CHAPTER FIRST
Houses, like people, have a reputation. There are houses where, according to the general opinion, it is unclean, that is, where one or another manifestation of some kind of unclean or at least incomprehensible force is noticed. Spiritualists tried to do a lot to explain this kind of phenomena, but since their theories do not enjoy great confidence, the matter of terrible houses remains in the same position. In St. Petersburg, in the opinion of many, the characteristic building of the former Pavlovsk Palace, now known as the Engineering Castle, enjoyed such a bad reputation for a long time. Mysterious phenomena attributed to spirits and ghosts have been noticed here almost from the very foundation of the castle. Even during the life of Emperor Paul, they say, they heard the voice of Peter the Great, and, finally, even Emperor Paul himself saw the shadow of his great-grandfather. The latter, without any refutation, is recorded in foreign collections, where they found a place for describing the sudden death of Pavel Petrovich, and in the latest Russian book by Mr. Kobeko. It was as if the great-grandfather left the grave to warn his great-grandson that his days are short and their end is near. The prediction came true.
However, the shadow of Petrov was visible in the walls of the castle not only by Emperor Paul, but also by people close to him. In a word, the house was terrible because shadows and ghosts lived there, or at least appeared and said something so terrible, and in addition it also came true. The unexpected suddenness of the death of Emperor Paul, on the occasion of which the society immediately remembered and started talking about the foreboding shadows that met the late emperor in the castle, further increased the gloomy and mysterious reputation of this gloomy house. Since then, the house has lost its former meaning of a residential palace, and, according to the popular expression, "went under the Cadets."
Today, the junkers of the engineering department are placed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets began to “settle in” it. This was a people even younger and not yet completely freed from childish superstition, and, moreover, frisky and playful, curious and courageous. All of them, of course, were more or less aware of the fears that told about their terrible castle. The children were very interested in the details of terrible stories and were fed by these fears, and those who managed to get used to them enough liked to frighten others very much. This was in full swing among the engineering cadets, and the authorities could not get rid of this bad custom until an incident occurred that immediately discouraged everyone from scaring and pranks.
This case will be the next story.
CHAPTER TWO
It was especially fashionable to frighten the newcomers or the so-called "kids", who, getting into the castle, suddenly recognized such a mass of fears about the castle that they became superstitious and timid to the extreme. Most of all, they were frightened that at one end of the corridors of the castle there was a room that served as a bedroom for the late Emperor Paul, in which he lay down to rest healthy, and in the morning they carried him out dead. The "old men" assured that the spirit of the emperor lives in this room and every night comes out of there and inspects his beloved castle - and the "kids" believed this. This room was always tightly locked, and moreover, not with one, but with several locks, but for the spirit, as you know, no locks and locks matter. And, besides, they said that it was possible to somehow penetrate into this room. It seems that this was indeed the case. At least, there was and still is a legend that several “old Cadets” succeeded in this and continued until one of them conceived a desperate prank, for which he had to pay dearly. He opened some unknown hole in the terrible bedroom of the late emperor, managed to carry a sheet there and hid it there, and in the evenings he climbed here, covered himself from head to toe with this sheet and stood in a dark window that overlooked Sadovaya Street and was clearly visible to anyone who, passing or passing, looks in this direction.
Acting in this way the role of a ghost, the cadet really managed to instill fear in many superstitious people who lived in the castle, and on passers-by who happened to see his white figure, which everyone took for the shadow of the late emperor.
