“The gardener looked astonished beyond all measure. HowIlooked cannot be told; but how Ifelt, no mortal pen could possibly describe. We both kept silent, and advanced to where Madamela Jardinièrestood, patiently waiting her turn to be questioned, and impatiently wondering what was the matter with Pierre, the fellow laughed so uproariously, and enjoyed ‘the feast of memory’ with such a decided gusto.
“ ‘Ma chere femme,’ said my comrade, ‘will you please be so good as to describe the person whom you admitted here to-day along with monsieur? Certes, I believe the Devil himself is at the bottom of the business, for no two persons are agreed in description. But you, my darling,you, who are all the while reading poetry books;—all about Vido (Ovid?), and Virgil, and Spearshaker, and all those great people—you can describe this person perfectly; can’t you, my sweet?’ and the gardener looked imploringly at his plump and buxomcompagnon de lit.
“Now, of all mortals it is most unsafe and dangerous to flatter a French woman, and madame was French all the way through; consequently she determined, on so fitting an occasion, to prove her husband’s encomiums perfectly well founded; and she began the display with a quotation from the Bard of Avon’s Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“ ‘Ah, mon ange avec les bottes—my angel in boots—do you not know that Joseph has been a poet ever since I instructed him in trochees, dactyls, spondees, dythyrambics, hexameters, iambics, acatalectics, and—anapests—and’——
“ ‘Oh, may the devil fly away with all of your Anna cats, or Mary cats!—damn all cats! And as for your Anna Pests—why, what’s she got to do with Joseph? Is she another grisette the fellow’s running after? Why, that’s fifteen different women in fifteen weeks. I can’t see how the fellow’s constitution stands it: and thenyou’vedone the introducing business? Shame on you—you ought to be’——
“Here I stepped in and told the gardener that his lady did not meancatsor females, but simplyfeet, measures, and scansions of poetry. This mollified him, and the lady courtesied to me, and resumed:
“ ‘Yes, darling—ogre’—this last was spokensub voce—‘yes, dearest, the gentleman’s right. Joseph is a poet; Pierre is a lunatic; and the gentleman himself is beyond all question as deeply in love as he can get; and these are the reasons why neither describes the person who attended with him alike. That prince of soldiers, who because he was so terrible in war, when he shook his spear, the English call Shake-the-spear, says that—
“ ‘Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than coolReason comprehends.The lover, the lunatic, and the poet are of imaginationAll compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, seesHelen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things,The poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and givesTo airy nothings a local habitation and a name.’
“ ‘Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,Such shaping fantasies that apprehend more than coolReason comprehends.The lover, the lunatic, and the poet are of imaginationAll compact. One sees more devils than vast hell can hold—That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic, seesHelen’s beauty in a brow of Egypt.The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven,And as imagination bodies forth the forms of things,The poet’s pen turns them to shapes, and givesTo airy nothings a local habitation and a name.’
“ ‘But what, my dear, has all this to do with the questions I asked you? Look here, Ninette; I believe it’s you that’s gone mad, rose in love—sacre!—I wish I could catch you and your Shake-the-spear loving once. I’d fix him and you too, my lady, that I would! I’d fix his flint so that he wouldn’t shake any more spears around my garden, that I would! Will you have done with all your rigmarole, and tell what you know?’
“ ‘Certainly. The gentleman’s sweetheart, who came with him to-day, and who went with me into my private room to arrange her hair and adjust her petticoats, was as fine and pretty a young blonde of eighteen years as ever sat a man’s heart beating triple bobmajors against his ribs. Such ankles, such feet, such a bloom upon her cheeks and lips!—ah! and such atournure! such hips, such embonpoint!Sacristie!it’s lucky I was not a man when I fixed her crinoline, or,ma foi! I should have gone mad and run off with her, leaving monsieur to mourn his loss, while I revelled in the essence of love with hisfiancée. Besides that’——
“ ‘Stop, stop, Ninette—for God’s sake stop! I have lost a bottle ofJean Lafitte, forty odd years old, and lost my brains besides!’
“Here the whole five of us collected in a group, and an explanation followed which instantly banished all mirth from Pierre, and all poetry fromla Jardinière.
“Declining all thoughts of the wager and the wine, I left the party in a maze of stupor, and sped as hastily as I could to theGuinguette, or Tea-Garden, where, it will be remembered, Ravalette and myself had entered to converse with the proprietor regarding his novel and costly experiment in the way of feasting poor peoplea la les richeuse.
“Entering this place, I put the same question to the proprietor that I had to thegardener and the man of Michel le Compte; but instead of surprise at his answer, I was absolutely dumb-founded, for the man insisted that I entered the shopquite alone, but that I had conversed with him in two separate and perfectly distinct voices,au ventriloque—which he had regarded as very singular, but concluded that I was a student of ventriloquism, and took every opportunity to test my proficiency, and had now come back to ascertain what success attended the experiment.
“I was too much horrified to speak; but, simply nodding my adieux, took my departure in a mood much easier to be imagined than described.
“Not yet content, I made inquiries as to whether any one had seen two horsemen of a peculiar description pass through any of the streets of Belleville.
“Nobody had seen any such, or indeed any horsemen whatever. I was thunderstruck.
“ ‘I’ll track them!’ I cried, as a last resource; ‘for the place where we walked, where the horse and groom stood waiting, and where the old man mounted, was a soft, yielding, grassless turf. This will decide whether I have been dealing with the living or the dead, and that too in this broad daylight.’
“I ran thither. Not a trace of a horse’s hoofs; not a single vestige of Ravalette’s footprints save one, and that one the fac-simile of the description formerly given. My own foot-marks were plain enough, but only the one other was to be found! Here the mystery grew thicker and thicker, nor could I see the first glimmer of a way to clear it up.
“Slowly and despondently, I retraced my steps toward Paris, taking care to inquire as I went, whether any person had seen two men on horseback go toward Charronne, Villette, Menilmontant, or through the Barrières. I might just as well not have asked.
“But the chapter of devilry was not yet concluded, for what subsequently took place actually threw all that had gone before it entirely in the shade. These things I will now relate, first premising my narrative.
