Speaker 1: Ghosts by guide de Maupassant. Just at the time when
Speaker 1: the Concordat was in its most flourishing condition, a young
Speaker 1: man belonging to a wealthy and highly respected middle class
Speaker 1: family went to the office of the head of police
Speaker 1: at p and begged for his help and advice, which
Speaker 1: was immediately promised him. My father threatens to disinherit me,
Speaker 1: the young man then began, although I have never offended
Speaker 1: against the laws of the state of morality or of
Speaker 1: his paternal authority, merely because I do not share his
Speaker 1: blind reverence for the Catholic Church and her ministers. On
Speaker 1: that account, he looks upon me not merely as latitudinarian,
Speaker 1: but as a perfect atheist and a faithful old man
Speaker 1: servant of ours, who is much attached to me, and
Speaker 1: who accidentally saw my father's will, told me in confidence
Speaker 1: that he had left all his property to the Jesuits.
Speaker 1: I think this is highly suspicious, and I fear that
Speaker 1: the priests have been beligning me to my father. Until
Speaker 1: less than a year ago, we used to live very
Speaker 1: quietly and happily together, But ever since he has had
Speaker 1: so much to do with the clergy, our domestic peace
Speaker 1: and happiness are at an end. What you have told me,
Speaker 1: the official replied, is as likely as it is regrettable.
Speaker 1: But I fail to see how I can interfere in
Speaker 1: the matter. Your father is in full possession of all
Speaker 1: his mental faculties and can dispose of all his property
Speaker 1: exactly as he pleases. I also think that your protest
Speaker 1: is premature. You must wait until his will can legally
Speaker 1: take effect, and then you can invoke the aid of justice.
Speaker 1: I am sorry to say that I can do nothing
Speaker 1: for you. I think you will be able to the
Speaker 1: young man replied, for I believe that a very clever
Speaker 1: piece of deceit is being carried on here. How please
Speaker 1: explain yourself more clearly. When I remonstrated with him yesterday evening,
Speaker 1: he referred to my dead mother, and at last assured me,
Speaker 1: in a voice of the deepest conviction, that she had
Speaker 1: frequently appeared to him and had threatened him with all
Speaker 1: the torments of the damned if he did not disinherit
Speaker 1: his son, who had fallen away from God, and leave
Speaker 1: all his property to the church. Now, I do not
Speaker 1: believe in ghosts, neither do I, the police director replied,
Speaker 1: But I cannot well do anything on this dangerous ground
Speaker 1: if I had nothing but superstitions to go upon. You
Speaker 1: know how the Church rules all our affairs since to
Speaker 1: concord it with Rome. And if I investigate this matter
Speaker 1: and obtain no results, I am risking my post. You
Speaker 1: would be very different if you could adduce any proofs
Speaker 1: for your suspicions. I do not deny that I should
Speaker 1: like to see the clerical party, which will I fear
Speaker 1: be the ruin of Austria, receive a staggering blow. Try therefore,
Speaker 1: to get to the bottom of this business, and then
Speaker 1: we will talk it over again. About a month passed
Speaker 1: without the young latitudinarian being heard of, But then he
Speaker 1: suddenly came one evening, evidently in a great state of excitement,
Speaker 1: and told him that he was in a position to
Speaker 1: expose the priestly deceit which he had mentioned, if the
Speaker 1: authorities would assist him. The police director asked for further information.
Speaker 1: I have obtained a number of important clues, the young
Speaker 1: man said. In the first place, my father confessed to
Speaker 1: me that my mother did not appear to him in
Speaker 1: our house, but in the churchyard where she is buried.
Speaker 1: My mother was consumptive for many years, and a few
Speaker 1: weeks before her death she went to the village of
Speaker 1: s where she died and was buried. In addition to this,
Speaker 1: I found out from our footman that my father has
Speaker 1: already left the house twice late at night in company
Speaker 1: of X, the Jesuit priest, and that on both occasions
Speaker 1: he did not return till morning. Each time he was
Speaker 1: remarkably uneasy and low spirited after his return, and had
Speaker 1: three mass is said for my dead mother. He also
Speaker 1: told me just now that he has to leave home
Speaker 1: this evening on business. But immediately he told me that
Speaker 1: our footmen saw that Jez would go out of the house.
