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The Rhode Island state constitution 1st Edition Patrick T.
Conley Digital Instant Download
Author(s): Patrick T. Conley, Robert G. Flanders
ISBN(s): 9780199778713, 019977871X
Edition: 1
File Details: PDF, 2.01 MB
Year: 2011
Language: english
■ The Rhode Island State Constitution
The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of the United States
G. Alan Tarr, Series Editor
Professor G. Alan Tarr, Director of the Center on State Constitutional Studies at Rutgers
University, serves as General Editor for this important new series which in its entirety will cover
each of the 50 states. Each volume of The Oxford Commentaries on the State Constitutions of
the United States contains a historical overview of the state’s constitutional development, plus a
section-by-section analysis of the state’s current constitution. Other features included in the
volumes are the text of the state’s constitution, a bibliographic essay, table of cases, and index.
This series provides essential reference tools for those investigating state constitutional
development and constitutional law.
The Rhode Island
State Constitution

Patrick T. Conley
and
Robert G. Flanders, Jr.

the oxford commentaries on the state

constitutions of the united states
G. Alan Tarr, Series Editor

1
1
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Copyright © 2011 by Patrick T. Conley and Robert G. Flanders, Jr.

Previously published in 2007 by Greenwood Press

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Conley, Patrick T.
The Rhode Island state constitution / Patrick T. Conley and Robert G. Flanders, Jr.
p. cm. — (The Oxford commentaries on the state constitutions of the United States)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-19-977871-3 ((hardback) : alk. paper)
1. Constitutions—Rhode Island. 2. Constitutional law—Rhode Island. I. Flanders,
Robert G., Jr. II. Rhode Island. Constitution (1986) III. Title.
KFR4011986.A6 C665 2011
342.74502—dc22 2010054191
______________________________________________
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Note to Readers
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■ CONTENTS

Series Foreword by G. Alan Tarr xi

Preface xiii
Acknowledgments xv

PART ONE ■ Rhode Island Constitutional Development, 1636–2006

The Colonial Era: to 1763 3

The Revolutionary Era: 1764–1790 15
The Early National Period: 1790–1840 19
The Dorr Rebellion and Its Aftermath: 1841–1854 24
The Republican Ascendancy: 1854–1935 28
The Bloodless Revolution and Its Aftermath: 1935–1939 34
The Democratic Ascendancy: 1940–1985 36
The Modern Era: 1986–2006 42

PART TWO ■ The Rhode Island Constitution and Commentary

Constitution of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations 51

Preamble 51
Article I: Declaration of Certain Constitutional Rights and Principles 53
Section 1. Right to make and alter the constitution—
Constitution obligatory upon all 54
Section 2. Laws for good of the whole—Burdens to be
equally distributed—Due process—Equal
protection—Discrimination—No right to
abortion granted 56
Section 3. Freedom of religion 63
Section 4. Slavery prohibited 69
Section 5. Entitlement to remedies for injuries and
wrongs—Right to justice 71
Section 6. Search and seizure 75
Section 7. Requirement of presentment or indictment—
Double jeopardy 76
Section 8. Bail, fines, and punishments 78
Section 9. Right to bail—Habeas corpus 81
Section 10. Rights of accused in criminal cases 84
v
vi ■ contents

Section 11. Relief of debtors from prison 88

Section 12. Ex post facto laws—Laws impairing the
obligation of contract 89
Section 13. Self-incrimination 91
Section 14. Presumption of innocence—Securing
accused persons 94
Section 15. Trial by jury 96
Section 16. Compensation for taking private property
for public use—Regulation of fishery rights
and shore privileges not a public taking 99
Section 17. Fishery rights—Privileges of the shore—
Conservation of natural resources—
Preservation of the natural environment 109
Section 18. Subordination of the military to civil authority 118
Section 19. Quartering of soldiers 120
Section 20. Freedom of the press 121
Section 21. Right to assemble and petition—Freedom
of speech 122
Section 22. Right to bear arms 123
Section 23. Rights of victims of crime 124
Section 24. Rights not enumerated—State rights not
dependent on federal rights 126
Article II: Of Suffrage 129
Section 1. Persons entitled to vote 129
Section 2. Nominations, voter registration, and
voting procedures 135
Article III: Of Qualification for Office 139
Section 1. Civil office—Qualified electors 139
Section 2. Disqualification upon conviction or plea
of nolo contendere—Requalification
following sentence, probation, or parole 141
Section 3. Oath of general officers 144
Section 4. Oath of General Assembly members, judges,
and other officers 144
Section 5. Method of administering the oath of office 144
Section 6. Holding of offices under other
governments—Senators and representatives
not to hold other appointed offices under
state government 145
Section 7. Ethical conduct 148
Section 8. Ethics commission—Code of ethics 148
 con t e n t s ■ vii

Article IV: Of Elections and Campaign Finance 151

Section 1. Election and terms of governor, lieutenant
governor,secretary of state, attorney general,
general treasurer, and General Assembly
members—Recall 151
Section 2. Election by plurality 153
Section 3. Filling vacancy by the General Assembly
when elected officers cannot serve—Election
when there is no plurality 155
Section 4. Temporary appointment to fill vacancies in
the office of secretary of state, attorney general,
or general treasurer 156
Section 5. Special elections to fill General Assembly vacancies 156
Section 6. Elections in grand committee—Majority
vote—Term of elected official 157
Section 7. Elections in grand committee—
Quorum—Permitted activities 158
Section 8. Voter registration lists 158
Section 9. Reports of campaign contributions and expenses 159
Section 10. Limitations on campaign contributions—
Public financing of campaign expenditures
of general officers 159
Article V: Of the Distribution of Powers 161

Article VI: Of the Legislative Power 171

Section 1. Constitution the supreme law of the state 171
Section 2. Power vested in the General Assembly—
Concurrence of houses required to enact
laws—Style of laws 178
Section 3. Sessions of the General Assembly—
Compensation of General Assembly members
and officers 181
Section 4. Restriction on General Assembly members’
activities as counsel 183
Section 5. Immunities of General Assembly members 188
Section 6. Election and qualification of General Assembly
members—Quorum and organization of houses 190
Section 7. Rules of the houses—Contempt 191
Section 8. House journals 191
Section 9. Adjournment of houses 192
Section 10. Residual powers (repealed in 2005) 193
viii ■ contents

Section 11. Vote required to pass local or private appropriations 197

Section 12. Property valuations for tax assessments 200
Section 13. Continuance in office until successors qualify 201
Section 14. General corporation laws 201
Section 15. Lotteries 204
Section 16. Borrowing power of the General Assembly 206
Section 17. Borrowing in anticipation of receipts 210
Section 18. Redevelopment powers 211
Section 19. Taking of property for highways, streets,
places, parks, or parkways 213
Section 20. Local off-street parking facilities 214
Section 21. Emergency powers in case of enemy attack 214
Section 22. Referendum on the expansion of gambling 215
Article VII: Of the House of Representatives 217
Section 1. Composition 217
Section 2. Officers—Presiding member during organization 221
Article VIII: Of the Senate 223
Section 1. Composition and apportionment 223
Section 2. Lieutenant governor to be presiding officer
until 2003 228
Section 3. Presiding officer in absence of lieutenant
governor (repealed) 228
Section 4. Secretary of state to be secretary of the
senate (repealed) 229
Article IX: Of the Executive Power 231
Section 1. Power vested in the governor 231
Section 2. Faithful execution of laws 232
Section 3. Captain general and commander in chief of
military and navy 233
Section 4. Reprieves 234
Section 5. Powers of appointment 234
Section 6. Adjournment of the General Assembly 236
Section 7. Convening of special sessions of the
General Assembly 237
Section 8. Commissions and the state seal 237
Section 9. Vacancy in the office of the governor 237
Section 10. Vacancies in offices of both the governor
and lieutenant governor 238
Section 11. Compensation of the governor and
lieutenant governor 239
 con t e n t s ■ ix