“One day, about a week before I first spoke to Ravalette in the Louvre, I happened to be spending an afternoon in the Palais Royale, along with my friends the Barons di Corvaja and Du P——t, to both of whom I had taken letters from America. On the day alluded to, I met at D——’s room in the Rue Beaujolais, and then and there became acquainted with, an English gentleman of easy means and polished mind, by the name of Carr. This gentleman resided with his family in a splendid mansion in the Rue du Chemin Vert. After a long and interesting conversation, we parted, but not till Mr. Carr had cordially taken me by the hand, expressed a desire to maintain the acquaintance, and invited me to call on him at his residence in the Rue du Chemin Vert. I felt gratified at his frankness, and accepted his polite invitation. Mr. Carr named the day, and I agreed to go; and accordingly had spent the evening and took tea with him, his family and a few select guests, some five or six days before the eventful day, the achievement of which I have just recounted. The thing which I am about to narrate is not only strange, but in many respects horrible, and my mind is agitated to the last degree by the astounding occurrences—things which I beheld with my own eyes, felt with my own senses, realized with my own spirit; and yet I scarcely dare give credit to that which I am sensiblecannot, could nothave been an illusion. My soul is filled with wonder; and I hasten to give a true version of the affair while all is yet fresh and vivid before me; indeed, it will ever be so, till age shall numb my faculties.”
“Thecircumstances were, briefly, these:
“I attended, as before observed, thefête sociale, at the house of my friend Mr. Carr—Leonard Carr. The party was given in honor of a young literary friend of the family, who had recently gained great renown as a writer of fiction. To this young man I was introduced just before we all sat down to the festive board to partake of the many good things so bounteously set before us.
“After the repast was concluded we all adjourned to the parlor and entered into conversation. Topic after topic had been discussed, and at length the ‘Turning tables,’ then so rife in all parts of the world, and Paris especially, became the theme of observation and criticism.
“ ‘Bah!’ said Mrs. Carr, ‘I deem the whole thing silly, besides being one of the most contemptible humbugs ever ran after by a pack of silly people—I was going to say—fools: I am convinced there is really nothing in it, and that all this stuff about moving furniture, and ghosts, and other spectral gentry, is but the product of heated fancy, if not of heads and hearts devoid of truth, principle, and moral rectitude; stories got up for swindling purposes, and to gull that credulous pack of ninnies known as “The Public,”—and a precious set they are, to be sure! Who believes, for instance, a tithe of the reputed wonders of the famous American “Miracle Circle,” or that they are anything more than clever tricks played off by a set of waggish fellows on a gullible community of Yankees, having in view the ultimate object of exposing and exploding the whole so-called spiritual mysteries? I don’t, I’m sure.’
“Poor lady! She little dreamed under what cruel circumstances she was doomed so soon to verify the truth of the Latin motto,
“ ‘Nemo mortalium, omnibus horis sapit,’
“ ‘Nemo mortalium, omnibus horis sapit,’
so meaningly quoted to myself by Ravalette. Little did she then dream, in the plenitude of intellect, that not many days would elapse ere she admitted all she now so mockingly and scornfully derided and laughed at, and that ere long she would cower in the very extremity of terror and mental dread, before these very mysteries she now so dogmatically denied.
“Her husband took upon himself the task of answering her, thus relieving us guests of the always unpleasant office of holding a wordy contest with a woman. He said:
“ ‘You are, my dear, permit me to say, in behalf of myself and these gentlemen, a little too hasty in your conclusions, too sweeping in your remarks, and in the characterization of the wonderful phenomena of these latter days. I know, my love, that you will givemecredit for rather more than the usual share of suspicion, scepticism, and doubt, regarding certain marvellous things said to have recently taken place in England, America, and even here in Paris. You know that it is my nature to admit nothing as proved—especially of such an implied nature—without absolute demonstrative evidence. The proof must be irrefragible—the testimony unbroken and indubitable, else I accept nothing. I certainly do not believe in spirits, much less that such things come to this world and flit and move around us, taking interest in all our affairs, and meddling with our business in a thousand ways, as it is alleged they do by those who believe in them. And yet, with all this, I confess that I have seen things that stagger me—indeed, that demonstrate beyond dispute the existence of a power, mighty, secret, occult, and working out its marvellous designs without the slightest human aid or influence whatever. Mind me, I do not attribute any or all of these results to spiritual agency, but I do say that the force at bottom is marvellously intelligent, and for all the world like that of man’s. For instance, you will remember F——, who came from America to astonish the French. Well, actuated by curiosity, I resolved to form one of a circle of six who had made arrangements to test his powers at his own rooms. Accordingly we met him by appointment at the Café Jououy near the Palaise Royal, and together we seven started for his hotel. Now, as I walked along, the idea suggested itself, that perhaps the fellow had made arrangements in his rooms to surprise us by a resort to some mountebankish performance, and therefore, in order to try his sincerity, and at the same time guard against any mere trickery or legerdemain, I suggested that we repair to apartments elsewhere than at his hotel. To my surprise he assented to this arrangement without a murmur, and we repaired to a room at the house of one of the company, Monsieur Benjamin, in the Rue de Clichy. When there, we all sat around a small table with our fourteen hands laid flat upon its top. For a while nothing occurred, save a few knocks or thumps upon the table, which F—— attributed to spirits, but which I suspected his knees produced. While thus we sat (it was broad daylight, and the sun shone brightly through the windows), we distinctly saw, andIactually, palpably felt of, afifteenthhand. This hand was apparently solid flesh and blood. It appeared to be that of a mulatto girl of fifteen or sixteen summers, and one of the party subsequently told me in confidence that it was the very fac-simile of the right hand of a girl whom he once knew in the Isle de Bourbon, and who had destroyed herself by poison for love of the very man who told me the story! This hand came from beneath the table and extended itself eight or ten inches over the edge at first. Then it gradually rose in the air, displaying a magnificent set of fingers, upon the middle joint of one of which appeared the semblance of a large and peculiarly-shaped brown mole, surrounded by three smaller ones, and it was by these marks that my friend pretended to recognize it. The hand was attached to about two-fifths of a fore-arm, completely covered with the semblance of a lace sleeve, terminating at the wrist in a jewelled band, and at the other extremity by a flaring and projecting ruffle. The hand, after a while, rose into the air, where it floated for two minutes. It then descended, seized hold of a small silver bell upon the mantel and rung it sharply all over the room; after which it replaced it, took hold of a pencil and wrote forty-seven words upon the ceiling of the lofty-vaulted apartment; threw down the pencil, patted each of our hands, and then gradually faded away in the air, just over the centre of the table. We rose after it had gone, placed a stand upon the table, a chair upon that, so as to reach the writing on the wall (which yet remained there), and found a short message to the company in general, and signed by the very name of Mr. ——’sinamorata of the Isle de Bourbon! Now, my dear, was all this hum-bug?’
