The Apparition : a romance

Preface

. In concluding this work, the author has but little to say to his readers, further than that he has been gratified, but not surprised, at the sale it has attained ; for the subject of spectral appearances is altogether one, which, from the very earliest ages, has excited so much of the curiosity of mankind that those relations of facts, or presumed facts, which have borne upon the popular belief, have always been perused with interest. Probably, in the whole range of literature, there is nothing which so fixes upon the imagination as a narrative that takes us from actual, every day existence into that unreal world of shadows, of which we know so little, but of which we conjecture so much. The various tales that from time to time have appeared, bearing upon the subject of spectral appearances, have always been sufficient to keep the world acutely alive to a desire of investigating the truths concerning which we, in the year 1846, are just as far off knowing as the limited population of the year 1, with their limited scientific acquirements.

As regards the tales of the wild and the wonderful which are in the pages of this work, we can only say that they have been carefully collected from the most authentic sources, as narratives of the supernatural, which had never been presented to the public in any shape or guise whatever ; and if our ghosts have amused the leisure hours of any of our readers, without attracting injuriously that quality of imagination which takes so large an interest in such matters, we shall not regret the toil of their concoction.

PREFACE.

. As regards ourselves, we must confess that the spirits have, by the great patron age which this work has received, assumed a tangible shape of the most gratifying character, having a pleasant jingle with them — ringing soft music on 'the ears, and, take them for all in all, being such rare spirits that we have no objection to live a long life in their sweet society. These are the kind of spirits with which we hope all our readers will be con tinually haunted ; and with such a hope we, with such an accumulation of thanks as one who has deserved well of the public feels that he ought to return to it, the author of the " Apparition,'' for the present, bids farewell to his readers. & l&mnaiue at the EmagiitatiuiT. Y THE AUTHOR OF " NEWGATE," " ADA, THE BETRAYED," " .MIRANDA,* F.T

Introduction

. T- One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve. Midnight ! that witching hour, when dsembodied spirits burst from the thraldom ■of the tomb ; when millions of inert existences become endowed with a ghastly and a terrible principle of life ; when those who have walked the earth in the pride of their youth and their beauty again revisit it by the glimpses of the pale moon, making the night hideous. No. 1. Midnight ! a still and solemn time, when the watchful think back upon the events, perchance, of a long and embittered career ; when the wise, the truthful, and the just feel sweet fancies of the future creeping over them, as if their trammelled souls were for a time wafted a little nearer Heaven than earth's mists ordinarily permit. Midnight ! a time when the guilty wretch — he who has oppressed the widow a id the fatherless — he who has caused tears of affliction to dim the lustrous c)to of beauty and of innocence, trembles, and looks aghast, as the mind daguerreo types to him the past but too faithfully, with all its points of aggravation, cutting him off from that species of imaginative flattery which, in the broad day light, he may have hugged to his heart as a consolation against the whisperings of conscience.

Midnight! when the honest man seeks his happy home, when the thief, owl like, slinks forth from the den in which he has slept the live-long day, to wage war against the social institutions of that society of which he is an unhallowed member. Yes, it is midnight ; and the teeming fancy overpowers the judgment, running riot in the brain. Strange thoughts, unsanctioned by the soberer judgment, hold high revel in the chambers of the mind. The very air seems loaded with vapoury shapes, and through the mists of darkness we may fancy dreamy shapes of the uncouth and the terrific. It is a time when human nature shrinksj as it were, with a consciousness of a contact with the invisible world ; a time when a shuddering kind of conviction comes across the boldest, that there are more things in Heaven and in earth than are dreamt of in their philosophy.

Is it nature, or is it education, which makes men shudder as instinctively they feel their better energies depressed, and scarcely dare assert a disbelief in that which, although repugnant to their reason, seems but too familiar with their imagination : Tbere are soldiers who have marched unflinching to the deadly breach, and these same men would shrink with trembling apprehension, and turn pale if they were but to traverse, at the midnight hour, the lonely aisle of some crumMing cathedral, sacred to Heaven and to the dead, or be lorced to visit some gloomy vault, inhabited only by the mouldering tenants of the grave. There are skilful rhetoricians, subtle, special pleaders and splitters of hairs in logical controversy, men who would circumvent Heaven itself, and so confuse the ordinary perceptions of simple-minded mortals, that no longer can they trust their senses, but they will shrink to believe that what they fancy they see is the unreal, and what they see they fancy the possibly tangible.