Section 12. Powers and duties of the secretary of state,

attorney general, and general treasurer 239
Section 13. Pardons 242
Section 14. Veto power of governor—Veto overrides
by General Assembly—Acts effective
without action by the governor 243
Section 15. State budget 244
Section 16. Limitation on state spending 244
Section 17. Budget reserve account 246
Article X: Of the Judicial Power 247
Section 1. Power vested in the courts 247
Section 2. Jurisdiction of the supreme and inferior
courts—Quorum of the supreme court 252
Section 3. Advisory opinions by the supreme court 257
Section 4. Judicial selection 260
Section 5. Tenure of supreme court justices 262
Section 6. Compensation for justices of the supreme court 263
Section 7. Wardens and justices of the peace 263
Article XI: Of Impeachments 265
Section 1. Power of impeachment by the House 265
Section 2. Impeachment trial by the senate 265
Section 3. Governor, executive officers, judges liable
to impeachment—Grounds
for impeachment 265
Article XII: Of Education 269
Section 1. Duty of the General Assembly to promote
public schools and public libraries and to
secure opportunities for education 269
Section 2. Perpetual school fund 269
Section 3. Educational donations 269
Section 4. Implementation of this article—Diversion
of funds prohibited 269
Article XIII: Home Rule for Cities and Towns 277
Section 1. Right of self-government in local matters 277
Section 2. Local power to adopt home rule charter in
conformity with reserved powers of the
General Assembly 277
Section 3. Every city and town shall have a
legislative body 277
x ■ contents

Section 4. General laws apply to all cities and towns

but shall not affect the form of government—
Special acts need approval of local electors 277
Section 5. Local taxing and borrowing power only as
authorized by the General Assembly 278
Section 6. Procedures for the adoption of a home
rule charter 278
Section 7. Vote on charter adoption 278
Section 8. Amendments to a home rule charter 278
Section 9. Filing of charter petition with local legislative body 279
Section 10. Certification of charter adoption 279
Section 11. No diminution of the power of the judiciary 279
Article XIV: Constitutional Amendments and Revisions 291
Section 1. Amendment process 291
Section 2. Procedures for the call of a
constitutional convention 291
Article XV: General Transition 295
Section 1. What remains in full force and effect 295
Section 2. What continues to be valid 295
Section 3. All officers to continue the duties of their office 295
Section 4. Implementing legislation required 295

Bibliographical Essay 297

Table of Cases 329
Index 345
About the Author 357
■ SERIES FOREWORD

In 1776, following the declaration of independence from England, the former

colonies began to draft their own constitutions. Their handiwork attracted
widespread interest, and draft constitutions circulated up and down the Atlantic
seaboard, as constitution-makers sought to benefit from the insights of their
counterparts in sister states. In Europe, the new constitutions found a ready
audience seeking enlightenment from the American experiments in self-
government. Even the delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787,
despite their reservations about the course of political developments in the states
during the decade after independence, found much that was useful in the newly
adopted constitutions. And when James Madison, fulfilling a pledge given during
the ratification debates, drafted the federal Bill of Rights, he found his model in
the famous Declaration of Rights of the Virginia Constitution.
By the 1900s, however, few people would have looked to state constitutions for
enlightenment. Instead, a familiar litany of complaints was heard whenever state
constitutions were mentioned. State constitutions were too long and too detailed,
combining basic principles with policy prescriptions and prohibitions that had no
place in the fundamental law of a state. By including such provisions, it was argued,
state constitutions deprived state governments of the flexibility they needed to
respond effectively in changing circumstances. This—among other factors—
encouraged political reformers to look to the federal government, which was not
plagued by such constitutional constraints, thereby shifting the locus of political
initiative away from the states. Meanwhile, civil libertarians concluded that state
bills of rights, at least as interpreted by state courts, did not adequately protect
rights and therefore looked to the federal courts and the federal Bill of Rights for
redress. As power and responsibility shifted from the states to Washington, so too
did the attention of scholars, the legal community, and the general public.
During the early 1970s, however, state constitutions were “rediscovered.” The
immediate impetus for this rediscovery was former President Richard Nixon’s
appointment of Warren Burger to succeed Earl Warren as chief justice of the
United States Supreme Court. To civil libertarians, this appointment seemed to
signal a decisive shift in the Supreme Court’s jurisprudence, because Burger was
expected to lead the Court away from the liberal activism that had characterized
the Warren Court. They therefore sought ways to safeguard the gains they had
achieved for defendants, racial minorities, and the poor during Warren’s tenure
from erosion by the Burger Court. In particular, they began to look to state bills
of rights to secure the rights of defendants and to support other civil-liberties
claims that they advanced in state courts.

xi
xii ■ serie s fore word

The “new judicial federalism,” as it came to be called, quite quickly advanced

beyond its initial concern to evade the mandates of the Burger Court. Indeed,
less than two decades after it originated, it became a nationwide phenomenon.
For when judges and scholars turned their attention to state constitutions, they
discovered an unsuspected richness. They found not only provisions that paral-
leled the federal Bill of Rights, but also constitutional guarantees of the right
to privacy and of gender equality, for example, that had no analogue in the U.S.
Constitution. Careful examination of the text and history of state guarantees
revealed important differences between even those provisions that most resem-
bled federal guarantees and their federal counterparts. Looking beyond state
declarations of rights, jurists and scholars discovered affirmative constitutional
mandates to state governments to address such important policy concerns as
education and housing. Taken altogether, these discoveries underlined the
importance for the legal community of developing a better understanding of
state constitutions.
Yet the renewed interest in state constitutions has not been limited to judges
and lawyers. State constitutional reformers have renewed their efforts with
notable success: since 1960, 10 states have adopted new constitutions and
several others have undertaken major constitutional revisions. These changes
have usually resulted in more streamlined constitutions and more effective state
governments. Also, in recent years political activists on both the left and the right
have pursued their goals through state constitutional amendments, often enacted
through the initiative process, under which policy proposals can be placed
directly on the ballot for voters to endorse or reject. Scholars too have begun to
rediscover how state constitutional history can illuminate changes in political
thought and practice, providing a basis for theories about the dynamics of
political change in America.
Patrick T. Conley and Robert G. Flanders’s excellent study of the Rhode
Island Constitution is the latest volume in the series, The Oxford Commentaries
on the State Constitutions of the United States, which reflects this renewed
interest in state constitutions and will contribute to our knowledge about them.
Because the constitutional tradition of each state is distinctive, the volume
begins with the history and development of the Rhode Island Constitution. It
then provides the complete text of Rhode Island’s current constitution, with each
section accompanied by commentary that explains the provision and traces its
origins and its interpretation by the courts and by other governmental bodies.
Finally, the book concludes with a table of cases cited in the history and the
constitutional commentary, as well as a subject index.
G. Alan Tarr
■ PREFACE

Constitutional law is a dichotomous blend of continuity and change. Any book

on this subject that purports to be definitive is doomed to obsolescence. Realizing
this limitation, we have adopted an evolutionary and historical approach to
analyze the Rhode Island Constitution. Had we completed our opus two years
earlier (and on schedule) we would have failed to record the seismic shift in the
structure of state government that has resulted from the adoption in 2004 of the
separation of powers amendments. That is the good news. Conversely, the after-
shock of this reform will be strongly felt during the immediately ensuing years,
thus rendering many of our conclusions tentative. Until the General Assembly
relinquished its residual powers in 2004 by giving the electorate the opportunity
to repeal Article VI, Section 10, the colonial Charter of 1663 retained consider-
able vitality, despite its advanced age. Whether the legislature or the Rhode
Island Supreme Court will attempt to continue it on life-support through some
tradition-based theory akin to common law, only time will tell.
We have devoted considerable space to certain constitutionally settled topics
for which Rhode Island is justly famous—for example, religious liberty—and
for which it is justly infamous—such as discriminatory, nativistic suffrage quali-
fications. In the belief that Rhode Island’s basic laws have profoundly shaped its
politics and its socioeconomic system, we have made this treatise historical as
well as legal. To the dry bones of constitutional provisions we have grafted the
flesh of human effort and experience, including judicial attempts to interpret and
apply these provisions. This approach has made our volume longer, but, we hope,
livelier.
Our essay on sources is intended not merely as an appendix to this study, but
rather, as a comprehensive legal and historiographical guide to future research
and writing on the course of Rhode Island constitutional development. Like
those many works we cite in our essay, this volume is but one stride along that
never-ending road.
Patrick T. Conley
Robert G. Flanders, Jr.

