The Terrible Haunting Of A French Château

10/19/2024

By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
The Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur located in Normandy, France was known to be haunted by a white lady that walked the grounds, and a werewolf that stalked the peasants in the vicinity, however between October 1867 and January 1877 the terror that made itself known had no parallel.

Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur, present day

The chateau was built in 1835 on the site of the medieval Castle Noyers that dated back to the 14th century, and was less than a mile south of the chateau. The older structure was razed by a fire, and the de Baudre family decided to build a new home using the stones from the original one.

The de Baudre family ended without direct descendants, and the chateau was inherited in 1867 by a close branch of the family. The new owners were Ferdinand Lescaudey de Manneville (1837-1918), his wife Pauline De Cussy (1841-1933), and their son Maurice (1866-1895).

When the family moved to the chateau, with them came Emile the coachman, Auguste the gardener, Celina des Bissons the cook, Amelina the maid and Abbe Droussaval, Maurice's tutor.

The first three years of their stay they witnessed strange events like doors slamming for no reason, moving objects and odd noises.

M. de Manneville initially believed the strange events were a result of malice against the family, and therefore of human origin. Once a strange noise was heard he would gather all the household into one room to make sure they were all accounted for. He bought guard dogs and he organized surveillance rounds with his servants. He also set traps, but ultimately they turned out to be useless.

He noted: "When the noises occurred while the ground was covered with snow, there was no trace of footsteps around the castle. I have secretly stretched wires to all openings: they have never been broken."

Suddenly all the peculiarities stopped, and stayed that way for five years. In October, 1875 the events returned and started to escalate.

M. de Mannville started to keep a diary of all the disturbances, even those his friends witnessed. Clergy that was brought in to help also saw the strange phenomenon. Ferdinand de Manneville began a newspaper that he filled every morning after the events of the previous night:

11pm January 17, woken by what sounded like a body falling in the first floor corridor. Followed by a heavy ball that rolls along the corridor to strike loudly on the door of the green room. Twenty sharp rapping sounds, then eighteen coming from inside the green room. At 11:35 five blows on the door of the green room. Fifteen loud thumping noises going up the stairs to the second floor. Two gun shots. Footless legs walk ten paces up stairs to the second floor as the building seems to shake. At 15 minutes past midnight eight strong blows on the first floor landing, three on the second.

The chateau at Calvados was also known as Maison Jeanne d'Arc c.1900

Bangs would be heard coming from a far-off room, followed by unintelligible shouting. Then the noise would become louder and closer.

On October 13, 1875 Abbe the tutor came to M. and Mme. de Mannville saying he had seen a chair in his room move by it self. M. de Mannville went to the room, used gum paper to stick the chair in a certain position, and left. Later that night the tutor started to ring a bell he had in his room to signal something had happened. When M. de Mannville arrived the poor man was huddled in his bed with his covers pulled up. The chair had been moved to another part of the room, and ornaments and a candlestick were toppled lover.

The tutor told him the sharp rapping started to sound out in the room. As they spoke loud thumps came from around the chateau, as if from every corner. De Mannville, along with the servants which he had armed, pursued the slowly fading sounds. Every room they opened was unoccupied.

There were other times when furniture would be moved inside a room to block a door from being opened.

It seemed that whatever haunted the chateau was also a mimic, since several times the servants heard what sounded like the voices and the steps of the de Mannevilles, only to find they were not in the structure.

Starting that night, the household was terrorized by the sound of a fist banging on windows and door. A huge, but unseen object would be heard rolling down the stairs.

The parish priest was summoned, and he decided to stay for the night. In the pre-dawn hours, heavy footsteps like a stomping giant echoed down the main staircase.

The priest needed no convincing to believe that a supernatural event was taking place.

All the activity intensified on Halloween night, and sounds of wails, shouts and thumps kept the household on the edge of their seats until 3 a.m.

