initial commit of ebook 34263HEADmain

9 files changed, 17705 insertions, 0 deletions

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/34263-8.txt b/34263-8.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..87eada6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263-8.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5897 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Banshee, by Elliot O'Donnell
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Banshee
+
+
+Author: Elliot O'Donnell
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2010  [eBook #34263]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/banshee_00odon
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BANSHEE
+
+by
+
+ELLIOT O'DONNELL
+
+Author of "Haunted Places in England," "The Irish Abroad,"
+"Twenty Years Experiences As a Ghost Hunter," Etc., Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London and Edinburgh
+Sands & Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                         PAGE
+
+     I. THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES      9
+
+    II. SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES                  20
+
+   III. THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE                    35
+
+    IV. THE BANSHEE ABROAD                        51
+
+     V. CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY                62
+
+    VI. DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS         80
+
+   VII. A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN                 98
+
+  VIII. THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD          124
+
+    IX. THE BANSHEE AT SEA                       136
+
+     X. ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE      149
+
+    XI. THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE          176
+
+   XII. THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND                  196
+
+  XIII. MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE      232
+
+        ADDENDA                                  247
+
+
+
+
+THE BANSHEE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES
+
+
+In a country, such as Ireland, that is characterised by an arrestive and
+wildly beautiful scenery, it is not at all surprising to find something in
+the nature of a ghost harmonising with the general atmosphere and
+surroundings, and that something, apparently so natural to Ireland, is the
+Banshee.
+
+The name Banshee seems to be a contraction of the Irish Bean Sidhe, which
+is interpreted by some writers on the subject "A Woman of the Faire Race,"
+whilst by various other writers it is said to signify "The Lady of Death,"
+"The Woman of Sorrow," "The Spirit of the Air," and "The Woman of the
+Barrow."
+
+It is strictly a family ghost, and most authorities agree that it only
+haunts families of very ancient Irish lineage. Mr McAnnaly, for instance,
+remarks (in the chapter on Banshees in his "Irish Wonders"): "The Banshee
+attends only the old families, and though their descendants, through
+misfortune, may be brought down from high estate to ranks of peasant
+farmers, she never leaves nor forgets them till the last member has been
+gathered to his fathers in the churchyard."
+
+A writer in the _Journal of the Cork Historical and Archæological Society_
+(Vol. V., No. 44, pp. 227-229) quotes an extract from a work entitled
+"Kerry Records," in which the following passage, relating to an elegiac
+poem written by Pierse Ferriter on Maurice Fitzgerald, occurs: "Aina, the
+Banshee who never wailed for any families who were not of Milesian blood,
+except the Geraldines, who became 'more Irish than the Irish themselves';
+and in a footnote (see p. 229) it is only 'blood' that can have a Banshee.
+Business men nowadays have something as good as 'blood'--they have 'brains
+and brass,' by which they can compete with and enter into the oldest
+families in England and Ireland. Nothing, however, in an Irishman's
+estimation, can replace 'blue blood.'"
+
+Sir Walter Scott, too, emphasises this point, and is even more specific
+and arbitrary. He confines the Banshee to families of pure Milesian stock,
+and declares it is never to be found attached to the descendants of the
+multitudinous English and Scotch settlers who have, from time to time,
+migrated to Ireland; nor even to the descendants of the Norman adventurers
+who accompanied Strongbow to the Green Isle in the twelfth century.
+
+Lady Wilde[1] goes to the other extreme and allows considerable latitude.
+She affirms that the Banshee attaches itself not only to certain families
+of historic lineage, but also to persons gifted with song and music. For
+my own part I am inclined to adopt a middle course; I do not believe that
+the Banshee would be deterred from haunting a family of historical fame
+and Milesian descent--such as the O'Neills or O'Donnells--simply because
+in that family was an occasional strain of Saxon or Norman blood, but, on
+the other hand, I do not think the Banshee would ever haunt a family that
+was not originally at least Celtic Irish--such, for instance, as the
+Fitz-Williams or Fitz-Warrens--although in that family there might happen
+to be periodic infusions of Milesian blood.
+
+I disagree, _in toto_, with Lady Wilde's theory that, occasionally, the
+Banshee haunts a person who is extremely poetical and musical, simply
+because he happens to be thus talented. In my opinion, to be haunted by
+the Banshee one must belong to an Irish family that is, at least, a
+thousand years old; were it not so, we should assuredly find the Banshee
+haunting certain of the musical and poetical geniuses of every race all
+over the world--black and yellow, perhaps, no less than white--which
+certainly is not the case.
+
+The Banshee, however, as Mr McAnnaly says, does, sometimes, travel; it
+travels when, and only when, it accompanies abroad one of the most ancient
+of the Irish families; otherwise it stays in Ireland, where, owing to the
+fact that there are few of the really old Irish families left, its
+demonstrations are becoming more and more rare.
+
+It may, perhaps, be said that in Dublin, Cork, and other of the Irish
+towns one may still come across a very fair percentage of O's and Macs.
+That, undoubtedly, is true, but, at the same time, it must be borne in
+mind that these prefixes do not invariably denote the true Irishman, since
+many families yclept Thompson, Walker, and Smith, merely on the strength
+of having lived in Ireland for two or three generations, have adopted an
+Irish--and in some cases, even, a Celtic Irish name, relying upon their
+knowledge of a few Celtic words picked up from books, or from attending
+some of the numerous classes now being held in nearly all the big towns,
+and which are presided over by teachers who are also, for the most part,
+merely pseudo-Irish--to give colour to their claim. Such a pretence,
+however, does not deceive those who are really Irish, neither does it
+deceive the Banshee, and the latter, I am quite sure, would never be
+persuaded to follow the fortunes of any Anglo-Saxon, or Scotch, Dick, Tom,
+or Harry, no matter how clever and convincing their camouflage might be.
+
+Once again, then, the Banshee confines itself solely to families of
+_bona-fide_ ancient Irish descent. As to its origin, in spite of arbitrary
+assertions made by certain people, none of whom, by the way, are of Irish
+extraction--that no one knows. As a matter of fact the Banshee has a
+number of origins, for there is not one Banshee only--as so many people
+seem to think--but many; each clan possessing a Banshee of its own. The
+O'Donnell Banshee, for example, that is to say the Banshee attached to our
+branch of the clan, and to which I can testify from personal experience,
+is, I believe, very different in appearance, and in its manner of making
+itself known, from the Banshee of the O'Reardons, as described by Mr
+McAnnaly; whilst the Banshee of a certain branch of the O'Flahertys,
+according to this same authority, differs essentially from that of a
+branch of the O'Neills. Mr McAnnaly says the Banshee "is really a
+disembodied soul, that of one who, in life, was strongly attached to the
+family, or who had good reason to hate all its members." This definition,
+of course, may apply in some cases, but it certainly does not apply in
+all, and it is absurd to be dogmatic on a subject, concerning which it is
+quite impossible to obtain a very great deal of information. At the most,
+Mr McAnnaly can only speak with certainty of the comparatively few cases
+of Banshees that have come under his observation; there are, I think,
+scores of which he has never even heard. I myself know of several Banshee
+hauntings in which the phantom certainly cannot be that of any member of
+the human race; its features and proportions absolutely negative such a
+possibility, and I should have no hesitation in affirming that, in these
+cases, the phantom is what is commonly known as an elemental, or what I
+have termed in previous of my works, a neutrarian, that is a spirit that
+has never inhabited any material body, and which belongs to a species
+entirely distinct from man. On the other hand, several cases of Banshee
+hauntings I have come across undoubtedly admit the possibility of the
+phantom being that of a woman belonging to the human race, albeit to a
+very ancient and long since obsolete section of it; whilst a few, only,
+allow of the probability of the phantom being that of a woman, also
+human, but belonging to a very much later date.
+
+Certainly, as Mr McAnnaly stated, Banshees may be divided into two main
+classes, the Friendly Banshees and the Hateful Banshees; the former
+exhibiting sorrow on their advent, and the latter, exultation. But these
+classes are capable of almost endless sub-division; the only feature they
+possess in common being a vague something that strongly suggests the
+feminine sex. In most cases the cause of the hauntings can only be a
+matter of conjecture. Affection or crime may account for some, but, for
+the origin of others, I believe one must look in a totally different
+direction. For instance, one might, perhaps, see some solution in sorcery
+and witchcraft, since there must be many families, who, in bygone days,
+dabbled in those pursuits, that are now Banshee ridden.
+
+Or, again, granted there is some truth in the theory of Atlantis, the
+theory that a whole continent was submerged owing to the wickedness of its
+inhabitants, who were all more or less adepts in necromancy--the most
+ancient of the Irish, the so-called Milesian clans who are known to have
+practised sorcery, might well be identical with the survivors of that
+great cataclysm, and have brought with them to the Green Island spirits
+which have stuck to their descendants ever since.
+
+I think one may dismiss Mr C. W. Leadbeater's[2] and other writers' (of
+the same would-be authoritative order) assertion that family ghosts may be
+either a thought-form or an unusually vivid impression in the astral
+light, as absurd. Spiritualists and others, who blindly reverence
+highfalutin phraseology, however empty it may be, might be satisfied with
+such an explanation, but not so those who have had actual experience with
+the ghost in question.
+
+Whatever else the Banshee may, or may not be, it is most certainly a
+denizen of a world quite distinct from ours; it is, besides, a being that
+has prophetic powers (which would not be the case if it were a mere
+thought-form or impression), and it is by no means a mere automaton.
+
+Some Banshees represent very beautiful women--women with long, luxuriant
+tresses, either of raven black, or burnished copper, or brilliant gold,
+and whose star-like eyes, full of tender pity, are either dark and
+tearful, or of the most exquisite blue or grey; some, again, are haggish,
+wild, dishevelled-looking creatures, whose appearance suggests the utmost
+squalor, foulness, and despair; whilst a few, fortunately, I think, only
+a few, take the form of something that is wholly diabolical, and
+frightful, and terrifying in the extreme.
+
+As a rule, however, the Banshee is not seen, it is only heard, and it
+announces its advent in a variety of ways; sometimes by groaning,
+sometimes by wailing, and sometimes by uttering the most blood-curdling of
+screams, which I can only liken to the screams a woman might make if she
+were being done to death in a very cruel and violent manner. Occasionally
+I have heard of Banshees clapping their hands, and tapping and scratching
+at walls and window-panes, and, not infrequently, I have heard of them
+signalling their arrival by terrific crashes and thumps. Also, I have met
+with the Banshee that simply chuckles--a low, short, but terribly
+expressive chuckle, that makes ten times more impression on the mind of
+the hearer than any other ghostly sound he has heard, and which no lapse
+of time is ever able to efface from his memory.
+
+I, for one, have heard the sound, and as I sit here penning these lines, I
+fancy I can hear it again--a Satanic chuckle, a chuckle full of mockery,
+as if made by one who was in the full knowledge of coming events, of
+events that would present an extremely unpleasant surprise. And, in my
+case, the unpleasant surprise came. I have always been a believer in a
+spirit world--in the unknown--but had I been ever so sceptical previously,
+after hearing that chuckle, I am quite sure I should have been converted.
+
+In concluding this chapter I must refer once again to Mr McAnnaly, who, in
+his "Irish Wonders," records a very remarkable instance of a number of
+Banshees manifesting themselves simultaneously. He says that the
+demonstrations occurred before the death of a member of the Galway
+O'Flahertys "some years ago."[3] The doomed one, he states, was a lady of
+the most unusual piety, who, though ill at the time, was not thought to be
+seriously ill. Indeed, she got so much better that several of her
+acquaintances came to her room to enliven her convalescence, and it was
+when they were there, all talking together merrily, that singing was
+suddenly heard, apparently outside the window. They listened, and could
+distinctly hear a choir of very sweet voices singing some extraordinarily
+plaintive air, which made them turn pale and look at one another
+apprehensively, for they all felt intuitively it was a chorus of Banshees.
+Nor were their surmises incorrect, for the patient unexpectedly developed
+pleurisy, and died within a few days, the same choir of spirit voices
+being again heard at the moment of physical dissolution.
+
+But as Mr McAnnaly states, the ill-fated lady was of singular purity,
+which doubtless explains the reason why, in my researches, I have never
+come across a parallel case.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES
+
+
+Amongst the most popular cases of Banshee haunting both published and
+unpublished is that related by Ann, Lady Fanshawe, in her Memoirs. It
+seems that Lady Fanshawe experienced this haunting when on a visit to Lady
+Honora O'Brien, daughter of Henry, fifth Earl of Thomond,[4] who was then,
+in all probability, residing at the ancient castle of Lemaneagh, near Lake
+Inchiquin, about thirty miles north-west of Limerick. Retiring to rest
+somewhat early the first night of her sojourn there, she was awakened at
+about one o'clock by the sound of a voice, and, drawing aside the hangings
+of the bed, she perceived, looking in through the window at her, the face
+of a woman. The moonlight being very strong and fully focussed on it, she
+could see every feature with startling distinctness; but at the same time
+her attention was apparently riveted on the extraordinary pallor of the
+cheeks and the intense redness of the hair. Then, to quote her own words,
+the apparition "spake loud, and in a tone I never heard, thrice 'Ahone,'
+and then with a sigh, more like wind than breath, she vanished, and to me
+her body looked more like a thick cloud than substance.
+
+"I was so much affrighted that my hair stood on end, and my night clothes
+fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who never awaked during this
+disorder I was in, but at last was much surprised to find me in this
+fright, and more when I related the story and showed him the window
+opened; but he entertained me with telling how much more these apparitions
+were usual in that country than in England."
+
+The following morning Lady Honora, who did not appear to have been to bed,
+informed Lady Fanshawe that a cousin of hers had died in the house at
+about two o'clock in the morning; and expressed a hope that Lady Fanshawe
+had not been subjected to any disturbances.
+
+"When any die of this family," she said by way of explanation, "there is
+the shape of a woman appears in this window every night until they be
+dead."
+
+She went on to add that the apparition was believed to be that of a woman
+who, centuries before, had been seduced by the owner of the castle and
+murdered, her body being buried under the window of the room in which Lady
+Fanshawe had slept.
+
+"But truly," she remarked, by way of apology, "I thought not of it when I
+lodged you here."
+
+Another well-known case of the Banshee is that relating to the O'Flahertys
+of Galway, reference being made to the case by Mr McAnnaly in his work
+entitled "Irish Wonders." In the days of much inter-clan fighting in
+Ireland, when the O'Neills frequently embarked on crusades against their
+alternate friends and enemies the O'Donnells, and the O'Rourks[5] embarked
+on similar crusades against the O'Donovans, it so happened that one night
+the chief of the O'Flahertys, arrayed in all the brilliance of a new suit
+of armour, and feeling more than usually cheerful and fit, marched out of
+his castle at the head of a numerous body of his retainers, who were all,
+like their chief, in good spirits, and talking and singing gaily. They had
+not proceeded far, however, when a sudden and quite inexplicable silence
+ensued--a silence that was abruptly broken by a series of agonising
+screams, that seemed to come from just over their heads. Instantly
+everyone was sobered, and naturally looked up, expecting to see something
+that would explain the extraordinary and terrifying disturbance; nothing,
+however, was to be seen, nothing but a vast expanse of cloudless sky,
+innumerable scintillating stars, and the moon which was shining forth in
+all the serene majesty of its zenith. Yet, despite the fact that nothing
+was visible, everyone felt a presence that was at once sorrowful and
+weird, and which one and all instinctively knew was the Banshee, the
+attendant spirit of the O'Flahertys, come to warn them of some approaching
+catastrophe.
+
+The next night, when the chieftain and his followers were again sallying
+forth, the same thing happened, but, after that, nothing of a similar
+nature occurred for about a month. Then the wife of the O'Flaherty, during
+the absence of her husband on one of these foraging expeditions, had an
+experience. She had gone to bed one night and was restlessly tossing
+about, for, try how she would, she could not sleep, when she was suddenly
+terrified by a succession of the most awful shrieks, coming, apparently,
+from just beneath her window, and which sounded like the cries of some
+woman in the direst trouble or pain. She looked, but as she instinctively
+felt would be the case, she could see no one. She then knew that she had
+heard the Banshee; and on the morrow her forebodings were only too fully
+realised. With a fearful knowledge of its meaning, she saw a cavalcade,
+bearing in its midst a bier, slowly and sorrowfully wending its way
+towards the castle; and, needless to say, she did not require to be told
+that the foraging party had returned, and that the surviving warriors had
+brought back with them the lifeless and mutilated body of her husband.
+
+The Kenealy Banshee furnishes yet another instance of this extremely
+fascinating and, up to the present, wholly enigmatical type of haunting.
+Dr Kenealy, the well-known Irish poet and author, resided in his earlier
+years in a wildly romantic and picturesque part of Ireland. Among his
+brothers was one, a mere child, whose sweet and gentle nature rendered him
+beloved by all, and it was a matter of the most excessive grief to the
+entire household, and, indeed, the whole neighbourhood, when this boy fell
+into a decline and his life was despaired of by the physicians. As time
+went on he grew weaker and weaker, until the moment at length arrived,
+when it was obvious that he could not possibly survive another twenty-four
+hours. At about noon, the room in which the patient lay was flooded with a
+stream of sunlight, which came pouring through the windows from the
+cloudless expanse of sky overhead. The weather, indeed, was so gorgeous
+that it seemed almost incredible that death could be hovering quite so
+near the house. One by one, members of the family stole into the chamber
+to take what each one felt might be a last look at the sick boy, whilst he
+was still alive. Presently the doctor arrived, and, as they were all
+discussing in hushed tones the condition of the poor wasted and doomed
+child, they one and all heard someone singing, apparently in the grounds,
+immediately beneath the window. The voice seemed to be that of a woman,
+but not a woman of this world. It was divinely soft and sweet, and charged
+with a pity and sorrow that no earthly being could ever have portrayed;
+and now loud, and now hushed, it continued for some minutes, and then
+seemed to die away gradually, like the ripple of a wavelet on some golden,
+sun-kissed strand, or the whispering of the wind, as it gently rustles its
+way through field after field of yellow, nodding corn.
+
+"What a glorious voice!" one of the listeners exclaimed. "I've never heard
+anything to equal it."
+
+"Very likely not," someone else whispered, "it's the Banshee!"
+
+And so enthralled were they all by the singing, that it was only when the
+final note of the plaintive ditty had quite ceased, that they became aware
+that their beloved patient, unnoticed by them, had passed out. Indeed, it
+seemed as if the boy's soul, with the last whispering notes of the dirge,
+had joined the beautiful, pitying Banshee, to be escorted by it into the
+realms of the all-fearful, all-impatient Unknown. Dr Kenealy has
+commemorated this event in one of his poems.
+
+The story of another haunting by the friendly Banshee is told in Kerry, in
+connection with a certain family that used to live there. According to my
+source of information the family consisted of a man (a gentleman farmer),
+his wife, their son, Terence, and a daughter, Norah.
+
+Norah, an Irish beauty of the dark type, had black hair and blue eyes; and
+possessing numerous admirers, favoured none of them so much as a certain
+Michael O'Lernahan. Now Michael did not stand very well in the graces of
+either of Norah's parents, but Terence liked him, and he was reputed to be
+rich--that is to say rich for that part of Ireland. Accordingly, he was
+invited pretty freely to the farm, and no obstacles were placed in his
+way. On the contrary, he was given more than a fair amount of
+encouragement.
+
+At last, as had been long anticipated, he proposed and Norah accepted him;
+but no sooner was her troth plighted than they both heard, just over
+their heads, a low, despairing wail, as of a woman in the very greatest
+distress and anguish.
+
+Though they were much alarmed at the time, being positive that the sounds
+proceeded from no human being, neither of them seems to have regarded the
+phenomenon in the shape of a warning, and both continued their love-making
+as if the incident had never occurred. A few weeks later, however, Norah
+noticed a sudden change in her lover; he was colder and more distant, and,
+whilst he was with her, she invariably found him preoccupied. At last the
+blow fell. He failed to present himself at the house one evening, though
+he was expected as usual, and, as no explanation was forthcoming the
+following morning, nor on any of the succeeding days, inquiries were made
+by the parents, which elicited the fact that he had become engaged to
+another girl, and that the girl's home was but a few minutes' walk from
+the farm.
+
+This proved too much for Norah; although, apparently, neither unusually
+sensitive nor particularly highly strung, she fell ill, and shortly
+afterwards died of a broken heart. It was not until the night before she
+died, however, that the Banshee paid her a second visit. She was lying on
+a couch in the parlour of the farmhouse, with her mother sitting beside
+her, when a noise was heard that sounded like leaves beating gently
+against the window-frames, and, almost directly afterwards, came the sound
+of singing, loud, and full of intense sorrow and compassion; and,
+obviously, that of a woman.
+
+"'Tis the Banshee," the mother whispered, immediately crossing herself,
+and, at the same time, bursting into tears.
+
+"The Banshee," Norah repeated. "Sure I hear nothing but that tapping at
+the window and the wind which seems all of a sudden to have risen."
+
+But the mother made no response. She only sat with her face buried in her
+hands, sobbing bitterly and muttering to herself, "Banshee! Banshee!"
+
+Presently, the singing having ceased, the old woman got up and dried her
+tears. Her anxiety, however, was not allayed; all through the night she
+could still be heard, every now and again, crying quietly and whispering
+to herself "'Twas the Banshee! Banshee!"; and in the morning Norah,
+suddenly growing alarmingly ill, passed away before medical assistance
+could be summoned.
+
+A case of Banshee haunting that is somewhat unusually pathetic was once
+related to me in connection with a Dublin branch of the once powerful
+clan of McGrath.
+
+It took place in the fifties, and the family, consisting of a young widow
+and two children, Isa and David, at that time occupied an old, rambling
+house, not five minutes' walk from Stephen's Green. Isa seems to have been
+the mother's favourite--she was undoubtedly a very pretty and attractive
+child--and David, possibly on account of his pronounced likeness to his
+father, with whom it was an open secret that Mrs McGrath had never got on
+at all well, to have received rather more than his fair share of scolding.
+This, of course, may or may not have been true. It is certain that he was
+left very much to himself, and, all alone, in a big, empty room at the top
+of the house, was forced to amuse himself as he best could. Occasionally
+one of the servants, inspired by a fellow-feeling--for the lot of servants
+in those days, especially when serving under such severe and exacting
+mistresses as Mrs McGrath, was none too rosy--used to look in to see how
+he was getting on and bring him a toy, bought out of her own meagre
+savings; and, once now and again, Isa, clad in some costly new frock, just
+popped her head in at the door, either to bring him some message from her
+mother, or merely to call out "Hullo!" Otherwise he saw no one; at least
+no one belonging to this earth; he only saw, he affirmed, at times,
+strange-looking people who simply stood and stared at him without
+speaking, people who the servants--girls from Limerick and the west
+country--assured him were either fairies or ghosts.
+
+One day Isa, who had been sent upstairs to tell David to go to his bedroom
+to tidy himself, as he was wanted immediately in the drawing-room, found
+him in a great state of excitement.
+
+"I've seen such a beautiful lady,"[6] he exclaimed, "and she wasn't a bit
+cross. She came and stood by the window and looked as if she wanted to
+play with me, only I daren't ask her. Do you think she will come again?"
+
+"How can I tell? I expect you've been dreaming as usual," Isa laughed.
+"What was she like?"
+
+"Oh, tall, much taller than mother," David replied, "with very, very blue
+eyes and kind of reddish-gold hair that wasn't all screwed up on her head,
+but was hanging in curls on her shoulders. She had very white hands which
+were clasped in front of her, and a bright green dress. I didn't see her
+come or go, but she was here for a long time, quite ten minutes."
+
+"It's another of your fancies, David," Isa laughed again. "But come along,
+make haste, or mother will be angry."
+
+A few minutes later, David, looking very shy and awkward, was in the
+drawing-room being introduced to a gentleman who, he was informed, was his
+future papa.
+
+David seems to have taken a strong dislike to him from the very first, and
+to have foreseen in the coming alliance nothing but trouble and misery for
+himself. Nor were his apprehensions without foundation, for, directly
+after the marriage took place, he became subjected to the very strictest
+discipline. Morning and afternoon alike he was kept hard at his books, and
+any slowness or inability to master a lesson was treated as idleness and
+punished accordingly. The moments he had to himself in his beloved nursery
+now became few and far between, for, directly he had finished his evening
+preparation, he was given his supper and packed off to bed.
+
+The one or two servants who had befriended him, unable to tolerate the new
+regime, gave notice and left, and there was soon no one in the house who
+showed any compassion whatever for the poor lonely boy.
+
+Things went on in this fashion for some weeks, and then a day came, when
+he really felt it impossible to go on living any longer.
+
+He had been generally run down for some weeks, and this, coupled with the
+fact that he was utterly broken in spirit, rendered his task of learning a
+wellnigh impossibility. It was in vain he pleaded, however; his entreaties
+were only taken for excuses; and, when, in an unguarded moment, he let
+slip some sort of reference to unkind treatment, he was at once accused of
+rudeness by his mother and, at her request, summarily castigated.
+
+The limit of his tribulation had been reached. That night he was sent to
+bed, as usual, immediately after supper, and Isa, who happened to pass by
+his room an hour or so afterwards, was greatly astonished at hearing him
+seemingly engaged in conversation. Peeping slyly in at the door, in order
+to find out with whom he was talking, she saw him sitting up in bed,
+apparently addressing space, or the moonbeams, which, pouring in at the
+window, fell directly on him.
+
+"What are you doing?" she asked, "and why aren't you asleep?"
+
+The moment she spoke he looked round and, in tones of the greatest
+disappointment, said:
+
+"Oh, dear, she's gone. You've frightened her away."
+
+"Frightened her away! Why, what rubbish!" Isa exclaimed. "Lie down at
+once or I'll go and fetch mamma."
+
+"It was my green lady," David went on, breathlessly, far too excited to
+pay any serious heed to Isa's threat. "My green lady, and she told me I
+should be no more lonely, that she was coming to fetch me some time
+to-night."
+
+Isa laughed, and, telling him not to be so silly, but to go to sleep at
+once, she speedily withdrew and went downstairs to join her parents in the
+drawing-room.
+
+That night, at about twelve, Isa was awakened by singing, loud and
+plaintive singing, in a woman's voice, apparently proceeding from the
+hall. Greatly alarmed she got up, and, on opening her door, perceived her
+parents and the servants, all in their night attire, huddled together on
+the landing, listening.
+
+"Sure 'tis the Banshee," the cook at length whispered. "I heard my father
+spake about it when I was a child. She sings, says he, more beautifully
+than any grand lady, but sorrowful like, and only before a death."
+
+"Before a death," Isa's mother stammered. "But who's going to die here?
+Why, we are all of us perfectly sound and well." As she spoke the singing
+ceased, there was an abrupt silence, and all slowly retired to their
+rooms.
+
+Nothing further was heard during the night, but in the morning, when
+breakfast time came, there was no David; and a hue and cry being raised
+and a thorough search made, he was eventually discovered, drowned in a
+cistern in the roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE
+
+
+The Banshees dealt with in the last chapter may all be described as
+sympathetic or friendly Banshees. I will now present to the reader a few
+equally authentic accounts of malevolent or unfriendly Banshees. Before
+doing so, however, I would like to call attention to the fact that, once
+when I was reading a paper on Banshees before the Irish Literary Society,
+in Hanover Square, a lady got up and, challenging my remark that not all
+Banshees were alike, tried to prove that I was wrong, on the assumption
+that all Banshees must be sad and beautiful because the Banshee in her
+family happened to be sad and beautiful, an argument, if argument it can
+be called, which, although it is a fairly common one, cannot, of course,
+be taken seriously.
+
+Moreover, as I have already stated, there is abundant evidence to show
+that Banshees are of many and diverse kinds; and that no two appear to be
+exactly alike or to act in precisely the same fashion.
+
+According to Mr McAnnaly, the malevolent Banshee is invariably "a horrible
+hag with ugly, distorted features; maledictions are written in every line
+of her wrinkled face, and her outstretched arms call down curses on the
+doomed member of the hated race."
+
+Other writers, too, would seem more or less to encourage the idea that all
+malignant Banshees are cast in one mould and all beautiful Banshees in
+another, whereas from my own personal experiences I should say that
+Banshees, whether good or bad, are just as individual as any member of the
+family they haunt.
+
+It is related of a certain ancient Mayo family that a chief of the race
+once made love to a very beautiful girl whom he betrayed and subsequently
+murdered. With her dying breath the girl cursed her murderer and swore she
+would haunt him and his for ever. Years rolled by; the cruel deceiver
+married, and, with the passing away of all who knew him in his youth, he
+came to be regarded as a model of absolute propriety and rectitude. Hence
+it was in these circumstances that he was sitting one night before a big
+blazing fire in the hall of his castle, outwardly happy enough and
+surrounded by his sons and daughters, when loud shrieks of exultation
+were heard coming, it seemed, from someone who was standing on the path
+close to the castle walls. All rushed out to see who it was, but no one
+was there, and the grounds, as far as the eye could reach, were absolutely
+deserted.
+
+Later on, however, some little time after the household had retired to
+rest, the same demoniacal disturbances took place; peal after peal of
+wild, malicious laughter rang out, followed by a discordant moaning and
+screaming. This time the aged chieftain did not accompany the rest of the
+household in their search for the originator of the disturbances.
+Possibly, in that discordant moaning and screaming he fancied he could
+detect the voice of the murdered girl; and, possibly, accepting the
+manifestation as a death-warning, he was not surprised on the following
+day, when he was waylaid out of doors and brutally done to death by one of
+his followers.
+
+Needless to say, perhaps, the haunting of this Banshee still continues,
+the same phenomena occurring at least once to every generation of the
+family, before the death of one of its members. Happily, however, the
+haunting now does not necessarily precede a violent death, and in this
+respect, though in this respect only, differs from the original.
+
+Another haunting by this same species of Banshee was brought to my notice
+the last time I was in Ireland. I happened to be visiting a certain
+relative of mine, at that date residing in Black Rock, and from her I
+learned the following, which now appears in print for the first time.
+
+About the middle of the last century, when my relative was in her teens,
+some friends of hers, the O'D.'s, were living in a big old-fashioned
+country house, somewhere between Ballinanty and Hospital in the County of
+Limerick. The family consisted of Mr O'D., who had been something in India
+in his youth and was now very much of a recluse, though much esteemed
+locally on account of his extreme piety and good-heartedness; Mrs O'D.,
+who, despite her grey hair and wrinkled countenance, still retained traces
+of more than ordinary good looks; Wilfred, a handsome but decidedly
+headstrong young man of between twenty-five and thirty; and Ellen, a
+blue-eyed, golden-haired girl of the true Milesian type of Irish beauty.
+
+My relative was on terms of the greatest intimacy with the whole family,
+but especially with the two younger folk, and it was generally expected
+that she and Wilfred would make what is vulgarly termed a "match of it."
+Indeed, the first of the ghostly happenings that she experienced in
+connection with the O'D.'s actually occurred the very day Wilfred took the
+long-anticipated step and proposed to her.
+
+It seems that my relative was out for a walk one afternoon with Ellen and
+Wilfred, when the latter, taking advantage of his sister's sudden fancy
+for going on ahead to look for dog-roses, passionately declared his love,
+and, apparently, did not declare it in vain. The trio, then, in more or
+less exalted spirits--for my relative had of course let Ellen into the
+secret--walked home together, and as they were passing through a big
+wooden gateway into the garden at the rear of the O'D.'s house, they
+perceived a tall, spare woman, with her back towards them, digging away
+furiously.
+
+"Hullo," Wilfred exclaimed, "who's that?"
+
+"I don't know," Ellen replied. "It's certainly not Mary" (Mary was the old
+cook who, like many of the servants of that period, did not confine her
+labour to the culinary art, but performed all kinds of odd jobs as well),
+"nor anyone from the farm. But what on earth does she think she's doing?
+Hey, there!" and Ellen, raising her naturally sweet and musical voice,
+gave a little shout.
+
+The woman instantly turned round, and the trio received a most violent
+shock. The light was fading, for it was late in the afternoon, but what
+little there was seemed to be entirely concentrated on the visage before
+them, making it appear luminous. It was a broad face with very pronounced
+cheek-bones; a large mouth, the thin lips of which were fixed in a
+dreadful and mocking leer; and very pale, obliquely set eyes that glowed
+banefully as they met the gaze of the three now appalled spectators.
+
+For some seconds the evil-looking creature stood in dead silence,
+apparently gloating over the discomposure her appearance had produced,
+and, then, suddenly shouldering her spade, she walked slowly away, turning
+round every now and again to cast the same malevolent gleeful look at
+them, until she came to the hedge that separated the garden from a long
+disused stone quarry, when she seemed suddenly to fade away in the now
+very uncertain twilight, and disappear.
+
+For some moments no one spoke or stirred, but continued gazing after her
+in a kind of paralysed astonishment. Wilfred was the first to break the
+silence.
+
+"What an awful looking hag," he exclaimed. "Where's she gone?"
+
+Ellen whistled. "Ask another," she said. "There's nowhere she could have
+gone excepting into the quarry, and my only hope is that she is lying at
+the bottom of it with a broken neck, for I certainly never wish to see
+her again. But come, let's be moving on, I'm chilly."
+
+They started off, but had only proceeded a few yards, when, apparently
+from the direction of the quarry, came a peal of laughter, so mocking and
+malignant and altogether evil, that all three involuntarily quickened
+their steps, and, at the same time, refrained from speaking, until they
+had reached the house, which they hastily entered, securely closing the
+door behind them. They then went straight to Mr O'D. and asked him who the
+old woman was whom they had just seen.
+
+"What was she like?" he queried. "I haven't authorised anyone but Mary to
+go into the garden."
+
+"It certainly wasn't Mary," Ellen responded quickly. "It was some hideous
+old crone who was digging away like anything. On our approach she left off
+and gave us the most diabolical look I have ever seen. Then she went away
+and seemed to vanish in the hedge by the quarry. We afterwards heard her
+give the most appalling and intensely evil laugh that you can imagine.
+Whoever is she?"
+
+"I can't think," Mr O'D. replied, looking somewhat unusually pale. "It is
+no one whom I know. Very possibly she was a tramp or gipsy. We must take
+care to keep all the doors locked. Whatever you do, don't mention a word
+about her to your mother or to Mary--they are both nervous and very easily
+frightened."
+
+All three promised, and the matter was then allowed to drop, but my
+relative, who returned home before it got quite dark, subsequently learned
+that that night, some time after the O'D. household had all retired to
+rest, peal after peal of the same infernal mocking laughter was heard,
+just under the windows, first of all in the front of the house, and then
+in the rear; and that, on the morrow, came the news that the business
+concern in which most of Mr O'D.'s money was invested had gone smash and
+the family were practically penniless.
+
+The house now was in imminent danger of being sold, and many people
+thought that it was merely to avert this catastrophe and to enable her
+parents to keep a roof over their heads that Ellen accepted the attentions
+of a very vulgar parvenu (an Englishman) in Limerick, and eventually
+married him. Where there is no love, however, there is never any
+happiness, and where there is not even "liking," there is very often hate;
+and in Ellen's case hate there was without any doubt. Barely able, even
+from the first, to tolerate her husband (his favourite trick was to make
+love to her in public and almost in the same breath bully her--also in
+public), she eventually grew to loathe him, and at last, unable to endure
+his hated presence any longer, she eloped with an officer who was
+stationed in the neighbourhood. The night before Ellen took this step, my
+relative and Wilfred (the latter was escorting his fiancée home after a
+pleasant evening spent in her company) again heard the malevolent
+laughter, which (although they could see no one) pursued them for some
+distance along the moonlit lanes and across the common leading to the spot
+where my relative lived. After this the laughter was not heard again for
+two years, but at the end of that period my relative had another
+experience of the phenomena.
+
+She was again spending the evening with the O'D.'s, and, on this occasion,
+she was discussing with Mr and Mrs O'D. the advent of Wilfred, who was
+expected to arrive home from the West Indies any time within the next few
+days. My relative was not unnaturally interested, as it had been arranged
+that she and Wilfred should marry, as soon as possible after his arrival
+in Ireland. They were all three--Mr and Mrs O'D. and my relative--engaged
+in animated conversation (the old people had unexpectedly come into a
+little money, and that, too, had considerably contributed to their
+cheerfulness), when Mrs O'D., fancying she heard someone calling to her
+from the garden, got up and went to the window.
+
+"Harry," she exclaimed, still looking out and apparently unable to remove
+her gaze, "do come. There's the most awful old woman in the garden,
+staring hard at me. Quick, both of you. She's perfectly horrible; she
+frightens me."
+
+My relative and Mr O'D. at once sprang up and hastened to her side, and,
+there, they saw, gazing up at them, the pallor of its cheeks intensified
+by a stray moonbeam which seemed to be concentrated solely on it, a face
+which my relative recognised immediately as that of the woman she had
+seen, two years ago, digging in the garden. The old hag seemed to remember
+my relative, too, for, as their glances met, a gleam of recognition crept
+into her light eyes, and, a moment later, gave way to an expression of
+such diabolical hate that my relative involuntarily caught hold of Mr O'D.
+for protection. Evidently noting this action the creature leered horribly,
+and then, drawing a kind of shawl or hood tightly over its head, moved
+away with a kind of gliding motion, vanishing round an angle of the wall.
+
+Mr O'D. at once went out into the garden, but, after a few minutes,
+returned, declaring that, although he had searched in every direction, not
+a trace of their sinister-looking visitor could he see anywhere. He had
+hardly, however, finished speaking, when, apparently from close to the
+house, came several peals of the most hellish laughter, that terminated in
+one loud, prolonged wail, unmistakably ominous and menacing.
+
+"Oh, Harry," Mrs O'D. exclaimed, on the verge of fainting, "what can be
+the meaning of it? That was surely no living woman."
+
+"No," Mr O'D. replied slowly, "it was the Banshee. As you know, the O'D.
+Banshee, for some reason or another, possesses an inveterate hatred of my
+family, and we must prepare again for some evil tidings. But," he went on,
+steadying his voice with an effort, "with God's grace we must face it, for
+whatever happens it is His Divine will."
+
+A few days later my relative, as may be imagined, was immeasurably shocked
+to hear that Mr O'D. had been sent word that Wilfred was dead. He had, it
+appeared, been stricken down with fever, supposed to have been caught from
+one of his fellow-passengers, and had died on the very day that he should
+have landed, on the very day, in fact (as it was afterwards ascertained
+from a comparison of dates), upon which his parents and fiancée, together,
+had heard and seen the Banshee.
+
+Soon after this unhappy event my relative left the neighbourhood and went
+to live with some friends near Dublin, and though, from time to time, she
+corresponded with the O'D.'s, she never again heard anything of their
+Banshee.
+
+This same relative of mine, whom I will now call Miss S---- (she never
+married), was acquainted with two old maiden ladies named O'Rorke who,
+many years ago, lived in a semi-detached house close to Lower Merrion
+Street. Miss S---- did not know to what branch of the O'Rorkes they
+belonged, for they were very reticent with regard to their family history,
+but she believed they originally came from the south-west and were
+distantly connected with some of her own people.
+
+With regard to their house, there certainly was something peculiar, since
+in it was one room that was invariably kept locked, and in connection with
+this room it was said there existed a mystery of the most frightful and
+harrowing description.
+
+My relative often had it on the tip of her tongue to refer to the room,
+just to see what effect it would have on the two old ladies, but she could
+never quite sum up the courage to do so. One afternoon, however, when she
+was calling on them, the subject was brought to their notice in a very
+startling manner.
+
+The elder of the two sisters, Miss Georgina, who was presiding at the tea
+table, had just handed Miss S---- a cup of tea and was about to pour out
+another for herself, when into the room, with her cap all awry and her
+eyes bulging, rushed one of the servants.
+
+"Good gracious!" Miss Georgina exclaimed, "whatever's the matter,
+Bridget?"
+
+"Matter!" Bridget retorted, in a brogue which I will not attempt to
+imitate. "Why, someone's got into that room you always keep locked and is
+making the devil of a noise, enough to raise all the Saints in Heaven.
+Norah" (Norah was the cook) "and I both heard it--a groaning, and a
+chuckling, and a scratching, as if the cratur was tearing up the boards
+and breaking all the furniture, and all the while keening and laughing.
+For the love of Heaven, ladies, come and hear it for yourselves. Such
+goings on! Ochone! Ochone!"
+
+Both ladies, Miss S---- said, turned deadly pale, and Miss Harriet, the
+younger sister, was on the brink of tears.
+
+"Where is cook?" Miss Georgina, who was by far the stronger minded of the
+two, suddenly said, addressing Bridget. "If she is upstairs, tell her to
+come down at once. Miss Harriet and I will go and see what the noise is
+that you complain about upstairs. There really is no need to make all this
+disturbance"--here she assumed an air of the utmost severity--"it's sure
+to be either mice or rats."
+
+"Mice or rats!" Bridget echoed. "I'm sorry for the mice and rats as make
+all those noises. 'Tis some evil spirit, sure, and Norah is of the same
+mind," and with those parting words she slammed the door behind her.
+
+The sisters, then, begging to be excused for a few minutes, left the room,
+and returned shortly afterwards looking terribly white and distressed.
+
+"I am sure you must think all this very odd," Miss Georgina observed with
+as great a degree of unconcern as she could assume, "and I feel we owe you
+an explanation, but I must beg you will not repeat a word of what we tell
+you to anyone else."
+
+Miss S---- promised she would not, and then composed herself to listen.
+
+"We have in our family," Miss O'Rorke began, "a most unpleasant
+attachment; in other words, a most unpleasant Banshee. Being Irish, you
+will not laugh, of course, as many English people do, at what I say. You
+know as well as I do, perhaps, that many of the really ancient Irish
+families possess Banshees."
+
+Miss S---- nodded. "We have one ourselves," she remarked, "but pray go on.
+I am intensely interested."
+
+"Well, unlike most of the Banshees," Miss Georgina continued, "ours is
+appallingly ugly and malevolent; so frightful, indeed, that to see it,
+even, is sometimes fatal. One of our great-great-uncles, for instance, to
+whom it once appeared, is reported to have died from shock; a similar fate
+overtaking another of our ancestors, who also saw it. Fortunately, it
+seems to have a strong attraction in the shape of an old gold ring which
+has been in the possession of the family from time immemorial. Both
+ancestors I have referred to are alleged to have been wearing this ring at
+the time the Banshee appeared to them, and it is said to strictly confine
+its manifestations to the immediate vicinity of that article. That is why
+our parents always kept the ring strictly isolated, in a locked room, the
+key of which was never, for a moment, allowed to be out of their
+possession. And we have strenuously followed their example. That is the
+explanation of the mystery you have doubtless heard about, for I
+believe--thanks to the servants--it has become the gossip of half Dublin."
+
+"And the noise Bridget referred to," Miss S---- ventured to remark,
+somewhat timidly, "was that the Banshee?"
+
+Miss Georgina nodded.
+
+"I fear it was," she observed solemnly, "and that we shall shortly hear of
+a relative's death or grave catastrophe to some member of the family;
+probably, a cousin of ours in County Galway, who has been ill for some
+weeks, is dying."
+
+She was partly right, although the latter surmise was not correct. Within
+a few days of the Banshee's visit a member of the family died, but it was
+not the sick cousin, it was Miss Georgina's own sister, Harriet!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BANSHEE ABROAD
+
+
+As I have remarked in a previous chapter, the Banshee to-day is heard more
+often abroad than in Ireland. It follows the fortunes of the true old
+Milesian Irishman--the real O and Mc, none of your adulterated O'Walters
+or O'Cassons--everywhere, even to the Poles.
+
+Lady Wilde, in her "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of
+Ireland," quotes the case of a Banshee haunting that was experienced by a
+branch of the Clan O'Grady that had settled in Canada.
+
+The spot chosen by this family for their residence was singularly wild and
+isolated, and one night at two o'clock, when they were all in bed, they
+were aroused by a loud cry, coming, apparently, from just outside the
+house. Nothing intelligible was uttered, only a sound indicative of the
+greatest bitterness and sorrow, such as one might imagine a woman would
+give vent to, but only when in an agony of mind, almost beyond human
+understanding.
+
+The effect produced by it was one of sublime terror, and all seemed to
+feel instinctively that the source from which it emanated was apart from
+this world and belonged wholly and solely to the Unknown. Nevertheless,
+from what Lady Wilde says, we are led to infer that an exhaustive search
+of the premises was made, resulting, as was expected, in complete failure
+to find any physical agency that could in any way account for the cry.
+
+The following day the head of the household and his eldest son went
+boating on a lake near the house, and, although it was their intention to
+do so, did not return to dinner. Various members of the family were sent
+to look for them, but no trace of them was to be seen anywhere, and no
+solution to the mystery as to what had happened to them was forthcoming,
+till two o'clock that night, when, exactly twenty-four hours after the cry
+had been heard, some of the searchers returned, bearing with them the wet,
+bedraggled, and lifeless bodies of both father and son. Then, once again,
+the weird and ominous sound that had so startled them on the previous
+night was heard, and the sorrow-stricken family--that is to say, those who
+were left of it--agreeing now that the Banshee had indeed visited them,
+remembered that their beloved father, whom they had just lost, had often
+spoken of the Banshee, as having haunted their branch of the clan for
+countless generations.
+
+Another case of Banshee haunting, that I have in mind, relates to a branch
+of the southern O'Neills that settled in Italy a good many years ago. It
+was told me in Paris by a Mrs Dempsey, who assured me she had been an
+eye-witness of the phenomena, and I now record it in print for the first
+time.
+
+Mrs Dempsey, when staying once at an hotel in the north of Italy, noticed
+among the guests an elderly man, whose very marked features and intensely
+sad expression quickly attracted her attention. She observed that he kept
+entirely aloof from his fellow-guests, and that, every evening after
+dinner, he retired from the drawing-room, as soon as coffee had been
+handed round, and went outside and stood on the veranda overlooking the
+shore of the Adriatic.
+
+She made inquiries as to his name and history, and was told that he was
+Count Fernando Asioli, a wealthy Florentine citizen, who, having but
+recently lost his wife, to whom he was devoted, naturally did not wish to
+join in the general conversation. Upon hearing this Mrs Dempsey was more
+than ever interested. It was not so very long since she, too, had lost her
+partner--a husband to whom she was much attached--and, consequently, it
+was in sympathetic mood that, seeing the Count go out, as usual, one
+evening, on to the veranda, she resolved to follow him, to try, if
+possible, to get into conversation with him.
+
+With this end in view she was about to cross the threshold of the veranda,
+when, to her astonishment, she perceived the Count was not there alone.
+Standing by his side, with one hand laid caressingly on his shoulder, was
+a tall, slim girl, with masses of the most gorgeous red gold hair hanging
+loose and reaching to her waist. She was wearing an emerald green dress of
+some very filmy substance; but her arms and feet were bare, and stood out
+so clearly in the soft radiance of the moonbeams, that Mrs Dempsey, who
+was an artist and had studied on the Continent, noticed with a thrill that
+they equalled, if, indeed, they did not surpass in beauty, any she had
+ever come across either in Greek or Florentine sculpture.
+
+Much perplexed as to who such a queerly attired visitor on such friendly
+terms with the Count could be, Mrs Dempsey remained for a second or two
+watching, and then, afraid lest she should attract their attention and so
+be caught, seemingly, in the act of spying, she withdrew.
+
+The moment she got back again into the drawing-room, however, she made
+somewhat indignant inquiries of a lady who generally sat next to her at
+meals, as to the identity of the girl she had just seen standing beside
+the, said to be, heart-broken Count in an attitude of such close intimacy.
+
+"A woman with the Count!" was the reply. "Surely not! Who can she be, and
+what was she like?"
+
+Mrs Dempsey described the stranger in detail, but her friend, shaking her
+head, could only suggest that she was some new-comer, some guest who had
+arrived at the hotel, and gone on the veranda whilst they were at dinner.
+Feeling a little curious, however, Mrs Dempsey's friend walked towards the
+veranda, and, in a very short time, returned, looking somewhat puzzled.
+
+"You must have been mistaken," she whispered, "there is no one with Count
+Asioli now, and, if anyone had come away, we should have seen them."
+
+"I am quite sure I did see a woman there," Mrs Dempsey replied, "and only
+a minute or two ago; she must have got out somehow, although there is,
+apparently, no other way than through this room."
+
+At this moment, the Count, entering the room, took a seat beside them; and
+the subject, of course, had to be dropped. The next night, however, the
+events of the preceding night were repeated. Mrs Dempsey followed the
+Count on to the veranda, saw the girl in green standing with her hand on
+his shoulder, came back and told her neighbour at meals, and the latter,
+on hastening to the veranda to look, once more returned declaring that the
+Count was alone. After this, a slight altercation took place between the
+two ladies, the one declaring her belief that it was all an optical
+illusion on the part of the other, and the other emphatically sticking to
+her story that she had actually seen the girl she had described.
+
+They parted that night, both a little ruffled, though neither would admit
+it, and the following night, Mrs Dempsey, as soon as she saw the Count go
+on to the veranda, fetched her friend.
+
+"Now," she said, "come with me and see for yourself."
+
+The two ladies, accordingly, went to the veranda and, opening the door
+gently, peeped in.
+
+"There she is," Mrs Dempsey whispered, "standing in just the same
+position."
+
+The sound of her voice, though so low as to be scarcely heard even by the
+lady standing beside her, seemingly attracted the attention of both the
+girl and the Count, for they turned round simultaneously. Then Mrs
+Dempsey, whose gaze was solely concentrated on the girl, saw a face of
+almost indescribable beauty--possessing neatly chiselled, but by no means
+coldly classical features, long eyes of a marvellous blue, a smooth broad
+brow, and delicately and subtly moulded mouth; it was the face of a young
+girl, barely out of her teens, and it was filled with an expression of
+infinite sorrow and affection.
+
+Mrs Dempsey was so enraptured that, to quote her own words, she "stood
+gazing at it in speechless awe and amazement," and might, perhaps, have
+been gazing at it still, had not the voice of the Count called her back to
+earth.
+
+"I hope, ladies," he was saying, "that you do not see anything unusually
+disturbing in my appearance to-night, for I undoubtedly seem to be the
+object of your solicitude. May I ask why?"
+
+Though he spoke quite politely, even the dullest could have seen that he
+was more than a little annoyed. Mrs Dempsey therefore hastened to reply.
+
+"It is not you," she stammered out, "it is the lady--the lady you have
+with you. I--I fancied I knew her."
+
+"The lady I have with me," the Count exclaimed, in accents of cold
+surprise. "Kindly explain what you mean?"
+
+"Why the lady----" Mrs Dempsey began, and then she glanced round.
+
+The Count was standing in front of her--but he was quite alone. There was
+no vestige of a girl in green, nor of any other person on the veranda
+saving themselves, and immediately beneath it, at a distance of at least
+thirty feet, glimmered the white shingles of the silent and
+deserted--utterly deserted--seashore.
+
+"She's gone," Mrs Dempsey cried, "but I'm positive I saw her--a lady in
+green standing beside you." Then, for the first time, she felt afraid, and
+trembled.
+
+The Count, who had been observing her very closely, now advanced a step or
+two towards her, and in a very different tone said:
+
+"Will you please describe the lady? Was she old or young, dark or fair?"
+
+"Young and fair, very fair," Mrs Dempsey exclaimed. "But please come
+inside, for I've received something of a shock, and can, perhaps, talk to
+you better in the gaslight, with people near at hand whom I know are human
+beings."
+
+He did as she requested, and became more and more interested as she
+proceeded with her description, interrupting her every now and again with
+questions. Was she sure the girl had blue eyes, he asked, and how could
+she tell what colour the eyes were by the light of the moon only; Mrs
+Dempsey's reply to which being that the girl's whole body seemed to be
+illuminated from within, in such a manner that every detail could be seen,
+almost, if not quite, as clearly as if she had been standing in the full
+glare of an electric light. At the conclusion of her narrative Mrs Dempsey
+was further questioned by the Count.
+
+"Had she," he inquired, "ever been told that he was partly Irish,
+because," he added, on receiving a negative reply, "I am, and my real name
+is O'Neill, my great-great-grandfather having assumed the name of Asioli
+in order to come into some property when the family, which came from the
+south of Ireland, settled in Italy, many, many years ago. But what will, I
+am sure, be of considerable interest to you is the fact that this branch
+of the O'Neills, the branch to which I belong, is haunted by a Banshee,
+and that that Banshee has, I believe--since the description of it given me
+by various members of my family tallies with the description you have
+given me of the girl you saw standing by me--appeared to you. I would add
+that it never reveals itself, excepting when an O'Neill is about to die,
+and as I am quite the last of my line, I cannot conceive any reason for
+its having thus appeared three nights in succession, unless, of course, it
+is to predict my own end."
+
+Mrs Dempsey was not long left in doubt. On the morrow the Count was
+summoned to Venice on urgent business, and on his way to the railway
+depôt he suddenly dropped down dead, the excitement and exertion having,
+so it was supposed, proved too much for his heart, which was known to be
+weak.
+
+Said to be descended from the younger of the two sons of King Milesius, it
+certainly is not surprising that the O'Neills[7] should possess a
+Banshee--indeed, it would be surprising if they did not--but I have found
+it somewhat difficult to trace. However, according to Lady Wilde in her
+"Irish Wonders," p. 112, there is a room at Shane Castle which is strictly
+set aside for it.
+
+The Banshee, Lady Wilde says, is very often seen in this apartment,
+sometimes appearing shrouded in a dark, mist-like mantle; and at other
+times as a very lovely young girl with long, red-gold hair, clad in a
+scarlet cloak and green kirtle, adorned with gold. Lady Wilde goes on to
+tell us no harm ever comes of the Banshee's visit, unless she is seen in
+the act of crying, when her wails may be taken as a certain sign that some
+member of the family will shortly die. Mr McAnnaly corroborates this by
+stating that on one occasion one of the O'Neills of Shane Castle heard the
+Banshee crying, just as he was about to set out on a journey, and perished
+soon afterwards, which is somewhat unusual, because in the majority of
+cases I have come across the Banshee does not manifest itself at all to
+the person whose death it predicts. A very old, probably the oldest,
+branch of the O'Neills now resides in Portugal, but up to the present I
+have not succeeded in obtaining any evidence to warrant the assumption
+that the Banshee haunting has been experienced in that country.
+
+Indeed, the Banshee seems to be just as erratic and wayward as any
+daughter of Eve, for there is no consistency whatever in her movements.
+The very families one thinks she would haunt, she often studiously avoids,
+and not infrequently she concentrates her attention on those who are
+utterly obscure, albeit, always of _bona fide_ Irish extraction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
+
+
+In previous chapters I have dealt exclusively with cases that are, without
+doubt, those of genuine Banshee haunting. I now propose to narrate a few
+cases which I will term cases of doubtful Banshee haunting--that is to
+say, cases of haunting which, although said to be Banshee, cannot, in view
+of the phenomena and circumstances, be thus designated with any degree of
+certainty.
+
+To begin with I will recall the case relating to the R----s, a family
+living in Canada. Their house, a long, low, two-storied building, stood on
+a lonely spot on the road leading to Montreal, and a young lady, whom I
+will designate Miss Delane, was visiting them when the incidents I am
+about to narrate took place.
+
+The weather had been more than commonly fine for that time of year, but at
+last the inevitable and unmistakable signs of a break had set in, and one
+evening black clouds gathered in the sky, the wind whistled ominously in
+the chimneys and savagely shook the many-coloured maple leaves, while,
+after a time, the moon, which had been hanging like a great red globe over
+the St Lawrence, became suddenly obscured, and big drops of rain came
+spluttering against the windows.
+
+Miss Delane, who had been seized with a strange restlessness which she
+could not shake off, then went into the hall, and was about to speak to
+one of Major R----'s nieces, who was also on a visit there, when her
+attention was arrested by the sound of a heavy carriage lumbering along
+the high road, from the direction of Montreal, at a very great rate. It
+being now nearly ten o'clock, an hour when there was usually very little
+traffic, she was somewhat surprised, her astonishment increasing by leaps
+and bounds when she heard the wheels crunching on the gravel drive, and
+the carriage rapidly approaching the house.
+
+"Surely, it is too late----" she began, but was cut short by the Major,
+who, abruptly pushing past her to the front door, just as the carriage
+drew up, swung it to, and, in trembling haste, locked, and barred, and
+bolted it.
+
+Footsteps were then heard hurriedly ascending the steps to the front door,
+and immediately afterwards a series of loud rat-tat-tats, although, as
+everyone instantly remembered, there was no knocker on the door, the
+Major having had it removed many years ago, for a reason he either could
+not or would not explain.
+
+Startled almost out of their senses by the noise, the whole household had
+in a few seconds assembled in the hall, and they now knelt, huddled
+together, whilst the Major in a voice which, despite the fact that it was
+raised to its highest pitch, could barely be heard above the furious and
+frenzied knocking, besought the Almighty to protect them.
+
+As he continued praying the rat-tats gradually grew feebler and feebler,
+until they finally ceased, after which the footsteps were once again heard
+on the stone steps, this time descending, and the carriage drove away. It
+was not, however, until the reverberations of the wheels could no longer
+be heard that the Major rose from his knees. Then, bidding his household
+do likewise, he insisted that they should at once retire, without speaking
+a word, to their rooms; and forbade them ever to mention the matter to him
+again.
+
+As soon as Miss Delane and the Major's nieces were in their bedroom--they
+shared a room between them--they ran to the window and looked out. The sky
+was quite clear now, and the moon was shining forth in all the splendour
+of its calm cold majesty; but the grounds and road beyond were quite
+deserted; not a vestige of any person or carriage could be seen anywhere,
+and, on the morrow, when they hastened downstairs and examined the gravel,
+there were no indications whatever of any wheels.
+
+The day passed quite uneventfully, and once again it was night-time; the
+Major had read prayers as usual at about ten, and the household, also as
+usual, had retired to rest. Miss Delane, who was used to much later hours,
+found it difficult to compose herself to sleep so soon, but she had just
+managed to doze off, when she was aroused by her friend Ellen, the elder
+of the Major's two nieces, pulling violently at her bedclothes, and, on
+looking up, she perceived a tall figure, clad in what looked like nun's
+garments, walking across the room with long, stealthy strides. As she
+gazed at it in breathless astonishment, it suddenly paused and, turning
+its hooded head round, stared fixedly at Ellen, and then, moving on,
+seemed to melt into the wall. At all events, it had vanished, and there
+was nothing where it had been standing, saving moonlight.
+
+For some minutes Ellen was too terrified to speak, but she at last called
+out to Miss Delane and implored her to come and get into her bed, as she
+no longer dared lie there by herself.
+
+"Did you see the way it looked at me," she whispered, clutching hold of
+Miss Delane, and shuddering violently. "I don't think I shall ever get
+over it. We must leave here to-morrow. We must, we must," and she burst
+out crying.
+
+As may be imagined, there was little sleep for either of the girls again
+that night, and it seemed to them as if the morning would never come; but,
+when at last it did come, they told Major R---- what had happened, and
+declared they really dared not spend another night in the house.
+
+Though obviously distressed on hearing what they had to say, the Major did
+not press them to alter their decision and stay, but told them that to go,
+he thought, under the circumstances, was far the wisest and safest thing
+for them to do. An hour or so later, having finished their packing, they
+were all three taking a final stroll together in the garden, when they
+fancied they heard someone running after them down one of the sidewalks,
+and, turning round, they saw the figure that had disturbed them in the
+night, standing close behind them.
+
+The sunlight falling directly on it revealed features now only too easily
+distinguishable of someone long since dead, but animated by a spirit that
+was wholly antagonistic and malicious, and as they shrank back
+terror-stricken, it stretched forth one of its long, bony arms and touched
+first Ellen and then her sister on the shoulder. It then veered round,
+and, moving away with the same peculiarly long and surreptitious strides,
+seemed suddenly to amalgamate with the shadows from the trees and
+disappear.
+
+For some moments the girls were far too paralysed with fear to do other
+than remain where they were, trembling; but their faculties at length
+reasserting themselves, they made a sudden dash for the house, and ran at
+top speed till they reached it.
+
+It was some weeks afterwards, however, and not till then, that Miss
+Delane, who was back again in her home in Ireland, received any
+explanation of the phenomena she had witnessed. It was given her by a
+friend of the R----s who happened to be visiting one of Miss Delane's
+relatives in Dublin.
+
+"What you saw," this friend of the R----s said to Miss Delane, "was, I
+believe, the Banshee, which always manifests itself before the death of
+any member of the family. Sometimes it shrieks, like the shrieking of a
+woman who is being cruelly done to death, and sometimes it merely stares
+at or touches its victim on the shoulder with its skeleton hand. In either
+case its advent is fatal. Only," she added, "let me implore you never to
+breathe a word of this to the R----s, as they never mention their ghost to
+anyone."
+
+Miss Delane, of course, promised, at the same time expressing a devout
+hope that the phenomena she had witnessed did not point to the illness or
+death of either of her friends; but in this she was doomed to the deepest
+disappointment, for within a few weeks of the date upon which the
+Banshee--if Banshee it really were--had appeared, she received tidings of
+the deaths of both Ellen and her sister (the former succumbing to an
+attack of some malignant fever, and the latter to an accident), and in
+addition heard that Major R---- had died also. As Major R---- would never
+discuss the subject of his family ghost with anyone at all, it is
+impossible to say whether he believed the haunting to be a Banshee
+haunting or not; but many, apparently, did believe it to be this type of
+haunting, and I must say I think they were wrong.
+
+To begin with, the R----s were Anglo-Irish. Their connection with Ireland
+may have dated back a century or so, but they were certainly not of
+Milesian nor even Celtic Irish descent; and, for this reason alone, could
+not have acquired a Banshee haunting. Besides, the Banshee that we know
+does not appear, as the R----'s ghost appeared, attired in the vestments
+of a religious order; and the coach or hearse phantasm (which in the
+R----'s case preceded the manifestation of the supposed Banshee) is by no
+means an uncommon haunting;[8] and since it is more often than not
+accompanied by phenomena of the sepulchral type (the type witnessed by
+Miss Delane and the Major's nieces), it may be said to constitute in
+itself a peculiar form of family haunting which is not, of course,
+exclusively confined to the Irish.
+
+Hence I entirely dismiss the theory that the notorious R----'s ghost had
+anything at all to do with the Banshee. À propos of coaches, I am reminded
+of an incident related by that past master of the weird, J. Sheridan Le
+Fanu, in a short story entitled "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone
+Family." As it relates to that type of phantasm that is so often foolishly
+confused with the Banshee, I think I cannot do better than give a brief
+sketch of it.
+
+Miss Richardson, a young Anglo-Irish girl, resided with her parents at
+Ashtown, Tyrone, and her elder sister, who had recently married a Mr Carew
+of Dublin, being expected with her husband on a visit, great preparations
+were on foot for their reception.
+
+They were leaving Dublin by coach on the Monday morning, they had written
+to say, and hoped to arrive at Ashtown some time the following day. The
+morning and afternoon passed, however, without any sign of the Carews,
+and when it got dark, and still they did not come, the Richardson family
+began to feel a trifle uneasy.
+
+The night was fine, the sky cloudless, and the moon, when it at length
+rose, could not have been more brilliant. It was a still night, too, so
+still that not a leaf stirred, and so still that those on the qui vive,
+who were straining their ears to the utmost, must have caught the sound of
+an approaching vehicle on the high road, had there been one, when it was
+still at a distance of several miles. But no sound came, and when
+suppertime arrived, Mr Richardson, as was his wont, made a tour of the
+house, and carefully fastened the shutters and locked the doors. Still the
+family listened, and still they could hear nothing, nothing, either near
+to, or far away.
+
+It was now midnight, but no one went to bed, for all were buoyed up with
+the desperate hope that something must at last happen--either, the Carews
+themselves would suddenly turn up, or a messenger with a letter explaining
+the delay.
+
+Neither eventuality, however, came to pass, and nothing occurred until
+Miss Richardson, who had, for the moment, allowed her mind to dwell on an
+entirely different topic, gave a start. Her heart beat loud, and she held
+her breath! She heard carriage wheels. Yes, without a doubt, she heard
+wheels--the wheels of a coach or carriage, and they were getting more and
+more distinct. But she remained silent. She had been rebuked once or twice
+for giving a false alarm--she would now let someone else speak first. In
+the meantime, on and on came the wheels, stopping for a moment whilst the
+iron gate at the entrance to the drive was swung open on its rusty hinges;
+then on and on again, louder, louder and louder, till all could
+distinguish, amid the barking of the dogs, the sound of scattered gravel
+and the crackling and swishing of the whip. There was no doubt about it
+now, and with joyous cries of "It is them! They have come at last," a
+regular stampede was made for the hall door, parents and sister, servants
+and dogs, vying with one another to see who could get there first. But, lo
+and behold, when the door was opened, and they stepped out, there was no
+sign of a coach or carriage anywhere; nothing was to be seen but the broad
+gravel drive and lawn beyond, alight with moonbeams and peopled with queer
+shadows, but absolutely silent, with a silence that suggested a
+churchyard.
+
+The whole household now looked at one another with white and puzzled
+faces; they began to be afraid; whilst the dogs, running about, and
+sniffing, and whining, were obviously ill at ease and afraid, too.
+
+At last a kind of panic set in, and all made a rush for the house, taking
+care, when once inside, to shut the door with even greater haste than they
+had displayed in opening it. The family then retired to rest, but not to
+sleep, and early the next morning they received news that fully confirmed
+their suspicions. Mrs Carew had been taken ill with fever on Monday, while
+preparations for the departure were being made, and had passed away,
+probably at the very moment when the Richardsons, hearing the phantom
+coach and mistaking it for a real one, had opened their hall door to
+welcome her.
+
+That is the gist of the incident as related by Mr Le Fanu, and I have
+quoted it merely to show how a case of this kind, especially when it
+happens in Ireland, and to a family that has for some time been associated
+with Ireland, may sometimes be mistaken for a genuine Banshee haunting,
+although, of course, there is no reason whatever to suppose that Mr Le
+Fanu himself laboured under any delusion with regard to it, or intended to
+convey to his readers an impression of the haunting that the circumstances
+did not warrant. He merely states it as a case of the supernatural without
+attempting to consign it to any special category.
+
+Lady Wilde in her "Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland," pp. 163,
+164, quotes another case of coach haunting in Ireland, a very terrible
+one; while in a book entitled "Rambles in Northumberland," by the same
+author, we are informed, "when the death-hearse, drawn by headless horses
+and driven by a headless driver, is seen about midnight proceeding
+rapidly, but without noise, towards the churchyard, the death of some
+considerable personage in the parish is sure to happen at no distant
+period." Also, there is a phantom of this description that is occasionally
+seen on the road near Langley in Durham, and my relatives, the Vizes[9] of
+Limerick--at least, so my grandmother, _née_ Sally Vize, used to say--are
+haunted by a phantom coach too; indeed, there seems to be no end to this
+kind of haunting, which is always either very picturesque or very
+terrifying, and sometimes both picturesque and terrifying.
+
+At the same time, although intensely interesting, no doubt, the phantom
+coach is not essentially Irish, and not in any way connected with the
+Banshee.
+
+As an example of the extreme anxiety of some people to be thought to be of
+ancient Irish extraction and to have a Banshee, I might refer to an
+incident in connection with Mrs Elizabeth Sheridan, which is recorded in
+footnotes on pages 32 and 33 of "The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of
+Mrs Frances Sheridan," compiled by her granddaughter, Miss Alicia Lefanu,
+and published in 1824, and quote from it the following:
+
+     "Like many Irish ladies who resided during the early part of life in
+     the country, Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the
+     Banshi, a female dæmon, attached to ancient Irish families. She
+     seriously maintained that the Banshi of the Sheridan family was heard
+     wailing beneath the windows of Quilca before the news arrived of Mrs
+     Frances Sheridan's death at Blois, thus affording them a
+     preternatural intimation of the impending melancholy event. A niece
+     of Miss Sheridan's made her very angry by observing that as Miss
+     Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English
+     extraction, she had no right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy,
+     and that, therefore, the Banshi must have made a mistake."
+
+Now I certainly agree with Miss Sheridan's niece in doubting that the cry
+heard before Mrs Frances Sheridan's death was that of the real Banshee;
+but I do not doubt it because Mrs Frances Sheridan was of English
+extraction, for the Banshee has frequently been heard before the death of
+a wife whose husband was one of an ancient Irish clan--even though the
+wife had no Irish blood in her at all, but I doubt it because the husband
+of Mrs Frances Sheridan was one of a family who, not being of really
+ancient Irish descent, does not, in my opinion, possess a Banshee.
+
+In "Personal Sketches of his Own Times," by Sir Jonah Barrington, we find
+(pp. 152-154, Vol. II.) the account of a ghostly experience of the author
+and his wife, which experience the writer of the paragraph, referring to
+this work in the notes to T. C. Croker's Banshee Stories, evidently
+considered was closely associated with the Banshee.
+
+At the time of the incident, Lord Rossmore was Commander-in-Chief of the
+Forces in Ireland. He was a Scot by birth, but had come over to Ireland
+when very young, and had obtained the post of page to the Lord-Lieutenant.
+Fortune had favoured him at every turn. Not only had he been eminently
+successful in the vocation he finally selected, but he had been equally
+fortunate both with regard to love and money. The lady with whom he fell
+in love returned his affections, and, on their marriage, brought him a
+rich dowry. It was partly with her money that he purchased the estate of
+Mount Kennedy, and built on it one of the noblest mansions in Wicklow. Not
+very far from Mount Kennedy, and in the centre of what is termed the
+golden belt of Ireland, stood Dunran, the residence of the Barringtons; so
+that Lord Rossmore and the Barringtons were practically neighbours.
+
+One afternoon at the drawing-room at Dublin Castle, during the Vice-royalty
+of Earl Hardwick, Lord Rossmore met Lady Barrington, and gave her a most
+pressing invitation to come to his house-party at Mount Kennedy the
+following day.
+
+"My little farmer," said he, addressing her by her pet name, "when you go
+home, tell Sir Jonah that no business is to prevent him from bringing you
+down to dine with me to-morrow. I will have no ifs in the matter--so tell
+him that come he MUST."
+
+Lady Barrington promised, and the following day saw her and Sir Jonah at
+Mount Kennedy. That night, at about twelve, they retired to rest, and
+towards two in the morning Sir Jonah was awakened by a sound of a very
+extraordinary nature. It occurred first at short intervals and resembled
+neither a voice nor an instrument, for it was softer than any voice, and
+wilder than any music, and seemed to float about in mid-air, now in one
+spot and now in another. To quote Sir Jonah's own language:
+
+"I don't know wherefore, but my heart beat forcibly; the sound became
+still more plaintive, till it almost died in the air; when a sudden
+change, as if excited by a pang, changed its tone; it seemed descending. I
+felt every nerve tremble: it was not a natural sound, nor could I make out
+the point from whence it came. At length I awakened Lady Barrington, who
+heard it as well as myself. She suggested that it might be an Æolian harp;
+but to that instrument it bore no resemblance--it was altogether a
+different character of sound. My wife at first appeared less affected than
+I; but subsequently she was more so. We now went to a large window in our
+bedroom, which looked directly upon a small garden underneath. The sound
+seemed then, obviously, to ascend from a grass plot immediately below our
+window. It continued. Lady Barrington requested I would call up her maid,
+which I did, and she was evidently more affected than either of us. The
+sounds lasted for more than half an hour. At last a deep, heavy, throbbing
+sigh seemed to come from the spot, and was shortly succeeded by a sharp,
+low cry, and by the distinct exclamation, thrice repeated, of
+'Rossmore!--Rossmore!--Rossmore!' I will not attempt to describe my own
+feelings," Sir Jonah goes on. "The maid fled in terror from the window,
+and it was with difficulty I prevailed on Lady Barrington to return to
+bed; in about a minute after the sound died gradually away until all was
+still."
+
+Sir Jonah adds that Lady Barrington, who was not so superstitious as
+himself, made him promise he would not mention the incident to anyone next
+day, lest they should be the laughing stock of the place.
+
+At about seven in the morning, Sir Jonah's servant, Lawler, rapped at the
+bedroom door and began, "Oh, Lord, sir!", in such agitated tones, that Sir
+Jonah at once cried out: "What's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, sir," Lawler ejaculated, "Lord Rossmore's footman was running past my
+door in great haste, and told me in passing that my lord, after coming
+from the Castle, had gone to bed in perfect health (Lord Rossmore, though
+advanced in years, had always appeared to be singularly robust, and Sir
+Jonah had never once heard him complain he was unwell), but that about
+two-thirty this morning his own man, hearing a noise in his master's bed
+(he slept in the same room), went to him, and found him in the agonies of
+death; and before he could alarm the other servants, all was over."
+
+Sir Jonah remarks that Lord Rossmore was actually dying at the moment Lady
+Barrington and he (Sir Jonah) heard his lordship's name pronounced; and he
+adds that he is totally unequal to the task of accounting for the sounds
+by any natural causes. The question that most concerns me is whether they
+were due to the Banshee or not, and as Lord Rossmore was not apparently of
+ancient Irish lineage, I am inclined to think the phenomena owed its
+origin to some other class of phantasm; perhaps to one that had been
+attached to Lord Rossmore's family in Scotland. Moreover, I have never
+heard of the Banshee speaking as the invisible presence spoke on that
+occasion; the phenomena certainly seems to me to be much more Scottish
+than Irish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS
+
+
+It is a somewhat curious, and, perhaps, a not very well-known fact, that
+some families possess two Banshees, a friendly and an unfriendly one;
+whilst a few, though a few only, possess three--a friendly, an unfriendly,
+and a neutral one. A case of the two Banshees resulting in a dual Banshee
+haunting was told me quite recently by a man whom I met in Paris at
+Henriette's in Montparnasse. He was a Scot, a journalist, of the name of
+Menzies, and his story concerned an Irish friend of his, also a
+journalist, whom I will call O'Hara.
+
+From what I could gather, these two men were of an absolutely opposite
+nature. O'Hara--warm-hearted, impulsive, and generous to a degree;
+Menzies--somewhat cold, careful with regard to money, and extremely
+cautious; and yet, apart from their vocation which was the apparent link
+between them, they possessed one characteristic in common--they both
+adored pretty women. The high brow and extreme feminist with her stolid
+features and intensely supercilious smile was a nightmare to them; they
+sought always something pleasing, and dainty, and free from academic
+conceits; and they found it in Paris--at Henriette's.
+
+It so happened one day that, unable to get a table at Henriette's, the
+place being crowded, they wandered along the Boulevard Montparnasse, and
+turned into a new restaurant close to the Boulevard Raspail. This place,
+too, was very full, but there was one small table, at which sat alone a
+young girl, and, at O'Hara's suggestion, they at once made for it.
+
+"You sly fellow," Menzies whispered to his friend, after they had been
+seated a few minutes, "I know why you were so anxious to come here."
+
+"Well, wasn't I right," O'Hara, whose eyes had never once left the girl's
+face, responded. "She's the prettiest I've seen for many a day."
+
+"Not bad!" Menzies answered, somewhat critically. "But I don't like her
+mouth, it's wolfish."
+
+O'Hara, however, could see no fault in her; the longer he gazed at her,
+the deeper and deeper he fell in love; not that there was anything very
+unusual in that, because O'Hara was no sooner off with one flame than he
+was on with another; and he averaged at least two or three love cases a
+year. But to Menzies this latest affair was annoying; he knew that when
+O'Hara lost his heart he generally lost his head too, and could never talk
+or think on any topic but the eyes, hair, mouth and finger-nails--for,
+like most Irishmen, O'Hara had a passion for well-kept, well-formed
+hands--of his new divinity, and on this occasion he did want O'Hara to
+remain sane a little longer.
+
+It was, then, for this reason chiefly, that Menzies did not get a little
+excited over the new discovery, too; for he was bound to admit that, in
+spite of the lupine expression about the mouth, there was some excuse this
+time for his friend's enthusiasm. The girl was pretty, an almost perfect
+blonde, with daintily shaped hands, and dressed as only a young Paris
+beauty can dress, who has money and leisure at her command.
+
+Yes, there was excuse; and yet it was the height of folly. Girls mean
+expenditure in one way or another, and just now neither he nor O'Hara had
+anything to spend. While he was thinking, however, O'Hara was acting.
+
+He offered the girl a cigarette, she smilingly rejected it; but the ice
+was broken, and the conversation begun. There is no need to go into any
+particulars as to what followed--it was what always did follow in a case
+of this description--blind infatuation that invariably ended with a
+startling abruptness; only in this instance the infatuation was blinder
+than ever, and the ending, though sudden, was not usual. O'Hara asked the
+girl to dinner with him that night. She accepted, and he took her out
+again the following evening. From that moment all reason left him, and he
+gave himself up to the maddest of mad passions.
+
+Menzies saw little of him, but when they did by chance happen to meet it
+was always the same old tale--Gabrielle! Gabrielle Delacourt. Her
+star-like eyes, gorgeous hair, and so forth.
+
+Then came a night when Menzies, tired of his own company, wandered off to
+Montmartre, and met a fellow-countryman of his, by name Douglas.
+
+"I say, old fellow," the latter remarked, as they lolled over a little
+marble-topped table and watched the evolutions of a more than usually
+daring vaudeville artiste, "I say, how about that Irish pal of yours, 'O'
+something or other. I saw him here the other night with Marie Diblanc."
+
+"Marie Diblanc!" Menzies articulated. "I have never heard of her."
+
+"Not heard of Marie Diblanc!" Douglas exclaimed. "Why I thought every
+journalist in Paris knew of her, but perhaps she was before your time, for
+she's had a pretty long spell of prison--at least five or six years, which
+as you know is pretty stiff nowadays for a woman--and has only recently
+come out. She was quite a kiddie when they bagged her, but a kiddie with a
+mind as old as Brinvillier's in crime and vice--she robbed and all but
+murdered her own mother for a few louis, besides forging cheques and
+stealing wholesale from shops and hotels. They say she was in with all the
+worst crooks in Europe, and surpassed them all in subtlety and daring.
+When I saw her the other night her hair was dyed, and she was wearing the
+most saint-like expression; but I knew her all the same. She couldn't
+disguise her mouth or her hands, and it is those features that I notice in
+a woman more than anything else."
+
+"Describe her to me," Menzies said.
+
+"A brunette originally," Douglas replied, "but now a blonde--masses of
+very elaborately waved golden hair; peculiarly long eyes--rather too
+intensely blue and far apart for my liking--a well-moulded mouth, though
+the lips are far too thin, and give her away at once."
+
+"That's the girl," Menzies exclaimed emphatically. "That's the girl he
+calls Gabrielle Delacourt. I was with him the day he first met her--over
+in Montparnasse."
+
+Douglas nodded.
+
+"That's right," he said. "That's the name he introduced her to me by. But,
+I'm quite positive she's Marie Diblanc; and I think you ought to give him
+the tip. If he's seen about with her he'll be suspected by the police.
+Besides, she is sure to commit some crime--for a girl with that kind of
+face and history never reforms, she goes on being right down bad to the
+bitter end--and get him implicated. Only, possibly, she will use him as
+her tool."
+
+"I'll see him and warn him," Menzies said. "I'll call at his place
+to-night, though there's no knowing when he'll turn up, for he's the most
+erratic creature under the sun."
+
+True to his word, Menzies, after a few more minutes' conversation, got up
+and retraced his steps to Montparnasse. O'Hara lived in the Rue Campagne
+Première, close to the famous "rabbit warren." His door, as not
+infrequently happened, was unlocked, but he was out. Menzies went in, and,
+entering the little room which served as a parlour, dining-room, and study
+combined, threw himself into an armchair and lit a cigarette. He did not
+bother to light up as it was a moonlight night, and the darkness suited
+his present mood. After a while, however, feeling a little chilly, he
+turned on the gas fire, and then, glancing at the clock over the
+mantel-shelf, perceived it was close on twelve.
+
+At that instant there was a noise outside, and, thinking it was O'Hara, he
+called out, "Hulloa, Bob, is that you?"
+
+As there was no response he called again, and this time there was a
+laugh--an ugly, malevolent kind of chuckle that made Menzies jump up at
+once and angrily demand who was there. No one replying, he went to the
+room door, and, opening it wide, saw a few yards from him a tall dark
+figure enveloped in what appeared to be a cloak and gown.
+
+"Hulloa!" he cried. "Who are you, and what the ---- do you want here?"
+
+Whereupon the figure drew aside its covering and revealed a face that
+caused Menzies to utter an exclamation of terror and spring back. It was
+the face of an old woman with very high cheek-bones, tightly drawn
+shrivelled skin, and obliquely set pale eyes that gleamed banefully as
+they met Menzies' horrified stare. A disordered mass of matted yellow hair
+crowned her head and descended half-way to her shoulders, revealing,
+however, her ears, which stood out prominently from her head, huge and
+pointed, like those of an enormous wolf. A leadenish white glow seemed to
+emanate from within her and to intensify the general horror of her
+appearance.
+
+Though Menzies had never believed in ghosts before, he felt certain now
+that he was looking at something which did not belong to this world. It
+was, he affirmed, so absolutely hellish that he would have uttered a
+prayer and bid it begone, had not his words died in his throat so that he
+could not articulate a sound. He then tried to raise a hand to cross
+himself, but this, also, he was unable to do; and the only thing he found
+he could do, was to stare at it in dumb, open-mouthed horror and wonder.
+
+How long this state of affairs might have gone on it is impossible to say;
+but at the sound of heavy and unmistakably human footsteps, first in the
+lower part of the building, and then ascending the stone staircase leading
+to this flat, the old woman disappeared, apparently amalgamating with the
+somewhat artistic hangings on the wall behind her. Menzies was still
+rubbing his eyes and looking when O'Hara burst in upon him.
+
+"Hulloa, Donald, is that you?" he began. "I've done it."
+
+"Done what?" Menzies stuttered, his nerves all anyhow.
+
+"Why, proposed to Gabrielle, of course," O'Hara went on excitedly, "and
+she's accepted me. She, the prettiest, sweetest, finest little colleen
+I've ever come across, has told me she will marry me. Ye gods, I shall go
+off my head with joy; go stark, staring mad, I tell you." And crossing the
+floor of the study he tumbled into the chair Menzies himself had just
+occupied.
+
+"I say, old fellow, why don't you congratulate me?" he continued.
+
+"I do congratulate you," Menzies observed, taking another seat. "Of course
+I congratulate you, but are you sure she is the sort of girl you will
+always care about or who will always care about you. You haven't known her
+very long, and most women cost a deuced lot of money, especially French
+ones. Don't take the irrevocable steps before contemplating them well
+first."
+
+"I have," O'Hara retorted, "so it's no use sermonising. I have made up my
+mind to marry Gabrielle, and nothing on earth will deter me."
+
+"Do you know her people, or anything about them?" Menzies ventured.
+
+O'Hara laughed.
+
+"No," he said, "but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I shouldn't
+care whether her father was a navvy or a publican, or whether her mother
+took in washing and pinched a few odd shirts and socks now and again,
+only as it happens, they don't affect the question at all, because they
+are both dead. Gabrielle is an orphan--quite on her own--so I am perfectly
+safe as far as that goes. No pompous papa to consult, no cantankerous old
+mother-in-law to dread. Gabrielle was educated at a convent school, and,
+though you may laugh, knows next to nothing of the world. She's as
+innocent as a butterfly. We are to be married next month."
+
+Finding that it was no earthly use to say any more on the subject, just
+then at all events, Menzies changed the conversation and referred to the
+incident of the old woman.
+
+O'Hara at once became interested.
+
+"Why," he said, "from your description she must have been one of the
+Banshees that is supposed to haunt our family, and which my mother always
+declared she saw shortly before my father's death. A hideous hag with a
+shock head of tow-coloured hair, who stood on the staircase laughing
+devilishly, and then, all at once, vanished. She is known as the bad
+Banshee to distinguish her from the good one, which is, so I have always
+been led to understand, very beautiful, but which never manifests itself,
+saving when anything especially dreadful is going to happen to an
+O'Hara."
+
+Feeling very uneasy in his mind, Menzies now bid his friend good night,
+and went home.
+
+After that days passed and Menzies saw nothing of O'Hara, until one
+evening, when he was thinking it must be about now that the marriage was
+to take place, O'Hara turned up at his flat, and proposed that they should
+go for a stroll in the direction of the fortifications near Montsouris.
+But O'Hara was not in his usual good spirits; he seemed very glum and
+depressed, and Menzies gathered that there had been occasional differences
+of opinion between his friend and Gabrielle, and that the affair was not
+running quite as smoothly as it might. Gabrielle had a great many
+admirers, one of them very rich, and O'Hara was obviously very much
+annoyed at the attentions they had been bestowing on his fiancée, and at
+the manner in which she had received them. But there was something else,
+too; something he could see in his friend's face and manner, but which
+O'Hara would not so much as hint at. Menzies was, of course, pleased, for
+there now seemed to be a glimmer of hope that these frictions would
+materialise into something stronger and more definite, and lead to a
+rupture that would be final.
+
+He was so engrossed in speculations of this nature that he forgot all
+about the time or where they were, and was only brought back to earth by
+the whistle and shriek of a train, which made him at once realise they had
+left Montsouris and were several miles without the fortifications.
+
+It was also getting very dusk, and, as he had to be up unusually early in
+the morning, he suggested to O'Hara they had better turn back. They were
+then close beside a clump of bushes and a very lofty pine tree that was
+bending to and fro in such a peculiar manner that Menzies' attention was
+at once directed to it.
+
+"What's wrong with that tree?" he remarked, pointing at it with his stick.
+
+"What's wrong with the tree?" O'Hara laughed. "Why, it's not the tree
+there's anything the matter with--the tree's all right, quite all
+right--it's you. What on earth are you staring at it for in that
+ridiculous fashion? Have you suddenly gone mad?"
+
+Menzies made no reply, but went up to the tree and examined it. As he was
+doing so, a slight disturbance in the bushes made him glance around, and
+he saw, a few feet from him, the tall figure of a girl, clad in a kind of
+long flowing mantle, but with bare head and feet. The moonlight was on her
+face, and Menzies, hard and difficult though he was, as a rule, to please,
+realised it was lovely, far more lovely, so he declared afterwards, than
+any woman's face he had ever gazed upon. The eyes particularly impressed
+him, for, although in the darkness he could not tell their colour, he
+could see that they were of an extremely beautiful shape and setting, and
+seemed to be filled with a sorrow that was almost more than her heart
+could bear. Indeed, so poignant was this sorrow of hers, that Menzies,
+infected by it, too, could not keep back the tears from his own eyes; and,
+dour and unemotional as he was by nature, his whole being suddenly became
+literally steeped in sadness and pity.
+
+The girl looked straight at him, but only for a few seconds; she then
+turned towards O'Hara, and seemed to concentrate her whole attention upon
+him. There was now, Menzies thought, a certain indistinctness and a
+something shadowy about her that he had not at first noticed, and he was
+thinking how he could test her to see if she were really a substance or
+merely an optical illusion, when O'Hara, who was getting tired at his long
+absence, called out, whereupon the girl at once vanished, uttering, as she
+melted away in the background, in the same inexplicable manner as the old
+woman had done, such an awful, harrowing, wailing shriek, that it seemed
+to fill the whole air, and to linger on for an eternity. Thoroughly
+terrified, Menzies, as soon as his scattered senses could collect
+themselves, fled from the spot, and didn't cease running till O'Hara's
+angry shout brought him to a standstill. To his astonishment O'Hara hadn't
+heard anything, and was only annoyed at his seemingly mad behaviour. In
+answer to his description of the girl, however, and the wailing, O'Hara at
+once declared it was the Banshee, and the one he had always been so
+particularly anxious to see.
+
+"Unless you are having a joke at my expense," he said, "and you look too
+genuinely scared for that, you have actually seen her--a very beautiful
+girl, dressed after some old-time Irish custom, in a loose flowing green
+mantle--only of course you couldn't see the colour--with head and feet
+bare. But it's odd about that wail. The good Banshee in a family is always
+supposed to make it, but why didn't I hear her? Why should it only be you?
+You're Scotch, not Irish."
+
+"For which I'm truly thankful," Menzies said with warmth. "I've lived
+without ever seeing or hearing a ghost or anything approaching one for
+thirty-eight years, and now I've seen and heard two, within the short
+space of three weeks, and all because of you, because you're Irish. No
+thanks. None of your Banshees for me. I'd rather, ten thousand times
+rather, be just an ordinary laddie from the Highlands, and dispense with
+your highly aristocratic and fastidious family ghost."
+
+"Come, now," O'Hara said good-humouredly, "we won't quarrel about so
+unsubstantial a thing as the Banshee. Let's hurry up and have a bottle of
+cognac to make us think of something rather more cheerful."
+
+Menzies often thought of those words, for it is not infrequently the most
+trifling words and actions that haunt our memory to the greatest extent in
+after days. The rest of the evening passed quite uneventfully, and, after
+they had "toasted" each other, the two friends separated for the night.
+
+Two days later O'Hara's body lay in the Morque, whither it had been taken
+from the Seine. Though there were some doubts expressed as to the exact
+manner in which he had met his death, it was officially recorded "death
+from misadventure," and it was not till several years later Menzies
+learned the truth.
+
+He was then in Mexico, in a little town not twenty miles from San Blas, on
+the Western Coast, doing some newspaper work for a South American paper. A
+storekeeper and his wife were murdered; done to death in a singularly
+cruel manner, even for those parts, and one of the assassins was caught
+red-handed. The other, a woman, succeeded in escaping. As there had been
+so many murders lately in that neighbourhood, the townspeople declared
+they would make a very severe example of the culprit, and hang him, right
+away, on the scene of his diabolical outrage. Menzies, who had never
+witnessed anything of the kind before, and was, of course, anxious for
+copy, took good care to be present. He stood quite close to the handcuffed
+man, and caught every word of the confession he made to the local padre.
+He gave his name as André Fécamps, his age as twenty-five, and his
+nationality as French. He asserted that he was first induced to take to
+crime through falling in love with a notorious French criminal of the name
+of Marie Diblanc, who accepted him as her lover, conditionally on his
+joining the band of Apaches of which she was the recognised leader.
+
+He did so, and forthwith plunged into every kind of wickedness imaginable.
+Among other crimes in which he was implicated he mentioned that of the
+murder of an Irishman of the name of O'Hara, who was supposed to have met
+with an accidental death from drowning in the Seine. What really happened,
+so the young desperado said, was this. M. O'Hara was madly in love with
+Marie Diblanc, who was posing to him as Gabrielle Delacourt, an innocent
+young girl from the country, when she was already very much married, and
+was being searched for high and low, at that very time, by certainly more
+than one desperate husband. Well, one day she persuaded M. O'Hara to take
+her to a dance given by some very wealthy friends of his.
+
+He did so, and she contrived, unknown to him of course, to smuggle me in,
+and between us we walked off with something like ten thousand pounds of
+jewellery.
+
+M. O'Hara came to suspect her--how I don't know, unless he overheard some
+stray conversation between her and some other member of our gang at one of
+the restaurants they used to dine at. Anyhow, she got to know of it, and
+at once resolved to have him put out of the way. It was arranged that she
+should bring him to a house in Montmartre, where several of us were in
+hiding, and that we should both kill and bury him there.
+
+Well, he came, and, on perceiving that he had fallen into a trap, besought
+her, if his life must be forfeited--and, anyhow, now he knew she was a
+thief he wouldn't have it otherwise--to take it herself. This she
+eventually agreed to do, and, lying in her arms, he allowed her to press a
+poison-bag over his mouth, and so put him to death. His body was taken to
+the Seine that night in a fiacre and dropped in. Fécamps added that it was
+the only occasion upon which he had seen Marie Diblanc really moved, and
+he believed she was a trifle fond of the Irishman, that is to say, if she
+could be genuinely fond of anyone.
+
+Menzies, who was of course deeply interested, extracted every particle of
+information he could out of the man, but nothing would make the latter
+admit a word as to what had become of Diblanc.
+
+"If I go to hell," he said, "she is certain to go there, too; for bad as I
+am, I believe her to be infinitely worse; worse, a hundred times worse
+than any Apache man I have ever met. And yet, depraved and evil as she is,
+I love her, and shall never know a second's happiness till she joins me."
+
+The man died; and Menzies, as he made a sketch of his swinging body, felt
+thoroughly satisfied at last that the ghost he had seen outside the
+fortifications of Monsouris was the good and beautiful Banshee, the
+Banshee that only manifested itself when some unusually dreadful fate was
+about to overtake an O'Hara.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN
+
+
+Another case of dual Banshee haunting that occurs to me, took place in
+Spain, where so many of the oldest Irish families have settled, and was
+related to me by a distant connection of mine--an O'Donnell. He well
+remembered, he said, many years ago, when he was a boy, his father, who
+was an officer in the Carlist Army, telling him of an adventure that
+happened to him during the first outbreak of the Civil War. His father and
+another young man, Dick O'Flanagan, were subalterns in a cavalry regiment
+that took a prominent part in a desperate engagement with the Queen's
+Army. The Carlists were being driven back, when, as a last desperate
+resource, their bare handful of cavalry charged and immediately turned the
+fortunes of the day. In the heat of the affray, however, Ralph O'Donnell
+and Dick O'Flanagan, carried away by their enthusiasm, got separated from
+the rest of the corps, and were, consequently, overpowered by sheer
+numbers and taken prisoners.
+
+In those days much brutality was shown on either side, and our two heroes,
+beaten, and bruised, and starving, were dragged along in a half-fainting
+condition, amid the taunts and gibings of their captors, till they were
+finally lodged in the filthy dungeon of an old mountain castle, where they
+were informed they would be kept till the hour appointed for their
+execution. The moment they were alone, they made the most strenuous
+efforts to unloosen the thongs of tough cowhide with which their hands and
+feet were so cruelly bound together, and, after many frantic endeavours,
+they at last succeeded. O'Flanagan was the first to get free, and as soon
+as his numbed limbs allowed him to do so, he crawled to the side of his
+friend and liberated him, too. They then examined the room as best they
+could in the dark, and decided their only hope of escape lay in the
+chimney, which, luckily for them, was one of those old-fashioned
+structures, wide enough to admit the passage of a full-grown person. Ralph
+began the ascent first, and, after several fruitless efforts, during which
+he bumped and bruised himself and made such a noise that O'Flanagan feared
+he would be heard by the guard outside, he eventually managed to obtain a
+foothold and make sufficient progress for O'Flanagan to follow in his
+wake.
+
+In everything they did that night luck favoured them. On emerging from the
+chimney on to the roof of the castle, they were rejoiced to find a tree
+growing so near to one of the walls that they had little difficulty in
+gripping hold of one of its branches and so descending in safety to the
+ground. The guards apparently were asleep, at least none were to be seen
+anywhere, and so, feeling their way cautiously in and out a thick growth
+of trees and bushes, they soon got altogether clear of the premises, and
+found themselves once again free, but in a part of the country with which
+they were totally unacquainted. Two hours tramping along a tortuous, hilly
+high road, or to give it a more appropriate name, track, for it was
+nothing more, at last brought them to a wayside inn where, in spite of the
+advanced hour--for it was between one and two o'clock in the morning--they
+determined to risk inquiry for a night's shelter. I say "risk" because
+there was a strong spirit of partisanship abroad, and it was quite as
+likely as not that the inn people were adherents of the Queen.
+
+Ralph knocked repeatedly, and the door was at length opened by a young
+girl who, holding a candlestick in one hand, sleepily rubbed her eyes
+with the other and, in rather petulant tones, asked what the gentlemen
+meant by coming to the house at such an unearthly hour and waking everyone
+up. Ralph and O'Flanagan were so struck by her appearance that for some
+seconds they could only stand gaping at her, deprived of all power of
+speech. Such a vision of loveliness neither of them had seen for many a
+long day, and both were more than ordinarily susceptible where the fair
+sex was concerned. Dark, like most of the girls are in Spain, she was not
+swarthy, but had, on the other hand, a most singularly fair complexion,
+devoid of that tendency to hairiness which is apparent in so many of the
+women of that country. Her features were, perhaps, a trifle too bold, but
+in strict proportion, and her eyes a wee bit hard, though the shape and
+colour of them--by candlelight an almost purplish grey--were singularly
+beautiful. She had very white teeth, too, though there was a something
+about her mouth, in the setting of the lips when they were closed for
+instance, and in the general expression, that puzzled Ralph, and which was
+destined to return to his mind many times afterwards.
+
+Ralph noticed, too, that her hands were not those of a peasant class, of a
+class that has to do much rough and hard work, but that they were white
+and well-kept, the fingers tapering and the nails long and almond shaped.
+She wore several rings and bracelets, and seemed altogether different from
+the type of girl one would have expected to find in such a very
+unpretentious kind of building, situated, too, in such a very remote spot.
+
+Ralph was not quite as impulsive as his friend, and although, as I have
+said, very susceptible, was not so far led away by his feelings as to be
+altogether incapable of observation.
+
+His first impressions of the girl were that, although she was
+extraordinarily pretty, there was something--apart even from her
+mouth--that he could not fathom, and which caused him a vague uneasiness;
+he noticed it particularly when her glance wandered to their
+travel-stained uniforms, and momentarily alighted on O'Flanagan's solitary
+ring, which contained a ruby and was a kind of family mascot, akin to the
+famous cathach of Count Daniel O'Donnell of Tirconnell; and she muttered
+something which Ralph fancied had reference to the word "Carlists," and
+then, as if conscious he was watching her, she raised her eyes quickly
+and, in tones of sleepy indifference this time, asked what the gentlemen
+wanted. Ralph immediately replied that they required a bed with breakfast,
+not too early, and, perhaps, later on--luncheon. He added that if the inn
+was full they wouldn't in the least mind sleeping in a barn or stable.
+
+"All we want," he said, "is to lie down somewhere with a roof over our
+heads, for we are terribly tired."
+
+At the mention of a stable the girl smiled, saying she could offer them
+something rather better than that; and, bidding both follow her upstairs,
+with as little noise as possible, she conducted them to a large room with
+a very low ceiling, and, having deposited the candlestick on a chest of
+drawers, she wished them good night and noiselessly withdrew.
+
+"Rather better than our late quarters in the prison," Ralph exclaimed,
+taking a survey of the apartment, "but a wee bit gloomy."
+
+"Nonsense!" O'Flanagan retorted. "The only gloomy things here are your own
+thoughts. I want to stay here always, for I never saw a prettier girl or a
+cosier-looking bed."
+
+He began to undress as he spoke, and in a few minutes both young men were
+stretched out at full length fast asleep.
+
+About two hours later Ralph awoke with a violent start to hear distinct
+sounds of footsteps tiptoeing their way softly along the passage outside
+towards their room door. In an instant all his faculties were on the
+alert, and he sat up in bed and listened. Then something stirred in the
+corner by the window, and, glancing in that direction, he saw to his
+astonishment the figure of a tall slim girl, in a long, loose, flowing
+gown of some dark material, with a very pale face, beautifully chiselled,
+though by no means strictly classical features, and masses of shining
+golden hair that fell in rippling confusion on to her neck and shoulders.
+The idea that she was the Banshee instantly occurred to him. From his
+father's description of her, for his father had often spoken to him about
+her, she and the beautiful woman, whom he was now looking at, were
+certainly very much alike; besides, as the Banshee, when his father saw
+her, was crying, and this woman was crying--crying most bitterly, her
+whole body swaying to and fro as if racked with the most poignant
+sorrow--he could not help thinking that the identity between them was
+established, and that they were, in fact, one and the same person.
+
+As he was still gazing at her with the most profound pity and admiration,
+his attention was suddenly directed, by an odd scratching sound, to the
+window, where he saw, pressed against the glass, and looking straight in
+at him, a face which in every detail presented the most startling
+contrast to that upon which his eyes had, but a second ago, been feasting.
+It was so evil that he felt sure it could only emanate from the lowest
+Inferno, and it leered at him with such appalling malignancy that, brave
+man as he had proved himself on the field of battle, he now completely
+lost his nerve, and would have called out, had not both figures suddenly
+vanished, their disappearance being immediately followed by the most
+agonising, heart-rending screams, intermingled with loud laughter and
+diabolical chuckling, which, for the moment, completely paralysed him. The
+screams continued for some seconds, during which time every atom of blood
+in Ralph's veins seemed to freeze, and then there was silence--deep and
+sepulchral silence. Afraid to be any longer in the dark, Ralph jumped out
+of bed and lit the candle, and, as he did so, he distinctly heard
+footsteps move hurriedly away from the door and go stealthily tiptoeing
+down the passage.
+
+As may be imagined, he did not sleep again for some time, not, indeed,
+until daylight, when he gradually fell into a doze, from which he was
+eventually aroused by loud thumps on the door, and the voice of the pretty
+inn maiden announcing that it was time to get up.
+
+After breakfast he narrated his experience in the night to O'Flanagan,
+who, somewhat to his astonishment, did not laugh, but exclaimed quite
+seriously:
+
+"Why, you have seen our Banshee. At least, the girl in green is our
+Banshee. I saw her before the death of a cousin of mine, and she appeared
+to my mother the night before my father died. I don't know what the other
+apparition could have been, unless it was what my father used to term the
+'hateful Banshee,' which he said was only supposed to appear before some
+very dreadful catastrophe, worse even than death, if anything could be
+worse."
