[342] From Miss E. Le Pelley.
[343] From Mrs. Le Poidevin.
In Moncure Conway’s book on Demonology and Devil-Lore, Vol. I., p. 102, he says:—“The key has a holy sense in various religions.” I have not been able to find out the exact formula used by the clergy, but in the Sarum Office, and also in the first Prayer Book of Edward VI., an exorcism is given to be used at the Baptism of Infants, in which the evil spirit is addressed as follows:—“Therefore, thou accursed spirit, remember thy sentence, remember thy judgment, remember the day to be at hand, wherein thou shalt burn in fire everlasting, prepared for thee and thy angels,” etc. This was founded on the ancient exorcisms, and was only left out in the revision of 1552, in deference to the criticisms of Bucer.
The Ghosts of La Petite Porte.
La Petite Porte is the sandy bay immediately underneath Jerbourg. Tradition derives its name “the little door” from an incident which is said to have occurred in 1338. In those days the French had made one of their periodical inroads on the island, and were in possession of its principal fortresses. Eighty-seven men of St. Martin’s parish, headed by l’honorable “Capitaine Jean de la Marche,”[344] attempted to dislodge them, but were defeated at Mare-Madoc, in the Hubits, and fled down to La Petite Porte, where they embarked for Jersey, and founded a colony at St. Ouen’s. An old Jersey manuscript goes on to say that Charles II., during his sojourn in Jersey, was so touched by the recital of the bravery and fidelity of these men, that he granted to the “South” Regiment of Militia, the old “Regiment Bleu,” a special “aiguillette d’argent.” Later authorities disprove this, on the grounds that there were not, at this epoch, either regiments or uniforms, and that the “royal blue facings and silver lace” quoted as “being borne at present by the South Regiment of Militia” did not exist two centuries ago!
But among the old country people, to the present day, the bay known as “Moulin Huet” is invariably called “Vier Port” (old harbour), and if one mentions “Moulin Huet Bay” they will tell you that the name “Moulin Huet” only applies to the old mill, (now destroyed, and the site turned into a picnic house), and that it was “Les Anglais” who transferred the name of the mill to the bay just below, so that “La Petite Porte,” being just the other side of the bay, might easily have been originally “Petit Port”—(Little Harbour.)
Bounded by the “Tas de Pois,” the most magnificent rocks in the Channel Islands, it is noted for its beauty, and, from its long expanse of sand, is the best place for sand-eeling. But about the beginning of last century no sand-eelers dared approach this spot by night. Screams, shrieks, and groans were heard there, night after night, and finally it was shunned after dark by the whole island. There was no difficulty in the people’s minds in accounting for these sounds. Two such awful tragedies were connected with this bay and its environs that it was an “embarras de richesse” to decide which of the ghosts of the two men who had been murdered in this vicinity it could be!
The first of these stories has already been published in a little book, now out of print, called Anglo-Norman Legends or Tales of the Channel Islands, N.D., under the title of “John Andrew Gordier,” and has also been taken as the foundation of “Rachel Mauger, a Guernsey Tragedy,” published some years ago in Clarke’s Guernsey Magazine, where also, in the number for May, 1883, the same story is given in a condensed form, as taken from a newspaper cutting, and is preceded by the following note, signed “J. Y.
“The following striking narrative, relating to the origin of a drama celebrated in its day (the tragedy of “Julia”), became known to the writer through an old newspaper cutting preserved in a family scrap book. The newspaper of which we speak must be at least fifty years old (in 1883), and it related events which were then long past.”
A book called The Locket, by Mrs. Alfred Marks is based on the same tradition.