This prank continued for several months and spread a stubborn rumor that Pavel Petrovich walked around his bedroom at night and looked out of the window at Petersburg. Undoubtedly, many imagined vividly and clearly that the white shadow standing in the window repeatedly nodded its head and bowed to them; the cadet did indeed do such things. All this caused extensive conversations in the castle with foreboding interpretations and ended with the fact that the cadet who caused the described alarm was caught at the scene of the crime, and, having received "an exemplary punishment on the body", disappeared forever from the institution. There was a rumor that the ill-fated cadet had the misfortune to frighten with his appearance in the window one tall person who happened to be passing by the castle, for which he was punished not like a child. Simply put, the Cadets said that the unfortunate rascal "died under the rods," and since at that time such things did not seem unbelievable, they believed this rumor, and from that time on this cadet himself became a new ghost. The comrades began to see him "all excised" and with a coffin aureole on his forehead, and on the aureole it was as if one could read the inscription: "Eating little honey and now I die."
If we recall the biblical story in which these words find their place, then it comes out very touching.
Soon after the death of the cadet, the bedroom, from which the main fears of the Engineer's castle emanated, was opened and received such a device that changed its terrible character, but the legends about the ghost lived on for a long time, despite the subsequent revelation of the secret. The cadets continued to believe that a ghost lives in their castle, and sometimes at night is a ghost. This was a common conviction, which was equally held by the junior and senior cadets, with the difference, however, that the juniors simply blindly believed in the apparition, while the seniors sometimes themselves arranged for its appearance. One, however, did not interfere with the other, and the forgers of the ghost themselves were also afraid of him. Thus, some "false tellers of miracles" themselves reproduce them and worship them themselves and even believe in their reality.
The younger cadets did not know the “whole story”, the conversation about which, after the incident with the one who received a cruel punishment on the body, was strictly prosecuted, but they believed that the older cadets, among whom there were still comrades of the flogged or notched, knew the whole secret of the ghost. This gave the elders great prestige, and they enjoyed it until 1859 or 1860, when four of them themselves underwent a very terrible fright, which I will tell from the words of one of the participants in an inappropriate joke at the coffin.
CHAPTER THREE
In that year, 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. He was hardly a beloved chief among the cadets and, as they say, he did not enjoy a better reputation with his superiors. They counted many reasons for this: they found that the general behaved with the children as if very severely and indifferently; little delved into their needs; did not care about their content - and most importantly, he was annoying, captious and petty harsh. In the corps, they said that the general himself would have been even more angry, but that his irresistible ferocity was tamed by the general’s quiet, like an angel, whom none of the cadets had ever seen, because she was constantly ill, but they considered her a good genius , protecting everyone from the ultimate ferocity of the general.
In addition to such fame, according to his heart, General Lamnovsky had very unpleasant manners. Among the latter were also funny ones, to which the children found fault, and when they wanted to "introduce" an unloved boss, they usually put forward one of his ridiculous habits to the point of caricature exaggeration.
Lamnovsky's most ridiculous habit was that, when he delivered a speech or made a suggestion, he always stroked his nose with all five fingers of his right hand. This, according to the Cadet definitions, came out as if he was "milking the words out of his nose." The dead man was not distinguished by eloquence, and he, as they say, often lacked the words to express his superior suggestions to the children, and therefore, with any such hesitation, the “milking” of the nose intensified, and the Cadets immediately lost their seriousness and began to laugh. Noticing this violation of subordination, the general became even more angry and punished them. Thus, relations between the general and the pupils became worse and worse, and in all this, in the opinion of the cadets, the “nose” was most to blame.
Not loving Lamnovsky, the Cadets did not miss an opportunity to annoy him and take revenge, spoiling his reputation in one way or another in the eyes of their new comrades. To this end, they spread a rumor in the building that Lamnovsky is known with evil spirits and is forcing demons to drag marble for him, which Lamnovsky supplied for some building, it seems for St. Isaac's Cathedral. But since the demons were tired of this work, they were told that they were impatiently waiting for the death of the general, as an event that would restore their freedom. And to make it seem even more reliable, once in the evening, on the general's name day, the Cadets made him a big nuisance by arranging a "funeral". It was arranged in such a way that when Lamnovsky’s guests were feasting in his apartment, a sad procession appeared in the corridors of the cadet premises: cadets covered with sheets, with candles in their hands, carried a stuffed animal with a long-nosed mask on their bed and quietly sang funeral songs. The organizers of this ceremony were open and punished, but on the next name day of Lamnovsky, the unforgivable joke with the funeral was repeated again. This went on until 1859 or 1860, when General Lamnovsky actually died and when his real funeral had to be held. According to the customs that existed then, the cadets had to be on duty at the coffin in shifts, and it was then that a terrible story happened that frightened those very heroes who had frightened others for a long time.
