vain.</p> + +<p>This light left a sense of great uneasiness among the inmates, and most +certainly it was not pleasant to suspect the establishment of an +independent and possibly dangerous lodger or even colony, within the +walls of the same old building.</p> + +<p>The light very soon appeared again, steadier and somewhat brighter, in +the same chamber. Again old Laurence buckled on his armour, swearing +ominously to himself, and this time bent in earnest upon conflict. The +young ladies watched in thrilling suspense from the great window in +<i>their</i> stronghold, looking diagonally across the court. But as +Laurence, who had entered the massive range of buildings opposite, might +be supposed to be approaching the chamber from which this ill-omened +glare proceeded, it steadily waned, finally disappearing altogether, +just a few seconds before his voice was heard shouting from the arched +window to know which way the light had gone.</p> + +<p>This lighting up of the great chamber of the Bell Tower grew at last to +be of frequent and almost continual recurrence. It was, there, long ago, +in times of trouble and danger, that the De Lacys of those evil days +used to sit in feudal judgment upon captive adversaries, and, as +tradition alleged, often gave them no more time for shrift and prayer, +than it needed to mount to the battlement of the turret over-head, from +which they were forthwith hung by the necks, for a caveat and admonition +to all evil disposed persons viewing the same from the country beneath.</p> + +<p>Old Laurence observed these mysterious glimmerings with an evil and an +anxious eye, and many and various were the stratagems he tried, but in +vain, to surprise the audacious intruders. It is, however, I believe, a +fact that no phenomenon, no matter how startling at first, if prosecuted +with tolerable regularity, and unattended with any new circumstances of +terror, will very long continue to excite alarm or even wonder.</p> + +<p>So the family came to acquiesce in this mysterious light. No harm +accompanied it. Old Laurence, as he smoked his lonely pipe in the +grass-grown courtyard, would cast a disturbed glance at it, as it softly +glowed out through the darking aperture, and mutter a prayer or an oath. +But he had given over the chase as a hopeless business. And Peggy +Sullivan, the old dame of all work, when, by chance, for she never +willingly looked toward the haunted quarter, she caught the faint +reflection of its dull effulgence with the corner of her eye, would sign +herself with the cross or fumble at her beads, and deeper furrows would +gather in her forehead, and her face grow ashen and perturbed. And this +was not mended by the levity with which the young ladies, with whom the +spectre had lost his influence, familiarity, as usual, breeding +contempt, had come to talk, and even to jest, about it.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER V</h4> + +<i><b>The Man with the Claret Mark</b></i> + +<p>But as the former excitement flagged, old Peggy Sullivan produced a new +one; for she solemnly avowed that she had seen a thin-faced man, with an +ugly red mark all over the side of his cheek, looking out of the same +window, just at sunset, before the young ladies returned from their +evening walk.</p> + +<p>This sounded in their ears like an old woman's dream, but still it was +an excitement, jocular in the morning, and just, perhaps, a little +fearful as night overspread the vast and desolate building, but still, +not wholly unpleasant. This little flicker of credulity suddenly, +however, blazed up into the full light of conviction.</p> + +<p>Old Laurence, who was not given to dreaming, and had a cool, hard head, +and an eye like a hawk, saw the same figure, just about the same hour, +when the last level gleam of sunset was tinting the summits of the +towers and the tops of the tall trees that surrounded them.</p> + +<p>He had just entered the court from the great gate, when he heard all at +once the hard peculiar twitter of alarm which sparrows make when a cat +or a hawk invades their safety, rising all round from the thick ivy that +overclimbed the wall on his left, and raising his eyes listlessly, he +saw, with a sort of shock, a thin, ungainly man, standing with his legs +crossed, in the recess of the window from which the light was wont to +issue, leaning with his elbows on the stone mullion, and looking down +with a sort of sickly sneer, his hollow yellow cheeks being deeply +stained on one side with what is called a "claret-mark."</p> + +<p>"I have you at last, you villain!" cried Larry, in a strange rage and +panic: "drop down out of that on the grass here, and give yourself up, +or I'll shoot you."</p> + +<p>The threat was backed with an oath, and he drew from his coat pocket the +long holster pistol he was wont to carry, and covered his man cleverly.</p> + +<p>"I give you while I count ten—one-two-three-four. If you draw back, +I'll fire, mind; five-six—you'd better be lively—seven-eight-nine—one +chance more; will you come down? Then take it—ten!"</p> + +<p>Bang went the pistol. The sinister stranger was hardly fifteen feet +removed from him, and Larry was a dead shot. But this time he made a +scandalous miss, for the shot knocked a little white dust from the stone +wall a full yard at one side; and the fellow never shifted his negligent +posture or qualified his sardonic smile during the procedure.</p> + +<p>Larry was mortified and angry.</p> + +<p>"You'll not get off this time, my tulip!" he said with a grin, +exchanging the smoking weapon for the loaded pistol in reserve.</p> + +<p>"What are you pistolling, Larry?" said a familiar voice close by his +elbow, and he saw his master, accompanied by a handsome young man in a +cloak.</p> + +<p>"That villain, your honour, in the window, there."</p> + +<p>"Why there's nobody there, Larry," said De Lacy, with a laugh, though +that was no common indulgence with him.</p> + +<p>As Larry gazed, the figure somehow dissolved and broke up without +receding. A hanging tuft of yellow and red ivy nodded queerly in place +of the face, some broken and discoloured masonry in perspective took up +the outline and colouring of the arms and figure, and two imperfect red +and yellow lichen streaks carried on the curved tracing of the long +spindle shanks. Larry blessed himself, and drew his hand across his damp +forehead, over his bewildered eyes, and could not speak for a minute. +It was all some devilish trick; he could take his oath he saw every +feature in the fellow's face, the lace and buttons of his cloak and +doublet, and even his long finger nails and thin yellow fingers that +overhung the cross-shaft of the window, where there was now nothing but +a rusty stain left.</p> + +<p>The young gentleman who had arrived with De Lacy, stayed that night and +shared with great apparent relish the homely fare of the family. He was +a gay and gallant Frenchman, and the beauty of the younger lady, and her +pleasantry and spirit, seemed to make his hours pass but too swiftly, +and the moment of parting sad.</p> + +<p>When he had departed early in the morning, Ultor De Lacy had a long talk +with his elder daughter, while the younger was busy with her early dairy +task, for among their retainers this <i>proles generosa</i> reckoned a "kind" +little Kerry cow.</p> + +<p>He told her that he had visited France since he had been last at +Cappercullen, and how good and gracious their sovereign had been, and +how he had arranged a noble alliance for her sister Una. The young +gentleman was of high blood, and though not rich, had, nevertheless, his +acres and his <i>nom de terre</i>, besides a captain's rank in the army. He +was, in short, the very gentleman with whom they had parted only that +morning. On what special business he was now in Ireland there was no +necessity that he should speak; but being here he had brought him hither +to present him to his daughter, and found that the impression she had +made was quite what was desirable.</p> + +<p>"You, you know, dear Alice, are promised to a conventual life. Had it +been otherwise—"</p> + +<p>He hesitated for a moment.</p> + +<p>"You are right, dear father," she said, kissing his hand, "I <i>am</i> so +promised, and no earthly tie or allurement has power to draw me from +that holy engagement."</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, returning her caress, "I do not mean to urge you upon +that point. It must not, however, be until Una's marriage has taken +place. That cannot be, for many good reasons, sooner than this time +twelve months; we shall then exchange this strange and barbarous abode +for Paris, where are many eligible convents, in which are entertained as +sisters some of the noblest ladies of France; and there, too, in Una's +marriage will be continued, though not the name, at all events the +blood, the lineage, and the title which, so sure as justice ultimately +governs the course of human events, will be again established, powerful +and honoured in this country, the scene of their ancient glory and +transitory misfortunes. Meanwhile, we must not mention this engagement +to Una. Here she runs no risk of being sought or won; but the mere +knowledge that her hand was absolutely pledged, might excite a +capricious opposition and repining such as neither I nor you would like +to see; therefore be secret."</p> + +<p>The same evening he took Alice with him for a ramble round the castle +wall, while they talked of grave matters, and he as usual allowed her a +dim and doubtful view of some of those cloud-built castles in which he +habitually dwelt, and among which his jaded hopes revived.</p> + +<p>They were walking upon a pleasant short sward of darkest green, on one +side overhung by the gray castle walls, and on the other by the forest +trees that here and there closely approached it, when precisely as they +turned the angle of the Bell Tower, they were encountered by a person +walking directly towards them. The sight of a stranger, with the +exception of the one visitor introduced by her father, was in this place +so absolutely unprecedented, that Alice was amazed and affrighted to +such a degree that for a moment she stood stock-still.</p> + +<p>But there was more in this apparition to excite unpleasant emotions, +than the mere circumstance of its unexpectedness. The figure was very +strange, being that of a tall, lean, ungainly man, dressed in a dingy +suit, somewhat of a Spanish fashion, with a brown laced cloak, and faded +red stockings. He had long lank legs, long arms, hands, and fingers, and +a very long sickly face, with a drooping nose, and a sly, sarcastic +leer, and a great purplish stain over-spreading more than half of one +cheek.</p> + +<p>As he strode past, he touched his cap with his thin, discoloured +fingers, and an ugly side glance, and disappeared round the corner. The +eyes of father and daughter followed him in silence.</p> + +<p>Ultor De Lacy seemed first absolutely terror-stricken, and then suddenly +inflamed with ungovernable fury. He dropped his cane on the ground, drew +his rapier, and, without wasting a thought on his daughter, pursued.</p> + +<p>He just had a glimpse of the retreating figure as it disappeared round +the far angle. The plume, and the lank hair, the point of the +rapier-scabbard, the flutter of the skirt of the cloak, and one red +stocking and heel; and this was the last he saw of him.</p> + +<p>When Alice reached his side, his drawn sword still in his hand, he was +in a state of abject agitation.</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven, he's gone!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"He's gone," echoed Ultor, with a strange glare.</p> + +<p>"And you are safe," she added, clasping his hand.</p> + +<p>He sighed a great sigh.</p> + +<p>"And you don't think he's coming back?"</p> + +<p>"He!--who?"</p> + +<p>"The stranger who passed us but now. Do you know him, father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and—no, child—I know him not—and yet I know him too well. Would +to heaven we could leave this accursed haunt to-night. Cursed be the +stupid malice that first provoked this horrible feud, which no sacrifice +and misery can appease, and no exorcism can quell or even suspend. The +wretch has come from afar with a sure instinct to devour my last +hope—to dog us into our last retreat—and to blast with his triumph the +very dust and ruins of our house. What ails that stupid priest that he +has given over his visits? Are <i>my</i> children to be left without mass or +confession—the sacraments which <i>guard</i> as well as save—because he +once loses his way in a mist, or mistakes a streak of foam in the brook +for a dead man's face? D—n him!"</p> + +<p>"See, Alice, if he won't come," he resumed, "you must only <i>write</i> your +confession to him in full—you and Una. Laurence is trusty, and will +carry it—and we'll get the bishop's—or, if need be, the Pope's leave +for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you +<i>shall</i> have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a +wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know +there's but one safe way—and—and—keep you each a bit of this—(he +opened a small silver box)—about you while you stay here—fold and sew +it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next +your hearts—'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer—and will help, +with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm—and be strict in +fasts, and constant in prayer—<i>I</i> can do nothing—nor devise any help. +The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine."</p> + +<p>And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and +agitated face.</p> + +<p>This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> + +<i><b>Voices</b></i> + +<p>Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her +fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent +with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and +quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable +change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in +trifles; and strangely reserved and cold.</p> + +<p>Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this +estrangement—had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before +borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature +so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity?</p> + +<p>Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to +disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to +listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked +for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing +all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and +subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself, +and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice.</p> + +<p>She and Alice slept in the same bedroom—a chamber in a projecting +tower—which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung +round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their +skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if +speaking to herself----</p> + +<p>"'Tis my last night in this room—I shall sleep no more with Alice."</p> + +<p>"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unkindness?"</p> + +<p>Una looked on her curiously, and half frightened, and then the odd smile +stole over her face like a gleam of moonlight.</p> + +<p>"My poor Alice, what have you to do with it?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"And why do you talk of sleeping no more with me?" said Alice.</p> + +<p>"Why? Alice dear—no why—no reason—only a knowledge that it must be +so, or Una will die."</p> + +<p>"Die, Una darling!--what can you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sweet Alice, die, indeed. We must all die some time, you know, +or—or undergo a change; and my time is near—<i>very</i> near—unless I +sleep apart from you."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Una, sweetheart, I think you <i>are</i> ill, but not near death."</p> + +<p>"Una knows what you think, wise Alice—but she's not mad—on the +contrary, she's wiser than other folks."</p> + +<p>"She's sadder and stranger too," said Alice, tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Knowledge is sorrow," answered Una, and she looked across the room +through her golden hair which she was combing—and through the window, +beyond which lay the tops of the great trees, and the still foliage of +the glen in the misty moonlight.</p> + +<p>"'Tis enough, Alice dear; it must be so. The bed must move hence, or +Una's bed will be low enough ere long. See, it shan't be far though, +only into that small room."</p> + +<p>She pointed to an inner room or closet opening from that in which they +lay. The walls of the building were hugely thick, and there were double +doors of oak between the chambers, and Alice thought, with a sigh, how +completely separated they were going to be.</p> + +<p>However she offered no opposition. The change was made, and the girls +for the first time since childhood lay in separate chambers. A few +nights afterwards Alice awoke late in the night from a dreadful dream, +in which the sinister figure which she and her father had encountered in +their ramble round the castle walls, bore a principal part.</p> + +<p>When she awoke there were still in her ears the sounds which had mingled +in her dream. They were the notes of a deep, ringing, bass voice rising +from the glen beneath the castle walls—something between humming and +singing—listlessly unequal and intermittent, like the melody of a man +whiling away the hours over his work. While she was wondering at this +unwonted minstrelsy, there came a silence, and—could she believe her +ears?—it certainly was Una's clear low contralto—softly singing a bar +or two from the window. Then once more silence—and then again the +strange manly voice, faintly chaunting from the leafy abyss.</p> + +<p>With a strange wild feeling of suspicion and terror, Alice glided to the +window. The moon who sees so many things, and keeps all secrets, with +her cold impenetrable smile, was high in the sky. But Alice saw the red +flicker of a candle from Una's window, and, she thought, the shadow of +her head against the deep side wall of its recess. Then this was gone, +and there were no more sights or sounds that night.</p> + +<p>As they sate at breakfast, the small birds were singing merrily from +among the sun-tipped foliage.</p> + +<p>"I love this music," said Alice, unusually pale and sad; "it comes with +the pleasant light of morning. I remember, Una, when you used to sing, +like those gay birds, in the fresh beams of the morning; that was in the +old time, when Una kept no secret from poor Alice."</p> + +<p>"And Una knows what her sage Alice means; but there are other birds, +silent all day long, and, they say, the sweetest too, that love to sing +by <i>night</i> alone."</p> + +<p>So things went on—the elder girl pained and melancholy—the younger +silent, changed, and unaccountable.</p> + +<p>A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard +a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be +no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the +walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting. +But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made +up the dialogue.</p> + +<p>Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to +enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices +ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her +in her nightdress, candle in hand.</p> + +<p>"Una—Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried +frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck.</p> + +<p>Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly.</p> + +<p>And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding +place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs +in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars +across; no hearth or chimney—nothing but bare walls.</p> + +<p>Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful +inquiry into those of her sister. Una smiled one of her peculiar +sidelong smiles, and said----</p> + +<p>"Strange dreams! I've been dreaming—so has Alice. She hears and sees +Una's dreams, and wonders—and well she may."</p> + +<p>And she kissed her sister's cheek with a cold kiss, and lay down in her +little bed, her slender hand under her head, and spoke no more.</p> + +<p>Alice, not knowing what to think, went back to hers.</p> + +<p>About this time Ultor De Lacy returned. He heard his elder daughter's +strange narrative with marked uneasiness, and his agitation seemed to +grow rather than subside. He enjoined her, however, not to mention it to +the old servant, nor in presence of anybody she might chance to see, but +only to him and to the priest, if he could be persuaded to resume his +duty and return. The trial, however, such as it was, could not endure +very long; matters had turned out favourably. The union of his younger +daughter might be accomplished within a few months, and in eight or +nine weeks they should be on their way to Paris.</p> + +<p>A night or two after her father's arrival, Alice, in the dead of the +night, heard the well-known strange deep voice speaking softly, as it +seemed, close to her own window on the outside; and Una's voice, clear +and tender, spoke in answer. She hurried to her own casement, and pushed +it open, kneeling in the deep embrasure, and looking with a stealthy and +affrighted gaze towards her sister's window. As she crossed the floor +the voices subsided, and she saw a light withdrawn from within. The +moonbeams slanted bright and clear on the whole side of the castle +overlooking the glen, and she plainly beheld the shadow of a man +projected on the wall as on a screen.</p> + +<p>This black shadow recalled with a horrid thrill the outline and fashion +of the figure in the Spanish dress. There were the cap and mantle, the +rapier, the long thin limbs and sinister angularity. It was so thrown +obliquely that the hands reached to the window-sill, and the feet +stretched and stretched, longer and longer as she looked, toward the +ground, and disappeared in the general darkness; and the rest, with a +sudden flicker, shot downwards, as shadows will on the sudden movement +of a light, and was lost in one gigantic leap down the castle wall.</p> + +<p>"I do not know whether I dream or wake when I hear and see these sights; +but I will ask my father to sit up with me, and we <i>two</i> surely cannot +be mistaken. May the holy saints keep and guard us!" And in her terror +she buried her head under the bed-clothes, and whispered her prayers for +an hour.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> + +<i><b>Una's Love</b></i> + +<p>"I have been with Father Denis," said De Lacy, next day, "and he will +come to-morrow; and, thank Heaven! you may both make your confession and +hear mass, and my mind will be at rest; and you'll find poor Una happier +and more like herself."</p> + +<p>But 'tween cup and lip there's many a slip. The priest was not destined +to hear poor Una's shrift. When she bid her sister goodnight she looked +on her with her large, cold, wild eyes, till something of her old human +affections seemed to gather there, and they slowly filled with tears, +which dropped one after the other on her homely dress as she gazed in +her sister's face.</p> + +<p>Alice, delighted, sprang up, and clasped her arms about her neck. "My +own darling treasure,'tis all over; you love your poor Alice again, and +will be happier than ever."</p> + +<p>But while she held her in her embrace Una's eyes were turned towards the +window, and her lips apart, and Alice felt instinctively that her +thoughts were already far away.</p> + +<p>"Hark!--listen!--hush!" and Una, with her delighted gaze fixed, as if +she saw far away beyond the castle wall, the trees, the glen, and the +night's dark curtain, held her hand raised near her ear, and waved her +head slightly in time, as it seemed, to music that reached not Alice's +ear, and smiled her strange pleased smile, and then the smile slowly +faded away, leaving that sly suspicious light behind it which somehow +scared her sister with an uncertain sense of danger; and she sang in +tones so sweet and low that it seemed but a reverie of a song, +recalling, as Alice fancied, the strain to which she had just listened +in that strange ecstasy, the plaintive and beautiful Irish ballad, +"Shule, shule, shule, aroon," the midnight summons of the outlawed Irish +soldier to his darling to follow him.</p> + +<p>Alice had slept little the night before. She was now overpowered with +fatigue; and leaving her candle burning by her bedside, she fell into a +deep sleep. From this she awoke suddenly, and completely, as will +sometimes happen without any apparent cause, and she saw Una come into +the room. She had a little purse of embroidery—her own work—in her +hand; and she stole lightly to the bedside, with her peculiar oblique +smile, and evidently thinking that her sister was asleep.</p> + +<p>Alice was thrilled with a strange terror, and did not speak or move; and +her sister slipped her hand softly under her bolster, and withdrew it. +Then Una stood for while by the hearth, and stretched her hand up to the +mantelpiece, from which she took a little bit of chalk, and Alice +thought she saw her place it in the fingers of a long yellow hand that +was stealthily introduced from her own chamber-door to receive it; and +Una paused in the dark recess of the door, and smiled over her shoulder +toward her sister, and then glided into her room, closing the doors.</p> + +<p>Almost freezing with terror, Alice rose and glided after her, and stood +in her chamber, screaming----</p> + +<p>"Una, Una, in heaven's name what troubles you?"</p> + +<p>But Una seemed to have been sound asleep in her bed, and raised herself +with a start, and looking upon her with a peevish surprise, said----</p> + +<p>"What does Alice seek here?"</p> + +<p>"You were in my room, Una, dear; you seem disturbed and troubled."</p> + +<p>"Dreams, Alice. My dreams crossing your brain; only dreams—dreams. Get +you to bed, and sleep."</p> + +<p>And to bed she went, but <i>not</i> to sleep. She lay awake more than an +hour; and then Una emerged once more from her room. This time she was +fully dressed, and had her cloak and thick shoes on, as their rattle on +the floor plainly discovered. She had a little bundle tied up in a +handkerchief in her hand, and her hood was drawn about her head; and +thus equipped, as it seemed, for a journey, she came and stood at the +foot of Alice's bed, and stared on her with a look so soulless and +terrible that her senses almost forsook her. Then she turned and went +back into her own chamber.</p> + +<p>She may have returned; but Alice thought not—at least she did not see +her. But she lay in great excitement and perturbation; and was +terrified, about an hour later, by a knock at her chamber door—not that +opening into Una's room, but upon the little passage from the stone +screw staircase. She sprang from her bed; but the door was secured on +the inside, and she felt relieved. The knock was repeated, and she heard +some one laughing softly on the outside.</p> + +<p>The morning came at last; that dreadful night was over. But Una! Where +was Una?</p> + +<p>Alice never saw her more. On the head of her empty bed were traced in +chalk the words—Ultor De Lacy, Ultor O'Donnell. And Alice found beneath +her own pillow the little purse of embroidery she had seen in Una's +hand. It was her little parting token, and bore the simple +legend—"Una's love!"</p> + +<p>De Lacy's rage and horror were boundless. He charged the priest, in +frantic language, with having exposed his child, by his cowardice and +neglect, to the machinations of the Fiend, and raved and blasphemed like +a man demented.</p> + +<p>It is said that he procured a solemn exorcism to be performed, in the +hope of disenthralling and recovering his daughter. Several times, it is +alleged, she was seen by the old servants. Once on a sweet summer +morning, in the window of the tower, she was perceived combing her +beautiful golden tresses, and holding a little mirror in her hand; and +first, when she saw herself discovered, she looked affrighted, and then +smiled, her slanting, cunning smile. Sometimes, too, in the glen, by +moonlight, it was said belated villagers had met her, always startled +first, and then smiling, generally singing snatches of old Irish +ballads, that seemed to bear a sort of dim resemblance to her melancholy +fate. The apparition has long ceased. But it is said that now and again, +perhaps once in two or three years, late on a summer night, you may +hear—but faint and far away in the recesses of the glen—the sweet, sad +notes of Una's voice, singing those plaintive melodies. This, too, of +course, in time will cease, and all be forgotten.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> + +<i><b>Sister Agnes and the Portrait</b></i> + +<p>When Ultor De Lacy died, his daughter Alice found among his effects a +small box, containing a portrait such as I have described. When she +looked on it, she recoiled in horror. There, in the plenitude of its +sinister peculiarities, was faithfully portrayed the phantom which lived +with a vivid and horrible accuracy in her remembrance. Folded in the +same box was a brief narrative, stating that, "A.D. 1601, in the month +of December, Walter De Lacy, of Cappercullen, made many prisoners at the +ford of Ownhey, or Abington, of Irish and Spanish soldiers, flying from +the great overthrow of the rebel powers at Kinsale, and among the number +one Roderic O'Donnell, an arch traitor, and near kinsman to that other +O'Donnell who led the rebels; who, claiming kindred through his mother +to De Lacy, sued for his life with instant and miserable entreaty, and +offered great ransom, but was by De Lacy, through great zeal for the +queen, as some thought, cruelly put to death. When he went to the +tower-top, where was the gallows, finding himself in extremity, and no +hope of mercy, he swore that though he could work them no evil before +his death, yet that he would devote himself thereafter to blast the +greatness of the De Lacys, and never leave them till his work was done. +He hath been seen often since, and always for that family perniciously, +insomuch that it hath been the custom to show to young children of that +lineage the picture of the said O'Donnell, in little, taken among his +few valuables, to prevent their being misled by him unawares, so that he +should not have his will, who by devilish wiles and hell-born cunning, +hath steadfastly sought the ruin of that ancient house, and especially +to leave that <i>stemma generosum</i> destitute of issue for the transmission +of their pure blood and worshipful name."