Speaker 1: Ephemeral as production of artful explosions. Haunting is the idea
Speaker 1: that a former life, its experiments, trials, goods and evils,
Speaker 1: is retained by the spaces when inhabited, and in the
Speaker 1: relics they once possessed, that the ephemera a person leaves
Speaker 1: behind contains a trace of the beyond, which, should one
Speaker 1: be so bold or so unlucky, can be summoned at will.
Speaker 1: Montague Roades James was manifestly obsessed with ephemera. A world
Speaker 1: renowned medievalist scholar of prestigious British academia who moonlighted as
Speaker 1: a horror author. In nineteen o four, James public among
Speaker 1: his best enduring collections ghost Stories of an Antiquary, that is,
Speaker 1: one who collects antiques. The book reads at times like
Speaker 1: a nonfiction document, citing real places and sworn testimony, blending
Speaker 1: details pulled from contemporary life with those of the unknown.
Speaker 1: The first story in this collection, originally written and printed
Speaker 1: soon after in the National Review, is titled Cannon Albericts
Speaker 1: scrap Book. It takes place in the real village of
Speaker 1: Saint Bertrand Command, where an English tourist spends a full
Speaker 1: day surveying the relics of a dilapidated cathedral, with the
Speaker 1: sanctuaries caretaker ever looking over his shoulder, and those efforts
Speaker 1: pay off, so to speak, in the form of a
Speaker 1: scrap book. Cannon Alberts scrap Book by m R James.
Speaker 1: Saint Bertrand de Command is a decayed town on the
Speaker 1: spurs of the Pyrenees, not very far from Toulouse and
Speaker 1: still nearer to Bannier de Luchon. It was the site
Speaker 1: of a bishopric until the Revolution, and has a cathedral
Speaker 1: which is visited by a certain number of tourists. In
Speaker 1: the spring of eighteen eighty three, an Englishman arrived at
Speaker 1: this old world place. I can hardly dignify it with
Speaker 1: the name of city, for there are not a thousand inhabitants.
Speaker 1: He was a Cambridge man who would come specially from
Speaker 1: Toulouse to see Saint Bertrand's church, and had left two
Speaker 1: friends who were less keen archeologists than himself, and their
Speaker 1: hotel at to loose, under promise to join him on
Speaker 1: the following morning. Half an hour at the church was
Speaker 1: satisfied then, and all three could then pursue their journey
Speaker 1: in the direction of Osh. But our Englishmen had come
Speaker 1: early on the day in question, and proposed to himself
Speaker 1: to fill a note book and to use several dozen
Speaker 1: plates in the process of describing and photographing every corner
Speaker 1: of the wonderful church that dominates the little hill of Command.
Speaker 1: In order to carry out this design satisfactorily, it was
Speaker 1: necessary to monopolize the verger of the church for the day.
Speaker 1: The verger or sacristan I prefer the latter appellation, inaccurate
Speaker 1: as it may be, was accordingly sent for by the
Speaker 1: somewhat brusque lady who keeps the inn of the Chapeau Rouge,
Speaker 1: and when he came the Englishman found him an unexpectedly
Speaker 1: interesting object of study. It was not in the personal
Speaker 1: appearance of the little, dry, wizened old man that the
Speaker 1: interest lay. For he was precisely like dozens of other
Speaker 1: church guardians in France, but in a curious furtival rather
Speaker 1: hunted an oppressed air which he had. He was perpetually
Speaker 1: half glancing behind him. The muscles of his back and
Speaker 1: shoulders seemed to be hunched in a continual nervous contraction,
Speaker 1: as if he were expecting every moment to find himself
Speaker 1: in the clutch of an enemy. The Englishman hardly knew
Speaker 1: whether to put him down as a man haunted by
Speaker 1: a fixed delusion or as one oppressed by a guilty conscience. However,
Speaker 1: the Englishman, let us call him Dennis, too, was soon
Speaker 1: too deep in his notebook and too busy with his
Speaker 1: camera to give more than an occasional glance to the Sacristan.