CHAPTER FOUR
General Lamnovsky died in late autumn, in the month of November, when Petersburg has the most human-hated appearance: cold, penetrating dampness and dirt; especially cloudy foggy lighting has a heavy effect on the nerves, and through them on the brain and fantasy. All this produces morbid uneasiness and excitement. Moleschotte, for his scientific conclusions about the influence of light on life, could have obtained from us at that time the most curious data.
The days when Lamnovsky died were especially vile. The deceased was not brought into the church of the castle, because he was a Lutheran: the body stood in the large mourning hall of the general's apartment, and a cadet watch was established here, and, according to the Orthodox establishment, requiem services were served in the church. One memorial service was served during the day, and the other in the evening. All ranks of the castle, as well as cadets and ministers, had to appear at every memorial service, and this was strictly observed. Consequently, when memorial services were held in the Orthodox Church, the entire population of the castle gathered in this church, and the rest of the vast premises and the longest passages were completely empty. There was no one left in the apartment of the deceased, except for the shift on duty, which consisted of four cadets, who, with rifles and helmets on their elbows, stood around the coffin.
Here some kind of restless horror began to wind up: everyone began to feel something restless and began to be afraid of something; and then suddenly somewhere they said that again someone “gets up” and again someone “walks”. It became so unpleasant that everyone started to stop others, saying, “Enough, enough, leave it; Well, to hell with such stories! You only spoil your own nerves and people!” And then they themselves said the same thing, from which they calmed others, and by nightfall everyone was already scared. This was especially aggravated when the cadet smelled "dad", that is, what kind of priest was there then.
He shamed them for their joy on the occasion of the death of the general and somehow briefly but well knew how to touch them and alert their feelings.
“Walks,” he told them, repeating their own words. - And of course, that someone is walking around whom you do not see and cannot see, and in him there is a force that you cannot control. This is a gray man - he does not get up at midnight, but at dusk, when it becomes gray, and he wants to tell everyone that there is something bad in his thoughts. This gray man is a conscience: I advise you not to disturb him with lousy joy at someone else's death. Someone loves every person, someone pities - see that the gray man doesn’t throw himself at them and doesn’t give you a hard lesson!
The Cadets somehow took this deeply to their hearts, and as soon as it began to get dark that day, they just look around: is there a gray man and in what form is he? It is known that at dusk some special sensitivity is revealed in the souls - a new world appears, overshadowing the one that was in the light: well-known objects of ordinary forms become something whimsical, incomprehensible and, finally, even scary. At this time, for some reason, every feeling seems to be looking for some indefinite, but intensified expression for itself: the mood of feelings and thoughts constantly fluctuates, and in this swift and dense disharmony of the entire inner world of a person, fantasy begins its work: the world turns into a dream, and dream - into the world ... It is tempting and scary, and the more scary, the more tempting and enticing ...
Most of the cadets were in this state, especially before the night watch at the coffin. On the last evening before the day of burial, the most important persons were expected to visit the church for a memorial service, and therefore, in addition to the people who lived in the castle, there was a large congress from the city. Even from Lamnovsky's apartment itself, everyone went to the Russian church to see the assembly of distinguished persons; the deceased remained surrounded by one children's guard. This time there were four cadets on guard: G-ton, V-nov, 3-sky and K-din, all of whom are still in good health and now occupy solid positions in the service and in society.
