The Alleged Haunting of B---- House, - [best historical fiction books of all time TXT] 📗

March 21st, Sunday.—Last night, about 11.15, after Miss Moore and I were in bed in No. 1, we heard a loud sound from the left-hand side of the fireplace (south-west corner). It might be imitated by the "giving" of a large tin box (cf. pp. 173, 179). There was nothing but a footstool and a draped dressing-table there. We called out to Miss Langton, whom we could hear still moving about. She said she had heard the noise, but had made none herself.

Her account is as follows:—

"Last night (Sunday, March 21st) we retired to bed early, as Miss Moore was leaving by an early train next morning, and I was going to get up in order to see her off. It was certainly not later than 10.45, when I went to my room, having gone to No. 1 to say good-night to Miss Freer and Miss Moore, who were sleeping that night in that room. Miss 'Duff' was in No. 3, and I was occupying No. 2. I am not at all nervous, and certainly I was not expecting to see anything, as No. 2 is always supposed to be a 'quiet' room. I was some time getting to bed, but I put out my candle at twelve o'clock, and, after noticing that the moon was shining brightly, I got into bed. Contrary to my usual custom I did not fall asleep for some time, and I felt that the room was, in some inexplicable way, not as usual. At last I fell asleep, but not comfortably. I kept waking, and for some time after each awakening I could not get to sleep again. I put this down, however, to the fact that I wanted to waken early the next morning, and was restless in consequence. At last I really fell asleep, but at 4.30 I suddenly awakened with the feeling that I was not alone in the room. I looked round; the room was quite dark; the moon was not shining, but between the bed and the wardrobe there was a figure standing. At first it was very indistinct and misty, but gradually it formed itself into the figure of a woman—a slight, tall woman, with a pale face. She was dressed in long robes, but the upper part was the only part I could see clearly. Round her face and head was a white band, like that worn by a nun, and over her head was what might have been a black hood or small shawl, but in the darkness it was very difficult to distinguish. I could not see what her features were like, but she looked as if she were in trouble, and entreating some one to help her. She stood for some few moments at the foot of my bed looking towards me, and then she made a movement towards the door, but before she reached it she had vanished. I was not at all frightened, as there was nothing at all alarming in her appearance. I cannot write a better description of her, as the vision was so short. The figure was the same as that I had seen at the burn, only very much clearer."

Miss "Duff" writes under this date March 21st:—"On my arrival yesterday I was shown to my room (No. 3), which I had selected, with Miss Freer's permission, as one said to have an evil reputation. Perhaps it was natural that a feeling 'as if I were not alone' should come over me, and needless to say there was no apparent cause for this!

"As a rule I am a very sound sleeper, nothing ever disturbs me; but last night I was suddenly wide awake, as if roused by something unusual. I sat up quickly in bed, but suddenly remembering where I was, I waited expectantly. Nothing occurred, although I did not get to sleep again for about two hours."

March 22nd, Monday.—Mr. MacP—— was awakened between four and five by heavy footsteps overhead. We made many experiments to account for it, and of course made inquiries among the servants, but could find no cause. We are the more interested that hitherto nothing has been heard by our party in his room, No. 4, though there is a tradition of earlier disturbances there.

Mr. MacP—— has furnished the following account of his experience:—

"As usual I went to bed about 12 p.m. I had no desire to be disturbed, and so my room was still No. 4, which I had originally selected as being reputed innocuous, and which, save in one slight instance, I had hitherto found to deserve its reputation. My repeated visits had eliminated any expectancy which may at first have, perhaps, existed.

"My bed was alongside the south wall of my room, and parallel to the corridor or passage, my head towards No. 5, and my feet towards No. 3.

"As often happened at B——, I awoke from a sound slumber, not by degrees, but in a moment. There was no transition—no half-awakening, but full and complete consciousness all at once. I struck a light, looked at my watch, found it was 4.30, and went to sleep again immediately. I then wakened slowly and gradually, hearing more and more clearly a noise which appeared to me to be the cause of my awakening. The noise was the kind of sound which is produced by a person walking rapidly with one foot longer than the other—i.e., it was a succession of beats in rapid sequence, each alternate beat being louder than the one immediately before it.

"It appeared to me (1) to be produced outside my room; (2) to be on a higher level; and (3) to be moving in the direction of my bed—i.e., going as from No. 5 past No. 4, in which I was, towards No. 3. I at once jumped out of bed, opened my door and looked out. I saw nothing, and the noise stopped. I then struck a light, and found that it was only 4.45. I lay awake till I heard the servants obviously moving about, and then went to sleep again. At breakfast I asked, 'Has anybody ever heard this kind of noise?' reproducing it as well as I could by a series of thumps on the table. 'Oh yes,' was the answer, 'that is what we call the 'limping' or 'scuttering' noise. Of course I had heard the phrases used, but thought they referred to two separate noises. I had also formed quite distinct ideas as to the kind of noises these epithets were intended to describe—both entirely different from the kind of noise I had heard—and I showed what I meant. 'Oh no,' said Miss Freer, 'what you heard is what we have been calling indiscriminately the limping or scuttering noise, and we have not heard the kinds of noise these words suggested to you.' I emphasise this as showing clearly that I cannot have been expecting to hear the particular noise in question.

"The next thing was to account for the noise, if possible, and we spent some time experimenting. First of all the servants were interrogated as to whether any of them had been moving about at 4.45. Answer, 'No.' Next we asked who got up first. This was a maid who slept in x, and went into y to call the kitchenmaid, who slept there. To do so she had, of course, to go through the narrow room which was over part of my bedroom.

"This, she said, was a good bit later than 4.45. But we thought it well to make her go from x to y while I lay down on my bed and listened. We made her walk backwards and forwards, both with her slippers on and also in her stocking soles. I and some of the others who came into my room heard her quite distinctly. But (1) the noise of her steps was in a different place—near my window, and exactly in the line of her progress; (2) it was an entirely different kind of noise. She walked now fast, and now slowly, but both footsteps seemed always of the same weight; and (3), and this, to my mind, was most important, we heard her quite distinctly going from x to y, and back again from y to x and could tell in which direction she was moving. Now, the noise which I had heard only went in the one direction, i.e., parallel to the maid's outward progress. I did not hear anything going in the other direction. I was entirely wakened by the noise which I had heard, and, as I have said, I continued to listen intently for some considerable time, and yet I heard nothing.

"In short, alike from its apparent locus, from its quality, and from the direction of its movements, I am convinced that the noise which I heard was not caused by any of the servants moving about upstairs.

"Anybody who knows the house will understand that where the noise seemed to me to be was in the neighbourhood of the dome. For all I know, the dome, as somebody suggested, may be a regular sounding-board; but even so, that does not help much towards an explanation. Wherever the noise may have been produced, the question still remains, 'What produced it?' and that we have entirely failed to answer."

The gist of this account was communicated by Mr. MacP—— to the Hon. E—— F——, who replied as follows on April 19, 1897: "Do you appreciate the fact that your ghost, with the footsteps of alternate lowness and softness, is absolutely correct, and corresponds with Miss H——'s ghost, as I heard it from Mrs. G—— lately in town. Miss H—— slept, I think, in No. 4 [this is wrong; cf. p. 124], and was wakened by the sound of walking round her bed with a peculiar limp. Much alarmed, she went and called her brother, who came and slept on the sofa (is there a sofa in No. 4?), and shortly afterwards they both heard the same noise again."

Mr. MacP——, as already mentioned, did not know that this noise had been heard by any one.