</p> + +<p>Old Miss Croker, of Ross House, who was near seventy in the year 1821, +when she related this story to me, had seen and conversed with Alice De +Lacy, a professed nun, under the name of Sister Agnes, in a religious +house in King-street, in Dublin, founded by the famous Duchess of +Tyrconnell, and had the narrative from her own lips. I thought the tale +worth preserving, and have no more to say. +<br> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11700 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a85b157 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11700 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11700) diff --git a/old/11700-8.txt b/old/11700-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..01ae1db --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11700-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1989 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + +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: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2 + +Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [eBook #11700] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: iso-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 2*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 2 + +An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House (1862) + +and + +Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen (1861) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + + +An Authentic Narrative of +a Haunted House + + +[The Editor of the UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE submits the following very +remarkable statement, with every detail of which he has been for some +years acquainted, upon the ground that it affords the most authentic and +ample relation of a series of marvellous phenoma, in nowise connected +with what is technically termed "spiritualism," which he has anywhere +met with. All the persons--and there are many of them living--upon whose +separate evidence some parts, and upon whose united testimony others, of +this most singular recital depend, are, in their several walks of life, +respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation +be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident +here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath +had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of +them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor +begs most pointedly to meet _in limine_ the suspicion, that he is +elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a +mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is +its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own +and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the +name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no +essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but +which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons +interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the +narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative, +which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who +employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the +form of an affidavit.] + + +Within the last eight years--the precise date I purposely omit--I I was +ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to +change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a +house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance +from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it +by a railway. + +Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but +there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house +I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too, +quite a modern one. It formed one in a cheerful row, with small gardens +in front, facing the sea, and commanding sea air and sea views in +perfection. In the rear it had coach-house and stable, and between them +and the house a considerable grass-plot, with some flower-beds, +interposed. + +Our family consisted of my wife and myself, with three children, the +eldest about nine years old, she and the next in age being girls; and +the youngest, between six and seven, a boy. To these were added six +servants, whom, although for certain reasons I decline giving their real +names, I shall indicate, for the sake of clearness, by arbitrary ones. +There was a nurse, Mrs. Southerland; a nursery-maid, Ellen Page; the +cook, Mrs. Greenwood; and the housemaid, Ellen Faith; a butler, whom I +shall call Smith, and his son, James, about two-and-twenty. + +We came out to take possession at about seven o'clock in the evening; +every thing was comfortable and cheery; good fires lighted, the rooms +neat and airy, and a general air of preparation and comfort, highly +conducive to good spirits and pleasant anticipations. + +The sitting-rooms were large and cheerful, and they and the bed-rooms +more than ordinarily lofty, the kitchen and servants' rooms, on the same +level, were well and comfortably furnished, and had, like the rest of +the house, an air of recent painting and fitting up, and a completely +modern character, which imparted a very cheerful air of cleanliness and +convenience. + +There had been just enough of the fuss of settling agreeably to occupy +us, and to give a pleasant turn to our thoughts after we had retired to +our rooms. Being an invalid, I had a small bed to myself--resigning the +four-poster to my wife. The candle was extinguished, but a night-light +was burning. I was coming up stairs, and she, already in bed, had just +dismissed her maid, when we were both startled by a wild scream from her +room; I found her in a state of the extremest agitation and terror. She +insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her +bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define any +thing respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most +distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the +light to disclose more than its dark outline. + +We both endeavoured to re-assure her. The room once more looked so +cheerful in the candlelight, that we were quite uninfluenced by the +contagion of her terrors. The movements and voices of the servants down +stairs still getting things into their places and completing our +comfortable arrangements, had also their effect in steeling us against +any such influence, and we set the whole thing down as a dream, or an +imperfectly-seen outline of the bed-curtains. When, however, we were +alone, my wife reiterated, still in great agitation, her clear assertion +that she had most positively seen, being at the time as completely awake +as ever she was, precisely what she had described to us. And in this +conviction she continued perfectly firm. + +A day or two after this, it came out that our servants were under an +apprehension that, somehow or other, thieves had established a secret +mode of access to the lower part of the house. The butler, Smith, had +seen an ill-looking woman in his room on the first night of our arrival; +and he and other servants constantly saw, for many days subsequently, +glimpses of a retreating figure, which corresponded with that so seen by +him, passing through a passage which led to a back area in which were +some coal-vaults. + +This figure was seen always in the act of retreating, its back turned, +generally getting round the corner of the passage into the area, in a +stealthy and hurried way, and, when closely followed, imperfectly seen +again entering one of the coal-vaults, and when pursued into it, nowhere +to be found. + +The idea of any thing supernatural in the matter had, strange to say, +not yet entered the mind of any one of the servants. They had heard some +stories of smugglers having secret passages into houses, and using their +means of access for purposes of pillage, or with a view to frighten +superstitious people out of houses which they needed for their own +objects, and a suspicion of similar practices here, caused them extreme +uneasiness. The apparent anxiety also manifested by this retreating +figure to escape observation, and her always appearing to make her +egress at the same point, favoured this romantic hypothesis. The men, +however, made a most careful examination of the back area, and of the +coal-vaults, with a view to discover some mode of egress, but entirely +without success. On the contrary, the result was, so far as it went, +subversive of the theory; solid masonry met them on every hand. + +I called the man, Smith, up, to hear from his own lips the particulars +of what he had seen; and certainly his report was very curious. I give +it as literally as my memory enables me:---- + +His son slept in the same room, and was sound asleep; but he lay awake, +as men sometimes will on a change of bed, and having many things on his +mind. He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light +and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw +the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather +low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something--either a cloak +or shawl--on, and wore a bonnet. Her back was turned, and she appeared +to be searching or rummaging for something on the floor, and, without +appearing to observe him, she turned in doing so towards him. The light, +which was more like the intense glow of a coal, as he described it, +being of a deep red colour, proceeded from the hollow of her hand, which +she held beside her head, and he saw her perfectly distinctly. She +appeared middle-aged, was deeply pitted with the smallpox, and blind of +one eye. His phrase in describing her general appearance was, that she +was "a miserable, poor-looking creature." + +He was under the impression that she must be the woman who had been left +by the proprietor in charge of the house, and who had that evening, +after having given up the keys, remained for some little time with the +female servants. He coughed, therefore, to apprize her of his presence, +and turned again towards the wall. When he again looked round she and +the light were gone; and odd as was her method of lighting herself in +her search, the circumstances excited neither uneasiness nor curiosity +in his mind, until he discovered next morning that the woman in question +had left the house long before he had gone to his bed. + +I examined the man very closely as to the appearance of the person who +had visited him, and the result was what I have described. It struck me +as an odd thing, that even then, considering how prone to superstition +persons in his rank of life usually are, he did not seem to suspect any +thing supernatural in the occurrence; and, on the contrary, was +thoroughly persuaded that his visitant was a living person, who had got +into the house by some hidden entrance. + +On Sunday, on his return from his place of worship, he told me that, +when the service was ended, and the congregation making their way slowly +out, he saw the very woman in the crowd, and kept his eye upon her for +several minutes, but such was the crush, that all his efforts to reach +her were unavailing, and when he got into the open street she was gone. +He was quite positive as to his having distinctly seen her, however, +for several minutes, and scouted the possibility of any mistake as to +identity; and fully impressed with the substantial and living reality of +his visitant, he was very much provoked at her having escaped him. He +made inquiries also in the neighbourhood, but could procure no +information, nor hear of any other persons having seen any woman +corresponding with his visitant. + +The cook and the housemaid occupied a bed-room on the kitchen floor. It +had whitewashed walls, and they were actually terrified by the +appearance of the shadow of a woman passing and repassing across the +side wall opposite to their beds. They suspected that this had been +going on much longer than they were aware, for its presence was +discovered by a sort of accident, its movements happening to take a +direction in distinct contrariety to theirs. + +This shadow always moved upon one particular wall, returning after short +intervals, and causing them extreme terror. They placed the candle, as +the most obvious specific, so close to the infested wall, that the flame +all but touched it; and believed for some time that they had effectually +got rid of this annoyance; but one night, notwithstanding this +arrangement of the light, the shadow returned, passing and repassing, as +heretofore, upon the same wall, although their only candle was burning +within an inch of it, and it was obvious that no substance capable of +casting such a shadow could have interposed; and, indeed, as they +described it, the shadow seemed to have no sort of relation to the +position of the light, and appeared, as I have said, in manifest +defiance of the laws of optics. + +I ought to mention that the housemaid was a particularly fearless sort +of person, as well as a very honest one; and her companion, the cook, a +scrupulously religious woman, and both agreed in every particular in +their relation of what occurred. + +Meanwhile, the nursery was not without its annoyances, though as yet of +a comparatively trivial kind. Sometimes, at night, the handle of the +door was turned hurriedly as if by a person trying to come in, and at +others a knocking was made at it. These sounds occurred after the +children had settled to sleep, and while the nurse still remained awake. +Whenever she called to know "who is there," the sounds ceased; but +several times, and particularly at first, she was under the impression +that they were caused by her mistress, who had come to see the children, +and thus impressed she had got up and opened the door, expecting to see +her, but discovering only darkness, and receiving no answer to her +inquiries. + +With respect to this nurse, I must mention that I believe no more +perfectly trustworthy servant was ever employed in her capacity; and, in +addition to her integrity, she was remarkably gifted with sound common +sense. + +One morning, I think about three or four weeks after our arrival, I was +sitting at the parlour window which looked to the front, when I saw the +little iron door which admitted into the small garden that lay between +the window where I was sitting and the public road, pushed open by a +woman who so exactly answered the description given by Smith of the +woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as +instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the +identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and +tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an +eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a +distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that +now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something +stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I +must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off. +Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the +bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang +violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that +intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a +leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front +windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after +her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick +pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man +entered I told him--"the blind woman you described to me has this +instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was, +if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short +time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And, +thereafter, we saw her face no more. + +All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was +not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only +phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear +described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering +with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom +ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was +always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last +stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, _four_--one, two, +three, _four_;" or "one, two, _three_--one, two, _three_," and sometimes +"one, _two_--one, _two_," &c., and this, with intervals and +resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time. + +At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, +much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any +hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed +that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it +frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with +the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my +wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually +troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer +or shorter time. + +Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of +the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children, +greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that +their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their +fears would have made them wretched and troublesome. + +They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden--the house +forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the +other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides. Here, as +it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite +to themselves; and in talking over their days' adventures, as children +will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they +had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in +the garden while they were at play. They assumed that she came in and +went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or +depart. They merely saw a figure--that of a very poor woman, soiled and +ragged--near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently +grubbing in the loose clay in search of something. She did not disturb, +or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession +of her nook of ground. When seen it was always in the same spot, and +similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general +appearance--for they never saw her face--corresponded with that of the +one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen. + +The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for +the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, +his little trouble to report, though it was not much. The stall in +which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she +peremptorily declined to enter. Though a very docile and gentle little +animal, there was no getting her into it. She would snort and rear, and, +in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it. He was +fain, therefore, to place her in another. And on several occasions he +found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear. +Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the +particular case with any superstitious qualms. The mare had evidently +been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the +stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard +outside. + +One morning I was greeted with the intelligence that robbers had +certainly got into the house in the night; and that one of them had +actually been seen in the nursery. The witness, I found, was my eldest +child, then, as I have said, about nine years of age. Having awoke in +the night, and lain awake for some time in her bed, she heard the handle +of the door turn, and a person whom she distinctly saw--for it was a +light night, and the window-shutters unclosed--but whom she had never +seen before, stepped in on tiptoe, and with an appearance of great +caution. He was a rather small man, with a very red face; he wore an +oddly cut frock coat, the collar of which stood up, and trousers, rough +and wide, like those of a sailor, turned up at the ankles, and either +short boots or clumsy shoes, covered with mud. This man listened beside +the nurse's bed, which stood next the door, as if to satisfy himself +that she was sleeping soundly; and having done so for some seconds, he +began to move cautiously in a diagonal line, across the room to the +chimney-piece, where he stood for a while, and so resumed his tiptoe +walk, skirting the wall, until he reached a chest of drawers, some of +which were open, and into which he looked, and began to rummage in a +hurried way, as the child supposed, making search for something worth +taking away. He then passed on to the window, where was a +dressing-table, at which he also stopped, turning over the things upon +it, and standing for some time at the window as if looking out, and then +resuming his walk by the side wall opposite to that by which he had +moved up to the window, he returned in the same way toward the nurse's +bed, so as to reach it at the foot. With its side to the end wall, in +which was the door, was placed the little bed in which lay my eldest +child, who watched his proceedings with the extremest terror. As he drew +near she instinctively moved herself in the bed, with her head and +shoulders to the wall, drawing up her feet; but he passed by without +appearing to observe, or, at least, to care for her presence. +Immediately after the nurse turned in her bed as if about to waken; and +when the child, who had drawn the clothes about her head, again ventured +to peep out, the man was gone. + +The child had no idea of her having seen any thing more formidable than +a thief. With the prowling, cautious, and noiseless manner of proceeding +common to such marauders, the air and movements of the man whom she had +seen entirely corresponded. And on hearing her perfectly distinct and +consistent account, I could myself arrive at no other conclusion than +that a stranger had actually got into the house. I had, therefore, in +the first instance, a most careful examination made to discover any +traces of an entrance having been made by any window into the house. The +doors had been found barred and locked as usual; but no sign of any +thing of the sort was discernible. I then had the various +articles--plate, wearing apparel, books, &c., counted; and after having +conned over and reckoned up every thing, it became quite clear that +nothing whatever had been removed from the house, nor was there the +slightest indication of any thing having been so much as disturbed +there. I must here state that this child was remarkably clear, +intelligent, and observant; and that her description of the man, and of +all that had occurred, was most exact, and as detailed as the want of +perfect light rendered possible. + +I felt assured that an entrance had actually been effected into the +house, though for what purpose was not easily to be conjectured. The +man, Smith, was equally confident upon this point; and his theory was +that the object was simply to frighten us out of the house by making us +believe it haunted; and he was more than ever anxious and on the alert +to discover the conspirators. It often since appeared to me odd. Every +year, indeed, more odd, as this cumulative case of the marvellous +becomes to my mind more and more inexplicable--that underlying my sense +of mystery and puzzle, was all along the quiet assumption that all these +occurrences were one way or another referable to natural causes. I could +not account for them, indeed, myself; but during the whole period I +inhabited that house, I never once felt, though much alone, and often up +very late at night, any of those tremors and thrills which every one has +at times experienced when situation and the hour are favourable. Except +the cook and housemaid, who were plagued with the shadow I mentioned +crossing and recrossing upon the bedroom wall, we all, without +exception, experienced the same strange sense of security, and regarded +these phenomena rather with a perplexed sort of interest and curiosity, +than with any more unpleasant sensations. + +The knockings which I have mentioned at the nursery door, preceded +generally by the sound of a step on the lobby, meanwhile continued. At +that time (for my wife, like myself, was an invalid) two eminent +physicians, who came out occasionally by rail, were attending us. These +gentlemen were at first only amused, but ultimately interested, and very +much puzzled by the occurrences which we described. One of them, at +last, recommended that a candle should be kept burning upon the lobby. +It was in fact a recurrence to an old woman's recipe against ghosts--of +course it might be serviceable, too, against impostors; at all events, +seeming, as I have said, very much interested and puzzled, he advised +it, and it was tried. We fancied that it was successful; for there was +an interval of quiet for, I think, three or four nights. But after that, +the noises--the footsteps on the lobby--the knocking at the door, and +the turning of the handle recommenced in full force, notwithstanding the +light upon the table outside; and these particular phenomena became only +more perplexing than ever. + +The alarm of robbers and smugglers gradually subsided after a week or +two; but we were again to hear news from the nursery. Our second little +girl, then between seven and eight years of age, saw in the night +time--she alone being awake--a young woman, with black, or very dark +hair, which hung loose, and with a black cloak on, standing near the +middle of the floor, opposite the hearthstone, and fronting the foot of +her bed. She appeared quite unobservant of the children and nurse +sleeping in the room. She was very pale, and looked, the child said, +both "sorry and frightened," and with something very peculiar and +terrible about her eyes, which made the child conclude that she was +dead. She was looking, not at, but in the direction of the child's bed, +and there was a dark streak across her throat, like a scar with blood +upon it. This figure was not motionless; but once or twice turned +slowly, and without appearing to be conscious of the presence of the +child, or the other occupants of the room, like a person in vacancy or +abstraction. There was on this occasion a night-light burning in the +chamber; and the child saw, or thought she saw, all these particulars +with the most perfect distinctness. She got her head under the +bed-clothes; and although a good many years have passed since then, she +cannot recall the spectacle without feelings of peculiar horror. + +One day, when the children were playing in the back garden, I asked them +to point out to me the spot where they were accustomed to see the woman +who occasionally showed herself as I have described, near the stable +wall. There was no division of opinion as to this precise point, which +they indicated in the most distinct and confident way. I suggested that, +perhaps, something might be hidden there in the ground; and advised them +digging a hole there with their little spades, to try for it. +Accordingly, to work they went, and by my return in the evening they had +grubbed up a piece of a jawbone, with several teeth in it. The bone was +very much decayed, and ready to crumble to pieces, but the teeth were +quite sound. I could not tell whether they were human grinders; but I +showed the fossil to one of the physicians I have mentioned, who came +out the next evening, and he pronounced them human teeth. The same +conclusion was come to a day or two later by the other medical man. It +appears to me now, on reviewing the whole matter, almost unaccountable +that, with such evidence before me, I should not have got in a labourer, +and had the spot effectually dug and searched. I can only say, that so +it was. I was quite satisfied of the moral truth of every word that had +been related to me, and which I have here set down with scrupulous +accuracy. But I experienced an apathy, for which neither then nor +afterwards did I quite know how to account. I had a vague, but immovable +impression that the whole affair was referable to natural agencies. It +was not until some time after we had left the house, which, by-the-by, +we afterwards found had had the reputation of being haunted before we +had come to live in it, that on reconsideration I discovered the serious +difficulty of accounting satisfactorily for all that had occurred upon +ordinary principles. A great deal we might arbitrarily set down to +imagination. But even in so doing there was, _in limine_, the oddity, +not to say improbability, of so many different persons having nearly +simultaneously suffered from different spectral and other illusions +during the short period for which we had occupied that house, who never +before, nor so far as we learned, afterwards were troubled by any fears +or fancies of the sort. There were other things, too, not to be so +accounted for. The odd knockings in the roof I frequently heard myself. + +There were also, which I before forgot to mention, in the daytime, +rappings at the doors of the sitting-rooms, which constantly deceived +us; and it was not till our "come in" was unanswered, and the hall or +passage outside the door was discovered to be empty, that we learned +that whatever else caused them, human hands did not. All the persons who +reported having seen the different persons or appearances here described +by me, were just as confident of having literally and distinctly seen +them, as I was of having seen the hard-featured woman with the blind +eye, so remarkably corresponding with Smith's description. + +About a week after the discovery of the teeth, which were found, I +think, about two feet under the ground, a friend, much advanced in +years, and who remembered the town in which we had now taken up our +abode, for a very long time, happened to pay us a visit. He +good-humouredly pooh-poohed the whole thing; but at the same time was +evidently curious about it. "We might construct a sort of story," said I +(I am giving, of course, the substance and purport, not the exact words, +of our dialogue), "and assign to each of the three figures who appeared +their respective parts in some dreadful tragedy enacted in this house. +The male figure represents the murderer; the ill-looking, one-eyed woman +his accomplice, who, we will suppose, buried the body where she is now +so often seen grubbing in the earth, and where the human teeth and +jawbone have so lately been disinterred; and the young woman with +dishevelled tresses, and black cloak, and the bloody scar across her +throat, their victim. A difficulty, however, which I cannot get over, +exists in the cheerfulness, the great publicity, and the evident very +recent date of the house." "Why, as to that," said he, "the house is +_not_ modern; it and those beside it formed an old government store, +altered and fitted up recently as you see. I remember it well in my +young days, fifty years ago, before the town had grown out in this +direction, and a more entirely lonely spot, or one more fitted for the +commission of a secret crime, could not have been imagined." + +I have nothing to add, for very soon after this my physician pronounced +a longer stay unnecessary for my health, and we took our departure for +another place of abode. I may add, that although I have resided for +considerable periods in many other houses, I never experienced any +annoyances of a similar kind elsewhere; neither have I made (stupid dog! +you will say), any inquiries respecting either the antecedents or +subsequent history of the house in which we made so disturbed a sojourn. +I was content with what I knew, and have here related as clearly as I +could, and I think it a very pretty puzzle as it stands. + + +[Thus ends the statement, which we abandon to the ingenuity of our +readers, having ourselves no satisfactory explanation to suggest; and +simply repeating the assurance with which we prefaced it, namely, that +we can vouch for the perfect good faith and the accuracy of the +narrator.--E.D.U.M.] + + + + +Ultor De Lacy: +A Legend of Cappercullen + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The Jacobite's Legacy + +In my youth I heard a great many Irish family traditions, more or less +of a supernatural character, some of them very peculiar, and all, to a +child at least, highly interesting. One of these I will now relate, +though the translation to cold type from oral narrative, with all the +aids of animated human voice and countenance, and the appropriate +_mise-en-scčne_ of the old-fashioned parlour fireside and its listening +circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of +leafless boughs, with the occasional rattle of the clumsy old +window-frame behind shutter and curtain, as the blast swept by, is at +best a trying one. + +About midway up the romantic glen of Cappercullen, near the point where +the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary converge, upon the then +sequestered and forest-bound range of the Slieve-Felim hills, there +stood, in the reigns of the two earliest Georges, the picturesque and +massive remains of one of the finest of the Anglo-Irish castles of +Munster--perhaps of Ireland. + +It crowned the precipitous edge of the wooded glen, itself half-buried +among the wild forest that covered that long and solitary range. There +was no human habitation within a circle of many miles, except the +half-dozen hovels and the small thatched chapel composing the little +village of Murroa, which lay at the foot of the glen among the +straggling skirts of the noble forest. + +Its remoteness and difficulty of access saved it from demolition. It was +worth nobody's while to pull down and remove the ponderous and clumsy +oak, much less the masonry or flagged roofing of the pile. Whatever +would pay the cost of removal had been long since carried away. The rest +was abandoned to time--the destroyer. + +The hereditary owners of this noble building and of a wide territory in +the contiguous counties I have named, were English--the De Lacys--long +naturalized in Ireland. They had acquired at least this portion of their +estate in the reign of Henry VIII, and held it, with some vicissitudes, +down to the establishment of the revolution in Ireland, when they +suffered attainder, and, like other great families of that period, +underwent a final eclipse. + +The De Lacy of that day retired to France, and held a brief command in +the Irish Brigade, interrupted by sickness. He retired, became a poor +hanger-on of the Court of St. Germains, and died early in the eighteenth +century--as well as I remember, 1705--leaving an only son, hardly twelve +years old, called by the strange but significant name of Ultor. + +At this point commences the marvellous ingredient of my tale. + +When his father was dying, he had him to his bedside, with no one by +except his confessor; and having told him, first, that on reaching the +age of twenty-one, he was to lay claim to a certain small estate in the +county of Clare, in Ireland, in right of his mother--the title-deeds of +which he gave him--and next, having enjoined him not to marry before the +age of thirty, on the ground that earlier marriages destroyed the spirit +and the power of enterprise, and would incapacitate him from the +accomplishment of his destiny--the restoration of his family--he then +went on to open to the child a matter which so terrified him that he +cried lamentably, trembling all over, clinging to the priest's gown with +one hand and to his father's cold wrist with the other, and imploring +him, with screams of horror, to desist from his communication. + +But the priest, impressed, no doubt, himself, with its necessity, +compelled him to listen. And then his father showed him a small picture, +from which also the child turned with shrieks, until similarly +constrained to look. They did not let him go until he had carefully +conned the features, and was able to tell them, from memory, the colour +of the eyes and hair, and the fashion and hues of the dress. Then his +father gave him a black box containing this portrait, which was a +full-length miniature, about nine inches long, painted very finely in +oils, as smooth as enamel, and folded above it a sheet of paper, written +over in a careful and very legible hand. + +The deeds and this black box constituted the most important legacy +bequeathed to his only child by the ruined Jacobite, and he deposited +them in the hands of the priest, in trust, till his boy, Ultor, should +have attained to an age to understand their value, and to keep them +securely. + +When this scene was ended, the dying exile's mind, I suppose, was +relieved, for he spoke cheerily, and said he believed he would recover; +and they soothed the crying child, and his father kissed him, and gave +him a little silver coin to buy fruit with; and so they sent him off +with another boy for a walk, and when he came back his father was dead. + +He remained in France under the care of this ecclesiastic until he had +attained the age of twenty-one, when he repaired to Ireland, and his +title being unaffected by his father's attainder, he easily made good +his claim to the small estate in the county of Clare. + +There he settled, making a dismal and solitary tour now and then of the +vast territories which had once been his father's, and nursing those +gloomy and impatient thoughts which befitted the enterprises to which he +was devoted. + +Occasionally he visited Paris, that common centre of English, Irish, and +Scottish disaffection; and there, when a little past thirty, he married +the daughter of another ruined Irish house. His bride returned with him +to the melancholy seclusion of their Munster residence, where she bore +him in succession two daughters--Alice, the elder, dark-eyed and +dark-haired, grave and sensible--Una, four years younger, with large +blue eyes and long and beautiful golden hair. + +Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, +high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in +the isolation and gloom of her lot. At all events she died young, and +the children were left to the sole care of their melancholy and +embittered father. In process of time the girls grew up, tradition says, +beautiful. The elder was designed for a convent, the younger her father +hoped to mate as nobly as her high blood and splendid beauty seemed to +promise, if only the great game on which he had resolved to stake all +succeeded. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Fairies in the Castle + +The Rebellion of '45 came, and Ultor de Lacy was one of the few Irishmen +implicated treasonably in that daring and romantic insurrection. Of +course there were warrants out against him, but he was not to be found. +The young ladies, indeed, remained as heretofore in their father's +lonely house in Clare; but whether he had crossed the water or was still +in Ireland was for some time unknown, even to them. In due course he was +attainted, and his little estate forfeited. It was a miserable +catastrophe--a tremendous and beggarly waking up from a life-long dream +of returning principality. + +In due course the officers of the crown came down to take possession, +and it behoved the young ladies to flit. Happily for them the +ecclesiastic I have mentioned was not quite so confident as their +father, of his winning back the magnificent patrimony of his ancestors; +and by his advice the daughters had been secured twenty pounds a year +each, under the marriage settlement of their parents, which was all that +stood between this proud house and literal destitution. + +Late one evening, as some little boys from the village were returning +from a ramble through the dark and devious glen of Cappercullen, with +their pockets laden with nuts and "frahans," to their amazement and even +terror they saw a light streaming redly from the narrow window of one of +the towers overhanging the precipice among the ivy and the lofty +branches, across the glen, already dim in the shadows of the deepening +night. + +"Look--look--look--'tis the Phooka's tower!" was the general cry, in the +vernacular Irish, and a universal scamper commenced. + +The bed of the glen, strewn with great fragments of rock, among which +rose the tall stems of ancient trees, and overgrown with a tangled +copse, was at the best no favourable ground for a run. Now it was dark; +and, terrible work breaking through brambles and hazels and tumbling +over rocks. Little Shaeen Mull Ryan, the last of the panic rout, +screaming to his mates to wait for him--saw a whitish figure emerge from +the thicket at the base of the stone flight of steps that descended the +side of the glen, close by the castle-wall, intercepting his flight, and +a discordant male voice shrieked---- + +"I have you!" + +At the same time the boy, with a cry of terror, tripped and tumbled; and +felt himself roughly caught by the arm, and hauled to his feet with a +shake. + +A wild yell from the child, and a volley of terror and entreaty +followed. + +"Who is it, Larry; what's the matter?" cried a voice, high in air, from +the turret window, The words floated down through the trees, clear and +sweet as the low notes of a flute. + +"Only a child, my lady; a boy." + +"Is he hurt?" + +"Are you hurted?" demanded the whitish man, who held him fast, and +repeated the question in Irish; but the child only kept blubbering and +crying for mercy, with his hands clasped, and trying to drop on his +knees. + +Larry's strong old hand held him up. He _was_ hurt, and bleeding from +over his eye. + +"Just a trifle hurted, my lady!" + +"Bring him up here." + +Shaeen Mull Ryan gave himself over. He was among "the good people," who +he knew would keep him prisoner for ever and a day. There was no good in +resisting. He grew bewildered, and yielded himself passively to his +fate, and emerged from the glen on the platform above; his captor's +knotted old hand still on his arm, and looked round on the tall +mysterious trees, and the gray front of the castle, revealed in the +imperfect moonlight, as upon the scenery of a dream. + +The old man who, with thin wiry legs, walked by his side, in a dingy +white coat, and blue facings, and great pewter buttons, with his silver +gray hair escaping from under his battered three-cocked hat; and his +shrewd puckered resolute face, in which the boy could read no promise of +sympathy, showing so white and phantom-like in the moonlight, was, as he +thought, the incarnate ideal of a fairy. + +This figure led him in silence under the great arched gateway, and +across the grass-grown court, to the door in the far angle of the +building; and so, in the dark, round and round, up a stone screw stair, +and with a short turn into a large room, with a fire of turf and wood, +burning on its long unused hearth, over which hung a pot, and about it +an old woman with a great wooden spoon was busy. An iron candlestick +supported their solitary candle; and about the floor of the room, as +well as on the table and chairs, lay a litter of all sorts of things; +piles of old faded hangings, boxes, trunks, clothes, pewter-plates, and +cups; and I know not what more. + +But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures +of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of +Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in +keeping. But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, +and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a +higher rank. + +The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal +table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as +he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and _riant_, +with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with +something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as +the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined. + +They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not +English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to +amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled +mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good +people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said---- + +"Do you know who _I_ am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and +this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark +lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family +physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and +woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall +do with _you_, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding +on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his +enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under +ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon +you see through the window--with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, +for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see +how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my +castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys +I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall +belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people +more." + +And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps +before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and +courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm. + +Then, with a little laugh, she said---- + +"My little man, we must mend your head." + +And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to +it. And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little +French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said---- + +"You need not be afraid to eat these--they are very good--and I'll send +my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free. Take him (she addressed +Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge." + +The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the +fairy---- + +"Brave, dear, wild Una! nothing can ever quell your gaiety of heart." + +And Una kissed her merrily on the cheek. + +So the oak door of the room again opened, and Shaeen, with his +conductor, descended the stair. He walked with the scared boy in grim +silence near half way down the wild hill-side toward Murroa, and then he +stopped, and said in Irish---- + +"You never saw the fairies before, my fine fellow, and 'tisn't often +those who once set eyes on us return to tell it. Whoever comes nearer, +night or day, than this stone," and he tapped it with the end of his +cane, "will never see his home again, for we'll keep him till the day of +judgment; goodnight, little gossoon--and away with you." + +So these young ladies, Alice and Una, with two old servants, by their +father's direction, had taken up their abode in a portion of that side +of the old castle which overhung the glen; and with the furniture and +hangings they had removed from their late residence, and with the aid of +glass in the casements and some other indispensable repairs, and a +thorough airing, they made the rooms they had selected just habitable, +as a rude and temporary shelter. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The Priest's Adventures in the Glen + +At first, of course, they saw or heard little of their father. In +general, however, they knew that his plan was to procure some employment +in France, and to remove them there. Their present strange abode was +only an adventure and an episode, and they believed that any day they +might receive instructions to commence their journey. + +After a little while the pursuit relaxed. The government, I believe, did +not care, provided he did not obtrude himself, what became of him, or +where he concealed himself. At all events, the local authorities showed +no disposition to hunt him down. The young ladies' charges on the little +forfeited property were paid without any dispute, and no vexatious +inquiries were raised as to what had become of the furniture and other +personal property which had been carried away from the forfeited house. + +The haunted reputation of the castle--for in those days, in matters of +the marvellous, the oldest were children--secured the little family in +the seclusion they coveted. Once, or sometimes twice a week, old +Laurence, with a shaggy little pony, made a secret expedition to the +city of Limerick, starting before dawn, and returning under the cover of +the night, with his purchases. There was beside an occasional sly +moonlit visit from the old parish priest, and a midnight mass in the old +castle for the little outlawed congregation. + +As the alarm and inquiry subsided, their father made them, now and then, +a brief and stealthy visit. At first these were but of a night's +duration, and with great precaution; but gradually they were extended +and less guarded. Still he was, as the phrase is in Munster, "on his +keeping." He had firearms always by his bed, and had arranged places of +concealment in the castle in the event of a surprise. But no attempt nor +any disposition to molest him appearing, he grew more at ease, if not +more cheerful. + +It came, at last, that he would sometimes stay so long as two whole +months at a time, and then depart as suddenly and mysteriously as he +came. I suppose he had always some promising plot on hand, and his head +full of ingenious treason, and lived on the sickly and exciting dietary +of hope deferred. + +Was there a poetical justice in this, that the little _ménage_ thus +secretly established, in the solitary and timeworn pile, should have +themselves experienced, but from causes not so easily explicable, those +very supernatural perturbations which they had themselves essayed to +inspire? + +The interruption of the old priest's secret visits was the earliest +consequence of the mysterious interference which now began to display +itself. One night, having left his cob in care of his old sacristan in +the little village, he trudged on foot along the winding pathway, among +the gray rocks and ferns that threaded the glen, intending a ghostly +visit to the fair recluses of the castle, and he lost his way in this +strange fashion. + +There was moonlight, indeed, but it was little more than quarter-moon, +and a long train of funereal clouds were sailing slowly across the +sky--so that, faint and wan as it was, the light seldom shone full out, +and was often hidden for a minute or two altogether. When he reached the +point in the glen where the castle-stairs were wont to be, he could see +nothing of them, and above, no trace of the castle-towers. So, puzzled +somewhat, he pursued his way up the ravine, wondering how his walk had +become so unusually protracted and fatiguing. + +At last, sure enough, he saw the castle as plain as could be, and a +lonely streak of candle-light issuing from the tower, just as usual, +when his visit was expected. But he could not find the stair; and had to +clamber among the rocks and copse-wood the best way he could. But when +he emerged at top, there was nothing but the bare heath. Then the clouds +stole over the moon again, and he moved along with hesitation and +difficulty, and once more he saw the outline of the castle against the +sky, quite sharp and clear. But this time it proved to be a great +battlemented mass of cloud on the horizon. In a few minutes more he was +quite close, all of a sudden, to the great front, rising gray and dim in +the feeble light, and not till he could have struck it with his good oak +"wattle" did he discover it to be only one of those wild, gray frontages +of living rock that rise here and there in picturesque tiers along the +slopes of those solitary mountains. And so, till dawn, pursuing this +mirage of the castle, through pools and among ravines, he wore out a +night of miserable misadventure and fatigue. + +Another night, riding up the glen, so far as the level way at bottom +would allow, and intending to make his nag fast at his customary tree, +he heard on a sudden a horrid shriek at top of the steep rocks above his +head, and something--a gigantic human form, it seemed--came tumbling and +bounding headlong down through the rocks, and fell with a fearful +impetus just before his horse's hoofs and there lay like a huge +palpitating carcass. The horse was scared, as, indeed, was his rider, +too, and more so when this apparently lifeless thing sprang up to his +legs, and throwing his arms apart to bar their further progress, +advanced his white and gigantic face towards them. Then the horse +started about, with a snort of terror, nearly unseating the priest, and +broke away into a furious and uncontrollable gallop. + +I need not recount all the strange and various misadventures which the +honest priest sustained in his endeavours to visit the castle, and its +isolated tenants. They were enough to wear out his resolution, and +frighten him into submission. And so at last these spiritual visits +quite ceased; and fearing to awaken inquiry and suspicion, he thought it +only prudent to abstain from attempting them in the daytime. + +So the young ladies of the castle were more alone than ever. Their +father, whose visits were frequently of long duration, had of late +ceased altogether to speak of their contemplated departure for France, +grew angry at any allusion to it, and they feared, had abandoned the +plan altogether. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Light in the Bell Tower + +Shortly after the discontinuance of the priest's visits, old Laurence, +one night, to his surprise, saw light issuing from a window in the Bell +Tower. It was at first only a tremulous red ray, visible only for a few +minutes, which seemed to pass from the room, through whose window it +escaped upon the courtyard of the castle, and so to lose itself. This +tower and casement were in the angle of the building, exactly +confronting that in which the little outlawed family had taken up their +quarters. + +The whole family were troubled at the appearance of this dull red ray +from the chamber in the Bell Tower. Nobody knew what to make of it. But +Laurence, who had campaigned in Italy with his old master, the young +ladies' grandfather--"the heavens be his bed this night!"--was resolved +to see it out, and took his great horse-pistols with him, and ascended +to the corridor leading to the tower. But his search was vain. + +This light left a sense of great uneasiness among the inmates, and most +certainly it was not pleasant to suspect the establishment of an +independent and possibly dangerous lodger or even colony, within the +walls of the same old building. + +The light very soon appeared again, steadier and somewhat brighter, in +the same chamber. Again old Laurence buckled on his armour, swearing +ominously to himself, and this time bent in earnest upon conflict. The +young ladies watched in thrilling suspense from the great window in +_their_ stronghold, looking diagonally across the court. But as +Laurence, who had entered the massive range of buildings opposite, might +be supposed to be approaching the chamber from which this ill-omened +glare proceeded, it steadily waned, finally disappearing altogether, +just a few seconds before his voice was heard shouting from the arched +window to know which way the light had gone. + +This lighting up of the great chamber of the Bell Tower grew at last to +be of frequent and almost continual recurrence. It was, there, long ago, +in times of trouble and danger, that the De Lacys of those evil days +used to sit in feudal judgment upon captive adversaries, and, as +tradition alleged, often gave them no more time for shrift and prayer, +than it needed to mount to the battlement of the turret over-head, from +which they were forthwith hung by the necks, for a caveat and admonition +to all evil disposed persons viewing the same from the country beneath. + +Old Laurence observed these mysterious glimmerings with an evil and an +anxious eye, and many and various were the stratagems he tried, but in +vain, to surprise the audacious intruders. It is, however, I believe, a +fact that no phenomenon, no matter how startling at first, if prosecuted +with tolerable regularity, and unattended with any new circumstances of +terror, will very long continue to excite alarm or even wonder. + +So the family came to acquiesce in this mysterious light. No harm +accompanied it. Old Laurence, as he smoked his lonely pipe in the +grass-grown courtyard, would cast a disturbed glance at it, as it softly +glowed out through the darking aperture, and mutter a prayer or an oath. +But he had given over the chase as a hopeless business. And Peggy +Sullivan, the old dame of all work, when, by chance, for she never +willingly looked toward the haunted quarter, she caught the faint +reflection of its dull effulgence with the corner of her eye, would sign +herself with the cross or fumble at her beads, and deeper furrows would +gather in her forehead, and her face grow ashen and perturbed. And this +was not mended by the levity with which the young ladies, with whom the +spectre had lost his influence, familiarity, as usual, breeding +contempt, had come to talk, and even to jest, about it. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The Man with the Claret Mark + +But as the former excitement flagged, old Peggy Sullivan produced a new +one; for she solemnly avowed that she had seen a thin-faced man, with an +ugly red mark all over the side of his cheek, looking out of the same +window, just at sunset, before the young ladies returned from their +evening walk. + +This sounded in their ears like an old woman's dream, but still it was +an excitement, jocular in the morning, and just, perhaps, a little +fearful as night overspread the vast and desolate building, but still, +not wholly unpleasant. This little flicker of credulity suddenly, +however, blazed up into the full light of conviction. + +Old Laurence, who was not given to dreaming, and had a cool, hard head, +and an eye like a hawk, saw the same figure, just about the same hour, +when the last level gleam of sunset was tinting the summits of the +towers and the tops of the tall trees that surrounded them. + +He had just entered the court from the great gate, when he heard all at +once the hard peculiar twitter of alarm which sparrows make when a cat +or a hawk invades their safety, rising all round from the thick ivy that +overclimbed the wall on his left, and raising his eyes listlessly, he +saw, with a sort of shock, a thin, ungainly man, standing with his legs +crossed, in the recess of the window from which the light was wont to +issue, leaning with his elbows on the stone mullion, and looking down +with a sort of sickly sneer, his hollow yellow cheeks being deeply +stained on one side with what is called a "claret-mark." + +"I have you at last, you villain!" cried Larry, in a strange rage and +panic: "drop down out of that on the grass here, and give yourself up, +or I'll shoot you." + +The threat was backed with an oath, and he drew from his coat pocket the +long holster pistol he was wont to carry, and covered his man cleverly. + +"I give you while I count ten--one-two-three-four. If you draw back, +I'll fire, mind; five-six--you'd better be lively--seven-eight-nine--one +chance more; will you come down? Then take it--ten!" + +Bang went the pistol. The sinister stranger was hardly fifteen feet +removed from him, and Larry was a dead shot. But this time he made a +scandalous miss, for the shot knocked a little white dust from the stone +wall a full yard at one side; and the fellow never shifted his negligent +posture or qualified his sardonic smile during the procedure. + +Larry was mortified and angry. + +"You'll not get off this time, my tulip!" he said with a grin, +exchanging the smoking weapon for the loaded pistol in reserve. + +"What are you pistolling, Larry?" said a familiar voice close by his +elbow, and he saw his master, accompanied by a handsome young man in a +cloak. + +"That villain, your honour, in the window, there." + +"Why there's nobody there, Larry," said De Lacy, with a laugh, though +that was no common indulgence with him. + +As Larry gazed, the figure somehow dissolved and broke up without +receding. A hanging tuft of yellow and red ivy nodded queerly in place +of the face, some broken and discoloured masonry in perspective took up +the outline and colouring of the arms and figure, and two imperfect red +and yellow lichen streaks carried on the curved tracing of the long +spindle shanks. Larry blessed himself, and drew his hand across his damp +forehead, over his bewildered eyes, and could not speak for a minute. +It was all some devilish trick; he could take his oath he saw every +feature in the fellow's face, the lace and buttons of his cloak and +doublet, and even his long finger nails and thin yellow fingers that +overhung the cross-shaft of the window, where there was now nothing but +a rusty stain left. + +The young gentleman who had arrived with De Lacy, stayed that night and +shared with great apparent relish the homely fare of the family. He was +a gay and gallant Frenchman, and the beauty of the younger lady, and her +pleasantry and spirit, seemed to make his hours pass but too swiftly, +and the moment of parting sad. + +When he had departed early in the morning, Ultor De Lacy had a long talk +with his elder daughter, while the younger was busy with her early dairy +task, for among their retainers this _proles generosa_ reckoned a "kind" +little Kerry cow. + +He told her that he had visited France since he had been last at +Cappercullen, and how good and gracious their sovereign had been, and +how he had arranged a noble alliance for her sister Una. The young +gentleman was of high blood, and though not rich, had, nevertheless, his +acres and his _nom de terre_, besides a captain's rank in the army. He +was, in short, the very gentleman with whom they had parted only that +morning. On what special business he was now in Ireland there was no +necessity that he should speak; but being here he had brought him hither +to present him to his daughter, and found that the impression she had +made was quite what was desirable. + +"You, you know, dear Alice, are promised to a conventual life. Had it +been otherwise--" + +He hesitated for a moment. + +"You are right, dear father," she said, kissing his hand, "I _am_ so +promised, and no earthly tie or allurement has power to draw me from +that holy engagement." + +"Well," he said, returning her caress, "I do not mean to urge you upon +that point. It must not, however, be until Una's marriage has taken +place. That cannot be, for many good reasons, sooner than this time +twelve months; we shall then exchange this strange and barbarous abode +for Paris, where are many eligible convents, in which are entertained as +sisters some of the noblest ladies of France; and there, too, in Una's +marriage will be continued, though not the name, at all events the +blood, the lineage, and the title which, so sure as justice ultimately +governs the course of human events, will be again established, powerful +and honoured in this country, the scene of their ancient glory and +transitory misfortunes. Meanwhile, we must not mention this engagement +to Una. Here she runs no risk of being sought or won; but the mere +knowledge that her hand was absolutely pledged, might excite a +capricious opposition and repining such as neither I nor you would like +to see; therefore be secret." + +The same evening he took Alice with him for a ramble round the castle +wall, while they talked of grave matters, and he as usual allowed her a +dim and doubtful view of some of those cloud-built castles in which he +habitually dwelt, and among which his jaded hopes revived. + +They were walking upon a pleasant short sward of darkest green, on one +side overhung by the gray castle walls, and on the other by the forest +trees that here and there closely approached it, when precisely as they +turned the angle of the Bell Tower, they were encountered by a person +walking directly towards them. The sight of a stranger, with the +exception of the one visitor introduced by her father, was in this place +so absolutely unprecedented, that Alice was amazed and affrighted to +such a degree that for a moment she stood stock-still. + +But there was more in this apparition to excite unpleasant emotions, +than the mere circumstance of its unexpectedness. The figure was very +strange, being that of a tall, lean, ungainly man, dressed in a dingy +suit, somewhat of a Spanish fashion, with a brown laced cloak, and faded +red stockings. He had long lank legs, long arms, hands, and fingers, and +a very long sickly face, with a drooping nose, and a sly, sarcastic +leer, and a great purplish stain over-spreading more than half of one +cheek. + +As he strode past, he touched his cap with his thin, discoloured +fingers, and an ugly side glance, and disappeared round the corner. The +eyes of father and daughter followed him in silence. + +Ultor De Lacy seemed first absolutely terror-stricken, and then suddenly +inflamed with ungovernable fury. He dropped his cane on the ground, drew +his rapier, and, without wasting a thought on his daughter, pursued. + +He just had a glimpse of the retreating figure as it disappeared round +the far angle. The plume, and the lank hair, the point of the +rapier-scabbard, the flutter of the skirt of the cloak, and one red +stocking and heel; and this was the last he saw of him. + +When Alice reached his side, his drawn sword still in his hand, he was +in a state of abject agitation. + +"Thank Heaven, he's gone!" she exclaimed. + +"He's gone," echoed Ultor, with a strange glare. + +"And you are safe," she added, clasping his hand. + +He sighed a great sigh. + +"And you don't think he's coming back?" + +"He!--who?" + +"The stranger who passed us but now. Do you know him, father?" + +"Yes--and--no, child--I know him not--and yet I know him too well. Would +to heaven we could leave this accursed haunt tonight. Cursed be the +stupid malice that first provoked this horrible feud, which no sacrifice +and misery can appease, and no exorcism can quell or even suspend. The +wretch has come from afar with a sure instinct to devour my last +hope--to dog us into our last retreat--and to blast with his triumph the +very dust and ruins of our house. What ails that stupid priest that he +has given over his visits? Are _my_ children to be left without mass or +confession--the sacraments which _guard_ as well as save--because he +once loses his way in a mist, or mistakes a streak of foam in the brook +for a dead man's face? D--n him!" + +"See, Alice, if he won't come," he resumed, "you must only _write_ your +confession to him in full--you and Una. Laurence is trusty, and will +carry it--and we'll get the bishop's--or, if need be, the Pope's leave +for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you +_shall_ have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a +wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know +there's but one safe way--and--and--keep you each a bit of this--(he +opened a small silver box)--about you while you stay here--fold and sew +it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next +your hearts--'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer--and will help, +with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm--and be strict in +fasts, and constant in prayer--_I_ can do nothing--nor devise any help. +The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine." + +And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and +agitated face. + +This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Voices + +Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her +fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent +with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and +quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable +change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in +trifles; and strangely reserved and cold. + +Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this +estrangement--had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before +borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature +so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity? + +Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to +disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to +listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked +for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing +all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and +subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself, +and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice. + +She and Alice slept in the same bedroom--a chamber in a projecting +tower--which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung +round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their +skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if +speaking to herself---- + +"'Tis my last night in this room--I shall sleep no more with Alice." + +"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unkindness?" + +Una looked on her curiously, and half frightened, and then the odd smile +stole over her face like a gleam of moonlight. + +"My poor Alice, what have you to do with it?" she whispered. + +"And why do you talk of sleeping no more with me?" said Alice. + +"Why? Alice dear--no why--no reason--only a knowledge that it must be +so, or Una will die." + +"Die, Una darling!--what can you mean?" + +"Yes, sweet Alice, die, indeed. We must all die some time, you know, +or--or undergo a change; and my time is near--_very_ near--unless I +sleep apart from you." + +"Indeed, Una, sweetheart, I think you _are_ ill, but not near death." + +"Una knows what you think, wise Alice--but she's not mad--on the +contrary, she's wiser than other folks." + +"She's sadder and stranger too," said Alice, tenderly. + +"Knowledge is sorrow," answered Una, and she looked across the room +through her golden hair which she was combing--and through the window, +beyond which lay the tops of the great trees, and the still foliage of +the glen in the misty moonlight. + +"'Tis enough, Alice dear; it must be so. The bed must move hence, or +Una's bed will be low enough ere long. See, it shan't be far though, +only into that small room." + +She pointed to an inner room or closet opening from that in which they +lay. The walls of the building were hugely thick, and there were double +doors of oak between the chambers, and Alice thought, with a sigh, how +completely separated they were going to be. + +However she offered no opposition. The change was made, and the girls +for the first time since childhood lay in separate chambers. A few +nights afterwards Alice awoke late in the night from a dreadful dream, +in which the sinister figure which she and her father had encountered in +their ramble round the castle walls, bore a principal part. + +When she awoke there were still in her ears the sounds which had mingled +in her dream. They were the notes of a deep, ringing, bass voice rising +from the glen beneath the castle walls--something between humming and +singing--listlessly unequal and intermittent, like the melody of a man +whiling away the hours over his work. While she was wondering at this +unwonted minstrelsy, there came a silence, and--could she believe her +ears?--it certainly was Una's clear low contralto--softly singing a bar +or two from the window. Then once more silence--and then again the +strange manly voice, faintly chaunting from the leafy abyss. + +With a strange wild feeling of suspicion and terror, Alice glided to the +window. The moon who sees so many things, and keeps all secrets, with +her cold impenetrable smile, was high in the sky. But Alice saw the red +flicker of a candle from Una's window, and, she thought, the shadow of +her head against the deep side wall of its recess. Then this was gone, +and there were no more sights or sounds that night. + +As they sate at breakfast, the small birds were singing merrily from +among the sun-tipped foliage. + +"I love this music," said Alice, unusually pale and sad; "it comes with +the pleasant light of morning. I remember, Una, when you used to sing, +like those gay birds, in the fresh beams of the morning; that was in the +old time, when Una kept no secret from poor Alice." + +"And Una knows what her sage Alice means; but there are other birds, +silent all day long, and, they say, the sweetest too, that love to sing +by _night_ alone." + +So things went on--the elder girl pained and melancholy--the younger +silent, changed, and unaccountable. + +A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard +a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be +no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the +walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting. +But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made +up the dialogue. + +Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to +enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices +ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her +in her nightdress, candle in hand. + +"Una--Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried +frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck. + +Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her. + +"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly. + +And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding +place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs +in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars +across; no hearth or chimney--nothing but bare walls. + +Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful +inquiry into those of her sister. Una smiled one of her peculiar +sidelong smiles, and said---- + +"Strange dreams! I've been dreaming--so has Alice. She hears and sees +Una's dreams, and wonders--and well she may." + +And she kissed her sister's cheek with a cold kiss, and lay down in her +little bed, her slender hand under her head, and spoke no more. + +Alice, not knowing what to think, went back to hers. + +About this time Ultor De Lacy returned. He heard his elder daughter's +strange narrative with marked uneasiness, and his agitation seemed to +grow rather than subside. He enjoined her, however, not to mention it to +the old servant, nor in presence of anybody she might chance to see, but +only to him and to the priest, if he could be persuaded to resume his +duty and return. The trial, however, such as it was, could not endure +very long; matters had turned out favourably. The union of his younger +daughter might be accomplished within a few months, and in eight or +nine weeks they should be on their way to Paris. + +A night or two after her father's arrival, Alice, in the dead of the +night, heard the well-known strange deep voice speaking softly, as it +seemed, close to her own window on the outside; and Una's voice, clear +and tender, spoke in answer. She hurried to her own casement, and pushed +it open, kneeling in the deep embrasure, and looking with a stealthy and +affrighted gaze towards her sister's window. As she crossed the floor +the voices subsided, and she saw a light withdrawn from within. The +moonbeams slanted bright and clear on the whole side of the castle +overlooking the glen, and she plainly beheld the shadow of a man +projected on the wall as on a screen. + +This black shadow recalled with a horrid thrill the outline and fashion +of the figure in the Spanish dress. There were the cap and mantle, the +rapier, the long thin limbs and sinister angularity. It was so thrown +obliquely that the hands reached to the window-sill, and the feet +stretched and stretched, longer and longer as she looked, toward the +ground, and disappeared in the general darkness; and the rest, with a +sudden flicker, shot downwards, as shadows will on the sudden movement +of a light, and was lost in one gigantic leap down the castle wall. + +"I do not know whether I dream or wake when I hear and see these sights; +but I will ask my father to sit up with me, and we _two_ surely cannot +be mistaken. May the holy saints keep and guard us!" And in her terror +she buried her head under the bed-clothes, and whispered her prayers for +an hour. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Una's Love + +"I have been with Father Denis," said De Lacy, next day, "and he will +come to-morrow; and, thank Heaven! you may both make your confession and +hear mass, and my mind will be at rest; and you'll find poor Una happier +and more like herself." + +But 'tween cup and lip there's many a slip. The priest was not destined +to hear poor Una's shrift. When she bid her sister goodnight she looked +on her with her large, cold, wild eyes, till something of her old human +affections seemed to gather there, and they slowly filled with tears, +which dropped one after the other on her homely dress as she gazed in +her sister's face. + +Alice, delighted, sprang up, and clasped her arms about her neck. "My +own darling treasure,'tis all over; you love your poor Alice again, and +will be happier than ever." + +But while she held her in her embrace Una's eyes were turned towards the +window, and her lips apart, and Alice felt instinctively that her +thoughts were already far away. + +"Hark!