Speaker 1: Whenever he did look at him, he found him at
Speaker 1: no great distance, either huddling himself back against the wall
Speaker 1: or crouching in one of the gorgeous stools. Dennis Tomb
Speaker 1: became rather fidgety after a while, mingled suspicions that he
Speaker 1: was keeping the old man from his dejenny, that he
Speaker 1: was regarded as likely to make away with Saint Bertrand's
Speaker 1: ivory crosying or with the dusty stuffed crocodile that hangs
Speaker 1: over the font, began to torment him. When you go home,
Speaker 1: he said, at last, I'm quite well able to finish
Speaker 1: my notes alone. You can lock me in if you like.
Speaker 1: I shall want at least two hours more here, and
Speaker 1: it must be cold for you, isn't it good? Heavens?
Speaker 1: Said the little man whom the suggestions seemed to throw
Speaker 1: into a state of unaccountable terror. Such a thing cannot
Speaker 1: be thought of for a moment. Leave monsieur alone in
Speaker 1: the church. No, No, two hours, three hours, All will
Speaker 1: be the same to me. I have breakfasted. I am
Speaker 1: not at all cold, with many thanks to Monsieur. Very well,
Speaker 1: my little man, quoth Dennis Stone to himself. You have
Speaker 1: been warned, and you must take the consequences. Before the
Speaker 1: expiration of the two hours. The stalls, the enormous dilapidated organ,
Speaker 1: the choir screen of Bishop John Demoleon, the remnants of
Speaker 1: glass and tapestry, and the objects in the treasure chamber
Speaker 1: had been well and truly examined. The sacristan still keeping
Speaker 1: at Dennis Tune's heels, and every now and then whipping
Speaker 1: round as if he had been stung, when one or
Speaker 1: other of the strange noises that trouble a large empty
Speaker 1: building fell on his ear. Curious noises they were sometimes.
Speaker 1: Once Denniston said to me, I could have sworn I
Speaker 1: heard a thin metallic voice laughing high up in the tower.
Speaker 1: I darted an inquiring glance at my sacristan. He was
Speaker 1: white to the lips. It is he that is it
Speaker 1: is no one. The door is locked, was all he said,
Speaker 1: and we looked at each other for a full minute.
Speaker 1: Another little incident puzzled Dennis Tune a good deal. He
Speaker 1: was examining a large, dark picture that hangs behind the altar,
Speaker 1: one of a series illustrating the miracles of Saint Bertrand.
Speaker 1: The composition of the picture is well nigh indecipherable, but
Speaker 1: there is a Latin legend below which runs, thus, kalite
Speaker 1: s bertrandis the brevit hominem crime diabolus du volibat strangulaire
Speaker 1: How sat Bertram delivered a man whom the devil long
Speaker 1: sought to strangle. Dennis June was turning to the sacristan
Speaker 1: with a smile and a jocular remark of some sort
Speaker 1: on his lips, but he was confounded to see the
Speaker 1: old man on his knees, gazing at the picture with
Speaker 1: the eye of a suppliant in agony, his hands tightly clasped,
Speaker 1: and a rain of tears on his cheeks. Denniston naturally
Speaker 1: pretended to have noticed nothing, but the question would not
Speaker 1: go away from him. Why should a daub of this
Speaker 1: kind affect anyone so strongly? He seemed to himself to
Speaker 1: be getting some sort of clue to the reason of
Speaker 1: the strange look that had been puzzling him all the day.
Speaker 1: The man must be a monomaniac, but what was his
Speaker 1: mono mania? It was nearly five o'clock, The short day
Speaker 1: was drawing in, and the church began to fill with shadows,
Speaker 1: while the curious noises, the muffled footfalls and distant talking
Speaker 1: voices that had been perceptible all day seemed no doubt.
Speaker 1: Because of the fading light and the consequently quickened sense
Speaker 1: of hearing to become more frequent and insistent, the sacristan
Speaker 1: began for the first time to show signs of hurry
Speaker 1: and impatience. He heaved a sigh of relief when camera
Speaker 1: and notebook were finally packed up and stowed away, and
Speaker 1: hurriedly beckoned Denniston to the western door of the church
Speaker 1: under the tower. It was time to ring the Angelus.