+
+"You haven't the monopoly of Banshees," Ralph laughed. "We have one too,
+and I am positive the woman I saw--the beautiful woman I mean--was the
+O'Donnell Banshee. I would have you know that the Limerick O'Donnells,
+with whom I am connected, are quite as old a family as the O'Flanagans;
+they are, indeed, directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages."
+
+"So are we," O'Flanagan answered hotly, then he burst out laughing. "Well,
+well," he said, "fancy quarrelling about anything as immaterial as a
+Banshee. But, anyhow, if they were Banshees that you saw last night,
+they're a bit out in their calculations. They should have come before that
+skirmish, not after it; unless it's the death of some relative of one of
+us they're prophesying. I hope it's not my sister."
+
+"I don't imagine it has anything to do with you," Ralph replied. "They
+were both looking at me."
+
+He was about to say something further, when O'Flanagan, seeing the young
+girl come into the room to clear away the breakfast things, at once began
+talking to her; and as it was only too evident that he wanted the field to
+himself, for he was obviously head over ears in love, Ralph got up and
+announced his intention of taking a walk round the premises.
+
+"Don't go in the wood, Señor, whatever you do," the girl observed, "for it
+is infested with brigands. They do not interfere with us because we were
+once good to one of their sick folk--and the Spaniard, brigand though he
+may be, never forgets a kindness--but they attack strangers, and you will
+be well advised to keep to the high road."
+
+"Which is the nearest town?" Ralph demanded.
+
+"Trijello," the girl answered, the same curious expression creeping into
+her eyes that had puzzled Ralph so much before, and which he found
+impossible to analyse. "It is about eight miles from here. Don Hervado,
+the Governor, is a Carlist, and was entertaining some Carlist soldiers
+there yesterday."
+
+"Good!" Ralph exclaimed. "I will walk there. Will you come with me, Dick,
+or will you wait here till I return. I don't suppose I shall be back much
+before the evening."
+
+"Oh, don't hurry," O'Flanagan laughed, eyeing the girl rapturously, "I am
+perfectly happy here, and want a rest badly. Don't, whatever you do, let
+on to anyone connected with headquarters where we are. Let them go on
+imagining, for a while, we are dead."
+
+"The Señors have been in a battle, yes?" the girl interrupted, shyly.
+
+"A battle," O'Flanagan laughed, "not half one. Why, we were taken
+prisoners and only escaped hanging through my unparalleled wits and
+perseverance. However, I don't in the least bemoan the perils and
+hardships we have undergone, for, had events turned out otherwise, we
+should never have had the joy of seeing you, Señora," and catching hold of
+her hand, before she could prevent him, he pressed it fervently to his
+lips, smothering it with kisses.
+
+Thinking it was high time to be off, Ralph now took his departure. A
+couple of hours' walking brought him to Trijello, where, but for a lucky
+incident, he might have found himself landed in a quandary. As he was
+entering the outskirts of the town he met an old peasant, staggering
+under a sack of onions, and no sooner did the latter catch sight of his
+uniform than he at once called out:
+
+"Señor, if you value your liberty, you won't enter Trijello in that
+costume. The Governor is the sworn enemy of all Carlists, and has given
+strict orders that, anyone with leanings towards that party shall be put
+under arrest at once."
+
+"Are you sure?" Ralph exclaimed. "Why, I was told it was just the other
+way about, and that he was a strong adherent of our cause."
+
+"Whoever told you that, lied," the old man responded, "for he had a nephew
+of mine shot only yesterday morning for saying in public he hoped that
+wretched weakling of a woman would soon be put off the throne and we
+should have someone who was fit to govern--meaning Don Carlos--in her
+place. Take my advice, Señor, and either change those clothes at once or
+give Trijello as wide a berth as possible."
+
+Ralph then asked him if there was any place near at hand where he could
+purchase a civilian suit, and, on being informed that there was a Jew's
+shop within a few minutes' walk, he thanked the old man most cordially for
+giving him so friendly a warning, and at once proceeded there.
+
+To cut a long story short he bought the clothes and, thus disguised, went
+on into the town, and, with the object of picking up any information he
+could with regard to the enemy's forces, he dined at the principal hotel,
+and listened attentively to the conversation that was taking place all
+around him. Later on in the day some Christino soldiers arrived, officers
+on the staff of one of the Royalist generals, and Ralph decided to remain
+in the hotel for the night and see if he could get hold of some really
+definite news that might be of value to his own headquarters. Learning
+that someone would be leaving the hotel shortly and passing by the inn
+where O'Flanagan was staying, he gave them a note to give to his friend,
+stating that he could not be back till the following day, perhaps about
+noon. He then took up his seat before the parlour fire, apparently
+absorbed in reading the latest bulletin from Madrid, but in reality
+keeping his ears well open for any conversation that might be worth
+transcribing in his pocket-book. Nor was he disappointed, for the
+Christino soldiers waxed very talkative over some of mine host's best
+port, and disclosed many secrets concerning the movements of the Queen's
+forces, that would have most certainly entailed a court martial, had it
+but come to the notice of their general.
+
+That night, though the room he was given was quite bright and cheerful,
+and very different from the one he had occupied the night before, his
+mind was so full of grim apprehension that he found it quite impossible
+to sleep. He kept thinking of the vision he had seen--that lovely, fairy
+face of the girl with the golden hair, her adorable eyes, her heavenly,
+albeit very human mouth; she was so perfect, so angelic, so full of
+delicious sympathy and pity; so unlike any earthly woman he had ever met;
+and then that other face--those intensely evil, pale green eyes, that
+sinister mocking mouth, that dreadfully disordered mass of matted,
+tow-coloured hair. It was too hellish--too inconceivably foul and baneful
+to dare think about, and seized with a fit of shuddering, he thrust his
+head under the bedclothes, lest he should see it again appearing before
+him. What, he wondered, did they portend? Not some horrible happening to
+Dick. He had always understood that the one who neither sees nor hears the
+Banshee during its manifestations is the one that is doomed to die. And
+yet Dick was assuredly as safe in that inn as he was here--here,
+surrounded on all sides by his enemies. Once or twice he fancied he heard
+his name called, and so realistic was it, that, forgetful of his dread of
+seeing something satanic in the room, he at last sat up in bed and
+listened. All was still, however; there were no sounds at all; none
+whatever, saving the gentle whispering of the wind, as it swept softly
+past the window, and the far-away hooting of a night bird. Then he lay
+down again, and once more there seemed to come to him from somewhere very
+close at hand a voice that articulated very clearly and plaintively his
+name--Ralph, Ralph, Ralph!--three times in quick succession, and then
+ceased. Nor did he hear it again.
+
+Tired and unrested, he got up early and, paying his bill, set off with
+long, rapid strides in the direction of the wayside inn. There was an air
+of delightful peace and tranquillity about the place when he arrived. All
+the sunbeams seemed to have congregated in just that one spot, and to have
+converted the walls and window-panes of the little old-fashioned building
+into sheets of burnished gold. Birds twittered merrily on the tree-tops
+and under the eaves of the roof, and the most delicious smell of
+honeysuckle and roses permeated the whole atmosphere.
+
+Ralph was enchanted, and all his grim forebodings of the night before were
+instantly dissipated. The abode was truly named "The Travellers' Rest"; it
+might even have been styled "The Travellers' Paradise," for all seemed so
+calm and serene--so truly heavenly. He rapped at the door, and, after some
+moments, rapped again. He then heard footsteps, which somehow seemed
+strangely familiar, cautiously come along the stone passage and pause at
+the other side of the door, as if their owner were in doubt whether to
+open it or not.
+
+Again he rapped, and this time the door was opened, and the young girl
+appeared. She looked rather pale, but was very much sprucer and smarter
+than she had been when Ralph last saw her. She wore a very bewitching kind
+of gipsy frock of red velvet--the skirt very short and the bodice adorned
+with masses of shining silver coins, whilst her feet were clad in very
+smart, dainty shoes, also red, with big silver buckles.
+
+"Your friend's gone," she said. "He seemed very upset at your not turning
+up last night, and went away directly after breakfast."
+
+"But didn't he get my note?" Ralph exclaimed, "and didn't he leave any
+message?"
+
+"No, Señor," the girl replied. "No note came for him, but he said he would
+try and call in here again to-morrow morning, to see if you had arrived."
+
+"And he didn't say where he had gone?"
+
+"No."
+
+Ralph eyed her quizzically. She certainly was wonderfully pretty, and,
+marvellous to relate, did not smell of garlic. Yes, he would stay, and try
+and come under the fascination of her beauty as Dick had done. And yet,
+why had Dick gone off in such a hurry? What had this starry-eyed creature
+done to offend him? Ralph knew O'Flanagan was at times apt to be
+over-impulsive and hasty in his love-makings. Had he got on a bit too
+rapidly? Spanish girls are very easily upset, and perhaps this one had a
+lover in the background. Perhaps she was married. That seemed to him the
+most feasible explanation for Dick's absence. To be offended at his not
+turning up last night was all nonsense. Ralph knew his friend far too well
+for that. Anyhow, he decided to stay, and the girl offered him the room he
+and Dick had previously occupied. Only, she explained, he must not go in
+it till later on in the day, as it was going to be cleaned.
+
+After luncheon, which he sat down to alone, as the girl, despite his
+pressing invitation, refused to partake of the meal with him, on the plea
+that she had many things to attend to, he went a little way up the
+hillside at the back of the premises, and enjoyed a quiet siesta under the
+shadow of the trees. Indeed, he slept so long that the twilight had well
+set in before he awoke and once again made tracks for the inn.
+
+This time he entered by a doorway in the rear of the house, and, in a
+small paved courtyard, saw the girl, habited in a rather more workaday
+attire, but with her hair still very coquettishly decorated with ribbons,
+sharpening a long glistening knife on a big grinding stone, which she was
+turning round and round with the skill of a past mistress of the art.
+
+"Hulloa!" he exclaimed. "What are you up to? Not sharpening that blade to
+stick me with, I hope."
+
+"The Señor has heard of pigs," the girl replied, showing her beautiful
+teeth in a smile, almost amounting to a grin. "Well, I'm going to kill one
+to-night."
+
+"Good heavens!" Ralph ejaculated, glancing incredulously at the white,
+rounded arms and the long, slim, tapering fingers. "You kill a pig! Do you
+do all the work of this house? Is there no one else here to help you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Señor," the girl laughed. "There is Isabella, an old woman who
+comes here every day to do all the hard rough work, and my aunt, but there
+are certain jobs they can't do because their eyesight is not very good,
+and their hands lack the skill. The gentleman looks shocked, but is there
+anything so very dreadful in killing a pig? One slash and it is quickly
+done--very quickly. We have to live somehow, and, after all, the Señor is
+a soldier--he follows the vocation of killing!"
+
+"Oh, yes, it is all very well for big, rough men. One somehow associates
+them with deeds of violence and bloodshed. But with beautiful, dainty
+girls like you it is different. You should shudder at the very thought of
+blood, and be all pity and compassion."
+
+"But not for pigs," the girl laughed, "nor for Señors. Now please go in
+and sit in the parlour, or my aunt will hear me talking to you and accuse
+me of wasting my time."
+
+Ralph reluctantly obeyed, and drawing his chair close up to the parlour
+fire--for the summer evenings in Spain are often very chilly--was soon
+deeply absorbed in plans and speculations as to the future. After supper,
+when the young girl came into the room to clear the table, Ralph noticed
+that she was once again wearing the gay apparel she had worn earlier in
+the day; and all in red, even to the ribbons in her hair, she seemed to be
+dressed more coquettishly than ever. She was also inclined to be more
+communicative, and in response to Ralph's invitation to partake of a glass
+of wine with him, she fetched an armchair and came and planted it close
+beside him.
+
+Pretty as he had thought her before, she now appeared to him to be
+indescribably lovely, and the longer he stared at her, stared into the
+depths of her large, beautifully shaped purplish grey eyes, the more and
+more hopelessly enslaved did he become, till, in the end, he realised she
+had him completely at her mercy, and that he was most madly and
+desperately in love with her.
+
+They drank together, and so absorbed was he in gazing at her eyes--indeed
+he never ceased gazing at them--that he did not observe what he was
+drinking or how many times she filled up his glass. If she had given him a
+poisoned goblet, it would have been all the same, he would have drained it
+off and kissed her hands and feet with his dying breath.
+
+"Now, Señor," she said at length, after he had held her hand to his lips
+and literally smothered it in kisses, "now, Señor, it is time for you to
+go to bed. We do not keep late hours here, and to-morrow, Señor, if he is
+still in the same state of mind, will have plenty of time for repeating to
+me his sentiments."
+
+"To-morrow," Ralph stuttered. "To-morrow, that is a tremendous way off,
+and isn't it to-morrow that that fellow O'Flanagan is coming?"
+
+The girl laughed. "Yes," she said saucily, "there will be two of you
+to-morrow, the one as bad as the other, and I did think, Señor, you were
+the steadier of the two. Well, well, you are both soldiers, and soldiers
+were ever gay dogs; but you must be careful, Señor, you and your friend do
+not quarrel, for, as you know, more than one friendship has been
+terminated through the witching glance of a lady's eyes, and you both seem
+to like looking into mine."
+
+"What!" Ralph stuttered angrily. "Did that fellow Dick look at you? Did he
+dare to look at you? Damn----" but before he could utter another syllable,
+the girl put her soft little hand over his mouth and pushed him gently to
+the door.
+
+Alternately making wild love to her and passionately denouncing Dick,
+Ralph then allowed himself to be got upstairs to his room by pushes and
+coaxings, and, as he made a last frantic effort to kiss and fondle her,
+the door slammed in his face and he found himself--alone.
+
+For some moments he stood tugging and twisting at the door handle, and
+then, finding that his efforts had no effect, he was staggering off to the
+bed with the intention of getting into it just as he was, when he caught
+his foot on something and fell with a crash to the floor, striking his
+face smartly on the edge of a chair. For a moment or so he was partially
+stunned, but, the flow of blood from his nose relieving him, he gradually
+came to his senses, all trace of his drunkenness having completely
+vanished. The first thing he did then was to look at the carpet which, by
+a stroke of luck, was crimson, a most pronounced, virulent crimson,
+exactly the colour of his blood. The spot where he had fallen was close
+to the bed, and, as his eyes wandered along the carpet by the side of the
+bed, he fancied he saw another damp patch. He at once fetched the candle
+and had a closer look.
+
+Yes, there was a great splash of moisture on the floor, near the head of
+the bed, just about in a line with the pillow. He applied his finger to
+the patch and then held it to the light--it was wet with blood.
+
+Filled with a sickening sense of apprehension, Ralph now proceeded to make
+a careful examination of the room, and, lifting the lid of a huge oak
+chest that stood in one corner, he was horrified to perceive the naked
+body of a man lying at the bottom of it, all huddled up.
+
+Gently raising the body and bending down to examine it, Ralph received a
+second shock. The face that looked up at him with such utter lack of
+expression in its big, bulging, glassy eyes was that of the once gay and
+humorous Dick O'Flanagan.
+
+The manner of his death was only too obvious. His throat had been cut, not
+cleanly as a man would have done it, but with repeated hacks and slashes,
+that pointed all too clearly to a woman's handiwork.
+
+This then explained it all, explained the curious something in the girl's
+eyes and mouth he had noticed when he first saw her; explained, too, the
+stealthy, tiptoeing footsteps in the passage that night, the reason for
+the appearance of the Banshees, the eagerness with which the girl had
+plied him with wine, her red dress--and--the red carpet.
+
+But why had she done it--for mere sordid robbery, or because they were
+Carlists. Then recollecting the look she had fixed on the ruby in Dick's
+ring, the answer seemed clear. It was, of course, robbery. Snake-like, she
+used those beautiful eyes of hers to fascinate her victims--to lull them
+into a false sense of security; and then, when they had wholly succumbed
+to love and wine, of which she gave them their fill, she butchered them.
+
+Murders in Spanish inns were by no means uncommon about that time, and
+even at a much later date, and had this murder been committed by some old
+and ugly and cross-grained "host," Ralph would not have been surprised,
+but for this girl to have done it--this girl so young and enchanting, why
+it was almost inconceivable, and he would not have believed it, had not
+the grim proofs of it lain so close at hand. What was he to do? Of course,
+now that he was sober and in the full possession of his faculties, it was
+ridiculous for him to be afraid of a girl, even though she were armed;
+but supposing she had confederates, and it was scarcely likely she would
+be alone in the house.
+
+No, he must try and escape; but how! He examined the window, it was
+heavily barred; he tried the door, it was locked on the outside; he looked
+up the chimney, it was far too narrow to admit the passage of anyone even
+half his size.
+
+He was done, and the only thing he could do was to wait. To wait till the
+girl tiptoed into the room to kill, and then--he couldn't bear the idea of
+fighting with her, even though she had so cruelly murdered poor Dick--make
+his escape.
+
+With this end in view he blew out the candle, and, lying on the bed,
+pretended to be fast asleep.
+
+In about an hour's time he heard steps, soft, cautious footsteps, ascend
+the staircase and come stealing surreptitiously towards his door. Then
+they paused, and he instinctively knew she was listening. He breathed
+heavily, just as a man would do who had drunk not wisely but too well, and
+had consequently fallen into a deep sleep. Presently, there was a slight
+movement of the door handle.
+
+He continued breathing, and the movement was repeated. Still more
+stentorian breaths, and the handle this time was completely turned. Very
+gently he crept off the bed to the door, and, as it slowly opened and a
+figure in red, looking terribly ghostly and sinister, slipped in, so he
+suddenly shot past and made a bolt for the passage. There was a wild
+shriek, something whizzed past his head and fell with a loud clatter on
+the floor, and all the doors in the house downstairs seemed to open
+simultaneously. Reaching the head of the stairs in a few bounds, he was
+down them in a trice. A hideous old hag rushed at him with a hatchet,
+whilst another aged creature, whose sex he could not determine, aimed a
+wild blow at him with some other instrument, but Ralph avoided them both,
+and, reaching the front door, which providentially for him was merely
+locked, not bolted, he was speedily out of the house and into the broad
+highway.
+
+The screams of the women producing answering echoes from the wood in the
+hoarser shouts of men, Ralph took to his heels, nor did he stop running
+until he was well on his way to Trijello.
+
+He did not, however, go to the latter town, fearing that the inn people
+might follow him there and get him arrested as a Carlist; instead, he
+struck off the high road along a side path, and, luckily for him, about
+noon fell in with an advanced guard of the Carlist Army.
+
+His troubles then, for a time at least, ceased; but to his lasting regret
+he was never able to avenge Dick's death; for when the war was at last
+over and he had succeeded in persuading the local authorities to take the
+matter in hand, the inn was found to be empty and deserted. Nor was the
+pretty murderess ever seen or heard of again in that neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD
+
+
+Although the Banshee haunting referred to in my last chapter occurred
+during a war, the manifestations did not take place on the battle-field;
+nor were they actually due to the fighting. At the same time it cannot be
+denied that they were the outcome of it, for had our two lieutenants not
+been fighting desperately in a skirmish and got separated from the main
+body of the Army, in all probability they never would have visited the
+wayside inn, and the Banshee manifestations there would never have
+occurred.
+
+There are, however, many instances on record of Banshee manifestations
+occurring on the battle-field, either immediately before or after, or even
+whilst the fighting was actually taking place. Mr McAnnaly, in his "Irish
+Wonders," p. 117, says:
+
+     "Before the Battle of the Boyne, Banshees were heard singing in the
+     air over the Irish camp, the truth of the prophecy being verified by
+     the death roll of the next morning."
+
+Now several of my own immediate ancestors took part in the Battle of the
+Boyne,[10] and according to a family tradition one of them both saw and
+heard the Banshee. He was sitting in the camp, the night prior to the
+fighting, conversing with several other officers, including his brother
+Daniel, when, feeling an icy wind coming from behind and blowing down his
+back, he turned round to look for his cloak which he had discarded a short
+time before, owing to the heat from a fire close beside them. The cloak
+was not there, and, as he turned round still further to look for it, he
+perceived to his astonishment the figure of a woman, swathed from head to
+foot in a mantle of some dark flowing material, standing a few feet behind
+him. Wondering who on earth she could be, but supposing she must be a
+relative or friend of one of the officers, for her mantle looked costly,
+and her hair--of a marvellous golden hue--though hanging loose on her
+shoulders, was evidently well cared for, he continued to gaze at her with
+curiosity. Then he gradually perceived that she was shaking--shaking all
+over, with what he at first imagined must be laughter; but from the
+constant clenching of her hands and heaving of her bosom, he finally
+realised that she was weeping, and he was further assured on this point,
+when a sudden gust of wind, blowing back her mantle, he caught a full view
+of her face.
+
+Its beauty electrified him. Her cheeks were as white as marble, but her
+features were perfect, and her eyes the most lovely he had ever seen. He
+was about to address her, to inquire if he could be of any service to her,
+when, someone calling out and asking him what on earth he was doing, she
+at once began to melt away, and, amalgamating with the soft background of
+grey mist that was creeping towards them from the river, finally
+disappeared.
+
+He thought of her, however, some hours later, when they were all lying
+down, endeavouring to snatch a few hours' sleep, and presently fancied he
+saw, in dim, shadowy outline, her fair face and figure, her big, sorrowful
+eyes, gazing pitifully first at one and then at another of his companions,
+but particularly at one, a mere boy, who was lying wrapped in his military
+cloak, close beside the smouldering embers of the fire. He fancied that
+she approached this youths and, bending over him, stroked his short, curly
+hair with her delicate fingers.
+
+Thinking that possibly he might be asleep and dreaming, he rubbed his eyes
+vigorously, but the outlines were still there, momentarily becoming
+stronger and stronger, more and more distinct, until he realised with a
+great thrill that she actually was there, just as certainly as she had
+been when he had first seen her.
+
+He was so intent watching her and wishing she would leave the youth and
+come to him, that he did not notice that one of his comrades had seen her,
+too, until the latter, who had raised himself into a half-sitting posture,
+spoke; then, just as before, the figure of the girl melted away, and
+seemed to become absorbed in the dark and shadowy background.
+
+A moment later, he heard, just over his head, a loud moaning and wailing
+that lasted for several seconds and then died away in one long, protracted
+sob that suggested mental anguish of an indescribably forlorn and hopeless
+nature.
+
+The deaths of most of his companions of the night, including that of the
+curly haired boy, occurred on the following day.
+
+But the Banshee, although of course appearing to soldiers of Irish birth
+only, does not confine its attentions to those who are fighting on their
+native soil; it has been stated that she frequently manifested herself to
+Irishmen engaged on active service abroad during the Napoleonic Wars, and
+also to those serving in America during the Civil War.
+
+With regard to the Banshee demonstrations in connection with the
+Napoleonic campaigns, I have not been able to acquire any written record;
+but as the result of numerous letters sent out by me broadcast in quest of
+information, I was asked by several people to call either at their houses
+or clubs, and, gladly accepting their invitations, I learned from them the
+incidents which, with their permission, I am now about to relate.
+
+Miss O'Higgins, an aged lady, residing, prior to the late war, close to
+Fifth Avenue, New York, and visiting, when I met her, a friend in the Rue
+Campagne Première, Paris, told me that she well remembered her grandfather
+telling her when she was a child that he heard the Banshee at Talavera, a
+day or two prior to the great battle. He was serving with the Spanish
+Army, having married the daughter of a Spanish officer, and had no idea at
+the time that there were any men of Irish extraction in his corps.
+Bivouacking with about a hundred other soldiers in a valley, and happening
+to awake in the night with an ungovernable thirst, he made his way down to
+the banks of the river that flowed near by, drank his fill, and was in the
+act of returning, when he was startled to hear a most agonising scream,
+quickly followed by another, and then another, all proceeding apparently
+from the camp, whither he was wending his steps. Wondering what on earth
+could have happened, and inclining to the belief that it must be in some
+way connected with one of those women thieves who prowled about everywhere
+at night, robbing and murdering, with equal impunity, wherever they saw a
+chance, he quickened his pace, only to find, on his arrival at the camp,
+no sign whatever of the presence of any woman, although the screaming was
+going on as vigorously as ever. The sounds seemed to come first from one
+part of the camp, and then from another, but to be always overhead, as if
+uttered by invisible beings, hovering at a height of some six or seven
+feet, or, perhaps, more, above the ground, and although Lieutenant
+O'Higgins had at first attributed these sounds to one person only, on
+listening attentively he fancied he could detect several different
+voices--all women's--and he eventually came to the conclusion that at
+least three or four phantasms must have been present. As he stood there
+listening, not knowing what else to do, the wailing and sobbing seemed to
+grow more and more harrowing, until it affected him so much that, hardened
+as he had become to all kinds of misery and violence, he, too, felt like
+weeping, out of sheer sympathy. However, this state of affairs did not
+last long, for at the sound of a musket shot (that of a sentry, as
+Lieutenant O'Higgins afterwards ascertained, giving a false alarm in some
+distant part of the camp) the wailing and sobbing abruptly and completely
+ceased, and was never, the Lieutenant declared, heard by him again.
+
+On mentioning the matter to one of his brother officers in the morning,
+the latter, no little interested and surprised, at once said: "You have
+undoubtedly heard the Banshee. Poor D----, who fell at Corunna, often used
+to tell me about it, and, you may depend upon it, there are some Irishmen
+in camp now, and it was their funeral dirge that you listened to."
+
+What he said proved to be quite correct, for, on inquiring, Lieutenant
+O'Higgins discovered three of the soldiers who had been sleeping around
+him that evening had Irish names, and were, unquestionably, of ancient
+Irish origin; and all of them perished on the bloody field of Talavera,
+twenty-four hours later.
+
+A story relating to an O'Farrell, who was with the Spanish in the same
+war, was also told me by Miss O'Higgins; but whether this O'Farrell was
+the famous general of that name or not I do not know. The story ran as
+follows:[11]
+
+It was the day prior to the fall of Badajoz, and O'Farrell, who was in
+Badajoz at the time, a prisoner of the French, was invited to partake of
+supper with some Spanish-Irish friends of his of the name of McMahon. The
+French, it may be observed, were, as a rule, rather more lenient to their
+Irish prisoners than to their English, and O'Farrell was allowed to ramble
+about Badajoz in perfect freedom, a mere pledge being extracted from him
+that he wouldn't stroll outside the boundaries of the town without special
+permission. On the night in question O'Farrell left his quarters in high
+spirits. He liked the McMahons, especially the youngest daughter
+Katherine, with whom he was very much in love. He deemed his case
+hopeless, however, as Mr McMahon, who was poor, had often said none of his
+daughters should marry, unless it were someone who was wealthy enough to
+ensure them being well provided for, should they be left a widow; and as
+O'Farrell had nothing but his pay, which was meagre enough in all
+conscience, he saw no prospect of his ever being able to propose to the
+object of his affections. Had he been strong-minded enough, he told
+himself, he would have at once said good-bye to Katherine, and never have
+allowed himself to see or even think of her again; but, poor weakling that
+he was, he could not bear the idea of taking a final peep into her
+eyes--the eyes that he had idealised into his heaven and everything that
+made life worth living for--and so he kept accepting invitations to their
+house and throwing himself across her path, whenever the slightest
+opportunity presented itself.
+
+And now he found himself once more speeding to meet her, telling himself
+repeatedly that it should be the last time, but at the same time making up
+his mind that it should be nothing of the sort. He arrived at the house
+far too early, of course--he always did--and was shown into a room to wait
+there till the family had finished their evening toilets. Large glass
+doors opened out of the room on to a veranda, and O'Farrell, stepping out
+on to the latter, leaned over the iron railings, and gazed into the
+semi-courtyard, semi-garden below, in the centre of which was a fountain
+surmounted by the marble statue of a very beautiful maiden, that his
+instinct told him was an exact image of his beloved Katherine. He was
+gazing at it, revelling in the delightful anticipation of meeting the
+flesh and blood counterpart of it in a very short time, when sounds of
+music, of someone playing a very, very sad and plaintive air on the harp,
+came to him through the open doorway. Much surprised, for none of the
+family as far as he knew were harpists, nor had he, indeed, ever seen a
+harp in the house, he turned round; but, to add to his astonishment, no
+one was there. The room was apparently just as empty as when he had been
+ushered into it, and yet the music unquestionably emanated from it.
+Considerably mystified, for every now and then there was a peculiar
+far-offness in the sounds which he could liken to nothing he had ever
+heard before, he remained on the veranda, prevented by a strange feeling
+of awe, and something very akin to dread, from venturing into the room.
+
+He was thus occupied, half standing and half leaning against the framework
+of the glass door, when the harping abruptly ceased, and he heard moanings
+and sobbings as of a woman suffering from paroxysms of the most intense
+and violent grief. Combatting with a great fear that now began to seize
+him, he summed up the resolution to peep once more into the room, but
+though his eyes took in the whole range of the room, he could perceive no
+spot where anyone could possibly be in hiding, and nothing that would in
+any way account for the sounds. There was nothing in front of him but
+walls, furniture, and--space. Not a living creature. What then caused
+those sounds? He was asking himself this question, when the door opened,
+and Mr McMahon, followed by Katherine and all of the other girls, came
+into the apartment; and, with their entry, the strange sounds at once
+ceased.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Mr O'Farrell," the girls said, laughingly. "You
+are as white as a sheet and trembling all over. You haven't seen a ghost,
+have you?"
+
+"I haven't seen anything," O'Farrell retorted, a trifle nettled at their
+gaiety, "but I've heard some rather extraordinary sounds."
+
+"Extraordinary sounds," Katherine laughed. "What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say," O'Farrell remarked. "When I was on the veranda just now
+I distinctly heard the sound of a harp in this room, and shortly
+afterwards I heard a woman weeping."
+
+"It must have been someone outside in the street," Mr McMahon observed
+hastily, at the same time giving O'Farrell a warning glance from his dark
+and penetrating eyes. "We do occasionally receive visits from street
+musicians. I have something to say to you about the English and their
+rumoured new attack on the town," and drawing O'Farrell aside he whispered
+to him: "On no account refer to that music again. It was undoubtedly the
+Banshee, the ghost that my forefathers brought over from Ireland, and it
+is only heard before some very dreadful catastrophe to the family."
+
+The following day Badajoz was stormed and entered by the English, and
+in the wild scenes that ensued, scenes in which the drunken English
+soldiery got completely out of hands, many Spanish--Spanish men and
+women--perished, as well as French, and among the casualties were the
+entire McMahon family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BANSHEE AT SEA
+
+
+Talking of phantom music, there is a widespread belief among Celtic races
+that whenever it is heard proceeding from the sea, either a death or some
+other great calamity is prognosticated. Such a belief is very prevalent
+along the coasts of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, and Mr Dyer, in his
+"Ghost World," p. 413, refers to it in Ireland. "Sometimes," he says,
+"music is heard at sea, and it is believed in Ireland that, when a friend
+or relative dies, a warning voice is discernible." To what extent this
+music is connected with Banshee hauntings it is, of course, impossible to
+say; but I have known cases in which it has owed its origin to the Banshee
+and to the Banshee only.
+
+During the Civil War in America, for example, a transport of Confederate
+soldiers was making for Charlestown one evening, when a young Irish
+officer, who was leaning over the bulwarks and gazing pensively into the
+sea, was astonished to hear the very sweetest sounds of music coming
+from, so it seemed to him, the very depths of the blue waters. Thinking he
+must be dreaming, he called a brother officer to his side and asked him if
+he could hear anything.
+
+"Yes," the latter responded, "music, and what is more, singing. It is a
+woman, and she is singing some very tender and plaintive air. How the
+deuce do you account for it?"
+
+"I don't know," the young Irishman replied, "unless it is the Banshee, and
+it sounds very like the description of it that my mother used to give me.
+I only hope it does not predict the death of any one of my very near
+relatives."
+
+It did not do that, but oddly enough, and unknown to him at the time, a
+namesake of his, whom he subsequently discovered was a second cousin,
+stood not ten yards from him at the very moment he was listening to the
+music, and was killed in action in a sortie from Charlestown on the
+following day.
+
+A story of a similar nature was told me in Oregon by an old Irish Federal
+soldier, who was in the temporary employ of an apple merchant at Medford,
+Jackson County. I don't in any way vouch for its truth, but give it just
+as it was related to me.
+
+"You ask me if I have ever come across any ghosts in America. Well, I
+guess I have, several, and amongst others the Banshee. Oh, yes, I am
+Irish, although I speak with the nasal twang of the regular Yank. Everyone
+does who has lived in the Eastern States for any length of time. It's the
+climate. My name, however, is O'Hagan, and I was born in County Clare; and
+though my father was only a peasant, I'm a darned sight more Irish than
+half the people who possess titles and big estates in the old country
+to-day.
+
+"I emigrated from Ireland with my parents, when I was only a few weeks
+old, and we settled in New York, where I was working as a porter on the
+quays when the Civil War broke out. Like me, the majority of Irishmen who,
+as you know, are always ready to go wherever there's the chance of doing a
+bit of fighting, I at once enlisted in the Marines, for I was passionately
+fond of the sea, and in due course of time was transferred to a gunboat
+that patrolled the Carolina Coast on the lookout for Confederate blockade
+runners. Well, one night, shortly after I had turned in and was lying in
+my hammock, trying to get to sleep, which was none too easy, for one of my
+mates, an ex-actor, was snoring loud enough to wake the whole ship, I
+suddenly heard a tapping on the porthole close beside me. 'Hello,' says I
+to myself, 'that's an odd noise. It can't be the water, nor yet the wind;
+maybe it's a bird, a gull or albatross,' and I listened very attentively.
+The sound went on, but it had none of that hardness and sharpness about it
+that is occasioned by a beak, it was softer and more lingering, more like
+the tapping of fingers. Every now and then it left off, to go on again,
+tap, tap, tap, until, at last, it unnerved me to such an extent that I
+jumped out of my hammock and had a peep to see what it was. To my
+astonishment I saw a very white face pressed against the porthole, looking
+in at me. It was the face of a woman with raven black hair that fell in
+long ringlets about her neck and shoulders. She had big golden rings in
+her ears, that shone like anything as the moonbeams caught them, as did
+her teeth, too, which were the loveliest bits of ivory I have ever seen,
+absolutely even and without the slightest mar.
+
+"But it was her eyes that fascinated me most. They were large, not too
+large, however, but in strict proportion to the rest of her face, and as
+far as I could judge in the moonlight, either blue or grey, but
+indescribably beautiful, and, at the same time, indescribably sad. As I
+drew nearer, she shrank back, and pointed with a white and slender hand at
+a spot on the sea, and then suddenly I heard music, the far-away sound of
+a harp, proceeding, so it seemed to me, from about the place she had
+indicated. It was a very still night, and the sounds came to me very
+distinctly, above the soft lap, lap of the water against the vessel's
+side, and the mechanical squish, squish made by the bows each time they
+rose and fell, as the ship gently ploughed her way onwards. I was so
+intent on listening that I quite forgot the figure of the woman with the
+beautiful face, and when I turned to look at her again, she had gone, and
+there was nothing in front of me but an endless expanse of heaving,
+tossing, moonlit water. Then the music ceased, too, and all was still
+again, wondrously still, and feeling unaccountably sad and lonely--for I
+had taken a great fancy to that woman's face, the only what you might term
+really lovely woman's face that had ever looked kindly on me--I got back
+again into my hammock, and was soon fast asleep. On my touching at port,
+the first letter I received from home informed me of the death of my
+father, who had died the same night and just about the same time I had
+seen that fairy vision and heard that fairy music.
+
+"When I told my mother about it, some long time afterwards, she said it
+was the Banshee, and that it had haunted the O'Hagan family for hundreds
+and hundreds of years."
+
+This, as I have already said, is merely a trooper's story, unconfirmed by
+anyone else's evidence, and, of course, not up to the standard of S.P.R.
+authority. Yet, I believe, it was related to me in perfect sincerity, and
+the narrator had nothing whatever to gain through making it up. I did not
+even offer him a chew of tobacco, for at that moment I was pretty nearly,
+if not, indeed, quite as hard up as he was himself.
+
+And now, before I finish altogether with Banshee hauntings that are
+associated with war, I feel I must refer to a statement in Mr McAnnaly's
+book, "Irish Wonders," to the effect that when the Duke of Wellington
+died, the Banshee was heard wailing round the house of his ancestors. This
+statement does not, in my opinion, bear inspection. I am quite ready to
+grant that some kind of apparition--perhaps a family ghost he had
+inherited from one or other of his Anglo-Irish ancestry--was heard
+lamenting outside the domain in question; but as the family to whom the
+Duke belonged could not be said to be of even anything approaching ancient
+Irish extraction, I cannot conceive it possible that the disturbances
+experienced were in any way due to the genuine Banshee.
+
+To revert to the sea, and Banshee haunting. On the coast of Donegal there
+is an estuary called "The Rosses," and this at one time was said to be
+haunted by several kinds of phantoms, including the Banshee, which was
+reported to have manifested itself on quite a number of occasions.
+
+Under the heading of "An Irish Water-fiend," Bourke, in his "Anecdotes of
+the Aristocracy" (i. 329), relates the following case of a ghostly
+happening there, which, although not due to a Banshee, is so
+characteristic of Irish supernatural phenomena that I cannot refrain from
+quoting it.
+
+In the autumn of 1777 the Rev. James Crawford, rector of the parish of
+Killina, County Leitrim, was riding on horseback with his sister-in-law,
+Miss Hannah Wilson, on a pillion behind him, along the road leading to the
+"The Rosses," and, on reaching the estuary, he at once proceeded to cross
+it. After they had gone some distance, Miss Wilson, noticing that the
+water touched the saddle laps, became so alarmed that she cried out and
+besought Mr Crawford to turn the horse round and get back to land as
+quickly as possible.
+
+"I do not think there can be danger," Mr Crawford answered, "for I see a
+horseman crossing the ford not twenty yards before us."
+
+To this Miss Wilson, who also saw the horseman, replied:
+
+"You had better hail him and inquire the depth of the intervening water."
+
+Mr Crawford at once did so, whereupon the horseman stopped and, turning
+round, revealed a face distorted by the most hideous grin conceivable,
+and so frightfully white and evil that the luckless clergyman promptly
+beat a retreat, and made no attempt to check the mad haste of his panicked
+steed till he had left the estuary many miles behind him.
+
+On arriving home he narrated the incident to his wife and family, and
+subsequently learned that the estuary was well known to be haunted by
+several phantoms, whose mission was invariably the same, either to
+foretell the doom by drowning of the person to whom they appeared, or else
+to actually bring about the death of that person by luring them on and on,
+until they got out of their depth, and so perished.
+
+One would have thought that Mr Crawford, after the experience just
+narrated, would have given the estuary a very wide berth in future; but no
+such thing. He again attempted to cross the ford of "The Rosses" on 27th
+September, 1777, and was drowned in the endeavour.
+
+Among many thrilling and (so it struck me at the time) authentic stories
+told me in my youth by a Mrs Broderick, a well-known vendor of oranges and
+chocolate in Bristol, were several stirring accounts of the Banshee. I was
+at the time a day boy at Clifton College, residing not very far from the
+school, and Mrs Broderick, who used to visit our house every week with
+her wares, took a particular interest in me because I was Irish--one of
+"the real old O'Donnells." She was a native of Cork, and had, I believe,
+migrated from that city in the _Juno_, an old cattle boat, that for more
+than twenty years plied regularly every week between Cork and Bristol
+carrying a handful of passengers, who, for the cheapness of the fare, made
+the best of the rolling and tossing and extremely limited space allotted
+for their accommodation. In later years I often travelled to and from
+Dublin and Bristol in the _Argo_, the _Juno's_ sister ship, so I speak
+feelingly and from experience. But to proceed with Mrs Broderick's Banshee
+stories.
+
+The one containing an account of a Banshee haunting on the sea I will
+narrate in this chapter, and the other, which has no connection with
+either sea or river, I will deal with later on.
+
+Before I commence either story, however, I would like to say that though
+Mrs Broderick spoke with a rich brogue and was really Irish, she used few,
+if any, of those words and expressions that certain professors of the
+Dublin Academic School apparently consider inseparable from the speech of
+the Irish peasant class. I cannot, for example, remember her ever saying
+Musha, or Arrah, or Oro; and, as for Erse, I am quite certain she did not
+know a word of it. Yet, as I have said, she was Irish, and far more Irish
+than many of the Gaelic scholars of to-day who, insufferably proud of
+their knowledge of the Celtic tongue, bore one stiff by their feeble and
+futile attempts to acquire something of the real Irish wit and proverbial
+humour.
+
+Mrs Broderick did not often speak of her parents; they were, I fancy,
+peasants, or, perhaps, what we should term "small farmers," and from what
+I could gather they lived, at one time, in a little village just outside
+Cork; but Mrs Broderick was, she told me, very fond of the sea, and often,
+when a girl, walked into Cork and went out boating with her young friends
+in Queenstown harbour.
+
+On one occasion, she and another girl and two young men went for a sail
+with an old fisherman they knew, who took them some distance up the coast
+in the direction of Kinsale. There had been a slight breeze when they
+started, but it dropped suddenly as they were tacking to come back home,
+and since the sails had to be taken down and oars used, both the young men
+volunteered to row. Their offer being accepted by the old fisherman, they
+pulled away steadily till they espied an old ship, so battered and worn
+away as to be little more than a mere shell, lying half in and half out
+of the water in a tiny cove. Then, as the weather was beautifully fine and
+no one was in a hurry to get home, it was proposed that they pull up to
+the wreck and examine it. The old fisherman demurred, but he was soon won
+over, and the two young men and Mrs Broderick's girl friend boarded the
+old hulk, leaving Mrs Broderick and the old fisherman in the boat. The
+shadows from the trees and rocks had already manifested themselves on the
+glistening shingles of the beach, and a glow, emanating from the rapidly
+rising moon and myriads of scintillating stars that every moment shone
+forth with increased brilliancy, showed up every object around them with
+startling distinctness.
+
+Always in her element in scenes of this description, Mrs Broderick was
+enjoying herself to the utmost. Leaning on the side of the boat and
+trailing one hand in the water, she drank in the fresh night air, redolent
+with the scent of flowers and ozone. She could hear her friends talking
+and laughing as they tried to steady themselves on the sloping boards of
+the old hulk; and presently, one of them, O'Connell, proposed that they
+should descend below deck and explore the cabins. Then their voices
+gradually grew fainter and fainter, until eventually all was still, save
+for the lapping of the sea against the sides of the boat, and the gentle
+ripple of the wavelets as they broke on the beach, and the occasional
+far-away barkings of a dog--noises that somehow seem to belong to summer
+more than to any other period of the year.
+
+Mrs Broderick's memory, awakened by these sounds, travelled back to past
+seasons, and she was depicting some of the old scenes over again, when all
+at once, from the wreck, from that side of it, so it seemed to her, that
+was partly under water, there rang out a series of the most appalling
+screams, just like the screams of a woman who had been suddenly pounced
+upon and either stabbed, or treated in some equally savage and violent
+manner.
+
+Mrs Broderick, of course, at once thought of her friend, Mary Rooney, and,
+clutching the boatman by the arm, she exclaimed:
+
+"The Saints above, it's Mary. They're murdering her."
+
+"'Tis no woman, that," the old boatman said hoarsely. "'Tis the Banshee,
+and I would not have had this have happened for the whole blessed world. I
+with my mother so ill in bed with the rheumatism and a cold she got all
+through her with sitting out on the wet grass the night before last."
+
+"Are you sure?" Mrs Broderick whispered, clutching him tighter, whilst her
+teeth chattered. "Are you sure it isn't Mary, and they are not killing
+her?"
+
+"Sure," replied the boatman, "that's the way the Banshee always
+screams--'tis her, right enough, 'tis no human woman," and like the good
+Catholic that he was, he crossed himself, and, dipping the oars gently
+into the water, he began to pull slowly and quietly away.
+
+By and by the screaming ceased, and a moment later the three explorers
+came trooping on to the deck, showing no signs whatever of alarm, and when
+questioned as to whether they had heard anything, laughingly replied in
+the negative.
+
+"Only," O'Connell added facetiously, "the kiss Mike Power stole from Mary.
+That was all."
+
+But for O'Connell that was not all. When he arrived home he found that
+during his absence his mother had died suddenly, and, in all probability,
+at the very moment when Mrs Broderick and the boatman had heard the
+Banshee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE
+
+
+No country besides Ireland possesses a Banshee, though some countries
+possess a family or national ghost somewhat resembling it. In Germany, for
+example, popular tradition is full of rumours of white ladies who haunt
+castles, woods, rivers, and mountains, where they may be seen combing
+their yellow hair, or playing on harps or spinning. They usually, as their
+name would suggest, wear white dresses, and not infrequently yellow or
+green shoes of a most dainty and artistic design. Sometimes they are sad,
+sometimes gay; sometimes they warn people of approaching death or
+disaster, and sometimes, by their beauty, they blind men to an impending
+peril, and thus lure them on to their death. When beautiful, they are
+often very beautiful, though nearly always of the same type--golden hair
+and long blue eyes; they are rarely dark, and their hair is never of that
+peculiar copper and golden hue that is so common among Banshees. When
+ugly, they are generally ugly indeed--either repulsive old crones, not
+unlike the witches in Grimm's Fairy Tales, or death-heads mockingly
+arrayed in the paraphernalia of the young; but their ugliness does not
+seem to embrace that ghastly satanic mockery, that diabolical malevolence
+that is inseparable from the malignant form of Banshee, and which inspires
+in the beholders such a peculiar and unparalleled horror.
+
+It is not my intention in this work to do more than briefly refer to a few
+of the most famous of the German hauntings in their relation to the
+Banshee; and, since it is the best known, I would first of all call
+attention to the White Lady, that restricts its unwelcome attentions to
+Royalty, and more especially, perhaps, to that branch of it known as the
+House of Hohenzollern. Between this White Lady family phantasm and the
+Banshee there is undoubtedly something in common. They are both
+exclusively associated with families of really ancient lineage, which they
+follow about from town to town, province to province, and country to
+country; and the purpose of their respective missions is generally the
+same, namely, to give warning of some approaching death or calamity, which
+in the case of the White Lady is usually of a national order.
+
+Occasionally, too, the German family ghost, like the Banshee, is heard
+playing on a harp, but here I think the likeness ends. There are no very
+striking characteristics in the appearance of the White Lady of the
+Hohenzollerns, she would seem to be neither very beautiful nor the
+reverse; nor does she convey the impression of belonging to any very
+remote age; on the contrary, she might well be the earth-bound spirit of
+someone who died in the Middle Ages or even later.
+
+In December, 1628, she was seen in the Royal Palace in Berlin, and was
+heard to say, "_Veni, judica vivos et mortuos; judicum mihi adhuc
+superest_"--that is to say, "Come judge the quick and the dead--I wait for
+judgment." She also manifested herself to one of the Fredericks of
+Prussia, who regarded her advent as a sure sign of his approaching death,
+which it was, for he died shortly afterwards. We next read of her
+appearing in Bohemia at the Castle of Neuhaus. One of the princesses of
+the royal house was trying on a new head-gear before a mirror, and,
+thinking her waiting-maid was near at hand, she inquired of her the time.
+To the Princess's horror, however, instead of the maid answering her, a
+strange figure all in white, which her instincts told her was the famous
+national ghost, stepped out from behind a screen and exclaimed, "_Zehn uhr
+ist es irh Liebden!_" "It is ten o'clock, your love"; the last two words
+being the mode of address usually adopted in Germany and Austria by
+Royalties when speaking to one another. The Princess was soon afterwards
+taken ill and died.
+
+A faithful account of the appearance of the White Lady was published in
+_The Iris_, a Frankfort journal, in 1829, and was vouched for by the
+editor, George Doring. Doring's mother, who was companion to one of the
+ladies at the Prussian Court, had two daughters, aged fourteen and
+fifteen, who were in the habit of visiting her at the Palace. On one
+occasion, when the two girls were alone in their mother's sitting-room,
+doing some needlework, they were immeasurably surprised to hear the sounds
+of music, proceeding, so it seemed to them, from behind a big stove that
+occupied one corner of the apartment. One girl got up, and, taking a yard
+measure, struck the spot where she fancied the music was coming from;
+whereupon the measure was instantly snatched from her hand, the music, at
+the same time, ceasing. She was so badly frightened that she ran out of
+the room and took refuge in someone else's apartment.
+
+On her return some minutes later, she found her sister lying on the floor
+in a dead faint. On coming to, this sister stated that directly the other
+had quitted the apartment, the music had begun again and, not only that,
+but the figure of a woman, all in white, had suddenly risen from behind
+the stove and began to advance towards her, causing her instantly to faint
+with fright.
+
+The lady in whose house the occurrence took place, on being acquainted
+with what had happened, had the flooring near the stove taken up; but,
+instead of discovering the treasure which she had hoped might be there, a
+quantity of quick-lime only was found; and the affair eventually getting
+to the King's ears, he displayed no surprise, but merely expressed his
+belief that the apparition the girl had seen was that of the Countess
+Agnes of Orlamunde, who had been bricked up alive in that room.
+
+She had been the mistress of a former Margrave of Brandenburg, by whom she
+had had two children, and when the Margrave's legitimate wife died the
+Countess hoped he would marry her. This, however, he declined to do on the
+plea that her offspring, at his death, would very probably dispute the
+heirship to the property with the children of his lawful marriage. The
+Countess then, in order to remove this obstacle to her union, poisoned her
+two children, which act so disgusted the Margrave that he had her walled
+up alive in the room where she had committed the crimes. The King went on
+to explain that the phantasm appeared about every seven years, but more
+often to children, to whom it was believed to be very much attached, than
+to adults.
+
+Against this explanation, however, is the more recent one that the White
+Lady is Princess Bertha or Perchta von Rosenberg. This theory is founded
+on the discovery of a portrait of Princess Bertha, which was identified by
+someone as the portrait of the White Lady whom they had just seen.
+
+In support of this theory it was pointed out that once when certain
+charities which the Princess had stated in her will should be doled out
+annually to the poor were neglected, not only was the White Lady seen, but
+music and all kinds of other sounds were heard in the house where the
+Princess had died. Very possibly, however, in neither of these theories is
+there any truth, and the secret of the White Lady's activity lies in some
+subtle and, perhaps, entirely unsuspected fact. It is, I think, quite
+conceivable that she is no earth-bound soul, but some impersonating
+elemental, which--like the Banshee--has, for some strange and wholly
+inexplicable reason, attached itself to the unfortunate Hohenzollerns, and
+their relatives and kinsmen.
+
+Ballinus and Erasmus Francisci, in their published works, give numerous
+accounts of the appearance of this same apparition; whilst Mrs Crowe
+asserts that it was seen shortly before the publication of her "Night Side
+of Nature." It would be interesting to know whether it appeared to the
+ex-Kaiser Wilhelm, or to any of his family, before this last greatest and
+most signally disastrous of all wars.
+
+William Brereton in his "Travels" (i. 33) gives rather a different
+description of this ghost. He says that the Queen of Bohemia told him
+"that at Berlin--the Elector of Brandenberg's house--before the death of
+anyone related in blood to that house, there appears and walks up and down
+that house like unto a ghost in a white sheet, which walks during the time
+of their sickness until their death."
+
+In this account it will be noticed that there is no mention of sex, so
+that the reader can only speculate as to whether the apparition was the
+ghost of a man or a woman. Its appearance, however, according to this
+account, strongly suggests a ghost of the sepulchral and death-head
+type--an ordinary species of elemental--which suggestion is not apparent
+in any other description of it that we have hitherto come across. Other
+ancient German and Austrian families, besides those of the ruling houses,
+possess their family ghosts, and here again, as in the parallel case of
+the Irish and their Banshee, the family ghost of the Germans or Austrians
+is by no means confined to the "White Lady." In some cases of German
+family haunting, for example, the phenomenon is a roaring lion, in others
+a howling dog; and in others a bell or gong, or sepulchral toned clock
+striking at some unusual hour, and generally thirteen times. In all
+instances, however, no matter whether the family ghost be German, Irish,
+or Austrian, the purpose of its manifestations is the same--to predict
+death or some very grave calamity.[12]
+
+In the notes to the 1844 edition of Thomas Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends
+and Traditions of the South of Ireland," we find this paragraph taken from
+the works of the Brothers Grimm and manuscript communications from Dr
+Wilhelm Grimm:
+
+"In the Tyrol they believe in a spirit which looks in at the window of a
+house in which a person is to die (Deutsche Sagen, No. 266), the White
+Woman with a veil over her head answers to the Banshee, but the tradition
+of the Klage-weib (mourning woman) in the Lünchurger Heath (Spiels Archiv.
+ii. 297) resembles it more. On stormy nights, when the moon shines faintly
+through the fleeting clouds, she stalks of gigantic stature with
+death-like aspect, and black, hollow eyes, wrapt in grave clothes which
+float in the wind, and stretches her immense arm over the solitary hut,
+uttering lamentable cries in the tempestuous darkness. Beneath the roof
+over which the Klage-weib has leaned, one of the inmates must die in the
+course of a month."
+
+In Italy there are several families of distinction possessing a family
+ghost that somewhat resembles the Banshee. According to Cardau and
+Henningius Grosius the ancient Venetian family of Donati possess a ghost
+in the form of a man's head, which is seen looking through a doorway
+whenever any member of the family is doomed to die. The following extract
+from their joint work serves as an illustration of it:
+
+"Jacopo Donati, one of the most important families in Venice, had a child,
+the heir to the family, very ill. At night, when in bed, Donati saw the
+door of his chamber opened and the head of a man thrust in. Knowing that
+it was not one of his servants, he roused the house, drew his sword, went
+over the whole palace, all the servants declaring that they had seen such
+a head thrust in at the doors of their several chambers at the same hour;
+the fastenings were found all secure, so that no one could have come in
+from without. The next day the child died."
+
+Other families in Italy, a branch of the Paoli, for example, is haunted by
+very sweet music, the voice of a woman singing to the accompaniment of a
+harp or guitar, and invariably before a death.
+
+Of the family ghost in Spain I have been able to gather but little
+information. There, too, some of the oldest families seem to possess
+ghosts that follow the fortunes, both at home and abroad, of the families
+to which they are attached, but with the exception of this one point of
+resemblance there seems to be in them little similarity to the Banshee.
+
+In Denmark and Sweden the likeness between the family ghost and the
+Banshee is decidedly pronounced. Quite a number of old Scandinavian
+families possess attendant spirits very much after the style of the
+Banshee; some very beautiful and sympathetic, and some quite the reverse;
+the most notable difference being that in the Scandinavian apparition
+there is none of that ghastly mixture of the grave, antiquity, and hell
+that is so characteristic of the baleful type of Banshee, and which would
+seem to distinguish it from the ghosts of all other countries. The
+beautiful Scandinavian phantasms more closely resemble fairies or angels
+than any women of this earth, whilst the hideous ones have all the
+grotesqueness and crude horror of the witches of Andersen or Grimm. There
+is nothing about them, as there so often is in the Banshee, to make one
+wonder if they can be the phantasms of any long extinct race, or people,
+for example, that might have hailed from the missing continent of
+Atlantis, or have been in Ireland prior to the coming of the Celts.
+
+The Scandinavian family ghosts are frankly either elementals or the
+earth-bound spirits of the much more recent dead. Yet, as I have said,
+they have certain points in common with the Banshee. They prognosticate
+death or disaster; they scream and wail like women in the throes of some
+great mental or physical agony; they sob or laugh; they occasionally tap
+on the window-panes, or play on the harp; they sometimes haunt in pairs, a
+kind spirit and an evilly disposed one attending the fortunes of the same
+family; and they keep exclusively to the very oldest families. Oddly
+enough at times the Finnish family ghost assumes the guise of a man.
+Burton, for example, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," tells us "that near
+Rufus Nova, in Finland, there is a lake in which, when the governor of the
+castle dies, a spectrum is seen in the habit of Orion, with a harp, and
+makes excellent music, like those clocks in Cheshire which (they say)
+presage death to the masters of the family; or that oak in Lanthadran Park
+in Cornwall, which foreshadows so much."
+
+I will not dwell any longer, however, on Scandinavian ghosts, as I purpose
+later on to publish a volume on the same, but will pass on to the family
+apparitions of Scotland, England, and Wales.
+
+Beginning with Scotland, Sir Walter Scott was strong in his belief in the
+Banshee, which he described as one of the most beautiful superstitions of
+Europe. In his "Letters on Demonology" he says: "Several families of the
+Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to the distinction of an
+attendant spirit, who performed the office of the Irish Banshee," and he
+particularly referred to the ghostly cries and lamentations which
+foreboded death to members of the Clan of MacLean of Lochbery. But though
+many of the Highland families do possess such a ghost, unlike the Banshee,
+it is not restricted to the feminine sex, nor does its origin, as a rule,
+date back to anything like such remote times. It would seem, indeed, to
+belong to a much more ordinary species of phantasm, a species which is
+seldom accompanied by music or any other sound, and which by no means
+always prognosticates death, although on many occasions it has done so.
+
+In addition to the MacLean, some of the best known cases of Scottish
+family ghosts are as follows:
+
+The Bodach au Dun, or Ghost of the Hills, which haunts the family of Grant
+Rothiemurcus, and the Llam-dearg, or spectre of the Bloody Hand, which
+pursues the fortunes of the Clan Kinchardine. According to Sir Walter
+Scott in the Macfarlane MSS. this spirit was chiefly to be seen in the
+Glenmore, where it took the form of a soldier with one hand perpetually
+dripping with blood. At one time it invariably signalled its advent in the
+manner which, I think, has no parallel among ghosts--it challenged members
+of the Kinchardine Clan to fight a duel with it, and whether they accepted
+or not they always died soon afterwards. As lately as 1669, says Sir
+Walter Scott, it fought with three brothers, one after another, who
+immediately died therefrom.
+
+Then there is the Clan of Gurlinbeg which is haunted by Garlin Bodacher;
+the Turloch Gorms who, according to Scott, are haunted by Mary Moulach, or
+the girl with the hairy left hand;[13] and the Airlie family, whose seat
+at Cortachy is haunted by the famous drummer, whose ghostly tattoos must
+be taken as a sure sign that a member of the Ogilvie Clan--of which the
+Earl of Airlie is the recognised head--will die very shortly.
+
+Mr Ingram, in his "Haunted Houses and Family Legends," quotes several
+well authenticated instances of manifestations by this apparition, the
+last occurring, according to him, in the year 1899, though I have heard
+from other reliable sources that it has been heard at a much more recent
+date. The origin of this haunting is generally thought to be comparatively
+modern, and not to date further back than two or three hundred years, if
+as far, which, of course, puts it on quite a different category from that
+of the Banshee, though its mission is, without doubt, the same. According
+to Mr Ingram, a former Lord Airlie, becoming jealous of one of his
+retainers or emissaries who was a drummer, had him thrust in his drum and
+hurled from a top window of the castle into the courtyard beneath, where
+he was dashed to pieces. With his dying breath the drummer cursed not only
+Lord Airlie, but his descendants, too, and ever since that event his
+apparition has persistently haunted the family.
+
+Other Highland families that possess special ghosts are a branch of the
+Macdonnells, that have a phantom piper, whose mournful piping invariably
+means that some member or other of the clan is shortly doomed to die; and
+the Stanleys who have a female apparition that signalises her advent by
+shrieking, weeping, and moaning before the death of any of the family.
+Perhaps of all Scottish ghosts this last one most closely resembles the
+Banshee, though there are distinct differences, chiefly with regard to the
+appearance of the phantoms--the Scottish one differing essentially in her
+looks and attire from the Irish ghost--and their respective origins, that
+of the Stanley apparition being, in all probability, of much later date
+than the Banshee.
+
+Then, again, there is the Bodach Glas, or dark grey man, in reference to
+which Mr Henderson, in his "Folk-lore of Northern Countries," p. 344,
+says: "Its appearance foretold death in the Clan of ----, and I have been
+informed on the most credible testimony of its appearance in our own day.
+The Earl of E----, a nobleman alike beloved and respected in Scotland, was
+playing on the day of his decease on the links of St Andrew's at golf.
+Suddenly he stopped in the middle of the game, saying, 'I can play no
+longer, there is the Bodach Glas. I have seen it for the third time;
+something fearful is going to befall me.' That night he fell down dead as
+he was giving a lady her candlestick on her way up to bed."
+
+Another instance, still, of a Scottish family ghost is that of the willow
+tree at Gordon Castle, which is referred to by Sir Bernard Bourke in his
+"Anecdotes of the Aristocracy." Sir Bernard asserts that whenever any
+accident happens to this tree, if, for example, a branch is blown down in
+a storm, or any part of it is struck by lightning, then some dire
+misfortune is sure to happen to some member of the family.
+
+There are other old Scottish family ghosts, all very distinct from the
+Banshee, though a few bear some slight resemblance to it, but as my space
+is restricted, I will pass on to family ghosts of a more or less similar
+type that are to be met with in England.
+
+To begin with, the Oxenhams of Devonshire the heiress of Sir James
+Oxenham, and the bride that is invariably seen before the death of any
+member of the family. According to a well-known Devonshire ballad, a bird
+answering to this description flew over the guests at the wedding of the
+heiress of Sir James Oxenham, and the bride was killed the following day
+by a suitor she had unceremoniously jilted.
+
+The Arundels of Wardour have a ghost in the form of two white owls, it
+being alleged that whenever two birds of this species are seen perched on
+the house where any of this family are living, some one member of them is
+doomed to die very shortly.
+
+Equally famous is the ghost of the Cliftons of Nottinghamshire, which
+takes the shape of a sturgeon that is seen swimming in the river Trent,
+opposite Clifton Hall, the chief seat of the family, whenever one of the
+Cliftons is on the eve of dying.
+
+Then, again, there is the white hand of the Squires of Worcestershire, a
+family that is now practically extinct. According to local tradition this
+family was for many generations haunted by the very beautiful hand of a
+woman, that was always seen protruding through the wall of the room
+containing that member of the family who was fated to die soon. Most ghost
+hands are said to be grey and filmy, but this one, according to some
+eye-witnesses, appears to have borne an extraordinary resemblance to that
+of a living person. It was slender and perfectly proportioned, with very
+tapering fingers and very long and beautifully kept filbert nails--the
+sort of hand one sees in portraits of women of bygone ages, but which one
+very rarely meets with in the present generation.
+
+Other families that possess ghosts are the Yorkshire Middletons, who are
+always apprised of the death of one of their members by the appearance of
+a nun; and the Byrons of Newstead Abbey, who, according to the great poet
+of that name, were haunted by a black Friar that used to be seen wandering
+about the cloisters and other parts of the monasterial building before
+the death of any member of the family.
+
+In England, there seems to be quite a number of White Lady phantoms, most
+of them, however, haunting houses and not families, and none of them
+bearing any resemblance to the Banshee. Indeed, there is a far greater
+dissimilarity between the English and Irish types of family ghosts than
+there is between the Irish and those of any of the nations I have hitherto
+discussed.
+
+Lastly, with regard to the Welsh family ghosts, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his
+"British Goblins," quite erroneously, I think, likens the Banshee in
+appearance to the Gwrach y Rhibyn, or Hag of the Dribble, which he
+describes as hideous, with long, black teeth, long, lank, withered arms,
+leathern wings, and cadaverous cheeks, a description that is certainly not
+in the least degree like that of any Banshee I have ever heard of. He goes
+on to add that it comes in the stillness of the night, utters a
+blood-curdling howl, and calls on the person doomed to die thus:
+"Da-a-a-vy! De-i-i-o-o-ba-a-a-ch." If it is in the guise of a male it
+says, in addition, "Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach!" which rendered into
+English is, "My child, my little child"; but if in the form of a woman,
+"Oh! Oh! fy ngwr, fy ngwr"--"My husband! my husband!" As a rule it flaps
+its wings against the window of the room in which the person who is
+doomed is sleeping, whilst occasionally it appears either to the ill-fated
+one himself or to some member of his family in a mist on the mountainside.
+
+Mr Sikes gives a very graphic description of the appearance of this
+apparition to a peasant farmer near Cardiff, a little over forty years
+ago. To be precise, it was on the evening of the 14th November, 1877. The
+farmer was on a visit to an old friend at the time, and was awakened at
+midnight by the most ghastly screaming and a violent shaking of the
+window-frame. The noise continued for some seconds, and then terminated in
+one final screech that far surpassed all the others in intensity and sheer
+horror. Greatly excited--though Mr Sikes affirms he was not
+frightened--the old man leaped out of bed, and, throwing open the window,
+saw a figure like a frightful old woman, with long, dishevelled, red hair,
+and tusk-like teeth, and a startling white complexion, floating in
+mid-air. She was enveloped in a long, loose, flowing kind of black robe
+that entirely concealed her body. As he gazed at her, completely
+dumbfounded with astonishment, she peered down at him and, throwing back
+her dreadful head, emitted another of the very wildest and most harrowing
+of screams. He then heard her flap her wings against a window immediately
+underneath his, after which he saw her fly over to an inn almost directly
+opposite him, called the "Cow and Snuffers," and pass right through the
+closed doorway.
+
+After waiting some minutes to see if she came out again, he at length got
+back into bed, and on the morrow learned that Mr Llewellyn, the landlord
+of the "Cow and Snuffers," had died in the night about the same time as
+the apparition, which he, the old farmer, now concluded must have been the
+Gwrach y Rhibyn, had appeared.
+
+There is, of course, this much in common between the Gwrach y Rhibyn and
+the Banshee: both are harbingers of death; both signalise their advent by
+shrieks, and both confine their hauntings to really ancient Celtic
+families; but here, it seems to me, the likeness ends. The Gwrach y Rhibyn
+is more grotesque than horrible, and would seem to belong rather to the
+order of witches in fairy lore than to the denizens of the ghost world.
+
+Another ghostly phenomenon of the death-warning type that is, I believe,
+to be met with in Wales, is the Canhywllah Cyrth, or corpse candle, so
+called because the apparition resembles a material candlelight, saving for
+the fact that it vanishes directly it is approached, and reforms speedily
+again afterwards. The following descriptions of the Canhywllah Cyrth are
+taken from Mr T. C. Charley's "News from the Invisible World," pp. 121-4.
+The first extract is the account of the corpse candles given by the Rev.
+Mr Davis.
+
+"If it be a little candle," he writes, "pale or bluish, then follows the
+corpse either of an abortive, or some infant; if a big one, then the
+corpse either of someone come of age; if there be seen two or three or
+more, some big, some small, together, then so many such corpses together.
+If two candles come from divers places, and be seen to meet, the corpses
+will do the like; if any of these candles be seen to turn, sometimes a
+little out of the way that leadeth unto the church, the following corpse
+will be found to turn into that very place, for the avoiding of some dirty
+lane, etc. When I was about fifteen years of age, dwelling at Llanglar,
+late at night, some neighbours saw one of these candles hovering up and
+down along the bank of the river, until they were weary in beholding; at
+last they left it so, and went to bed. A few weeks after, a damsel from
+Montgomeryshire came to see her friends, who dwelt on the other side of
+the Istwyth, and thought to ford it at the place where the light was seen;
+but being dissuaded by some lookers-on (by reason of a flood) she walked
+up and down along the bank, where the aforesaid candle did, waiting for
+the falling of the waters, which at last she took, and was drowned
+therein."
+
+Continuing, he says: "Of late, my sexton's wife, an aged understanding
+woman, saw from her bed a little bluish candle upon her table; within two
+or three days after comes a fellow in, inquiring for her husband, and
+taking something from under his cloak, clapped it down directly upon the
+table end, where she had seen the candle; and what was it but a dead-born
+child?"
+
+In another case the same gentleman relates a number of these candles were
+seen together. "About thirty-four or thirty-five years since," he says,
+"one Jane Wyat, my wife's sister, being nurse to Baronet Reid's three
+eldest children, and (the lady being deceased) the lady controller of that
+house, going late into a chamber where the maidservants lay, saw there no
+less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after, the
+chamber being newly plastered and a great grate of coal-fire thereon
+kindled to hasten the drying up of the plastering, that five of the
+maidservants went there to bed, as they were wont, but in the morning they
+were all dead, being suffocated in their sleep with the steam of the newly
+tempered lime and coal. This was at Llangathen in Carmarthenshire."
+
+Occasionally a figure is seen with the lights, but nearly always that of a
+woman. À propos of this the same writer says: "William John of the County
+of Carmarthen, a smith, on going home one night, saw one of the corpse
+candles; he went out of his way to meet with it, and when he came near it,
+he saw it was a burying; and the corpse upon the bier, the perfect
+resemblance of a woman in the neighbourhood whom he knew, holding the
+candle between her forefingers, who dreadfully grinned at him, and
+presently he was struck down from his horse, where he remained a while,
+and was ill a long time after before he recovered. This was before the
+real burying of the woman. His fault, and therefore his danger, was his
+coming presumptuously against the candle."
+
+Lastly, an account of these death candles appeared some years ago in
+_Fraser's Magazine_. It ran as follows:
+
+"In a wild and retired district in North Wales, the following occurrence
+took place to the great astonishment of the mountaineers. We can vouch for
+the truth of the statement, as many members of our own teutu, or clan,
+were witnesses of the fact. On a dark evening, a few winters ago, some
+persons, with whom we are well acquainted, were returning to Barmouth, on
+the south or opposite side of the river. As they approached the
+ferryhouse at Penthryn, which is directly opposite Barmouth, they
+observed a light near the house, which they conjectured to be produced by
+a bonfire, and greatly puzzled they were to discover the reason why it
+should have been lighted. As they came nearer, however, it vanished; and
+when they inquired at the house respecting it, they were surprised to
+learn that not only had the people there displayed no light, but they had
+not even seen one; nor could they perceive any signs of it on the sands.
+On reaching Barmouth, the circumstance was mentioned, and the fact
+corroborated by some of the people there, who had also plainly and
+distinctly seen the light. It was settled, therefore, by some of the old
+fisherman, that this was a "death-token"; and, sure enough, the man who
+kept the ferry at that time was drowned at high-water a few nights
+afterwards, on the very spot where the light was seen. He was landing from
+the boat, when he fell into the water, and so perished."
+
+"The same winter the Barmouth people, as well as the inhabitants of the
+opposite banks, were struck by the appearance of a number of small lights
+which were seen dancing in the air at a place called Borthwyn, about half
+a mile from the town. A great number of people came out to see these
+lights; and after a while they all but one disappeared, and this one
+proceeded slowly towards the water's edge, to a small bay where some boats
+were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near the spot saw the
+light advancing--they saw it also hover for a few seconds over one
+particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or three days afterwards,
+the man to whom that particular boat belonged was drowned in the river,
+where he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in that very boat. We have
+narrated these facts just as they occurred."
+
+Another well-known Welsh haunting that may be relegated to the same class
+of phenomena as the corpse candles is that of the Stradling Ghost. This
+phantasm, which is supposed to be that of a former Lady Stradling, who was
+murdered by one of her own relatives, haunts St Donart's Castle, on the
+southern coast of Glamorganshire, appearing whenever a death or some very
+grievous calamity is about to overtake a member of the family. Writing of
+her, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his "British Goblins," p. 143-4, says: "She appears
+when any mishap is about to befall a member of the house of Stradling, the
+direct line, however, of which is extinct. She wears high-heeled shoes,
+and a long trailing gown of the finest silk." According to local reports,
+her advent is always known in the neighbourhood by the behaviour of the
+dogs, which, taking their cue from their canine representatives in the
+Castle, begin to howl and whine, and keep on making a noise and showing
+every indication of terror and resentment so long as the earth-bound
+spirit of the lady continues to roam about. Of course the Stradling Ghost
+cannot be said to be characteristically Welsh, because its prototype is to
+be found in so many other countries, but it at least comes under the
+category of family apparitions.
+
+The Gwyllgi, or dog of darkness, which Mr Wirt Sikes asserts has often
+inspired terror among the Welsh peasants, does not appear to be confined
+to any one family, any more than do the corpse candles, though, like the
+latter, it would seem to manifest itself principally to really Welsh
+people. Its advent is not, however, predicative of any special happening.
+The Cwn Annwn, or dogs of hell, that are chiefly to be met with in the
+south of Wales, on the contrary, rarely, if ever, appear, saving to warn
+those who see them of some approaching death or disaster. Neither they,
+nor the Gwyllgi, nor the corpse candles, since they do not haunt one
+family exclusively, can be called family ghosts. And only inasmuch as they
+are racial have they anything in common with the Banshee. Indeed, there is
+a world of difference between the Banshee and even its nearest
+counterpart in other countries, and the difference is, perhaps, one which
+only those who have actually experienced it could ever understand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE
+
+
+  "'Twas the Banshee's lonely wailing,
+      Well I knew the voice of death,
+    On the night wind slowly sailing
+      O'er the bleak and gloomy heath."
+
+These are the dramatic lines Thomas Crofton Croker, in his inimitable
+"Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland," puts in the mouth
+of the widow MacCarthy, as she is lamenting over the body of her son,
+Charles, whose death had been predicted by the Banshee; not the beautiful
+and dainty Banshee of the O'Briens, but a wild, unkempt, haggish creature
+that seemed in perfect harmony with the drear and desolate moorland from
+whence it sprang.
+
+Mr Croker, indeed, almost invariably associates the Banshee with the heath
+and bogland, for at the commencement of his Tales of the Banshee in the
+same volume, we find these well-known lines:
+
+  "Who sits upon the heath forlorn,
+  With robe so free and tresses worn,
+  Anon she pours a harrowing strain,
+  And then she sits all mute again!
+  Now peals the wild funereal cry,
+  And now--it sinks into a sigh."
+
+Very different from this grim and repellent portrayal of the Banshee given
+by Mr Croker is the very pleasing and attractive description of it
+presented to us by Dr Kenealy, whose account of it in prose appears in an
+earlier chapter of this book.
+
+Referring to the death of his brother, Dr Kenealy says:
+
+  "Here the Banshee, that phantom bright who weeps
+  Over the dying of her own loved line,
+  Floated in moonlight; in her streaming locks
+  Gleamed starshine; when she looked on me, she knew
+  And smiled."
+
+And again:
+
+  "The wish has but
+  Escaped my lips--and lo! once more it streams
+  In liquid lapse upon the fairy winds
+  That guard each slightest note with jealous care,
+  And bring them hither, even as angels might
+  To the beloved to whom they minister."
+
+In reference to phantom music heard at sea, Mr Dyer, in his "Ghost
+World," p. 413, quotes the following lines:
+
+  "A low sound of song from the distance I hear,
+  In the silence of night, breathing sad on my ear,
+  Whence comes it? I know not--unearthly the note,
+  Yet it sounds like the lay that my mother once sung,
+  As o'er her first-born in his cradle she hung."
+
+As I have already stated, the Banshee is not infrequently heard at sea,
+either singing or weeping, hence, in all probability, the author of these
+lines, whose name, by the way, Mr Dyer does not divulge, had the Banshee
+in mind when he wrote them. But, perhaps, the best known, as well as the
+most direct reference to this ghost in verse is that made by Ireland's
+popular poet, Thomas Moore, in one of the most famous of his "Irish
+Melodies." I append the poem, not only for the reference it contains, but
+also on account of its general beauty.
+
+  "How oft has the Banshee cried!
+  How oft has death untied
+  Bright bonds that glory wove
+  Sweet bonds entwin'd by love.
+  Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth!
+  Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth!
+  Long may the fair and brave
+  Sigh o'er the hero's grave.
+
+  We're fallen upon gloomy days,
+  Star after star decays,
+  Every bright name, that shed
+  Light o'er the land, is fled.
+  Dark falls the tear of him who mourneth
+  Lost joy, a hope that ne'er returneth,
+  But brightly flows the tear
+  Wept o'er the hero's bier.
+
+  Oh, quenched are our beacon lights
+  Thou, of the hundred fights!
+  Thou, on whose burning tongue
+  Truth, peace, and freedom hung!
+  Both mute, but long as valour shineth
+  Or Mercy's soul at war refineth
+  So long shall Erin's pride
+  Tell how they lived and died."
+
+With the following extracts from the translation of an elegy written by
+Pierse Ferriter, the Irish poet soldier, who fought bravely in the
+Cromwellian wars, I must now terminate these references to the Banshee in
+poetry:
+
+  "When I heard lamentations
+    And sad, warning cries
+  From the Banshees of many
+    Broad districts arise.
+  Aina from her closely hid
+    Nest did awake
+  The woman of wailing
+    From Gur's voicy lake;
+  From Glen Fogradh of words
+    Came a mournful whine,
+  And all Kerry's Banshees
+    Wept the lost Geraldine.[14]
+  The Banshees of Youghal
+    And of stately Mo-geely
+  Were joined in their grief
+    By wide Imokilly.
+  Carah Mona in gloom
+    Of deep sorrow appears,
+  And all Kinalmeaky's
+    Absorbed into tears.
+
+  *       *       *       *
+
+  The Banshee of Dunquin
+    In sweet song did implore
+  To the spirit that watches
+    O'er dark Dun-an-oir,
+  And Ennismare's maid
+    By the dark, gloomy wave
+  With her clear voice did mourn
+    The fall of the brave.
+  On stormy Slieve Mish
+    Spread the cry far and wide,
+  From steeply Finnaleun
+    The wild eagle replied.
+  'Mong the Reeks, like the
+    Thunder peal's echoing rout,
+  It burst--and deep moaning
+    Bright Brandon gives out,
+  Oh Chief! whose example
+    On soft-minded youth
+  Like the signet impressed
+    Honour, glory, and truth.
+  The youth who once grieved
+    If unnoticed passed by,
+  Now deplore thee in silence
+    With sorrow-dimmed eye,
+  O! woman of tears,
+    Who, with musical hands,
+  From your bright golden hair
+    Hath combed out the long bands,
+  Let those golden strings loose,
+    Speak your thoughts--let your mind
+  Fling abroad its full light,
+    Like a torch to the wind."
+
+In fiction no writer has, I think, dealt more freely with the subject of
+the Banshee than Thomas Crofton Croker, the translator of the
+abovementioned elegy. In his "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of
+Ireland," he gives the most inimitable accounts of it; and for the benefit
+of those of my readers who are unacquainted with his works, as well as for
+the purpose of presenting the Banshee as seen by such an unrivalled
+portrayer of Irish ghost and fairy lore, I will give a brief résumé of
+two of his stories.
+
+The one I will take first relates to the Rev. Charles Bunworth, who about
+the middle of the eighteenth century was rector of Buttevant, County Cork.
+Mr Bunworth was greatly beloved and esteemed, not only on account of his
+piety--for pious people are by no means always popular--but also on
+account of his charity. He used to give pecuniary aid, often when he could
+ill afford it, to all and any, no matter to what faith they belonged, whom
+he really believed were in need; and being particularly fond of music,
+especially the harp, he entertained, in a most generous and hospitable
+manner, all the poor Irish harpers that came to his house. At the time of
+his death, no fewer than fifteen harps were found in the loft of his
+granary, presents, one is led to infer, from strolling harpers, in token
+of their gratitude for his repeated acts of kindness to them.
+
+About a week prior to his decease, and at an early hour in the evening,
+several of the occupants of his house heard a strange noise outside the
+hall door, which they could only liken to the shearing of sheep. No very
+serious attention, however, was paid to it, and it was not until some time
+afterwards, when other queer things happened, that it was recalled and
+associated with the supernatural. Later on, at about seven o'clock in the
+evening, Kavanagh, the herdman, returned from Mallow, whither he had been
+dispatched for some medicine. He appeared greatly agitated, and, in
+response to Miss Bunworth's questions as to what was the matter, could
+only ejaculate:
+
+"The master, Miss, the master! He is going from us."
+
+Miss Bunworth, thinking he had been drinking, sternly reproved him,
+whereupon he responded:
+
+"Miss, as I hope mercy hereafter, neither bite nor sup has passed my lips
+since I left this house; but the master----" Here he broke down, only
+adding with an effort, "We will lose him--the master." He then began to
+weep and wring his hands.
+
+Miss Bunworth, who, during this strange recital, was growing more and more
+bewildered, now exclaimed impatiently:
+
+"What _is_ it you mean? Do explain yourself."
+
+Kavanagh was silent, but, as she persisted, commanding him to speak, he at
+length said:
+
+"The Banshee has come for him, Miss; and 'tis not I alone who have heard
+her."
+
+But Miss Bunworth only laughed and rebuked him for being superstitious.
+
+"Maybe I am superstitious," he retorted, "but as I came through the glen
+of Ballybeg she was along with me, keening, and screeching, and clapping
+her hands by my side, every step of the way, with her long white hair
+falling about her shoulders, and I could hear her repeat the master's name
+every now and then, as plain as ever I hear it. When I came to Old Abby,
+she parted from me there, and turned into pigeon field next the
+berrin'-ground, and, folding her cloak about her, down she sat under the
+tree that was struck by lightning, and began keening so bitterly that it
+went through one's heart to hear it."
+
+Miss Bunworth listened more attentively now, but told Kavanagh that she
+was sure he was mistaken, as her father was very much better and quite out
+of danger. However, she spoke too soon, for that very night her father had
+a relapse and was soon in a very critical condition. His daughters nursed
+him with the utmost devotion, but at length, overcome with the strain of
+many hours of sleepless watchfulness, they were obliged to take a rest and
+allow a certain old friend of theirs, temporarily, to take their place.
+
+It was night; without the house everything was still and calm; within the
+aged watcher was seated close beside the sick man's bed, the head of which
+had been placed near the window, so that the sufferer could, in the
+daylight, steal a glimpse at the fields and trees he loved so much. In an
+adjoining room, and in the kitchen, were a number of friends and
+dependents who had come from afar to inquire after the condition of the
+patient. Their conversation had been carried on for some time in whispers,
+and then, as if infected by the intense hush outside, they had gradually
+ceased talking, and all had become absolutely hushed. Suddenly the aged
+watcher heard a sound outside the window. She looked, but though there was
+a brilliant moonlight, which rendered every object far and near strikingly
+conspicuous, she could perceive nothing--nothing at least that could
+account for the disturbance. Presently the noise was repeated; a rose tree
+near the window rustled and seemed to be pulled violently aside. Then
+there was the sound like the clapping of hands and of breathing and
+blowing close to the window-panes.
+
+At this, the old watcher, who was now getting nervous, arose and went into
+the next room, and asked those assembled there if they had heard anything.
+Apparently, they had not, but they all went out and searched the grounds,
+particularly in the vicinity of the rose tree, but could discover no clue
+as to the cause of the noises, and although the ground was soft with
+recent rain, there were no footprints to be seen anywhere. After they had
+made an exhaustive examination, and had settled down again indoors, the
+clapping at once recommenced, and was accompanied this time by moanings,
+which the whole party of investigators now heard. The sounds went on for
+some time, apparently till close to dawn, when the reverend gentleman
+died.
+
+The other story concerns the MacCarthys, of whom Mr Croker remarks, "being
+an old, and especially an old Catholic family, they have, of course, a
+Banshee."
+
+Charles MacCarthy in 1749 was the only surviving son of a very numerous
+family. His father died when he was twenty, leaving him his estate, and
+being very gay, handsome, and thoughtless, he soon got into bad company
+and made an unenviable reputation for himself. Going from one excess to
+another he at length fell ill, and was soon in such a condition that his
+life was finally despaired of by the doctor. His mother never left him.
+Always at his bedside, ready to administer to his slightest want, she
+showed how truly devoted she was to him, although she was by no means
+blind to his faults. Indeed, so acutely did she realise the danger in
+which his soul stood, that she prayed most earnestly that should he die,
+he should at least be spared long enough to be able to recover
+sufficiently to see the enormity of his offences, and repent accordingly.
+To her utmost sorrow, however, instead of his mind clearing a little, as
+so often happens after delirium and before death, he gradually fell into a
+state of coma, and presented every appearance of being actually dead. The
+doctor was sent for, and the house and grounds were speedily filled with a
+crowd of people, friends, tenants, fosterers, and poor relatives; one and
+all anxious to learn the exact condition of the sick man. With tremendous
+excitement they awaited the exit of the doctor from the house, and, when
+he at length emerged, they clustered round him and listened for his
+verdict.
+
+"It's all over, James," he said to the man who was holding his steed, and
+with those few brief words he climbed into his saddle and rode away. Then
+the women who were standing by gave a shrill cry, which developed into a
+continuous, plaintive and discordant groaning, interrupted every now and
+again by the deep sobbing and groaning, and clapping of hands of Charles'
+foster-brother, who was moving in and out the crowd, distracted with
+grief.
+
+All the time Mrs MacCarthy was sitting by the body of her son, the tears
+streaming from her eyes. Presently some women entered the room and
+inquired about directions for the ceremony of waking, and providing the
+refreshments necessary for the occasion. Mournfully the widow gives them
+the instructions they need, and then continues her solitary vigil, crying
+with all her soul, and yet quite unaware of the tears that kept pouring
+from her eyes. So, on and on, with brief intervals only, all through the
+loud and boisterous lamentations of the visitors over her beloved one, far
+into the stillness of the night. In one of the interludes, in which she
+has removed into an inner room to pray, she suddenly hears a low
+murmuring, which is speedily succeeded by a wild cry of horror, and then,
+out from the room in which the deceased lies, pour, like some
+panic-stricken sheep, the entire crowd of those that have participated in
+the Wake. Nothing daunted, Mrs MacCarthy rushes into the apartment they
+have quitted, and sees, sitting up on the bed, the light from the candles
+casting a most unearthly glare on his features, the body of her son.
+Falling on her knees before it and clasping her hands she at once
+commences praying; but hearing the word "mother," she springs forward,
+and, clutching the figure by the arm, shrieks out:
+
+"Speak, in the name of God and His Saints, speak! Are you alive?"
+
+The pale lips move, and finally exclaim:
+
+"Yes, my mother, alive, but sit down and collect yourself."
+
+And then, to the startled and bewildered mother he, whom she had been
+mourning all this time as dead, unfolded the following remarkable tale.
+
+He declared he remembered nothing of the preliminary stages of his
+illness, all of which was a blank, and was only cognisant of what was
+happening when he found himself in another world, standing in the presence
+of his Creator, Who had summoned him for judgment.
+
+"The dreadful pomp of offended omnipotence," he dramatically stated, "was
+printed on his brain in characters indelible." What would have happened he
+dreaded to think, had it not been for his guardian saint, that holy spirit
+his mother had always taught him to pray to, who was standing by his side,
+and who pleaded with Him "that one year and one month might be given him
+on the earth again, in which he should have the opportunity of doing
+penance and atonement."
+
+After a terribly anxious wait, in which his whole fate--his fate for
+eternity--hung in the balance, the progress of his kindly intercessor
+succeeded, and the Great and Awful Judge pronounced these words:
+
+"Return to that world in which thou hast lived but to outrage the laws of
+Him Who made that world and thee. Three years are given thee for
+repentance; when these are ended thou shalt again stand here, to be saved
+or lost for ever."
+
+Charles saw and heard no more; everything became a void, until he suddenly
+became once again conscious of light and found himself lying on the bed.
+
+He told this experience as if it were no dream, but, as he really believed
+it to be, an actual reality, and, on his gradually regaining health and
+strength, he showed the effect it had had on him by completely changing
+his mode of life. Though not altogether shunning his former companions in
+folly, he never went to any excess with them, but, on the contrary, often
+exercised a restraining influence over them, and so, by degrees, came to
+be looked upon as a person of eminent prudence and wisdom.
+
+The years passed by till at last the third anniversary of the wonderful
+recovery drew near. As Charles still adhered to his belief that what he
+had experienced had been no mere dream or wandering of the mind, but an
+actual visit to spirit land, so nervous did his mother become, as the time
+drew near for the expiration of the lease of life he declared had been
+allotted to him, that she wrote to Mrs Barry, a friend of hers, begging
+her to come with her two girls and stay with her for a few days, until, in
+fact, the actual day of the third anniversary should have passed.
+
+Unfortunately, Mrs Barry, instead of getting to Spring House, where Mrs
+MacCarthy lived, on the Wednesday, the day specified in the invitation,
+was not able to commence the journey till the following Friday, and she
+then had to leave her eldest daughter behind and bring only the younger
+one.
+
+What ultimately happened is very graphically described in a letter from
+the younger girl to the elder. In brief it was this: She and her mother
+set out in a jaunting-car driven by their man Leary. The recent rains made
+the road so heavy that they found it impossible to make other than very
+slow progress, and had to put up for the first night at the house of a Mr
+Bourke, a friend of theirs, who kept them until late the following day.
+Indeed, it was evening when they left his premises, with a good fifteen
+miles to cover before they arrived at Spring House.
+
+The weather was variable, at times the moon shone clear and bright, whilst
+at others it was covered with thick, black, fast-scudding clouds. The
+farther they progressed, the more ominous did the elements become, the
+clouds collected in vast masses, the wind grew stronger and stronger, and
+presently the rain began to fall. Slow as their progress had been before,
+it now became slower; at every step the wheels of their car either plunged
+into a deep slough, or sank almost up to the axle in thick mud.
+
+At last, so impossible did it become, that Mrs Barry inquired of Leary how
+far they were from Mr Bourke's, the house they had recently left.
+
+"'Tis about ten spades from this to the cross," was the reply, "and we
+have then only to turn to the left into the avenue, ma'am."
+
+"Very well, then," answered Mrs Barry, "turn up to Mr Bourke's as soon as
+you reach the crossroads."
+
+Mrs Barry had scarcely uttered these words when a shriek, that thrilled
+the hearers to the very core of their hearts, burst from the hedge to
+their right.
+
+It resembled the cry of a female--if it resembled anything earthly at
+all--struck by a sudden and mortal blow, and giving out life in one long,
+deep pang of agony.
+
+"Heaven defend us!" exclaimed Mrs Barry. "Go you over the hedge, Leary,
+and save that woman, if she is not yet dead."
+
+"Woman!" said Leary, beating the horse violently, while his voice
+trembled. "That's no woman; the sooner we get on, ma'am, the better," and
+he urged the horse forward.
+
+There was now a heavy spell of darkness as the moon was once again hidden
+by the clouds, but, though they could see nothing, they heard screams of
+despair and anguish, accompanied by a loud clapping of the hands, just as
+if some person on the other side of the hedge was running along in a line
+with their horse's head, and keeping pace with them.
+
+When they came to within ten yards of the spot where the avenue branched
+off to Mr Bourke's on the left, and the road to Spring House led away to
+the right, the moon suddenly reappeared, and they saw, with startling
+distinctness, the figure of a tall, thin woman, with uncovered head, and
+long hair floating round her shoulders, attired in a kind of cloak or
+sheet, standing at the corner of the hedge, just where the road along
+which they were driving met that which led to Spring House. She had her
+face turned towards them, and, whilst pointing with her left hand in the
+direction of Spring House, with her right was beckoning them to hurry. As
+they advanced she became more and more agitated, until finally, leaping
+into the road in front of them, and still pointing with outstretched arm
+in the direction of Spring House, she took up her stand at the entrance to
+the Avenue, as if to bar their way, and glared defiantly at them.
+
+"Go on, Leary, in God's name!" exclaimed Mrs Barry.
+
+"'Tis the Banshee," said Leary, "and I could not, for what my life is
+worth, go anywhere this blessed night but to Spring House. But I'm afraid
+there's something bad going forward, or she would not send us there."
+
+He pressed on towards Spring House, and almost directly afterwards clouds
+covered the moon, and the Banshee disappeared; the sound of her clapping,
+though continuing for some time, gradually becoming fainter and fainter,
+until it finally ceased altogether.
+
+On their arrival at Spring House they learnt that a dreadful tragedy had
+just taken place.
+
+A lady, Miss Jane Osborn, who was Charles MacCarthy's ward, was to have
+been married to one James Ryan, and on the day preceding the marriage, as
+Ryan and Charles MacCarthy were walking together in the grounds of the
+latter's house, a strange young woman, hiding in the shrubbery, shot
+Charles in mistake for Ryan, who, it seems, had seduced and deserted her.
+The wound, which at first appeared trivial, suddenly developed serious
+symptoms, and before the sun had gone down on the third anniversary of
+his memorable experience with the Unknown, Charles MacCarthy was again
+ushered into the presence of his Maker, there to render of himself a
+second and a final account.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND
+
+
+There is, I believe, one version of a famous Scottish haunting in which
+there figures a Banshee of the more or less orthodox order. I heard it
+many years ago, and it was told me in good faith, but I cannot, of course,
+vouch for its authenticity. Since, however, it introduces the Banshee,
+and, therefore, may be of interest to the readers of this book, I publish
+it now for the first time, embodied in the following narrative:
+
+"Well, Ronan, you will be glad to hear that I consent to your marrying
+Ione, provided you can assure me there is nothing wrong with your family
+history. No hereditary tendencies to drink, disease, or madness. You know
+I am a great believer in heredity. Your prospects seem good--all the
+inquiries I have made as to your character have proved satisfactory, and I
+shall put no obstacles in your way if you can satisfy me on this point.
+Can you?"
+
+The speaker was Captain Horatio Wynne Pettigrew, R.N., late in command of
+His Majesty's Frigate _Prometheus_, and now living on retired pay in the
+small but aristocratic suburb of Birkenhead; the young man he
+addressed--Ronan Malachy, chief clerk and prospective junior partner in
+the big business firm of Lowndes, Half & Company, Dublin; and the subject
+of their conversation--Ione, youngest daughter of the said captain,
+generally and, perhaps, justly designated the bonniest damsel in all the
+land between the Dee and the far distant Tweed.
+
+The look of intense suspense and anxiety which had almost contorted
+Ronan's face while he was waiting for the Captain's reply, now gave way to
+an expression of the most marked relief.
+
+"I think I have often told you, sir," he replied, "that I have no
+recollection of my parents, as they both died when I was a baby; but I
+have never heard either of them spoken of in any other terms than those of
+the greatest affection and respect. I have always understood my father was
+lost at sea on a journey either to or from New York, and that my mother,
+who had a weak heart, died from the effects of the shock. My grandparents
+on both sides lived together happily, I believe, and died from natural
+causes at quite a respectable old age. If there had been any hereditary
+tendencies of an unpleasant nature such as those you name, or any
+particular family disease, I feel sure I should have heard of it from one
+or other of my relatives, but I can assure you I have not."
+
+"Very well then," Captain Pettigrew remarked genially, "if your uncle, who
+is, I understand, your guardian, and whom I know well by reputation, will
+do me the courtesy to corroborate what you say, I will at once sanction
+your engagement. But now I must ask you to excuse me, as I have promised
+to have supper with General Maitland to-night, and before I go have
+several matters to attend to."
+
+He held out his hand as he spoke, and Ronan, who had been secretly hoping
+that he would be asked to spend the evening, was reluctantly compelled to
+withdraw. Outside in the hall, Ione, of course, was waiting, almost beside
+herself with anxiety, to hear the result of the interview, but Ronan had
+only time to whisper that it was quite all right, and that her father had
+been far more amenable than either of them had supposed, before the door
+of the room he had just left opened, and the Captain appeared.
+
+There was no help for it then, he was obliged to say good-bye, and, having
+done so, he hurried out into the night.
+
+At the time of which I am writing there were neither motors nor trains, so
+that Ronan, who, owing to an accident to his horse, had to walk, did not
+reach home, a distance of some four or five miles, till the evening was
+well advanced.
+
+On his arrival, burning with impatience to settle the momentous question,
+he at once broached the subject of his interview with Captain Pettigrew to
+his uncle, remarking that his fate now rested with him.
+
+"With me!" Mr Malachy exclaimed, placing his paper on an empty chair
+beside him, and staring at Ronan with a look of sudden bewilderment in his
+big, short-sighted but extremely benevolent eyes. "Why, you know, my boy,
+that you have my hearty approval. From all you tell me, Miss Ione must be
+a very charming young lady; she has aristocratic connections, and will
+not, I take it, be altogether penniless. Yes, certainly, you have my
+approval. You have known that all along."
+
+"I have, uncle," Ronan retorted, "and no one is more grateful to you than
+I. But Captain Pettigrew has very strong ideas about heredity. He believes
+the tendency to drink, insanity, and sexual lust haunts families, and
+that, even if it lies dormant for one generation, it is almost bound to
+manifest itself in another. I told him I was quite sure I was all right
+in this respect, but he says he wants your corroboration, and that if you
+will affirm it by letter, he will at once give his consent to my
+engagement to Ione. I know letter-writing is a confounded nuisance to you,
+uncle, but do please assure Captain Pettigrew at once that we have no
+family predisposition of the kind he fears."
+
+Mr Malachy leaned back in his chair and gazed into the long gilt mirror
+over the mantel-shelf. "Drink and gambling," he said.
+
+"And suicide," Ronan added. "You can at any rate swear to the absence of
+that in our family----" but, happening to glance at the mirror as he
+spoke, he caught in it a reflection of his uncle's face, that at once made
+him turn round.
+
+"Uncle!" he cried. "Tell me! What is it? Why do you look like that?"
+
+Mr Malachy was silent.
+
+"You're hiding something," Ronan exclaimed sharply. "Tell me what it is.
+Tell me, I say, and for God's sake put an end to my suspense."
+
+"You are right, Ronan," his uncle responded slowly. "I am hiding
+something, something I ought perhaps to have told you long ago. It's about
+your father."
+
+"My father!"
+
+"Yes, your father. I have always told you he was lost at sea. Well, so he
+was, but in circumstances that were undoubtedly mysterious. He was last
+seen alive on the wharf at Annan, where he was apparently waiting for a
+boat to take him to the opposite coast. Someone said they saw him suddenly
+leap in the water, and some days later a body, declared to be his, was
+picked up in the Solway Firth."
+
+"Then it was suicide," Ronan gasped. "My God, how awful! Was anyone with
+him at the time?"
+
+"I don't think I need tell you any more."
+
+"Yes, tell me everything," Ronan answered bitterly. "Nothing makes any
+difference now. Let me hear all, I insist."
+
+In a voice that shook to such an extent that Ronan looked at him in
+horror, Mr Malachy continued: "Ronan," he said, "remember that I tell you
+against my will, and that you are forcing me to speak. They did say at the
+time that there was a woman with your father--a woman who had travelled
+with him all the way from Lockerbie--that they quarrelled, that
+he--he----"
+
+"Yes--go on! For God's sake go on."
+
+"Pushed her in the water--in a rage, mind you, in a rage, I say; and then,
+apparently appalled at what he had done, jumped in, too."
+
+"Were they both drowned then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And no one tried to save them?"
+
+"No one was near enough. The tide was running strong at the time, and they
+were both carried out to sea. The woman's body was never found; and your
+father's, when it was recovered several days afterwards, was so disfigured
+that it could only be identified by the clothes."
+
+"And they were sure it was my father?"
+
+"I am afraid there is little doubt on that score. Your Aunt Bridget, who,
+being the last of the family to see him alive, was called upon to identify
+the body, always declared there was a mistake; she identified the clothes,
+but mentioned that the body was that of a person whom she had never seen
+before."
+
+"Then there is a slight hope!"
+
+"I hardly think so, but--but go and see her--it is your only hope, and I
+will defer writing to Captain Pettigrew until your return."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early next morning Ronan was well on his way to Lockerbie.
+
+In his present state of mind, every inch was a mile, every second an
+eternity. If his aunt could only furnish him with some absolute proof that
+it was not his father who had pushed the woman into the water and
+afterwards jumped in himself, then he might yet marry the object of his
+devotion, but, if she could not, he swore with a bitter oath that the
+water that had claimed his parent, should also claim him; and in the very
+same spot where the unlucky man who had proved his ruin had perished, he
+would perish too. It was Ione or obliteration. His whole being
+concentrated on such thoughts as these, he pressed forward, taking neither
+rest nor refreshments, till he reached Silloth, where he was compelled to
+wait several hours, until a fisherman could be prevailed upon to take him
+across the Solway Firth to Annan.
+
+So far luck had favoured him. The weather had kept fine, and, despite the
+dangerous condition of the roads, which were notoriously full of footpads,
+and in the most sorry need of repair, he had covered the distance without
+mishap.
+
+After leaving Annan, however, disaster at once overtook him. The coach had
+only proceeded some seven or eight miles along the road to Lockerbie, when
+a serious accident, through the loss of a wheel, was but narrowly escaped,
+and, as there seemed little chance of getting the necessary repairs
+executed that night, the driver suggested that his fares should walk back
+to Annan and put up at the "Red Star and Garter," till he was able to call
+for them in the morning.
+
+To this all agreed excepting Ronan, who, scorning the proposal to turn
+back, declared that he would continue his journey to Lockerbie on foot.
+
+"It's a wild, uncanny bit of country you'll have to go through, mon," the
+driver remonstrated, "and I'm nae sure but what you may come across some
+of them smuggler laddies from away across the borders of Kirkcudbright.
+They are fair sore just noo at the way in which the Custom House officials
+are treating them, and are downright suspicious of everyone they meet.
+You'll be weel guided to return to the coast with us."
+
+To this well-intentioned advice Ronan did not even condescend a reply,
+but, bidding his fellow-passengers good night, he buttoned his overcoat
+tightly round his chest, and stepped resolutely forward into the darkness.
