A QUADRILLE OF HEADLESS MEN.

Evening Star, Issue 3047, 23 November 1872, Page 2 (Supplement)

A QUADRILLE OF HEADLESS MEN.

The following grotesquely horrible story is from the Paris Fhjoro /—This day eight days a wedding was celebrated at A . A merchant’s clerk, named Marius Crampin, married a young girl of 18 c died Anna R Anna R was au orphan from childhood, and had been educated by an old priest, dead six months ago. Though she was very attractive, and had a dowry of 50,000f. —a respectable sum for a simple clerk—Crampin was far from jubilant when he loft the church. Some of his friends, in fact, on hearing of his marriage, had sneered in rather a singular manner, without tillering any explanations, and had declined to be present at the wedding. Besides, when the sacrifice was consummated, Grampin felt tormented by suspicious which before marriage he repelled with contempt. In order to dispel them ho drank deep, and towards midnight he was pretty mellow. It. was now time to retire to rest. The bride went first, and exdngaishe I the Lqrr. Five minutes afterwards Gramp n s turn arrived. ‘ Hallo !’ lie exclaimed, stumbling, ‘ my wife pretends to be asleep; we must light a candle again.’ But just ai he was about to strike a light with a match he heard a rustling of cm tains, and a man appeared—a man of great height, wrapp d in a white shroud that was spotted over with blood, and without a head. He carried a red lantern. Crampin uttered a stilled exclamation, the bride rose hastily, and the two remaineit spellbound by terror at the frightful spectacle before their eyes. For from the corners of the room emerged three other headless persons, all clothed in white but blood-bespattmed winding-sheets, each with a red lantern in the one hand am] his head in the other. They stationed themselves in front of the fireplace, and saluted the young couple in a ceremonious manner, '['hen, strange to tell, they spoke. Crampin, in his terror, knew not whether the voice issued from the body or from the head, ‘ Good day to you, Citif en Crampin,’ said one of the headless beings ; ' I am Joseph Grigois, a client of thy wife’s great great grandfather. ‘Give me thy hand, Crampin,’ said the other, anceringly, ‘ madame knows me too. I lost my bead in 1838, at the hands of her grandfather.' By this time Crampin was down on his knees, and his bride was moaning in a state of distraction from fear. But they were alone in the house, which was situated at the gates of the town, and nobody came near them. The third phantom then advanced. ‘ Little one,’ he said, in an amiable tone, ‘ tfion canst boast of a grandfather who did his work admirably. I, too, passed through his hands.’ ‘Good God !’groaned Crampin, iudespair, ‘the man without a head speaks through his nose ’ ‘.Step out, children,’ called out the fourth spectre ; ‘the nuptial Gall is about to begin. Forward, both !’ And the four guillotined persons taking their place ■«, broke into a dance, a supernatural can-can, that froze the blood in the veins of the young couple. They leaped up and down, backwards and forwards, spread wide their winding sheets like great wings, and played like jugglers with their heads. It was frightful, and all the more when suddenly they burst out in ehoru-, and sang some staves of a horribly grotesque sqng. Then all at once, opening the dour, they disappeared in the dark lobby, after having deposited the four heads on the knees of the bride. ‘Merciful heavens,’ gasped out the latter with horror, ■ the clients of ray family ! ‘ What family, madame ?' yelled Crampin, horrified, in the midst of bis terror, by the exclamation. ‘Forgive me,’ supplicated the bride, throwing herself on her knees before him ; ‘ grandpapa was au executioner.’ The wretched ('rampin sprang to his feet and then fell seuseLss. As soon as he returned to himscif, without taking time to pack his trunks, he precipitately leL the town and has nob been again seen. ;he investigations of the police into this mysterious affair resulted in the discovery that the four guillotined persons were none other than the friends of Crampin who had learne !, one kiaovys pot how, of the unfortunate connections of the hrii]e. Their four heads were four melons.”