Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts

n Lanihale, August 15, 1810: or so much of it as is hereby related by the R

s to little more than this - that Laquedem, a young Hebrew of extraordinary commercial gifts, first came to our parish in 1807 and settled here as managing secretary of a privateering company at Porthlooe; that by his aptitude and daring in this and the illicit trade he amassed a respectable fortune, and at length opened a private bank a

he mysteries of another world, but knowing that the time is near when all accounts must be rendered, desire to take stock honestly of what they believe and what they do not. And here lies my difficulty. On the one hand I would not make public an experience which, however honestly set down, might mislead others, and especially the youn

, as well as the brass plaque of which I sent you a tracing; and I think not above a fortnight later that, on your suggestion, I set to work to decipher and copy out the old churchwardens' accounts. On the Monday after Easter, at about nine o'clock P.M.,

gentleman

that came along quickly found its way to the Jews. People said that Government was buying up gold, through the Jews, to send to the armies. I know not the degree of truth in this, but I had some five and twenty g

tted a young man in a caped overcoat and tall boots bemired

r.

m," said he in

gh it was a Mr. Isaac Laquedem whom

fetch my bag of guineas. "You have ha

ed, lifting a muddy boot.

in this weather? My faith, sir,

olding them up to the candlelight, testing their edges with his thumbn

r of scales,"

not need them. The guineas are good weight, all but t

rely on your hand

He was a decidedly handsome young man, with dark intelligent eyes and a slightly scornful - or shall I say ironi

ed, "1.898, or practically

ly astounded, "a lifetime too little

ent again until the business of payment was concluded. While folding the recei

as well

tain

o my bureau I took out the brass plaque which Mr. Pollard had detached from the planks

s him in an absent-minded fashion, and, sitting down, rested his brow on his open palms. I can recall

this?" he asked, but

ng upon it is singular.

n imperial crown surmounting - these are the arms of the Greek Empire, the two gates are Rome and Constantinople. The question is, h

rescoes and charcoal drawings

egan to drum

ich might tell us when the

lastering, but the entries of expenditure on whitewashing occur periodically, the first under the year 1633." I turned the old pages an

n the leaf, then up, then turned back a page. "Perhaps this may explain it," said he. "Ite deliued Mr. Beuill to make puision for the companie o

about to suggest that you draw it to the

to stay the night; not so much, I confess, from desire of his company, as in the hope that

ger, fervid, sublimis cupidusque, as I was before my beard grew stiff. But this young man had the air of a spectator at a play, composing himself to be amused. There was too much wisdom in him and too little emotion. We did not, of course, touch upon any religious question - indeed, of his own opinio

for the church. The day was sunny and warm; the atmosphere brilliant after the night's rain. The hedges exhaled a scent of spring. And, as we entere

handsome girl!" m

, "she has her goo

poor s

nearly so," said I, fitt

o begin with the frescoes, or original series. One, as you know, represented the Crucifixion. The head of the Saviour bore a large crown of gilded thorns, and from the wound in His left side flowed a continuous stream of red gouts of blood, extraordinarily intense in colour (and

g up a road, at the top of which stood a circular building with an arched doorway and, within the doorway, the

the two foremost furnished with yards and square sails, the others with lateen-shaped sails, after the Greek fashion; her sides were decorated with six gaily painted bands or streaks, e

- a group rendered conspicuous by an isolated right hand and arm drawn on a larger scale than the rest. A gilded circlet adorned the arm, which was flexed at the elbow, the hand h

paws clasped in a supplicating posture, thick black horns, and eyes which (for additional horror) the artist had painted red and edged with a circle of white. At his feet crawled the hindmost limb of a peculiarly loathsome monster with claws stuck in the so

ine, if you can, the incongruous tableau; the Prince of Darkness almost touching the mourners beside the cross; the sorrowful nun and g