But take these men— place them among the tombs, strip them of the admiring throng that hang upon their honeyed sentences, let them feel convinced that they are alone, and that the only witness to their fears is Heaven, then will they not shrink — will not the proud heart tremble — will not the haughty eye quail ? Yes ; and the materialist, the man who has discussed so largely and so learnedly of mind, of matter, late, pre-know ledge, and the thousand and one philosophies that have from the world's creation disturbed mankind, will tremble at the vague and indefinite shadow cast by the pale moonlight across his mid night path, And is all this as nothing? Is this but what we call fancy in its un bridled moments ? Is there not one of these touches of nature that make tbe whole world kin in this community of feeling as regards the capacity of the dead once again to glide the living-likenesses of themselves among the living portion of mankind ?

From the highest to the lowest, from barbarism to civilization, among the ignorant, and among the most refined and highly educated, shall we find the same hankering alter the unreal, the same piofessed denial, but the same trem bling conviction that the spirit, when ithas shuffled off its mortal coil, may yet, in form and shape as palpable as when encompassed in its earthly tabernacle', it walked the earth, appear again to warn, to promise, to threaten, and always to terrify. The pain'ed savage, in the wildest haunts of nature — where the rank vegetation of a thousand years has accumulated, until such a natural temple is erected beneath the thickly clustered leafy boughs that only in small glimpses, dappling the green sward beneath with light and shade, can the sweet sunshine peep down upon the verdant earth — feels, and knows, or at least believes — that the dim shades of those wh ) have preceded him stalk around his lonely hut, showing their shadowy forms in the sorest glades, floating like things of air down foam ing cataracts, and peopling the depths of nature wilh solemnity, if not with fear.

A monarch awakens at the midnight hour ; the gaudy and glittering emblazonry of all his state and dignity meets his eyes. He knows that around him are careful watchers, while slumbering lightly within his slightest call are armed mcrj. He knows — he feels that he is safe within that very penetralia of his palace; but all is still, and it is midnight. Some thought of the dead flits across his awakened imagination. Why does he look around him with suspicion and a scrutinizing glance? Why does he breathe short and thick, and draw the silken curtains of his couch closer about him ? What n°ed has he to assure himself that he is quite alone, and that the fear which is creeping momentarily across his heart is a something far beneath his dignity to feel ? Is all this fancy ? Are these similar effects in different stations but freaks of unbridled imagination?

Is 'here no dim reality — no tangible something to be deduced from all this, which we may safely put down in our catalogue of facts, and banish from the shadowy list of our mere surmises ? Surely yes, there must be — the very universality of the seeling goes far in proof of the veracity of the idea from whence it springs. That circle of philosophers who doubt, and who deny all that they do not understand, is lapidly decreasing its dimensions. There are more wonderful things of daily occurrence beneath our ordinary nature than the re-appearance upon the earth again of the disembodied spirit, of some one who has played a part in tbe busy drama of existence. We shudder to believe, and yet to disbelieve were arrogance ; but peradventure the following pages may do more to place before the thinking portion of mankind all the evidences for and against a belief in the subject of spectral appearances than any work which has yet issued from the press ; and if, while we beguile the tedium of some lone watcher, we likewise impart to him materials for thinking upon a subject most interesting to the whole human race, the labour cf years which has been expended in the following narratives, full of the terrific and the wonderful as they are, will not in vain have furrowed the brow, or whitened the locks of him who has devoted a lifetime to the task.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven, and twelve. Midnight ! There is a vault, situate far below the surface of the earth, and be neath a cumbrous pile of masonry, reared to the worship of the one God. We will not particularize the structure by name, for we have made a solemn promise not to point the finger of curiosity to the ancient cathedral, whose dreary and desolate subterranean abodes became the locality in v/hich such strange adventures were narrated. The vault is large and arched ; a tomb of black marble is in its centre, on which reposes the effigy of a knight in armour, with the hands crossed, indicative of a pilgrimage to the Holy Land having been made by the rotting form that sleeps beneath. All around are niches for the dead ; a lamp of bronze hangs from the groined ceiling ; the ground is thickly strewed with the dust from some odoriferous wood, mingled with rushes, so that the pressure of any foot must needs be noiseless in that place of sepulchre.