CHAPTER FIVE
Of the four fellows who made up the guard, one, namely K-din, was the most desperate rascal, who bothered the late Lamnovsky more than anyone else and therefore, in turn, more often than others was subjected to increased penalties from the deceased. The dead man especially did not like K-dean because this rascal was able to perfectly mimic him “in terms of milking his nose” and took the most active part in arranging the funeral processions that were made on the general’s name day.
When such a procession was made on Lamnovsky's last namesake, K-din himself portrayed the dead man and even delivered a speech from the coffin, with such antics and such a voice that he made everyone laugh, not excluding the officer sent to disperse the blasphemous procession.
It was known that this incident brought the late Lamnovsky into extreme anger, and a rumor spread among the cadets that the angry general "sworn to punish K-dean for life." The Cadets believed this and, taking into consideration the character traits of their superior known to them, they had no doubt that he would fulfill his oath over Kdin. During the last year, K-Din was considered "hanging by a thread", and since, due to the liveliness of his character, it was very difficult for this cadet to refrain from frisky and risky pranks, his position seemed very dangerous, and this was only expected in the institution, that K-dean is about to get caught in something, and then Lamnovsky will not stand on ceremony with him and will bring all his fractions to one denominator, “will let himself be remembered for life”,
The fear of the boss's threat was felt so strongly by K-din that he made desperate efforts on himself and, like a drunken drunkard from wine, he fled from all sorts of pranks, until he had the opportunity to check on himself the saying that "a peasant does not drink for a year, but like the devil breaks through, so he will drink everything.
The devil broke through K-din precisely at the tomb of the general, who reposed without carrying out his threat. Now the general was not afraid of the cadet, and the boy's long restrained agility found an opportunity to recoil like a long coiled spring. He just went crazy.
CHAPTER SIX
The last funeral service, which gathered all the inhabitants of the castle in the Orthodox Church, was scheduled for eight o'clock, but since the highest persons were expected to attend it, after which it was indelicate to enter the church, everyone went there much earlier. In the hall, the deceased had only one cadet shift left: G-ton, V-nov, 3-sky and K-din. There was not a soul in any of the adjoining huge rooms ...
At half-past seven the door opened for a moment, and for a moment a parade-de-camp appeared, with whom at that very moment an empty incident happened, which intensified the terrible mood: the officer, approaching the door, was either frightened of his own steps, or it seemed to him that his someone overtakes: he first stopped to give way, and then suddenly exclaimed: “Who is this! Who!" - and, hurriedly sticking his head in the door, with the other half of the same door he crushed himself and again cried out, as if someone had grabbed him from behind.
Of course, after that, he recovered and, hastily glancing around the mourning hall with a restless glance, guessed from the local desertion that everyone had already gone to church; then he closed the doors again and, clanging his saber loudly, rushed at an accelerated pace along the corridors leading to the castle temple.
The Cadets standing by the coffin clearly noticed that even the big ones were frightened of something, and fear had a contagious effect on everyone.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The cadets on duty heard the steps of the departing officer and noticed how with each step their position here became more orphaned - as if they had been brought here and walled up with the dead for some insult, which the dead did not forget and did not forgive, but, on the contrary, would rise and certainly take revenge for him. And he will take revenge terribly, like a dead man ... This only needs its own hour, a convenient hour of midnight, ... when the rooster sings
And the undead rush about in the dark...
But they won’t make it here until midnight - they will be replaced, and besides, they are afraid not of the “undead”, but of the gray man, whose time it is - at dusk.