+
+The driver had not exaggerated. It was a wild, uncouth bit of country. The
+road itself was a mere track, all ruts and furrows, with nothing to denote
+its boundaries saving ditches, or black tarns that gleamed fitfully
+whenever the moonbeams, emerging from behind black masses of clouds, fell
+on them. Beyond the road, on one side, was a wide stretch of barren
+moorland, terminating at the foot of a long line of rather low and
+singularly funereal-looking hills; and, on the other, a black, thickly
+wooded chasm, at the bottom of which thundered a river. In every fitful
+outburst of lunar splendour each detail in the landscape stood out with
+almost microscopic clearness, but otherwise all lay heavily shrouded in an
+almost impenetrable mantle of gloom, from which there seemed to emanate
+strange, indefinable shadows, that, as far as Ronan could see, had no
+material counterparts.
+
+Naturally stout of heart and afraid of nothing, Ronan was, at the same
+time, a Celt, and possessed, in no small degree, all the Celtic awe and
+respect for anything associated with the supernatural. Hence, though he
+pushed steadily on and kept picturing to himself the face and form of his
+lady love, to win whom he was fully prepared to go to any extremity, he
+could not prevent himself from occasionally glancing with misgiving at
+some more than usually perplexing shadow, or, from time to time, prevent
+his heart from beating louder at the rustle of a gorse-bush, or the dismal
+hooting of an owl. In some mysterious fashion the night seemed to have
+suddenly changed everything, and to have vested every object and every
+trifling--or what in the daytime would have been trifling--sound with a
+significance that was truly enigmatical and startling.
+
+The air, however, with its blending of scents from the pines, and gorse,
+and heather, with ozone from the not far distant Solway Firth, was so
+delicious that Ronan kept throwing back his head to inhale great draughts
+of it; and it was whilst he thus stood a second, with his nostrils and
+forehead upturned, that he first became aware of an impending storm. At
+first a few big splashes, and the low moaning of the wind as it swept
+towards and past him from the far distant hill-tops; then more splashes,
+and then a downpour.
+
+Ronan, who was now walking abreast a low white wall, beyond which he could
+see one of those shelters that in Scotland are erected everywhere for the
+protection of both cattle and sheep from the terrible blizzards that
+nearly every winter devastate the country, perceiving the futility and
+danger of trying to face the storm, made for the wall and, climbing it,
+dropped over on the other side. As bad luck would have it, however, he
+alighted on a boulder and, unable to retain his foothold, slipped off it,
+striking his head a severe blow on the ground. For some seconds he lay
+unconscious, then, his senses gradually returning, he picked himself up
+and made for the shelter.
+
+Stumbling blindly forward towards the entrance of the building, he
+collided with a figure that suddenly seemed to rise from the ground, and
+for a moment his heart stood still, but his fears were quickly dissipated
+by the unmistakable sound of a human voice.
+
+"Who is that?" someone inquired in tremulous tones. "Oh, sir, are you one
+of the revellers?"
+
+"One of the revellers?" Ronan replied. "It's an ill night for any
+revelling. What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, are you one of the young men going to the fancy dress dance at
+the Spelkin Towers," the voice responded. "But your accent tells me you
+are not; you don't belong to these parts. You are Irish."
+
+"That is truly said," Ronan answered. "My home is in Dublin, and it's the
+first time I have set foot on Dumfries soil, and I'll stake every penny in
+my purse it will be the last. I'm bound for Lockerbie, but I'm thinking it
+will be the early hours of the morning before I get there."
+
+"For Lockerbie," the voice replied. "Why that's a distance of about twenty
+miles. It's a straight road, however, and you pass the Spelkin Towers on
+the way. It stands in a clump of trees about a hundred yards back from the
+road, on this side of it, about three miles from here. If there were a
+moon you would easily recognise the place by the big white gate leading
+directly to it."
+
+"So I might, but why waste my time and your breath. The Spelkins, or
+whatever you call it, has naught to do with me. I'm bound for Lockerbie,
+I tell you, and as the rain seems to be abating I intend moving on again."
+
+"Sir," the woman pleaded, "I pray you stay a few moments and listen to
+what I have to say. A gentleman is going to the revels to-night for whom I
+have a letter of the utmost importance. His name is Dunloe--Mr Robert
+Dunloe of Annan. He is due at the Towers at eight o'clock, and should
+surely be passing here almost at this very moment. But, sir, I durst not
+wait for him any longer, as I have an aged mother at home who has been
+taken suddenly and violently ill. For mercy's sake I beg of you to wait
+and give him the letter in my stead."
+
+"Give him the letter in your stead!" Ronan ejaculated. "Why, I may never
+see him--indeed, the odds are a thousand to one I never shall. I'm in a
+hurry, too. I can't stay hanging around here all night. Besides, how
+should I know him?"
+
+"He's dressed as a jester," the woman answered, "and if the wind is not
+blowing too strong you'll hear the sound of his bells. He's sure to be
+coming by very soon. Oh, sir, do me this favour, I pray you."
+
+As she spoke the rain ceased and the moon, suddenly appearing from behind
+a bank of clouds, revealed her face. It was startlingly white, and in a
+strange, elfish kind of way, beautiful. Ronan gazed at it in astonishment,
+it was altogether so different from the face he had pictured from the
+voice, and as he stared down into the big, black eyes raised pleadingly to
+his, he felt curiously fascinated, and all idea of resistance at once
+departed.
+
+"All right," he said slowly, "I will do as you wish. A man in
+Court-jester's costume, with jingling bells, answering to the name of
+Robert Dunloe. Hand me the letter, and I will wait in the road till he
+passes."
+
+She obeyed, and, taking from her bosom an envelope, handed it to him.
+
+"Oh, sir," she said softly, "I can't tell you how grateful I am. It is
+most kind of you--most chivalrous, and I am sure you will one day be
+rewarded. Hark! footsteps. A number of them. It must be some of the
+revellers. I must remain here till they pass, for I would not for the
+world have them see me; they are rude, boisterous fellows, and have little
+respect for a maiden when they meet her alone on the highway. There have
+been some dreadful doings of late around here."
+
+She laid one of her little white hands on Ronan's arm as she spoke, and,
+with the forefinger of the other placed on her lips, enjoined silence.
+Then as the footsteps and voices, which had been drawing nearer and
+nearer, passed close to them and died gradually away in the distance, she
+hurriedly bade Ronan farewell, and darted nimbly away in the darkness.
+
+Ronan stood for some minutes where she had left him, half expecting she
+would reappear, but at last, convinced that she had really taken her
+departure, he climbed the wall, back again into the road, and waited. Had
+it not been for the envelope, which certainly felt material enough, Ronan
+would have been inclined to attribute it all to some curious kind of
+hallucination--the girl was so different--albeit so subtly and
+inexplicably different--from anyone he had ever seen before. But that
+envelope with the name "Robert Dunloe, Esquire," so clearly and
+beautifully superscribed on it, was a proof of her reality, and, as he
+stood fingering the missive and pondering the subject over in his mind, he
+once again heard the sound of footsteps. This time they were the footsteps
+of one person only, and, as he had been led to expect, they were
+accompanied by the faint jingle, jingle of bells.
+
+The moon, now quite free from clouds, rendered every object so clearly
+visible that Ronan, looking in the direction from which the sounds came,
+soon detected a tall, oddly attired figure, whilst still a long way off,
+advancing towards him with big, swinging strides. Had he not been
+prepared for someone in fancy costume, Ronan might have felt somewhat
+alarmed, for a Scotch moor in the dead of winter is hardly the place where
+one would expect to encounter a masquerader in jester's costume.
+
+Moreover, though the magnifying action of the moon's rays were probably
+accountable for it, there seemed to be something singularly bizarre about
+the figure, apart from its clothes; its head seemed abnormally round and
+small, its limbs abnormally long and emaciated, and its movements
+remarkably automatic and at the same time spiderlike.
+
+Ronan gripped the envelope in his hand--it was solid enough; therefore,
+the queer, fantastic-looking thing, stalking so grotesquely towards him,
+must be solid too--a mere man--and Ronan forced a laugh. Another moment,
+and he had stepped out from under cover of the wall.
+
+"Are you Mr Robert Dunloe?" he asked, "because, if so, I have a letter for
+you."
+
+The figure halted, and the white, parchment-like face with two very light
+green, cat-like eyes, bent down and favoured Ronan with a half-frightened,
+but penetrating gaze.
+
+"Yes," came the reply, "I am Mr Dunloe. But how came you with a letter for
+me? Give it to me at once." And before Ronan could prevent him, he had
+snatched the envelope from his grasp, and, having broken open the seal,
+was reading the contents.
+
+"Ah!" he ejaculated. "What a fool! I might have known so all along, but
+it's not too late." Then he folded the letter in his hand and stood
+holding it, apparently buried in thought.
+
+Ronan, whose hot Irish temper had been roused by the rude manner in which
+the stranger had obtained possession of the missive, would have moved on
+and left him, had he not felt restrained by the same peculiar fascination
+he had experienced when talking to the girl.
+
+"I trust," he at length remarked, "that your letter contains no ill news.
+The lady who requested me to give it you mentioned the fact that a
+relative of hers had been taken very ill."
+
+"When and where did you see her?" the stranger queried, his eyes once
+again seeking Ronan's face with the same fixed, penetrating stare.
+
+"In that shelter over there," Ronan answered, pointing to it. "We were
+strangers to one another, and I was sheltering from the storm. I explained
+to her that I was on my way to Lockerbie, and in no little hurry to get
+there, but she begged me so earnestly to await your arrival, so that I
+might hand you the letter, that she might be free to return home at once,
+that I consented. That is all that passed between us."
+
+"She went?"
+
+"Yes, she slipped away suddenly in the darkness, where I don't know."
+
+The stranger mused for a few moments, stroking his chin with long, lean
+fingers. Then he suddenly seemed to wake up, and spoke again, but this
+time in a far more courteous fashion.
+
+"Young man," he said, "I believe you. You have a candid expression in your
+eyes, and an honest ring in your voice. Men that speak in such tones
+seldom lie. You are kind-hearted, too, and I am going to ask of you a
+favour. Yesterday morning, in Annan, two of the leading townsfolk laid me
+a wager that I would not attend a ball to-night at the Spelkin Towers,
+and, attired as a Court jester, walk all the way to and fro, no matter how
+inclement the weather. I accepted the challenge, and now, having
+progressed so far, I should aim at completing my task, but for this
+letter, which fully corroborates what the young lady told you, and informs
+me that a very old and dear friend of mine is dying, and would at all
+costs see me at once, as she has an important statement to make for my
+ears only. Now, sir, I cannot possibly go to her in these outlandish
+clothes, lest the shock of seeing me so attired should prove too much for
+her in her present serious condition. Can I prevail upon your charity and
+chivalry--for once again it is on behalf of a woman--and good Christian
+spirit--for I doubt not, from your demeanour, that you have been brought
+up in a truly God-fearing and pious manner--to persuade you to change
+costumes with me over yonder in that shed. I would then be able to appear
+before my poor, dying friend in suitable, sober garments, whilst you would
+be free to go to the ball, and, by posing as Mr Robert Dunloe, share the
+proceeds of my wager with me."
+
+Then, noting the expression that came over Ronan's face, he added quickly:
+
+"You will incur no risks. I am a comparative stranger in these parts--none
+of the revellers know me by sight. All you will have to do on your arrival
+at the Towers will be to explain to your host, Sir Hector McBlane, the
+nature of the wager, and ask him to give you some record of your
+attendance that I can subsequently show to my two friends. Remember, sir,
+that it is not only for the sake of gratifying a dying woman's wish that I
+am asking this favour of you, but it is also to make sure that the young
+lady who gave you the letter shall not be jeopardised."
+
+Ronan hesitated. Had such a mystifying proposition been made to him on any
+other occasion he would, perhaps, have rejected it at once as the sheerest
+lunacy; but there was something about this night--the wild grandeur of the
+silent moonlit scenery, the intoxicating sweetness of the subtly scented
+air, to say nothing of the maiden whose elfish appearance had seemed in
+such absolute harmony both with the soft, silvery starlight and the black
+granite boulders--that was wholly different from anything Ronan had ever
+experienced before, and his deeply emotional and easily excited
+temperament, rising in hot rebellion against his reason, urged him to
+embark upon what he persuaded himself might prove a vastly entertaining
+adventure. He consequently agreed to do as the stranger suggested, and,
+accompanying him into the shelter, he exchanged clothes with him.
+
+After arranging to meet in the same spot at four o'clock in the morning,
+the two men parted, the stranger making off across the moors, and Ronan
+continuing along the high road.
+
+Nothing of moment occurred again till Ronan caught sight of the clump of
+pines, from the centre of which rose the Spelkin Towers, and a few yards
+farther on perceived the white wooden gate that the elfish maiden had
+described to him. On his approach, several figures, in fancy dress and
+wearing dominoes, advanced to meet him, and one, with a low bow, inquired
+if he had the honour of addressing Mr Robert Dunloe.
+
+"Why, yes," Ronan responded, with some astonishment, "but I did not think
+anyone knew I was coming here to-night saving our host, Sir Hector
+McBlane."
+
+"That is because you are so modest," was the reply. "I can assure you, Mr
+Dunloe, your fame has preceded you, and everyone present here to-night
+will be eagerly looking forward to the moment of your arrival. Let me
+introduce you to my friends. Sir Frederick Clanstradie, Sir Austin
+Maltravers, Lord Henry Baxter, Mr Leslie de Vaux."
+
+Each of the guests bowed in turn as their names were pronounced, and then,
+at a signal from the spokesman, who informed Ronan he was Sir Philip
+McBlane, cousin to their host, they proceeded in a body to the queerly
+constructed mansion.
+
+Inside Ronan could see no sign whatever of any festivity, but on being
+told that Sir Hector was awaiting him in the ball-room, he allowed himself
+to be conducted along a bare, gloomy passage and down a narrow flight of
+steep stone steps into a large dungeon-like chamber, piled up in places
+with strange-looking lumber, and in one corner of which he perceived a
+tall figure, draped from head to foot in the hideous black garments of a
+Spanish inquisitor, standing in the immediate vicinity of a heap of loose
+bricks and freshly made mortar, and bending over a cauldron full of what
+looked like simmering tar. The whole aspect of the room was indeed so grim
+and forbidding, that Ronan drew back in dismay and turned to Sir Philip
+and his comrades for an explanation.
+
+Before, however, anyone could speak, the figure in the inquisitorial robes
+advanced, and, bidding Ronan welcome, declared that he considered it both
+an honour and a privilege to entertain so illustrious a guest.
+
+Not knowing how to reply to a greeting that seemed so absurdly
+exaggerated, Ronan merely mumbled out something to the effect that he was
+delighted to come, and then lapsed into an awkward and embarrassed
+silence, during which he could feel the eyes of everyone fixed on him with
+an expression he could not for the life of him make out.
+
+Finally, the inquisitor, whom Ronan now divined was Sir Hector McBlane,
+after expressing a hope that the ladies would soon make their appearance,
+invited the gentlemen to partake of some refreshments.
+
+Bottles scattered in untidy profusion upon a plain deal table were then
+uncorked, and the sinisterly clad host proposed they should all drink a
+toast of welcome to their distinguished guest, Mr Robert Dunloe.
+
+Up to the present Ronan had only been conscious of what seemed to him
+courtesy and cordiality in the voices of his fellow-guests, but now, as
+one and all clinked glasses and shouted in unison, "For he's a jolly good
+fellow, and so say all of us," he fancied he could detect something rather
+different; what it was he could not say, but it gave him the same feeling
+of doubt and uncertainty as had the expression in their faces immediately
+after his introduction to Sir Hector.
+
+Again there was an embarrassed silence, which was eventually broken by
+Ronan, who, perceiving that something was expected from him, at length
+stood up and responded to the toast.
+
+His speech was of very short duration, but it was hardly over, before a
+loud rapping of high-heeled shoes sounded on the stone steps, and a number
+of women, dressed in every conceivable fashion, from the quaintly
+picturesque costume of the Middle Ages to the still fondly remembered and
+popular Empire gown, came trooping into the room. Their curiously clumsy
+movements caused Ronan to scrutinise them somewhat closely, but it was
+not until, in response to a wild outburst on wheezy flutes and derelict
+bagpipes, the assembly commenced dancing, that he awoke to the fact which
+now seemed obvious enough, that these weird-looking women were not women
+at all, but merely men mummers.
+
+For the next few minutes the noise and confusion were such that Ronan,
+whose temples had been set on fire by the wine, hardly knew whether he was
+standing on his head or his feet. First one of the pretended women, and
+then another, solicited the honour of dancing with him, until at last,
+through sheer fatigue and giddiness, he was constrained to stop and lean
+for support against the walls of the building.
+
+He was still in this attitude, when the music, if such one could style it,
+suddenly ceased, and the whole company, as if by a preconcerted signal,
+suddenly stood at attention, as still and silent as statues.
+
+Sir Hector McBlane then approached Ronan with a bow, and informing him
+that his bride awaited him in the bridal chamber, declared that the time
+had now arrived for his introduction to her.
+
+This announcement was so unexpected and extraordinary that Ronan lost all
+power of speech, and, before he could realise what was taking place, he
+found himself being conducted by his host to a dimly lighted corner of the
+room, where he perceived, for the first time, a recess or kind of cell,
+measuring not more than four feet in depth, and three feet across, but
+reaching upwards to the same height as the ceiling. Exactly in the centre
+of it was a tall figure, absolutely stiff and motionless, and clad in
+long, flowing, white garments.
+
+Still too bewildered and astonished to protest or remonstrate, Ronan
+permitted himself to be led right up to the figure, which a sudden flare
+from a torch held by one of the revellers, enabled him to perceive was
+merely a huge rag doll, decked out in sham jewellery, with a painted,
+leering face and a mass of tow hair, a clever but ridiculous caricature of
+a woman. He was about to demand an angry explanation of the foolery, when
+he was pushed violently forward, and, before he could recover his
+equilibrium, a rope was wound several times round his body, and he was
+strapped tightly to the doll, which was securely attached to an iron stake
+fixed perpendicularly in the ground.
+
+Loud shouts of laughter now echoed from one end of the chamber to the
+other, the merriment being further increased when Sir Hector, with an
+assumed gravity, presented his humblest respects to the bride and
+bridegroom, and hoped that they would enjoy a long and very happy
+honeymoon.
+
+Ronan, whose indignation was by this time raised to boiling pitch,
+furiously demanded to be released, but the more angry he became, the more
+his tormentors mocked, until at length even walls, floor, and ceiling
+seemed to become infected and to shake with an uncontrollable and devilish
+mirth. Finally, however, when things had gone on in this fashion for some
+time, Sir Hector again spoke, and this time announced in loud tones that,
+as he was quite sure the bride and bridegroom must now be wishing for
+nothing better than to be left to themselves, he and his guests would now
+proceed to seal up the bridal chamber.
+
+A general bustle and subsequent clinking of metal on the stone floor,
+immediately following this speech, left Ronan in no doubt whatever as to
+what was happening. He was, of course, being bricked up. Now although he
+felt assured that it was all a joke, he also felt it was a joke that had
+gone on quite long enough. It was only too clear to him that, for some
+reason or another, Mr Robert Dunloe was very far from popular with these
+masqueraders, and he began to wonder if Mr Dunloe's explanation of his
+desire to exchange clothes was the correct one, whether, in fact, Mr
+Dunloe had not got an inkling of what was going to happen to him from the
+elfish girl's letter, and whether he had not merely trumped up the story
+of the sick woman and the wager for the occasion.
+
+In any case Ronan felt that he had been let down badly, and since he did
+not see why he should still pretend to be the man who had taken such
+advantage of him, he called out:
+
+"Look here, I've a confession to make. You think I'm Mr Robert Dunloe, but
+I'm not. My name is Ronan Malachy. I'm staying with my uncle, Mr Hugh
+Malachy, near Birkenhead, and anyone there would confirm my identity. I
+was bound to-night for Lockerbie, when I met a girl who begged me to wait
+in the road and deliver a letter for her to an individual dressed as a
+Court jester, and styling himself Robert Dunloe, who would presently pass
+by. Not liking to refuse a lady, I agreed, and when I had given the man
+the letter, and he had read it, he told me that it was a summons to attend
+the death-bed of a very dear friend and urged me to exchange clothes with
+him, in order that he might go suitably attired. To this I naturally
+assented, and he then begged me to impersonate him here, as he had laid a
+big wager that he would be present at this ball and would walk all the way
+from Annan in this costume."
+
+Ronan was about to add more, when Sir Hector McBlane approached the mound
+of bricks, which was already breast high, and, looking straight at him,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Robert Dunloe, it is useless to try and hoodwink us. We know all about
+you. We know that you were once arrested for highway robbery and murder,
+but got off through turning King's evidence against your mate, 'Hal of the
+seventeen strings,' who was hanged at Lancaster; that you then, took up
+Government spying as a trade, and got a score of the best fellows who ever
+breathed life sentences at Morecombe for smuggling a few casks of brandy.
+A month ago we heard that you were coming to Annan to try and place a rope
+round some of our necks for the same so-called felony, and we determined
+that we would be first in the field and teach you a lesson. We are now
+going to seal you up and leave you to soliloquise over the rope which is
+round you, and which is, doubtless, of the same hue and texture as that
+which has hanged the many that have been sentenced through your treachery.
+Adieu."
+
+It was in vain, when Sir Hector had finished speaking, that Ronan
+alternately pleaded and swore; he could get no further reply. The layers
+of bricks rose, till only one was left to render the task complete; and
+already the air within was becoming fetid and oppressive. A terrible sense
+of utter and hopeless isolation now surged through Ronan, and forced him
+once again to call out:
+
+"For the love of God," he said, "set me free. For the LOVE OF GOD."
+
+He had barely uttered these words, when the whole assembly looked at one
+another with startled faces.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed one. "Do you hear that screaming and clapping? What in
+the world is it?"
+
+"I should say," said another, "that it was some puir bairn being done to
+death were it not for the clapping, but that gets over me. Whatever can it
+mean?"
+
+At that moment steps were heard descending the stairs in a great hurry,
+and a young man, with bright red hair, and dressed strictly in accordance
+with the fashion prevailing at that time, burst into the room.
+
+"Boys," he exclaimed, his voice shaking with emotion, "I have just seen
+the Banshee. She was in the road outside the gates of this house, running
+backwards and forwards, just as I saw her five years ago in Kerry, and, as
+I tried to pass her by to get on my way to Dumfries, she waved me back,
+shaking her fist and screaming at the same time. Then she signalled to me
+to come here, and ran on ahead of me, crying, and groaning, and clapping
+her hands. And as I knew it would be as much as my life is worth to
+disobey her, I followed. You can still hear her outside, keening and
+screeching. But what are all these bricks for, and this mortar?"
+
+"The informer, Robert Dunloe," exclaimed one of the revellers. "We have
+been bricking him up for a lark, and intend keeping him here till the
+morning."
+
+"It's a lie," Ronan shouted. "I'm no more Dunloe than any of you. I'm
+Ronan Malachy, I tell you, and my home is in Dublin. I heard an Irish
+voice just now, surely he can tell I'm Irish, too."
+
+"Arrah, I believe you," said the new-comer. "It's the real brogue you've
+got, and none other, though it's not so pronounced as is my own; but may
+be you've lived longer in this country than I. Pull down those bricks,
+boys, and let me have a look at him."
+
+"No, no," cried several voices, angrily. "Anybody could take you in, Pat.
+He's Dunloe right enough; and now we've got him, we intend to keep him."
+
+In the altercation that now ensued, some sided with the Irishman, and some
+against him; but over and above all the clamour and confusion the voice of
+the Banshee could still be heard shrieking, and wailing, and clapping her
+hands.
+
+At last someone struck a blow, and in an instant swords were drawn, sticks
+and cudgels were used, furniture was flung about freely, and table,
+brazier, and cauldron were overturned; and the blazing pitch and red hot
+coals, coming in contact with piled up articles of all kinds--casks,
+chests, boxes, musty old books, paper and logs--it was not long before the
+whole chamber became a mass of flames.
+
+One or two of the calmer and more sober revellers attempted to get to the
+recess and batter down the bricks, which were merely placed together
+without cement, but the fury of the flames drove them back, and the
+hapless Ronan was, in the end, abandoned to his fate.
+
+Hideously aware of what was going on, he struggled desperately to free
+himself, and, at last succeeding, made a frantic attempt to reach a small
+window, placed at a height of some seven or eight feet from the floor.
+After several fruitless efforts he triumphed, only to discover, however,
+that the aperture was just too small for his body to pass through.
+
+The flames had, by this time, reached the entrance to the recess, and the
+heat from them was so stupendous that Ronan, weak and exhausted after his
+long fast and all the harrowing and exciting moments he had passed
+through, let go his hold, and, falling backwards, struck his head a
+terrific crash on the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Much to his amazement, on recovering his faculties, Ronan found himself
+lying out of doors. Above him was no abysmal darkness, only the heavens
+brilliantly lighted by moon and stars, whilst as far as his sight could
+travel was free and open space, a countryside dotted here and there with
+gorse bushes and the silvery shimmering surface of moorland tarns. He
+turned round, and close beside him was a big boulder of rock that he now
+remembered slipping from when he had dropped over the wall to take cover
+from the storm. And there, sure enough, was the shelter. He got up and
+went towards it. It was quite deserted, no one was there, not even a cow,
+and the silence that came to him was just the ordinary silence of the
+night, with nothing in it weirder or more arrestive than the rushing of
+distant water and the occasional croaking of a toad. Considerably
+mystified, and unable to decide in his mind whether all he had gone
+through had been a dream or not, he now clambered back into the road and
+pursued his way, according to his original intention, towards Lockerbie.
+
+On reaching the spot where he had in his dream, or whatever it was, first
+sighted the Spelkin Towers, he perceived, to his amazement, the very same
+building, apparently exact in every detail. On approaching nearer he found
+the white gate, but whereas when he had beheld the Towers only such a
+short time ago, there had been a feeble flicker of artificial light in
+some of the slit-like windows, all was now gloomy and deserted, and, still
+further to his amazement, he perceived, on opening the gate and entering,
+that the building was, to some extent, in ruins, and that the charred
+timber and blackened walls gave every indication of its having been
+partially destroyed by fire.
+
+Totally unable to account for his experience, but convinced in his own
+mind that it was not all a dream, he now hurried on, and reached his
+aunt's house in Lockerbie, just in time to wash and tidy himself for
+breakfast.
+
+After the meal, and when he was sitting with his aunt by the fire in the
+drawing-room, Ronan not only announced to her the purpose of his visit,
+but gave her a detailed account of his journey and adventures on the way,
+asking her in conclusion what she thought of his experience, whether she
+believed it to be merely a dream or, in very truth, an encounter with the
+denizens of ghostland.
+
+Miss Bridget Malachy, who during Ronan's recitation obviously had found
+it extremely difficult to maintain silence, now gave vent to her feelings.
+
+"I cannot tell you," she said excitedly, "how immensely interested I am in
+all you have told me. Last night was the anniversary of your father's
+strange disappearance. I had only been living here a few weeks, when I
+received a letter from him, saying he had business to transact in the
+North of England, and would like to spend two or three days with me. He
+gave me the exact route he intended to travel by from Dublin, and the
+exact hour he expected to arrive. Your father was the most precise man I
+ever met.
+
+"Well, on the night before the day he was due to arrive, as I was sitting
+in this very room, writing, I suddenly heard a tapping at the window, as
+if produced by the beak and claws of some bird, or very long finger nails.
+Wondering what it could be, I got up, and, pulling aside the blind,
+received the most violent shock. There, looking directly in at me, with an
+expression of the most intense sorrow and pity in its eyes, was the face
+of a woman. The cheeks shone with a strange, startling whiteness, and the
+long, straggling hair fell in a disordered mass low over her neck and
+shoulders. As her gaze met mine she tapped the window with her long, white
+fingers and, throwing back her head, uttered the most harrowing,
+heart-rending scream. Convinced now that she was the Banshee, which I had
+often had described to me by my friends, I was not so much frightened as
+interested, and I was about to address her and ask her what in God's name
+she wanted, when she abruptly vanished, and I found myself staring into
+space.
+
+"A week later, I received tidings that a body, believed to be your
+father's, had just been recovered from the Solway Firth, and I was asked
+to go at once and identify it. I went, and though it had remained in the
+water too long, perhaps, to be easily recognisable, I was absolutely
+certain my surmises were correct, and that the body was that of a
+stranger. It was that of a man somewhat taller than your father, and the
+tips of his fingers, moreover, were spatulate, whereas, like all the rest
+of our family's, your father's fingers were pointed. From what you have
+told me I am now convinced that I really was right, and that your father,
+falling into the hands of the smugglers, who, at that time, infested the
+whole of this neighbourhood, did actually meet with foul play. I recollect
+perfectly well the fire at the Spelkin Towers the night your father
+disappeared, but, until now, I never in any way associated the event with
+him. Do, I beseech you, make a thorough search of the ruins and see if
+you can find anything that will help to substantiate your story and prove
+that your experience was of a nature very different from that of an
+ordinary dream."
+
+Ronan needed no further bidding. Accompanied by his aunt's gardener and
+two or three villagers--for the gardener would not venture there without a
+formidable escort; the place, he said, bore a most evil and sinister
+reputation--he at once proceeded to the Towers, and, in one of the
+cellars, bricked up in a recess, they found a skeleton--the skeleton of a
+man, on one of whose fingers was a signet-ring, which Miss Bridget Malachy
+at once identified as having belonged to her missing brother. Moreover,
+with the remains were a few tattered shreds--all that was left of the
+clothes--and, though blackened and rusty, a number of tiny bells, such as
+might have once adorned the cap of a Court jester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Spelkin Towers is still haunted, for it has ghosts of its own, but
+never, I believe, since that memorable experience of Ronan's within its
+grey and lichen-covered walls, has it again been visited by the Banshee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE
+
+
+In order definitely to establish my claim to the Banshee, I am obliged to
+state here that the family to which I belong is the oldest branch of the
+O'Donnells, and dates back in direct unbroken line to Niall of the Nine
+Hostages. I am therefore genuinely Celtic Irish, but, in addition to that,
+I have in my veins strains both of the blood of the O'Briens of Thomond
+(whose Banshee visited Lady Fanshawe), and of the O'Rourkes, Princes of
+Brefni; for my ancestor, Edmund O'Donnell, married Bridget, daughter of
+O'Rourk of the house of Brefni, and his mother was the daughter of Donat
+O'Brien of the house of Thomond. All of which, and more, may be
+ascertained by a reference to the Records of the Truagh O'Donnells.[15]
+
+Possibly my first experience of the Banshee occurred before I was old
+enough to take note of it. I lost my father when I was a baby. He left
+home with the intention of going on a brief visit to Palestine, but,
+meeting on the way an ex-officer of the Anglo-Indian army, who had been
+engaged by the King of Abyssinia to help in the work of remodelling the
+Abyssinian army, he abandoned his idea of visiting the Holy Land, and
+decided to go to Abyssinia instead.
+
+What actually happened then will probably never be known. His death was
+reported to have taken place at Arkiko, a small village some two hours
+walking distance from Massowah, and from the letters[16] subsequently
+received from the French Consul at Massowah and several other people, as
+well as from the entries in his diary (the latter being recovered with
+other of his personal effects and sent home with them), there seems to
+have been little, if any, doubt that he was trapped and murdered, the
+object being robbery.
+
+The case created quite a sensation at the time, and is referred to in a
+work entitled "The Oriental Zig-zag," by Charles Hamilton, who, I believe,
+stayed some few years later at the house at Massowah, where my father
+lodged, and was stated to have shared his fate.
+
+With regard to the supernatural happenings in connection with the event.
+The house that my father had occupied before setting out for the East was
+semi-detached, the first house in a row, which at that time was not
+completed. It was situated in a distinctly lonely spot. On the one side of
+it, and to the rear, were gardens, bounded by fields, and people rarely
+visited the place after nightfall.
+
+On the night preceding my father's death, my mother was sitting in the
+dining-room, which overlooked the back garden, reading. It was a windy but
+fine night, and, save for the rustling of the leaves, and an occasional
+creaking of the shutters, absolutely still. Suddenly, from apparently just
+under the window, there rang out a series of the most harrowing screams.
+Immeasurably startled, and fearing, at first, that it was some woman being
+murdered in the garden, my mother summoned the servants, and they all
+listened. The sounds went on, every moment increasing in vehemence, and
+there was an intensity and eeriness about them that speedily convinced the
+hearers that they could be due to no earthly agency. After lasting several
+minutes they finally died away in a long, protracted wail, full of such
+agony and despair, that my mother and her companions were distressed
+beyond words.
+
+As soon as they could summon up the courage they went out and scoured the
+gardens, but though they looked everywhere, and there was little cover for
+anyone to hide, they could discover nothing that could in any way account
+for the noises. A dreadful fear then seized my mother. She believed that
+she had heard the Banshee which my father had often spoken about to her,
+and she was little surprised, when, in a few days time, the news reached
+her that my father was dead. He had died about dawn, the day after my
+mother and the servants had heard the screaming. I sent an account of the
+incident, together with other phenomena that happened about the same time,
+signed by two of the people who experienced them, to the Society for
+Psychical Research, who published it in their journal in the autumn of
+1899.
+
+I have vivid recollections of my mother telling me about it when I was a
+little boy, and I remember that every time I heard the shutters in the
+room where we sat rattle, and the wind moan and sigh in the chimney, I
+fully expected to hear terrible shrieks ring out, and to see some white
+and ghastly face pressed against the window-panes, peering in at me. After
+these recitations I was terrified at the darkness, and endured, when
+alone in my bedroom, agonies of mind that no grown-up person, perhaps,
+could ever realise. The house and garden, so very bright and cheerful, and
+in every way ordinary, in the daytime, when the sun was out, seemed to be
+entirely metamorphosed directly it was dusk. Shadows assuredly stranger
+than any other shadows--for as far as I could see they had no material
+counterpart--used to congregate on the stairs, and darken the paths and
+lawn.
+
+There were always certain spots that frightened me more than others, a
+bend in one of the staircases, for example, the banisters on the top
+landing, a passage in the basement of the house, and the path leading from
+the gate to the front door. Even in the daytime, occasionally, I was chary
+about passing these places. I felt by instinct something uncanny was
+there; something that was grotesque and sinister, and which had specially
+malevolent designs toward me. When I was alone I hurried past, often with
+my eyes shut; and at night time, I am not ashamed to admit, I often ran.
+Yet, at that time I had no knowledge that others beside myself thought
+these things and had these experiences. I did not know, for instance, that
+once, when my youngest sister, who was a little older than I, was passing
+along that passage I so much dreaded, she heard, close beside her, a
+short, sharp laugh, or chuckle, and so expressive of hatred and derision,
+that the sound of it haunted her memory ever after. I also did not know
+then that one evening, immediately prior to my father's death, when
+another of my sisters was running up the stairs, she saw, peering down at
+her from over the banisters on that top landing I so much dreaded, a face
+which literally froze her with horror. Crowned with a mass of disordered
+tow-coloured hair, the skin tightly drawn over the bones like a mummy, it
+looked as if it had been buried for several months and then resurrected.
+The light, obliquely set eyes, suffused with baleful glee, stared straight
+at her, while the mouth, just such a mouth as might have made that
+chuckle, leered. It did not seem to her to be the face of anyone that had
+ever lived, but to belong to an entirely different species, and to be the
+creation of something wholly evil. She looked at it for some seconds, too
+petrified to move or cry out, until, her faculties gradually reassuring
+themselves, she turned round from the spot and flew downstairs.
+
+Some years later, just before the death of my mother, at about the same
+time of day and in precisely the same place, the head was again seen,
+this time by my younger sister, the one who had heard the ghostly chuckle.
+
+I think, without doubt, that the chuckle, no less than the head, must be
+attributed to the malignant Banshee. I may add, perhaps, without
+digressing too much, that supernatural happenings, apart from the Banshee,
+were associated with both my parents' deaths. On the night following my
+father's murder, and on every subsequent night for a period of six weeks,
+my mother and the servants were aroused regularly at twelve o'clock by a
+sound, as of someone hammering down the lids of packing-cases, issuing
+from the room in the basement of the house, which my father had always
+used as a study. They then heard footsteps ascending the stairs and
+pausing outside each bedroom in turn, which they all recognised as my
+father's, and, occasionally, my old nurse used to see the door of the
+night nursery open, and a light, like the light of a candle outside,
+whilst at the same time she would hear, proceeding from the landing, a
+quick jabber, jabber, jabber, as of someone talking very fast, and trying
+very hard to say something intelligible. No one was ever seen when this
+voice and the footsteps, said to be my father's, were heard, but this
+circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that my father, just before
+leaving Ireland, had remarked to my mother that, should anything happen
+to him abroad, he would in his spirit appear to her; and she, growing pale
+at the mere thought, begged him to do no such thing, whereupon he had
+laughingly replied:
+
+"Very well then, I will find some other means of communicating with you."
+
+Many manifestations of a similar nature to the foregoing, and also, like
+the foregoing, having nothing to do with the Banshee, occurred immediately
+after the death of my mother, but of these I must give an account on some
+future occasion.
+
+Years passed, and nothing more was seen or heard of the Banshee till I was
+grown up. After leaving school I went to Dublin to read with Dr Chetwode
+Crawley, in Ely Place, for the Royal Irish Constabulary, and I might, I
+think, have passed into that Force, had it not been for the fact that at
+the preliminary medical examination some never-to-be-forgotten and, as I
+thought then, intensely ill-natured doctor, rejected me. Accordingly, I
+never entered for the literary, but returned home thoroughly dispirited,
+and faced with the urgent necessity of at once looking around for
+something to do. However, in a very short time I had practically settled
+on going to America to a ranch out West (a most disastrous venture as it
+subsequently proved to be), and it was immediately after I had reached
+this decision that my first actual experience with what I believe to have
+been the malevolent family Banshee occurred. It happened in the same house
+in which the other supernatural occurrences had taken place. All the
+family, saving myself, were away at the time, and I was the sole occupant
+of one of the landings, the servants being all together on another floor.
+
+I had gone to bed early, and had been sleeping for some time, when I was
+awakened about two o'clock by a loud noise, for which I could not account,
+and which reverberated in my ears for fully half a minute. I was sitting
+up, still wondering what on earth could have produced it, when,
+immediately over my head, I heard a laugh, an abrupt kind of chuckle, that
+was so malicious and evil that I could not possibly attribute it to any
+human agency, but rather to some entity of wholly satanic origin, and
+which my instinct told me was one of our attendant Banshees. I got out of
+bed, struck a light, and made a thorough investigation, not only of the
+room, but the landing outside. There was no one there, nothing, as far as
+I could see, that could in any way explain the occurrence. I threw open
+the bedroom window and looked out. The night was beautiful--the sky
+brilliantly illuminated with moon and stars--and everything perfectly
+still, excepting for the very faintest rustling of the leaves as the soft
+night breeze swept through the branches and set them in motion. I listened
+for some time, but, the hush continuing, I at last got back again into
+bed, and eventually fell asleep. I mentioned the incident in the morning
+to the servants, and they, too, had heard it.
+
+A short time afterwards I went to the United States, and had the most
+unhappy and calamitous experience in my whole career.
+
+My next experience of the Banshee happened two or three years later, when,
+having returned from America, I was living in Cornwall, running a small
+preparatory school, principally for delicate boys.
+
+The house I occupied was quite new, in fact I was the first tenant, and
+had watched it being built. It was the last house in a terrace, and facing
+it was a cliff, at the foot of which ran a steep path leading to the
+beach. At this particular time there was no one in the house but my aged
+housekeeper, by name Mrs Bolitho, and myself, and whilst Mrs Bolitho slept
+in a room on the first floor, I was the sole occupant of the floor
+immediately above it.
+
+One night I had been sitting up writing, rather later than usual, and,
+being very tired, had dropped off to sleep, almost immediately after
+getting into bed. I woke about two o'clock hearing a curious kind of
+tapping noise coming along the passage that ran parallel with my bed.
+Wondering what it could be, I sat up and listened. There were only bare
+boards outside, and the noise was very clear and resonant, but difficult
+to analyse. It might have been produced by the very high heels of a lady's
+boot or shoe, or the bony foot of a skeleton. I could compare it with
+nothing else. On it came, tap, tap, tap, till it finally seemed to halt
+outside my door. There was then a pause, during which I could feel
+somebody or something was listening most earnestly, making sure, I
+thought, whether I was awake or not, and then a terrific crash on one of
+the top panels of the door. After this there was silence. I got up, and,
+somewhat timidly opening the door, for I more than half expected to find
+myself confronted with something peculiarly dreadful and uncanny, peeped
+cautiously out. There was nothing to be seen, however; nothing but the
+cold splendour of the moon, which, shining through a window nearly
+opposite me, filled the entire passage with its beams. I went into each of
+the rooms on the landing in turn, but they were all empty, and there was
+nothing anywhere that could in any way account for what I had heard. In
+the morning I questioned Mrs Bolitho, but she had heard nothing.
+
+"For a wonder," she said, "I slept very soundly all through the night, and
+only awoke when it was time to get up."
+
+Two days later I received tidings of the death of my uncle, Colonel John
+Vize O'Donnell of Trough.[17] He had died almost suddenly, his death
+occurring a few hours after I had heard the footsteps and the knock.
+
+Three years after this experience I had moved into another house in the
+same town--also a new house, and also the last in a terrace. At the rear,
+and on one side of it, was a garden, flanked by a hedge, beyond which were
+fields that led in almost unbroken succession to the coast. It could not
+be altogether described as occupying a lonely position, although the
+fields were little frequented after dusk.
+
+Well, one night my wife and I were awakened about midnight by a series of
+the most agonising and heart-rending screams, which, if like anything
+earthly at all, seemed to us to be more like the screams of a woman in the
+very direst distress. The cries were so terrible and sounded so near to
+us, almost, in fact, in the room, that we were both horribly alarmed, and
+hardly knew what to say or think.
+
+"Whatever is happening?" my wife whispered, catching hold of me by the
+arm, "and what is it?"
+
+"I don't know," was my reply, "unless it is the Banshee, for there is
+nobody else that could make such a noise."
+
+The screams continued for some seconds, and then died away in one
+long-drawn-out wail or sob. I waited for some minutes to see if there was
+a repetition of the sounds, and, there being none, I at length got up, and
+not, I confess, without considerable apprehensions, went out on to the
+landing, where I found several of the other inmates of the house collected
+together discussing with scared faces the screams which they, too, had
+heard. An examination of the house and grounds was at once made, but
+nothing was discerned that could in any way account for the sounds, and I
+adhered to my opinion that it must have been the Banshee; which opinion
+was very considerably strengthened, when, a few days later, I received the
+news that an aunt of mine, an O'Donnell, in County Kerry, had passed away
+within twenty-four hours of the time the screaming had occurred. It is,
+perhaps, a dozen years or so since we left Cornwall, and my latest
+experience of the Banshee took place in the house in which we are now
+living near the Crystal Palace.
+
+The experience occurred in connection with the death of my youngest
+sister. On the night preceding her decease I dreamed most vividly that I
+saw the figure of a female dressed in some loose-flowing, fantastic
+garment come up the path leading to the house, and knock very loudly
+several times, in quick succession, at the back door. I was going to
+answer, when a sudden terror held me back.
+
+"It's the Banshee," a voice whispered in my ear, "the Banshee. Don't let
+her in, she's coming for one of you."
+
+This so startled me that I awoke. I then found that my wife was awake
+also, trembling all over, and in a great state of excitement.
+
+"Did you hear that tremendous knock?" she whispered.
+
+"What!" I replied. "You don't mean to say there really was a knock? Why, I
+fancied it was only in my dream."
+
+"You may have dreamt it," she said, "but I didn't--I heard it; it was at
+this door, not at the front door. I say knock, but it was really a
+crash--a terrific crash on the top panel of the door."
+
+We anxiously waited to see if there would be a repetition, but, nothing
+happening, we lay down again, and eventually went to sleep.
+
+On the following day we received a telegram informing us that at ten
+o'clock that morning my sister had passed away.
+
+Since then, I am glad to relate I have not again come in contact with the
+Banshee. At the same time, however, there are occasions when I feel very
+acutely that she is not far away, and I am seldom, if ever, perhaps,
+absolutely free from an impression that she hovers near at hand, ready to
+manifest herself the moment either death or disaster threaten any member
+of my family. Moreover, that she takes a peculiar interest in my personal
+affairs, I have, alas, only too little reason to doubt.
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDA
+
+
+In reply to a letter of mine asking for particulars of the Banshee alleged
+to be attached to the Inchiquin family, I received the following:
+
+     "I think the name (of the Banshee) was OBENHEIM, but I am not sure.
+     Two or three people have told me that she appeared before my
+     grandfather's death, but none of them either saw or heard her, but
+     they had met people who did say they had heard her."
+
+Writing also for particulars of the Banshee to a cousin of the head of one
+of the oldest Irish clans, I received a long letter, from which I will
+quote the following:
+
+     "I have heard 'the Banshee' cry. It is simply like a woman wailing in
+     the most unearthly fashion. At the time an O'Neill was in this house,
+     and she subsequently heard that her eldest brother had died on that
+     night between twelve a.m. and three a.m., when we all of us heard the
+     Banshee wailing. I heard her also at my mother's death, and at the
+     death of my husband's eldest sister. The cry is not always quite the
+     same. When my dear mother died, it was a very low wail which seemed
+     to go round and round the house.
+
+     "At the death of one of the great O'Neill family, we located the cry
+     at one end of the house. When my sister-in-law died I was wakened up
+     by a loud scream in my room in the middle of the night. She had died
+     at that instant. I heard the Banshee one day, driving in the country,
+     at a distance. Sometimes the Banshee, who follows old families, is
+     heard by the whole village. Some people say she is red-haired and
+     wears a long flowing white dress. She is supposed to wring her long
+     thick hair. Others say she appears as a small woman dressed in black.
+
+     "Such an apparition did appear to me in the daytime before my
+     mother-in-law died."
+
+The writer of this letter has asked me not to publish her name, but I have
+it by me in case corroboration is needed.
+
+In reference to the O'Donnell Banshee, Chapter XIII., my sister,
+Petronella O'Donnell, writes:
+
+     "I remember vividly my first experience of our Banshee. I had never
+     heard of it at the time, and in fact I have only heard of it in
+     recent years.
+
+     "It happened one day that I went into the hall, in the daytime, I
+     forget the exact hour, and as I climbed the stairway, being yet a
+     small child, I happened to look up. There, looking over the rails at
+     the top of the stairway, was an object so horrible that I shudder
+     when I think of it even now. In a greenish halo of light the most
+     terrible head imagination could paint--only this was no imagination,
+     I knew it was a real object--was looking at me with apparently
+     fiendish fire in its light and leering eyes. The head was neither man
+     nor woman's; it was ages old; it might have been buried and dug up
+     again, it was so skull-like and shrunken; its pallor was horrible,
+     grey and mildewy; its hair was long. Its mouth leered, and its light
+     and cruel eyes seemed determined to hurt me to the utmost, with the
+     terror it inspired. I remember how my childish heart rebelled against
+     its cowardice in trying to hurt and frighten so small a child. Gazing
+     back at it in petrified horror, I slowly returned to the room I had
+     come from. I resolved never to tell anyone about it, I was so proud
+     and reserved by nature.
+
+     "I had then two secret terrors hidden in my Irish heart. The first
+     one I have never till recently spoken of to anyone; it happened
+     before I saw this awful head. I was asleep, but yet I knew I was
+     _not_ asleep. Suddenly, down the road that led to our home in Ireland
+     came an object so terrible that for years after my child's heart used
+     to stand still at the memory of it. The object I saw coming down to
+     our house was a procession--there were several pairs of horses being
+     led by grooms in livery, pulling an old coach with them. It was a
+     large and awful looking old coach! The horses were headless, and the
+     men who led them were headless, and even now as I write, the awful
+     terror of it all comes over me, it was a terror beyond words. I
+     _knew_, I felt certain they had come to cut off my head! This
+     procession of headless things stopped at our door, the men entered
+     the house, chased me up to the very top of it, and then cut off my
+     head! I can remember saying to myself, 'Now I am dead, I am dead, I
+     can suffer no more.'
+
+     "They then went back to the coach, and the procession moved away and
+     was lost to view.
+
+     "Night after night I lay shivering with terror, for months, for
+     years, there was such a _lurid_ horror about this headless
+     procession.
+
+     "Some weeks after I saw the head, we heard that our father had been
+     killed about that time in Egypt, murdered it was supposed. My mother
+     died some years afterwards.
+
+     "One evening, when I was grown up, we were sitting round the fire
+     with friends, and someone said:
+
+     "'I don't believe in ghosts. Have you ever met anyone who has seen
+     one? I have not!'
+
+     "A sudden impulse came over me--never to that moment had I ever
+     mentioned the head--and, leaning forward, I said:
+
+     "'I have seen a ghost; I saw the most terrible head when I was a
+     child, looking over the staircase.'
+
+     "To my astonishment my sister, who was sitting near me, said:
+
+     "'I saw a most terrible head, too, looking over the staircase.'
+
+     "I said:
+
+     "'When did you see it? I saw it when our father died.'
+
+     "And she said:
+
+     "'And, _I_ saw it when our mother died.'
+
+     "In describing it, we found all the details agreed, and learned not
+     long after that it was without doubt our own Banshee we had seen.
+
+     "People have said to me that Banshees are heard, not seen. This is
+     not correct, it all depends if one is clairvoyant or clairaudient.
+
+     "I remember when my mother was alive, how I came in from a walk one
+     evening and found the whole house in a ferment, the most terrible
+     screaming and crying had been heard pass over the house. Our mother
+     said it must be the Banshee. Sure enough we heard of the death of a
+     very near relation directly after. If I had been present, no doubt I
+     should not only have heard the screams but I should have seen
+     something as well.
+
+     "A few years ago in Ireland I was talking about these things, and a
+     relation I had not met before was present. He said to me:
+
+     "'But as well as the Banshee do you know that we have a _headless
+     coach_ attached to our family; it is proceeded by men, who lead the
+     horses, and none of them have heads.'
+
+     "Like a flash came that never-to-be-forgotten vision of that awful
+     procession I had seen as a child, and of which I had never made any
+     mention till then. I remember now that after I saw the headless coach
+     we heard that our grandmother was dead. I believe that the headless
+     coach belongs to her family.
+
+     "PETRONELLA O'DONNELL."
+
+The headless coach referred to in the foregoing account comes to us, I
+believe, from the Vize family. My grandmother before her marriage was
+Sarah Vize, daughter of John Vize of Donegal, Glenagad and Limerick. Her
+sister Frances married her cousin, David Roche of Carass (see Burke's
+"Landed Gentry of Ireland," under Maunsell family, and Burke's "Peerage
+under Roche"), their son being Sir David Roche, Bart.
+
+The great-great-grandmother of Sarah Vize was Mary, daughter of Butler of
+the house of the Earl Glengall Cahir. Sarah Vize's mother, my
+great-grandmother, before her marriage was Sarah Maunsell, granddaughter
+of William Maunsell of Ballinamona, County Cork, the fifth son of Colonel
+Thomas Maunsell of Mocollop.
+
+In the accompanying genealogical tree, tracing the descent of the
+O'Donnells of Trough from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the O'Briens of
+Thomond and the O'Rourkes of Brefui, may be found the basis upon which my
+family's claim to the dual Banshee rests.
+
+The original may be seen in the office of the King of Arms, Dublin. The
+following is merely an extract:
+
+  Niall of the Nine Hostages.
+        King of Ireland
+               |
+         Conall Gulban
+               |
+            Feargus
+               |
+  Leadna, Prince of Tirconnell
+               |
+            Feargus
+               |
+      Lughaidb, and from
+
+him, in direct descent, to Foirdhealbhach an Fhiona O'Donnhnaill, who had
+two sons, the elder, Shane Luirg and the younger, Niall Garbh. From Niall
+Garbh the illustrious Red Hugh and his brother Rory, Earl of Tirconnell,
+were descended, from Shane Luirg, whose rank as "The O'Donnell" was taken
+by his younger brother, presumably the stronger man of the two, the Trough
+O'Donnells are descended.
+
+The line goes on thus:
+
+                              Shane Luirg
+                                  |
+                            Art O'Donnhnail
+                                  |    (ob. circa 1490)
+                                  |
+                          Niall O'Donnhnaill
+                                  |    (ob. circa 1525)
+                                  |
+    Foirdheal bhach O'Donnhnaill _m._ Julia Maguire
+                                  |     (ob. 1552)
+                                  |
+                           Shane _m._ Rosa, d. of Hugh O'Donnell
+                                  |     (ob. 1581)
+                                  |
+      Hugh O'Donnell of Limerick _m._ Maria, d. of Donat O'Brien of the
+                                  |     House of Thomond (ob. 1610)
+                                  |
+             Edmund, of Limerick _m._ Bridget, d. of O'Rourk of the
+                    (ob. 1651)    |     House of Brefui
+                                  |
+              James, of Limerick _m._ Helena, d. of James Sarsfield,
+                     (ob. 1680)   |     great-uncle of Patrick
+                                  |     Sarsfeld, Earl of Lucan
+                                  |
+                            John _m._ Margaret, d. of Thomas Creagh
+                                  |     of Limerick
+                                  |
+                           James _m._ Christiana, d. of William
+                                  |     Stritch of Limerick
+                                  |
+                            John _m._ Deborah, d. of William Anderson
+                       (ob. 1780) |     of Tipperary
+                                  |
+        +--------------------------------------------+
+        |                                            |
+  [18]John, of Limerick _m._ Sarah Elliot   Henry Anderson _m._ Domina Jan,
+      and Baltimore,     |   of Baltimore,    O'Donnell     |   daughter of
+      U.S.A (ob. 1805)   |   U.S.A.           (ob. 1840)    |   nephew of
+                         |                                  |   Shah of
+                         |                                  |   Persia
+                         |                                  |
+    Elliot, of Limerick _m._ Sarah Vize,    Gen. Sir C. R. _m._ Catherine
+      (ob. 1836)         |   of Limerick      O'Donnell,        Anne, d.
+                         |                    K.C.B., and       of Gen. P.
+                         |                    Member of the     Murray,
+                         |                    Irish Academy     nephew of
+                         |                    (ob. 1870)        the Earl
+                         |                                      of Elibank
+               Rev. Henry O'Donnell
+                         |
+               Elliot (youngest son)
+
+For particulars of the pedigree see Vol. X., p. 327, Genealogias, in the
+Office of Ulster King of Arms, Dublin.
+
+From Niall to Shane Luirg, see Register XV., p. 5; from Shane to my
+grandfather, Elliot, see Register XXIII., p. 286; and down to myself, see
+"Sheridan," p. 323.
+
+Referring to the Banshee prior to my aunt's death (see Chapter XIII.) my
+wife writes:
+
+     "I certainly remember, one night, when we were living in Cornwall,
+     hearing a most awful scream, a scream that rose and fell, and ended
+     in a long-drawn-out wail of agony. I have never heard any other sound
+     at all like it, and therefore cannot think that it could have been
+     anything earthly. At the time, however, I did think that possibly the
+     scream was that of a woman being murdered, and did not rest until my
+     husband, with other inmates of our house, had made a thorough search
+     of the garden and premises.
+
+     "Shortly after we had had this experience, we heard of the death, in
+     Ireland, of one of my husband's aunts.
+
+     "I also recollect that one night, shortly before we received the news
+     of my sister-in-law's death, I heard a crash on our bedroom door. It
+     was so loud that it quite shook the room, and my husband, apparently
+     wakened by it, told me he had dreamed that the Banshee had come and
+     was knocking for admittance. This happened not very long ago, when we
+     were living in Norwood.
+
+     "ADA O'DONNELL."
+
+
+
+
+  PRINTED AT
+  THE NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS,
+  WATERLOO HOUSE, THORNTON STREET,
+  NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland," by Lady
+Wilde.
+
+[2] "The Astral Plane," p. 106.
+
+[3] This book was published in 1888.
+
+[4] In the Addenda at end of this volume will be found a genealogical tree
+showing descent of author from the Thomond O'Briens.
+
+[5] In Addenda see tree showing descent of author from O'Rourks of Brefni.
+
+[6] As a rule the Banshee is neither heard nor seen by the person whose
+death it predicts. There are, however, some notable exceptions.
+
+[7] For further reference to the Banshee of the O'Neills see Addenda.
+
+[8] See Addenda.
+
+[9] See Addenda.
+
+[10] It may be recorded here as a matter of interest that my ancestress,
+Helena Sarsfield, was a daughter of James Sarsfield, great-uncle of
+Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan and the defender of Limerick against the
+English.
+
+[11] Neither of her stories have appeared in print before.
+
+[12] See "The Ghost World," by T. F. T. Dyer, p. 227.
+
+[13] See Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works, 1853, VIII., p. 126.
+
+[14] These extracts are taken from quotations of the poem in Chapter II.
+of a work entitled "Ancient History of the Kingdom of Kerry" by Friar
+O'Sullivan of Muckross Abbey, published in the Journal of the Cork
+Historical and Archæological Society (Vol. V., No. 44); and Friar
+O'Sullivan, in commenting upon these passages relating to the Banshees,
+writes (quoting from "Kerry Records"): "It seems that at this time it was
+the universal opinion that every district belonging to the Geraldines had
+its own attendant Banshee" (see _Archæological Journal_, 1852, on "Folk
+Lore" by N. Kearney).
+
+[15] See Records of the Truagh O'Donnells in the Office of the King of
+Arms, Dublin. Refs.: Genealogias, Vol. XI., p. 327; Register XV., p. 5;
+Register XXII., p. 286; and Sheridan, p. 323.
+
+[16] The originals are still in existence. The diary was kept right up to
+the night preceding his death.
+
+[17] Also spelt Truagh.
+
+[18] John O'Donnell of Baltimore's eldest son, Columbus, had a daughter,
+Eleanora, who married Adrian Iselin of New York, and their grand-daughter,
+Norah, is the present Princess Coleredo Mansfeldt.
+
+
+
+
+  *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "know" corrected to "known" (page 14)
+  "sometime" corrected to "sometimes" (page 17)
+  "heartrending" standardized to "heart-rending" (page 243)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling
+and hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 34263-8.txt or 34263-8.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/2/6/34263
+
+
+
+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.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/34263-8.zip b/34263-8.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..8eabbd3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263-8.zip
diff --git a/34263-h.zip b/34263-h.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..f250aab
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263-h.zip
diff --git a/34263-h/34263-h.htm b/34263-h/34263-h.htm
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c585277
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263-h/34263-h.htm
@@ -0,0 +1,5895 @@
+<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
+    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
+<head>
+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Banshee, by Elliot O'Donnell</title>
+    <style type="text/css">
+
+    p {margin-top: .75em; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: .75em;}
+
+    body {margin-left: 12%; margin-right: 12%;}
+
+    .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right; font-style: normal;}
+
+    h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; clear: both;}
+
+    hr {width: 33%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; clear: both;}
+
+    table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;}
+    .bl {border-left: solid black 1px;}
+    .br {border-right: solid black 1px;}
+    .bb {border-bottom: solid black 1px;}
+
+    .blockquot {margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;}
+    .poem {margin-left:15%;}
+
+    .right {text-align: right;}
+    .center {text-align: center;}
+
+    .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;}
+
+    a:link {color:#0000ff; text-decoration:none}
+    a:visited {color:#6633cc; text-decoration:none}
+
+    .spacer {padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em;}
+
+    ins.correction {text-decoration:none; border-bottom: thin solid gray;}
+
+    hr.full { width: 100%;
+              margin-top: 3em;
+              margin-bottom: 0em;
+              margin-left: auto;
+              margin-right: auto;
+              height: 4px;
+              border-width: 4px 0 0 0; /* remove all borders except the top one */
+              border-style: solid;
+              border-color: #000000;
+              clear: both; }
+    pre      {font-size: 85%;}
+    </style>
+</head>
+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Banshee, by Elliot O'Donnell</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 = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Banshee</p>
+<p>Author: Elliot O'Donnell</p>
+<p>Release Date: November 9, 2010  [eBook #34263]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive/American Libraries<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td valign="top">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/banshee_00odon">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/banshee_00odon</a><br />
+      <br />
+      Text with a gray underscore indicates the site of a
+      correction. Hover the cursor over the marked text and
+      the nature of the correction should appear.
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>THE BANSHEE</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>BY</h4>
+<h3>ELLIOT O&#8217;DONNELL</h3>
+<p class="center"><small>AUTHOR OF<br />
+&#8220;HAUNTED PLACES IN ENGLAND,&#8221; &#8220;THE IRISH ABROAD,&#8221;<br />
+&#8220;TWENTY YEARS EXPERIENCES AS A GHOST HUNTER,&#8221;<br />ETC., ETC.</small></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LONDON AND EDINBURGH<br />SANDS &amp; COMPANY</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td align="right"><small>CHAP.</small></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">I.</a></td><td>THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">II.</a></td><td>SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">III.</a></td><td>THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_35">35</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">IV.</a></td><td>THE BANSHEE ABROAD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">V.</a></td><td>CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_62">62</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">VI.</a></td><td>DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_80">80</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">VII.</a></td><td>A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_98">98</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">VIII.</a></td><td>THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_124">124</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">IX.</a></td><td>THE BANSHEE AT SEA</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">X.</a></td><td>ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">XI.</a></td><td>THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">XII.</a></td><td>THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_196">196</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="right"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">XIII.</a></td><td>MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_232">232</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td>ADDENDA</td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_247">247</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE BANSHEE</h1>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES</h3>
+
+<p><br />In a country, such as Ireland, that is characterised by an arrestive and
+wildly beautiful scenery, it is not at all surprising to find something in
+the nature of a ghost harmonising with the general atmosphere and
+surroundings, and that something, apparently so natural to Ireland, is the
+Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>The name Banshee seems to be a contraction of the Irish Bean Sidhe, which
+is interpreted by some writers on the subject &#8220;A Woman of the Faire Race,&#8221;
+whilst by various other writers it is said to signify &#8220;The Lady of Death,&#8221;
+&#8220;The Woman of Sorrow,&#8221; &#8220;The Spirit of the Air,&#8221; and &#8220;The Woman of the
+Barrow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It is strictly a family ghost, and most authorities agree that it only
+haunts families of very ancient Irish lineage. Mr McAnnaly, for instance,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>
+remarks (in the chapter on Banshees in his &#8220;Irish Wonders&#8221;): &#8220;The Banshee
+attends only the old families, and though their descendants, through
+misfortune, may be brought down from high estate to ranks of peasant
+farmers, she never leaves nor forgets them till the last member has been
+gathered to his fathers in the churchyard.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A writer in the <i>Journal of the Cork Historical and Arch&aelig;ological Society</i>
+(Vol. V., No. 44, pp. 227-229) quotes an extract from a work entitled
+&#8220;Kerry Records,&#8221; in which the following passage, relating to an elegiac
+poem written by Pierse Ferriter on Maurice Fitzgerald, occurs: &#8220;Aina, the
+Banshee who never wailed for any families who were not of Milesian blood,
+except the Geraldines, who became &#8216;more Irish than the Irish themselves&#8217;;
+and in a footnote (see p. 229) it is only &#8216;blood&#8217; that can have a Banshee.
+Business men nowadays have something as good as &#8216;blood&#8217;&mdash;they have &#8216;brains
+and brass,&#8217; by which they can compete with and enter into the oldest
+families in England and Ireland. Nothing, however, in an Irishman&#8217;s
+estimation, can replace &#8216;blue blood.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Walter Scott, too, emphasises this point, and is even more specific
+and arbitrary. He confines the Banshee to families of pure Milesian stock,
+and declares it is never to be found attached<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> to the descendants of the
+multitudinous English and Scotch settlers who have, from time to time,
+migrated to Ireland; nor even to the descendants of the Norman adventurers
+who accompanied Strongbow to the Green Isle in the twelfth century.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wilde<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> goes to the other extreme and allows considerable latitude.
+She affirms that the Banshee attaches itself not only to certain families
+of historic lineage, but also to persons gifted with song and music. For
+my own part I am inclined to adopt a middle course; I do not believe that
+the Banshee would be deterred from haunting a family of historical fame
+and Milesian descent&mdash;such as the O&#8217;Neills or O&#8217;Donnells&mdash;simply because
+in that family was an occasional strain of Saxon or Norman blood, but, on
+the other hand, I do not think the Banshee would ever haunt a family that
+was not originally at least Celtic Irish&mdash;such, for instance, as the
+Fitz-Williams or Fitz-Warrens&mdash;although in that family there might happen
+to be periodic infusions of Milesian blood.</p>
+
+<p>I disagree, <i>in toto</i>, with Lady Wilde&#8217;s theory that, occasionally, the
+Banshee haunts a person who is extremely poetical and musical, simply
+because he happens to be thus talented. In my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> opinion, to be haunted by
+the Banshee one must belong to an Irish family that is, at least, a
+thousand years old; were it not so, we should assuredly find the Banshee
+haunting certain of the musical and poetical geniuses of every race all
+over the world&mdash;black and yellow, perhaps, no less than white&mdash;which
+certainly is not the case.</p>
+
+<p>The Banshee, however, as Mr McAnnaly says, does, sometimes, travel; it
+travels when, and only when, it accompanies abroad one of the most ancient
+of the Irish families; otherwise it stays in Ireland, where, owing to the
+fact that there are few of the really old Irish families left, its
+demonstrations are becoming more and more rare.</p>
+
+<p>It may, perhaps, be said that in Dublin, Cork, and other of the Irish
+towns one may still come across a very fair percentage of O&#8217;s and Macs.
+That, undoubtedly, is true, but, at the same time, it must be borne in
+mind that these prefixes do not invariably denote the true Irishman, since
+many families yclept Thompson, Walker, and Smith, merely on the strength
+of having lived in Ireland for two or three generations, have adopted an
+Irish&mdash;and in some cases, even, a Celtic Irish name, relying upon their
+knowledge of a few Celtic words picked up from books, or from attending
+some of the numerous classes now being held in nearly all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> the big towns,
+and which are presided over by teachers who are also, for the most part,
+merely pseudo-Irish&mdash;to give colour to their claim. Such a pretence,
+however, does not deceive those who are really Irish, neither does it
+deceive the Banshee, and the latter, I am quite sure, would never be
+persuaded to follow the fortunes of any Anglo-Saxon, or Scotch, Dick, Tom,
+or Harry, no matter how clever and convincing their camouflage might be.</p>
+
+<p>Once again, then, the Banshee confines itself solely to families of
+<i>bona-fide</i> ancient Irish descent. As to its origin, in spite of arbitrary
+assertions made by certain people, none of whom, by the way, are of Irish
+extraction&mdash;that no one knows. As a matter of fact the Banshee has a
+number of origins, for there is not one Banshee only&mdash;as so many people
+seem to think&mdash;but many; each clan possessing a Banshee of its own. The
+O&#8217;Donnell Banshee, for example, that is to say the Banshee attached to our
+branch of the clan, and to which I can testify from personal experience,
+is, I believe, very different in appearance, and in its manner of making
+itself known, from the Banshee of the O&#8217;Reardons, as described by Mr
+McAnnaly; whilst the Banshee of a certain branch of the O&#8217;Flahertys,
+according to this same authority, differs essentially from that of a
+branch<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> of the O&#8217;Neills. Mr McAnnaly says the Banshee &#8220;is really a
+disembodied soul, that of one who, in life, was strongly attached to the
+family, or who had good reason to hate all its members.&#8221; This definition,
+of course, may apply in some cases, but it certainly does not apply in
+all, and it is absurd to be dogmatic on a subject, concerning which it is
+quite impossible to obtain a very great deal of information. At the most,
+Mr McAnnaly can only speak with certainty of the comparatively few cases
+of Banshees that have come under his observation; there are, I think,
+scores of which he has never even heard. I myself know of several Banshee
+hauntings in which the phantom certainly cannot be that of any member of
+the human race; its features and proportions absolutely negative such a
+possibility, and I should have no hesitation in affirming that, in these
+cases, the phantom is what is commonly <ins class="correction" title="original: know">known</ins> as an elemental, or what I
+have termed in previous of my works, a neutrarian, that is a spirit that
+has never inhabited any material body, and which belongs to a species
+entirely distinct from man. On the other hand, several cases of Banshee
+hauntings I have come across undoubtedly admit the possibility of the
+phantom being that of a woman belonging to the human race, albeit to a
+very ancient and long since obsolete section of it; whilst a few, only,
+allow of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> the probability of the phantom being that of a woman, also
+human, but belonging to a very much later date.</p>
+
+<p>Certainly, as Mr McAnnaly stated, Banshees may be divided into two main
+classes, the Friendly Banshees and the Hateful Banshees; the former
+exhibiting sorrow on their advent, and the latter, exultation. But these
+classes are capable of almost endless sub-division; the only feature they
+possess in common being a vague something that strongly suggests the
+feminine sex. In most cases the cause of the hauntings can only be a
+matter of conjecture. Affection or crime may account for some, but, for
+the origin of others, I believe one must look in a totally different
+direction. For instance, one might, perhaps, see some solution in sorcery
+and witchcraft, since there must be many families, who, in bygone days,
+dabbled in those pursuits, that are now Banshee ridden.</p>
+
+<p>Or, again, granted there is some truth in the theory of Atlantis, the
+theory that a whole continent was submerged owing to the wickedness of its
+inhabitants, who were all more or less adepts in necromancy&mdash;the most
+ancient of the Irish, the so-called Milesian clans who are known to have
+practised sorcery, might well be identical with the survivors of that
+great cataclysm, and have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> brought with them to the Green Island spirits
+which have stuck to their descendants ever since.</p>
+
+<p>I think one may dismiss Mr C. W. Leadbeater&#8217;s<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small> and other writers&#8217; (of
+the same would-be authoritative order) assertion that family ghosts may be
+either a thought-form or an unusually vivid impression in the astral
+light, as absurd. Spiritualists and others, who blindly reverence
+highfalutin phraseology, however empty it may be, might be satisfied with
+such an explanation, but not so those who have had actual experience with
+the ghost in question.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever else the Banshee may, or may not be, it is most certainly a
+denizen of a world quite distinct from ours; it is, besides, a being that
+has prophetic powers (which would not be the case if it were a mere
+thought-form or impression), and it is by no means a mere automaton.</p>
+
+<p>Some Banshees represent very beautiful women&mdash;women with long, luxuriant
+tresses, either of raven black, or burnished copper, or brilliant gold,
+and whose star-like eyes, full of tender pity, are either dark and
+tearful, or of the most exquisite blue or grey; some, again, are haggish,
+wild, dishevelled-looking creatures, whose appearance suggests the utmost
+squalor, foulness, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> despair; whilst a few, fortunately, I think, only
+a few, take the form of something that is wholly diabolical, and
+frightful, and terrifying in the extreme.</p>
+
+<p>As a rule, however, the Banshee is not seen, it is only heard, and it
+announces its advent in a variety of ways; sometimes by groaning,
+<ins class="correction" title="original: sometime">sometimes</ins> by wailing, and sometimes by uttering the most blood-curdling of
+screams, which I can only liken to the screams a woman might make if she
+were being done to death in a very cruel and violent manner. Occasionally
+I have heard of Banshees clapping their hands, and tapping and scratching
+at walls and window-panes, and, not infrequently, I have heard of them
+signalling their arrival by terrific crashes and thumps. Also, I have met
+with the Banshee that simply chuckles&mdash;a low, short, but terribly
+expressive chuckle, that makes ten times more impression on the mind of
+the hearer than any other ghostly sound he has heard, and which no lapse
+of time is ever able to efface from his memory.</p>
+
+<p>I, for one, have heard the sound, and as I sit here penning these lines, I
+fancy I can hear it again&mdash;a Satanic chuckle, a chuckle full of mockery,
+as if made by one who was in the full knowledge of coming events, of
+events that would present an extremely unpleasant surprise. And,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> in my
+case, the unpleasant surprise came. I have always been a believer in a
+spirit world&mdash;in the unknown&mdash;but had I been ever so sceptical previously,
+after hearing that chuckle, I am quite sure I should have been converted.</p>
+
+<p>In concluding this chapter I must refer once again to Mr McAnnaly, who, in
+his &#8220;Irish Wonders,&#8221; records a very remarkable instance of a number of
+Banshees manifesting themselves simultaneously. He says that the
+demonstrations occurred before the death of a member of the Galway
+O&#8217;Flahertys &#8220;some years ago.&#8221;<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small> The doomed one, he states, was a lady of
+the most unusual piety, who, though ill at the time, was not thought to be
+seriously ill. Indeed, she got so much better that several of her
+acquaintances came to her room to enliven her convalescence, and it was
+when they were there, all talking together merrily, that singing was
+suddenly heard, apparently outside the window. They listened, and could
+distinctly hear a choir of very sweet voices singing some extraordinarily
+plaintive air, which made them turn pale and look at one another
+apprehensively, for they all felt intuitively it was a chorus of Banshees.
+Nor were their surmises incorrect, for the patient unexpectedly developed
+pleurisy, and died within a few days, the same choir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> of spirit voices
+being again heard at the moment of physical dissolution.</p>
+
+<p>But as Mr McAnnaly states, the ill-fated lady was of singular purity,
+which doubtless explains the reason why, in my researches, I have never
+come across a parallel case.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES</h3>
+
+<p><br />Amongst the most popular cases of Banshee haunting both published and
+unpublished is that related by Ann, Lady Fanshawe, in her Memoirs. It
+seems that Lady Fanshawe experienced this haunting when on a visit to Lady
+Honora O&#8217;Brien, daughter of Henry, fifth Earl of Thomond,<small><a name="f4.1" id="f4.1" href="#f4">[4]</a></small> who was then,
+in all probability, residing at the ancient castle of Lemaneagh, near Lake
+Inchiquin, about thirty miles north-west of Limerick. Retiring to rest
+somewhat early the first night of her sojourn there, she was awakened at
+about one o&#8217;clock by the sound of a voice, and, drawing aside the hangings
+of the bed, she perceived, looking in through the window at her, the face
+of a woman. The moonlight being very strong and fully focussed on it, she
+could see every feature with startling distinctness; but at the same time
+her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> attention was apparently riveted on the extraordinary pallor of the
+cheeks and the intense redness of the hair. Then, to quote her own words,
+the apparition &#8220;spake loud, and in a tone I never heard, thrice &#8216;Ahone,&#8217;
+and then with a sigh, more like wind than breath, she vanished, and to me
+her body looked more like a thick cloud than substance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I was so much affrighted that my hair stood on end, and my night clothes
+fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who never awaked during this
+disorder I was in, but at last was much surprised to find me in this
+fright, and more when I related the story and showed him the window
+opened; but he entertained me with telling how much more these apparitions
+were usual in that country than in England.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The following morning Lady Honora, who did not appear to have been to bed,
+informed Lady Fanshawe that a cousin of hers had died in the house at
+about two o&#8217;clock in the morning; and expressed a hope that Lady Fanshawe
+had not been subjected to any disturbances.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When any die of this family,&#8221; she said by way of explanation, &#8220;there is
+the shape of a woman appears in this window every night until they be dead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She went on to add that the apparition was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> believed to be that of a woman
+who, centuries before, had been seduced by the owner of the castle and
+murdered, her body being buried under the window of the room in which Lady
+Fanshawe had slept.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But truly,&#8221; she remarked, by way of apology, &#8220;I thought not of it when I
+lodged you here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another well-known case of the Banshee is that relating to the O&#8217;Flahertys
+of Galway, reference being made to the case by Mr McAnnaly in his work
+entitled &#8220;Irish Wonders.&#8221; In the days of much inter-clan fighting in
+Ireland, when the O&#8217;Neills frequently embarked on crusades against their
+alternate friends and enemies the O&#8217;Donnells, and the O&#8217;Rourks<small><a name="f5.1" id="f5.1" href="#f5">[5]</a></small> embarked
+on similar crusades against the O&#8217;Donovans, it so happened that one night
+the chief of the O&#8217;Flahertys, arrayed in all the brilliance of a new suit
+of armour, and feeling more than usually cheerful and fit, marched out of
+his castle at the head of a numerous body of his retainers, who were all,
+like their chief, in good spirits, and talking and singing gaily. They had
+not proceeded far, however, when a sudden and quite inexplicable silence
+ensued&mdash;a silence that was abruptly broken by a series of agonising
+screams, that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> seemed to come from just over their heads. Instantly
+everyone was sobered, and naturally looked up, expecting to see something
+that would explain the extraordinary and terrifying disturbance; nothing,
+however, was to be seen, nothing but a vast expanse of cloudless sky,
+innumerable scintillating stars, and the moon which was shining forth in
+all the serene majesty of its zenith. Yet, despite the fact that nothing
+was visible, everyone felt a presence that was at once sorrowful and
+weird, and which one and all instinctively knew was the Banshee, the
+attendant spirit of the O&#8217;Flahertys, come to warn them of some approaching
+catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>The next night, when the chieftain and his followers were again sallying
+forth, the same thing happened, but, after that, nothing of a similar
+nature occurred for about a month. Then the wife of the O&#8217;Flaherty, during
+the absence of her husband on one of these foraging expeditions, had an
+experience. She had gone to bed one night and was restlessly tossing
+about, for, try how she would, she could not sleep, when she was suddenly
+terrified by a succession of the most awful shrieks, coming, apparently,
+from just beneath her window, and which sounded like the cries of some
+woman in the direst trouble or pain. She looked, but as she instinctively
+felt would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> the case, she could see no one. She then knew that she had
+heard the Banshee; and on the morrow her forebodings were only too fully
+realised. With a fearful knowledge of its meaning, she saw a cavalcade,
+bearing in its midst a bier, slowly and sorrowfully wending its way
+towards the castle; and, needless to say, she did not require to be told
+that the foraging party had returned, and that the surviving warriors had
+brought back with them the lifeless and mutilated body of her husband.</p>
+
+<p>The Kenealy Banshee furnishes yet another instance of this extremely
+fascinating and, up to the present, wholly enigmatical type of haunting.
+Dr Kenealy, the well-known Irish poet and author, resided in his earlier
+years in a wildly romantic and picturesque part of Ireland. Among his
+brothers was one, a mere child, whose sweet and gentle nature rendered him
+beloved by all, and it was a matter of the most excessive grief to the
+entire household, and, indeed, the whole neighbourhood, when this boy fell
+into a decline and his life was despaired of by the physicians. As time
+went on he grew weaker and weaker, until the moment at length arrived,
+when it was obvious that he could not possibly survive another twenty-four
+hours. At about noon, the room in which the patient lay was flooded with a
+stream of sunlight,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> which came pouring through the windows from the
+cloudless expanse of sky overhead. The weather, indeed, was so gorgeous
+that it seemed almost incredible that death could be hovering quite so
+near the house. One by one, members of the family stole into the chamber
+to take what each one felt might be a last look at the sick boy, whilst he
+was still alive. Presently the doctor arrived, and, as they were all
+discussing in hushed tones the condition of the poor wasted and doomed
+child, they one and all heard someone singing, apparently in the grounds,
+immediately beneath the window. The voice seemed to be that of a woman,
+but not a woman of this world. It was divinely soft and sweet, and charged
+with a pity and sorrow that no earthly being could ever have portrayed;
+and now loud, and now hushed, it continued for some minutes, and then
+seemed to die away gradually, like the ripple of a wavelet on some golden,
+sun-kissed strand, or the whispering of the wind, as it gently rustles its
+way through field after field of yellow, nodding corn.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What a glorious voice!&#8221; one of the listeners exclaimed. &#8220;I&#8217;ve never heard
+anything to equal it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very likely not,&#8221; someone else whispered, &#8220;it&#8217;s the Banshee!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And so enthralled were they all by the singing,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> that it was only when the
+final note of the plaintive ditty had quite ceased, that they became aware
+that their beloved patient, unnoticed by them, had passed out. Indeed, it
+seemed as if the boy&#8217;s soul, with the last whispering notes of the dirge,
+had joined the beautiful, pitying Banshee, to be escorted by it into the
+realms of the all-fearful, all-impatient Unknown. Dr Kenealy has
+commemorated this event in one of his poems.</p>
+
+<p>The story of another haunting by the friendly Banshee is told in Kerry, in
+connection with a certain family that used to live there. According to my
+source of information the family consisted of a man (a gentleman farmer),
+his wife, their son, Terence, and a daughter, Norah.</p>
+
+<p>Norah, an Irish beauty of the dark type, had black hair and blue eyes; and
+possessing numerous admirers, favoured none of them so much as a certain
+Michael O&#8217;Lernahan. Now Michael did not stand very well in the graces of
+either of Norah&#8217;s parents, but Terence liked him, and he was reputed to be
+rich&mdash;that is to say rich for that part of Ireland. Accordingly, he was
+invited pretty freely to the farm, and no obstacles were placed in his
+way. On the contrary, he was given more than a fair amount of
+encouragement.</p>
+
+<p>At last, as had been long anticipated, he proposed and Norah accepted him;
+but no sooner<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> was her troth plighted than they both heard, just over
+their heads, a low, despairing wail, as of a woman in the very greatest
+distress and anguish.</p>
+
+<p>Though they were much alarmed at the time, being positive that the sounds
+proceeded from no human being, neither of them seems to have regarded the
+phenomenon in the shape of a warning, and both continued their love-making
+as if the incident had never occurred. A few weeks later, however, Norah
+noticed a sudden change in her lover; he was colder and more distant, and,
+whilst he was with her, she invariably found him preoccupied. At last the
+blow fell. He failed to present himself at the house one evening, though
+he was expected as usual, and, as no explanation was forthcoming the
+following morning, nor on any of the succeeding days, inquiries were made
+by the parents, which elicited the fact that he had become engaged to
+another girl, and that the girl&#8217;s home was but a few minutes&#8217; walk from
+the farm.</p>
+
+<p>This proved too much for Norah; although, apparently, neither unusually
+sensitive nor particularly highly strung, she fell ill, and shortly
+afterwards died of a broken heart. It was not until the night before she
+died, however, that the Banshee paid her a second visit. She was lying on
+a couch in the parlour of the farmhouse, with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> her mother sitting beside
+her, when a noise was heard that sounded like leaves beating gently
+against the window-frames, and, almost directly afterwards, came the sound
+of singing, loud, and full of intense sorrow and compassion; and,
+obviously, that of a woman.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Tis the Banshee,&#8221; the mother whispered, immediately crossing herself,
+and, at the same time, bursting into tears.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Banshee,&#8221; Norah repeated. &#8220;Sure I hear nothing but that tapping at
+the window and the wind which seems all of a sudden to have risen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But the mother made no response. She only sat with her face buried in her
+hands, sobbing bitterly and muttering to herself, &#8220;Banshee! Banshee!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Presently, the singing having ceased, the old woman got up and dried her
+tears. Her anxiety, however, was not allayed; all through the night she
+could still be heard, every now and again, crying quietly and whispering
+to herself &#8220;&#8217;Twas the Banshee! Banshee!&#8221;; and in the morning Norah,
+suddenly growing alarmingly ill, passed away before medical assistance
+could be summoned.</p>
+
+<p>A case of Banshee haunting that is somewhat unusually pathetic was once
+related to me in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>connection with a Dublin branch of the once powerful
+clan of McGrath.</p>
+
+<p>It took place in the fifties, and the family, consisting of a young widow
+and two children, Isa and David, at that time occupied an old, rambling
+house, not five minutes&#8217; walk from Stephen&#8217;s Green. Isa seems to have been
+the mother&#8217;s favourite&mdash;she was undoubtedly a very pretty and attractive
+child&mdash;and David, possibly on account of his pronounced likeness to his
+father, with whom it was an open secret that Mrs McGrath had never got on
+at all well, to have received rather more than his fair share of scolding.
+This, of course, may or may not have been true. It is certain that he was
+left very much to himself, and, all alone, in a big, empty room at the top
+of the house, was forced to amuse himself as he best could. Occasionally
+one of the servants, inspired by a fellow-feeling&mdash;for the lot of servants
+in those days, especially when serving under such severe and exacting
+mistresses as Mrs McGrath, was none too rosy&mdash;used to look in to see how
+he was getting on and bring him a toy, bought out of her own meagre
+savings; and, once now and again, Isa, clad in some costly new frock, just
+popped her head in at the door, either to bring him some message from her
+mother, or merely to call out &#8220;Hullo!&#8221; Otherwise he saw no one; at least
+no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> one belonging to this earth; he only saw, he affirmed, at times,
+strange-looking people who simply stood and stared at him without
+speaking, people who the servants&mdash;girls from Limerick and the west
+country&mdash;assured him were either fairies or ghosts.</p>
+
+<p>One day Isa, who had been sent upstairs to tell David to go to his bedroom
+to tidy himself, as he was wanted immediately in the drawing-room, found
+him in a great state of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve seen such a beautiful lady,&#8221;<small><a name="f6.1" id="f6.1" href="#f6">[6]</a></small> he exclaimed, &#8220;and she wasn&#8217;t a bit
+cross. She came and stood by the window and looked as if she wanted to
+play with me, only I daren&#8217;t ask her. Do you think she will come again?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How can I tell? I expect you&#8217;ve been dreaming as usual,&#8221; Isa laughed.
+&#8220;What was she like?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, tall, much taller than mother,&#8221; David replied, &#8220;with very, very blue
+eyes and kind of reddish-gold hair that wasn&#8217;t all screwed up on her head,
+but was hanging in curls on her shoulders. She had very white hands which
+were clasped in front of her, and a bright green dress. I didn&#8217;t see her
+come or go, but she was here for a long time, quite ten minutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>&#8220;It&#8217;s another of your fancies, David,&#8221; Isa laughed again. &#8220;But come along,
+make haste, or mother will be angry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, David, looking very shy and awkward, was in the
+drawing-room being introduced to a gentleman who, he was informed, was his
+future papa.</p>
+
+<p>David seems to have taken a strong dislike to him from the very first, and
+to have foreseen in the coming alliance nothing but trouble and misery for
+himself. Nor were his apprehensions without foundation, for, directly
+after the marriage took place, he became subjected to the very strictest
+discipline. Morning and afternoon alike he was kept hard at his books, and
+any slowness or inability to master a lesson was treated as idleness and
+punished accordingly. The moments he had to himself in his beloved nursery
+now became few and far between, for, directly he had finished his evening
+preparation, he was given his supper and packed off to bed.</p>
+
+<p>The one or two servants who had befriended him, unable to tolerate the new
+regime, gave notice and left, and there was soon no one in the house who
+showed any compassion whatever for the poor lonely boy.</p>
+
+<p>Things went on in this fashion for some weeks, and then a day came, when
+he really felt it impossible to go on living any longer.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>He had been generally run down for some weeks, and this, coupled with the
+fact that he was utterly broken in spirit, rendered his task of learning a
+wellnigh impossibility. It was in vain he pleaded, however; his entreaties
+were only taken for excuses; and, when, in an unguarded moment, he let
+slip some sort of reference to unkind treatment, he was at once accused of
+rudeness by his mother and, at her request, summarily castigated.</p>
+
+<p>The limit of his tribulation had been reached. That night he was sent to
+bed, as usual, immediately after supper, and Isa, who happened to pass by
+his room an hour or so afterwards, was greatly astonished at hearing him
+seemingly engaged in conversation. Peeping slyly in at the door, in order
+to find out with whom he was talking, she saw him sitting up in bed,
+apparently addressing space, or the moonbeams, which, pouring in at the
+window, fell directly on him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are you doing?&#8221; she asked, &#8220;and why aren&#8217;t you asleep?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The moment she spoke he looked round and, in tones of the greatest
+disappointment, said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, dear, she&#8217;s gone. You&#8217;ve frightened her away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Frightened her away! Why, what rubbish!&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> Isa exclaimed. &#8220;Lie down at
+once or I&#8217;ll go and fetch mamma.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It was my green lady,&#8221; David went on, breathlessly, far too excited to
+pay any serious heed to Isa&#8217;s threat. &#8220;My green lady, and she told me I
+should be no more lonely, that she was coming to fetch me some time
+to-night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Isa laughed, and, telling him not to be so silly, but to go to sleep at
+once, she speedily withdrew and went downstairs to join her parents in the
+drawing-room.</p>
+
+<p>That night, at about twelve, Isa was awakened by singing, loud and
+plaintive singing, in a woman&#8217;s voice, apparently proceeding from the
+hall. Greatly alarmed she got up, and, on opening her door, perceived her
+parents and the servants, all in their night attire, huddled together on
+the landing, listening.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure &#8217;tis the Banshee,&#8221; the cook at length whispered. &#8220;I heard my father
+spake about it when I was a child. She sings, says he, more beautifully
+than any grand lady, but sorrowful like, and only before a death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before a death,&#8221; Isa&#8217;s mother stammered. &#8220;But who&#8217;s going to die here?
+Why, we are all of us perfectly sound and well.&#8221; As she spoke the singing
+ceased, there was an abrupt silence, and all slowly retired to their rooms.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>Nothing further was heard during the night, but in the morning, when
+breakfast time came, there was no David; and a hue and cry being raised
+and a thorough search made, he was eventually discovered, drowned in a
+cistern in the roof.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE</h3>
+
+<p><br />The Banshees dealt with in the last chapter may all be described as
+sympathetic or friendly Banshees. I will now present to the reader a few
+equally authentic accounts of malevolent or unfriendly Banshees. Before
+doing so, however, I would like to call attention to the fact that, once
+when I was reading a paper on Banshees before the Irish Literary Society,
+in Hanover Square, a lady got up and, challenging my remark that not all
+Banshees were alike, tried to prove that I was wrong, on the assumption
+that all Banshees must be sad and beautiful because the Banshee in her
+family happened to be sad and beautiful, an argument, if argument it can
+be called, which, although it is a fairly common one, cannot, of course,
+be taken seriously.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, as I have already stated, there is abundant evidence to show
+that Banshees are of many and diverse kinds; and that no two appear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> to be
+exactly alike or to act in precisely the same fashion.</p>
+
+<p>According to Mr McAnnaly, the malevolent Banshee is invariably &#8220;a horrible
+hag with ugly, distorted features; maledictions are written in every line
+of her wrinkled face, and her outstretched arms call down curses on the
+doomed member of the hated race.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Other writers, too, would seem more or less to encourage the idea that all
+malignant Banshees are cast in one mould and all beautiful Banshees in
+another, whereas from my own personal experiences I should say that
+Banshees, whether good or bad, are just as individual as any member of the
+family they haunt.</p>
+
+<p>It is related of a certain ancient Mayo family that a chief of the race
+once made love to a very beautiful girl whom he betrayed and subsequently
+murdered. With her dying breath the girl cursed her murderer and swore she
+would haunt him and his for ever. Years rolled by; the cruel deceiver
+married, and, with the passing away of all who knew him in his youth, he
+came to be regarded as a model of absolute propriety and rectitude. Hence
+it was in these circumstances that he was sitting one night before a big
+blazing fire in the hall of his castle, outwardly happy enough and
+surrounded by his sons and daughters, when loud<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> shrieks of exultation
+were heard coming, it seemed, from someone who was standing on the path
+close to the castle walls. All rushed out to see who it was, but no one
+was there, and the grounds, as far as the eye could reach, were absolutely
+deserted.</p>
+
+<p>Later on, however, some little time after the household had retired to
+rest, the same demoniacal disturbances took place; peal after peal of
+wild, malicious laughter rang out, followed by a discordant moaning and
+screaming. This time the aged chieftain did not accompany the rest of the
+household in their search for the originator of the disturbances.
+Possibly, in that discordant moaning and screaming he fancied he could
+detect the voice of the murdered girl; and, possibly, accepting the
+manifestation as a death-warning, he was not surprised on the following
+day, when he was waylaid out of doors and brutally done to death by one of
+his followers.</p>
+
+<p>Needless to say, perhaps, the haunting of this Banshee still continues,
+the same phenomena occurring at least once to every generation of the
+family, before the death of one of its members. Happily, however, the
+haunting now does not necessarily precede a violent death, and in this
+respect, though in this respect only, differs from the original.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span>Another haunting by this same species of Banshee was brought to my notice
+the last time I was in Ireland. I happened to be visiting a certain
+relative of mine, at that date residing in Black Rock, and from her I
+learned the following, which now appears in print for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>About the middle of the last century, when my relative was in her teens,
+some friends of hers, the O&#8217;D.&#8217;s, were living in a big old-fashioned
+country house, somewhere between Ballinanty and Hospital in the County of
+Limerick. The family consisted of Mr O&#8217;D., who had been something in India
+in his youth and was now very much of a recluse, though much esteemed
+locally on account of his extreme piety and good-heartedness; Mrs O&#8217;D.,
+who, despite her grey hair and wrinkled countenance, still retained traces
+of more than ordinary good looks; Wilfred, a handsome but decidedly
+headstrong young man of between twenty-five and thirty; and Ellen, a
+blue-eyed, golden-haired girl of the true Milesian type of Irish beauty.</p>
+
+<p>My relative was on terms of the greatest intimacy with the whole family,
+but especially with the two younger folk, and it was generally expected
+that she and Wilfred would make what is vulgarly termed a &#8220;match of it.&#8221;
+Indeed, the first of the ghostly happenings that she experienced in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+connection with the O&#8217;D.&#8217;s actually occurred the very day Wilfred took the
+long-anticipated step and proposed to her.</p>
+
+<p>It seems that my relative was out for a walk one afternoon with Ellen and
+Wilfred, when the latter, taking advantage of his sister&#8217;s sudden fancy
+for going on ahead to look for dog-roses, passionately declared his love,
+and, apparently, did not declare it in vain. The trio, then, in more or
+less exalted spirits&mdash;for my relative had of course let Ellen into the
+secret&mdash;walked home together, and as they were passing through a big
+wooden gateway into the garden at the rear of the O&#8217;D.&#8217;s house, they
+perceived a tall, spare woman, with her back towards them, digging away
+furiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hullo,&#8221; Wilfred exclaimed, &#8220;who&#8217;s that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; Ellen replied. &#8220;It&#8217;s certainly not Mary&#8221; (Mary was the old
+cook who, like many of the servants of that period, did not confine her
+labour to the culinary art, but performed all kinds of odd jobs as well),
+&#8220;nor anyone from the farm. But what on earth does she think she&#8217;s doing?
+Hey, there!&#8221; and Ellen, raising her naturally sweet and musical voice,
+gave a little shout.</p>
+
+<p>The woman instantly turned round, and the trio received a most violent
+shock. The light was fading, for it was late in the afternoon, but what<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>
+little there was seemed to be entirely concentrated on the visage before
+them, making it appear luminous. It was a broad face with very pronounced
+cheek-bones; a large mouth, the thin lips of which were fixed in a
+dreadful and mocking leer; and very pale, obliquely set eyes that glowed
+banefully as they met the gaze of the three now appalled spectators.</p>
+
+<p>For some seconds the evil-looking creature stood in dead silence,
+apparently gloating over the discomposure her appearance had produced,
+and, then, suddenly shouldering her spade, she walked slowly away, turning
+round every now and again to cast the same malevolent gleeful look at
+them, until she came to the hedge that separated the garden from a long
+disused stone quarry, when she seemed suddenly to fade away in the now
+very uncertain twilight, and disappear.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments no one spoke or stirred, but continued gazing after her
+in a kind of paralysed astonishment. Wilfred was the first to break the
+silence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What an awful looking hag,&#8221; he exclaimed. &#8220;Where&#8217;s she gone?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ellen whistled. &#8220;Ask another,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There&#8217;s nowhere she could have
+gone excepting into the quarry, and my only hope is that she is lying at
+the bottom of it with a broken neck, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> I certainly never wish to see
+her again. But come, let&#8217;s be moving on, I&#8217;m chilly.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They started off, but had only proceeded a few yards, when, apparently
+from the direction of the quarry, came a peal of laughter, so mocking and
+malignant and altogether evil, that all three involuntarily quickened
+their steps, and, at the same time, refrained from speaking, until they
+had reached the house, which they hastily entered, securely closing the
+door behind them. They then went straight to Mr O&#8217;D. and asked him who the
+old woman was whom they had just seen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What was she like?&#8221; he queried. &#8220;I haven&#8217;t authorised anyone but Mary to
+go into the garden.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It certainly wasn&#8217;t Mary,&#8221; Ellen responded quickly. &#8220;It was some hideous
+old crone who was digging away like anything. On our approach she left off
+and gave us the most diabolical look I have ever seen. Then she went away
+and seemed to vanish in the hedge by the quarry. We afterwards heard her
+give the most appalling and intensely evil laugh that you can imagine.
+Whoever is she?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t think,&#8221; Mr O&#8217;D. replied, looking somewhat unusually pale. &#8220;It is
+no one whom I know. Very possibly she was a tramp or gipsy. We must<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> take
+care to keep all the doors locked. Whatever you do, don&#8217;t mention a word
+about her to your mother or to Mary&mdash;they are both nervous and very easily
+frightened.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>All three promised, and the matter was then allowed to drop, but my
+relative, who returned home before it got quite dark, subsequently learned
+that that night, some time after the O&#8217;D. household had all retired to
+rest, peal after peal of the same infernal mocking laughter was heard,
+just under the windows, first of all in the front of the house, and then
+in the rear; and that, on the morrow, came the news that the business
+concern in which most of Mr O&#8217;D.&#8217;s money was invested had gone smash and
+the family were practically penniless.</p>
+
+<p>The house now was in imminent danger of being sold, and many people
+thought that it was merely to avert this catastrophe and to enable her
+parents to keep a roof over their heads that Ellen accepted the attentions
+of a very vulgar parvenu (an Englishman) in Limerick, and eventually
+married him. Where there is no love, however, there is never any
+happiness, and where there is not even &#8220;liking,&#8221; there is very often hate;
+and in Ellen&#8217;s case hate there was without any doubt. Barely able, even
+from the first, to tolerate her husband (his favourite trick was to make
+love to her in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> public and almost in the same breath bully her&mdash;also in
+public), she eventually grew to loathe him, and at last, unable to endure
+his hated presence any longer, she eloped with an officer who was
+stationed in the neighbourhood. The night before Ellen took this step, my
+relative and Wilfred (the latter was escorting his fianc&eacute;e home after a
+pleasant evening spent in her company) again heard the malevolent
+laughter, which (although they could see no one) pursued them for some
+distance along the moonlit lanes and across the common leading to the spot
+where my relative lived. After this the laughter was not heard again for
+two years, but at the end of that period my relative had another
+experience of the phenomena.</p>
+
+<p>She was again spending the evening with the O&#8217;D.&#8217;s, and, on this occasion,
+she was discussing with Mr and Mrs O&#8217;D. the advent of Wilfred, who was
+expected to arrive home from the West Indies any time within the next few
+days. My relative was not unnaturally interested, as it had been arranged
+that she and Wilfred should marry, as soon as possible after his arrival
+in Ireland. They were all three&mdash;Mr and Mrs O&#8217;D. and my relative&mdash;engaged
+in animated conversation (the old people had unexpectedly come into a
+little money, and that, too, had considerably contributed to their
+cheerfulness), when Mrs O&#8217;D., fancying she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> heard someone calling to her
+from the garden, got up and went to the window.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Harry,&#8221; she exclaimed, still looking out and apparently unable to remove
+her gaze, &#8220;do come. There&#8217;s the most awful old woman in the garden,
+staring hard at me. Quick, both of you. She&#8217;s perfectly horrible; she
+frightens me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>My relative and Mr O&#8217;D. at once sprang up and hastened to her side, and,
+there, they saw, gazing up at them, the pallor of its cheeks intensified
+by a stray moonbeam which seemed to be concentrated solely on it, a face
+which my relative recognised immediately as that of the woman she had
+seen, two years ago, digging in the garden. The old hag seemed to remember
+my relative, too, for, as their glances met, a gleam of recognition crept
+into her light eyes, and, a moment later, gave way to an expression of
+such diabolical hate that my relative involuntarily caught hold of Mr O&#8217;D.
+for protection. Evidently noting this action the creature leered horribly,
+and then, drawing a kind of shawl or hood tightly over its head, moved
+away with a kind of gliding motion, vanishing round an angle of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Mr O&#8217;D. at once went out into the garden, but, after a few minutes,
+returned, declaring that, although he had searched in every direction, not
+a trace of their sinister-looking visitor could he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> see anywhere. He had
+hardly, however, finished speaking, when, apparently from close to the
+house, came several peals of the most hellish laughter, that terminated in
+one loud, prolonged wail, unmistakably ominous and menacing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Harry,&#8221; Mrs O&#8217;D. exclaimed, on the verge of fainting, &#8220;what can be
+the meaning of it? That was surely no living woman.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; Mr O&#8217;D. replied slowly, &#8220;it was the Banshee. As you know, the O&#8217;D.
