{"id":21010,"date":"2025-03-23T13:35:31","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T17:35:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/?p=21010"},"modified":"2025-03-23T13:35:34","modified_gmt":"2025-03-23T17:35:34","slug":"sheridan-le-fanu-madam-crowls-ghost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/short-stories\/sheridan-le-fanu-madam-crowls-ghost\/21010\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheridan Le Fanu: Madam Crowl\u2019s Ghost"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Synopsis:<\/strong> Madam Crowl’s Ghost<\/em> is a short story by Sheridan Le Fanu, published on December 31, 1870, in the magazine All the Year Round<\/em>. Narrated in the first person by an older woman who recalls her youth, it tells of the disturbing experience she had when, as a young girl, she was sent to work at the mysterious Applewale House. In that gloomy and decadent place, inhabited by silent servants and dominated by the disturbing figure of Mrs. Crowl, the young protagonist begins to perceive an oppressive atmosphere, disturbing rumors, and signs of a dark secret surrounding the old mansion.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\n
\"Sheridan<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Madam Crowl\u2019s Ghost<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By Sheridan Le Fanu
(Full story)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Twenty years have passed since you last saw Mrs. Jolliffe\u2019s tall slim figure. She is now past seventy, and can\u2019t have many milestones more to count on the journey that will bring her to her long home. The hair has grown white as snow, that is parted under her cap, over her shrewd, but kindly face. But her figure is still straight, and her step light and active.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has taken of late years to the care of adult invalids, having surrendered to younger hands the little people who inhabit cradles, and crawl on all-fours. Those who remember that goodnatured face among the earliest that emerge from the darkness of nonentity, and who owe to their first lessons in the accomplishment of walking, and a delighted appreciation of their first babblings and earliest teeth, have \u201cspired up\u201d into tall lads and lasses, now. Some of them shew streaks of white by this time, in brown locks, \u201cthe bonny gouden\u201d hair, that she was so proud to brush and shew to admiring mothers, who are seen no more on the green of Golden Friars, and whose names are traced now on the flat grey stones in the churchyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the time is ripening some, and searing others; and the saddening and tender sunset hour has come; and it is evening with the kind old north-country dame, who nursed pretty Laura Mildmay, who now stepping into the room, smiles so gladly, and throws her arms round the old woman\u2019s neck, and kisses her twice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNow, this is so lucky!\u201d said Mrs. Jenner, \u201cyou have just come in time to hear a story.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cReally! That\u2019s delightful.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNa, na, od wite it! no story, ouer true for that, I sid it a wi my aan eyen. But the barn here, would not like, at these hours, just goin\u2019 to her bed, to hear tell of freets and boggarts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGhosts? The very thing of all others I should most likely to hear of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, dear,\u201d said Mrs. Jenner, \u201cif you are not afraid, sit ye down here, with us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was just going to tell me all about her first engagement to attend a dying old woman,\u201d says Mrs. Jenner, \u201cand of the ghost she saw there. Now, Mrs. Jolliffe, make your tea first, and then begin.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The good woman obeyed, and having prepared a cup of that companionable nectar, she sipped a little, drew her brows slightly together to collect her thoughts, and then looked up with a wondrous solemn face to begin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good Mrs. Jenner, and the pretty girl, each gazed with eyes of solemn expectation in the face of the old woman, who seemed to gather awe from the recollections she was summoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old room was a good scene for such a narrative, with the oak-wainscoting, quaint, and clumsy furniture, the heavy beams that crossed its ceiling, and the tall four-post bed, with dark curtains, within which you might imagine what shadows you please.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mrs. Jolliffe cleared her voice, rolled her eyes slowly round, and began her tale in these words: \u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MADAM CROWL\u2019S GHOST<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m an ald woman now, and I was but thirteen, my last birthday, the night I came to Applewale House. My aunt was the housekeeper there, and a sort o\u2019 one-horse carriage was down at Lexhoe waitin\u2019 to take me and my box up to Applewale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was a bit frightened by the time I got to Lexhoe, and when I saw the carriage and horse, I wished myself back again with my mother at Hazelden. I was crying when I got into the \u2018shay\u2019 \u2014 that\u2019s what we used to call it \u2014 and old John Mulbery that drove it, and was a goodnatured fellow, bought me a handful of apples at the Golden Lion to cheer me up a bit; and he told me that there was a currant-cake, and tea, and pork-chops, waiting for me, all hot, in my aunt\u2019s room at the great house. It was a fine moonlight night, and I eat the apples, lookin\u2019 out o\u2019 the shay winda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a shame for gentlemen to frighten a poor foolish child like I was. I sometimes think it might be tricks. There was two on \u2018em on the tap o\u2019 the coach beside me. And they began to question me after nightfall, when the moon rose, where I was going to. Well, I told them it was to wait on Dame Arabella Crowl, of Applewale House, near by Lexhoe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ho, then,\u2019 says one of them, \u2018you\u2019ll not be long there!