Another who kept a journal was the cook, Celina Desbissons who detailed the phenomena. After the de Manneville family sold the chateau, she stayed and married a local man. The diary is currently kept by her descendant Didier Duchemin the mayor of the town Le Tourneur. This is an entry dating to 1875:

Night of Thursday, December 30, 1875: at 0:40, three blows struck slowly on the door of the green room, eight deaf blows at the top, everything trembles, ... long walk in the corridor of the second, the steps are sometimes fast, sometimes slow, these steps do not’ anything human, no animal can climb like this. Following blows in the vestibule, in the corridor, on the second floor, we hear screams like bellowing at the height of the windows.

On January 19, 1876 at 1h15, I’ was awakened by a gallopade upstairs from above, the windows shook for ten minutes, there were knocks on the doors.

The Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur c.1984

The disturbances would originate mostly in the green room called thus because of the color of the walls. It was located on the first floor, on the left when looking at the front façade. The house also included a red room and a blue room.

Then during a terrible storm screaming accompanied the loud knocking. The din would increase until the voice of a distressed woman, calling for help would fill every corner of the building. The next day the wailing woman's voice was inside the chateau. Her whimpering and shrieks chilled the blood, but the worse was knowing they didn't come from a flesh and blood woman.

The night after this, the cries came from inside the locked green room. By now the household knew better than to investigate the shrill sobbing.

The tutor seemed to be the target of quiet horrors. In his room, his belongings would be moved around, as were his clothing and furnishings. Once a chair was found on top of the table. The window in his room would fly open, despite being nailed down. Once all his books were thrown to the floor except the Bible.

From 1876 to 1880, the de Mannevilles forbade anyone to cross the door of the cellar and go down the steps. It was one of three parts of the manor to always have some type of inexplicable phenomena occur.

Grave of Celina des Bissons the cook at the chateau who kept a diary of the haunting

There were nights that whatever walked the halls of the chateau knocked on each door as if asking to be let in, but always more at the tutor's room. Then the thumping resumed inside the green room.

Once Mme. de Mannville was unlocking a door when the key was ripped from her fingers, and then struck the back of her hand leaving a large bruise.

The bishop sent a canon, whose presence calmed the poltergeist activity, but only for a while. A few days later it started up again, but worse than before.

One day an unseen force went into Emile and Auguste's room and threw around their belongings, after overturning their beds. The next target was M. de Mannville's study, where his books and papers were scattered on the floor.

The woman's screams were now accompanied by growling from an unknown animal, and the bellow of a bull. Pulse-like tapping moved along the corridor, and came to Maurice de Mannville's room where his door was hit so hard every window in the structure shook.

The Catholic church finally agreed to conduct the rites of exorcism, and having a Novena to be said at Lourdes at the same time.

On January 26, 1876 the parish priest came to Chateau des Noyers du Tourneur. Upon his arrival, an unearthly scream sounded out, accompanied by the sound of stampeding animals. Then the noise of heavy furniture being dragged around echoed out. This was followed by the door to Maurice's room shaking violently.

The rite of exorcism reached its peak at 11:15 p.m. The agonizing growls of an animal in it death throes resounded between the walls. The green room was filled with furious thumps, and a man's voice shouted up from the first floor. Then silence enveloped the house.

The priest slumped in his chair, and in a huddle the servants went from room to room. Nothing strange was found. All was quiet for a few days, then Mme. de Mannville while writing at her desk, had holy medals and crosses materialize out of nowhere and fall across the letters.

Months followed with no activity, but the peace ended in August, when quiet but unmistakable tapping started to sound out in odd corners of the chateau. The next month the drawing room furniture was dragged around into a horseshoe shape.

M. de Mannville was away on business, when his wife saw the bolt on her bedroom move back by itself. In another room, an organ played by itself, and the furniture in the room of Maurice's new tutor was rearranged.

The occurrences never intensified to the degree the family had previously experienced. Much of the activity lessened, but the exhausted family moved out in 1877, and then sold the property. In 1884, the chateau was acquired by Mr. Decaen described as "enigmatic", a Freemason, a Rosicrucian and a student of occultism. He kept a mobile attraction which was the carcass of a whale, and was known to be unkind to those who worked for him.

The Chateau de Noyers remained occupied until the early 1980s, the last occupant being Madeleine Richard.