+Banshee, for some reason or another, possesses an inveterate hatred of my
+family, and we must prepare again for some evil tidings. But,&#8221; he went on,
+steadying his voice with an effort, &#8220;with God&#8217;s grace we must face it, for
+whatever happens it is His Divine will.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A few days later my relative, as may be imagined, was immeasurably shocked
+to hear that Mr O&#8217;D. had been sent word that Wilfred was dead. He had, it
+appeared, been stricken down with fever, supposed to have been caught from
+one of his fellow-passengers, and had died on the very day that he should
+have landed, on the very day, in fact (as it was afterwards ascertained
+from a comparison of dates), upon which his parents and fianc&eacute;e, together,
+had heard and seen the Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after this unhappy event my relative left the neighbourhood and went
+to live with some<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> friends near Dublin, and though, from time to time, she
+corresponded with the O&#8217;D.&#8217;s, she never again heard anything of their Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>This same relative of mine, whom I will now call Miss S&mdash;&mdash; (she never
+married), was acquainted with two old maiden ladies named O&#8217;Rorke who,
+many years ago, lived in a semi-detached house close to Lower Merrion
+Street. Miss S&mdash;&mdash; did not know to what branch of the O&#8217;Rorkes they
+belonged, for they were very reticent with regard to their family history,
+but she believed they originally came from the south-west and were
+distantly connected with some of her own people.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to their house, there certainly was something peculiar, since
+in it was one room that was invariably kept locked, and in connection with
+this room it was said there existed a mystery of the most frightful and
+harrowing description.</p>
+
+<p>My relative often had it on the tip of her tongue to refer to the room,
+just to see what effect it would have on the two old ladies, but she could
+never quite sum up the courage to do so. One afternoon, however, when she
+was calling on them, the subject was brought to their notice in a very
+startling manner.</p>
+
+<p>The elder of the two sisters, Miss Georgina, who was presiding at the tea
+table, had just handed Miss S&mdash;&mdash; a cup of tea and was about to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> pour out
+another for herself, when into the room, with her cap all awry and her
+eyes bulging, rushed one of the servants.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good gracious!&#8221; Miss Georgina exclaimed, &#8220;whatever&#8217;s the matter, Bridget?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Matter!&#8221; Bridget retorted, in a brogue which I will not attempt to
+imitate. &#8220;Why, someone&#8217;s got into that room you always keep locked and is
+making the devil of a noise, enough to raise all the Saints in Heaven.
+Norah&#8221; (Norah was the cook) &#8220;and I both heard it&mdash;a groaning, and a
+chuckling, and a scratching, as if the cratur was tearing up the boards
+and breaking all the furniture, and all the while keening and laughing.
+For the love of Heaven, ladies, come and hear it for yourselves. Such
+goings on! Ochone! Ochone!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Both ladies, Miss S&mdash;&mdash; said, turned deadly pale, and Miss Harriet, the
+younger sister, was on the brink of tears.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Where is cook?&#8221; Miss Georgina, who was by far the stronger minded of the
+two, suddenly said, addressing Bridget. &#8220;If she is upstairs, tell her to
+come down at once. Miss Harriet and I will go and see what the noise is
+that you complain about upstairs. There really is no need to make all this
+disturbance&#8221;&mdash;here she assumed an air of the utmost severity&mdash;&#8220;it&#8217;s sure
+to be either mice or rats.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>&#8220;Mice or rats!&#8221; Bridget echoed. &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry for the mice and rats as make
+all those noises. &#8217;Tis some evil spirit, sure, and Norah is of the same
+mind,&#8221; and with those parting words she slammed the door behind her.</p>
+
+<p>The sisters, then, begging to be excused for a few minutes, left the room,
+and returned shortly afterwards looking terribly white and distressed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am sure you must think all this very odd,&#8221; Miss Georgina observed with
+as great a degree of unconcern as she could assume, &#8220;and I feel we owe you
+an explanation, but I must beg you will not repeat a word of what we tell
+you to anyone else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss S&mdash;&mdash; promised she would not, and then composed herself to listen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We have in our family,&#8221; Miss O&#8217;Rorke began, &#8220;a most unpleasant
+attachment; in other words, a most unpleasant Banshee. Being Irish, you
+will not laugh, of course, as many English people do, at what I say. You
+know as well as I do, perhaps, that many of the really ancient Irish
+families possess Banshees.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss S&mdash;&mdash; nodded. &#8220;We have one ourselves,&#8221; she remarked, &#8220;but pray go on.
+I am intensely interested.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, unlike most of the Banshees,&#8221; Miss Georgina continued, &#8220;ours is
+appallingly ugly and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> malevolent; so frightful, indeed, that to see it,
+even, is sometimes fatal. One of our great-great-uncles, for instance, to
+whom it once appeared, is reported to have died from shock; a similar fate
+overtaking another of our ancestors, who also saw it. Fortunately, it
+seems to have a strong attraction in the shape of an old gold ring which
+has been in the possession of the family from time immemorial. Both
+ancestors I have referred to are alleged to have been wearing this ring at
+the time the Banshee appeared to them, and it is said to strictly confine
+its manifestations to the immediate vicinity of that article. That is why
+our parents always kept the ring strictly isolated, in a locked room, the
+key of which was never, for a moment, allowed to be out of their
+possession. And we have strenuously followed their example. That is the
+explanation of the mystery you have doubtless heard about, for I
+believe&mdash;thanks to the servants&mdash;it has become the gossip of half Dublin.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And the noise Bridget referred to,&#8221; Miss S&mdash;&mdash; ventured to remark,
+somewhat timidly, &#8220;was that the Banshee?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Georgina nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I fear it was,&#8221; she observed solemnly, &#8220;and that we shall shortly hear of
+a relative&#8217;s death or grave catastrophe to some member of the family;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>
+probably, a cousin of ours in County Galway, who has been ill for some
+weeks, is dying.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She was partly right, although the latter surmise was not correct. Within
+a few days of the Banshee&#8217;s visit a member of the family died, but it was
+not the sick cousin, it was Miss Georgina&#8217;s own sister, Harriet!</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>THE BANSHEE ABROAD</h3>
+
+<p><br />As I have remarked in a previous chapter, the Banshee to-day is heard more
+often abroad than in Ireland. It follows the fortunes of the true old
+Milesian Irishman&mdash;the real O and Mc, none of your adulterated O&#8217;Walters
+or O&#8217;Cassons&mdash;everywhere, even to the Poles.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wilde, in her &#8220;Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of
+Ireland,&#8221; quotes the case of a Banshee haunting that was experienced by a
+branch of the Clan O&#8217;Grady that had settled in Canada.</p>
+
+<p>The spot chosen by this family for their residence was singularly wild and
+isolated, and one night at two o&#8217;clock, when they were all in bed, they
+were aroused by a loud cry, coming, apparently, from just outside the
+house. Nothing intelligible was uttered, only a sound indicative of the
+greatest bitterness and sorrow, such as one might imagine a woman would
+give vent to, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> only when in an agony of mind, almost beyond human
+understanding.</p>
+
+<p>The effect produced by it was one of sublime terror, and all seemed to
+feel instinctively that the source from which it emanated was apart from
+this world and belonged wholly and solely to the Unknown. Nevertheless,
+from what Lady Wilde says, we are led to infer that an exhaustive search
+of the premises was made, resulting, as was expected, in complete failure
+to find any physical agency that could in any way account for the cry.</p>
+
+<p>The following day the head of the household and his eldest son went
+boating on a lake near the house, and, although it was their intention to
+do so, did not return to dinner. Various members of the family were sent
+to look for them, but no trace of them was to be seen anywhere, and no
+solution to the mystery as to what had happened to them was forthcoming,
+till two o&#8217;clock that night, when, exactly twenty-four hours after the cry
+had been heard, some of the searchers returned, bearing with them the wet,
+bedraggled, and lifeless bodies of both father and son. Then, once again,
+the weird and ominous sound that had so startled them on the previous
+night was heard, and the sorrow-stricken family&mdash;that is to say, those who
+were left of it&mdash;agreeing now that the Banshee had indeed visited them,
+remembered that their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> beloved father, whom they had just lost, had often
+spoken of the Banshee, as having haunted their branch of the clan for
+countless generations.</p>
+
+<p>Another case of Banshee haunting, that I have in mind, relates to a branch
+of the southern O&#8217;Neills that settled in Italy a good many years ago. It
+was told me in Paris by a Mrs Dempsey, who assured me she had been an
+eye-witness of the phenomena, and I now record it in print for the first
+time.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dempsey, when staying once at an hotel in the north of Italy, noticed
+among the guests an elderly man, whose very marked features and intensely
+sad expression quickly attracted her attention. She observed that he kept
+entirely aloof from his fellow-guests, and that, every evening after
+dinner, he retired from the drawing-room, as soon as coffee had been
+handed round, and went outside and stood on the veranda overlooking the
+shore of the Adriatic.</p>
+
+<p>She made inquiries as to his name and history, and was told that he was
+Count Fernando Asioli, a wealthy Florentine citizen, who, having but
+recently lost his wife, to whom he was devoted, naturally did not wish to
+join in the general conversation. Upon hearing this Mrs Dempsey was more
+than ever interested. It was not so very long since she, too, had lost her
+partner&mdash;a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> husband to whom she was much attached&mdash;and, consequently, it
+was in sympathetic mood that, seeing the Count go out, as usual, one
+evening, on to the veranda, she resolved to follow him, to try, if
+possible, to get into conversation with him.</p>
+
+<p>With this end in view she was about to cross the threshold of the veranda,
+when, to her astonishment, she perceived the Count was not there alone.
+Standing by his side, with one hand laid caressingly on his shoulder, was
+a tall, slim girl, with masses of the most gorgeous red gold hair hanging
+loose and reaching to her waist. She was wearing an emerald green dress of
+some very filmy substance; but her arms and feet were bare, and stood out
+so clearly in the soft radiance of the moonbeams, that Mrs Dempsey, who
+was an artist and had studied on the Continent, noticed with a thrill that
+they equalled, if, indeed, they did not surpass in beauty, any she had
+ever come across either in Greek or Florentine sculpture.</p>
+
+<p>Much perplexed as to who such a queerly attired visitor on such friendly
+terms with the Count could be, Mrs Dempsey remained for a second or two
+watching, and then, afraid lest she should attract their attention and so
+be caught, seemingly, in the act of spying, she withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>The moment she got back again into the drawing-room, however, she made
+somewhat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> indignant inquiries of a lady who generally sat next to her at
+meals, as to the identity of the girl she had just seen standing beside
+the, said to be, heart-broken Count in an attitude of such close intimacy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A woman with the Count!&#8221; was the reply. &#8220;Surely not! Who can she be, and
+what was she like?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dempsey described the stranger in detail, but her friend, shaking her
+head, could only suggest that she was some new-comer, some guest who had
+arrived at the hotel, and gone on the veranda whilst they were at dinner.
+Feeling a little curious, however, Mrs Dempsey&#8217;s friend walked towards the
+veranda, and, in a very short time, returned, looking somewhat puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You must have been mistaken,&#8221; she whispered, &#8220;there is no one with Count
+Asioli now, and, if anyone had come away, we should have seen them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am quite sure I did see a woman there,&#8221; Mrs Dempsey replied, &#8220;and only
+a minute or two ago; she must have got out somehow, although there is,
+apparently, no other way than through this room.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At this moment, the Count, entering the room, took a seat beside them; and
+the subject, of course, had to be dropped. The next night, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>however, the
+events of the preceding night were repeated. Mrs Dempsey followed the
+Count on to the veranda, saw the girl in green standing with her hand on
+his shoulder, came back and told her neighbour at meals, and the latter,
+on hastening to the veranda to look, once more returned declaring that the
+Count was alone. After this, a slight altercation took place between the
+two ladies, the one declaring her belief that it was all an optical
+illusion on the part of the other, and the other emphatically sticking to
+her story that she had actually seen the girl she had described.</p>
+
+<p>They parted that night, both a little ruffled, though neither would admit
+it, and the following night, Mrs Dempsey, as soon as she saw the Count go
+on to the veranda, fetched her friend.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; she said, &#8220;come with me and see for yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The two ladies, accordingly, went to the veranda and, opening the door
+gently, peeped in.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There she is,&#8221; Mrs Dempsey whispered, &#8220;standing in just the same
+position.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sound of her voice, though so low as to be scarcely heard even by the
+lady standing beside her, seemingly attracted the attention of both the
+girl and the Count, for they turned round simultaneously. Then Mrs
+Dempsey, whose gaze was solely concentrated on the girl, saw a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> face of
+almost indescribable beauty&mdash;possessing neatly chiselled, but by no means
+coldly classical features, long eyes of a marvellous blue, a smooth broad
+brow, and delicately and subtly moulded mouth; it was the face of a young
+girl, barely out of her teens, and it was filled with an expression of
+infinite sorrow and affection.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dempsey was so enraptured that, to quote her own words, she &#8220;stood
+gazing at it in speechless awe and amazement,&#8221; and might, perhaps, have
+been gazing at it still, had not the voice of the Count called her back to
+earth.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I hope, ladies,&#8221; he was saying, &#8220;that you do not see anything unusually
+disturbing in my appearance to-night, for I undoubtedly seem to be the
+object of your solicitude. May I ask why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Though he spoke quite politely, even the dullest could have seen that he
+was more than a little annoyed. Mrs Dempsey therefore hastened to reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is not you,&#8221; she stammered out, &#8220;it is the lady&mdash;the lady you have
+with you. I&mdash;I fancied I knew her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The lady I have with me,&#8221; the Count exclaimed, in accents of cold
+surprise. &#8220;Kindly explain what you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why the lady&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; Mrs Dempsey began, and then she glanced round.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>The Count was standing in front of her&mdash;but he was quite alone. There was
+no vestige of a girl in green, nor of any other person on the veranda
+saving themselves, and immediately beneath it, at a distance of at least
+thirty feet, glimmered the white shingles of the silent and
+deserted&mdash;utterly deserted&mdash;seashore.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s gone,&#8221; Mrs Dempsey cried, &#8220;but I&#8217;m positive I saw her&mdash;a lady in
+green standing beside you.&#8221; Then, for the first time, she felt afraid, and
+trembled.</p>
+
+<p>The Count, who had been observing her very closely, now advanced a step or
+two towards her, and in a very different tone said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will you please describe the lady? Was she old or young, dark or fair?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Young and fair, very fair,&#8221; Mrs Dempsey exclaimed. &#8220;But please come
+inside, for I&#8217;ve received something of a shock, and can, perhaps, talk to
+you better in the gaslight, with people near at hand whom I know are human
+beings.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He did as she requested, and became more and more interested as she
+proceeded with her description, interrupting her every now and again with
+questions. Was she sure the girl had blue eyes, he asked, and how could
+she tell what colour the eyes were by the light of the moon only; Mrs
+Dempsey&#8217;s reply to which being that the girl&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> whole body seemed to be
+illuminated from within, in such a manner that every detail could be seen,
+almost, if not quite, as clearly as if she had been standing in the full
+glare of an electric light. At the conclusion of her narrative Mrs Dempsey
+was further questioned by the Count.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Had she,&#8221; he inquired, &#8220;ever been told that he was partly Irish,
+because,&#8221; he added, on receiving a negative reply, &#8220;I am, and my real name
+is O&#8217;Neill, my great-great-grandfather having assumed the name of Asioli
+in order to come into some property when the family, which came from the
+south of Ireland, settled in Italy, many, many years ago. But what will, I
+am sure, be of considerable interest to you is the fact that this branch
+of the O&#8217;Neills, the branch to which I belong, is haunted by a Banshee,
+and that that Banshee has, I believe&mdash;since the description of it given me
+by various members of my family tallies with the description you have
+given me of the girl you saw standing by me&mdash;appeared to you. I would add
+that it never reveals itself, excepting when an O&#8217;Neill is about to die,
+and as I am quite the last of my line, I cannot conceive any reason for
+its having thus appeared three nights in succession, unless, of course, it
+is to predict my own end.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Dempsey was not long left in doubt. On the morrow the Count was
+summoned to Venice<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> on urgent business, and on his way to the railway
+dep&ocirc;t he suddenly dropped down dead, the excitement and exertion having,
+so it was supposed, proved too much for his heart, which was known to be
+weak.</p>
+
+<p>Said to be descended from the younger of the two sons of King Milesius, it
+certainly is not surprising that the O&#8217;Neills<small><a name="f7.1" id="f7.1" href="#f7">[7]</a></small> should possess a
+Banshee&mdash;indeed, it would be surprising if they did not&mdash;but I have found
+it somewhat difficult to trace. However, according to Lady Wilde in her
+&#8220;Irish Wonders,&#8221; p. 112, there is a room at Shane Castle which is strictly
+set aside for it.</p>
+
+<p>The Banshee, Lady Wilde says, is very often seen in this apartment,
+sometimes appearing shrouded in a dark, mist-like mantle; and at other
+times as a very lovely young girl with long, red-gold hair, clad in a
+scarlet cloak and green kirtle, adorned with gold. Lady Wilde goes on to
+tell us no harm ever comes of the Banshee&#8217;s visit, unless she is seen in
+the act of crying, when her wails may be taken as a certain sign that some
+member of the family will shortly die. Mr McAnnaly corroborates this by
+stating that on one occasion one of the O&#8217;Neills of Shane Castle heard the
+Banshee crying, just as he was about to set out on a journey, and perished
+soon <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>afterwards, which is somewhat unusual, because in the majority of
+cases I have come across the Banshee does not manifest itself at all to
+the person whose death it predicts. A very old, probably the oldest,
+branch of the O&#8217;Neills now resides in Portugal, but up to the present I
+have not succeeded in obtaining any evidence to warrant the assumption
+that the Banshee haunting has been experienced in that country.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, the Banshee seems to be just as erratic and wayward as any
+daughter of Eve, for there is no consistency whatever in her movements.
+The very families one thinks she would haunt, she often studiously avoids,
+and not infrequently she concentrates her attention on those who are
+utterly obscure, albeit, always of <i>bona fide</i> Irish extraction.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY</h3>
+
+<p><br />In previous chapters I have dealt exclusively with cases that are, without
+doubt, those of genuine Banshee haunting. I now propose to narrate a few
+cases which I will term cases of doubtful Banshee haunting&mdash;that is to
+say, cases of haunting which, although said to be Banshee, cannot, in view
+of the phenomena and circumstances, be thus designated with any degree of
+certainty.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with I will recall the case relating to the R&mdash;&mdash;s, a family
+living in Canada. Their house, a long, low, two-storied building, stood on
+a lonely spot on the road leading to Montreal, and a young lady, whom I
+will designate Miss Delane, was visiting them when the incidents I am
+about to narrate took place.</p>
+
+<p>The weather had been more than commonly fine for that time of year, but at
+last the inevitable and unmistakable signs of a break had set in, and one
+evening black clouds gathered in the sky, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> wind whistled ominously in
+the chimneys and savagely shook the many-coloured maple leaves, while,
+after a time, the moon, which had been hanging like a great red globe over
+the St Lawrence, became suddenly obscured, and big drops of rain came
+spluttering against the windows.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Delane, who had been seized with a strange restlessness which she
+could not shake off, then went into the hall, and was about to speak to
+one of Major R&mdash;&mdash;&#8217;s nieces, who was also on a visit there, when her
+attention was arrested by the sound of a heavy carriage lumbering along
+the high road, from the direction of Montreal, at a very great rate. It
+being now nearly ten o&#8217;clock, an hour when there was usually very little
+traffic, she was somewhat surprised, her astonishment increasing by leaps
+and bounds when she heard the wheels crunching on the gravel drive, and
+the carriage rapidly approaching the house.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Surely, it is too late&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; she began, but was cut short by the Major,
+who, abruptly pushing past her to the front door, just as the carriage
+drew up, swung it to, and, in trembling haste, locked, and barred, and
+bolted it.</p>
+
+<p>Footsteps were then heard hurriedly ascending the steps to the front door,
+and immediately afterwards a series of loud rat-tat-tats, although, as
+everyone instantly remembered, there was no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> knocker on the door, the
+Major having had it removed many years ago, for a reason he either could
+not or would not explain.</p>
+
+<p>Startled almost out of their senses by the noise, the whole household had
+in a few seconds assembled in the hall, and they now knelt, huddled
+together, whilst the Major in a voice which, despite the fact that it was
+raised to its highest pitch, could barely be heard above the furious and
+frenzied knocking, besought the Almighty to protect them.</p>
+
+<p>As he continued praying the rat-tats gradually grew feebler and feebler,
+until they finally ceased, after which the footsteps were once again heard
+on the stone steps, this time descending, and the carriage drove away. It
+was not, however, until the reverberations of the wheels could no longer
+be heard that the Major rose from his knees. Then, bidding his household
+do likewise, he insisted that they should at once retire, without speaking
+a word, to their rooms; and forbade them ever to mention the matter to him
+again.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as Miss Delane and the Major&#8217;s nieces were in their bedroom&mdash;they
+shared a room between them&mdash;they ran to the window and looked out. The sky
+was quite clear now, and the moon was shining forth in all the splendour
+of its calm cold majesty; but the grounds and road<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> beyond were quite
+deserted; not a vestige of any person or carriage could be seen anywhere,
+and, on the morrow, when they hastened downstairs and examined the gravel,
+there were no indications whatever of any wheels.</p>
+
+<p>The day passed quite uneventfully, and once again it was night-time; the
+Major had read prayers as usual at about ten, and the household, also as
+usual, had retired to rest. Miss Delane, who was used to much later hours,
+found it difficult to compose herself to sleep so soon, but she had just
+managed to doze off, when she was aroused by her friend Ellen, the elder
+of the Major&#8217;s two nieces, pulling violently at her bedclothes, and, on
+looking up, she perceived a tall figure, clad in what looked like nun&#8217;s
+garments, walking across the room with long, stealthy strides. As she
+gazed at it in breathless astonishment, it suddenly paused and, turning
+its hooded head round, stared fixedly at Ellen, and then, moving on,
+seemed to melt into the wall. At all events, it had vanished, and there
+was nothing where it had been standing, saving moonlight.</p>
+
+<p>For some minutes Ellen was too terrified to speak, but she at last called
+out to Miss Delane and implored her to come and get into her bed, as she
+no longer dared lie there by herself.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you see the way it looked at me,&#8221; she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> whispered, clutching hold of
+Miss Delane, and shuddering violently. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think I shall ever get
+over it. We must leave here to-morrow. We must, we must,&#8221; and she burst
+out crying.</p>
+
+<p>As may be imagined, there was little sleep for either of the girls again
+that night, and it seemed to them as if the morning would never come; but,
+when at last it did come, they told Major R&mdash;&mdash; what had happened, and
+declared they really dared not spend another night in the house.</p>
+
+<p>Though obviously distressed on hearing what they had to say, the Major did
+not press them to alter their decision and stay, but told them that to go,
+he thought, under the circumstances, was far the wisest and safest thing
+for them to do. An hour or so later, having finished their packing, they
+were all three taking a final stroll together in the garden, when they
+fancied they heard someone running after them down one of the sidewalks,
+and, turning round, they saw the figure that had disturbed them in the
+night, standing close behind them.</p>
+
+<p>The sunlight falling directly on it revealed features now only too easily
+distinguishable of someone long since dead, but animated by a spirit that
+was wholly antagonistic and malicious, and as they shrank back
+terror-stricken, it stretched forth one of its long, bony arms and touched
+first<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> Ellen and then her sister on the shoulder. It then veered round,
+and, moving away with the same peculiarly long and surreptitious strides,
+seemed suddenly to amalgamate with the shadows from the trees and
+disappear.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments the girls were far too paralysed with fear to do other
+than remain where they were, trembling; but their faculties at length
+reasserting themselves, they made a sudden dash for the house, and ran at
+top speed till they reached it.</p>
+
+<p>It was some weeks afterwards, however, and not till then, that Miss
+Delane, who was back again in her home in Ireland, received any
+explanation of the phenomena she had witnessed. It was given her by a
+friend of the R&mdash;&mdash;s who happened to be visiting one of Miss Delane&#8217;s
+relatives in Dublin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What you saw,&#8221; this friend of the R&mdash;&mdash;s said to Miss Delane, &#8220;was, I
+believe, the Banshee, which always manifests itself before the death of
+any member of the family. Sometimes it shrieks, like the shrieking of a
+woman who is being cruelly done to death, and sometimes it merely stares
+at or touches its victim on the shoulder with its skeleton hand. In either
+case its advent is fatal. Only,&#8221; she added, &#8220;let me implore you never to
+breathe a word of this to the R&mdash;&mdash;s, as they never mention their ghost to anyone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>Miss Delane, of course, promised, at the same time expressing a devout
+hope that the phenomena she had witnessed did not point to the illness or
+death of either of her friends; but in this she was doomed to the deepest
+disappointment, for within a few weeks of the date upon which the
+Banshee&mdash;if Banshee it really were&mdash;had appeared, she received tidings of
+the deaths of both Ellen and her sister (the former succumbing to an
+attack of some malignant fever, and the latter to an accident), and in
+addition heard that Major R&mdash;&mdash; had died also. As Major R&mdash;&mdash; would never
+discuss the subject of his family ghost with anyone at all, it is
+impossible to say whether he believed the haunting to be a Banshee
+haunting or not; but many, apparently, did believe it to be this type of
+haunting, and I must say I think they were wrong.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, the R&mdash;&mdash;s were Anglo-Irish. Their connection with Ireland
+may have dated back a century or so, but they were certainly not of
+Milesian nor even Celtic Irish descent; and, for this reason alone, could
+not have acquired a Banshee haunting. Besides, the Banshee that we know
+does not appear, as the R&mdash;&mdash;&#8217;s ghost appeared, attired in the vestments
+of a religious order; and the coach or hearse phantasm (which in the
+R&mdash;&mdash;&#8217;s case preceded the manifestation of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> the supposed Banshee) is by no
+means an uncommon haunting;<small><a name="f8.1" id="f8.1" href="#f8">[8]</a></small> and since it is more often than not
+accompanied by phenomena of the sepulchral type (the type witnessed by
+Miss Delane and the Major&#8217;s nieces), it may be said to constitute in
+itself a peculiar form of family haunting which is not, of course,
+exclusively confined to the Irish.</p>
+
+<p>Hence I entirely dismiss the theory that the notorious R&mdash;&mdash;&#8217;s ghost had
+anything at all to do with the Banshee. &Agrave; propos of coaches, I am reminded
+of an incident related by that past master of the weird, J. Sheridan Le
+Fanu, in a short story entitled &#8220;A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone
+Family.&#8221; As it relates to that type of phantasm that is so often foolishly
+confused with the Banshee, I think I cannot do better than give a brief
+sketch of it.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Richardson, a young Anglo-Irish girl, resided with her parents at
+Ashtown, Tyrone, and her elder sister, who had recently married a Mr Carew
+of Dublin, being expected with her husband on a visit, great preparations
+were on foot for their reception.</p>
+
+<p>They were leaving Dublin by coach on the Monday morning, they had written
+to say, and hoped to arrive at Ashtown some time the following day. The
+morning and afternoon passed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> however, without any sign of the Carews,
+and when it got dark, and still they did not come, the Richardson family
+began to feel a trifle uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>The night was fine, the sky cloudless, and the moon, when it at length
+rose, could not have been more brilliant. It was a still night, too, so
+still that not a leaf stirred, and so still that those on the qui vive,
+who were straining their ears to the utmost, must have caught the sound of
+an approaching vehicle on the high road, had there been one, when it was
+still at a distance of several miles. But no sound came, and when
+suppertime arrived, Mr Richardson, as was his wont, made a tour of the
+house, and carefully fastened the shutters and locked the doors. Still the
+family listened, and still they could hear nothing, nothing, either near
+to, or far away.</p>
+
+<p>It was now midnight, but no one went to bed, for all were buoyed up with
+the desperate hope that something must at last happen&mdash;either, the Carews
+themselves would suddenly turn up, or a messenger with a letter explaining
+the delay.</p>
+
+<p>Neither eventuality, however, came to pass, and nothing occurred until
+Miss Richardson, who had, for the moment, allowed her mind to dwell on an
+entirely different topic, gave a start. Her heart beat loud, and she held
+her breath! She heard carriage wheels. Yes, without a doubt, she heard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>
+wheels&mdash;the wheels of a coach or carriage, and they were getting more and
+more distinct. But she remained silent. She had been rebuked once or twice
+for giving a false alarm&mdash;she would now let someone else speak first. In
+the meantime, on and on came the wheels, stopping for a moment whilst the
+iron gate at the entrance to the drive was swung open on its rusty hinges;
+then on and on again, louder, louder and louder, till all could
+distinguish, amid the barking of the dogs, the sound of scattered gravel
+and the crackling and swishing of the whip. There was no doubt about it
+now, and with joyous cries of &#8220;It is them! They have come at last,&#8221; a
+regular stampede was made for the hall door, parents and sister, servants
+and dogs, vying with one another to see who could get there first. But, lo
+and behold, when the door was opened, and they stepped out, there was no
+sign of a coach or carriage anywhere; nothing was to be seen but the broad
+gravel drive and lawn beyond, alight with moonbeams and peopled with queer
+shadows, but absolutely silent, with a silence that suggested a
+churchyard.</p>
+
+<p>The whole household now looked at one another with white and puzzled
+faces; they began to be afraid; whilst the dogs, running about, and
+sniffing, and whining, were obviously ill at ease and afraid, too.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>At last a kind of panic set in, and all made a rush for the house, taking
+care, when once inside, to shut the door with even greater haste than they
+had displayed in opening it. The family then retired to rest, but not to
+sleep, and early the next morning they received news that fully confirmed
+their suspicions. Mrs Carew had been taken ill with fever on Monday, while
+preparations for the departure were being made, and had passed away,
+probably at the very moment when the Richardsons, hearing the phantom
+coach and mistaking it for a real one, had opened their hall door to
+welcome her.</p>
+
+<p>That is the gist of the incident as related by Mr Le Fanu, and I have
+quoted it merely to show how a case of this kind, especially when it
+happens in Ireland, and to a family that has for some time been associated
+with Ireland, may sometimes be mistaken for a genuine Banshee haunting,
+although, of course, there is no reason whatever to suppose that Mr Le
+Fanu himself laboured under any delusion with regard to it, or intended to
+convey to his readers an impression of the haunting that the circumstances
+did not warrant. He merely states it as a case of the supernatural without
+attempting to consign it to any special category.</p>
+
+<p>Lady Wilde in her &#8220;Ancient Cures, Charms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> and Usages of Ireland,&#8221; pp. 163,
+164, quotes another case of coach haunting in Ireland, a very terrible
+one; while in a book entitled &#8220;Rambles in Northumberland,&#8221; by the same
+author, we are informed, &#8220;when the death-hearse, drawn by headless horses
+and driven by a headless driver, is seen about midnight proceeding
+rapidly, but without noise, towards the churchyard, the death of some
+considerable personage in the parish is sure to happen at no distant
+period.&#8221; Also, there is a phantom of this description that is occasionally
+seen on the road near Langley in Durham, and my relatives, the Vizes<small><a name="f9.1" id="f9.1" href="#f9">[9]</a></small> of
+Limerick&mdash;at least, so my grandmother, <i>n&eacute;e</i> Sally Vize, used to say&mdash;are
+haunted by a phantom coach too; indeed, there seems to be no end to this
+kind of haunting, which is always either very picturesque or very
+terrifying, and sometimes both picturesque and terrifying.</p>
+
+<p>At the same time, although intensely interesting, no doubt, the phantom
+coach is not essentially Irish, and not in any way connected with the
+Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>As an example of the extreme anxiety of some people to be thought to be of
+ancient Irish extraction and to have a Banshee, I might refer to an
+incident in connection with Mrs Elizabeth<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> Sheridan, which is recorded in
+footnotes on pages 32 and 33 of &#8220;The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of
+Mrs Frances Sheridan,&#8221; compiled by her granddaughter, Miss Alicia Lefanu,
+and published in 1824, and quote from it the following:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">&#8220;Like many Irish ladies who resided during the early part of life in
+the country, Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the
+Banshi, a female d&aelig;mon, attached to ancient Irish families. She
+seriously maintained that the Banshi of the Sheridan family was heard
+wailing beneath the windows of Quilca before the news arrived of Mrs
+Frances Sheridan&#8217;s death at Blois, thus affording them a
+preternatural intimation of the impending melancholy event. A niece
+of Miss Sheridan&#8217;s made her very angry by observing that as Miss
+Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English
+extraction, she had no right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy,
+and that, therefore, the Banshi must have made a mistake.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Now I certainly agree with Miss Sheridan&#8217;s niece in doubting that the cry
+heard before Mrs Frances Sheridan&#8217;s death was that of the real Banshee;
+but I do not doubt it because Mrs Frances Sheridan was of English
+extraction, for the Banshee has frequently been heard before the death of
+a wife whose husband was one of an ancient Irish clan&mdash;even though the
+wife had no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Irish blood in her at all, but I doubt it because the husband
+of Mrs Frances Sheridan was one of a family who, not being of really
+ancient Irish descent, does not, in my opinion, possess a Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>In &#8220;Personal Sketches of his Own Times,&#8221; by Sir Jonah Barrington, we find
+(pp. 152-154, Vol. II.) the account of a ghostly experience of the author
+and his wife, which experience the writer of the paragraph, referring to
+this work in the notes to T. C. Croker&#8217;s Banshee Stories, evidently
+considered was closely associated with the Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>At the time of the incident, Lord Rossmore was Commander-in-Chief of the
+Forces in Ireland. He was a Scot by birth, but had come over to Ireland
+when very young, and had obtained the post of page to the Lord-Lieutenant.
+Fortune had favoured him at every turn. Not only had he been eminently
+successful in the vocation he finally selected, but he had been equally
+fortunate both with regard to love and money. The lady with whom he fell
+in love returned his affections, and, on their marriage, brought him a
+rich dowry. It was partly with her money that he purchased the estate of
+Mount Kennedy, and built on it one of the noblest mansions in Wicklow. Not
+very far from Mount Kennedy, and in the centre of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> what is termed the
+golden belt of Ireland, stood Dunran, the residence of the Barringtons; so
+that Lord Rossmore and the Barringtons were practically neighbours.</p>
+
+<p>One afternoon at the drawing-room at Dublin Castle, during the Vice-royalty
+of Earl Hardwick, Lord Rossmore met Lady Barrington, and gave her a most
+pressing invitation to come to his house-party at Mount Kennedy the
+following day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My little farmer,&#8221; said he, addressing her by her pet name, &#8220;when you go
+home, tell Sir Jonah that no business is to prevent him from bringing you
+down to dine with me to-morrow. I will have no ifs in the matter&mdash;so tell
+him that come he MUST.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lady Barrington promised, and the following day saw her and Sir Jonah at
+Mount Kennedy. That night, at about twelve, they retired to rest, and
+towards two in the morning Sir Jonah was awakened by a sound of a very
+extraordinary nature. It occurred first at short intervals and resembled
+neither a voice nor an instrument, for it was softer than any voice, and
+wilder than any music, and seemed to float about in mid-air, now in one
+spot and now in another. To quote Sir Jonah&#8217;s own language:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know wherefore, but my heart beat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> forcibly; the sound became
+still more plaintive, till it almost died in the air; when a sudden
+change, as if excited by a pang, changed its tone; it seemed descending. I
+felt every nerve tremble: it was not a natural sound, nor could I make out
+the point from whence it came. At length I awakened Lady Barrington, who
+heard it as well as myself. She suggested that it might be an &AElig;olian harp;
+but to that instrument it bore no resemblance&mdash;it was altogether a
+different character of sound. My wife at first appeared less affected than
+I; but subsequently she was more so. We now went to a large window in our
+bedroom, which looked directly upon a small garden underneath. The sound
+seemed then, obviously, to ascend from a grass plot immediately below our
+window. It continued. Lady Barrington requested I would call up her maid,
+which I did, and she was evidently more affected than either of us. The
+sounds lasted for more than half an hour. At last a deep, heavy, throbbing
+sigh seemed to come from the spot, and was shortly succeeded by a sharp,
+low cry, and by the distinct exclamation, thrice repeated, of
+&#8216;Rossmore!&mdash;Rossmore!&mdash;Rossmore!&#8217; I will not attempt to describe my own
+feelings,&#8221; Sir Jonah goes on. &#8220;The maid fled in terror from the window,
+and it was with difficulty I prevailed on Lady Barrington to return to
+bed;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> in about a minute after the sound died gradually away until all was
+still.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jonah adds that Lady Barrington, who was not so superstitious as
+himself, made him promise he would not mention the incident to anyone next
+day, lest they should be the laughing stock of the place.</p>
+
+<p>At about seven in the morning, Sir Jonah&#8217;s servant, Lawler, rapped at the
+bedroom door and began, &#8220;Oh, Lord, sir!&#8221;, in such agitated tones, that Sir
+Jonah at once cried out: &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, sir,&#8221; Lawler ejaculated, &#8220;Lord Rossmore&#8217;s footman was running past my
+door in great haste, and told me in passing that my lord, after coming
+from the Castle, had gone to bed in perfect health (Lord Rossmore, though
+advanced in years, had always appeared to be singularly robust, and Sir
+Jonah had never once heard him complain he was unwell), but that about
+two-thirty this morning his own man, hearing a noise in his master&#8217;s bed
+(he slept in the same room), went to him, and found him in the agonies of
+death; and before he could alarm the other servants, all was over.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sir Jonah remarks that Lord Rossmore was actually dying at the moment Lady
+Barrington and he (Sir Jonah) heard his lordship&#8217;s name pronounced; and he
+adds that he is totally unequal<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> to the task of accounting for the sounds
+by any natural causes. The question that most concerns me is whether they
+were due to the Banshee or not, and as Lord Rossmore was not apparently of
+ancient Irish lineage, I am inclined to think the phenomena owed its
+origin to some other class of phantasm; perhaps to one that had been
+attached to Lord Rossmore&#8217;s family in Scotland. Moreover, I have never
+heard of the Banshee speaking as the invisible presence spoke on that
+occasion; the phenomena certainly seems to me to be much more Scottish
+than Irish.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS</h3>
+
+<p><br />It is a somewhat curious, and, perhaps, a not very well-known fact, that
+some families possess two Banshees, a friendly and an unfriendly one;
+whilst a few, though a few only, possess three&mdash;a friendly, an unfriendly,
+and a neutral one. A case of the two Banshees resulting in a dual Banshee
+haunting was told me quite recently by a man whom I met in Paris at
+Henriette&#8217;s in Montparnasse. He was a Scot, a journalist, of the name of
+Menzies, and his story concerned an Irish friend of his, also a
+journalist, whom I will call O&#8217;Hara.</p>
+
+<p>From what I could gather, these two men were of an absolutely opposite
+nature. O&#8217;Hara&mdash;warm-hearted, impulsive, and generous to a degree;
+Menzies&mdash;somewhat cold, careful with regard to money, and extremely
+cautious; and yet, apart from their vocation which was the apparent link
+between them, they possessed one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> characteristic in common&mdash;they both
+adored pretty women. The high brow and extreme feminist with her stolid
+features and intensely supercilious smile was a nightmare to them; they
+sought always something pleasing, and dainty, and free from academic
+conceits; and they found it in Paris&mdash;at Henriette&#8217;s.</p>
+
+<p>It so happened one day that, unable to get a table at Henriette&#8217;s, the
+place being crowded, they wandered along the Boulevard Montparnasse, and
+turned into a new restaurant close to the Boulevard Raspail. This place,
+too, was very full, but there was one small table, at which sat alone a
+young girl, and, at O&#8217;Hara&#8217;s suggestion, they at once made for it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You sly fellow,&#8221; Menzies whispered to his friend, after they had been
+seated a few minutes, &#8220;I know why you were so anxious to come here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, wasn&#8217;t I right,&#8221; O&#8217;Hara, whose eyes had never once left the girl&#8217;s
+face, responded. &#8220;She&#8217;s the prettiest I&#8217;ve seen for many a day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not bad!&#8221; Menzies answered, somewhat critically. &#8220;But I don&#8217;t like her
+mouth, it&#8217;s wolfish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>O&#8217;Hara, however, could see no fault in her; the longer he gazed at her,
+the deeper and deeper he fell in love; not that there was anything very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>
+unusual in that, because O&#8217;Hara was no sooner off with one flame than he
+was on with another; and he averaged at least two or three love cases a
+year. But to Menzies this latest affair was annoying; he knew that when
+O&#8217;Hara lost his heart he generally lost his head too, and could never talk
+or think on any topic but the eyes, hair, mouth and finger-nails&mdash;for,
+like most Irishmen, O&#8217;Hara had a passion for well-kept, well-formed
+hands&mdash;of his new divinity, and on this occasion he did want O&#8217;Hara to
+remain sane a little longer.</p>
+
+<p>It was, then, for this reason chiefly, that Menzies did not get a little
+excited over the new discovery, too; for he was bound to admit that, in
+spite of the lupine expression about the mouth, there was some excuse this
+time for his friend&#8217;s enthusiasm. The girl was pretty, an almost perfect
+blonde, with daintily shaped hands, and dressed as only a young Paris
+beauty can dress, who has money and leisure at her command.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there was excuse; and yet it was the height of folly. Girls mean
+expenditure in one way or another, and just now neither he nor O&#8217;Hara had
+anything to spend. While he was thinking, however, O&#8217;Hara was acting.</p>
+
+<p>He offered the girl a cigarette, she smilingly rejected it; but the ice
+was broken, and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> conversation begun. There is no need to go into any
+particulars as to what followed&mdash;it was what always did follow in a case
+of this description&mdash;blind infatuation that invariably ended with a
+startling abruptness; only in this instance the infatuation was blinder
+than ever, and the ending, though sudden, was not usual. O&#8217;Hara asked the
+girl to dinner with him that night. She accepted, and he took her out
+again the following evening. From that moment all reason left him, and he
+gave himself up to the maddest of mad passions.</p>
+
+<p>Menzies saw little of him, but when they did by chance happen to meet it
+was always the same old tale&mdash;Gabrielle! Gabrielle Delacourt. Her
+star-like eyes, gorgeous hair, and so forth.</p>
+
+<p>Then came a night when Menzies, tired of his own company, wandered off to
+Montmartre, and met a fellow-countryman of his, by name Douglas.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I say, old fellow,&#8221; the latter remarked, as they lolled over a little
+marble-topped table and watched the evolutions of a more than usually
+daring vaudeville artiste, &#8220;I say, how about that Irish pal of yours, &#8216;O&#8217;
+something or other. I saw him here the other night with Marie Diblanc.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Marie Diblanc!&#8221; Menzies articulated. &#8220;I have never heard of her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not heard of Marie Diblanc!&#8221; Douglas<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> exclaimed. &#8220;Why I thought every
+journalist in Paris knew of her, but perhaps she was before your time, for
+she&#8217;s had a pretty long spell of prison&mdash;at least five or six years, which
+as you know is pretty stiff nowadays for a woman&mdash;and has only recently
+come out. She was quite a kiddie when they bagged her, but a kiddie with a
+mind as old as Brinvillier&#8217;s in crime and vice&mdash;she robbed and all but
+murdered her own mother for a few louis, besides forging cheques and
+stealing wholesale from shops and hotels. They say she was in with all the
+worst crooks in Europe, and surpassed them all in subtlety and daring.
+When I saw her the other night her hair was dyed, and she was wearing the
+most saint-like expression; but I knew her all the same. She couldn&#8217;t
+disguise her mouth or her hands, and it is those features that I notice in
+a woman more than anything else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Describe her to me,&#8221; Menzies said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A brunette originally,&#8221; Douglas replied, &#8220;but now a blonde&mdash;masses of
+very elaborately waved golden hair; peculiarly long eyes&mdash;rather too
+intensely blue and far apart for my liking&mdash;a well-moulded mouth, though
+the lips are far too thin, and give her away at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the girl,&#8221; Menzies exclaimed emphatically. &#8220;That&#8217;s the girl he
+calls Gabrielle<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> Delacourt. I was with him the day he first met her&mdash;over
+in Montparnasse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Douglas nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s the name he introduced her to me by. But,
+I&#8217;m quite positive she&#8217;s Marie Diblanc; and I think you ought to give him
+the tip. If he&#8217;s seen about with her he&#8217;ll be suspected by the police.
+Besides, she is sure to commit some crime&mdash;for a girl with that kind of
+face and history never reforms, she goes on being right down bad to the
+bitter end&mdash;and get him implicated. Only, possibly, she will use him as
+her tool.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll see him and warn him,&#8221; Menzies said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll call at his place
+to-night, though there&#8217;s no knowing when he&#8217;ll turn up, for he&#8217;s the most
+erratic creature under the sun.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>True to his word, Menzies, after a few more minutes&#8217; conversation, got up
+and retraced his steps to Montparnasse. O&#8217;Hara lived in the Rue Campagne
+Premi&egrave;re, close to the famous &#8220;rabbit warren.&#8221; His door, as not
+infrequently happened, was unlocked, but he was out. Menzies went in, and,
+entering the little room which served as a parlour, dining-room, and study
+combined, threw himself into an armchair and lit a cigarette. He did not
+bother to light up as it was a moonlight night, and the darkness suited
+his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> present mood. After a while, however, feeling a little chilly, he
+turned on the gas fire, and then, glancing at the clock over the
+mantel-shelf, perceived it was close on twelve.</p>
+
+<p>At that instant there was a noise outside, and, thinking it was O&#8217;Hara, he
+called out, &#8220;Hulloa, Bob, is that you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As there was no response he called again, and this time there was a
+laugh&mdash;an ugly, malevolent kind of chuckle that made Menzies jump up at
+once and angrily demand who was there. No one replying, he went to the
+room door, and, opening it wide, saw a few yards from him a tall dark
+figure enveloped in what appeared to be a cloak and gown.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hulloa!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;Who are you, and what the &mdash;&mdash; do you want here?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Whereupon the figure drew aside its covering and revealed a face that
+caused Menzies to utter an exclamation of terror and spring back. It was
+the face of an old woman with very high cheek-bones, tightly drawn
+shrivelled skin, and obliquely set pale eyes that gleamed banefully as
+they met Menzies&#8217; horrified stare. A disordered mass of matted yellow hair
+crowned her head and descended half-way to her shoulders, revealing,
+however, her ears, which stood out prominently from her head, huge and
+pointed, like those of an<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> enormous wolf. A leadenish white glow seemed to
+emanate from within her and to intensify the general horror of her
+appearance.</p>
+
+<p>Though Menzies had never believed in ghosts before, he felt certain now
+that he was looking at something which did not belong to this world. It
+was, he affirmed, so absolutely hellish that he would have uttered a
+prayer and bid it begone, had not his words died in his throat so that he
+could not articulate a sound. He then tried to raise a hand to cross
+himself, but this, also, he was unable to do; and the only thing he found
+he could do, was to stare at it in dumb, open-mouthed horror and wonder.</p>
+
+<p>How long this state of affairs might have gone on it is impossible to say;
+but at the sound of heavy and unmistakably human footsteps, first in the
+lower part of the building, and then ascending the stone staircase leading
+to this flat, the old woman disappeared, apparently amalgamating with the
+somewhat artistic hangings on the wall behind her. Menzies was still
+rubbing his eyes and looking when O&#8217;Hara burst in upon him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hulloa, Donald, is that you?&#8221; he began. &#8220;I&#8217;ve done it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Done what?&#8221; Menzies stuttered, his nerves all anyhow.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, proposed to Gabrielle, of course,&#8221;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> O&#8217;Hara went on excitedly, &#8220;and
+she&#8217;s accepted me. She, the prettiest, sweetest, finest little colleen
+I&#8217;ve ever come across, has told me she will marry me. Ye gods, I shall go
+off my head with joy; go stark, staring mad, I tell you.&#8221; And crossing the
+floor of the study he tumbled into the chair Menzies himself had just
+occupied.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I say, old fellow, why don&#8217;t you congratulate me?&#8221; he continued.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do congratulate you,&#8221; Menzies observed, taking another seat. &#8220;Of course
+I congratulate you, but are you sure she is the sort of girl you will
+always care about or who will always care about you. You haven&#8217;t known her
+very long, and most women cost a deuced lot of money, especially French
+ones. Don&#8217;t take the irrevocable steps before contemplating them well
+first.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have,&#8221; O&#8217;Hara retorted, &#8220;so it&#8217;s no use sermonising. I have made up my
+mind to marry Gabrielle, and nothing on earth will deter me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you know her people, or anything about them?&#8221; Menzies ventured.</p>
+
+<p>O&#8217;Hara laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but that doesn&#8217;t bother me in the slightest. I shouldn&#8217;t
+care whether her father was a navvy or a publican, or whether her mother
+took in washing and pinched a few odd shirts and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> socks now and again,
+only as it happens, they don&#8217;t affect the question at all, because they
+are both dead. Gabrielle is an orphan&mdash;quite on her own&mdash;so I am perfectly
+safe as far as that goes. No pompous papa to consult, no cantankerous old
+mother-in-law to dread. Gabrielle was educated at a convent school, and,
+though you may laugh, knows next to nothing of the world. She&#8217;s as
+innocent as a butterfly. We are to be married next month.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Finding that it was no earthly use to say any more on the subject, just
+then at all events, Menzies changed the conversation and referred to the
+incident of the old woman.</p>
+
+<p>O&#8217;Hara at once became interested.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; he said, &#8220;from your description she must have been one of the
+Banshees that is supposed to haunt our family, and which my mother always
+declared she saw shortly before my father&#8217;s death. A hideous hag with a
+shock head of tow-coloured hair, who stood on the staircase laughing
+devilishly, and then, all at once, vanished. She is known as the bad
+Banshee to distinguish her from the good one, which is, so I have always
+been led to understand, very beautiful, but which never manifests itself,
+saving when anything especially dreadful is going to happen to an O&#8217;Hara.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span>Feeling very uneasy in his mind, Menzies now bid his friend good night,
+and went home.</p>
+
+<p>After that days passed and Menzies saw nothing of O&#8217;Hara, until one
+evening, when he was thinking it must be about now that the marriage was
+to take place, O&#8217;Hara turned up at his flat, and proposed that they should
+go for a stroll in the direction of the fortifications near Montsouris.
+But O&#8217;Hara was not in his usual good spirits; he seemed very glum and
+depressed, and Menzies gathered that there had been occasional differences
+of opinion between his friend and Gabrielle, and that the affair was not
+running quite as smoothly as it might. Gabrielle had a great many
+admirers, one of them very rich, and O&#8217;Hara was obviously very much
+annoyed at the attentions they had been bestowing on his fianc&eacute;e, and at
+the manner in which she had received them. But there was something else,
+too; something he could see in his friend&#8217;s face and manner, but which
+O&#8217;Hara would not so much as hint at. Menzies was, of course, pleased, for
+there now seemed to be a glimmer of hope that these frictions would
+materialise into something stronger and more definite, and lead to a
+rupture that would be final.</p>
+
+<p>He was so engrossed in speculations of this nature that he forgot all
+about the time or where they were, and was only brought back to earth by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>
+the whistle and shriek of a train, which made him at once realise they had
+left Montsouris and were several miles without the fortifications.</p>
+
+<p>It was also getting very dusk, and, as he had to be up unusually early in
+the morning, he suggested to O&#8217;Hara they had better turn back. They were
+then close beside a clump of bushes and a very lofty pine tree that was
+bending to and fro in such a peculiar manner that Menzies&#8217; attention was
+at once directed to it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s wrong with that tree?&#8221; he remarked, pointing at it with his stick.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s wrong with the tree?&#8221; O&#8217;Hara laughed. &#8220;Why, it&#8217;s not the tree
+there&#8217;s anything the matter with&mdash;the tree&#8217;s all right, quite all
+right&mdash;it&#8217;s you. What on earth are you staring at it for in that
+ridiculous fashion? Have you suddenly gone mad?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Menzies made no reply, but went up to the tree and examined it. As he was
+doing so, a slight disturbance in the bushes made him glance around, and
+he saw, a few feet from him, the tall figure of a girl, clad in a kind of
+long flowing mantle, but with bare head and feet. The moonlight was on her
+face, and Menzies, hard and difficult though he was, as a rule, to please,
+realised it was lovely, far more lovely, so he declared afterwards, than
+any woman&#8217;s face he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> had ever gazed upon. The eyes particularly impressed
+him, for, although in the darkness he could not tell their colour, he
+could see that they were of an extremely beautiful shape and setting, and
+seemed to be filled with a sorrow that was almost more than her heart
+could bear. Indeed, so poignant was this sorrow of hers, that Menzies,
+infected by it, too, could not keep back the tears from his own eyes; and,
+dour and unemotional as he was by nature, his whole being suddenly became
+literally steeped in sadness and pity.</p>
+
+<p>The girl looked straight at him, but only for a few seconds; she then
+turned towards O&#8217;Hara, and seemed to concentrate her whole attention upon
+him. There was now, Menzies thought, a certain indistinctness and a
+something shadowy about her that he had not at first noticed, and he was
+thinking how he could test her to see if she were really a substance or
+merely an optical illusion, when O&#8217;Hara, who was getting tired at his long
+absence, called out, whereupon the girl at once vanished, uttering, as she
+melted away in the background, in the same inexplicable manner as the old
+woman had done, such an awful, harrowing, wailing shriek, that it seemed
+to fill the whole air, and to linger on for an eternity. Thoroughly
+terrified, Menzies, as soon as his scattered senses could collect
+themselves, fled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> from the spot, and didn&#8217;t cease running till O&#8217;Hara&#8217;s
+angry shout brought him to a standstill. To his astonishment O&#8217;Hara hadn&#8217;t
+heard anything, and was only annoyed at his seemingly mad behaviour. In
+answer to his description of the girl, however, and the wailing, O&#8217;Hara at
+once declared it was the Banshee, and the one he had always been so
+particularly anxious to see.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Unless you are having a joke at my expense,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and you look too
+genuinely scared for that, you have actually seen her&mdash;a very beautiful
+girl, dressed after some old-time Irish custom, in a loose flowing green
+mantle&mdash;only of course you couldn&#8217;t see the colour&mdash;with head and feet
+bare. But it&#8217;s odd about that wail. The good Banshee in a family is always
+supposed to make it, but why didn&#8217;t I hear her? Why should it only be you?
+You&#8217;re Scotch, not Irish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For which I&#8217;m truly thankful,&#8221; Menzies said with warmth. &#8220;I&#8217;ve lived
+without ever seeing or hearing a ghost or anything approaching one for
+thirty-eight years, and now I&#8217;ve seen and heard two, within the short
+space of three weeks, and all because of you, because you&#8217;re Irish. No
+thanks. None of your Banshees for me. I&#8217;d rather, ten thousand times
+rather, be just an ordinary laddie from the Highlands, and dispense with
+your highly aristocratic and fastidious family ghost.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>&#8220;Come, now,&#8221; O&#8217;Hara said good-humouredly, &#8220;we won&#8217;t quarrel about so
+unsubstantial a thing as the Banshee. Let&#8217;s hurry up and have a bottle of
+cognac to make us think of something rather more cheerful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Menzies often thought of those words, for it is not infrequently the most
+trifling words and actions that haunt our memory to the greatest extent in
+after days. The rest of the evening passed quite uneventfully, and, after
+they had &#8220;toasted&#8221; each other, the two friends separated for the night.</p>
+
+<p>Two days later O&#8217;Hara&#8217;s body lay in the Morque, whither it had been taken
+from the Seine. Though there were some doubts expressed as to the exact
+manner in which he had met his death, it was officially recorded &#8220;death
+from misadventure,&#8221; and it was not till several years later Menzies
+learned the truth.</p>
+
+<p>He was then in Mexico, in a little town not twenty miles from San Blas, on
+the Western Coast, doing some newspaper work for a South American paper. A
+storekeeper and his wife were murdered; done to death in a singularly
+cruel manner, even for those parts, and one of the assassins was caught
+red-handed. The other, a woman, succeeded in escaping. As there had been
+so many murders lately in that neighbourhood, the townspeople declared
+they would make<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> a very severe example of the culprit, and hang him, right
+away, on the scene of his diabolical outrage. Menzies, who had never
+witnessed anything of the kind before, and was, of course, anxious for
+copy, took good care to be present. He stood quite close to the handcuffed
+man, and caught every word of the confession he made to the local padre.
+He gave his name as Andr&eacute; F&eacute;camps, his age as twenty-five, and his
+nationality as French. He asserted that he was first induced to take to
+crime through falling in love with a notorious French criminal of the name
+of Marie Diblanc, who accepted him as her lover, conditionally on his
+joining the band of Apaches of which she was the recognised leader.</p>
+
+<p>He did so, and forthwith plunged into every kind of wickedness imaginable.
+Among other crimes in which he was implicated he mentioned that of the
+murder of an Irishman of the name of O&#8217;Hara, who was supposed to have met
+with an accidental death from drowning in the Seine. What really happened,
+so the young desperado said, was this. M. O&#8217;Hara was madly in love with
+Marie Diblanc, who was posing to him as Gabrielle Delacourt, an innocent
+young girl from the country, when she was already very much married, and
+was being searched for high and low, at that very time, by certainly more
+than one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> desperate husband. Well, one day she persuaded M. O&#8217;Hara to take
+her to a dance given by some very wealthy friends of his.</p>
+
+<p>He did so, and she contrived, unknown to him of course, to smuggle me in,
+and between us we walked off with something like ten thousand pounds of
+jewellery.</p>
+
+<p>M. O&#8217;Hara came to suspect her&mdash;how I don&#8217;t know, unless he overheard some
+stray conversation between her and some other member of our gang at one of
+the restaurants they used to dine at. Anyhow, she got to know of it, and
+at once resolved to have him put out of the way. It was arranged that she
+should bring him to a house in Montmartre, where several of us were in
+hiding, and that we should both kill and bury him there.</p>
+
+<p>Well, he came, and, on perceiving that he had fallen into a trap, besought
+her, if his life must be forfeited&mdash;and, anyhow, now he knew she was a
+thief he wouldn&#8217;t have it otherwise&mdash;to take it herself. This she
+eventually agreed to do, and, lying in her arms, he allowed her to press a
+poison-bag over his mouth, and so put him to death. His body was taken to
+the Seine that night in a fiacre and dropped in. F&eacute;camps added that it was
+the only occasion upon which he had seen Marie Diblanc really moved, and
+he believed she was a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> trifle fond of the Irishman, that is to say, if she
+could be genuinely fond of anyone.</p>
+
+<p>Menzies, who was of course deeply interested, extracted every particle of
+information he could out of the man, but nothing would make the latter
+admit a word as to what had become of Diblanc.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If I go to hell,&#8221; he said, &#8220;she is certain to go there, too; for bad as I
+am, I believe her to be infinitely worse; worse, a hundred times worse
+than any Apache man I have ever met. And yet, depraved and evil as she is,
+I love her, and shall never know a second&#8217;s happiness till she joins me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The man died; and Menzies, as he made a sketch of his swinging body, felt
+thoroughly satisfied at last that the ghost he had seen outside the
+fortifications of Monsouris was the good and beautiful Banshee, the
+Banshee that only manifested itself when some unusually dreadful fate was
+about to overtake an O&#8217;Hara.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN</h3>
+
+<p><br />Another case of dual Banshee haunting that occurs to me, took place in
+Spain, where so many of the oldest Irish families have settled, and was
+related to me by a distant connection of mine&mdash;an O&#8217;Donnell. He well
+remembered, he said, many years ago, when he was a boy, his father, who
+was an officer in the Carlist Army, telling him of an adventure that
+happened to him during the first outbreak of the Civil War. His father and
+another young man, Dick O&#8217;Flanagan, were subalterns in a cavalry regiment
+that took a prominent part in a desperate engagement with the Queen&#8217;s
+Army. The Carlists were being driven back, when, as a last desperate
+resource, their bare handful of cavalry charged and immediately turned the
+fortunes of the day. In the heat of the affray, however, Ralph O&#8217;Donnell
+and Dick O&#8217;Flanagan, carried away by their enthusiasm, got separated<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> from
+the rest of the corps, and were, consequently, overpowered by sheer
+numbers and taken prisoners.</p>
+
+<p>In those days much brutality was shown on either side, and our two heroes,
+beaten, and bruised, and starving, were dragged along in a half-fainting
+condition, amid the taunts and gibings of their captors, till they were
+finally lodged in the filthy dungeon of an old mountain castle, where they
+were informed they would be kept till the hour appointed for their
+execution. The moment they were alone, they made the most strenuous
+efforts to unloosen the thongs of tough cowhide with which their hands and
+feet were so cruelly bound together, and, after many frantic endeavours,
+they at last succeeded. O&#8217;Flanagan was the first to get free, and as soon
+as his numbed limbs allowed him to do so, he crawled to the side of his
+friend and liberated him, too. They then examined the room as best they
+could in the dark, and decided their only hope of escape lay in the
+chimney, which, luckily for them, was one of those old-fashioned
+structures, wide enough to admit the passage of a full-grown person. Ralph
+began the ascent first, and, after several fruitless efforts, during which
+he bumped and bruised himself and made such a noise that O&#8217;Flanagan feared
+he would be heard by the guard outside,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> he eventually managed to obtain a
+foothold and make sufficient progress for O&#8217;Flanagan to follow in his
+wake.</p>
+
+<p>In everything they did that night luck favoured them. On emerging from the
+chimney on to the roof of the castle, they were rejoiced to find a tree
+growing so near to one of the walls that they had little difficulty in
+gripping hold of one of its branches and so descending in safety to the
+ground. The guards apparently were asleep, at least none were to be seen
+anywhere, and so, feeling their way cautiously in and out a thick growth
+of trees and bushes, they soon got altogether clear of the premises, and
+found themselves once again free, but in a part of the country with which
+they were totally unacquainted. Two hours tramping along a tortuous, hilly
+high road, or to give it a more appropriate name, track, for it was
+nothing more, at last brought them to a wayside inn where, in spite of the
+advanced hour&mdash;for it was between one and two o&#8217;clock in the morning&mdash;they
+determined to risk inquiry for a night&#8217;s shelter. I say &#8220;risk&#8221; because
+there was a strong spirit of partisanship abroad, and it was quite as
+likely as not that the inn people were adherents of the Queen.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph knocked repeatedly, and the door was at length opened by a young
+girl who, holding a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> candlestick in one hand, sleepily rubbed her eyes
+with the other and, in rather petulant tones, asked what the gentlemen
+meant by coming to the house at such an unearthly hour and waking everyone
+up. Ralph and O&#8217;Flanagan were so struck by her appearance that for some
+seconds they could only stand gaping at her, deprived of all power of
+speech. Such a vision of loveliness neither of them had seen for many a
+long day, and both were more than ordinarily susceptible where the fair
+sex was concerned. Dark, like most of the girls are in Spain, she was not
+swarthy, but had, on the other hand, a most singularly fair complexion,
+devoid of that tendency to hairiness which is apparent in so many of the
+women of that country. Her features were, perhaps, a trifle too bold, but
+in strict proportion, and her eyes a wee bit hard, though the shape and
+colour of them&mdash;by candlelight an almost purplish grey&mdash;were singularly
+beautiful. She had very white teeth, too, though there was a something
+about her mouth, in the setting of the lips when they were closed for
+instance, and in the general expression, that puzzled Ralph, and which was
+destined to return to his mind many times afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph noticed, too, that her hands were not those of a peasant class, of a
+class that has to do much rough and hard work, but that they<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> were white
+and well-kept, the fingers tapering and the nails long and almond shaped.
+She wore several rings and bracelets, and seemed altogether different from
+the type of girl one would have expected to find in such a very
+unpretentious kind of building, situated, too, in such a very remote spot.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph was not quite as impulsive as his friend, and although, as I have
+said, very susceptible, was not so far led away by his feelings as to be
+altogether incapable of observation.</p>
+
+<p>His first impressions of the girl were that, although she was
+extraordinarily pretty, there was something&mdash;apart even from her
+mouth&mdash;that he could not fathom, and which caused him a vague uneasiness;
+he noticed it particularly when her glance wandered to their
+travel-stained uniforms, and momentarily alighted on O&#8217;Flanagan&#8217;s solitary
+ring, which contained a ruby and was a kind of family mascot, akin to the
+famous cathach of Count Daniel O&#8217;Donnell of Tirconnell; and she muttered
+something which Ralph fancied had reference to the word &#8220;Carlists,&#8221; and
+then, as if conscious he was watching her, she raised her eyes quickly
+and, in tones of sleepy indifference this time, asked what the gentlemen
+wanted. Ralph immediately replied that they required a bed with breakfast,
+not too early, and, perhaps,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> later on&mdash;luncheon. He added that if the inn
+was full they wouldn&#8217;t in the least mind sleeping in a barn or stable.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All we want,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is to lie down somewhere with a roof over our
+heads, for we are terribly tired.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the mention of a stable the girl smiled, saying she could offer them
+something rather better than that; and, bidding both follow her upstairs,
+with as little noise as possible, she conducted them to a large room with
+a very low ceiling, and, having deposited the candlestick on a chest of
+drawers, she wished them good night and noiselessly withdrew.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rather better than our late quarters in the prison,&#8221; Ralph exclaimed,
+taking a survey of the apartment, &#8220;but a wee bit gloomy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense!&#8221; O&#8217;Flanagan retorted. &#8220;The only gloomy things here are your own
+thoughts. I want to stay here always, for I never saw a prettier girl or a
+cosier-looking bed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He began to undress as he spoke, and in a few minutes both young men were
+stretched out at full length fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>About two hours later Ralph awoke with a violent start to hear distinct
+sounds of footsteps tiptoeing their way softly along the passage outside
+towards their room door. In an instant all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> his faculties were on the
+alert, and he sat up in bed and listened. Then something stirred in the
+corner by the window, and, glancing in that direction, he saw to his
+astonishment the figure of a tall slim girl, in a long, loose, flowing
+gown of some dark material, with a very pale face, beautifully chiselled,
+though by no means strictly classical features, and masses of shining
+golden hair that fell in rippling confusion on to her neck and shoulders.
+The idea that she was the Banshee instantly occurred to him. From his
+father&#8217;s description of her, for his father had often spoken to him about
+her, she and the beautiful woman, whom he was now looking at, were
+certainly very much alike; besides, as the Banshee, when his father saw
+her, was crying, and this woman was crying&mdash;crying most bitterly, her
+whole body swaying to and fro as if racked with the most poignant
+sorrow&mdash;he could not help thinking that the identity between them was
+established, and that they were, in fact, one and the same person.</p>
+
+<p>As he was still gazing at her with the most profound pity and admiration,
+his attention was suddenly directed, by an odd scratching sound, to the
+window, where he saw, pressed against the glass, and looking straight in
+at him, a face which in every detail presented the most<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> startling
+contrast to that upon which his eyes had, but a second ago, been feasting.
+It was so evil that he felt sure it could only emanate from the lowest
+Inferno, and it leered at him with such appalling malignancy that, brave
+man as he had proved himself on the field of battle, he now completely
+lost his nerve, and would have called out, had not both figures suddenly
+vanished, their disappearance being immediately followed by the most
+agonising, heart-rending screams, intermingled with loud laughter and
+diabolical chuckling, which, for the moment, completely paralysed him. The
+screams continued for some seconds, during which time every atom of blood
+in Ralph&#8217;s veins seemed to freeze, and then there was silence&mdash;deep and
+sepulchral silence. Afraid to be any longer in the dark, Ralph jumped out
+of bed and lit the candle, and, as he did so, he distinctly heard
+footsteps move hurriedly away from the door and go stealthily tiptoeing
+down the passage.</p>
+
+<p>As may be imagined, he did not sleep again for some time, not, indeed,
+until daylight, when he gradually fell into a doze, from which he was
+eventually aroused by loud thumps on the door, and the voice of the pretty
+inn maiden announcing that it was time to get up.</p>
+
+<p>After breakfast he narrated his experience in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> the night to O&#8217;Flanagan,
+who, somewhat to his astonishment, did not laugh, but exclaimed quite
+seriously:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, you have seen our Banshee. At least, the girl in green is our
+Banshee. I saw her before the death of a cousin of mine, and she appeared
+to my mother the night before my father died. I don&#8217;t know what the other
+apparition could have been, unless it was what my father used to term the
+&#8216;hateful Banshee,&#8217; which he said was only supposed to appear before some
+very dreadful catastrophe, worse even than death, if anything could be worse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t the monopoly of Banshees,&#8221; Ralph laughed. &#8220;We have one too,
+and I am positive the woman I saw&mdash;the beautiful woman I mean&mdash;was the
+O&#8217;Donnell Banshee. I would have you know that the Limerick O&#8217;Donnells,
+with whom I am connected, are quite as old a family as the O&#8217;Flanagans;
+they are, indeed, directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So are we,&#8221; O&#8217;Flanagan answered hotly, then he burst out laughing. &#8220;Well,
+well,&#8221; he said, &#8220;fancy quarrelling about anything as immaterial as a
+Banshee. But, anyhow, if they were Banshees that you saw last night,
+they&#8217;re a bit out in their calculations. They should have come before that
+skirmish, not after it; unless it&#8217;s the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> death of some relative of one of
+us they&#8217;re prophesying. I hope it&#8217;s not my sister.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t imagine it has anything to do with you,&#8221; Ralph replied. &#8220;They
+were both looking at me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He was about to say something further, when O&#8217;Flanagan, seeing the young
+girl come into the room to clear away the breakfast things, at once began
+talking to her; and as it was only too evident that he wanted the field to
+himself, for he was obviously head over ears in love, Ralph got up and
+announced his intention of taking a walk round the premises.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t go in the wood, Se&ntilde;or, whatever you do,&#8221; the girl observed, &#8220;for it
+is infested with brigands. They do not interfere with us because we were
+once good to one of their sick folk&mdash;and the Spaniard, brigand though he
+may be, never forgets a kindness&mdash;but they attack strangers, and you will
+be well advised to keep to the high road.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Which is the nearest town?&#8221; Ralph demanded.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Trijello,&#8221; the girl answered, the same curious expression creeping into
+her eyes that had puzzled Ralph so much before, and which he found
+impossible to analyse. &#8220;It is about eight miles from here. Don Hervado,
+the Governor, is a Carlist, and was entertaining some Carlist soldiers
+there yesterday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>&#8220;Good!&#8221; Ralph exclaimed. &#8220;I will walk there. Will you come with me, Dick,
+or will you wait here till I return. I don&#8217;t suppose I shall be back much
+before the evening.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t hurry,&#8221; O&#8217;Flanagan laughed, eyeing the girl rapturously, &#8220;I am
+perfectly happy here, and want a rest badly. Don&#8217;t, whatever you do, let
+on to anyone connected with headquarters where we are. Let them go on
+imagining, for a while, we are dead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Se&ntilde;ors have been in a battle, yes?&#8221; the girl interrupted, shyly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A battle,&#8221; O&#8217;Flanagan laughed, &#8220;not half one. Why, we were taken
+prisoners and only escaped hanging through my unparalleled wits and
+perseverance. However, I don&#8217;t in the least bemoan the perils and
+hardships we have undergone, for, had events turned out otherwise, we
+should never have had the joy of seeing you, Se&ntilde;ora,&#8221; and catching hold of
+her hand, before she could prevent him, he pressed it fervently to his
+lips, smothering it with kisses.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking it was high time to be off, Ralph now took his departure. A
+couple of hours&#8217; walking brought him to Trijello, where, but for a lucky
+incident, he might have found himself landed in a quandary. As he was
+entering the outskirts of the town he met an old peasant, staggering
+under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> a sack of onions, and no sooner did the latter catch sight of his
+uniform than he at once called out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Se&ntilde;or, if you value your liberty, you won&#8217;t enter Trijello in that
+costume. The Governor is the sworn enemy of all Carlists, and has given
+strict orders that, anyone with leanings towards that party shall be put
+under arrest at once.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure?&#8221; Ralph exclaimed. &#8220;Why, I was told it was just the other
+way about, and that he was a strong adherent of our cause.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Whoever told you that, lied,&#8221; the old man responded, &#8220;for he had a nephew
+of mine shot only yesterday morning for saying in public he hoped that
+wretched weakling of a woman would soon be put off the throne and we
+should have someone who was fit to govern&mdash;meaning Don Carlos&mdash;in her
+place. Take my advice, Se&ntilde;or, and either change those clothes at once or
+give Trijello as wide a berth as possible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ralph then asked him if there was any place near at hand where he could
+purchase a civilian suit, and, on being informed that there was a Jew&#8217;s
+shop within a few minutes&#8217; walk, he thanked the old man most cordially for
+giving him so friendly a warning, and at once proceeded there.</p>
+
+<p>To cut a long story short he bought the clothes and, thus disguised, went
+on into the town, and, with the object of picking up any information he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>
+could with regard to the enemy&#8217;s forces, he dined at the principal hotel,
+and listened attentively to the conversation that was taking place all
+around him. Later on in the day some Christino soldiers arrived, officers
+on the staff of one of the Royalist generals, and Ralph decided to remain
+in the hotel for the night and see if he could get hold of some really
+definite news that might be of value to his own headquarters. Learning
+that someone would be leaving the hotel shortly and passing by the inn
+where O&#8217;Flanagan was staying, he gave them a note to give to his friend,
+stating that he could not be back till the following day, perhaps about
+noon. He then took up his seat before the parlour fire, apparently
+absorbed in reading the latest bulletin from Madrid, but in reality
+keeping his ears well open for any conversation that might be worth
+transcribing in his pocket-book. Nor was he disappointed, for the
+Christino soldiers waxed very talkative over some of mine host&#8217;s best
+port, and disclosed many secrets concerning the movements of the Queen&#8217;s
+forces, that would have most certainly entailed a court martial, had it
+but come to the notice of their general.</p>
+
+<p>That night, though the room he was given was quite bright and cheerful,
+and very different from the one he had occupied the night before, his
+mind<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> was so full of grim apprehension that he found it quite impossible
+to sleep. He kept thinking of the vision he had seen&mdash;that lovely, fairy
+face of the girl with the golden hair, her adorable eyes, her heavenly,
+albeit very human mouth; she was so perfect, so angelic, so full of
+delicious sympathy and pity; so unlike any earthly woman he had ever met;
+and then that other face&mdash;those intensely evil, pale green eyes, that
+sinister mocking mouth, that dreadfully disordered mass of matted,
+tow-coloured hair. It was too hellish&mdash;too inconceivably foul and baneful
+to dare think about, and seized with a fit of shuddering, he thrust his
+head under the bedclothes, lest he should see it again appearing before
+him. What, he wondered, did they portend? Not some horrible happening to
+Dick. He had always understood that the one who neither sees nor hears the
+Banshee during its manifestations is the one that is doomed to die. And
+yet Dick was assuredly as safe in that inn as he was here&mdash;here,
+surrounded on all sides by his enemies. Once or twice he fancied he heard
+his name called, and so realistic was it, that, forgetful of his dread of
+seeing something satanic in the room, he at last sat up in bed and
+listened. All was still, however; there were no sounds at all; none
+whatever, saving the gentle whispering of the wind, as it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> swept softly
+past the window, and the far-away hooting of a night bird. Then he lay
+down again, and once more there seemed to come to him from somewhere very
+close at hand a voice that articulated very clearly and plaintively his
+name&mdash;Ralph, Ralph, Ralph!&mdash;three times in quick succession, and then
+ceased. Nor did he hear it again.</p>
+
+<p>Tired and unrested, he got up early and, paying his bill, set off with
+long, rapid strides in the direction of the wayside inn. There was an air
+of delightful peace and tranquillity about the place when he arrived. All
+the sunbeams seemed to have congregated in just that one spot, and to have
+converted the walls and window-panes of the little old-fashioned building
+into sheets of burnished gold. Birds twittered merrily on the tree-tops
+and under the eaves of the roof, and the most delicious smell of
+honeysuckle and roses permeated the whole atmosphere.</p>
+
+<p>Ralph was enchanted, and all his grim forebodings of the night before were
+instantly dissipated. The abode was truly named &#8220;The Travellers&#8217; Rest&#8221;; it
+might even have been styled &#8220;The Travellers&#8217; Paradise,&#8221; for all seemed so
+calm and serene&mdash;so truly heavenly. He rapped at the door, and, after some
+moments, rapped again. He then heard footsteps, which somehow<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> seemed
+strangely familiar, cautiously come along the stone passage and pause at
+the other side of the door, as if their owner were in doubt whether to
+open it or not.</p>
+
+<p>Again he rapped, and this time the door was opened, and the young girl
+appeared. She looked rather pale, but was very much sprucer and smarter
+than she had been when Ralph last saw her. She wore a very bewitching kind
+of gipsy frock of red velvet&mdash;the skirt very short and the bodice adorned
+with masses of shining silver coins, whilst her feet were clad in very
+smart, dainty shoes, also red, with big silver buckles.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Your friend&#8217;s gone,&#8221; she said. &#8220;He seemed very upset at your not turning
+up last night, and went away directly after breakfast.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But didn&#8217;t he get my note?&#8221; Ralph exclaimed, &#8220;and didn&#8217;t he leave any
+message?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Se&ntilde;or,&#8221; the girl replied. &#8220;No note came for him, but he said he would
+try and call in here again to-morrow morning, to see if you had arrived.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And he didn&#8217;t say where he had gone?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ralph eyed her quizzically. She certainly was wonderfully pretty, and,
+marvellous to relate, did not smell of garlic. Yes, he would stay, and try
+and come under the fascination of her beauty as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> Dick had done. And yet,
+why had Dick gone off in such a hurry? What had this starry-eyed creature
+done to offend him? Ralph knew O&#8217;Flanagan was at times apt to be
+over-impulsive and hasty in his love-makings. Had he got on a bit too
+rapidly? Spanish girls are very easily upset, and perhaps this one had a
+lover in the background. Perhaps she was married. That seemed to him the
+most feasible explanation for Dick&#8217;s absence. To be offended at his not
+turning up last night was all nonsense. Ralph knew his friend far too well
+for that. Anyhow, he decided to stay, and the girl offered him the room he
+and Dick had previously occupied. Only, she explained, he must not go in
+it till later on in the day, as it was going to be cleaned.</p>
+
+<p>After luncheon, which he sat down to alone, as the girl, despite his
+pressing invitation, refused to partake of the meal with him, on the plea
+that she had many things to attend to, he went a little way up the
+hillside at the back of the premises, and enjoyed a quiet siesta under the
+shadow of the trees. Indeed, he slept so long that the twilight had well
+set in before he awoke and once again made tracks for the inn.</p>
+
+<p>This time he entered by a doorway in the rear of the house, and, in a
+small paved courtyard, saw the girl, habited in a rather more workaday
+attire,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> but with her hair still very coquettishly decorated with ribbons,
+sharpening a long glistening knife on a big grinding stone, which she was
+turning round and round with the skill of a past mistress of the art.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hulloa!&#8221; he exclaimed. &#8220;What are you up to? Not sharpening that blade to
+stick me with, I hope.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Se&ntilde;or has heard of pigs,&#8221; the girl replied, showing her beautiful
+teeth in a smile, almost amounting to a grin. &#8220;Well, I&#8217;m going to kill one
+to-night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good heavens!&#8221; Ralph ejaculated, glancing incredulously at the white,
+rounded arms and the long, slim, tapering fingers. &#8220;You kill a pig! Do you
+do all the work of this house? Is there no one else here to help you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, Se&ntilde;or,&#8221; the girl laughed. &#8220;There is Isabella, an old woman who
+comes here every day to do all the hard rough work, and my aunt, but there
+are certain jobs they can&#8217;t do because their eyesight is not very good,
+and their hands lack the skill. The gentleman looks shocked, but is there
+anything so very dreadful in killing a pig? One slash and it is quickly
+done&mdash;very quickly. We have to live somehow, and, after all, the Se&ntilde;or is
+a soldier&mdash;he follows the vocation of killing!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes, it is all very well for big, rough men.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> One somehow associates
+them with deeds of violence and bloodshed. But with beautiful, dainty
+girls like you it is different. You should shudder at the very thought of
+blood, and be all pity and compassion.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But not for pigs,&#8221; the girl laughed, &#8220;nor for Se&ntilde;ors. Now please go in
+and sit in the parlour, or my aunt will hear me talking to you and accuse
+me of wasting my time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ralph reluctantly obeyed, and drawing his chair close up to the parlour
+fire&mdash;for the summer evenings in Spain are often very chilly&mdash;was soon
+deeply absorbed in plans and speculations as to the future. After supper,
+when the young girl came into the room to clear the table, Ralph noticed
+that she was once again wearing the gay apparel she had worn earlier in
+the day; and all in red, even to the ribbons in her hair, she seemed to be
+dressed more coquettishly than ever. She was also inclined to be more
+communicative, and in response to Ralph&#8217;s invitation to partake of a glass
+of wine with him, she fetched an armchair and came and planted it close
+beside him.</p>
+
+<p>Pretty as he had thought her before, she now appeared to him to be
+indescribably lovely, and the longer he stared at her, stared into the
+depths of her large, beautifully shaped purplish grey eyes, the more and
+more hopelessly enslaved did<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> he become, till, in the end, he realised she
+had him completely at her mercy, and that he was most madly and
+desperately in love with her.</p>
+
+<p>They drank together, and so absorbed was he in gazing at her eyes&mdash;indeed
+he never ceased gazing at them&mdash;that he did not observe what he was
+drinking or how many times she filled up his glass. If she had given him a
+poisoned goblet, it would have been all the same, he would have drained it
+off and kissed her hands and feet with his dying breath.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Se&ntilde;or,&#8221; she said at length, after he had held her hand to his lips
+and literally smothered it in kisses, &#8220;now, Se&ntilde;or, it is time for you to
+go to bed. We do not keep late hours here, and to-morrow, Se&ntilde;or, if he is
+still in the same state of mind, will have plenty of time for repeating to
+me his sentiments.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To-morrow,&#8221; Ralph stuttered. &#8220;To-morrow, that is a tremendous way off,
+and isn&#8217;t it to-morrow that that fellow O&#8217;Flanagan is coming?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The girl laughed. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; she said saucily, &#8220;there will be two of you
+to-morrow, the one as bad as the other, and I did think, Se&ntilde;or, you were
+the steadier of the two. Well, well, you are both soldiers, and soldiers
+were ever gay dogs; but you must be careful, Se&ntilde;or, you and your friend do
+not quarrel, for, as you know, more than one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> friendship has been
+terminated through the witching glance of a lady&#8217;s eyes, and you both seem
+to like looking into mine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What!&#8221; Ralph stuttered angrily. &#8220;Did that fellow Dick look at you? Did he
+dare to look at you? Damn&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; but before he could utter another syllable,
+the girl put her soft little hand over his mouth and pushed him gently to
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Alternately making wild love to her and passionately denouncing Dick,
+Ralph then allowed himself to be got upstairs to his room by pushes and
+coaxings, and, as he made a last frantic effort to kiss and fondle her,
+the door slammed in his face and he found himself&mdash;alone.</p>
+
+<p>For some moments he stood tugging and twisting at the door handle, and
+then, finding that his efforts had no effect, he was staggering off to the
+bed with the intention of getting into it just as he was, when he caught
+his foot on something and fell with a crash to the floor, striking his
+face smartly on the edge of a chair. For a moment or so he was partially
+stunned, but, the flow of blood from his nose relieving him, he gradually
+came to his senses, all trace of his drunkenness having completely
+vanished. The first thing he did then was to look at the carpet which, by
+a stroke of luck, was crimson, a most pronounced, virulent crimson,
+exactly the colour of his blood. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> spot where he had fallen was close
+to the bed, and, as his eyes wandered along the carpet by the side of the
+bed, he fancied he saw another damp patch. He at once fetched the candle
+and had a closer look.</p>
+
+<p>Yes, there was a great splash of moisture on the floor, near the head of
+the bed, just about in a line with the pillow. He applied his finger to
+the patch and then held it to the light&mdash;it was wet with blood.</p>
+
+<p>Filled with a sickening sense of apprehension, Ralph now proceeded to make
+a careful examination of the room, and, lifting the lid of a huge oak
+chest that stood in one corner, he was horrified to perceive the naked
+body of a man lying at the bottom of it, all huddled up.</p>
+
+<p>Gently raising the body and bending down to examine it, Ralph received a
+second shock. The face that looked up at him with such utter lack of
+expression in its big, bulging, glassy eyes was that of the once gay and
+humorous Dick O&#8217;Flanagan.</p>
+
+<p>The manner of his death was only too obvious. His throat had been cut, not
+cleanly as a man would have done it, but with repeated hacks and slashes,
+that pointed all too clearly to a woman&#8217;s handiwork.</p>
+
+<p>This then explained it all, explained the curious<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> something in the girl&#8217;s
+eyes and mouth he had noticed when he first saw her; explained, too, the
+stealthy, tiptoeing footsteps in the passage that night, the reason for
+the appearance of the Banshees, the eagerness with which the girl had
+plied him with wine, her red dress&mdash;and&mdash;the red carpet.</p>
+
+<p>But why had she done it&mdash;for mere sordid robbery, or because they were
+Carlists. Then recollecting the look she had fixed on the ruby in Dick&#8217;s
+ring, the answer seemed clear. It was, of course, robbery. Snake-like, she
+used those beautiful eyes of hers to fascinate her victims&mdash;to lull them
+into a false sense of security; and then, when they had wholly succumbed
+to love and wine, of which she gave them their fill, she butchered them.</p>
+
+<p>Murders in Spanish inns were by no means uncommon about that time, and
+even at a much later date, and had this murder been committed by some old
+and ugly and cross-grained &#8220;host,&#8221; Ralph would not have been surprised,
+but for this girl to have done it&mdash;this girl so young and enchanting, why
+it was almost inconceivable, and he would not have believed it, had not
+the grim proofs of it lain so close at hand. What was he to do? Of course,
+now that he was sober and in the full possession of his faculties, it was
+ridiculous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> for him to be afraid of a girl, even though she were armed;
+but supposing she had confederates, and it was scarcely likely she would
+be alone in the house.</p>
+
+<p>No, he must try and escape; but how! He examined the window, it was
+heavily barred; he tried the door, it was locked on the outside; he looked
+up the chimney, it was far too narrow to admit the passage of anyone even
+half his size.</p>
+
+<p>He was done, and the only thing he could do was to wait. To wait till the
+girl tiptoed into the room to kill, and then&mdash;he couldn&#8217;t bear the idea of
+fighting with her, even though she had so cruelly murdered poor Dick&mdash;make
+his escape.</p>
+
+<p>With this end in view he blew out the candle, and, lying on the bed,
+pretended to be fast asleep.</p>
+
+<p>In about an hour&#8217;s time he heard steps, soft, cautious footsteps, ascend
+the staircase and come stealing surreptitiously towards his door. Then
+they paused, and he instinctively knew she was listening. He breathed
+heavily, just as a man would do who had drunk not wisely but too well, and
+had consequently fallen into a deep sleep. Presently, there was a slight
+movement of the door handle.</p>
+
+<p>He continued breathing, and the movement was repeated. Still more
+stentorian breaths, and the handle this time was completely turned. Very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>
+gently he crept off the bed to the door, and, as it slowly opened and a
+figure in red, looking terribly ghostly and sinister, slipped in, so he
+suddenly shot past and made a bolt for the passage. There was a wild
+shriek, something whizzed past his head and fell with a loud clatter on
+the floor, and all the doors in the house downstairs seemed to open
+simultaneously. Reaching the head of the stairs in a few bounds, he was
+down them in a trice. A hideous old hag rushed at him with a hatchet,
+whilst another aged creature, whose sex he could not determine, aimed a
+wild blow at him with some other instrument, but Ralph avoided them both,
+and, reaching the front door, which providentially for him was merely
+locked, not bolted, he was speedily out of the house and into the broad
+highway.</p>
+
+<p>The screams of the women producing answering echoes from the wood in the
+hoarser shouts of men, Ralph took to his heels, nor did he stop running
+until he was well on his way to Trijello.</p>
+
+<p>He did not, however, go to the latter town, fearing that the inn people
+might follow him there and get him arrested as a Carlist; instead, he
+struck off the high road along a side path, and, luckily for him, about
+noon fell in with an advanced guard of the Carlist Army.</p>
+
+<p>His troubles then, for a time at least, ceased;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> but to his lasting regret
+he was never able to avenge Dick&#8217;s death; for when the war was at last
+over and he had succeeded in persuading the local authorities to take the
+matter in hand, the inn was found to be empty and deserted. Nor was the
+pretty murderess ever seen or heard of again in that neighbourhood.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD</h3>
+
+<p><br />Although the Banshee haunting referred to in my last chapter occurred
+during a war, the manifestations did not take place on the battle-field;
+nor were they actually due to the fighting. At the same time it cannot be
+denied that they were the outcome of it, for had our two lieutenants not
+been fighting desperately in a skirmish and got separated from the main
+body of the Army, in all probability they never would have visited the
+wayside inn, and the Banshee manifestations there would never have
+occurred.</p>
+
+<p>There are, however, many instances on record of Banshee manifestations
+occurring on the battle-field, either immediately before or after, or even
+whilst the fighting was actually taking place. Mr McAnnaly, in his &#8220;Irish
+Wonders,&#8221; p. 117, says:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">&#8220;Before the Battle of the Boyne, Banshees were heard singing in the
+air over the Irish camp, the truth of the prophecy being verified by
+the death roll of the next morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Now several of my own immediate ancestors took part in the Battle of the
+Boyne,<small><a name="f10.1" id="f10.1" href="#f10">[10]</a></small> and according to a family tradition one of them both saw and
+heard the Banshee. He was sitting in the camp, the night prior to the
+fighting, conversing with several other officers, including his brother
+Daniel, when, feeling an icy wind coming from behind and blowing down his
+back, he turned round to look for his cloak which he had discarded a short
+time before, owing to the heat from a fire close beside them. The cloak
+was not there, and, as he turned round still further to look for it, he
+perceived to his astonishment the figure of a woman, swathed from head to
+foot in a mantle of some dark flowing material, standing a few feet behind
+him. Wondering who on earth she could be, but supposing she must be a
+relative or friend of one of the officers, for her mantle looked costly,
+and her hair&mdash;of a marvellous golden hue&mdash;though hanging loose on her
+shoulders, was evidently well cared for, he continued to gaze at her with
+curiosity. Then he gradually perceived that she was shaking&mdash;shaking all
+over, with what he at first imagined must be laughter; but from the
+constant clenching of her hands and heaving<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> of her bosom, he finally
+realised that she was weeping, and he was further assured on this point,
+when a sudden gust of wind, blowing back her mantle, he caught a full view
+of her face.</p>
+
+<p>Its beauty electrified him. Her cheeks were as white as marble, but her
+features were perfect, and her eyes the most lovely he had ever seen. He
+was about to address her, to inquire if he could be of any service to her,
+when, someone calling out and asking him what on earth he was doing, she
+at once began to melt away, and, amalgamating with the soft background of
+grey mist that was creeping towards them from the river, finally
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>He thought of her, however, some hours later, when they were all lying
+down, endeavouring to snatch a few hours&#8217; sleep, and presently fancied he
+saw, in dim, shadowy outline, her fair face and figure, her big, sorrowful
+eyes, gazing pitifully first at one and then at another of his companions,
+but particularly at one, a mere boy, who was lying wrapped in his military
+cloak, close beside the smouldering embers of the fire. He fancied that
+she approached this youths and, bending over him, stroked his short, curly
+hair with her delicate fingers.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking that possibly he might be asleep and dreaming, he rubbed his eyes
+vigorously, but the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> outlines were still there, momentarily becoming
+stronger and stronger, more and more distinct, until he realised with a
+great thrill that she actually was there, just as certainly as she had
+been when he had first seen her.</p>
+
+<p>He was so intent watching her and wishing she would leave the youth and
+come to him, that he did not notice that one of his comrades had seen her,
+too, until the latter, who had raised himself into a half-sitting posture,
+spoke; then, just as before, the figure of the girl melted away, and
+seemed to become absorbed in the dark and shadowy background.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later, he heard, just over his head, a loud moaning and wailing
+that lasted for several seconds and then died away in one long, protracted
+sob that suggested mental anguish of an indescribably forlorn and hopeless
+nature.</p>
+
+<p>The deaths of most of his companions of the night, including that of the
+curly haired boy, occurred on the following day.</p>
+
+<p>But the Banshee, although of course appearing to soldiers of Irish birth
+only, does not confine its attentions to those who are fighting on their
+native soil; it has been stated that she frequently manifested herself to
+Irishmen engaged on active service abroad during the Napoleonic Wars, and
+also to those serving in America during the Civil War.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>With regard to the Banshee demonstrations in connection with the
+Napoleonic campaigns, I have not been able to acquire any written record;
+but as the result of numerous letters sent out by me broadcast in quest of
+information, I was asked by several people to call either at their houses
+or clubs, and, gladly accepting their invitations, I learned from them the
+incidents which, with their permission, I am now about to relate.</p>
+
+<p>Miss O&#8217;Higgins, an aged lady, residing, prior to the late war, close to
+Fifth Avenue, New York, and visiting, when I met her, a friend in the Rue
+Campagne Premi&egrave;re, Paris, told me that she well remembered her grandfather
+telling her when she was a child that he heard the Banshee at Talavera, a
+day or two prior to the great battle. He was serving with the Spanish
+Army, having married the daughter of a Spanish officer, and had no idea at
+the time that there were any men of Irish extraction in his corps.
+Bivouacking with about a hundred other soldiers in a valley, and happening
+to awake in the night with an ungovernable thirst, he made his way down to
+the banks of the river that flowed near by, drank his fill, and was in the
+act of returning, when he was startled to hear a most agonising scream,
+quickly followed by another, and then another, all proceeding apparently
+from the camp, whither he was wending<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> his steps. Wondering what on earth
+could have happened, and inclining to the belief that it must be in some
+way connected with one of those women thieves who prowled about everywhere
+at night, robbing and murdering, with equal impunity, wherever they saw a
+chance, he quickened his pace, only to find, on his arrival at the camp,
+no sign whatever of the presence of any woman, although the screaming was
+going on as vigorously as ever. The sounds seemed to come first from one
+part of the camp, and then from another, but to be always overhead, as if
+uttered by invisible beings, hovering at a height of some six or seven
+feet, or, perhaps, more, above the ground, and although Lieutenant
+O&#8217;Higgins had at first attributed these sounds to one person only, on
+listening attentively he fancied he could detect several different
+voices&mdash;all women&#8217;s&mdash;and he eventually came to the conclusion that at
+least three or four phantasms must have been present. As he stood there
+listening, not knowing what else to do, the wailing and sobbing seemed to
+grow more and more harrowing, until it affected him so much that, hardened
+as he had become to all kinds of misery and violence, he, too, felt like
+weeping, out of sheer sympathy. However, this state of affairs did not
+last long, for at the sound of a musket shot (that of a sentry, as
+Lieutenant<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> O&#8217;Higgins afterwards ascertained, giving a false alarm in some
+distant part of the camp) the wailing and sobbing abruptly and completely
+ceased, and was never, the Lieutenant declared, heard by him again.</p>
+
+<p>On mentioning the matter to one of his brother officers in the morning,
+the latter, no little interested and surprised, at once said: &#8220;You have
+undoubtedly heard the Banshee. Poor D&mdash;&mdash;, who fell at Corunna, often used
+to tell me about it, and, you may depend upon it, there are some Irishmen
+in camp now, and it was their funeral dirge that you listened to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>What he said proved to be quite correct, for, on inquiring, Lieutenant
+O&#8217;Higgins discovered three of the soldiers who had been sleeping around
+him that evening had Irish names, and were, unquestionably, of ancient
+Irish origin; and all of them perished on the bloody field of Talavera,
+twenty-four hours later.</p>
+
+<p>A story relating to an O&#8217;Farrell, who was with the Spanish in the same
+war, was also told me by Miss O&#8217;Higgins; but whether this O&#8217;Farrell was
+the famous general of that name or not I do not know. The story ran as
+follows:<small><a name="f11.1" id="f11.1" href="#f11">[11]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>It was the day prior to the fall of Badajoz, and O&#8217;Farrell, who was in
+Badajoz at the time, a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> prisoner of the French, was invited to partake of
+supper with some Spanish-Irish friends of his of the name of McMahon. The
+French, it may be observed, were, as a rule, rather more lenient to their
+Irish prisoners than to their English, and O&#8217;Farrell was allowed to ramble
+about Badajoz in perfect freedom, a mere pledge being extracted from him
+that he wouldn&#8217;t stroll outside the boundaries of the town without special
+permission. On the night in question O&#8217;Farrell left his quarters in high
+spirits. He liked the McMahons, especially the youngest daughter
+Katherine, with whom he was very much in love. He deemed his case
+hopeless, however, as Mr McMahon, who was poor, had often said none of his
+daughters should marry, unless it were someone who was wealthy enough to
+ensure them being well provided for, should they be left a widow; and as
+O&#8217;Farrell had nothing but his pay, which was meagre enough in all
+conscience, he saw no prospect of his ever being able to propose to the
+object of his affections. Had he been strong-minded enough, he told
+himself, he would have at once said good-bye to Katherine, and never have
+allowed himself to see or even think of her again; but, poor weakling that
+he was, he could not bear the idea of taking a final peep into her
+eyes&mdash;the eyes that he had idealised into his heaven and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> everything that
+made life worth living for&mdash;and so he kept accepting invitations to their
+house and throwing himself across her path, whenever the slightest
+opportunity presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>And now he found himself once more speeding to meet her, telling himself
+repeatedly that it should be the last time, but at the same time making up
+his mind that it should be nothing of the sort. He arrived at the house
+far too early, of course&mdash;he always did&mdash;and was shown into a room to wait
+there till the family had finished their evening toilets. Large glass
+doors opened out of the room on to a veranda, and O&#8217;Farrell, stepping out
+on to the latter, leaned over the iron railings, and gazed into the
+semi-courtyard, semi-garden below, in the centre of which was a fountain
+surmounted by the marble statue of a very beautiful maiden, that his
+instinct told him was an exact image of his beloved Katherine. He was
+gazing at it, revelling in the delightful anticipation of meeting the
+flesh and blood counterpart of it in a very short time, when sounds of
+music, of someone playing a very, very sad and plaintive air on the harp,
+came to him through the open doorway. Much surprised, for none of the
+family as far as he knew were harpists, nor had he, indeed, ever seen a
+harp in the house, he turned round; but, to add to his astonishment, no
+one was there.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> The room was apparently just as empty as when he had been
+ushered into it, and yet the music unquestionably emanated from it.
+Considerably mystified, for every now and then there was a peculiar
+far-offness in the sounds which he could liken to nothing he had ever
+heard before, he remained on the veranda, prevented by a strange feeling
+of awe, and something very akin to dread, from venturing into the room.</p>
+
+<p>He was thus occupied, half standing and half leaning against the framework
+of the glass door, when the harping abruptly ceased, and he heard moanings
+and sobbings as of a woman suffering from paroxysms of the most intense
+and violent grief. Combatting with a great fear that now began to seize
+him, he summed up the resolution to peep once more into the room, but
+though his eyes took in the whole range of the room, he could perceive no
+spot where anyone could possibly be in hiding, and nothing that would in
+any way account for the sounds. There was nothing in front of him but
+walls, furniture, and&mdash;space. Not a living creature. What then caused
+those sounds? He was asking himself this question, when the door opened,
+and Mr McMahon, followed by Katherine and all of the other girls, came
+into the apartment; and, with their entry, the strange sounds at once
+ceased.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>&#8220;Why, what&#8217;s the matter, Mr O&#8217;Farrell,&#8221; the girls
+said, laughingly. &#8220;You are as white as a sheet and trembling all over. You haven&#8217;t seen a ghost, have you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t seen anything,&#8221; O&#8217;Farrell retorted, a trifle nettled at their
+gaiety, &#8220;but I&#8217;ve heard some rather extraordinary sounds.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Extraordinary sounds,&#8221; Katherine laughed. &#8220;What on earth do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just what I say,&#8221; O&#8217;Farrell remarked. &#8220;When I was on the veranda just now
+I distinctly heard the sound of a harp in this room, and shortly
+afterwards I heard a woman weeping.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It must have been someone outside in the street,&#8221; Mr McMahon observed
+hastily, at the same time giving O&#8217;Farrell a warning glance from his dark
+and penetrating eyes. &#8220;We do occasionally receive visits from street
+musicians. I have something to say to you about the English and their
+rumoured new attack on the town,&#8221; and drawing O&#8217;Farrell aside he whispered
+to him: &#8220;On no account refer to that music again. It was undoubtedly the
+Banshee, the ghost that my forefathers brought over from Ireland, and it
+is only heard before some very dreadful catastrophe to the family.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The following day Badajoz was stormed and entered by the English, and in
+the wild scenes<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> that ensued, scenes in which the drunken English soldiery
+got completely out of hands, many Spanish&mdash;Spanish men and
+women&mdash;perished, as well as French, and among the casualties were the
+entire McMahon family.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>THE BANSHEE AT SEA</h3>
+
+<p><br />Talking of phantom music, there is a widespread belief among Celtic races
+that whenever it is heard proceeding from the sea, either a death or some
+other great calamity is prognosticated. Such a belief is very prevalent
+along the coasts of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, and Mr Dyer, in his
+&#8220;Ghost World,&#8221; p. 413, refers to it in Ireland. &#8220;Sometimes,&#8221; he says,
+&#8220;music is heard at sea, and it is believed in Ireland that, when a friend
+or relative dies, a warning voice is discernible.&#8221; To what extent this
+music is connected with Banshee hauntings it is, of course, impossible to
+say; but I have known cases in which it has owed its origin to the Banshee
+and to the Banshee only.</p>
+
+<p>During the Civil War in America, for example, a transport of Confederate
+soldiers was making for Charlestown one evening, when a young Irish
+officer, who was leaning over the bulwarks and gazing pensively into the
+sea, was astonished to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> hear the very sweetest sounds of music coming
+from, so it seemed to him, the very depths of the blue waters. Thinking he
+must be dreaming, he called a brother officer to his side and asked him if
+he could hear anything.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; the latter responded, &#8220;music, and what is more, singing. It is a
+woman, and she is singing some very tender and plaintive air. How the
+deuce do you account for it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; the young Irishman replied, &#8220;unless it is the Banshee, and
+it sounds very like the description of it that my mother used to give me.
