chapter 4

THE next day the ghost was very weak and tired. The terrible excitement of the last four weeks

was beginning to have its effect. His nerves were completely shattered, and he started at the

slightest noise. For five days he kept his room, and at last made up his mind to give up the

point of the blood-stain on the library floor. If the Otis family did not want it, they clearly did

not deserve it. They were evidently people on a low, material plane of existence, and quite

incapable of appreciating the symbolic value of sensuous phenomena. The question of

phantasmic apparitions, and the development of astral bodies, was of course quite a different

matter, and really not under his control. It was his solemn duty to appear in the corridor once

a week, and to gibber from the large oriel window on the first and third Wednesday in every

month, and he did not see how he could honourably escape from his obligations. It is quite

true that his life had been very evil, but, upon the other hand, he was most conscientious in all things connected with the supernatural. For the next three Saturdays, accordingly, he traversed

the corridor as usual between midnight and three o' clock, taking every possible precaution

against being either heard or seen. He removed his boots, trod as lightly as possible on the old

worm-eaten boards, wore a large black velvet cloak, and was careful to use the Rising Sun

Lubricator for oiling his chains. I am bound to acknowledge that it was with a good deal of

difficulty that he brought himself to adopt this last mode of protection. However, one night,

while the family were at dinner, he slipped into Mr. Otis's bedroom and carried off the bottle.

He felt a little humiliated at first, but afterwards was sensible enough to see that there was a

great deal to be said for the invention, and, to a certain degree, it served his purpose. Still, in

spite of everything, he was not left unmolested. Strings were continually being stretched

across the corridor, over which he tripped in the dark, and on one occasion, while dressed for

the part of "Black Isaac, or the Huntsman of Hogley Woods," he met with a severe fall,

through treading on a butter-slide, which the twins had constructed from the entrance of the

Tapestry Chamber to the top of the oak staircase. This last insult so enraged him, that he

resolved to make one final effort to assert his dignity and social position, and determined to

visit the insolent young Estonians the next night in his celebrated character of "Reckless

Rupert, or the Headless Earl."

He had not appeared in this disguise for more than seventy years; in fact, not since he had so

frightened pretty Lady Barbara Modish by means of it, that she suddenly broke off her

engagement with the present Lord Canterville's grandfather, and ran away to Gretna Green

with handsome Jack Castleton, declaring that nothing in the world would induce her to marry

into a family that allowed such a horrible phantom to walk up and down the terrace at

twilight. Poor Jack was afterwards shot in a duel by Lord Canterville on Wandsworth

Common, and Lady Barbara died of a broken heart at Tunbridge Wells before the year was

out, so, in every way, it had been a great success. It was, however, an extremely difficult

"make-up," if I may use such a theatrical expression in connection with one of the greatest

mysteries of the supernatural, or, to employ a more scientific term, the higher-natural world,

and it took him fully three hours to make his preparations. At last everything was ready, and

he was very pleased with his appearance. The big leather riding-boots that went with the dress

were just a little too large for him, and he could only find one of the two horse-pistols, but, on

the whole, he was quite satisfied, and at a quarter-past one he glided out of the wainscoting

and crept down the corridor. On reaching the room occupied by the twins, which I should

mention was called the Blue Bed Chamber, on account of the colour of its hangings, he found

the door just ajar. Wishing to make an effective entrance, he flung it wide open, when a heavy

jug of water fell right down on him, wetting him to the skin, and just missing his left shoulder

by a couple of inches. At the same moment he heard stifled shrieks of laughter proceeding

from the four-post bed. The shock to his nervous system was so great that he fled back to his

room as hard as he could go, and the next day he was laid up with a severe cold. The only

thing that at all consoled him in the whole affair was the fact that he had not brought his head

with him, for, had he done so, the consequences might have been very serious.