xiii
This page intentionally left blank
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

We are pleased to recognize those individuals and institutions who have assisted
us in the preparation of a volume with such a diverse array of topics. Foremost is
attorney John F. DiMeglio, a diligent researcher, who reproduced and arranged
for our analysis all of the pertinent cases under their appropriate Sections of the
constitution and prepared the table of those cases for ready reference.
We are also grateful for the financial aid provided to this project by the Roger
Williams University Ralph R. Papitto School of Law and for the skills of several
law students. These included Marcus Jones, Peter Edward Jones, and Katie Mae
Magee. We particularly wish to acknowledge the help and assistance of Nicholas
Phinney, who served as the lead student research assistant on this project.
In the emerging area of environmental law we sought and adopted the expert
insights of Professor Dennis W. Nixon, associate dean of the College of the
Environment and Life Sciences at the University of Rhode Island; attorney
Dennis H. Esposito of Adler Pollock & Sheehan P.C.; and attorney John
M. Boehnert of Partridge Snow & Hahn LLP. Others who have given us
counsel include Professors Mario DiNunzio of Providence College, research
director of the 1986 Constitutional Convention, Elmer E. Cornwell, Jr., of Brown
University, Jay Goodman, Esq., of Wheaton College, and attorney Keven
McKenna, president of the 1986 Constitutional Convention. Jane Jackson,
archivist of Providence College, promptly furnished materials in her care upon
request pertaining to the 1964, 1973, and 1986 conventions.
The Rhode Island Publications Society provided financial assistance and the
services of its meticulous editor, Dr. Hilliard Beller. Linda Gallen, Anna Loiselle,
and Donna Falcoa typed and retyped the manuscript with great skill and greater
patience.
Series editor G. Alan Tarr and Hilary Claggett of Greenwood Publishing
Group provided gentle prodding to ensure that our book was completed.
Without Professor Tarr’s persistence in selecting us to write it and Ms. Claggett’s
insistence that we write it in a timely fashion, Rhode Island would have been absent
from this enterprise, as it was from the Constitutional Convention of 1787.
Patrick T. Conley
Robert G. Flanders Jr.

xv
This page intentionally left blank
■ PART ONE

Rhode Island Constitutional

Development, 1636–2006
This page intentionally left blank
■ THE COLONIAL ERA: TO 1763

If we disregard the tribal organizations of Narragansetts, Wampanoags, Niantics,

Nipmucks, and Pequots (as most American historians do, to their discredit),
government in Rhode Island began when religious exile Roger Williams and
about a dozen disciples founded Providence in the spring of 1636. During the
town’s early months, a fortnightly meeting of “masters of families,” or “house-
holders,” conducted civic affairs considering matters relating to the “common
peace, watch, and planting.” As the number of settlers increased, a formal
government became necessary, so Williams and the initial settlers drafted arti-
cles of self-incorporation in 1637. Then these “masters of families” entered into
a mutual compact creating a “town fellowship,” and 13 other inhabitants who
were either unmarried or minors signed a submission agreement to obey the
householders and all whom “they shall admit into the same fellowship and
privilege.”
These documents were the fundamental papers of Providence town govern-
ment. The major features of these first governmental agreements were the vesting
of administrative control in a majority of the householders and the all-important
proviso that they were to exercise such control “only in civil things.” This latter
clause reflected the desire of Roger Williams to establish a colony based on the

3
4 ■ the r hode isl and state constitu tion

then revolutionary principles of religious liberty and the separation of church

and state.1
Other dissenters soon followed Williams to the Narragansett Bay region, and
two additional towns took root: Portsmouth (1638), founded by William
Coddington in concert with Antinomian preacher Anne Hutchinson, and
Newport (1639), established by Coddington after a squabble with the fiery
woman the Puritans called the “American Jezebel.” By the end of 1639 the ambi-
tious Coddington succeeded in engineering a consolidation of the two island
towns under a common administration, of which he was governor. This new
political entity proclaimed itself a democracy in 1641 and guaranteed religious
liberty to all. Because the title to the entire island of Aquidneck (or Rhode
Island), acquired from the Indians, was in his name, Coddington began to enter-
tain thoughts of creating a political domain of his own, distinct from Williams’s
Providence Plantation. This ambitious plan constituted the most serious inter-
nal obstacle to the creation of a united colony during Rhode Island’s formative
years.
Legal title to the lands on which the early towns were planted rested only
upon deeds from the Narragansett chiefs, or sachems, because Williams had
been so bold as to declare that the king of England’s authority to grant these
New World lands to English colonists rested upon “a solemn public lie.” This
view, though just, was unacceptable to the neighboring colonies of Plymouth,
Massachusetts Bay, Connecticut, and New Haven. The more orthodox Puritans
who resided therein, angered by the defiance of Rhode Island’s religious
outcasts, began to cast covetous eyes upon the beautiful Narragansett Bay region,
which, they said, had been transformed by Williams, Hutchinson, Samuel
Gorton, and their kind into “a moral sewer.”2
To unite the towns against this threat, to thwart Coddington’s political
designs, and to secure parliamentary protection for his holy experiment, Williams
journeyed in 1643 to an England on the verge of civil war to secure a patent that
would unite the settlements of Portsmouth, Newport, and Providence into a
single colony and officially confirm the settlers’ claims to the lands they held by
Indian purchase, even though some of the deeded territory was owned by the
Wampanoags. Williams obtained the desired patent from Robert Rich, earl of

1 The “householders” compact has been lost, but Williams expressed his intention to institute the
above-described system in a letter to John Winthrop [n.d., ca. Sept. 1636], published in the Narragansett
Club Edition, The Complete Writings of Roger Williams (Providence, 1866–1874), 6:3–7. The submis-
sion agreement is printed in Horatio Rogers, George M. Carpenter, and Edward Field, eds., The Early
Records of the Town of Providence (Providence, 1892–1915), 1:1.
2 Patrick T. Conley, Democracy in Decline: Rhode Island’s Constitutional Development, 1776–1841

(Providence, 1977), contains copious documentation for this entire narrative from 1636 through the
Dorr Rebellion and its aftermath in the 1850s. The reader is referred to that volume for substantiation of
the statements and conclusions made in this constitutional summary.
 r hode isl and constitu tional development, 16 3 6 –2 0 0 6 ■ 5

Warwick, and his parliamentary Committee on Foreign Plantations. Significantly

the patent lacked the royal seal, for King Charles I had already begun to lose
power and control to the parliamentary opposition.
The patent of March 14, 1644, was the first legal recognition of the Rhode
Island towns by the mother country and served as an embryonic constitution. It
authorized the union of Providence, Portsmouth, and Newport under the name
of “the Incorporation of Providence Plantations in Narragansett Bay in New
England,” and it granted these towns “full power and authority to govern and
rule themselves” and future inhabitants by majority decision, provided that all
regulations that were enacted were “conformable to the laws of England” so far
as the nature of the place would permit. This initial patent specifically conferred
political power upon the inhabitants of the towns. The repeated emphasis of the
document upon “civil government” gave implicit sanction to the separation
of church and state, whereas the use of words “approved and confirmed” rather
than “grant” in conjunction with the right to the land was a vindication of
Williams’s questionable contention that the Indian deeds were valid. Williams’s
adroitness and diplomacy had won the day, and he was greeted with great enthu-
siasm when he returned to Providence, patent in hand, in September 1644.3
In 1642, while Williams was in England, volatile Samuel Gorton—another
freethinking and quarrelsome religious leader—had succeeded in establishing a
mainland settlement to the south of Providence. This was Shawomet, which
Gorton eventually called Warwick in honor of his English benefactor. Here, as
in Providence, liberty of conscience prevailed. Although his new town was not
mentioned in the patent, Gorton sought and eventually secured its inclusion
under the patent’s protective provisions, despite the vigorous attempts of
Massachusetts to annex the Warwick settlement.
The two island towns of Portsmouth and Newport also embraced the legisla-
tive patent, and representatives of the four communities met initially on
Aquidneck Island in November 1644. After this and three subsequent sessions,
they held the momentous Portsmouth Assembly of May 1647 to organize a gov-
ernment and to draft and adopt a body of laws. According to Charles McLean
Andrews, the leading historian of colonial America, “the acts and orders of 1647
constitute one of the earliest programmes for a government and one of the earli-
est codes of law made by any body of men in America and the first to embody in
all its parts the precedents set by the laws and statutes of England.”4
The assembly that drafted this code was attended by a majority of the freemen
of the four towns. Upon convening, the delegates agreed that they were “willing
to receive and to be governed by the laws of England . . . so far as the nature and