“To this, the lady, whose scepticism would not abate one jot, even in the face of such an—to all but a Rosicrucian—overwhelming demonstration as this, replied:
“ ‘Why, I presume you had all taken a little too much wine, fell asleep, got up, wrote on the wall, and—Bah! It’s all humbug! and that settles the question at once!’
“The lady was silent, and the literary lion—I will call him Mr. A——, for whom the party was gotten up, entered the arena of conversation, and observed that: ’Spectral or Spiritual science—he preferred the former term—was yet but in its infancy in Christendom, provided what a casual acquaintance of his, a man of extraordinary research in all things occult, and whom he had met under peculiar circumstances but a little while before—affirmed to be true with regard to the faith, philosophy, and practices of a certain branch or rather family of the Hindoos or other Eastern tribes.
“ ‘This individual,’ pursued Mr. A——, ‘is a firm and devout believer in Spiritualism, and yet contends that not over two-tenths of what passes current under that term, is really that which it is claimed to be. Nay, further: he declares, and gives his reasons why, which latter are very just and tenable, that not more than once in fifty times are the actions and speeches delivered under trance the result of Spiritual action; but that when not the absolute offspring of imposture, which is rarely the case, other, and very oftenpurely physicalcauses are at work, which are frequently far more potent than what is known as “spiritual influence,” inasmuch as the results are productive of better, greater, and more satisfactory phenomena, and of far more interest and value to mankind, and which have been entirety overlooked in the haste and zeal with which people seek to gratify their thirst for the marvellous, by attributing whatever baffles their powers of analysis to a supermundane origin.
“ ‘This person,’ continued Mr. A., ‘asserted also that he could himself produce similar and even far more wonderful and startling effects, by means entirely material, than many which are claimed to originate beyond the earth. “This,” said he, “I can do under circumstances that will forever put the quietus on one portion of the spiritual theory. There is a science in existence that may very properly be called Spectreology or Phantomism, whose wonders vie with the best of those emanating really from the spirit world!” During his travels in the Orient, he said, themodus operandiof several startling effects had been imparted to him by a person named Ramo Djava, and that, were it not for his greatly impaired health, which rendered the experiments alluded to highly dangerous, he would give public displays of his power. As to the means used, that must remain a secret, for he had promised to initiate only one person, and that not till his dying hour. But, at all events, he was willing to demonstrate, before a select few, that there really is more between earth and heaven than even the loftiest savants dream of.
“ ‘Having my curiosity thus excited, I, with great difficulty, prevailed on this person to consent to give a display of his ability, before a select circle of eighteen. I have invited five persons, and the present company will exactly complete the requisite number, and I cheerfully extend you all an invitation to be present at half-past six o’clock precisely, at the mansion of our mutual friend, the Baron de Marc, this day week!’
“This ended the conversation on that particular theme, and, shortly afterwards, the party dissolved, agreeing to meet again on the night mentioned, which, strange coincidence! was the very one of the singular adventure with ‘the ghost of Ravalette;’ for, to tell the truth, I had by this time begun to suspect that my old man of the Louvre—he who appeared under three different aspects at one and the same time, nay, underfive, and who was heard to speak, though himself unseen, by the man of the Guinguette—was something more than mortal.
“You must bear in mind the fact, that the party and conversation at Mr. Carr’s took placebeforeI had ever seen Ravalette at all to speak with him. And now, if you please, we will continue the train of events in progress before I made this digression.
“You will remember that, after making fruitless inquiries for the two horsemen, and an equally fruitless search after foot-prints on the soil near Belleville, that I took my way toward Paris, slowly, on foot, musing deeply as I went along. As I passed down the Rue Faubourg du Temple, the tolling of a distant clock announced the hour of four. I remembered my engagement at the Baron’s, but, as I had fully two hours left in which to dress for the occasion, I determined to drop in at D’Emprat’s, in the Rue Michel le Compte, as I went by, and hear whatever might have turned up in my absence.
“I reached the street, and was greatly surprised to find a large and highly excited crowd of people before the gate, and the more so, as I beheld the surplices of at least a dozen priests of the Order St. Lazare, elbowing their way, and trying to pass both in and out of the house.
“With heart palpitating with vague and dread uneasiness, I approached an intelligent-looking man, and, assuming a carelessness by no means felt, asked him the cause and reason of the gathering.
“ ‘Lord bless you, sir!’ he said. ‘Do you not know that the devil and five of his imps have just been on a visit to that house, and carried off three or four of the inmates through the roof in a flame ofblue fire? If you don’t know it, I assure you it is a fact!’
“I saw in this answer the legitimate effect of superstition, and that the man’s cloth belied his intelligence; I, therefore, drew out a sheet of paper and a pencil, and began to flourish them in the eyes of the crowd for the purpose of attracting its attention.
“Myrusesucceeded; the people set me down as a reporter of the press, and instantly gave way right and left; so that I had but little difficulty in gaining an entrance to the building. Once there, I soon learned that the poor D’Emprat had relapsed into the swoon occasioned by his first fright, and had passed thence into the most frightful convulsions, exclaiming all the while, as the thick foam rolled from his bloodless lips, ‘Oh, the devil! the devil has come for my soul,because I killed Baptiste Lemoine thirty-seven years ago! Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu! They will drag me to hell! Ah, God!’
