Ghosts


Just at the time when the _Concordat_ was in its most flourishing

condition, a young man belonging to a wealthy and highly respected

middle-class family went to the office of the head of the police at

P----, and begged for his help and advice, which was immediately

promised him.



"My father threatens to disinherit me," the young man then began,

"although I have never offended against the laws of the State,
of

morality or of his paternal authority, merely because I do not share

his blind reverence for the Catholic Church and her Ministers. On that

account he looks upon me, not merely as Latitudinarian, but as a

perfect Atheist, and a faithful old manservant of ours, who is much

attached to me, and who accidentally saw my father's will, told me in

confidence that he had left all his property to the Jesuits. I think

this is highly suspicious, and I fear that the priests have been

maligning me to my father. Until less than a year ago, we used to live

very quietly and happily together, but ever since he has had so much to

do with the clergy, our domestic peace and happiness are at an end."



"What you have told me," the official replied, "is as likely as it is

regrettable, but I fail to see how I can interfere in the matter. Your

father is in full possession of all his mental faculties, and can

dispose of all his property exactly as he pleases. I also think that

your protest is premature; you must wait until his will can legally

take effect, and then you can invoke the aid of justice; I am sorry to

say that I can do nothing for you."



"I think you will be able to," the young man replied; "for I believe

that a very clever piece of deceit is being carried on here."



"How? Please explain yourself more clearly."



"When I remonstrated with him, yesterday evening, he referred to my

dead mother, and at last assured me, in a voice of the deepest

conviction, that she had frequently appeared to him, and had threatened

him with all the torments of the damned if he did not disinherit his

son, who had fallen away from God, and leave all his property to the

Church. Now I do not believe in ghosts."



"Neither do I," the police director replied; "but I cannot well do

anything on this dangerous ground if I had nothing but superstitions to

go upon. You know how the Church rules all our affairs since the

_Concordat_ with Rome, and if I investigate this matter, and obtain no

results, I am risking my post. It would be very different if you could

adduce any proofs for your suspicions. I do not deny that I should like

to see the clerical party, which will, I fear, be the ruin of Austria,

receive a staggering blow; try, therefore, to get to the bottom of this

business, and then we will talk it over again."



About a month passed without the young Latitudinarian being heard of;

but then he suddenly came one evening, evidently in a great state of

excitement, and told him that he was in a position to expose the

priestly deceit which he had mentioned, if the authorities would assist

him. The police director asked for further information.



"I have obtained a number of important clews," the young man said. "In

the first place, my father confessed to me that my mother did not

appear to him in our house, but in the churchyard where she is buried.

My mother was consumptive for many years, and a few weeks before her

death she went to the village of S----, where she died and was buried.

In addition to this, I found out from our footman that my father has

already left the house twice, late at night, in company of X----, the

Jesuit priest, and that on both occasions he did not return till

morning. Each time he was remarkably uneasy and low-spirited after his

return, and had three masses said for my dead mother. He also told me

just now that he has to leave home this evening on business, but

immediately he told me that, our footman saw the Jesuit go out of the

house. We may, therefore, assume that he intends this evening to

consult the spirit of my dead mother again, and this would be an

excellent opportunity for getting on the track of the matter, if you do

not object to opposing the most powerful force in the Empire, for the

sake of such an insignificant individual as myself."



"Every citizen has an equal right to the protection of the State," the

police director replied; "and I think that I have shown often enough

that I am not wanting in courage to perform my duty, no matter how

serious the consequences may be; but only very young men act without

any prospects of success, as they are carried away by their feelings.

When you came to me the first time, I was obliged to refuse your

request for assistance, but to-day your shares have risen in value. It

is now eight o'clock, and I shall expect you in two hours' time here in

my office. At present, all you have to do is to hold your tongue;

everything else is my affair."



As soon as it was dark, four men got into a closed carriage in the yard

of the police office, and were driven in the direction of the village

of S----; their carriage, however, did not enter the village, but

stopped at the edge of a small wood in the immediate neighborhood. Here

they all four alighted; they were the police director, accompanied by

the young Latitudinarian, a police sergeant and an ordinary policeman,

who was, however, dressed in plain clothes.



"The first thing for us to do is to examine the locality carefully,"

the police director said: "it is eleven o'clock and the exercisers of

ghosts will not arrive before midnight, so we have time to look round

us, and to take our measure."



The four men went to the churchyard, which lay at the end of the

village, near the little wood. Everything was as still as death, and

not a soul was to be seen. The sexton was evidently sitting in the

public house, for they found the door of his cottage locked, as well as

the door of the little chapel that stood in the middle of the

churchyard.



"Where is your mother's grave?" the police director asked; but as there

were only a few stars visible, it was not easy to find it, but at last

they managed it, and the police director looked about in the

neighborhood of it.