--listen!--hush!" and Una, with her delighted gaze fixed, as if +she saw far away beyond the castle wall, the trees, the glen, and the +night's dark curtain, held her hand raised near her ear, and waved her +head slightly in time, as it seemed, to music that reached not Alice's +ear, and smiled her strange pleased smile, and then the smile slowly +faded away, leaving that sly suspicious light behind it which somehow +scared her sister with an uncertain sense of danger; and she sang in +tones so sweet and low that it seemed but a reverie of a song, +recalling, as Alice fancied, the strain to which she had just listened +in that strange ecstasy, the plaintive and beautiful Irish ballad, +"Shule, shule, shule, aroon," the midnight summons of the outlawed Irish +soldier to his darling to follow him. + +Alice had slept little the night before. She was now overpowered with +fatigue; and leaving her candle burning by her bedside, she fell into a +deep sleep. From this she awoke suddenly, and completely, as will +sometimes happen without any apparent cause, and she saw Una come into +the room. She had a little purse of embroidery--her own work--in her +hand; and she stole lightly to the bedside, with her peculiar oblique +smile, and evidently thinking that her sister was asleep. + +Alice was thrilled with a strange terror, and did not speak or move; and +her sister slipped her hand softly under her bolster, and withdrew it. +Then Una stood for while by the hearth, and stretched her hand up to the +mantelpiece, from which she took a little bit of chalk, and Alice +thought she saw her place it in the fingers of a long yellow hand that +was stealthily introduced from her own chamber-door to receive it; and +Una paused in the dark recess of the door, and smiled over her shoulder +toward her sister, and then glided into her room, closing the doors. + +Almost freezing with terror, Alice rose and glided after her, and stood +in her chamber, screaming---- + +"Una, Una, in heaven's name what troubles you?" + +But Una seemed to have been sound asleep in her bed, and raised herself +with a start, and looking upon her with a peevish surprise, said---- + +"What does Alice seek here?" + +"You were in my room, Una, dear; you seem disturbed and troubled." + +"Dreams, Alice. My dreams crossing your brain; only dreams--dreams. Get +you to bed, and sleep." + +And to bed she went, but _not_ to sleep. She lay awake more than an +hour; and then Una emerged once more from her room. This time she was +fully dressed, and had her cloak and thick shoes on, as their rattle on +the floor plainly discovered. She had a little bundle tied up in a +handkerchief in her hand, and her hood was drawn about her head; and +thus equipped, as it seemed, for a journey, she came and stood at the +foot of Alice's bed, and stared on her with a look so soulless and +terrible that her senses almost forsook her. Then she turned and went +back into her own chamber. + +She may have returned; but Alice thought not--at least she did not see +her. But she lay in great excitement and perturbation; and was +terrified, about an hour later, by a knock at her chamber door--not that +opening into Una's room, but upon the little passage from the stone +screw staircase. She sprang from her bed; but the door was secured on +the inside, and she felt relieved. The knock was repeated, and she heard +some one laughing softly on the outside. + +The morning came at last; that dreadful night was over. But Una! Where +was Una? + +Alice never saw her more. On the head of her empty bed were traced in +chalk the words--Ultor De Lacy, Ultor O'Donnell. And Alice found beneath +her own pillow the little purse of embroidery she had seen in Una's +hand. It was her little parting token, and bore the simple +legend--"Una's love!" + +De Lacy's rage and horror were boundless. He charged the priest, in +frantic language, with having exposed his child, by his cowardice and +neglect, to the machinations of the Fiend, and raved and blasphemed like +a man demented. + +It is said that he procured a solemn exorcism to be performed, in the +hope of disenthralling and recovering his daughter. Several times, it is +alleged, she was seen by the old servants. Once on a sweet summer +morning, in the window of the tower, she was perceived combing her +beautiful golden tresses, and holding a little mirror in her hand; and +first, when she saw herself discovered, she looked affrighted, and then +smiled, her slanting, cunning smile. Sometimes, too, in the glen, by +moonlight, it was said belated villagers had met her, always startled +first, and then smiling, generally singing snatches of old Irish +ballads, that seemed to bear a sort of dim resemblance to her melancholy +fate. The apparition has long ceased. But it is said that now and again, +perhaps once in two or three years, late on a summer night, you may +hear--but faint and far away in the recesses of the glen--the sweet, sad +notes of Una's voice, singing those plaintive melodies. This, too, of +course, in time will cease, and all be forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Sister Agnes and the Portrait + +When Ultor De Lacy died, his daughter Alice found among his effects a +small box, containing a portrait such as I have described. When she +looked on it, she recoiled in horror. There, in the plenitude of its +sinister peculiarities, was faithfully portrayed the phantom which lived +with a vivid and horrible accuracy in her remembrance. Folded in the +same box was a brief narrative, stating that, "A.D. 1601, in the month +of December, Walter De Lacy, of Cappercullen, made many prisoners at the +ford of Ownhey, or Abington, of Irish and Spanish soldiers, flying from +the great overthrow of the rebel powers at Kinsale, and among the number +one Roderic O'Donnell, an arch traitor, and near kinsman to that other +O'Donnell who led the rebels; who, claiming kindred through his mother +to De Lacy, sued for his life with instant and miserable entreaty, and +offered great ransom, but was by De Lacy, through great zeal for the +queen, as some thought, cruelly put to death. When he went to the +tower-top, where was the gallows, finding himself in extremity, and no +hope of mercy, he swore that though he could work them no evil before +his death, yet that he would devote himself thereafter to blast the +greatness of the De Lacys, and never leave them till his work was done. +He hath been seen often since, and always for that family perniciously, +insomuch that it hath been the custom to show to young children of that +lineage the picture of the said O'Donnell, in little, taken among his +few valuables, to prevent their being misled by him unawares, so that he +should not have his will, who by devilish wiles and hell-born cunning, +hath steadfastly sought the ruin of that ancient house, and especially +to leave that _stemma generosum_ destitute of issue for the transmission +of their pure blood and worshipful name." + +Old Miss Croker, of Ross House, who was near seventy in the year 1821, +when she related this story to me, had seen and conversed with Alice De +Lacy, a professed nun, under the name of Sister Agnes, in a religious +house in King-street, in Dublin, founded by the famous Duchess of +Tyrconnell, and had the narrative from her own lips. I thought the tale +worth preserving, and have no more to say. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 2*** + + +******* This file should be named 11700-8.txt or 11700-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/0/11700 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + H1,H2,H3{text-align: center;} + HR { width: 33%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + hr.full { width: 100%; + size: 5; } + BODY{margin-left: 10%;margin-right: 10%;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + pre {font-size: 9pt;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2, by +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h1> +<pre> +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 <a href = "https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2</p> +<p>Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</p> +<p>Release Date: March 24, 2004 [eBook #11700]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: iso-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 2***</p> +<br> +<br> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball,<br> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br> +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p> </p> + +<h1>J. S. LE FANU'S<br> +GHOSTLY TALES,</h1> + +<h2>VOLUME 2</h2> + +<h2>An Authentic Narrative of<br> +a Haunted House (1862)</h2> + +<h3>and</h3> + +<h2>Ultor De Lacy:<br> +<i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i> (1861)</h2> + +<h2>by<br> +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> +<center> +<a href="#An_Authentic_Narrative">An Authentic Narrative of +a Haunted House</a><br><br> +<a href="#Ultor_De_Lacy">Ultor De Lacy: <i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i></a> +</center> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<a name="An_Authentic_Narrative"></a><h2>An Authentic Narrative of<br> +a Haunted House</h2> + +<p>[The Editor of the UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE submits the following very +remarkable statement, with every detail of which he has been for some +years acquainted, upon the ground that it affords the most authentic and +ample relation of a series of marvellous phenoma, in nowise connected +with what is technically termed "spiritualism," which he has anywhere +met with. All the persons—and there are many of them living—upon whose +separate evidence some parts, and upon whose united testimony others, of +this most singular recital depend, are, in their several walks of life, +respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation +be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident +here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath +had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of +them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor +begs most pointedly to meet <i>in limine</i> the suspicion, that he is +elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a +mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is +its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own +and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the +name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no +essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but +which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons +interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the +narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative, +which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who +employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the +form of an affidavit.]</p> +<br> + +<p>Within the last eight years—the precise date I purposely omit—I I was +ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to +change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a +house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance +from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it +by a railway.</p> + +<p>Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but +there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house +I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too, +quite a modern one. It formed one in a cheerful row, with small gardens +in front, facing the sea, and commanding sea air and sea views in +perfection. In the rear it had coach-house and stable, and between them +and the house a considerable grass-plot, with some flower-beds, +interposed.</p> + +<p>Our family consisted of my wife and myself, with three children, the +eldest about nine years old, she and the next in age being girls; and +the youngest, between six and seven, a boy. To these were added six +servants, whom, although for certain reasons I decline giving their real +names, I shall indicate, for the sake of clearness, by arbitrary ones. +There was a nurse, Mrs. Southerland; a nursery-maid, Ellen Page; the +cook, Mrs. Greenwood; and the housemaid, Ellen Faith; a butler, whom I +shall call Smith, and his son, James, about two-and-twenty.</p> + +<p>We came out to take possession at about seven o'clock in the evening; +every thing was comfortable and cheery; good fires lighted, the rooms +neat and airy, and a general air of preparation and comfort, highly +conducive to good spirits and pleasant anticipations.</p> + +<p>The sitting-rooms were large and cheerful, and they and the bed-rooms +more than ordinarily lofty, the kitchen and servants' rooms, on the same +level, were well and comfortably furnished, and had, like the rest of +the house, an air of recent painting and fitting up, and a completely +modern character, which imparted a very cheerful air of cleanliness and +convenience.</p> + +<p>There had been just enough of the fuss of settling agreeably to occupy +us, and to give a pleasant turn to our thoughts after we had retired to +our rooms. Being an invalid, I had a small bed to myself—resigning the +four-poster to my wife. The candle was extinguished, but a night-light +was burning. I was coming up stairs, and she, already in bed, had just +dismissed her maid, when we were both startled by a wild scream from her +room; I found her in a state of the extremest agitation and terror. She +insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her +bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define any +thing respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most +distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the +light to disclose more than its dark outline.</p> + +<p>We both endeavoured to re-assure her. The room once more looked so +cheerful in the candlelight, that we were quite uninfluenced by the +contagion of her terrors. The movements and voices of the servants down +stairs still getting things into their places and completing our +comfortable arrangements, had also their effect in steeling us against +any such influence, and we set the whole thing down as a dream, or an +imperfectly-seen outline of the bed-curtains. When, however, we were +alone, my wife reiterated, still in great agitation, her clear assertion +that she had most positively seen, being at the time as completely awake +as ever she was, precisely what she had described to us. And in this +conviction she continued perfectly firm.</p> + +<p>A day or two after this, it came out that our servants were under an +apprehension that, somehow or other, thieves had established a secret +mode of access to the lower part of the house. The butler, Smith, had +seen an ill-looking woman in his room on the first night of our arrival; +and he and other servants constantly saw, for many days subsequently, +glimpses of a retreating figure, which corresponded with that so seen by +him, passing through a passage which led to a back area in which were +some coal-vaults.</p> + +<p>This figure was seen always in the act of retreating, its back turned, +generally getting round the corner of the passage into the area, in a +stealthy and hurried way, and, when closely followed, imperfectly seen +again entering one of the coal-vaults, and when pursued into it, nowhere +to be found.</p> + +<p>The idea of any thing supernatural in the matter had, strange to say, +not yet entered the mind of any one of the servants. They had heard some +stories of smugglers having secret passages into houses, and using their +means of access for purposes of pillage, or with a view to frighten +superstitious people out of houses which they needed for their own +objects, and a suspicion of similar practices here, caused them extreme +uneasiness. The apparent anxiety also manifested by this retreating +figure to escape observation, and her always appearing to make her +egress at the same point, favoured this romantic hypothesis. The men, +however, made a most careful examination of the back area, and of the +coal-vaults, with a view to discover some mode of egress, but entirely +without success. On the contrary, the result was, so far as it went, +subversive of the theory; solid masonry met them on every hand.</p> + +<p>I called the man, Smith, up, to hear from his own lips the particulars +of what he had seen; and certainly his report was very curious. I give +it as literally as my memory enables me:----</p> + +<p>His son slept in the same room, and was sound asleep; but he lay awake, +as men sometimes will on a change of bed, and having many things on his +mind. He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light +and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw +the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather +low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something—either a cloak +or shawl—on, and wore a bonnet. Her back was turned, and she appeared +to be searching or rummaging for something on the floor, and, without +appearing to observe him, she turned in doing so towards him. The light, +which was more like the intense glow of a coal, as he described it, +being of a deep red colour, proceeded from the hollow of her hand, which +she held beside her head, and he saw her perfectly distinctly. She +appeared middle-aged, was deeply pitted with the smallpox, and blind of +one eye. His phrase in describing her general appearance was, that she +was "a miserable, poor-looking creature."</p> + +<p>He was under the impression that she must be the woman who had been left +by the proprietor in charge of the house, and who had that evening, +after having given up the keys, remained for some little time with the +female servants. He coughed, therefore, to apprize her of his presence, +and turned again towards the wall. When he again looked round she and +the light were gone; and odd as was her method of lighting herself in +her search, the circumstances excited neither uneasiness nor curiosity +in his mind, until he discovered next morning that the woman in question +had left the house long before he had gone to his bed.</p> + +<p>I examined the man very closely as to the appearance of the person who +had visited him, and the result was what I have described. It struck me +as an odd thing, that even then, considering how prone to superstition +persons in his rank of life usually are, he did not seem to suspect any +thing supernatural in the occurrence; and, on the contrary, was +thoroughly persuaded that his visitant was a living person, who had got +into the house by some hidden entrance.</p> + +<p>On Sunday, on his return from his place of worship, he told me that, +when the service was ended, and the congregation making their way slowly +out, he saw the very woman in the crowd, and kept his eye upon her for +several minutes, but such was the crush, that all his efforts to reach +her were unavailing, and when he got into the open street she was gone. +He was quite positive as to his having distinctly seen her, however, +for several minutes, and scouted the possibility of any mistake as to +identity; and fully impressed with the substantial and living reality of +his visitant, he was very much provoked at her having escaped him. He +made inquiries also in the neighbourhood, but could procure no +information, nor hear of any other persons having seen any woman +corresponding with his visitant.</p> + +<p>The cook and the housemaid occupied a bed-room on the kitchen floor. It +had whitewashed walls, and they were actually terrified by the +appearance of the shadow of a woman passing and repassing across the +side wall opposite to their beds. They suspected that this had been +going on much longer than they were aware, for its presence was +discovered by a sort of accident, its movements happening to take a +direction in distinct contrariety to theirs.</p> + +<p>This shadow always moved upon one particular wall, returning after short +intervals, and causing them extreme terror. They placed the candle, as +the most obvious specific, so close to the infested wall, that the flame +all but touched it; and believed for some time that they had effectually +got rid of this annoyance; but one night, notwithstanding this +arrangement of the light, the shadow returned, passing and repassing, as +heretofore, upon the same wall, although their only candle was burning +within an inch of it, and it was obvious that no substance capable of +casting such a shadow could have interposed; and, indeed, as they +described it, the shadow seemed to have no sort of relation to the +position of the light, and appeared, as I have said, in manifest +defiance of the laws of optics.</p> + +<p>I ought to mention that the housemaid was a particularly fearless sort +of person, as well as a very honest one; and her companion, the cook, a +scrupulously religious woman, and both agreed in every particular in +their relation of what occurred.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, the nursery was not without its annoyances, though as yet of +a comparatively trivial kind. Sometimes, at night, the handle of the +door was turned hurriedly as if by a person trying to come in, and at +others a knocking was made at it. These sounds occurred after the +children had settled to sleep, and while the nurse still remained awake. +Whenever she called to know "who is there," the sounds ceased; but +several times, and particularly at first, she was under the impression +that they were caused by her mistress, who had come to see the children, +and thus impressed she had got up and opened the door, expecting to see +her, but discovering only darkness, and receiving no answer to her +inquiries.</p> + +<p>With respect to this nurse, I must mention that I believe no more +perfectly trustworthy servant was ever employed in her capacity; and, in +addition to her integrity, she was remarkably gifted with sound common +sense.</p> + +<p>One morning, I think about three or four weeks after our arrival, I was +sitting at the parlour window which looked to the front, when I saw the +little iron door which admitted into the small garden that lay between +the window where I was sitting and the public road, pushed open by a +woman who so exactly answered the description given by Smith of the +woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as +instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the +identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and +tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an +eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a +distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that +now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something +stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I +must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off. +Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the +bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang +violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that +intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a +leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front +windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after +her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick +pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man +entered I told him—"the blind woman you described to me has this +instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was, +if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short +time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And, +thereafter, we saw her face no more.</p> + +<p>All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was +not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only +phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear +described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering +with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom +ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was +always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last +stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, <i>four</i>—one, two, +three, <i>four</i>;" or "one, two, <i>three</i>—one, two, <i>three</i>," and sometimes +"one, <i>two</i>—one, <i>two</i>," &c., and this, with intervals and +resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time.</p> + +<p>At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, +much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any +hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed +that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it +frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with +the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my +wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually +troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer +or shorter time.</p> + +<p>Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of +the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children, +greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that +their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their +fears would have made them wretched and troublesome.</p> + +<p>They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden—the house +forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the +other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides. Here, as +it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite +to themselves; and in talking over their days' adventures, as children +will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they +had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in +the garden while they were at play. They assumed that she came in and +went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or +depart. They merely saw a figure—that of a very poor woman, soiled and +ragged—near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently +grubbing in the loose clay in search of something. She did not disturb, +or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession +of her nook of ground. When seen it was always in the same spot, and +similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general +appearance—for they never saw her face—corresponded with that of the +one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen.</p> + +<p>The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for +the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, +his little trouble to report, though it was not much. The stall in +which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she +peremptorily declined to enter. Though a very docile and gentle little +animal, there was no getting her into it. She would snort and rear, and, +in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it. He was +fain, therefore, to place her in another. And on several occasions he +found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear. +Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the +particular case with any superstitious qualms. The mare had evidently +been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the +stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard +outside.</p> + +<p>One morning I was greeted with the intelligence that robbers had +certainly got into the house in the night; and that one of them had +actually been seen in the nursery. The witness, I found, was my eldest +child, then, as I have said, about nine years of age. Having awoke in +the night, and lain awake for some time in her bed, she heard the handle +of the door turn, and a person whom she distinctly saw—for it was a +light night, and the window-shutters unclosed—but whom she had never +seen before, stepped in on tiptoe, and with an appearance of great +caution. He was a rather small man, with a very red face; he wore an +oddly cut frock coat, the collar of which stood up, and trousers, rough +and wide, like those of a sailor, turned up at the ankles, and either +short boots or clumsy shoes, covered with mud. This man listened beside +the nurse's bed, which stood next the door, as if to satisfy himself +that she was sleeping soundly; and having done so for some seconds, he +began to move cautiously in a diagonal line, across the room to the +chimney-piece, where he stood for a while, and so resumed his tiptoe +walk, skirting the wall, until he reached a chest of drawers, some of +which were open, and into which he looked, and began to rummage in a +hurried way, as the child supposed, making search for something worth +taking away. He then passed on to the window, where was a +dressing-table, at which he also stopped, turning over the things upon +it, and standing for some time at the window as if looking out, and then +resuming his walk by the side wall opposite to that by which he had +moved up to the window, he returned in the same way toward the nurse's +bed, so as to reach it at the foot. With its side to the end wall, in +which was the door, was placed the little bed in which lay my eldest +child, who watched his proceedings with the extremest terror. As he drew +near she instinctively moved herself in the bed, with her head and +shoulders to the wall, drawing up her feet; but he passed by without +appearing to observe, or, at least, to care for her presence. +Immediately after the nurse turned in her bed as if about to waken; and +when the child, who had drawn the clothes about her head, again ventured +to peep out, the man was gone.</p> + +<p>The child had no idea of her having seen any thing more formidable than +a thief. With the prowling, cautious, and noiseless manner of proceeding +common to such marauders, the air and movements of the man whom she had +seen entirely corresponded. And on hearing her perfectly distinct and +consistent account, I could myself arrive at no other conclusion than +that a stranger had actually got into the house. I had, therefore, in +the first instance, a most careful examination made to discover any +traces of an entrance having been made by any window into the house. The +doors had been found barred and locked as usual; but no sign of any +thing of the sort was discernible. I then had the various +articles—plate, wearing apparel, books, &c., counted; and after having +conned over and reckoned up every thing, it became quite clear that +nothing whatever had been removed from the house, nor was there the +slightest indication of any thing having been so much as disturbed +there. I must here state that this child was remarkably clear, +intelligent, and observant; and that her description of the man, and of +all that had occurred, was most exact, and as detailed as the want of +perfect light rendered possible.</p> + +<p>I felt assured that an entrance had actually been effected into the +house, though for what purpose was not easily to be conjectured. The +man, Smith, was equally confident upon this point; and his theory was +that the object was simply to frighten us out of the house by making us +believe it haunted; and he was more than ever anxious and on the alert +to discover the conspirators. It often since appeared to me odd. Every +year, indeed, more odd, as this cumulative case of the marvellous +becomes to my mind more and more inexplicable—that underlying my sense +of mystery and puzzle, was all along the quiet assumption that all these +occurrences were one way or another referable to natural causes. I could +not account for them, indeed, myself; but during the whole period I +inhabited that house, I never once felt, though much alone, and often up +very late at night, any of those tremors and thrills which every one has +at times experienced when situation and the hour are favourable. Except +the cook and housemaid, who were plagued with the shadow I mentioned +crossing and recrossing upon the bedroom wall, we all, without +exception, experienced the same strange sense of security, and regarded +these phenomena rather with a perplexed sort of interest and curiosity, +than with any more unpleasant sensations.</p> + +<p>The knockings which I have mentioned at the nursery door, preceded +generally by the sound of a step on the lobby, meanwhile continued. At +that time (for my wife, like myself, was an invalid) two eminent +physicians, who came out occasionally by rail, were attending us. These +gentlemen were at first only amused, but ultimately interested, and very +much puzzled by the occurrences which we described. One of them, at +last, recommended that a candle should be kept burning upon the lobby. +It was in fact a recurrence to an old woman's recipe against ghosts—of +course it might be serviceable, too, against impostors; at all events, +seeming, as I have said, very much interested and puzzled, he advised +it, and it was tried. We fancied that it was successful; for there was +an interval of quiet for, I think, three or four nights. But after that, +the noises—the footsteps on the lobby—the knocking at the door, and +the turning of the handle recommenced in full force, notwithstanding the +light upon the table outside; and these particular phenomena became only +more perplexing than ever.</p> + +<p>The alarm of robbers and smugglers gradually subsided after a week or +two; but we were again to hear news from the nursery. Our second little +girl, then between seven and eight years of age, saw in the night +time—she alone being awake—a young woman, with black, or very dark +hair, which hung loose, and with a black cloak on, standing near the +middle of the floor, opposite the hearthstone, and fronting the foot of +her bed. She appeared quite unobservant of the children and nurse +sleeping in the room. She was very pale, and looked, the child said, +both "sorry and frightened," and with something very peculiar and +terrible about her eyes, which made the child conclude that she was +dead. She was looking, not at, but in the direction of the child's bed, +and there was a dark streak across her throat, like a scar with blood +upon it. This figure was not motionless; but once or twice turned +slowly, and without appearing to be conscious of the presence of the +child, or the other occupants of the room, like a person in vacancy or +abstraction. There was on this occasion a night-light burning in the +chamber; and the child saw, or thought she saw, all these particulars +with the most perfect distinctness. She got her head under the +bed-clothes; and although a good many years have passed since then, she +cannot recall the spectacle without feelings of peculiar horror.</p> + +<p>One day, when the children were playing in the back garden, I asked them +to point out to me the spot where they were accustomed to see the woman +who occasionally showed herself as I have described, near the stable +wall. There was no division of opinion as to this precise point, which +they indicated in the most distinct and confident way. I suggested that, +perhaps, something might be hidden there in the ground; and advised them +digging a hole there with their little spades, to try for it. +Accordingly, to work they went, and by my return in the evening they had +grubbed up a piece of a jawbone, with several teeth in it. The bone was +very much decayed, and ready to crumble to pieces, but the teeth were +quite sound. I could not tell whether they were human grinders; but I +showed the fossil to one of the physicians I have mentioned, who came +out the next evening, and he pronounced them human teeth. The same +conclusion was come to a day or two later by the other medical man. It +appears to me now, on reviewing the whole matter, almost unaccountable +that, with such evidence before me, I should not have got in a labourer, +and had the spot effectually dug and searched. I can only say, that so +it was. I was quite satisfied of the moral truth of every word that had +been related to me, and which I have here set down with scrupulous +accuracy. But I experienced an apathy, for which neither then nor +afterwards did I quite know how to account. I had a vague, but immovable +impression that the whole affair was referable to natural agencies. It +was not until some time after we had left the house, which, by-the-by, +we afterwards found had had the reputation of being haunted before we +had come to live in it, that on reconsideration I discovered the serious +difficulty of accounting satisfactorily for all that had occurred upon +ordinary principles. A great deal we might arbitrarily set down to +imagination. But even in so doing there was, <i>in limine</i>, the oddity, +not to say improbability, of so many different persons having nearly +simultaneously suffered from different spectral and other illusions +during the short period for which we had occupied that house, who never +before, nor so far as we learned, afterwards were troubled by any fears +or fancies of the sort. There were other things, too, not to be so +accounted for. The odd knockings in the roof I frequently heard myself.