“Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the clouds,
In ranks, and squadrons, and right form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the capitol:
The noise of battle hurtled in the air.”
JULIUS CÆSAR.
ASTR. Methinks you claim too much homage from our courtesy to your
philosophy, Evelyn. Can we believe that all these wondrous forms and
shadows are but an illusion of the eye, or of the mind’s eye? And, if I
grant this truth in regard to the eye of _one_ mind, can we so easily
libel the evidence of a multitude, to whom the world of shadows is
unlocked?
We are now wandering in the very land of omens; and will this cold
philosophy of thine presume to draw aside the veil of mystery, which
hangs over the mountain and the cataract of yon wild principality?
E’en now the legends of many climes crowd on my memory; and, while this
purple cloud is o’er the sun, listen, I pr’ythee, to the traditions
which I have gathered; muse on the _sequences_ of these strange
appearances, and you will at length confess, with the Benedictine
Calmet—“Realité des apparitions est prouvée par l’événement des choses
prédites.”
The Tan-we or Tan-wed are streams of lucid fire, rolling along the lands
of a freeholder, who, warned of his coming fate, immediately makes his
will, and shortly after _dies_.
Among the gloomy gorges of Preselle, in Pembrokeshire, comes dancing on
that blue wild-fire the “Canwyl y Cyrph,” or “Corpse-candle.” As the
shades of evening are approaching, the spectre of the doomed comes
flitting before us, with a lighted taper in its hand, and with a solemn
step halts not until it rests on its destined grave, in the church-yard
ground. If dignities and fortune have been the earthly lot of this
doomed mortal, then is there shadowed forth an awful pageantry of hearse
and ghostly steeds, and mute mourners, all gliding away to the place of
the tomb, and, like the phantoms of the Aensprecker, in Holland, (a
funeral procession of no less fatality,) they foretell the doom of some
ill-fated friend.
Among the dingles of the Bachwy, in Radnorshire, amid scenery of wild
and lonely beauty, a few rugged stones denote the site of an ancient
castle of a Welsh prince; it is the ruin of the “Black Rock.” The
opposing masses of this eternal rock, tapestried with deep green moss
and lichen, fold in upon the stream directly over its matchless
cataract, which falls abruptly from the upper to the lower valley into
this gloomy gorge; the sunbeam playing on the upper ledge of the
waterfall, while its deep basin is shrouded in Stygian darkness. Into
this gulph it was the pleasure of the prince to hurl from his castle
walls, those whom fate had made his prisoners. Often since the era of
these cruelties, (as I learned from the oral legends of the peasants,)
before a death, a strange unearthly groaning is heard, the “Kyhirraeth,”
becoming fainter and fainter until the last gasp of the mortal whose
doom it forebodes.
There is the dead-bell, which the Scottish peasants believe to foretell
the death of a friend; and the death-cart of Lancashire, which is heard
rattling along the streets like a whirlwind; and the Owke Mouraske, a
demon of Norway, which never enters a house but some one of the family
dies within the year. We are assured also by the Saxon, Cranmer, that
ere one of the electoral house of Brandenburgh dies, a woman in white
appears to many throughout the dominions of Prussia.
The wild mountains that surround us are prolific in the “Anderyn y
Corff,” or “Corpse-bird,” and the “Cwm Amon,” or “Dogs of Hell,” which
are believed to be demons of death, in the shape of hounds, and, like
the mongrel of Faust, marked by a train of fire. These howl forth their
awful warning, while the death-peal rings in the ears of the nearest kin
of one about to die.
There is the legend of the “Ellyllon,” a prototype of the Scotch and
Irish “Banshie,” which appears as an old crone, with streaming hair and
a coat of blue, with her boding scream of death. The “Gwrach y Rhibyn,”
or “Hag of the Dribble,” whose pastime is to carry stones in her apron
across the mountains, and then to loosen her apron-string, and by the
shower of stones to make a “dribble.” This hag, at twilight, flaps her
raven wing against the chamber window of a doomed creature, and, with a
howl, cries out, “A a a ui ui Anni.”