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I looked at him as much as to say \u2018Why not?\u2019 for I had spoken out when I told them where I was goin\u2019, as if \u2019twas something clever I hed to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Because,\u2019 says he, \u2018and don\u2019t you for your life tell no one, only watch her and see \u2014 she\u2019s possessed by the devil, and more an half a ghost. Have you got a Bible?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Yes, sir,\u2019 says I. For my mother put my little Bible in my box, and I knew it was there: and by the same token, though the print\u2019s too small for my ald eyes, I have it in my press to this hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I looked up at him saying \u2018Yes, sir,\u2019 I thought I saw him winkin\u2019 at his friend; but I could not be sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Well,\u2019 says he, \u2018be sure you put it under your bolster every night, it will keep the ald girl\u2019s claws aff ye.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd I got such a fright when he said that, you wouldn\u2019t fancy! And I\u2019d a liked to ask him a lot about the ald lady, but I was too shy, and he and his friend began talkin\u2019 together about their own consarns, and dowly enough I got down, as I told ye, at Lexhoe. My heart sank as I drove into the dark avenue. The trees stand very thick and big, as ald as the ald house almost, and four people, with their arms out and fingertips touchin\u2019, barely girds round some of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell my neck was stretched out o\u2019 the winda, looking for the first view o\u2019 the great house; and all at once we pulled up in front of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA great white-and-black house it is, wi\u2019 great black beams across and right up it, and gables lookin\u2019 out, as white as a sheet, to the moon, and the shadows o\u2019 the trees, two or three up and down in front, you could count the leaves on them, and all the little diamond-shaped winda-panes, glimmering on the great hall winda, and great shutters, in the old fashion, hinged on the wall outside, boulted across all the rest o\u2019 the windas in front, for there was but three or four servants, and the old lady in the house, and most o\u2019 t\u2019 rooms was locked up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy heart was in my mouth when I sid the journey was over, and this the great house afoore me, and I sa near my aunt that I never sid till noo, and Dame Crowl, that I was come to wait upon, and was afeard on already.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt kissed me in the hall, and brought me to her room. She was tall and thin, wi\u2019 a pale face and black eyes, and long thin hands wi\u2019 black mittins on. She was past fifty, and her word was short; but her word was law. I hev no complaints to make of her; but she was a hard woman, and I think she would hev bin kinder to me if I had bin her sister\u2019s child in place of her brother\u2019s. But all that\u2019s o\u2019 no consequence noo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe squire \u2014 his name was Mr. Chevenix Crowl, he was Dame Crowl\u2019s grandson \u2014 came down there, by way of seeing that the old lady was well treated, about twice or thrice in the year. I sid him but twice all the time I was at Applewale House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t say but she was well taken care of, notwithstanding; but that was because my aunt and Meg Wyvern, that was her maid, had a conscience, and did their duty by her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMrs. Wyvern \u2014 Meg Wyvern my aunt called her to herself, and Mrs. Wyvern to me \u2014 was a fat, jolly lass of fifty, a good height and a good breadth, always goodhumoured and walked slow. She had fine wages, but she was a bit stingy, and kept all her fine clothes under lock and key, and wore, mostly, a twilled chocolate cotton, wi\u2019 red, and yellow, and green sprigs and balls on it, and it lasted wonderful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe never gave me nout, not the vally o\u2019 a brass thimble, all the time I was there; but she was goodhumoured, and always laughin\u2019, and she talked no end o\u2019 proas over her tea; and, seeing me sa sackless and dowly, she roused me up wi\u2019 her laughin\u2019 and stories; and I think I liked her better than my aunt \u2014 children is so taken wi\u2019 a bit o\u2019 fun or a story \u2014 though my aunt was very good to me, but a hard woman about some things, and silent always.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt took me into her bedchamber, that I might rest myself a bit while she was settin\u2019 the tea in her room. But first, she patted me on the shouther, and said I was a tall lass o\u2019 my years, and had spired up well, and asked me if I could do plain work and stitchin\u2019; and she looked in my face, and said I was like my father, her brother, that was dead and gone, and she hoped I was a better Christian, and wad na du a\u2019 that lids (would not do anything of that sort).