3 Howard M. Chapin, ed., Documentary History of Rhode Island (Providence, 1916–1919), 1:214–17,

contains the British State Paper Office copy of the patent, which is the most accurate draft.
4 Charles McLean Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (New Haven, 1934–1938),

2:26.
Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
better lie down?”
“Come, I can control myself, now—I will!” said Calbot, through his
teeth, and putting a strong constraint upon himself. For about a
minute he kept silent, the blood gradually coming into his cheeks
and the nervous twitchings growing less frequent.
“That’s better,” said I, encouragingly. “You don’t look so much as
though you’d seen a ghost, now. How is that Chancery case of yours
getting on?”
“A ghost? You speak lightly enough, and I suppose your idea of a
ghost is some conventional bogey such as children are scared with.
We laugh at such things—heaven knows why! An evil, sin-breathing
spirit, coming from hell to take vengeance, for some dead and
buried wrong, upon living men and women—what is there laughable
in that?”
“Really, Calbot,” I said, with a smile—a rather uneasy smile, be it
admitted—“I never laughed at a ghost, for the simple reason that I
never saw one to laugh at.”
“You never saw one, and you mean to hint, I suppose, that there
are none to see?”
“Well,” returned I, still maintaining a precarious grimace, “I’m not
a spiritualist, you know——”
“Nor I,” interrupted Calbot, in a lower and quieter tone than he
had yet used. He took a chair, and, sitting down close in front of me,
bent forward and whispered in my ear: “But I saw the soul of a dead
man yesterday; and this afternoon I saw it again, and chased it from
the Burleighs’ house in Mayfair, along the Strand, and through the
heart of London, to its grave in St. G——’s churchyard. I copied the
inscription on the stone: it is a very old one, as you will see by the
date.”
A far bolder man than I have ever claimed to be might have felt
his heart stand still at this speech; and its effect on me was greatly
heightened by Calbot’s tone and manner, and by the way he
fastened his eyes upon me. Nor were the circumstances in other
respects reassuring—alone at night, with a man three or four times
my physical equal, who was wholly emancipated from rational
control. I sat quite still for a few moments—very long moments they
seemed to me—staring helplessly at Calbot, who took a small
notebook out of his pocket, tore out a leaf with something scrawled
on it, and handed it to me. I read it mechanically—“Archibald
Armstrong. Died February 6th, 1698.” Meanwhile Calbot helped
himself to another glass of wine; but I was too much unnerved to
restrain him, and, indeed, too much bewildered.
“Archibald Armstrong,” muttered I, repeating the name aloud;
“died February 6th—yes; but it was this present year 1875—not
1698. Why, I went to the auction-sale of his effects this very
afternoon!”
“Keep the paper,” said Calbot, not noticing my observation, “it may
possibly lead to something. And now I wish you to listen to my
statement. I am neither crazy, Drayton, nor intoxicated. But I am not
the same man you have known heretofore; my life has been seared
—blasted. Perhaps you think my language extravagant; but after
what I have experienced there can be no such thing as extravagance
for me. It is an awful thing,” he added, with a long involuntary sigh,
“to have been face to face with an evil spirit!”
“In Heaven’s name, Calbot,” cried I, starting up from my chair, and
trembling all over, I believe, from nervous excitement, “don’t go on
talking and looking like that. If you can tell me a straightforward,
consistent story, I’ll listen to it; but these hints and interjections of
yours will drive me mad!”
“I’m going to tell you, Drayton, though it will be the next worst
thing to meeting that——Thing——itself, to tell about it. But the
matter is too grim earnest to allow of trifling. You have a great deal
of knowledge on queer and out-of-the-way subjects, Drayton, and I
thought it not impossible that you might make some suggestions, for
there must be some reason for this hideous visitation—some cause
for it; and though all is over for me now, there would be a kind of
satisfaction in knowing what that reason was. Besides, I must speak
to someone, and you are a dear friend, and an old one.”
I was a good deal relieved to hear Calbot speak thus affectionately
of our relations with each other; and indeed he appeared no way
inclined to violence. Accordingly, having offered him a Cabana
(which he refused), I put the box and the decanter back in the
cupboard, and locked the door. Then, relighting my own cigar, and
putting a lump or two of coal on the fire, I resumed my chair, and
bade my friend begin his story.

VI.