Now it was the deepest twilight: a dead man in a coffin, and around the most terrible silence ... The wind howled with ferocious fury in the yard, pouring whole streams of a muddy autumn downpour over the huge windows, and rattled the sheets of roofing bends; the chimneys hummed intermittently, as if they were sighing, or as if something had burst into them, lingered, and pressed again even more strongly. All this was not conducive either to sobriety of feelings or to calmness of mind. The severity of this whole impression was even more intensified for the guys, who had to stand in dead silence: everything is somehow confused; the blood, rushing to his head, hit his temples, and something like the monotonous mill clatter was heard. Anyone who has experienced such sensations knows this strange and very special rattling of blood - it is like a mill is grinding, but it is not grinding grain, but grinding itself. This soon brings a person into a painful and irritating state, similar to the one that unusual people feel when descending into a dark mine to the miners, where the usual daylight for us is suddenly replaced by a smoking bowl ... It becomes impossible to withstand silence - I want to hear my own voice, I want to poke around somewhere - do something the most reckless.
CHAPTER EIGHT
One of the four Cadets who stood at the coffin of the general, it was K-ding, experiencing all these sensations, forgot discipline and, standing under the gun, whispered:
Spirits climb to us behind the folder's nose. Lamnovsky was sometimes jokingly called "folder", but this time the joke did not make the comrades laugh, but, on the contrary, increased the horror, and two of the officers on duty, noticing this, answered K-din:
Shut up... it's already scary, - and everyone looked anxiously into the dead man's face wrapped in muslin.
That's why I say that you're scared, - answered K-dean, - but I, on the contrary, am not scared, because now he won't do anything to me. Yes: one must be above prejudices and not be afraid of trifles, and every dead person is already a real trifle, and I will prove it to you now. . Please don't prove anything.
No, I'll prove it. I'll prove to you that the folder can't do anything to me now, even if I take him by the nose right now, this very minute.
And with that, to the surprise of everyone else, K-Din at that very moment, intercepting the gun on his elbow, quickly ran up the steps of the hearse and, taking the dead man by the nose, exclaimed loudly and cheerfully:
Yeah, daddy, you're dead, but I'm alive and I'm shaking your nose, and you won't do anything to me!
The comrades were dumbfounded by this prank and did not have time to utter a word, when suddenly they all at once clearly and distinctly heard a deep, painful sigh, very similar to someone sitting down on a rubber pillow inflated with air with a loosely wrapped valve ... And this sigh, it seemed to everyone , - apparently, went straight from the coffin ...
K-din quickly grabbed his hand and, stumbling, flew with his gun with a thunder from all the steps of the hearse, while the three others, not realizing what they were doing, in fear took their guns at the ready to defend themselves from the rising dead man.
But this was not enough: the dead man not only sighed, but actually chased the scoundrel who offended him or held him by the hand: a whole wave of grave muslin crawled behind Kdin, from which he could not fight back, and, screaming terribly, he fell to the floor ... This creeping wave of muslin really seemed to be a completely inexplicable and, of course, terrible phenomenon, especially since the dead man covered by it was now completely opening with his folded hands on his sunken chest.
The rascal was lying with his gun dropped, and, covering his face with his hands in horror, uttered terrible groans. Obviously, he was in his memory and was waiting for the dead man to take care of him in his own way.
Meanwhile, the sigh was repeated, and, in addition to it, a soft rustle was heard. It was such a sound that could come from the movement of one cloth sleeve over another. Obviously, the dead man spread his arms, - and suddenly a quiet noise; then a stream of a different temperature ran in a jet over the candles, and at the same moment a ghost appeared in the moving curtains with which the doors of the inner chambers were closed. Gray man! Yes, a quite clearly formed ghost in the form of a man appeared to the frightened eyes of the children ... Was it the very soul of the deceased in a new shell received by her in another world, from which she returned for a moment to punish insulting insolence, or, perhaps, it was a more terrible guest is the spirit of the castle itself, which has emerged from the dungeon through the floor of the adjacent room!..
