Standing by his side, with one hand laid caressingly on his shoulder, was a tall, slim girl, with ma.s.ses of the most gorgeous red gold hair hanging loose and reaching to her waist. She was wearing an emerald green dress of some very filmy substance; but her arms and feet were bare, and stood out so clearly in the soft radiance of the moonbeams, that Mrs Dempsey, who was an artist and had studied on the Continent, noticed with a thrill that they equalled, if, indeed, they did not surpa.s.s in beauty, any she had ever come across either in Greek or Florentine sculpture.
Much perplexed as to who such a queerly attired visitor on such friendly terms with the Count could be, Mrs Dempsey remained for a second or two watching, and then, afraid lest she should attract their attention and so be caught, seemingly, in the act of spying, she withdrew.
The moment she got back again into the drawing-room, however, she made somewhat indignant inquiries of a lady who generally sat next to her at meals, as to the ident.i.ty of the girl she had just seen standing beside the, said to be, heart-broken Count in an att.i.tude of such close intimacy.
"A woman with the Count!" was the reply. "Surely not! Who can she be, and what was she like?"
Mrs Dempsey described the stranger in detail, but her friend, shaking her head, could only suggest that she was some new-comer, some guest who had arrived at the hotel, and gone on the veranda whilst they were at dinner.
Feeling a little curious, however, Mrs Dempsey"s friend walked towards the veranda, and, in a very short time, returned, looking somewhat puzzled.
"You must have been mistaken," she whispered, "there is no one with Count Asioli now, and, if anyone had come away, we should have seen them."
"I am quite sure I did see a woman there," Mrs Dempsey replied, "and only a minute or two ago; she must have got out somehow, although there is, apparently, no other way than through this room."
At this moment, the Count, entering the room, took a seat beside them; and the subject, of course, had to be dropped. The next night, however, the events of the preceding night were repeated. Mrs Dempsey followed the Count on to the veranda, saw the girl in green standing with her hand on his shoulder, came back and told her neighbour at meals, and the latter, on hastening to the veranda to look, once more returned declaring that the Count was alone. After this, a slight altercation took place between the two ladies, the one declaring her belief that it was all an optical illusion on the part of the other, and the other emphatically sticking to her story that she had actually seen the girl she had described.
They parted that night, both a little ruffled, though neither would admit it, and the following night, Mrs Dempsey, as soon as she saw the Count go on to the veranda, fetched her friend.
"Now," she said, "come with me and see for yourself."
The two ladies, accordingly, went to the veranda and, opening the door gently, peeped in.
"There she is," Mrs Dempsey whispered, "standing in just the same position."
The sound of her voice, though so low as to be scarcely heard even by the lady standing beside her, seemingly attracted the attention of both the girl and the Count, for they turned round simultaneously. Then Mrs Dempsey, whose gaze was solely concentrated on the girl, saw a face of almost indescribable beauty--possessing neatly chiselled, but by no means coldly cla.s.sical features, long eyes of a marvellous blue, a smooth broad brow, and delicately and subtly moulded mouth; it was the face of a young girl, barely out of her teens, and it was filled with an expression of infinite sorrow and affection.
Mrs Dempsey was so enraptured that, to quote her own words, she "stood gazing at it in speechless awe and amazement," and might, perhaps, have been gazing at it still, had not the voice of the Count called her back to earth.
"I hope, ladies," he was saying, "that you do not see anything unusually disturbing in my appearance to-night, for I undoubtedly seem to be the object of your solicitude. May I ask why?"
Though he spoke quite politely, even the dullest could have seen that he was more than a little annoyed. Mrs Dempsey therefore hastened to reply.
"It is not you," she stammered out, "it is the lady--the lady you have with you. I--I fancied I knew her."
"The lady I have with me," the Count exclaimed, in accents of cold surprise. "Kindly explain what you mean?"
"Why the lady----" Mrs Dempsey began, and then she glanced round.
The Count was standing in front of her--but he was quite alone. There was no vestige of a girl in green, nor of any other person on the veranda saving themselves, and immediately beneath it, at a distance of at least thirty feet, glimmered the white shingles of the silent and deserted--utterly deserted--seash.o.r.e.
"She"s gone," Mrs Dempsey cried, "but I"m positive I saw her--a lady in green standing beside you." Then, for the first time, she felt afraid, and trembled.
