The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales: Including Stories by Feodor Mikhailovitch Dostoyevsky, Jörgen Wilhelm; Bergsöe and Bernhard Severin IngemannVarious
General
The Continental Classics, Volume XVIII., Mystery Tales: Including Stories by Feodor Mikhailovitch Dostoyevsky, Jörgen Wilhelm; Bergsöe and Bernhard Severin Ingemann
Various
Detective and mystery stories
I turned as if to flee, but could not move a muscle. Quiet, as if
turned to stone, I stood and watched the ghostly figures that came
nearer and nearer. The clergyman led the train, then came the
bridegroom and the bride, and as the latter raised her eyes to me I
saw that it was the young girl of the garden. Her eyes were so full of
pain, so full of sad entreaty that I could scarce endure them; but how
shall I explain the feeling that shot through me as I suddenly
discovered that the right sleeve of her white satin gown hung empty at
her side? The train disappeared, and the tone of the church bells
changed to a strange, dry, creaking sound, and the gate below me
complained as it turned on its rusty hinges. I faced toward my own
door. I knew that it was shut and locked, but I knew that the ghostly
procession were coming to call me to account, and I felt that no walls
could keep them out. My door flew open, there was a rustling as of
silken gowns, but the figures seemed to float in in the changing forms
of swaying white mists. Closer and closer they gathered around me,
robbing me of breath, robbing me of the power to move. There was a
silence as of the grave--and then I saw before me the old priest with
his gold-lettered book. He raised his hand and spoke with a soft, deep
voice: "The grave is sacred! Let no one dare to disturb the peace of
the dead."
"The grave is sacred!" an echo rolled through the room as the swaying
figures moved like reeds in the wind.
"What do you want? What do you demand?" I gasped in the grip of a
deathly fear.
"Give back to the grave that which belongs to it," said the deep voice
again.
"Give back to the grave that which belongs to it," repeated the echo
as the swaying forms pressed closer to me.
"But it's impossible--I can't--I have sold it--sold it at auction!" I
screamed in despair. "It was buried and found in the earth--and sold
for five marks eight shillings----"
A hideous scream came from the ghostly ranks. They threw themselves
upon me as the white fog rolls in from the sea, they pressed upon me
until I could no longer breathe. Beside myself, I threw open the window
and attempted to spring out, screaming aloud: "Help! help! murder!
they are murdering me!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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