In the wilderness of Zin, which stretches between Palestine and the Red
Sea, both the Bedouin Arab and the traveller are greeted by the sound of
_matin_ bells, like the convent peal which calls the nuns to their
devotion; and this, according to tradition, has been heard ever since
the crusades.
Then there is a fatal spirit of the desert, which, like an ignis fatuus,
lures men to destruction, by
“Airy tongues that syllable men’s names.”
The Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, writes of those who, wandering
unwarily from the track of the caravans in Tartary, hear the phantom
voice of some dear friend (who indeed sometimes appears in person),
which entices them from the route, and they perish in the desert.
And Lord Lindsay, in his travels through Egypt and the defiles of Edom,
tells us one circumstantial story from Vincent de Blanc, of a man
decoyed away from the caravan of an Arabian merchant by the entreaties
of a phantom voice.
Before an heir of Clifton sleeps in death, a sturgeon is always, it is
affirmed, taken in the river Trent. This incident, like many others,
becomes important from its consequence.
The park of Chartley is a wild and romantic spot, in its primitive
state, untouched by the hand of the agriculturist, and was formerly
attached to the royal forest of Needwood, and the honour of Tutbury, of
the whole of which the ancient family of De Ferrars were once the
puissant lords. Their immense possessions, now forming part of the duchy
of Lancaster, were forfeited by the attainder of Earl Ferrars, after his
defeat at Burton Bridge, where he led the rebellious barons against
Henry III. The Chartley estate, being settled in dower, was alone
reserved, and handed down to its present possessor. In the park is
preserved, in its primitive purity, the indigenous Staffordshire cow,
small in stature, of a sand-white colour, with black ears, muzzle, and
tips at the hoofs. In the year of the battle of Burton Bridge, a black
calf was born, and the downfall of the great house of Ferrars happening
at the same period, gave rise to the tradition, which to this day has
been held in veneration by the common people, that the birth of a
party-coloured calf from the wild breed in Chartley Park, is a sure omen
of death within the same year to a member of the lord’s family. A calf
of this description has been born whenever a death has happened in the
family of late years. The decease of the last earl and his countess, of
his son Lord Tamworth, of his daughter, Mrs. William Jolliffe, as well
as the deaths of the son and heir of the present nobleman and his
daughter, Lady Frances Shirley, have each been forewarned by the ominous
birth of a spotted calf. In the spring of a late year, an animal
perfectly black was calved by one of this weird tribe, in the park of
Chartley, and this birth also has been followed by the death of the
countess.
In the beautiful chapel of Rosslinne, founded by William Saint Clair,
prince of Orkney, there is a legend of the spectral light, which
illumined its gothic beauty, on the eve of a death among his
descendants. And my sweet Castaly will remember how pathetically Harold
sings the fate of Rosabelle Saint Clair.
In other districts, on the coming of such an event, these lights are
seen of various colours, and are termed “Dr’ Eug,”—“the Death of the
Druid;” and _they_ also marshal the funeral procession to the very verge
of the grave.
Dr. Caldicot solemnly writes, that when a Christian is drowned in the
Dee, a light appears over the spot, by which the body is easily
discovered; and hence the river is called “Holy” Dee.
The mysteries of the “Skibbereen Lights” are recorded by an honourable
gentleman of Ireland, and ladies and philosophers journeyed far to
behold them, and _believed_.—In a cottage in a marshy flat near Bantry
lived a man named Harrington, a perfect _anatomie vivante_, and
bedridden,—his heart devout,—his books all of a religious kind. In his
chamber, strange lights soon appeared, at first like the dim moonlight
on the wall, deepening often into _yellow_ light, and flickering round
the room. There was often a group of literati and fashion assembled
there, on whom the light danced and displayed all the various emotions
of the parties. Once at noon, but mostly at midnight, the light
appeared; and on all occasions Harrington seemed to anticipate before
others beheld them. Science has searched for causes; but neither in the
arts of an impostor, or the natural exhalation of luminous gases, has
been yet discovered a solution of this mystery.