“There was an intermarriage between the Burleighs and the

Calbots four or five generations ago,” said he; “I found the record of
it in our family papers, shortly before Miss Burleigh and I were
engaged; but it appears not to have turned out well. I don’t know
whether the husband and wife quarrelled, or whether their troubles
came from some outside interference; but they had not been long
married before a separation took place—not a regular divorce, but
the wife went quietly back to her fathers house, and my ancestor is
supposed to have gone abroad. But this was not the end of it,
Drayton; for, some years later, the husband returned, and he and his
wife lived together again.”
“Was there any further estrangement between them, afterwards?”
“It is an ugly story,” said Calbot, gloomily, getting up from his
chair, and taking his old place before the fire. “No; they lived
together—as long as they did live! But it was about the era of the
witchcraft mania—or delusion, if you choose to call it so—and it is
strongly hinted in some of the documents in my possession that the
Calbots were—not witches—but victims of witchcraft. They accused
no one, but they seemed to have been shunned by everybody like
persons under the shadow of a curse. Well—it wasn’t a great while
before Mrs. Calbot died, and her husband went mad soon
afterwards. There were two children. One of them, the son, was
born before the first separation. The other, a daughter, came into the
world after the reunion, and she was an idiot!”
“An ugly story, sure enough,” said I, shrugging my shoulders with
a chilly sensation; “but what has it to do with your business?”
“Perhaps nothing; but there is one thing which would go for
nothing in the way of legal evidence, but which has impressed me,
nevertheless. The date of the second coming-together of my
ancestor and his wife was 1698.”
“Well?”
“If you look at that paper I gave you you’ll see the date of
Armstrong’s death is also 1698.”
“Still I don’t see the point.”
“It’s simply this: the—Thing I saw was the condemned soul of that
Archibald Armstrong. Who he may have been I don’t know; but I
can’t help believing that my ancestor knew him when he was still in
the flesh. They had a feud, perhaps—maybe about this very
marriage—of course you understand I’m only supposing a case.
Well, Calbot gets the better of his rival, and is married. Then
Armstrong exerts his malignant ingenuity to set them at odds with
each other. He may have played on the superstitious fancies which
they probably shared with others of that age, and at last we may
suppose he accomplished their separation.”
“An ingenious idea,” I admitted, “but what about your date?”
“Why, on hearing of his death, they would naturally suppose all
danger over, and that they might live together unmolested. And from
this point you may differ with me or not, as you choose. I believe
that it was only after Armstrong was dead that his power for evil
became commensurate with his will. I believe, Drayton,” said Calbot,
drawing himself up to his full height, and emphasising his words with
the slow gesture of his right arm, “that the soul of that dead man
haunted that wretched couple from the day of his death until the
whole tragedy was consummated—until the woman died and the
man went mad. And I believe that his devilish malignity has lived on
to this day, and wreaked itself, a second time, on Miss Burleigh and
myself.”
There was a short pause, during which my poor friend stood
tapping one foot on the hearth-rug, his eyes bent downwards in
sombre abstraction.
“Look here, my dear John,” I said at length, speaking with an
effort, for there was a sensation of heavy oppression on my chest;
“listen to me, old fellow. You’ve had time to cool down and bethink
yourself: so far as I can judge you appear, as you say, neither crazy
nor intoxicated. Now I wish you, remembering that we are sensible,
enlightened men, living in London in this year 1875, to tell me
honestly whether I am to understand you as deliberately asserting a
belief in visitations from the other world. Because, really, you know,
that is what anyone would infer from the way you have been talking
this evening.”
“I see there would be little use, Drayton, in my answering your
question directly; but I will give you a deliberate and honest account
of my personal experiences during these last two days: there will be
no danger of your mistaking my meaning then. You won’t mind my
walking up and down the room while I’m speaking, will you? The
subject is a painful one, and motion seems to make it easier,
somehow.”
I did mind it very much, it made me as nervous as a water-beetle;
but, of course, I forbore to say so, and Calbot went on:
“I said I found out all this ancestral trouble some time before I
was engaged; and, as you may imagine, I kept silence about it to
Miss Burleigh. I think now it was a mistake to do so; but my ideas on
many subjects have undergone modification of late. I believe I had
forgotten all about the discovery by the time I had made up my
mind to risk an avowal: at any rate, I had no misgivings about it;
and when I came out from my interview with her—the happiest man
in England!—ah Drayton, it seemed to me then that there could be
no more pains nor shadows in life for me thence-forward for ever!”
I devoutly wished, not for the first time that evening, that Calbot
would not be so painfully in earnest. In his normal state it was
difficult to get a serious word out of him; he was brimming over with
quaint humour and fun; but, as he himself had remarked, he was
another man to-day. After walking backwards and forwards once or
twice in silence, he continued:
“You know how happy I was those first few days. I daresay you
wished me and my happiness in Jericho, when I insisted on deluging
you with an account of it. Think! Drayton, that was hardly a week
ago. Well, as soon as I had got a little bit used to the feeling of
being engaged, I began to think what I should give her—Edna, you
know—for a betrothal gift. A ring, of course, is the usual thing; but I
couldn’t be satisfied with a ring: I wanted my gift to be something
rare—unique; in short, something different from what any other
fellow could give his mistress; for I loved her more than any woman
was ever loved before. After a good deal of fruitless bother, I
suddenly bethought myself of a jewel-box which had belonged to my
mother—God bless her!—and which she had bequeathed to me,
intending, very likely, that I should use it for the very purpose I was
now thinking of. I got out the box, and overhauled it. There was a
lot of curious old trinkets in it; but the thing which at once took my
eye was a delicately wrought gold necklace, that looked as though it
had been made expressly for Edna’s throat. There was a locket
attached to it, which I at first meant to take off; but on examining it
closely, I found it was quite worthy of the chain—was an exquisite
work of art, indeed. It was made of a dark yellow or brownish sort of
stone, semi-transparent, and was engraven with a very finely-
wrought bas-relief.”
 “Calbot!” exclaimed I, starting upright in my chair, “what sort of a
stone did you say that locket was made of?”
“What is the matter?” returned he, stopping short in his walk and
facing me with a glance partly apprehensive, partly expectant. “I
never saw exactly such a stone before—but why?”
“Oh, nothing,” said I, after a moment’s excited thought; “it
certainly is very strange! But, never mind, go on,” I added, throwing
a glance at the old manuscript which lay open on the table; “go on.
I’ll tell you afterwards; I must turn it over in my mind a bit.”
“The reason I described it so minutely,” remarked Calbot, “was
that I got a notion into my head that it had something to do with
what happened afterwards, and the reason of that notion is, that
almost from the very moment that Edna took the necklace—I
clasped it round her neck myself—the strange awful influence—
visitation—call it what you like—began to be apparent.
“Oh Drayton, you can never know how lovely, how divine she
looked that evening. She had on what they call, I believe, a demi-
toilette; open at the throat, you know, and half the arm showing. No
woman could have looked more beautiful than she, before I put on
the chain and locket; yet when they were on, she looked as
handsome again. It was really wonderful—the effect they had. Her
eyes deepened, and an indescribable change or modulation—
imperceptible, very likely, to anyone beside myself, her lover—came
over her face. I think it was a shade of sadness—of mystery—no, I
can only repeat, that it was indescribable; but it gave her beauty just
the touch that made it, humanly speaking, perfect. I daresay this is
all very tiresome to you, Drayton, but I can’t help it!”
“Oh, go on, my dear fellow,” said I warmly; for, indeed, I was
moved as well as excited. “Won’t you sit down? Here, take my
chair!”
But he would not.
 “As I fastened the clasp, I said: ‘You are fettered for ever now,
Edna!’ and she said, with her eyes sparkling: ‘Yes, I am the thrall of
the locket; the giver may lead me in triumph where he will!’ Just as
the words passed her lips, Drayton, I felt a sensation of coldness
and depression; I gave an involuntary shudder, and looking quickly
in Edna’s eyes, I saw there the very reflection of my own feeling! We
were alone, and yet there seemed to be a third person present—
cold, hateful, malevolent. He seemed to be between us—to be
pressing us irresistibly apart; and I felt powerless to contend against
the insidious influence; and so was she. For an instant or two we
gazed fearfully and strangely at each other; then she said faintly:
‘Come to me—take me!’ and half held out her arms, her face and lips
all pale. Drayton, I cannot tell you what a desperate struggle I had
with myself then! My whole soul leapt out towards her with a
passion such as I had never known before; and yet my body seemed
paralysed. I had felt something similar to it in dreams before then;
but the dream pain was nothing to the real pain. A cold dead hand
was on my heart, dragging it backward, deadening it; and another at
my throat, stifling me. But I fought against it—it seemed to me I
sweated drops of blood—but I overcame. I put my arm round her
waist—I kissed her; and yet, though I seemed to hold her—though
our lips seemed to meet—still that Thing was between us—we did
not really touch each other! With all our love, we were like lifeless
clay to one another’s caress. It was a mockery—our souls could
meet no more.” Here Calbot covered his eyes with his hand for a
short time. “It was the last time I ever kissed her,” said he.
I said nothing; my sympathy with my hapless friend was keen. Yet
I must confess to a secret sensation of relief that there was to be no
more kissing. It was natural, under the circumstances, that Calbot—
poor fellow!—should speak recklessly; but I am a bachelor, a
confirmed bachelor, and such descriptions distress me; they make
me restless, wakeful, and unhappy. Yes, I was glad we had had the
last of them.
 “It all passed very quickly, and a third person would perhaps have
seen no change in us; probably the change was more inward than
outward, after all. It was peculiar that we, both of us, by a tacit
understanding, forbore to speak to each other of this dismal mystery
that had so suddenly grown up between us. It was too real, and at
the same time too hopeless; but to have acknowledged it would
have been to pronounce it hopeless indeed. We would not do that
yet. We sat apart, quietly and conventionally making observations on
ordinary topics, as though we had been newly introduced. And yet
my betrothal gift was round her neck, moving as she breathed; and
we loved each other, and our hearts were breaking. Oh, it is cruel!”
In exclaiming thus, my friend (being at the farther end of the
room at the time) struck his foot sharp against the leg of a small
antique table which stood against the wall. Like many other valuable
things, the table was fragile, and the leg broke. The table tipped
over, and a vase (the ancestral vase, containing the elixir of life), fell
off to the floor.
Calbot—I think it was much to his credit—found room amidst his
proper anguish to be sincerely distressed at this accident. On picking
up the vase, however, he immediately exclaimed that it was
unbroken. This was fortunate: the table could be mended, but the
vase, not to speak of its contents, would have been irreplaceable.
Calbot put it carefully on the study table, beside the MS.; set the
invalid table in a corner; and then, to my great satisfaction, drew up
a chair to the fire, and continued his sad story in a civilised posture.