Speaker 1: A few pulls at the reluctant rope, and the great
Speaker 1: bell Betrand high in the tower, began to speak and
Speaker 1: swung her voice up among the pines and down to
Speaker 1: the valleys, loud with mountain streams, calling the dwellers on
Speaker 1: those lonely hills to remember and repeat the salutation of
Speaker 1: the Angel to her, whom he called blessed among women.
Speaker 1: With that, the profound quiet seemed to fall for the
Speaker 1: fust time that day. Upon the little town. Dennis Tune
Speaker 1: and the sacristan went out of the church. On the doorstep,
Speaker 1: they fell into conversation. Monsieur seemed to interest himself in
Speaker 1: the old choir books in the sacristy. Undoubtedly I was
Speaker 1: going to ask you if there were a library in
Speaker 1: the town. No, Monsieur. Perhaps there used to be one
Speaker 1: belonging to the chapter, but it is now such a
Speaker 1: small place. Here came a strange pause of irresolution, as
Speaker 1: it seemed. Then with a sort of plunge, he went on,
Speaker 1: But if Monsieur is amateur de voux, leave, I have
Speaker 1: at home something that might interest him. It is not
Speaker 1: a hundred yards at once. All Dennis Tune's cherished dreams
Speaker 1: of finding priceless manuscripts in untrodden corners of France flashed
Speaker 1: up to die down again the next moment. It was
Speaker 1: probably a stupid missile of plantings printing about fifty Where
Speaker 1: was the likelihood that a place so near to lose
Speaker 1: would not have been ransacked long ago by collectors. However,
Speaker 1: it would be foolish not to go. He would reproach
Speaker 1: himsel elf forever after if he refused. So they set
Speaker 1: off on the way. The curious irresolution and sudden determination
Speaker 1: of the Sacristan recurred to Dennis tune, and he wondered
Speaker 1: in a shamefaced way whether he was being decoyed into
Speaker 1: some purlieu to be made away with as a supposed
Speaker 1: rich englishman. He contrived, therefore, to begin talking with his guide,
Speaker 1: and to drag in in a rather clumsy fashion, the
Speaker 1: fact that he expected two friends to join him early
Speaker 1: next morning. To his surprise, the announcement seemed to relieve
Speaker 1: the Sacristan at once of some of the anxiety that
Speaker 1: depressed him. That is well, that is very well. Monsieur
Speaker 1: will travel in company with his friends. They will be
Speaker 1: always near him. It is a good thing to travel
Speaker 1: thus in company. Sometimes the last word appeared to be
Speaker 1: added as an afterthought, and to bring with it a
Speaker 1: relapse into gloom for the poor little man. They were
Speaker 1: soon at the house, which was one rather larger than
Speaker 1: its neighbors, stone built with a shield carved over the door.
Speaker 1: The shield of Alberic de molon To or descendant Dennis
Speaker 1: Tune tells me of Bishop John Demoleon. This Alberic was
Speaker 1: a canon of commands from sixteen eighty to seventeen o one.
Speaker 1: The upper windows of the mansion were boarded up, and
Speaker 1: the whole place bore, as does the rest of commands.
Speaker 1: The aspect of decaying age arrived on his doorstep. The
Speaker 1: sacristan paused a moment. Perhaps, after all, the monsieur has
Speaker 1: not the time, not at all, lots of time, nothing
Speaker 1: to do till tomorrow. Let us see what it is
Speaker 1: you've got. The door was opened at this point, and
Speaker 1: a face looked out, a face far younger than the sacristan's,
Speaker 1: but bearing something of the same distressing look. Only here
Speaker 1: it seemed to be the mark not so much of
Speaker 1: fearful personal safety as of acute anxiety on behalf of another. Plainly,
Speaker 1: the owner of the face was the Sacristan's daughter. She
Speaker 1: brightened up considerably on seeing her father accompanied by an
Speaker 1: able bodied stranger. A few remarks passed between father and daughter,
Speaker 1: of which Denniston only caught these words said by the
Speaker 1: sacristan he was laughing in the church, words which were
Speaker 1: answered only by a look of terror from the girl.