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a hard sayin\u2019 the first time I set foot in her room, I thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I went into the next room, the housekeeper\u2019s room \u2014 very comfortable, yak (oak) all round \u2014 there was a fine fire blazin\u2019 away, wi\u2019 coal, and peat, and wood, all in a low together, and tea on the table, and hot cake, and smokin\u2019 meat; and there was Mrs. Wyvern, fat, jolly, and talkin\u2019 away, more in an hour than my aunt would in a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile I was still at my tea my aunt went upstairs to see Madam Crowl.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018She\u2019s agone up to see that old Judith Squailes is awake,\u2019 says Mrs. Wyvern. \u2018Judith sits with Madam Crowl when me and Mrs. Shutters\u2019 \u2014 that was my aunt\u2019s name\u2014 \u2018is away. She\u2019s a troublesome old lady. Ye\u2019ll hev to be sharp wi\u2019 her, or she\u2019ll be into the fire, or out o\u2019 t\u2019 winda. She goes on wires, she does, old though she be.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018How old, ma\u2019am?\u2019 says I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ninety-three her last birthday, and that\u2019s eight months gone,\u2019 says she; and she laughed. \u2018And don\u2019t be askin\u2019 questions about her before your aunt \u2014 mind, I tell ye; just take her as you find her, and that\u2019s all.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018And what\u2019s to be my business about her, please, ma\u2019am?\u2019 says I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018About the old lady? Well,\u2019 says she, \u2018your aunt, Mrs. Shutters, will tell you that; but I suppose you\u2019ll hev to sit in the room with your work, and see she\u2019s at no mischief, and let her amuse herself with her things on the table, and get her her food or drink as she calls for it, and keep her out o\u2019 mischief, and ring the bell hard if she\u2019s troublesome.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Is she deaf, ma\u2019am?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018No, nor blind,\u2019 says she; \u2018as sharp as a needle, but she\u2019s gone quite aupy, and can\u2019t remember nout rightly; and Jack the Giant Killer, or Goody Twoshoes will please her as well as the king\u2019s court, or the affairs of the nation.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018And what did the little girl go away for, ma\u2019am, that went on Friday last? My aunt wrote to my mother she was to go.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Yes; she\u2019s gone.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018What for?\u2019 says I again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018She didn\u2019t answer Mrs. Shutters, I do suppose,\u2019 says she. \u2018I don\u2019t know. Don\u2019t be talkin\u2019; your aunt can\u2019t abide a talkin\u2019 child.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018And please, ma\u2019am, is the old lady well in health?\u2019 says I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018It ain\u2019t no harm to ask that,\u2019 says she. \u2018She\u2019s torflin a bit lately, but better this week past, and I dare say she\u2019ll last out her hundred years yet. Hish! Here\u2019s your aunt coming down the passage.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn comes my aunt, and begins talkin\u2019 to Mrs. Wyvern, and I, beginnin\u2019 to feel more comfortable and at home like, was walkin\u2019 about the room lookin\u2019 at this thing and at that. There was pretty old china things on the cupboard, and pictures again the wall; and there was a door open in the wainscot, and I sees a queer old leathern jacket, wi\u2019 straps and buckles to it, and sleeves as long as the bedpost hangin\u2019 up inside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018What\u2019s that you\u2019re at, child?\u2019 says my aunt, sharp enough, turning about when I thought she least minded. \u2018What\u2019s that in your hand?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018This, ma\u2019am?\u2019 says I, turning about with the leathern jacket. \u2018I don\u2019t know what it is, ma\u2019am.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPale as she was, the red came up in her cheeks, and her eyes flashed wi\u2019 anger, and I think only she had half a dozen steps to take, between her and me, she\u2019d a gev me a sizzup. But she did gie me a shake by the shouther, and she plucked the thing out o\u2019 my hand, and says she, \u2018While ever you stay here, don\u2019t ye meddle wi\u2019 nout that don\u2019t belong to ye\u2019, and she hung it up on the pin that was there, and shut the door wi\u2019 a bang and locked it fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMrs. Wyvern was liftin\u2019 up her hands and laughin\u2019 all this time, quietly, in her chair, rolling herself a bit in it, as she used when she was kinkin\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe tears was in my eyes, and she winked at my aunt, and says she, dryin\u2019 her own eyes that was wet wi\u2019 the laughin\u2019, \u2018Tut, the child meant no harm \u2014 come here to me, child. It\u2019s only a pair o\u2019 crutches for lame ducks, and ask us no questions mind, and we\u2019ll tell ye no lies; and come here and sit down, and drink a mug o\u2019 beer before ye go to your bed.