VII.

“I did not stay long after this; and ours was a strange parting that
evening, if our hearts could have been seen. We felt it a relief to
separate, and yet the very relief was a finer kind of pain. We knew
not what had befallen us; but, perhaps, we both had a hope, then,
that another day would somehow set things right.
 “I only took her hand in saying good-bye; but again it seemed as
if her soft fingers were not actually in contact with mine—as if some
rival hand were interposed. And I noticed (as I had done once or
twice before during our latter conversation) that, even while the
farewell words were being spoken, she turned her head abruptly
with a startled, listening expression, as though another voice had
spoken close at her ear. I could hear nothing, nor understand the
dimly terrified look in her eyes—a look appealing and yet shrinking.
But afterwards I understood it all. When I reached the street, I
turned back and caught a glimpse of Edna at the window. Beside her
I fancied I distinguished the half-defined outlines of a strange figure
—that of a man who appeared to be gesticulating in an extravagant
manner. But before I could decide whether it were a shadow or a
reality, Edna had turned away, and the apparition vanished with her.”
“Her father, of course,” I threw in, with a glance over my shoulder;
“or perhaps it was the footman.” Calbot made no reply.
“I got up yesterday morning,” said he, “convinced that the whole
thing was a delusion. I took a brisk walk round Hyde Park, ate a
good breakfast, and by eleven o’clock was on my way to her house,
sure that I should find her as cheerfully disposed to laugh at our
dolorous behaviour the night before as I myself was. I went down
Piccadilly in the best of spirits; but on turning the corner of Park
Lane, I very plainly saw three persons coming down towards me.”
Here Calbot paused so long that I could hardly refrain from
springing out of my chair. I had never heard him argue a case before
a jury; but had I been the presiding judge himself, I was convinced
that Calbot could have moulded my opinions to whatsoever issue he
had pleased. But, on the other hand, I doubt whether he was aware
of his own best powers. The effect he was now producing on me
was certainly not the result of any premeditated artifice.
“I saw Edna,” he finally went on, speaking in a husky labouring
tone, and gazing intently over my shoulder, as if he saw her there.
“She was walking in the centre, with a weary lifeless step, her head
bent downwards: on her right was her father, as jolly and portly as
ever; and on her left, Drayton, was the same strange figure of which
I fancied I had caught a glimpse the night before. It was no shadow
now, however, but looked as real and palpable as General Burleigh
himself. It appeared to be diligently addressing itself to Edna,
occasionally even stooping to speak in her ear; and once I saw it put
its arm round her waist, and apparently press its bearded cheek to
her own.”
“Why, in Heaven’s name, Calbot, didn’t you——” But there was
something in my friend’s eyes, as he turned them on me, which
made me break off just there.
“When I first turned the corner the three were sixty or seventy
yards distant. It struck me at once that Edna seemed to have no
direct consciousness of the stranger’s presence. That is, she did not
act as if he were visible to her; though, at the same time, I could
hardly doubt that the idea of him was present to her mind; and from
her manner of involuntary shrinking and starting when the Thing
became particularly demonstrative in its manner, I fancied that the
words which it appeared to address to her insinuated themselves
into her brain under the form of dismal and hateful thoughts.
Perhaps, Drayton, the base or wicked notions that sometimes creep
into our minds unawares, asserting themselves our own, are
whispered to us by some evil spirit, invisible to our sight, but capable
of impressing the immaterial part of us all the more effectively.
“As they drew near, I could no longer doubt that the Thing was
viewless, not only to Edna, but to everyone else besides myself
alone. Had it been otherwise, the figure’s remarkable costume, no
less than its many eccentricities, would have drawn a great crowd in
a few moments. It was a tall fantastic apparition, clad in a black
velvet cloak and doublet, silk hose, and high-heeled shoes. On its
head was a broad-brimmed hat, with heavy plumes; there were lace
ruffles at its wrists and round its throat. A long rapier dangled by its
side; its beard was gray and peaked, but a copious powdered wig
flowed out beneath the hat and rested on the shoulders.
 “Its gait, as it stalked along the pavement, was mincing and
affected, and under other circumstances I might have laughed at it.
Its manner and gestures were absurdly exaggerated and fantastic. It
was continually bowing and scraping to Edna, and seemingly making
hot love to her; but as often as she winced or shrank from it, it
appeared hugely delighted, throwing up its arms, wagging its head,
and contorting its body, as if carried away by an immoderate fit of
laughter.
“The sun was shining broadly, but none of its rays seemed to fall
on the sable garments of this singular personage. In fact, though I
saw him as plainly as I now see you, Drayton, I was, nevertheless,
well aware that here was something more or less than flesh and
blood. It was a being of another state than this mortal one of ours. I
say I saw him; and yet I do not believe that it was with my natural
eyesight. A deeper sense of vision had been temporarily opened
within me, and this spectre came within its scope.
“For a spectre it was. General Burleigh, striding bluffly along by
the other side of his daughter, swinging his cane, twisting his
moustaches, and ever and anon smiling and bowing to a passing
friend, was ludicrously unconscious of there being anything
supernatural in his vicinity. Moreover, I saw at least twenty persons
pass the apparition shoulder to shoulder, evidently without seeing it;
though they would often shiver, and wrap their top-coats or shawls
more closely round them, as if a sudden blast of icy air had
penetrated them. All this time the three were approaching slowly,
and were now but little more than twenty paces distant. I had not
moved a step since first coming in view of them, and had kept my
eyes fixed point-blank upon the apparition.
“At this moment I was puzzled to observe that the black-
garmented figure was a good deal less distinctly discernible than
when it had been farther off. The sun was still as bright as ever, the
air as clear, but the outline of the shape was blurred and undefined,
as though seen out of focus through a telescope. General Burleigh
now caught sight of me for the first time, and his cordial gesture of
salute caused Edna quickly to raise her eyes. We saw despair in each
other’s looks, and then she dropped her eyes again, and moved
wearily onward. Simultaneously with her glance the spectre (which
appeared to be as unconscious of everything save Edna and myself,
as everyone except us was of it)—the spectre also directed its gaze
at me. I can never forget that face, Drayton. I seemed to grow older
and more miserable as I confronted it. And all the while it was
getting less and less perceptible; now it was magnified, clouded, and
distorted; but the devilish expression of it was still recognisable. Now
it faded or expanded into vagueness; only a foggy shadow seemed
gliding by Edna’s side; and when she was within ten paces, and her
father’s voice was speaking out its hearty welcome to me, every
trace even of the shadow had disappeared; nothing was left but that
chilliness and horror of the heart which I had felt the night previous,
but now vastly intensified, because I was no longer ignorant of the
cause of it. Edna and I would never again be alone together. This
devil was to haunt us henceforth, mocking our love by its hideous
mimicry and derision, marring and polluting our most sacred secrets,
sickening our hearts and paralysing our hope and reliance in each
other. We could neither escape it nor resist it; and its invisibility
when we were together was not the least fearful thing about it. To
see it, awful as it was, must be less unendurable than to imagine it,
unseen; and the certainty that, so often as I left Edna, I should
leave this devil in her company, visible once more the moment he
was out of my reach, but never to be met and grappled with hand to
hand—this was hard to bear! Had ever mortal man before such a
rival?
“All this, of course, was but dimly apprehended by my mind at the
time; but I had sufficient opportunity to muse upon it afterwards.
General Burleigh seized my hand, and shook the head of his cane at
me.
“‘Shall be obliged to court-martial you, young man! What have you
been doing to my daughter, sir? Why, no one can get a word or a
smile out of her, since you came with your tomfooleries! She keeps
all her good humour for you, confound you! It’s witchcraft—you’ve
bewitched my little girl with your lockets and your necklaces and
your tomfooleries! You’ve bewitched her—and I’ll have you court-
martialed, and executed for witchcraft, by Jove! Ha, ha, ha! Ha, ha,
ha!’ And with that he gripped my hand again, and vowing that the
club was the only place for him since I had appeared with my
tomfooleries and witchcraft, he swung round on his heel and strode
away, his broad military shoulders shaking with jollity; and left Edna
alone with me—and my rival!
“We strolled off along Piccadilly, and I daresay every man we met
was envying me from the bottom of his heart. But though her arm
was in mine, I knew I might as well have been miles away from her.
And we both were reticent of our words on all matters lying near our
hearts, as if that third presence had been as palpable and visible as
it was otherwise real. We spoke constrainedly and coldly; nay, we
even tried not to think of our love or of our misery, lest it might
possess power to see our thoughts as well as hear our voices. We
walked on, seldom looking at one another, for fear of catching a
glimpse of it in each other’s eyes. I saw, however, that Edna still
wore her locket—indeed, she had told me, the night before, that she
would never take it off, until I bade her do so.
“‘So your father thinks you bewitched, Edna,’ I said at length,
trying to throw off the incubus a little.
“‘I am not very well, I think.’
“‘He seemed to fancy the spell was connected with that old locket,’
I continued; my very disinclination to the subject driving me to
tamper with it.
“‘Perhaps it is,’ returned Edna listlessly, lifting her hand for a
moment to her throat. ‘I am not quite used to it yet.’
“‘To witchcraft, do you mean? You have seen no phantoms, have
you?’
 “I felt her little hand clutch my arm with an involuntary start. I
looked down, and she met my eye with a blush, and at the same
time with a terrified shrinking expression that was bitter to behold.
“‘I see nothing with my open eyes,’ she said, scarcely above a
whisper; ‘but at night—I cannot help my dreams; and they follow me
into the day.’
“It was as I had thought, therefore; the spectre was not
objectively visible to her. She could not get away from her own self,
and hence could gain no point of vantage whence her persecutor
could be seen. There was little doubt, nevertheless, that her mental
picture of him agreed with my ocular experience. It seemed to me,
on the whole, that her burden must be far harder to bear than mine.
There is a kind of relief in being able to face a horror; and my own
feelings, since seeing this evil spirit which was haunting us, had
been in a certain sense more tolerable, if more hopeless, than the
night before. But how did I know what agony she might suffer? Even
her innocent sleep was not sacred from this evil thing; all her
maiden reserve and delicacy were outraged; she could be safe
nowhere—no one could protect her; and with me, who would have
given my life to please a whim of hers, her suffering and exposure
must be less endurable than anywhere else. I could well understand
her blush, poor girl—poor girl!”
Not for many years—not since, in fact, certain sad experiences of
my own early days—had I been so deeply stirred as by this recital of
Calbot’s. His voice had great compass and expression, and the needs
of his profession had given its natural powers every cultivation. He
had a way of dwelling on certain words, and of occasionally pausing,
or appearing to hesitate, which greatly added to the effect of his
narrative. All this might be acquired by art, but not so the ever and
anon recurring falterings and breaks, into which, as now, he was
unexpectedly betrayed. I felt that it was unwise in me to listen to
him, to sympathise with him, as I was doing; yet could I not find it
in my heart to stop him. All fears of violence on his part had been
for some time past allayed. I was well aware that my
encouragement of his confidences could only result in my passing a
feverish uncomfortable night, and a listless dismal morrow; and yet I
forbore to interrupt him. Ah! it is we old bachelors who have hearts
after all.
I blew my nose, Calbot cleared his throat, and continued.
 VIII.