Speaker 1: But in another minute they were in the sitting room
Speaker 1: of the house, a small high chamber with a stone floor,
Speaker 1: full of moving shadows, cast by a wood fire that
Speaker 1: flickered on a great hearth. Something of the character of
Speaker 1: an oratory was imparted to it by a tall crucifix,
Speaker 1: which reached almost to the ceiling. On one side. The
Speaker 1: figure was painted of the natural colors, the cross was black.
Speaker 1: Under this stawod a chest of some age and solidity,
Speaker 1: And when a lamp had been brought and chairs set,
Speaker 1: the sacristan went to this chest and produced therefrom with
Speaker 1: growing excitement and nervousness, as Dennis Tone thought a large
Speaker 1: book wrapped in a white cloth, on which cloth a
Speaker 1: cross was rudely embroidered in red thread. Even before the
Speaker 1: wrapping had been removed, Dennis Tone began to be interested
Speaker 1: by the size and shape of the volume. Too large
Speaker 1: for a missile, he thought, and not the shape of
Speaker 1: an antiphan phaps. It may be something good after all.
Speaker 1: The next moment the book was open, and Dennistone felt
Speaker 1: that he had at last lit upon something better than good.
Speaker 1: Before him lay a large folio bound perhaps late in
Speaker 1: the seventeenth century, with the arms of Cannon Albert Demoleon
Speaker 1: stamped in gold on the sides. There may have been
Speaker 1: a hundred and fifty leaves of paper in the book,
Speaker 1: and are almost every one of them was fastened a
Speaker 1: leaf from an illuminated manuscript. Such a collection Dennis Tune
Speaker 1: had hardly dreamed of in his wildest moments. Here were
Speaker 1: ten leaves from a copy of Genesis, illustrated with pictures
Speaker 1: which could not be later than a d. Seven hundred.
Speaker 1: Further on was a complete set of pictures from a
Speaker 1: psalter of English execution of the very finest kind that
Speaker 1: the thirteenth century could produce. And perhaps best of all,
Speaker 1: there were twenty leaves of unsealed writing in Latin, which,
Speaker 1: as a few words seen here and there told him
Speaker 1: at once, must belong to some very early unknown Patristic treatise.
Speaker 1: Could it possibly be a fragment of the copy of
Speaker 1: Pappius on the Words of Our Lord, which was known
Speaker 1: to have existed as late as the twelfth century at Memes.
Speaker 1: We now know that these leaves did contain a considerable
Speaker 1: fragment of that work, if not of that actual copy
Speaker 1: of it. In any case, his mind was made up
Speaker 1: that book must return to Cambridge with him, even if
Speaker 1: he had to draw the whole of his balance from
Speaker 1: the bank and stay at St. Bertrand till the money came.
Speaker 1: He glanced up at the Sacristan to see if his
Speaker 1: face yielded any hint that the book was for sale.