“His wife had exerted all her influence and power to stifle these dangerous cries, but without avail. His cries still increased in fury, until at last the police had forced an entrance into the house, and were speedily followed by a score of priests, who, hearing that the devil was in Paris, in proper person, were very anxious to try the effect of a little shower-bath of holy water, as well as to get a sight of their arch enemy, whom, doubtless, the vast majority of them regarded secretly as nothing more than a man—or, rather, devil—of straw.
“The news spread like wild-fire that the devil had appeared, and to the questions asked by priest and bailiff of the porter, he confirmed the rumor, and told, as best he could, the incidents of the afternoon. His story did not rest here, however, but, taking two of the officers aside, he told them something which caused them to start back in the wildest horror, and cross themselves most devoutly. The result of the interview was, that the officers cautioned the porter from uttering one word of what he had just told them to any person else. After this, they all again entered the room where D’Emprat was still struggling in all the terrors of delirium, still accusing himself of a long-committed homicide, still calling on God and the priests to save him from the clutches of the devil, whom he averred he saw beside him armed with fork and trident, ready to drag his unfortunate soul to perdition and the damned. During all this fearful scene, Madame D’Emprat was doing all she could to quiet her husband, but without avail. The man went on harder than before. The ghosts of evil deeds were there, and avenging angels lashed his soul to frenzy.
“ ‘Be still,’ she cried, ‘for Jesus’ sake, be still! They will carry you to Bicêtre, and from there tole Boureau, and you will dieau coupe tête![8]Oh, be still! or, if you must talk, say something else thanthat!’
“Every word uttered by the woman and the man was quietly written down, unobserved, by one of the officers, who used my pencil and paper, and the back of his comrade as a desk.
“What strange, mysterious power was it that caused me mechanically to purchase a pencil and paper on my way from Belleville down to Michel le Compte?
“God’s ways are mysterious, altogether past finding out; and I inwardly praised him as the mighty fact became apparent, that the people of the house werenotin league, as I had conjectured might be the case, with Ravalette; and that the mysterious agent of Divine Retribution wasnotof an infernal nature, be it or he whatever else. A load was lifted off my heart—too soon, alas! to be let down heavier than before.
“ ‘You did not kill him, D’Emprat! So don’t say you did any more!’ exclaimed the woman in the accents of despair.
“ ‘ ’Tis alie! I did!’ yelled the unfortunate man. ‘I killed him with the hatchet in the cellar, and buried him under the grey horse’s stall in the stable!’
“ ‘My God! we are ruined!’ screamed the now frantic woman. ‘I always suspected that you killed my brother, but never believed it until now. And, yet, I do not even now believe it; for’——
“ ‘I can prove it; for I well remember a bloody hatchet, and that master never would let me clean the stable of the grey horse; and that I have watched him dig gold from the ground there, and heard him accuse himself in his sleep!’ said theconcierge, coming forward.
“ ‘Then, D’Emprat, and you, madame, I arrest in the name of the law; and you, porter, as a witness. Officers, do your duty—take the prisoners—clear the house!’ said their chief.
“Five minutes afterwards, the unfortunate people were being led to prison, and I was on the way to my hotel to dress—even under such circumstances—for the soirée at the Baron’s, but in a frame of mind that little fitted me to be a spectator of philosophical experiments. Yet my word was pledged, and go I must, and go I did—six o’clock finding me in the Baron’s parlor.
“I am perfectly sensible that, even in what I have narrated, the credulity of many persons would be taxed to the utmost. It is easy enough to believe that such things as I have described occurred long ages ago, in the green and halcyon days of Magic, but it is difficult to imagine such things as taking place in the broad light of this nineteenth century. Millions, aye hundreds of millions, have believed, do, and, in coming years, perhaps ages, will believe in the startling records of a magic similar to that I have detailed, and which is described so briefly, yet so graphically, in the Book of Exodus; and yet these people will strenuously insist that the day of such things—of such exhibitions of the Upper Magic—has for ever passed away, totally unmindful of the great fact, that, when the astonishing things there recorded were accomplished, there must of necessity have been a law—a natural law—in accordance with, and by which, they were done, and that no law of Nature has ever yet been repealed; consequently, they must exist to-day in as full perfection and power as ever.
“What remains of the present affair to be told, may, with what has already been related (and the truth of which may be ascertained most readily by correspondence with the parties named), be implicitly relied on as correct in all essential particulars; and yet, the occurrences that took place on that eventful night are of a kind so horrible, so utterly monstrous, that, at times, I almost believe that we all—twelve healthful men, and six women—were laboring under some strong delusion. I should still cling to this belief, with the pertinacity of a miser to his golden god, the bigot to his creed, or the drowning wretch to the narrow plank that promises a renewal of life’s tenure, were it not that facts, appalling in themselves, forever and utterlyprecludethe possibility that I—thatwe—were mistaken and deceived. What these facts were, will be most clearly shown in the sequel.”
FOOTNOTE:[8]On the guillotine.
FOOTNOTE:
[8]On the guillotine.
[8]On the guillotine.
“With features horribler than Hell e’er tracedOn its own brood; no Demon of the waste,No church-yard ghoul, caught lingering in the lightOf the blest sun, e’er blasted human sightWith lineaments so foul, so fierce as thoseThe Impostor now, in grinning mockery shows.”
“With features horribler than Hell e’er tracedOn its own brood; no Demon of the waste,No church-yard ghoul, caught lingering in the lightOf the blest sun, e’er blasted human sightWith lineaments so foul, so fierce as thoseThe Impostor now, in grinning mockery shows.”
“WhenI reached the house I found the company above enumerated seated in the parlor, and all most anxiously awaiting the appearance of the individual who was to afford us entertainment, and, if possible, some instruction also. For awhile it appeared that we were doomed to be disappointed. The expected party had promised to attend at thirty minutes to eight, and it was nearly that time already, and still there were no signs of his coming; but, as St. Eustache tolled out the half hour, a ring at the door-bell announced his arrival.