Old engraving of the Beast of Singlais

The mystery persists as to the origins or cause for these hellish manifestations. Some spoke of a lady belonging to the de Noyers family who lived in the old castle at the beginning of 19th century. It was said she was selfish and vain, and after death the gates of Paradise refused to open for her, so she wandered every night around the house that once occupied the land of her one-time home.

Like the de Manneville, the occupants of the chateau asked for intercession from the Catholic church. A blessing drove her outside the home, which is why she was seen walking through the grounds. This however does not explain what would rampage through the chateau at Calvados.

There are still stories of a woman's head appearing at a window. Some believe the stones of the ancient chateau used for construction of the present building transmitted a curse, perhaps a product of public executions in the town square, or deaths from the plague.

This area itself has a terrible legend of a furious beast — a predator who devoured over two dozen people in the Cinglais forest in 1632. It was known as the "Bête de Cinglais" or the "Bête d’Evreux". These events predate the attacks of the Beast of Gevaudan between 1764 and 1767.

The people of the area believed what preyed on the villagers was a human who changed into a wolf. Priests tried to enlist the help of neighboring parishes, but the townspeople were so traumatized that they had very few volunteers to take part in a hunt. The hunters themselves refused to go deep into the wood unless they were in a large group.

In 1633, it was reported that an animal, larger than a wolf was killed after a hunting party organized by the Count de la Suze, poured over 5,000 hunters and beaters into the area. The wolf was red in color, with a pointed tail and a wider rump than a normal wolf. By then it had claimed 30 victims.

The Cinglais wood extended over 3,700 acres on the edge of the Orne valley. A report in a gazette from March 19, 1632 read:

Since last month in the forest of Cinglais, and then between there and Falaise, people have seen a wild beast that has already devoured fifteen people. Those who have avoided his fangs report that this savage beast is similar to a large mastiff of such a speed that it would be impossible to run and catch him on foot. He is of such extraordinary agility that people have seen him jump right over the river in certain places. Some people call him Thérende. Local residents and forest gamekeepers have shot at him from range with their arquebuses on several occasions, but without wounding him. They do not dare approach him, or even to reveal themselves, until they are organized in a large group, exactly as they will be today when they hear the sound of the alarm bell, to which all the parishioners from all the parishes around have been invited by their village priests, as three thousand people are assembled to carry out the hunt.

Camille Flammarion (1842-1925)

One of those who came to investigate the haunting was Camille Flammarion (1842-1925), an astronomer, author and Theosophist. He investigated paranormal events and spiritism from a scientific angle for over 60 years.

In a presentation to the Society for Psychical Research in October, 1923 he said he believed in telepathy, etheric doubles, the stone tape theory and "exceptionally and rarely the dead do manifest" in hauntings.

By 1924, a year prior to his death he published his book Les Maisons Hantées (Haunted Houses) in which he concluded that only in rare cases where hauntings caused by the souls of the departed, but mostly they were the result of "the remote action of the psychic force of a living person".

Harry Houdini reviewed the book and remarked: "it fails to supply adequate proof of the veracity of the conglomeration of hearsay it contains; it must, therefore, be a collection of myths."

In 1984, a fire of unknown origin damaged the building, all except the green room. Present day it sits quiet and lonely, deep in the Orne down an inconsequential track.

The following is a translated account (Annales des Sciences Psychiques) of investigators who came to the chateau and interviewed the family years after they left:

PRESENTATION OF THE STRANGE PHENOMENA OF THE CASTLE OF T. By M. G. MORICE

The curious observations which follow have been in our possession for nearly a year; but because of their character, we have believed it necessary to defer their publication and wait until similar facts have already prepared our readers not to regard them as absolutely impossible, despite the conditions in which they were observed and the incontestable guarantees offered by the principal observer, who took note of them immediately and could not have been deceived by a defect or by an unconscious exaggeration of memory.

After the study of phenomena of this kind, which was made by the famous naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (See An. des Sc. Ps. year 1891, pages 144 et seq., 241 et seq., 342 et seq.); after the experiments of Professor Lombroso, published in these Annals (year 1891, p. 326 and year 1892, p. 143) and after our experiments of movements of objects without contact, observed on several occasions in a sealed room, our readers will not fail to take them into serious consideration and on occasion to point out to us those of the same nature which could come to their knowledge and which would appear to offer serious guarantees of authenticity.