Speaker 1: The sacristan was pale, and his lips were working. If
Speaker 1: Monsieur will turn on to the end, so if Monsieur
Speaker 1: turned on, meeting new treasures at every rise of a leaf,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the book he came upon
Speaker 1: two sheets of paper of much more recent date than
Speaker 1: anything he had seen yet, which puzzled him considerably. They
Speaker 1: must be contemporary. He decided with the unprincipled canon Alberic,
Speaker 1: who had doubtless plundered the chapter library of Sat. Bertrand
Speaker 1: to form this priceless scrap book. On the first of
Speaker 1: the pay apposheates was a plan carefully drawn and instantly
Speaker 1: recognizable by a person who knew the ground of the
Speaker 1: South Island cloisters of St. Bertrand's. There were curious signs
Speaker 1: looking like planetary symbols, and a few Hebrew words in
Speaker 1: the corners, and in the northwest angle of the cloister
Speaker 1: was a cross drawn in gold paint. Below the plan
Speaker 1: were some lines of writing in Latin, which ran thus
Speaker 1: response to twelve me death six in terragatum est in
Speaker 1: veny amne response from est venies vamne divis vs. Vivamne
Speaker 1: invidendus vives marianne in lectomea eater Answers of the twelfth
Speaker 1: of December, It was asked, shall I find it? Answer
Speaker 1: thou shalt? Shall I become rich thou wilt? Shall I
Speaker 1: live an object of envy that wilt? Shall I die
Speaker 1: in my bed thou wilt? A good specimen of the
Speaker 1: treasure hunter's record quite reminds one of Mr Minor Cannon
Speaker 1: catch remain in Old Saint Paul's was Dennis June's comment,
Speaker 1: and he turned the leaf. What he then saw impressed him,
Speaker 1: as he has often told me, more than he could
Speaker 1: have conceived any drawing or picture capable of impressing him.
Speaker 1: And though the drawing he saw is no longer in existence,
Speaker 1: there is a photograph of it which I possess, which
Speaker 1: fully bears out that statement. The picture in question was
Speaker 1: a CPA drawing at the end of the seventeenth century,
Speaker 1: representing one would say at first the biblical scene. For
Speaker 1: the architecture the picture represented in interior, and the figures
Speaker 1: had that semi classical flavor about them which the artists
Speaker 1: of two hundred years ago frolled appropriate illustrations of the Bible.
Speaker 1: On the right was a king on his throne, the
Speaker 1: throne elevated on twelve steps, the canopy over head soldiers
Speaker 1: on either side, evidently King Solomon. He was bending forward
Speaker 1: with outstretched scepter in attitude of command. His face expressed
Speaker 1: horror and disgust. Yet there was in it also the
Speaker 1: mark of imperious command and confident power. The left half
Speaker 1: of the picture was the strangest, however, the interest plainly
Speaker 1: centered There. On the pavement before the throne were grouped
Speaker 1: four soldiers surrounding a crouching figure, which must be described
Speaker 1: in a moment. A fifth soldier lay dead on the pavement,
Speaker 1: his neck distorted and his eyeballs starting from his head.
Speaker 1: The four surrounding guards were looking at the king. In
Speaker 1: their faces, the sentiment of horror was intensified. They seemed,
Speaker 1: in fact, only restrained from flight by their implicit trust
Speaker 1: and their master. All this terror was plainly excited by
Speaker 1: the being that crouched in their midst. I entirely despair
Speaker 1: of conveying, by any words, the impression which this figer
Speaker 1: makes upon anyone who looks at it, I recollect. Once
Speaker 1: showing the photograph of the drawing to a lecturer on morphology,
Speaker 1: a person of I was going to say, abnormally sane
Speaker 1: and unimaginative habits of mind. He absolutely refused to be
Speaker 1: alone for the rest of that evening, and he told
Speaker 1: me afterwards that for many nights he had not dared
Speaker 1: to put out his light before going to sleep. However,
Speaker 1: the main traits of the figure I can at least indicate.
Speaker 1: At first, you saw only a mass of course matted
Speaker 1: black hair. Presently it was seen that this covered a
Speaker 1: body of fearful thinness, almost a skeleton, but with the
Speaker 1: muscles standing out like wires. The hands were of a
Speaker 1: dusky pallor, covered like the body, with long, coarse hairs
Speaker 1: and hideously talented. The eyes, touched in with a burning yellow,
Speaker 1: had intensely black pupils, and were fixed upon the throned
Speaker 1: king with a look of beast like hate. Imagine one
Speaker 1: of the awful bird catching spiders of South America, translated
Speaker 1: into human form and endowed with intelligence just less than human,
Speaker 1: And you will have some faint conception of the terror
Speaker 1: inspired by the appalling effigy. One remark is universally made
Speaker 1: by those to whom I have showed the picture. It
Speaker 1: was drawn from the life. As soon as the first
Speaker 1: shock of his irresistible fright had subsided, Dennis Tune stole
Speaker 1: a look at his hosts. The sacristan's hands were pressed
Speaker 1: upon his eyes. His daughter, looking up at the cross
Speaker 1: on the wall, was telling her beads feverishly. At last,
Speaker 1: the question was asked, is this book for sale? There
Speaker 1: was the same hesitation, the same plunge of determination that
Speaker 1: he had noticed before, and then came the welcome answer,
Speaker 1: If monsieur pleases, how much do you ask for it?
