The Wonderful Story of Ravalette

by Paschal Beverly Randolph

“ ‘This way, ladies; this way, gentlemen, follow me,’ said the Baron, gaily giving his arm to his wife, and leading the way to his splendid salle a manger.

“The worthy noble had called it un petit souper, but the magnificent spread before us rendered it a somewhat difficult task to imagine what would constitute a grand supper in his estimation. To describe it is no part of the task I am engaged on; and, therefore, I shall merely observe that it was a most recherché affair. The furniture of the table, as well as the viands themselves, was of the most sumptuous description, everything on it being of the richest and heaviest gold and silver plate—heir-looms of the old Noblesse, from whom the Baron was descended.

“Dinner or supper once over, we all left the table, and once more adjourned to the back parlor, and took seats in the chairs arranged in a triangle, the ladies, six in number, occupying those which formed the western arm thereof. When we all were properly and comfortably seated, there was quite a large vacant space before us, into which Vatterale placed two chairs facing each other, and also two foot-stools covered with damask plush-velvet close together in the other angle. He then proceeded to lock all the doors leading into the apartment, tied all the keys together with a piece of scarlet ribbon, and then hung them to one of the glass prisms pendent from a large gas chandelier directly over the centre of what I may call, not inappropriately, our circle. The jets of this chandelier, seven in number, were all in full play under a strong head of gas, and the room in all parts was quite as light as if the sun shone into the windows, two of which occupied the northern end of the parlor, both being very richly curtained, and both quite shut. I repeat, lest trickery in what followed should be suspected by yourself, that the seven jets of gas were brightly burning, and continued so all the evening, except when extinguished, without the aid of human hands; and as they were put out, so also were they relighted more than once.

“Having disposed of the bunch of keys, Vatterale went to both windows, examined them closely, fastened them down securely—that is to say, the lower sashes; for he let down one of the upper ones, and threw the eastern external blinds wide open, and fastened them so. Of course, the master of ceremonies had never been in that dwelling before, and of course could not have obtained information respecting it by the usual methods of visit and inquiry, yet, turning to the Baron, he requested him to ring for the servant, and through the closed door bid him remove an ornamental iron sofa from the chamber immediately above our heads, into the dark bed-room on the third floor, as its presence where it then stood would materially affect the experiments to be made!

“This request, made under such circumstances, surprised us all, but particularly the Baron, who stared at the man who made it, as if he regarded him as one risen from the dead; and it was, forsooth, rather a startling circumstance, to say the least. He admitted that there was such a room, and such a dark chamber, au troisième. Yet how the man knew it, was very strange, considering that he had been in the house but a short time, and had not left us for a moment, nor spoken a single word to any of the servants, save on entering, to inquire if this was the Baron’s residence.

“Scarcely had we recovered from the surprise natural on such an occasion, than we were again made sensible that we were dealing with an extraordinary man, for, turning to me, he begged the loan of a small metallic coin which I had received as a present from Mr. Carr less than ten minutes before Vatterale entered the house, and which coin was remarkably curious and valuable on account of its high antiquity, and it was one of the only two known to be in existence, and had been begged for me by Mr. Carr, from his friend Blaise de Jongé, the celebrated Eastern traveller, and had only been sent in a note to Mr. Carr, by that eminent savant, the night previous. Having received the coin, Vatterale placed it in his pocket, and then taking out a set of ivory tablets, wrote a request thereon, and handed it to Madame la Marquise de la Fronde, an elderly lady, foster sister to the Baron. The request was altogether so singular and so novel, that the old lady immediately read it aloud: ‘Will Madame la Marquise have the goodness to retire to the alcove and remove from between her feet and stockings the metallic plates, and, separating the zinc from the copper ones, place each metal plate with its own kind, and restore them to her feet outside the hose!’ The lady almost fainted with astonishment, for she averred that no mortal knew that she wore such plates, but that she had for ten years, and found them, by reason of the electric currents they elaborated and imparted to her system, highly beneficial to her health. She retired as requested, and, returning in a minute, convinced us of the marvellous seeing faculty of the mysterious Mai, by exhibiting the plates, which were precisely as he had described. She again retired, and, shortly returning, resumed her seat. These preliminaries being concluded, Vatterale brought into the open space before us a small portmanteau, which he carried in his hand when he entered the mansion. From this he now took a coil of wire—indeed, three small coils tied together—also a saucer of large dimensions of stone China, or thick, very thick porcelain, a large vial containing a colorless liquid, a box of paste or gum, two large, and entirely empty, thin bottles—so thin that we all looked through them at the light, as he handed them to us for that purpose. They were as clear as the best window glass, as thin and as brittle, apparently, as the finest crystal. From the same receptacle he also took what looked like three rolls of paper, one very large when unfolded, the others quite small indeed. The larger bundle he unrolled and spread upon the floor, on the space between the chairs and fauteuils. It was about three feet in diameter, and was painted in all sorts of colors, and figures entirely nondescript. The centre of this article was immediately that of the triangle, ‘The Symbolical figure of the Universe, or Oneness,’ as he called it, and of course was directly beneath the large chandelier. This done, he placed the saucer right upon the centre of the symbolical chart, if I may so term it. Then, unfastening the coils of wire, he laid one along the laps of the gentlemen on one side, and fastened it by means of a link and hook to two others, which passed in front of the other two sections of the human trine. The wire held by the ladies (for we all were directed to grasp the wire before us with one hand, and the hand of the next neighbor with the other) was common iron, wound with silver foil; the one before myself was steel, wound with gold wire; and the other was of solid gold, wound, as were the others, at intervals, with floss silk. The ladies grasped with the left hand, and joined their right, while with the gentlemen this order was reversed. The next proceeding on the part of Mai, was to place half of the gum into the saucer; upon this he emptied the vial of colorless liquid, and set fire thereto. It burned with a clear and steady bluish flame. The gum was gradually consumed, and a peculiar and most delightful fragrance floated through the room.

