"In the latter days seducing spirits shall arise, _forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats_."
He had pressed me very hard and rather unfairly. Still, the counsel of perfection would have been to refrain from the comment that, if _I_ were a celibate and vegetarian, it was not the text I should have chosen with which to clinch an argument!
AN INTERLUDE
I have headed this chapter an _Interlude_, for the following reason:--
It is the only one in this book which does not record a personal experience.
The opportunity came to me at Florence, two years ago, of hearing one of the best old-fashioned Christmas ghost stories I ever came across; also a ghost story which has two rather unique advantages. First, it has never been published before; secondly, the percipient was the matron of a boys" school (a well-known one), and wrote out her experiences _within twelve hours of their occurrence_.
Now, the matron of a large boys" school must, of necessity, be an exceptionally practical woman, and her daily experiences can scarcely tend to encourage undue Romance or Imagination.
When I add that this story was given to me, and a copy of the original letter placed in my hands, by a sister of two of the schoolboys who were under the matron"s supervision, I shall have cleared the way for my ghost to appear upon the scene.
I must add, however, that I met this sister, a young widow, in Florence, two years ago. She then told me this story, finding that I was intimately acquainted both with the county and the small county town where it happened.
The matron had gone there for the prosaic purpose of taking the baths for her rheumatism.
The adventure took place in the early morning of 14th April 1875, and was recorded, within a few hours, in a long letter written by the percipient to a favourite cousin.
My friend, Mrs Barker"s brothers being at school at the time, begged to be allowed to read this letter and take a copy of it. The copy was made by their sister--then a young girl--and I have it in my hands at the present moment of writing.
It is, of course, necessary to change the name of the county and town, as the old family mansion, let in lodgings in 1875, has since then been sold and turned into a boarding-house.
Mrs Barker"s mother made an expedition to this town, a few years ago, to verify the facts, and went over the house, which has been considerably altered and reconstructed inside since 1875.
The small park mentioned in the story is now built over entirely, as the town has increased in popularity, owing to its baths, and the family portraits here mentioned have been removed since the house was sold.
I will now quote _verbatim_ from the matron"s letter, _written on the morning of her experiences_.
"The Priory, Grantwich.
"14th April 1875.
"MY DEAR EDIE,--When you asked me once for a ghost story, I daresay you as little expected, as I did, how soon I should have to reveal to you an experience which will doubtless give you, as it has me, much ground for thought and speculation about those mysterious laws which rule the spirit world.
"How true it is that Thought and Feeling annihilate Time and s.p.a.ce!
Since last night, I seem to have lived through half a lifetime, such an effect have its events had upon my inner life. But before I begin to relate the strange circ.u.mstances I have to tell you, I must describe to you more particularly this house in which they happened.
"I think I told you that "The Priory"--where I am now lodging--is an old mansion, belonging to the Carbury family. For some years past, it has been let to the present occupiers who make the rent by letting lodgings. Some ancient pieces of furniture remain, and a great many portraits, none of the earliest date, but a handsome and respectable collection--soldiers, bishops, and judges, in their uniforms, robes, and wigs, and ladies with powdered hair, hoops, and trains.
"Of these portraits, _two have engaged my attention, especially, from the first moment of seeing them_, but I am not going to speak of them yet; my first object is to give you an idea of the house, or rather that part of it with which my story is connected.
"I think I have told you that the grand staircase goes up from the inner hall, and that round the staircase runs a gallery; in this gallery and in the hall below, are hung most of the portraits.
"On the first turn and landing of the staircase, there is a door opening into a trellised walk which leads into the garden. On a level with this door is a large window which looks on to sweeps of soft turf, shaded by fine trees.
"Standing often to look from this window, as I pa.s.sed up and down the staircase, one tree has always riveted my attention. It is a large old plane-tree, standing by itself, and having a strange, melancholy, decayed look about it. I noticed--why, I cannot imagine--that on one side of it the ground was bare and black, though everywhere else the gra.s.s was green and fresh. I mention this, because it had struck me _before_ the strange events occurred which I am going to tell you.
