The haunted house, which was not yet in sight, he did not remember, nor was he acquainted with its history, with the exception of Grace"s slight allusion to it. At length he came to a part of the road which was overhung, or rather altogether covered with long beech trees, whose huge arms met and intertwined with each other across it, filling the arch they made with a solemn darkness even in the noon of day. At night, however, the obscurity was black and palpable; and such upon this occasion was its awful solemnity and stillness, and the sense of insecurity occasioned by the almost supernatural gloom about him, that Woodward could not avoid the idea that it afforded no bad conception of the entrance to the world of darkness and of spirits. He had not proceeded far, however, under this dismal canopy, when an incident occurred which tested his courage severely. As he went along he imagined that he heard the sound of human footsteps near him. This, to be sure, gave him at first no trouble on the score of anything supernatural. The country, however, was, as we have already intimated, very much infested with outlaws and robbers, and although Woodward was well armed, as he had truly said, and was no coward besides, yet it was upon this view of the matter that he experienced anything like apprehension. He accordingly paused, in order to ascertain whether the footsteps he heard might not have been the echo of his own. When his steps ceased, so also did the others; and when he advanced again so did they. He coughed aloud, but there was no echo; he shouted out "Is there any one there?"
but still there was a dead stillness. At length he said again, "Whoever you may be, and especially if your designs be evil and unlawful, you had better beware; I am well armed, and both able and determined to defend myself; if money is your object, pa.s.s on, for I have none about me."
Again there was the silence, as there was the darkness of the grave. He now resumed his former pace, and the noise of footsteps, evidently and distinctly different from his own, were once more heard near him. Those that accompanied him fell upon his ear with a light, but strange and chilling sound, that filled him with surprise, and something like awe.
In fact, he had never heard anything similar to it before. It was very strange, he thought, for the sounds, though light, were yet as distinct and well-defined as his own. He still held a pistol in each hand, and as he had no means of unravelling this mystery so long as he was inwrapped in such Cimmerian gloom, he resolved to accelerate his pace and get into the light of the moon as soon as he could. He accordingly did so; but the footsteps, although they fell not now so quickly as his own, still seemed to maintain the same distance from him as before. This certainly puzzled him; and he was attempting, if possible, to solve this new difficulty, when he found himself emerging from the darkness, and in a few moments standing in the light of the moon. He immediately looked about him, but except the usual inanimate objects of nature, he could see nothing. Whatever it is, thought he, or, rather, whoever it is, he has thought proper to remain undiscovered in the darkness. I shall now bid him good-night, and proceed on my way home. He accordingly moved on once more, when, to his utter astonishment, he heard the footsteps again, precisely within the same distance of him as before.
"Tut," said he, "I now perceive what the matter with me is. This is a mere hallucination, occasioned by a disordered state of the nerves; and as he spoke he returned his pistols into his breast pockets, where he usually wore them, and once more resumed his journey. There was, however, something in the sound of the footsteps--something so hollow--so cold, as it were, and so unearthly, that he could not throw off the unaccountable impression which it made upon him, infidel and sceptic as he was upon all supernatural intimations and appearances. At length, he proceeded, or rather they proceeded, onward until he arrived within sight of what he supposed to be the haunted house. He paused a few moments, and was not now so insensible to its lonely and dismal aspect. It was a two-storied house, and nothing could surpa.s.s the spectral appearance of the moon"s light as it fell with its pale and death-like l.u.s.tre upon the windows. He stood contemplating it for some time, when, all at once, he perceived, walking about ten yards in advance of him, the shape of a man dressed in black from top to toe. It was not within the scope of human fort.i.tude to avoid being startled by such a sudden and incomprehensible apparition. Woodward was startled; but he soon recovered himself, and after the first shock felt rather satisfied that he had some visible object with which he could make the experiment he projected, viz., to ascertain the nature, whether mortal or otherwise, of the being before him. With this purpose in view, he walked very quickly after him, and as the other did not seem to quicken his pace into a corresponding speed, he took it for granted that he would soon overtake him. In this, however, he was, much to his astonishment, mistaken. His own walk was quick and rapid, whilst that of this incomprehensible figure was slow and solemn, and yet he could not lessen the distance between them a single inch.
"Stop, sir," said Woodward, "whoever or whatever you are--stop, I wish to speak with you; be you mortal or spiritual, I fear you not--only stop."
The being before him, however, walked on at the same slow and solemn pace, but still persisted in maintaining his distance. Woodward was resolute, fearless--a sceptic, an infidel, a materialist--but here was a walking proposition in his presence which he could not solve, and which, up to that point, at least, had set all his theories at defiance. His blood rose--he became annoyed at the strange silence of the being before him, but more still at the mysterious and tardy pace with which it seemed to precede and escape him.