“During the burning process, the operator sat upon the stool, and gazed fixedly and intently upon, or rather toward, the open sash, while the rest of us were chatting merrily, and wondering what would be the result of all these weird and curious preparations.

“I said the rest of us were merrily chatting, but must qualify that observation by excluding from this employment one person, and that person was—myself, for I found it utterly impossible to mingle in the conversation with that abandon and unreserve which characterized the others. It was altogether beyond my power to forget the tremendous experiences of that very day, which I had undergone. A weight was on my spirit that could not be lifted off. The ‘Ghost of Ravalette’ seemed to be invisibly hovering over me, and although unseen, his presence seemed to be palpably felt by me. The events at Belleville constantly obtruded themselves before the eye of the mind; the affair at the gardener’s, the singular result of his impromptu wager, the woman at the Barrière, and, above all, the frightful occurrences at the Rue Michel le Compte, with its sure—absolutely sure—termination on the Guillotine—the miserable and ignominious death of D’Emprat, and the unearthly means whereby his deed of crime—the crime a horrible murder, committed thirty-seven years before—the unearthly and mysterious means, I repeat, by which his guilt was brought to light—this, all this, so oppressed me that I could not take a present interest in what was transpiring about me. Indeed, I cared little for either Mai or his tricks—which, from observing the method of his preparations, I had already not only despised, but put down to the score of legerdemain—clever and surprising, but still nothing more than legerdemain.

“How rudely this conceit was broken up, how horribly I was convinced of my mistaken estimate of the man before us, will very soon be seen. As for his skill in detecting the coin, the sofa, and the plates, I had already secretly accounted. I remembered Caspar Hauser, and several other Sensitives, who could detect the presence of metals by what may be called ‘magnetic sense.’ His description of the dark bed-room au troisième, was very simple, for nearly all old houses have such chambers on that floor; this was an old house; Vatterale saw it, and made what preliminary capital he could from his acuteness. With the present weight of experience; with the memory of the deeds of the mystical Ravalette still fresh in mind, of course I could not be very highly interested in such displays of minor magic as I felt convinced were very shortly to be made by the conjuring gentleman before us.

“Suddenly the man whose pretensions I had just been inwardly criticising, partially raised himself from the stool, threw back his head until his long, wavy locks fell upon his shoulders, and muttered between his teeth, as if the word-birth was extremely painful, ‘He is coming!’ and we noticed that his face, naturally of a dingy yellow, suddenly became of an ashen-hued paleness, and his eyes darted forth luminous sparks that were plainly visible even amid the glare of that brilliantly-lighted apartment; and at the same instant he placed his right hand over the region of his heart—that is to say, over that part where nine-and-ninety of every hundred suppose the heart to be, namely, under the left breast. He did this as if to repress a rising pang, then turning to his audience, he exclaimed—‘Look sharp! Be firm! be fearless! be attentive! but if you would avoid danger, a nameless, but great danger, stir not, move not from your seats. Grasp the cord, retain each other’s hands, make what remarks you may deem proper, but stir not an inch—a single inch from your seats, happen what may! I am going to surprise you.’