Speaker 1: I will take two hundred fifty francs. This was confounding.
Speaker 1: Even a collector's conscience is sometimes stirred, and Dennis Tune's
Speaker 1: conscience was tenderer than a collector's. My good man, he
Speaker 1: said again and again, your book is worth far more
Speaker 1: than two hundred and fifty francs. I assure you far more.
Speaker 1: But The answer did not vary. I will take two
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty francs, not more. There was really no
Speaker 1: possibility of refusing such a chance. The money was paid,
Speaker 1: the receipt signed, a glass of wine drunk over the transaction,
Speaker 1: and then the sacristans seemed to become a new man.
Speaker 1: He stood upright, He ceased to throw those suspicious glances
Speaker 1: behind him. He actually laughed, or tried to laugh. Dennis
Speaker 1: Tune rose to go, I shall have the honor of
Speaker 1: accompanying Monsieur to his hotel. Said the sacristan, Oh, no, thanks,
Speaker 1: it isn't a hundred yards. I know the way perfectly,
Speaker 1: and there is a moon. The offer was pressed three
Speaker 1: or four times and refused as often. Then Monsieur will
Speaker 1: summ me if if he finds occasion, he will keep
Speaker 1: the middle of the road. The sides are so rough. Certainly, certainly,
Speaker 1: said Dennis Tune, who was impatient to examine his prize
Speaker 1: by himself, and he stepped out into the passage with
Speaker 1: his book under his arm. Here he was met by
Speaker 1: the daughter. She, it appeared, was anxious to do a
Speaker 1: little business of her own account, perhaps like Ghazi, to
Speaker 1: take somewhat from the foreigner whom her father had spared
Speaker 1: a silver crucifix and chain for the neck. Monsieur would
Speaker 1: perhaps be good enough to accept it. Well, Really, Dennis
Speaker 1: Tune hadn't much use for these things. What did mademoiselle
Speaker 1: want for it? Nothing? Nothing in the world. Monsieur is
Speaker 1: more than welcome to it. The tone in which this,
Speaker 1: and much more was said was unmistakably genuine, so that
Speaker 1: Dennis Tune was reduced to profuse thanks and submitted to
Speaker 1: have the chain put round his neck. It really seemed
Speaker 1: as if he had rendered the father and daughter some
Speaker 1: service which they hardly knew how to repay. As he
Speaker 1: set off with his book, they stood at the or
Speaker 1: looking after him, and they were still looking when he
Speaker 1: waived them a last good night from the steps of
Speaker 1: the Chapeau Rouge. Dinner was over, and Dennis June was
Speaker 1: in his bedroom, shut up alone with his acquisition. The
Speaker 1: landlady had manifested a particular interest in him, since he
Speaker 1: had told her that he had paid a visit to
Speaker 1: the sacristan and brought an old book from him. He thought, too,
Speaker 1: that he had heard a hurried dialogue between her and
Speaker 1: the said sacristan in the passage outside of the Salamange.
Speaker 1: Some words to the effect that Pierre and Bertrand would
Speaker 1: be sleeping in the house had closed the conversation. All
Speaker 1: this time, a growing feeling of discomfort had been creeping
Speaker 1: over him, nervous reaction perhaps after the delight of his discovery.
Speaker 1: Whatever it was, it resulted in a conviction that there
Speaker 1: was someone behind him, and that he was far more
Speaker 1: comfortable with his back to the wall. All this, of course,
Speaker 1: weighed light in the balance as against the obvious value
Speaker 1: of the collection he had acquired. And now, as I said,
Speaker 1: he was alone in his bedroom taking stock of Canon
Speaker 1: Alberic's treasures, in which every moment revealed something more charming.