Some coffins have been dragged from their niches— God knows by whom— and most singularly are they arranged around this tomb, which occupies the centre of the vault. The midnight hour has struck— a death-like stillness for about five minutes per vades the solemn place. Hush ! a footstep ! There is a low, arched door ; it creaks upon its hinges ; a current of air sweeps moaning in ! The step again !— It is a human form ! A man enters— he bears a taper— his face his pale— his eyes look wistfully around him, and his feet tremble as he walks. He utters no word, but he comes into the centre of the vault, and, by the aid of the taper that he carries, he lights the lamp of bronze that, by a massive chain, hangs far down from the ceiling. There again [—another step and another! — what can this mean ?— what assem blage is this, meeting in a place sacred to the repose of the dead ?

There is a silent and a quiet greeting between these men, as slowly, one by one, they walk into the vault. Be their object and their purpose what it may, they respect the sanct'ty of the place in which they meet. The lamp sheds a dull and a sickly glare over their faces ; the air of the vault is not favourable to combustion, and, after all, it is but a dim and uncertain kind of twilight in which they meet. How strange an assembly! — and mostly are they clad in dim and sombre looking garments. And now the door of the vault is closed, and a heavy stone is placed across it in the inside, indicative of their being all assembled. There are twelve of them, and they stand in a silent group around that tomb in the centre, while one steps forward from among the rest, and, in a low and earnest voice, he speaks as follows : — " My friends, it is well known to you all that the object of our meeting here is of the most deeply interesting character that can engage the attention of any human beings.

We are mortal, and yet we yearn for immortality ; and we wish, while yet we linger in this world, to endeavour better to establish those relations between it and the world which is to come, than they have yet been established or defined." A murmur of assent ran through the assemblage, and then several of them sat down upon the coffins, which had been dragged from their niches ; and then, after a slight pause, he who seemed by general consent to be appointed spokes man of the party, said — " We are all searchers after knowledge ; not that ordinary knowledge which schoolmen teach — not that knowledge of the real, the tangible, and the defined, which those who look but with a casual glance upon the world may register in the tablets of their brain, and feel that they possess ; but we are searchers after that knowledge which is only to be acquired by patient and by attentive reflection.

We wish to know if it be really true that the spirits of another world can, under any possible circumstances, make themselves visible to earthly eyes, and exercise an influence, benign or otherwise, upon mundane affairs." The eleven persons who heard him inclined their heads in token of assent. " My friends," he added, " it is quite impossible I hat. any human being eould have liv 1 so long as we have each of us, without being able to add something to a common stock of information regarding subjects of the most intensely interesting character that can, by any possibility, engage individual attention. I propose that each man among us shall relate his individual experience, and such facts connected with ghostly interpositions in human affairs as shall come within the sphere of his own knowledge."

The eleven looked at each other, and then one spoke, saying — " But it may be possible that some one among us, from timidity — from want of tact in expatiating upon that which he knows, or from a want of knowing. any particular circumstance worthy the narration — may not be able, when his turn shall come, to add to the general stock of knowledge which it is the purpose of our meetings to acquire." "There must be a penalty for non-compliance," said another. — "Ay," ex claimed a third ; " it must not be that any one among us is to be permitted to be a mere listener to what is going on, without of himself adding to the general stock of information." " A penalty, a penalty," cried several ; " there must be a penalty." — "Be it so," remarked he who may be called the president of this most singular society ; " be it so ; let there be a penalty ; and I am certain that none here present will shrink from it.

But it shall be such a penalty, that in its onerous consequences it shall be so fearful that even the most timid should shrink from encountering it, and come forward with his narration of the wild and of the wonderful, rather than submit to its conditions." The others locked at each other, and then at the president, for it was evident he had something in his mind to propose, to which these remarks were but a sort of preface. He saw that he was expected to continue ; so, adopting a more solemn tone than he had even before spoken iD, and looking keenly in the countenances of those around him, he said — "Since the onus of making such a proposition, by general consent falls upon me, 1 do not hesitate to say that 1 have considered it, and it is as follows." There was a death-like silence, and every one looked in his face as he spoke.