</p> + +<p>There were also, which I before forgot to mention, in the daytime, +rappings at the doors of the sitting-rooms, which constantly deceived +us; and it was not till our "come in" was unanswered, and the hall or +passage outside the door was discovered to be empty, that we learned +that whatever else caused them, human hands did not. All the persons who +reported having seen the different persons or appearances here described +by me, were just as confident of having literally and distinctly seen +them, as I was of having seen the hard-featured woman with the blind +eye, so remarkably corresponding with Smith's description.</p> + +<p>About a week after the discovery of the teeth, which were found, I +think, about two feet under the ground, a friend, much advanced in +years, and who remembered the town in which we had now taken up our +abode, for a very long time, happened to pay us a visit. He +good-humouredly pooh-poohed the whole thing; but at the same time was +evidently curious about it. "We might construct a sort of story," said I +(I am giving, of course, the substance and purport, not the exact words, +of our dialogue), "and assign to each of the three figures who appeared +their respective parts in some dreadful tragedy enacted in this house. +The male figure represents the murderer; the ill-looking, one-eyed woman +his accomplice, who, we will suppose, buried the body where she is now +so often seen grubbing in the earth, and where the human teeth and +jawbone have so lately been disinterred; and the young woman with +dishevelled tresses, and black cloak, and the bloody scar across her +throat, their victim. A difficulty, however, which I cannot get over, +exists in the cheerfulness, the great publicity, and the evident very +recent date of the house." "Why, as to that," said he, "the house is +<i>not</i> modern; it and those beside it formed an old government store, +altered and fitted up recently as you see. I remember it well in my +young days, fifty years ago, before the town had grown out in this +direction, and a more entirely lonely spot, or one more fitted for the +commission of a secret crime, could not have been imagined."</p> + +<p>I have nothing to add, for very soon after this my physician pronounced +a longer stay unnecessary for my health, and we took our departure for +another place of abode. I may add, that although I have resided for +considerable periods in many other houses, I never experienced any +annoyances of a similar kind elsewhere; neither have I made (stupid dog! +you will say), any inquiries respecting either the antecedents or +subsequent history of the house in which we made so disturbed a sojourn. +I was content with what I knew, and have here related as clearly as I +could, and I think it a very pretty puzzle as it stands.</p> +<br> + +<p>[Thus ends the statement, which we abandon to the ingenuity of our +readers, having ourselves no satisfactory explanation to suggest; and +simply repeating the assurance with which we prefaced it, namely, that +we can vouch for the perfect good faith and the accuracy of the +narrator.—E.D.U.M.]</p> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;"> +<a name="Ultor_De_Lacy"></a><h2>Ultor De Lacy:<br> +<i>A Legend of Cappercullen</i></h2> +<br> +<h4>CHAPTER I</h4> + +<i><b>The Jacobite's Legacy</b></i> + +<p>In my youth I heard a great many Irish family traditions, more or less +of a supernatural character, some of them very peculiar, and all, to a +child at least, highly interesting. One of these I will now relate, +though the translation to cold type from oral narrative, with all the +aids of animated human voice and countenance, and the appropriate +<i>mise-en-scène</i> of the old-fashioned parlour fireside and its listening +circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of +leafless boughs, with the occasional rattle of the clumsy old +window-frame behind shutter and curtain, as the blast swept by, is at +best a trying one.</p> + +<p>About midway up the romantic glen of Cappercullen, near the point where +the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary converge, upon the then +sequestered and forest-bound range of the Slieve-Felim hills, there +stood, in the reigns of the two earliest Georges, the picturesque and +massive remains of one of the finest of the Anglo-Irish castles of +Munster—perhaps of Ireland.</p> + +<p>It crowned the precipitous edge of the wooded glen, itself half-buried +among the wild forest that covered that long and solitary range. There +was no human habitation within a circle of many miles, except the +half-dozen hovels and the small thatched chapel composing the little +village of Murroa, which lay at the foot of the glen among the +straggling skirts of the noble forest.</p> + +<p>Its remoteness and difficulty of access saved it from demolition. It was +worth nobody's while to pull down and remove the ponderous and clumsy +oak, much less the masonry or flagged roofing of the pile. Whatever +would pay the cost of removal had been long since carried away. The rest +was abandoned to time—the destroyer.</p> + +<p>The hereditary owners of this noble building and of a wide territory in +the contiguous counties I have named, were English—the De Lacys—long +naturalized in Ireland. They had acquired at least this portion of their +estate in the reign of Henry VIII, and held it, with some vicissitudes, +down to the establishment of the revolution in Ireland, when they +suffered attainder, and, like other great families of that period, +underwent a final eclipse.</p> + +<p>The De Lacy of that day retired to France, and held a brief command in +the Irish Brigade, interrupted by sickness. He retired, became a poor +hanger-on of the Court of St. Germains, and died early in the eighteenth +century—as well as I remember, 1705—leaving an only son, hardly twelve +years old, called by the strange but significant name of Ultor.</p> + +<p>At this point commences the marvellous ingredient of my tale.</p> + +<p>When his father was dying, he had him to his bedside, with no one by +except his confessor; and having told him, first, that on reaching the +age of twenty-one, he was to lay claim to a certain small estate in the +county of Clare, in Ireland, in right of his mother—the title-deeds of +which he gave him—and next, having enjoined him not to marry before the +age of thirty, on the ground that earlier marriages destroyed the spirit +and the power of enterprise, and would incapacitate him from the +accomplishment of his destiny—the restoration of his family—he then +went on to open to the child a matter which so terrified him that he +cried lamentably, trembling all over, clinging to the priest's gown with +one hand and to his father's cold wrist with the other, and imploring +him, with screams of horror, to desist from his communication.</p> + +<p>But the priest, impressed, no doubt, himself, with its necessity, +compelled him to listen. And then his father showed him a small picture, +from which also the child turned with shrieks, until similarly +constrained to look. They did not let him go until he had carefully +conned the features, and was able to tell them, from memory, the colour +of the eyes and hair, and the fashion and hues of the dress. Then his +father gave him a black box containing this portrait, which was a +full-length miniature, about nine inches long, painted very finely in +oils, as smooth as enamel, and folded above it a sheet of paper, written +over in a careful and very legible hand.</p> + +<p>The deeds and this black box constituted the most important legacy +bequeathed to his only child by the ruined Jacobite, and he deposited +them in the hands of the priest, in trust, till his boy, Ultor, should +have attained to an age to understand their value, and to keep them +securely.</p> + +<p>When this scene was ended, the dying exile's mind, I suppose, was +relieved, for he spoke cheerily, and said he believed he would recover; +and they soothed the crying child, and his father kissed him, and gave +him a little silver coin to buy fruit with; and so they sent him off +with another boy for a walk, and when he came back his father was dead.</p> + +<p>He remained in France under the care of this ecclesiastic until he had +attained the age of twenty-one, when he repaired to Ireland, and his +title being unaffected by his father's attainder, he easily made good +his claim to the small estate in the county of Clare.</p> + +<p>There he settled, making a dismal and solitary tour now and then of the +vast territories which had once been his father's, and nursing those +gloomy and impatient thoughts which befitted the enterprises to which he +was devoted.</p> + +<p>Occasionally he visited Paris, that common centre of English, Irish, and +Scottish disaffection; and there, when a little past thirty, he married +the daughter of another ruined Irish house. His bride returned with him +to the melancholy seclusion of their Munster residence, where she bore +him in succession two daughters—Alice, the elder, dark-eyed and +dark-haired, grave and sensible—Una, four years younger, with large +blue eyes and long and beautiful golden hair.</p> + +<p>Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, +high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in +the isolation and gloom of her lot. At all events she died young, and +the children were left to the sole care of their melancholy and +embittered father. In process of time the girls grew up, tradition says, +beautiful. The elder was designed for a convent, the younger her father +hoped to mate as nobly as her high blood and splendid beauty seemed to +promise, if only the great game on which he had resolved to stake all +succeeded.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER II</h4> + +<i><b>The Fairies in the Castle</b></i> + +<p>The Rebellion of '45 came, and Ultor de Lacy was one of the few Irishmen +implicated treasonably in that daring and romantic insurrection. Of +course there were warrants out against him, but he was not to be found. +The young ladies, indeed, remained as heretofore in their father's +lonely house in Clare; but whether he had crossed the water or was still +in Ireland was for some time unknown, even to them. In due course he was +attainted, and his little estate forfeited. It was a miserable +catastrophe—a tremendous and beggarly waking up from a life-long dream +of returning principality.</p> + +<p>In due course the officers of the crown came down to take possession, +and it behoved the young ladies to flit. Happily for them the +ecclesiastic I have mentioned was not quite so confident as their +father, of his winning back the magnificent patrimony of his ancestors; +and by his advice the daughters had been secured twenty pounds a year +each, under the marriage settlement of their parents, which was all that +stood between this proud house and literal destitution.</p> + +<p>Late one evening, as some little boys from the village were returning +from a ramble through the dark and devious glen of Cappercullen, with +their pockets laden with nuts and "frahans," to their amazement and even +terror they saw a light streaming redly from the narrow window of one of +the towers overhanging the precipice among the ivy and the lofty +branches, across the glen, already dim in the shadows of the deepening +night.</p> + +<p>"Look—look—look—'tis the Phooka's tower!" was the general cry, in the +vernacular Irish, and a universal scamper commenced.</p> + +<p>The bed of the glen, strewn with great fragments of rock, among which +rose the tall stems of ancient trees, and overgrown with a tangled +copse, was at the best no favourable ground for a run. Now it was dark; +and, terrible work breaking through brambles and hazels and tumbling +over rocks. Little Shaeen Mull Ryan, the last of the panic rout, +screaming to his mates to wait for him—saw a whitish figure emerge from +the thicket at the base of the stone flight of steps that descended the +side of the glen, close by the castle-wall, intercepting his flight, and +a discordant male voice shrieked----</p> + +<p>"I have you!"</p> + +<p>At the same time the boy, with a cry of terror, tripped and tumbled; and +felt himself roughly caught by the arm, and hauled to his feet with a +shake.</p> + +<p>A wild yell from the child, and a volley of terror and entreaty +followed.</p> + +<p>"Who is it, Larry; what's the matter?" cried a voice, high in air, from +the turret window, The words floated down through the trees, clear and +sweet as the low notes of a flute.</p> + +<p>"Only a child, my lady; a boy."</p> + +<p>"Is he hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Are you hurted?" demanded the whitish man, who held him fast, and +repeated the question in Irish; but the child only kept blubbering and +crying for mercy, with his hands clasped, and trying to drop on his +knees.</p> + +<p>Larry's strong old hand held him up. He <i>was</i> hurt, and bleeding from +over his eye.</p> + +<p>"Just a trifle hurted, my lady!"</p> + +<p>"Bring him up here."</p> + +<p>Shaeen Mull Ryan gave himself over. He was among "the good people," who +he knew would keep him prisoner for ever and a day. There was no good in +resisting. He grew bewildered, and yielded himself passively to his +fate, and emerged from the glen on the platform above; his captor's +knotted old hand still on his arm, and looked round on the tall +mysterious trees, and the gray front of the castle, revealed in the +imperfect moonlight, as upon the scenery of a dream.</p> + +<p>The old man who, with thin wiry legs, walked by his side, in a dingy +white coat, and blue facings, and great pewter buttons, with his silver +gray hair escaping from under his battered three-cocked hat; and his +shrewd puckered resolute face, in which the boy could read no promise of +sympathy, showing so white and phantom-like in the moonlight, was, as he +thought, the incarnate ideal of a fairy.</p> + +<p>This figure led him in silence under the great arched gateway, and +across the grass-grown court, to the door in the far angle of the +building; and so, in the dark, round and round, up a stone screw stair, +and with a short turn into a large room, with a fire of turf and wood, +burning on its long unused hearth, over which hung a pot, and about it +an old woman with a great wooden spoon was busy. An iron candlestick +supported their solitary candle; and about the floor of the room, as +well as on the table and chairs, lay a litter of all sorts of things; +piles of old faded hangings, boxes, trunks, clothes, pewter-plates, and +cups; and I know not what more.</p> + +<p>But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures +of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of +Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in +keeping. But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, +and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a +higher rank.</p> + +<p>The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal +table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as +he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and <i>riant</i>, +with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with +something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as +the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined.</p> + +<p>They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not +English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to +amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled +mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good +people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said----</p> + +<p>"Do you know who <i>I</i> am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and +this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark +lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family +physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and +woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall +do with <i>you</i>, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding +on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his +enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under +ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon +you see through the window—with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, +for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see +how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my +castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys +I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall +belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people +more."</p> + +<p>And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps +before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and +courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm.</p> + +<p>Then, with a little laugh, she said----</p> + +<p>"My little man, we must mend your head."</p> + +<p>And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to +it. And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little +French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said----</p> + +<p>"You need not be afraid to eat these—they are very good—and I'll send +my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free. Take him (she addressed +Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge."</p> + +<p>The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the +fairy----</p> + +<p>"Brave, dear, wild Una! nothing can ever quell your gaiety of heart."</p> + +<p>And Una kissed her merrily on the cheek.</p> + +<p>So the oak door of the room again opened, and Shaeen, with his +conductor, descended the stair. He walked with the scared boy in grim +silence near half way down the wild hill-side toward Murroa, and then he +stopped, and said in Irish----</p> + +<p>"You never saw the fairies before, my fine fellow, and 'tisn't often +those who once set eyes on us return to tell it. Whoever comes nearer, +night or day, than this stone," and he tapped it with the end of his +cane, "will never see his home again, for we'll keep him till the day of +judgment; goodnight, little gossoon—and away with you."</p> + +<p>So these young ladies, Alice and Una, with two old servants, by their +father's direction, had taken up their abode in a portion of that side +of the old castle which overhung the glen; and with the furniture and +hangings they had removed from their late residence, and with the aid of +glass in the casements and some other indispensable repairs, and a +thorough airing, they made the rooms they had selected just habitable, +as a rude and temporary shelter.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER III</h4> + +<i><b>The Priest's Adventures in the Glen</b></i> + +<p>At first, of course, they saw or heard little of their father. In +general, however, they knew that his plan was to procure some employment +in France, and to remove them there. Their present strange abode was +only an adventure and an episode, and they believed that any day they +might receive instructions to commence their journey.</p> + +<p>After a little while the pursuit relaxed. The government, I believe, did +not care, provided he did not obtrude himself, what became of him, or +where he concealed himself. At all events, the local authorities showed +no disposition to hunt him down. The young ladies' charges on the little +forfeited property were paid without any dispute, and no vexatious +inquiries were raised as to what had become of the furniture and other +personal property which had been carried away from the forfeited house.</p> + +<p>The haunted reputation of the castle—for in those days, in matters of +the marvellous, the oldest were children—secured the little family in +the seclusion they coveted. Once, or sometimes twice a week, old +Laurence, with a shaggy little pony, made a secret expedition to the +city of Limerick, starting before dawn, and returning under the cover of +the night, with his purchases. There was beside an occasional sly +moonlit visit from the old parish priest, and a midnight mass in the old +castle for the little outlawed congregation.</p> + +<p>As the alarm and inquiry subsided, their father made them, now and then, +a brief and stealthy visit. At first these were but of a night's +duration, and with great precaution; but gradually they were extended +and less guarded. Still he was, as the phrase is in Munster, "on his +keeping." He had firearms always by his bed, and had arranged places of +concealment in the castle in the event of a surprise. But no attempt nor +any disposition to molest him appearing, he grew more at ease, if not +more cheerful.</p> + +<p>It came, at last, that he would sometimes stay so long as two whole +months at a time, and then depart as suddenly and mysteriously as he +came. I suppose he had always some promising plot on hand, and his head +full of ingenious treason, and lived on the sickly and exciting dietary +of hope deferred.</p> + +<p>Was there a poetical justice in this, that the little <i>ménage</i> thus +secretly established, in the solitary and timeworn pile, should have +themselves experienced, but from causes not so easily explicable, those +very supernatural perturbations which they had themselves essayed to +inspire?</p> + +<p>The interruption of the old priest's secret visits was the earliest +consequence of the mysterious interference which now began to display +itself. One night, having left his cob in care of his old sacristan in +the little village, he trudged on foot along the winding pathway, among +the gray rocks and ferns that threaded the glen, intending a ghostly +visit to the fair recluses of the castle, and he lost his way in this +strange fashion.</p> + +<p>There was moonlight, indeed, but it was little more than quarter-moon, +and a long train of funereal clouds were sailing slowly across the +sky—so that, faint and wan as it was, the light seldom shone full out, +and was often hidden for a minute or two altogether. When he reached the +point in the glen where the castle-stairs were wont to be, he could see +nothing of them, and above, no trace of the castle-towers. So, puzzled +somewhat, he pursued his way up the ravine, wondering how his walk had +become so unusually protracted and fatiguing.</p> + +<p>At last, sure enough, he saw the castle as plain as could be, and a +lonely streak of candle-light issuing from the tower, just as usual, +when his visit was expected. But he could not find the stair; and had to +clamber among the rocks and copse-wood the best way he could. But when +he emerged at top, there was nothing but the bare heath. Then the clouds +stole over the moon again, and he moved along with hesitation and +difficulty, and once more he saw the outline of the castle against the +sky, quite sharp and clear. But this time it proved to be a great +battlemented mass of cloud on the horizon. In a few minutes more he was +quite close, all of a sudden, to the great front, rising gray and dim in +the feeble light, and not till he could have struck it with his good oak +"wattle" did he discover it to be only one of those wild, gray frontages +of living rock that rise here and there in picturesque tiers along the +slopes of those solitary mountains. And so, till dawn, pursuing this +mirage of the castle, through pools and among ravines, he wore out a +night of miserable misadventure and fatigue.</p> + +<p>Another night, riding up the glen, so far as the level way at bottom +would allow, and intending to make his nag fast at his customary tree, +he heard on a sudden a horrid shriek at top of the steep rocks above his +head, and something—a gigantic human form, it seemed—came tumbling and +bounding headlong down through the rocks, and fell with a fearful +impetus just before his horse's hoofs and there lay like a huge +palpitating carcass. The horse was scared, as, indeed, was his rider, +too, and more so when this apparently lifeless thing sprang up to his +legs, and throwing his arms apart to bar their further progress, +advanced his white and gigantic face towards them. Then the horse +started about, with a snort of terror, nearly unseating the priest, and +broke away into a furious and uncontrollable gallop.</p> + +<p>I need not recount all the strange and various misadventures which the +honest priest sustained in his endeavours to visit the castle, and its +isolated tenants. They were enough to wear out his resolution, and +frighten him into submission. And so at last these spiritual visits +quite ceased; and fearing to awaken inquiry and suspicion, he thought it +only prudent to abstain from attempting them in the daytime.</p> + +<p>So the young ladies of the castle were more alone than ever. Their +father, whose visits were frequently of long duration, had of late +ceased altogether to speak of their contemplated departure for France, +grew angry at any allusion to it, and they feared, had abandoned the +plan altogether.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER IV</h4> + +<i><b>The Light in the Bell Tower</b></i> + +<p>Shortly after the discontinuance of the priest's visits, old Laurence, +one night, to his surprise, saw light issuing from a window in the Bell +Tower. It was at first only a tremulous red ray, visible only for a few +minutes, which seemed to pass from the room, through whose window it +escaped upon the courtyard of the castle, and so to lose itself. This +tower and casement were in the angle of the building, exactly +confronting that in which the little outlawed family had taken up their +quarters.</p> + +<p>The whole family were troubled at the appearance of this dull red ray +from the chamber in the Bell Tower. Nobody knew what to make of it. But +Laurence, who had campaigned in Italy with his old master, the young +ladies' grandfather—"the heavens be his bed this night!"—was resolved +to see it out, and took his great horse-pistols with him, and ascended +to the corridor leading to the tower. But his search was vain.</p> + +<p>This light left a sense of great uneasiness among the inmates, and most +certainly it was not pleasant to suspect the establishment of an +independent and possibly dangerous lodger or even colony, within the +walls of the same old building.</p> + +<p>The light very soon appeared again, steadier and somewhat brighter, in +the same chamber. Again old Laurence buckled on his armour, swearing +ominously to himself, and this time bent in earnest upon conflict. The +young ladies watched in thrilling suspense from the great window in +<i>their</i> stronghold, looking diagonally across the court. But as +Laurence, who had entered the massive range of buildings opposite, might +be supposed to be approaching the chamber from which this ill-omened +glare proceeded, it steadily waned, finally disappearing altogether, +just a few seconds before his voice was heard shouting from the arched +window to know which way the light had gone.</p> + +<p>This lighting up of the great chamber of the Bell Tower grew at last to +be of frequent and almost continual recurrence. It was, there, long ago, +in times of trouble and danger, that the De Lacys of those evil days +used to sit in feudal judgment upon captive adversaries, and, as +tradition alleged, often gave them no more time for shrift and prayer, +than it needed to mount to the battlement of the turret over-head, from +which they were forthwith hung by the necks, for a caveat and admonition +to all evil disposed persons viewing the same from the country beneath.</p> + +<p>Old Laurence observed these mysterious glimmerings with an evil and an +anxious eye, and many and various were the stratagems he tried, but in +vain, to surprise the audacious intruders. It is, however, I believe, a +fact that no phenomenon, no matter how startling at first, if prosecuted +with tolerable regularity, and unattended with any new circumstances of +terror, will very long continue to excite alarm or even wonder.</p> + +<p>So the family came to acquiesce in this mysterious light. No harm +accompanied it. Old Laurence, as he smoked his lonely pipe in the +grass-grown courtyard, would cast a disturbed glance at it, as it softly +glowed out through the darking aperture, and mutter a prayer or an oath. +But he had given over the chase as a hopeless business. And Peggy +Sullivan, the old dame of all work, when, by chance, for she never +willingly looked toward the haunted quarter, she caught the faint +reflection of its dull effulgence with the corner of her eye, would sign +herself with the cross or fumble at her beads, and deeper furrows would +gather in her forehead, and her face grow ashen and perturbed. And this +was not mended by the levity with which the young ladies, with whom the +spectre had lost his influence, familiarity, as usual, breeding +contempt, had come to talk, and even to jest, about it.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER V</h4> + +<i><b>The Man with the Claret Mark</b></i> + +<p>But as the former excitement flagged, old Peggy Sullivan produced a new +one; for she solemnly avowed that she had seen a thin-faced man, with an +ugly red mark all over the side of his cheek, looking out of the same +window, just at sunset, before the young ladies returned from their +evening walk.</p> + +<p>This sounded in their ears like an old woman's dream, but still it was +an excitement, jocular in the morning, and just, perhaps, a little +fearful as night overspread the vast and desolate building, but still, +not wholly unpleasant. This little flicker of credulity suddenly, +however, blazed up into the full light of conviction.</p> + +<p>Old Laurence, who was not given to dreaming, and had a cool, hard head, +and an eye like a hawk, saw the same figure, just about the same hour, +when the last level gleam of sunset was tinting the summits of the +towers and the tops of the tall trees that surrounded them.</p> + +<p>He had just entered the court from the great gate, when he heard all at +once the hard peculiar twitter of alarm which sparrows make when a cat +or a hawk invades their safety, rising all round from the thick ivy that +overclimbed the wall on his left, and raising his eyes listlessly, he +saw, with a sort of shock, a thin, ungainly man, standing with his legs +crossed, in the recess of the window from which the light was wont to +issue, leaning with his elbows on the stone mullion, and looking down +with a sort of sickly sneer, his hollow yellow cheeks being deeply +stained on one side with what is called a "claret-mark."</p> + +<p>"I have you at last, you villain!" cried Larry, in a strange rage and +panic: "drop down out of that on the grass here, and give yourself up, +or I'll shoot you."</p> + +<p>The threat was backed with an oath, and he drew from his coat pocket the +long holster pistol he was wont to carry, and covered his man cleverly.</p> + +<p>"I give you while I count ten—one-two-three-four. If you draw back, +I'll fire, mind; five-six—you'd better be lively—seven-eight-nine—one +chance more; will you come down? Then take it—ten!"</p> + +<p>Bang went the pistol. The sinister stranger was hardly fifteen feet +removed from him, and Larry was a dead shot. But this time he made a +scandalous miss, for the shot knocked a little white dust from the stone +wall a full yard at one side; and the fellow never shifted his negligent +posture or qualified his sardonic smile during the procedure.</p> + +<p>Larry was mortified and angry.</p> + +<p>"You'll not get off this time, my tulip!" he said with a grin, +exchanging the smoking weapon for the loaded pistol in reserve.</p> + +<p>"What are you pistolling, Larry?" said a familiar voice close by his +elbow, and he saw his master, accompanied by a handsome young man in a +cloak.</p> + +<p>"That villain, your honour, in the window, there."</p> + +<p>"Why there's nobody there, Larry," said De Lacy, with a laugh, though +that was no common indulgence with him.</p> + +<p>As Larry gazed, the figure somehow dissolved and broke up without +receding. A hanging tuft of yellow and red ivy nodded queerly in place +of the face, some broken and discoloured masonry in perspective took up +the outline and colouring of the arms and figure, and two imperfect red +and yellow lichen streaks carried on the curved tracing of the long +spindle shanks. Larry blessed himself, and drew his hand across his damp +forehead, over his bewildered eyes, and could not speak for a minute. +It was all some devilish trick; he could take his oath he saw every +feature in the fellow's face, the lace and buttons of his cloak and +doublet, and even his long finger nails and thin yellow fingers that +overhung the cross-shaft of the window, where there was now nothing but +a rusty stain left.</p> + +<p>The young gentleman who had arrived with De Lacy, stayed that night and +shared with great apparent relish the homely fare of the family. He was +a gay and gallant Frenchman, and the beauty of the younger lady, and her +pleasantry and spirit, seemed to make his hours pass but too swiftly, +and the moment of parting sad.</p> + +<p>When he had departed early in the morning, Ultor De Lacy had a long talk +with his elder daughter, while the younger was busy with her early dairy +task, for among their retainers this <i>proles generosa</i> reckoned a "kind" +little Kerry cow.</p> + +<p>He told her that he had visited France since he had been last at +Cappercullen, and how good and gracious their sovereign had been, and +how he had arranged a noble alliance for her sister Una. The young +gentleman was of high blood, and though not rich, had, nevertheless, his +acres and his <i>nom de terre</i>, besides a captain's rank in the army. He +was, in short, the very gentleman with whom they had parted only that +morning. On what special business he was now in Ireland there was no +necessity that he should speak; but being here he had brought him hither +to present him to his daughter, and found that the impression she had +made was quite what was desirable.</p> + +<p>"You, you know, dear Alice, are promised to a conventual life. Had it +been otherwise—"</p> + +<p>He hesitated for a moment.</p> + +<p>"You are right, dear father," she said, kissing his hand, "I <i>am</i> so +promised, and no earthly tie or allurement has power to draw me from +that holy engagement."</p> + +<p>"Well," he said, returning her caress, "I do not mean to urge you upon +that point. It must not, however, be until Una's marriage has taken +place. That cannot be, for many good reasons, sooner than this time +twelve months; we shall then exchange this strange and barbarous abode +for Paris, where are many eligible convents, in which are entertained as +sisters some of the noblest ladies of France; and there, too, in Una's +marriage will be continued, though not the name, at all events the +blood, the lineage, and the title which, so sure as justice ultimately +governs the course of human events, will be again established, powerful +and honoured in this country, the scene of their ancient glory and +transitory misfortunes. Meanwhile, we must not mention this engagement +to Una. Here she runs no risk of being sought or won; but the mere +knowledge that her hand was absolutely pledged, might excite a +capricious opposition and repining such as neither I nor you would like +to see; therefore be secret."