A Young Witch.
For the last three weeks an entire quarter of the town of Bordeaux has been thrown into a state of excitement, in consequence of a series of occurrences which seemed traceable to no other source than witchcraft. In a house in the rue Nanjac, inhabited by one Landon, the windows were shattered by stones launched from an invisible hand; some occasionally fell into the fire, or, in other instances, a quantity of water was poured over it without the possibility of discovering by what means.
The police had already arrested five persons on suspicion, but still the same performances were repeated. At last, however, all these mysteries have been explained, and, says the Memorial Bordelais, the magician has been under lock and key since Saturday. He was conducted, under the guise of a fresh visaged young girl of fifteen, by two police officers, before the Procurator of the Republic, who discovered the pretended devil to be no other than the servant of the man Landon, who had been in the service of a fortune teller, from whom she had probably received a few lessons in the magic art, which she was anxious to put into practice.
The whole mystery was discovered in the following manner:- For two days previous to the discovery, peace had returned to the rue Nanjac, and to the family of the employe in the contributione indirectes.Five persons had been arrested, as was already stated, and among their number one or two of the inventors of the shower of stones were thought to be in safe custody. Nevertheless Landon deemed it safe to cause the upper part of the chimney to be grated over. Thanks to these useful precautions, he reckoned upon enjoying a tranquil night, when a fresh volley of stones fell into the chimney-place and smashed the kettle which was on the fire.
This time there could be no doubt it was the devil himself, for the apertures of the grating were very narrow and the stones very large. Such was the decided verdict of all the gossips of the quarter, but the chief of the police de surete was bold to dissent from it. To arrive at some satisfactory conclusion, he took the servant aside and accused her of being alone guilty of this prolonged mystification. The young girl immediately grew confused, and confessed that ever since a stone had struck one of the panes of glass in the window, and had frightened her mistress, she had conceived the idea of breaking more, and setting it down to the account of the devil; that all the stones which had fallen upon the hearth had simply come from her pocket, where she had carefully concealed them; and that with respect to the water which had extinguished the fire, it was also thrown on by her when her mistress’s back was turned; and lastly, in order to give more weight to these devilries of hers, she had struck the head of the child that it might be believed a stone had been hurled at its head by an evil spirit.
These confessions having been repeated two or three times before the authorities, there was no longer any pretext for detaining the previously suspected persons in custody, and they were accordingly immediately liberated.
Elgin Courier, 22nd March 1850.
(Translated from the Courrier des Etats Unis.)
The Haunted House.
We find related in a late number of the Courrier des Etats Unis, a mysterious affair which recently created quite an excitement in the usually quiet city of Bordeaux, and which puts entirely in the shade the “mysterious knockings” at Rochester, and the diabolical doings in Connecticut. Believing that anything that may tend to throw some light on these dark, fantastical proceedings, and open the eyes of the too credulous, as to the absurdity of attaching the slightest importance to these supernatural doings, we translate the ghost story, omitting, however, some of the less important details.
“About the middle of the Rue Naujac, stands a small white house, with green blinds, and a garden, and a small yard in the rear. Only two tenants occupy the house. During the last fortnight, events of the most extraordinary character have occurred in the garden, in the rooms, and especially in the kitchen chimney of the ill-fated dwelling, and the whole neighbourhood has been thrown into the highest state of excitement. People talked of nothing but ghosts and hobgoblins. Fear took possession of every heart, and crowds congregated day and night, in front of the little house with green blinds, anxious to solve the awful mystery.
Now, these are facts which occurred at the little house with green blinds, throwing the honest tenants into dismal consternation.
One day, at sundown, at the hour when the soup kettle is placed on the fire, to warm up the soup for dinner, a stone suddenly fell through the chimney, smashing the earthen pot, scattering the coals about the room, and spilling the broth over the hearth.
The first time this thing happened, it was supposed that some fragment of brick or mortar, having become detached from the chimney, had fallen down into the fire-place. That was a sufficiently natural supposition, and had we have been the tenants, we would certainly have indulged it ourselves.
A new kettle, however, had scarcely been replaced upon the fire, when another big stone came, like a thunderbolt, through the window, dashing the panes to atoms, and striking right in the middle of the kitchen, to the utter astonishment of the honest tenants, who could scarcely believe their own eyes. The inside shutters were instantly closed, and the family gathered around the hearth to inquire into the meaning of these mysterious attacks, and what invisible hand could have thus smashed the soup kettle, and broken the window glass. Courage returned after a while. Perhaps, suggested one, it was only some boy at play, who threw stones on the roof, and against the roof.
We would have thought just so.
This suggestion seemed to dispel the fears of the good tenants, and they set about to prepare anew their supper, when, oh, horrors! the hearth is inundated, the fire is extinguished, a dense smoke fills the room, and a considerable quantity of water is seen running down the chimney!
A general rush is instantly made towards the garden, in search of the evil spirits who dared thus to disturb the peace of the inoffensive citizens. But at the same moment the back and front windows flew open, the glass was smashed to atoms, and in every room the stones came in like hail, striking several of the little children, and inflicting severe wounds upon them.