"You must now go with me to the top of the staircase. Just at the top, on your right hand, hangs one of the portraits I mentioned. It is a life-sized painting of Captain Richard Carbury, who landed, on the 19th September 1738, in the Colony of Georgia, with General Oglethorpe"s regiment.
"Opposite to this, on the other side of the gallery, is the portrait of a lady, with black, resolute brows and full, voluptuous mouth and chin.
She has a high colour, an exquisite hand and arm, and an Amazonian bearing.
"Pa.s.sing from the gallery, you enter a long pa.s.sage, leading to other pa.s.sages and staircases, with which we have nothing to do.
"I only want you now to become acquainted with my own rooms. As you enter the pa.s.sage from the gallery, two doors open, one on either hand.
To the right is my sitting-room, a square, cheerful room, looking on the street; to the left is my bedroom, which will require a more particular description.
"It is a large, low room. As you enter from the pa.s.sage, the window, which looks into the garden, is opposite to you. In the middle of the wall to your right hand stands the bed, and opposite to that, the fireplace, and, as you will see, if you have taken in my description, just at the back of the portrait of the lady with the black eyebrows, is another door. Opposite to this last is yet another, which caught my attention when I first entered the room from a peculiarity about it. The upper part of this door is of gla.s.s, rendered opaque by being washed or lined with some red substance.
"As soon as I was alone in the room I tried to open this door, but it was firmly fastened. I don"t know why I should have felt disquieted by this circ.u.mstance, but certainly I did feel annoyed. I thought at first that it probably opened into a dressing-room. There must have been a strong light behind it, for a red light always fell on that side of the room through the coloured gla.s.s, and I could see that red light in the morning, before any light penetrated the window-blind.
"I think I have now told you all that is necessary for understanding my experience.
"I must ask you to remember that yesterday was the thirteenth of April.
I went to bed about eleven o"clock, and soon fell asleep. I could not, however, have slept long before I woke with an unusual feeling that something strange was going to happen.
"I awoke, not as one does in the morning, with a drowsy resolve not to go to sleep again because it is time to get up, but as one awakes when a journey or some similar event is imminent, for which one"s faculties have to be clear, and one"s body active and alert. I was rather wondering at and enjoying the unusual clearness and energy of thought of which I felt capable, when the clock in the hall began striking, and, almost at the same moment, the clock of the old Church of St Andrew began striking also.
"I knew that both were striking twelve, though I did not count the blows, but just as the last stroke of the church clock died away, another sound caught my ear.
"The door by the fireplace gave a loud crack and then opened, as if with some difficulty.
"The _red door_ at the same time rattled, as if someone were trying vainly to open it. The room had previously been dark, but I now plainly saw a tall figure come through the doorway and stand near the foot of the bed. There was a dull, yellowish light round the figure, which illumined it, leaving the rest of the room in darkness; but this yellow light, I perceived, became red at one point of the figure"s left side, and shone down on the floor with a red glow, like that which came through the opposite door.
"The apparition stood quite silent whilst I looked at it. _The features and figure were familiar to me_ for they were those of Captain Richard Carbury, in the portrait, who had gone out to Georgia with the regiment of His Excellency, General Oglethorpe!
"As soon as I was sure of this, I said: "You are Captain Richard Carbury?"
"The apparition nodded.
""Why do you come to me?" I said. "Cannot you speak?"
"He seemed to have some difficulty in doing so, but after two or three efforts, such as one makes to move a rusty hinge, he parted his lips, and said: "Yes! I am Richard Carbury, and I am come to make you a witness."
""A witness of what?" I said. "Can I be of use to you? You come from the spirit world. Is it then permitted to mortals to have personal intercourse with spirits?"
"He held up his hand as if to silence me.
""Listen to me," he said. "You are not frightened of me?"
""No," I replied; nor did I feel the slightest awe or fear. I felt stimulated, a kind of electricity ran through my veins--I longed earnestly to learn something of the mysterious realm from which he came, but I had no vulgar or superst.i.tious fear.