was
lighted, and there was any one within it, no sounds were heard; and by
thus occupying it all night, the disturbance could be averted. But as
often as it was closed or left in darkness, the invisible revel
recommenced at the wonted hour, preceded by the same preliminaries,
terminating in the same manner.

Nothing was left untried to penetrate the mystery, and to detect the
trick, if to trickery the disturbances were due. But every effort to
obtain an explanation of the phenomena utterly failed. And the father,
like the son, after a few weeks' struggle against the nightly annoyance,
found his nervous system unable to cope with this constant strain upon
it, and left the chateau, determined never again to enter its walls.

The next expedient was to rent it to those whom the fame of its ghostly
reputation had not reached. But this was unavailing, except for a brief
season. No tenant would remain beyond a week or ten days. This plan,
therefore, was abandoned in despair; the principal rooms were closed;
and the building remained for years untenanted, except by one or two
unwilling dependants.

Finally the proprietor, deeming all change hopeless, and finding that
the keeping up of the chateau was a mere useless expense, resolved to
destroy it. The dead had fairly driven out the living. He had it pulled
down; and a few low, ruined walls alone remained to mark the place where
it stood.

Still, even within these deserted ruins, the same sounds of nightly
revelry were declared to have been heard by those who were bold enough
to approach them at the midnight hour. When this was reported to the
proprietor, he determined, if possible, to outroot this last remnant of
disturbance. Accordingly, he caused to be erected, out of the remaining
materials of the chateau and on the spot where it had stood, a small
chapel, now to be found there, a mute witness of the story I have here
told.

The chapel was completed and consecrated in the year 1844. Even while
the rites attending its consecration were in progress, strange and
unwonted noises disturbed the congregation; but from that time on they
ceased; and the chapel has since been entirely free from any such.

A relative of the proprietor, a young officer in the Prussian army, was
present at the consecration, himself witnessed the noises in question,
and had previously heard, from the parties themselves, all the former
occurrences. He it was who related the circumstances to my info