“Well, Drayton, I shan’t keep you much longer. From Piccadilly we

turned into Bond Street, and were walking up the side-walk on the
left-hand side, when suddenly Edna stopped, and clasped both her
hands round my arm. She uttered a low exclamation, and trembled
perceptibly. Her face, as I looked at it, was quite rigid and colourless.
I did not know what was the matter, but fearing she was about to
swoon, I looked round for a cab. In so doing my eye caught my own
reflection in a mirror, fixed at a shop entrance on the other side of
the street. It was in this direction that Edna also was gazing, and the
next moment I no longer wondered at her ghastly aspect. Close by
her shoulder appeared the fantastic black-garmented figure which I
had seen awhile before in Park Lane. He was making the wildest and
most absurd gestures—grinning, throwing about his arms, making
profound mock obeisances, and evidently in an ecstasy of
enjoyment. I looked suddenly round, but the place which should
have been occupied by the original of the reflection appeared
entirely empty. Looking back to the mirror, however, there was the
spectre again, actually capering with ugly glee.
“Meantime people were beginning to notice the strange behaviour
of Edna and myself, and I was thankful when a passing cab enabled
me to shield her from their scrutiny. No sooner were we seated than
she fainted away, and only recovered a few moments before we
stopped at her door. As I helped her out she looked me sadly in the
face, and said:
“‘Come to me to-morrow afternoon—for the last time.’
“I could say nothing against her decision, Drayton; I felt we
should be really more united, living apart, than were we to force
ourselves to outward association. Our calamity was too strong for
us; separation might appease the mysterious malice of the phantom,
and cause him to return whither he belonged. The persecution of
our long-dead ancestors now recurred to me, as I had read it a few
months before in those dusty old documents, and I could not help
seeing a strange similarity between their fate and ours. Yet we had
an advantage in not being married, and in having the warning of
their history before us. You see,” observed Calbot, somewhat bitterly,
“even I can talk of advantages!
“I went to her house to-day and had a short interview. I cannot
tell you in detail what we said, but it seems to me as though the
memory of it would gradually oust all other memories from my mind.
I told her that passage of history. We agreed to part—for ever in this
world. I took back the chain and locket which I had given her but so
short a time before. We said good-bye, in cold and distant words.
We could not gratify the evil spirit, which we knew was watching us,
by any embrace or show of grief and passion. We could be proud in
our despair.”
“One moment, Calbot,” said I, interrupting him at this point; “you
say she gave you back the locket?”
“Yes.”
“Is it in your possession now?”
“It is at the bottom of the Thames.”
“Good! And have you or Miss Burleigh seen anything of your
phantom since then?”
“You forget that we parted only this afternoon. But I understand
your question. No, Drayton, it is there that the fate of our ancestors
gives us timely warning. We must never meet again.”
“I don’t consider the cases parallel; and besides,” I added, with a
glance at my MS., “there is perhaps another point to be considered.
However, finish your story, if there be any more to tell.”
“A little more, and then my story will be finished indeed! I am
going with the new expedition to the North Pole, and it will be my
own fault if I return. Well, after leaving her, I came straight
downstairs and hurried out. I felt as though I must go mad, or kill
someone—myself perhaps. As I stood on the doorstep, mechanically
buttoning up my ulster, I felt that creeping sickening chill once more,
and knew that the unholy Thing had passed me. I looked sharply
about, and in a moment or two I saw it, as plainly as ever. It stood
on the sunlit pavement, about fifty yards away, and appeared to be
beckoning me to approach.
“I watched it for perhaps a minute, and then a sudden fury took
possession of me. My hatred against this devil which had blighted
my life and Edna’s must have leapt up in my eyes, for I fancied, from
the way the phantom leered at me, that he meant to claim a sort of
relationship with me—as though I were become a devil too. Well, if I
were a devil, perhaps I might be able to inflict some torture on this
my fellow. I sprang down the steps, and set off towards it. It waited
until I had passed over more than half the intervening distance, and
then it suddenly turned and walked onward before me. So a chase
began.”
“Good gracious, Calbot,” remonstrated I; “you don’t mean to tell
me you ran after it—in the face of all London too?”
“I would have followed it to its own hell if it had led me there,” he
returned. “At first it stalked along swiftly but easily, only occasionally
cutting a grotesque caper in the air, with a flourish of its arms and
legs. It kept always the same distance in front of me—with no effort
could I lessen the interval. Nevertheless, I gradually increased my
speed almost to a run, much to the apparent delight of the
hobgoblin, who skipped with frantic glee over the cold pavements,
occasionally half facing about to wave me on. It turned the corner of
Piccadilly, and I lost sight of it for a moment; but, hurrying up, there
it was again, a short distance up the street. It made me a profound
mock obeisance, and immediately set off anew.
“As I need not tell you, the figure which I was pursuing was visible
only to myself. The street was full of people, there were all the usual
noise, bustle, and gaiety of the city at that hour; but though it
passed through the midst of the crowd, in all the fantastic singularity
of its costume and manner, no one stepped out of its way or turned
to gaze at it. That it should be so terrible a reality to me, and at the
same time so completely non-existent to the rest of the world,
affected me strangely. Here was a new bond of relationship between
me and it. My misery and I were one; but the link which united us
was a cap of invisibility for the demon.
“I was not invisible, however, nor unnoticed. I was conscious that
everyone was staring at me—and no wonder! I must have presented
an odd spectacle, hurrying onward with no apparent object, and
with an expression of face which may well have been startling to
behold. But so long as no attempt was made to stop me, I was
indifferent to remark. I had determined to follow my black friend in
the plumed hat, no matter where the chase might lead me.
“The pace grew quicker and quicker. We went down the
Haymarket, and were now in the throng of the Strand. All the places
which I know so well passed by like remembered dreams. They
seemed illusions, and the only real substance in the world was this
Thing that I pursued. The dark shape continued to glide forward
with easy speed, ever and anon giving me a glimpse of the pallid
malignance of its evil visage; but my own breath was beginning to
come hard, and the difficulty of forcing a path through the press
became greater as we neared the heart of the city. Passing beneath
Temple Bar, the spectre stopped a moment and stamped its foot
imperiously, at the same time beckoning to me with an impatient
gesture. I sprang forward, yearning to grapple with it; but it was
gone again, and seemed to flit like a shadow along the sidewalk. Its
merriment, however, now forsook all bounds—it appeared to be in a
ceaseless convulsion of chuckling laughter. We fled onward, but so
absorbed in my pursuit had I now become, that I recollect nothing
distinctly until the tower of St. G——’s came into view. I think a
premonition of what was to occur entered my mind then. The
hobgoblin disappeared—seemingly through the iron railing of the
contracted graveyard which bounds the northern side of the church.
I came up to the railing and looked within. It was sitting on an
ancient headstone, blackened by London smoke and worn by time; it
sat with its elbows on its knees, and its head in its hands. A sombre
shadow fell about it, which the cheerful sunshine could not
penetrate; but its awful eyes emitted a dusky phosphorescent glare,
dimly illuminating the leering features. As I looked, a change came
over them—they were now those of a corpse already mouldering in
decay, crumbling into nothingness before my eyes. The whole figure
gradually faded or darkened away: I cannot tell how or when it
vanished. Presently I was staring fixedly at an old tombstone, with a
name and a date upon it; but the churchyard was empty.”