Letter from Mr. G. Morice to Mr. Ch. Richet. July 12, 1891:

The facts which I would have to tell you about happened about fifteen years ago in the vicinity of V... They are recounted by the owner of the castle himself, day by day, with the utmost good faith and without the slightest pretension to wonder. All the people living in this castle, servants, tutor, and all the people who came successively to this castle, have all witnessed the inexplicable facts that occurred during a period of more than four months. These facts consisted of noises of all kinds, the most violent blows, hurried steps on the stairs, objects being moved without contact, women's screams, etc.

All the witnesses are known and most of them exist. As I have just told you, Mr. de X. (that is the name of the owner) recounted these facts day by day, as they occurred. I have an exact copy of this journal which consists of about thirty pages. If you would allow me to do so, I could present myself on your behalf to Mr. de X.; I will ask him for some additional information, the addresses of some witnesses that I could question and I will send you a report of what happened in 1875 at the Château du T. with all possible supporting evidence. Mr. de X. having sold his château following all this, now lives in B...

I must leave tomorrow to spend a few days in the countryside, in the vicinity of this city. Please write to me as soon as possible. I will be very happy if I can contribute something to the success of the task that you have so boldly undertaken. Please accept, Sir, the assurance of my devoted feelings and my most distinguished consideration. G. Morice.'

Letter from Mr. de X. to Mr. Morice. August 3, 1891:

Sir, The stay I am currently making in the country having deprived me of your visit, I have come to write to you what I would have told you at B... about the facts to which you draw my attention.

In principle, my greatest wish would have been that no one should have bothered about me or about what may have happened at my home at the time when I lived in T... Having witnessed all these phenomena, I have only been able to retain a rather unpleasant memory of them, you will agree, and, given the opinions, often very lightly formulated, of the world on this subject, I only speak of them to those who seem to me to consider things only from the most serious point of view, as you do, sir.

Since a work of a [scientific character is requested of you on this subject, I come in my turn to address your delicacy to ask you to show me your work before its publication, and especially to absolutely keep my name silent, I also ask you to replace by X all those that you will meet there. Many of those who were the witnesses of these phenomena are still alive, and it would be possible that, as a result of a feeling that we must respect in them, they do not care at all to see their name appear in this printed account. It is not the same with the notes that I had taken at that time; I had the authorization of my witnesses, and these notes themselves were, in my mind, intended to remain in the privacy of the family.

Please, sir, accept the assurance of my most distinguished sentiments. F.de X.

PRESENTATION OF THE STRANGE PHENOMENA OF THE CHATEAU DE T.
By Mr. G. MORICE Doctor of Law.
I will be very happy if I can in some way, however modest, help you to achieve the goal that you are pursuing in the Annals of Psychic Sciences. 'Let us first try to establish the facts, the theories will come later,' Mr. Ch. Richet tells us in his introductory letter which appears at the head of this review; it is by drawing inspiration from this prudent advice that I will limit myself to stating the facts in all their simplicity.

They took place in 1875, at the Château du T..., in Normandy, then inhabited by the owner, Mr. de X... and his family. Mr. de X., whose honorability and intelligence cannot be doubted by anyone, has made a precise account day by day, as they occurred, of all the extraordinary events of which he was the witness, taking care to indicate who were the people who were each day in his castle. These people can attest, as he himself does, to the strangeness of the phenomena which they witnessed. It is according to this journal which we have the good fortune to possess, that we will expose them. We will not add a word about the story of Mr. de X..., reserving however the right to delete details that we consider less important so as not to fill too many pages of this publication.

Around 1835 there existed, in this commune, an old castle belonging to the family of B. This dwelling was in such a state of dilapidation that restoration was deemed unnecessary. It was replaced by another built about 150 meters north of the old one. Mr. de X. inherited it in 1867 and made it his residence. In the month of October of that same year there was a series of extraordinary events, nocturnal noises, blows etc., which after having ceased for a few years, Mr. de X. tells us, in his journal of 1875, are happening again at present.

