The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-SeersCrowe, Catherine
Religion
The Night-Side of Nature; Or, Ghosts and Ghost-Seers
Crowe, Catherine
Ghosts; Parapsychology
“As you express a wish to know what degree of credit is to be attached
to a garbled tale which has been sent forth, after a lapse of between
thirty and forty years, as an ‘accredited ghost-story,’ I will state the
facts as they were recalled to my mind last year by a daughter of Sir
William A. C——, who sent the book to me, requesting me to tell her if
there was any foundation for the story, which she could scarcely
believe, since she had never heard my mother allude to it. I read the
narrative with surprise, it being evidently not furnished by any of the
family, nor indeed by any one who was with us at the time! yet, though
full of mistakes in names, &c., &c., some particulars come so near the
truth as to puzzle me. The facts are as follows:—
“Sir James, my mother, with myself and my brother Charles, went abroad
toward the end of the year 1786. After trying several different places,
we determined to settle at Lille, where we found the masters
particularly good, and where we had also letters of introduction to
several of the best French families. There Sir James left us, and, after
passing a few days in an uncomfortable lodging, we engaged a nice, large
family house, which we liked very much, and which we obtained at a very
low rent, even for that part of the world.
“About three weeks after we were established in our new residence, I
walked one day with my mother to the bankers, for the purpose of
delivering our letter of credit from Sir Robert Herries, and drawing
some money, which, being paid in heavy five-franc pieces, we found we
could not carry, and therefore requested the banker to send, saying, ‘We
live in the Place du Lion D’or.’ Whereupon he looked surprised, and
observed that he knew of no house there fit for us, ‘except, indeed,’ he
added, ‘the one that has been long uninhabited, on account of the
_revenant_ that walks about it.’ He said this quite seriously, and in a
natural tone of voice, in spite of which we laughed, and were quite
entertained at the idea of a ghost; but at the same time we begged him
not to mention the thing to our servants, lest they should take any
fancies into their heads; and my mother and I resolved to say nothing
about the matter to any one. ‘I suppose it is the ghost,’ said my
mother, laughing, ‘that wakes us so often by walking over our heads.’ We
had, in fact, been awakened several nights by a heavy foot, which we
supposed to be that of one of the men-servants, of whom we had three
English and four French; of women-servants we had five English, and all
the rest were French. The English ones, men and women, every one of
them, returned ultimately to England with us.
“A night or two afterward, being again awakened by the step, my mother
asked Creswell, ‘Who slept in the room above us?’ ‘No one, my lady,’ she
replied—‘it is a large, empty garret.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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