“The man was a tall and comely personage, apparently of Irish extraction, and had nothing whatever about him at all remarkable; indeed, he was a very so-soish sort of individual, who at first refused his name to everybody, because, to quote his own words: ‘If I remainincog.I shall not be lionized, which in other terms means “bored,” and pestered by persons seeking to gratify a morbid and impertinent curiosity—people who look for full-grown miracles, and expect to find them, instead of studying arts and sciences, and therewith increasing their knowledge and enriching their experience by a more intimate acquaintance with philosophic truths, and the recondite mysteries of mighty Nature.’
“The gentleman was very polished and polite, entering freely into conversation, and seemed altogether so well pleased with his audience that he threw off all reserve, laughed, joked, made puns, played upon words, and kept us in good spirits for half an hour, at the end of which time he gave us his name as a profound secret, to go no further. That name was a singular one. It was Mai Vatterale—a very curious name! He soon proposed an adjournment to the back parlor, and after reaching it he proceeded to arrange the chairs, six in a line, in the form of a triangle; after doing this, Monsieur Vatterale signified to the Baron that his part of the preliminaries was completed, whereupon that gentleman, turning to his guests, said: ‘I was informed on the day that the present meeting was arranged with Monsieur, that in all cases it was absolutely necessary that the physical systems of all who assist at, or witness his experiments, should be duly fortified with food, for what particular reason I cannot imagine, nor is it necessary that I should inquire, seeing that it is his rule, of which all present were duly notified, so that all might forego their usual repasts at their own homes, and partake of a littlesouperwith me, previous to commencing our experiments, and’——
“ ‘Permettez moi, s’il vous plait,’ said Vatterale, courteously. ‘Si cela vous est agréable’—it is my custom, and is for the purpose of preventing any ill effects that might result from a shock of the nerves, which, believe me, you will be apt to experience before we have done.’ Of course such an explanation, indicating, as it certainly did, no small degree of preventive solicitude on the part of the illustrious foreigner, was perfectly satisfactory, and was accepted in a proper spirit by the whole company.
“ ‘This way, ladies; this way, gentlemen, follow me,’ said the Baron, gaily giving his arm to his wife, and leading the way to his splendidsalle a manger.
“The worthy noble had called itun petit souper, but the magnificentspreadbefore us rendered it a somewhat difficult task to imagine what would constitute agrandsupper in his estimation. To describe it is no part of the task I am engaged on; and, therefore, I shall merely observe that it was a mostrecherchéaffair. The furniture of the table, as well as the viands themselves, was of the most sumptuous description, everything on it being of the richest and heaviest gold and silver plate—heir-looms of the old Noblesse, from whom the Baron was descended.
“Dinner or supper once over, we all left the table, and once more adjourned to the back parlor, and took seats in the chairs arranged in a triangle, the ladies, six in number, occupying those which formed the western arm thereof. When we all were properly and comfortably seated, there was quite a large vacant space before us, into which Vatterale placed two chairs facing each other, and also two foot-stools covered with damask plush-velvet close together in the other angle. He then proceeded to lock all the doors leading into the apartment, tied all the keys together with a piece of scarlet ribbon, and then hung them to one of the glass prisms pendent from a large gas chandelier directly over the centre of what I may call, not inappropriately, our circle. The jets of this chandelier, seven in number, were all in full play under a strong head of gas, and the room in all parts was quite as light as if the sun shone into the windows, two of which occupied the northern end of the parlor, both being very richly curtained, and both quite shut. I repeat, lest trickery in what followed should be suspected by yourself, that the seven jets of gas were brightly burning, and continued so all the evening, except when extinguished, without the aid ofhuman hands; and as they were put out, so also were they relighted more than once.
“Having disposed of the bunch of keys, Vatterale went to both windows, examined them closely, fastened them down securely—that is to say, the lower sashes; for he let down one of the upper ones, and threw the eastern external blinds wide open, and fastened them so. Of course, the master of ceremonies had never been in that dwelling before, and of course could not have obtained information respecting it by the usual methods of visit and inquiry, yet, turning to the Baron, he requested him to ring for the servant, and through the closed door bid himremove an ornamental iron sofa from the chamber immediately above our heads, into the dark bed-room on the third floor, as its presence where it then stood would materially affect the experiments to be made!
“This request, made under such circumstances, surprised us all, but particularly the Baron, who stared at the man who made it, as if he regarded him as one risen from the dead; and it was, forsooth, rather a startling circumstance, to say the least. He admitted that there was such a room, and such a dark chamber,au troisième. Yet how the man knew it, was very strange, considering that he had been in the house but a short time, and had not left us for a moment, nor spoken a single word to any of the servants, save on entering, to inquire if this was the Baron’s residence.
“Scarcely had we recovered from the surprise natural on such an occasion, than we were again made sensible that we were dealing with an extraordinary man, for, turning to me, he begged the loan of a small metallic coin which I had received as a present from Mr. Carr less than ten minutes before Vatterale entered the house, and which coin was remarkably curious and valuable on account of its high antiquity, and it was one of the only two known to be in existence, and had been begged for me by Mr. Carr, from his friend Blaise de Jongé, the celebrated Eastern traveller, and had only been sent in a note to Mr. Carr, by that eminent savant, the night previous. Having received the coin, Vatterale placed it in his pocket, and then taking out a set of ivory tablets, wrote a request thereon, and handed it to Madame la Marquise de la Fronde, an elderly lady, foster sister to the Baron. The request was altogether so singular and so novel, that the old lady immediately read it aloud: ‘Will Madame la Marquise have the goodness to retire to the alcove and remove from between her feet and stockings the metallic plates, and, separating the zinc from the copper ones, place each metal plate with its own kind, and restore them to her feet outside the hose!’ The lady almost fainted with astonishment, for she averred that no mortal knew that she wore such plates, but that she had for ten years, and found them, by reason of the electric currents they elaborated and imparted to her system, highly beneficial to her health. She retired as requested, and, returning in a minute, convinced us of the marvellous seeing faculty of the mysterious Mai, by exhibiting the plates, which were precisely as he had described. She again retired, and, shortly returning, resumed her seat. These preliminaries being concluded, Vatterale brought into the open space before us a small portmanteau, which he carried in his hand when he entered the mansion. From this he now took a coil of wire—indeed, three small coils tied together—also a saucer of large dimensions of stone China, or thick, very thick porcelain, a large vial containing a colorless liquid, a box of paste or gum, two large, and entirely empty, thin bottles—so thin that we all looked through them at the light, as he handed them to us for that purpose. They were as clear as the best window glass, as thin and as brittle, apparently, as the finest crystal. From the same receptacle he also took what looked like three rolls of paper, one very large when unfolded, the others quite small indeed. The larger bundle he unrolled and spread upon the floor, on the space between the chairs andfauteuils. It was about three feet in diameter, and was painted in all sorts of colors, and figures entirely nondescript. The centre of this article was immediately that of the triangle, ‘The Symbolical figure of the Universe, or Oneness,’ as he called it, and of course was directly beneath the large chandelier. This done, he placed the saucer right upon the centre of the symbolical chart, if I may so term it. Then, unfastening the coils of wire, he laid one along the laps of the gentlemen on one side, and fastened it by means of a link and hook to two others, which passed in front of the other two sections of the human trine. The wire held by the ladies (for we all were directed to grasp the wire before us with one hand, and the hand of the next neighbor with the other) was common iron, wound with silver foil; the one before myself was steel, wound with gold wire; and the other was of solid gold, wound, as were the others, at intervals, with floss silk. The ladies grasped with thelefthand, and joined their right, while with the gentlemen this order was reversed. The next proceeding on the part of Mai, was to place half of the gum into the saucer; upon this he emptied the vial of colorless liquid, and set fire thereto. It burned with a clear and steady bluish flame. The gum was gradually consumed, and a peculiar and most delightful fragrance floated through the room.