r some while in silence, holdin

discovered the plaque

to the e

ompare the crowns on her masts, too, with that on the plaque . . ." He s

ely behind me, and turning, I saw that the

also. "What do you mean b

an, and made as if to tap

," she persisted. "They b

o you r

wavered and changed into a vague foolish smile. "I can

?" asked Mr

parents are dead; an aunt looks af

coes. "Julia Constantine - an odd name," he mu

, the manor-farm. The family has belonged to this paris

u say? That's a strange thing to remember. H

sy-chain. After a while she shook her head. "I can't t

gested. To tell the truth I disappr

ile with something between a "by-your-leave" and a cha

tly to and fro. "Look at it, please, and stretch out your arm; look steadily. Now your

you please, sir, b

t ma

rk on m

k her sleeve, somewhat roughly, as I thought. "Look here, sir!" he exclaimed, pointing to a thin red

I, "with a string or ribbon, whi

is a birthmark. You have had

ed and confiding; and for the moment he too seemed to be startled. But his smile came ba

there was sand around you - eh! Te

ulum-swing of the chain. "Tell us,"

s below me . . . and something above . . . something like a great tent." She fa

ere thousands of pe

the sand . . . the rest were around . . . under the t

s forehead. "Good Lord!" I hea

ed, "I think we have had

went on steadily as i

en you

y, and I saw a horror dawn

fault. Automatically he began to sway the daisy-chain afresh. "We were

ring his voice almost to a whisper; and

gain . . . we were up there, stretched on deck, near the tiller . . . anoth

he insisted, "is

. . . we and the crew . . . the sea is close behind us . . . some men hav

boots. As for him, I cannot hope to describe his face to you. There was something more in it than wonder - something more than dismay, even - at the success of his unhallowed experiment.

foot, "relax your cursed spells! Relax the

hain in his hand. She looked about her, shivered and stood erect. "Where am I?" she asked. "Did I fall

d marched up the path without deigning a glance at the young m

pped the experiment before. But I was startled - thr

like has happened to other

no thought -" he began

a curious puzzle in archaeology, and you fall to playing devil's

and - the velarium- the outstretched arm and hand -pollic

adiatorial shows under the Easte

t," he mused, "only mak

gate, and there lies the highroad, on to Porthlooe or back to Plymouth, as you please. I wish you

alted then and there and raised his hat; stood for a moment ponderi

He had bought the Providence schooner; he had acted as freighter for Minards' men in their last run with the Morning Star; he had slipped over to Cork and brought home a Porthlooe prize illegally detained there; he was in London, fighting a salvage case in the Admiralty Court; . . . Within twelve months he was accoun

ime in the street of Porthlooe, and he accosted me with a politeness to which, though distrusting him, I

lking homewards from a visit to a sick parishioner, when at Cove Bottom, by the miller's footbridge, I passed two figures - a man and a woman sta

"I put it to you, as a man of education an

ough, "I can convince you that it is. But cl

nt on, "but I have known J

ed; and added, with a change of tone, "Had you not forbidden

iritual welfare - or yours -

myself the pleasure of calling upon

ggested to me to draw the comparison; at any rate I observed then for the first time that rapid ageing of his features which afterwards became a matter of common remark. The f

unwell," said I,

oncern, he cut me short. "Oh, there will be no hurry about it! I mean, perhaps, no more than that all men carry ab

having known her and her affliction all her life, I

, do you not begin to observe

," said I, "she

done that; or rathe

u are going to tell me! If you have intended or wr

who have loved, and lost, and sought each other, and loved again through centuries, have outlearned

my chair and staring. At last I k

, "the learned antiquary to whom, as you told me, you were sending your trac

est to get him out of the house), "My friend tells me that a similar design is

e Paleologus, descenda

eaning. "The race, so far as

s never extinct; and while it lasts, the soul of Julia Constantin

ait

lifts the curse, a

" said I, my tongue bl

if you meet me tomorrow, shall recognise none. Just now you are forced to believe me mad. Believe it then; but listen while I tell you this:- When Rome was, I was; when Constantinople was, I was. I was that Jew rescued from the lions. It was I who sailed from the Bosphorus in that ship, with Julia beside me; I from whom the Moorish pirates tore her, on the beach beside Tetuan; I who, cen

rd his legend," said I;4 "and have unders

suspect, he has not travelled beyond forgiveness. Many times I have known her who shall save me in the end; and now in the end I have found her and shall be a

is face on his arms, sobbed aloud. I let him sob the

the arm almost to the shoulder. "I want you close," he added with half a smile; for I have to confess that during the process I had backed a couple of paces towards the door. He took up a candle, and held it wh

mysteries deeper yet. The Church Catholic, whose servant I am, has never to my knowledge denied this; yet has providentially made a rule of St. Paul's advice to the Colossians against intruding into those things which she hath not seen. In the matter of this extraordinary belief of y

as he slipped on his coat. "M

, and, having shaken hands,

ing game; and one day her lover found her in the centre of a knot of women fringed by a dozen children with open mouths and ears. He stepped forward. "Ladies," said he, "the difficulty which vexes you cannot, I feel sure, be altogether good for your small sons and daughters. Let me put an end to it." He bent forward and reverently took July's hand. "My dear, it appears that the depth of my respect for you will not be cr

the transfiguration - if such it was - entirely to the dawn and growth of her reason. To this I can add a curious scrap of evidence. I was walking along the cliff track, one afternoon, between Porthlooe and Lanihale church-town, when, a few yards ahead, I heard a man's voice declaiming in monotone some sentences which I could not catch; and rounding the corner, came upon Laquedem and July. She was

ast scene, of which I was

ere many riders and moving at a trot; and a minute later the jingle of metal gave me an inkling of the truth. I hurried to the window and pulled up the blind. Day was breaking on a grey dr

parish priest in those days to know too much - it had reached my ears that Laquedem was himself in Roscoff bargaining for the freight. But we had all learnt confidence in him by this time - his increasing bodily weakness never seemed to affect his cleverness and resou

d July Constantine came running down the hill, her

I hope?" She turned a white, di

, and sent up the rocket from the church-tower. But the lugger stood in-they

un out towards the point; we - you, I

nt-cloth, and through the rent I saw a broad patch of the cove below; the sands (for the tide was at low ebb) shining like silver; the dragoons with their greatcoats thrown back from their scarlet breasts and their accoutrements flashing

the verge of the cliff, whe

e s

ure of the hand in the fresco - the forefinger extended, the

ll, but rather as one musing, much as she had answered Laqu

mob of free-traders and wheeled their horses round, fetlock deep in the tide, I saw a figure break from the crowd and run, but presently check himself and walk composedly towards the cl

suit, he turned deliberately. There was no defiance in his attitude; of that I am sure. What followed must have been mere blundering ferocity.

as halfway down the cliffside, springing as surely as a goat, and, where she found no foothold, clutching the grass, the rooted samphires and sea pinks, and sliding. While my

ing-officer. "We must have the ma

the skirmish to ease her off, so that a push would set her afloat. He asserts that as July came up to him she never uttered a word, but the look on her face said "Push me off

s you may guess, the free-traders did nothing to help and a great deal to impede. And first the crews tumbled in too hurriedly, and had to climb out again (looking very foolish) and push afresh, and then one of the boats had mysteriously lost her plug and sank in half a fathom of water. July had gained a full hundred yards' offing before the pur

under the point, and gone about on the port tack - the next would clear - when the first shot struck her, cutting a hole through her jib, and I expected th

e running right up into the wind. The stern swung round and I strained my eyes to catch a glimpse of her. At that moment a

a will. I saw them run alongside, clamber

ve lifted her lover's body overboard and followed it to the bottom of the sea, There is no other explanation; and of the bond that knit these two together there is, when I ask myself candidly, no explana