</p> + +<p>The same evening he took Alice with him for a ramble round the castle +wall, while they talked of grave matters, and he as usual allowed her a +dim and doubtful view of some of those cloud-built castles in which he +habitually dwelt, and among which his jaded hopes revived.</p> + +<p>They were walking upon a pleasant short sward of darkest green, on one +side overhung by the gray castle walls, and on the other by the forest +trees that here and there closely approached it, when precisely as they +turned the angle of the Bell Tower, they were encountered by a person +walking directly towards them. The sight of a stranger, with the +exception of the one visitor introduced by her father, was in this place +so absolutely unprecedented, that Alice was amazed and affrighted to +such a degree that for a moment she stood stock-still.</p> + +<p>But there was more in this apparition to excite unpleasant emotions, +than the mere circumstance of its unexpectedness. The figure was very +strange, being that of a tall, lean, ungainly man, dressed in a dingy +suit, somewhat of a Spanish fashion, with a brown laced cloak, and faded +red stockings. He had long lank legs, long arms, hands, and fingers, and +a very long sickly face, with a drooping nose, and a sly, sarcastic +leer, and a great purplish stain over-spreading more than half of one +cheek.</p> + +<p>As he strode past, he touched his cap with his thin, discoloured +fingers, and an ugly side glance, and disappeared round the corner. The +eyes of father and daughter followed him in silence.</p> + +<p>Ultor De Lacy seemed first absolutely terror-stricken, and then suddenly +inflamed with ungovernable fury. He dropped his cane on the ground, drew +his rapier, and, without wasting a thought on his daughter, pursued.</p> + +<p>He just had a glimpse of the retreating figure as it disappeared round +the far angle. The plume, and the lank hair, the point of the +rapier-scabbard, the flutter of the skirt of the cloak, and one red +stocking and heel; and this was the last he saw of him.</p> + +<p>When Alice reached his side, his drawn sword still in his hand, he was +in a state of abject agitation.</p> + +<p>"Thank Heaven, he's gone!" she exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"He's gone," echoed Ultor, with a strange glare.</p> + +<p>"And you are safe," she added, clasping his hand.</p> + +<p>He sighed a great sigh.</p> + +<p>"And you don't think he's coming back?"</p> + +<p>"He!--who?"</p> + +<p>"The stranger who passed us but now. Do you know him, father?"</p> + +<p>"Yes—and—no, child—I know him not—and yet I know him too well. Would +to heaven we could leave this accursed haunt to-night. Cursed be the +stupid malice that first provoked this horrible feud, which no sacrifice +and misery can appease, and no exorcism can quell or even suspend. The +wretch has come from afar with a sure instinct to devour my last +hope—to dog us into our last retreat—and to blast with his triumph the +very dust and ruins of our house. What ails that stupid priest that he +has given over his visits? Are <i>my</i> children to be left without mass or +confession—the sacraments which <i>guard</i> as well as save—because he +once loses his way in a mist, or mistakes a streak of foam in the brook +for a dead man's face? D—n him!"</p> + +<p>"See, Alice, if he won't come," he resumed, "you must only <i>write</i> your +confession to him in full—you and Una. Laurence is trusty, and will +carry it—and we'll get the bishop's—or, if need be, the Pope's leave +for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you +<i>shall</i> have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a +wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know +there's but one safe way—and—and—keep you each a bit of this—(he +opened a small silver box)—about you while you stay here—fold and sew +it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next +your hearts—'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer—and will help, +with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm—and be strict in +fasts, and constant in prayer—<i>I</i> can do nothing—nor devise any help. +The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine."</p> + +<p>And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and +agitated face.</p> + +<p>This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VI</h4> + +<i><b>Voices</b></i> + +<p>Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her +fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent +with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and +quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable +change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in +trifles; and strangely reserved and cold.</p> + +<p>Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this +estrangement—had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before +borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature +so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity?</p> + +<p>Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to +disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to +listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked +for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing +all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and +subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself, +and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice.</p> + +<p>She and Alice slept in the same bedroom—a chamber in a projecting +tower—which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung +round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their +skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if +speaking to herself----</p> + +<p>"'Tis my last night in this room—I shall sleep no more with Alice."</p> + +<p>"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unkindness?"</p> + +<p>Una looked on her curiously, and half frightened, and then the odd smile +stole over her face like a gleam of moonlight.</p> + +<p>"My poor Alice, what have you to do with it?" she whispered.</p> + +<p>"And why do you talk of sleeping no more with me?" said Alice.</p> + +<p>"Why? Alice dear—no why—no reason—only a knowledge that it must be +so, or Una will die."</p> + +<p>"Die, Una darling!--what can you mean?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sweet Alice, die, indeed. We must all die some time, you know, +or—or undergo a change; and my time is near—<i>very</i> near—unless I +sleep apart from you."</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Una, sweetheart, I think you <i>are</i> ill, but not near death."</p> + +<p>"Una knows what you think, wise Alice—but she's not mad—on the +contrary, she's wiser than other folks."</p> + +<p>"She's sadder and stranger too," said Alice, tenderly.</p> + +<p>"Knowledge is sorrow," answered Una, and she looked across the room +through her golden hair which she was combing—and through the window, +beyond which lay the tops of the great trees, and the still foliage of +the glen in the misty moonlight.</p> + +<p>"'Tis enough, Alice dear; it must be so. The bed must move hence, or +Una's bed will be low enough ere long. See, it shan't be far though, +only into that small room."</p> + +<p>She pointed to an inner room or closet opening from that in which they +lay. The walls of the building were hugely thick, and there were double +doors of oak between the chambers, and Alice thought, with a sigh, how +completely separated they were going to be.</p> + +<p>However she offered no opposition. The change was made, and the girls +for the first time since childhood lay in separate chambers. A few +nights afterwards Alice awoke late in the night from a dreadful dream, +in which the sinister figure which she and her father had encountered in +their ramble round the castle walls, bore a principal part.</p> + +<p>When she awoke there were still in her ears the sounds which had mingled +in her dream. They were the notes of a deep, ringing, bass voice rising +from the glen beneath the castle walls—something between humming and +singing—listlessly unequal and intermittent, like the melody of a man +whiling away the hours over his work. While she was wondering at this +unwonted minstrelsy, there came a silence, and—could she believe her +ears?—it certainly was Una's clear low contralto—softly singing a bar +or two from the window. Then once more silence—and then again the +strange manly voice, faintly chaunting from the leafy abyss.</p> + +<p>With a strange wild feeling of suspicion and terror, Alice glided to the +window. The moon who sees so many things, and keeps all secrets, with +her cold impenetrable smile, was high in the sky. But Alice saw the red +flicker of a candle from Una's window, and, she thought, the shadow of +her head against the deep side wall of its recess. Then this was gone, +and there were no more sights or sounds that night.</p> + +<p>As they sate at breakfast, the small birds were singing merrily from +among the sun-tipped foliage.</p> + +<p>"I love this music," said Alice, unusually pale and sad; "it comes with +the pleasant light of morning. I remember, Una, when you used to sing, +like those gay birds, in the fresh beams of the morning; that was in the +old time, when Una kept no secret from poor Alice."</p> + +<p>"And Una knows what her sage Alice means; but there are other birds, +silent all day long, and, they say, the sweetest too, that love to sing +by <i>night</i> alone."</p> + +<p>So things went on—the elder girl pained and melancholy—the younger +silent, changed, and unaccountable.</p> + +<p>A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard +a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be +no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the +walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting. +But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made +up the dialogue.</p> + +<p>Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to +enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices +ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her +in her nightdress, candle in hand.</p> + +<p>"Una—Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried +frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck.</p> + +<p>Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her.</p> + +<p>"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly.</p> + +<p>And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding +place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs +in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars +across; no hearth or chimney—nothing but bare walls.</p> + +<p>Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful +inquiry into those of her sister. Una smiled one of her peculiar +sidelong smiles, and said----</p> + +<p>"Strange dreams! I've been dreaming—so has Alice. She hears and sees +Una's dreams, and wonders—and well she may."</p> + +<p>And she kissed her sister's cheek with a cold kiss, and lay down in her +little bed, her slender hand under her head, and spoke no more.</p> + +<p>Alice, not knowing what to think, went back to hers.</p> + +<p>About this time Ultor De Lacy returned. He heard his elder daughter's +strange narrative with marked uneasiness, and his agitation seemed to +grow rather than subside. He enjoined her, however, not to mention it to +the old servant, nor in presence of anybody she might chance to see, but +only to him and to the priest, if he could be persuaded to resume his +duty and return. The trial, however, such as it was, could not endure +very long; matters had turned out favourably. The union of his younger +daughter might be accomplished within a few months, and in eight or +nine weeks they should be on their way to Paris.</p> + +<p>A night or two after her father's arrival, Alice, in the dead of the +night, heard the well-known strange deep voice speaking softly, as it +seemed, close to her own window on the outside; and Una's voice, clear +and tender, spoke in answer. She hurried to her own casement, and pushed +it open, kneeling in the deep embrasure, and looking with a stealthy and +affrighted gaze towards her sister's window. As she crossed the floor +the voices subsided, and she saw a light withdrawn from within. The +moonbeams slanted bright and clear on the whole side of the castle +overlooking the glen, and she plainly beheld the shadow of a man +projected on the wall as on a screen.</p> + +<p>This black shadow recalled with a horrid thrill the outline and fashion +of the figure in the Spanish dress. There were the cap and mantle, the +rapier, the long thin limbs and sinister angularity. It was so thrown +obliquely that the hands reached to the window-sill, and the feet +stretched and stretched, longer and longer as she looked, toward the +ground, and disappeared in the general darkness; and the rest, with a +sudden flicker, shot downwards, as shadows will on the sudden movement +of a light, and was lost in one gigantic leap down the castle wall.</p> + +<p>"I do not know whether I dream or wake when I hear and see these sights; +but I will ask my father to sit up with me, and we <i>two</i> surely cannot +be mistaken. May the holy saints keep and guard us!" And in her terror +she buried her head under the bed-clothes, and whispered her prayers for +an hour.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VII</h4> + +<i><b>Una's Love</b></i> + +<p>"I have been with Father Denis," said De Lacy, next day, "and he will +come to-morrow; and, thank Heaven! you may both make your confession and +hear mass, and my mind will be at rest; and you'll find poor Una happier +and more like herself."</p> + +<p>But 'tween cup and lip there's many a slip. The priest was not destined +to hear poor Una's shrift. When she bid her sister goodnight she looked +on her with her large, cold, wild eyes, till something of her old human +affections seemed to gather there, and they slowly filled with tears, +which dropped one after the other on her homely dress as she gazed in +her sister's face.</p> + +<p>Alice, delighted, sprang up, and clasped her arms about her neck. "My +own darling treasure,'tis all over; you love your poor Alice again, and +will be happier than ever."</p> + +<p>But while she held her in her embrace Una's eyes were turned towards the +window, and her lips apart, and Alice felt instinctively that her +thoughts were already far away.</p> + +<p>"Hark!--listen!--hush!" and Una, with her delighted gaze fixed, as if +she saw far away beyond the castle wall, the trees, the glen, and the +night's dark curtain, held her hand raised near her ear, and waved her +head slightly in time, as it seemed, to music that reached not Alice's +ear, and smiled her strange pleased smile, and then the smile slowly +faded away, leaving that sly suspicious light behind it which somehow +scared her sister with an uncertain sense of danger; and she sang in +tones so sweet and low that it seemed but a reverie of a song, +recalling, as Alice fancied, the strain to which she had just listened +in that strange ecstasy, the plaintive and beautiful Irish ballad, +"Shule, shule, shule, aroon," the midnight summons of the outlawed Irish +soldier to his darling to follow him.</p> + +<p>Alice had slept little the night before. She was now overpowered with +fatigue; and leaving her candle burning by her bedside, she fell into a +deep sleep. From this she awoke suddenly, and completely, as will +sometimes happen without any apparent cause, and she saw Una come into +the room. She had a little purse of embroidery—her own work—in her +hand; and she stole lightly to the bedside, with her peculiar oblique +smile, and evidently thinking that her sister was asleep.</p> + +<p>Alice was thrilled with a strange terror, and did not speak or move; and +her sister slipped her hand softly under her bolster, and withdrew it. +Then Una stood for while by the hearth, and stretched her hand up to the +mantelpiece, from which she took a little bit of chalk, and Alice +thought she saw her place it in the fingers of a long yellow hand that +was stealthily introduced from her own chamber-door to receive it; and +Una paused in the dark recess of the door, and smiled over her shoulder +toward her sister, and then glided into her room, closing the doors.</p> + +<p>Almost freezing with terror, Alice rose and glided after her, and stood +in her chamber, screaming----</p> + +<p>"Una, Una, in heaven's name what troubles you?"</p> + +<p>But Una seemed to have been sound asleep in her bed, and raised herself +with a start, and looking upon her with a peevish surprise, said----</p> + +<p>"What does Alice seek here?"</p> + +<p>"You were in my room, Una, dear; you seem disturbed and troubled."</p> + +<p>"Dreams, Alice. My dreams crossing your brain; only dreams—dreams. Get +you to bed, and sleep."</p> + +<p>And to bed she went, but <i>not</i> to sleep. She lay awake more than an +hour; and then Una emerged once more from her room. This time she was +fully dressed, and had her cloak and thick shoes on, as their rattle on +the floor plainly discovered. She had a little bundle tied up in a +handkerchief in her hand, and her hood was drawn about her head; and +thus equipped, as it seemed, for a journey, she came and stood at the +foot of Alice's bed, and stared on her with a look so soulless and +terrible that her senses almost forsook her. Then she turned and went +back into her own chamber.</p> + +<p>She may have returned; but Alice thought not—at least she did not see +her. But she lay in great excitement and perturbation; and was +terrified, about an hour later, by a knock at her chamber door—not that +opening into Una's room, but upon the little passage from the stone +screw staircase. She sprang from her bed; but the door was secured on +the inside, and she felt relieved. The knock was repeated, and she heard +some one laughing softly on the outside.</p> + +<p>The morning came at last; that dreadful night was over. But Una! Where +was Una?</p> + +<p>Alice never saw her more. On the head of her empty bed were traced in +chalk the words—Ultor De Lacy, Ultor O'Donnell. And Alice found beneath +her own pillow the little purse of embroidery she had seen in Una's +hand. It was her little parting token, and bore the simple +legend—"Una's love!"</p> + +<p>De Lacy's rage and horror were boundless. He charged the priest, in +frantic language, with having exposed his child, by his cowardice and +neglect, to the machinations of the Fiend, and raved and blasphemed like +a man demented.</p> + +<p>It is said that he procured a solemn exorcism to be performed, in the +hope of disenthralling and recovering his daughter. Several times, it is +alleged, she was seen by the old servants. Once on a sweet summer +morning, in the window of the tower, she was perceived combing her +beautiful golden tresses, and holding a little mirror in her hand; and +first, when she saw herself discovered, she looked affrighted, and then +smiled, her slanting, cunning smile. Sometimes, too, in the glen, by +moonlight, it was said belated villagers had met her, always startled +first, and then smiling, generally singing snatches of old Irish +ballads, that seemed to bear a sort of dim resemblance to her melancholy +fate. The apparition has long ceased. But it is said that now and again, +perhaps once in two or three years, late on a summer night, you may +hear—but faint and far away in the recesses of the glen—the sweet, sad +notes of Una's voice, singing those plaintive melodies. This, too, of +course, in time will cease, and all be forgotten.</p> + +<p> </p> + +<h4>CHAPTER VIII</h4> + +<i><b>Sister Agnes and the Portrait</b></i> + +<p>When Ultor De Lacy died, his daughter Alice found among his effects a +small box, containing a portrait such as I have described. When she +looked on it, she recoiled in horror. There, in the plenitude of its +sinister peculiarities, was faithfully portrayed the phantom which lived +with a vivid and horrible accuracy in her remembrance. Folded in the +same box was a brief narrative, stating that, "A.D. 1601, in the month +of December, Walter De Lacy, of Cappercullen, made many prisoners at the +ford of Ownhey, or Abington, of Irish and Spanish soldiers, flying from +the great overthrow of the rebel powers at Kinsale, and among the number +one Roderic O'Donnell, an arch traitor, and near kinsman to that other +O'Donnell who led the rebels; who, claiming kindred through his mother +to De Lacy, sued for his life with instant and miserable entreaty, and +offered great ransom, but was by De Lacy, through great zeal for the +queen, as some thought, cruelly put to death. When he went to the +tower-top, where was the gallows, finding himself in extremity, and no +hope of mercy, he swore that though he could work them no evil before +his death, yet that he would devote himself thereafter to blast the +greatness of the De Lacys, and never leave them till his work was done. +He hath been seen often since, and always for that family perniciously, +insomuch that it hath been the custom to show to young children of that +lineage the picture of the said O'Donnell, in little, taken among his +few valuables, to prevent their being misled by him unawares, so that he +should not have his will, who by devilish wiles and hell-born cunning, +hath steadfastly sought the ruin of that ancient house, and especially +to leave that <i>stemma generosum</i> destitute of issue for the transmission +of their pure blood and worshipful name."</p> + +<p>Old Miss Croker, of Ross House, who was near seventy in the year 1821, +when she related this story to me, had seen and conversed with Alice De +Lacy, a professed nun, under the name of Sister Agnes, in a religious +house in King-street, in Dublin, founded by the famous Duchess of +Tyrconnell, and had the narrative from her own lips. I thought the tale +worth preserving, and have no more to say. +<br> +<hr class="full" noshade> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 2***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 11700-h.txt or 11700-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/0/11700">https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/0/11700</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2 + +Author: Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + +Release Date: March 24, 2004 [eBook #11700] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: US-ASCII + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 2*** + + +E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell, Andrea Ball, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team + + + +J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, VOLUME 2 + +An Authentic Narrative of a Haunted House (1862) + +and + +Ultor De Lacy: A Legend of Cappercullen (1861) + +by + +Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu + + + + + + + +An Authentic Narrative of +a Haunted House + + +[The Editor of the UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE submits the following very +remarkable statement, with every detail of which he has been for some +years acquainted, upon the ground that it affords the most authentic and +ample relation of a series of marvellous phenoma, in nowise connected +with what is technically termed "spiritualism," which he has anywhere +met with. All the persons--and there are many of them living--upon whose +separate evidence some parts, and upon whose united testimony others, of +this most singular recital depend, are, in their several walks of life, +respectable, and such as would in any matter of judicial investigation +be deemed wholly unexceptionable witnesses. There is not an incident +here recorded which would not have been distinctly deposed to on oath +had any necessity existed, by the persons who severally, and some of +them in great fear, related their own distinct experiences. The Editor +begs most pointedly to meet _in limine_ the suspicion, that he is +elaborating a trick, or vouching for another ghost of Mrs. Veal. As a +mere story the narrative is valueless: its sole claim to attention is +its absolute truth. For the good faith of its relator he pledges his own +and the character of this Magazine. With the Editor's concurrence, the +name of the watering-place, and some special circumstances in no +essential way bearing upon the peculiar character of the story, but +which might have indicated the locality, and possibly annoyed persons +interested in house property there, have been suppressed by the +narrator. Not the slightest liberty has been taken with the narrative, +which is presented precisely in the terms in which the writer of it, who +employs throughout the first person, would, if need were, fix it in the +form of an affidavit.] + + +Within the last eight years--the precise date I purposely omit--I I was +ordered by my physician, my health being in an unsatisfactory state, to +change my residence to one upon the sea-coast; and accordingly, I took a +house for a year in a fashionable watering-place, at a moderate distance +from the city in which I had previously resided, and connected with it +by a railway. + +Winter was setting in when my removal thither was decided upon; but +there was nothing whatever dismal or depressing in the change. The house +I had taken was to all appearance, and in point of convenience, too, +quite a modern one. It formed one in a cheerful row, with small gardens +in front, facing the sea, and commanding sea air and sea views in +perfection. In the rear it had coach-house and stable, and between them +and the house a considerable grass-plot, with some flower-beds, +interposed. + +Our family consisted of my wife and myself, with three children, the +eldest about nine years old, she and the next in age being girls; and +the youngest, between six and seven, a boy. To these were added six +servants, whom, although for certain reasons I decline giving their real +names, I shall indicate, for the sake of clearness, by arbitrary ones. +There was a nurse, Mrs. Southerland; a nursery-maid, Ellen Page; the +cook, Mrs. Greenwood; and the housemaid, Ellen Faith; a butler, whom I +shall call Smith, and his son, James, about two-and-twenty. + +We came out to take possession at about seven o'clock in the evening; +every thing was comfortable and cheery; good fires lighted, the rooms +neat and airy, and a general air of preparation and comfort, highly +conducive to good spirits and pleasant anticipations. + +The sitting-rooms were large and cheerful, and they and the bed-rooms +more than ordinarily lofty, the kitchen and servants' rooms, on the same +level, were well and comfortably furnished, and had, like the rest of +the house, an air of recent painting and fitting up, and a completely +modern character, which imparted a very cheerful air of cleanliness and +convenience. + +There had been just enough of the fuss of settling agreeably to occupy +us, and to give a pleasant turn to our thoughts after we had retired to +our rooms. Being an invalid, I had a small bed to myself--resigning the +four-poster to my wife. The candle was extinguished, but a night-light +was burning. I was coming up stairs, and she, already in bed, had just +dismissed her maid, when we were both startled by a wild scream from her +room; I found her in a state of the extremest agitation and terror. She +insisted that she had seen an unnaturally tall figure come beside her +bed and stand there. The light was too faint to enable her to define any +thing respecting this apparition, beyond the fact of her having most +distinctly seen such a shape, colourless from the insufficiency of the +light to disclose more than its dark outline. + +We both endeavoured to re-assure her. The room once more looked so +cheerful in the candlelight, that we were quite uninfluenced by the +contagion of her terrors. The movements and voices of the servants down +stairs still getting things into their places and completing our +comfortable arrangements, had also their effect in steeling us against +any such influence, and we set the whole thing down as a dream, or an +imperfectly-seen outline of the bed-curtains. When, however, we were +alone, my wife reiterated, still in great agitation, her clear assertion +that she had most positively seen, being at the time as completely awake +as ever she was, precisely what she had described to us. And in this +conviction she continued perfectly firm. + +A day or two after this, it came out that our servants were under an +apprehension that, somehow or other, thieves had established a secret +mode of access to the lower part of the house. The butler, Smith, had +seen an ill-looking woman in his room on the first night of our arrival; +and he and other servants constantly saw, for many days subsequently, +glimpses of a retreating figure, which corresponded with that so seen by +him, passing through a passage which led to a back area in which were +some coal-vaults. + +This figure was seen always in the act of retreating, its back turned, +generally getting round the corner of the passage into the area, in a +stealthy and hurried way, and, when closely followed, imperfectly seen +again entering one of the coal-vaults, and when pursued into it, nowhere +to be found. + +The idea of any thing supernatural in the matter had, strange to say, +not yet entered the mind of any one of the servants. They had heard some +stories of smugglers having secret passages into houses, and using their +means of access for purposes of pillage, or with a view to frighten +superstitious people out of houses which they needed for their own +objects, and a suspicion of similar practices here, caused them extreme +uneasiness. The apparent anxiety also manifested by this retreating +figure to escape observation, and her always appearing to make her +egress at the same point, favoured this romantic hypothesis. The men, +however, made a most careful examination of the back area, and of the +coal-vaults, with a view to discover some mode of egress, but entirely +without success. On the contrary, the result was, so far as it went, +subversive of the theory; solid masonry met them on every hand. + +I called the man, Smith, up, to hear from his own lips the particulars +of what he had seen; and certainly his report was very curious. I give +it as literally as my memory enables me:---- + +His son slept in the same room, and was sound asleep; but he lay awake, +as men sometimes will on a change of bed, and having many things on his +mind. He was lying with his face towards the wall, but observing a light +and some little stir in the room, he turned round in his bed, and saw +the figure of a woman, squalid, and ragged in dress; her figure rather +low and broad; as well as I recollect, she had something--either a cloak +or shawl--on, and wore a bonnet. Her back was turned, and she appeared +to be searching or rummaging for something on the floor, and, without +appearing to observe him, she turned in doing so towards him. The light, +which was more like the intense glow of a coal, as he described it, +being of a deep red colour, proceeded from the hollow of her hand, which +she held beside her head, and he saw her perfectly distinctly. She +appeared middle-aged, was deeply pitted with the smallpox, and blind of +one eye. His phrase in describing her general appearance was, that she +was "a miserable, poor-looking creature." + +He was under the impression that she must be the woman who had been left +by the proprietor in charge of the house, and who had that evening, +after having given up the keys, remained for some little time with the +female servants. He coughed, therefore, to apprize her of his presence, +and turned again towards the wall. When he again looked round she and +the light were gone; and odd as was her method of lighting herself in +her search, the circumstances excited neither uneasiness nor curiosity +in his mind, until he discovered next morning that the woman in question +had left the house long before he had gone to his bed. + +I examined the man very closely as to the appearance of the person who +had visited him, and the result was what I have described. It struck me +as an odd thing, that even then, considering how prone to superstition +persons in his rank of life usually are, he did not seem to suspect any +thing supernatural in the occurrence; and, on the contrary, was +thoroughly persuaded that his visitant was a living person, who had got +into the house by some hidden entrance. + +On Sunday, on his return from his place of worship, he told me that, +when the service was ended, and the congregation making their way slowly +out, he saw the very woman in the crowd, and kept his eye upon her for +several minutes, but such was the crush, that all his efforts to reach +her were unavailing, and when he got into the open street she was gone. +He was quite positive as to his having distinctly seen her, however, +for several minutes, and scouted the possibility of any mistake as to +identity; and fully impressed with the substantial and living reality of +his visitant, he was very much provoked at her having escaped him. He +made inquiries also in the neighbourhood, but could procure no +information, nor hear of any other persons having seen any woman +corresponding with his visitant. + +The cook and the housemaid occupied a bed-room on the kitchen floor. It +had whitewashed walls, and they were actually terrified by the +appearance of the shadow of a woman passing and repassing across the +side wall opposite to their beds. They suspected that this had been +going on much longer than they were aware, for its presence was +discovered by a sort of accident, its movements happening to take a +direction in distinct contrariety to theirs. + +This shadow always moved upon one particular wall, returning after short +intervals, and causing them extreme terror. They placed the candle, as +the most obvious specific, so close to the infested wall, that the flame +all but touched it; and believed for some time that they had effectually +got rid of this annoyance; but one night, notwithstanding this +arrangement of the light, the shadow returned, passing and repassing, as +heretofore, upon the same wall, although their only candle was burning +within an inch of it, and it was obvious that no substance capable of +casting such a shadow could have interposed; and, indeed, as they +described it, the shadow seemed to have no sort of relation to the +position of the light, and appeared, as I have said, in manifest +defiance of the laws of optics. + +I ought to mention that the housemaid was a particularly fearless sort +of person, as well as a very honest one; and her companion, the cook, a +scrupulously religious woman, and both agreed in every particular in +their relation of what occurred. + +Meanwhile, the nursery was not without its annoyances, though as yet of +a comparatively trivial kind. Sometimes, at night, the handle of the +door was turned hurriedly as if by a person trying to come in, and at +others a knocking was made at it. These sounds occurred after the +children had settled to sleep, and while the nurse still remained awake. +Whenever she called to know "who is there," the sounds ceased; but +several times, and particularly at first, she was under the impression +that they were caused by her mistress, who had come to see the children, +and thus impressed she had got up and opened the door, expecting to see +her, but discovering only darkness, and receiving no answer to her +inquiries. + +With respect to this nurse, I must mention that I