In the wild country around Dolgelly, where Cader Idris frowns upon the
floods and fells of Merioneth,—where the Mawddach, after its
magnificent fall, rolls its waters through the brown and purple valley
to join the Wonion, and then expand into the mountain estuary of
Abermaw,—the wanderer will hear from many lips this current story.
On a dark evening, a few winters ago, some persons were returning to
Barmouth, on the south or opposite side of the river. As they approached
the ferry-house at Penthryn, which is directly opposite Barmouth, they
observed a light near the house, which they conjectured to be produced
by a bonfire; and greatly puzzled they were to discover the reason why
it should have been lighted. As they came nearer, however, it vanished;
and when they inquired at the house respecting it, they were surprised
to learn, that not only had the people there displayed no light, but
they had not even seen one, nor could they perceive any signs of it on
the sands. On reaching Barmouth, the circumstance was mentioned, and the
fact corroborated by some of the people there, who had also plainly and
distinctly seen the light. It was settled, therefore, by some of the old
fishermen, that this was a “death token;” and sure enough the man who
kept the ferry at that time was drowned at high water a few nights
afterwards, on the very spot where the light was seen. He was landing
from the boat, when he fell into the water, and so perished.
The same winter the Barmouth people, as well as the inhabitants of the
opposite banks, were struck by the appearance of a number of small
lights, which were seen dancing in the air at a place called Borthwyn,
about half a mile from the town. A great number of people came out to
see these lights, and after a while they all but one disappeared, and
this one proceeded slowly towards the water’s edge, to a little bay
where some boats were moored. The men in a sloop which was anchored near
the spot saw the light advancing; they saw it also hover for a few
seconds over one particular boat, and then totally disappear. Two or
three days afterwards the man to whom that particular boat belonged was
drowned in the river, while he was sailing about Barmouth harbour in
that very boat.
On a lofty mountain, rising over Marbach in Austria, stands the church
of Maria-Taferl; and miracles on miracles are related of this sacred
spot, since the time when the “Vesperbild,” an image of the Virgin, was
fixed on its oak. Even angels have visited the shrine. In the 17th
century these angelic visitants appeared in processions bearing a red
cross, while stars shone around the head of the Virgin. On one occasion
a red cross was borne along and a taper was lighted, _by no mortal
hand_, at the feet of the Vesperbild; and this is recorded and attested
by the crowd who gazed in wonder on the miracle.
The trials of the two divines, John Huss and Wickliffe, were marked by
awful and impressive phenomena. While the tribunal was sitting in
judgment on Wickliffe, the monastery in which the English monks had
assembled was nearly overwhelmed by an earthquake. And it chanced, that
while the council were in high assembly at Constance, which condemned
Huss to the stake, the eclipse, which over that city was nearly total,
occurred, and the consternation of the people, at that time prone to the
belief of miracles, was extreme.
“The night had wan’d; but darkness and dismay
Rose with the dawn, and blotted out the day.
The council’s warder, struck with sudden fear,
Dropt from his palsied hand th’ uplifted spear.
Aghast each gazer saw the mystic power,
That rob’d in midnight’s pall the matin hour;
While hurrying feet, and wailings to and fro,
Spread the wild panic of impending woe.
The prince and prelates shudder’d at the sign:
The monk stood dumb before the darken’d shrine:
With faltering hand uprais’d the cross on high,
To chase that dismal omen from the sky.”
The wonders told me by one of my reverend ancestors of the “Aurora,”
years ago, are so circumstantial, and withal so prophetic, that well
might she, like the Lady of Branxholme, believe that “spirits were
riding the northern blast.”
