Claret and Olives, from the Garonne to the Rhone: Notes, social, picturesque, and legendary, by the way.Reach, Angus B. (Angus Bethune)
General
Claret and Olives, from the Garonne to the Rhone: Notes, social, picturesque, and legendary, by the way.
Reach, Angus B. (Angus Bethune)
Agriculture -- France; France -- Description and travel
However, there are black spots in the sun--to the legend which I
promised. The Lord of Corasse--a castle, by the way, in which Henri
Quatre passed some portion of his boyish days--the Lord of Corasse had a
quarrel touching tithes with a neighbouring priest, who being unable to
obtain his dues by ordinary legal or illegal remedies, sent a spirit to
haunt the castle of Corasse. This spirit proceeded to perform his
mission by making a dreadful hallabuloo all night long, and breaking the
crockery--so that very soon the Lord and Lady of Corasse had to dine
without platters. At length, however, the Baron managed to come to
speaking terms with the demon, who was invisible, and found out that his
name was Orthon, and that the priest had sent him.
"But Orthon, my good fellow," said the sly Lord of Corasse, "this priest
is a poor devil, and will never be able to pay you handsomely. Throw him
overboard at once, therefore, and come and take service with me."
Orthon must have been the most fickle of all the devils, for he not only
acceded to the proposition with astonishing readiness, but took such an
affection to his new lord, that he could not be got out of his bedroom
at night, to the sore discomfiture of the baroness, "who was so much
frightened that the hairs of her head stood on end, and she always hid
herself under the bed-clothes;" while the too familiar demon, never
seen, but only heard, insisted on keeping his friend, the baron,
chatting all night. But the charms of Orthon's conversation at length
palled, particularly as they kept the baron night after night from his
natural rest; so he took to despatching the demon all over Europe,
collecting information for him of all that was going on in the courts
and councils of princes, and at the scene of war where there happened to
be fighting. Still, as Orthon moved as fast as a message by electric
telegraph, the baron found him nearly as troublesome as ever. He was
eternally coming in with intelligence which he insisted upon telling,
until the Lord of Corasse's head was fairly turned by the amount of news
he was obliged to listen to. Never had there been so indefatigable an
agent. He would have been invaluable to a newspaper--but he was boring
the Lord of Corasse to death.
A loud thunder at the door at midnight. The baron would groan, for he
knew well who was the claimant for admission. "Let me in, Let me in. I
have news for thee from Hungary or England," as the case might be; and
the baron, groaning in soul and body, would get up and let the demon in;
while the latter would immediately commence his recitation:
"Let me sleep. Let me sleep, for Heaven's sake!" the victim would
exclaim.
"I have not told thee half the news," would be Orthon's reply; "I will
not let thee sleep until I have told thee the news;" and he would go on
with his budget of foreign intelligence till the day scared him, and
left the baron and the baronness to broken and unrefreshing slumbers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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