IX.

Of my own accord I now reproduced my decanter of port-wine,

and Calbot and I finished it before either of us spoke another word.
What he was thinking of meanwhile I know not; for my part, I was
endeavouring to put in order a number of disjointed ideas, imbibed
at various epochs during this evening, whose logical arrangement, I
was convinced, would go far towards elucidating much of the
mystery. As to the positively supernatural part of Calbot’s
experience, of course I had no way of accounting for that; but I
fancied there were materials at hand tolerably competent to raise a
ghost, allowing such a thing as a ghost to be possible.
“I am glad, Calbot,” I began, “that you came to me. Your good
sense—or instinct, perhaps—directed you aright. Do not despair: I
should not be surprised were we to manage between us to discover
that your happiness, so far from being at an end, was just on the
point of establishing itself upon a trustworthy foundation.” Calbot
shook his head gloomily. “Well, well,” resumed I, “let us see. In the
first place—as regards that locket. It will perhaps surprise you to
learn that I had heard of it before you came this evening—had read
quite a minute description of it, in fact.”
 “Where?” demanded my friend, raising his eyes.
“That will appear later. I must first ask you whether, in the old
family documents you spoke of, the personal appearance of this
Archibald Armstrong was particularly delineated?”
“I hardly know; I have no recollection of any especial passage—
and yet I fancy it must have been given with some fulness; because
when I saw the hobgoblin, its costume and aspect seemed curiously
familiar.”
“And had I seen it, there is little doubt in my mind that I should
have recognised it also.”
“Indeed!” exclaimed Calbot, sitting upright in his chair, “how
happens that?”
“Wait a moment, I am merely collecting evidence. Now, have you
any reason to suppose that a connection of any sort—friendly,
business, or other—subsisted between your unhappy ancestor and
this Armstrong previous to the former’s marriage?”
“Do you mean whether he was under any obligations to
Armstrong?”
“Yes.”
“He may have been—but the idea is new to me. How——”
“I am not done yet. Now, did it never occur to you—or, I should
say, does it not seem probable—that the locket which you had found
hidden away in your mother’s jewel-box was in some way connected
with the family tragedy you told me of?”
“I have thought of it, Drayton; there is no difficulty in imagining
such a thing; the trouble is, we haven’t the slightest evidence of it.”
“I was about to say,” I rejoined, “that there is direct evidence of
precisely such a locket having been bought, in the latter part of the
seventeenth century, by precisely such a looking man as the
hobgoblin you saw to-day. It was to be a wedding-gift to the woman
he was to marry the next day.”
“Drayton!”
“That woman deceived him, and eloped on the eve of her
marriage with a protégé of his. He professed forgiveness, and sent
the locket as a pledge of it.”
“Odd!”
“He died in 1698, and his last recorded words were a curse
invoked upon those whom he had before professed to pardon—upon
them and their posterity.”
“But, Drayton—what——”
“It is my opinion that his forgiveness was merely a cloak to his
deadly and unrelenting hatred. It is my opinion, Calbot, that the
pledge he gave was poisonous with evil and malicious influences.
The locket was made of tourmaline, which has mysterious
properties. No doubt he believed it a veritable witch’s talisman; and
from the sufferings which afterwards befell his enemies (not to
speak of your own experience), one might almost fancy witchcraft to
be not entirely a delusion after all.”
“One might, indeed! But if, as you seem to imply, this locket
enabled Armstrong to persecute Calbot and his wife, why did not
they send it back or destroy it?”
“Simply because they were not aware of its evil nature, and
fancied that Armstrong’s (if it were his) profession of forgiveness had
been genuine. Very likely Mrs. Calbot habitually wore it on her
bosom, as Miss Burleigh did again yesterday, more than a century
later. The persecutor must have been a devil incarnate, from the
time he learnt his lady’s faithlessness until his death; and after that
——”
 “A plain devil. But to come to the point, you think that the locket
was the sole medium of his power over them?”
“Undoubtedly. Then, after their death, it remained in the family,
but never happened to be used again: it is not a jewel to catch the
eye by any means. It remained perdu until you fished it out for Miss
Burleigh, and thereby stirred up the old hobgoblin to play his devilish
tricks once more. But by a lucky combination of accidents you parted
with her in time; she returned you the locket, thus freeing herself
from the spectre; and you, by throwing it in the Thames, have
secured him against ever being able to make his appearance again.”
“It may be so, Drayton,” cried Calbot in great excitement. “I
remember, too, that when I gave her the locket she promised fealty
to the giver! Now, in fact, not I but this cursed Armstrong was the
real giver; and so Edna was actually surrendering herself to his
power. But, supposing your explanation correct, why may not Edna
and I come together again?”
“Well, my dear fellow,” replied I, as I lit another Cabana, “unless
you have acquired a very decided aversion to each other during the
last few hours, I really don’t see why you shouldn’t.”
“Drayton, I’m afraid to believe this true! Tell me how you came
upon your evidence, and what degree of reliance may be placed
upon it.”
I told him briefly about the MS., and added the conviction (at
which I had arrived during his narrative) that it must have been sent
to me by my former friend, Armstrong’s executor; and probably
comprised the very papers which I had made an ineffectual attempt
to secure at the auction sale. “The only lame point about the
matter,” I added, “is, that the MS. is wholly anonymous. All the
names are blanks, and though I have no doubt, now, that they are
Armstrong, Burleigh, and Calbot, there is no direct proof of it.”
My friend’s face fell. “There, it may be only a coincidence after
all!”
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