The Count, who had been observing her very closely, now advanced a step or two towards her, and in a very different tone said:
"Will you please describe the lady? Was she old or young, dark or fair?"
"Young and fair, very fair," Mrs Dempsey exclaimed. "But please come inside, for I"ve received something of a shock, and can, perhaps, talk to you better in the gaslight, with people near at hand whom I know are human beings."
He did as she requested, and became more and more interested as she proceeded with her description, interrupting her every now and again with questions. Was she sure the girl had blue eyes, he asked, and how could she tell what colour the eyes were by the light of the moon only; Mrs Dempsey"s reply to which being that the girl"s whole body seemed to be illuminated from within, in such a manner that every detail could be seen, almost, if not quite, as clearly as if she had been standing in the full glare of an electric light. At the conclusion of her narrative Mrs Dempsey was further questioned by the Count.
"Had she," he inquired, "ever been told that he was partly Irish, because," he added, on receiving a negative reply, "I am, and my real name is O"Neill, my great-great-grandfather having a.s.sumed the name of Asioli in order to come into some property when the family, which came from the south of Ireland, settled in Italy, many, many years ago. But what will, I am sure, be of considerable interest to you is the fact that this branch of the O"Neills, the branch to which I belong, is haunted by a Banshee, and that that Banshee has, I believe--since the description of it given me by various members of my family tallies with the description you have given me of the girl you saw standing by me--appeared to you. I would add that it never reveals itself, excepting when an O"Neill is about to die, and as I am quite the last of my line, I cannot conceive any reason for its having thus appeared three nights in succession, unless, of course, it is to predict my own end."
Mrs Dempsey was not long left in doubt. On the morrow the Count was summoned to Venice on urgent business, and on his way to the railway depot he suddenly dropped down dead, the excitement and exertion having, so it was supposed, proved too much for his heart, which was known to be weak.
Said to be descended from the younger of the two sons of King Milesius, it certainly is not surprising that the O"Neills[7] should possess a Banshee--indeed, it would be surprising if they did not--but I have found it somewhat difficult to trace. However, according to Lady Wilde in her "Irish Wonders," p. 112, there is a room at Shane Castle which is strictly set aside for it.
The Banshee, Lady Wilde says, is very often seen in this apartment, sometimes appearing shrouded in a dark, mist-like mantle; and at other times as a very lovely young girl with long, red-gold hair, clad in a scarlet cloak and green kirtle, adorned with gold. Lady Wilde goes on to tell us no harm ever comes of the Banshee"s visit, unless she is seen in the act of crying, when her wails may be taken as a certain sign that some member of the family will shortly die. Mr McAnnaly corroborates this by stating that on one occasion one of the O"Neills of Shane Castle heard the Banshee crying, just as he was about to set out on a journey, and perished soon afterwards, which is somewhat unusual, because in the majority of cases I have come across the Banshee does not manifest itself at all to the person whose death it predicts. A very old, probably the oldest, branch of the O"Neills now resides in Portugal, but up to the present I have not succeeded in obtaining any evidence to warrant the a.s.sumption that the Banshee haunting has been experienced in that country.
Indeed, the Banshee seems to be just as erratic and wayward as any daughter of Eve, for there is no consistency whatever in her movements.
The very families one thinks she would haunt, she often studiously avoids, and not infrequently she concentrates her attention on those who are utterly obscure, albeit, always of _bona fide_ Irish extraction.
CHAPTER V
CASES OF MISTAKEN IDENt.i.tY
In previous chapters I have dealt exclusively with cases that are, without doubt, those of genuine Banshee haunting. I now propose to narrate a few cases which I will term cases of doubtful Banshee haunting--that is to say, cases of haunting which, although said to be Banshee, cannot, in view of the phenomena and circ.u.mstances, be thus designated with any degree of certainty.
To begin with I will recall the case relating to the R----s, a family living in Canada. Their house, a long, low, two-storied building, stood on a lonely spot on the road leading to Montreal, and a young lady, whom I will designate Miss Delane, was visiting them when the incidents I am about to narrate took place.