At all times the castle of T... had been considered to have been the scene of extraordinary phenomena, to be haunted by more or less evil ghosts. The X. family was unaware of all these noises when they took possession of it. After a few months of stay, certain events began to appear, but only intermittently; it was only after they had left their castle to visit relatives that the events occurred with the intensity and continuity that we find again in 1875.

The servants were dying of fright and at their request Mr. and Mrs. X. returned after an absence of a month. The same events occurred again after their return, Mr. X. carried out meticulous searches for several nights but discovered nothing. Everything returned to more or less calm at the beginning of 1868, the extraordinary noises were only heard from time to time and were less violent.

From 1870 onwards, they ceased completely. "For five years," wrote M. de X., "we had regained our calm and our security and we no longer spoke of all this except when our parents or our friends questioned us on the subject. So our disappointment is great in seeing that new noises, similar to those of 1867, come to disturb us and make us fear that the castle where we are is destined to be the object of a series of phenomena which would make our stay impossible.

'It is October 1875. I intend to note here and record each day what happened during the previous night. I must point out that when the noises were produced while the earth was covered with snow, there were no traces of footsteps around the castle. I secretly stretched wires to all the openings: they have never been broken.' We therefore let Mr. de X. speak: 'At this moment, October 1875, our house is composed as follows: 'Mr. and Mrs. de X, and their son; Monsieur l'abbé *** tutor; Émile, coachman; Auguste, gardener; Amélina, chambermaid; Célina, cook. All the servants sleep in the house; they deserve our complete confidence'.

Wednesday, October 13, 1875. Father *** having told us that it is certain that his armchair changes place, my wife and I accompany him to his room, and we carefully note the place occupied by each object. We attach some sticky paper that fixes the foot of the armchair to the floor. We leave Father; I advise him to call me if anything extraordinary happens. At a quarter to ten, Father hears a series of small knocks on the wall of his room, loud enough however for them to be heard also by Amélina, who sleeps in the room opposite. He then hears in a corner of his room the noise of the wheel of a large clock being wound up, then a metal candlestick changing place on his mantelpiece, creaking; finally he hears and thinks he sees his armchair to walk around: he dares not get up, and rings; I go there. As soon as I enter I notice that the armchair has changed position by at least a meter: it is turned in front of the fireplace; a small bowl placed at the foot of the torch has been replaced on the flame; the other torch has been moved and placed so that it exceeds the edge of the fireplace by several centimeters. A small statue placed against the mirror has been moved forward by 20 centimeters. I leave after 20 minutes. We hear two violent knocks at the abbot's, who rings and assures me that these knocks were struck on the door of his office, at the foot of his bed.'

Thursday, October 14. — 'We hear violent knocks. We arm ourselves, go through the whole castle: we discover nothing.'

Friday, October 15. — 'Around 10 o'clock, Father Abbot and Amélina clearly heard footsteps imitating those of Madame de X. and mine, as well as our conversation. It seemed to them that we were walking down the corridor to return to our room. Amélina claims to have recognized our two voices; then she heard the door of Madame de X... open and was not frightened, so convinced was she that it was us. We were asleep and did not hear; but, at a quarter past 11, everyone was awakened by a series of very loud knocks in the green room. Auguste and I made a round everywhere, and, while we were in the living room, we heard knocks near the linen room. We went there: nothing. We went back down. Madame and Amélina heard a piece of furniture being dragged upstairs, where there was no one. The piece of furniture seemed to fall heavily.'

Saturday, October 16. — 'Everyone is awakened by a series of loud knocks, around half past midnight. An armed patrol leads to no discovery.

Sunday, October 17. — 'Auguste and Emile guarded the exterior of the house. At midnight, the Abbé, whose door opens onto the staircase, hears heavy footsteps going up the staircase without hurrying, passing in front of his door and going into the green room. The door closed, and all was over for the night.'