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy room, mind ye, was upstairs, next to the old lady\u2019s, and Mrs. Wyvern\u2019s bed was near hers in her room, and I was to be ready at call, if need should be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe old lady was in one of her tantrums that night and part of the day before. She used to take fits o\u2019 the sulks. Sometimes she would not let them dress her, and at other times she would not let them take her clothes off. She was a great beauty, they said, in her day. But there was no one about Applewale that remembered her in her prime. And she was dreadful fond o\u2019 dress, and had thick silks, and stiff satins, and velvets, and laces, and all sorts, enough to set up seven shops at the least. All her dresses was oldfashioned and queer, but worth a fortune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I went to my bed. I lay for a while awake; for a\u2019 things was new to me; and I think the tea was in my nerves, too, for I wasn\u2019t used to it, except now and then on a holiday, or the like. And I heard Mrs. Wyvern talkin\u2019, and I listened with my hand to my ear; but I could not hear Mrs. Crowl, and I don\u2019t think she said a word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was great care took of her. The people at Applewale knew that when she died they would every one get the sack; and their situations was well paid and easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe doctor came twice a week to see the old lady, and you may be sure they all did as he bid them. One thing was the same every time; they were never to cross or frump her, any way, but to humour and please her in everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo she lay in her clothes all that night, and next day, not a word she said, and I was at my needlework all that day, in my own room, except when I went down to my dinner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI would a liked to see the ald lady, and even to hear her speak. But she might as well a\u2019 bin in Lunnon a\u2019 the time for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen I had my dinner my aunt sent me out for a walk for an hour. I was glad when I came back, the trees was so big, and the place so dark and lonesome, and \u2019twas a cloudy day, and I cried a deal, thinkin\u2019 of home, while I was walkin\u2019 alone there. That evening, the candles bein\u2019 alight, I was sittin\u2019 in my room, and the door was open into Madam Crowl\u2019s chamber, where my aunt was. It was, then, for the first time I heard what I suppose was the ald lady talking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was a queer noise like, I couldn\u2019t well say which, a bird, or a beast, only it had a bleatin\u2019 sound in it, and was very small.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI pricked my ears to hear all I could. But I could not make out one word she said. And my aunt answered:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018The evil one can\u2019t hurt no one, ma\u2019am, bout the Lord permits.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen the same queer voice from the bed says something more that I couldn\u2019t make head nor tail on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd my aunt med answer again: \u2018Let them pull faces, ma\u2019am, and say what they will; if the Lord be for us, who can be against us?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kept listenin\u2019 with my ear turned to the door, holdin\u2019 my breath, but not another word or sound came in from the room. In about twenty minutes, as I was sittin\u2019 by the table, lookin\u2019 at the pictures in the old Aesop\u2019s Fables, I was aware o\u2019 something moving at the door, and lookin\u2019 up I sid my aunt\u2019s face lookin\u2019 in at the door, and her hand raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Hish!\u2019 says she, very soft, and comes over to me on tiptoe, and she says in a whisper: \u2018Thank God, she\u2019s asleep at last, and don\u2019t ye make no noise till I come back, for I\u2019m goin\u2019 down to take my cup o\u2019 tea, and I\u2019ll be back i\u2019 noo \u2014 me and Mrs. Wyvern, and she\u2019ll be sleepin\u2019 in the room, and you can run down when we come up, and Judith will gie ye yaur supper in my room.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd with that she goes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kep\u2019 looking at the picture-book, as before, listenin\u2019 every noo and then, but there was no sound, not a breath, that I could hear; an\u2019 I began whisperin\u2019 to the pictures and talkin\u2019 to myself to keep my heart up, for I was growin\u2019 feared in that big room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd at last up I got, and began walkin\u2019 about the room, lookin\u2019 at this and peepin\u2019 at that, to amuse my mind, ye\u2019ll understand. And at last what sud I do but peeps into Madam Crowl\u2019s bedchamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA grand chamber it was, wi\u2019 a great four-poster, wi\u2019 flowered silk curtains as tall as the ceilin\u2019, and foldin\u2019 down on the floor, and drawn close all round. There was a lookin\u2019-glass, the biggest I ever sid before, and the room was a blaze o\u2019 light. I counted twenty-two wax candles, all alight. Such was her fancy, and no one dared say her nay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI listened at the door, and gaped and wondered all round. When I heard there was not a breath, and did not see so much as a stir in the curtains, I took heart, and walked into the room on tiptoe, and looked round again. Then I takes a keek at myself in the big glass; and at last it came in my head, \u2018Why couldn\u2019t I ha\u2019 a keek at the ald lady herself in the bed?