The family were in consternation, and shut themselves up, carefully closing all the inside shutters, which resounded with a constant hail of stones. Nobody went to bed that night.
The next morning, a complaint was made to the commissaire de police, who is supposed to have the power to rout all evil spirits. The commissary came, accompanied by the Deputy Sheriff, the Judge of instruction, the clerk, and in fact, the whole judiciary. Every one was submitted to a severe cross-examination, careful search was made in the garden, in the yard, in the rooms, the neighbouring houses, adjoining gardens and yards, the roof and the chimney; but to no purpose. Nothing was found, not the slightest trace of spirits, ghosts, hobgoblins, witch or conjurer.
The magistrates returned, believing it perhaps a mystification or hallucination. But how could it be possible? There were the stones piled up in the chimney, and scattered about the rooms. There were the windows pasted up with paper, in place of the broken glass, and a child was laid upon the bed, with the wound in its head bound up. These facts could not be denied.
During this, and the following days, in broad day light, as well as night, it rained stones from the garden and yard, and torrents of water poured down the chimney, and inundated the kitchen in such a manner, that it was impossible to cook the dinner; and yet the evil spirits, so extremely subtle and cunning, succeeded to escape the most minute search, and escaped all possible investigation.
One evening, their wickedness went even so far as to throw down the chimney, a dead cat! It was supposed this would be the finishing stroke, and a truce of some days tended to confirm the hope. But alas! the respite did not last long. The spirits resumed their infernal racket, and that too, under the very eyes of the police, who spared no effort or means to surprise them. They carried their audacity to the last extremity, but we must here remark, that they seemed to address themselves only to one of the tenants, a man named Landon, an officer of the excise. It was at first thought to be some grudge against him, but afterwards he began himself to be suspected of making the disturbance. It was not so, however, as it was proved afterwards.
“About 8 o’clock, night before last,” says a paper of March 6th, “the Naujac street affair became more complicated. An evil spirit, in the shape of a bully some six feet in his boots, succeeded in gaining admittance to the house, under the pretence of being a law officer. – Once in the house, this spirit administered to officer Landon, a lesson in physical pugilism, which would have done honour to a professional knight of the ring. Landon was not disconcerted, however, and believing that this time, he had at last got hold of the real witch, he defended himself bravely, and furrowed the face of the ghost with his sharp nails, leaving the marks of the bloody conflict upon the face of the evil spirit.
This event, as wonderful and unaccountable as the dead cat which fell through the chimney upon the soup kettle, produced the deepest sensation in the neighbourhood. ‘It cannot be denied,’ all said, ‘that it is the devil in person who has appeared and taken possession of the house with green blinds.’
The police remained on the spot night and day, and made the most thorough search in the recesses, presses, closets, under the beds, in the bed ticks, the cupboards, and finally they explored the chimney and cellar, but nothing, nothing, nothing!”
In short, the police were completely at fault and dumbfounded, when a sudden inspiration of the victim of the devil led to a discovery of the mystery.
The devil had taken another short respite, and his victim, Landon, was walking quietly in his garden, entirely off his guard, when the infernal game was again renewed in the house. All of a sudden, a stone came from the direction of the window, then two, then three, to the utter dismay of the good lady, and the discomfiture of the soup kettle, which she was busily skimming. Alarmed, she ran out and carried the stones to her husband, who could hardly believe his own eyes, for, he had had thick gratings put on the outside of the windows, and the stones which must have come through the gratings, were twice as large as the interstices!
This was witchcraft, magic, or the doings of the devil.
Landon now conceived the idea of hiding himself under his bed, but he discovered nothing. At last, not knowing what to do, he said to himself, “Who knows but our servant girl is a witch? for according to all laws of nature, these stones could never have come through the gratings. Either the girl or the devil must have thrown them.” Thereupon the victimised tenant undertook carefully to examine the girl’s eyes, for it was well known there is something peculiar in the eyes of witches.
However he could discover nothing satanic in them. He then questioned her. At first she replied calmly; but afterwards, suspicions having been expressed, she was angry, screamed, wept, sobbed, called Heaven to witness that she was not a witch, and that the accusation was shameful and infamous.
The anger of the young girl, far from convincing the exciseman of her innocence, only strengthened his suspicions. “I have it,” said he, rubbing his hands. He then spoke to her in a kind manner, declared that he had seen all, threatened exposure to the police, and obtained a complete confession.
“The young girl,” says a Bordeaux paper, “has made a full confession. She is the sole witch, who, for a whole month, has disturbed with her diableries the house with green blinds and the whole neighbourhood.
This kitchen magieiienne, improving a moment when her master could not see her, took a stone and let fly. It was this that broke the glass and fell inside the window. There was a large vessel filled with water in the corner of the chimney, and when all eyes were turned in another direction, a large quantity of it was thrown by her up the chimney, to come down again, laden with soot, inundating the hearth and kitchen floor. The dead cat made its appearance through the same process. These tricks, learned of a fortune teller, in whose employ she once was, the girl has played off, week after week, without being detected by the most cunning; and she carried with her to prison, where she is now safely locked up, the consolation that the discovery was not made, at least, by the Police.”
Green Mountain Freeman (Vermont), May 23rd, 1850.