+I only hope it does not predict the death of any one of my very near
+relatives.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It did not do that, but oddly enough, and unknown to him at the time, a
+namesake of his, whom he subsequently discovered was a second cousin,
+stood not ten yards from him at the very moment he was listening to the
+music, and was killed in action in a sortie from Charlestown on the
+following day.</p>
+
+<p>A story of a similar nature was told me in Oregon by an old Irish Federal
+soldier, who was in the temporary employ of an apple merchant at Medford,
+Jackson County. I don&#8217;t in any way vouch for its truth, but give it just
+as it was related to me.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You ask me if I have ever come across any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> ghosts in America. Well, I
+guess I have, several, and amongst others the Banshee. Oh, yes, I am
+Irish, although I speak with the nasal twang of the regular Yank. Everyone
+does who has lived in the Eastern States for any length of time. It&#8217;s the
+climate. My name, however, is O&#8217;Hagan, and I was born in County Clare; and
+though my father was only a peasant, I&#8217;m a darned sight more Irish than
+half the people who possess titles and big estates in the old country
+to-day.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I emigrated from Ireland with my parents, when I was only a few weeks
+old, and we settled in New York, where I was working as a porter on the
+quays when the Civil War broke out. Like me, the majority of Irishmen who,
+as you know, are always ready to go wherever there&#8217;s the chance of doing a
+bit of fighting, I at once enlisted in the Marines, for I was passionately
+fond of the sea, and in due course of time was transferred to a gunboat
+that patrolled the Carolina Coast on the lookout for Confederate blockade
+runners. Well, one night, shortly after I had turned in and was lying in
+my hammock, trying to get to sleep, which was none too easy, for one of my
+mates, an ex-actor, was snoring loud enough to wake the whole ship, I
+suddenly heard a tapping on the porthole close beside me. &#8216;Hello,&#8217; says I
+to myself, &#8216;that&#8217;s an odd noise. It can&#8217;t be the water, nor yet the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> wind;
+maybe it&#8217;s a bird, a gull or albatross,&#8217; and I listened very attentively.
+The sound went on, but it had none of that hardness and sharpness about it
+that is occasioned by a beak, it was softer and more lingering, more like
+the tapping of fingers. Every now and then it left off, to go on again,
+tap, tap, tap, until, at last, it unnerved me to such an extent that I
+jumped out of my hammock and had a peep to see what it was. To my
+astonishment I saw a very white face pressed against the porthole, looking
+in at me. It was the face of a woman with raven black hair that fell in
+long ringlets about her neck and shoulders. She had big golden rings in
+her ears, that shone like anything as the moonbeams caught them, as did
+her teeth, too, which were the loveliest bits of ivory I have ever seen,
+absolutely even and without the slightest mar.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But it was her eyes that fascinated me most. They were large, not too
+large, however, but in strict proportion to the rest of her face, and as
+far as I could judge in the moonlight, either blue or grey, but
+indescribably beautiful, and, at the same time, indescribably sad. As I
+drew nearer, she shrank back, and pointed with a white and slender hand at
+a spot on the sea, and then suddenly I heard music, the far-away sound of
+a harp, proceeding, so it seemed to me, from about the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> place she had
+indicated. It was a very still night, and the sounds came to me very
+distinctly, above the soft lap, lap of the water against the vessel&#8217;s
+side, and the mechanical squish, squish made by the bows each time they
+rose and fell, as the ship gently ploughed her way onwards. I was so
+intent on listening that I quite forgot the figure of the woman with the
+beautiful face, and when I turned to look at her again, she had gone, and
+there was nothing in front of me but an endless expanse of heaving,
+tossing, moonlit water. Then the music ceased, too, and all was still
+again, wondrously still, and feeling unaccountably sad and lonely&mdash;for I
+had taken a great fancy to that woman&#8217;s face, the only what you might term
+really lovely woman&#8217;s face that had ever looked kindly on me&mdash;I got back
+again into my hammock, and was soon fast asleep. On my touching at port,
+the first letter I received from home informed me of the death of my
+father, who had died the same night and just about the same time I had
+seen that fairy vision and heard that fairy music.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When I told my mother about it, some long time afterwards, she said it
+was the Banshee, and that it had haunted the O&#8217;Hagan family for hundreds
+and hundreds of years.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This, as I have already said, is merely a trooper&#8217;s story, unconfirmed by
+anyone else&#8217;s evidence, and,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> of course, not up to the standard of S.P.R.
+authority. Yet, I believe, it was related to me in perfect sincerity, and
+the narrator had nothing whatever to gain through making it up. I did not
+even offer him a chew of tobacco, for at that moment I was pretty nearly,
+if not, indeed, quite as hard up as he was himself.</p>
+
+<p>And now, before I finish altogether with Banshee hauntings that are
+associated with war, I feel I must refer to a statement in Mr McAnnaly&#8217;s
+book, &#8220;Irish Wonders,&#8221; to the effect that when the Duke of Wellington
+died, the Banshee was heard wailing round the house of his ancestors. This
+statement does not, in my opinion, bear inspection. I am quite ready to
+grant that some kind of apparition&mdash;perhaps a family ghost he had
+inherited from one or other of his Anglo-Irish ancestry&mdash;was heard
+lamenting outside the domain in question; but as the family to whom the
+Duke belonged could not be said to be of even anything approaching ancient
+Irish extraction, I cannot conceive it possible that the disturbances
+experienced were in any way due to the genuine Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>To revert to the sea, and Banshee haunting. On the coast of Donegal there
+is an estuary called &#8220;The Rosses,&#8221; and this at one time was said to be
+haunted by several kinds of phantoms, including<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> the Banshee, which was
+reported to have manifested itself on quite a number of occasions.</p>
+
+<p>Under the heading of &#8220;An Irish Water-fiend,&#8221; Bourke, in his &#8220;Anecdotes of
+the Aristocracy&#8221; (i. 329), relates the following case of a ghostly
+happening there, which, although not due to a Banshee, is so
+characteristic of Irish supernatural phenomena that I cannot refrain from
+quoting it.</p>
+
+<p>In the autumn of 1777 the Rev. James Crawford, rector of the parish of
+Killina, County Leitrim, was riding on horseback with his sister-in-law,
+Miss Hannah Wilson, on a pillion behind him, along the road leading to the
+&#8220;The Rosses,&#8221; and, on reaching the estuary, he at once proceeded to cross
+it. After they had gone some distance, Miss Wilson, noticing that the
+water touched the saddle laps, became so alarmed that she cried out and
+besought Mr Crawford to turn the horse round and get back to land as
+quickly as possible.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do not think there can be danger,&#8221; Mr Crawford answered, &#8220;for I see a
+horseman crossing the ford not twenty yards before us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To this Miss Wilson, who also saw the horseman, replied:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You had better hail him and inquire the depth of the intervening water.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mr Crawford at once did so, whereupon the horseman stopped and, turning
+round, revealed a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> face distorted by the most hideous grin conceivable,
+and so frightfully white and evil that the luckless clergyman promptly
+beat a retreat, and made no attempt to check the mad haste of his panicked
+steed till he had left the estuary many miles behind him.</p>
+
+<p>On arriving home he narrated the incident to his wife and family, and
+subsequently learned that the estuary was well known to be haunted by
+several phantoms, whose mission was invariably the same, either to
+foretell the doom by drowning of the person to whom they appeared, or else
+to actually bring about the death of that person by luring them on and on,
+until they got out of their depth, and so perished.</p>
+
+<p>One would have thought that Mr Crawford, after the experience just
+narrated, would have given the estuary a very wide berth in future; but no
+such thing. He again attempted to cross the ford of &#8220;The Rosses&#8221; on 27th
+September, 1777, and was drowned in the endeavour.</p>
+
+<p>Among many thrilling and (so it struck me at the time) authentic stories
+told me in my youth by a Mrs Broderick, a well-known vendor of oranges and
+chocolate in Bristol, were several stirring accounts of the Banshee. I was
+at the time a day boy at Clifton College, residing not very far from the
+school, and Mrs Broderick, who<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> used to visit our house every week with
+her wares, took a particular interest in me because I was Irish&mdash;one of
+&#8220;the real old O&#8217;Donnells.&#8221; She was a native of Cork, and had, I believe,
+migrated from that city in the <i>Juno</i>, an old cattle boat, that for more
+than twenty years plied regularly every week between Cork and Bristol
+carrying a handful of passengers, who, for the cheapness of the fare, made
+the best of the rolling and tossing and extremely limited space allotted
+for their accommodation. In later years I often travelled to and from
+Dublin and Bristol in the <i>Argo</i>, the <i>Juno&#8217;s</i> sister ship, so I speak
+feelingly and from experience. But to proceed with Mrs Broderick&#8217;s Banshee
+stories.</p>
+
+<p>The one containing an account of a Banshee haunting on the sea I will
+narrate in this chapter, and the other, which has no connection with
+either sea or river, I will deal with later on.</p>
+
+<p>Before I commence either story, however, I would like to say that though
+Mrs Broderick spoke with a rich brogue and was really Irish, she used few,
+if any, of those words and expressions that certain professors of the
+Dublin Academic School apparently consider inseparable from the speech of
+the Irish peasant class. I cannot, for example, remember her ever saying
+Musha, or Arrah, or Oro; and, as for Erse, I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> am quite certain she did not
+know a word of it. Yet, as I have said, she was Irish, and far more Irish
+than many of the Gaelic scholars of to-day who, insufferably proud of
+their knowledge of the Celtic tongue, bore one stiff by their feeble and
+futile attempts to acquire something of the real Irish wit and proverbial
+humour.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Broderick did not often speak of her parents; they were, I fancy,
+peasants, or, perhaps, what we should term &#8220;small farmers,&#8221; and from what
+I could gather they lived, at one time, in a little village just outside
+Cork; but Mrs Broderick was, she told me, very fond of the sea, and often,
+when a girl, walked into Cork and went out boating with her young friends
+in Queenstown harbour.</p>
+
+<p>On one occasion, she and another girl and two young men went for a sail
+with an old fisherman they knew, who took them some distance up the coast
+in the direction of Kinsale. There had been a slight breeze when they
+started, but it dropped suddenly as they were tacking to come back home,
+and since the sails had to be taken down and oars used, both the young men
+volunteered to row. Their offer being accepted by the old fisherman, they
+pulled away steadily till they espied an old ship, so battered and worn
+away as to be little more than a mere shell, lying<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> half in and half out
+of the water in a tiny cove. Then, as the weather was beautifully fine and
+no one was in a hurry to get home, it was proposed that they pull up to
+the wreck and examine it. The old fisherman demurred, but he was soon won
+over, and the two young men and Mrs Broderick&#8217;s girl friend boarded the
+old hulk, leaving Mrs Broderick and the old fisherman in the boat. The
+shadows from the trees and rocks had already manifested themselves on the
+glistening shingles of the beach, and a glow, emanating from the rapidly
+rising moon and myriads of scintillating stars that every moment shone
+forth with increased brilliancy, showed up every object around them with
+startling distinctness.</p>
+
+<p>Always in her element in scenes of this description, Mrs Broderick was
+enjoying herself to the utmost. Leaning on the side of the boat and
+trailing one hand in the water, she drank in the fresh night air, redolent
+with the scent of flowers and ozone. She could hear her friends talking
+and laughing as they tried to steady themselves on the sloping boards of
+the old hulk; and presently, one of them, O&#8217;Connell, proposed that they
+should descend below deck and explore the cabins. Then their voices
+gradually grew fainter and fainter, until eventually all was still, save
+for the lapping of the sea against the sides of the boat,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> and the gentle
+ripple of the wavelets as they broke on the beach, and the occasional
+far-away barkings of a dog&mdash;noises that somehow seem to belong to summer
+more than to any other period of the year.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Broderick&#8217;s memory, awakened by these sounds, travelled back to past
+seasons, and she was depicting some of the old scenes over again, when all
+at once, from the wreck, from that side of it, so it seemed to her, that
+was partly under water, there rang out a series of the most appalling
+screams, just like the screams of a woman who had been suddenly pounced
+upon and either stabbed, or treated in some equally savage and violent
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Broderick, of course, at once thought of her friend, Mary Rooney, and,
+clutching the boatman by the arm, she exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Saints above, it&#8217;s Mary. They&#8217;re murdering her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Tis no woman, that,&#8221; the old boatman said hoarsely. &#8220;&#8217;Tis the Banshee,
+and I would not have had this have happened for the whole blessed world. I
+with my mother so ill in bed with the rheumatism and a cold she got all
+through her with sitting out on the wet grass the night before last.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you sure?&#8221; Mrs Broderick whispered, clutching him tighter, whilst her
+teeth chattered.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> &#8220;Are you sure it isn&#8217;t Mary, and they are not killing
+her?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; replied the boatman, &#8220;that&#8217;s the way the Banshee always
+screams&mdash;&#8217;tis her, right enough, &#8217;tis no human woman,&#8221; and like the good
+Catholic that he was, he crossed himself, and, dipping the oars gently
+into the water, he began to pull slowly and quietly away.</p>
+
+<p>By and by the screaming ceased, and a moment later the three explorers
+came trooping on to the deck, showing no signs whatever of alarm, and when
+questioned as to whether they had heard anything, laughingly replied in
+the negative.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Only,&#8221; O&#8217;Connell added facetiously, &#8220;the kiss Mike Power stole from Mary.
+That was all.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But for O&#8217;Connell that was not all. When he arrived home he found that
+during his absence his mother had died suddenly, and, in all probability,
+at the very moment when Mrs Broderick and the boatman had heard the
+Banshee.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE</h3>
+
+<p><br />No country besides Ireland possesses a Banshee, though some countries
+possess a family or national ghost somewhat resembling it. In Germany, for
+example, popular tradition is full of rumours of white ladies who haunt
+castles, woods, rivers, and mountains, where they may be seen combing
+their yellow hair, or playing on harps or spinning. They usually, as their
+name would suggest, wear white dresses, and not infrequently yellow or
+green shoes of a most dainty and artistic design. Sometimes they are sad,
+sometimes gay; sometimes they warn people of approaching death or
+disaster, and sometimes, by their beauty, they blind men to an impending
+peril, and thus lure them on to their death. When beautiful, they are
+often very beautiful, though nearly always of the same type&mdash;golden hair
+and long blue eyes; they are rarely dark, and their hair is never of that
+peculiar copper and golden hue that is so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> common among Banshees. When
+ugly, they are generally ugly indeed&mdash;either repulsive old crones, not
+unlike the witches in Grimm&#8217;s Fairy Tales, or death-heads mockingly
+arrayed in the paraphernalia of the young; but their ugliness does not
+seem to embrace that ghastly satanic mockery, that diabolical malevolence
+that is inseparable from the malignant form of Banshee, and which inspires
+in the beholders such a peculiar and unparalleled horror.</p>
+
+<p>It is not my intention in this work to do more than briefly refer to a few
+of the most famous of the German hauntings in their relation to the
+Banshee; and, since it is the best known, I would first of all call
+attention to the White Lady, that restricts its unwelcome attentions to
+Royalty, and more especially, perhaps, to that branch of it known as the
+House of Hohenzollern. Between this White Lady family phantasm and the
+Banshee there is undoubtedly something in common. They are both
+exclusively associated with families of really ancient lineage, which they
+follow about from town to town, province to province, and country to
+country; and the purpose of their respective missions is generally the
+same, namely, to give warning of some approaching death or calamity, which
+in the case of the White Lady is usually of a national order.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Occasionally, too, the German family ghost, like the Banshee, is heard
+playing on a harp, but here I think the likeness ends. There are no very
+striking characteristics in the appearance of the White Lady of the
+Hohenzollerns, she would seem to be neither very beautiful nor the
+reverse; nor does she convey the impression of belonging to any very
+remote age; on the contrary, she might well be the earth-bound spirit of
+someone who died in the Middle Ages or even later.</p>
+
+<p>In December, 1628, she was seen in the Royal Palace in Berlin, and was
+heard to say, &#8220;<i>Veni, judica vivos et mortuos; judicum mihi adhuc
+superest</i>&#8221;&mdash;that is to say, &#8220;Come judge the quick and the dead&mdash;I wait for
+judgment.&#8221; She also manifested herself to one of the Fredericks of
+Prussia, who regarded her advent as a sure sign of his approaching death,
+which it was, for he died shortly afterwards. We next read of her
+appearing in Bohemia at the Castle of Neuhaus. One of the princesses of
+the royal house was trying on a new head-gear before a mirror, and,
+thinking her waiting-maid was near at hand, she inquired of her the time.
+To the Princess&#8217;s horror, however, instead of the maid answering her, a
+strange figure all in white, which her instincts told her was the famous
+national ghost, stepped out from behind a screen and exclaimed, &#8220;<i>Zehn uhr
+ist es irh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> Liebden!</i>&#8221; &#8220;It is
+ten o&#8217;clock, your love&#8221;; the last two words being the mode of address usually adopted in Germany and Austria by
+Royalties when speaking to one another. The Princess was soon afterwards taken ill and died.</p>
+
+<p>A faithful account of the appearance of the White Lady was published in
+<i>The Iris</i>, a Frankfort journal, in 1829, and was vouched for by the
+editor, George Doring. Doring&#8217;s mother, who was companion to one of the
+ladies at the Prussian Court, had two daughters, aged fourteen and
+fifteen, who were in the habit of visiting her at the Palace. On one
+occasion, when the two girls were alone in their mother&#8217;s sitting-room,
+doing some needlework, they were immeasurably surprised to hear the sounds
+of music, proceeding, so it seemed to them, from behind a big stove that
+occupied one corner of the apartment. One girl got up, and, taking a yard
+measure, struck the spot where she fancied the music was coming from;
+whereupon the measure was instantly snatched from her hand, the music, at
+the same time, ceasing. She was so badly frightened that she ran out of
+the room and took refuge in someone else&#8217;s apartment.</p>
+
+<p>On her return some minutes later, she found her sister lying on the floor
+in a dead faint. On coming to, this sister stated that directly the other
+had quitted the apartment, the music had begun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> again and, not only that,
+but the figure of a woman, all in white, had suddenly risen from behind
+the stove and began to advance towards her, causing her instantly to faint
+with fright.</p>
+
+<p>The lady in whose house the occurrence took place, on being acquainted
+with what had happened, had the flooring near the stove taken up; but,
+instead of discovering the treasure which she had hoped might be there, a
+quantity of quick-lime only was found; and the affair eventually getting
+to the King&#8217;s ears, he displayed no surprise, but merely expressed his
+belief that the apparition the girl had seen was that of the Countess
+Agnes of Orlamunde, who had been bricked up alive in that room.</p>
+
+<p>She had been the mistress of a former Margrave of Brandenburg, by whom she
+had had two children, and when the Margrave&#8217;s legitimate wife died the
+Countess hoped he would marry her. This, however, he declined to do on the
+plea that her offspring, at his death, would very probably dispute the
+heirship to the property with the children of his lawful marriage. The
+Countess then, in order to remove this obstacle to her union, poisoned her
+two children, which act so disgusted the Margrave that he had her walled
+up alive in the room where she had committed the crimes. The King went on
+to explain that the phantasm<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> appeared about every seven years, but more
+often to children, to whom it was believed to be very much attached, than
+to adults.</p>
+
+<p>Against this explanation, however, is the more recent one that the White
+Lady is Princess Bertha or Perchta von Rosenberg. This theory is founded
+on the discovery of a portrait of Princess Bertha, which was identified by
+someone as the portrait of the White Lady whom they had just seen.</p>
+
+<p>In support of this theory it was pointed out that once when certain
+charities which the Princess had stated in her will should be doled out
+annually to the poor were neglected, not only was the White Lady seen, but
+music and all kinds of other sounds were heard in the house where the
+Princess had died. Very possibly, however, in neither of these theories is
+there any truth, and the secret of the White Lady&#8217;s activity lies in some
+subtle and, perhaps, entirely unsuspected fact. It is, I think, quite
+conceivable that she is no earth-bound soul, but some impersonating
+elemental, which&mdash;like the Banshee&mdash;has, for some strange and wholly
+inexplicable reason, attached itself to the unfortunate Hohenzollerns, and
+their relatives and kinsmen.</p>
+
+<p>Ballinus and Erasmus Francisci, in their published works, give numerous
+accounts of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> appearance of this same apparition; whilst Mrs Crowe
+asserts that it was seen shortly before the publication of her &#8220;Night Side
+of Nature.&#8221; It would be interesting to know whether it appeared to the
+ex-Kaiser Wilhelm, or to any of his family, before this last greatest and
+most signally disastrous of all wars.</p>
+
+<p>William Brereton in his &#8220;Travels&#8221; (i. 33) gives rather a different
+description of this ghost. He says that the Queen of Bohemia told him
+&#8220;that at Berlin&mdash;the Elector of Brandenberg&#8217;s house&mdash;before the death of
+anyone related in blood to that house, there appears and walks up and down
+that house like unto a ghost in a white sheet, which walks during the time
+of their sickness until their death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In this account it will be noticed that there is no mention of sex, so
+that the reader can only speculate as to whether the apparition was the
+ghost of a man or a woman. Its appearance, however, according to this
+account, strongly suggests a ghost of the sepulchral and death-head
+type&mdash;an ordinary species of elemental&mdash;which suggestion is not apparent
+in any other description of it that we have hitherto come across. Other
+ancient German and Austrian families, besides those of the ruling houses,
+possess their family ghosts, and here again, as in the parallel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> case of
+the Irish and their Banshee, the family ghost of the Germans or Austrians
+is by no means confined to the &#8220;White Lady.&#8221; In some cases of German
+family haunting, for example, the phenomenon is a roaring lion, in others
+a howling dog; and in others a bell or gong, or sepulchral toned clock
+striking at some unusual hour, and generally thirteen times. In all
+instances, however, no matter whether the family ghost be German, Irish,
+or Austrian, the purpose of its manifestations is the same&mdash;to predict
+death or some very grave calamity.<small><a name="f12.1" id="f12.1" href="#f12">[12]</a></small></p>
+
+<p>In the notes to the 1844 edition of Thomas Crofton Croker&#8217;s &#8220;Fairy Legends
+and Traditions of the South of Ireland,&#8221; we find this paragraph taken from
+the works of the Brothers Grimm and manuscript communications from Dr
+Wilhelm Grimm:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In the Tyrol they believe in a spirit which looks in at the window of a
+house in which a person is to die (Deutsche Sagen, No. 266), the White
+Woman with a veil over her head answers to the Banshee, but the tradition
+of the Klage-weib (mourning woman) in the L&uuml;nchurger Heath (Spiels Archiv.
+ii. 297) resembles it more. On stormy nights, when the moon shines faintly
+through the fleeting clouds, she stalks of gigantic<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> stature with
+death-like aspect, and black, hollow eyes, wrapt in grave clothes which
+float in the wind, and stretches her immense arm over the solitary hut,
+uttering lamentable cries in the tempestuous darkness. Beneath the roof
+over which the Klage-weib has leaned, one of the inmates must die in the
+course of a month.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In Italy there are several families of distinction possessing a family
+ghost that somewhat resembles the Banshee. According to Cardau and
+Henningius Grosius the ancient Venetian family of Donati possess a ghost
+in the form of a man&#8217;s head, which is seen looking through a doorway
+whenever any member of the family is doomed to die. The following extract
+from their joint work serves as an illustration of it:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jacopo Donati, one of the most important families in Venice, had a child,
+the heir to the family, very ill. At night, when in bed, Donati saw the
+door of his chamber opened and the head of a man thrust in. Knowing that
+it was not one of his servants, he roused the house, drew his sword, went
+over the whole palace, all the servants declaring that they had seen such
+a head thrust in at the doors of their several chambers at the same hour;
+the fastenings were found all secure, so that no one could have come in
+from without. The next day the child died.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>Other families in Italy, a branch of the Paoli, for example, is haunted by
+very sweet music, the voice of a woman singing to the accompaniment of a
+harp or guitar, and invariably before a death.</p>
+
+<p>Of the family ghost in Spain I have been able to gather but little
+information. There, too, some of the oldest families seem to possess
+ghosts that follow the fortunes, both at home and abroad, of the families
+to which they are attached, but with the exception of this one point of
+resemblance there seems to be in them little similarity to the Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>In Denmark and Sweden the likeness between the family ghost and the
+Banshee is decidedly pronounced. Quite a number of old Scandinavian
+families possess attendant spirits very much after the style of the
+Banshee; some very beautiful and sympathetic, and some quite the reverse;
+the most notable difference being that in the Scandinavian apparition
+there is none of that ghastly mixture of the grave, antiquity, and hell
+that is so characteristic of the baleful type of Banshee, and which would
+seem to distinguish it from the ghosts of all other countries. The
+beautiful Scandinavian phantasms more closely resemble fairies or angels
+than any women of this earth, whilst the hideous ones have all the
+grotesqueness and crude horror of the witches of Andersen or Grimm. There
+is nothing about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> them, as there so often is in the Banshee, to make one
+wonder if they can be the phantasms of any long extinct race, or people,
+for example, that might have hailed from the missing continent of
+Atlantis, or have been in Ireland prior to the coming of the Celts.</p>
+
+<p>The Scandinavian family ghosts are frankly either elementals or the
+earth-bound spirits of the much more recent dead. Yet, as I have said,
+they have certain points in common with the Banshee. They prognosticate
+death or disaster; they scream and wail like women in the throes of some
+great mental or physical agony; they sob or laugh; they occasionally tap
+on the window-panes, or play on the harp; they sometimes haunt in pairs, a
+kind spirit and an evilly disposed one attending the fortunes of the same
+family; and they keep exclusively to the very oldest families. Oddly
+enough at times the Finnish family ghost assumes the guise of a man.
+Burton, for example, in his &#8220;Anatomy of Melancholy,&#8221; tells us &#8220;that near
+Rufus Nova, in Finland, there is a lake in which, when the governor of the
+castle dies, a spectrum is seen in the habit of Orion, with a harp, and
+makes excellent music, like those clocks in Cheshire which (they say)
+presage death to the masters of the family; or that oak in Lanthadran Park
+in Cornwall, which foreshadows so much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>I will not dwell any longer, however, on Scandinavian ghosts, as I purpose
+later on to publish a volume on the same, but will pass on to the family
+apparitions of Scotland, England, and Wales.</p>
+
+<p>Beginning with Scotland, Sir Walter Scott was strong in his belief in the
+Banshee, which he described as one of the most beautiful superstitions of
+Europe. In his &#8220;Letters on Demonology&#8221; he says: &#8220;Several families of the
+Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to the distinction of an
+attendant spirit, who performed the office of the Irish Banshee,&#8221; and he
+particularly referred to the ghostly cries and lamentations which
+foreboded death to members of the Clan of MacLean of Lochbery. But though
+many of the Highland families do possess such a ghost, unlike the Banshee,
+it is not restricted to the feminine sex, nor does its origin, as a rule,
+date back to anything like such remote times. It would seem, indeed, to
+belong to a much more ordinary species of phantasm, a species which is
+seldom accompanied by music or any other sound, and which by no means
+always prognosticates death, although on many occasions it has done so.</p>
+
+<p>In addition to the MacLean, some of the best known cases of Scottish
+family ghosts are as follows:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span>The Bodach au Dun, or Ghost of the Hills, which haunts the family of Grant
+Rothiemurcus, and the Llam-dearg, or spectre of the Bloody Hand, which
+pursues the fortunes of the Clan Kinchardine. According to Sir Walter
+Scott in the Macfarlane MSS. this spirit was chiefly to be seen in the
+Glenmore, where it took the form of a soldier with one hand perpetually
+dripping with blood. At one time it invariably signalled its advent in the
+manner which, I think, has no parallel among ghosts&mdash;it challenged members
+of the Kinchardine Clan to fight a duel with it, and whether they accepted
+or not they always died soon afterwards. As lately as 1669, says Sir
+Walter Scott, it fought with three brothers, one after another, who
+immediately died therefrom.</p>
+
+<p>Then there is the Clan of Gurlinbeg which is haunted by Garlin Bodacher;
+the Turloch Gorms who, according to Scott, are haunted by Mary Moulach, or
+the girl with the hairy left hand;<small><a name="f13.1" id="f13.1" href="#f13">[13]</a></small> and the Airlie family, whose seat
+at Cortachy is haunted by the famous drummer, whose ghostly tattoos must
+be taken as a sure sign that a member of the Ogilvie Clan&mdash;of which the
+Earl of Airlie is the recognised head&mdash;will die very shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Ingram, in his &#8220;Haunted Houses and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> Family Legends,&#8221; quotes several
+well authenticated instances of manifestations by this apparition, the
+last occurring, according to him, in the year 1899, though I have heard
+from other reliable sources that it has been heard at a much more recent
+date. The origin of this haunting is generally thought to be comparatively
+modern, and not to date further back than two or three hundred years, if
+as far, which, of course, puts it on quite a different category from that
+of the Banshee, though its mission is, without doubt, the same. According
+to Mr Ingram, a former Lord Airlie, becoming jealous of one of his
+retainers or emissaries who was a drummer, had him thrust in his drum and
+hurled from a top window of the castle into the courtyard beneath, where
+he was dashed to pieces. With his dying breath the drummer cursed not only
+Lord Airlie, but his descendants, too, and ever since that event his
+apparition has persistently haunted the family.</p>
+
+<p>Other Highland families that possess special ghosts are a branch of the
+Macdonnells, that have a phantom piper, whose mournful piping invariably
+means that some member or other of the clan is shortly doomed to die; and
+the Stanleys who have a female apparition that signalises her advent by
+shrieking, weeping, and moaning before the death of any of the family.
+Perhaps of all<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> Scottish ghosts this last one most closely resembles the
+Banshee, though there are distinct differences, chiefly with regard to the
+appearance of the phantoms&mdash;the Scottish one differing essentially in her
+looks and attire from the Irish ghost&mdash;and their respective origins, that
+of the Stanley apparition being, in all probability, of much later date
+than the Banshee.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, there is the Bodach Glas, or dark grey man, in reference to
+which Mr Henderson, in his &#8220;Folk-lore of Northern Countries,&#8221; p. 344,
+says: &#8220;Its appearance foretold death in the Clan of &mdash;&mdash;, and I have been
+informed on the most credible testimony of its appearance in our own day.
+The Earl of E&mdash;&mdash;, a nobleman alike beloved and respected in Scotland, was
+playing on the day of his decease on the links of St Andrew&#8217;s at golf.
+Suddenly he stopped in the middle of the game, saying, &#8216;I can play no
+longer, there is the Bodach Glas. I have seen it for the third time;
+something fearful is going to befall me.&#8217; That night he fell down dead as
+he was giving a lady her candlestick on her way up to bed.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another instance, still, of a Scottish family ghost is that of the willow
+tree at Gordon Castle, which is referred to by Sir Bernard Bourke in his
+&#8220;Anecdotes of the Aristocracy.&#8221; Sir Bernard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> asserts that whenever any
+accident happens to this tree, if, for example, a branch is blown down in
+a storm, or any part of it is struck by lightning, then some dire
+misfortune is sure to happen to some member of the family.</p>
+
+<p>There are other old Scottish family ghosts, all very distinct from the
+Banshee, though a few bear some slight resemblance to it, but as my space
+is restricted, I will pass on to family ghosts of a more or less similar
+type that are to be met with in England.</p>
+
+<p>To begin with, the Oxenhams of Devonshire the heiress of Sir James
+Oxenham, and the bride that is invariably seen before the death of any
+member of the family. According to a well-known Devonshire ballad, a bird
+answering to this description flew over the guests at the wedding of the
+heiress of Sir James Oxenham, and the bride was killed the following day
+by a suitor she had unceremoniously jilted.</p>
+
+<p>The Arundels of Wardour have a ghost in the form of two white owls, it
+being alleged that whenever two birds of this species are seen perched on
+the house where any of this family are living, some one member of them is
+doomed to die very shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Equally famous is the ghost of the Cliftons of Nottinghamshire, which
+takes the shape of a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> sturgeon that is seen swimming in the river Trent,
+opposite Clifton Hall, the chief seat of the family, whenever one of the
+Cliftons is on the eve of dying.</p>
+
+<p>Then, again, there is the white hand of the Squires of Worcestershire, a
+family that is now practically extinct. According to local tradition this
+family was for many generations haunted by the very beautiful hand of a
+woman, that was always seen protruding through the wall of the room
+containing that member of the family who was fated to die soon. Most ghost
+hands are said to be grey and filmy, but this one, according to some
+eye-witnesses, appears to have borne an extraordinary resemblance to that
+of a living person. It was slender and perfectly proportioned, with very
+tapering fingers and very long and beautifully kept filbert nails&mdash;the
+sort of hand one sees in portraits of women of bygone ages, but which one
+very rarely meets with in the present generation.</p>
+
+<p>Other families that possess ghosts are the Yorkshire Middletons, who are
+always apprised of the death of one of their members by the appearance of
+a nun; and the Byrons of Newstead Abbey, who, according to the great poet
+of that name, were haunted by a black Friar that used to be seen wandering
+about the cloisters and other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> parts of the monasterial building before
+the death of any member of the family.</p>
+
+<p>In England, there seems to be quite a number of White Lady phantoms, most
+of them, however, haunting houses and not families, and none of them
+bearing any resemblance to the Banshee. Indeed, there is a far greater
+dissimilarity between the English and Irish types of family ghosts than
+there is between the Irish and those of any of the nations I have hitherto
+discussed.</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, with regard to the Welsh family ghosts, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his
+&#8220;British Goblins,&#8221; quite erroneously, I think, likens the Banshee in
+appearance to the Gwrach y Rhibyn, or Hag of the Dribble, which he
+describes as hideous, with long, black teeth, long, lank, withered arms,
+leathern wings, and cadaverous cheeks, a description that is certainly not
+in the least degree like that of any Banshee I have ever heard of. He goes
+on to add that it comes in the stillness of the night, utters a
+blood-curdling howl, and calls on the person doomed to die thus:
+&#8220;Da-a-a-vy! De-i-i-o-o-ba-a-a-ch.&#8221; If it is in the guise of a male it
+says, in addition, &#8220;Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach!&#8221; which rendered into
+English is, &#8220;My child, my little child&#8221;; but if in the form of a woman,
+&#8220;Oh! Oh! fy ngwr, fy ngwr&#8221;&mdash;&#8220;My husband! my husband!&#8221; As a rule it flaps
+its wings against<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> the window of the room in which the person who is
+doomed is sleeping, whilst occasionally it appears either to the ill-fated
+one himself or to some member of his family in a mist on the mountainside.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Sikes gives a very graphic description of the appearance of this
+apparition to a peasant farmer near Cardiff, a little over forty years
+ago. To be precise, it was on the evening of the 14th November, 1877. The
+farmer was on a visit to an old friend at the time, and was awakened at
+midnight by the most ghastly screaming and a violent shaking of the
+window-frame. The noise continued for some seconds, and then terminated in
+one final screech that far surpassed all the others in intensity and sheer
+horror. Greatly excited&mdash;though Mr Sikes affirms he was not
+frightened&mdash;the old man leaped out of bed, and, throwing open the window,
+saw a figure like a frightful old woman, with long, dishevelled, red hair,
+and tusk-like teeth, and a startling white complexion, floating in
+mid-air. She was enveloped in a long, loose, flowing kind of black robe
+that entirely concealed her body. As he gazed at her, completely
+dumbfounded with astonishment, she peered down at him and, throwing back
+her dreadful head, emitted another of the very wildest and most harrowing
+of screams.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> He then heard her flap her wings against a window immediately
+underneath his, after which he saw her fly over to an inn almost directly
+opposite him, called the &#8220;Cow and Snuffers,&#8221; and pass right through the
+closed doorway.</p>
+
+<p>After waiting some minutes to see if she came out again, he at length got
+back into bed, and on the morrow learned that Mr Llewellyn, the landlord
+of the &#8220;Cow and Snuffers,&#8221; had died in the night about the same time as
+the apparition, which he, the old farmer, now concluded must have been the
+Gwrach y Rhibyn, had appeared.</p>
+
+<p>There is, of course, this much in common between the Gwrach y Rhibyn and
+the Banshee: both are harbingers of death; both signalise their advent by
+shrieks, and both confine their hauntings to really ancient Celtic
+families; but here, it seems to me, the likeness ends. The Gwrach y Rhibyn
+is more grotesque than horrible, and would seem to belong rather to the
+order of witches in fairy lore than to the denizens of the ghost world.</p>
+
+<p>Another ghostly phenomenon of the death-warning type that is, I believe,
+to be met with in Wales, is the Canhywllah Cyrth, or corpse candle, so
+called because the apparition resembles a material candlelight, saving for
+the fact that it vanishes directly it is approached, and reforms<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> speedily
+again afterwards. The following descriptions of the Canhywllah Cyrth are
+taken from Mr T. C. Charley&#8217;s &#8220;News from the Invisible World,&#8221; pp. 121-4.
+The first extract is the account of the corpse candles given by the Rev.
+Mr Davis.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If it be a little candle,&#8221; he writes, &#8220;pale or bluish, then follows the
+corpse either of an abortive, or some infant; if a big one, then the
+corpse either of someone come of age; if there be seen two or three or
+more, some big, some small, together, then so many such corpses together.
+If two candles come from divers places, and be seen to meet, the corpses
+will do the like; if any of these candles be seen to turn, sometimes a
+little out of the way that leadeth unto the church, the following corpse
+will be found to turn into that very place, for the avoiding of some dirty
+lane, etc. When I was about fifteen years of age, dwelling at Llanglar,
+late at night, some neighbours saw one of these candles hovering up and
+down along the bank of the river, until they were weary in beholding; at
+last they left it so, and went to bed. A few weeks after, a damsel from
+Montgomeryshire came to see her friends, who dwelt on the other side of
+the Istwyth, and thought to ford it at the place where the light was seen;
+but being dissuaded by some lookers-on (by reason of a flood) she walked
+up and down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> along the bank, where the aforesaid candle did, waiting for
+the falling of the waters, which at last she took, and was drowned
+therein.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Continuing, he says: &#8220;Of late, my sexton&#8217;s wife, an aged understanding
+woman, saw from her bed a little bluish candle upon her table; within two
+or three days after comes a fellow in, inquiring for her husband, and
+taking something from under his cloak, clapped it down directly upon the
+table end, where she had seen the candle; and what was it but a dead-born
+child?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In another case the same gentleman relates a number of these candles were
+seen together. &#8220;About thirty-four or thirty-five years since,&#8221; he says,
+&#8220;one Jane Wyat, my wife&#8217;s sister, being nurse to Baronet Reid&#8217;s three
+eldest children, and (the lady being deceased) the lady controller of that
+house, going late into a chamber where the maidservants lay, saw there no
+less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after, the
+chamber being newly plastered and a great grate of coal-fire thereon
+kindled to hasten the drying up of the plastering, that five of the
+maidservants went there to bed, as they were wont, but in the morning they
+were all dead, being suffocated in their sleep with the steam of the newly
+tempered lime and coal. This was at Llangathen in Carmarthenshire.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span>Occasionally a figure is seen with the lights, but nearly always that of a
+woman. &Agrave; propos of this the same writer says: &#8220;William John of the County
+of Carmarthen, a smith, on going home one night, saw one of the corpse
+candles; he went out of his way to meet with it, and when he came near it,
+he saw it was a burying; and the corpse upon the bier, the perfect
+resemblance of a woman in the neighbourhood whom he knew, holding the
+candle between her forefingers, who dreadfully grinned at him, and
+presently he was struck down from his horse, where he remained a while,
+and was ill a long time after before he recovered. This was before the
+real burying of the woman. His fault, and therefore his danger, was his
+coming presumptuously against the candle.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lastly, an account of these death candles appeared some years ago in
+<i>Fraser&#8217;s Magazine</i>. It ran as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In a wild and retired district in North Wales, the following occurrence
+took place to the great astonishment of the mountaineers. We can vouch for
+the truth of the statement, as many members of our own teutu, or clan,
+were witnesses of the fact. On a dark evening, a few winters ago, some
+persons, with whom we are well acquainted, were returning to Barmouth, on
+the south or opposite side of the river. As they approached the
+ferryhouse<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> at Penthryn, which is directly opposite Barmouth, they
+observed a light near the house, which they conjectured to be produced by
+a bonfire, and greatly puzzled they were to discover the reason why it
+should have been lighted. As they came nearer, however, it vanished; and
+when they inquired at the house respecting it, they were surprised to
+learn that not only had the people there displayed no light, but they had
+not even seen one; nor could they perceive any signs of it on the sands.
+On reaching Barmouth, the circumstance was mentioned, and the fact
+corroborated by some of the people there, who had also plainly and
+distinctly seen the light. It was settled, therefore, by some of the old
+fisherman, that this was a &#8220;death-token&#8221;; and, sure enough, the man who
+kept the ferry at that time was drowned at high-water a few nights
+afterwards, on the very spot where the light was seen. He was landing from
+the boat, when he fell into the water, and so perished.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The same winter the Barmouth people, as well as the inhabitants of the
+opposite banks, were struck by the appearance of a number of small lights
+which were seen dancing in the air at a place called Borthwyn, about half
+a mile from the town. A great number of people came out to see these
+lights; and after a while they all but one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> disappeared, and this one
+proceeded slowly towards the water&#8217;s edge, to a small bay where some boats
+were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near the spot saw the
+light advancing&mdash;they saw it also hover for a few seconds over one
+particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or three days afterwards,
+the man to whom that particular boat belonged was drowned in the river,
+where he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in that very boat. We have
+narrated these facts just as they occurred.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another well-known Welsh haunting that may be relegated to the same class
+of phenomena as the corpse candles is that of the Stradling Ghost. This
+phantasm, which is supposed to be that of a former Lady Stradling, who was
+murdered by one of her own relatives, haunts St Donart&#8217;s Castle, on the
+southern coast of Glamorganshire, appearing whenever a death or some very
+grievous calamity is about to overtake a member of the family. Writing of
+her, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his &#8220;British Goblins,&#8221; p. 143-4, says: &#8220;She appears
+when any mishap is about to befall a member of the house of Stradling, the
+direct line, however, of which is extinct. She wears high-heeled shoes,
+and a long trailing gown of the finest silk.&#8221; According to local reports,
+her advent is always known in the neighbourhood by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> the behaviour of the
+dogs, which, taking their cue from their canine representatives in the
+Castle, begin to howl and whine, and keep on making a noise and showing
+every indication of terror and resentment so long as the earth-bound
+spirit of the lady continues to roam about. Of course the Stradling Ghost
+cannot be said to be characteristically Welsh, because its prototype is to
+be found in so many other countries, but it at least comes under the
+category of family apparitions.</p>
+
+<p>The Gwyllgi, or dog of darkness, which Mr Wirt Sikes asserts has often
+inspired terror among the Welsh peasants, does not appear to be confined
+to any one family, any more than do the corpse candles, though, like the
+latter, it would seem to manifest itself principally to really Welsh
+people. Its advent is not, however, predicative of any special happening.
+The Cwn Annwn, or dogs of hell, that are chiefly to be met with in the
+south of Wales, on the contrary, rarely, if ever, appear, saving to warn
+those who see them of some approaching death or disaster. Neither they,
+nor the Gwyllgi, nor the corpse candles, since they do not haunt one
+family exclusively, can be called family ghosts. And only inasmuch as they
+are racial have they anything in common with the Banshee. Indeed, there is
+a world of difference between the Banshee and even its<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> nearest
+counterpart in other countries, and the difference is, perhaps, one which
+only those who have actually experienced it could ever understand.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE</h3>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;&#8217;Twas the Banshee&#8217;s lonely wailing,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Well I knew the voice of death,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">On the night wind slowly sailing</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">O&#8217;er the bleak and gloomy heath.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>These are the dramatic lines Thomas Crofton Croker, in his inimitable
+&#8220;Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland,&#8221; puts in the mouth
+of the widow MacCarthy, as she is lamenting over the body of her son,
+Charles, whose death had been predicted by the Banshee; not the beautiful
+and dainty Banshee of the O&#8217;Briens, but a wild, unkempt, haggish creature
+that seemed in perfect harmony with the drear and desolate moorland from
+whence it sprang.</p>
+
+<p>Mr Croker, indeed, almost invariably associates the Banshee with the heath
+and bogland, for at the commencement of his Tales of the Banshee in the
+same volume, we find these well-known lines:</p>
+
+<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>
+&#8220;Who sits upon the heath forlorn,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">With robe so free and tresses worn,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Anon she pours a harrowing strain,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">And then she sits all mute again!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Now peals the wild funereal cry,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">And now&mdash;it sinks into a sigh.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>Very different from this grim and repellent portrayal of the Banshee given
+by Mr Croker is the very pleasing and attractive description of it
+presented to us by Dr Kenealy, whose account of it in prose appears in an
+earlier chapter of this book.</p>
+
+<p>Referring to the death of his brother, Dr Kenealy says:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;Here the Banshee, that phantom bright who weeps<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Over the dying of her own loved line,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Floated in moonlight; in her streaming locks</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Gleamed starshine; when she looked on me, she knew</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">And smiled.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>And again:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;The wish has but<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Escaped my lips&mdash;and lo! once more it streams</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">In liquid lapse upon the fairy winds</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">That guard each slightest note with jealous care,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">And bring them hither, even as angels might</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">To the beloved to whom they minister.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>In reference to phantom music heard at sea,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> Mr Dyer, in his &#8220;Ghost
+World,&#8221; p. 413, quotes the following lines:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;A low sound of song from the distance I hear,<br />
+In the silence of night, breathing sad on my ear,<br />
+Whence comes it? I know not&mdash;unearthly the note,<br />
+Yet it sounds like the lay that my mother once sung,<br />
+As o&#8217;er her first-born in his cradle she hung.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As I have already stated, the Banshee is not infrequently heard at sea,
+either singing or weeping, hence, in all probability, the author of these
+lines, whose name, by the way, Mr Dyer does not divulge, had the Banshee
+in mind when he wrote them. But, perhaps, the best known, as well as the
+most direct reference to this ghost in verse is that made by Ireland&#8217;s
+popular poet, Thomas Moore, in one of the most famous of his &#8220;Irish
+Melodies.&#8221; I append the poem, not only for the reference it contains, but
+also on account of its general beauty.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;How oft has the Banshee cried!<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">How oft has death untied</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Bright bonds that glory wove</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Sweet bonds entwin&#8217;d by love.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Long may the fair and brave</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Sigh o&#8217;er the hero&#8217;s grave.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span><span style="margin-left: .5em;">We&#8217;re fallen upon gloomy days,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Star after star decays,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Every bright name, that shed</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Light o&#8217;er the land, is fled.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Dark falls the tear of him who mourneth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Lost joy, a hope that ne&#8217;er returneth,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">But brightly flows the tear</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Wept o&#8217;er the hero&#8217;s bier.</span><br />
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Oh, quenched are our beacon lights</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Thou, of the hundred fights!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Thou, on whose burning tongue</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Truth, peace, and freedom hung!</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Both mute, but long as valour shineth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Or Mercy&#8217;s soul at war refineth</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">So long shall Erin&#8217;s pride</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: .5em;">Tell how they lived and died.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>With the following extracts from the translation of an elegy written by
+Pierse Ferriter, the Irish poet soldier, who fought bravely in the
+Cromwellian wars, I must now terminate these references to the Banshee in
+poetry:</p>
+
+<p class="poem">&#8220;When I heard lamentations<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sad, warning cries</span><br />
+From the Banshees of many<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Broad districts arise.</span><br />
+Aina from her closely hid<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nest did awake</span><br />
+The woman of wailing<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">From Gur&#8217;s voicy lake;</span><br />
+From Glen Fogradh of words<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Came a mournful whine,</span><br />
+And all Kerry&#8217;s Banshees<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wept the lost Geraldine.<small><a name="f14.1" id="f14.1" href="#f14">[14]</a></small></span><br />
+The Banshees of Youghal<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And of stately Mo-geely</span><br />
+Were joined in their grief<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By wide Imokilly.</span><br />
+Carah Mona in gloom<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of deep sorrow appears,</span><br />
+And all Kinalmeaky&#8217;s<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Absorbed into tears.</span><br />
+<span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><span class="spacer">&#183;</span><br />
+The Banshee of Dunquin<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In sweet song did implore</span><br />
+To the spirit that watches<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O&#8217;er dark Dun-an-oir,</span><br />
+And Ennismare&#8217;s maid<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">By the dark, gloomy wave</span><br />
+With her clear voice did mourn<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The fall of the brave.</span><br />
+On stormy Slieve Mish<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Spread the cry far and wide,</span><br />
+From steeply Finnaleun<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wild eagle replied.</span><br />
+&#8217;Mong the Reeks, like the<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Thunder peal&#8217;s echoing rout,</span><br />
+It burst&mdash;and deep moaning<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bright Brandon gives out,</span><br />
+Oh Chief! whose example<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">On soft-minded youth</span><br />
+Like the signet impressed<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Honour, glory, and truth.</span><br />
+The youth who once grieved<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If unnoticed passed by,</span><br />
+Now deplore thee in silence<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With sorrow-dimmed eye,</span><br />
+O! woman of tears,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who, with musical hands,</span><br />
+From your bright golden hair<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hath combed out the long bands,</span><br />
+Let those golden strings loose,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Speak your thoughts&mdash;let your mind</span><br />
+Fling abroad its full light,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Like a torch to the wind.&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<p>In fiction no writer has, I think, dealt more freely with the subject of
+the Banshee than Thomas Crofton Croker, the translator of the
+abovementioned elegy. In his &#8220;Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of
+Ireland,&#8221; he gives the most inimitable accounts of it; and for the benefit
+of those of my readers who are unacquainted with his works, as well as for
+the purpose of presenting the Banshee as seen by such an unrivalled
+portrayer of Irish ghost and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> fairy lore, I will give a brief r&eacute;sum&eacute; of
+two of his stories.</p>
+
+<p>The one I will take first relates to the Rev. Charles Bunworth, who about
+the middle of the eighteenth century was rector of Buttevant, County Cork.
+Mr Bunworth was greatly beloved and esteemed, not only on account of his
+piety&mdash;for pious people are by no means always popular&mdash;but also on
+account of his charity. He used to give pecuniary aid, often when he could
+ill afford it, to all and any, no matter to what faith they belonged, whom
+he really believed were in need; and being particularly fond of music,
+especially the harp, he entertained, in a most generous and hospitable
+manner, all the poor Irish harpers that came to his house. At the time of
+his death, no fewer than fifteen harps were found in the loft of his
+granary, presents, one is led to infer, from strolling harpers, in token
+of their gratitude for his repeated acts of kindness to them.</p>
+
+<p>About a week prior to his decease, and at an early hour in the evening,
+several of the occupants of his house heard a strange noise outside the
+hall door, which they could only liken to the shearing of sheep. No very
+serious attention, however, was paid to it, and it was not until some time
+afterwards, when other queer things happened, that it was recalled and
+associated with the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>supernatural. Later on, at about seven o&#8217;clock in the
+evening, Kavanagh, the herdman, returned from Mallow, whither he had been
+dispatched for some medicine. He appeared greatly agitated, and, in
+response to Miss Bunworth&#8217;s questions as to what was the matter, could
+only ejaculate:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The master, Miss, the master! He is going from us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bunworth, thinking he had been drinking, sternly reproved him,
+whereupon he responded:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Miss, as I hope mercy hereafter, neither bite nor sup has passed my lips
+since I left this house; but the master&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; Here he broke down, only
+adding with an effort, &#8220;We will lose him&mdash;the master.&#8221; He then began to
+weep and wring his hands.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bunworth, who, during this strange recital, was growing more and more
+bewildered, now exclaimed impatiently:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What <i>is</i> it you mean? Do explain yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Kavanagh was silent, but, as she persisted, commanding him to speak, he at
+length said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Banshee has come for him, Miss; and &#8217;tis not I alone who have heard
+her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Bunworth only laughed and rebuked him for being superstitious.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe I am superstitious,&#8221; he retorted, &#8220;but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> as I came through the glen
+of Ballybeg she was along with me, keening, and screeching, and clapping
+her hands by my side, every step of the way, with her long white hair
+falling about her shoulders, and I could hear her repeat the master&#8217;s name
+every now and then, as plain as ever I hear it. When I came to Old Abby,
+she parted from me there, and turned into pigeon field next the
+berrin&#8217;-ground, and, folding her cloak about her, down she sat under the
+tree that was struck by lightning, and began keening so bitterly that it
+went through one&#8217;s heart to hear it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bunworth listened more attentively now, but told Kavanagh that she
+was sure he was mistaken, as her father was very much better and quite out
+of danger. However, she spoke too soon, for that very night her father had
+a relapse and was soon in a very critical condition. His daughters nursed
+him with the utmost devotion, but at length, overcome with the strain of
+many hours of sleepless watchfulness, they were obliged to take a rest and
+allow a certain old friend of theirs, temporarily, to take their place.</p>
+
+<p>It was night; without the house everything was still and calm; within the
+aged watcher was seated close beside the sick man&#8217;s bed, the head of which
+had been placed near the window, so that the sufferer could, in the
+daylight, steal a glimpse at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> fields and trees he loved so much. In an
+adjoining room, and in the kitchen, were a number of friends and
+dependents who had come from afar to inquire after the condition of the
+patient. Their conversation had been carried on for some time in whispers,
+and then, as if infected by the intense hush outside, they had gradually
+ceased talking, and all had become absolutely hushed. Suddenly the aged
+watcher heard a sound outside the window. She looked, but though there was
+a brilliant moonlight, which rendered every object far and near strikingly
+conspicuous, she could perceive nothing&mdash;nothing at least that could
+account for the disturbance. Presently the noise was repeated; a rose tree
+near the window rustled and seemed to be pulled violently aside. Then
+there was the sound like the clapping of hands and of breathing and
+blowing close to the window-panes.</p>
+
+<p>At this, the old watcher, who was now getting nervous, arose and went into
+the next room, and asked those assembled there if they had heard anything.
+Apparently, they had not, but they all went out and searched the grounds,
+particularly in the vicinity of the rose tree, but could discover no clue
+as to the cause of the noises, and although the ground was soft with
+recent rain, there were no footprints to be seen<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> anywhere. After they had
+made an exhaustive examination, and had settled down again indoors, the
+clapping at once recommenced, and was accompanied this time by moanings,
+which the whole party of investigators now heard. The sounds went on for
+some time, apparently till close to dawn, when the reverend gentleman
+died.</p>
+
+<p>The other story concerns the MacCarthys, of whom Mr Croker remarks, &#8220;being
+an old, and especially an old Catholic family, they have, of course, a
+Banshee.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Charles MacCarthy in 1749 was the only surviving son of a very numerous
+family. His father died when he was twenty, leaving him his estate, and
+being very gay, handsome, and thoughtless, he soon got into bad company
+and made an unenviable reputation for himself. Going from one excess to
+another he at length fell ill, and was soon in such a condition that his
+life was finally despaired of by the doctor. His mother never left him.
+Always at his bedside, ready to administer to his slightest want, she
+showed how truly devoted she was to him, although she was by no means
+blind to his faults. Indeed, so acutely did she realise the danger in
+which his soul stood, that she prayed most earnestly that should he die,
+he should at least<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> be spared long enough to be able to recover
+sufficiently to see the enormity of his offences, and repent accordingly.
+To her utmost sorrow, however, instead of his mind clearing a little, as
+so often happens after delirium and before death, he gradually fell into a
+state of coma, and presented every appearance of being actually dead. The
+doctor was sent for, and the house and grounds were speedily filled with a
+crowd of people, friends, tenants, fosterers, and poor relatives; one and
+all anxious to learn the exact condition of the sick man. With tremendous
+excitement they awaited the exit of the doctor from the house, and, when
+he at length emerged, they clustered round him and listened for his
+verdict.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all over, James,&#8221; he said to the man who was holding his steed, and
+with those few brief words he climbed into his saddle and rode away. Then
+the women who were standing by gave a shrill cry, which developed into a
+continuous, plaintive and discordant groaning, interrupted every now and
+again by the deep sobbing and groaning, and clapping of hands of Charles&#8217;
+foster-brother, who was moving in and out the crowd, distracted with
+grief.</p>
+
+<p>All the time Mrs MacCarthy was sitting by the body of her son, the tears
+streaming from her eyes. Presently some women entered the room and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>
+inquired about directions for the ceremony of waking, and providing the
+refreshments necessary for the occasion. Mournfully the widow gives them
+the instructions they need, and then continues her solitary vigil, crying
+with all her soul, and yet quite unaware of the tears that kept pouring
+from her eyes. So, on and on, with brief intervals only, all through the
+loud and boisterous lamentations of the visitors over her beloved one, far
+into the stillness of the night. In one of the interludes, in which she
+has removed into an inner room to pray, she suddenly hears a low
+murmuring, which is speedily succeeded by a wild cry of horror, and then,
+out from the room in which the deceased lies, pour, like some
+panic-stricken sheep, the entire crowd of those that have participated in
+the Wake. Nothing daunted, Mrs MacCarthy rushes into the apartment they
+have quitted, and sees, sitting up on the bed, the light from the candles
+casting a most unearthly glare on his features, the body of her son.
+Falling on her knees before it and clasping her hands she at once
+commences praying; but hearing the word &#8220;mother,&#8221; she springs forward,
+and, clutching the figure by the arm, shrieks out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Speak, in the name of God and His Saints, speak! Are you alive?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The pale lips move, and finally exclaim:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>&#8220;Yes, my mother, alive, but sit down and collect yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And then, to the startled and bewildered mother he, whom she had been
+mourning all this time as dead, unfolded the following remarkable tale.</p>
+
+<p>He declared he remembered nothing of the preliminary stages of his
+illness, all of which was a blank, and was only cognisant of what was
+happening when he found himself in another world, standing in the presence
+of his Creator, Who had summoned him for judgment.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The dreadful pomp of offended omnipotence,&#8221; he dramatically stated, &#8220;was
+printed on his brain in characters indelible.&#8221; What would have happened he
+dreaded to think, had it not been for his guardian saint, that holy spirit
+his mother had always taught him to pray to, who was standing by his side,
+and who pleaded with Him &#8220;that one year and one month might be given him
+on the earth again, in which he should have the opportunity of doing
+penance and atonement.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After a terribly anxious wait, in which his whole fate&mdash;his fate for
+eternity&mdash;hung in the balance, the progress of his kindly intercessor
+succeeded, and the Great and Awful Judge pronounced these words:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>&#8220;Return to that world in which thou hast lived but to outrage the laws of
+Him Who made that world and thee. Three years are given thee for
+repentance; when these are ended thou shalt again stand here, to be saved
+or lost for ever.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Charles saw and heard no more; everything became a void, until he suddenly
+became once again conscious of light and found himself lying on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>He told this experience as if it were no dream, but, as he really believed
+it to be, an actual reality, and, on his gradually regaining health and
+strength, he showed the effect it had had on him by completely changing
+his mode of life. Though not altogether shunning his former companions in
+folly, he never went to any excess with them, but, on the contrary, often
+exercised a restraining influence over them, and so, by degrees, came to
+be looked upon as a person of eminent prudence and wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>The years passed by till at last the third anniversary of the wonderful
+recovery drew near. As Charles still adhered to his belief that what he
+had experienced had been no mere dream or wandering of the mind, but an
+actual visit to spirit land, so nervous did his mother become, as the time
+drew near for the expiration of the lease of life he declared had been
+allotted to him, that she<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> wrote to Mrs Barry, a friend of hers, begging
+her to come with her two girls and stay with her for a few days, until, in
+fact, the actual day of the third anniversary should have passed.</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately, Mrs Barry, instead of getting to Spring House, where Mrs
+MacCarthy lived, on the Wednesday, the day specified in the invitation,
+was not able to commence the journey till the following Friday, and she
+then had to leave her eldest daughter behind and bring only the younger
+one.</p>
+
+<p>What ultimately happened is very graphically described in a letter from
+the younger girl to the elder. In brief it was this: She and her mother
+set out in a jaunting-car driven by their man Leary. The recent rains made
+the road so heavy that they found it impossible to make other than very
+slow progress, and had to put up for the first night at the house of a Mr
+Bourke, a friend of theirs, who kept them until late the following day.
+Indeed, it was evening when they left his premises, with a good fifteen
+miles to cover before they arrived at Spring House.</p>
+
+<p>The weather was variable, at times the moon shone clear and bright, whilst
+at others it was covered with thick, black, fast-scudding clouds. The
+farther they progressed, the more ominous did the elements become, the
+clouds collected in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> vast masses, the wind grew stronger and stronger, and
+presently the rain began to fall. Slow as their progress had been before,
+it now became slower; at every step the wheels of their car either plunged
+into a deep slough, or sank almost up to the axle in thick mud.</p>
+
+<p>At last, so impossible did it become, that Mrs Barry inquired of Leary how
+far they were from Mr Bourke&#8217;s, the house they had recently left.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Tis about ten spades from this to the cross,&#8221; was the reply, &#8220;and we
+have then only to turn to the left into the avenue, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well, then,&#8221; answered Mrs Barry, &#8220;turn up to Mr Bourke&#8217;s as soon as
+you reach the crossroads.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs Barry had scarcely uttered these words when a shriek, that thrilled
+the hearers to the very core of their hearts, burst from the hedge to
+their right.</p>
+
+<p>It resembled the cry of a female&mdash;if it resembled anything earthly at
+all&mdash;struck by a sudden and mortal blow, and giving out life in one long,
+deep pang of agony.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Heaven defend us!&#8221; exclaimed Mrs Barry. &#8220;Go you over the hedge, Leary,
+and save that woman, if she is not yet dead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Woman!&#8221; said Leary, beating the horse violently, while his voice
+trembled. &#8220;That&#8217;s no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> woman;
+the sooner we get on, ma&#8217;am, the better,&#8221; and he urged the horse forward.</p>
+
+<p>There was now a heavy spell of darkness as the moon was once again hidden
+by the clouds, but, though they could see nothing, they heard screams of
+despair and anguish, accompanied by a loud clapping of the hands, just as
+if some person on the other side of the hedge was running along in a line
+with their horse&#8217;s head, and keeping pace with them.</p>
+
+<p>When they came to within ten yards of the spot where the avenue branched
+off to Mr Bourke&#8217;s on the left, and the road to Spring House led away to
+the right, the moon suddenly reappeared, and they saw, with startling
+distinctness, the figure of a tall, thin woman, with uncovered head, and
+long hair floating round her shoulders, attired in a kind of cloak or
+sheet, standing at the corner of the hedge, just where the road along
+which they were driving met that which led to Spring House. She had her
+face turned towards them, and, whilst pointing with her left hand in the
+direction of Spring House, with her right was beckoning them to hurry. As
+they advanced she became more and more agitated, until finally, leaping
+into the road in front of them, and still pointing with outstretched arm
+in the direction of Spring House, she took up her stand at the entrance to
+the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> Avenue, as if to bar their way, and glared defiantly at them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go on, Leary, in God&#8217;s name!&#8221; exclaimed Mrs Barry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Tis the Banshee,&#8221; said Leary, &#8220;and I could not, for what my life is
+worth, go anywhere this blessed night but to Spring House. But I&#8217;m afraid
+there&#8217;s something bad going forward, or she would not send us there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He pressed on towards Spring House, and almost directly afterwards clouds
+covered the moon, and the Banshee disappeared; the sound of her clapping,
+though continuing for some time, gradually becoming fainter and fainter,
+until it finally ceased altogether.</p>
+
+<p>On their arrival at Spring House they learnt that a dreadful tragedy had
+just taken place.</p>
+
+<p>A lady, Miss Jane Osborn, who was Charles MacCarthy&#8217;s ward, was to have
+been married to one James Ryan, and on the day preceding the marriage, as
+Ryan and Charles MacCarthy were walking together in the grounds of the
+latter&#8217;s house, a strange young woman, hiding in the shrubbery, shot
+Charles in mistake for Ryan, who, it seems, had seduced and deserted her.
+The wound, which at first appeared trivial, suddenly developed serious
+symptoms, and before the sun<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> had gone down on the third anniversary of
+his memorable experience with the Unknown, Charles MacCarthy was again
+ushered into the presence of his Maker, there to render of himself a
+second and a final account.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND</h3>
+
+<p><br />There is, I believe, one version of a famous Scottish haunting in which
+there figures a Banshee of the more or less orthodox order. I heard it
+many years ago, and it was told me in good faith, but I cannot, of course,
+vouch for its authenticity. Since, however, it introduces the Banshee,
+and, therefore, may be of interest to the readers of this book, I publish
+it now for the first time, embodied in the following narrative:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Ronan, you will be glad to hear that I consent to your marrying
+Ione, provided you can assure me there is nothing wrong with your family
+history. No hereditary tendencies to drink, disease, or madness. You know
+I am a great believer in heredity. Your prospects seem good&mdash;all the
+inquiries I have made as to your character have proved satisfactory, and I
+shall put no obstacles in your way if you can satisfy me on this point.
+Can you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>The speaker was Captain Horatio Wynne Pettigrew, R.N., late in command of
+His Majesty&#8217;s Frigate <i>Prometheus</i>, and now living on retired pay in the
+small but aristocratic suburb of Birkenhead; the young man he
+addressed&mdash;Ronan Malachy, chief clerk and prospective junior partner in
+the big business firm of Lowndes, Half &amp; Company, Dublin; and the subject
+of their conversation&mdash;Ione, youngest daughter of the said captain,
+generally and, perhaps, justly designated the bonniest damsel in all the
+land between the Dee and the far distant Tweed.</p>
+
+<p>The look of intense suspense and anxiety which had almost contorted
+Ronan&#8217;s face while he was waiting for the Captain&#8217;s reply, now gave way to
+an expression of the most marked relief.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think I have often told you, sir,&#8221; he replied, &#8220;that I have no
+recollection of my parents, as they both died when I was a baby; but I
+have never heard either of them spoken of in any other terms than those of
+the greatest affection and respect. I have always understood my father was
+lost at sea on a journey either to or from New York, and that my mother,
+who had a weak heart, died from the effects of the shock. My grandparents
+on both sides lived together happily, I believe, and died from natural
+causes at quite a respectable old age. If there had been any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> hereditary
+tendencies of an unpleasant nature such as those you name, or any
+particular family disease, I feel sure I should have heard of it from one
+or other of my relatives, but I can assure you I have not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well then,&#8221; Captain Pettigrew remarked genially, &#8220;if your uncle, who
+is, I understand, your guardian, and whom I know well by reputation, will
+do me the courtesy to corroborate what you say, I will at once sanction
+your engagement. But now I must ask you to excuse me, as I have promised
+to have supper with General Maitland to-night, and before I go have
+several matters to attend to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He held out his hand as he spoke, and Ronan, who had been secretly hoping
+that he would be asked to spend the evening, was reluctantly compelled to
+withdraw. Outside in the hall, Ione, of course, was waiting, almost beside
+herself with anxiety, to hear the result of the interview, but Ronan had
+only time to whisper that it was quite all right, and that her father had
+been far more amenable than either of them had supposed, before the door
+of the room he had just left opened, and the Captain appeared.</p>
+
+<p>There was no help for it then, he was obliged to say good-bye, and, having
+done so, he hurried out into the night.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>At the time of which I am writing there were neither motors nor trains, so
+that Ronan, who, owing to an accident to his horse, had to walk, did not
+reach home, a distance of some four or five miles, till the evening was
+well advanced.</p>
+
+<p>On his arrival, burning with impatience to settle the momentous question,
+he at once broached the subject of his interview with Captain Pettigrew to
+his uncle, remarking that his fate now rested with him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;With me!&#8221; Mr Malachy exclaimed, placing his paper on an empty chair
+beside him, and staring at Ronan with a look of sudden bewilderment in his
+big, short-sighted but extremely benevolent eyes. &#8220;Why, you know, my boy,
+that you have my hearty approval. From all you tell me, Miss Ione must be
+a very charming young lady; she has aristocratic connections, and will
+not, I take it, be altogether penniless. Yes, certainly, you have my
+approval. You have known that all along.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I have, uncle,&#8221; Ronan retorted, &#8220;and no one is more grateful to you than
+I. But Captain Pettigrew has very strong ideas about heredity. He believes
+the tendency to drink, insanity, and sexual lust haunts families, and
+that, even if it lies dormant for one generation, it is almost bound to
+manifest itself in another. I told him I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> quite sure I was all right
+in this respect, but he says he wants your corroboration, and that if you
+will affirm it by letter, he will at once give his consent to my
+engagement to Ione. I know letter-writing is a confounded nuisance to you,
+uncle, but do please assure Captain Pettigrew at once that we have no
+family predisposition of the kind he fears.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mr Malachy leaned back in his chair and gazed into the long gilt mirror
+over the mantel-shelf. &#8220;Drink and gambling,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And suicide,&#8221; Ronan added. &#8220;You can at any rate swear to the absence of
+that in our family&mdash;&mdash;&#8221; but, happening to glance at the mirror as he
+spoke, he caught in it a reflection of his uncle&#8217;s face, that at once made
+him turn round.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Uncle!&#8221; he cried. &#8220;Tell me! What is it? Why do you look like that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mr Malachy was silent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re hiding something,&#8221; Ronan exclaimed sharply. &#8220;Tell me what it is.
+Tell me, I say, and for God&#8217;s sake put an end to my suspense.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are right, Ronan,&#8221; his uncle responded slowly. &#8220;I am hiding
+something, something I ought perhaps to have told you long ago. It&#8217;s about
+your father.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My father!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, your father. I have always told you he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> was lost at sea. Well, so he
+was, but in circumstances that were undoubtedly mysterious. He was last
+seen alive on the wharf at Annan, where he was apparently waiting for a
+boat to take him to the opposite coast. Someone said they saw him suddenly
+leap in the water, and some days later a body, declared to be his, was
+picked up in the Solway Firth.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then it was suicide,&#8221; Ronan gasped. &#8220;My God, how awful! Was anyone with
+him at the time?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think I need tell you any more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, tell me everything,&#8221; Ronan answered bitterly. &#8220;Nothing makes any
+difference now. Let me hear all, I insist.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In a voice that shook to such an extent that Ronan looked at him in
+horror, Mr Malachy continued: &#8220;Ronan,&#8221; he said, &#8220;remember that I tell you
+against my will, and that you are forcing me to speak. They did say at the
+time that there was a woman with your father&mdash;a woman who had travelled
+with him all the way from Lockerbie&mdash;that they quarrelled, that
+he&mdash;he&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;go on! For God&#8217;s sake go on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pushed her in the water&mdash;in a rage, mind you, in a rage, I say; and then,
+apparently appalled at what he had done, jumped in, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Were they both drowned then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>&#8220;Yes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And no one tried to save them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No one was near enough. The tide was running strong at the time, and they
+were both carried out to sea. The woman&#8217;s body was never found; and your
+father&#8217;s, when it was recovered several days afterwards, was so disfigured
+that it could only be identified by the clothes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And they were sure it was my father?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am afraid there is little doubt on that score. Your Aunt Bridget, who,
+being the last of the family to see him alive, was called upon to identify
+the body, always declared there was a mistake; she identified the clothes,
+but mentioned that the body was that of a person whom she had never seen
+before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then there is a slight hope!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I hardly think so, but&mdash;but go and see her&mdash;it is your only hope, and I
+will defer writing to Captain Pettigrew until your return.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Early next morning Ronan was well on his way to Lockerbie.</p>
+
+<p>In his present state of mind, every inch was a mile, every second an
+eternity. If his aunt could only furnish him with some absolute proof that
+it was not his father who had pushed the woman into the water and
+afterwards jumped in himself, then<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> he might yet marry the object of his
+devotion, but, if she could not, he swore with a bitter oath that the
+water that had claimed his parent, should also claim him; and in the very
+same spot where the unlucky man who had proved his ruin had perished, he
+would perish too. It was Ione or obliteration. His whole being
+concentrated on such thoughts as these, he pressed forward, taking neither
+rest nor refreshments, till he reached Silloth, where he was compelled to
+wait several hours, until a fisherman could be prevailed upon to take him
+across the Solway Firth to Annan.</p>
+
+<p>So far luck had favoured him. The weather had kept fine, and, despite the
+dangerous condition of the roads, which were notoriously full of footpads,
+and in the most sorry need of repair, he had covered the distance without
+mishap.</p>
+
+<p>After leaving Annan, however, disaster at once overtook him. The coach had
+only proceeded some seven or eight miles along the road to Lockerbie, when
+a serious accident, through the loss of a wheel, was but narrowly escaped,
+and, as there seemed little chance of getting the necessary repairs
+executed that night, the driver suggested that his fares should walk back
+to Annan and put up at the &#8220;Red Star and Garter,&#8221; till he was able to call
+for them in the morning.</p>
+
+<p>To this all agreed excepting Ronan, who, scorning<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the proposal to turn
+back, declared that he would continue his journey to Lockerbie on foot.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a wild, uncanny bit of country you&#8217;ll have to go through, mon,&#8221; the
+driver remonstrated, &#8220;and I&#8217;m nae sure but what you may come across some
+of them smuggler laddies from away across the borders of Kirkcudbright.
+They are fair sore just noo at the way in which the Custom House officials
+are treating them, and are downright suspicious of everyone they meet.
+You&#8217;ll be weel guided to return to the coast with us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>To this well-intentioned advice Ronan did not even condescend a reply,
+but, bidding his fellow-passengers good night, he buttoned his overcoat
+tightly round his chest, and stepped resolutely forward into the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>The driver had not exaggerated. It was a wild, uncouth bit of country. The
+road itself was a mere track, all ruts and furrows, with nothing to denote
+its boundaries saving ditches, or black tarns that gleamed fitfully
+whenever the moonbeams, emerging from behind black masses of clouds, fell
+on them. Beyond the road, on one side, was a wide stretch of barren
+moorland, terminating at the foot of a long line of rather low and
+singularly funereal-looking hills; and, on the other, a black, thickly
+wooded chasm, at the bottom of which thundered a river. In every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> fitful
+outburst of lunar splendour each detail in the landscape stood out with
+almost microscopic clearness, but otherwise all lay heavily shrouded in an
+almost impenetrable mantle of gloom, from which there seemed to emanate
+strange, indefinable shadows, that, as far as Ronan could see, had no
+material counterparts.</p>
+
+<p>Naturally stout of heart and afraid of nothing, Ronan was, at the same
+time, a Celt, and possessed, in no small degree, all the Celtic awe and
+respect for anything associated with the supernatural. Hence, though he
+pushed steadily on and kept picturing to himself the face and form of his
+lady love, to win whom he was fully prepared to go to any extremity, he
+could not prevent himself from occasionally glancing with misgiving at
+some more than usually perplexing shadow, or, from time to time, prevent
+his heart from beating louder at the rustle of a gorse-bush, or the dismal
+hooting of an owl. In some mysterious fashion the night seemed to have
+suddenly changed everything, and to have vested every object and every
+trifling&mdash;or what in the daytime would have been trifling&mdash;sound with a
+significance that was truly enigmatical and startling.</p>
+
+<p>The air, however, with its blending of scents from the pines, and gorse,
+and heather, with ozone from the not far distant Solway Firth, was so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span>
+delicious that Ronan kept throwing back his head to inhale great draughts
+of it; and it was whilst he thus stood a second, with his nostrils and
+forehead upturned, that he first became aware of an impending storm. At
+first a few big splashes, and the low moaning of the wind as it swept
+towards and past him from the far distant hill-tops; then more splashes,
+and then a downpour.</p>
+
+<p>Ronan, who was now walking abreast a low white wall, beyond which he could
+see one of those shelters that in Scotland are erected everywhere for the
+protection of both cattle and sheep from the terrible blizzards that
+nearly every winter devastate the country, perceiving the futility and
+danger of trying to face the storm, made for the wall and, climbing it,
+dropped over on the other side. As bad luck would have it, however, he
+alighted on a boulder and, unable to retain his foothold, slipped off it,
+striking his head a severe blow on the ground. For some seconds he lay
+unconscious, then, his senses gradually returning, he picked himself up
+and made for the shelter.</p>
+
+<p>Stumbling blindly forward towards the entrance of the building, he
+collided with a figure that suddenly seemed to rise from the ground, and
+for a moment his heart stood still, but his fears were quickly dissipated
+by the unmistakable sound of a human voice.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>&#8220;Who is that?&#8221; someone inquired in tremulous tones. &#8220;Oh, sir, are you one
+of the revellers?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One of the revellers?&#8221; Ronan replied. &#8220;It&#8217;s an ill night for any
+revelling. What do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I mean, are you one of the young men going to the fancy dress dance at
+the Spelkin Towers,&#8221; the voice responded. &#8220;But your accent tells me you
+are not; you don&#8217;t belong to these parts. You are Irish.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is truly said,&#8221; Ronan answered. &#8220;My home is in Dublin, and it&#8217;s the
+first time I have set foot on Dumfries soil, and I&#8217;ll stake every penny in
+my purse it will be the last. I&#8217;m bound for Lockerbie, but I&#8217;m thinking it
+will be the early hours of the morning before I get there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For Lockerbie,&#8221; the voice replied. &#8220;Why that&#8217;s a distance of about twenty
+miles. It&#8217;s a straight road, however, and you pass the Spelkin Towers on
+the way. It stands in a clump of trees about a hundred yards back from the
+road, on this side of it, about three miles from here. If there were a
+moon you would easily recognise the place by the big white gate leading
+directly to it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So I might, but why waste my time and your breath. The Spelkins, or
+whatever you call it, has naught to do with me. I&#8217;m bound for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> Lockerbie,
+I tell you, and as the rain seems to be abating I intend moving on again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sir,&#8221; the woman pleaded, &#8220;I pray you stay a few moments and listen to
+what I have to say. A gentleman is going to the revels to-night for whom I
+have a letter of the utmost importance. His name is Dunloe&mdash;Mr Robert
+Dunloe of Annan. He is due at the Towers at eight o&#8217;clock, and should
+surely be passing here almost at this very moment. But, sir, I durst not
+wait for him any longer, as I have an aged mother at home who has been
+taken suddenly and violently ill. For mercy&#8217;s sake I beg of you to wait
+and give him the letter in my stead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give him the letter in your stead!&#8221; Ronan ejaculated. &#8220;Why, I may never
+see him&mdash;indeed, the odds are a thousand to one I never shall. I&#8217;m in a
+hurry, too. I can&#8217;t stay hanging around here all night. Besides, how
+should I know him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s dressed as a jester,&#8221; the woman answered, &#8220;and if the wind is not
+blowing too strong you&#8217;ll hear the sound of his bells. He&#8217;s sure to be
+coming by very soon. Oh, sir, do me this favour, I pray you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As she spoke the rain ceased and the moon, suddenly appearing from behind
+a bank of clouds, revealed her face. It was startlingly white, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> in a
+strange, elfish kind of way, beautiful. Ronan gazed at it in astonishment,
+it was altogether so different from the face he had pictured from the
+voice, and as he stared down into the big, black eyes raised pleadingly to
+his, he felt curiously fascinated, and all idea of resistance at once
+departed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; he said slowly, &#8220;I will do as you wish. A man in
+Court-jester&#8217;s costume, with jingling bells, answering to the name of
+Robert Dunloe. Hand me the letter, and I will wait in the road till he
+passes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She obeyed, and, taking from her bosom an envelope, handed it to him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, sir,&#8221; she said softly, &#8220;I can&#8217;t tell you how grateful I am. It is
+most kind of you&mdash;most chivalrous, and I am sure you will one day be
+rewarded. Hark! footsteps. A number of them. It must be some of the
+revellers. I must remain here till they pass, for I would not for the
+world have them see me; they are rude, boisterous fellows, and have little
+respect for a maiden when they meet her alone on the highway. There have
+been some dreadful doings of late around here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She laid one of her little white hands on Ronan&#8217;s arm as she spoke, and,
+with the forefinger of the other placed on her lips, enjoined silence.
+Then as the footsteps and voices, which had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> drawing nearer and
+nearer, passed close to them and died gradually away in the distance, she
+hurriedly bade Ronan farewell, and darted nimbly away in the darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Ronan stood for some minutes where she had left him, half expecting she
+would reappear, but at last, convinced that she had really taken her
+departure, he climbed the wall, back again into the road, and waited. Had
+it not been for the envelope, which certainly felt material enough, Ronan
+would have been inclined to attribute it all to some curious kind of
+hallucination&mdash;the girl was so different&mdash;albeit so subtly and
+inexplicably different&mdash;from anyone he had ever seen before. But that
+envelope with the name &#8220;Robert Dunloe, Esquire,&#8221; so clearly and
+beautifully superscribed on it, was a proof of her reality, and, as he
+stood fingering the missive and pondering the subject over in his mind, he
+once again heard the sound of footsteps. This time they were the footsteps
+of one person only, and, as he had been led to expect, they were
+accompanied by the faint jingle, jingle of bells.</p>
+
+<p>The moon, now quite free from clouds, rendered every object so clearly
+visible that Ronan, looking in the direction from which the sounds came,
+soon detected a tall, oddly attired figure, whilst still a long way off,
+advancing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> towards him with big, swinging strides. Had he not been
+prepared for someone in fancy costume, Ronan might have felt somewhat
+alarmed, for a Scotch moor in the dead of winter is hardly the place where
+one would expect to encounter a masquerader in jester&#8217;s costume.</p>
+
+<p>Moreover, though the magnifying action of the moon&#8217;s rays were probably
+accountable for it, there seemed to be something singularly bizarre about
+the figure, apart from its clothes; its head seemed abnormally round and
+small, its limbs abnormally long and emaciated, and its movements
+remarkably automatic and at the same time spiderlike.</p>
+
+<p>Ronan gripped the envelope in his hand&mdash;it was solid enough; therefore,
+the queer, fantastic-looking thing, stalking so grotesquely towards him,
+must be solid too&mdash;a mere man&mdash;and Ronan forced a laugh. Another moment,
+and he had stepped out from under cover of the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are you Mr Robert Dunloe?&#8221; he asked, &#8220;because, if so, I have a letter for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The figure halted, and the white, parchment-like face with two very light
+green, cat-like eyes, bent down and favoured Ronan with a half-frightened,
+but penetrating gaze.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; came the reply, &#8220;I am Mr Dunloe. But how came you with a letter for
+me? Give it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> to me at once.&#8221; And before Ronan could prevent him, he had
+snatched the envelope from his grasp, and, having broken open the seal,
+was reading the contents.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah!&#8221; he ejaculated. &#8220;What a fool! I might have known so all along, but
+it&#8217;s not too late.&#8221; Then he folded the letter in his hand and stood
+holding it, apparently buried in thought.</p>
+
+<p>Ronan, whose hot Irish temper had been roused by the rude manner in which
+the stranger had obtained possession of the missive, would have moved on
+and left him, had he not felt restrained by the same peculiar fascination
+he had experienced when talking to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I trust,&#8221; he at length remarked, &#8220;that your letter contains no ill news.
+The lady who requested me to give it you mentioned the fact that a
+relative of hers had been taken very ill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When and where did you see her?&#8221; the stranger queried, his eyes once
+again seeking Ronan&#8217;s face with the same fixed, penetrating stare.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In that shelter over there,&#8221; Ronan answered, pointing to it. &#8220;We were
+strangers to one another, and I was sheltering from the storm. I explained
+to her that I was on my way to Lockerbie, and in no little hurry to get
+there, but she begged me so earnestly to await your arrival,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> so that I
+might hand you the letter, that she might be free to return home at once,
+that I consented. That is all that passed between us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She went?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, she slipped away suddenly in the darkness, where I don&#8217;t know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The stranger mused for a few moments, stroking his chin with long, lean
+fingers. Then he suddenly seemed to wake up, and spoke again, but this
+time in a far more courteous fashion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Young man,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I believe you. You have a candid expression in your
+eyes, and an honest ring in your voice. Men that speak in such tones
+seldom lie. You are kind-hearted, too, and I am going to ask of you a
+favour. Yesterday morning, in Annan, two of the leading townsfolk laid me
+a wager that I would not attend a ball to-night at the Spelkin Towers,
+and, attired as a Court jester, walk all the way to and fro, no matter how
+inclement the weather. I accepted the challenge, and now, having
+progressed so far, I should aim at completing my task, but for this
+letter, which fully corroborates what the young lady told you, and informs
+me that a very old and dear friend of mine is dying, and would at all
+costs see me at once, as she has an important statement to make for my
+ears only. Now, sir, I cannot possibly go to her in these<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> outlandish
+clothes, lest the shock of seeing me so attired should prove too much for
+her in her present serious condition. Can I prevail upon your charity and
+chivalry&mdash;for once again it is on behalf of a woman&mdash;and good Christian
+spirit&mdash;for I doubt not, from your demeanour, that you have been brought
+up in a truly God-fearing and pious manner&mdash;to persuade you to change
+costumes with me over yonder in that shed. I would then be able to appear
+before my poor, dying friend in suitable, sober garments, whilst you would
+be free to go to the ball, and, by posing as Mr Robert Dunloe, share the
+proceeds of my wager with me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, noting the expression that came over Ronan&#8217;s face, he added quickly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will incur no risks. I am a comparative stranger in these parts&mdash;none
+of the revellers know me by sight. All you will have to do on your arrival
+at the Towers will be to explain to your host, Sir Hector McBlane, the
+nature of the wager, and ask him to give you some record of your
+attendance that I can subsequently show to my two friends. Remember, sir,
+that it is not only for the sake of gratifying a dying woman&#8217;s wish that I
+am asking this favour of you, but it is also to make sure that the young
+lady who gave you the letter shall not be jeopardised.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>Ronan hesitated. Had such a mystifying proposition been made to him on any
+other occasion he would, perhaps, have rejected it at once as the sheerest
+lunacy; but there was something about this night&mdash;the wild grandeur of the
+silent moonlit scenery, the intoxicating sweetness of the subtly scented
+air, to say nothing of the maiden whose elfish appearance had seemed in
+such absolute harmony both with the soft, silvery starlight and the black
+granite boulders&mdash;that was wholly different from anything Ronan had ever
+experienced before, and his deeply emotional and easily excited
+temperament, rising in hot rebellion against his reason, urged him to
+embark upon what he persuaded himself might prove a vastly entertaining
+adventure. He consequently agreed to do as the stranger suggested, and,
+accompanying him into the shelter, he exchanged clothes with him.</p>
+
+<p>After arranging to meet in the same spot at four o&#8217;clock in the morning,
+the two men parted, the stranger making off across the moors, and Ronan
+continuing along the high road.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing of moment occurred again till Ronan caught sight of the clump of
+pines, from the centre of which rose the Spelkin Towers, and a few yards
+farther on perceived the white wooden gate that the elfish maiden had
+described to him. On<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> his approach, several figures, in fancy dress and
+wearing dominoes, advanced to meet him, and one, with a low bow, inquired
+if he had the honour of addressing Mr Robert Dunloe.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, yes,&#8221; Ronan responded, with some astonishment, &#8220;but I did not think
+anyone knew I was coming here to-night saving our host, Sir Hector
+McBlane.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is because you are so modest,&#8221; was the reply. &#8220;I can assure you, Mr
+Dunloe, your fame has preceded you, and everyone present here to-night
+will be eagerly looking forward to the moment of your arrival. Let me
+introduce you to my friends. Sir Frederick Clanstradie, Sir Austin
+Maltravers, Lord Henry Baxter, Mr Leslie de Vaux.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Each of the guests bowed in turn as their names were pronounced, and then,
+at a signal from the spokesman, who informed Ronan he was Sir Philip
+McBlane, cousin to their host, they proceeded in a body to the queerly
+constructed mansion.</p>
+
+<p>Inside Ronan could see no sign whatever of any festivity, but on being
+told that Sir Hector was awaiting him in the ball-room, he allowed himself
+to be conducted along a bare, gloomy passage and down a narrow flight of
+steep stone steps into a large dungeon-like chamber, piled up in places<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>
+with strange-looking lumber, and in one corner of which he perceived a
+tall figure, draped from head to foot in the hideous black garments of a
+Spanish inquisitor, standing in the immediate vicinity of a heap of loose
+bricks and freshly made mortar, and bending over a cauldron full of what
+looked like simmering tar. The whole aspect of the room was indeed so grim
+and forbidding, that Ronan drew back in dismay and turned to Sir Philip
+and his comrades for an explanation.</p>
+
+<p>Before, however, anyone could speak, the figure in the inquisitorial robes
+advanced, and, bidding Ronan welcome, declared that he considered it both
+an honour and a privilege to entertain so illustrious a guest.</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing how to reply to a greeting that seemed so absurdly
+exaggerated, Ronan merely mumbled out something to the effect that he was
+delighted to come, and then lapsed into an awkward and embarrassed
+silence, during which he could feel the eyes of everyone fixed on him with
+an expression he could not for the life of him make out.</p>
+
+<p>Finally, the inquisitor, whom Ronan now divined was Sir Hector McBlane,
+after expressing a hope that the ladies would soon make their appearance,
+invited the gentlemen to partake of some refreshments.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>Bottles scattered in untidy profusion upon a plain deal table were then
+uncorked, and the sinisterly clad host proposed they should all drink a
+toast of welcome to their distinguished guest, Mr Robert Dunloe.</p>
+
+<p>Up to the present Ronan had only been conscious of what seemed to him
+courtesy and cordiality in the voices of his fellow-guests, but now, as
+one and all clinked glasses and shouted in unison, &#8220;For he&#8217;s a jolly good
+fellow, and so say all of us,&#8221; he fancied he could detect something rather
+different; what it was he could not say, but it gave him the same feeling
+of doubt and uncertainty as had the expression in their faces immediately
+after his introduction to Sir Hector.</p>
+
+<p>Again there was an embarrassed silence, which was eventually broken by
+Ronan, who, perceiving that something was expected from him, at length
+stood up and responded to the toast.</p>
+
+<p>His speech was of very short duration, but it was hardly over, before a
+loud rapping of high-heeled shoes sounded on the stone steps, and a number
+of women, dressed in every conceivable fashion, from the quaintly
+picturesque costume of the Middle Ages to the still fondly remembered and
+popular Empire gown, came trooping into the room. Their curiously clumsy
+movements caused Ronan to scrutinise them somewhat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> closely, but it was
+not until, in response to a wild outburst on wheezy flutes and derelict
+bagpipes, the assembly commenced dancing, that he awoke to the fact which
+now seemed obvious enough, that these weird-looking women were not women
+at all, but merely men mummers.</p>
+
+<p>For the next few minutes the noise and confusion were such that Ronan,
+whose temples had been set on fire by the wine, hardly knew whether he was
+standing on his head or his feet. First one of the pretended women, and
+then another, solicited the honour of dancing with him, until at last,
+through sheer fatigue and giddiness, he was constrained to stop and lean
+for support against the walls of the building.</p>
+
+<p>He was still in this attitude, when the music, if such one could style it,
+suddenly ceased, and the whole company, as if by a preconcerted signal,
+suddenly stood at attention, as still and silent as statues.</p>
+
+<p>Sir Hector McBlane then approached Ronan with a bow, and informing him
+that his bride awaited him in the bridal chamber, declared that the time
+had now arrived for his introduction to her.</p>
+
+<p>This announcement was so unexpected and extraordinary that Ronan lost all
+power of speech, and, before he could realise what was taking place,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> he
+found himself being conducted by his host to a dimly lighted corner of the
+room, where he perceived, for the first time, a recess or kind of cell,
+measuring not more than four feet in depth, and three feet across, but
+reaching upwards to the same height as the ceiling. Exactly in the centre
+of it was a tall figure, absolutely stiff and motionless, and clad in
+long, flowing, white garments.</p>
+
+<p>Still too bewildered and astonished to protest or remonstrate, Ronan
+permitted himself to be led right up to the figure, which a sudden flare
+from a torch held by one of the revellers, enabled him to perceive was
+merely a huge rag doll, decked out in sham jewellery, with a painted,
+leering face and a mass of tow hair, a clever but ridiculous caricature of
+a woman. He was about to demand an angry explanation of the foolery, when
+he was pushed violently forward, and, before he could recover his
+equilibrium, a rope was wound several times round his body, and he was
+strapped tightly to the doll, which was securely attached to an iron stake
+fixed perpendicularly in the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Loud shouts of laughter now echoed from one end of the chamber to the
+other, the merriment being further increased when Sir Hector, with an
+assumed gravity, presented his humblest respects to the bride and
+bridegroom, and hoped that they would enjoy a long and very happy
+honeymoon.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>Ronan, whose indignation was by this time raised to boiling pitch,
+furiously demanded to be released, but the more angry he became, the more
+his tormentors mocked, until at length even walls, floor, and ceiling
+seemed to become infected and to shake with an uncontrollable and devilish
+mirth. Finally, however, when things had gone on in this fashion for some
+time, Sir Hector again spoke, and this time announced in loud tones that,
+as he was quite sure the bride and bridegroom must now be wishing for
+nothing better than to be left to themselves, he and his guests would now
+proceed to seal up the bridal chamber.</p>
+
+<p>A general bustle and subsequent clinking of metal on the stone floor,
+immediately following this speech, left Ronan in no doubt whatever as to
+what was happening. He was, of course, being bricked up. Now although he
+felt assured that it was all a joke, he also felt it was a joke that had
+gone on quite long enough. It was only too clear to him that, for some
+reason or another, Mr Robert Dunloe was very far from popular with these
+masqueraders, and he began to wonder if Mr Dunloe&#8217;s explanation of his
+desire to exchange clothes was the correct one, whether, in fact, Mr
+Dunloe had not got an inkling of what was going to happen to him from the
+elfish girl&#8217;s letter, and whether he had not merely trumped up the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> story
+of the sick woman and the wager for the occasion.</p>
+
+<p>In any case Ronan felt that he had been let down badly, and since he did
+not see why he should still pretend to be the man who had taken such
+advantage of him, he called out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Look here, I&#8217;ve a confession to make. You think I&#8217;m Mr Robert Dunloe, but
+I&#8217;m not. My name is Ronan Malachy. I&#8217;m staying with my uncle, Mr Hugh
+Malachy, near Birkenhead, and anyone there would confirm my identity. I
+was bound to-night for Lockerbie, when I met a girl who begged me to wait
+in the road and deliver a letter for her to an individual dressed as a
+Court jester, and styling himself Robert Dunloe, who would presently pass
+by. Not liking to refuse a lady, I agreed, and when I had given the man
+the letter, and he had read it, he told me that it was a summons to attend
+the death-bed of a very dear friend and urged me to exchange clothes with
+him, in order that he might go suitably attired. To this I naturally
+assented, and he then begged me to impersonate him here, as he had laid a
+big wager that he would be present at this ball and would walk all the way
+from Annan in this costume.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ronan was about to add more, when Sir Hector McBlane approached the mound
+of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> bricks, which was already breast high, and, looking straight at him,
+exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Robert Dunloe, it is useless to try and hoodwink us. We know all about
+you. We know that you were once arrested for highway robbery and murder,
+but got off through turning King&#8217;s evidence against your mate, &#8216;Hal of the
+seventeen strings,&#8217; who was hanged at Lancaster; that you then, took up
+Government spying as a trade, and got a score of the best fellows who ever
+breathed life sentences at Morecombe for smuggling a few casks of brandy.
+A month ago we heard that you were coming to Annan to try and place a rope
+round some of our necks for the same so-called felony, and we determined
+that we would be first in the field and teach you a lesson. We are now
+going to seal you up and leave you to soliloquise over the rope which is
+round you, and which is, doubtless, of the same hue and texture as that
+which has hanged the many that have been sentenced through your treachery.
+Adieu.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was in vain, when Sir Hector had finished speaking, that Ronan
+alternately pleaded and swore; he could get no further reply. The layers
+of bricks rose, till only one was left to render the task complete; and
+already the air within was becoming fetid and oppressive. A terrible sense
+of utter and hopeless isolation now surged<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> through Ronan, and forced him
+once again to call out:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For the love of God,&#8221; he said, &#8220;set me free. For the <span class="smcap">love of God</span>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He had barely uttered these words, when the whole assembly looked at one
+another with startled faces.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hark!&#8221; exclaimed one. &#8220;Do you hear that screaming and clapping? What in
+the world is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I should say,&#8221; said another, &#8220;that it was some puir bairn being done to
+death were it not for the clapping, but that gets over me. Whatever can it
+mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At that moment steps were heard descending the stairs in a great hurry,
+and a young man, with bright red hair, and dressed strictly in accordance
+with the fashion prevailing at that time, burst into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Boys,&#8221; he exclaimed, his voice shaking with emotion, &#8220;I have just seen
+the Banshee. She was in the road outside the gates of this house, running
+backwards and forwards, just as I saw her five years ago in Kerry, and, as
+I tried to pass her by to get on my way to Dumfries, she waved me back,
+shaking her fist and screaming at the same time. Then she signalled to me
+to come here, and ran on ahead of me, crying, and groaning,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> and clapping
+her hands. And as I knew it would be as much as my life is worth to
+disobey her, I followed. You can still hear her outside, keening and
+screeching. But what are all these bricks for, and this mortar?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The informer, Robert Dunloe,&#8221; exclaimed one of the revellers. &#8220;We have
+been bricking him up for a lark, and intend keeping him here till the morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a lie,&#8221; Ronan shouted. &#8220;I&#8217;m no more Dunloe than any of you. I&#8217;m
+Ronan Malachy, I tell you, and my home is in Dublin. I heard an Irish
+voice just now, surely he can tell I&#8217;m Irish, too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Arrah, I believe you,&#8221; said the new-comer. &#8220;It&#8217;s the real brogue you&#8217;ve
+got, and none other, though it&#8217;s not so pronounced as is my own; but may
+be you&#8217;ve lived longer in this country than I. Pull down those bricks,
+boys, and let me have a look at him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, no,&#8221; cried several voices, angrily. &#8220;Anybody could take you in, Pat.
+He&#8217;s Dunloe right enough; and now we&#8217;ve got him, we intend to keep him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the altercation that now ensued, some sided with the Irishman, and some
+against him; but over and above all the clamour and confusion the voice of
+the Banshee could still be heard<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> shrieking, and wailing, and clapping her
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>At last someone struck a blow, and in an instant swords were drawn, sticks
+and cudgels were used, furniture was flung about freely, and table,
+brazier, and cauldron were overturned; and the blazing pitch and red hot
+coals, coming in contact with piled up articles of all kinds&mdash;casks,
+chests, boxes, musty old books, paper and logs&mdash;it was not long before the
+whole chamber became a mass of flames.</p>
+
+<p>One or two of the calmer and more sober revellers attempted to get to the
+recess and batter down the bricks, which were merely placed together
+without cement, but the fury of the flames drove them back, and the
+hapless Ronan was, in the end, abandoned to his fate.</p>
+
+<p>Hideously aware of what was going on, he struggled desperately to free
+himself, and, at last succeeding, made a frantic attempt to reach a small
+window, placed at a height of some seven or eight feet from the floor.
+After several fruitless efforts he triumphed, only to discover, however,
+that the aperture was just too small for his body to pass through.</p>
+
+<p>The flames had, by this time, reached the entrance to the recess, and the
+heat from them was so stupendous that Ronan, weak and exhausted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> after his
+long fast and all the harrowing and exciting moments he had passed
+through, let go his hold, and, falling backwards, struck his head a
+terrific crash on the floor.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>Much to his amazement, on recovering his faculties, Ronan found himself
+lying out of doors. Above him was no abysmal darkness, only the heavens
+brilliantly lighted by moon and stars, whilst as far as his sight could
+travel was free and open space, a countryside dotted here and there with
+gorse bushes and the silvery shimmering surface of moorland tarns. He
+turned round, and close beside him was a big boulder of rock that he now
+remembered slipping from when he had dropped over the wall to take cover
+from the storm. And there, sure enough, was the shelter. He got up and
+went towards it. It was quite deserted, no one was there, not even a cow,
+and the silence that came to him was just the ordinary silence of the
+night, with nothing in it weirder or more arrestive than the rushing of
+distant water and the occasional croaking of a toad. Considerably
+mystified, and unable to decide in his mind whether all he had gone
+through had been a dream or not, he now clambered back into the road and
+pursued his way, according to his original intention, towards Lockerbie.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>On reaching the spot where he had in his dream, or whatever it was, first
+sighted the Spelkin Towers, he perceived, to his amazement, the very same
+building, apparently exact in every detail. On approaching nearer he found
+the white gate, but whereas when he had beheld the Towers only such a
+short time ago, there had been a feeble flicker of artificial light in
+some of the slit-like windows, all was now gloomy and deserted, and, still
+further to his amazement, he perceived, on opening the gate and entering,
+that the building was, to some extent, in ruins, and that the charred
+timber and blackened walls gave every indication of its having been
+partially destroyed by fire.</p>
+
+<p>Totally unable to account for his experience, but convinced in his own
+mind that it was not all a dream, he now hurried on, and reached his
+aunt&#8217;s house in Lockerbie, just in time to wash and tidy himself for
+breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>After the meal, and when he was sitting with his aunt by the fire in the
+drawing-room, Ronan not only announced to her the purpose of his visit,
+but gave her a detailed account of his journey and adventures on the way,
+asking her in conclusion what she thought of his experience, whether she
+believed it to be merely a dream or, in very truth, an encounter with the
+denizens of ghostland.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Bridget Malachy, who during Ronan&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> recitation obviously had found
+it extremely difficult to maintain silence, now gave vent to her feelings.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I cannot tell you,&#8221; she said excitedly, &#8220;how immensely interested I am in
+all you have told me. Last night was the anniversary of your father&#8217;s
+strange disappearance. I had only been living here a few weeks, when I
+received a letter from him, saying he had business to transact in the
+North of England, and would like to spend two or three days with me. He
+gave me the exact route he intended to travel by from Dublin, and the
+exact hour he expected to arrive. Your father was the most precise man I
+ever met.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, on the night before the day he was due to arrive, as I was sitting
+in this very room, writing, I suddenly heard a tapping at the window, as
+if produced by the beak and claws of some bird, or very long finger nails.
+Wondering what it could be, I got up, and, pulling aside the blind,
+received the most violent shock. There, looking directly in at me, with an
+expression of the most intense sorrow and pity in its eyes, was the face
+of a woman. The cheeks shone with a strange, startling whiteness, and the
+long, straggling hair fell in a disordered mass low over her neck and
+shoulders. As her gaze met mine she tapped the window with her long, white
+fingers and, throwing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> back her head, uttered the most harrowing,
+heart-rending scream. Convinced now that she was the Banshee, which I had
+often had described to me by my friends, I was not so much frightened as
+interested, and I was about to address her and ask her what in God&#8217;s name
+she wanted, when she abruptly vanished, and I found myself staring into
+space.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A week later, I received tidings that a body, believed to be your
+father&#8217;s, had just been recovered from the Solway Firth, and I was asked
+to go at once and identify it. I went, and though it had remained in the
+water too long, perhaps, to be easily recognisable, I was absolutely
+certain my surmises were correct, and that the body was that of a
+stranger. It was that of a man somewhat taller than your father, and the
+tips of his fingers, moreover, were spatulate, whereas, like all the rest
+of our family&#8217;s, your father&#8217;s fingers were pointed. From what you have
+told me I am now convinced that I really was right, and that your father,
+falling into the hands of the smugglers, who, at that time, infested the
+whole of this neighbourhood, did actually meet with foul play. I recollect
+perfectly well the fire at the Spelkin Towers the night your father
+disappeared, but, until now, I never in any way associated the event with
+him. Do, I beseech you, make a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> thorough search of the ruins and see if
+you can find anything that will help to substantiate your story and prove
+that your experience was of a nature very different from that of an
+ordinary dream.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ronan needed no further bidding. Accompanied by his aunt&#8217;s gardener and
+two or three villagers&mdash;for the gardener would not venture there without a
+formidable escort; the place, he said, bore a most evil and sinister
+reputation&mdash;he at once proceeded to the Towers, and, in one of the
+cellars, bricked up in a recess, they found a skeleton&mdash;the skeleton of a
+man, on one of whose fingers was a signet-ring, which Miss Bridget Malachy
+at once identified as having belonged to her missing brother. Moreover,
+with the remains were a few tattered shreds&mdash;all that was left of the
+clothes&mdash;and, though blackened and rusty, a number of tiny bells, such as
+might have once adorned the cap of a Court jester.</p>
+
+<hr style="width: 25%;" />
+
+<p>The Spelkin Towers is still haunted, for it has ghosts of its own, but
+never, I believe, since that memorable experience of Ronan&#8217;s within its
+grey and lichen-covered walls, has it again been visited by the Banshee.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE</h3>
+
+<p><br />In order definitely to establish my claim to the Banshee, I am obliged to
+state here that the family to which I belong is the oldest branch of the
+O&#8217;Donnells, and dates back in direct unbroken line to Niall of the Nine
+Hostages. I am therefore genuinely Celtic Irish, but, in addition to that,
+I have in my veins strains both of the blood of the O&#8217;Briens of Thomond
+(whose Banshee visited Lady Fanshawe), and of the O&#8217;Rourkes, Princes of
+Brefni; for my ancestor, Edmund O&#8217;Donnell, married Bridget, daughter of
+O&#8217;Rourk of the house of Brefni, and his mother was the daughter of Donat
+O&#8217;Brien of the house of Thomond. All of which, and more, may be
+ascertained by a reference to the Records of the Truagh O&#8217;Donnells.<small><a name="f15.1" id="f15.1" href="#f15">[15]</a></small></p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>Possibly my first experience of the Banshee occurred before I was old
+enough to take note of it. I lost my father when I was a baby. He left
+home with the intention of going on a brief visit to Palestine, but,
+meeting on the way an ex-officer of the Anglo-Indian army, who had been
+engaged by the King of Abyssinia to help in the work of remodelling the
+Abyssinian army, he abandoned his idea of visiting the Holy Land, and
+decided to go to Abyssinia instead.</p>
+
+<p>What actually happened then will probably never be known. His death was
+reported to have taken place at Arkiko, a small village some two hours
+walking distance from Massowah, and from the letters<small><a name="f16.1" id="f16.1" href="#f16">[16]</a></small> subsequently
+received from the French Consul at Massowah and several other people, as
+well as from the entries in his diary (the latter being recovered with
+other of his personal effects and sent home with them), there seems to
+have been little, if any, doubt that he was trapped and murdered, the
+object being robbery.</p>
+
+<p>The case created quite a sensation at the time, and is referred to in a
+work entitled &#8220;The Oriental Zig-zag,&#8221; by Charles Hamilton, who, I believe,
+stayed some few years later at the house at<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> Massowah, where my father
+lodged, and was stated to have shared his fate.</p>
+
+<p>With regard to the supernatural happenings in connection with the event.
+The house that my father had occupied before setting out for the East was
+semi-detached, the first house in a row, which at that time was not
+completed. It was situated in a distinctly lonely spot. On the one side of
+it, and to the rear, were gardens, bounded by fields, and people rarely
+visited the place after nightfall.</p>
+
+<p>On the night preceding my father&#8217;s death, my mother was sitting in the
+dining-room, which overlooked the back garden, reading. It was a windy but
+fine night, and, save for the rustling of the leaves, and an occasional
+creaking of the shutters, absolutely still. Suddenly, from apparently just
+under the window, there rang out a series of the most harrowing screams.
+Immeasurably startled, and fearing, at first, that it was some woman being
+murdered in the garden, my mother summoned the servants, and they all
+listened. The sounds went on, every moment increasing in vehemence, and
+there was an intensity and eeriness about them that speedily convinced the
+hearers that they could be due to no earthly agency. After lasting several
+minutes they finally died away in a long, protracted wail, full of such
+agony and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> despair, that my mother and her companions were distressed
+beyond words.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as they could summon up the courage they went out and scoured the
+gardens, but though they looked everywhere, and there was little cover for
+anyone to hide, they could discover nothing that could in any way account
+for the noises. A dreadful fear then seized my mother. She believed that
+she had heard the Banshee which my father had often spoken about to her,
+and she was little surprised, when, in a few days time, the news reached
+her that my father was dead. He had died about dawn, the day after my
+mother and the servants had heard the screaming. I sent an account of the
+incident, together with other phenomena that happened about the same time,
+signed by two of the people who experienced them, to the Society for
+Psychical Research, who published it in their journal in the autumn of
+1899.</p>
+
+<p>I have vivid recollections of my mother telling me about it when I was a
+little boy, and I remember that every time I heard the shutters in the
+room where we sat rattle, and the wind moan and sigh in the chimney, I
+fully expected to hear terrible shrieks ring out, and to see some white
+and ghastly face pressed against the window-panes, peering in at me. After
+these recitations<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> I was terrified at the darkness, and endured, when
+alone in my bedroom, agonies of mind that no grown-up person, perhaps,
+could ever realise. The house and garden, so very bright and cheerful, and
+in every way ordinary, in the daytime, when the sun was out, seemed to be
+entirely metamorphosed directly it was dusk. Shadows assuredly stranger
+than any other shadows&mdash;for as far as I could see they had no material
+counterpart&mdash;used to congregate on the stairs, and darken the paths and
+lawn.</p>
+
+<p>There were always certain spots that frightened me more than others, a
+bend in one of the staircases, for example, the banisters on the top
+landing, a passage in the basement of the house, and the path leading from
+the gate to the front door. Even in the daytime, occasionally, I was chary
+about passing these places. I felt by instinct something uncanny was
+there; something that was grotesque and sinister, and which had specially
+malevolent designs toward me. When I was alone I hurried past, often with
+my eyes shut; and at night time, I am not ashamed to admit, I often ran.
+Yet, at that time I had no knowledge that others beside myself thought
+these things and had these experiences. I did not know, for instance, that
+once, when my youngest sister, who was a little older than I, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> passing
+along that passage I so much dreaded, she heard, close beside her, a
+short, sharp laugh, or chuckle, and so expressive of hatred and derision,
+that the sound of it haunted her memory ever after. I also did not know
+then that one evening, immediately prior to my father&#8217;s death, when
+another of my sisters was running up the stairs, she saw, peering down at
+her from over the banisters on that top landing I so much dreaded, a face
+which literally froze her with horror. Crowned with a mass of disordered
+tow-coloured hair, the skin tightly drawn over the bones like a mummy, it
+looked as if it had been buried for several months and then resurrected.
+The light, obliquely set eyes, suffused with baleful glee, stared straight
+at her, while the mouth, just such a mouth as might have made that
+chuckle, leered. It did not seem to her to be the face of anyone that had
+ever lived, but to belong to an entirely different species, and to be the
+creation of something wholly evil. She looked at it for some seconds, too
+petrified to move or cry out, until, her faculties gradually reassuring
+themselves, she turned round from the spot and flew downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Some years later, just before the death of my mother, at about the same
+time of day and in precisely the same place, the head was again seen,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>
+this time by my younger sister, the one who had heard the ghostly chuckle.</p>
+
+<p>I think, without doubt, that the chuckle, no less than the head, must be
+attributed to the malignant Banshee. I may add, perhaps, without
+digressing too much, that supernatural happenings, apart from the Banshee,
+were associated with both my parents&#8217; deaths. On the night following my
+father&#8217;s murder, and on every subsequent night for a period of six weeks,
+my mother and the servants were aroused regularly at twelve o&#8217;clock by a
+sound, as of someone hammering down the lids of packing-cases, issuing
+from the room in the basement of the house, which my father had always
+used as a study. They then heard footsteps ascending the stairs and
+pausing outside each bedroom in turn, which they all recognised as my
+father&#8217;s, and, occasionally, my old nurse used to see the door of the
+night nursery open, and a light, like the light of a candle outside,
+whilst at the same time she would hear, proceeding from the landing, a
+quick jabber, jabber, jabber, as of someone talking very fast, and trying
+very hard to say something intelligible. No one was ever seen when this
+voice and the footsteps, said to be my father&#8217;s, were heard, but this
+circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that my father, just before
+leaving Ireland, had remarked to my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> mother that, should anything happen
+to him abroad, he would in his spirit appear to her; and she, growing pale
+at the mere thought, begged him to do no such thing, whereupon he had
+laughingly replied:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well then, I will find some other means of communicating with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Many manifestations of a similar nature to the foregoing, and also, like
+the foregoing, having nothing to do with the Banshee, occurred immediately
+after the death of my mother, but of these I must give an account on some
+future occasion.</p>
+
+<p>Years passed, and nothing more was seen or heard of the Banshee till I was
+grown up. After leaving school I went to Dublin to read with Dr Chetwode
+Crawley, in Ely Place, for the Royal Irish Constabulary, and I might, I
+think, have passed into that Force, had it not been for the fact that at
+the preliminary medical examination some never-to-be-forgotten and, as I
+thought then, intensely ill-natured doctor, rejected me. Accordingly, I
+never entered for the literary, but returned home thoroughly dispirited,
+and faced with the urgent necessity of at once looking around for
+something to do. However, in a very short time I had practically settled
+on going to America to a ranch out West (a most disastrous<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> venture as it
+subsequently proved to be), and it was immediately after I had reached
+this decision that my first actual experience with what I believe to have
+been the malevolent family Banshee occurred. It happened in the same house
+in which the other supernatural occurrences had taken place. All the
+family, saving myself, were away at the time, and I was the sole occupant
+of one of the landings, the servants being all together on another floor.</p>
+
+<p>I had gone to bed early, and had been sleeping for some time, when I was
+awakened about two o&#8217;clock by a loud noise, for which I could not account,
+and which reverberated in my ears for fully half a minute. I was sitting
+up, still wondering what on earth could have produced it, when,
+immediately over my head, I heard a laugh, an abrupt kind of chuckle, that
+was so malicious and evil that I could not possibly attribute it to any
+human agency, but rather to some entity of wholly satanic origin, and
+which my instinct told me was one of our attendant Banshees. I got out of
+bed, struck a light, and made a thorough investigation, not only of the
+room, but the landing outside. There was no one there, nothing, as far as
+I could see, that could in any way explain the occurrence. I threw open
+the bedroom window and looked out. The night was beautiful&mdash;the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> sky
+brilliantly illuminated with moon and stars&mdash;and everything perfectly
+still, excepting for the very faintest rustling of the leaves as the soft
+night breeze swept through the branches and set them in motion. I listened
+for some time, but, the hush continuing, I at last got back again into
+bed, and eventually fell asleep. I mentioned the incident in the morning
+to the servants, and they, too, had heard it.</p>
+
+<p>A short time afterwards I went to the United States, and had the most
+unhappy and calamitous experience in my whole career.</p>
+
+<p>My next experience of the Banshee happened two or three years later, when,
+having returned from America, I was living in Cornwall, running a small
+preparatory school, principally for delicate boys.</p>
+
+<p>The house I occupied was quite new, in fact I was the first tenant, and
+had watched it being built. It was the last house in a terrace, and facing
+it was a cliff, at the foot of which ran a steep path leading to the
+beach. At this particular time there was no one in the house but my aged
+housekeeper, by name Mrs Bolitho, and myself, and whilst Mrs Bolitho slept
+in a room on the first floor, I was the sole occupant of the floor
+immediately above it.</p>
+
+<p>One night I had been sitting up writing, rather<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> later than usual, and,
+being very tired, had dropped off to sleep, almost immediately after
+getting into bed. I woke about two o&#8217;clock hearing a curious kind of
+tapping noise coming along the passage that ran parallel with my bed.
+Wondering what it could be, I sat up and listened. There were only bare
+boards outside, and the noise was very clear and resonant, but difficult
+to analyse. It might have been produced by the very high heels of a lady&#8217;s
+boot or shoe, or the bony foot of a skeleton. I could compare it with
+nothing else. On it came, tap, tap, tap, till it finally seemed to halt
+outside my door. There was then a pause, during which I could feel
+somebody or something was listening most earnestly, making sure, I
+thought, whether I was awake or not, and then a terrific crash on one of
+the top panels of the door. After this there was silence. I got up, and,
+somewhat timidly opening the door, for I more than half expected to find
+myself confronted with something peculiarly dreadful and uncanny, peeped
+cautiously out. There was nothing to be seen, however; nothing but the
+cold splendour of the moon, which, shining through a window nearly
+opposite me, filled the entire passage with its beams. I went into each of
+the rooms on the landing in turn, but they were all empty, and there was
+nothing anywhere that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> could in any way account for what I had heard. In
+the morning I questioned Mrs Bolitho, but she had heard nothing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For a wonder,&#8221; she said, &#8220;I slept very soundly all through the night, and
+only awoke when it was time to get up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Two days later I received tidings of the death of my uncle, Colonel John
+Vize O&#8217;Donnell of Trough.<small><a name="f17.1" id="f17.1" href="#f17">[17]</a></small> He had died almost suddenly, his death
+occurring a few hours after I had heard the footsteps and the knock.</p>
+
+<p>Three years after this experience I had moved into another house in the
+same town&mdash;also a new house, and also the last in a terrace. At the rear,
+and on one side of it, was a garden, flanked by a hedge, beyond which were
+fields that led in almost unbroken succession to the coast. It could not
+be altogether described as occupying a lonely position, although the
+fields were little frequented after dusk.</p>
+
+<p>Well, one night my wife and I were awakened about midnight by a series of
+the most agonising and <ins class="correction" title="original: heartrending">heart-rending</ins> screams, which, if like anything
+earthly at all, seemed to us to be more like the screams of a woman in the
+very direst distress. The cries were so terrible and sounded so near to
+us, almost, in fact, in the room, that we were both<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> horribly alarmed, and
+hardly knew what to say or think.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Whatever is happening?&#8221; my wife whispered, catching hold of me by the
+arm, &#8220;and what is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; was my reply, &#8220;unless it is the Banshee, for there is
+nobody else that could make such a noise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The screams continued for some seconds, and then died away in one
+long-drawn-out wail or sob. I waited for some minutes to see if there was
+a repetition of the sounds, and, there being none, I at length got up, and
+not, I confess, without considerable apprehensions, went out on to the
+landing, where I found several of the other inmates of the house collected
+together discussing with scared faces the screams which they, too, had
+heard. An examination of the house and grounds was at once made, but
+nothing was discerned that could in any way account for the sounds, and I
+adhered to my opinion that it must have been the Banshee; which opinion
+was very considerably strengthened, when, a few days later, I received the
+news that an aunt of mine, an O&#8217;Donnell, in County Kerry, had passed away
+within twenty-four hours of the time the screaming had occurred. It is,
+perhaps, a dozen years or so since we left Cornwall, and my latest
+experience of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> Banshee took place in the house in which we are now
+living near the Crystal Palace.</p>
+
+<p>The experience occurred in connection with the death of my youngest
+sister. On the night preceding her decease I dreamed most vividly that I
+saw the figure of a female dressed in some loose-flowing, fantastic
+garment come up the path leading to the house, and knock very loudly
+several times, in quick succession, at the back door. I was going to
+answer, when a sudden terror held me back.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s the Banshee,&#8221; a voice whispered in my ear, &#8220;the Banshee. Don&#8217;t let
+her in, she&#8217;s coming for one of you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>This so startled me that I awoke. I then found that my wife was awake
+also, trembling all over, and in a great state of excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you hear that tremendous knock?&#8221; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What!&#8221; I replied. &#8220;You don&#8217;t mean to say there really was a knock? Why, I
+fancied it was only in my dream.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You may have dreamt it,&#8221; she said, &#8220;but I didn&#8217;t&mdash;I heard it; it was at
+this door, not at the front door. I say knock, but it was really a
+crash&mdash;a terrific crash on the top panel of the door.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>We anxiously waited to see if there would be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> a repetition, but, nothing
+happening, we lay down again, and eventually went to sleep.</p>
+
+<p>On the following day we received a telegram informing us that at ten
+o&#8217;clock that morning my sister had passed away.</p>
+
+<p>Since then, I am glad to relate I have not again come in contact with the
+Banshee. At the same time, however, there are occasions when I feel very
+acutely that she is not far away, and I am seldom, if ever, perhaps,
+absolutely free from an impression that she hovers near at hand, ready to
+manifest herself the moment either death or disaster threaten any member
+of my family. Moreover, that she takes a peculiar interest in my personal
+affairs, I have, alas, only too little reason to doubt.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="ADDENDA" id="ADDENDA"></a>ADDENDA</h2>
+
+<p><br />In reply to a letter of mine asking for particulars of the Banshee alleged
+to be attached to the Inchiquin family, I received the following:</p>
+
+<p class="blockquot">&#8220;I think the name (of the Banshee) was <span class="smcap">Obenheim</span>, but I am not sure.
+Two or three people have told me that she appeared before my
+grandfather&#8217;s death, but none of them either saw or heard her, but
+they had met people who did say they had heard her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Writing also for particulars of the Banshee to a cousin of the head of one
+of the oldest Irish clans, I received a long letter, from which I will
+quote the following:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have heard &#8216;the Banshee&#8217; cry. It is simply like a woman wailing in
+the most unearthly fashion. At the time an O&#8217;Neill was in this house,
+and she subsequently heard that her eldest brother had died on that
+night between twelve a.m. and three a.m., when we all of us heard the
+Banshee wailing. I heard her also at my mother&#8217;s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> death, and at the
+death of my husband&#8217;s eldest sister. The cry is not always quite the
+same. When my dear mother died, it was a very low wail which seemed
+to go round and round the house.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;At the death of one of the great O&#8217;Neill family, we located the cry
+at one end of the house. When my sister-in-law died I was wakened up
+by a loud scream in my room in the middle of the night. She had died
+at that instant. I heard the Banshee one day, driving in the country,
+at a distance. Sometimes the Banshee, who follows old families, is
+heard by the whole village. Some people say she is red-haired and
+wears a long flowing white dress. She is supposed to wring her long
+thick hair. Others say she appears as a small woman dressed in black.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Such an apparition did appear to me in the daytime before my
+mother-in-law died.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The writer of this letter has asked me not to publish her name, but I have
+it by me in case corroboration is needed.</p>
+
+<p>In reference to the O&#8217;Donnell Banshee, Chapter XIII., my sister,
+Petronella O&#8217;Donnell, writes:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I remember vividly my first experience of our Banshee. I had never
+heard of it at the time, and in fact I have only heard of it in
+recent years.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It happened one day that I went into the hall, in the daytime, I
+forget the exact hour, and as I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> climbed the stairway, being yet a
+small child, I happened to look up. There, looking over the rails at
+the top of the stairway, was an object so horrible that I shudder
+when I think of it even now. In a greenish halo of light the most
+terrible head imagination could paint&mdash;only this was no imagination,
+I knew it was a real object&mdash;was looking at me with apparently
+fiendish fire in its light and leering eyes. The head was neither man
+nor woman&#8217;s; it was ages old; it might have been buried and dug up
+again, it was so skull-like and shrunken; its pallor was horrible,
+grey and mildewy; its hair was long. Its mouth leered, and its light
+and cruel eyes seemed determined to hurt me to the utmost, with the
+terror it inspired. I remember how my childish heart rebelled against
+its cowardice in trying to hurt and frighten so small a child. Gazing
+back at it in petrified horror, I slowly returned to the room I had
+come from. I resolved never to tell anyone about it, I was so proud
+and reserved by nature.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had then two secret terrors hidden in my Irish heart. The first
+one I have never till recently spoken of to anyone; it happened
+before I saw this awful head. I was asleep, but yet I knew I was
+<i>not</i> asleep. Suddenly, down the road that led to our home in Ireland
+came an object so terrible that for years after my child&#8217;s heart used
+to stand still at the memory of it. The object I saw coming down to
+our house was a procession&mdash;there were several pairs of horses being
+led by grooms in livery, pulling an old coach with them.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> It was a
+large and awful looking old coach! The horses were headless, and the
+men who led them were headless, and even now as I write, the awful
+terror of it all comes over me, it was a terror beyond words. I
+<i>knew</i>, I felt certain they had come to cut off my head! This
+procession of headless things stopped at our door, the men entered
+the house, chased me up to the very top of it, and then cut off my
+head! I can remember saying to myself, &#8216;Now I am dead, I am dead, I
+can suffer no more.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;They then went back to the coach, and the procession moved away and
+was lost to view.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Night after night I lay shivering with terror, for months, for
+years, there was such a <i>lurid</i> horror about this headless
+procession.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Some weeks after I saw the head, we heard that our father had been
+killed about that time in Egypt, murdered it was supposed. My mother
+died some years afterwards.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;One evening, when I was grown up, we were sitting round the fire
+with friends, and someone said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I don&#8217;t believe in ghosts. Have you ever met anyone who has seen
+one? I have not!&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A sudden impulse came over me&mdash;never to that moment had I ever
+mentioned the head&mdash;and, leaning forward, I said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I have seen a ghost; I saw the most terrible head when I was a
+child, looking over the staircase.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span>&#8220;To my astonishment my sister, who was sitting near me, said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;I saw a most terrible head, too, looking over the staircase.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;When did you see it? I saw it when our father died.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And she said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;And, <i>I</i> saw it when our mother died.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;In describing it, we found all the details agreed, and learned not
+long after that it was without doubt our own Banshee we had seen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;People have said to me that Banshees are heard, not seen. This is
+not correct, it all depends if one is clairvoyant or clairaudient.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I remember when my mother was alive, how I came in from a walk one
+evening and found the whole house in a ferment, the most terrible
+screaming and crying had been heard pass over the house. Our mother
+said it must be the Banshee. Sure enough we heard of the death of a
+very near relation directly after. If I had been present, no doubt I
+should not only have heard the screams but I should have seen
+something as well.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A few years ago in Ireland I was talking about these things, and a
+relation I had not met before was present. He said to me:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;But as well as the Banshee do you know that we have a <i>headless
+coach</i> attached to our family; it is proceeded by men, who lead the
+horses, and none of them have heads.&#8217;</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>&#8220;Like a flash came that never-to-be-forgotten vision of that awful
+procession I had seen as a child, and of which I had never made any
+mention till then. I remember now that after I saw the headless coach
+we heard that our grandmother was dead. I believe that the headless
+coach belongs to her family.</p>
+
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Petronella O&#8217;Donnell</span>.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The headless coach referred to in the foregoing account comes to us, I
+believe, from the Vize family. My grandmother before her marriage was
+Sarah Vize, daughter of John Vize of Donegal, Glenagad and Limerick. Her
+sister Frances married her cousin, David Roche of Carass (see Burke&#8217;s
+&#8220;Landed Gentry of Ireland,&#8221; under Maunsell family, and Burke&#8217;s &#8220;Peerage
+under Roche&#8221;), their son being Sir David Roche, Bart.</p>
+
+<p>The great-great-grandmother of Sarah Vize was Mary, daughter of Butler of
+the house of the Earl Glengall Cahir. Sarah Vize&#8217;s mother, my
+great-grandmother, before her marriage was Sarah Maunsell, granddaughter
+of William Maunsell of Ballinamona, County Cork, the fifth son of Colonel
+Thomas Maunsell of Mocollop.</p>
+
+<p>In the accompanying genealogical tree, tracing the descent of the
+O&#8217;Donnells of Trough from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the O&#8217;Briens of
+Thomond and the O&#8217;Rourkes of Brefui, may be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> found the basis upon which my
+family&#8217;s claim to the dual Banshee rests.</p>
+
+<p>The original may be seen in the office of the King of Arms, Dublin. The
+following is merely an extract:</p>
+
+<p class="center">Niall of the Nine Hostages.<br />
+King of Ireland<br />
+|<br />
+Conall Gulban<br />
+|<br />
+Feargus<br />
+|<br />
+Leadna, Prince of Tirconnell<br />
+|<br />
+Feargus<br />
+|<br />
+Lughaidb, and from</p>
+
+<p>him, in direct descent, to Foirdhealbhach an Fhiona O&#8217;Donnhnaill, who had
+two sons, the elder, Shane Luirg and the younger, Niall Garbh. From Niall
+Garbh the illustrious Red Hugh and his brother Rory, Earl of Tirconnell,
+were descended, from Shane Luirg, whose rank as &#8220;The O&#8217;Donnell&#8221; was taken
+by his younger brother, presumably the stronger man of the two, the Trough
+O&#8217;Donnells are descended.</p>
+
+<p>The line goes on thus:</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Shane Luirg<br />
+|<br />
+Art O&#8217;Donnhnail (ob. circa 1490)<br />
+|<br />
+Niall O&#8217;Donnhnaill (ob. circa 1525)<br />
+|<br />
+Foirdheal bhach O&#8217;Donnhnaill <i>m.</i> Julia Maguire (ob. 1552)<br />
+|<br />
+Shane <i>m.</i> Rosa, d. of Hugh O&#8217;Donnell (ob. 1581)<br />
+|<br />
+Hugh O&#8217;Donnell of Limerick <i>m.</i> Maria, d. of Donat O&#8217;Brien of the House of Thomond (ob. 1610)<br />
+|<br />
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 4.5em;">Edmund, of Limerick <i>m.</i> Bridget, d. of O&#8217;Rourk of the House of Brefui (ob. 1651)<br />
+|<br />
+James, of Limerick <i>m.</i> Helena, d. of James Sarsfield, great-uncle of Patrick Sarsfeld, Earl of Lucan (ob. 1680)<br />
+|<br />
+John <i>m.</i> Margaret, d. of Thomas Creagh of Limerick</span><br />
+|<br />
+James <i>m.</i> Christiana, d. of William Stritch of Limerick<br />
+|<br />
+John <i>m.</i> Deborah, d. of William Anderson of Tipperary (ob. 1780)<br />
+|</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table">
+<tr><td colspan="3" class="bb">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td class="bl">&nbsp;</td><td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td><td class="br">&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td><small><a name="f18.1" id="f18.1" href="#f18">[18]</a></small>John, of Limerick and <i>m</i>. Sarah Elliot of <br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Baltimore, U.S.A</span><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Baltimore, U.S.A</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 12em;">(ob. 1805)</span></td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Henry Anderson <i>m.</i> Domina Jan, daughter<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">O&#8217;Donnell</span><span style="margin-left: 4em;">of nephew of</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 9.5em;">Shah of Persia</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 10em;">(ob. 1840)</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">|</td><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="center">|</td></tr>
+<tr><td valign="top" align="center">Elliot, of Limerick <i>m.</i> Sarah Vize, of Limerick (ob. 1836)</td>
+<td>&nbsp;</td>
+<td>Gen. Sir C. R. <i>m.</i> Catherine Anne, d.<br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">O&#8217;Donnell,</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">of Gen. P. Murray,</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">K.C.B., and</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">nephew of the</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Member of the</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">Earl of Elibank</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Irish Academy</span><span style="margin-left: 3em;">(ob. 1870)</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">|</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Rev. Henry O&#8217;Donnell</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">|</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">Elliot (youngest son)</td></tr></table>
+
+<p><br />For particulars of the pedigree see Vol. X., p. 327, Genealogias, in the
+Office of Ulster King of Arms, Dublin.</p>
+
+<p>From Niall to Shane Luirg, see Register XV., p. 5; from Shane to my
+grandfather, Elliot, see Register XXIII., p. 286; and down to myself, see
+&#8220;Sheridan,&#8221; p. 323.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>Referring to the Banshee prior to my aunt&#8217;s death (see Chapter XIII.) my
+wife writes:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I certainly remember, one night, when we were living in Cornwall,
+hearing a most awful scream, a scream that rose and fell, and ended
+in a long-drawn-out wail of agony. I have never heard any other sound
+at all like it, and therefore cannot think that it could have been
+anything earthly. At the time, however, I did think that possibly the
+scream was that of a woman being murdered, and did not rest until my
+husband, with other inmates of our house, had made a thorough search
+of the garden and premises.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Shortly after we had had this experience, we heard of the death, in
+Ireland, of one of my husband&#8217;s aunts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I also recollect that one night, shortly before we received the news
+of my sister-in-law&#8217;s death, I heard a crash on our bedroom door. It
+was so loud that it quite shook the room, and my husband, apparently
+wakened by it, told me he had dreamed that the Banshee had come and
+was knocking for admittance. This happened not very long ago, when we
+were living in Norwood.</p>
+
+<p class="right">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Ada O&#8217;Donnell</span>.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRINTED AT<br />THE NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS,<br />
+WATERLOO HOUSE, THORNTON STREET,<br />NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><b>Footnotes:</b></p>
+
+<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> &#8220;Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland,&#8221; by Lady Wilde.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> &#8220;The Astral Plane,&#8221; p. 106.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> This book was published in 1888.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f4" id="f4" href="#f4.1">[4]</a> In the Addenda at end of this volume will be found a genealogical tree
+showing descent of author from the Thomond O&#8217;Briens.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f5" id="f5" href="#f5.1">[5]</a> In Addenda see tree showing descent of author from O&#8217;Rourks of Brefni.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f6" id="f6" href="#f6.1">[6]</a> As a rule the Banshee is neither heard nor seen by the person whose
+death it predicts. There are, however, some notable exceptions.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f7" id="f7" href="#f7.1">[7]</a> For further reference to the Banshee of the O&#8217;Neills see Addenda.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f8" id="f8" href="#f8.1">[8]</a> See Addenda.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f9" id="f9" href="#f9.1">[9]</a> See Addenda.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f10" id="f10" href="#f10.1">[10]</a> It may be recorded here as a matter of interest that my ancestress,
+Helena Sarsfield, was a daughter of James Sarsfield, great-uncle of
+Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan and the defender of Limerick against the
+English.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f11" id="f11" href="#f11.1">[11]</a> Neither of her stories have appeared in print before.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f12" id="f12" href="#f12.1">[12]</a> See &#8220;The Ghost World,&#8221; by T. F. T. Dyer, p. 227.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f13" id="f13" href="#f13.1">[13]</a> See Sir Walter Scott&#8217;s Poetical Works, 1853, VIII., p. 126.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f14" id="f14" href="#f14.1">[14]</a> These extracts are taken from quotations of the poem in Chapter II.
+of a work entitled &#8220;Ancient History of the Kingdom of Kerry&#8221; by Friar
+O&#8217;Sullivan of Muckross Abbey, published in the Journal of the Cork
+Historical and Arch&aelig;ological Society (Vol. V., No. 44); and Friar
+O&#8217;Sullivan, in commenting upon these passages relating to the Banshees,
+writes (quoting from &#8220;Kerry Records&#8221;): &#8220;It seems that at this time it was
+the universal opinion that every district belonging to the Geraldines had
+its own attendant Banshee&#8221; (see <i>Arch&aelig;ological Journal</i>, 1852, on &#8220;Folk
+Lore&#8221; by N. Kearney).</p>
+
+<p><a name="f15" id="f15" href="#f15.1">[15]</a> See Records of the Truagh O&#8217;Donnells in the Office of the King of
+Arms, Dublin. Refs.: Genealogias, Vol. XI., p. 327; Register XV., p. 5;
+Register XXII., p. 286; and Sheridan, p. 323.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f16" id="f16" href="#f16.1">[16]</a> The originals are still in existence. The diary was kept right up to
+the night preceding his death.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f17" id="f17" href="#f17.1">[17]</a> Also spelt Truagh.</p>
+
+<p><a name="f18" id="f18" href="#f18.1">[18]</a> John O&#8217;Donnell of Baltimore&#8217;s eldest son, Columbus, had a daughter,
+Eleanora, who married Adrian Iselin of New York, and their grand-daughter,
+Norah, is the present Princess Coleredo Mansfeldt.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 34263-h.txt or 34263-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/2/6/34263">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/2/6/34263</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.  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.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.</p>
+
+
+
+<pre>
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/license">http://www.gutenberg.org/license)</a>.
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS,' WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit: http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Each eBook is in a subdirectory of the same number as the eBook's
+eBook number, often in several formats including plain vanilla ASCII,
+compressed (zipped), HTML and others.
+
+Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks replace the old file and take over
+the old filename and etext number.  The replaced older file is renamed.
+VERSIONS based on separate sources are treated as new eBooks receiving
+new filenames and etext numbers.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org">http://www.gutenberg.org</a>
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
+EBooks posted prior to November 2003, with eBook numbers BELOW #10000,
+are filed in directories based on their release date.  If you want to
+download any of these eBooks directly, rather than using the regular
+search system you may utilize the following addresses and just
+download by the etext year.
+
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext06/</a>
+
+    (Or /etext 05, 04, 03, 02, 01, 00, 99,
+     98, 97, 96, 95, 94, 93, 92, 92, 91 or 90)
+
+EBooks posted since November 2003, with etext numbers OVER #10000, are
+filed in a different way.  The year of a release date is no longer part
+of the directory path.  The path is based on the etext number (which is
+identical to the filename).  The path to the file is made up of single
+digits corresponding to all but the last digit in the filename.  For
+example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at:
+
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234
+
+or filename 24689 would be found at:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689
+
+An alternative method of locating eBooks:
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a>
+
+*** END: FULL LICENSE ***
+</pre>
+</body>
+</html>
diff --git a/34263.txt b/34263.txt
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..e7a83eb
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,5897 @@
+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Banshee, by Elliot O'Donnell
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Banshee
+
+
+Author: Elliot O'Donnell
+
+
+
+Release Date: November 9, 2010  [eBook #34263]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Suzanne Shell and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive/American Libraries
+(http://www.archive.org/details/americana)
+
+
+
+Note: Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive/American Libraries. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/banshee_00odon
+
+
+
+
+
+THE BANSHEE
+
+by
+
+ELLIOT O'DONNELL
+
+Author of "Haunted Places in England," "The Irish Abroad,"
+"Twenty Years Experiences As a Ghost Hunter," Etc., Etc.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+London and Edinburgh
+Sands & Company
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAP.                                         PAGE
+
+     I. THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES      9
+
+    II. SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES                  20
+
+   III. THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE                    35
+
+    IV. THE BANSHEE ABROAD                        51
+
+     V. CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY                62
+
+    VI. DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS         80
+
+   VII. A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN                 98
+
+  VIII. THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD          124
+
+    IX. THE BANSHEE AT SEA                       136
+
+     X. ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE      149
+
+    XI. THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE          176
+
+   XII. THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND                  196
+
+  XIII. MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE      232
+
+        ADDENDA                                  247
+
+
+
+
+THE BANSHEE
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE DEFINITION AND ORIGIN OF BANSHEES
+
+
+In a country, such as Ireland, that is characterised by an arrestive and
+wildly beautiful scenery, it is not at all surprising to find something in
+the nature of a ghost harmonising with the general atmosphere and
+surroundings, and that something, apparently so natural to Ireland, is the
+Banshee.
+
+The name Banshee seems to be a contraction of the Irish Bean Sidhe, which
+is interpreted by some writers on the subject "A Woman of the Faire Race,"
+whilst by various other writers it is said to signify "The Lady of Death,"
+"The Woman of Sorrow," "The Spirit of the Air," and "The Woman of the
+Barrow."
+
+It is strictly a family ghost, and most authorities agree that it only
+haunts families of very ancient Irish lineage. Mr McAnnaly, for instance,
+remarks (in the chapter on Banshees in his "Irish Wonders"): "The Banshee
+attends only the old families, and though their descendants, through
+misfortune, may be brought down from high estate to ranks of peasant
+farmers, she never leaves nor forgets them till the last member has been
+gathered to his fathers in the churchyard."
+
+A writer in the _Journal of the Cork Historical and Archaeological Society_
+(Vol. V., No. 44, pp. 227-229) quotes an extract from a work entitled
+"Kerry Records," in which the following passage, relating to an elegiac
+poem written by Pierse Ferriter on Maurice Fitzgerald, occurs: "Aina, the
+Banshee who never wailed for any families who were not of Milesian blood,
+except the Geraldines, who became 'more Irish than the Irish themselves';
+and in a footnote (see p. 229) it is only 'blood' that can have a Banshee.
+Business men nowadays have something as good as 'blood'--they have 'brains
+and brass,' by which they can compete with and enter into the oldest
+families in England and Ireland. Nothing, however, in an Irishman's
+estimation, can replace 'blue blood.'"
+
+Sir Walter Scott, too, emphasises this point, and is even more specific
+and arbitrary. He confines the Banshee to families of pure Milesian stock,
+and declares it is never to be found attached to the descendants of the
+multitudinous English and Scotch settlers who have, from time to time,
+migrated to Ireland; nor even to the descendants of the Norman adventurers
+who accompanied Strongbow to the Green Isle in the twelfth century.
+
+Lady Wilde[1] goes to the other extreme and allows considerable latitude.
+She affirms that the Banshee attaches itself not only to certain families
+of historic lineage, but also to persons gifted with song and music. For
+my own part I am inclined to adopt a middle course; I do not believe that
+the Banshee would be deterred from haunting a family of historical fame
+and Milesian descent--such as the O'Neills or O'Donnells--simply because
+in that family was an occasional strain of Saxon or Norman blood, but, on
+the other hand, I do not think the Banshee would ever haunt a family that
+was not originally at least Celtic Irish--such, for instance, as the
+Fitz-Williams or Fitz-Warrens--although in that family there might happen
+to be periodic infusions of Milesian blood.
+
+I disagree, _in toto_, with Lady Wilde's theory that, occasionally, the
+Banshee haunts a person who is extremely poetical and musical, simply
+because he happens to be thus talented. In my opinion, to be haunted by
+the Banshee one must belong to an Irish family that is, at least, a
+thousand years old; were it not so, we should assuredly find the Banshee
+haunting certain of the musical and poetical geniuses of every race all
+over the world--black and yellow, perhaps, no less than white--which
+certainly is not the case.
+
+The Banshee, however, as Mr McAnnaly says, does, sometimes, travel; it
+travels when, and only when, it accompanies abroad one of the most ancient
+of the Irish families; otherwise it stays in Ireland, where, owing to the
+fact that there are few of the really old Irish families left, its
+demonstrations are becoming more and more rare.
+
+It may, perhaps, be said that in Dublin, Cork, and other of the Irish
+towns one may still come across a very fair percentage of O's and Macs.
+That, undoubtedly, is true, but, at the same time, it must be borne in
+mind that these prefixes do not invariably denote the true Irishman, since
+many families yclept Thompson, Walker, and Smith, merely on the strength
+of having lived in Ireland for two or three generations, have adopted an
+Irish--and in some cases, even, a Celtic Irish name, relying upon their
+knowledge of a few Celtic words picked up from books, or from attending
+some of the numerous classes now being held in nearly all the big towns,
+and which are presided over by teachers who are also, for the most part,
+merely pseudo-Irish--to give colour to their claim. Such a pretence,
+however, does not deceive those who are really Irish, neither does it
+deceive the Banshee, and the latter, I am quite sure, would never be
+persuaded to follow the fortunes of any Anglo-Saxon, or Scotch, Dick, Tom,
+or Harry, no matter how clever and convincing their camouflage might be.
+
+Once again, then, the Banshee confines itself solely to families of
+_bona-fide_ ancient Irish descent. As to its origin, in spite of arbitrary
+assertions made by certain people, none of whom, by the way, are of Irish
+extraction--that no one knows. As a matter of fact the Banshee has a
+number of origins, for there is not one Banshee only--as so many people
+seem to think--but many; each clan possessing a Banshee of its own. The
+O'Donnell Banshee, for example, that is to say the Banshee attached to our
+branch of the clan, and to which I can testify from personal experience,
+is, I believe, very different in appearance, and in its manner of making
+itself known, from the Banshee of the O'Reardons, as described by Mr
+McAnnaly; whilst the Banshee of a certain branch of the O'Flahertys,
+according to this same authority, differs essentially from that of a
+branch of the O'Neills. Mr McAnnaly says the Banshee "is really a
+disembodied soul, that of one who, in life, was strongly attached to the
+family, or who had good reason to hate all its members." This definition,
+of course, may apply in some cases, but it certainly does not apply in
+all, and it is absurd to be dogmatic on a subject, concerning which it is
+quite impossible to obtain a very great deal of information. At the most,
+Mr McAnnaly can only speak with certainty of the comparatively few cases
+of Banshees that have come under his observation; there are, I think,
+scores of which he has never even heard. I myself know of several Banshee
+hauntings in which the phantom certainly cannot be that of any member of
+the human race; its features and proportions absolutely negative such a
+possibility, and I should have no hesitation in affirming that, in these
+cases, the phantom is what is commonly known as an elemental, or what I
+have termed in previous of my works, a neutrarian, that is a spirit that
+has never inhabited any material body, and which belongs to a species
+entirely distinct from man. On the other hand, several cases of Banshee
+hauntings I have come across undoubtedly admit the possibility of the
+phantom being that of a woman belonging to the human race, albeit to a
+very ancient and long since obsolete section of it; whilst a few, only,
+allow of the probability of the phantom being that of a woman, also
+human, but belonging to a very much later date.
+
+Certainly, as Mr McAnnaly stated, Banshees may be divided into two main
+classes, the Friendly Banshees and the Hateful Banshees; the former
+exhibiting sorrow on their advent, and the latter, exultation. But these
+classes are capable of almost endless sub-division; the only feature they
+possess in common being a vague something that strongly suggests the
+feminine sex. In most cases the cause of the hauntings can only be a
+matter of conjecture. Affection or crime may account for some, but, for
+the origin of others, I believe one must look in a totally different
+direction. For instance, one might, perhaps, see some solution in sorcery
+and witchcraft, since there must be many families, who, in bygone days,
+dabbled in those pursuits, that are now Banshee ridden.
+
+Or, again, granted there is some truth in the theory of Atlantis, the
+theory that a whole continent was submerged owing to the wickedness of its
+inhabitants, who were all more or less adepts in necromancy--the most
+ancient of the Irish, the so-called Milesian clans who are known to have
+practised sorcery, might well be identical with the survivors of that
+great cataclysm, and have brought with them to the Green Island spirits
+which have stuck to their descendants ever since.
+
+I think one may dismiss Mr C. W. Leadbeater's[2] and other writers' (of
+the same would-be authoritative order) assertion that family ghosts may be
+either a thought-form or an unusually vivid impression in the astral
+light, as absurd. Spiritualists and others, who blindly reverence
+highfalutin phraseology, however empty it may be, might be satisfied with
+such an explanation, but not so those who have had actual experience with
+the ghost in question.
+
+Whatever else the Banshee may, or may not be, it is most certainly a
+denizen of a world quite distinct from ours; it is, besides, a being that
+has prophetic powers (which would not be the case if it were a mere
+thought-form or impression), and it is by no means a mere automaton.
+
+Some Banshees represent very beautiful women--women with long, luxuriant
+tresses, either of raven black, or burnished copper, or brilliant gold,
+and whose star-like eyes, full of tender pity, are either dark and
+tearful, or of the most exquisite blue or grey; some, again, are haggish,
+wild, dishevelled-looking creatures, whose appearance suggests the utmost
+squalor, foulness, and despair; whilst a few, fortunately, I think, only
+a few, take the form of something that is wholly diabolical, and
+frightful, and terrifying in the extreme.
+
+As a rule, however, the Banshee is not seen, it is only heard, and it
+announces its advent in a variety of ways; sometimes by groaning,
+sometimes by wailing, and sometimes by uttering the most blood-curdling of
+screams, which I can only liken to the screams a woman might make if she
+were being done to death in a very cruel and violent manner. Occasionally
+I have heard of Banshees clapping their hands, and tapping and scratching
+at walls and window-panes, and, not infrequently, I have heard of them
+signalling their arrival by terrific crashes and thumps. Also, I have met
+with the Banshee that simply chuckles--a low, short, but terribly
+expressive chuckle, that makes ten times more impression on the mind of
+the hearer than any other ghostly sound he has heard, and which no lapse
+of time is ever able to efface from his memory.
+
+I, for one, have heard the sound, and as I sit here penning these lines, I
+fancy I can hear it again--a Satanic chuckle, a chuckle full of mockery,
+as if made by one who was in the full knowledge of coming events, of
+events that would present an extremely unpleasant surprise. And, in my
+case, the unpleasant surprise came. I have always been a believer in a
+spirit world--in the unknown--but had I been ever so sceptical previously,
+after hearing that chuckle, I am quite sure I should have been converted.
+
+In concluding this chapter I must refer once again to Mr McAnnaly, who, in
+his "Irish Wonders," records a very remarkable instance of a number of
+Banshees manifesting themselves simultaneously. He says that the
+demonstrations occurred before the death of a member of the Galway
+O'Flahertys "some years ago."[3] The doomed one, he states, was a lady of
+the most unusual piety, who, though ill at the time, was not thought to be
+seriously ill. Indeed, she got so much better that several of her
+acquaintances came to her room to enliven her convalescence, and it was
+when they were there, all talking together merrily, that singing was
+suddenly heard, apparently outside the window. They listened, and could
+distinctly hear a choir of very sweet voices singing some extraordinarily
+plaintive air, which made them turn pale and look at one another
+apprehensively, for they all felt intuitively it was a chorus of Banshees.
+Nor were their surmises incorrect, for the patient unexpectedly developed
+pleurisy, and died within a few days, the same choir of spirit voices
+being again heard at the moment of physical dissolution.
+
+But as Mr McAnnaly states, the ill-fated lady was of singular purity,
+which doubtless explains the reason why, in my researches, I have never
+come across a parallel case.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+SOME HISTORICAL BANSHEES
+
+
+Amongst the most popular cases of Banshee haunting both published and
+unpublished is that related by Ann, Lady Fanshawe, in her Memoirs. It
+seems that Lady Fanshawe experienced this haunting when on a visit to Lady
+Honora O'Brien, daughter of Henry, fifth Earl of Thomond,[4] who was then,
+in all probability, residing at the ancient castle of Lemaneagh, near Lake
+Inchiquin, about thirty miles north-west of Limerick. Retiring to rest
+somewhat early the first night of her sojourn there, she was awakened at
+about one o'clock by the sound of a voice, and, drawing aside the hangings
+of the bed, she perceived, looking in through the window at her, the face
+of a woman. The moonlight being very strong and fully focussed on it, she
+could see every feature with startling distinctness; but at the same time
+her attention was apparently riveted on the extraordinary pallor of the
+cheeks and the intense redness of the hair. Then, to quote her own words,
+the apparition "spake loud, and in a tone I never heard, thrice 'Ahone,'
+and then with a sigh, more like wind than breath, she vanished, and to me
+her body looked more like a thick cloud than substance.
+
+"I was so much affrighted that my hair stood on end, and my night clothes
+fell off. I pulled and pinched your father, who never awaked during this
+disorder I was in, but at last was much surprised to find me in this
+fright, and more when I related the story and showed him the window
+opened; but he entertained me with telling how much more these apparitions
+were usual in that country than in England."
+
+The following morning Lady Honora, who did not appear to have been to bed,
+informed Lady Fanshawe that a cousin of hers had died in the house at
+about two o'clock in the morning; and expressed a hope that Lady Fanshawe
+had not been subjected to any disturbances.
+
+"When any die of this family," she said by way of explanation, "there is
+the shape of a woman appears in this window every night until they be
+dead."
+
+She went on to add that the apparition was believed to be that of a woman
+who, centuries before, had been seduced by the owner of the castle and
+murdered, her body being buried under the window of the room in which Lady
+Fanshawe had slept.
+
+"But truly," she remarked, by way of apology, "I thought not of it when I
+lodged you here."
+
+Another well-known case of the Banshee is that relating to the O'Flahertys
+of Galway, reference being made to the case by Mr McAnnaly in his work
+entitled "Irish Wonders." In the days of much inter-clan fighting in
+Ireland, when the O'Neills frequently embarked on crusades against their
+alternate friends and enemies the O'Donnells, and the O'Rourks[5] embarked
+on similar crusades against the O'Donovans, it so happened that one night
+the chief of the O'Flahertys, arrayed in all the brilliance of a new suit
+of armour, and feeling more than usually cheerful and fit, marched out of
+his castle at the head of a numerous body of his retainers, who were all,
+like their chief, in good spirits, and talking and singing gaily. They had
+not proceeded far, however, when a sudden and quite inexplicable silence
+ensued--a silence that was abruptly broken by a series of agonising
+screams, that seemed to come from just over their heads. Instantly
+everyone was sobered, and naturally looked up, expecting to see something
+that would explain the extraordinary and terrifying disturbance; nothing,
+however, was to be seen, nothing but a vast expanse of cloudless sky,
+innumerable scintillating stars, and the moon which was shining forth in
+all the serene majesty of its zenith. Yet, despite the fact that nothing
+was visible, everyone felt a presence that was at once sorrowful and
+weird, and which one and all instinctively knew was the Banshee, the
+attendant spirit of the O'Flahertys, come to warn them of some approaching
+catastrophe.
+
+The next night, when the chieftain and his followers were again sallying
+forth, the same thing happened, but, after that, nothing of a similar
+nature occurred for about a month. Then the wife of the O'Flaherty, during
+the absence of her husband on one of these foraging expeditions, had an
+experience. She had gone to bed one night and was restlessly tossing
+about, for, try how she would, she could not sleep, when she was suddenly
+terrified by a succession of the most awful shrieks, coming, apparently,
+from just beneath her window, and which sounded like the cries of some
+woman in the direst trouble or pain. She looked, but as she instinctively
+felt would be the case, she could see no one. She then knew that she had
+heard the Banshee; and on the morrow her forebodings were only too fully
+realised. With a fearful knowledge of its meaning, she saw a cavalcade,
+bearing in its midst a bier, slowly and sorrowfully wending its way
+towards the castle; and, needless to say, she did not require to be told
+that the foraging party had returned, and that the surviving warriors had
+brought back with them the lifeless and mutilated body of her husband.
+
+The Kenealy Banshee furnishes yet another instance of this extremely
+fascinating and, up to the present, wholly enigmatical type of haunting.
+Dr Kenealy, the well-known Irish poet and author, resided in his earlier
+years in a wildly romantic and picturesque part of Ireland. Among his
+brothers was one, a mere child, whose sweet and gentle nature rendered him
+beloved by all, and it was a matter of the most excessive grief to the
+entire household, and, indeed, the whole neighbourhood, when this boy fell
+into a decline and his life was despaired of by the physicians. As time
+went on he grew weaker and weaker, until the moment at length arrived,
+when it was obvious that he could not possibly survive another twenty-four
+hours. At about noon, the room in which the patient lay was flooded with a
+stream of sunlight, which came pouring through the windows from the
+cloudless expanse of sky overhead. The weather, indeed, was so gorgeous
+that it seemed almost incredible that death could be hovering quite so
+near the house. One by one, members of the family stole into the chamber
+to take what each one felt might be a last look at the sick boy, whilst he
+was still alive. Presently the doctor arrived, and, as they were all
+discussing in hushed tones the condition of the poor wasted and doomed
+child, they one and all heard someone singing, apparently in the grounds,
+immediately beneath the window. The voice seemed to be that of a woman,
+but not a woman of this world. It was divinely soft and sweet, and charged
+with a pity and sorrow that no earthly being could ever have portrayed;
+and now loud, and now hushed, it continued for some minutes, and then
+seemed to die away gradually, like the ripple of a wavelet on some golden,
+sun-kissed strand, or the whispering of the wind, as it gently rustles its
+way through field after field of yellow, nodding corn.
+
+"What a glorious voice!" one of the listeners exclaimed. "I've never heard
+anything to equal it."
+
+"Very likely not," someone else whispered, "it's the Banshee!"
+
+And so enthralled were they all by the singing, that it was only when the
+final note of the plaintive ditty had quite ceased, that they became aware
+that their beloved patient, unnoticed by them, had passed out. Indeed, it
+seemed as if the boy's soul, with the last whispering notes of the dirge,
+had joined the beautiful, pitying Banshee, to be escorted by it into the
+realms of the all-fearful, all-impatient Unknown. Dr Kenealy has
+commemorated this event in one of his poems.
+
+The story of another haunting by the friendly Banshee is told in Kerry, in
+connection with a certain family that used to live there. According to my
+source of information the family consisted of a man (a gentleman farmer),
+his wife, their son, Terence, and a daughter, Norah.
+
+Norah, an Irish beauty of the dark type, had black hair and blue eyes; and
+possessing numerous admirers, favoured none of them so much as a certain
+Michael O'Lernahan. Now Michael did not stand very well in the graces of
+either of Norah's parents, but Terence liked him, and he was reputed to be
+rich--that is to say rich for that part of Ireland. Accordingly, he was
+invited pretty freely to the farm, and no obstacles were placed in his
+way. On the contrary, he was given more than a fair amount of
+encouragement.
+
+At last, as had been long anticipated, he proposed and Norah accepted him;
+but no sooner was her troth plighted than they both heard, just over
+their heads, a low, despairing wail, as of a woman in the very greatest
+distress and anguish.
+
+Though they were much alarmed at the time, being positive that the sounds
+proceeded from no human being, neither of them seems to have regarded the
+phenomenon in the shape of a warning, and both continued their love-making
+as if the incident had never occurred. A few weeks later, however, Norah
+noticed a sudden change in her lover; he was colder and more distant, and,
+whilst he was with her, she invariably found him preoccupied. At last the
+blow fell. He failed to present himself at the house one evening, though
+he was expected as usual, and, as no explanation was forthcoming the
+following morning, nor on any of the succeeding days, inquiries were made
+by the parents, which elicited the fact that he had become engaged to
+another girl, and that the girl's home was but a few minutes' walk from
+the farm.
+
+This proved too much for Norah; although, apparently, neither unusually
+sensitive nor particularly highly strung, she fell ill, and shortly
+afterwards died of a broken heart. It was not until the night before she
+died, however, that the Banshee paid her a second visit. She was lying on
+a couch in the parlour of the farmhouse, with her mother sitting beside
+her, when a noise was heard that sounded like leaves beating gently
+against the window-frames, and, almost directly afterwards, came the sound
+of singing, loud, and full of intense sorrow and compassion; and,
+obviously, that of a woman.
+
+"'Tis the Banshee," the mother whispered, immediately crossing herself,
+and, at the same time, bursting into tears.
+
+"The Banshee," Norah repeated. "Sure I hear nothing but that tapping at
+the window and the wind which seems all of a sudden to have risen."
+
+But the mother made no response. She only sat with her face buried in her
+hands, sobbing bitterly and muttering to herself, "Banshee! Banshee!"
+
+Presently, the singing having ceased, the old woman got up and dried her
+tears. Her anxiety, however, was not allayed; all through the night she
+could still be heard, every now and again, crying quietly and whispering
+to herself "'Twas the Banshee! Banshee!"; and in the morning Norah,
+suddenly growing alarmingly ill, passed away before medical assistance
+could be summoned.
+
+A case of Banshee haunting that is somewhat unusually pathetic was once
+related to me in connection with a Dublin branch of the once powerful
+clan of McGrath.
+
+It took place in the fifties, and the family, consisting of a young widow
+and two children, Isa and David, at that time occupied an old, rambling
+house, not five minutes' walk from Stephen's Green. Isa seems to have been
+the mother's favourite--she was undoubtedly a very pretty and attractive
+child--and David, possibly on account of his pronounced likeness to his
+father, with whom it was an open secret that Mrs McGrath had never got on
+at all well, to have received rather more than his fair share of scolding.
+This, of course, may or may not have been true. It is certain that he was
+left very much to himself, and, all alone, in a big, empty room at the top
+of the house, was forced to amuse himself as he best could. Occasionally
+one of the servants, inspired by a fellow-feeling--for the lot of servants
+in those days, especially when serving under such severe and exacting
+mistresses as Mrs McGrath, was none too rosy--used to look in to see how
+he was getting on and bring him a toy, bought out of her own meagre
+savings; and, once now and again, Isa, clad in some costly new frock, just
+popped her head in at the door, either to bring him some message from her
+mother, or merely to call out "Hullo!" Otherwise he saw no one; at least
+no one belonging to this earth; he only saw, he affirmed, at times,
+strange-looking people who simply stood and stared at him without
+speaking, people who the servants--girls from Limerick and the west
+country--assured him were either fairies or ghosts.
+
+One day Isa, who had been sent upstairs to tell David to go to his bedroom
+to tidy himself, as he was wanted immediately in the drawing-room, found
+him in a great state of excitement.
+
+"I've seen such a beautiful lady,"[6] he exclaimed, "and she wasn't a bit
+cross. She came and stood by the window and looked as if she wanted to
+play with me, only I daren't ask her. Do you think she will come again?"
+
+"How can I tell? I expect you've been dreaming as usual," Isa laughed.
+"What was she like?"
+
+"Oh, tall, much taller than mother," David replied, "with very, very blue
+eyes and kind of reddish-gold hair that wasn't all screwed up on her head,
+but was hanging in curls on her shoulders. She had very white hands which
+were clasped in front of her, and a bright green dress. I didn't see her
+come or go, but she was here for a long time, quite ten minutes."
+
+"It's another of your fancies, David," Isa laughed again. "But come along,
+make haste, or mother will be angry."
+
+A few minutes later, David, looking very shy and awkward, was in the
+drawing-room being introduced to a gentleman who, he was informed, was his
+future papa.
+
+David seems to have taken a strong dislike to him from the very first, and
+to have foreseen in the coming alliance nothing but trouble and misery for
+himself. Nor were his apprehensions without foundation, for, directly
+after the marriage took place, he became subjected to the very strictest
+discipline. Morning and afternoon alike he was kept hard at his books, and
+any slowness or inability to master a lesson was treated as idleness and
+punished accordingly. The moments he had to himself in his beloved nursery
+now became few and far between, for, directly he had finished his evening
+preparation, he was given his supper and packed off to bed.
+
+The one or two servants who had befriended him, unable to tolerate the new
+regime, gave notice and left, and there was soon no one in the house who
+showed any compassion whatever for the poor lonely boy.
+
+Things went on in this fashion for some weeks, and then a day came, when
+he really felt it impossible to go on living any longer.
+
+He had been generally run down for some weeks, and this, coupled with the
+fact that he was utterly broken in spirit, rendered his task of learning a
+wellnigh impossibility. It was in vain he pleaded, however; his entreaties
+were only taken for excuses; and, when, in an unguarded moment, he let
+slip some sort of reference to unkind treatment, he was at once accused of
+rudeness by his mother and, at her request, summarily castigated.
+
+The limit of his tribulation had been reached. That night he was sent to
+bed, as usual, immediately after supper, and Isa, who happened to pass by
+his room an hour or so afterwards, was greatly astonished at hearing him
+seemingly engaged in conversation. Peeping slyly in at the door, in order
+to find out with whom he was talking, she saw him sitting up in bed,
+apparently addressing space, or the moonbeams, which, pouring in at the
+window, fell directly on him.
+
+"What are you doing?" she asked, "and why aren't you asleep?"
+
+The moment she spoke he looked round and, in tones of the greatest
+disappointment, said:
+
+"Oh, dear, she's gone. You've frightened her away."
+
+"Frightened her away! Why, what rubbish!" Isa exclaimed. "Lie down at
+once or I'll go and fetch mamma."
+
+"It was my green lady," David went on, breathlessly, far too excited to
+pay any serious heed to Isa's threat. "My green lady, and she told me I
+should be no more lonely, that she was coming to fetch me some time
+to-night."
+
+Isa laughed, and, telling him not to be so silly, but to go to sleep at
+once, she speedily withdrew and went downstairs to join her parents in the
+drawing-room.
+
+That night, at about twelve, Isa was awakened by singing, loud and
+plaintive singing, in a woman's voice, apparently proceeding from the
+hall. Greatly alarmed she got up, and, on opening her door, perceived her
+parents and the servants, all in their night attire, huddled together on
+the landing, listening.
+
+"Sure 'tis the Banshee," the cook at length whispered. "I heard my father
+spake about it when I was a child. She sings, says he, more beautifully
+than any grand lady, but sorrowful like, and only before a death."
+
+"Before a death," Isa's mother stammered. "But who's going to die here?
+Why, we are all of us perfectly sound and well." As she spoke the singing
+ceased, there was an abrupt silence, and all slowly retired to their
+rooms.
+
+Nothing further was heard during the night, but in the morning, when
+breakfast time came, there was no David; and a hue and cry being raised
+and a thorough search made, he was eventually discovered, drowned in a
+cistern in the roof.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE MALEVOLENT BANSHEE
+
+
+The Banshees dealt with in the last chapter may all be described as
+sympathetic or friendly Banshees. I will now present to the reader a few
+equally authentic accounts of malevolent or unfriendly Banshees. Before
+doing so, however, I would like to call attention to the fact that, once
+when I was reading a paper on Banshees before the Irish Literary Society,
+in Hanover Square, a lady got up and, challenging my remark that not all
+Banshees were alike, tried to prove that I was wrong, on the assumption
+that all Banshees must be sad and beautiful because the Banshee in her
+family happened to be sad and beautiful, an argument, if argument it can
+be called, which, although it is a fairly common one, cannot, of course,
+be taken seriously.
+
+Moreover, as I have already stated, there is abundant evidence to show
+that Banshees are of many and diverse kinds; and that no two appear to be
+exactly alike or to act in precisely the same fashion.
+
+According to Mr McAnnaly, the malevolent Banshee is invariably "a horrible
+hag with ugly, distorted features; maledictions are written in every line
+of her wrinkled face, and her outstretched arms call down curses on the
+doomed member of the hated race."
+
+Other writers, too, would seem more or less to encourage the idea that all
+malignant Banshees are cast in one mould and all beautiful Banshees in
+another, whereas from my own personal experiences I should say that
+Banshees, whether good or bad, are just as individual as any member of the
+family they haunt.
+
+It is related of a certain ancient Mayo family that a chief of the race
+once made love to a very beautiful girl whom he betrayed and subsequently
+murdered. With her dying breath the girl cursed her murderer and swore she
+would haunt him and his for ever. Years rolled by; the cruel deceiver
+married, and, with the passing away of all who knew him in his youth, he
+came to be regarded as a model of absolute propriety and rectitude. Hence
+it was in these circumstances that he was sitting one night before a big
+blazing fire in the hall of his castle, outwardly happy enough and
+surrounded by his sons and daughters, when loud shrieks of exultation
+were heard coming, it seemed, from someone who was standing on the path
+close to the castle walls. All rushed out to see who it was, but no one
+was there, and the grounds, as far as the eye could reach, were absolutely
+deserted.
+
+Later on, however, some little time after the household had retired to
+rest, the same demoniacal disturbances took place; peal after peal of
+wild, malicious laughter rang out, followed by a discordant moaning and
+screaming. This time the aged chieftain did not accompany the rest of the
+household in their search for the originator of the disturbances.
+Possibly, in that discordant moaning and screaming he fancied he could
+detect the voice of the murdered girl; and, possibly, accepting the
+manifestation as a death-warning, he was not surprised on the following
+day, when he was waylaid out of doors and brutally done to death by one of
+his followers.
+
+Needless to say, perhaps, the haunting of this Banshee still continues,
+the same phenomena occurring at least once to every generation of the
+family, before the death of one of its members. Happily, however, the
+haunting now does not necessarily precede a violent death, and in this
+respect, though in this respect only, differs from the original.
+
+Another haunting by this same species of Banshee was brought to my notice
+the last time I was in Ireland. I happened to be visiting a certain
+relative of mine, at that date residing in Black Rock, and from her I
+learned the following, which now appears in print for the first time.
+
+About the middle of the last century, when my relative was in her teens,
+some friends of hers, the O'D.'s, were living in a big old-fashioned
+country house, somewhere between Ballinanty and Hospital in the County of
+Limerick. The family consisted of Mr O'D., who had been something in India
+in his youth and was now very much of a recluse, though much esteemed
+locally on account of his extreme piety and good-heartedness; Mrs O'D.,
+who, despite her grey hair and wrinkled countenance, still retained traces
+of more than ordinary good looks; Wilfred, a handsome but decidedly
+headstrong young man of between twenty-five and thirty; and Ellen, a
+blue-eyed, golden-haired girl of the true Milesian type of Irish beauty.
+
+My relative was on terms of the greatest intimacy with the whole family,
+but especially with the two younger folk, and it was generally expected
+that she and Wilfred would make what is vulgarly termed a "match of it."
+Indeed, the first of the ghostly happenings that she experienced in
+connection with the O'D.'s actually occurred the very day Wilfred took the
+long-anticipated step and proposed to her.
+
+It seems that my relative was out for a walk one afternoon with Ellen and
+Wilfred, when the latter, taking advantage of his sister's sudden fancy
+for going on ahead to look for dog-roses, passionately declared his love,
+and, apparently, did not declare it in vain. The trio, then, in more or
+less exalted spirits--for my relative had of course let Ellen into the
+secret--walked home together, and as they were passing through a big
+wooden gateway into the garden at the rear of the O'D.'s house, they
+perceived a tall, spare woman, with her back towards them, digging away
+furiously.
+
+"Hullo," Wilfred exclaimed, "who's that?"
+
+"I don't know," Ellen replied. "It's certainly not Mary" (Mary was the old
+cook who, like many of the servants of that period, did not confine her
+labour to the culinary art, but performed all kinds of odd jobs as well),
+"nor anyone from the farm. But what on earth does she think she's doing?
+Hey, there!" and Ellen, raising her naturally sweet and musical voice,
+gave a little shout.
+
+The woman instantly turned round, and the trio received a most violent
+shock. The light was fading, for it was late in the afternoon, but what
+little there was seemed to be entirely concentrated on the visage before
+them, making it appear luminous. It was a broad face with very pronounced
+cheek-bones; a large mouth, the thin lips of which were fixed in a
+dreadful and mocking leer; and very pale, obliquely set eyes that glowed
+banefully as they met the gaze of the three now appalled spectators.
+
+For some seconds the evil-looking creature stood in dead silence,
+apparently gloating over the discomposure her appearance had produced,
+and, then, suddenly shouldering her spade, she walked slowly away, turning
+round every now and again to cast the same malevolent gleeful look at
+them, until she came to the hedge that separated the garden from a long
+disused stone quarry, when she seemed suddenly to fade away in the now
+very uncertain twilight, and disappear.
+
+For some moments no one spoke or stirred, but continued gazing after her
+in a kind of paralysed astonishment. Wilfred was the first to break the
+silence.
+
+"What an awful looking hag," he exclaimed. "Where's she gone?"
+
+Ellen whistled. "Ask another," she said. "There's nowhere she could have
+gone excepting into the quarry, and my only hope is that she is lying at
+the bottom of it with a broken neck, for I certainly never wish to see
+her again. But come, let's be moving on, I'm chilly."
+
+They started off, but had only proceeded a few yards, when, apparently
+from the direction of the quarry, came a peal of laughter, so mocking and
+malignant and altogether evil, that all three involuntarily quickened
+their steps, and, at the same time, refrained from speaking, until they
+had reached the house, which they hastily entered, securely closing the
+door behind them. They then went straight to Mr O'D. and asked him who the
+old woman was whom they had just seen.
+
+"What was she like?" he queried. "I haven't authorised anyone but Mary to
+go into the garden."
+
+"It certainly wasn't Mary," Ellen responded quickly. "It was some hideous
+old crone who was digging away like anything. On our approach she left off
+and gave us the most diabolical look I have ever seen. Then she went away
+and seemed to vanish in the hedge by the quarry. We afterwards heard her
+give the most appalling and intensely evil laugh that you can imagine.
+Whoever is she?"
+
+"I can't think," Mr O'D. replied, looking somewhat unusually pale. "It is
+no one whom I know. Very possibly she was a tramp or gipsy. We must take
+care to keep all the doors locked. Whatever you do, don't mention a word
+about her to your mother or to Mary--they are both nervous and very easily
+frightened."
+
+All three promised, and the matter was then allowed to drop, but my
+relative, who returned home before it got quite dark, subsequently learned
+that that night, some time after the O'D. household had all retired to
+rest, peal after peal of the same infernal mocking laughter was heard,
+just under the windows, first of all in the front of the house, and then
+in the rear; and that, on the morrow, came the news that the business
+concern in which most of Mr O'D.'s money was invested had gone smash and
+the family were practically penniless.
+
+The house now was in imminent danger of being sold, and many people
+thought that it was merely to avert this catastrophe and to enable her
+parents to keep a roof over their heads that Ellen accepted the attentions
+of a very vulgar parvenu (an Englishman) in Limerick, and eventually
+married him. Where there is no love, however, there is never any
+happiness, and where there is not even "liking," there is very often hate;
+and in Ellen's case hate there was without any doubt. Barely able, even
+from the first, to tolerate her husband (his favourite trick was to make
+love to her in public and almost in the same breath bully her--also in
+public), she eventually grew to loathe him, and at last, unable to endure
+his hated presence any longer, she eloped with an officer who was
+stationed in the neighbourhood. The night before Ellen took this step, my
+relative and Wilfred (the latter was escorting his fiancee home after a
+pleasant evening spent in her company) again heard the malevolent
+laughter, which (although they could see no one) pursued them for some
+distance along the moonlit lanes and across the common leading to the spot
+where my relative lived. After this the laughter was not heard again for
+two years, but at the end of that period my relative had another
+experience of the phenomena.
+
+She was again spending the evening with the O'D.'s, and, on this occasion,
+she was discussing with Mr and Mrs O'D. the advent of Wilfred, who was
+expected to arrive home from the West Indies any time within the next few
+days. My relative was not unnaturally interested, as it had been arranged
+that she and Wilfred should marry, as soon as possible after his arrival
+in Ireland. They were all three--Mr and Mrs O'D. and my relative--engaged
+in animated conversation (the old people had unexpectedly come into a
+little money, and that, too, had considerably contributed to their
+cheerfulness), when Mrs O'D., fancying she heard someone calling to her
+from the garden, got up and went to the window.
+
+"Harry," she exclaimed, still looking out and apparently unable to remove
+her gaze, "do come. There's the most awful old woman in the garden,
+staring hard at me. Quick, both of you. She's perfectly horrible; she
+frightens me."
+
+My relative and Mr O'D. at once sprang up and hastened to her side, and,
+there, they saw, gazing up at them, the pallor of its cheeks intensified
+by a stray moonbeam which seemed to be concentrated solely on it, a face
+which my relative recognised immediately as that of the woman she had
+seen, two years ago, digging in the garden. The old hag seemed to remember
+my relative, too, for, as their glances met, a gleam of recognition crept
+into her light eyes, and, a moment later, gave way to an expression of
+such diabolical hate that my relative involuntarily caught hold of Mr O'D.
+for protection. Evidently noting this action the creature leered horribly,
+and then, drawing a kind of shawl or hood tightly over its head, moved
+away with a kind of gliding motion, vanishing round an angle of the wall.
+
+Mr O'D. at once went out into the garden, but, after a few minutes,
+returned, declaring that, although he had searched in every direction, not
+a trace of their sinister-looking visitor could he see anywhere. He had
+hardly, however, finished speaking, when, apparently from close to the
+house, came several peals of the most hellish laughter, that terminated in
+one loud, prolonged wail, unmistakably ominous and menacing.
+
+"Oh, Harry," Mrs O'D. exclaimed, on the verge of fainting, "what can be
+the meaning of it? That was surely no living woman."
+
+"No," Mr O'D. replied slowly, "it was the Banshee. As you know, the O'D.
+Banshee, for some reason or another, possesses an inveterate hatred of my
+family, and we must prepare again for some evil tidings. But," he went on,
+steadying his voice with an effort, "with God's grace we must face it, for
+whatever happens it is His Divine will."
+
+A few days later my relative, as may be imagined, was immeasurably shocked
+to hear that Mr O'D. had been sent word that Wilfred was dead. He had, it
+appeared, been stricken down with fever, supposed to have been caught from
+one of his fellow-passengers, and had died on the very day that he should
+have landed, on the very day, in fact (as it was afterwards ascertained
+from a comparison of dates), upon which his parents and fiancee, together,
+had heard and seen the Banshee.
+
+Soon after this unhappy event my relative left the neighbourhood and went
+to live with some friends near Dublin, and though, from time to time, she
+corresponded with the O'D.'s, she never again heard anything of their
+Banshee.
+
+This same relative of mine, whom I will now call Miss S---- (she never
+married), was acquainted with two old maiden ladies named O'Rorke who,
+many years ago, lived in a semi-detached house close to Lower Merrion
+Street. Miss S---- did not know to what branch of the O'Rorkes they
+belonged, for they were very reticent with regard to their family history,
+but she believed they originally came from the south-west and were
+distantly connected with some of her own people.
+
+With regard to their house, there certainly was something peculiar, since
+in it was one room that was invariably kept locked, and in connection with
+this room it was said there existed a mystery of the most frightful and
+harrowing description.
+
+My relative often had it on the tip of her tongue to refer to the room,
+just to see what effect it would have on the two old ladies, but she could
+never quite sum up the courage to do so. One afternoon, however, when she
+was calling on them, the subject was brought to their notice in a very
+startling manner.
+
+The elder of the two sisters, Miss Georgina, who was presiding at the tea
+table, had just handed Miss S---- a cup of tea and was about to pour out
+another for herself, when into the room, with her cap all awry and her
+eyes bulging, rushed one of the servants.
+
+"Good gracious!" Miss Georgina exclaimed, "whatever's the matter,
+Bridget?"
+
+"Matter!" Bridget retorted, in a brogue which I will not attempt to
+imitate. "Why, someone's got into that room you always keep locked and is
+making the devil of a noise, enough to raise all the Saints in Heaven.
+Norah" (Norah was the cook) "and I both heard it--a groaning, and a
+chuckling, and a scratching, as if the cratur was tearing up the boards
+and breaking all the furniture, and all the while keening and laughing.
+For the love of Heaven, ladies, come and hear it for yourselves. Such
+goings on! Ochone! Ochone!"
+
+Both ladies, Miss S---- said, turned deadly pale, and Miss Harriet, the
+younger sister, was on the brink of tears.
+
+"Where is cook?" Miss Georgina, who was by far the stronger minded of the
+two, suddenly said, addressing Bridget. "If she is upstairs, tell her to
+come down at once. Miss Harriet and I will go and see what the noise is
+that you complain about upstairs. There really is no need to make all this
+disturbance"--here she assumed an air of the utmost severity--"it's sure
+to be either mice or rats."
+
+"Mice or rats!" Bridget echoed. "I'm sorry for the mice and rats as make
+all those noises. 'Tis some evil spirit, sure, and Norah is of the same
+mind," and with those parting words she slammed the door behind her.
+
+The sisters, then, begging to be excused for a few minutes, left the room,
+and returned shortly afterwards looking terribly white and distressed.
+
+"I am sure you must think all this very odd," Miss Georgina observed with
+as great a degree of unconcern as she could assume, "and I feel we owe you
+an explanation, but I must beg you will not repeat a word of what we tell
+you to anyone else."
+
+Miss S---- promised she would not, and then composed herself to listen.
+
+"We have in our family," Miss O'Rorke began, "a most unpleasant
+attachment; in other words, a most unpleasant Banshee. Being Irish, you
+will not laugh, of course, as many English people do, at what I say. You
+know as well as I do, perhaps, that many of the really ancient Irish
+families possess Banshees."
+
+Miss S---- nodded. "We have one ourselves," she remarked, "but pray go on.
+I am intensely interested."
+
+"Well, unlike most of the Banshees," Miss Georgina continued, "ours is
+appallingly ugly and malevolent; so frightful, indeed, that to see it,
+even, is sometimes fatal. One of our great-great-uncles, for instance, to
+whom it once appeared, is reported to have died from shock; a similar fate
+overtaking another of our ancestors, who also saw it. Fortunately, it
+seems to have a strong attraction in the shape of an old gold ring which
+has been in the possession of the family from time immemorial. Both
+ancestors I have referred to are alleged to have been wearing this ring at
+the time the Banshee appeared to them, and it is said to strictly confine
+its manifestations to the immediate vicinity of that article. That is why
+our parents always kept the ring strictly isolated, in a locked room, the
+key of which was never, for a moment, allowed to be out of their
+possession. And we have strenuously followed their example. That is the
+explanation of the mystery you have doubtless heard about, for I
+believe--thanks to the servants--it has become the gossip of half Dublin."
+
+"And the noise Bridget referred to," Miss S---- ventured to remark,
+somewhat timidly, "was that the Banshee?"
+
+Miss Georgina nodded.
+
+"I fear it was," she observed solemnly, "and that we shall shortly hear of
+a relative's death or grave catastrophe to some member of the family;
+probably, a cousin of ours in County Galway, who has been ill for some
+weeks, is dying."
+
+She was partly right, although the latter surmise was not correct. Within
+a few days of the Banshee's visit a member of the family died, but it was
+not the sick cousin, it was Miss Georgina's own sister, Harriet!
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE BANSHEE ABROAD
+
+
+As I have remarked in a previous chapter, the Banshee to-day is heard more
+often abroad than in Ireland. It follows the fortunes of the true old
+Milesian Irishman--the real O and Mc, none of your adulterated O'Walters
+or O'Cassons--everywhere, even to the Poles.
+
+Lady Wilde, in her "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of
+Ireland," quotes the case of a Banshee haunting that was experienced by a
+branch of the Clan O'Grady that had settled in Canada.
+
+The spot chosen by this family for their residence was singularly wild and
+isolated, and one night at two o'clock, when they were all in bed, they
+were aroused by a loud cry, coming, apparently, from just outside the
+house. Nothing intelligible was uttered, only a sound indicative of the
+greatest bitterness and sorrow, such as one might imagine a woman would
+give vent to, but only when in an agony of mind, almost beyond human
+understanding.
+
+The effect produced by it was one of sublime terror, and all seemed to
+feel instinctively that the source from which it emanated was apart from
+this world and belonged wholly and solely to the Unknown. Nevertheless,
+from what Lady Wilde says, we are led to infer that an exhaustive search
+of the premises was made, resulting, as was expected, in complete failure
+to find any physical agency that could in any way account for the cry.
+
+The following day the head of the household and his eldest son went
+boating on a lake near the house, and, although it was their intention to
+do so, did not return to dinner. Various members of the family were sent
+to look for them, but no trace of them was to be seen anywhere, and no
+solution to the mystery as to what had happened to them was forthcoming,
+till two o'clock that night, when, exactly twenty-four hours after the cry
+had been heard, some of the searchers returned, bearing with them the wet,
+bedraggled, and lifeless bodies of both father and son. Then, once again,
+the weird and ominous sound that had so startled them on the previous
+night was heard, and the sorrow-stricken family--that is to say, those who
+were left of it--agreeing now that the Banshee had indeed visited them,
+remembered that their beloved father, whom they had just lost, had often
+spoken of the Banshee, as having haunted their branch of the clan for
+countless generations.
+
+Another case of Banshee haunting, that I have in mind, relates to a branch
+of the southern O'Neills that settled in Italy a good many years ago. It
+was told me in Paris by a Mrs Dempsey, who assured me she had been an
+eye-witness of the phenomena, and I now record it in print for the first
+time.
+
+Mrs Dempsey, when staying once at an hotel in the north of Italy, noticed
+among the guests an elderly man, whose very marked features and intensely
+sad expression quickly attracted her attention. She observed that he kept
+entirely aloof from his fellow-guests, and that, every evening after
+dinner, he retired from the drawing-room, as soon as coffee had been
+handed round, and went outside and stood on the veranda overlooking the
+shore of the Adriatic.
+
+She made inquiries as to his name and history, and was told that he was
+Count Fernando Asioli, a wealthy Florentine citizen, who, having but
+recently lost his wife, to whom he was devoted, naturally did not wish to
+join in the general conversation. Upon hearing this Mrs Dempsey was more
+than ever interested. It was not so very long since she, too, had lost her
+partner--a husband to whom she was much attached--and, consequently, it
+was in sympathetic mood that, seeing the Count go out, as usual, one
+evening, on to the veranda, she resolved to follow him, to try, if
+possible, to get into conversation with him.
+
+With this end in view she was about to cross the threshold of the veranda,
+when, to her astonishment, she perceived the Count was not there alone.
+Standing by his side, with one hand laid caressingly on his shoulder, was
+a tall, slim girl, with masses of the most gorgeous red gold hair hanging
+loose and reaching to her waist. She was wearing an emerald green dress of
+some very filmy substance; but her arms and feet were bare, and stood out
+so clearly in the soft radiance of the moonbeams, that Mrs Dempsey, who
+was an artist and had studied on the Continent, noticed with a thrill that
+they equalled, if, indeed, they did not surpass in beauty, any she had
+ever come across either in Greek or Florentine sculpture.
+
+Much perplexed as to who such a queerly attired visitor on such friendly
+terms with the Count could be, Mrs Dempsey remained for a second or two
+watching, and then, afraid lest she should attract their attention and so
+be caught, seemingly, in the act of spying, she withdrew.
+
+The moment she got back again into the drawing-room, however, she made
+somewhat indignant inquiries of a lady who generally sat next to her at
+meals, as to the identity of the girl she had just seen standing beside
+the, said to be, heart-broken Count in an attitude of such close intimacy.
+
+"A woman with the Count!" was the reply. "Surely not! Who can she be, and
+what was she like?"
+
+Mrs Dempsey described the stranger in detail, but her friend, shaking her
+head, could only suggest that she was some new-comer, some guest who had
+arrived at the hotel, and gone on the veranda whilst they were at dinner.
+Feeling a little curious, however, Mrs Dempsey's friend walked towards the
+veranda, and, in a very short time, returned, looking somewhat puzzled.
+
+"You must have been mistaken," she whispered, "there is no one with Count
+Asioli now, and, if anyone had come away, we should have seen them."
+
+"I am quite sure I did see a woman there," Mrs Dempsey replied, "and only
+a minute or two ago; she must have got out somehow, although there is,
+apparently, no other way than through this room."
+
+At this moment, the Count, entering the room, took a seat beside them; and
+the subject, of course, had to be dropped. The next night, however, the
+events of the preceding night were repeated. Mrs Dempsey followed the
+Count on to the veranda, saw the girl in green standing with her hand on
+his shoulder, came back and told her neighbour at meals, and the latter,
+on hastening to the veranda to look, once more returned declaring that the
+Count was alone. After this, a slight altercation took place between the
+two ladies, the one declaring her belief that it was all an optical
+illusion on the part of the other, and the other emphatically sticking to
+her story that she had actually seen the girl she had described.
+
+They parted that night, both a little ruffled, though neither would admit
+it, and the following night, Mrs Dempsey, as soon as she saw the Count go
+on to the veranda, fetched her friend.
+
+"Now," she said, "come with me and see for yourself."
+
+The two ladies, accordingly, went to the veranda and, opening the door
+gently, peeped in.
+
+"There she is," Mrs Dempsey whispered, "standing in just the same
+position."
+
+The sound of her voice, though so low as to be scarcely heard even by the
+lady standing beside her, seemingly attracted the attention of both the
+girl and the Count, for they turned round simultaneously. Then Mrs
+Dempsey, whose gaze was solely concentrated on the girl, saw a face of
+almost indescribable beauty--possessing neatly chiselled, but by no means
+coldly classical features, long eyes of a marvellous blue, a smooth broad
+brow, and delicately and subtly moulded mouth; it was the face of a young
+girl, barely out of her teens, and it was filled with an expression of
+infinite sorrow and affection.
+
+Mrs Dempsey was so enraptured that, to quote her own words, she "stood
+gazing at it in speechless awe and amazement," and might, perhaps, have
+been gazing at it still, had not the voice of the Count called her back to
+earth.
+
+"I hope, ladies," he was saying, "that you do not see anything unusually
+disturbing in my appearance to-night, for I undoubtedly seem to be the
+object of your solicitude. May I ask why?"
+
+Though he spoke quite politely, even the dullest could have seen that he
+was more than a little annoyed. Mrs Dempsey therefore hastened to reply.
+
+"It is not you," she stammered out, "it is the lady--the lady you have
+with you. I--I fancied I knew her."
+
+"The lady I have with me," the Count exclaimed, in accents of cold
+surprise. "Kindly explain what you mean?"
+
+"Why the lady----" Mrs Dempsey began, and then she glanced round.
+
+The Count was standing in front of her--but he was quite alone. There was
+no vestige of a girl in green, nor of any other person on the veranda
+saving themselves, and immediately beneath it, at a distance of at least
+thirty feet, glimmered the white shingles of the silent and
+deserted--utterly deserted--seashore.
+
+"She's gone," Mrs Dempsey cried, "but I'm positive I saw her--a lady in
+green standing beside you." Then, for the first time, she felt afraid, and
+trembled.
+
+The Count, who had been observing her very closely, now advanced a step or
+two towards her, and in a very different tone said:
+
+"Will you please describe the lady? Was she old or young, dark or fair?"
+
+"Young and fair, very fair," Mrs Dempsey exclaimed. "But please come
+inside, for I've received something of a shock, and can, perhaps, talk to
+you better in the gaslight, with people near at hand whom I know are human
+beings."
+
+He did as she requested, and became more and more interested as she
+proceeded with her description, interrupting her every now and again with
+questions. Was she sure the girl had blue eyes, he asked, and how could
+she tell what colour the eyes were by the light of the moon only; Mrs
+Dempsey's reply to which being that the girl's whole body seemed to be
+illuminated from within, in such a manner that every detail could be seen,
+almost, if not quite, as clearly as if she had been standing in the full
+glare of an electric light. At the conclusion of her narrative Mrs Dempsey
+was further questioned by the Count.
+
+"Had she," he inquired, "ever been told that he was partly Irish,
+because," he added, on receiving a negative reply, "I am, and my real name
+is O'Neill, my great-great-grandfather having assumed the name of Asioli
+in order to come into some property when the family, which came from the
+south of Ireland, settled in Italy, many, many years ago. But what will, I
+am sure, be of considerable interest to you is the fact that this branch
+of the O'Neills, the branch to which I belong, is haunted by a Banshee,
+and that that Banshee has, I believe--since the description of it given me
+by various members of my family tallies with the description you have
+given me of the girl you saw standing by me--appeared to you. I would add
+that it never reveals itself, excepting when an O'Neill is about to die,
+and as I am quite the last of my line, I cannot conceive any reason for
+its having thus appeared three nights in succession, unless, of course, it
+is to predict my own end."
+
+Mrs Dempsey was not long left in doubt. On the morrow the Count was
+summoned to Venice on urgent business, and on his way to the railway
+depot he suddenly dropped down dead, the excitement and exertion having,
+so it was supposed, proved too much for his heart, which was known to be
+weak.
+
+Said to be descended from the younger of the two sons of King Milesius, it
+certainly is not surprising that the O'Neills[7] should possess a
+Banshee--indeed, it would be surprising if they did not--but I have found
+it somewhat difficult to trace. However, according to Lady Wilde in her
+"Irish Wonders," p. 112, there is a room at Shane Castle which is strictly
+set aside for it.
+
+The Banshee, Lady Wilde says, is very often seen in this apartment,
+sometimes appearing shrouded in a dark, mist-like mantle; and at other
+times as a very lovely young girl with long, red-gold hair, clad in a
+scarlet cloak and green kirtle, adorned with gold. Lady Wilde goes on to
+tell us no harm ever comes of the Banshee's visit, unless she is seen in
+the act of crying, when her wails may be taken as a certain sign that some
+member of the family will shortly die. Mr McAnnaly corroborates this by
+stating that on one occasion one of the O'Neills of Shane Castle heard the
+Banshee crying, just as he was about to set out on a journey, and perished
+soon afterwards, which is somewhat unusual, because in the majority of
+cases I have come across the Banshee does not manifest itself at all to
+the person whose death it predicts. A very old, probably the oldest,
+branch of the O'Neills now resides in Portugal, but up to the present I
+have not succeeded in obtaining any evidence to warrant the assumption
+that the Banshee haunting has been experienced in that country.
+
+Indeed, the Banshee seems to be just as erratic and wayward as any
+daughter of Eve, for there is no consistency whatever in her movements.
+The very families one thinks she would haunt, she often studiously avoids,
+and not infrequently she concentrates her attention on those who are
+utterly obscure, albeit, always of _bona fide_ Irish extraction.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
+
+
+In previous chapters I have dealt exclusively with cases that are, without
+doubt, those of genuine Banshee haunting. I now propose to narrate a few
+cases which I will term cases of doubtful Banshee haunting--that is to
+say, cases of haunting which, although said to be Banshee, cannot, in view
+of the phenomena and circumstances, be thus designated with any degree of
+certainty.
+
+To begin with I will recall the case relating to the R----s, a family
+living in Canada. Their house, a long, low, two-storied building, stood on
+a lonely spot on the road leading to Montreal, and a young lady, whom I
+will designate Miss Delane, was visiting them when the incidents I am
+about to narrate took place.
+
+The weather had been more than commonly fine for that time of year, but at
+last the inevitable and unmistakable signs of a break had set in, and one
+evening black clouds gathered in the sky, the wind whistled ominously in
+the chimneys and savagely shook the many-coloured maple leaves, while,
+after a time, the moon, which had been hanging like a great red globe over
+the St Lawrence, became suddenly obscured, and big drops of rain came
+spluttering against the windows.
+
+Miss Delane, who had been seized with a strange restlessness which she
+could not shake off, then went into the hall, and was about to speak to
+one of Major R----'s nieces, who was also on a visit there, when her
+attention was arrested by the sound of a heavy carriage lumbering along
+the high road, from the direction of Montreal, at a very great rate. It
+being now nearly ten o'clock, an hour when there was usually very little
+traffic, she was somewhat surprised, her astonishment increasing by leaps
+and bounds when she heard the wheels crunching on the gravel drive, and
+the carriage rapidly approaching the house.
+
+"Surely, it is too late----" she began, but was cut short by the Major,
+who, abruptly pushing past her to the front door, just as the carriage
+drew up, swung it to, and, in trembling haste, locked, and barred, and
+bolted it.
+
+Footsteps were then heard hurriedly ascending the steps to the front door,
+and immediately afterwards a series of loud rat-tat-tats, although, as
+everyone instantly remembered, there was no knocker on the door, the
+Major having had it removed many years ago, for a reason he either could
+not or would not explain.
+
+Startled almost out of their senses by the noise, the whole household had
+in a few seconds assembled in the hall, and they now knelt, huddled
+together, whilst the Major in a voice which, despite the fact that it was
+raised to its highest pitch, could barely be heard above the furious and
+frenzied knocking, besought the Almighty to protect them.
+
+As he continued praying the rat-tats gradually grew feebler and feebler,
+until they finally ceased, after which the footsteps were once again heard
+on the stone steps, this time descending, and the carriage drove away. It
+was not, however, until the reverberations of the wheels could no longer
+be heard that the Major rose from his knees. Then, bidding his household
+do likewise, he insisted that they should at once retire, without speaking
+a word, to their rooms; and forbade them ever to mention the matter to him
+again.
+
+As soon as Miss Delane and the Major's nieces were in their bedroom--they
+shared a room between them--they ran to the window and looked out. The sky
+was quite clear now, and the moon was shining forth in all the splendour
+of its calm cold majesty; but the grounds and road beyond were quite
+deserted; not a vestige of any person or carriage could be seen anywhere,
+and, on the morrow, when they hastened downstairs and examined the gravel,
+there were no indications whatever of any wheels.
+
+The day passed quite uneventfully, and once again it was night-time; the
+Major had read prayers as usual at about ten, and the household, also as
+usual, had retired to rest. Miss Delane, who was used to much later hours,
+found it difficult to compose herself to sleep so soon, but she had just
+managed to doze off, when she was aroused by her friend Ellen, the elder
+of the Major's two nieces, pulling violently at her bedclothes, and, on
+looking up, she perceived a tall figure, clad in what looked like nun's
+garments, walking across the room with long, stealthy strides. As she
+gazed at it in breathless astonishment, it suddenly paused and, turning
+its hooded head round, stared fixedly at Ellen, and then, moving on,
+seemed to melt into the wall. At all events, it had vanished, and there
+was nothing where it had been standing, saving moonlight.
+
+For some minutes Ellen was too terrified to speak, but she at last called
+out to Miss Delane and implored her to come and get into her bed, as she
+no longer dared lie there by herself.
+
+"Did you see the way it looked at me," she whispered, clutching hold of
+Miss Delane, and shuddering violently. "I don't think I shall ever get
+over it. We must leave here to-morrow. We must, we must," and she burst
+out crying.
+
+As may be imagined, there was little sleep for either of the girls again
+that night, and it seemed to them as if the morning would never come; but,
+when at last it did come, they told Major R---- what had happened, and
+declared they really dared not spend another night in the house.
+
+Though obviously distressed on hearing what they had to say, the Major did
+not press them to alter their decision and stay, but told them that to go,
+he thought, under the circumstances, was far the wisest and safest thing
+for them to do. An hour or so later, having finished their packing, they
+were all three taking a final stroll together in the garden, when they
+fancied they heard someone running after them down one of the sidewalks,
+and, turning round, they saw the figure that had disturbed them in the
+night, standing close behind them.
+
+The sunlight falling directly on it revealed features now only too easily
+distinguishable of someone long since dead, but animated by a spirit that
+was wholly antagonistic and malicious, and as they shrank back
+terror-stricken, it stretched forth one of its long, bony arms and touched
+first Ellen and then her sister on the shoulder. It then veered round,
+and, moving away with the same peculiarly long and surreptitious strides,
+seemed suddenly to amalgamate with the shadows from the trees and
+disappear.
+
+For some moments the girls were far too paralysed with fear to do other
+than remain where they were, trembling; but their faculties at length
+reasserting themselves, they made a sudden dash for the house, and ran at
+top speed till they reached it.
+
+It was some weeks afterwards, however, and not till then, that Miss
+Delane, who was back again in her home in Ireland, received any
+explanation of the phenomena she had witnessed. It was given her by a
+friend of the R----s who happened to be visiting one of Miss Delane's
+relatives in Dublin.
+
+"What you saw," this friend of the R----s said to Miss Delane, "was, I
+believe, the Banshee, which always manifests itself before the death of
+any member of the family. Sometimes it shrieks, like the shrieking of a
+woman who is being cruelly done to death, and sometimes it merely stares
+at or touches its victim on the shoulder with its skeleton hand. In either
+case its advent is fatal. Only," she added, "let me implore you never to
+breathe a word of this to the R----s, as they never mention their ghost to
+anyone."
+
+Miss Delane, of course, promised, at the same time expressing a devout
+hope that the phenomena she had witnessed did not point to the illness or
+death of either of her friends; but in this she was doomed to the deepest
+disappointment, for within a few weeks of the date upon which the
+Banshee--if Banshee it really were--had appeared, she received tidings of
+the deaths of both Ellen and her sister (the former succumbing to an
+attack of some malignant fever, and the latter to an accident), and in
+addition heard that Major R---- had died also. As Major R---- would never
+discuss the subject of his family ghost with anyone at all, it is
+impossible to say whether he believed the haunting to be a Banshee
+haunting or not; but many, apparently, did believe it to be this type of
+haunting, and I must say I think they were wrong.
+
+To begin with, the R----s were Anglo-Irish. Their connection with Ireland
+may have dated back a century or so, but they were certainly not of
+Milesian nor even Celtic Irish descent; and, for this reason alone, could
+not have acquired a Banshee haunting. Besides, the Banshee that we know
+does not appear, as the R----'s ghost appeared, attired in the vestments
+of a religious order; and the coach or hearse phantasm (which in the
+R----'s case preceded the manifestation of the supposed Banshee) is by no
+means an uncommon haunting;[8] and since it is more often than not
+accompanied by phenomena of the sepulchral type (the type witnessed by
+Miss Delane and the Major's nieces), it may be said to constitute in
+itself a peculiar form of family haunting which is not, of course,
+exclusively confined to the Irish.
+
+Hence I entirely dismiss the theory that the notorious R----'s ghost had
+anything at all to do with the Banshee. A propos of coaches, I am reminded
+of an incident related by that past master of the weird, J. Sheridan Le
+Fanu, in a short story entitled "A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone
+Family." As it relates to that type of phantasm that is so often foolishly
+confused with the Banshee, I think I cannot do better than give a brief
+sketch of it.
+
+Miss Richardson, a young Anglo-Irish girl, resided with her parents at
+Ashtown, Tyrone, and her elder sister, who had recently married a Mr Carew
+of Dublin, being expected with her husband on a visit, great preparations
+were on foot for their reception.
+
+They were leaving Dublin by coach on the Monday morning, they had written
+to say, and hoped to arrive at Ashtown some time the following day. The
+morning and afternoon passed, however, without any sign of the Carews,
+and when it got dark, and still they did not come, the Richardson family
+began to feel a trifle uneasy.
+
+The night was fine, the sky cloudless, and the moon, when it at length
+rose, could not have been more brilliant. It was a still night, too, so
+still that not a leaf stirred, and so still that those on the qui vive,
+who were straining their ears to the utmost, must have caught the sound of
+an approaching vehicle on the high road, had there been one, when it was
+still at a distance of several miles. But no sound came, and when
+suppertime arrived, Mr Richardson, as was his wont, made a tour of the
+house, and carefully fastened the shutters and locked the doors. Still the
+family listened, and still they could hear nothing, nothing, either near
+to, or far away.
+
+It was now midnight, but no one went to bed, for all were buoyed up with
+the desperate hope that something must at last happen--either, the Carews
+themselves would suddenly turn up, or a messenger with a letter explaining
+the delay.
+
+Neither eventuality, however, came to pass, and nothing occurred until
+Miss Richardson, who had, for the moment, allowed her mind to dwell on an
+entirely different topic, gave a start. Her heart beat loud, and she held
+her breath! She heard carriage wheels. Yes, without a doubt, she heard
+wheels--the wheels of a coach or carriage, and they were getting more and
+more distinct. But she remained silent. She had been rebuked once or twice
+for giving a false alarm--she would now let someone else speak first. In
+the meantime, on and on came the wheels, stopping for a moment whilst the
+iron gate at the entrance to the drive was swung open on its rusty hinges;
+then on and on again, louder, louder and louder, till all could
+distinguish, amid the barking of the dogs, the sound of scattered gravel
+and the crackling and swishing of the whip. There was no doubt about it
+now, and with joyous cries of "It is them! They have come at last," a
+regular stampede was made for the hall door, parents and sister, servants
+and dogs, vying with one another to see who could get there first. But, lo
+and behold, when the door was opened, and they stepped out, there was no
+sign of a coach or carriage anywhere; nothing was to be seen but the broad
+gravel drive and lawn beyond, alight with moonbeams and peopled with queer
+shadows, but absolutely silent, with a silence that suggested a
+churchyard.
+
+The whole household now looked at one another with white and puzzled
+faces; they began to be afraid; whilst the dogs, running about, and
+sniffing, and whining, were obviously ill at ease and afraid, too.
+
+At last a kind of panic set in, and all made a rush for the house, taking
+care, when once inside, to shut the door with even greater haste than they
+had displayed in opening it. The family then retired to rest, but not to
+sleep, and early the next morning they received news that fully confirmed
+their suspicions. Mrs Carew had been taken ill with fever on Monday, while
+preparations for the departure were being made, and had passed away,
+probably at the very moment when the Richardsons, hearing the phantom
+coach and mistaking it for a real one, had opened their hall door to
+welcome her.
+
+That is the gist of the incident as related by Mr Le Fanu, and I have
+quoted it merely to show how a case of this kind, especially when it
+happens in Ireland, and to a family that has for some time been associated
+with Ireland, may sometimes be mistaken for a genuine Banshee haunting,
+although, of course, there is no reason whatever to suppose that Mr Le
+Fanu himself laboured under any delusion with regard to it, or intended to
+convey to his readers an impression of the haunting that the circumstances
+did not warrant. He merely states it as a case of the supernatural without
+attempting to consign it to any special category.
+
+Lady Wilde in her "Ancient Cures, Charms and Usages of Ireland," pp. 163,
+164, quotes another case of coach haunting in Ireland, a very terrible
+one; while in a book entitled "Rambles in Northumberland," by the same
+author, we are informed, "when the death-hearse, drawn by headless horses
+and driven by a headless driver, is seen about midnight proceeding
+rapidly, but without noise, towards the churchyard, the death of some
+considerable personage in the parish is sure to happen at no distant
+period." Also, there is a phantom of this description that is occasionally
+seen on the road near Langley in Durham, and my relatives, the Vizes[9] of
+Limerick--at least, so my grandmother, _nee_ Sally Vize, used to say--are
+haunted by a phantom coach too; indeed, there seems to be no end to this
+kind of haunting, which is always either very picturesque or very
+terrifying, and sometimes both picturesque and terrifying.
+
+At the same time, although intensely interesting, no doubt, the phantom
+coach is not essentially Irish, and not in any way connected with the
+Banshee.
+
+As an example of the extreme anxiety of some people to be thought to be of
+ancient Irish extraction and to have a Banshee, I might refer to an
+incident in connection with Mrs Elizabeth Sheridan, which is recorded in
+footnotes on pages 32 and 33 of "The Memoirs of the Life and Writings of
+Mrs Frances Sheridan," compiled by her granddaughter, Miss Alicia Lefanu,
+and published in 1824, and quote from it the following:
+
+     "Like many Irish ladies who resided during the early part of life in
+     the country, Miss Elizabeth Sheridan was a firm believer in the
+     Banshi, a female daemon, attached to ancient Irish families. She
+     seriously maintained that the Banshi of the Sheridan family was heard
+     wailing beneath the windows of Quilca before the news arrived of Mrs
+     Frances Sheridan's death at Blois, thus affording them a
+     preternatural intimation of the impending melancholy event. A niece
+     of Miss Sheridan's made her very angry by observing that as Miss
+     Frances Sheridan was by birth a Chamberlaine, a family of English
+     extraction, she had no right to the guardianship of an Irish fairy,
+     and that, therefore, the Banshi must have made a mistake."
+
+Now I certainly agree with Miss Sheridan's niece in doubting that the cry
+heard before Mrs Frances Sheridan's death was that of the real Banshee;
+but I do not doubt it because Mrs Frances Sheridan was of English
+extraction, for the Banshee has frequently been heard before the death of
+a wife whose husband was one of an ancient Irish clan--even though the
+wife had no Irish blood in her at all, but I doubt it because the husband
+of Mrs Frances Sheridan was one of a family who, not being of really
+ancient Irish descent, does not, in my opinion, possess a Banshee.
+
+In "Personal Sketches of his Own Times," by Sir Jonah Barrington, we find
+(pp. 152-154, Vol. II.) the account of a ghostly experience of the author
+and his wife, which experience the writer of the paragraph, referring to
+this work in the notes to T. C. Croker's Banshee Stories, evidently
+considered was closely associated with the Banshee.
+
+At the time of the incident, Lord Rossmore was Commander-in-Chief of the
+Forces in Ireland. He was a Scot by birth, but had come over to Ireland
+when very young, and had obtained the post of page to the Lord-Lieutenant.
+Fortune had favoured him at every turn. Not only had he been eminently
+successful in the vocation he finally selected, but he had been equally
+fortunate both with regard to love and money. The lady with whom he fell
+in love returned his affections, and, on their marriage, brought him a
+rich dowry. It was partly with her money that he purchased the estate of
+Mount Kennedy, and built on it one of the noblest mansions in Wicklow. Not
+very far from Mount Kennedy, and in the centre of what is termed the
+golden belt of Ireland, stood Dunran, the residence of the Barringtons; so
+that Lord Rossmore and the Barringtons were practically neighbours.
+
+One afternoon at the drawing-room at Dublin Castle, during the Vice-royalty
+of Earl Hardwick, Lord Rossmore met Lady Barrington, and gave her a most
+pressing invitation to come to his house-party at Mount Kennedy the
+following day.
+
+"My little farmer," said he, addressing her by her pet name, "when you go
+home, tell Sir Jonah that no business is to prevent him from bringing you
+down to dine with me to-morrow. I will have no ifs in the matter--so tell
+him that come he MUST."
+
+Lady Barrington promised, and the following day saw her and Sir Jonah at
+Mount Kennedy. That night, at about twelve, they retired to rest, and
+towards two in the morning Sir Jonah was awakened by a sound of a very
+extraordinary nature. It occurred first at short intervals and resembled
+neither a voice nor an instrument, for it was softer than any voice, and
+wilder than any music, and seemed to float about in mid-air, now in one
+spot and now in another. To quote Sir Jonah's own language:
+
+"I don't know wherefore, but my heart beat forcibly; the sound became
+still more plaintive, till it almost died in the air; when a sudden
+change, as if excited by a pang, changed its tone; it seemed descending. I
+felt every nerve tremble: it was not a natural sound, nor could I make out
+the point from whence it came. At length I awakened Lady Barrington, who
+heard it as well as myself. She suggested that it might be an Aeolian harp;
+but to that instrument it bore no resemblance--it was altogether a
+different character of sound. My wife at first appeared less affected than
+I; but subsequently she was more so. We now went to a large window in our
+bedroom, which looked directly upon a small garden underneath. The sound
+seemed then, obviously, to ascend from a grass plot immediately below our
+window. It continued. Lady Barrington requested I would call up her maid,
+which I did, and she was evidently more affected than either of us. The
+sounds lasted for more than half an hour. At last a deep, heavy, throbbing
+sigh seemed to come from the spot, and was shortly succeeded by a sharp,
+low cry, and by the distinct exclamation, thrice repeated, of
+'Rossmore!--Rossmore!--Rossmore!' I will not attempt to describe my own
+feelings," Sir Jonah goes on. "The maid fled in terror from the window,
+and it was with difficulty I prevailed on Lady Barrington to return to
+bed; in about a minute after the sound died gradually away until all was
+still."
+
+Sir Jonah adds that Lady Barrington, who was not so superstitious as
+himself, made him promise he would not mention the incident to anyone next
+day, lest they should be the laughing stock of the place.
+
+At about seven in the morning, Sir Jonah's servant, Lawler, rapped at the
+bedroom door and began, "Oh, Lord, sir!", in such agitated tones, that Sir
+Jonah at once cried out: "What's the matter?"
+
+"Oh, sir," Lawler ejaculated, "Lord Rossmore's footman was running past my
+door in great haste, and told me in passing that my lord, after coming
+from the Castle, had gone to bed in perfect health (Lord Rossmore, though
+advanced in years, had always appeared to be singularly robust, and Sir
+Jonah had never once heard him complain he was unwell), but that about
+two-thirty this morning his own man, hearing a noise in his master's bed
+(he slept in the same room), went to him, and found him in the agonies of
+death; and before he could alarm the other servants, all was over."
+
+Sir Jonah remarks that Lord Rossmore was actually dying at the moment Lady
+Barrington and he (Sir Jonah) heard his lordship's name pronounced; and he
+adds that he is totally unequal to the task of accounting for the sounds
+by any natural causes. The question that most concerns me is whether they
+were due to the Banshee or not, and as Lord Rossmore was not apparently of
+ancient Irish lineage, I am inclined to think the phenomena owed its
+origin to some other class of phantasm; perhaps to one that had been
+attached to Lord Rossmore's family in Scotland. Moreover, I have never
+heard of the Banshee speaking as the invisible presence spoke on that
+occasion; the phenomena certainly seems to me to be much more Scottish
+than Irish.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+DUAL AND TRIPLE BANSHEE HAUNTINGS
+
+
+It is a somewhat curious, and, perhaps, a not very well-known fact, that
+some families possess two Banshees, a friendly and an unfriendly one;
+whilst a few, though a few only, possess three--a friendly, an unfriendly,
+and a neutral one. A case of the two Banshees resulting in a dual Banshee
+haunting was told me quite recently by a man whom I met in Paris at
+Henriette's in Montparnasse. He was a Scot, a journalist, of the name of
+Menzies, and his story concerned an Irish friend of his, also a
+journalist, whom I will call O'Hara.
+
+From what I could gather, these two men were of an absolutely opposite
+nature. O'Hara--warm-hearted, impulsive, and generous to a degree;
+Menzies--somewhat cold, careful with regard to money, and extremely
+cautious; and yet, apart from their vocation which was the apparent link
+between them, they possessed one characteristic in common--they both
+adored pretty women. The high brow and extreme feminist with her stolid
+features and intensely supercilious smile was a nightmare to them; they
+sought always something pleasing, and dainty, and free from academic
+conceits; and they found it in Paris--at Henriette's.
+
+It so happened one day that, unable to get a table at Henriette's, the
+place being crowded, they wandered along the Boulevard Montparnasse, and
+turned into a new restaurant close to the Boulevard Raspail. This place,
+too, was very full, but there was one small table, at which sat alone a
+young girl, and, at O'Hara's suggestion, they at once made for it.
+
+"You sly fellow," Menzies whispered to his friend, after they had been
+seated a few minutes, "I know why you were so anxious to come here."
+
+"Well, wasn't I right," O'Hara, whose eyes had never once left the girl's
+face, responded. "She's the prettiest I've seen for many a day."
+
+"Not bad!" Menzies answered, somewhat critically. "But I don't like her
+mouth, it's wolfish."
+
+O'Hara, however, could see no fault in her; the longer he gazed at her,
+the deeper and deeper he fell in love; not that there was anything very
+unusual in that, because O'Hara was no sooner off with one flame than he
+was on with another; and he averaged at least two or three love cases a
+year. But to Menzies this latest affair was annoying; he knew that when
+O'Hara lost his heart he generally lost his head too, and could never talk
+or think on any topic but the eyes, hair, mouth and finger-nails--for,
+like most Irishmen, O'Hara had a passion for well-kept, well-formed
+hands--of his new divinity, and on this occasion he did want O'Hara to
+remain sane a little longer.
+
+It was, then, for this reason chiefly, that Menzies did not get a little
+excited over the new discovery, too; for he was bound to admit that, in
+spite of the lupine expression about the mouth, there was some excuse this
+time for his friend's enthusiasm. The girl was pretty, an almost perfect
+blonde, with daintily shaped hands, and dressed as only a young Paris
+beauty can dress, who has money and leisure at her command.
+
+Yes, there was excuse; and yet it was the height of folly. Girls mean
+expenditure in one way or another, and just now neither he nor O'Hara had
+anything to spend. While he was thinking, however, O'Hara was acting.
+
+He offered the girl a cigarette, she smilingly rejected it; but the ice
+was broken, and the conversation begun. There is no need to go into any
+particulars as to what followed--it was what always did follow in a case
+of this description--blind infatuation that invariably ended with a
+startling abruptness; only in this instance the infatuation was blinder
+than ever, and the ending, though sudden, was not usual. O'Hara asked the
+girl to dinner with him that night. She accepted, and he took her out
+again the following evening. From that moment all reason left him, and he
+gave himself up to the maddest of mad passions.
+
+Menzies saw little of him, but when they did by chance happen to meet it
+was always the same old tale--Gabrielle! Gabrielle Delacourt. Her
+star-like eyes, gorgeous hair, and so forth.
+
+Then came a night when Menzies, tired of his own company, wandered off to
+Montmartre, and met a fellow-countryman of his, by name Douglas.
+
+"I say, old fellow," the latter remarked, as they lolled over a little
+marble-topped table and watched the evolutions of a more than usually
+daring vaudeville artiste, "I say, how about that Irish pal of yours, 'O'
+something or other. I saw him here the other night with Marie Diblanc."
+
+"Marie Diblanc!" Menzies articulated. "I have never heard of her."
+
+"Not heard of Marie Diblanc!" Douglas exclaimed. "Why I thought every
+journalist in Paris knew of her, but perhaps she was before your time, for
+she's had a pretty long spell of prison--at least five or six years, which
+as you know is pretty stiff nowadays for a woman--and has only recently
+come out. She was quite a kiddie when they bagged her, but a kiddie with a
+mind as old as Brinvillier's in crime and vice--she robbed and all but
+murdered her own mother for a few louis, besides forging cheques and
+stealing wholesale from shops and hotels. They say she was in with all the
+worst crooks in Europe, and surpassed them all in subtlety and daring.
+When I saw her the other night her hair was dyed, and she was wearing the
+most saint-like expression; but I knew her all the same. She couldn't
+disguise her mouth or her hands, and it is those features that I notice in
+a woman more than anything else."
+
+"Describe her to me," Menzies said.
+
+"A brunette originally," Douglas replied, "but now a blonde--masses of
+very elaborately waved golden hair; peculiarly long eyes--rather too
+intensely blue and far apart for my liking--a well-moulded mouth, though
+the lips are far too thin, and give her away at once."
+
+"That's the girl," Menzies exclaimed emphatically. "That's the girl he
+calls Gabrielle Delacourt. I was with him the day he first met her--over
+in Montparnasse."
+
+Douglas nodded.
+
+"That's right," he said. "That's the name he introduced her to me by. But,
+I'm quite positive she's Marie Diblanc; and I think you ought to give him
+the tip. If he's seen about with her he'll be suspected by the police.
+Besides, she is sure to commit some crime--for a girl with that kind of
+face and history never reforms, she goes on being right down bad to the
+bitter end--and get him implicated. Only, possibly, she will use him as
+her tool."
+
+"I'll see him and warn him," Menzies said. "I'll call at his place
+to-night, though there's no knowing when he'll turn up, for he's the most
+erratic creature under the sun."
+
+True to his word, Menzies, after a few more minutes' conversation, got up
+and retraced his steps to Montparnasse. O'Hara lived in the Rue Campagne
+Premiere, close to the famous "rabbit warren." His door, as not
+infrequently happened, was unlocked, but he was out. Menzies went in, and,
+entering the little room which served as a parlour, dining-room, and study
+combined, threw himself into an armchair and lit a cigarette. He did not
+bother to light up as it was a moonlight night, and the darkness suited
+his present mood. After a while, however, feeling a little chilly, he
+turned on the gas fire, and then, glancing at the clock over the
+mantel-shelf, perceived it was close on twelve.
+
+At that instant there was a noise outside, and, thinking it was O'Hara, he
+called out, "Hulloa, Bob, is that you?"
+
+As there was no response he called again, and this time there was a
+laugh--an ugly, malevolent kind of chuckle that made Menzies jump up at
+once and angrily demand who was there. No one replying, he went to the
+room door, and, opening it wide, saw a few yards from him a tall dark
+figure enveloped in what appeared to be a cloak and gown.
+
+"Hulloa!" he cried. "Who are you, and what the ---- do you want here?"
+
+Whereupon the figure drew aside its covering and revealed a face that
+caused Menzies to utter an exclamation of terror and spring back. It was
+the face of an old woman with very high cheek-bones, tightly drawn
+shrivelled skin, and obliquely set pale eyes that gleamed banefully as
+they met Menzies' horrified stare. A disordered mass of matted yellow hair
+crowned her head and descended half-way to her shoulders, revealing,
+however, her ears, which stood out prominently from her head, huge and
+pointed, like those of an enormous wolf. A leadenish white glow seemed to
+emanate from within her and to intensify the general horror of her
+appearance.
+
+Though Menzies had never believed in ghosts before, he felt certain now
+that he was looking at something which did not belong to this world. It
+was, he affirmed, so absolutely hellish that he would have uttered a
+prayer and bid it begone, had not his words died in his throat so that he
+could not articulate a sound. He then tried to raise a hand to cross
+himself, but this, also, he was unable to do; and the only thing he found
+he could do, was to stare at it in dumb, open-mouthed horror and wonder.
+
+How long this state of affairs might have gone on it is impossible to say;
+but at the sound of heavy and unmistakably human footsteps, first in the
+lower part of the building, and then ascending the stone staircase leading
+to this flat, the old woman disappeared, apparently amalgamating with the
+somewhat artistic hangings on the wall behind her. Menzies was still
+rubbing his eyes and looking when O'Hara burst in upon him.
+
+"Hulloa, Donald, is that you?" he began. "I've done it."
+
+"Done what?" Menzies stuttered, his nerves all anyhow.
+
+"Why, proposed to Gabrielle, of course," O'Hara went on excitedly, "and
+she's accepted me. She, the prettiest, sweetest, finest little colleen
+I've ever come across, has told me she will marry me. Ye gods, I shall go
+off my head with joy; go stark, staring mad, I tell you." And crossing the
+floor of the study he tumbled into the chair Menzies himself had just
+occupied.
+
+"I say, old fellow, why don't you congratulate me?" he continued.
+
+"I do congratulate you," Menzies observed, taking another seat. "Of course
+I congratulate you, but are you sure she is the sort of girl you will
+always care about or who will always care about you. You haven't known her
+very long, and most women cost a deuced lot of money, especially French
+ones. Don't take the irrevocable steps before contemplating them well
+first."
+
+"I have," O'Hara retorted, "so it's no use sermonising. I have made up my
+mind to marry Gabrielle, and nothing on earth will deter me."
+
+"Do you know her people, or anything about them?" Menzies ventured.
+
+O'Hara laughed.
+
+"No," he said, "but that doesn't bother me in the slightest. I shouldn't
+care whether her father was a navvy or a publican, or whether her mother
+took in washing and pinched a few odd shirts and socks now and again,
+only as it happens, they don't affect the question at all, because they
+are both dead. Gabrielle is an orphan--quite on her own--so I am perfectly
+safe as far as that goes. No pompous papa to consult, no cantankerous old
+mother-in-law to dread. Gabrielle was educated at a convent school, and,
+though you may laugh, knows next to nothing of the world. She's as
+innocent as a butterfly. We are to be married next month."
+
+Finding that it was no earthly use to say any more on the subject, just
+then at all events, Menzies changed the conversation and referred to the
+incident of the old woman.
+
+O'Hara at once became interested.
+
+"Why," he said, "from your description she must have been one of the
+Banshees that is supposed to haunt our family, and which my mother always
+declared she saw shortly before my father's death. A hideous hag with a
+shock head of tow-coloured hair, who stood on the staircase laughing
+devilishly, and then, all at once, vanished. She is known as the bad
+Banshee to distinguish her from the good one, which is, so I have always
+been led to understand, very beautiful, but which never manifests itself,
+saving when anything especially dreadful is going to happen to an
+O'Hara."
+
+Feeling very uneasy in his mind, Menzies now bid his friend good night,
+and went home.
+
+After that days passed and Menzies saw nothing of O'Hara, until one
+evening, when he was thinking it must be about now that the marriage was
+to take place, O'Hara turned up at his flat, and proposed that they should
+go for a stroll in the direction of the fortifications near Montsouris.
+But O'Hara was not in his usual good spirits; he seemed very glum and
+depressed, and Menzies gathered that there had been occasional differences
+of opinion between his friend and Gabrielle, and that the affair was not
+running quite as smoothly as it might. Gabrielle had a great many
+admirers, one of them very rich, and O'Hara was obviously very much
+annoyed at the attentions they had been bestowing on his fiancee, and at
+the manner in which she had received them. But there was something else,
+too; something he could see in his friend's face and manner, but which
+O'Hara would not so much as hint at. Menzies was, of course, pleased, for
+there now seemed to be a glimmer of hope that these frictions would
+materialise into something stronger and more definite, and lead to a
+rupture that would be final.
+
+He was so engrossed in speculations of this nature that he forgot all
+about the time or where they were, and was only brought back to earth by
+the whistle and shriek of a train, which made him at once realise they had
+left Montsouris and were several miles without the fortifications.
+
+It was also getting very dusk, and, as he had to be up unusually early in
+the morning, he suggested to O'Hara they had better turn back. They were
+then close beside a clump of bushes and a very lofty pine tree that was
+bending to and fro in such a peculiar manner that Menzies' attention was
+at once directed to it.
+
+"What's wrong with that tree?" he remarked, pointing at it with his stick.
+
+"What's wrong with the tree?" O'Hara laughed. "Why, it's not the tree
+there's anything the matter with--the tree's all right, quite all
+right--it's you. What on earth are you staring at it for in that
+ridiculous fashion? Have you suddenly gone mad?"
+
+Menzies made no reply, but went up to the tree and examined it. As he was
+doing so, a slight disturbance in the bushes made him glance around, and
+he saw, a few feet from him, the tall figure of a girl, clad in a kind of
+long flowing mantle, but with bare head and feet. The moonlight was on her
+face, and Menzies, hard and difficult though he was, as a rule, to please,
+realised it was lovely, far more lovely, so he declared afterwards, than
+any woman's face he had ever gazed upon. The eyes particularly impressed
+him, for, although in the darkness he could not tell their colour, he
+could see that they were of an extremely beautiful shape and setting, and
+seemed to be filled with a sorrow that was almost more than her heart
+could bear. Indeed, so poignant was this sorrow of hers, that Menzies,
+infected by it, too, could not keep back the tears from his own eyes; and,
+dour and unemotional as he was by nature, his whole being suddenly became
+literally steeped in sadness and pity.
+
+The girl looked straight at him, but only for a few seconds; she then
+turned towards O'Hara, and seemed to concentrate her whole attention upon
+him. There was now, Menzies thought, a certain indistinctness and a
+something shadowy about her that he had not at first noticed, and he was
+thinking how he could test her to see if she were really a substance or
+merely an optical illusion, when O'Hara, who was getting tired at his long
+absence, called out, whereupon the girl at once vanished, uttering, as she
+melted away in the background, in the same inexplicable manner as the old
+woman had done, such an awful, harrowing, wailing shriek, that it seemed
+to fill the whole air, and to linger on for an eternity. Thoroughly
+terrified, Menzies, as soon as his scattered senses could collect
+themselves, fled from the spot, and didn't cease running till O'Hara's
+angry shout brought him to a standstill. To his astonishment O'Hara hadn't
+heard anything, and was only annoyed at his seemingly mad behaviour. In
+answer to his description of the girl, however, and the wailing, O'Hara at
+once declared it was the Banshee, and the one he had always been so
+particularly anxious to see.
+
+"Unless you are having a joke at my expense," he said, "and you look too
+genuinely scared for that, you have actually seen her--a very beautiful
+girl, dressed after some old-time Irish custom, in a loose flowing green
+mantle--only of course you couldn't see the colour--with head and feet
+bare. But it's odd about that wail. The good Banshee in a family is always
+supposed to make it, but why didn't I hear her? Why should it only be you?
+You're Scotch, not Irish."
+
+"For which I'm truly thankful," Menzies said with warmth. "I've lived
+without ever seeing or hearing a ghost or anything approaching one for
+thirty-eight years, and now I've seen and heard two, within the short
+space of three weeks, and all because of you, because you're Irish. No
+thanks. None of your Banshees for me. I'd rather, ten thousand times
+rather, be just an ordinary laddie from the Highlands, and dispense with
+your highly aristocratic and fastidious family ghost."
+
+"Come, now," O'Hara said good-humouredly, "we won't quarrel about so
+unsubstantial a thing as the Banshee. Let's hurry up and have a bottle of
+cognac to make us think of something rather more cheerful."
+
+Menzies often thought of those words, for it is not infrequently the most
+trifling words and actions that haunt our memory to the greatest extent in
+after days. The rest of the evening passed quite uneventfully, and, after
+they had "toasted" each other, the two friends separated for the night.
+
+Two days later O'Hara's body lay in the Morque, whither it had been taken
+from the Seine. Though there were some doubts expressed as to the exact
+manner in which he had met his death, it was officially recorded "death
+from misadventure," and it was not till several years later Menzies
+learned the truth.
+
+He was then in Mexico, in a little town not twenty miles from San Blas, on
+the Western Coast, doing some newspaper work for a South American paper. A
+storekeeper and his wife were murdered; done to death in a singularly
+cruel manner, even for those parts, and one of the assassins was caught
+red-handed. The other, a woman, succeeded in escaping. As there had been
+so many murders lately in that neighbourhood, the townspeople declared
+they would make a very severe example of the culprit, and hang him, right
+away, on the scene of his diabolical outrage. Menzies, who had never
+witnessed anything of the kind before, and was, of course, anxious for
+copy, took good care to be present. He stood quite close to the handcuffed
+man, and caught every word of the confession he made to the local padre.
+He gave his name as Andre Fecamps, his age as twenty-five, and his
+nationality as French. He asserted that he was first induced to take to
+crime through falling in love with a notorious French criminal of the name
+of Marie Diblanc, who accepted him as her lover, conditionally on his
+joining the band of Apaches of which she was the recognised leader.
+
+He did so, and forthwith plunged into every kind of wickedness imaginable.
+Among other crimes in which he was implicated he mentioned that of the
+murder of an Irishman of the name of O'Hara, who was supposed to have met
+with an accidental death from drowning in the Seine. What really happened,
+so the young desperado said, was this. M. O'Hara was madly in love with
+Marie Diblanc, who was posing to him as Gabrielle Delacourt, an innocent
+young girl from the country, when she was already very much married, and
+was being searched for high and low, at that very time, by certainly more
+than one desperate husband. Well, one day she persuaded M. O'Hara to take
+her to a dance given by some very wealthy friends of his.
+
+He did so, and she contrived, unknown to him of course, to smuggle me in,
+and between us we walked off with something like ten thousand pounds of
+jewellery.
+
+M. O'Hara came to suspect her--how I don't know, unless he overheard some
+stray conversation between her and some other member of our gang at one of
+the restaurants they used to dine at. Anyhow, she got to know of it, and
+at once resolved to have him put out of the way. It was arranged that she
+should bring him to a house in Montmartre, where several of us were in
+hiding, and that we should both kill and bury him there.
+
+Well, he came, and, on perceiving that he had fallen into a trap, besought
+her, if his life must be forfeited--and, anyhow, now he knew she was a
+thief he wouldn't have it otherwise--to take it herself. This she
+eventually agreed to do, and, lying in her arms, he allowed her to press a
+poison-bag over his mouth, and so put him to death. His body was taken to
+the Seine that night in a fiacre and dropped in. Fecamps added that it was
+the only occasion upon which he had seen Marie Diblanc really moved, and
+he believed she was a trifle fond of the Irishman, that is to say, if she
+could be genuinely fond of anyone.
+
+Menzies, who was of course deeply interested, extracted every particle of
+information he could out of the man, but nothing would make the latter
+admit a word as to what had become of Diblanc.
+
+"If I go to hell," he said, "she is certain to go there, too; for bad as I
+am, I believe her to be infinitely worse; worse, a hundred times worse
+than any Apache man I have ever met. And yet, depraved and evil as she is,
+I love her, and shall never know a second's happiness till she joins me."
+
+The man died; and Menzies, as he made a sketch of his swinging body, felt
+thoroughly satisfied at last that the ghost he had seen outside the
+fortifications of Monsouris was the good and beautiful Banshee, the
+Banshee that only manifested itself when some unusually dreadful fate was
+about to overtake an O'Hara.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A SIMILAR CASE FROM SPAIN
+
+
+Another case of dual Banshee haunting that occurs to me, took place in
+Spain, where so many of the oldest Irish families have settled, and was
+related to me by a distant connection of mine--an O'Donnell. He well
+remembered, he said, many years ago, when he was a boy, his father, who
+was an officer in the Carlist Army, telling him of an adventure that
+happened to him during the first outbreak of the Civil War. His father and
+another young man, Dick O'Flanagan, were subalterns in a cavalry regiment
+that took a prominent part in a desperate engagement with the Queen's
+Army. The Carlists were being driven back, when, as a last desperate
+resource, their bare handful of cavalry charged and immediately turned the
+fortunes of the day. In the heat of the affray, however, Ralph O'Donnell
+and Dick O'Flanagan, carried away by their enthusiasm, got separated from
+the rest of the corps, and were, consequently, overpowered by sheer
+numbers and taken prisoners.
+
+In those days much brutality was shown on either side, and our two heroes,
+beaten, and bruised, and starving, were dragged along in a half-fainting
+condition, amid the taunts and gibings of their captors, till they were
+finally lodged in the filthy dungeon of an old mountain castle, where they
+were informed they would be kept till the hour appointed for their
+execution. The moment they were alone, they made the most strenuous
+efforts to unloosen the thongs of tough cowhide with which their hands and
+feet were so cruelly bound together, and, after many frantic endeavours,
+they at last succeeded. O'Flanagan was the first to get free, and as soon
+as his numbed limbs allowed him to do so, he crawled to the side of his
+friend and liberated him, too. They then examined the room as best they
+could in the dark, and decided their only hope of escape lay in the
+chimney, which, luckily for them, was one of those old-fashioned
+structures, wide enough to admit the passage of a full-grown person. Ralph
+began the ascent first, and, after several fruitless efforts, during which
+he bumped and bruised himself and made such a noise that O'Flanagan feared
+he would be heard by the guard outside, he eventually managed to obtain a
+foothold and make sufficient progress for O'Flanagan to follow in his
+wake.
+
+In everything they did that night luck favoured them. On emerging from the
+chimney on to the roof of the castle, they were rejoiced to find a tree
+growing so near to one of the walls that they had little difficulty in
+gripping hold of one of its branches and so descending in safety to the
+ground. The guards apparently were asleep, at least none were to be seen
+anywhere, and so, feeling their way cautiously in and out a thick growth
+of trees and bushes, they soon got altogether clear of the premises, and
+found themselves once again free, but in a part of the country with which
+they were totally unacquainted. Two hours tramping along a tortuous, hilly
+high road, or to give it a more appropriate name, track, for it was
+nothing more, at last brought them to a wayside inn where, in spite of the
+advanced hour--for it was between one and two o'clock in the morning--they
+determined to risk inquiry for a night's shelter. I say "risk" because
+there was a strong spirit of partisanship abroad, and it was quite as
+likely as not that the inn people were adherents of the Queen.
+
+Ralph knocked repeatedly, and the door was at length opened by a young
+girl who, holding a candlestick in one hand, sleepily rubbed her eyes
+with the other and, in rather petulant tones, asked what the gentlemen
+meant by coming to the house at such an unearthly hour and waking everyone
+up. Ralph and O'Flanagan were so struck by her appearance that for some
+seconds they could only stand gaping at her, deprived of all power of
+speech. Such a vision of loveliness neither of them had seen for many a
+long day, and both were more than ordinarily susceptible where the fair
+sex was concerned. Dark, like most of the girls are in Spain, she was not
+swarthy, but had, on the other hand, a most singularly fair complexion,
+devoid of that tendency to hairiness which is apparent in so many of the
+women of that country. Her features were, perhaps, a trifle too bold, but
+in strict proportion, and her eyes a wee bit hard, though the shape and
+colour of them--by candlelight an almost purplish grey--were singularly
+beautiful. She had very white teeth, too, though there was a something
+about her mouth, in the setting of the lips when they were closed for
+instance, and in the general expression, that puzzled Ralph, and which was
+destined to return to his mind many times afterwards.
+
+Ralph noticed, too, that her hands were not those of a peasant class, of a
+class that has to do much rough and hard work, but that they were white
+and well-kept, the fingers tapering and the nails long and almond shaped.
+She wore several rings and bracelets, and seemed altogether different from
+the type of girl one would have expected to find in such a very
+unpretentious kind of building, situated, too, in such a very remote spot.
+
+Ralph was not quite as impulsive as his friend, and although, as I have
+said, very susceptible, was not so far led away by his feelings as to be
+altogether incapable of observation.
+
+His first impressions of the girl were that, although she was
+extraordinarily pretty, there was something--apart even from her
+mouth--that he could not fathom, and which caused him a vague uneasiness;
+he noticed it particularly when her glance wandered to their
+travel-stained uniforms, and momentarily alighted on O'Flanagan's solitary
+ring, which contained a ruby and was a kind of family mascot, akin to the
+famous cathach of Count Daniel O'Donnell of Tirconnell; and she muttered
+something which Ralph fancied had reference to the word "Carlists," and
+then, as if conscious he was watching her, she raised her eyes quickly
+and, in tones of sleepy indifference this time, asked what the gentlemen
+wanted. Ralph immediately replied that they required a bed with breakfast,
+not too early, and, perhaps, later on--luncheon. He added that if the inn
+was full they wouldn't in the least mind sleeping in a barn or stable.
+
+"All we want," he said, "is to lie down somewhere with a roof over our
+heads, for we are terribly tired."
+
+At the mention of a stable the girl smiled, saying she could offer them
+something rather better than that; and, bidding both follow her upstairs,
+with as little noise as possible, she conducted them to a large room with
+a very low ceiling, and, having deposited the candlestick on a chest of
+drawers, she wished them good night and noiselessly withdrew.
+
+"Rather better than our late quarters in the prison," Ralph exclaimed,
+taking a survey of the apartment, "but a wee bit gloomy."
+
+"Nonsense!" O'Flanagan retorted. "The only gloomy things here are your own
+thoughts. I want to stay here always, for I never saw a prettier girl or a
+cosier-looking bed."
+
+He began to undress as he spoke, and in a few minutes both young men were
+stretched out at full length fast asleep.
+
+About two hours later Ralph awoke with a violent start to hear distinct
+sounds of footsteps tiptoeing their way softly along the passage outside
+towards their room door. In an instant all his faculties were on the
+alert, and he sat up in bed and listened. Then something stirred in the
+corner by the window, and, glancing in that direction, he saw to his
+astonishment the figure of a tall slim girl, in a long, loose, flowing
+gown of some dark material, with a very pale face, beautifully chiselled,
+though by no means strictly classical features, and masses of shining
+golden hair that fell in rippling confusion on to her neck and shoulders.
+The idea that she was the Banshee instantly occurred to him. From his
+father's description of her, for his father had often spoken to him about
+her, she and the beautiful woman, whom he was now looking at, were
+certainly very much alike; besides, as the Banshee, when his father saw
+her, was crying, and this woman was crying--crying most bitterly, her
+whole body swaying to and fro as if racked with the most poignant
+sorrow--he could not help thinking that the identity between them was
+established, and that they were, in fact, one and the same person.
+
+As he was still gazing at her with the most profound pity and admiration,
+his attention was suddenly directed, by an odd scratching sound, to the
+window, where he saw, pressed against the glass, and looking straight in
+at him, a face which in every detail presented the most startling
+contrast to that upon which his eyes had, but a second ago, been feasting.
+It was so evil that he felt sure it could only emanate from the lowest
+Inferno, and it leered at him with such appalling malignancy that, brave
+man as he had proved himself on the field of battle, he now completely
+lost his nerve, and would have called out, had not both figures suddenly
+vanished, their disappearance being immediately followed by the most
+agonising, heart-rending screams, intermingled with loud laughter and
+diabolical chuckling, which, for the moment, completely paralysed him. The
+screams continued for some seconds, during which time every atom of blood
+in Ralph's veins seemed to freeze, and then there was silence--deep and
+sepulchral silence. Afraid to be any longer in the dark, Ralph jumped out
+of bed and lit the candle, and, as he did so, he distinctly heard
+footsteps move hurriedly away from the door and go stealthily tiptoeing
+down the passage.
+
+As may be imagined, he did not sleep again for some time, not, indeed,
+until daylight, when he gradually fell into a doze, from which he was
+eventually aroused by loud thumps on the door, and the voice of the pretty
+inn maiden announcing that it was time to get up.
+
+After breakfast he narrated his experience in the night to O'Flanagan,
+who, somewhat to his astonishment, did not laugh, but exclaimed quite
+seriously:
+
+"Why, you have seen our Banshee. At least, the girl in green is our
+Banshee. I saw her before the death of a cousin of mine, and she appeared
+to my mother the night before my father died. I don't know what the other
+apparition could have been, unless it was what my father used to term the
+'hateful Banshee,' which he said was only supposed to appear before some
+very dreadful catastrophe, worse even than death, if anything could be
+worse."
+
+"You haven't the monopoly of Banshees," Ralph laughed. "We have one too,
+and I am positive the woman I saw--the beautiful woman I mean--was the
+O'Donnell Banshee. I would have you know that the Limerick O'Donnells,
+with whom I am connected, are quite as old a family as the O'Flanagans;
+they are, indeed, directly descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages."
+
+"So are we," O'Flanagan answered hotly, then he burst out laughing. "Well,
+well," he said, "fancy quarrelling about anything as immaterial as a
+Banshee. But, anyhow, if they were Banshees that you saw last night,
+they're a bit out in their calculations. They should have come before that
+skirmish, not after it; unless it's the death of some relative of one of
+us they're prophesying. I hope it's not my sister."
+
+"I don't imagine it has anything to do with you," Ralph replied. "They
+were both looking at me."
+
+He was about to say something further, when O'Flanagan, seeing the young
+girl come into the room to clear away the breakfast things, at once began
+talking to her; and as it was only too evident that he wanted the field to
+himself, for he was obviously head over ears in love, Ralph got up and
+announced his intention of taking a walk round the premises.
+
+"Don't go in the wood, Senor, whatever you do," the girl observed, "for it
+is infested with brigands. They do not interfere with us because we were
+once good to one of their sick folk--and the Spaniard, brigand though he
+may be, never forgets a kindness--but they attack strangers, and you will
+be well advised to keep to the high road."
+
+"Which is the nearest town?" Ralph demanded.
+
+"Trijello," the girl answered, the same curious expression creeping into
+her eyes that had puzzled Ralph so much before, and which he found
+impossible to analyse. "It is about eight miles from here. Don Hervado,
+the Governor, is a Carlist, and was entertaining some Carlist soldiers
+there yesterday."
+
+"Good!" Ralph exclaimed. "I will walk there. Will you come with me, Dick,
+or will you wait here till I return. I don't suppose I shall be back much
+before the evening."
+
+"Oh, don't hurry," O'Flanagan laughed, eyeing the girl rapturously, "I am
+perfectly happy here, and want a rest badly. Don't, whatever you do, let
+on to anyone connected with headquarters where we are. Let them go on
+imagining, for a while, we are dead."
+
+"The Senors have been in a battle, yes?" the girl interrupted, shyly.
+
+"A battle," O'Flanagan laughed, "not half one. Why, we were taken
+prisoners and only escaped hanging through my unparalleled wits and
+perseverance. However, I don't in the least bemoan the perils and
+hardships we have undergone, for, had events turned out otherwise, we
+should never have had the joy of seeing you, Senora," and catching hold of
+her hand, before she could prevent him, he pressed it fervently to his
+lips, smothering it with kisses.
+
+Thinking it was high time to be off, Ralph now took his departure. A
+couple of hours' walking brought him to Trijello, where, but for a lucky
+incident, he might have found himself landed in a quandary. As he was
+entering the outskirts of the town he met an old peasant, staggering
+under a sack of onions, and no sooner did the latter catch sight of his
+uniform than he at once called out:
+
+"Senor, if you value your liberty, you won't enter Trijello in that
+costume. The Governor is the sworn enemy of all Carlists, and has given
+strict orders that, anyone with leanings towards that party shall be put
+under arrest at once."
+
+"Are you sure?" Ralph exclaimed. "Why, I was told it was just the other
+way about, and that he was a strong adherent of our cause."
+
+"Whoever told you that, lied," the old man responded, "for he had a nephew
+of mine shot only yesterday morning for saying in public he hoped that
+wretched weakling of a woman would soon be put off the throne and we
+should have someone who was fit to govern--meaning Don Carlos--in her
+place. Take my advice, Senor, and either change those clothes at once or
+give Trijello as wide a berth as possible."
+
+Ralph then asked him if there was any place near at hand where he could
+purchase a civilian suit, and, on being informed that there was a Jew's
+shop within a few minutes' walk, he thanked the old man most cordially for
+giving him so friendly a warning, and at once proceeded there.
+
+To cut a long story short he bought the clothes and, thus disguised, went
+on into the town, and, with the object of picking up any information he
+could with regard to the enemy's forces, he dined at the principal hotel,
+and listened attentively to the conversation that was taking place all
+around him. Later on in the day some Christino soldiers arrived, officers
+on the staff of one of the Royalist generals, and Ralph decided to remain
+in the hotel for the night and see if he could get hold of some really
+definite news that might be of value to his own headquarters. Learning
+that someone would be leaving the hotel shortly and passing by the inn
+where O'Flanagan was staying, he gave them a note to give to his friend,
+stating that he could not be back till the following day, perhaps about
+noon. He then took up his seat before the parlour fire, apparently
+absorbed in reading the latest bulletin from Madrid, but in reality
+keeping his ears well open for any conversation that might be worth
+transcribing in his pocket-book. Nor was he disappointed, for the
+Christino soldiers waxed very talkative over some of mine host's best
+port, and disclosed many secrets concerning the movements of the Queen's
+forces, that would have most certainly entailed a court martial, had it
+but come to the notice of their general.
+
+That night, though the room he was given was quite bright and cheerful,
+and very different from the one he had occupied the night before, his
+mind was so full of grim apprehension that he found it quite impossible
+to sleep. He kept thinking of the vision he had seen--that lovely, fairy
+face of the girl with the golden hair, her adorable eyes, her heavenly,
+albeit very human mouth; she was so perfect, so angelic, so full of
+delicious sympathy and pity; so unlike any earthly woman he had ever met;
+and then that other face--those intensely evil, pale green eyes, that
+sinister mocking mouth, that dreadfully disordered mass of matted,
+tow-coloured hair. It was too hellish--too inconceivably foul and baneful
+to dare think about, and seized with a fit of shuddering, he thrust his
+head under the bedclothes, lest he should see it again appearing before
+him. What, he wondered, did they portend? Not some horrible happening to
+Dick. He had always understood that the one who neither sees nor hears the
+Banshee during its manifestations is the one that is doomed to die. And
+yet Dick was assuredly as safe in that inn as he was here--here,
+surrounded on all sides by his enemies. Once or twice he fancied he heard
+his name called, and so realistic was it, that, forgetful of his dread of
+seeing something satanic in the room, he at last sat up in bed and
+listened. All was still, however; there were no sounds at all; none
+whatever, saving the gentle whispering of the wind, as it swept softly
+past the window, and the far-away hooting of a night bird. Then he lay
+down again, and once more there seemed to come to him from somewhere very
+close at hand a voice that articulated very clearly and plaintively his
+name--Ralph, Ralph, Ralph!--three times in quick succession, and then
+ceased. Nor did he hear it again.
+
+Tired and unrested, he got up early and, paying his bill, set off with
+long, rapid strides in the direction of the wayside inn. There was an air
+of delightful peace and tranquillity about the place when he arrived. All
+the sunbeams seemed to have congregated in just that one spot, and to have
+converted the walls and window-panes of the little old-fashioned building
+into sheets of burnished gold. Birds twittered merrily on the tree-tops
+and under the eaves of the roof, and the most delicious smell of
+honeysuckle and roses permeated the whole atmosphere.
+
+Ralph was enchanted, and all his grim forebodings of the night before were
+instantly dissipated. The abode was truly named "The Travellers' Rest"; it
+might even have been styled "The Travellers' Paradise," for all seemed so
+calm and serene--so truly heavenly. He rapped at the door, and, after some
+moments, rapped again. He then heard footsteps, which somehow seemed
+strangely familiar, cautiously come along the stone passage and pause at
+the other side of the door, as if their owner were in doubt whether to
+open it or not.
+
+Again he rapped, and this time the door was opened, and the young girl
+appeared. She looked rather pale, but was very much sprucer and smarter
+than she had been when Ralph last saw her. She wore a very bewitching kind
+of gipsy frock of red velvet--the skirt very short and the bodice adorned
+with masses of shining silver coins, whilst her feet were clad in very
+smart, dainty shoes, also red, with big silver buckles.
+
+"Your friend's gone," she said. "He seemed very upset at your not turning
+up last night, and went away directly after breakfast."
+
+"But didn't he get my note?" Ralph exclaimed, "and didn't he leave any
+message?"
+
+"No, Senor," the girl replied. "No note came for him, but he said he would
+try and call in here again to-morrow morning, to see if you had arrived."
+
+"And he didn't say where he had gone?"
+
+"No."
+
+Ralph eyed her quizzically. She certainly was wonderfully pretty, and,
+marvellous to relate, did not smell of garlic. Yes, he would stay, and try
+and come under the fascination of her beauty as Dick had done. And yet,
+why had Dick gone off in such a hurry? What had this starry-eyed creature
+done to offend him? Ralph knew O'Flanagan was at times apt to be
+over-impulsive and hasty in his love-makings. Had he got on a bit too
+rapidly? Spanish girls are very easily upset, and perhaps this one had a
+lover in the background. Perhaps she was married. That seemed to him the
+most feasible explanation for Dick's absence. To be offended at his not
+turning up last night was all nonsense. Ralph knew his friend far too well
+for that. Anyhow, he decided to stay, and the girl offered him the room he
+and Dick had previously occupied. Only, she explained, he must not go in
+it till later on in the day, as it was going to be cleaned.
+
+After luncheon, which he sat down to alone, as the girl, despite his
+pressing invitation, refused to partake of the meal with him, on the plea
+that she had many things to attend to, he went a little way up the
+hillside at the back of the premises, and enjoyed a quiet siesta under the
+shadow of the trees. Indeed, he slept so long that the twilight had well
+set in before he awoke and once again made tracks for the inn.
+
+This time he entered by a doorway in the rear of the house, and, in a
+small paved courtyard, saw the girl, habited in a rather more workaday
+attire, but with her hair still very coquettishly decorated with ribbons,
+sharpening a long glistening knife on a big grinding stone, which she was
+turning round and round with the skill of a past mistress of the art.
+
+"Hulloa!" he exclaimed. "What are you up to? Not sharpening that blade to
+stick me with, I hope."
+
+"The Senor has heard of pigs," the girl replied, showing her beautiful
+teeth in a smile, almost amounting to a grin. "Well, I'm going to kill one
+to-night."
+
+"Good heavens!" Ralph ejaculated, glancing incredulously at the white,
+rounded arms and the long, slim, tapering fingers. "You kill a pig! Do you
+do all the work of this house? Is there no one else here to help you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, Senor," the girl laughed. "There is Isabella, an old woman who
+comes here every day to do all the hard rough work, and my aunt, but there
+are certain jobs they can't do because their eyesight is not very good,
+and their hands lack the skill. The gentleman looks shocked, but is there
+anything so very dreadful in killing a pig? One slash and it is quickly
+done--very quickly. We have to live somehow, and, after all, the Senor is
+a soldier--he follows the vocation of killing!"
+
+"Oh, yes, it is all very well for big, rough men. One somehow associates
+them with deeds of violence and bloodshed. But with beautiful, dainty
+girls like you it is different. You should shudder at the very thought of
+blood, and be all pity and compassion."
+
+"But not for pigs," the girl laughed, "nor for Senors. Now please go in
+and sit in the parlour, or my aunt will hear me talking to you and accuse
+me of wasting my time."
+
+Ralph reluctantly obeyed, and drawing his chair close up to the parlour
+fire--for the summer evenings in Spain are often very chilly--was soon
+deeply absorbed in plans and speculations as to the future. After supper,
+when the young girl came into the room to clear the table, Ralph noticed
+that she was once again wearing the gay apparel she had worn earlier in
+the day; and all in red, even to the ribbons in her hair, she seemed to be
+dressed more coquettishly than ever. She was also inclined to be more
+communicative, and in response to Ralph's invitation to partake of a glass
+of wine with him, she fetched an armchair and came and planted it close
+beside him.
+
+Pretty as he had thought her before, she now appeared to him to be
+indescribably lovely, and the longer he stared at her, stared into the
+depths of her large, beautifully shaped purplish grey eyes, the more and
+more hopelessly enslaved did he become, till, in the end, he realised she
+had him completely at her mercy, and that he was most madly and
+desperately in love with her.
+
+They drank together, and so absorbed was he in gazing at her eyes--indeed
+he never ceased gazing at them--that he did not observe what he was
+drinking or how many times she filled up his glass. If she had given him a
+poisoned goblet, it would have been all the same, he would have drained it
+off and kissed her hands and feet with his dying breath.
+
+"Now, Senor," she said at length, after he had held her hand to his lips
+and literally smothered it in kisses, "now, Senor, it is time for you to
+go to bed. We do not keep late hours here, and to-morrow, Senor, if he is
+still in the same state of mind, will have plenty of time for repeating to
+me his sentiments."
+
+"To-morrow," Ralph stuttered. "To-morrow, that is a tremendous way off,
+and isn't it to-morrow that that fellow O'Flanagan is coming?"
+
+The girl laughed. "Yes," she said saucily, "there will be two of you
+to-morrow, the one as bad as the other, and I did think, Senor, you were
+the steadier of the two. Well, well, you are both soldiers, and soldiers
+were ever gay dogs; but you must be careful, Senor, you and your friend do
+not quarrel, for, as you know, more than one friendship has been
+terminated through the witching glance of a lady's eyes, and you both seem
+to like looking into mine."
+
+"What!" Ralph stuttered angrily. "Did that fellow Dick look at you? Did he
+dare to look at you? Damn----" but before he could utter another syllable,
+the girl put her soft little hand over his mouth and pushed him gently to
+the door.
+
+Alternately making wild love to her and passionately denouncing Dick,
+Ralph then allowed himself to be got upstairs to his room by pushes and
+coaxings, and, as he made a last frantic effort to kiss and fondle her,
+the door slammed in his face and he found himself--alone.
+
+For some moments he stood tugging and twisting at the door handle, and
+then, finding that his efforts had no effect, he was staggering off to the
+bed with the intention of getting into it just as he was, when he caught
+his foot on something and fell with a crash to the floor, striking his
+face smartly on the edge of a chair. For a moment or so he was partially
+stunned, but, the flow of blood from his nose relieving him, he gradually
+came to his senses, all trace of his drunkenness having completely
+vanished. The first thing he did then was to look at the carpet which, by
+a stroke of luck, was crimson, a most pronounced, virulent crimson,
+exactly the colour of his blood. The spot where he had fallen was close
+to the bed, and, as his eyes wandered along the carpet by the side of the
+bed, he fancied he saw another damp patch. He at once fetched the candle
+and had a closer look.
+
+Yes, there was a great splash of moisture on the floor, near the head of
+the bed, just about in a line with the pillow. He applied his finger to
+the patch and then held it to the light--it was wet with blood.
+
+Filled with a sickening sense of apprehension, Ralph now proceeded to make
+a careful examination of the room, and, lifting the lid of a huge oak
+chest that stood in one corner, he was horrified to perceive the naked
+body of a man lying at the bottom of it, all huddled up.
+
+Gently raising the body and bending down to examine it, Ralph received a
+second shock. The face that looked up at him with such utter lack of
+expression in its big, bulging, glassy eyes was that of the once gay and
+humorous Dick O'Flanagan.
+
+The manner of his death was only too obvious. His throat had been cut, not
+cleanly as a man would have done it, but with repeated hacks and slashes,
+that pointed all too clearly to a woman's handiwork.
+
+This then explained it all, explained the curious something in the girl's
+eyes and mouth he had noticed when he first saw her; explained, too, the
+stealthy, tiptoeing footsteps in the passage that night, the reason for
+the appearance of the Banshees, the eagerness with which the girl had
+plied him with wine, her red dress--and--the red carpet.
+
+But why had she done it--for mere sordid robbery, or because they were
+Carlists. Then recollecting the look she had fixed on the ruby in Dick's
+ring, the answer seemed clear. It was, of course, robbery. Snake-like, she
+used those beautiful eyes of hers to fascinate her victims--to lull them
+into a false sense of security; and then, when they had wholly succumbed
+to love and wine, of which she gave them their fill, she butchered them.
+
+Murders in Spanish inns were by no means uncommon about that time, and
+even at a much later date, and had this murder been committed by some old
+and ugly and cross-grained "host," Ralph would not have been surprised,
+but for this girl to have done it--this girl so young and enchanting, why
+it was almost inconceivable, and he would not have believed it, had not
+the grim proofs of it lain so close at hand. What was he to do? Of course,
+now that he was sober and in the full possession of his faculties, it was
+ridiculous for him to be afraid of a girl, even though she were armed;
+but supposing she had confederates, and it was scarcely likely she would
+be alone in the house.
+
+No, he must try and escape; but how! He examined the window, it was
+heavily barred; he tried the door, it was locked on the outside; he looked
+up the chimney, it was far too narrow to admit the passage of anyone even
+half his size.
+
+He was done, and the only thing he could do was to wait. To wait till the
+girl tiptoed into the room to kill, and then--he couldn't bear the idea of
+fighting with her, even though she had so cruelly murdered poor Dick--make
+his escape.
+
+With this end in view he blew out the candle, and, lying on the bed,
+pretended to be fast asleep.
+
+In about an hour's time he heard steps, soft, cautious footsteps, ascend
+the staircase and come stealing surreptitiously towards his door. Then
+they paused, and he instinctively knew she was listening. He breathed
+heavily, just as a man would do who had drunk not wisely but too well, and
+had consequently fallen into a deep sleep. Presently, there was a slight
+movement of the door handle.
+
+He continued breathing, and the movement was repeated. Still more
+stentorian breaths, and the handle this time was completely turned. Very
+gently he crept off the bed to the door, and, as it slowly opened and a
+figure in red, looking terribly ghostly and sinister, slipped in, so he
+suddenly shot past and made a bolt for the passage. There was a wild
+shriek, something whizzed past his head and fell with a loud clatter on
+the floor, and all the doors in the house downstairs seemed to open
+simultaneously. Reaching the head of the stairs in a few bounds, he was
+down them in a trice. A hideous old hag rushed at him with a hatchet,
+whilst another aged creature, whose sex he could not determine, aimed a
+wild blow at him with some other instrument, but Ralph avoided them both,
+and, reaching the front door, which providentially for him was merely
+locked, not bolted, he was speedily out of the house and into the broad
+highway.
+
+The screams of the women producing answering echoes from the wood in the
+hoarser shouts of men, Ralph took to his heels, nor did he stop running
+until he was well on his way to Trijello.
+
+He did not, however, go to the latter town, fearing that the inn people
+might follow him there and get him arrested as a Carlist; instead, he
+struck off the high road along a side path, and, luckily for him, about
+noon fell in with an advanced guard of the Carlist Army.
+
+His troubles then, for a time at least, ceased; but to his lasting regret
+he was never able to avenge Dick's death; for when the war was at last
+over and he had succeeded in persuading the local authorities to take the
+matter in hand, the inn was found to be empty and deserted. Nor was the
+pretty murderess ever seen or heard of again in that neighbourhood.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+THE BANSHEE ON THE BATTLE-FIELD
+
+
+Although the Banshee haunting referred to in my last chapter occurred
+during a war, the manifestations did not take place on the battle-field;
+nor were they actually due to the fighting. At the same time it cannot be
+denied that they were the outcome of it, for had our two lieutenants not
+been fighting desperately in a skirmish and got separated from the main
+body of the Army, in all probability they never would have visited the
+wayside inn, and the Banshee manifestations there would never have
+occurred.
+
+There are, however, many instances on record of Banshee manifestations
+occurring on the battle-field, either immediately before or after, or even
+whilst the fighting was actually taking place. Mr McAnnaly, in his "Irish
+Wonders," p. 117, says:
+
+     "Before the Battle of the Boyne, Banshees were heard singing in the
+     air over the Irish camp, the truth of the prophecy being verified by
+     the death roll of the next morning."
+
+Now several of my own immediate ancestors took part in the Battle of the
+Boyne,[10] and according to a family tradition one of them both saw and
+heard the Banshee. He was sitting in the camp, the night prior to the
+fighting, conversing with several other officers, including his brother
+Daniel, when, feeling an icy wind coming from behind and blowing down his
+back, he turned round to look for his cloak which he had discarded a short
+time before, owing to the heat from a fire close beside them. The cloak
+was not there, and, as he turned round still further to look for it, he
+perceived to his astonishment the figure of a woman, swathed from head to
+foot in a mantle of some dark flowing material, standing a few feet behind
+him. Wondering who on earth she could be, but supposing she must be a
+relative or friend of one of the officers, for her mantle looked costly,
+and her hair--of a marvellous golden hue--though hanging loose on her
+shoulders, was evidently well cared for, he continued to gaze at her with
+curiosity. Then he gradually perceived that she was shaking--shaking all
+over, with what he at first imagined must be laughter; but from the
+constant clenching of her hands and heaving of her bosom, he finally
+realised that she was weeping, and he was further assured on this point,
+when a sudden gust of wind, blowing back her mantle, he caught a full view
+of her face.
+
+Its beauty electrified him. Her cheeks were as white as marble, but her
+features were perfect, and her eyes the most lovely he had ever seen. He
+was about to address her, to inquire if he could be of any service to her,
+when, someone calling out and asking him what on earth he was doing, she
+at once began to melt away, and, amalgamating with the soft background of
+grey mist that was creeping towards them from the river, finally
+disappeared.
+
+He thought of her, however, some hours later, when they were all lying
+down, endeavouring to snatch a few hours' sleep, and presently fancied he
+saw, in dim, shadowy outline, her fair face and figure, her big, sorrowful
+eyes, gazing pitifully first at one and then at another of his companions,
+but particularly at one, a mere boy, who was lying wrapped in his military
+cloak, close beside the smouldering embers of the fire. He fancied that
+she approached this youths and, bending over him, stroked his short, curly
+hair with her delicate fingers.
+
+Thinking that possibly he might be asleep and dreaming, he rubbed his eyes
+vigorously, but the outlines were still there, momentarily becoming
+stronger and stronger, more and more distinct, until he realised with a
+great thrill that she actually was there, just as certainly as she had
+been when he had first seen her.
+
+He was so intent watching her and wishing she would leave the youth and
+come to him, that he did not notice that one of his comrades had seen her,
+too, until the latter, who had raised himself into a half-sitting posture,
+spoke; then, just as before, the figure of the girl melted away, and
+seemed to become absorbed in the dark and shadowy background.
+
+A moment later, he heard, just over his head, a loud moaning and wailing
+that lasted for several seconds and then died away in one long, protracted
+sob that suggested mental anguish of an indescribably forlorn and hopeless
+nature.
+
+The deaths of most of his companions of the night, including that of the
+curly haired boy, occurred on the following day.
+
+But the Banshee, although of course appearing to soldiers of Irish birth
+only, does not confine its attentions to those who are fighting on their
+native soil; it has been stated that she frequently manifested herself to
+Irishmen engaged on active service abroad during the Napoleonic Wars, and
+also to those serving in America during the Civil War.
+
+With regard to the Banshee demonstrations in connection with the
+Napoleonic campaigns, I have not been able to acquire any written record;
+but as the result of numerous letters sent out by me broadcast in quest of
+information, I was asked by several people to call either at their houses
+or clubs, and, gladly accepting their invitations, I learned from them the
+incidents which, with their permission, I am now about to relate.
+
+Miss O'Higgins, an aged lady, residing, prior to the late war, close to
+Fifth Avenue, New York, and visiting, when I met her, a friend in the Rue
+Campagne Premiere, Paris, told me that she well remembered her grandfather
+telling her when she was a child that he heard the Banshee at Talavera, a
+day or two prior to the great battle. He was serving with the Spanish
+Army, having married the daughter of a Spanish officer, and had no idea at
+the time that there were any men of Irish extraction in his corps.
+Bivouacking with about a hundred other soldiers in a valley, and happening
+to awake in the night with an ungovernable thirst, he made his way down to
+the banks of the river that flowed near by, drank his fill, and was in the
+act of returning, when he was startled to hear a most agonising scream,
+quickly followed by another, and then another, all proceeding apparently
+from the camp, whither he was wending his steps. Wondering what on earth
+could have happened, and inclining to the belief that it must be in some
+way connected with one of those women thieves who prowled about everywhere
+at night, robbing and murdering, with equal impunity, wherever they saw a
+chance, he quickened his pace, only to find, on his arrival at the camp,
+no sign whatever of the presence of any woman, although the screaming was
+going on as vigorously as ever. The sounds seemed to come first from one
+part of the camp, and then from another, but to be always overhead, as if
+uttered by invisible beings, hovering at a height of some six or seven
+feet, or, perhaps, more, above the ground, and although Lieutenant
+O'Higgins had at first attributed these sounds to one person only, on
+listening attentively he fancied he could detect several different
+voices--all women's--and he eventually came to the conclusion that at
+least three or four phantasms must have been present. As he stood there
+listening, not knowing what else to do, the wailing and sobbing seemed to
+grow more and more harrowing, until it affected him so much that, hardened
+as he had become to all kinds of misery and violence, he, too, felt like
+weeping, out of sheer sympathy. However, this state of affairs did not
+last long, for at the sound of a musket shot (that of a sentry, as
+Lieutenant O'Higgins afterwards ascertained, giving a false alarm in some
+distant part of the camp) the wailing and sobbing abruptly and completely
+ceased, and was never, the Lieutenant declared, heard by him again.
+
+On mentioning the matter to one of his brother officers in the morning,
+the latter, no little interested and surprised, at once said: "You have
+undoubtedly heard the Banshee. Poor D----, who fell at Corunna, often used
+to tell me about it, and, you may depend upon it, there are some Irishmen
+in camp now, and it was their funeral dirge that you listened to."
+
+What he said proved to be quite correct, for, on inquiring, Lieutenant
+O'Higgins discovered three of the soldiers who had been sleeping around
+him that evening had Irish names, and were, unquestionably, of ancient
+Irish origin; and all of them perished on the bloody field of Talavera,
+twenty-four hours later.
+
+A story relating to an O'Farrell, who was with the Spanish in the same
+war, was also told me by Miss O'Higgins; but whether this O'Farrell was
+the famous general of that name or not I do not know. The story ran as
+follows:[11]
+
+It was the day prior to the fall of Badajoz, and O'Farrell, who was in
+Badajoz at the time, a prisoner of the French, was invited to partake of
+supper with some Spanish-Irish friends of his of the name of McMahon. The
+French, it may be observed, were, as a rule, rather more lenient to their
+Irish prisoners than to their English, and O'Farrell was allowed to ramble
+about Badajoz in perfect freedom, a mere pledge being extracted from him
+that he wouldn't stroll outside the boundaries of the town without special
+permission. On the night in question O'Farrell left his quarters in high
+spirits. He liked the McMahons, especially the youngest daughter
+Katherine, with whom he was very much in love. He deemed his case
+hopeless, however, as Mr McMahon, who was poor, had often said none of his
+daughters should marry, unless it were someone who was wealthy enough to
+ensure them being well provided for, should they be left a widow; and as
+O'Farrell had nothing but his pay, which was meagre enough in all
+conscience, he saw no prospect of his ever being able to propose to the
+object of his affections. Had he been strong-minded enough, he told
+himself, he would have at once said good-bye to Katherine, and never have
+allowed himself to see or even think of her again; but, poor weakling that
+he was, he could not bear the idea of taking a final peep into her
+eyes--the eyes that he had idealised into his heaven and everything that
+made life worth living for--and so he kept accepting invitations to their
+house and throwing himself across her path, whenever the slightest
+opportunity presented itself.
+
+And now he found himself once more speeding to meet her, telling himself
+repeatedly that it should be the last time, but at the same time making up
+his mind that it should be nothing of the sort. He arrived at the house
+far too early, of course--he always did--and was shown into a room to wait
+there till the family had finished their evening toilets. Large glass
+doors opened out of the room on to a veranda, and O'Farrell, stepping out
+on to the latter, leaned over the iron railings, and gazed into the
+semi-courtyard, semi-garden below, in the centre of which was a fountain
+surmounted by the marble statue of a very beautiful maiden, that his
+instinct told him was an exact image of his beloved Katherine. He was
+gazing at it, revelling in the delightful anticipation of meeting the
+flesh and blood counterpart of it in a very short time, when sounds of
+music, of someone playing a very, very sad and plaintive air on the harp,
+came to him through the open doorway. Much surprised, for none of the
+family as far as he knew were harpists, nor had he, indeed, ever seen a
+harp in the house, he turned round; but, to add to his astonishment, no
+one was there. The room was apparently just as empty as when he had been
+ushered into it, and yet the music unquestionably emanated from it.
+Considerably mystified, for every now and then there was a peculiar
+far-offness in the sounds which he could liken to nothing he had ever
+heard before, he remained on the veranda, prevented by a strange feeling
+of awe, and something very akin to dread, from venturing into the room.
+
+He was thus occupied, half standing and half leaning against the framework
+of the glass door, when the harping abruptly ceased, and he heard moanings
+and sobbings as of a woman suffering from paroxysms of the most intense
+and violent grief. Combatting with a great fear that now began to seize
+him, he summed up the resolution to peep once more into the room, but
+though his eyes took in the whole range of the room, he could perceive no
+spot where anyone could possibly be in hiding, and nothing that would in
+any way account for the sounds. There was nothing in front of him but
+walls, furniture, and--space. Not a living creature. What then caused
+those sounds? He was asking himself this question, when the door opened,
+and Mr McMahon, followed by Katherine and all of the other girls, came
+into the apartment; and, with their entry, the strange sounds at once
+ceased.
+
+"Why, what's the matter, Mr O'Farrell," the girls said, laughingly. "You
+are as white as a sheet and trembling all over. You haven't seen a ghost,
+have you?"
+
+"I haven't seen anything," O'Farrell retorted, a trifle nettled at their
+gaiety, "but I've heard some rather extraordinary sounds."
+
+"Extraordinary sounds," Katherine laughed. "What on earth do you mean?"
+
+"Just what I say," O'Farrell remarked. "When I was on the veranda just now
+I distinctly heard the sound of a harp in this room, and shortly
+afterwards I heard a woman weeping."
+
+"It must have been someone outside in the street," Mr McMahon observed
+hastily, at the same time giving O'Farrell a warning glance from his dark
+and penetrating eyes. "We do occasionally receive visits from street
+musicians. I have something to say to you about the English and their
+rumoured new attack on the town," and drawing O'Farrell aside he whispered
+to him: "On no account refer to that music again. It was undoubtedly the
+Banshee, the ghost that my forefathers brought over from Ireland, and it
+is only heard before some very dreadful catastrophe to the family."
+
+The following day Badajoz was stormed and entered by the English, and
+in the wild scenes that ensued, scenes in which the drunken English
+soldiery got completely out of hands, many Spanish--Spanish men and
+women--perished, as well as French, and among the casualties were the
+entire McMahon family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+THE BANSHEE AT SEA
+
+
+Talking of phantom music, there is a widespread belief among Celtic races
+that whenever it is heard proceeding from the sea, either a death or some
+other great calamity is prognosticated. Such a belief is very prevalent
+along the coasts of Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, and Mr Dyer, in his
+"Ghost World," p. 413, refers to it in Ireland. "Sometimes," he says,
+"music is heard at sea, and it is believed in Ireland that, when a friend
+or relative dies, a warning voice is discernible." To what extent this
+music is connected with Banshee hauntings it is, of course, impossible to
+say; but I have known cases in which it has owed its origin to the Banshee
+and to the Banshee only.
+
+During the Civil War in America, for example, a transport of Confederate
+soldiers was making for Charlestown one evening, when a young Irish
+officer, who was leaning over the bulwarks and gazing pensively into the
+sea, was astonished to hear the very sweetest sounds of music coming
+from, so it seemed to him, the very depths of the blue waters. Thinking he
+must be dreaming, he called a brother officer to his side and asked him if
+he could hear anything.
+
+"Yes," the latter responded, "music, and what is more, singing. It is a
+woman, and she is singing some very tender and plaintive air. How the
+deuce do you account for it?"
+
+"I don't know," the young Irishman replied, "unless it is the Banshee, and
+it sounds very like the description of it that my mother used to give me.
+I only hope it does not predict the death of any one of my very near
+relatives."
+
+It did not do that, but oddly enough, and unknown to him at the time, a
+namesake of his, whom he subsequently discovered was a second cousin,
+stood not ten yards from him at the very moment he was listening to the
+music, and was killed in action in a sortie from Charlestown on the
+following day.
+
+A story of a similar nature was told me in Oregon by an old Irish Federal
+soldier, who was in the temporary employ of an apple merchant at Medford,
+Jackson County. I don't in any way vouch for its truth, but give it just
+as it was related to me.
+
+"You ask me if I have ever come across any ghosts in America. Well, I
+guess I have, several, and amongst others the Banshee. Oh, yes, I am
+Irish, although I speak with the nasal twang of the regular Yank. Everyone
+does who has lived in the Eastern States for any length of time. It's the
+climate. My name, however, is O'Hagan, and I was born in County Clare; and
+though my father was only a peasant, I'm a darned sight more Irish than
+half the people who possess titles and big estates in the old country
+to-day.
+
+"I emigrated from Ireland with my parents, when I was only a few weeks
+old, and we settled in New York, where I was working as a porter on the
+quays when the Civil War broke out. Like me, the majority of Irishmen who,
+as you know, are always ready to go wherever there's the chance of doing a
+bit of fighting, I at once enlisted in the Marines, for I was passionately
+fond of the sea, and in due course of time was transferred to a gunboat
+that patrolled the Carolina Coast on the lookout for Confederate blockade
+runners. Well, one night, shortly after I had turned in and was lying in
+my hammock, trying to get to sleep, which was none too easy, for one of my
+mates, an ex-actor, was snoring loud enough to wake the whole ship, I
+suddenly heard a tapping on the porthole close beside me. 'Hello,' says I
+to myself, 'that's an odd noise. It can't be the water, nor yet the wind;
+maybe it's a bird, a gull or albatross,' and I listened very attentively.
+The sound went on, but it had none of that hardness and sharpness about it
+that is occasioned by a beak, it was softer and more lingering, more like
+the tapping of fingers. Every now and then it left off, to go on again,
+tap, tap, tap, until, at last, it unnerved me to such an extent that I
+jumped out of my hammock and had a peep to see what it was. To my
+astonishment I saw a very white face pressed against the porthole, looking
+in at me. It was the face of a woman with raven black hair that fell in
+long ringlets about her neck and shoulders. She had big golden rings in
+her ears, that shone like anything as the moonbeams caught them, as did
+her teeth, too, which were the loveliest bits of ivory I have ever seen,
+absolutely even and without the slightest mar.
+
+"But it was her eyes that fascinated me most. They were large, not too
+large, however, but in strict proportion to the rest of her face, and as
+far as I could judge in the moonlight, either blue or grey, but
+indescribably beautiful, and, at the same time, indescribably sad. As I
+drew nearer, she shrank back, and pointed with a white and slender hand at
+a spot on the sea, and then suddenly I heard music, the far-away sound of
+a harp, proceeding, so it seemed to me, from about the place she had
+indicated. It was a very still night, and the sounds came to me very
+distinctly, above the soft lap, lap of the water against the vessel's
+side, and the mechanical squish, squish made by the bows each time they
+rose and fell, as the ship gently ploughed her way onwards. I was so
+intent on listening that I quite forgot the figure of the woman with the
+beautiful face, and when I turned to look at her again, she had gone, and
+there was nothing in front of me but an endless expanse of heaving,
+tossing, moonlit water. Then the music ceased, too, and all was still
+again, wondrously still, and feeling unaccountably sad and lonely--for I
+had taken a great fancy to that woman's face, the only what you might term
+really lovely woman's face that had ever looked kindly on me--I got back
+again into my hammock, and was soon fast asleep. On my touching at port,
+the first letter I received from home informed me of the death of my
+father, who had died the same night and just about the same time I had
+seen that fairy vision and heard that fairy music.
+
+"When I told my mother about it, some long time afterwards, she said it
+was the Banshee, and that it had haunted the O'Hagan family for hundreds
+and hundreds of years."
+
+This, as I have already said, is merely a trooper's story, unconfirmed by
+anyone else's evidence, and, of course, not up to the standard of S.P.R.
+authority. Yet, I believe, it was related to me in perfect sincerity, and
+the narrator had nothing whatever to gain through making it up. I did not
+even offer him a chew of tobacco, for at that moment I was pretty nearly,
+if not, indeed, quite as hard up as he was himself.
+
+And now, before I finish altogether with Banshee hauntings that are
+associated with war, I feel I must refer to a statement in Mr McAnnaly's
+book, "Irish Wonders," to the effect that when the Duke of Wellington
+died, the Banshee was heard wailing round the house of his ancestors. This
+statement does not, in my opinion, bear inspection. I am quite ready to
+grant that some kind of apparition--perhaps a family ghost he had
+inherited from one or other of his Anglo-Irish ancestry--was heard
+lamenting outside the domain in question; but as the family to whom the
+Duke belonged could not be said to be of even anything approaching ancient
+Irish extraction, I cannot conceive it possible that the disturbances
+experienced were in any way due to the genuine Banshee.
+
+To revert to the sea, and Banshee haunting. On the coast of Donegal there
+is an estuary called "The Rosses," and this at one time was said to be
+haunted by several kinds of phantoms, including the Banshee, which was
+reported to have manifested itself on quite a number of occasions.
+
+Under the heading of "An Irish Water-fiend," Bourke, in his "Anecdotes of
+the Aristocracy" (i. 329), relates the following case of a ghostly
+happening there, which, although not due to a Banshee, is so
+characteristic of Irish supernatural phenomena that I cannot refrain from
+quoting it.
+
+In the autumn of 1777 the Rev. James Crawford, rector of the parish of
+Killina, County Leitrim, was riding on horseback with his sister-in-law,
+Miss Hannah Wilson, on a pillion behind him, along the road leading to the
+"The Rosses," and, on reaching the estuary, he at once proceeded to cross
+it. After they had gone some distance, Miss Wilson, noticing that the
+water touched the saddle laps, became so alarmed that she cried out and
+besought Mr Crawford to turn the horse round and get back to land as
+quickly as possible.
+
+"I do not think there can be danger," Mr Crawford answered, "for I see a
+horseman crossing the ford not twenty yards before us."
+
+To this Miss Wilson, who also saw the horseman, replied:
+
+"You had better hail him and inquire the depth of the intervening water."
+
+Mr Crawford at once did so, whereupon the horseman stopped and, turning
+round, revealed a face distorted by the most hideous grin conceivable,
+and so frightfully white and evil that the luckless clergyman promptly
+beat a retreat, and made no attempt to check the mad haste of his panicked
+steed till he had left the estuary many miles behind him.
+
+On arriving home he narrated the incident to his wife and family, and
+subsequently learned that the estuary was well known to be haunted by
+several phantoms, whose mission was invariably the same, either to
+foretell the doom by drowning of the person to whom they appeared, or else
+to actually bring about the death of that person by luring them on and on,
+until they got out of their depth, and so perished.
+
+One would have thought that Mr Crawford, after the experience just
+narrated, would have given the estuary a very wide berth in future; but no
+such thing. He again attempted to cross the ford of "The Rosses" on 27th
+September, 1777, and was drowned in the endeavour.
+
+Among many thrilling and (so it struck me at the time) authentic stories
+told me in my youth by a Mrs Broderick, a well-known vendor of oranges and
+chocolate in Bristol, were several stirring accounts of the Banshee. I was
+at the time a day boy at Clifton College, residing not very far from the
+school, and Mrs Broderick, who used to visit our house every week with
+her wares, took a particular interest in me because I was Irish--one of
+"the real old O'Donnells." She was a native of Cork, and had, I believe,
+migrated from that city in the _Juno_, an old cattle boat, that for more
+than twenty years plied regularly every week between Cork and Bristol
+carrying a handful of passengers, who, for the cheapness of the fare, made
+the best of the rolling and tossing and extremely limited space allotted
+for their accommodation. In later years I often travelled to and from
+Dublin and Bristol in the _Argo_, the _Juno's_ sister ship, so I speak
+feelingly and from experience. But to proceed with Mrs Broderick's Banshee
+stories.
+
+The one containing an account of a Banshee haunting on the sea I will
+narrate in this chapter, and the other, which has no connection with
+either sea or river, I will deal with later on.
+
+Before I commence either story, however, I would like to say that though
+Mrs Broderick spoke with a rich brogue and was really Irish, she used few,
+if any, of those words and expressions that certain professors of the
+Dublin Academic School apparently consider inseparable from the speech of
+the Irish peasant class. I cannot, for example, remember her ever saying
+Musha, or Arrah, or Oro; and, as for Erse, I am quite certain she did not
+know a word of it. Yet, as I have said, she was Irish, and far more Irish
+than many of the Gaelic scholars of to-day who, insufferably proud of
+their knowledge of the Celtic tongue, bore one stiff by their feeble and
+futile attempts to acquire something of the real Irish wit and proverbial
+humour.
+
+Mrs Broderick did not often speak of her parents; they were, I fancy,
+peasants, or, perhaps, what we should term "small farmers," and from what
+I could gather they lived, at one time, in a little village just outside
+Cork; but Mrs Broderick was, she told me, very fond of the sea, and often,
+when a girl, walked into Cork and went out boating with her young friends
+in Queenstown harbour.
+
+On one occasion, she and another girl and two young men went for a sail
+with an old fisherman they knew, who took them some distance up the coast
+in the direction of Kinsale. There had been a slight breeze when they
+started, but it dropped suddenly as they were tacking to come back home,
+and since the sails had to be taken down and oars used, both the young men
+volunteered to row. Their offer being accepted by the old fisherman, they
+pulled away steadily till they espied an old ship, so battered and worn
+away as to be little more than a mere shell, lying half in and half out
+of the water in a tiny cove. Then, as the weather was beautifully fine and
+no one was in a hurry to get home, it was proposed that they pull up to
+the wreck and examine it. The old fisherman demurred, but he was soon won
+over, and the two young men and Mrs Broderick's girl friend boarded the
+old hulk, leaving Mrs Broderick and the old fisherman in the boat. The
+shadows from the trees and rocks had already manifested themselves on the
+glistening shingles of the beach, and a glow, emanating from the rapidly
+rising moon and myriads of scintillating stars that every moment shone
+forth with increased brilliancy, showed up every object around them with
+startling distinctness.
+
+Always in her element in scenes of this description, Mrs Broderick was
+enjoying herself to the utmost. Leaning on the side of the boat and
+trailing one hand in the water, she drank in the fresh night air, redolent
+with the scent of flowers and ozone. She could hear her friends talking
+and laughing as they tried to steady themselves on the sloping boards of
+the old hulk; and presently, one of them, O'Connell, proposed that they
+should descend below deck and explore the cabins. Then their voices
+gradually grew fainter and fainter, until eventually all was still, save
+for the lapping of the sea against the sides of the boat, and the gentle
+ripple of the wavelets as they broke on the beach, and the occasional
+far-away barkings of a dog--noises that somehow seem to belong to summer
+more than to any other period of the year.
+
+Mrs Broderick's memory, awakened by these sounds, travelled back to past
+seasons, and she was depicting some of the old scenes over again, when all
+at once, from the wreck, from that side of it, so it seemed to her, that
+was partly under water, there rang out a series of the most appalling
+screams, just like the screams of a woman who had been suddenly pounced
+upon and either stabbed, or treated in some equally savage and violent
+manner.
+
+Mrs Broderick, of course, at once thought of her friend, Mary Rooney, and,
+clutching the boatman by the arm, she exclaimed:
+
+"The Saints above, it's Mary. They're murdering her."
+
+"'Tis no woman, that," the old boatman said hoarsely. "'Tis the Banshee,
+and I would not have had this have happened for the whole blessed world. I
+with my mother so ill in bed with the rheumatism and a cold she got all
+through her with sitting out on the wet grass the night before last."
+
+"Are you sure?" Mrs Broderick whispered, clutching him tighter, whilst her
+teeth chattered. "Are you sure it isn't Mary, and they are not killing
+her?"
+
+"Sure," replied the boatman, "that's the way the Banshee always
+screams--'tis her, right enough, 'tis no human woman," and like the good
+Catholic that he was, he crossed himself, and, dipping the oars gently
+into the water, he began to pull slowly and quietly away.
+
+By and by the screaming ceased, and a moment later the three explorers
+came trooping on to the deck, showing no signs whatever of alarm, and when
+questioned as to whether they had heard anything, laughingly replied in
+the negative.
+
+"Only," O'Connell added facetiously, "the kiss Mike Power stole from Mary.
+That was all."
+
+But for O'Connell that was not all. When he arrived home he found that
+during his absence his mother had died suddenly, and, in all probability,
+at the very moment when Mrs Broderick and the boatman had heard the
+Banshee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ALLEGED COUNTERPARTS OF THE BANSHEE
+
+
+No country besides Ireland possesses a Banshee, though some countries
+possess a family or national ghost somewhat resembling it. In Germany, for
+example, popular tradition is full of rumours of white ladies who haunt
+castles, woods, rivers, and mountains, where they may be seen combing
+their yellow hair, or playing on harps or spinning. They usually, as their
+name would suggest, wear white dresses, and not infrequently yellow or
+green shoes of a most dainty and artistic design. Sometimes they are sad,
+sometimes gay; sometimes they warn people of approaching death or
+disaster, and sometimes, by their beauty, they blind men to an impending
+peril, and thus lure them on to their death. When beautiful, they are
+often very beautiful, though nearly always of the same type--golden hair
+and long blue eyes; they are rarely dark, and their hair is never of that
+peculiar copper and golden hue that is so common among Banshees. When
+ugly, they are generally ugly indeed--either repulsive old crones, not
+unlike the witches in Grimm's Fairy Tales, or death-heads mockingly
+arrayed in the paraphernalia of the young; but their ugliness does not
+seem to embrace that ghastly satanic mockery, that diabolical malevolence
+that is inseparable from the malignant form of Banshee, and which inspires
+in the beholders such a peculiar and unparalleled horror.
+
+It is not my intention in this work to do more than briefly refer to a few
+of the most famous of the German hauntings in their relation to the
+Banshee; and, since it is the best known, I would first of all call
+attention to the White Lady, that restricts its unwelcome attentions to
+Royalty, and more especially, perhaps, to that branch of it known as the
+House of Hohenzollern. Between this White Lady family phantasm and the
+Banshee there is undoubtedly something in common. They are both
+exclusively associated with families of really ancient lineage, which they
+follow about from town to town, province to province, and country to
+country; and the purpose of their respective missions is generally the
+same, namely, to give warning of some approaching death or calamity, which
+in the case of the White Lady is usually of a national order.
+
+Occasionally, too, the German family ghost, like the Banshee, is heard
+playing on a harp, but here I think the likeness ends. There are no very
+striking characteristics in the appearance of the White Lady of the
+Hohenzollerns, she would seem to be neither very beautiful nor the
+reverse; nor does she convey the impression of belonging to any very
+remote age; on the contrary, she might well be the earth-bound spirit of
+someone who died in the Middle Ages or even later.
+
+In December, 1628, she was seen in the Royal Palace in Berlin, and was
+heard to say, "_Veni, judica vivos et mortuos; judicum mihi adhuc
+superest_"--that is to say, "Come judge the quick and the dead--I wait for
+judgment." She also manifested herself to one of the Fredericks of
+Prussia, who regarded her advent as a sure sign of his approaching death,
+which it was, for he died shortly afterwards. We next read of her
+appearing in Bohemia at the Castle of Neuhaus. One of the princesses of
+the royal house was trying on a new head-gear before a mirror, and,
+thinking her waiting-maid was near at hand, she inquired of her the time.
+To the Princess's horror, however, instead of the maid answering her, a
+strange figure all in white, which her instincts told her was the famous
+national ghost, stepped out from behind a screen and exclaimed, "_Zehn uhr
+ist es irh Liebden!_" "It is ten o'clock, your love"; the last two words
+being the mode of address usually adopted in Germany and Austria by
+Royalties when speaking to one another. The Princess was soon afterwards
+taken ill and died.
+
+A faithful account of the appearance of the White Lady was published in
+_The Iris_, a Frankfort journal, in 1829, and was vouched for by the
+editor, George Doring. Doring's mother, who was companion to one of the
+ladies at the Prussian Court, had two daughters, aged fourteen and
+fifteen, who were in the habit of visiting her at the Palace. On one
+occasion, when the two girls were alone in their mother's sitting-room,
+doing some needlework, they were immeasurably surprised to hear the sounds
+of music, proceeding, so it seemed to them, from behind a big stove that
+occupied one corner of the apartment. One girl got up, and, taking a yard
+measure, struck the spot where she fancied the music was coming from;
+whereupon the measure was instantly snatched from her hand, the music, at
+the same time, ceasing. She was so badly frightened that she ran out of
+the room and took refuge in someone else's apartment.
+
+On her return some minutes later, she found her sister lying on the floor
+in a dead faint. On coming to, this sister stated that directly the other
+had quitted the apartment, the music had begun again and, not only that,
+but the figure of a woman, all in white, had suddenly risen from behind
+the stove and began to advance towards her, causing her instantly to faint
+with fright.
+
+The lady in whose house the occurrence took place, on being acquainted
+with what had happened, had the flooring near the stove taken up; but,
+instead of discovering the treasure which she had hoped might be there, a
+quantity of quick-lime only was found; and the affair eventually getting
+to the King's ears, he displayed no surprise, but merely expressed his
+belief that the apparition the girl had seen was that of the Countess
+Agnes of Orlamunde, who had been bricked up alive in that room.
+
+She had been the mistress of a former Margrave of Brandenburg, by whom she
+had had two children, and when the Margrave's legitimate wife died the
+Countess hoped he would marry her. This, however, he declined to do on the
+plea that her offspring, at his death, would very probably dispute the
+heirship to the property with the children of his lawful marriage. The
+Countess then, in order to remove this obstacle to her union, poisoned her
+two children, which act so disgusted the Margrave that he had her walled
+up alive in the room where she had committed the crimes. The King went on
+to explain that the phantasm appeared about every seven years, but more
+often to children, to whom it was believed to be very much attached, than
+to adults.
+
+Against this explanation, however, is the more recent one that the White
+Lady is Princess Bertha or Perchta von Rosenberg. This theory is founded
+on the discovery of a portrait of Princess Bertha, which was identified by
+someone as the portrait of the White Lady whom they had just seen.
+
+In support of this theory it was pointed out that once when certain
+charities which the Princess had stated in her will should be doled out
+annually to the poor were neglected, not only was the White Lady seen, but
+music and all kinds of other sounds were heard in the house where the
+Princess had died. Very possibly, however, in neither of these theories is
+there any truth, and the secret of the White Lady's activity lies in some
+subtle and, perhaps, entirely unsuspected fact. It is, I think, quite
+conceivable that she is no earth-bound soul, but some impersonating
+elemental, which--like the Banshee--has, for some strange and wholly
+inexplicable reason, attached itself to the unfortunate Hohenzollerns, and
+their relatives and kinsmen.
+
+Ballinus and Erasmus Francisci, in their published works, give numerous
+accounts of the appearance of this same apparition; whilst Mrs Crowe
+asserts that it was seen shortly before the publication of her "Night Side
+of Nature." It would be interesting to know whether it appeared to the
+ex-Kaiser Wilhelm, or to any of his family, before this last greatest and
+most signally disastrous of all wars.
+
+William Brereton in his "Travels" (i. 33) gives rather a different
+description of this ghost. He says that the Queen of Bohemia told him
+"that at Berlin--the Elector of Brandenberg's house--before the death of
+anyone related in blood to that house, there appears and walks up and down
+that house like unto a ghost in a white sheet, which walks during the time
+of their sickness until their death."
+
+In this account it will be noticed that there is no mention of sex, so
+that the reader can only speculate as to whether the apparition was the
+ghost of a man or a woman. Its appearance, however, according to this
+account, strongly suggests a ghost of the sepulchral and death-head
+type--an ordinary species of elemental--which suggestion is not apparent
+in any other description of it that we have hitherto come across. Other
+ancient German and Austrian families, besides those of the ruling houses,
+possess their family ghosts, and here again, as in the parallel case of
+the Irish and their Banshee, the family ghost of the Germans or Austrians
+is by no means confined to the "White Lady." In some cases of German
+family haunting, for example, the phenomenon is a roaring lion, in others
+a howling dog; and in others a bell or gong, or sepulchral toned clock
+striking at some unusual hour, and generally thirteen times. In all
+instances, however, no matter whether the family ghost be German, Irish,
+or Austrian, the purpose of its manifestations is the same--to predict
+death or some very grave calamity.[12]
+
+In the notes to the 1844 edition of Thomas Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends
+and Traditions of the South of Ireland," we find this paragraph taken from
+the works of the Brothers Grimm and manuscript communications from Dr
+Wilhelm Grimm:
+
+"In the Tyrol they believe in a spirit which looks in at the window of a
+house in which a person is to die (Deutsche Sagen, No. 266), the White
+Woman with a veil over her head answers to the Banshee, but the tradition
+of the Klage-weib (mourning woman) in the Luenchurger Heath (Spiels Archiv.
+ii. 297) resembles it more. On stormy nights, when the moon shines faintly
+through the fleeting clouds, she stalks of gigantic stature with
+death-like aspect, and black, hollow eyes, wrapt in grave clothes which
+float in the wind, and stretches her immense arm over the solitary hut,
+uttering lamentable cries in the tempestuous darkness. Beneath the roof
+over which the Klage-weib has leaned, one of the inmates must die in the
+course of a month."
+
+In Italy there are several families of distinction possessing a family
+ghost that somewhat resembles the Banshee. According to Cardau and
+Henningius Grosius the ancient Venetian family of Donati possess a ghost
+in the form of a man's head, which is seen looking through a doorway
+whenever any member of the family is doomed to die. The following extract
+from their joint work serves as an illustration of it:
+
+"Jacopo Donati, one of the most important families in Venice, had a child,
+the heir to the family, very ill. At night, when in bed, Donati saw the
+door of his chamber opened and the head of a man thrust in. Knowing that
+it was not one of his servants, he roused the house, drew his sword, went
+over the whole palace, all the servants declaring that they had seen such
+a head thrust in at the doors of their several chambers at the same hour;
+the fastenings were found all secure, so that no one could have come in
+from without. The next day the child died."
+
+Other families in Italy, a branch of the Paoli, for example, is haunted by
+very sweet music, the voice of a woman singing to the accompaniment of a
+harp or guitar, and invariably before a death.
+
+Of the family ghost in Spain I have been able to gather but little
+information. There, too, some of the oldest families seem to possess
+ghosts that follow the fortunes, both at home and abroad, of the families
+to which they are attached, but with the exception of this one point of
+resemblance there seems to be in them little similarity to the Banshee.
+
+In Denmark and Sweden the likeness between the family ghost and the
+Banshee is decidedly pronounced. Quite a number of old Scandinavian
+families possess attendant spirits very much after the style of the
+Banshee; some very beautiful and sympathetic, and some quite the reverse;
+the most notable difference being that in the Scandinavian apparition
+there is none of that ghastly mixture of the grave, antiquity, and hell
+that is so characteristic of the baleful type of Banshee, and which would
+seem to distinguish it from the ghosts of all other countries. The
+beautiful Scandinavian phantasms more closely resemble fairies or angels
+than any women of this earth, whilst the hideous ones have all the
+grotesqueness and crude horror of the witches of Andersen or Grimm. There
+is nothing about them, as there so often is in the Banshee, to make one
+wonder if they can be the phantasms of any long extinct race, or people,
+for example, that might have hailed from the missing continent of
+Atlantis, or have been in Ireland prior to the coming of the Celts.
+
+The Scandinavian family ghosts are frankly either elementals or the
+earth-bound spirits of the much more recent dead. Yet, as I have said,
+they have certain points in common with the Banshee. They prognosticate
+death or disaster; they scream and wail like women in the throes of some
+great mental or physical agony; they sob or laugh; they occasionally tap
+on the window-panes, or play on the harp; they sometimes haunt in pairs, a
+kind spirit and an evilly disposed one attending the fortunes of the same
+family; and they keep exclusively to the very oldest families. Oddly
+enough at times the Finnish family ghost assumes the guise of a man.
+Burton, for example, in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," tells us "that near
+Rufus Nova, in Finland, there is a lake in which, when the governor of the
+castle dies, a spectrum is seen in the habit of Orion, with a harp, and
+makes excellent music, like those clocks in Cheshire which (they say)
+presage death to the masters of the family; or that oak in Lanthadran Park
+in Cornwall, which foreshadows so much."
+
+I will not dwell any longer, however, on Scandinavian ghosts, as I purpose
+later on to publish a volume on the same, but will pass on to the family
+apparitions of Scotland, England, and Wales.
+
+Beginning with Scotland, Sir Walter Scott was strong in his belief in the
+Banshee, which he described as one of the most beautiful superstitions of
+Europe. In his "Letters on Demonology" he says: "Several families of the
+Highlands of Scotland anciently laid claim to the distinction of an
+attendant spirit, who performed the office of the Irish Banshee," and he
+particularly referred to the ghostly cries and lamentations which
+foreboded death to members of the Clan of MacLean of Lochbery. But though
+many of the Highland families do possess such a ghost, unlike the Banshee,
+it is not restricted to the feminine sex, nor does its origin, as a rule,
+date back to anything like such remote times. It would seem, indeed, to
+belong to a much more ordinary species of phantasm, a species which is
+seldom accompanied by music or any other sound, and which by no means
+always prognosticates death, although on many occasions it has done so.
+
+In addition to the MacLean, some of the best known cases of Scottish
+family ghosts are as follows:
+
+The Bodach au Dun, or Ghost of the Hills, which haunts the family of Grant
+Rothiemurcus, and the Llam-dearg, or spectre of the Bloody Hand, which
+pursues the fortunes of the Clan Kinchardine. According to Sir Walter
+Scott in the Macfarlane MSS. this spirit was chiefly to be seen in the
+Glenmore, where it took the form of a soldier with one hand perpetually
+dripping with blood. At one time it invariably signalled its advent in the
+manner which, I think, has no parallel among ghosts--it challenged members
+of the Kinchardine Clan to fight a duel with it, and whether they accepted
+or not they always died soon afterwards. As lately as 1669, says Sir
+Walter Scott, it fought with three brothers, one after another, who
+immediately died therefrom.
+
+Then there is the Clan of Gurlinbeg which is haunted by Garlin Bodacher;
+the Turloch Gorms who, according to Scott, are haunted by Mary Moulach, or
+the girl with the hairy left hand;[13] and the Airlie family, whose seat
+at Cortachy is haunted by the famous drummer, whose ghostly tattoos must
+be taken as a sure sign that a member of the Ogilvie Clan--of which the
+Earl of Airlie is the recognised head--will die very shortly.
+
+Mr Ingram, in his "Haunted Houses and Family Legends," quotes several
+well authenticated instances of manifestations by this apparition, the
+last occurring, according to him, in the year 1899, though I have heard
+from other reliable sources that it has been heard at a much more recent
+date. The origin of this haunting is generally thought to be comparatively
+modern, and not to date further back than two or three hundred years, if
+as far, which, of course, puts it on quite a different category from that
+of the Banshee, though its mission is, without doubt, the same. According
+to Mr Ingram, a former Lord Airlie, becoming jealous of one of his
+retainers or emissaries who was a drummer, had him thrust in his drum and
+hurled from a top window of the castle into the courtyard beneath, where
+he was dashed to pieces. With his dying breath the drummer cursed not only
+Lord Airlie, but his descendants, too, and ever since that event his
+apparition has persistently haunted the family.
+
+Other Highland families that possess special ghosts are a branch of the
+Macdonnells, that have a phantom piper, whose mournful piping invariably
+means that some member or other of the clan is shortly doomed to die; and
+the Stanleys who have a female apparition that signalises her advent by
+shrieking, weeping, and moaning before the death of any of the family.
+Perhaps of all Scottish ghosts this last one most closely resembles the
+Banshee, though there are distinct differences, chiefly with regard to the
+appearance of the phantoms--the Scottish one differing essentially in her
+looks and attire from the Irish ghost--and their respective origins, that
+of the Stanley apparition being, in all probability, of much later date
+than the Banshee.
+
+Then, again, there is the Bodach Glas, or dark grey man, in reference to
+which Mr Henderson, in his "Folk-lore of Northern Countries," p. 344,
+says: "Its appearance foretold death in the Clan of ----, and I have been
+informed on the most credible testimony of its appearance in our own day.
+The Earl of E----, a nobleman alike beloved and respected in Scotland, was
+playing on the day of his decease on the links of St Andrew's at golf.
+Suddenly he stopped in the middle of the game, saying, 'I can play no
+longer, there is the Bodach Glas. I have seen it for the third time;
+something fearful is going to befall me.' That night he fell down dead as
+he was giving a lady her candlestick on her way up to bed."
+
+Another instance, still, of a Scottish family ghost is that of the willow
+tree at Gordon Castle, which is referred to by Sir Bernard Bourke in his
+"Anecdotes of the Aristocracy." Sir Bernard asserts that whenever any
+accident happens to this tree, if, for example, a branch is blown down in
+a storm, or any part of it is struck by lightning, then some dire
+misfortune is sure to happen to some member of the family.
+
+There are other old Scottish family ghosts, all very distinct from the
+Banshee, though a few bear some slight resemblance to it, but as my space
+is restricted, I will pass on to family ghosts of a more or less similar
+type that are to be met with in England.
+
+To begin with, the Oxenhams of Devonshire the heiress of Sir James
+Oxenham, and the bride that is invariably seen before the death of any
+member of the family. According to a well-known Devonshire ballad, a bird
+answering to this description flew over the guests at the wedding of the
+heiress of Sir James Oxenham, and the bride was killed the following day
+by a suitor she had unceremoniously jilted.
+
+The Arundels of Wardour have a ghost in the form of two white owls, it
+being alleged that whenever two birds of this species are seen perched on
+the house where any of this family are living, some one member of them is
+doomed to die very shortly.
+
+Equally famous is the ghost of the Cliftons of Nottinghamshire, which
+takes the shape of a sturgeon that is seen swimming in the river Trent,
+opposite Clifton Hall, the chief seat of the family, whenever one of the
+Cliftons is on the eve of dying.
+
+Then, again, there is the white hand of the Squires of Worcestershire, a
+family that is now practically extinct. According to local tradition this
+family was for many generations haunted by the very beautiful hand of a
+woman, that was always seen protruding through the wall of the room
+containing that member of the family who was fated to die soon. Most ghost
+hands are said to be grey and filmy, but this one, according to some
+eye-witnesses, appears to have borne an extraordinary resemblance to that
+of a living person. It was slender and perfectly proportioned, with very
+tapering fingers and very long and beautifully kept filbert nails--the
+sort of hand one sees in portraits of women of bygone ages, but which one
+very rarely meets with in the present generation.
+
+Other families that possess ghosts are the Yorkshire Middletons, who are
+always apprised of the death of one of their members by the appearance of
+a nun; and the Byrons of Newstead Abbey, who, according to the great poet
+of that name, were haunted by a black Friar that used to be seen wandering
+about the cloisters and other parts of the monasterial building before
+the death of any member of the family.
+
+In England, there seems to be quite a number of White Lady phantoms, most
+of them, however, haunting houses and not families, and none of them
+bearing any resemblance to the Banshee. Indeed, there is a far greater
+dissimilarity between the English and Irish types of family ghosts than
+there is between the Irish and those of any of the nations I have hitherto
+discussed.
+
+Lastly, with regard to the Welsh family ghosts, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his
+"British Goblins," quite erroneously, I think, likens the Banshee in
+appearance to the Gwrach y Rhibyn, or Hag of the Dribble, which he
+describes as hideous, with long, black teeth, long, lank, withered arms,
+leathern wings, and cadaverous cheeks, a description that is certainly not
+in the least degree like that of any Banshee I have ever heard of. He goes
+on to add that it comes in the stillness of the night, utters a
+blood-curdling howl, and calls on the person doomed to die thus:
+"Da-a-a-vy! De-i-i-o-o-ba-a-a-ch." If it is in the guise of a male it
+says, in addition, "Fy mlentyn, fy mlentyn bach!" which rendered into
+English is, "My child, my little child"; but if in the form of a woman,
+"Oh! Oh! fy ngwr, fy ngwr"--"My husband! my husband!" As a rule it flaps
+its wings against the window of the room in which the person who is
+doomed is sleeping, whilst occasionally it appears either to the ill-fated
+one himself or to some member of his family in a mist on the mountainside.
+
+Mr Sikes gives a very graphic description of the appearance of this
+apparition to a peasant farmer near Cardiff, a little over forty years
+ago. To be precise, it was on the evening of the 14th November, 1877. The
+farmer was on a visit to an old friend at the time, and was awakened at
+midnight by the most ghastly screaming and a violent shaking of the
+window-frame. The noise continued for some seconds, and then terminated in
+one final screech that far surpassed all the others in intensity and sheer
+horror. Greatly excited--though Mr Sikes affirms he was not
+frightened--the old man leaped out of bed, and, throwing open the window,
+saw a figure like a frightful old woman, with long, dishevelled, red hair,
+and tusk-like teeth, and a startling white complexion, floating in
+mid-air. She was enveloped in a long, loose, flowing kind of black robe
+that entirely concealed her body. As he gazed at her, completely
+dumbfounded with astonishment, she peered down at him and, throwing back
+her dreadful head, emitted another of the very wildest and most harrowing
+of screams. He then heard her flap her wings against a window immediately
+underneath his, after which he saw her fly over to an inn almost directly
+opposite him, called the "Cow and Snuffers," and pass right through the
+closed doorway.
