Haunted House Scare.
Villagers Thrown Into State of Terror.
A haunted house has thrown the little village of Ardizas, near Toulouse, into a state of terror. The villagers say that every night extraordinary noises issue from the house, bells toll, and noises of galloping and of things falling about. Nobody dares to go near the place, while those living near the house are moving, and some of them are leaving the village altogether.
Nottingham Evening Post, 5th February 1929.
Vigorous Ghosts in French Farmhouse.
Occupant Flung from Bed and Bitten.
The inhabitants of Ardizas, a large village in the Gers Department of France, have been thrown into a state of panic owing to a mysterious occurence at a local farm. For some time at nightfall the house has been made practically uninhabitable owing to loud thumping noises and sounds of scampering feet, as though the powers of darkness were holding revel there.
Farmers, immediate neighbours, and many other villagers have heard these noises when they approached the farmhouse, and sometimes they have heard an invisible bell tolling like a death knell. The other night the farmer, it is stated, was roused from sleep by three loud raps on his bedroom door. Soon afterwards the door was forced open by some unseen agency, and the farmer was flung from his bed and savagely bitten on his right arm.
The assistance of the village priest was called upon, but this had no result, for even while the priest was sprinkling the walls of the farmhouse within, so terrifying the villagers that they prevented the priest from trying to enter the place. The owner of the farm and several of his neighbours are so convinced that the place is haunted by demons that they have left their homes and fled to neighbouring villages.
Nottingham Evening Post, 11th February 1929.