" 1 propose, then, that he who shrinks, at any one night of our meeting, from taking his turn in the relation of some moving incident connected with the supernatural, shall be placed in one of those old leaden coffins, and, supplied with a certain quantity of bread and water, left in the vault until our next night of meeting ; and if, when we come again, in that interval, he have not something to tell us, the experiment be repeated." — " Good God !" said one of them. " Yes, sir," said the president ; " and, to escape so heavy a penalty, you have only to narrate something which has either come under your own personal observation, or that you have arrived at the knowledge of in some way which enables us to give credence to the narrative." No one else spoke, and after two or three minutes' pause, the president said, — ■ " Are we all agreed then, gentlemen, upon this being the penalty ?" — " Agreed — agreed," they said.

" Then our compact is complete ; once in each week will we meet in this dreary vault — a fit place, my friends, in which to hold such solemn congregations. The very atmosphere of this abode of the dead will be suggestive of scenes and events which otherwise might escape the memory, or, at all events, if brought before us, be couched too much in the language of the every-day world to transfix our attention ; but here we shall leave, as it were, the earth behind us, and, hovering upon the confines of immortality, we shall feel, while in discourse of the dead, a kind of affinity withthem, and that we are so closely allied to the crumbling remains of those who have gone before us, that we are better qualified to converse of their feelings and their attributes. I, myself, have had dreadful experiences, which go far to prove that. disembodied spirits may, for good or for evil, yet revisit this world which they were supposed to have left for ever." — " And I," said another.

" And I," said a third. — " And I — and I," said several in a breath. Then one man arose, and, in a trembling voice, said, — " If it's all the same to you, gentlemen, I'd rather go home; my wife expeets ■se ; and, as I never saw a ghost in all my life, and hope I never shall, I rather- *ink I'd better net belong to this society, though I said I would, out of curiosity, . you see, gentlemen ; and so I'm your veryhumbh servant, Good night.'' — " Hold," said the president ; " you have joined us, sir, and it appears to me, that since you have expressed reluctance, we ought to commence with you." " With me ! Oh ! no — oh ! no."' — " Yes — and therefore I propose that you be placed in the leaden coffin at once, and kept there till this night week, with a gallon •f water and four quartern loaves."

" I'll see you all d— — d first," said the individual alluded to. " I'm not in the habit of telling stories, and I'm not going to begin. I tell you I don't like it. L only came to oblige a friend of mine who told me it would be deeply interesting; and, as my wife believes in ghosts, 1 thought it would be a good thing to join the society, so as to be able to tell her all that I heard." "And was that," said the president, " the vile motive that induced you, sir, to ccme amongst us? Was it merely to gratify the morbid curiosity of your wife, sir V — " Well, I don't mind confessing that it whs something of that sort; and, if you don't feel inclined to have me among you, I'm quite willing to go." " Sir," said another one, rising, " I'm quite certain that, notwithstanding the modesty ofour friend here, Mr. Pentwhistle, he is just the man, of all others, to be of great advantage to us in the investigation which.we are about to insti tute." — " Indeed, sir," said the president.

"No— no — no !" cried Mr. Pentwhistle ; " it's quite a mistake ; I don't know anything about ghosts, and never did." — " However rude it may sound," con tinued the other speaker, " I feel that I must contradict my friend, and assert that no man knows more upon such subjects than he does." "Then," said the president, "we will insist upon his remaining in the so ciety ; and I shall consider it as carried by acclamation that he continues oae of us." It was in vain that Mr. Pentwhistle protested, and finally resumed his seat, on finding that nothing he said was at all attended to. Then an individual arose, who presented a remarkable contrast to that gentleman. He had all the aspect of a man of acute and lively imagination ; and any one, to have beheld him for a moment, would have at once said that he was, of all others, just the individual to become an active member of such an association for such purposes.

" Mr. President and gentlemen," he said, " I rise to propose to you a resolution, in which 1 hope and trust we shall all most cordially agree. It is one so strictly in accordance with the views which have induced our meeting, that I am certain no gentleman here present can, with any degree of consistency, object to it." He paused a moment, and all was hushed around him in mute curiosity, to hear what was the nature of the proposition he had to submit. "Gentlemen," he continued, "it is just possible, as human life is so uncer tain, that at some period or another, during the continuance of our ghostly re searches, some one among us may shake off the trammels of humanity, and getting rid of that dusty tabernacle in which his spirit is confined, he may be in a position to discover, beyond all cavil and dispute, the grand secret which we are all striving after, and, as a disembodied spirit himself, to know the power and the capabilities of such mysterious beings."