He now gave up all hope of ever frightening this rude American family, and contented

himself as a rule, with creeping about the passages in list slippers, with a thick red muffler

round his throat for fear of draughts, and a small arquebuse, in case he should be attacked by

the twins. The final blow he received occurred on the 19th of September. He had gone

downstairs to the great entrance-hall, feeling sure that there, at any rate, he would be quite

unmolested, and was amusing himself by making satirical remarks on the large Saroni

photographs of the United States Minister and his wife, which had now taken the place of the

Canterville family pictures. He was simply but neatly clad in a long shroud, spotted with churchyard mould, had tied up his jaw with a strip of yellow linen, and carried a small lantern

and a sexton's spade. In fact, he was dressed for the character of "Jonas the Graveless, or the

Corpse-Snatcher of Chertsey Barn," one of his most remarkable impersonations, and one

which the Cantervilles had every reason to remember, as it was the real origin of their quarrel

with their neighbour, Lord Rufford. It was about a quarter-past two o'clock in the morning,

and, as far as he could ascertain, no one was stirring. As he was strolling towards the library,

however, to see if there were any traces left of the blood-stain, suddenly there leaped out on

him from a dark corner two figures, who waved their arms wildly above their heads, and

shrieked out "BOO!" in his ear.

Seized with a panic, which, under the circumstances, was only natural, he rushed for the

staircase, but found Washington Otis waiting for him there with the big garden-syringe; and

being thus hemmed in by his enemies on every side, and driven almost to bay, he vanished

into the great iron stove, which, fortunately for him, was not lit, and had to make his way

home through the flues and chimneys, arriving at his own room in a terrible state of dirt,

disorder, and despair.

After this he was not seen again on any nocturnal expedition. The twins lay in wait for him

on several occasions, and strewed the passages with nutshells every night to the great

annoyance of their parents and the servants, but it was of no avail. It was quite evident that his

feelings were so wounded that he would not appear. Mr. Otis consequently resumed his great

work on the history of the Democratic Party, on which he had been engaged for some years;

Mrs. Otis organized a wonderful clambake, which amazed the whole county; the boys took to

lacrosse, euchre, poker, and other American national games; and Virginia rode about the lanes

on her pony, accompanied by the young Duke of Cheshire, who had come to spend the last

week of his holidays at Canterville Chase. It was generally assumed that the ghost had gone

away, and, in fact, Mr. Otis wrote a letter to that effect to Lord Canterville, who, in reply,

expressed his great pleasure at the news, and sent his best congratulations to the Minister's

worthy wife.

The Otises, however, were deceived, for the ghost was still in the house, and though now

almost an invalid, was by no means ready to let matters rest, particularly as he heard that

among the guests was the young Duke of Cheshire, whose grand-uncle, Lord Francis Stilton,

had once bet a hundred guineas with Colonel Carbury that he would play dice with the

Canterville ghost, and was found the next morning lying on the floor of the card-room in such

a helpless paralytic state, that though he lived on to a great age, he was never able to say

anything again but "Double Sixes." The story was well known at the time, though, of course,

out of respect to the feelings of the two noble families, every attempt was made to hush it up;

and a full account of all the circumstances connected with it will be found in the third volume

of Lord Tattle's Recollections of the Prince Regent and his Friends. The ghost, then, was

naturally very anxious to show that he had not lost his influence over the Stiltons, with whom

indeed, he was distantly connected, his own first cousin having been married en secondes

noces to the Sieur de Bulkeley, from whom, as every one knows, the Dukes of Cheshire are

lineally descended. Accordingly, he made arrangements for appearing to Virginia's little lover

in his celebrated impersonation of "The Vampire Monk, or, the Bloodless Benedictine," a

performance so horrible that when old Lady Startup saw it, which she did on one fatal New

Year's Eve, in the year 1764, she went off into the most piercing shrieks, which culminated in

violent apoplexy, and died in three days, after disinheriting the Cantervilles, who were her

nearest relations, and leaving all her money to her London apothecary. At the last moment,however, his terror of the twins prevented his leaving his room, and the little Duke slept in

peace under the great feathered canopy in the Royal Bedchamber, and dreamed of Virginia.

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