[Ill.u.s.tration: PAGE 652-- I will follow it until morning]
"I will follow it until morning," he said to himself, "or else I shall develop this startling enigma."
At this moment his mysterious fellow-traveller, after having advanced as if there had not been such an individual as Woodward in existence, now stood; he was directly opposite the haunted house, and turning round, faced the tantalized and bewildered mortal. The latter looked on him; his countenance was the countenance of the dead--of the sheeted dead, stretched out in the bloodless pallor which lies upon the face of vanished life--of existence that is no more, at least in flesh and blood. Woodward approached him--for the thing had stood, as we have said, and permitted, him to come within a few yards from him. His eyes were cold and gla.s.sy, and apparently without speculation, like those of a dead man open; yet, notwithstanding this, Woodward felt that they looked at him, if not into him.
"Speak," said he, "speak; who or what are you?"
He received no reply; but in a few seconds the apparition, if it were such, put his hand into his bosom, and, pulling out a dagger, which gleamed with a faint and visionary light, he directed it as if to his (Woodward"s) heart. Three times he did this, in an att.i.tude more of warning than of anger, when, at length, he turned and approached the haunted house, at the door of which he disappeared.
Woodward, as the reader must have perceived, was a strong-minded, fearless man, and examined the awful features of this inscrutable being closely.
"This, then," thought he, "is the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv_, or the Black Spectre; but, be it what it may, I am strongly of opinion that it was present at the bonfire last night, and as I am well armed, I will unquestionably pursue it into the house. Nay, what is more, I suspect that it is in some way or I other connected with the outlaw _Shawn-na-Middogue_, who it was, they say, made that amazing leap over the aforesaid bonfire in my own presence."
On that very account, however, he reflected that such an intrusion might be attended with more danger than that to be apprehended from a ghost.
He consequently paused for some time before he could decide on following up such a perilous resolution. While he thus stood deliberating upon the prudence of this daring exploit, he heard a variety of noises, and knockings, and rollings, as if of empty barrels, and rattling of chains, all going on inside, whilst the house itself appeared to be dark and still, without smoke from the chimneys, or light in the windows, or any other symptom of being inhabited, unless by those who were producing the wild and extraordinary noises he then heard.
"If I do not see this out," said he, "my account of it will go to add another page to the great volume of superst.i.tion. I am armed, not a whit afraid, and I will see it out, if human enterprise can effect it."
He immediately entered the door, which he found, somewhat to his surprise, was only laid to, and, after listening for a few moments, resolved to examine the premises closely. In deference to the reader, whose nerves may not be so strong as those of Henry Woodward, and who consequently may entertain a very decided objection to enter a haunted house, especially one in such a lonely and remote situation, we will only say that he remained in it for at least an hour and a half; at the expiration of which time he left it, walked home in a silent and meditative mood, spoke little to his family, who were a good deal surprised at his abstracted manner, and, after sipping a tumbler of punch with his step-father, went rather gloomily to bed.
The next morning at breakfast he looked a good deal paler than they had yet seen him, and for some time his contribution to the family dialogue was rather scanty.
"Harry," said his mother, "what is the matter with you? You are silent, and look pale. Are you unwell?"
"No, ma"am," he replied, "I cannot say that I am. But, by the way, have you not a haunted house in the neighborhood, and is there not an apparition called the Black Man, or the Black Spectre, seen occasionally about the premises?"
"So it is said," replied Lindsay, "but none of this family has ever seen it, although I believe it has undoubtedly been seen by many persons in the neighborhood."
"What is supposed to have been the cause of its appearance?" asked Harry.
"Faith, Harry," replied his brother, "I fear there is n.o.body here can give you that information. To speak for myself, I never heard its appearance accounted for at all. Perhaps Barney Casey knows. Do you, father?"
"Not I," replied his father; "but as you say, Charley, we had better try Barney. Call him up."
"Perhaps," said Mrs. Lindsay, sharply and disdainfully, "it was the Black Spectre who produced the shower of blood last night?"
"Faith, it"s not unlikely," replied her husband, "if he be, as the people think, connected with the devil."
In a couple of minutes Barney entered to know what was wanted.
"Barney," said his master, "can you inform us who or what the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv_ is, or why he appears in this neighborhood? d.a.m.n the fellow; he has that house of mine on my hands this many a long year, for I cannot get it set. I"ve had priests and parsons to lay him, and for some time we thought the country was free of him; but it was all to no purpose; he was still sure to return, and no earthly habitation should serve him but that unlucky house of mine. It is very odd that he never began to appear until after my second marriage."
"Sir," replied Barney, "I heard something about it; but I"m not clear on it. To tell you the truth, there"s two or three accounts of him; but anyhow, sir, you"re in luck for the right one; for if livin" man can give it to you, Bandy Brack, the peddler, is the man. He"s now at his breakfast in the kitchen; but I"ll have him up."
