Ghosts - Guy de Maupassant

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ghosts by guide de Maupassant. Just at the time when
the Concordat was in its most flourishing condition, a young
man belonging to a wealthy and highly respected middle class
family went to the office of the head of police
at p and begged for his help and advice, which

(00:20):
was immediately promised him. My father threatens to disinherit me,
the young man then began, although I have never offended
against the laws of the state of morality or of
his paternal authority, merely because I do not share his
blind reverence for the Catholic Church and her ministers. On
that account, he looks upon me not merely as latitudinarian,

(00:44):
but as a perfect atheist and a faithful old man
servant of ours, who is much attached to me, and
who accidentally saw my father's will, told me in confidence
that he had left all his property to the Jesuits.
I think this is highly suspicious, and I fear that
the priests have been beligning me to my father. Until

(01:04):
less than a year ago, we used to live very
quietly and happily together, But ever since he has had
so much to do with the clergy, our domestic peace
and happiness are at an end. What you have told me,
the official replied, is as likely as it is regrettable.
But I fail to see how I can interfere in
the matter. Your father is in full possession of all

(01:27):
his mental faculties and can dispose of all his property
exactly as he pleases. I also think that your protest
is premature. You must wait until his will can legally
take effect, and then you can invoke the aid of justice.
I am sorry to say that I can do nothing
for you. I think you will be able to the
young man replied, for I believe that a very clever

(01:50):
piece of deceit is being carried on here. How please
explain yourself more clearly. When I remonstrated with him yesterday evening,
he referred to my dead mother, and at last assured me,
in a voice of the deepest conviction, that she had
frequently appeared to him and had threatened him with all
the torments of the damned if he did not disinherit

(02:13):
his son, who had fallen away from God, and leave
all his property to the church. Now, I do not
believe in ghosts, neither do I, the police director replied,
But I cannot well do anything on this dangerous ground
if I had nothing but superstitions to go upon. You
know how the Church rules all our affairs since to

(02:33):
concord it with Rome. And if I investigate this matter
and obtain no results, I am risking my post. You
would be very different if you could adduce any proofs
for your suspicions. I do not deny that I should
like to see the clerical party, which will I fear
be the ruin of Austria, receive a staggering blow. Try therefore,

(02:54):
to get to the bottom of this business, and then
we will talk it over again. About a month passed
without the young latitudinarian being heard of, But then he
suddenly came one evening, evidently in a great state of excitement,
and told him that he was in a position to
expose the priestly deceit which he had mentioned, if the
authorities would assist him. The police director asked for further information.

(03:20):
I have obtained a number of important clues, the young
man said. In the first place, my father confessed to
me that my mother did not appear to him in
our house, but in the churchyard where she is buried.
My mother was consumptive for many years, and a few
weeks before her death she went to the village of
s where she died and was buried. In addition to this,

(03:42):
I found out from our footman that my father has
already left the house twice late at night in company
of X, the Jesuit priest, and that on both occasions
he did not return till morning. Each time he was
remarkably uneasy and low spirited after his return, and had
three mass is said for my dead mother. He also

(04:03):
told me just now that he has to leave home
this evening on business. But immediately he told me that
our footmen saw that Jez would go out of the house.
We may therefore assume that he intends this evening to
consult the spirit of my dead mother again. And this
would be an excellent opportunity for getting on the track
of the matter. If you do not object to opposing

(04:24):
the most powerful force in the empire for the sake
of such an insignificant individual as myself. Every citizen has
an equal right to the protection of the state. The
police director applied, and I think that I have shown
often enough that I am not wanting encouraged to perform
my duty, no matter how serious. The consequences may be,

(04:44):
but only very young men act without any prospects of success,
as they are carried away by their feelings. When you
came to me the first time, I was obliged to
refuse your request for assistance. But today your shares have
risen and value. It is now eight o'clock and I
shall expect you in two hours time here in my office.
At present, all you have to do is hold your tongue.

(05:07):
Everything else is my affair. As soon as it was dark,
four men got into a closed carriage in the yard
of the police office and were driven in the direction
of the village of s Their carriage, however, did not
enter the village, but stopped at the edge of a
small wood in the immediate neighborhood. Here they all four alighted.

(05:27):
They were the police director, accompanied by the young latitudinarian,
a police sergeant, and an ordinary policeman who was, however,
dressed in plain clothes. The first thing for us to
do is examine the locality carefully, the police director said.
It is eleven o'clock and the exercises of ghosts will
not arrive before midnight, so we have time to look

(05:50):
round us and to take our measure. The four men
went to the churchyard, which lay at the end of
the village, near the little wood. Everything was still as death,
and not a soul was to be seen. The sexton
was evidently sitting in the public house, for they found
the door of his cottage locked, as well as the
door of the little chapel that stood in the middle

(06:11):
of the churchyard. Where is your mother's grave, the police
director asked, But as there were only a few stars visible,
it was not easy to find it. But at last
they managed it, and the police director looked about in
the neighborhood of it. The position is not a very
favorable one for us, he said, at last, there is
nothing here, not even a shrub behind which we could hide.