“During the burning process, the operator sat upon the stool, and gazed fixedly and intently upon, or rather toward, the open sash, while the rest of us were chatting merrily, and wondering what would be the result of all these weird and curious preparations.
“I said the rest of us were merrily chatting, but must qualify that observation by excluding from this employment one person, and that person was—myself, for I found it utterly impossible to mingle in the conversation with that abandon and unreserve which characterized the others. It was altogether beyond my power to forget the tremendous experiences of that very day, which I had undergone. A weight was on my spirit that could not be lifted off. The ‘Ghost of Ravalette’ seemed to be invisibly hovering over me, and although unseen, his presence seemed to be palpably felt by me. The events at Belleville constantly obtruded themselves before the eye of the mind; the affair at the gardener’s, the singular result of his impromptu wager, the woman at theBarrière, and, above all, the frightful occurrences at the Rue Michel le Compte, with its sure—absolutely sure—termination on the Guillotine—the miserable and ignominious death of D’Emprat, and the unearthly means whereby his deed of crime—the crime a horrible murder, committed thirty-seven years before—the unearthly and mysterious means, I repeat, by which his guilt was brought to light—this, all this, so oppressed me that I could not take a present interest in what was transpiring about me. Indeed, I cared little for either Mai or his tricks—which, from observing the method of his preparations, I had already not only despised, but put down to the score of legerdemain—clever and surprising, but still nothing more than legerdemain.
“How rudely this conceit was broken up, how horribly I was convinced of my mistaken estimate of the man before us, will very soon be seen. As for his skill in detecting the coin, the sofa, and the plates, I had already secretly accounted. I remembered Caspar Hauser, and several otherSensitives, who could detect the presence of metals by what may be called ‘magnetic sense.’ His description of the dark bed-roomau troisième, was very simple, for nearly all old houses have such chambers on that floor; this was an old house; Vatterale saw it, and made what preliminary capital he could from his acuteness. With the present weight of experience; with the memory of the deeds of the mystical Ravalette still fresh in mind, of course I could not be very highly interested in such displays of minor magic as I felt convinced were very shortly to be made by the conjuring gentleman before us.
“Suddenly the man whose pretensions I had just been inwardly criticising, partially raised himself from the stool, threw back his head until his long, wavy locks fell upon his shoulders, and muttered between his teeth, as if the word-birth was extremely painful, ‘He is coming!’ and we noticed that his face, naturally of a dingy yellow, suddenly became of an ashen-hued paleness, and his eyes darted forth luminous sparks that were plainly visible even amid the glare of that brilliantly-lighted apartment; and at the same instant he placed his right hand over the region of his heart—that is to say, over that part where nine-and-ninety of every hundred suppose the heart to be, namely, under the left breast. He did this as if to repress a rising pang, then turning to his audience, he exclaimed—‘Look sharp! Be firm! be fearless! be attentive! but if you would avoid danger, a nameless, but great danger, stir not, move not from your seats. Grasp the cord, retain each other’s hands, make what remarks you may deem proper,but stir not an inch—a single inch from your seats, happen what may! I am going to surprise you.’
“We all assented verbally, and not a few of the company began even to joke him on his sorcery and magic, when we all started from our seats, but were instantly motioned back by an anxious frown and a commanding, magisterial wave of his right hand. The simultaneous movement on our part, was caused by ayell, for such it was, that proceeded, not, as might be anticipated, from a female, but from a Mr. Theodore Dwight, an American gentleman, hailing from Philadelphia—and at the present time still dwelling there.
“This person, as all who know him will certify, is no weak, puling, nerveless man, for a man more the opposite of all this could scarce be found in a month’s search.
“The sound which came from his lips was a shriek of terror, horror, and agony combined, as might well be fancied to come from the throats of the damned souls of the nether hell. It was, indeed, a paroxysm of deadly fright. In an instant all eyes were turned toward him. He was paler than a corpse, the very image of Death itself; his eyes protruded from their sockets, and he trembled as if he stood before the final bar; his lips refused to tell the cause of his distress, but his gaze was intently fixed, with an immovable expression of horror, uponthe sauceron the floor. Instinctively our eyes followed the same direction, except Vatterale’s, who still was looking toward the open sash. With this exception, I repeat, we all looked toward the floor, when, great God! what a sight was there! The saucer was still there, but the two small rolls of paperwere gone!Theyhad disappeared, but in their stead we distinctly saw—for, recollect, there were seven full jets of gas in full blaze right over our heads—we saw, I reiterate, with our eyes—physical, bodily eyes—three horrible beings, somewhat resembling overgrown scorpions—only, that instead of claws, they had—hands and arms! for all the world like those of a newly-born negro child! These detestablethings, for I dare not blaspheme the Great Eternal by calling them creatures, were about five inches broad on the back, by some eighteen in length. Their color was a deep crimson, mottled with purple, green, and yellow stripes and spots, and they were completely covered with scales, like those of an armadillo. Conceive, if you can, of a tarantula or spider so large, and which—each one of them—moved about on the very tips of twelve legs, sixteen or eighteen inches long, and all the while whirling and twirling itshands and arms(two of each), eighteen inches long and three-fourths as large as its body, and you will form a tolerable picture of the repulsive, unsightly, hideous monstrosities crawling, or rather ‘stilting,’ round that saucer on the floor.