"Not in the parlor," said his mistress; "a strolling knave like him.
Who ordered him his breakfast in the kitchen without my knowledge?" she asked. "The moment I can find out the person that dared to do so, that moment they shall leave my family. Must I keep an open house for every strolling vagabond in the country?"
"If you choose to turn me out," replied her husband, "you may try your hand at it. It was I ordered the poor man his breakfast; and, what is more, I desire you instantly to hold your peace."
As he spoke, she saw that one of his determined looks settled upon his countenance--a pretty certain symptom that she had better be guided by his advice.
"Come, Barney," said he, "throw up that window and send the poor man here, until he tells us what he knows about this affair."
The window was accordingly thrown open, and in a few minutes Bandy Brack made his appearance outside, and, on being interrogated on the subject in question, took off his hat, and was about to commence his narrative, when Lindsay said,
"Put on your hat, Bandy; the sun"s too hot to be uncovered."
"That"s more of it," said his wife; "a fine way to make yourself respected, Lindsay."
"I love to be respected," he replied sternly, "and to deserve respect: but I have no desire to incur the hatred of the poor by oppression and want of charity, like some of my female acquaintances."
"Plase your honor," said Bandy, "all that I know about the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv_, or the Black Spectre, as the larned call him, won"t require many words to tell you. It"s not generally known what I"m goin"
to say now. The haunted house, as your honor, maybe, remimbers, was an inn--a carman"s inn chiefly--and one night, it seems, there came a stranger to stop in it. He was dressed in black, and when he thought it time to go to bed he called the landlord, Antony McMurt, and placed in his hands a big purse o" goold to keep for him till he should start at daybreak, as he intended, the next morning. Antony--
"Ay," said Lindsay, interrupting him, "that accounts for the nature of the villain"s death. I remember him well, Bandy, although I was only a boy at the time; go on--he was always a dishonest scoundrel it was said--proceed."
"Well it seems, Antony, sir, mistook him for a Protestant parson; and as he had a hankerin" afther the goold, he opened a gusset in the man"s throat that same night, when the unsuspectin" traveller was sound in that sleep that he never woke from in this world. When the deed was done Antony stripped him of his clothes, and in doing so discovered a silver crucifix upon his breast, and a bravery (breviary) under his head, by which he found that he had murdhered a priest of his own religion in mistake. They say he stabbed him in the jigler vein wid a _middoge_. At all events, the body disappeared, and there never was any inquiry made about it--a good proof that the unfortunate man was a stranger. Well and good, your honor--in the coorse of a short time, it seems, the murdhered priest began to appear to him, and haunted him almost every night, until the unfortunate Antony began to get out of his rason, and, it is said, that when he appeared to him he always pointed the _middoge_ at him, just as if he wished to put it into his heart. Antony then, widout tellin" his own saicret, began to tell everybody that he was doomed to die a b.l.o.o.d.y death; in short, he became unsettled--got fairly beside himself, and afther mopin" about for some months in ordher to avoid the b.l.o.o.d.y death the priest threatened him wid, he went and hanged himself in the very room where he killed the unfortunate priest before."
"I remember when he hanged himself, very well," observed Lindsay, "but d--n the syllable of the robbery and murder of the priest or any body else ever I heard of till the present moment, although there was an inquest held over himself. The man got low-spirited and depressed, because his business failed him, or, rather, because he didn"t attend to it; and in one of these moods hanged himself; but by all accounts, Bandy, if he hadn"t done the deed for himself the hangman would have done it for him. He was said, I think, to have been connected with some of the outlaws, and to have been a bad boy altogether. I think it is now near fifty years ago since he hanged himself."
""Tis said, sir, that this account comes from one of his own relations; but there"s another account, sir, of the _Shan-dhinne-dhuv_ that I don"t believe a word of."
"Another--what is that, Bandy?"
"O, bedad, sir," replied Bandy, "it"s more than I could venture to tell you here."
"Come, come--out with it."
Mrs. Lindsay went over with an inflamed face, and having ordered him to go about his business, slapped down the window with great violence, giving poor Bandy a look of wrath and intimidation that sealed his lips upon the subject of the other tradition he alluded to. He was, consequently, glad to escape from the threatening storm which he saw brewing in her countenance, and, consequently, made a very hasty retreat. Barney, who met him in the yard returning to fetch his pack from the kitchen, noticed his perturbation, and asked him what was the matter.
"May the Lord protect me from that woman"s eye!" replied the pedler, "if you"d "a" seen the look she gave me when she thought I was goin" to tell them the true story of the Shan-dhinne-dhuv."
"And why should she put a sword in her eye against you for that, Bandy?"
asked the other.
Bandy looked cautiously about him, and said in a whisper: