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