CHAPTER NINE
The ghost was not a dream of the imagination - it did not disappear and resembled in its appearance the description made by the poet Heine for the “mysterious woman” he saw: both this and that represented the “corpse in which the soul is enclosed.” In front of the frightened children was an extremely emaciated figure, all in white, but in the shadows it seemed gray. She had a terribly thin, bluish-pale, and completely faded face; thick and long hair disheveled in disarray on the head, From strong gray hair they also seemed gray and, running up in disarray, covered the ghost’s chest and shoulders! like the sparkle of burning coals. The apparition had thin, skeletal hands, and with both of these hands it held on to the floors of the heavy door hangings.
Convulsively squeezing matter in weak fingers, these hands produced that dry cloth rustle that the Cadets heard.
The mouths of the ghost were completely black and open, and from them, after short intervals, with a whistle and wheezing, that tense half-groan-half-sigh escaped, which was first heard when K-din took the dead man by the nose.
CHAPTER TEN
Seeing this formidable ghost, the three guards remaining on their feet turned to stone and froze in their defensive positions stronger than K - Din, who lay in a layer with a coffin attached to it.
The ghost did not pay any attention to this whole group: his eyes were fixed on one coffin, in which now lay a completely open dead man. It swayed softly and seemed to want to move. Finally he succeeded. Holding on to the wall with his hands, the ghost slowly moved off and began to step closer to the coffin with intermittent steps. The movement was terrible. Trembling convulsively at every step and agonizingly catching the air with its open mouth, it vomited from its empty chest those terrible sighs which the Cadets mistook for sighs from the coffin. And here is another step, I am another step, and finally, it is close, it has come to the coffin, but before climbing the steps of the hearse, it has stopped, has taken K-din by the hand, from which, responding to the feverish trembling of his body, the edge of the agitated coffin muslin trembled, and with his thin, dry fingers he unhooked this muslin from the scruffy button of the rascal; then she looked at him with inexplicable sadness, quietly threatened him and… crossed him…
Then, barely holding on on shaky legs, it climbed the steps of the hearse, grabbed the edge of the coffin and, wrapping its skeletal arms around the shoulders of the deceased, sobbed ...
It seemed as if two deaths were kissing in the coffin; but soon that too was over. From the other end of the castle came the rumor of life: the memorial service was over, and the advanced ones, who had to be here in case of visiting high-ranking persons, hurried from the church to the dead man's apartment.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The cadets heard the echoing footsteps approaching along the corridors and the last echoes of the funeral song escaping after them from the open church door.
The revitalizing change of impressions made the cadets cheer up, and the duty of habitual discipline placed them in their proper position in their proper place.
That adjutant, who was the last person to look here before the memorial service, and now hurriedly ran first into the mourning hall and exclaimed:
My God, how did she get here!
A corpse in white, with flowing gray hair, lay embracing the dead man, and it seemed that he himself was no longer breathing. The matter came to an end.
The apparition that frightened the cadets was the late general's widow, who herself was near death and yet had the misfortune to outlive her husband. Due to extreme weakness, she could not leave the bed for a long time, but when everyone went to the front memorial service in the church, she slid off her deathbed and, leaning her hands on the walls, appeared at the coffin of the deceased. The dry rustle, which the cadets mistook for the rustle of the dead man's sleeves, was her touch on the walls. Now she was in a deep faint, in which the cadets, by order of the adjutant, carried her out in an armchair behind the drapery.
This was the last fear in the Engineer's Castle, which, according to the narrator, left a deep impression on them forever.
From this incident, - he said, - it became outrageous for all of us to hear if someone rejoiced at someone else's death. We always remembered our unforgivable prank and the blessing hand of the last ghost of the Engineer's Castle, which alone had the power to forgive us by the holy right of love. From the same time, fears from ghosts also ceased in the corps. The one we saw was the last one.
- - - - - - - - - Notes - Audiobook
Published according to the text: N. S. Leskov. Collected works, volume seven, St. Petersburg, 1889.
First published in Novosti i Birzhevaya Gazeta, 1882, Nos. 294 and 295 (November 5 and 6), under the title: “The Last Ghost of the Engineering Castle. Story". Without changes, but with a different title, reprinted in Leskov's collection "Christmas Stories" and in the Collected Works.