“Each one of these loathsomethingshad four large, protruding eyes, closely resembling those of the monster Frog of India; but these eyes, unlike the frog’s, were not leaden-hued; instead of this being the case, I think no spark of fire ever shone brighter—in fact, they fairly gleamed with what I can indicate by no other term than infernal redness; for it seemed that at every flash they emitted the concentrated venom of a gorgon; and beneath the fearful spell we all sat perfectly immovable with fear.
“What our agony would have been had the accursed things ventured to move toward us, I dare not even imagine, but they still and ever kept in the one track, moving with orderly march around that saucer on the floor. We felt and knew that they were living, actual realities, a genuine and horrid trinity offacts, and not a mere optical illusion, or the result of a play upon our fancies, mesmeric or otherwise. This opinion was confirmed by the most positive and blasting testimony, for, as they solemnly, demoniacally marched about the centre of that symbolic chart, they left a trailing streak of greenish—dead,hard,greenishichor or pus, behind them at each revolution, and a few drops of this fell upon the Baron’s carpet. Some months afterward he and I exchanged letters on the events of that night, and he assured me that not a single chemical amongst the hundreds applied for the purpose had been of the least effect toward removing the stain. ‘The carpet has been discharged of its colors and re-dyed, yet no dye will cover those spots!’ This was not all, for on one of their rounds they nearly quitted the chart, and the Baron struck at them with his foot, whereupon one of them spirted forth a fetid liquid, which fell upon his boot, and made a mark there as if the leather had been seared with hot iron!
“ ‘Talk not to me of legerdemain after this! Speak not to me of optical illusion, or deceptive appearances, in the face of such facts as these, for here are marks,’ wrote the Baron to me, ‘here are palpable evidences that defy contradiction. They were made on that night, and there they yet remain, and, albeit I cry, “Out, damned spots!” they will not, but persist in remaining absolute confirmations of vivid, strange, incontrovertiblefacts!’
“ ‘But why did you not get up, under such circumstances, all of you, and escape from the room?’ is a very natural and perhaps not unreasonable question, that may without impropriety be asked just here, and I reply: For several reasons; among which a few shall be named. First, the doors were all securely locked, and although we had seen Mai mount a chair, and hang the keys to one of the glass pendants, yet upon looking there, we found that they, as well as the two rolls of paper, had disappeared. Secondly, the windows were fastened down, besides being many feet from the ground—at least fifteen—and to leap that distance was altogether out of the question, even had we thought of it, which we did not. Thirdly, the earnest and solemn warning given by Vatterale before anything took place; his assurance that if we obeyed his injunctions not to stir—that, although we might be frightened, yet no harm could or would befall us—acted, amidst all our terror, as a sort of stopper upon any precipitate movement, after the first shock was over.
“We could not quit the room provided even all the doors had been flung wide open. Hast never heard tell of thefascinationof Danger? If so, then know that it was upon us in all its terrible force and power. We were bound, chained, rooted, riveted to the spot, by a potentiality never to be questioned, never to be despised, for its might, when once it fastens upon its victim, is merciless,gripping, stern and unrelenting. We felt that to stir, was to incur the hazard of an unknown, unguessed-at danger.Allwere fascinated by terror; to move was to add ten-fold to its power! It was a feeling akin to that experienced by the native of Ind, who roused from his mid-day slumber, wakes to feel the clammy folds of the cobra-capello, the dreadful hooded serpent of his clime, slowly writhing and winding beneath his garments about his naked flesh; and who realizes, as his heart stops beating and his blood runs icily with agony, and as the great big beaded drops of cold sweat ooze out from every pore, that to stir, to breathe, to even quiver under the pressure of his mortal fear, is certain, irrevocable, positive death—knowing as he does, that nor man nor beast hath ever yet lived a single hour after the fangs of the hooded snake have once opened a passage for the entrance of the King of Terrors!
“And such was the pall that rested upon the eighteen persons in that room, as the detestable trinity moved slowly around that saucer on the floor; their eyes—their great, horny, bulging eyes—all the while scintillating and flashing with the very essence of intense malignity—malignity as of a devil! The female portion of the company I fear may never recover from the shock that night received. They did not faint, or scream, or swoon, as perhaps it might have been suspected they would under such diabolic circumstances, simply, however, for the reason that the tension of soul and nerve was altogether too severe and great to permit, even for an instant, the reaction which is an absolute prerequisite to relief by or through the methods indicated.
“Probably the length of time that elapsed from the shriek of our comrade, till the final disappearance of the three monsters, did not exceed three minutes, yet in that brief space we had undergone years of terror.
“Truly, the real lapse of time is not to be reckoned by the beats of the clock, but only by sensations and heart-throbs. Mai, at the termination of the time specified, rose from his stool, took a small basket from his portmanteau, and then fearlessly seizing thethings, one at a time, he carefully doubled up their legs under them, and placed them in it. Then taking the two crystal bottles already alluded to, he placed them lengthwise on the chart, with their necks and apertures facing each other, after which he resumed his seat upon the foot-stool, addressing no word or sign to the spectators of his movements. And now it began to grow dark! The jets of gas appeared to burn less clear and fully, just as if some one was slowly turning the cocks which let it on, with a gradual movement. In a little while the room was darkened, though not exactly dark, for there was still a dim half light—a sort of semi-blue, semi-dull red, misty radiance, just sufficient to enable us to distinguish objects vaguely, indistinct and dimly.