Speaker 1: Bless Cannon Albarek, said Denniston, who had an inveterate habit
Speaker 1: of talking to himself. I wonder where he is now,
Speaker 1: Dear me, I wish that landlady would learn to laugh
Speaker 1: in a more cheering manner. Makes one feel as if
Speaker 1: there was someone dead in the house. Half a pipe more,
Speaker 1: did you say? I think? Perhaps you are right. I
Speaker 1: wonder what that crucifix is that the young woman insisted
Speaker 1: on giving me last century. I suppose, yes, probably it
Speaker 1: is rather a nuisance of a thing to have around
Speaker 1: one's neck, just too heavy. Most likely her father has
Speaker 1: been wearing it for years. I might give it a
Speaker 1: clean up before I put it away. He had taken
Speaker 1: the crucifix off and laid it on the table when
Speaker 1: his attention was caught by an object lying on the
Speaker 1: red cloth just by his left elbow. Two or three
Speaker 1: ideas of what it might be flitted through his brain
Speaker 1: with their own incalculable quickness. Pen why her No, no
Speaker 1: such thing in the house, wrapped, no too black, A
Speaker 1: large spider, I trust to Goodness, not no good God.
Speaker 1: A hand like the hand in that picture. In another
Speaker 1: infinitism or flash, he had taken it in pale, dusky skin,
Speaker 1: covering nothing but bones and tendons of appalling strength, coarse
Speaker 1: black hairs longer than ever grew on a human hand,
Speaker 1: nails rising from the ends of the fingers and curving
Speaker 1: sharply down and forward, gray, horny, and wrinkled. He flew
Speaker 1: out of his chair with deadly, inconceivable terror. Clutching at
Speaker 1: his heart. The shape whose left hand rested on the
Speaker 1: table was rising to a standing posture behind his seat.
Speaker 1: It's right hand crooked above his scalp. There was black
Speaker 1: and tattered drapery about it. The coarse hair covered it
Speaker 1: as in the boring. The lower jaw was thin, what
Speaker 1: can I call it? Shallow like a beast's teeth showed
Speaker 1: behind the black lips there was no nose, the eyes
Speaker 1: of a fiery yellow against which the pupils showed black
Speaker 1: and intense, and the exalting hate, and first to destroy
Speaker 1: life which shone. There were the most horrifying features in
Speaker 1: the whole vision. There was intelligence of a kind in them,
Speaker 1: intelligence beyond that of a beast, below that of a man.
Speaker 1: The feelings which this horror stirred in Dennis Tune were
Speaker 1: the intensest physical fear and the most profound mental loathing.
Speaker 1: What did he do? What could he do? He has
Speaker 1: never been quite certain what words he said, but he
Speaker 1: knows that he spoke, that he grasped blindly at the
Speaker 1: silver crucifix, that he was conscious of a movement towards him,
Speaker 1: on the part of the demon, and that he screamed
Speaker 1: with the voice of an animal in hiding. Yes, pain
Speaker 1: Pierre and bertrand the two sturdy, little serving men who
Speaker 1: rushed in saw nothing but felt themselves thrust aside by
Speaker 1: something that passed out between them, and found Dennistone in
Speaker 1: a swoon. They sat up with him that night, and
Speaker 1: his two friends were at St. Bertrand by nine o'clock
Speaker 1: the next morning. He himself, though still shaken and nervous,
Speaker 1: was almost himself by that time, and his story frowned
Speaker 1: credence with them, though not until they had seen the
Speaker 1: drawing and talked with the sacristan almost at dawn. The
Speaker 1: little man had come to the inn on some pretense
Speaker 1: and had listened with the deepest interest to the story
Speaker 1: retailed by the landlady. He showed no surprise. It is he,
Speaker 1: it is he, I have seen him myself, was his
Speaker 1: only comment, and to all questionings but one reply was
Speaker 1: vouchsafed de foi mille foi jele santi. He would tell
Speaker 1: them nothing of the provenance of the book, nor any
Speaker 1: details of his experiences. I shall soon sleep and my
Speaker 1: rest will be sweet. Why should you trouble me? He
Speaker 1: died that summer. His daughter married and settled at San Papaul.