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYe\u2019d think me a fule if ye knew half how I longed to see Dame Crowl, and I thought to myself if I didn\u2019t peep now I might wait many a day before I got so gude a chance again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, my dear, I came to the side o\u2019 the bed, the curtains bein\u2019 close, and my heart a\u2019most failed me. But I took courage, and I slips my finger in between the thick curtains, and then my hand. So I waits a bit, but all was still as death. So, softly, softly I draws the curtain, and there, sure enough, I sid before me, stretched out like the painted lady on the tomb-stean in Lexhoe Church, the famous Dame Crowl, of Applewale House. There she was, dressed out. You never sid the like in they days. Satin and silk, and scarlet and green, and gold and pint lace; by Jen! \u2019twas a sight! A big powdered wig, half as high as herself, was a-top o\u2019 her head, and, wow! \u2014 was ever such wrinkles? \u2014 and her old baggy throat all powdered white, and her cheeks rouged, and mouse-skin eyebrows, that Mrs. Wyvern used to stick on, and there she lay proud and stark, wi\u2019 a pair o\u2019 clocked silk hose on, and heels to her shoon as tall as ninepins. Lawk! But her nose was crooked and thin, and half the whites o\u2019 her eyes was open. She used to stand, dressed as she was, gigglin\u2019 and dribblin\u2019 before the lookin\u2019-glass, wi\u2019 a fan in her hand and a big nosegay in her bodice. Her wrinkled little hands was stretched down by her sides, and such long nails, all cut into points, I never sid in my days. Could it even a bin the fashion for grit fowk to wear their fingernails so?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, I think ye\u2019d a-bin frightened yourself if ye\u2019d a sid such a sight. I couldn\u2019t let go the curtain, nor move an inch, nor take my eyes off her; my very heart stood still. And in an instant she opens her eyes and up she sits, and spins herself round, and down wi\u2019 her, wi\u2019 a clack on her two tall heels on the floor, facin\u2019 me, ogglin\u2019 in my face wi\u2019 her two great glassy eyes, and a wicked simper wi\u2019 her wrinkled lips, and lang fause teeth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, a corpse is a natural thing; but this was the dreadfullest sight I ever sid. She had her fingers straight out pointin\u2019 at me, and her back was crooked, round again wi\u2019 age. Says she:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ye little limb! what for did ye say I killed the boy? I\u2019ll tickle ye till ye\u2019re stiff!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf I\u2019d a thought an instant, I\u2019d a turned about and run. But I couldn\u2019t take my eyes off her, and I backed from her as soon as I could; and she came clatterin\u2019 after like a thing on wires, with her fingers pointing to my throat, and she makin\u2019 all the time a sound with her tongue like zizz-zizz-zizz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI kept backin\u2019 and backin\u2019 as quick as I could, and her fingers was only a few inches away from my throat, and I felt I\u2019d lose my wits if she touched me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went back this way, right into the corner, and I gev a yellock, ye\u2019d think saul and body was partin\u2019, and that minute my aunt, from the door, calls out wi\u2019 a blare, and the ald lady turns round on her, and I turns about, and ran through my room, and down the stairs, as hard as my legs could carry me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI cried hearty, I can tell you, when I got down to the housekeeper\u2019s room. Mrs. Wyvern laughed a deal when I told her what happened. But she changed her key when she heard the ald lady\u2019s words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Say them again,\u2019 says she.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo I told her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ye little limb! What for did ye say I killed the boy? I\u2019ll tickle ye till ye\u2019re stiff.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018And did ye say she killed a boy?\u2019 says she.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Not I, ma\u2019am,\u2019 says I.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJudith was always up with me, after that, when the two elder women was away from her. I would a jumped out at winda, rather than stay alone in the same room wi\u2019 her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was about a week after, as well as I can remember, Mrs. Wyvern, one day when me and her was alone, told me a thing about Madam Crowl that I did not know before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe being young and a great beauty, full seventy year before, had married Squire Crowl, of Applewale. But he was a widower, and had a son about nine years old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere never was tale or tidings of this boy after one mornin\u2019. No one could say where he went to. He was allowed too much liberty, and used to be off in the morning, one day, to the keeper\u2019s cottage and breakfast wi\u2019 him, and away to the warren, and not home, mayhap, till evening; and another time down to the lake, and bathe there, and spend the day fishin\u2019 there, or paddlin\u2019 about in the boat. Well, no one could say what was gone wi\u2019 him; only this, that his hat was found by the lake, under a haathorn that grows thar to this day, and \u2019twas thought he was drowned bathin\u2019. And the squire\u2019s son, by his second marriage, with this Madam Crowl that lived sa dreadful lang, came in far the estates. It was his son, the ald lady\u2019s grandson, Squire Chevenix Crowl, that owned the estates at the time I came to Applewale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was a deal o\u2019 talk lang before my aunt\u2019s time about it; and \u2019twas said the stepmother knew more than she was like to let out. And she managed her husband, the ald squire, wi\u2019 her whiteheft and flatteries. And as the boy was never seen more, in course of time the thing died out of fowks\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m goin\u2019 to tell ye noo about what I sid wi\u2019 my own een.