Speaker 1: We may therefore assume that he intends this evening to
Speaker 1: consult the spirit of my dead mother again. And this
Speaker 1: would be an excellent opportunity for getting on the track
Speaker 1: of the matter. If you do not object to opposing
Speaker 1: the most powerful force in the empire for the sake
Speaker 1: of such an insignificant individual as myself. Every citizen has
Speaker 1: an equal right to the protection of the state. The
Speaker 1: police director applied, and I think that I have shown
Speaker 1: often enough that I am not wanting encouraged to perform
Speaker 1: my duty, no matter how serious. The consequences may be,
Speaker 1: but only very young men act without any prospects of success,
Speaker 1: as they are carried away by their feelings. When you
Speaker 1: came to me the first time, I was obliged to
Speaker 1: refuse your request for assistance. But today your shares have
Speaker 1: risen and value. It is now eight o'clock and I
Speaker 1: shall expect you in two hours time here in my office.
Speaker 1: At present, all you have to do is hold your tongue.
Speaker 1: Everything else is my affair. As soon as it was dark,
Speaker 1: four men got into a closed carriage in the yard
Speaker 1: of the police office and were driven in the direction
Speaker 1: of the village of s Their carriage, however, did not
Speaker 1: enter the village, but stopped at the edge of a
Speaker 1: small wood in the immediate neighborhood. Here they all four alighted.
Speaker 1: They were the police director, accompanied by the young latitudinarian,
Speaker 1: a police sergeant, and an ordinary policeman who was, however,
Speaker 1: dressed in plain clothes. The first thing for us to
Speaker 1: do is examine the locality carefully, the police director said.
Speaker 1: It is eleven o'clock and the exercises of ghosts will
Speaker 1: not arrive before midnight, so we have time to look
Speaker 1: round us and to take our measure. The four men
Speaker 1: went to the churchyard, which lay at the end of
Speaker 1: the village, near the little wood. Everything was still as death,
Speaker 1: and not a soul was to be seen. The sexton
Speaker 1: was evidently sitting in the public house, for they found
Speaker 1: the door of his cottage locked, as well as the
Speaker 1: door of the little chapel that stood in the middle
Speaker 1: of the churchyard. Where is your mother's grave, the police
Speaker 1: director asked, But as there were only a few stars visible,
Speaker 1: it was not easy to find it. But at last
Speaker 1: they managed it, and the police director looked about in
Speaker 1: the neighborhood of it. The position is not a very
Speaker 1: favorable one for us, he said, at last, there is
Speaker 1: nothing here, not even a shrub behind which we could hide.
Speaker 1: But just then the policeman said that he had tried
Speaker 1: to get into the sexton's hut through the door or
Speaker 1: the window, and that at last he had succeeded in
Speaker 1: doing so by breaking open a square in the window
Speaker 1: which had been mended with paper, and that he had
Speaker 1: opened it and obtained possession of the key, which he
Speaker 1: had brought to the police director. His plans were very
Speaker 1: quickly settled. He had the chapel opened and went in
Speaker 1: with the young latitudinarian. Then he told the police sergeant
Speaker 1: to lock the door behind him, and to put the
Speaker 1: key back where he had found it, and to shut
Speaker 1: the window of the sexton's cottage carefully. Lastly, he made
Speaker 1: arrangements as to what they were to do in case
Speaker 1: anything unforeseen should occur. Where Upon the sergeant and the
Speaker 1: constable left the churchyard lay down in a ditch at
Speaker 1: some distance from the gate but opposite to it. Almost
Speaker 1: as soon as the clock struck half past eleven, they
Speaker 1: heard steps near the chapel, whereupon the police director and
Speaker 1: the young latitudinarian went to the window in order to
Speaker 1: watch the beginning of the exorcism. And as the chapel
Speaker 1: was in total darkness, they thought that they should be
Speaker 1: able to see without being seen, but matters turned out
Speaker 1: differently from what they expected. Suddenly, the key turned in
Speaker 1: the lock, and they barely had time to conceal themselves
Speaker 1: behind the altar before two men came in, one of
Speaker 1: whom was carrying a dark land. One was the young
Speaker 1: man's father, an elderly man of the middle class, who
Speaker 1: seemed very unhappy and depressed. The other, the Jesuit father, kay,
Speaker 1: a tall, thin, big boned man with a thin, bilious
Speaker 1: face in which two large gray eyes shone restlessly under
Speaker 1: their bushy black eyebrows. He lit the tapers which were
Speaker 1: standing on the altar, and then began to say Erequi
Speaker 1: a mass, while the old man knelt on the altar
Speaker 1: steps and served him. When it was over, the Jesuit
Speaker 1: took the book of the Gospels and the holy water
Speaker 1: sprinkler and went slowly out of the chapel, while the
Speaker 1: old man followed him with a holy water basin in
Speaker 1: one hand and a taper in the other. Then the
Speaker 1: police director left his hiding place, and, stooping down so
Speaker 1: as not to be seen, he crept through the chapel window,
Speaker 1: where he cowered down carefully, and the young man followed
Speaker 1: his example. They were now looking straight on his mother's grave.