Monday, October 18. — 'The number of witnesses has increased: The priest***, vicar of the parish, has been kind enough to come and sleep here since Saturday; he has heard the noises very well, and he will continue to spend the nights here: he will therefore be a witness to what will still be heard. This evening, Marcel de X... arrives; he sleeps on the second floor and leaves his door open to better understand the nature and direction of the noises. Auguste sleeps in the corridor near this same door. Around eleven o'clock, Marcel, who was awake, very distinctly hears a woman's cough, coming from the corner of his bathroom door, at the foot of his bed. A few minutes later, everyone is awakened by the noise of a large heavy ball, which comes down the stairs from the second to the first, jumping from step to step. After half a minute, a very violent isolated blow, then 9 or 10 loud muffled blows.'

Tuesday, October 19. — The priest of M..., at our request, came to sleep here. He clearly heard a heavy step coming down the stairs slowly and heavily, and then, half a minute later, as the day before, a loud, isolated knock from the middle of the stairs leading down to the ground floor. The priest of M... no longer doubted that this was natural. Marcel returned home with the same conviction. The noises stopped completely until Saturday evening, October 30.

Saturday, October 30. — Everyone was awakened by a series of loud knocks.

Sunday, October 31. — A very restless night. It seemed that someone was going up the stairs on the ground floor faster than a man could, pretending to stamp his feet. When he reached the landing, five loud knocks were heard so loud that the objects hanging on the walls began to rattle in their places. It was as if a heavy anvil or a large beam had been thrown onto a point on the walls, so as to shake the house; no one could specify the point from which these knocks came. Everyone gets up and gathers in the corridor on the first floor. We make a thorough search, but we find nothing. We go back to bed, but new noises force us to get up. We can only rest around 3 o'clock.

Wednesday, November 3. — At 10:20 a.m. everyone is awakened by noisy footsteps that quickly climb the stairs. A series of knocks makes the walls shake. We get up immediately. A short time later we hear the noise of a heavy and elastic body that would have descended the stairs from the second to the first, jumping briskly from step to step. Arrived at the bottom, it continues its course by sliding in the corridor and stops at the landing. Immediately there are two very resounding knocks, then a formidable knock, like a carpenter's mallet thrown with all its might, on the door of the green room. Several series of hopping and repeated knocks imitating animal footsteps.

Thursday, November 4. — This evening, as we go up to bed, Auguste asks me to come and listen to a long series of knocks that can be heard on the second floor where he is sleeping at the moment. When I arrive, I no longer hear anything. I make a thorough visit of the attic and the red room; I leave the door of this room open, and I stay in the room opposite, whose door I also leave open. Auguste and Armand, Amélina's brother, are with me; we have light. After 3 minutes, five perfectly distinct shots are heard in the red room, where no one could enter without being seen and heard, and what's more, I declare, without being under fire from my revolver, which never leaves me (everyone knows this). I had barely gone downstairs when five other shots were heard again, very distinctly for Auguste, faintly for me, who am on the floor below.

On Friday, November 5, Mr. de X... recounts that all night long they heard shots of extreme violence, and he notes this peculiarity that from one shot to the next not a second passed, and that one was sometimes heard in one part of the castle and the other immediately afterwards in another part. Auguste assures that, his light in hand, he followed with Armand, step by step, a series of knocks struck in front of him, on the floor of the corridor. The knocks entered, despite the closed door, into the red room, where he followed them. They stopped at 2:45.

Saturday, November 6. — At 2 o’clock, some being rushes at full speed down the stairs, from the vestibule to the first floor, crosses the corridor, and quickly enters the stairs of the second floor with a loud noise of footsteps that have nothing to do with human footsteps. Everyone heard it: it looked like two legs without their feet and walking on two stumps. Then we hear numerous and loud knocks on the stairs and on the door of the green room.

Wednesday, November 10. — At the hour, a hasty gallop in the vestibule and the stairs. A loud knock on the landing is heard, followed by another very violent one on the door of the green room; lasts 2 minutes. A storm with wind, thunder, and lightning comes to make the night even more dreadful. At 1:20 a.m., the door of the green room is slammed. Immediately there are two loud knocks on the door, three inside the room, three more on the door, and finally long tapping on the second floor, at least forty; lasting 2 and a half minutes. At this moment, everyone hears a cry like us, like a long sound of a horn that dominates the storm; it seems to me to come from outside. Shortly after everyone hears three high-pitched cries: they come from outside but come very close to the house, 1:30 a.m., a dull blow on the second floor; another very long cry, then a second, like a woman calling outside. 1:45 a.m., suddenly we hear three or four loud cries in the hall, then on the stairs. We all get up, and as always make a meticulous search. We go back to bed. At 3:20 a.m., a gallop is heard in the corridor. We hear two fainter cries, but clearly in the house.

Friday, November 12. — Several knocks are heard, then loud, high-pitched cries as if there were several. — Other, more plaintive cries in the vestibule. 11:45 a.m., three muffled cries seeming to come from the cellar, then others louder in the staircase. At midnight everyone gets up: cries are heard in the cellar, then inside the green room, finally the sobs and cries of a woman who is suffering horribly.

Saturday, November 13. — Not only are we broken at night, but here we are during the day. 3 o'clock, knocks in the dining room pantry, search useless; — 3.15 a.m., noises in the green room: we go there, an armchair had been moved and placed against the door, so as to prevent it from opening: we put it back. — 3.40 a.m., trampling in Mrs. de X...'s room, an armchair has moved around there. — Second visit to the green room: the armchair is again placed so as to prevent the door from opening, Mrs. de X... and Amélina go with Mr. the abbot to his room and, before their eyes, the window of the office, which was well closed, opens. The wind was from the south and this window is to the north. In Mrs. de X...'s room an armchair has changed place again. In Mr. the abbot's room, the window, which was well closed, has opened again.

Saturday, November 13 (at night). — Gallops like the previous ones, — 43 knocks on the landing, 8 violent ones on the door of the green room; the door is slammed and slammed shut. — 15 minutes past midnight, two very loud cries on the landing; it is no longer the cry of a woman crying, but high-pitched, furious, cursed, desperate cries, cries of the “damned or demons.'

For more than an hour more violent knocks are heard. Mr. de X...’s diary continues until January 29, 1876, that is to say that until January 29, 1876, every night, phenomena of the nature of those we have reported occurred. Sometimes one hears knocks of such violence that Mr. de X... compares them to the noise of a wall collapsing with a crash. It is to be noted that these noises move almost instantaneously, that is to say that the same noise is heard in one part of the house and at the same time in an opposite part. At the beginning of January, M. de X... relates that every morning all the people who came down from their rooms were followed to the ground floor, step by step and from step to step, by knocks stopping and starting again with them. One day, Mdm de M X... hearing a noise in a room, wanted to enter it; she put out her right hand to take the door when it opened suddenly; the key comes out of the lock and strikes her on the left hand. The blow was strong enough that the place was still noticeable and visible two days later.

Another time, the priest of St-... came to sleep at the castle. He heard the sound of an animal with planks under its feet, which had entered his room from the neighboring room, climbed onto the night table, and from there passed over his pillow, got into his bed and stopped at the height of his left elbow. The priest had a light, and was wide awake; he saw nothing.

Mr. de X... decided to ask the Bishop of his diocese for permission to have the exorcisms carried out. The bishop sent a Premonstratensian monk to the castle who performed the exorcisms. From that moment on, the phenomena ceased. It is January 29, 1876, and up to this date, since the beginning of October 1875, Mr. de X... has had supernatural phenomena to record every day, with rare exceptions.

'There are,' says Euler, 'people who do not want to believe or admit anything except what they see with their eyes and touch with their hands: this is a delusion that stops many people from knowing the truth; provided that the proofs are sufficient, one is obliged to recognize them." Well! I believe that the proofs are largely sufficient here. I consider that after the numerous and serious testimonies of the phenomena of which we have just spoken, it is impossible to deny their existence, unless we deny the senses the power to make us know the truth. Mr. and Mrs. de X..., their son's tutor, their servants, all those who spent one or more days in the castle, were witnesses to the facts reported. They claim to have seen or heard, because they have seen or heard. To reject their assertions is to deny the principle of testimony as a means of arriving at certainty, which would be the reversal at once of all the principles of sociability, legislation and history. Please accept, dear Sir, the assurance of my highest consideration.

G. Morice'