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was not there six months, and it was winter time, when the ald lady took her last sickness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe doctor was afeard she might a took a fit o\u2019 madness, as she did fifteen years befoore, and was buckled up, many a time, in a strait-waistcoat, which was the very leathern jerkin I sid in the closet, off my aunt\u2019s room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, she didn\u2019t. She pined, and windered, and went off, torflin\u2019, torflin\u2019, quiet enough, till a day or two before her flittin\u2019, and then she took to rabblin\u2019, and sometimes skirlin\u2019 in the bed, ye\u2019d think a robber had a knife to her throat, and she used to work out o\u2019 the bed, and not being strong enough, then, to walk or stand, she\u2019d fall on the flure, wi\u2019 her ald wizened hands stretched before her face, and skirlin\u2019 still for mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYe may guess I didn\u2019t go into the room, and I used to be shiverin\u2019 in my bed wi\u2019 fear, at her skirlin\u2019 and scrafflin\u2019 on the flure, and blarin\u2019 out words that id make your skin turn blue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt, and Mrs. Wyvern, and Judith Squailes, and a woman from Lexhoe, was always about her. At last she took fits, and they wore her out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cT\u2019 sir was there, and prayed for her; but she was past praying with. I suppose it was right, but none could think there was much good in it, and sa at lang last she made her flittin\u2019, and a\u2019 was over, and old Dame Crowl was shrouded and coffined, and Squire Chevenix was wrote for. But he was away in France, and the delay was sa lang, that t\u2019 sir and doctor both agreed it would not du to keep her langer out o\u2019 her place, and no one cared but just them two, and my aunt and the rest o\u2019 us, from Applewale, to go to the buryin\u2019. So the old lady of Applewale was laid in the vault under Lexhoe Church; and we lived up at the great house till such time as the squire should come to tell his will about us, and pay off such as he chose to discharge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was put into another room, two doors away from what was Dame Crowl\u2019s chamber, after her death, and this thing happened the night before Squire Chevenix came to Applewale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe room I was in now was a large square chamber, covered wi\u2019 yak pannels, but unfurnished except for my bed, which had no curtains to it, and a chair and a table, or so, that looked nothing at all in such a big room. And the big looking-glass, that the old lady used to keek into and admire herself from head to heel, now that there was na mair o\u2019 that wark, was put out of the way, and stood against the wall in my room, for there was shiftin\u2019 o\u2019 many things in her chamber ye may suppose, when she came to be coffined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe news had come that day that the squire was to be down next morning at Applewale; and not sorry was I, for I thought I was sure to be sent home again to my mother. And right glad was I, and I was thinkin\u2019 of a\u2019 at hame, and my sister Janet, and the kitten and the pymag, and Trimmer the tike, and all the rest, and I got sa fidgetty, I couldn\u2019t sleep, and the clock struck twelve, and me wide awake, and the room as dark as pick. My back was turned to the door, and my eyes toward the wall opposite.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, it could na be a full quarter past twelve, when I sees a lightin\u2019 on the wall befoore me, as if something took fire behind, and the shadas o\u2019 the bed, and the chair, and my gown, that was hangin\u2019 from the wall, was dancin\u2019 up and down on the ceilin\u2019 beams and the yak pannels; and I turns my head ower my shouther quick, thinkin\u2019 something must a gone a\u2019 fire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd what sud I see, by Jen! but the likeness o\u2019 the ald beldame, bedizened out in her satins and velvets, on her dead body, simperin\u2019, wi\u2019 her eyes as wide as saucers, and her face like the fiend himself. \u2019Twas a red light that rose about her in a fuffin low, as if her dress round her feet was blazin\u2019. She was drivin\u2019 on right for me, wi\u2019 her ald shrivelled hands crooked as if she was goin\u2019 to claw me. I could not stir, but she passed me straight by, wi\u2019 a blast o\u2019 cald air, and I sid her, at the wall, in the alcove as my aunt used to call it, which was a recess where the state bed used to stand in ald times wi\u2019 a door open wide, and her hands gropin\u2019 in at somethin\u2019 was there. I never sid that door befoore. And she turned round to me, like a thing on a pivot, flyrin\u2019, and all at once the room was dark, and I standin\u2019 at the far side o\u2019 the bed; I don\u2019t know how I got there, and I found my tongue at last, and if I did na blare a yellock, rennin\u2019 down the gallery and almost pulled Mrs. Wyvern\u2019s door off t\u2019 hooks, and frighted her half out o\u2019 wits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYe may guess I did na sleep that night; and wi\u2019 the first light, down wi\u2019 me to my aunt, as fast as my two legs cud carry me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell my aunt did na frump or flite me, as I thought she would, but she held me by the hand, and looked hard in my face all the time. And she telt me not to be feared; and says she:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Hed the appearance a key in its hand?