Speaker 1: The Jesuit, followed by the superstitious old man, walked three
Speaker 1: times round the grave. Then he remained standing before it,
Speaker 1: and by the light of the taper, he read a
Speaker 1: few passages from the Gospel. Then he dipped the holy
Speaker 1: water sprinkler three times into the holy water basin and
Speaker 1: sprinkled the grave three times. Then both returned to the chapel,
Speaker 1: knelt down outside it with their faces towards the grave,
Speaker 1: and began to pray aloud, until at last the jesuit
Speaker 1: sprang up in a species of wild ecstasy and cried
Speaker 1: out three times in a shrill voice. X surgery, ex surgey,
Speaker 1: ex surgery. Scarcely had the last word of the exorcism
Speaker 1: died away, when thick blue smoke rose out of the grave,
Speaker 1: which rapidly grew into a cloud and began to assume
Speaker 1: the outlines of a human body, until at last a
Speaker 1: tall white figure stood behind the grave and beckoned with
Speaker 1: his hand, who art thou? The jesuit asked solemnly, while
Speaker 1: the old man and began to cry. When I was alive,
Speaker 1: I was called Anna Maria b The ghost replied in
Speaker 1: a hollow voice. Well you answer all my questions, the
Speaker 1: priest continued, as far as I can. Have you not
Speaker 1: yet been delivered from purgatory by our prayers and all
Speaker 1: the masses for your soul which we have said for you?
Speaker 1: Not yet? But soon soon I shall be when as
Speaker 1: soon as that blasphemer my son has been punished. Has
Speaker 1: that not already happened? Has not your husband disinherited his
Speaker 1: lost son and made the church his heir in his place.
Speaker 1: That is not enough. What must he do? Besides? He
Speaker 1: must deposit his will with the judicial authorities as his
Speaker 1: last will and testament, and drive the reprobate out of
Speaker 1: his house. Consider well what you are saying, Must this
Speaker 1: really be? It must, or otherwise I shall have to
Speaker 1: languish in purgatory much longer. The sepulchral voice replied with
Speaker 1: a deep sigh. But the next moment it yelled out
Speaker 1: in terror, Oh good Lord, and the ghost began to
Speaker 1: run away as fast as it could. A shrill whistle
Speaker 1: was heard, and then another, and the police director laid
Speaker 1: his hand on the shoulder of the exerciser, accompanied with
Speaker 1: the remark you are in custody. Meanwhile, the police sergeant
Speaker 1: and the policeman who had come into the churchyard had
Speaker 1: caught the ghost and dragged it forward. It was the
Speaker 1: sexton who had put on a flowing white dress, and
Speaker 1: who wore a wax mask which bore a striking resemblance
Speaker 1: to his mother, as the son declared. When the case
Speaker 1: was heard, it was proved that the mask had been
Speaker 1: very skillfully made from a portrait of the deceased woman.
Speaker 1: The government gave orders that the matter should be investigated
Speaker 1: as secretly as possible, and left the punishment of Father
Speaker 1: Kay to the spiritual which was a matter of course
Speaker 1: at a time when priests were outside the jurisdiction of
Speaker 1: the civil authorities, and it is needless to say that
Speaker 1: he was very comfortable during his imprisonment in a monastery
Speaker 1: and a part of the country which abounded with game
Speaker 1: and trout. The only valuable result of the amusing ghost
Speaker 1: story was that it brought about a reconciliation between father
Speaker 1: and son, and the former, as a matter of fact,
Speaker 1: felt such a deep respect for priests and their ghosts.
Speaker 1: In consequence of the apparition that a short time after
Speaker 1: his wife had left purgatory for the last time in
Speaker 1: order to talk with him, he turned Protestant