Expectation sat upon every countenance, and, after pausing sufficiently to al low his words to have free effecr, the orator continued, — " Gentlemen, then what I propose is this, that, should any one of our frater nity expire, he will, if he have the power, set at rest the question as to the appearance of supernatural beings, by visiting the whole of us when here assembled, or, gliding into the chamber of some individual among us, enable him to in form ihe remainder of the particulars of the ghostly visitant." There was a look of dismay upon several countenances, and two or three of those who were assembled evidently shrank aghast Irom this proposition, which was of too practical a nature to please them. Others, however, again seemed to like it; while, upon every countenance, there was rather an expression of eager curio sity to know what he who made the proposition next would say.

The individual who had thus drawn universal attention upon himself, appeared to derive some pleasure from the notoriety he was acquiring. "Gentlemen," he said, "do not suppose for one moment, that in making this proposition to you, I am endeavouring to do something which may have a tendency to render our proceedings unpalatable to any persons here assembled ; but the cause in which we have embarked is one of deep interest to ourselves, as well as of great importance to the human race; therefore, for one, I distinctly say, that if I should die, I will most certainly take an opportunity of visiting every individual member of this society ; and not only, gentlemen, will 1 visit you, but 1 will come accompanied with such aggravations and such horrors aa any ghostly personage may be presumed to collect about him, so that while the warm blood curdles in your veins, and you feel yourselves trembling upon the brink of madness, you will have no excuse for a nonbelief in the existence of supernatural beings."

"Sir !" exclaimed one, starting to his feet, " Mr. President, I move that gentleman be forthwith expelled from this society, 60 that his ghost may have no possible excuse for visiting any of us. I consider, Mr. President, that tbe idea he has given utterance to, is a most diabolical one." There was a great deal of confusion — two cr three voices seconded the motion, and the president in vain for some moments attempted to make himself heard. When he did, however, succeed in doing so, his voice had all the effect of oil upon the troubled waters, for he said, — " Gentlemen, I do not perceive that there can be any difficulty in meeting the proposition of our learned friend ; but let such an argument be a private one, and not one belonging to the society. Let any gentleman who is curious to see that learned individual's ghost, make an agreement with him to that effect." — " Hear — hear — hear — hear !" echoed through the vault, and the gentleman who had made the proposition sat down, with a sardonic smile upon his countenance, as if he viewed with great contempt the unmanly being which had, to his mind, dictated this compromise of one of the most important matters connected with the proceedings of the society.

But it was evident that tbe majority rejoiced in the escape from the infliction of his ghostly appearance, and now the storm of discord being hushed, and so much of the preliminary business being settled, the chairman spoke again, saying, — " Gentlemen, I presume that it's quite understood how w"e are to carry on the proceedings of this association. It is expected that each member in his turn shall narrate to us some ghostly episode, some tale of an apparition, which he shall vouch for on his own credit, to havingactually occurred, and at the end of each of these episodes of reality, or the imagination, those of us who have listened to the narration can make what remarks we may think proper with regard to the probability attending upon it." This was assented to, and now a general crying arose as to who was to commence the narrations, which were to come under the consideration of the club.

All eyes were turned upon the president, as being the most fit and proper person to do so ; but he hung back for a time, and he was observed to change colour, a circumstance which only more vividly impressed upon the minds of his compeers that he must have something of a dreadful character to disclose— something, the thoughts of which were almost too much even for him; and which, although probably he felt it to be his duty to make those who were associated with him acquainted, he yet shrunk from putting into appropriate language, or recalling from the depth of his memory, where it lay enshrouded. This, though, only stimulated the curiosity, which, perhaps, he intended to re press, and by general consent it was agreed that the president should commence the proceedings of the society by some narration of an apparition, the correct ness of which he cou'd vouch for.

But still he held back. " No, gentlemen — no, gentlemen," he said ; " let us act fairly towards each other in this matter. I cannot help owning that there is a something upon my mind which I have not yet communicated to mortal man ; the only other indi vidual who knew it besides myself, is now himself among the dead ; nut what 1 pro pose is, that we should draw lots which is to commence. Here is a skull ; let the names of the persons present be written on small scraps of paper, and placed within this hollow orifice, where, perchance, once dwelt a glorious intellect ; thus, although the orifice is small, one of us, with his wetted finger, can dip for one of the papers, and the name of the individual that is upon it shall be he who is to commence our proceedings." This was a disappointment to those assembled ; and yet it was too reason able to object to, so it was agieed that it should be so, though with not 'he nest grace in the world.