The gentleman in black Author:Dalton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The colonel then asked him how the idea of disturbi schoolmaster's corpse in particular, came into his head. " Owing to a diabolical boldness. It is commonly ... more »believi that when a child speaks to the head of its deceased parent, at the midnight hour, the head comes to life again. I was anxious to prove the fact, but shall never recover from iU effects: happily, however, the head is restored to rest." " They asked him how he knew it. He answered, that he had seen it all the while he was in a state of lethargy: that, as the clock struck one, his wife had finished reinterring the head in its grave. And he described, in the most minute manner, how she held it. The curiosity of the company assembled, was so much excited by witnessing these inexplicable events, that they awaited the return of the servant whom the colonel had despatched to the sexton's wife. Everything had happened precisely as he had described; the clock struck one at the very moment the head was laid in the grave. These events had produced to the spectators a night of much greater terrors than the colonel had prepared for them. Nay, even his imagination was raised to such a pitch, that the least breath of wind, or the slightest noise, appeared to him as a forerunner to some disagreeable visitor from the world of spirits. He was out of his bed at dawn of day, to look out of his window, and see the occasion of the noise which at that hour was heard at the inn-door. He saw the rope-dancers seated in the carriage, about to take their departure. Calzolaro was not with them, but presently afterwards came to the side of the vehicle, where he took leave of them: the children seemed to leave him behind with regret. The carriage drove off; and the colonel made a signal to Calzolaro to come and speak to him. " ...« less