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Yes,\u2019 says I, bringin\u2019 it to mind, \u2018a big key in a queer brass handle.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Stop a bit,\u2019 says she, lettin\u2019 go ma hand, and openin\u2019 the cupboard-door. \u2018Was it like this?\u2019 says she, takin\u2019 one out in her fingers, and showing it to me, with a dark look in my face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018That was it,\u2019 says I, quick enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Are ye sure?\u2019 she says, turnin\u2019 it round.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Sart,\u2019 says I, and I felt like I was gain\u2019 to faint when I sid it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Well, that will do, child,\u2019 says she, saftly thinkin\u2019, and she locked it up again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018The squire himself will be here today, before twelve o\u2019clock, and ye must tell him all about it,\u2019 says she, thinkin\u2019, \u2018and I suppose I\u2019ll be leavin\u2019 soon, and so the best thing for the present is, that ye should go home this afternoon, and I\u2019ll look out another place for you when I can.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFain was I, ye may guess, at that word.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt packed up my things for me, and the three pounds that was due to me, to bring home, and Squire Crowl himself came down to Applewale that day, a handsome man, about thirty years ald. It was the second time I sid him. But this was the first time he spoke to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt talked wi\u2019 him in the housekeeper\u2019s room, and I don\u2019t know what they said. I was a bit feared on the squire, he bein\u2019 a great gentleman down in Lexhoe, and I darn\u2019t go near till I was called. And says he, smilin\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018What\u2019s a\u2019 this ye a sen, child? it mun be a dream, for ye know there\u2019s na sic a thing as a bo or a freet in a\u2019 the world. But whatever it was, ma little maid, sit ye down and tell all about it from first to last.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWell, so soon as I made an end, he thought a bit, and says he to my aunt:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018I mind the place well. In old Sir Olivur\u2019s time lame Wyndel told me there was a door in that recess, to the left, where the lassie dreamed she saw my grandmother open it. He was past eighty when he told me that, and I but a boy. It\u2019s twenty year sen. The plate and jewels used to be kept there, long ago, before the iron closet was made in the arras chamber, and he told me the key had a brass handle, and this ye say was found in the bottom o\u2019 the kist where she kept her old fans. Now, would not it be a queer thing if we found some spoons or diamonds forgot there? Ye mun come up wi\u2019 us, lassie, and point to the very spot.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLoth was I, and my heart in my mouth, and fast I held by my aunt\u2019s hand as I stept into that awsome room, and showed them both how she came and passed me by, and the spot where she stood, and where the door seemed to open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was an ald empty press against the wall then, and shoving it aside, sure enough there was the tracing of a door in the wainscot, and a keyhole stopped with wood, and planed across as smooth as the rest, and the joining of the door all stopped wi\u2019 putty the colour o\u2019 yak, and, but for the hinges that showed a bit when the press was shoved aside, ye would not consayt there was a door there at all.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ha!\u2019 says he, wi\u2019 a queer smile, \u2018this looks like it.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt took some minutes wi\u2019 a small chisel and hammer to pick the bit o\u2019 wood out o\u2019 the keyhole. The key fitted, sure enough, and, wi\u2019 a strang twist and a lang skreak, the boult went back and he pulled the door open.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere was another door inside, stranger than the first, but the lacks was gone, and it opened easy. Inside was a narrow floor and walls and vault o\u2019 brick; we could not see what was in it, for \u2019twas dark as pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen my aunt had lighted the candle, the squire held it up and stept in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy aunt stood on tiptoe tryin\u2019 to look over his shouther, and I did na see nout.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Ha! ha!\u2019 says the squire, steppin\u2019 backward. \u2018What\u2019s that? Gi\u2019 ma the poker \u2014 quick!