A. N. Leskov points out that this work is based on a case told to Leskov in July 1881 by engineer captain Zaporozhsky. “Ivan Stepanovich Zaporozhsky spoke about the boyish mischief committed in front of his eyes at the coffin of the director of the Military Engineering School, General Lomnovsky” (A. Leskov. Life of Nikolai Leskov, p. 405).
The engineering castle was built for Paul I in 1797-1800. Here Pavel was killed on the night of March 11-12, 1801.
In the newest Russian book of Mr. Kobeko - in the book by D. F. Kobeko "Tsesarevich Pavel Petrovich", St. Petersburg, 1881.
Today, the junkers of the engineering department are placed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets began to “settle in” it. - The Engineering School was founded in 1810 (since 1819 - the Main Engineering School);
The Nikolaev Engineering Academy was formed from the officer classes of the school in 1855.
“Eating, tasting little honey, and now I am dying” (Eating, I have tasted little honey, and now I am dying) - a quote from the Bible (I Book of Kings, XIV, 43).
A biblical story in which these words find their place ... - These words were spoken by Jonathan, the eldest son of the king of the Jews, Saul. Saul forbade his people, on pain of death, to eat anything until evening. Unaware of this prohibition, Jonathan tasted the honey and narrowly escaped death.
In that year, 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. - Engineer-Major-General Pyotr Karlovich Lomnovsky was the head of the Main Engineering School from 1844 to 1860, died in 1860, on January 27 (and not in November, as Leskov said).
Moleschott, Jacob (1822-1893) - German physiologist, representative of vulgar materialism. This refers to his speech "Light and Life", published in Russian in the 2nd edition of his "Physiological Sketches" (M., 1865, pp. 264-277).
G-ton, V-nov, Z-sky and K-din. - Z-sky - obviously, I. S. Zaporozhsky, who gave Leskov the topic of the story, graduated from the school in 1864. I. A. Voronov and S. F. Kavdin appear in the same issue. Cadet, designated G-ton, but not in this issue; in the issue of 1861 was Vladimir Hamilton (M. S. Maksimovsky. Historical essay on the Main Engineering School, St. Petersburg, 1869).
Undead - goblin, witches, brownies, mermaids, etc.
The description made by the poet Heine for the “mysterious woman” he saw ... - Probably, this refers to the description of “an old, abandoned castle where spirits live and where a lady in a black silk dress, without a head, with a long rustling train roams at night” (“Travel pictures. Ideas. The book “Le Grand”, ch. 10. - See the collected works of Heine, ed. “Academia”, vol. IV, M.-L., 1935, p. 231).
From cadet memories
Chapter first
Houses, like people, have a reputation. There are houses where, according to the general opinion, it is unclean, that is, where one or another manifestation of some kind of unclean or at least incomprehensible force is noticed. Spiritualists tried to do a lot to explain this kind of phenomena, but since their theories do not enjoy great confidence, the matter of terrible houses remains in the same position.
In St. Petersburg, in the opinion of many, the characteristic building of the former Pavlovsk Palace, now known as the Engineer's Castle, enjoyed such a thin glory for a long time. Mysterious phenomena attributed to spirits and ghosts have been noticed here almost from the very foundation of the castle. Even during the life of Emperor Paul, they say, they heard the voice of Peter the Great, and, finally, even Emperor Paul himself saw the shadow of his great-grandfather. The latter, without any refutation, is recorded in foreign collections, where they found a place for describing the sudden death of Pavel Petrovich, and in the latest Russian book by Mr. Kobeko. It was as if the great-grandfather left the grave to warn his great-grandson that his days are short and their end is near. The prediction came true.