believe no more +perfectly trustworthy servant was ever employed in her capacity; and, in +addition to her integrity, she was remarkably gifted with sound common +sense. + +One morning, I think about three or four weeks after our arrival, I was +sitting at the parlour window which looked to the front, when I saw the +little iron door which admitted into the small garden that lay between +the window where I was sitting and the public road, pushed open by a +woman who so exactly answered the description given by Smith of the +woman who had visited his room on the night of his arrival as +instantaneously to impress me with the conviction that she must be the +identical person. She was a square, short woman, dressed in soiled and +tattered clothes, scarred and pitted with small-pox, and blind of an +eye. She stepped hurriedly into the little enclosure, and peered from a +distance of a few yards into the room where I was sitting. I felt that +now was the moment to clear the matter up; but there was something +stealthy in the manner and look of the woman which convinced me that I +must not appear to notice her until her retreat was fairly cut off. +Unfortunately, I was suffering from a lame foot, and could not reach the +bell as quickly as I wished. I made all the haste I could, and rang +violently to bring up the servant Smith. In the short interval that +intervened, I observed the woman from the window, who having in a +leisurely way, and with a kind of scrutiny, looked along the front +windows of the house, passed quickly out again, closing the gate after +her, and followed a lady who was walking along the footpath at a quick +pace, as if with the intention of begging from her. The moment the man +entered I told him--"the blind woman you described to me has this +instant followed a lady in that direction, try to overtake her." He was, +if possible, more eager than I in the chase, but returned in a short +time after a vain pursuit, very hot, and utterly disappointed. And, +thereafter, we saw her face no more. + +All this time, and up to the period of our leaving the house, which was +not for two or three months later, there occurred at intervals the only +phenomenon in the entire series having any resemblance to what we hear +described of "Spiritualism." This was a knocking, like a soft hammering +with a wooden mallet, as it seemed in the timbers between the bedroom +ceilings and the roof. It had this special peculiarity, that it was +always rythmical, and, I think, invariably, the emphasis upon the last +stroke. It would sound rapidly "one, two, three, _four_--one, two, +three, _four_;" or "one, two, _three_--one, two, _three_," and sometimes +"one, _two_--one, _two_," &c., and this, with intervals and +resumptions, monotonously for hours at a time. + +At first this caused my wife, who was a good deal confined to her bed, +much annoyance; and we sent to our neighbours to inquire if any +hammering or carpentering was going on in their houses but were informed +that nothing of the sort was taking place. I have myself heard it +frequently, always in the same inaccessible part of the house, and with +the same monotonous emphasis. One odd thing about it was, that on my +wife's calling out, as she used to do when it became more than usually +troublesome, "stop that noise," it was invariably arrested for a longer +or shorter time. + +Of course none of these occurrences were ever mentioned in hearing of +the children. They would have been, no doubt, like most children, +greatly terrified had they heard any thing of the matter, and known that +their elders were unable to account for what was passing; and their +fears would have made them wretched and troublesome. + +They used to play for some hours every day in the back garden--the house +forming one end of this oblong inclosure, the stable and coach-house the +other, and two parallel walls of considerable height the sides. Here, as +it afforded a perfectly safe playground, they were frequently left quite +to themselves; and in talking over their days' adventures, as children +will, they happened to mention a woman, or rather the woman, for they +had long grown familiar with her appearance, whom they used to see in +the garden while they were at play. They assumed that she came in and +went out at the stable door, but they never actually saw her enter or +depart. They merely saw a figure--that of a very poor woman, soiled and +ragged--near the stable wall, stooping over the ground, and apparently +grubbing in the loose clay in search of something. She did not disturb, +or appear to observe them; and they left her in undisturbed possession +of her nook of ground. When seen it was always in the same spot, and +similarly occupied; and the description they gave of her general +appearance--for they never saw her face--corresponded with that of the +one-eyed woman whom Smith, and subsequently as it seemed, I had seen. + +The other man, James, who looked after a mare which I had purchased for +the purpose of riding exercise, had, like every one else in the house, +his little trouble to report, though it was not much. The stall in +which, as the most comfortable, it was decided to place her, she +peremptorily declined to enter. Though a very docile and gentle little +animal, there was no getting her into it. She would snort and rear, and, +in fact, do or suffer any thing rather than set her hoof in it. He was +fain, therefore, to place her in another. And on several occasions he +found her there, exhibiting all the equine symptoms of extreme fear. +Like the rest of us, however, this man was not troubled in the +particular case with any superstitious qualms. The mare had evidently +been frightened; and he was puzzled to find out how, or by whom, for the +stable was well-secured, and had, I am nearly certain, a lock-up yard +outside. + +One morning I was greeted with the intelligence that robbers had +certainly got into the house in the night; and that one of them had +actually been seen in the nursery. The witness, I found, was my eldest +child, then, as I have said, about nine years of age. Having awoke in +the night, and lain awake for some time in her bed, she heard the handle +of the door turn, and a person whom she distinctly saw--for it was a +light night, and the window-shutters unclosed--but whom she had never +seen before, stepped in on tiptoe, and with an appearance of great +caution. He was a rather small man, with a very red face; he wore an +oddly cut frock coat, the collar of which stood up, and trousers, rough +and wide, like those of a sailor, turned up at the ankles, and either +short boots or clumsy shoes, covered with mud. This man listened beside +the nurse's bed, which stood next the door, as if to satisfy himself +that she was sleeping soundly; and having done so for some seconds, he +began to move cautiously in a diagonal line, across the room to the +chimney-piece, where he stood for a while, and so resumed his tiptoe +walk, skirting the wall, until he reached a chest of drawers, some of +which were open, and into which he looked, and began to rummage in a +hurried way, as the child supposed, making search for something worth +taking away. He then passed on to the window, where was a +dressing-table, at which he also stopped, turning over the things upon +it, and standing for some time at the window as if looking out, and then +resuming his walk by the side wall opposite to that by which he had +moved up to the window, he returned in the same way toward the nurse's +bed, so as to reach it at the foot. With its side to the end wall, in +which was the door, was placed the little bed in which lay my eldest +child, who watched his proceedings with the extremest terror. As he drew +near she instinctively moved herself in the bed, with her head and +shoulders to the wall, drawing up her feet; but he passed by without +appearing to observe, or, at least, to care for her presence. +Immediately after the nurse turned in her bed as if about to waken; and +when the child, who had drawn the clothes about her head, again ventured +to peep out, the man was gone. + +The child had no idea of her having seen any thing more formidable than +a thief. With the prowling, cautious, and noiseless manner of proceeding +common to such marauders, the air and movements of the man whom she had +seen entirely corresponded. And on hearing her perfectly distinct and +consistent account, I could myself arrive at no other conclusion than +that a stranger had actually got into the house. I had, therefore, in +the first instance, a most careful examination made to discover any +traces of an entrance having been made by any window into the house. The +doors had been found barred and locked as usual; but no sign of any +thing of the sort was discernible. I then had the various +articles--plate, wearing apparel, books, &c., counted; and after having +conned over and reckoned up every thing, it became quite clear that +nothing whatever had been removed from the house, nor was there the +slightest indication of any thing having been so much as disturbed +there. I must here state that this child was remarkably clear, +intelligent, and observant; and that her description of the man, and of +all that had occurred, was most exact, and as detailed as the want of +perfect light rendered possible. + +I felt assured that an entrance had actually been effected into the +house, though for what purpose was not easily to be conjectured. The +man, Smith, was equally confident upon this point; and his theory was +that the object was simply to frighten us out of the house by making us +believe it haunted; and he was more than ever anxious and on the alert +to discover the conspirators. It often since appeared to me odd. Every +year, indeed, more odd, as this cumulative case of the marvellous +becomes to my mind more and more inexplicable--that underlying my sense +of mystery and puzzle, was all along the quiet assumption that all these +occurrences were one way or another referable to natural causes. I could +not account for them, indeed, myself; but during the whole period I +inhabited that house, I never once felt, though much alone, and often up +very late at night, any of those tremors and thrills which every one has +at times experienced when situation and the hour are favourable. Except +the cook and housemaid, who were plagued with the shadow I mentioned +crossing and recrossing upon the bedroom wall, we all, without +exception, experienced the same strange sense of security, and regarded +these phenomena rather with a perplexed sort of interest and curiosity, +than with any more unpleasant sensations. + +The knockings which I have mentioned at the nursery door, preceded +generally by the sound of a step on the lobby, meanwhile continued. At +that time (for my wife, like myself, was an invalid) two eminent +physicians, who came out occasionally by rail, were attending us. These +gentlemen were at first only amused, but ultimately interested, and very +much puzzled by the occurrences which we described. One of them, at +last, recommended that a candle should be kept burning upon the lobby. +It was in fact a recurrence to an old woman's recipe against ghosts--of +course it might be serviceable, too, against impostors; at all events, +seeming, as I have said, very much interested and puzzled, he advised +it, and it was tried. We fancied that it was successful; for there was +an interval of quiet for, I think, three or four nights. But after that, +the noises--the footsteps on the lobby--the knocking at the door, and +the turning of the handle recommenced in full force, notwithstanding the +light upon the table outside; and these particular phenomena became only +more perplexing than ever. + +The alarm of robbers and smugglers gradually subsided after a week or +two; but we were again to hear news from the nursery. Our second little +girl, then between seven and eight years of age, saw in the night +time--she alone being awake--a young woman, with black, or very dark +hair, which hung loose, and with a black cloak on, standing near the +middle of the floor, opposite the hearthstone, and fronting the foot of +her bed. She appeared quite unobservant of the children and nurse +sleeping in the room. She was very pale, and looked, the child said, +both "sorry and frightened," and with something very peculiar and +terrible about her eyes, which made the child conclude that she was +dead. She was looking, not at, but in the direction of the child's bed, +and there was a dark streak across her throat, like a scar with blood +upon it. This figure was not motionless; but once or twice turned +slowly, and without appearing to be conscious of the presence of the +child, or the other occupants of the room, like a person in vacancy or +abstraction. There was on this occasion a night-light burning in the +chamber; and the child saw, or thought she saw, all these particulars +with the most perfect distinctness. She got her head under the +bed-clothes; and although a good many years have passed since then, she +cannot recall the spectacle without feelings of peculiar horror. + +One day, when the children were playing in the back garden, I asked them +to point out to me the spot where they were accustomed to see the woman +who occasionally showed herself as I have described, near the stable +wall. There was no division of opinion as to this precise point, which +they indicated in the most distinct and confident way. I suggested that, +perhaps, something might be hidden there in the ground; and advised them +digging a hole there with their little spades, to try for it. +Accordingly, to work they went, and by my return in the evening they had +grubbed up a piece of a jawbone, with several teeth in it. The bone was +very much decayed, and ready to crumble to pieces, but the teeth were +quite sound. I could not tell whether they were human grinders; but I +showed the fossil to one of the physicians I have mentioned, who came +out the next evening, and he pronounced them human teeth. The same +conclusion was come to a day or two later by the other medical man. It +appears to me now, on reviewing the whole matter, almost unaccountable +that, with such evidence before me, I should not have got in a labourer, +and had the spot effectually dug and searched. I can only say, that so +it was. I was quite satisfied of the moral truth of every word that had +been related to me, and which I have here set down with scrupulous +accuracy. But I experienced an apathy, for which neither then nor +afterwards did I quite know how to account. I had a vague, but immovable +impression that the whole affair was referable to natural agencies. It +was not until some time after we had left the house, which, by-the-by, +we afterwards found had had the reputation of being haunted before we +had come to live in it, that on reconsideration I discovered the serious +difficulty of accounting satisfactorily for all that had occurred upon +ordinary principles. A great deal we might arbitrarily set down to +imagination. But even in so doing there was, _in limine_, the oddity, +not to say improbability, of so many different persons having nearly +simultaneously suffered from different spectral and other illusions +during the short period for which we had occupied that house, who never +before, nor so far as we learned, afterwards were troubled by any fears +or fancies of the sort. There were other things, too, not to be so +accounted for. The odd knockings in the roof I frequently heard myself. + +There were also, which I before forgot to mention, in the daytime, +rappings at the doors of the sitting-rooms, which constantly deceived +us; and it was not till our "come in" was unanswered, and the hall or +passage outside the door was discovered to be empty, that we learned +that whatever else caused them, human hands did not. All the persons who +reported having seen the different persons or appearances here described +by me, were just as confident of having literally and distinctly seen +them, as I was of having seen the hard-featured woman with the blind +eye, so remarkably corresponding with Smith's description. + +About a week after the discovery of the teeth, which were found, I +think, about two feet under the ground, a friend, much advanced in +years, and who remembered the town in which we had now taken up our +abode, for a very long time, happened to pay us a visit. He +good-humouredly pooh-poohed the whole thing; but at the same time was +evidently curious about it. "We might construct a sort of story," said I +(I am giving, of course, the substance and purport, not the exact words, +of our dialogue), "and assign to each of the three figures who appeared +their respective parts in some dreadful tragedy enacted in this house. +The male figure represents the murderer; the ill-looking, one-eyed woman +his accomplice, who, we will suppose, buried the body where she is now +so often seen grubbing in the earth, and where the human teeth and +jawbone have so lately been disinterred; and the young woman with +dishevelled tresses, and black cloak, and the bloody scar across her +throat, their victim. A difficulty, however, which I cannot get over, +exists in the cheerfulness, the great publicity, and the evident very +recent date of the house." "Why, as to that," said he, "the house is +_not_ modern; it and those beside it formed an old government store, +altered and fitted up recently as you see. I remember it well in my +young days, fifty years ago, before the town had grown out in this +direction, and a more entirely lonely spot, or one more fitted for the +commission of a secret crime, could not have been imagined." + +I have nothing to add, for very soon after this my physician pronounced +a longer stay unnecessary for my health, and we took our departure for +another place of abode. I may add, that although I have resided for +considerable periods in many other houses, I never experienced any +annoyances of a similar kind elsewhere; neither have I made (stupid dog! +you will say), any inquiries respecting either the antecedents or +subsequent history of the house in which we made so disturbed a sojourn. +I was content with what I knew, and have here related as clearly as I +could, and I think it a very pretty puzzle as it stands. + + +[Thus ends the statement, which we abandon to the ingenuity of our +readers, having ourselves no satisfactory explanation to suggest; and +simply repeating the assurance with which we prefaced it, namely, that +we can vouch for the perfect good faith and the accuracy of the +narrator.--E.D.U.M.] + + + + +Ultor De Lacy: +A Legend of Cappercullen + + + +CHAPTER I + + +The Jacobite's Legacy + +In my youth I heard a great many Irish family traditions, more or less +of a supernatural character, some of them very peculiar, and all, to a +child at least, highly interesting. One of these I will now relate, +though the translation to cold type from oral narrative, with all the +aids of animated human voice and countenance, and the appropriate +_mise-en-scene_ of the old-fashioned parlour fireside and its listening +circle of excited faces, and, outside, the wintry blast and the moan of +leafless boughs, with the occasional rattle of the clumsy old +window-frame behind shutter and curtain, as the blast swept by, is at +best a trying one. + +About midway up the romantic glen of Cappercullen, near the point where +the counties of Limerick, Clare, and Tipperary converge, upon the then +sequestered and forest-bound range of the Slieve-Felim hills, there +stood, in the reigns of the two earliest Georges, the picturesque and +massive remains of one of the finest of the Anglo-Irish castles of +Munster--perhaps of Ireland. + +It crowned the precipitous edge of the wooded glen, itself half-buried +among the wild forest that covered that long and solitary range. There +was no human habitation within a circle of many miles, except the +half-dozen hovels and the small thatched chapel composing the little +village of Murroa, which lay at the foot of the glen among the +straggling skirts of the noble forest. + +Its remoteness and difficulty of access saved it from demolition. It was +worth nobody's while to pull down and remove the ponderous and clumsy +oak, much less the masonry or flagged roofing of the pile. Whatever +would pay the cost of removal had been long since carried away. The rest +was abandoned to time--the destroyer. + +The hereditary owners of this noble building and of a wide territory in +the contiguous counties I have named, were English--the De Lacys--long +naturalized in Ireland. They had acquired at least this portion of their +estate in the reign of Henry VIII, and held it, with some vicissitudes, +down to the establishment of the revolution in Ireland, when they +suffered attainder, and, like other great families of that period, +underwent a final eclipse. + +The De Lacy of that day retired to France, and held a brief command in +the Irish Brigade, interrupted by sickness. He retired, became a poor +hanger-on of the Court of St. Germains, and died early in the eighteenth +century--as well as I remember, 1705--leaving an only son, hardly twelve +years old, called by the strange but significant name of Ultor. + +At this point commences the marvellous ingredient of my tale. + +When his father was dying, he had him to his bedside, with no one by +except his confessor; and having told him, first, that on reaching the +age of twenty-one, he was to lay claim to a certain small estate in the +county of Clare, in Ireland, in right of his mother--the title-deeds of +which he gave him--and next, having enjoined him not to marry before the +age of thirty, on the ground that earlier marriages destroyed the spirit +and the power of enterprise, and would incapacitate him from the +accomplishment of his destiny--the restoration of his family--he then +went on to open to the child a matter which so terrified him that he +cried lamentably, trembling all over, clinging to the priest's gown with +one hand and to his father's cold wrist with the other, and imploring +him, with screams of horror, to desist from his communication. + +But the priest, impressed, no doubt, himself, with its necessity, +compelled him to listen. And then his father showed him a small picture, +from which also the child turned with shrieks, until similarly +constrained to look. They did not let him go until he had carefully +conned the features, and was able to tell them, from memory, the colour +of the eyes and hair, and the fashion and hues of the dress. Then his +father gave him a black box containing this portrait, which was a +full-length miniature, about nine inches long, painted very finely in +oils, as smooth as enamel, and folded above it a sheet of paper, written +over in a careful and very legible hand. + +The deeds and this black box constituted the most important legacy +bequeathed to his only child by the ruined Jacobite, and he deposited +them in the hands of the priest, in trust, till his boy, Ultor, should +have attained to an age to understand their value, and to keep them +securely. + +When this scene was ended, the dying exile's mind, I suppose, was +relieved, for he spoke cheerily, and said he believed he would recover; +and they soothed the crying child, and his father kissed him, and gave +him a little silver coin to buy fruit with; and so they sent him off +with another boy for a walk, and when he came back his father was dead. + +He remained in France under the care of this ecclesiastic until he had +attained the age of twenty-one, when he repaired to Ireland, and his +title being unaffected by his father's attainder, he easily made good +his claim to the small estate in the county of Clare. + +There he settled, making a dismal and solitary tour now and then of the +vast territories which had once been his father's, and nursing those +gloomy and impatient thoughts which befitted the enterprises to which he +was devoted. + +Occasionally he visited Paris, that common centre of English, Irish, and +Scottish disaffection; and there, when a little past thirty, he married +the daughter of another ruined Irish house. His bride returned with him +to the melancholy seclusion of their Munster residence, where she bore +him in succession two daughters--Alice, the elder, dark-eyed and +dark-haired, grave and sensible--Una, four years younger, with large +blue eyes and long and beautiful golden hair. + +Their poor mother was, I believe, naturally a lighthearted, sociable, +high-spirited little creature; and her gay and childish nature pined in +the isolation and gloom of her lot. At all events she died young, and +the children were left to the sole care of their melancholy and +embittered father. In process of time the girls grew up, tradition says, +beautiful. The elder was designed for a convent, the younger her father +hoped to mate as nobly as her high blood and splendid beauty seemed to +promise, if only the great game on which he had resolved to stake all +succeeded. + + + +CHAPTER II + + +The Fairies in the Castle + +The Rebellion of '45 came, and Ultor de Lacy was one of the few Irishmen +implicated treasonably in that daring and romantic insurrection. Of +course there were warrants out against him, but he was not to be found. +The young ladies, indeed, remained as heretofore in their father's +lonely house in Clare; but whether he had crossed the water or was still +in Ireland was for some time unknown, even to them. In due course he was +attainted, and his little estate forfeited. It was a miserable +catastrophe--a tremendous and beggarly waking up from a life-long dream +of returning principality. + +In due course the officers of the crown came down to take possession, +and it behoved the young ladies to flit. Happily for them the +ecclesiastic I have mentioned was not quite so confident as their +father, of his winning back the magnificent patrimony of his ancestors; +and by his advice the daughters had been secured twenty pounds a year +each, under the marriage settlement of their parents, which was all that +stood between this proud house and literal destitution. + +Late one evening, as some little boys from the village were returning +from a ramble through the dark and devious glen of Cappercullen, with +their pockets laden with nuts and "frahans," to their amazement and even +terror they saw a light streaming redly from the narrow window of one of +the towers overhanging the precipice among the ivy and the lofty +branches, across the glen, already dim in the shadows of the deepening +night. + +"Look--look--look--'tis the Phooka's tower!" was the general cry, in the +vernacular Irish, and a universal scamper commenced. + +The bed of the glen, strewn with great fragments of rock, among which +rose the tall stems of ancient trees, and overgrown with a tangled +copse, was at the best no favourable ground for a run. Now it was dark; +and, terrible work breaking through brambles and hazels and tumbling +over rocks. Little Shaeen Mull Ryan, the last of the panic rout, +screaming to his mates to wait for him--saw a whitish figure emerge from +the thicket at the base of the stone flight of steps that descended the +side of the glen, close by the castle-wall, intercepting his flight, and +a discordant male voice shrieked---- + +"I have you!" + +At the same time the boy, with a cry of terror, tripped and tumbled; and +felt himself roughly caught by the arm, and hauled to his feet with a +shake. + +A wild yell from the child, and a volley of terror and entreaty +followed. + +"Who is it, Larry; what's the matter?" cried a voice, high in air, from +the turret window, The words floated down through the trees, clear and +sweet as the low notes of a flute. + +"Only a child, my lady; a boy." + +"Is he hurt?" + +"Are you hurted?" demanded the whitish man, who held him fast, and +repeated the question in Irish; but the child only kept blubbering and +crying for mercy, with his hands clasped, and trying to drop on his +knees. + +Larry's strong old hand held him up. He _was_ hurt, and bleeding from +over his eye. + +"Just a trifle hurted, my lady!" + +"Bring him up here." + +Shaeen Mull Ryan gave himself over. He was among "the good people," who +he knew would keep him prisoner for ever and a day. There was no good in +resisting. He grew bewildered, and yielded himself passively to his +fate, and emerged from the glen on the platform above; his captor's +knotted old hand still on his arm, and looked round on the tall +mysterious trees, and the gray front of the castle, revealed in the +imperfect moonlight, as upon the scenery of a dream. + +The old man who, with thin wiry legs, walked by his side, in a dingy +white coat, and blue facings, and great pewter buttons, with his silver +gray hair escaping from under his battered three-cocked hat; and his +shrewd puckered resolute face, in which the boy could read no promise of +sympathy, showing so white and phantom-like in the moonlight, was, as he +thought, the incarnate ideal of a fairy. + +This figure led him in silence under the great arched gateway, and +across the grass-grown court, to the door in the far angle of the +building; and so, in the dark, round and round, up a stone screw stair, +and with a short turn into a large room, with a fire of turf and wood, +burning on its long unused hearth, over which hung a pot, and about it +an old woman with a great wooden spoon was busy. An iron candlestick +supported their solitary candle; and about the floor of the room, as +well as on the table and chairs, lay a litter of all sorts of things; +piles of old faded hangings, boxes, trunks, clothes, pewter-plates, and +cups; and I know not what more. + +But what instantly engaged the fearful gaze of the boy were the figures +of two ladies; red drugget cloaks they had on, like the peasant girls of +Munster and Connaught, and the rest of their dress was pretty much in +keeping. But they had the grand air, the refined expression and beauty, +and above all, the serene air of command that belong to people of a +higher rank. + +The elder, with black hair and full brown eyes, sat writing at the deal +table on which the candle stood, and raised her dark gaze to the boy as +he came in. The other, with her hood thrown back, beautiful and _riant_, +with a flood of wavy golden hair, and great blue eyes, and with +something kind, and arch, and strange in her countenance, struck him as +the most wonderful beauty he could have imagined. + +They questioned the man in a language strange to the child. It was not +English, for he had a smattering of that, and the man's story seemed to +amuse them. The two young ladies exchanged a glance, and smiled +mysteriously. He was more convinced than ever that he was among the good +people. The younger stepped gaily forward and said---- + +"Do you know who _I_ am, my little man? Well, I'm the fairy Una, and +this is my palace; and that fairy you see there (pointing to the dark +lady, who was looking out something in a box), is my sister and family +physician, the Lady Graveairs; and these (glancing at the old man and +woman), are some of my courtiers; and I'm considering now what I shall +do with _you_, whether I shall send you to-night to Lough Guir, riding +on a rush, to make my compliments to the Earl of Desmond in his +enchanted castle; or, straight to your bed, two thousand miles under +ground, among the gnomes; or to prison in that little corner of the moon +you see through the window--with the man-in-the-moon for your gaoler, +for thrice three hundred years and a day! There, don't cry. You only see +how serious a thing it is for you, little boys, to come so near my +castle. Now, for this once, I'll let you go. But, henceforward, any boys +I, or my people, may find within half a mile round my castle, shall +belong to me for life, and never behold their home or their people +more." + +And she sang a little air and chased mystically half a dozen steps +before him, holding out her cloak with her pretty fingers, and +courtesying very low, to his indescribable alarm. + +Then, with a little laugh, she said---- + +"My little man, we must mend your head." + +And so they washed his scratch, and the elder one applied a plaister to +it. And she of the great blue eyes took out of her pocket a little +French box of bon-bons and emptied it into his hand, and she said---- + +"You need not be afraid to eat these--they are very good--and I'll send +my fairy, Blanc-et-bleu, to set you free. Take him (she addressed +Larry), and let him go, with a solemn charge." + +The elder, with a grave and affectionate smile, said, looking on the +fairy---- + +"Brave, dear, wild Una! nothing can ever quell your gaiety of heart." + +And Una kissed her merrily on the cheek. + +So the oak door of the room again opened, and Shaeen, with his +conductor, descended the stair. He walked with the scared boy in grim +silence near half way down the wild hill-side toward Murroa, and then he +stopped, and said in Irish---- + +"You never saw the fairies before, my fine fellow, and 'tisn't often +those who once set eyes on us return to tell it. Whoever comes nearer, +night or day, than this stone," and he tapped it with the end of his +cane, "will never see his home again, for we'll keep him till the day of +judgment; goodnight, little gossoon--and away with you." + +So these young ladies, Alice and Una, with two old servants, by their +father's direction, had taken up their abode in a portion of that side +of the old castle which overhung the glen; and with the furniture and +hangings they had removed from their late residence, and with the aid of +glass in the casements and some other indispensable repairs, and a +thorough airing, they made the rooms they had selected just habitable, +as a rude and temporary shelter. + + + +CHAPTER III + + +The Priest's Adventures in the Glen + +At first, of course, they saw or heard little of their father. In +general, however, they knew that his plan was to procure some employment +in France, and to remove them there. Their present strange abode was +only an adventure and an episode, and they believed that any day they +might receive instructions to commence their journey. + +After a little while the pursuit relaxed. The government, I believe, did +not care, provided he did not obtrude himself, what became of him, or +where he concealed himself. At all events, the local authorities showed +no disposition to hunt him down. The young ladies' charges on the little +forfeited property were paid without any dispute, and no vexatious +inquiries were raised as to what had become of the furniture and other +personal property which had been carried away from the forfeited house. + +The haunted reputation of the castle--for in those days, in matters of +the marvellous, the oldest were children--secured the little family in +the seclusion they coveted. Once, or sometimes twice a week, old +Laurence, with a shaggy little pony, made a secret expedition to the +city of Limerick, starting before dawn, and returning under the cover of +the night, with his purchases. There was beside an occasional sly +moonlit visit from the old parish priest, and a midnight mass in the old +castle for the little outlawed congregation. + +As the alarm and inquiry subsided, their father made them, now and then, +a brief and stealthy visit. At first these were but of a night's +duration, and with great precaution; but gradually they were extended +and less guarded. Still he was, as the phrase is in Munster, "on his +keeping." He had firearms always by his bed, and had arranged places of +concealment in the castle in the event of a surprise. But no attempt nor +any disposition to molest him appearing, he grew more at ease, if not +more cheerful. + +It came, at last, that he would sometimes stay so long as two whole +months at a time, and then depart as suddenly and mysteriously as he +came. I suppose he had always some promising plot on hand, and his head +full of ingenious treason, and lived on the sickly and exciting dietary +of hope deferred. + +Was there a poetical justice in this, that the little _menage_ thus +secretly established, in the solitary and timeworn pile, should have +themselves experienced, but from causes not so easily explicable, those +very supernatural perturbations which they had themselves essayed to +inspire? + +The interruption of the old priest's secret visits was the earliest +consequence of the mysterious interference which now began to display +itself. One night, having left his cob in care of his old sacristan in +the little village, he trudged on foot along the winding pathway, among +the gray rocks and ferns that threaded the glen, intending a ghostly +visit to the fair recluses of the castle, and he lost his way in this +strange fashion. + +There was moonlight, indeed, but it was little more than quarter-moon, +and a long train of funereal clouds were sailing slowly across the +sky--so that, faint and wan as it was, the light seldom shone full out, +and was often hidden for a minute or two altogether. When he reached the +point in the glen where the castle-stairs were wont to be, he could see +nothing of them, and above, no trace of the castle-towers. So, puzzled +somewhat, he pursued his way up the ravine, wondering how his walk had +become so unusually protracted and fatiguing. + +At last, sure enough, he saw the castle as plain as could be, and a +lonely streak of candle-light issuing from the tower, just as usual, +when his visit was expected. But he could not find the stair; and had to +clamber among the rocks and copse-wood the best way he could. But when +he emerged at top, there was nothing but the bare heath. Then the clouds +stole over the moon again, and he moved along with hesitation and +difficulty, and once more he saw the outline of the castle against the +sky, quite sharp and clear. But this time it proved to be a great +battlemented mass of cloud on the horizon. In a few minutes more he was +quite close, all of a sudden, to the great front, rising gray and dim in +the feeble light, and not till he could have struck it with his good oak +"wattle" did he discover it to be only one of those wild, gray frontages +of living rock that rise here and there in picturesque tiers along the +slopes of those solitary mountains. And so, till dawn, pursuing this +mirage of the castle, through pools and among ravines, he wore out a +night of miserable misadventure and fatigue. + +Another night, riding up the glen, so far as the level way at bottom +would allow, and intending to make his nag fast at his customary tree, +he heard on a sudden a horrid shriek at top of the steep rocks above his +head, and something--a gigantic human form, it seemed--came tumbling and +bounding headlong down through the rocks, and fell with a fearful +impetus just before his horse's hoofs and there lay like a huge +palpitating carcass. The horse was scared, as, indeed, was his rider, +too, and more so when this apparently lifeless thing sprang up to his +legs, and throwing his arms apart to bar their further progress, +advanced his white and gigantic face towards them. Then the horse +started about, with a snort of terror, nearly unseating the priest, and +broke away into a furious and uncontrollable gallop. + +I need not recount all the strange and various misadventures which the +honest priest sustained in his endeavours to visit the castle, and its +isolated tenants. They were enough to wear out his resolution, and +frighten him into submission. And so at last these spiritual visits +quite ceased; and fearing to awaken inquiry and suspicion, he thought it +only prudent to abstain from attempting them in the daytime. + +So the young ladies of the castle were more alone than ever. Their +father, whose visits were frequently of long duration, had of late +ceased altogether to speak of their contemplated departure for France, +grew angry at any allusion to it, and they feared, had abandoned the +plan altogether. + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +The Light in the Bell Tower + +Shortly after the discontinuance of the priest's visits, old Laurence, +one night, to his surprise, saw light issuing from a window in the Bell +Tower. It was at first only a tremulous red ray, visible only for a few +minutes, which seemed to pass from the room, through whose window it +escaped upon the courtyard of the castle, and so to lose itself. This +tower and casement were in the angle of the building, exactly +confronting that in which the little outlawed family had taken up their +quarters. + +The whole family were troubled at the appearance of this dull red ray +from the chamber in the Bell Tower. Nobody knew what to make of it. But +Laurence, who had campaigned in Italy with his old master, the young +ladies' grandfather--"the heavens be his bed this night!"