Speaker 1: She never understood the circumstances of her father's obsession. We
Speaker 1: shall never know what he or canon Alberic Demoleon suffered.
Speaker 1: At the back of that fateful drawing were some lines
Speaker 1: of writing which may be supposed to throw light on
Speaker 1: the situation. Contradictio salomonis come demonio nocturno Albericus Demolione delineavit
Speaker 1: vidus in auditorium, ps Key habitat sancte bertrand demoniorum effugato
Speaker 1: inter cedar promo misreno primum ordi nacte twelve me that's
Speaker 1: with debo marks or team um pecai it passes some
Speaker 1: plura adhuc passurus December one I e. The disputest Solomon
Speaker 1: with a demon of the night, drawn by Albert Demoleon. Versical,
Speaker 1: Oh Lord, make haste to help me. Psalm, who so
Speaker 1: dwelleth x c I si bertrand who put us devils
Speaker 1: to flight, Pray for me most unhappy. I saw it
Speaker 1: first on the night of December the twelfth sixt Soon
Speaker 1: I shall see it for the last time. I have
Speaker 1: sinned and suffered, and have more to suffer yet December
Speaker 1: than one. The Garlio Christiana gives the date of the
Speaker 1: cannon's death as December thirty one, sevente in bed of
Speaker 1: a sudden caesar. Details of this kind are not common
Speaker 1: in the great work of the Sammathani. I have never
Speaker 1: quite understood what was Dennis Tune's view of the events
Speaker 1: I have narrated. He groted to me once a text
Speaker 1: from Ecclesiasticus. Some spirits there be that are created for vengeance,
Speaker 1: and in their fury lay on sore strokes. On another occasion,
Speaker 1: he said, Isaiah was a very sensible man. Doesn't he
Speaker 1: say something about night monsters living in the ruins of Babylon.
Speaker 1: These things are rather beyond us at present. Another confidence
Speaker 1: of his impressed me rather, and I sympathized with it.
Speaker 1: We had been last year to command to see kind
Speaker 1: of Alberic's tomb. It is a great marble erection, with
Speaker 1: an effigy of the cannon in the large wig and soutane,
Speaker 1: and an elaborate eulogy of his learning. Below. I saw
Speaker 1: a Dennis Tune talking for some time with the vicar
Speaker 1: of Saint Bertrand's, and as we drove away, he said
Speaker 1: to me, I hope it isn't wrong. You know, I
Speaker 1: am a Presbyterian, but I I believe there will be
Speaker 1: saying of mass and singing of dirges for Alberic Demoleon's rest.
Speaker 1: Then he added, with a touch of Northern British in
Speaker 1: his tone, I had no notion they came so dear.
Speaker 1: The book is in the went With collection at Cambridge.
Speaker 1: The drawing was photographed and then burnt by Dennis Tune
Speaker 1: on the day when he left command, on the occasion
Speaker 1: of his first visit mmal Canon Alberic's Scrapbook by m
Speaker 1: R James, narrated by Alex Grass and adapted by Alexander Williams,
Speaker 1: with producers Max Williams and Trevor Young. To learn more
Speaker 1: about this story, the author and the real town of
Speaker 1: Saint bertrand to come on, listen to our bonus episode
Speaker 1: inside Kennan Albrekts Scrapbook with Arthur Helen Grant, available now.
Speaker 1: It's almost close to meta fiction in the sense that
Speaker 1: the real and the fictional are so closely entwined in
Speaker 1: some of the stories that you can't really pick them apart.
Speaker 1: Find more podcasts from my Heart Radio by visiting the
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to podcasts, and learn more about this one at Ephemeral.
Speaker 1: That show of the Halloween