The weather had been more than commonly fine for that time of year, but at last the inevitable and unmistakable signs of a break had set in, and one evening black clouds gathered in the sky, the wind whistled ominously in the chimneys and savagely shook the many-coloured maple leaves, while, after a time, the moon, which had been hanging like a great red globe over the St Lawrence, became suddenly obscured, and big drops of rain came spluttering against the windows.
Miss Delane, who had been seized with a strange restlessness which she could not shake off, then went into the hall, and was about to speak to one of Major R----"s nieces, who was also on a visit there, when her attention was arrested by the sound of a heavy carriage lumbering along the high road, from the direction of Montreal, at a very great rate. It being now nearly ten o"clock, an hour when there was usually very little traffic, she was somewhat surprised, her astonishment increasing by leaps and bounds when she heard the wheels crunching on the gravel drive, and the carriage rapidly approaching the house.
"Surely, it is too late----" she began, but was cut short by the Major, who, abruptly pushing past her to the front door, just as the carriage drew up, swung it to, and, in trembling haste, locked, and barred, and bolted it.
Footsteps were then heard hurriedly ascending the steps to the front door, and immediately afterwards a series of loud rat-tat-tats, although, as everyone instantly remembered, there was no knocker on the door, the Major having had it removed many years ago, for a reason he either could not or would not explain.
Startled almost out of their senses by the noise, the whole household had in a few seconds a.s.sembled in the hall, and they now knelt, huddled together, whilst the Major in a voice which, despite the fact that it was raised to its highest pitch, could barely be heard above the furious and frenzied knocking, besought the Almighty to protect them.
As he continued praying the rat-tats gradually grew feebler and feebler, until they finally ceased, after which the footsteps were once again heard on the stone steps, this time descending, and the carriage drove away. It was not, however, until the reverberations of the wheels could no longer be heard that the Major rose from his knees. Then, bidding his household do likewise, he insisted that they should at once retire, without speaking a word, to their rooms; and forbade them ever to mention the matter to him again.
As soon as Miss Delane and the Major"s nieces were in their bedroom--they shared a room between them--they ran to the window and looked out. The sky was quite clear now, and the moon was shining forth in all the splendour of its calm cold majesty; but the grounds and road beyond were quite deserted; not a vestige of any person or carriage could be seen anywhere, and, on the morrow, when they hastened downstairs and examined the gravel, there were no indications whatever of any wheels.
The day pa.s.sed quite uneventfully, and once again it was night-time; the Major had read prayers as usual at about ten, and the household, also as usual, had retired to rest. Miss Delane, who was used to much later hours, found it difficult to compose herself to sleep so soon, but she had just managed to doze off, when she was aroused by her friend Ellen, the elder of the Major"s two nieces, pulling violently at her bedclothes, and, on looking up, she perceived a tall figure, clad in what looked like nun"s garments, walking across the room with long, stealthy strides. As she gazed at it in breathless astonishment, it suddenly paused and, turning its hooded head round, stared fixedly at Ellen, and then, moving on, seemed to melt into the wall. At all events, it had vanished, and there was nothing where it had been standing, saving moonlight.
For some minutes Ellen was too terrified to speak, but she at last called out to Miss Delane and implored her to come and get into her bed, as she no longer dared lie there by herself.
"Did you see the way it looked at me," she whispered, clutching hold of Miss Delane, and shuddering violently. "I don"t think I shall ever get over it. We must leave here to-morrow. We must, we must," and she burst out crying.
As may be imagined, there was little sleep for either of the girls again that night, and it seemed to them as if the morning would never come; but, when at last it did come, they told Major R---- what had happened, and declared they really dared not spend another night in the house.
Though obviously distressed on hearing what they had to say, the Major did not press them to alter their decision and stay, but told them that to go, he thought, under the circ.u.mstances, was far the wisest and safest thing for them to do. An hour or so later, having finished their packing, they were all three taking a final stroll together in the garden, when they fancied they heard someone running after them down one of the sidewalks, and, turning round, they saw the figure that had disturbed them in the night, standing close behind them.
The sunlight falling directly on it revealed features now only too easily distinguishable of someone long since dead, but animated by a spirit that was wholly antagonistic and malicious, and as they shrank back terror-stricken, it stretched forth one of its long, bony arms and touched first Ellen and then her sister on the shoulder. It then veered round, and, moving away with the same peculiarly long and surrept.i.tious strides, seemed suddenly to amalgamate with the shadows from the trees and disappear.