“ ‘Stir not! fear not!’ said the thick, husky voice of Vatterale; and before we could reply, a scene commenced, such as it hath seldom fallen to man’s lot to witness.
“ ‘Allow me to explain a modern mystery,’ said Vatterale, ‘but first let me remove your fears. Look!’
“Scarcely had he spoken these words, than the room was suddenly illuminated, as if the very air was aglow with the most brilliant light, and we saw the two bottles quite plainly. As we gazed upon these, there came from one the appearance of an enormous serpent, which proceeded to coil itself up, until its bulk thrice exceeded that of both the bottles. Then there came still another, and another, until no less than twelve lay there, coiled up in a loathsome pile; but as the last one emerged from one bottle, the first one entered the other, until all had disappeared as they had come.
“ ‘I will now show you that you cannot always trust your own senses,’ said Vatterale, ‘nor account for what you see;’ and he straightway emptied the basket, and broke the bottles. All three were empty! Not a sign of snake or scorpion was there!
“ ‘Again, I will show you a curious thing. You will please call a servant, seat her on one of those chairs, and bid her on a wager hold a skein of silk while it is being wound—merely to keep her attention—that is all. But,’ and he spoke very earnestly, ‘whatever you see or hear, I beg you will not utter a single word.’
“This was assented to; a skein of silk was ordered, but not till the gaslight had displaced the other.
“ ‘It will be just seventeen minutes before the girl is ready,’ said Mai; ‘and while waiting, I willdemonstrate a fallacy. The creatures you have beheld to night are real, but ephemeral—they are Will-creations, and perish when the power ceases to act which called them into being. As proof of what I say, Behold!’
“From the floor in the eastern corner of the room there straightway begun to arise a light mist, which increased in bulk until a ball of vapor, three feet in diameter, floated in the air. Thus it remained for a minute; and then, right before our eyes, began to condense and change its shape, until at the end of four minutes, it had assumed a human semblance—but, Heavens! what a caricature!
“At first it was a mere vapory outline, but it rapidly condensed and consolidated, until what looked like a hideous, half-naked, bow-legged, splay-footed monster stood before us. Its height was less than three feet; its chest and body were nearly that in width; its legs were not over eight inches long; its arms were longer than its entire body; its head was gigantic; and it had no neck whatever, while from its horrible head there hung to the very ground the appearance of a tangled mass of wire-like worms. Its mouth was a fearful-looking red gash, extending to where ears should have been, but were not. Eyes, nose, cheeks, chin, lips or forehead, there were none whatever. Do not imagine that this creature was merely an appearance; it was not, for although born of vapor, in five minutes it became solid as iron, demonstrating the fact by stalking heavily across the floor right into the centre of the open space between us—the chains being dropped as it approached—where it stood, slowly swaying to and fro, as if its heart was heavy.
“ ‘Show your quality,’ said Mai to the thing. ‘I will,’ it hissed, and straightway proceeding toward a table, it stood by it a few minutes, and it became apparent that it was charging the wood with something from itself, for soon the table began to turn, to tip, to move, to rise and float in the air, precisely as is done in spiritual circles.
“ ‘Now, ladies and gentlemen, you will please act just as if that before you was a human spirit, invisible to you, and desirous of imparting information. I dare say you will be surprised at the results. You see already that it is a capital table-mover, and I beg you to test its mental and physical powers also—for I assure you there is nothing to fear, now that I give you leave to break the silence—which was quite essential in the first part of the curious experiment.’
“Thus assured, several of us asked the thing to show us what it could do. Whereupon it made motions as if it wanted to write. Paper and pencil being placed upon the table, it seized the pencil with its long claw-like fingers, and its hand flew over the page like lightning, and in ten seconds it finished, and striking the table three heavy blows with its fist, signified that it had finished; whereupon Mr. D—— reached for the sheet, and read therefrom one of the most tender messages conceivable, from a dead mother to a living son. Even the hand writing was a perfectfac-simileof his mother’s; the name—Lucy—was correct, and certain dear and peculiar phrases, used by her when alive, were given with minute precision and fidelity; as, for instance, ‘sweet one, mine,’ instead of ‘my sweet one.’ Mr. D—— turned pale. ‘Is it possible I have been so imposed upon—so horribly deceived?’ said he, for he was a devout follower of the modern thaumaturgy.
“Several further tests, equally successful and decisive, were then given by this ghostly thing, both by writing, tipping, rapping, and the production of beautiful phantom hands, faces, flowers, and other objects, many of which were not only singular but magnificent. Probably thousands of persons have seen the curious pencil drawings, executed by ‘mediums,’ and which are said to be portraits of ‘Spiritual flowers’—for most certainly they resemble nothing growing on this earth. Well, in less than five minutes the horrible thing there at the table, the eyeless monster, executed thirteen such—and they would pass current as splendid specimens of ‘Spirit art.’
“ ‘Now,’ said Vatterale, ‘for something else.’ And then addressing the thing, he said: ‘You will now render yourself viewless, and show what you can do. And first let us have some music.’ Then turning to the company, he said: ‘Real spirits love the light, but such asthatinvariably act most efficiently in the dark—for then they have the advantage of the elements condensed upon their forms—a semi-material investiture—and can come in direct contact with material substances, which, in the case of real spirits, is exceedingly difficult of accomplishment.’
“During this speech, our attention was diverted from the incarnated to the incarnator—for it must not be forgotten that the entire phenomena exhibited by this wondrous personage, were the creatures of his conscious will, brought into being and again cast out by a thought, and according to aknown and transferable formula. True, there were others in whom this creative faculty existed, but then such persons either exercised the power involuntarily through the mechanical processes of mind and will, or else they are but the proxies of the Larvæ. When he ceased speaking the monster was gone from our sight, but not from our hearing, for Mai gently waved his hand, and as he did so there came to us the softest, gentlest, sweetest, and the most soul-stirring strains of music that ever fell on human hearing. Above, below, around, now here, now there, close at hand, and then afar off, it sounded; and the only comparison I can make is, that it sounded like a solemn requiem chaunted by angels over the perished form of what was once a god—the tones were so pathetic, so solemn, so supremely sorrow-freighted—reminding one of the plaintive