(06:35):
But just then the policeman said that he had tried
to get into the sexton's hut through the door or
the window, and that at last he had succeeded in
doing so by breaking open a square in the window
which had been mended with paper, and that he had
opened it and obtained possession of the key, which he
had brought to the police director. His plans were very

(06:56):
quickly settled. He had the chapel opened and went in
with the young latitudinarian. Then he told the police sergeant
to lock the door behind him, and to put the
key back where he had found it, and to shut
the window of the sexton's cottage carefully. Lastly, he made
arrangements as to what they were to do in case
anything unforeseen should occur. Where Upon the sergeant and the

(07:18):
constable left the churchyard lay down in a ditch at
some distance from the gate but opposite to it. Almost
as soon as the clock struck half past eleven, they
heard steps near the chapel, whereupon the police director and
the young latitudinarian went to the window in order to
watch the beginning of the exorcism. And as the chapel

(07:41):
was in total darkness, they thought that they should be
able to see without being seen, but matters turned out
differently from what they expected. Suddenly, the key turned in
the lock, and they barely had time to conceal themselves
behind the altar before two men came in, one of
whom was carrying a dark land. One was the young

(08:02):
man's father, an elderly man of the middle class, who
seemed very unhappy and depressed. The other, the Jesuit father, kay,
a tall, thin, big boned man with a thin, bilious
face in which two large gray eyes shone restlessly under
their bushy black eyebrows. He lit the tapers which were
standing on the altar, and then began to say Erequi

(08:25):
a mass, while the old man knelt on the altar
steps and served him. When it was over, the Jesuit
took the book of the Gospels and the holy water
sprinkler and went slowly out of the chapel, while the
old man followed him with a holy water basin in
one hand and a taper in the other. Then the
police director left his hiding place, and, stooping down so

(08:47):
as not to be seen, he crept through the chapel window,
where he cowered down carefully, and the young man followed
his example. They were now looking straight on his mother's grave.
The Jesuit, followed by the superstitious old man, walked three
times round the grave. Then he remained standing before it,
and by the light of the taper, he read a

(09:09):
few passages from the Gospel. Then he dipped the holy
water sprinkler three times into the holy water basin and
sprinkled the grave three times. Then both returned to the chapel,
knelt down outside it with their faces towards the grave,
and began to pray aloud, until at last the jesuit
sprang up in a species of wild ecstasy and cried

(09:31):
out three times in a shrill voice. X surgery, ex surgey,
ex surgery. Scarcely had the last word of the exorcism
died away, when thick blue smoke rose out of the grave,
which rapidly grew into a cloud and began to assume
the outlines of a human body, until at last a
tall white figure stood behind the grave and beckoned with

(09:54):
his hand, who art thou? The jesuit asked solemnly, while
the old man and began to cry. When I was alive,
I was called Anna Maria b The ghost replied in
a hollow voice. Well you answer all my questions, the
priest continued, as far as I can. Have you not

(10:17):
yet been delivered from purgatory by our prayers and all
the masses for your soul which we have said for you?
Not yet? But soon soon I shall be when as
soon as that blasphemer my son has been punished. Has
that not already happened? Has not your husband disinherited his

(10:39):
lost son and made the church his heir in his place.
That is not enough. What must he do? Besides? He
must deposit his will with the judicial authorities as his
last will and testament, and drive the reprobate out of
his house. Consider well what you are saying, Must this
really be? It must, or otherwise I shall have to

(11:03):
languish in purgatory much longer. The sepulchral voice replied with
a deep sigh. But the next moment it yelled out
in terror, Oh good Lord, and the ghost began to
run away as fast as it could. A shrill whistle
was heard, and then another, and the police director laid
his hand on the shoulder of the exerciser, accompanied with

(11:24):
the remark you are in custody. Meanwhile, the police sergeant
and the policeman who had come into the churchyard had
caught the ghost and dragged it forward. It was the
sexton who had put on a flowing white dress, and
who wore a wax mask which bore a striking resemblance
to his mother, as the son declared. When the case

(11:45):
was heard, it was proved that the mask had been
very skillfully made from a portrait of the deceased woman.
The government gave orders that the matter should be investigated
as secretly as possible, and left the punishment of Father
Kay to the spiritual which was a matter of course
at a time when priests were outside the jurisdiction of

(12:05):
the civil authorities, and it is needless to say that
he was very comfortable during his imprisonment in a monastery
and a part of the country which abounded with game
and trout. The only valuable result of the amusing ghost
story was that it brought about a reconciliation between father
and son, and the former, as a matter of fact,

(12:26):
felt such a deep respect for priests and their ghosts.
In consequence of the apparition that a short time after
his wife had left purgatory for the last time in
order to talk with him, he turned Protestant