"The position is not a very favorable one for us," he said at last;

"there is nothing here, not even a shrub, behind which we could hide."



But just then, the policeman said that he had tried to get into the

sexton's hut through the door or the window, and that at last he had

succeeded in doing so by breaking open a square in a window, which had

been mended with paper, and that he had opened it and obtained

posesssion of the key which he brought to the police director.



His plans were very quickly settled. He had the chapel opened and went

in with the young Latitudinarian; then he told the police sergeant to

lock the door behind him and to put the key back where he had found it,

and to shut the window of the sexton's cottage carefully. Lastly, he

made arrangements as to what they were to do in case anything

unforeseen should occur, whereupon the sergeant and the constable left

the churchyard, and lay down in a ditch at some distance from the gate,

but opposite to it.



Almost as soon as the clock struck half-past eleven, they heard steps

near the chapel, whereupon the police director and the young

Latitudinarian went to the window, in order to watch the beginning of

the exorcism, and as the chapel was in total darkness, they thought

that they should be able to see, without being seen; but matters turned

out differently from what they expected.



Suddenly, the key turned in the lock, and they barely had time to

conceal themselves behind the altar before two men came in, one of whom

was carrying a dark lantern. One was the young man's father, an elderly

man of the middle class, who seemed very unhappy and depressed, the

other the Jesuit father K----, a tall, thin, big-boned man, with a

thin, bilious face, in which two large gray eyes shone restlessly under

their bushy black eyebrows. He lit the tapers, which were standing on

the altar, and then began to say a _Requiem Mass_; while the old man

knelt on the altar steps and served him.



When it was over, the Jesuit took the book of the Gospels and the

holy-water sprinkler, and went slowly out of the chapel, while the old

man followed him, with a holy-water basin in one hand and a taper in

the other. Then the police director left his hiding place, and stooping

down, so as not to be seen, he crept to the chapel window, where he

cowered down carefully, and the young man followed his example. They

were now looking straight on his mother's grave.



The Jesuit, followed by the superstitious old man, walked three times

round the grave, then he remained standing before it, and by the light

of the taper he read a few passages from the Gospel; then he dipped the

holy-water sprinkler three times into the holy-water basin, and

sprinkled the grave three times; then both returned to the chapel,

knelt down outside it with their faces toward the grave, and began to

pray aloud, until at last the Jesuit sprang up, in a species of wild

ecstasy, and cried out three times in a shrill voice:



_"Exsurge! Exsurge! Exsurge!"_



Scarcely had the last word of the exorcism died away when thick, blue

smoke rose out of the grave, which rapidly grew into a cloud, and began

to assume the outlines of a human body, until at last a tall, white

figure stood behind the grave, and beckoned with its hand.



"Who art thou?" the Jesuit asked solemnly, while the old man began to

cry.



"When I was alive, I was called Anna Maria B----," the ghost replied in

a hollow voice.



"Will you answer all my questions?" the priest continued.



"As far as I can."



"Have you not yet been delivered from purgatory by our prayers, and all

the Masses for your soul, which we have said for you?"



"Not yet, but soon, soon I shall be."



"When?"



"As soon as that blasphemer, my son, has been punished."



"Has that not already happened? Has not your husband disinherited his

lost son, and made the Church his heir, in his place?"



"That is not enough."



"What must he do besides?"



"He must deposit his will with the Judicial Authorities as his last

will and testament, and drive the reprobate out of his house."



"Consider well what you are saying; must this really be?"



"It must, or otherwise I shall have to languish in purgatory much

longer," the sepulchral voice replied with a deep sigh; but the next

moment it yelled out in terror:--



"Oh! Good Lord!" and the ghost began to run away as fast as it could. A

shrill whistle was heard, and then another, and the police director

laid his hand on the shoulder of the exorciser accompanied with the

remark:--



"You are in custody."



Meanwhile, the police sergeant and the policeman, who had come into the

churchyard, had caught the ghost, and dragged it forward. It was the

sexton, who had put on a flowing, white dress, and who wore a wax mask,

which bore striking resemblance to his mother, as the son declared.



When the case was heard, it was proved that the mask had been very

skillfully made from a portrait of the deceased woman. The Government

gave orders that the matter should be investigated as secretly as

possible, and left the punishment of Father K---- to the spiritual

authorities, which was a matter of course, at a time when priests were

outside the jurisdiction of the Civil Authorities; and it is needless

to say that he was very comfortable during his imprisonment, in a

monastery in a part of the country which abounded with game and trout.



The only valuable result of the amusing ghost story was that it brought

about a reconciliation between father and son, and the former, as a

matter of fact, felt such deep respect for priests and their ghosts in

consequence of the apparition that a short time after his wife had left

purgatory for the last time in order to talk with him--he turned

_Protestant_.



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