\u2019 says he to my aunt. And as she went to the hearth I peeps beside his arm, and I sid squat down in the far corner a monkey or a flayin\u2019 on the chest, or else the maist shrivelled up, wizzened ald wife that ever was sen on yearth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018By Jen!\u2019 says my aunt, as puttin\u2019 the poker in his hand, she keeked by his shouther, and sid the ill-favoured thing, \u2018hae a care, sir, what ye\u2019re doin\u2019. Back wi\u2019 ye, and shut to the door!\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut in place o\u2019 that he steps in saftly, wi\u2019 the poker pointed like a swoord, and he gies it a poke, and down it a\u2019 tumbles together, head and a\u2019, in a heap o\u2019 bayans and dust, little meyar an\u2019 a hatful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2019Twas the bayans o\u2019 a child; a\u2019 the rest went to dust at a touch. They said nout for a while, but he turns round the skull, as it lay on the floor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYoung as I was, I consayted I knew well enough what they was thinkin\u2019 on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018A dead cat!\u2019 says he, pushin\u2019 back and blowin\u2019 out the can\u2019le, and shuttin\u2019 to the door. \u2018We\u2019ll come back, you and me, Mrs. Shutters, and look on the shelves by-and-bye. I\u2019ve other matters first to speak to ye about; and this little girl\u2019s goin\u2019 hame, ye say. She has her wages, and I mun mak\u2019 her a present,\u2019 says he, pattin\u2019 my shouther wi\u2019 his hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd he did gimma a goud pound and I went aff to Lexhoe about an hour after, and sa hame by the stagecoach, and fain was I to be at hame again; and I never sid Dame Crowl o\u2019 Applewale, God be thanked, either in appearance or in dream, at-efter. But when I was grown to be a woman, my aunt spent a day and night wi\u2019 me at Littleham, and she telt me there was no doubt it was the poor little boy that was missing sa lang sen, that was shut up to die thar in the dark by that wicked beldame, whar his skirls, or his prayers, or his thumpin\u2019 cud na be heard, and his hat was left by the water\u2019s edge, whoever did it, to mak\u2019 belief he was drowned. The clothes, at the first touch, a\u2019 ran into a snuff o\u2019 dust in the cell whar the bayans was found. But there was a handful o\u2019 jet buttons, and a knife with a green heft, together wi\u2019 a couple o\u2019 pennies the poor little fella had in his pocket, I suppose, when he was decoyed in thar, and sid his last o\u2019 the light. And there was, amang the squire\u2019s papers, a copy o\u2019 the notice that was prented after he was lost, when the ald squire thought he might \u2018a run away, or bin took by gipsies, and it said he had a green-hefted knife wi\u2019 him, and that his buttons were o\u2019 cut jet. Sa that is a\u2019 I hev to say consarnin\u2019 ald Dame Crowl, o\u2019 Applewale House.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

THE END<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Madam Crowl’s Ghost is a short story by Sheridan Le Fanu, published on December 31, 1870, in the magazine All the Year Round. Narrated in the first person by an older woman who recalls her youth, it tells of the disturbing experience she had when, as a young girl, she was sent to work at the mysterious Applewale House. In that gloomy and decadent place, inhabited by silent servants and dominated by the disturbing figure of Mrs. Crowl, the young protagonist begins to perceive an oppressive atmosphere, disturbing rumors, and signs of a dark secret surrounding the old mansion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20935,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[572,594,862],"class_list":["post-21010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-short-stories","tag-horror-en","tag-ireland","tag-sheridan-le-fanu-en","generate-columns","tablet-grid-50","mobile-grid-100","grid-parent","grid-33"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":559,"label":"Short stories"}],"post_tag":[{"value":572,"label":"Horror"},{"value":594,"label":"Ireland"},{"value":862,"label":"Sheridan Le Fanu"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/lecturia.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Sheridan-Le-Fanu-El-fantasma-de-la-senora-Crowl.webp",1024,1024,false],"author_info":{"display_name":"Juan Pablo Guevara","author_link":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/author\/spartakku\/"},"comment_info":"","category_info":[{"term_id":559,"name":"Short stories","slug":"short-stories","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":559,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":419,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":559,"category_count":419,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Short stories","category_nicename":"short-stories","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":572,"name":"Horror","slug":"horror-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":572,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":127,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":594,"name":"Ireland","slug":"ireland","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":594,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":17,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":862,"name":"Sheridan Le Fanu","slug":"sheridan-le-fanu-en","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":862,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":4,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lecturia.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}