Speed repeats a record in the “Ypodigma Neustriæ” of “Walsingham,” that
the rebellion of the Percies was preceded by spectral battles in
Bedfordshire, “sundry monsters of divers colours and shapes issuing from
woods,” &c.
Remember, it is a matter of history, that phantasms were seen by numbers
in Whitehall during the Commonwealth. And the wondrous narrative of _The
Just Devil of Woodstock_, which was writ in 1649, by Master Widows, the
learned clerk of Woodstock, “who each day put in writing what he heard
from the mouths of the commissioners, and such things as they told to
have befallen them the night before; therein keeping to their own
words:”—the coney-stealers were so alarmed that they left their ferrets
beyond Rosamond’s well. And this he saith also, that “At Saint James’s
the Devil so joaled the centinals against the sides of the Queen’s
Chappell doors, that some of them fell sick upon it, and others, not
taking warning by it, killed one outright; and all other such dreadful
things those that inhabited the royal houses have been affrighted with.”
I remember not the source from which I gleaned some mysteries of “The
Lyffe of Virgilius,” a professor of the occult sciences, alluded to, I
believe, in Gower’s “Confessio Amantis,” and identified with the Mantuan
poet,—a magus, who “dyd many marvayles in hys lyfe tyme by whychcrafte
and nygramancye thorowgh the helpe of the devyls of hell.” One of these
marvels I well recollect. This Virgil was cut up, salted and pickled, at
his own request, in a barrel; and when the emperor discovered him, he
slew Virgilius’ man, and “then sawe the emperoure and all his folke a
nakyd chylde, three tymes rennynge aboute the barell, sayinge the
wordes, ‘Cursed be the tyme that ye cam ever here;’ and with those
wordes vanyshed the chylde away.”
Then in the associations of lucky days and influential colours, is there
not often a striking truth?
Sir Kenelm Digby, writes Master Aubrey, among other wonders of his
“Miscellanies,” was born, fought, and conquered at Scanderoon, and
died,—on the 11th day of June.
In a book, printed in 1687, we learn that the fourteenth of October was
a lucky day for the princes of England. On it William the Conqueror won
the crown: Edward III. landed: and James II. was born.
In the eventful life of Napoleon, the number _eighteen_ was associated
with so many important events, that you will scarce deny something more
than casualty. Such were, the engagement from which he assumed the
consulate: that of Torlina on the river Beresina: the battles of Leipsic
and of Waterloo: which were all fought on the 18th of the month. On that
day also his corpse was landed on St. Helena: and on the 18th also the
“Belle Poule” sailed with his remains for France.
As of the Emir of the East, green was the favourite colour of the
“Daoine Shi,” or men of peace, in Scotland; and the Druids waved a green
standard, as we read in the Scandana, when they fought with the
Fingallians. From some cause, perchance from _their_ adoption of it,
this colour was fatal to the clan “Grahame.” The Highlanders believe to
this day that the field of Killicrankie was lost because Dundee was
habited in green uniform; and an old Græme, when his horse stumbled at a
fox-chace, referred his disaster to his _green_ whip-cord.
Do not so many _sequences_ prove a consequence?
EV. You do not mince the matter, Astrophel; indeed, from the boldness of
your display, I might think you had kissed the _blarney-stone_, by which
charm, the Irish believe you will ever after be free from bashfulness.
But coincidence, and the natural leaning of the mind to superstition,
will unfold all your mysteries: and these your illustrations (I cannot
term them arguments,) are even weaker than the former. Remember, that
the mind of some beings is impressible as the yielding wax, and
especially, if under the constant influence of other minds; which, as
continual dropping will wear away a stone, first tends to bewilder, and,
at length, to convince. And as to the special trifles to which you
allude, although it is certain a sparrow falls not to the ground without
a Providence, and the hairs of our head are all numbered, I cannot
believe that the Creator will thus _alter a gigantic law_ for an atom.