The ghost of Charlotte Cray, and other storiesMarryat, Florence
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The ghost of Charlotte Cray, and other stories
Marryat, Florence
English fiction -- 19th century; Ghost stories, English; Short stories, English
The walls near the western door of the Church of Consolation are hung
with innumerable pictures, each bearing so strong a resemblance to the
other, both in style and subject, that they might have been drawn by
the same hand. As works of art they are valueless, for even the rules
of perspective are ignored in a most comical manner, and with slight
variations they all represent the same subject. On one hand is an
invalid man, woman or child, as the case may be, and on the other a
kneeling figure imploring aid for them of the “Virgin of Consolation,”
who is also portrayed appearing to the suppliant, and encircled by a
golden halo. Beneath the painting is inscribed the name of the
patient, the nature of his disease, and the date of his recovery.
At the back of the church is a large garden belonging to one of the
richest proprietors in the neighbourhood of Utrera, and as the midday
heat became more oppressive it was a favourite haunt of ours during
the cool of the evening, when the air was laden with the perfume of
orange blossoms and other sweet-smelling flowers. The owners of the
garden permitted it to grow wild, but that circumstance only enhanced
its beauty. The orange trees were laden with golden fruit, of which we
were courteously invited to gather as much as we pleased. But our
visits to this charming retreat were necessarily short, for, as in
most southern latitudes, there was scarcely any twilight in Utrera,
and it always seemed as though the ringing of the Angelus were a
signal for the nights immediately to set in. But what glorious nights
they were! The dingy oil-lamps in the streets (for gas is an
innovation which had not yet found its way there) were little needed,
as the sky always seemed to be one bright blaze of beautiful stars.
The cemetery at Utrera is a quiet spot, surrounded by a high white
wall and thickly planted with cypress trees, which give it a most
solemn and melancholy appearance. They have the custom there (I am not
sure it is not prevalent in other parts of Spain) of burying the dead
in recesses in the walls, which are built expressly of an immense
thickness; the coffins are shoved into these large pigeon-holes, and
the opening is closed with a marble slab, which bears the inscription
usual in such cases, somewhat after the fashion of open-air catacombs.
But little respect seemed to be shown to the dead.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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