--was resolved +to see it out, and took his great horse-pistols with him, and ascended +to the corridor leading to the tower. But his search was vain. + +This light left a sense of great uneasiness among the inmates, and most +certainly it was not pleasant to suspect the establishment of an +independent and possibly dangerous lodger or even colony, within the +walls of the same old building. + +The light very soon appeared again, steadier and somewhat brighter, in +the same chamber. Again old Laurence buckled on his armour, swearing +ominously to himself, and this time bent in earnest upon conflict. The +young ladies watched in thrilling suspense from the great window in +_their_ stronghold, looking diagonally across the court. But as +Laurence, who had entered the massive range of buildings opposite, might +be supposed to be approaching the chamber from which this ill-omened +glare proceeded, it steadily waned, finally disappearing altogether, +just a few seconds before his voice was heard shouting from the arched +window to know which way the light had gone. + +This lighting up of the great chamber of the Bell Tower grew at last to +be of frequent and almost continual recurrence. It was, there, long ago, +in times of trouble and danger, that the De Lacys of those evil days +used to sit in feudal judgment upon captive adversaries, and, as +tradition alleged, often gave them no more time for shrift and prayer, +than it needed to mount to the battlement of the turret over-head, from +which they were forthwith hung by the necks, for a caveat and admonition +to all evil disposed persons viewing the same from the country beneath. + +Old Laurence observed these mysterious glimmerings with an evil and an +anxious eye, and many and various were the stratagems he tried, but in +vain, to surprise the audacious intruders. It is, however, I believe, a +fact that no phenomenon, no matter how startling at first, if prosecuted +with tolerable regularity, and unattended with any new circumstances of +terror, will very long continue to excite alarm or even wonder. + +So the family came to acquiesce in this mysterious light. No harm +accompanied it. Old Laurence, as he smoked his lonely pipe in the +grass-grown courtyard, would cast a disturbed glance at it, as it softly +glowed out through the darking aperture, and mutter a prayer or an oath. +But he had given over the chase as a hopeless business. And Peggy +Sullivan, the old dame of all work, when, by chance, for she never +willingly looked toward the haunted quarter, she caught the faint +reflection of its dull effulgence with the corner of her eye, would sign +herself with the cross or fumble at her beads, and deeper furrows would +gather in her forehead, and her face grow ashen and perturbed. And this +was not mended by the levity with which the young ladies, with whom the +spectre had lost his influence, familiarity, as usual, breeding +contempt, had come to talk, and even to jest, about it. + + + +CHAPTER V + + +The Man with the Claret Mark + +But as the former excitement flagged, old Peggy Sullivan produced a new +one; for she solemnly avowed that she had seen a thin-faced man, with an +ugly red mark all over the side of his cheek, looking out of the same +window, just at sunset, before the young ladies returned from their +evening walk. + +This sounded in their ears like an old woman's dream, but still it was +an excitement, jocular in the morning, and just, perhaps, a little +fearful as night overspread the vast and desolate building, but still, +not wholly unpleasant. This little flicker of credulity suddenly, +however, blazed up into the full light of conviction. + +Old Laurence, who was not given to dreaming, and had a cool, hard head, +and an eye like a hawk, saw the same figure, just about the same hour, +when the last level gleam of sunset was tinting the summits of the +towers and the tops of the tall trees that surrounded them. + +He had just entered the court from the great gate, when he heard all at +once the hard peculiar twitter of alarm which sparrows make when a cat +or a hawk invades their safety, rising all round from the thick ivy that +overclimbed the wall on his left, and raising his eyes listlessly, he +saw, with a sort of shock, a thin, ungainly man, standing with his legs +crossed, in the recess of the window from which the light was wont to +issue, leaning with his elbows on the stone mullion, and looking down +with a sort of sickly sneer, his hollow yellow cheeks being deeply +stained on one side with what is called a "claret-mark." + +"I have you at last, you villain!" cried Larry, in a strange rage and +panic: "drop down out of that on the grass here, and give yourself up, +or I'll shoot you." + +The threat was backed with an oath, and he drew from his coat pocket the +long holster pistol he was wont to carry, and covered his man cleverly. + +"I give you while I count ten--one-two-three-four. If you draw back, +I'll fire, mind; five-six--you'd better be lively--seven-eight-nine--one +chance more; will you come down? Then take it--ten!" + +Bang went the pistol. The sinister stranger was hardly fifteen feet +removed from him, and Larry was a dead shot. But this time he made a +scandalous miss, for the shot knocked a little white dust from the stone +wall a full yard at one side; and the fellow never shifted his negligent +posture or qualified his sardonic smile during the procedure. + +Larry was mortified and angry. + +"You'll not get off this time, my tulip!" he said with a grin, +exchanging the smoking weapon for the loaded pistol in reserve. + +"What are you pistolling, Larry?" said a familiar voice close by his +elbow, and he saw his master, accompanied by a handsome young man in a +cloak. + +"That villain, your honour, in the window, there." + +"Why there's nobody there, Larry," said De Lacy, with a laugh, though +that was no common indulgence with him. + +As Larry gazed, the figure somehow dissolved and broke up without +receding. A hanging tuft of yellow and red ivy nodded queerly in place +of the face, some broken and discoloured masonry in perspective took up +the outline and colouring of the arms and figure, and two imperfect red +and yellow lichen streaks carried on the curved tracing of the long +spindle shanks. Larry blessed himself, and drew his hand across his damp +forehead, over his bewildered eyes, and could not speak for a minute. +It was all some devilish trick; he could take his oath he saw every +feature in the fellow's face, the lace and buttons of his cloak and +doublet, and even his long finger nails and thin yellow fingers that +overhung the cross-shaft of the window, where there was now nothing but +a rusty stain left. + +The young gentleman who had arrived with De Lacy, stayed that night and +shared with great apparent relish the homely fare of the family. He was +a gay and gallant Frenchman, and the beauty of the younger lady, and her +pleasantry and spirit, seemed to make his hours pass but too swiftly, +and the moment of parting sad. + +When he had departed early in the morning, Ultor De Lacy had a long talk +with his elder daughter, while the younger was busy with her early dairy +task, for among their retainers this _proles generosa_ reckoned a "kind" +little Kerry cow. + +He told her that he had visited France since he had been last at +Cappercullen, and how good and gracious their sovereign had been, and +how he had arranged a noble alliance for her sister Una. The young +gentleman was of high blood, and though not rich, had, nevertheless, his +acres and his _nom de terre_, besides a captain's rank in the army. He +was, in short, the very gentleman with whom they had parted only that +morning. On what special business he was now in Ireland there was no +necessity that he should speak; but being here he had brought him hither +to present him to his daughter, and found that the impression she had +made was quite what was desirable. + +"You, you know, dear Alice, are promised to a conventual life. Had it +been otherwise--" + +He hesitated for a moment. + +"You are right, dear father," she said, kissing his hand, "I _am_ so +promised, and no earthly tie or allurement has power to draw me from +that holy engagement." + +"Well," he said, returning her caress, "I do not mean to urge you upon +that point. It must not, however, be until Una's marriage has taken +place. That cannot be, for many good reasons, sooner than this time +twelve months; we shall then exchange this strange and barbarous abode +for Paris, where are many eligible convents, in which are entertained as +sisters some of the noblest ladies of France; and there, too, in Una's +marriage will be continued, though not the name, at all events the +blood, the lineage, and the title which, so sure as justice ultimately +governs the course of human events, will be again established, powerful +and honoured in this country, the scene of their ancient glory and +transitory misfortunes. Meanwhile, we must not mention this engagement +to Una. Here she runs no risk of being sought or won; but the mere +knowledge that her hand was absolutely pledged, might excite a +capricious opposition and repining such as neither I nor you would like +to see; therefore be secret." + +The same evening he took Alice with him for a ramble round the castle +wall, while they talked of grave matters, and he as usual allowed her a +dim and doubtful view of some of those cloud-built castles in which he +habitually dwelt, and among which his jaded hopes revived. + +They were walking upon a pleasant short sward of darkest green, on one +side overhung by the gray castle walls, and on the other by the forest +trees that here and there closely approached it, when precisely as they +turned the angle of the Bell Tower, they were encountered by a person +walking directly towards them. The sight of a stranger, with the +exception of the one visitor introduced by her father, was in this place +so absolutely unprecedented, that Alice was amazed and affrighted to +such a degree that for a moment she stood stock-still. + +But there was more in this apparition to excite unpleasant emotions, +than the mere circumstance of its unexpectedness. The figure was very +strange, being that of a tall, lean, ungainly man, dressed in a dingy +suit, somewhat of a Spanish fashion, with a brown laced cloak, and faded +red stockings. He had long lank legs, long arms, hands, and fingers, and +a very long sickly face, with a drooping nose, and a sly, sarcastic +leer, and a great purplish stain over-spreading more than half of one +cheek. + +As he strode past, he touched his cap with his thin, discoloured +fingers, and an ugly side glance, and disappeared round the corner. The +eyes of father and daughter followed him in silence. + +Ultor De Lacy seemed first absolutely terror-stricken, and then suddenly +inflamed with ungovernable fury. He dropped his cane on the ground, drew +his rapier, and, without wasting a thought on his daughter, pursued. + +He just had a glimpse of the retreating figure as it disappeared round +the far angle. The plume, and the lank hair, the point of the +rapier-scabbard, the flutter of the skirt of the cloak, and one red +stocking and heel; and this was the last he saw of him. + +When Alice reached his side, his drawn sword still in his hand, he was +in a state of abject agitation. + +"Thank Heaven, he's gone!" she exclaimed. + +"He's gone," echoed Ultor, with a strange glare. + +"And you are safe," she added, clasping his hand. + +He sighed a great sigh. + +"And you don't think he's coming back?" + +"He!--who?" + +"The stranger who passed us but now. Do you know him, father?" + +"Yes--and--no, child--I know him not--and yet I know him too well. Would +to heaven we could leave this accursed haunt tonight. Cursed be the +stupid malice that first provoked this horrible feud, which no sacrifice +and misery can appease, and no exorcism can quell or even suspend. The +wretch has come from afar with a sure instinct to devour my last +hope--to dog us into our last retreat--and to blast with his triumph the +very dust and ruins of our house. What ails that stupid priest that he +has given over his visits? Are _my_ children to be left without mass or +confession--the sacraments which _guard_ as well as save--because he +once loses his way in a mist, or mistakes a streak of foam in the brook +for a dead man's face? D--n him!" + +"See, Alice, if he won't come," he resumed, "you must only _write_ your +confession to him in full--you and Una. Laurence is trusty, and will +carry it--and we'll get the bishop's--or, if need be, the Pope's leave +for him to give you absolution. I'll move heaven and earth, but you +_shall_ have the sacraments, poor children!--and see him. I've been a +wild fellow in my youth, and never pretended to sanctity; but I know +there's but one safe way--and--and--keep you each a bit of this--(he +opened a small silver box)--about you while you stay here--fold and sew +it up reverently in a bit of the old psaltery parchment and wear it next +your hearts--'tis a fragment of the consecrated wafer--and will help, +with the saints' protection, to guard you from harm--and be strict in +fasts, and constant in prayer--_I_ can do nothing--nor devise any help. +The curse has fallen, indeed, on me and mine." + +And Alice, saw, in silence, the tears of despair roll down his pale and +agitated face. + +This adventure was also a secret, and Una was to hear nothing of it. + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Voices + +Now Una, nobody knew why, began to lose spirit, and to grow pale. Her +fun and frolic were quite gone! Even her songs ceased. She was silent +with her sister, and loved solitude better. She said she was well, and +quite happy, and could in no wise be got to account for the lamentable +change that had stolen over her. She had grown odd too, and obstinate in +trifles; and strangely reserved and cold. + +Alice was very unhappy in consequence. What was the cause of this +estrangement--had she offended her, and how? But Una had never before +borne resentment for an hour. What could have altered her entire nature +so? Could it be the shadow and chill of coming insanity? + +Once or twice, when her sister urged her with tears and entreaties to +disclose the secret of her changed spirits and demeanour, she seemed to +listen with a sort of silent wonder and suspicion, and then she looked +for a moment full upon her, and seemed on the very point of revealing +all. But the earnest dilated gaze stole downward to the floor, and +subsided into an odd wily smile, and she began to whisper to herself, +and the smile and the whisper were both a mystery to Alice. + +She and Alice slept in the same bedroom--a chamber in a projecting +tower--which on their arrival, when poor Una was so merry, they had hung +round with old tapestry, and decorated fantastically according to their +skill and frolic. One night, as they went to bed, Una said, as if +speaking to herself---- + +"'Tis my last night in this room--I shall sleep no more with Alice." + +"And what has poor Alice done, Una, to deserve your strange unkindness?" + +Una looked on her curiously, and half frightened, and then the odd smile +stole over her face like a gleam of moonlight. + +"My poor Alice, what have you to do with it?" she whispered. + +"And why do you talk of sleeping no more with me?" said Alice. + +"Why? Alice dear--no why--no reason--only a knowledge that it must be +so, or Una will die." + +"Die, Una darling!--what can you mean?" + +"Yes, sweet Alice, die, indeed. We must all die some time, you know, +or--or undergo a change; and my time is near--_very_ near--unless I +sleep apart from you." + +"Indeed, Una, sweetheart, I think you _are_ ill, but not near death." + +"Una knows what you think, wise Alice--but she's not mad--on the +contrary, she's wiser than other folks." + +"She's sadder and stranger too," said Alice, tenderly. + +"Knowledge is sorrow," answered Una, and she looked across the room +through her golden hair which she was combing--and through the window, +beyond which lay the tops of the great trees, and the still foliage of +the glen in the misty moonlight. + +"'Tis enough, Alice dear; it must be so. The bed must move hence, or +Una's bed will be low enough ere long. See, it shan't be far though, +only into that small room." + +She pointed to an inner room or closet opening from that in which they +lay. The walls of the building were hugely thick, and there were double +doors of oak between the chambers, and Alice thought, with a sigh, how +completely separated they were going to be. + +However she offered no opposition. The change was made, and the girls +for the first time since childhood lay in separate chambers. A few +nights afterwards Alice awoke late in the night from a dreadful dream, +in which the sinister figure which she and her father had encountered in +their ramble round the castle walls, bore a principal part. + +When she awoke there were still in her ears the sounds which had mingled +in her dream. They were the notes of a deep, ringing, bass voice rising +from the glen beneath the castle walls--something between humming and +singing--listlessly unequal and intermittent, like the melody of a man +whiling away the hours over his work. While she was wondering at this +unwonted minstrelsy, there came a silence, and--could she believe her +ears?--it certainly was Una's clear low contralto--softly singing a bar +or two from the window. Then once more silence--and then again the +strange manly voice, faintly chaunting from the leafy abyss. + +With a strange wild feeling of suspicion and terror, Alice glided to the +window. The moon who sees so many things, and keeps all secrets, with +her cold impenetrable smile, was high in the sky. But Alice saw the red +flicker of a candle from Una's window, and, she thought, the shadow of +her head against the deep side wall of its recess. Then this was gone, +and there were no more sights or sounds that night. + +As they sate at breakfast, the small birds were singing merrily from +among the sun-tipped foliage. + +"I love this music," said Alice, unusually pale and sad; "it comes with +the pleasant light of morning. I remember, Una, when you used to sing, +like those gay birds, in the fresh beams of the morning; that was in the +old time, when Una kept no secret from poor Alice." + +"And Una knows what her sage Alice means; but there are other birds, +silent all day long, and, they say, the sweetest too, that love to sing +by _night_ alone." + +So things went on--the elder girl pained and melancholy--the younger +silent, changed, and unaccountable. + +A little while after this, very late one night, on awaking, Alice heard +a conversation being carried on in her sister's room. There seemed to be +no disguise about it. She could not distinguish the words, indeed, the +walls being some six feet thick, and two great oak doors intercepting. +But Una's clear voice, and the deep bell-like tones of the unknown, made +up the dialogue. + +Alice sprung from her bed, threw her clothes about her, and tried to +enter her sister's room; but the inner door was bolted. The voices +ceased to speak as she knocked, and Una opened it, and stood before her +in her nightdress, candle in hand. + +"Una--Una, darling, as you hope for peace, tell me who is here?" cried +frightened Alice, with her trembling arms about her neck. + +Una drew back, with her large innocent blue eyes fixed full upon her. + +"Come in, Alice," she said, coldly. + +And in came Alice, with a fearful glance around. There was no hiding +place there; a chair, a table, a little bedstead, and two or three pegs +in the wall to hang clothes on; a narrow window, with two iron bars +across; no hearth or chimney--nothing but bare walls. + +Alice looked round in amazement, and her eyes glanced with painful +inquiry into those of her sister. Una smiled one of her peculiar +sidelong smiles, and said---- + +"Strange dreams! I've been dreaming--so has Alice. She hears and sees +Una's dreams, and wonders--and well she may." + +And she kissed her sister's cheek with a cold kiss, and lay down in her +little bed, her slender hand under her head, and spoke no more. + +Alice, not knowing what to think, went back to hers. + +About this time Ultor De Lacy returned. He heard his elder daughter's +strange narrative with marked uneasiness, and his agitation seemed to +grow rather than subside. He enjoined her, however, not to mention it to +the old servant, nor in presence of anybody she might chance to see, but +only to him and to the priest, if he could be persuaded to resume his +duty and return. The trial, however, such as it was, could not endure +very long; matters had turned out favourably. The union of his younger +daughter might be accomplished within a few months, and in eight or +nine weeks they should be on their way to Paris. + +A night or two after her father's arrival, Alice, in the dead of the +night, heard the well-known strange deep voice speaking softly, as it +seemed, close to her own window on the outside; and Una's voice, clear +and tender, spoke in answer. She hurried to her own casement, and pushed +it open, kneeling in the deep embrasure, and looking with a stealthy and +affrighted gaze towards her sister's window. As she crossed the floor +the voices subsided, and she saw a light withdrawn from within. The +moonbeams slanted bright and clear on the whole side of the castle +overlooking the glen, and she plainly beheld the shadow of a man +projected on the wall as on a screen. + +This black shadow recalled with a horrid thrill the outline and fashion +of the figure in the Spanish dress. There were the cap and mantle, the +rapier, the long thin limbs and sinister angularity. It was so thrown +obliquely that the hands reached to the window-sill, and the feet +stretched and stretched, longer and longer as she looked, toward the +ground, and disappeared in the general darkness; and the rest, with a +sudden flicker, shot downwards, as shadows will on the sudden movement +of a light, and was lost in one gigantic leap down the castle wall. + +"I do not know whether I dream or wake when I hear and see these sights; +but I will ask my father to sit up with me, and we _two_ surely cannot +be mistaken. May the holy saints keep and guard us!" And in her terror +she buried her head under the bed-clothes, and whispered her prayers for +an hour. + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Una's Love + +"I have been with Father Denis," said De Lacy, next day, "and he will +come to-morrow; and, thank Heaven! you may both make your confession and +hear mass, and my mind will be at rest; and you'll find poor Una happier +and more like herself." + +But 'tween cup and lip there's many a slip. The priest was not destined +to hear poor Una's shrift. When she bid her sister goodnight she looked +on her with her large, cold, wild eyes, till something of her old human +affections seemed to gather there, and they slowly filled with tears, +which dropped one after the other on her homely dress as she gazed in +her sister's face. + +Alice, delighted, sprang up, and clasped her arms about her neck. "My +own darling treasure,'tis all over; you love your poor Alice again, and +will be happier than ever." + +But while she held her in her embrace Una's eyes were turned towards the +window, and her lips apart, and Alice felt instinctively that her +thoughts were already far away. + +"Hark!--listen!--hush!" and Una, with her delighted gaze fixed, as if +she saw far away beyond the castle wall, the trees, the glen, and the +night's dark curtain, held her hand raised near her ear, and waved her +head slightly in time, as it seemed, to music that reached not Alice's +ear, and smiled her strange pleased smile, and then the smile slowly +faded away, leaving that sly suspicious light behind it which somehow +scared her sister with an uncertain sense of danger; and she sang in +tones so sweet and low that it seemed but a reverie of a song, +recalling, as Alice fancied, the strain to which she had just listened +in that strange ecstasy, the plaintive and beautiful Irish ballad, +"Shule, shule, shule, aroon," the midnight summons of the outlawed Irish +soldier to his darling to follow him. + +Alice had slept little the night before. She was now overpowered with +fatigue; and leaving her candle burning by her bedside, she fell into a +deep sleep. From this she awoke suddenly, and completely, as will +sometimes happen without any apparent cause, and she saw Una come into +the room. She had a little purse of embroidery--her own work--in her +hand; and she stole lightly to the bedside, with her peculiar oblique +smile, and evidently thinking that her sister was asleep. + +Alice was thrilled with a strange terror, and did not speak or move; and +her sister slipped her hand softly under her bolster, and withdrew it. +Then Una stood for while by the hearth, and stretched her hand up to the +mantelpiece, from which she took a little bit of chalk, and Alice +thought she saw her place it in the fingers of a long yellow hand that +was stealthily introduced from her own chamber-door to receive it; and +Una paused in the dark recess of the door, and smiled over her shoulder +toward her sister, and then glided into her room, closing the doors. + +Almost freezing with terror, Alice rose and glided after her, and stood +in her chamber, screaming---- + +"Una, Una, in heaven's name what troubles you?" + +But Una seemed to have been sound asleep in her bed, and raised herself +with a start, and looking upon her with a peevish surprise, said---- + +"What does Alice seek here?" + +"You were in my room, Una, dear; you seem disturbed and troubled." + +"Dreams, Alice. My dreams crossing your brain; only dreams--dreams. Get +you to bed, and sleep." + +And to bed she went, but _not_ to sleep. She lay awake more than an +hour; and then Una emerged once more from her room. This time she was +fully dressed, and had her cloak and thick shoes on, as their rattle on +the floor plainly discovered. She had a little bundle tied up in a +handkerchief in her hand, and her hood was drawn about her head; and +thus equipped, as it seemed, for a journey, she came and stood at the +foot of Alice's bed, and stared on her with a look so soulless and +terrible that her senses almost forsook her. Then she turned and went +back into her own chamber. + +She may have returned; but Alice thought not--at least she did not see +her. But she lay in great excitement and perturbation; and was +terrified, about an hour later, by a knock at her chamber door--not that +opening into Una's room, but upon the little passage from the stone +screw staircase. She sprang from her bed; but the door was secured on +the inside, and she felt relieved. The knock was repeated, and she heard +some one laughing softly on the outside. + +The morning came at last; that dreadful night was over. But Una! Where +was Una? + +Alice never saw her more. On the head of her empty bed were traced in +chalk the words--Ultor De Lacy, Ultor O'Donnell. And Alice found beneath +her own pillow the little purse of embroidery she had seen in Una's +hand. It was her little parting token, and bore the simple +legend--"Una's love!" + +De Lacy's rage and horror were boundless. He charged the priest, in +frantic language, with having exposed his child, by his cowardice and +neglect, to the machinations of the Fiend, and raved and blasphemed like +a man demented. + +It is said that he procured a solemn exorcism to be performed, in the +hope of disenthralling and recovering his daughter. Several times, it is +alleged, she was seen by the old servants. Once on a sweet summer +morning, in the window of the tower, she was perceived combing her +beautiful golden tresses, and holding a little mirror in her hand; and +first, when she saw herself discovered, she looked affrighted, and then +smiled, her slanting, cunning smile. Sometimes, too, in the glen, by +moonlight, it was said belated villagers had met her, always startled +first, and then smiling, generally singing snatches of old Irish +ballads, that seemed to bear a sort of dim resemblance to her melancholy +fate. The apparition has long ceased. But it is said that now and again, +perhaps once in two or three years, late on a summer night, you may +hear--but faint and far away in the recesses of the glen--the sweet, sad +notes of Una's voice, singing those plaintive melodies. This, too, of +course, in time will cease, and all be forgotten. + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +Sister Agnes and the Portrait + +When Ultor De Lacy died, his daughter Alice found among his effects a +small box, containing a portrait such as I have described. When she +looked on it, she recoiled in horror. There, in the plenitude of its +sinister peculiarities, was faithfully portrayed the phantom which lived +with a vivid and horrible accuracy in her remembrance. Folded in the +same box was a brief narrative, stating that, "A.D. 1601, in the month +of December, Walter De Lacy, of Cappercullen, made many prisoners at the +ford of Ownhey, or Abington, of Irish and Spanish soldiers, flying from +the great overthrow of the rebel powers at Kinsale, and among the number +one Roderic O'Donnell, an arch traitor, and near kinsman to that other +O'Donnell who led the rebels; who, claiming kindred through his mother +to De Lacy, sued for his life with instant and miserable entreaty, and +offered great ransom, but was by De Lacy, through great zeal for the +queen, as some thought, cruelly put to death. When he went to the +tower-top, where was the gallows, finding himself in extremity, and no +hope of mercy, he swore that though he could work them no evil before +his death, yet that he would devote himself thereafter to blast the +greatness of the De Lacys, and never leave them till his work was done. +He hath been seen often since, and always for that family perniciously, +insomuch that it hath been the custom to show to young children of that +lineage the picture of the said O'Donnell, in little, taken among his +few valuables, to prevent their being misled by him unawares, so that he +should not have his will, who by devilish wiles and hell-born cunning, +hath steadfastly sought the ruin of that ancient house, and especially +to leave that _stemma generosum_ destitute of issue for the transmission +of their pure blood and worshipful name." + +Old Miss Croker, of Ross House, who was near seventy in the year 1821, +when she related this story to me, had seen and conversed with Alice De +Lacy, a professed nun, under the name of Sister Agnes, in a religious +house in King-street, in Dublin, founded by the famous Duchess of +Tyrconnell, and had the narrative from her own lips. I thought the tale +worth preserving, and have no more to say. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK J. S. LE FANU'S GHOSTLY TALES, +VOLUME 2*** + + +******* This file should be named 11700.txt or 11700.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/7/0/11700 + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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