+
+After waiting some minutes to see if she came out again, he at length got
+back into bed, and on the morrow learned that Mr Llewellyn, the landlord
+of the "Cow and Snuffers," had died in the night about the same time as
+the apparition, which he, the old farmer, now concluded must have been the
+Gwrach y Rhibyn, had appeared.
+
+There is, of course, this much in common between the Gwrach y Rhibyn and
+the Banshee: both are harbingers of death; both signalise their advent by
+shrieks, and both confine their hauntings to really ancient Celtic
+families; but here, it seems to me, the likeness ends. The Gwrach y Rhibyn
+is more grotesque than horrible, and would seem to belong rather to the
+order of witches in fairy lore than to the denizens of the ghost world.
+
+Another ghostly phenomenon of the death-warning type that is, I believe,
+to be met with in Wales, is the Canhywllah Cyrth, or corpse candle, so
+called because the apparition resembles a material candlelight, saving for
+the fact that it vanishes directly it is approached, and reforms speedily
+again afterwards. The following descriptions of the Canhywllah Cyrth are
+taken from Mr T. C. Charley's "News from the Invisible World," pp. 121-4.
+The first extract is the account of the corpse candles given by the Rev.
+Mr Davis.
+
+"If it be a little candle," he writes, "pale or bluish, then follows the
+corpse either of an abortive, or some infant; if a big one, then the
+corpse either of someone come of age; if there be seen two or three or
+more, some big, some small, together, then so many such corpses together.
+If two candles come from divers places, and be seen to meet, the corpses
+will do the like; if any of these candles be seen to turn, sometimes a
+little out of the way that leadeth unto the church, the following corpse
+will be found to turn into that very place, for the avoiding of some dirty
+lane, etc. When I was about fifteen years of age, dwelling at Llanglar,
+late at night, some neighbours saw one of these candles hovering up and
+down along the bank of the river, until they were weary in beholding; at
+last they left it so, and went to bed. A few weeks after, a damsel from
+Montgomeryshire came to see her friends, who dwelt on the other side of
+the Istwyth, and thought to ford it at the place where the light was seen;
+but being dissuaded by some lookers-on (by reason of a flood) she walked
+up and down along the bank, where the aforesaid candle did, waiting for
+the falling of the waters, which at last she took, and was drowned
+therein."
+
+Continuing, he says: "Of late, my sexton's wife, an aged understanding
+woman, saw from her bed a little bluish candle upon her table; within two
+or three days after comes a fellow in, inquiring for her husband, and
+taking something from under his cloak, clapped it down directly upon the
+table end, where she had seen the candle; and what was it but a dead-born
+child?"
+
+In another case the same gentleman relates a number of these candles were
+seen together. "About thirty-four or thirty-five years since," he says,
+"one Jane Wyat, my wife's sister, being nurse to Baronet Reid's three
+eldest children, and (the lady being deceased) the lady controller of that
+house, going late into a chamber where the maidservants lay, saw there no
+less than five of these lights together. It happened a while after, the
+chamber being newly plastered and a great grate of coal-fire thereon
+kindled to hasten the drying up of the plastering, that five of the
+maidservants went there to bed, as they were wont, but in the morning they
+were all dead, being suffocated in their sleep with the steam of the newly
+tempered lime and coal. This was at Llangathen in Carmarthenshire."
+
+Occasionally a figure is seen with the lights, but nearly always that of a
+woman. A propos of this the same writer says: "William John of the County
+of Carmarthen, a smith, on going home one night, saw one of the corpse
+candles; he went out of his way to meet with it, and when he came near it,
+he saw it was a burying; and the corpse upon the bier, the perfect
+resemblance of a woman in the neighbourhood whom he knew, holding the
+candle between her forefingers, who dreadfully grinned at him, and
+presently he was struck down from his horse, where he remained a while,
+and was ill a long time after before he recovered. This was before the
+real burying of the woman. His fault, and therefore his danger, was his
+coming presumptuously against the candle."
+
+Lastly, an account of these death candles appeared some years ago in
+_Fraser's Magazine_. It ran as follows:
+
+"In a wild and retired district in North Wales, the following occurrence
+took place to the great astonishment of the mountaineers. We can vouch for
+the truth of the statement, as many members of our own teutu, or clan,
+were witnesses of the fact. On a dark evening, a few winters ago, some
+persons, with whom we are well acquainted, were returning to Barmouth, on
+the south or opposite side of the river. As they approached the
+ferryhouse at Penthryn, which is directly opposite Barmouth, they
+observed a light near the house, which they conjectured to be produced by
+a bonfire, and greatly puzzled they were to discover the reason why it
+should have been lighted. As they came nearer, however, it vanished; and
+when they inquired at the house respecting it, they were surprised to
+learn that not only had the people there displayed no light, but they had
+not even seen one; nor could they perceive any signs of it on the sands.
+On reaching Barmouth, the circumstance was mentioned, and the fact
+corroborated by some of the people there, who had also plainly and
+distinctly seen the light. It was settled, therefore, by some of the old
+fisherman, that this was a "death-token"; and, sure enough, the man who
+kept the ferry at that time was drowned at high-water a few nights
+afterwards, on the very spot where the light was seen. He was landing from
+the boat, when he fell into the water, and so perished."
+
+"The same winter the Barmouth people, as well as the inhabitants of the
+opposite banks, were struck by the appearance of a number of small lights
+which were seen dancing in the air at a place called Borthwyn, about half
+a mile from the town. A great number of people came out to see these
+lights; and after a while they all but one disappeared, and this one
+proceeded slowly towards the water's edge, to a small bay where some boats
+were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near the spot saw the
+light advancing--they saw it also hover for a few seconds over one
+particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or three days afterwards,
+the man to whom that particular boat belonged was drowned in the river,
+where he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in that very boat. We have
+narrated these facts just as they occurred."
+
+Another well-known Welsh haunting that may be relegated to the same class
+of phenomena as the corpse candles is that of the Stradling Ghost. This
+phantasm, which is supposed to be that of a former Lady Stradling, who was
+murdered by one of her own relatives, haunts St Donart's Castle, on the
+southern coast of Glamorganshire, appearing whenever a death or some very
+grievous calamity is about to overtake a member of the family. Writing of
+her, Mr Wirt Sikes, in his "British Goblins," p. 143-4, says: "She appears
+when any mishap is about to befall a member of the house of Stradling, the
+direct line, however, of which is extinct. She wears high-heeled shoes,
+and a long trailing gown of the finest silk." According to local reports,
+her advent is always known in the neighbourhood by the behaviour of the
+dogs, which, taking their cue from their canine representatives in the
+Castle, begin to howl and whine, and keep on making a noise and showing
+every indication of terror and resentment so long as the earth-bound
+spirit of the lady continues to roam about. Of course the Stradling Ghost
+cannot be said to be characteristically Welsh, because its prototype is to
+be found in so many other countries, but it at least comes under the
+category of family apparitions.
+
+The Gwyllgi, or dog of darkness, which Mr Wirt Sikes asserts has often
+inspired terror among the Welsh peasants, does not appear to be confined
+to any one family, any more than do the corpse candles, though, like the
+latter, it would seem to manifest itself principally to really Welsh
+people. Its advent is not, however, predicative of any special happening.
+The Cwn Annwn, or dogs of hell, that are chiefly to be met with in the
+south of Wales, on the contrary, rarely, if ever, appear, saving to warn
+those who see them of some approaching death or disaster. Neither they,
+nor the Gwyllgi, nor the corpse candles, since they do not haunt one
+family exclusively, can be called family ghosts. And only inasmuch as they
+are racial have they anything in common with the Banshee. Indeed, there is
+a world of difference between the Banshee and even its nearest
+counterpart in other countries, and the difference is, perhaps, one which
+only those who have actually experienced it could ever understand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE BANSHEE IN POETRY AND PROSE
+
+
+  "'Twas the Banshee's lonely wailing,
+      Well I knew the voice of death,
+    On the night wind slowly sailing
+      O'er the bleak and gloomy heath."
+
+These are the dramatic lines Thomas Crofton Croker, in his inimitable
+"Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland," puts in the mouth
+of the widow MacCarthy, as she is lamenting over the body of her son,
+Charles, whose death had been predicted by the Banshee; not the beautiful
+and dainty Banshee of the O'Briens, but a wild, unkempt, haggish creature
+that seemed in perfect harmony with the drear and desolate moorland from
+whence it sprang.
+
+Mr Croker, indeed, almost invariably associates the Banshee with the heath
+and bogland, for at the commencement of his Tales of the Banshee in the
+same volume, we find these well-known lines:
+
+  "Who sits upon the heath forlorn,
+  With robe so free and tresses worn,
+  Anon she pours a harrowing strain,
+  And then she sits all mute again!
+  Now peals the wild funereal cry,
+  And now--it sinks into a sigh."
+
+Very different from this grim and repellent portrayal of the Banshee given
+by Mr Croker is the very pleasing and attractive description of it
+presented to us by Dr Kenealy, whose account of it in prose appears in an
+earlier chapter of this book.
+
+Referring to the death of his brother, Dr Kenealy says:
+
+  "Here the Banshee, that phantom bright who weeps
+  Over the dying of her own loved line,
+  Floated in moonlight; in her streaming locks
+  Gleamed starshine; when she looked on me, she knew
+  And smiled."
+
+And again:
+
+  "The wish has but
+  Escaped my lips--and lo! once more it streams
+  In liquid lapse upon the fairy winds
+  That guard each slightest note with jealous care,
+  And bring them hither, even as angels might
+  To the beloved to whom they minister."
+
+In reference to phantom music heard at sea, Mr Dyer, in his "Ghost
+World," p. 413, quotes the following lines:
+
+  "A low sound of song from the distance I hear,
+  In the silence of night, breathing sad on my ear,
+  Whence comes it? I know not--unearthly the note,
+  Yet it sounds like the lay that my mother once sung,
+  As o'er her first-born in his cradle she hung."
+
+As I have already stated, the Banshee is not infrequently heard at sea,
+either singing or weeping, hence, in all probability, the author of these
+lines, whose name, by the way, Mr Dyer does not divulge, had the Banshee
+in mind when he wrote them. But, perhaps, the best known, as well as the
+most direct reference to this ghost in verse is that made by Ireland's
+popular poet, Thomas Moore, in one of the most famous of his "Irish
+Melodies." I append the poem, not only for the reference it contains, but
+also on account of its general beauty.
+
+  "How oft has the Banshee cried!
+  How oft has death untied
+  Bright bonds that glory wove
+  Sweet bonds entwin'd by love.
+  Peace to each manly soul that sleepeth!
+  Rest to each faithful eye that weepeth!
+  Long may the fair and brave
+  Sigh o'er the hero's grave.
+
+  We're fallen upon gloomy days,
+  Star after star decays,
+  Every bright name, that shed
+  Light o'er the land, is fled.
+  Dark falls the tear of him who mourneth
+  Lost joy, a hope that ne'er returneth,
+  But brightly flows the tear
+  Wept o'er the hero's bier.
+
+  Oh, quenched are our beacon lights
+  Thou, of the hundred fights!
+  Thou, on whose burning tongue
+  Truth, peace, and freedom hung!
+  Both mute, but long as valour shineth
+  Or Mercy's soul at war refineth
+  So long shall Erin's pride
+  Tell how they lived and died."
+
+With the following extracts from the translation of an elegy written by
+Pierse Ferriter, the Irish poet soldier, who fought bravely in the
+Cromwellian wars, I must now terminate these references to the Banshee in
+poetry:
+
+  "When I heard lamentations
+    And sad, warning cries
+  From the Banshees of many
+    Broad districts arise.
+  Aina from her closely hid
+    Nest did awake
+  The woman of wailing
+    From Gur's voicy lake;
+  From Glen Fogradh of words
+    Came a mournful whine,
+  And all Kerry's Banshees
+    Wept the lost Geraldine.[14]
+  The Banshees of Youghal
+    And of stately Mo-geely
+  Were joined in their grief
+    By wide Imokilly.
+  Carah Mona in gloom
+    Of deep sorrow appears,
+  And all Kinalmeaky's
+    Absorbed into tears.
+
+  *       *       *       *
+
+  The Banshee of Dunquin
+    In sweet song did implore
+  To the spirit that watches
+    O'er dark Dun-an-oir,
+  And Ennismare's maid
+    By the dark, gloomy wave
+  With her clear voice did mourn
+    The fall of the brave.
+  On stormy Slieve Mish
+    Spread the cry far and wide,
+  From steeply Finnaleun
+    The wild eagle replied.
+  'Mong the Reeks, like the
+    Thunder peal's echoing rout,
+  It burst--and deep moaning
+    Bright Brandon gives out,
+  Oh Chief! whose example
+    On soft-minded youth
+  Like the signet impressed
+    Honour, glory, and truth.
+  The youth who once grieved
+    If unnoticed passed by,
+  Now deplore thee in silence
+    With sorrow-dimmed eye,
+  O! woman of tears,
+    Who, with musical hands,
+  From your bright golden hair
+    Hath combed out the long bands,
+  Let those golden strings loose,
+    Speak your thoughts--let your mind
+  Fling abroad its full light,
+    Like a torch to the wind."
+
+In fiction no writer has, I think, dealt more freely with the subject of
+the Banshee than Thomas Crofton Croker, the translator of the
+abovementioned elegy. In his "Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of
+Ireland," he gives the most inimitable accounts of it; and for the benefit
+of those of my readers who are unacquainted with his works, as well as for
+the purpose of presenting the Banshee as seen by such an unrivalled
+portrayer of Irish ghost and fairy lore, I will give a brief resume of
+two of his stories.
+
+The one I will take first relates to the Rev. Charles Bunworth, who about
+the middle of the eighteenth century was rector of Buttevant, County Cork.
+Mr Bunworth was greatly beloved and esteemed, not only on account of his
+piety--for pious people are by no means always popular--but also on
+account of his charity. He used to give pecuniary aid, often when he could
+ill afford it, to all and any, no matter to what faith they belonged, whom
+he really believed were in need; and being particularly fond of music,
+especially the harp, he entertained, in a most generous and hospitable
+manner, all the poor Irish harpers that came to his house. At the time of
+his death, no fewer than fifteen harps were found in the loft of his
+granary, presents, one is led to infer, from strolling harpers, in token
+of their gratitude for his repeated acts of kindness to them.
+
+About a week prior to his decease, and at an early hour in the evening,
+several of the occupants of his house heard a strange noise outside the
+hall door, which they could only liken to the shearing of sheep. No very
+serious attention, however, was paid to it, and it was not until some time
+afterwards, when other queer things happened, that it was recalled and
+associated with the supernatural. Later on, at about seven o'clock in the
+evening, Kavanagh, the herdman, returned from Mallow, whither he had been
+dispatched for some medicine. He appeared greatly agitated, and, in
+response to Miss Bunworth's questions as to what was the matter, could
+only ejaculate:
+
+"The master, Miss, the master! He is going from us."
+
+Miss Bunworth, thinking he had been drinking, sternly reproved him,
+whereupon he responded:
+
+"Miss, as I hope mercy hereafter, neither bite nor sup has passed my lips
+since I left this house; but the master----" Here he broke down, only
+adding with an effort, "We will lose him--the master." He then began to
+weep and wring his hands.
+
+Miss Bunworth, who, during this strange recital, was growing more and more
+bewildered, now exclaimed impatiently:
+
+"What _is_ it you mean? Do explain yourself."
+
+Kavanagh was silent, but, as she persisted, commanding him to speak, he at
+length said:
+
+"The Banshee has come for him, Miss; and 'tis not I alone who have heard
+her."
+
+But Miss Bunworth only laughed and rebuked him for being superstitious.
+
+"Maybe I am superstitious," he retorted, "but as I came through the glen
+of Ballybeg she was along with me, keening, and screeching, and clapping
+her hands by my side, every step of the way, with her long white hair
+falling about her shoulders, and I could hear her repeat the master's name
+every now and then, as plain as ever I hear it. When I came to Old Abby,
+she parted from me there, and turned into pigeon field next the
+berrin'-ground, and, folding her cloak about her, down she sat under the
+tree that was struck by lightning, and began keening so bitterly that it
+went through one's heart to hear it."
+
+Miss Bunworth listened more attentively now, but told Kavanagh that she
+was sure he was mistaken, as her father was very much better and quite out
+of danger. However, she spoke too soon, for that very night her father had
+a relapse and was soon in a very critical condition. His daughters nursed
+him with the utmost devotion, but at length, overcome with the strain of
+many hours of sleepless watchfulness, they were obliged to take a rest and
+allow a certain old friend of theirs, temporarily, to take their place.
+
+It was night; without the house everything was still and calm; within the
+aged watcher was seated close beside the sick man's bed, the head of which
+had been placed near the window, so that the sufferer could, in the
+daylight, steal a glimpse at the fields and trees he loved so much. In an
+adjoining room, and in the kitchen, were a number of friends and
+dependents who had come from afar to inquire after the condition of the
+patient. Their conversation had been carried on for some time in whispers,
+and then, as if infected by the intense hush outside, they had gradually
+ceased talking, and all had become absolutely hushed. Suddenly the aged
+watcher heard a sound outside the window. She looked, but though there was
+a brilliant moonlight, which rendered every object far and near strikingly
+conspicuous, she could perceive nothing--nothing at least that could
+account for the disturbance. Presently the noise was repeated; a rose tree
+near the window rustled and seemed to be pulled violently aside. Then
+there was the sound like the clapping of hands and of breathing and
+blowing close to the window-panes.
+
+At this, the old watcher, who was now getting nervous, arose and went into
+the next room, and asked those assembled there if they had heard anything.
+Apparently, they had not, but they all went out and searched the grounds,
+particularly in the vicinity of the rose tree, but could discover no clue
+as to the cause of the noises, and although the ground was soft with
+recent rain, there were no footprints to be seen anywhere. After they had
+made an exhaustive examination, and had settled down again indoors, the
+clapping at once recommenced, and was accompanied this time by moanings,
+which the whole party of investigators now heard. The sounds went on for
+some time, apparently till close to dawn, when the reverend gentleman
+died.
+
+The other story concerns the MacCarthys, of whom Mr Croker remarks, "being
+an old, and especially an old Catholic family, they have, of course, a
+Banshee."
+
+Charles MacCarthy in 1749 was the only surviving son of a very numerous
+family. His father died when he was twenty, leaving him his estate, and
+being very gay, handsome, and thoughtless, he soon got into bad company
+and made an unenviable reputation for himself. Going from one excess to
+another he at length fell ill, and was soon in such a condition that his
+life was finally despaired of by the doctor. His mother never left him.
+Always at his bedside, ready to administer to his slightest want, she
+showed how truly devoted she was to him, although she was by no means
+blind to his faults. Indeed, so acutely did she realise the danger in
+which his soul stood, that she prayed most earnestly that should he die,
+he should at least be spared long enough to be able to recover
+sufficiently to see the enormity of his offences, and repent accordingly.
+To her utmost sorrow, however, instead of his mind clearing a little, as
+so often happens after delirium and before death, he gradually fell into a
+state of coma, and presented every appearance of being actually dead. The
+doctor was sent for, and the house and grounds were speedily filled with a
+crowd of people, friends, tenants, fosterers, and poor relatives; one and
+all anxious to learn the exact condition of the sick man. With tremendous
+excitement they awaited the exit of the doctor from the house, and, when
+he at length emerged, they clustered round him and listened for his
+verdict.
+
+"It's all over, James," he said to the man who was holding his steed, and
+with those few brief words he climbed into his saddle and rode away. Then
+the women who were standing by gave a shrill cry, which developed into a
+continuous, plaintive and discordant groaning, interrupted every now and
+again by the deep sobbing and groaning, and clapping of hands of Charles'
+foster-brother, who was moving in and out the crowd, distracted with
+grief.
+
+All the time Mrs MacCarthy was sitting by the body of her son, the tears
+streaming from her eyes. Presently some women entered the room and
+inquired about directions for the ceremony of waking, and providing the
+refreshments necessary for the occasion. Mournfully the widow gives them
+the instructions they need, and then continues her solitary vigil, crying
+with all her soul, and yet quite unaware of the tears that kept pouring
+from her eyes. So, on and on, with brief intervals only, all through the
+loud and boisterous lamentations of the visitors over her beloved one, far
+into the stillness of the night. In one of the interludes, in which she
+has removed into an inner room to pray, she suddenly hears a low
+murmuring, which is speedily succeeded by a wild cry of horror, and then,
+out from the room in which the deceased lies, pour, like some
+panic-stricken sheep, the entire crowd of those that have participated in
+the Wake. Nothing daunted, Mrs MacCarthy rushes into the apartment they
+have quitted, and sees, sitting up on the bed, the light from the candles
+casting a most unearthly glare on his features, the body of her son.
+Falling on her knees before it and clasping her hands she at once
+commences praying; but hearing the word "mother," she springs forward,
+and, clutching the figure by the arm, shrieks out:
+
+"Speak, in the name of God and His Saints, speak! Are you alive?"
+
+The pale lips move, and finally exclaim:
+
+"Yes, my mother, alive, but sit down and collect yourself."
+
+And then, to the startled and bewildered mother he, whom she had been
+mourning all this time as dead, unfolded the following remarkable tale.
+
+He declared he remembered nothing of the preliminary stages of his
+illness, all of which was a blank, and was only cognisant of what was
+happening when he found himself in another world, standing in the presence
+of his Creator, Who had summoned him for judgment.
+
+"The dreadful pomp of offended omnipotence," he dramatically stated, "was
+printed on his brain in characters indelible." What would have happened he
+dreaded to think, had it not been for his guardian saint, that holy spirit
+his mother had always taught him to pray to, who was standing by his side,
+and who pleaded with Him "that one year and one month might be given him
+on the earth again, in which he should have the opportunity of doing
+penance and atonement."
+
+After a terribly anxious wait, in which his whole fate--his fate for
+eternity--hung in the balance, the progress of his kindly intercessor
+succeeded, and the Great and Awful Judge pronounced these words:
+
+"Return to that world in which thou hast lived but to outrage the laws of
+Him Who made that world and thee. Three years are given thee for
+repentance; when these are ended thou shalt again stand here, to be saved
+or lost for ever."
+
+Charles saw and heard no more; everything became a void, until he suddenly
+became once again conscious of light and found himself lying on the bed.
+
+He told this experience as if it were no dream, but, as he really believed
+it to be, an actual reality, and, on his gradually regaining health and
+strength, he showed the effect it had had on him by completely changing
+his mode of life. Though not altogether shunning his former companions in
+folly, he never went to any excess with them, but, on the contrary, often
+exercised a restraining influence over them, and so, by degrees, came to
+be looked upon as a person of eminent prudence and wisdom.
+
+The years passed by till at last the third anniversary of the wonderful
+recovery drew near. As Charles still adhered to his belief that what he
+had experienced had been no mere dream or wandering of the mind, but an
+actual visit to spirit land, so nervous did his mother become, as the time
+drew near for the expiration of the lease of life he declared had been
+allotted to him, that she wrote to Mrs Barry, a friend of hers, begging
+her to come with her two girls and stay with her for a few days, until, in
+fact, the actual day of the third anniversary should have passed.
+
+Unfortunately, Mrs Barry, instead of getting to Spring House, where Mrs
+MacCarthy lived, on the Wednesday, the day specified in the invitation,
+was not able to commence the journey till the following Friday, and she
+then had to leave her eldest daughter behind and bring only the younger
+one.
+
+What ultimately happened is very graphically described in a letter from
+the younger girl to the elder. In brief it was this: She and her mother
+set out in a jaunting-car driven by their man Leary. The recent rains made
+the road so heavy that they found it impossible to make other than very
+slow progress, and had to put up for the first night at the house of a Mr
+Bourke, a friend of theirs, who kept them until late the following day.
+Indeed, it was evening when they left his premises, with a good fifteen
+miles to cover before they arrived at Spring House.
+
+The weather was variable, at times the moon shone clear and bright, whilst
+at others it was covered with thick, black, fast-scudding clouds. The
+farther they progressed, the more ominous did the elements become, the
+clouds collected in vast masses, the wind grew stronger and stronger, and
+presently the rain began to fall. Slow as their progress had been before,
+it now became slower; at every step the wheels of their car either plunged
+into a deep slough, or sank almost up to the axle in thick mud.
+
+At last, so impossible did it become, that Mrs Barry inquired of Leary how
+far they were from Mr Bourke's, the house they had recently left.
+
+"'Tis about ten spades from this to the cross," was the reply, "and we
+have then only to turn to the left into the avenue, ma'am."
+
+"Very well, then," answered Mrs Barry, "turn up to Mr Bourke's as soon as
+you reach the crossroads."
+
+Mrs Barry had scarcely uttered these words when a shriek, that thrilled
+the hearers to the very core of their hearts, burst from the hedge to
+their right.
+
+It resembled the cry of a female--if it resembled anything earthly at
+all--struck by a sudden and mortal blow, and giving out life in one long,
+deep pang of agony.
+
+"Heaven defend us!" exclaimed Mrs Barry. "Go you over the hedge, Leary,
+and save that woman, if she is not yet dead."
+
+"Woman!" said Leary, beating the horse violently, while his voice
+trembled. "That's no woman; the sooner we get on, ma'am, the better," and
+he urged the horse forward.
+
+There was now a heavy spell of darkness as the moon was once again hidden
+by the clouds, but, though they could see nothing, they heard screams of
+despair and anguish, accompanied by a loud clapping of the hands, just as
+if some person on the other side of the hedge was running along in a line
+with their horse's head, and keeping pace with them.
+
+When they came to within ten yards of the spot where the avenue branched
+off to Mr Bourke's on the left, and the road to Spring House led away to
+the right, the moon suddenly reappeared, and they saw, with startling
+distinctness, the figure of a tall, thin woman, with uncovered head, and
+long hair floating round her shoulders, attired in a kind of cloak or
+sheet, standing at the corner of the hedge, just where the road along
+which they were driving met that which led to Spring House. She had her
+face turned towards them, and, whilst pointing with her left hand in the
+direction of Spring House, with her right was beckoning them to hurry. As
+they advanced she became more and more agitated, until finally, leaping
+into the road in front of them, and still pointing with outstretched arm
+in the direction of Spring House, she took up her stand at the entrance to
+the Avenue, as if to bar their way, and glared defiantly at them.
+
+"Go on, Leary, in God's name!" exclaimed Mrs Barry.
+
+"'Tis the Banshee," said Leary, "and I could not, for what my life is
+worth, go anywhere this blessed night but to Spring House. But I'm afraid
+there's something bad going forward, or she would not send us there."
+
+He pressed on towards Spring House, and almost directly afterwards clouds
+covered the moon, and the Banshee disappeared; the sound of her clapping,
+though continuing for some time, gradually becoming fainter and fainter,
+until it finally ceased altogether.
+
+On their arrival at Spring House they learnt that a dreadful tragedy had
+just taken place.
+
+A lady, Miss Jane Osborn, who was Charles MacCarthy's ward, was to have
+been married to one James Ryan, and on the day preceding the marriage, as
+Ryan and Charles MacCarthy were walking together in the grounds of the
+latter's house, a strange young woman, hiding in the shrubbery, shot
+Charles in mistake for Ryan, who, it seems, had seduced and deserted her.
+The wound, which at first appeared trivial, suddenly developed serious
+symptoms, and before the sun had gone down on the third anniversary of
+his memorable experience with the Unknown, Charles MacCarthy was again
+ushered into the presence of his Maker, there to render of himself a
+second and a final account.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE BANSHEE IN SCOTLAND
+
+
+There is, I believe, one version of a famous Scottish haunting in which
+there figures a Banshee of the more or less orthodox order. I heard it
+many years ago, and it was told me in good faith, but I cannot, of course,
+vouch for its authenticity. Since, however, it introduces the Banshee,
+and, therefore, may be of interest to the readers of this book, I publish
+it now for the first time, embodied in the following narrative:
+
+"Well, Ronan, you will be glad to hear that I consent to your marrying
+Ione, provided you can assure me there is nothing wrong with your family
+history. No hereditary tendencies to drink, disease, or madness. You know
+I am a great believer in heredity. Your prospects seem good--all the
+inquiries I have made as to your character have proved satisfactory, and I
+shall put no obstacles in your way if you can satisfy me on this point.
+Can you?"
+
+The speaker was Captain Horatio Wynne Pettigrew, R.N., late in command of
+His Majesty's Frigate _Prometheus_, and now living on retired pay in the
+small but aristocratic suburb of Birkenhead; the young man he
+addressed--Ronan Malachy, chief clerk and prospective junior partner in
+the big business firm of Lowndes, Half & Company, Dublin; and the subject
+of their conversation--Ione, youngest daughter of the said captain,
+generally and, perhaps, justly designated the bonniest damsel in all the
+land between the Dee and the far distant Tweed.
+
+The look of intense suspense and anxiety which had almost contorted
+Ronan's face while he was waiting for the Captain's reply, now gave way to
+an expression of the most marked relief.
+
+"I think I have often told you, sir," he replied, "that I have no
+recollection of my parents, as they both died when I was a baby; but I
+have never heard either of them spoken of in any other terms than those of
+the greatest affection and respect. I have always understood my father was
+lost at sea on a journey either to or from New York, and that my mother,
+who had a weak heart, died from the effects of the shock. My grandparents
+on both sides lived together happily, I believe, and died from natural
+causes at quite a respectable old age. If there had been any hereditary
+tendencies of an unpleasant nature such as those you name, or any
+particular family disease, I feel sure I should have heard of it from one
+or other of my relatives, but I can assure you I have not."
+
+"Very well then," Captain Pettigrew remarked genially, "if your uncle, who
+is, I understand, your guardian, and whom I know well by reputation, will
+do me the courtesy to corroborate what you say, I will at once sanction
+your engagement. But now I must ask you to excuse me, as I have promised
+to have supper with General Maitland to-night, and before I go have
+several matters to attend to."
+
+He held out his hand as he spoke, and Ronan, who had been secretly hoping
+that he would be asked to spend the evening, was reluctantly compelled to
+withdraw. Outside in the hall, Ione, of course, was waiting, almost beside
+herself with anxiety, to hear the result of the interview, but Ronan had
+only time to whisper that it was quite all right, and that her father had
+been far more amenable than either of them had supposed, before the door
+of the room he had just left opened, and the Captain appeared.
+
+There was no help for it then, he was obliged to say good-bye, and, having
+done so, he hurried out into the night.
+
+At the time of which I am writing there were neither motors nor trains, so
+that Ronan, who, owing to an accident to his horse, had to walk, did not
+reach home, a distance of some four or five miles, till the evening was
+well advanced.
+
+On his arrival, burning with impatience to settle the momentous question,
+he at once broached the subject of his interview with Captain Pettigrew to
+his uncle, remarking that his fate now rested with him.
+
+"With me!" Mr Malachy exclaimed, placing his paper on an empty chair
+beside him, and staring at Ronan with a look of sudden bewilderment in his
+big, short-sighted but extremely benevolent eyes. "Why, you know, my boy,
+that you have my hearty approval. From all you tell me, Miss Ione must be
+a very charming young lady; she has aristocratic connections, and will
+not, I take it, be altogether penniless. Yes, certainly, you have my
+approval. You have known that all along."
+
+"I have, uncle," Ronan retorted, "and no one is more grateful to you than
+I. But Captain Pettigrew has very strong ideas about heredity. He believes
+the tendency to drink, insanity, and sexual lust haunts families, and
+that, even if it lies dormant for one generation, it is almost bound to
+manifest itself in another. I told him I was quite sure I was all right
+in this respect, but he says he wants your corroboration, and that if you
+will affirm it by letter, he will at once give his consent to my
+engagement to Ione. I know letter-writing is a confounded nuisance to you,
+uncle, but do please assure Captain Pettigrew at once that we have no
+family predisposition of the kind he fears."
+
+Mr Malachy leaned back in his chair and gazed into the long gilt mirror
+over the mantel-shelf. "Drink and gambling," he said.
+
+"And suicide," Ronan added. "You can at any rate swear to the absence of
+that in our family----" but, happening to glance at the mirror as he
+spoke, he caught in it a reflection of his uncle's face, that at once made
+him turn round.
+
+"Uncle!" he cried. "Tell me! What is it? Why do you look like that?"
+
+Mr Malachy was silent.
+
+"You're hiding something," Ronan exclaimed sharply. "Tell me what it is.
+Tell me, I say, and for God's sake put an end to my suspense."
+
+"You are right, Ronan," his uncle responded slowly. "I am hiding
+something, something I ought perhaps to have told you long ago. It's about
+your father."
+
+"My father!"
+
+"Yes, your father. I have always told you he was lost at sea. Well, so he
+was, but in circumstances that were undoubtedly mysterious. He was last
+seen alive on the wharf at Annan, where he was apparently waiting for a
+boat to take him to the opposite coast. Someone said they saw him suddenly
+leap in the water, and some days later a body, declared to be his, was
+picked up in the Solway Firth."
+
+"Then it was suicide," Ronan gasped. "My God, how awful! Was anyone with
+him at the time?"
+
+"I don't think I need tell you any more."
+
+"Yes, tell me everything," Ronan answered bitterly. "Nothing makes any
+difference now. Let me hear all, I insist."
+
+In a voice that shook to such an extent that Ronan looked at him in
+horror, Mr Malachy continued: "Ronan," he said, "remember that I tell you
+against my will, and that you are forcing me to speak. They did say at the
+time that there was a woman with your father--a woman who had travelled
+with him all the way from Lockerbie--that they quarrelled, that
+he--he----"
+
+"Yes--go on! For God's sake go on."
+
+"Pushed her in the water--in a rage, mind you, in a rage, I say; and then,
+apparently appalled at what he had done, jumped in, too."
+
+"Were they both drowned then?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And no one tried to save them?"
+
+"No one was near enough. The tide was running strong at the time, and they
+were both carried out to sea. The woman's body was never found; and your
+father's, when it was recovered several days afterwards, was so disfigured
+that it could only be identified by the clothes."
+
+"And they were sure it was my father?"
+
+"I am afraid there is little doubt on that score. Your Aunt Bridget, who,
+being the last of the family to see him alive, was called upon to identify
+the body, always declared there was a mistake; she identified the clothes,
+but mentioned that the body was that of a person whom she had never seen
+before."
+
+"Then there is a slight hope!"
+
+"I hardly think so, but--but go and see her--it is your only hope, and I
+will defer writing to Captain Pettigrew until your return."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Early next morning Ronan was well on his way to Lockerbie.
+
+In his present state of mind, every inch was a mile, every second an
+eternity. If his aunt could only furnish him with some absolute proof that
+it was not his father who had pushed the woman into the water and
+afterwards jumped in himself, then he might yet marry the object of his
+devotion, but, if she could not, he swore with a bitter oath that the
+water that had claimed his parent, should also claim him; and in the very
+same spot where the unlucky man who had proved his ruin had perished, he
+would perish too. It was Ione or obliteration. His whole being
+concentrated on such thoughts as these, he pressed forward, taking neither
+rest nor refreshments, till he reached Silloth, where he was compelled to
+wait several hours, until a fisherman could be prevailed upon to take him
+across the Solway Firth to Annan.
+
+So far luck had favoured him. The weather had kept fine, and, despite the
+dangerous condition of the roads, which were notoriously full of footpads,
+and in the most sorry need of repair, he had covered the distance without
+mishap.
+
+After leaving Annan, however, disaster at once overtook him. The coach had
+only proceeded some seven or eight miles along the road to Lockerbie, when
+a serious accident, through the loss of a wheel, was but narrowly escaped,
+and, as there seemed little chance of getting the necessary repairs
+executed that night, the driver suggested that his fares should walk back
+to Annan and put up at the "Red Star and Garter," till he was able to call
+for them in the morning.
+
+To this all agreed excepting Ronan, who, scorning the proposal to turn
+back, declared that he would continue his journey to Lockerbie on foot.
+
+"It's a wild, uncanny bit of country you'll have to go through, mon," the
+driver remonstrated, "and I'm nae sure but what you may come across some
+of them smuggler laddies from away across the borders of Kirkcudbright.
+They are fair sore just noo at the way in which the Custom House officials
+are treating them, and are downright suspicious of everyone they meet.
+You'll be weel guided to return to the coast with us."
+
+To this well-intentioned advice Ronan did not even condescend a reply,
+but, bidding his fellow-passengers good night, he buttoned his overcoat
+tightly round his chest, and stepped resolutely forward into the darkness.
+
+The driver had not exaggerated. It was a wild, uncouth bit of country. The
+road itself was a mere track, all ruts and furrows, with nothing to denote
+its boundaries saving ditches, or black tarns that gleamed fitfully
+whenever the moonbeams, emerging from behind black masses of clouds, fell
+on them. Beyond the road, on one side, was a wide stretch of barren
+moorland, terminating at the foot of a long line of rather low and
+singularly funereal-looking hills; and, on the other, a black, thickly
+wooded chasm, at the bottom of which thundered a river. In every fitful
+outburst of lunar splendour each detail in the landscape stood out with
+almost microscopic clearness, but otherwise all lay heavily shrouded in an
+almost impenetrable mantle of gloom, from which there seemed to emanate
+strange, indefinable shadows, that, as far as Ronan could see, had no
+material counterparts.
+
+Naturally stout of heart and afraid of nothing, Ronan was, at the same
+time, a Celt, and possessed, in no small degree, all the Celtic awe and
+respect for anything associated with the supernatural. Hence, though he
+pushed steadily on and kept picturing to himself the face and form of his
+lady love, to win whom he was fully prepared to go to any extremity, he
+could not prevent himself from occasionally glancing with misgiving at
+some more than usually perplexing shadow, or, from time to time, prevent
+his heart from beating louder at the rustle of a gorse-bush, or the dismal
+hooting of an owl. In some mysterious fashion the night seemed to have
+suddenly changed everything, and to have vested every object and every
+trifling--or what in the daytime would have been trifling--sound with a
+significance that was truly enigmatical and startling.
+
+The air, however, with its blending of scents from the pines, and gorse,
+and heather, with ozone from the not far distant Solway Firth, was so
+delicious that Ronan kept throwing back his head to inhale great draughts
+of it; and it was whilst he thus stood a second, with his nostrils and
+forehead upturned, that he first became aware of an impending storm. At
+first a few big splashes, and the low moaning of the wind as it swept
+towards and past him from the far distant hill-tops; then more splashes,
+and then a downpour.
+
+Ronan, who was now walking abreast a low white wall, beyond which he could
+see one of those shelters that in Scotland are erected everywhere for the
+protection of both cattle and sheep from the terrible blizzards that
+nearly every winter devastate the country, perceiving the futility and
+danger of trying to face the storm, made for the wall and, climbing it,
+dropped over on the other side. As bad luck would have it, however, he
+alighted on a boulder and, unable to retain his foothold, slipped off it,
+striking his head a severe blow on the ground. For some seconds he lay
+unconscious, then, his senses gradually returning, he picked himself up
+and made for the shelter.
+
+Stumbling blindly forward towards the entrance of the building, he
+collided with a figure that suddenly seemed to rise from the ground, and
+for a moment his heart stood still, but his fears were quickly dissipated
+by the unmistakable sound of a human voice.
+
+"Who is that?" someone inquired in tremulous tones. "Oh, sir, are you one
+of the revellers?"
+
+"One of the revellers?" Ronan replied. "It's an ill night for any
+revelling. What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean, are you one of the young men going to the fancy dress dance at
+the Spelkin Towers," the voice responded. "But your accent tells me you
+are not; you don't belong to these parts. You are Irish."
+
+"That is truly said," Ronan answered. "My home is in Dublin, and it's the
+first time I have set foot on Dumfries soil, and I'll stake every penny in
+my purse it will be the last. I'm bound for Lockerbie, but I'm thinking it
+will be the early hours of the morning before I get there."
+
+"For Lockerbie," the voice replied. "Why that's a distance of about twenty
+miles. It's a straight road, however, and you pass the Spelkin Towers on
+the way. It stands in a clump of trees about a hundred yards back from the
+road, on this side of it, about three miles from here. If there were a
+moon you would easily recognise the place by the big white gate leading
+directly to it."
+
+"So I might, but why waste my time and your breath. The Spelkins, or
+whatever you call it, has naught to do with me. I'm bound for Lockerbie,
+I tell you, and as the rain seems to be abating I intend moving on again."
+
+"Sir," the woman pleaded, "I pray you stay a few moments and listen to
+what I have to say. A gentleman is going to the revels to-night for whom I
+have a letter of the utmost importance. His name is Dunloe--Mr Robert
+Dunloe of Annan. He is due at the Towers at eight o'clock, and should
+surely be passing here almost at this very moment. But, sir, I durst not
+wait for him any longer, as I have an aged mother at home who has been
+taken suddenly and violently ill. For mercy's sake I beg of you to wait
+and give him the letter in my stead."
+
+"Give him the letter in your stead!" Ronan ejaculated. "Why, I may never
+see him--indeed, the odds are a thousand to one I never shall. I'm in a
+hurry, too. I can't stay hanging around here all night. Besides, how
+should I know him?"
+
+"He's dressed as a jester," the woman answered, "and if the wind is not
+blowing too strong you'll hear the sound of his bells. He's sure to be
+coming by very soon. Oh, sir, do me this favour, I pray you."
+
+As she spoke the rain ceased and the moon, suddenly appearing from behind
+a bank of clouds, revealed her face. It was startlingly white, and in a
+strange, elfish kind of way, beautiful. Ronan gazed at it in astonishment,
+it was altogether so different from the face he had pictured from the
+voice, and as he stared down into the big, black eyes raised pleadingly to
+his, he felt curiously fascinated, and all idea of resistance at once
+departed.
+
+"All right," he said slowly, "I will do as you wish. A man in
+Court-jester's costume, with jingling bells, answering to the name of
+Robert Dunloe. Hand me the letter, and I will wait in the road till he
+passes."
+
+She obeyed, and, taking from her bosom an envelope, handed it to him.
+
+"Oh, sir," she said softly, "I can't tell you how grateful I am. It is
+most kind of you--most chivalrous, and I am sure you will one day be
+rewarded. Hark! footsteps. A number of them. It must be some of the
+revellers. I must remain here till they pass, for I would not for the
+world have them see me; they are rude, boisterous fellows, and have little
+respect for a maiden when they meet her alone on the highway. There have
+been some dreadful doings of late around here."
+
+She laid one of her little white hands on Ronan's arm as she spoke, and,
+with the forefinger of the other placed on her lips, enjoined silence.
+Then as the footsteps and voices, which had been drawing nearer and
+nearer, passed close to them and died gradually away in the distance, she
+hurriedly bade Ronan farewell, and darted nimbly away in the darkness.
+
+Ronan stood for some minutes where she had left him, half expecting she
+would reappear, but at last, convinced that she had really taken her
+departure, he climbed the wall, back again into the road, and waited. Had
+it not been for the envelope, which certainly felt material enough, Ronan
+would have been inclined to attribute it all to some curious kind of
+hallucination--the girl was so different--albeit so subtly and
+inexplicably different--from anyone he had ever seen before. But that
+envelope with the name "Robert Dunloe, Esquire," so clearly and
+beautifully superscribed on it, was a proof of her reality, and, as he
+stood fingering the missive and pondering the subject over in his mind, he
+once again heard the sound of footsteps. This time they were the footsteps
+of one person only, and, as he had been led to expect, they were
+accompanied by the faint jingle, jingle of bells.
+
+The moon, now quite free from clouds, rendered every object so clearly
+visible that Ronan, looking in the direction from which the sounds came,
+soon detected a tall, oddly attired figure, whilst still a long way off,
+advancing towards him with big, swinging strides. Had he not been
+prepared for someone in fancy costume, Ronan might have felt somewhat
+alarmed, for a Scotch moor in the dead of winter is hardly the place where
+one would expect to encounter a masquerader in jester's costume.
+
+Moreover, though the magnifying action of the moon's rays were probably
+accountable for it, there seemed to be something singularly bizarre about
+the figure, apart from its clothes; its head seemed abnormally round and
+small, its limbs abnormally long and emaciated, and its movements
+remarkably automatic and at the same time spiderlike.
+
+Ronan gripped the envelope in his hand--it was solid enough; therefore,
+the queer, fantastic-looking thing, stalking so grotesquely towards him,
+must be solid too--a mere man--and Ronan forced a laugh. Another moment,
+and he had stepped out from under cover of the wall.
+
+"Are you Mr Robert Dunloe?" he asked, "because, if so, I have a letter for
+you."
+
+The figure halted, and the white, parchment-like face with two very light
+green, cat-like eyes, bent down and favoured Ronan with a half-frightened,
+but penetrating gaze.
+
+"Yes," came the reply, "I am Mr Dunloe. But how came you with a letter for
+me? Give it to me at once." And before Ronan could prevent him, he had
+snatched the envelope from his grasp, and, having broken open the seal,
+was reading the contents.
+
+"Ah!" he ejaculated. "What a fool! I might have known so all along, but
+it's not too late." Then he folded the letter in his hand and stood
+holding it, apparently buried in thought.
+
+Ronan, whose hot Irish temper had been roused by the rude manner in which
+the stranger had obtained possession of the missive, would have moved on
+and left him, had he not felt restrained by the same peculiar fascination
+he had experienced when talking to the girl.
+
+"I trust," he at length remarked, "that your letter contains no ill news.
+The lady who requested me to give it you mentioned the fact that a
+relative of hers had been taken very ill."
+
+"When and where did you see her?" the stranger queried, his eyes once
+again seeking Ronan's face with the same fixed, penetrating stare.
+
+"In that shelter over there," Ronan answered, pointing to it. "We were
+strangers to one another, and I was sheltering from the storm. I explained
+to her that I was on my way to Lockerbie, and in no little hurry to get
+there, but she begged me so earnestly to await your arrival, so that I
+might hand you the letter, that she might be free to return home at once,
+that I consented. That is all that passed between us."
+
+"She went?"
+
+"Yes, she slipped away suddenly in the darkness, where I don't know."
+
+The stranger mused for a few moments, stroking his chin with long, lean
+fingers. Then he suddenly seemed to wake up, and spoke again, but this
+time in a far more courteous fashion.
+
+"Young man," he said, "I believe you. You have a candid expression in your
+eyes, and an honest ring in your voice. Men that speak in such tones
+seldom lie. You are kind-hearted, too, and I am going to ask of you a
+favour. Yesterday morning, in Annan, two of the leading townsfolk laid me
+a wager that I would not attend a ball to-night at the Spelkin Towers,
+and, attired as a Court jester, walk all the way to and fro, no matter how
+inclement the weather. I accepted the challenge, and now, having
+progressed so far, I should aim at completing my task, but for this
+letter, which fully corroborates what the young lady told you, and informs
+me that a very old and dear friend of mine is dying, and would at all
+costs see me at once, as she has an important statement to make for my
+ears only. Now, sir, I cannot possibly go to her in these outlandish
+clothes, lest the shock of seeing me so attired should prove too much for
+her in her present serious condition. Can I prevail upon your charity and
+chivalry--for once again it is on behalf of a woman--and good Christian
+spirit--for I doubt not, from your demeanour, that you have been brought
+up in a truly God-fearing and pious manner--to persuade you to change
+costumes with me over yonder in that shed. I would then be able to appear
+before my poor, dying friend in suitable, sober garments, whilst you would
+be free to go to the ball, and, by posing as Mr Robert Dunloe, share the
+proceeds of my wager with me."
+
+Then, noting the expression that came over Ronan's face, he added quickly:
+
+"You will incur no risks. I am a comparative stranger in these parts--none
+of the revellers know me by sight. All you will have to do on your arrival
+at the Towers will be to explain to your host, Sir Hector McBlane, the
+nature of the wager, and ask him to give you some record of your
+attendance that I can subsequently show to my two friends. Remember, sir,
+that it is not only for the sake of gratifying a dying woman's wish that I
+am asking this favour of you, but it is also to make sure that the young
+lady who gave you the letter shall not be jeopardised."
+
+Ronan hesitated. Had such a mystifying proposition been made to him on any
+other occasion he would, perhaps, have rejected it at once as the sheerest
+lunacy; but there was something about this night--the wild grandeur of the
+silent moonlit scenery, the intoxicating sweetness of the subtly scented
+air, to say nothing of the maiden whose elfish appearance had seemed in
+such absolute harmony both with the soft, silvery starlight and the black
+granite boulders--that was wholly different from anything Ronan had ever
+experienced before, and his deeply emotional and easily excited
+temperament, rising in hot rebellion against his reason, urged him to
+embark upon what he persuaded himself might prove a vastly entertaining
+adventure. He consequently agreed to do as the stranger suggested, and,
+accompanying him into the shelter, he exchanged clothes with him.
+
+After arranging to meet in the same spot at four o'clock in the morning,
+the two men parted, the stranger making off across the moors, and Ronan
+continuing along the high road.
+
+Nothing of moment occurred again till Ronan caught sight of the clump of
+pines, from the centre of which rose the Spelkin Towers, and a few yards
+farther on perceived the white wooden gate that the elfish maiden had
+described to him. On his approach, several figures, in fancy dress and
+wearing dominoes, advanced to meet him, and one, with a low bow, inquired
+if he had the honour of addressing Mr Robert Dunloe.
+
+"Why, yes," Ronan responded, with some astonishment, "but I did not think
+anyone knew I was coming here to-night saving our host, Sir Hector
+McBlane."
+
+"That is because you are so modest," was the reply. "I can assure you, Mr
+Dunloe, your fame has preceded you, and everyone present here to-night
+will be eagerly looking forward to the moment of your arrival. Let me
+introduce you to my friends. Sir Frederick Clanstradie, Sir Austin
+Maltravers, Lord Henry Baxter, Mr Leslie de Vaux."
+
+Each of the guests bowed in turn as their names were pronounced, and then,
+at a signal from the spokesman, who informed Ronan he was Sir Philip
+McBlane, cousin to their host, they proceeded in a body to the queerly
+constructed mansion.
+
+Inside Ronan could see no sign whatever of any festivity, but on being
+told that Sir Hector was awaiting him in the ball-room, he allowed himself
+to be conducted along a bare, gloomy passage and down a narrow flight of
+steep stone steps into a large dungeon-like chamber, piled up in places
+with strange-looking lumber, and in one corner of which he perceived a
+tall figure, draped from head to foot in the hideous black garments of a
+Spanish inquisitor, standing in the immediate vicinity of a heap of loose
+bricks and freshly made mortar, and bending over a cauldron full of what
+looked like simmering tar. The whole aspect of the room was indeed so grim
+and forbidding, that Ronan drew back in dismay and turned to Sir Philip
+and his comrades for an explanation.
+
+Before, however, anyone could speak, the figure in the inquisitorial robes
+advanced, and, bidding Ronan welcome, declared that he considered it both
+an honour and a privilege to entertain so illustrious a guest.
+
+Not knowing how to reply to a greeting that seemed so absurdly
+exaggerated, Ronan merely mumbled out something to the effect that he was
+delighted to come, and then lapsed into an awkward and embarrassed
+silence, during which he could feel the eyes of everyone fixed on him with
+an expression he could not for the life of him make out.
+
+Finally, the inquisitor, whom Ronan now divined was Sir Hector McBlane,
+after expressing a hope that the ladies would soon make their appearance,
+invited the gentlemen to partake of some refreshments.
+
+Bottles scattered in untidy profusion upon a plain deal table were then
+uncorked, and the sinisterly clad host proposed they should all drink a
+toast of welcome to their distinguished guest, Mr Robert Dunloe.
+
+Up to the present Ronan had only been conscious of what seemed to him
+courtesy and cordiality in the voices of his fellow-guests, but now, as
+one and all clinked glasses and shouted in unison, "For he's a jolly good
+fellow, and so say all of us," he fancied he could detect something rather
+different; what it was he could not say, but it gave him the same feeling
+of doubt and uncertainty as had the expression in their faces immediately
+after his introduction to Sir Hector.
+
+Again there was an embarrassed silence, which was eventually broken by
+Ronan, who, perceiving that something was expected from him, at length
+stood up and responded to the toast.
+
+His speech was of very short duration, but it was hardly over, before a
+loud rapping of high-heeled shoes sounded on the stone steps, and a number
+of women, dressed in every conceivable fashion, from the quaintly
+picturesque costume of the Middle Ages to the still fondly remembered and
+popular Empire gown, came trooping into the room. Their curiously clumsy
+movements caused Ronan to scrutinise them somewhat closely, but it was
+not until, in response to a wild outburst on wheezy flutes and derelict
+bagpipes, the assembly commenced dancing, that he awoke to the fact which
+now seemed obvious enough, that these weird-looking women were not women
+at all, but merely men mummers.
+
+For the next few minutes the noise and confusion were such that Ronan,
+whose temples had been set on fire by the wine, hardly knew whether he was
+standing on his head or his feet. First one of the pretended women, and
+then another, solicited the honour of dancing with him, until at last,
+through sheer fatigue and giddiness, he was constrained to stop and lean
+for support against the walls of the building.
+
+He was still in this attitude, when the music, if such one could style it,
+suddenly ceased, and the whole company, as if by a preconcerted signal,
+suddenly stood at attention, as still and silent as statues.
+
+Sir Hector McBlane then approached Ronan with a bow, and informing him
+that his bride awaited him in the bridal chamber, declared that the time
+had now arrived for his introduction to her.
+
+This announcement was so unexpected and extraordinary that Ronan lost all
+power of speech, and, before he could realise what was taking place, he
+found himself being conducted by his host to a dimly lighted corner of the
+room, where he perceived, for the first time, a recess or kind of cell,
+measuring not more than four feet in depth, and three feet across, but
+reaching upwards to the same height as the ceiling. Exactly in the centre
+of it was a tall figure, absolutely stiff and motionless, and clad in
+long, flowing, white garments.
+
+Still too bewildered and astonished to protest or remonstrate, Ronan
+permitted himself to be led right up to the figure, which a sudden flare
+from a torch held by one of the revellers, enabled him to perceive was
+merely a huge rag doll, decked out in sham jewellery, with a painted,
+leering face and a mass of tow hair, a clever but ridiculous caricature of
+a woman. He was about to demand an angry explanation of the foolery, when
+he was pushed violently forward, and, before he could recover his
+equilibrium, a rope was wound several times round his body, and he was
+strapped tightly to the doll, which was securely attached to an iron stake
+fixed perpendicularly in the ground.
+
+Loud shouts of laughter now echoed from one end of the chamber to the
+other, the merriment being further increased when Sir Hector, with an
+assumed gravity, presented his humblest respects to the bride and
+bridegroom, and hoped that they would enjoy a long and very happy
+honeymoon.
+
+Ronan, whose indignation was by this time raised to boiling pitch,
+furiously demanded to be released, but the more angry he became, the more
+his tormentors mocked, until at length even walls, floor, and ceiling
+seemed to become infected and to shake with an uncontrollable and devilish
+mirth. Finally, however, when things had gone on in this fashion for some
+time, Sir Hector again spoke, and this time announced in loud tones that,
+as he was quite sure the bride and bridegroom must now be wishing for
+nothing better than to be left to themselves, he and his guests would now
+proceed to seal up the bridal chamber.
+
+A general bustle and subsequent clinking of metal on the stone floor,
+immediately following this speech, left Ronan in no doubt whatever as to
+what was happening. He was, of course, being bricked up. Now although he
+felt assured that it was all a joke, he also felt it was a joke that had
+gone on quite long enough. It was only too clear to him that, for some
+reason or another, Mr Robert Dunloe was very far from popular with these
+masqueraders, and he began to wonder if Mr Dunloe's explanation of his
+desire to exchange clothes was the correct one, whether, in fact, Mr
+Dunloe had not got an inkling of what was going to happen to him from the
+elfish girl's letter, and whether he had not merely trumped up the story
+of the sick woman and the wager for the occasion.
+
+In any case Ronan felt that he had been let down badly, and since he did
+not see why he should still pretend to be the man who had taken such
+advantage of him, he called out:
+
+"Look here, I've a confession to make. You think I'm Mr Robert Dunloe, but
+I'm not. My name is Ronan Malachy. I'm staying with my uncle, Mr Hugh
+Malachy, near Birkenhead, and anyone there would confirm my identity. I
+was bound to-night for Lockerbie, when I met a girl who begged me to wait
+in the road and deliver a letter for her to an individual dressed as a
+Court jester, and styling himself Robert Dunloe, who would presently pass
+by. Not liking to refuse a lady, I agreed, and when I had given the man
+the letter, and he had read it, he told me that it was a summons to attend
+the death-bed of a very dear friend and urged me to exchange clothes with
+him, in order that he might go suitably attired. To this I naturally
+assented, and he then begged me to impersonate him here, as he had laid a
+big wager that he would be present at this ball and would walk all the way
+from Annan in this costume."
+
+Ronan was about to add more, when Sir Hector McBlane approached the mound
+of bricks, which was already breast high, and, looking straight at him,
+exclaimed:
+
+"Robert Dunloe, it is useless to try and hoodwink us. We know all about
+you. We know that you were once arrested for highway robbery and murder,
+but got off through turning King's evidence against your mate, 'Hal of the
+seventeen strings,' who was hanged at Lancaster; that you then, took up
+Government spying as a trade, and got a score of the best fellows who ever
+breathed life sentences at Morecombe for smuggling a few casks of brandy.
+A month ago we heard that you were coming to Annan to try and place a rope
+round some of our necks for the same so-called felony, and we determined
+that we would be first in the field and teach you a lesson. We are now
+going to seal you up and leave you to soliloquise over the rope which is
+round you, and which is, doubtless, of the same hue and texture as that
+which has hanged the many that have been sentenced through your treachery.
+Adieu."
+
+It was in vain, when Sir Hector had finished speaking, that Ronan
+alternately pleaded and swore; he could get no further reply. The layers
+of bricks rose, till only one was left to render the task complete; and
+already the air within was becoming fetid and oppressive. A terrible sense
+of utter and hopeless isolation now surged through Ronan, and forced him
+once again to call out:
+
+"For the love of God," he said, "set me free. For the LOVE OF GOD."
+
+He had barely uttered these words, when the whole assembly looked at one
+another with startled faces.
+
+"Hark!" exclaimed one. "Do you hear that screaming and clapping? What in
+the world is it?"
+
+"I should say," said another, "that it was some puir bairn being done to
+death were it not for the clapping, but that gets over me. Whatever can it
+mean?"
+
+At that moment steps were heard descending the stairs in a great hurry,
+and a young man, with bright red hair, and dressed strictly in accordance
+with the fashion prevailing at that time, burst into the room.
+
+"Boys," he exclaimed, his voice shaking with emotion, "I have just seen
+the Banshee. She was in the road outside the gates of this house, running
+backwards and forwards, just as I saw her five years ago in Kerry, and, as
+I tried to pass her by to get on my way to Dumfries, she waved me back,
+shaking her fist and screaming at the same time. Then she signalled to me
+to come here, and ran on ahead of me, crying, and groaning, and clapping
+her hands. And as I knew it would be as much as my life is worth to
+disobey her, I followed. You can still hear her outside, keening and
+screeching. But what are all these bricks for, and this mortar?"
+
+"The informer, Robert Dunloe," exclaimed one of the revellers. "We have
+been bricking him up for a lark, and intend keeping him here till the
+morning."
+
+"It's a lie," Ronan shouted. "I'm no more Dunloe than any of you. I'm
+Ronan Malachy, I tell you, and my home is in Dublin. I heard an Irish
+voice just now, surely he can tell I'm Irish, too."
+
+"Arrah, I believe you," said the new-comer. "It's the real brogue you've
+got, and none other, though it's not so pronounced as is my own; but may
+be you've lived longer in this country than I. Pull down those bricks,
+boys, and let me have a look at him."
+
+"No, no," cried several voices, angrily. "Anybody could take you in, Pat.
+He's Dunloe right enough; and now we've got him, we intend to keep him."
+
+In the altercation that now ensued, some sided with the Irishman, and some
+against him; but over and above all the clamour and confusion the voice of
+the Banshee could still be heard shrieking, and wailing, and clapping her
+hands.
+
+At last someone struck a blow, and in an instant swords were drawn, sticks
+and cudgels were used, furniture was flung about freely, and table,
+brazier, and cauldron were overturned; and the blazing pitch and red hot
+coals, coming in contact with piled up articles of all kinds--casks,
+chests, boxes, musty old books, paper and logs--it was not long before the
+whole chamber became a mass of flames.
+
+One or two of the calmer and more sober revellers attempted to get to the
+recess and batter down the bricks, which were merely placed together
+without cement, but the fury of the flames drove them back, and the
+hapless Ronan was, in the end, abandoned to his fate.
+
+Hideously aware of what was going on, he struggled desperately to free
+himself, and, at last succeeding, made a frantic attempt to reach a small
+window, placed at a height of some seven or eight feet from the floor.
+After several fruitless efforts he triumphed, only to discover, however,
+that the aperture was just too small for his body to pass through.
+
+The flames had, by this time, reached the entrance to the recess, and the
+heat from them was so stupendous that Ronan, weak and exhausted after his
+long fast and all the harrowing and exciting moments he had passed
+through, let go his hold, and, falling backwards, struck his head a
+terrific crash on the floor.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Much to his amazement, on recovering his faculties, Ronan found himself
+lying out of doors. Above him was no abysmal darkness, only the heavens
+brilliantly lighted by moon and stars, whilst as far as his sight could
+travel was free and open space, a countryside dotted here and there with
+gorse bushes and the silvery shimmering surface of moorland tarns. He
+turned round, and close beside him was a big boulder of rock that he now
+remembered slipping from when he had dropped over the wall to take cover
+from the storm. And there, sure enough, was the shelter. He got up and
+went towards it. It was quite deserted, no one was there, not even a cow,
+and the silence that came to him was just the ordinary silence of the
+night, with nothing in it weirder or more arrestive than the rushing of
+distant water and the occasional croaking of a toad. Considerably
+mystified, and unable to decide in his mind whether all he had gone
+through had been a dream or not, he now clambered back into the road and
+pursued his way, according to his original intention, towards Lockerbie.
+
+On reaching the spot where he had in his dream, or whatever it was, first
+sighted the Spelkin Towers, he perceived, to his amazement, the very same
+building, apparently exact in every detail. On approaching nearer he found
+the white gate, but whereas when he had beheld the Towers only such a
+short time ago, there had been a feeble flicker of artificial light in
+some of the slit-like windows, all was now gloomy and deserted, and, still
+further to his amazement, he perceived, on opening the gate and entering,
+that the building was, to some extent, in ruins, and that the charred
+timber and blackened walls gave every indication of its having been
+partially destroyed by fire.
+
+Totally unable to account for his experience, but convinced in his own
+mind that it was not all a dream, he now hurried on, and reached his
+aunt's house in Lockerbie, just in time to wash and tidy himself for
+breakfast.
+
+After the meal, and when he was sitting with his aunt by the fire in the
+drawing-room, Ronan not only announced to her the purpose of his visit,
+but gave her a detailed account of his journey and adventures on the way,
+asking her in conclusion what she thought of his experience, whether she
+believed it to be merely a dream or, in very truth, an encounter with the
+denizens of ghostland.
+
+Miss Bridget Malachy, who during Ronan's recitation obviously had found
+it extremely difficult to maintain silence, now gave vent to her feelings.
+
+"I cannot tell you," she said excitedly, "how immensely interested I am in
+all you have told me. Last night was the anniversary of your father's
+strange disappearance. I had only been living here a few weeks, when I
+received a letter from him, saying he had business to transact in the
+North of England, and would like to spend two or three days with me. He
+gave me the exact route he intended to travel by from Dublin, and the
+exact hour he expected to arrive. Your father was the most precise man I
+ever met.
+
+"Well, on the night before the day he was due to arrive, as I was sitting
+in this very room, writing, I suddenly heard a tapping at the window, as
+if produced by the beak and claws of some bird, or very long finger nails.
+Wondering what it could be, I got up, and, pulling aside the blind,
+received the most violent shock. There, looking directly in at me, with an
+expression of the most intense sorrow and pity in its eyes, was the face
+of a woman. The cheeks shone with a strange, startling whiteness, and the
+long, straggling hair fell in a disordered mass low over her neck and
+shoulders. As her gaze met mine she tapped the window with her long, white
+fingers and, throwing back her head, uttered the most harrowing,
+heart-rending scream. Convinced now that she was the Banshee, which I had
+often had described to me by my friends, I was not so much frightened as
+interested, and I was about to address her and ask her what in God's name
+she wanted, when she abruptly vanished, and I found myself staring into
+space.
+
+"A week later, I received tidings that a body, believed to be your
+father's, had just been recovered from the Solway Firth, and I was asked
+to go at once and identify it. I went, and though it had remained in the
+water too long, perhaps, to be easily recognisable, I was absolutely
+certain my surmises were correct, and that the body was that of a
+stranger. It was that of a man somewhat taller than your father, and the
+tips of his fingers, moreover, were spatulate, whereas, like all the rest
+of our family's, your father's fingers were pointed. From what you have
+told me I am now convinced that I really was right, and that your father,
+falling into the hands of the smugglers, who, at that time, infested the
+whole of this neighbourhood, did actually meet with foul play. I recollect
+perfectly well the fire at the Spelkin Towers the night your father
+disappeared, but, until now, I never in any way associated the event with
+him. Do, I beseech you, make a thorough search of the ruins and see if
+you can find anything that will help to substantiate your story and prove
+that your experience was of a nature very different from that of an
+ordinary dream."
+
+Ronan needed no further bidding. Accompanied by his aunt's gardener and
+two or three villagers--for the gardener would not venture there without a
+formidable escort; the place, he said, bore a most evil and sinister
+reputation--he at once proceeded to the Towers, and, in one of the
+cellars, bricked up in a recess, they found a skeleton--the skeleton of a
+man, on one of whose fingers was a signet-ring, which Miss Bridget Malachy
+at once identified as having belonged to her missing brother. Moreover,
+with the remains were a few tattered shreds--all that was left of the
+clothes--and, though blackened and rusty, a number of tiny bells, such as
+might have once adorned the cap of a Court jester.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+The Spelkin Towers is still haunted, for it has ghosts of its own, but
+never, I believe, since that memorable experience of Ronan's within its
+grey and lichen-covered walls, has it again been visited by the Banshee.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MY OWN EXPERIENCES WITH THE BANSHEE
+
+
+In order definitely to establish my claim to the Banshee, I am obliged to
+state here that the family to which I belong is the oldest branch of the
+O'Donnells, and dates back in direct unbroken line to Niall of the Nine
+Hostages. I am therefore genuinely Celtic Irish, but, in addition to that,
+I have in my veins strains both of the blood of the O'Briens of Thomond
+(whose Banshee visited Lady Fanshawe), and of the O'Rourkes, Princes of
+Brefni; for my ancestor, Edmund O'Donnell, married Bridget, daughter of
+O'Rourk of the house of Brefni, and his mother was the daughter of Donat
+O'Brien of the house of Thomond. All of which, and more, may be
+ascertained by a reference to the Records of the Truagh O'Donnells.[15]
+
+Possibly my first experience of the Banshee occurred before I was old
+enough to take note of it. I lost my father when I was a baby. He left
+home with the intention of going on a brief visit to Palestine, but,
+meeting on the way an ex-officer of the Anglo-Indian army, who had been
+engaged by the King of Abyssinia to help in the work of remodelling the
+Abyssinian army, he abandoned his idea of visiting the Holy Land, and
+decided to go to Abyssinia instead.
+
+What actually happened then will probably never be known. His death was
+reported to have taken place at Arkiko, a small village some two hours
+walking distance from Massowah, and from the letters[16] subsequently
+received from the French Consul at Massowah and several other people, as
+well as from the entries in his diary (the latter being recovered with
+other of his personal effects and sent home with them), there seems to
+have been little, if any, doubt that he was trapped and murdered, the
+object being robbery.
+
+The case created quite a sensation at the time, and is referred to in a
+work entitled "The Oriental Zig-zag," by Charles Hamilton, who, I believe,
+stayed some few years later at the house at Massowah, where my father
+lodged, and was stated to have shared his fate.
+
+With regard to the supernatural happenings in connection with the event.
+The house that my father had occupied before setting out for the East was
+semi-detached, the first house in a row, which at that time was not
+completed. It was situated in a distinctly lonely spot. On the one side of
+it, and to the rear, were gardens, bounded by fields, and people rarely
+visited the place after nightfall.
+
+On the night preceding my father's death, my mother was sitting in the
+dining-room, which overlooked the back garden, reading. It was a windy but
+fine night, and, save for the rustling of the leaves, and an occasional
+creaking of the shutters, absolutely still. Suddenly, from apparently just
+under the window, there rang out a series of the most harrowing screams.
+Immeasurably startled, and fearing, at first, that it was some woman being
+murdered in the garden, my mother summoned the servants, and they all
+listened. The sounds went on, every moment increasing in vehemence, and
+there was an intensity and eeriness about them that speedily convinced the
+hearers that they could be due to no earthly agency. After lasting several
+minutes they finally died away in a long, protracted wail, full of such
+agony and despair, that my mother and her companions were distressed
+beyond words.
+
+As soon as they could summon up the courage they went out and scoured the
+gardens, but though they looked everywhere, and there was little cover for
+anyone to hide, they could discover nothing that could in any way account
+for the noises. A dreadful fear then seized my mother. She believed that
+she had heard the Banshee which my father had often spoken about to her,
+and she was little surprised, when, in a few days time, the news reached
+her that my father was dead. He had died about dawn, the day after my
+mother and the servants had heard the screaming. I sent an account of the
+incident, together with other phenomena that happened about the same time,
+signed by two of the people who experienced them, to the Society for
+Psychical Research, who published it in their journal in the autumn of
+1899.
+
+I have vivid recollections of my mother telling me about it when I was a
+little boy, and I remember that every time I heard the shutters in the
+room where we sat rattle, and the wind moan and sigh in the chimney, I
+fully expected to hear terrible shrieks ring out, and to see some white
+and ghastly face pressed against the window-panes, peering in at me. After
+these recitations I was terrified at the darkness, and endured, when
+alone in my bedroom, agonies of mind that no grown-up person, perhaps,
+could ever realise. The house and garden, so very bright and cheerful, and
+in every way ordinary, in the daytime, when the sun was out, seemed to be
+entirely metamorphosed directly it was dusk. Shadows assuredly stranger
+than any other shadows--for as far as I could see they had no material
+counterpart--used to congregate on the stairs, and darken the paths and
+lawn.
+
+There were always certain spots that frightened me more than others, a
+bend in one of the staircases, for example, the banisters on the top
+landing, a passage in the basement of the house, and the path leading from
+the gate to the front door. Even in the daytime, occasionally, I was chary
+about passing these places. I felt by instinct something uncanny was
+there; something that was grotesque and sinister, and which had specially
+malevolent designs toward me. When I was alone I hurried past, often with
+my eyes shut; and at night time, I am not ashamed to admit, I often ran.
+Yet, at that time I had no knowledge that others beside myself thought
+these things and had these experiences. I did not know, for instance, that
+once, when my youngest sister, who was a little older than I, was passing
+along that passage I so much dreaded, she heard, close beside her, a
+short, sharp laugh, or chuckle, and so expressive of hatred and derision,
+that the sound of it haunted her memory ever after. I also did not know
+then that one evening, immediately prior to my father's death, when
+another of my sisters was running up the stairs, she saw, peering down at
+her from over the banisters on that top landing I so much dreaded, a face
+which literally froze her with horror. Crowned with a mass of disordered
+tow-coloured hair, the skin tightly drawn over the bones like a mummy, it
+looked as if it had been buried for several months and then resurrected.
+The light, obliquely set eyes, suffused with baleful glee, stared straight
+at her, while the mouth, just such a mouth as might have made that
+chuckle, leered. It did not seem to her to be the face of anyone that had
+ever lived, but to belong to an entirely different species, and to be the
+creation of something wholly evil. She looked at it for some seconds, too
+petrified to move or cry out, until, her faculties gradually reassuring
+themselves, she turned round from the spot and flew downstairs.
+
+Some years later, just before the death of my mother, at about the same
+time of day and in precisely the same place, the head was again seen,
+this time by my younger sister, the one who had heard the ghostly chuckle.
+
+I think, without doubt, that the chuckle, no less than the head, must be
+attributed to the malignant Banshee. I may add, perhaps, without
+digressing too much, that supernatural happenings, apart from the Banshee,
+were associated with both my parents' deaths. On the night following my
+father's murder, and on every subsequent night for a period of six weeks,
+my mother and the servants were aroused regularly at twelve o'clock by a
+sound, as of someone hammering down the lids of packing-cases, issuing
+from the room in the basement of the house, which my father had always
+used as a study. They then heard footsteps ascending the stairs and
+pausing outside each bedroom in turn, which they all recognised as my
+father's, and, occasionally, my old nurse used to see the door of the
+night nursery open, and a light, like the light of a candle outside,
+whilst at the same time she would hear, proceeding from the landing, a
+quick jabber, jabber, jabber, as of someone talking very fast, and trying
+very hard to say something intelligible. No one was ever seen when this
+voice and the footsteps, said to be my father's, were heard, but this
+circumstance may be accounted for by the fact that my father, just before
+leaving Ireland, had remarked to my mother that, should anything happen
+to him abroad, he would in his spirit appear to her; and she, growing pale
+at the mere thought, begged him to do no such thing, whereupon he had
+laughingly replied:
+
+"Very well then, I will find some other means of communicating with you."
+
+Many manifestations of a similar nature to the foregoing, and also, like
+the foregoing, having nothing to do with the Banshee, occurred immediately
+after the death of my mother, but of these I must give an account on some
+future occasion.
+
+Years passed, and nothing more was seen or heard of the Banshee till I was
+grown up. After leaving school I went to Dublin to read with Dr Chetwode
+Crawley, in Ely Place, for the Royal Irish Constabulary, and I might, I
+think, have passed into that Force, had it not been for the fact that at
+the preliminary medical examination some never-to-be-forgotten and, as I
+thought then, intensely ill-natured doctor, rejected me. Accordingly, I
+never entered for the literary, but returned home thoroughly dispirited,
+and faced with the urgent necessity of at once looking around for
+something to do. However, in a very short time I had practically settled
+on going to America to a ranch out West (a most disastrous venture as it
+subsequently proved to be), and it was immediately after I had reached
+this decision that my first actual experience with what I believe to have
+been the malevolent family Banshee occurred. It happened in the same house
+in which the other supernatural occurrences had taken place. All the
+family, saving myself, were away at the time, and I was the sole occupant
+of one of the landings, the servants being all together on another floor.
+
+I had gone to bed early, and had been sleeping for some time, when I was
+awakened about two o'clock by a loud noise, for which I could not account,
+and which reverberated in my ears for fully half a minute. I was sitting
+up, still wondering what on earth could have produced it, when,
+immediately over my head, I heard a laugh, an abrupt kind of chuckle, that
+was so malicious and evil that I could not possibly attribute it to any
+human agency, but rather to some entity of wholly satanic origin, and
+which my instinct told me was one of our attendant Banshees. I got out of
+bed, struck a light, and made a thorough investigation, not only of the
+room, but the landing outside. There was no one there, nothing, as far as
+I could see, that could in any way explain the occurrence. I threw open
+the bedroom window and looked out. The night was beautiful--the sky
+brilliantly illuminated with moon and stars--and everything perfectly
+still, excepting for the very faintest rustling of the leaves as the soft
+night breeze swept through the branches and set them in motion. I listened
+for some time, but, the hush continuing, I at last got back again into
+bed, and eventually fell asleep. I mentioned the incident in the morning
+to the servants, and they, too, had heard it.
+
+A short time afterwards I went to the United States, and had the most
+unhappy and calamitous experience in my whole career.
+
+My next experience of the Banshee happened two or three years later, when,
+having returned from America, I was living in Cornwall, running a small
+preparatory school, principally for delicate boys.
+
+The house I occupied was quite new, in fact I was the first tenant, and
+had watched it being built. It was the last house in a terrace, and facing
+it was a cliff, at the foot of which ran a steep path leading to the
+beach. At this particular time there was no one in the house but my aged
+housekeeper, by name Mrs Bolitho, and myself, and whilst Mrs Bolitho slept
+in a room on the first floor, I was the sole occupant of the floor
+immediately above it.
+
+One night I had been sitting up writing, rather later than usual, and,
+being very tired, had dropped off to sleep, almost immediately after
+getting into bed. I woke about two o'clock hearing a curious kind of
+tapping noise coming along the passage that ran parallel with my bed.
+Wondering what it could be, I sat up and listened. There were only bare
+boards outside, and the noise was very clear and resonant, but difficult
+to analyse. It might have been produced by the very high heels of a lady's
+boot or shoe, or the bony foot of a skeleton. I could compare it with
+nothing else. On it came, tap, tap, tap, till it finally seemed to halt
+outside my door. There was then a pause, during which I could feel
+somebody or something was listening most earnestly, making sure, I
+thought, whether I was awake or not, and then a terrific crash on one of
+the top panels of the door. After this there was silence. I got up, and,
+somewhat timidly opening the door, for I more than half expected to find
+myself confronted with something peculiarly dreadful and uncanny, peeped
+cautiously out. There was nothing to be seen, however; nothing but the
+cold splendour of the moon, which, shining through a window nearly
+opposite me, filled the entire passage with its beams. I went into each of
+the rooms on the landing in turn, but they were all empty, and there was
+nothing anywhere that could in any way account for what I had heard. In
+the morning I questioned Mrs Bolitho, but she had heard nothing.
+
+"For a wonder," she said, "I slept very soundly all through the night, and
+only awoke when it was time to get up."
+
+Two days later I received tidings of the death of my uncle, Colonel John
+Vize O'Donnell of Trough.[17] He had died almost suddenly, his death
+occurring a few hours after I had heard the footsteps and the knock.
+
+Three years after this experience I had moved into another house in the
+same town--also a new house, and also the last in a terrace. At the rear,
+and on one side of it, was a garden, flanked by a hedge, beyond which were
+fields that led in almost unbroken succession to the coast. It could not
+be altogether described as occupying a lonely position, although the
+fields were little frequented after dusk.
+
+Well, one night my wife and I were awakened about midnight by a series of
+the most agonising and heart-rending screams, which, if like anything
+earthly at all, seemed to us to be more like the screams of a woman in the
+very direst distress. The cries were so terrible and sounded so near to
+us, almost, in fact, in the room, that we were both horribly alarmed, and
+hardly knew what to say or think.
+
+"Whatever is happening?" my wife whispered, catching hold of me by the
+arm, "and what is it?"
+
+"I don't know," was my reply, "unless it is the Banshee, for there is
+nobody else that could make such a noise."
+
+The screams continued for some seconds, and then died away in one
+long-drawn-out wail or sob. I waited for some minutes to see if there was
+a repetition of the sounds, and, there being none, I at length got up, and
+not, I confess, without considerable apprehensions, went out on to the
+landing, where I found several of the other inmates of the house collected
+together discussing with scared faces the screams which they, too, had
+heard. An examination of the house and grounds was at once made, but
+nothing was discerned that could in any way account for the sounds, and I
+adhered to my opinion that it must have been the Banshee; which opinion
+was very considerably strengthened, when, a few days later, I received the
+news that an aunt of mine, an O'Donnell, in County Kerry, had passed away
+within twenty-four hours of the time the screaming had occurred. It is,
+perhaps, a dozen years or so since we left Cornwall, and my latest
+experience of the Banshee took place in the house in which we are now
+living near the Crystal Palace.
+
+The experience occurred in connection with the death of my youngest
+sister. On the night preceding her decease I dreamed most vividly that I
+saw the figure of a female dressed in some loose-flowing, fantastic
+garment come up the path leading to the house, and knock very loudly
+several times, in quick succession, at the back door. I was going to
+answer, when a sudden terror held me back.
+
+"It's the Banshee," a voice whispered in my ear, "the Banshee. Don't let
+her in, she's coming for one of you."
+
+This so startled me that I awoke. I then found that my wife was awake
+also, trembling all over, and in a great state of excitement.
+
+"Did you hear that tremendous knock?" she whispered.
+
+"What!" I replied. "You don't mean to say there really was a knock? Why, I
+fancied it was only in my dream."
+
+"You may have dreamt it," she said, "but I didn't--I heard it; it was at
+this door, not at the front door. I say knock, but it was really a
+crash--a terrific crash on the top panel of the door."
+
+We anxiously waited to see if there would be a repetition, but, nothing
+happening, we lay down again, and eventually went to sleep.
+
+On the following day we received a telegram informing us that at ten
+o'clock that morning my sister had passed away.
+
+Since then, I am glad to relate I have not again come in contact with the
+Banshee. At the same time, however, there are occasions when I feel very
+acutely that she is not far away, and I am seldom, if ever, perhaps,
+absolutely free from an impression that she hovers near at hand, ready to
+manifest herself the moment either death or disaster threaten any member
+of my family. Moreover, that she takes a peculiar interest in my personal
+affairs, I have, alas, only too little reason to doubt.
+
+
+
+
+ADDENDA
+
+
+In reply to a letter of mine asking for particulars of the Banshee alleged
+to be attached to the Inchiquin family, I received the following:
+
+     "I think the name (of the Banshee) was OBENHEIM, but I am not sure.
+     Two or three people have told me that she appeared before my
+     grandfather's death, but none of them either saw or heard her, but
+     they had met people who did say they had heard her."
+
+Writing also for particulars of the Banshee to a cousin of the head of one
+of the oldest Irish clans, I received a long letter, from which I will
+quote the following:
+
+     "I have heard 'the Banshee' cry. It is simply like a woman wailing in
+     the most unearthly fashion. At the time an O'Neill was in this house,
+     and she subsequently heard that her eldest brother had died on that
+     night between twelve a.m. and three a.m., when we all of us heard the
+     Banshee wailing. I heard her also at my mother's death, and at the
+     death of my husband's eldest sister. The cry is not always quite the
+     same. When my dear mother died, it was a very low wail which seemed
+     to go round and round the house.
+
+     "At the death of one of the great O'Neill family, we located the cry
+     at one end of the house. When my sister-in-law died I was wakened up
+     by a loud scream in my room in the middle of the night. She had died
+     at that instant. I heard the Banshee one day, driving in the country,
+     at a distance. Sometimes the Banshee, who follows old families, is
+     heard by the whole village. Some people say she is red-haired and
+     wears a long flowing white dress. She is supposed to wring her long
+     thick hair. Others say she appears as a small woman dressed in black.
+
+     "Such an apparition did appear to me in the daytime before my
+     mother-in-law died."
+
+The writer of this letter has asked me not to publish her name, but I have
+it by me in case corroboration is needed.
+
+In reference to the O'Donnell Banshee, Chapter XIII., my sister,
+Petronella O'Donnell, writes:
+
+     "I remember vividly my first experience of our Banshee. I had never
+     heard of it at the time, and in fact I have only heard of it in
+     recent years.
+
+     "It happened one day that I went into the hall, in the daytime, I
+     forget the exact hour, and as I climbed the stairway, being yet a
+     small child, I happened to look up. There, looking over the rails at
+     the top of the stairway, was an object so horrible that I shudder
+     when I think of it even now. In a greenish halo of light the most
+     terrible head imagination could paint--only this was no imagination,
+     I knew it was a real object--was looking at me with apparently
+     fiendish fire in its light and leering eyes. The head was neither man
+     nor woman's; it was ages old; it might have been buried and dug up
+     again, it was so skull-like and shrunken; its pallor was horrible,
+     grey and mildewy; its hair was long. Its mouth leered, and its light
+     and cruel eyes seemed determined to hurt me to the utmost, with the
+     terror it inspired. I remember how my childish heart rebelled against
+     its cowardice in trying to hurt and frighten so small a child. Gazing
+     back at it in petrified horror, I slowly returned to the room I had
+     come from. I resolved never to tell anyone about it, I was so proud
+     and reserved by nature.
+
+     "I had then two secret terrors hidden in my Irish heart. The first
+     one I have never till recently spoken of to anyone; it happened
+     before I saw this awful head. I was asleep, but yet I knew I was
+     _not_ asleep. Suddenly, down the road that led to our home in Ireland
+     came an object so terrible that for years after my child's heart used
+     to stand still at the memory of it. The object I saw coming down to
+     our house was a procession--there were several pairs of horses being
+     led by grooms in livery, pulling an old coach with them. It was a
+     large and awful looking old coach! The horses were headless, and the
+     men who led them were headless, and even now as I write, the awful
+     terror of it all comes over me, it was a terror beyond words. I
+     _knew_, I felt certain they had come to cut off my head! This
+     procession of headless things stopped at our door, the men entered
+     the house, chased me up to the very top of it, and then cut off my
+     head! I can remember saying to myself, 'Now I am dead, I am dead, I
+     can suffer no more.'
+
+     "They then went back to the coach, and the procession moved away and
+     was lost to view.
+
+     "Night after night I lay shivering with terror, for months, for
+     years, there was such a _lurid_ horror about this headless
+     procession.
+
+     "Some weeks after I saw the head, we heard that our father had been
+     killed about that time in Egypt, murdered it was supposed. My mother
+     died some years afterwards.
+
+     "One evening, when I was grown up, we were sitting round the fire
+     with friends, and someone said:
+
+     "'I don't believe in ghosts. Have you ever met anyone who has seen
+     one? I have not!'
+
+     "A sudden impulse came over me--never to that moment had I ever
+     mentioned the head--and, leaning forward, I said:
+
+     "'I have seen a ghost; I saw the most terrible head when I was a
+     child, looking over the staircase.'
+
+     "To my astonishment my sister, who was sitting near me, said:
+
+     "'I saw a most terrible head, too, looking over the staircase.'
+
+     "I said:
+
+     "'When did you see it? I saw it when our father died.'
+
+     "And she said:
+
+     "'And, _I_ saw it when our mother died.'
+
+     "In describing it, we found all the details agreed, and learned not
+     long after that it was without doubt our own Banshee we had seen.
+
+     "People have said to me that Banshees are heard, not seen. This is
+     not correct, it all depends if one is clairvoyant or clairaudient.
+
+     "I remember when my mother was alive, how I came in from a walk one
+     evening and found the whole house in a ferment, the most terrible
+     screaming and crying had been heard pass over the house. Our mother
+     said it must be the Banshee. Sure enough we heard of the death of a
+     very near relation directly after. If I had been present, no doubt I
+     should not only have heard the screams but I should have seen
+     something as well.
+
+     "A few years ago in Ireland I was talking about these things, and a
+     relation I had not met before was present. He said to me:
+
+     "'But as well as the Banshee do you know that we have a _headless
+     coach_ attached to our family; it is proceeded by men, who lead the
+     horses, and none of them have heads.'
+
+     "Like a flash came that never-to-be-forgotten vision of that awful
+     procession I had seen as a child, and of which I had never made any
+     mention till then. I remember now that after I saw the headless coach
+     we heard that our grandmother was dead. I believe that the headless
+     coach belongs to her family.
+
+     "PETRONELLA O'DONNELL."
+
+The headless coach referred to in the foregoing account comes to us, I
+believe, from the Vize family. My grandmother before her marriage was
+Sarah Vize, daughter of John Vize of Donegal, Glenagad and Limerick. Her
+sister Frances married her cousin, David Roche of Carass (see Burke's
+"Landed Gentry of Ireland," under Maunsell family, and Burke's "Peerage
+under Roche"), their son being Sir David Roche, Bart.
+
+The great-great-grandmother of Sarah Vize was Mary, daughter of Butler of
+the house of the Earl Glengall Cahir. Sarah Vize's mother, my
+great-grandmother, before her marriage was Sarah Maunsell, granddaughter
+of William Maunsell of Ballinamona, County Cork, the fifth son of Colonel
+Thomas Maunsell of Mocollop.
+
+In the accompanying genealogical tree, tracing the descent of the
+O'Donnells of Trough from Niall of the Nine Hostages, the O'Briens of
+Thomond and the O'Rourkes of Brefui, may be found the basis upon which my
+family's claim to the dual Banshee rests.
+
+The original may be seen in the office of the King of Arms, Dublin. The
+following is merely an extract:
+
+  Niall of the Nine Hostages.
+        King of Ireland
+               |
+         Conall Gulban
+               |
+            Feargus
+               |
+  Leadna, Prince of Tirconnell
+               |
+            Feargus
+               |
+      Lughaidb, and from
+
+him, in direct descent, to Foirdhealbhach an Fhiona O'Donnhnaill, who had
+two sons, the elder, Shane Luirg and the younger, Niall Garbh. From Niall
+Garbh the illustrious Red Hugh and his brother Rory, Earl of Tirconnell,
+were descended, from Shane Luirg, whose rank as "The O'Donnell" was taken
+by his younger brother, presumably the stronger man of the two, the Trough
+O'Donnells are descended.
+
+The line goes on thus:
+
+                              Shane Luirg
+                                  |
+                            Art O'Donnhnail
+                                  |    (ob. circa 1490)
+                                  |
+                          Niall O'Donnhnaill
+                                  |    (ob. circa 1525)
+                                  |
+    Foirdheal bhach O'Donnhnaill _m._ Julia Maguire
+                                  |     (ob. 1552)
+                                  |
+                           Shane _m._ Rosa, d. of Hugh O'Donnell
+                                  |     (ob. 1581)
+                                  |
+      Hugh O'Donnell of Limerick _m._ Maria, d. of Donat O'Brien of the
+                                  |     House of Thomond (ob. 1610)
+                                  |
+             Edmund, of Limerick _m._ Bridget, d. of O'Rourk of the
+                    (ob. 1651)    |     House of Brefui
+                                  |
+              James, of Limerick _m._ Helena, d. of James Sarsfield,
+                     (ob. 1680)   |     great-uncle of Patrick
+                                  |     Sarsfeld, Earl of Lucan
+                                  |
+                            John _m._ Margaret, d. of Thomas Creagh
+                                  |     of Limerick
+                                  |
+                           James _m._ Christiana, d. of William
+                                  |     Stritch of Limerick
+                                  |
+                            John _m._ Deborah, d. of William Anderson
+                       (ob. 1780) |     of Tipperary
+                                  |
+        +--------------------------------------------+
+        |                                            |
+  [18]John, of Limerick _m._ Sarah Elliot   Henry Anderson _m._ Domina Jan,
+      and Baltimore,     |   of Baltimore,    O'Donnell     |   daughter of
+      U.S.A (ob. 1805)   |   U.S.A.           (ob. 1840)    |   nephew of
+                         |                                  |   Shah of
+                         |                                  |   Persia
+                         |                                  |
+    Elliot, of Limerick _m._ Sarah Vize,    Gen. Sir C. R. _m._ Catherine
+      (ob. 1836)         |   of Limerick      O'Donnell,        Anne, d.
+                         |                    K.C.B., and       of Gen. P.
+                         |                    Member of the     Murray,
+                         |                    Irish Academy     nephew of
+                         |                    (ob. 1870)        the Earl
+                         |                                      of Elibank
+               Rev. Henry O'Donnell
+                         |
+               Elliot (youngest son)
+
+For particulars of the pedigree see Vol. X., p. 327, Genealogias, in the
+Office of Ulster King of Arms, Dublin.
+
+From Niall to Shane Luirg, see Register XV., p. 5; from Shane to my
+grandfather, Elliot, see Register XXIII., p. 286; and down to myself, see
+"Sheridan," p. 323.
+
+Referring to the Banshee prior to my aunt's death (see Chapter XIII.) my
+wife writes:
+
+     "I certainly remember, one night, when we were living in Cornwall,
+     hearing a most awful scream, a scream that rose and fell, and ended
+     in a long-drawn-out wail of agony. I have never heard any other sound
+     at all like it, and therefore cannot think that it could have been
+     anything earthly. At the time, however, I did think that possibly the
+     scream was that of a woman being murdered, and did not rest until my
+     husband, with other inmates of our house, had made a thorough search
+     of the garden and premises.
+
+     "Shortly after we had had this experience, we heard of the death, in
+     Ireland, of one of my husband's aunts.
+
+     "I also recollect that one night, shortly before we received the news
+     of my sister-in-law's death, I heard a crash on our bedroom door. It
+     was so loud that it quite shook the room, and my husband, apparently
+     wakened by it, told me he had dreamed that the Banshee had come and
+     was knocking for admittance. This happened not very long ago, when we
+     were living in Norwood.
+
+     "ADA O'DONNELL."
+
+
+
+
+  PRINTED AT
+  THE NORTHUMBERLAND PRESS,
+  WATERLOO HOUSE, THORNTON STREET,
+  NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE
+
+
+
+
+Footnotes:
+
+[1] "Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms and Superstitions of Ireland," by Lady
+Wilde.
+
+[2] "The Astral Plane," p. 106.
+
+[3] This book was published in 1888.
+
+[4] In the Addenda at end of this volume will be found a genealogical tree
+showing descent of author from the Thomond O'Briens.
+
+[5] In Addenda see tree showing descent of author from O'Rourks of Brefni.
+
+[6] As a rule the Banshee is neither heard nor seen by the person whose
+death it predicts. There are, however, some notable exceptions.
+
+[7] For further reference to the Banshee of the O'Neills see Addenda.
+
+[8] See Addenda.
+
+[9] See Addenda.
+
+[10] It may be recorded here as a matter of interest that my ancestress,
+Helena Sarsfield, was a daughter of James Sarsfield, great-uncle of
+Patrick Sarsfield, Earl of Lucan and the defender of Limerick against the
+English.
+
+[11] Neither of her stories have appeared in print before.
+
+[12] See "The Ghost World," by T. F. T. Dyer, p. 227.
+
+[13] See Sir Walter Scott's Poetical Works, 1853, VIII., p. 126.
+
+[14] These extracts are taken from quotations of the poem in Chapter II.
+of a work entitled "Ancient History of the Kingdom of Kerry" by Friar
+O'Sullivan of Muckross Abbey, published in the Journal of the Cork
+Historical and Archaeological Society (Vol. V., No. 44); and Friar
+O'Sullivan, in commenting upon these passages relating to the Banshees,
+writes (quoting from "Kerry Records"): "It seems that at this time it was
+the universal opinion that every district belonging to the Geraldines had
+its own attendant Banshee" (see _Archaeological Journal_, 1852, on "Folk
+Lore" by N. Kearney).
+
+[15] See Records of the Truagh O'Donnells in the Office of the King of
+Arms, Dublin. Refs.: Genealogias, Vol. XI., p. 327; Register XV., p. 5;
+Register XXII., p. 286; and Sheridan, p. 323.
+
+[16] The originals are still in existence. The diary was kept right up to
+the night preceding his death.
+
+[17] Also spelt Truagh.
+
+[18] John O'Donnell of Baltimore's eldest son, Columbus, had a daughter,
+Eleanora, who married Adrian Iselin of New York, and their grand-daughter,
+Norah, is the present Princess Coleredo Mansfeldt.
+
+
+
+
+  *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Text in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
+
+The following misprints have been corrected:
+  "know" corrected to "known" (page 14)
+  "sometime" corrected to "sometimes" (page 17)
+  "heartrending" standardized to "heart-rending" (page 243)
+
+Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling
+and hyphenation have been retained from the original.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BANSHEE***
+
+
+******* This file should be named 34263.txt or 34263.zip *******
+
+
+This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/2/6/34263
+
+
+
+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.  Project
+Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you
+charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission.  If you
+do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the
+rules is very easy.  You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose
+such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and
+research.  They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do
+practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks.  Redistribution is
+subject to the trademark license, especially commercial
+redistribution.
+
+
+
+*** START: FULL LICENSE ***
+
+THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE
+PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK
+
+To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free
+distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work
+(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at
+http://www.gutenberg.org/license).
+
+
+Section 1.  General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic works
+
+1.A.  By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to
+and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property
+(trademark/copyright) agreement.  If you do not agree to abide by all
+the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy
+all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession.
+If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the
+terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or
+entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8.
+
+1.B.  "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark.  It may only be
+used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who
+agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  There are a few
+things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works
+even without complying with the full terms of this agreement.  See
+paragraph 1.C below.  There are a lot of things you can do with Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement
+and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.  See paragraph 1.E below.
+
+1.C.  The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation"
+or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic works.  Nearly all the individual works in the
+collection are in the public domain in the United States.  If an
+individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are
+located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from
+copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative
+works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg
+are removed.  Of course, we hope that you will support the Project
+Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by
+freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of
+this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with
+the work.  You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by
+keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project
+Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others.
+
+1.D.  The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern
+what you can do with this work.  Copyright laws in most countries are in
+a constant state of change.  If you are outside the United States, check
+the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement
+before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or
+creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project
+Gutenberg-tm work.  The Foundation makes no representations concerning
+the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United
+States.
+
+1.E.  Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg:
+
+1.E.1.  The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate
+access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently
+whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the
+phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project
+Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed,
+copied or distributed:
+
+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
+
+1.E.2.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived
+from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is
+posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied
+and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees
+or charges.  If you are redistributing or providing access to a work
+with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the
+work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1
+through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the
+Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or
+1.E.9.
+
+1.E.3.  If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted
+with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution
+must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional
+terms imposed by the copyright holder.  Additional terms will be linked
+to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the
+permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work.
+
+1.E.4.  Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this
+work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm.
+
+1.E.5.  Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this
+electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without
+prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with
+active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm License.
+
+1.E.6.  You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary,
+compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any
+word processing or hypertext form.  However, if you provide access to or
+distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than
+"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version
+posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org),
+you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a
+copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon
+request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other
+form.  Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1.
+
+1.E.7.  Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying,
+performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works
+unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9.
+
+1.E.8.  You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing
+access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided
+that
+
+- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from
+     the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method
+     you already use to calculate your applicable taxes.  The fee is
+     owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he
+     has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the
+     Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation.  Royalty payments
+     must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you
+     prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax
+     returns.  Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and
+     sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the
+     address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to
+     the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation."
+
+- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies
+     you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he
+     does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm
+     License.  You must require such a user to return or
+     destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium
+     and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of
+     Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any
+     money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the
+     electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days
+     of receipt of the work.
+
+- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free
+     distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works.
+
+1.E.9.  If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm
+electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set
+forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from
+both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael
+Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark.  Contact the
+Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below.
+
+1.F.
+
+1.F.1.  Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable
+effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread
+public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm
+collection.  Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain
+"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or
+corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual
+property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a
+computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by
+your equipment.
+
+1.F.2.  LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right
+of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project
+Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project
+Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all
+liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal
+fees.  YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT
+LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE
+PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3.  YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE
+TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE
+LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR
+INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH
+DAMAGE.
+
+1.F.3.  LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a
+defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can
+receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a
+written explanation to the person you received the work from.  If you
+received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with
+your written explanation.  The person or entity that provided you with
+the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a
+refund.  If you received the work electronically, the person or entity
+providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to
+receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund.  If the second copy
+is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further
+opportunities to fix the problem.
+
+1.F.4.  Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth
+in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER
+WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO
+WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE.
+
+1.F.5.  Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied
+warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages.
+If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the
+law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be
+interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by
+the applicable state law.  The invalidity or unenforceability of any
+provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions.
+
+1.F.6.  INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the
+trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone
+providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance
+with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production,
+promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works,
+harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees,
+that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do
+or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm
+work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any
+Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause.
+
+
+Section  2.  Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of
+electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers
+including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers.  It exists
+because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from
+people in all walks of life.
+
+Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the
+assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's
+goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will
+remain freely available for generations to come.  In 2001, the Project
+Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure
+and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations.
+To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation
+and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4
+and the Foundation web page at http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf.
+
+
+Section 3.  Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive
+Foundation
+
+The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit
+501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the
+state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal
+Revenue Service.  The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification
+number is 64-6221541.  Contributions to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent
+permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws.
+
+The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S.
+Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered
+throughout numerous locations.  Its business office is located at
+809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email
+business@pglaf.org.  Email contact links and up to date contact
+information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official
+page at http://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact
+
+For additional contact information:
+     Dr. Gregory B. Newby
+     Chief Executive and Director
+     gbnewby@pglaf.org
+
+Section 4.  Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg
+Literary Archive Foundation
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide
+spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of
+increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be
+freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest
+array of equipment including outdated equipment.  Many small donations
+($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt
+status with the IRS.
+
+The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating
+charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United
+States.  Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a
+considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up
+with these requirements.  We do not solicit donations in locations
+where we have not received written confirmation of compliance.  To
+SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any
+particular state visit http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we
+have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition
+against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who
+approach us with offers to donate.
+
+International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make
+any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from
+outside the United States.  U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff.
+
+Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation
+methods and addresses.  Donations are accepted in a number of other
+ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations.
+To donate, please visit:
+http://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate
+
+
+Section 5.  General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic
+works.
+
+Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm
+concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared
+with anyone.  For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project
+Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support.
+
+Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed
+editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S.
+unless a copyright notice is included.  Thus, we do not necessarily
+keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition.
+
+Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility:
+
+     http://www.gutenberg.org
+
+This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm,
+including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary
+Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to
+subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks.
+
diff --git a/34263.zip b/34263.zip
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..19b47cc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/34263.zip
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..131a753
--- /dev/null
+++ b/README.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #34263 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34263)