However, the shadow of Petrov was visible in the walls of the castle not only by Emperor Paul, but also by people close to him. In a word, the house was terrible because shadows and ghosts lived there, or at least appeared and said something so terrible, and in addition it still came true. The unexpected suddenness of the death of Emperor Paul, on the occasion of which the society immediately remembered and started talking about the foreboding shadows that met the late emperor in the castle, further increased the gloomy and mysterious reputation of this gloomy house. Since then, the house has lost its former meaning of a residential palace, and, according to the popular expression, "went under the Cadets."
Today, the junkers of the engineering department are placed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets began to “settle in” it. This was a people even younger and not yet completely freed from childish superstition, and, moreover, frisky and playful, curious and courageous. All of them, of course, were more or less aware of the fears that told about their terrible castle. The children were very interested in the details of terrible stories and were fed by these fears, and those who managed to get used to them enough liked to frighten others very much. This was in full swing among the engineering cadets, and the authorities could not get rid of this bad custom until an incident occurred that immediately discouraged everyone from scaring and pranks.
This case will be the next story.
Chapter Two
It was especially fashionable to frighten the newcomers or the so-called "kids", who, getting into the castle, suddenly recognized such a mass of fears about the castle that they became superstitious and timid to the extreme. Most of all, they were frightened that at one end of the corridors of the castle there was a room that served as a bedroom for the late Emperor Paul, in which he lay down to rest healthy, and in the morning they carried him out dead. The "old people" assured that the spirit of the emperor lives in this room and every night comes out of there and inspects his beloved castle - and the "kids" believed this. This room was always tightly locked, and moreover, not with one, but with several locks, but for the spirit, as you know, no locks and locks matter. And, besides, they said that it was possible to somehow penetrate into this room. It seems that this was indeed the case. At least, there was and still is a legend that several “old Cadets” succeeded in this and continued until one of them conceived a desperate prank, for which he had to pay dearly. He opened some unknown hole in the terrible bedroom of the late emperor, managed to carry a sheet there and hid it there, and in the evenings he climbed here, covered himself from head to toe with this sheet and stood in a dark window that overlooked Sadovaya Street and was clearly visible to anyone who, passing or passing, looks in this direction.
Acting in this way the role of a ghost, the cadet really managed to instill fear in many superstitious people who lived in the castle, and on passers-by who happened to see his white figure, which everyone took for the shadow of the late emperor.
This prank continued for several months and spread a stubborn rumor that Pavel Petrovich walked around his bedroom at night and looked out of the window at Petersburg. Undoubtedly, many imagined vividly and clearly that the white shadow standing in the window repeatedly nodded its head and bowed to them; the cadet did indeed do such things. All this caused extensive conversations in the castle with foreboding interpretations and ended with the fact that the cadet who caused the described alarm was caught at the scene of the crime and, having received "an exemplary punishment on the body", disappeared forever from the institution. There was a rumor that the ill-fated cadet had the misfortune to frighten with his appearance in the window one tall person who happened to be passing by the castle, for which he was punished not like a child. Simply put, the Cadets said that the unfortunate rascal "died under the rods," and since at that time such things did not seem unbelievable, they believed this rumor, and from that time on this cadet himself became a new ghost. The comrades began to see him “all cut up” and with a coffin aureole on his forehead, and on the aureole it was as if one could read the inscription: “Eating little honey and now I die.”
If we recall the biblical story in which these words find their place, then it comes out very touching.
Soon after the death of the cadet, the bedroom, from which the main fears of the Engineer's castle emanated, was opened and received such a device that changed its terrible character, but the legends about the ghost lived on for a long time, despite the subsequent revelation of the secret. The cadets continued to believe that a ghost lives in their castle, and sometimes at night there is a ghost. This was a common conviction, which was equally held by the junior and senior cadets, with the difference, however, that the juniors simply blindly believed in the apparition, while the seniors sometimes themselves arranged for its appearance. One, however, did not interfere with the other, and the forgers of the ghost themselves were also afraid of him. Thus, some "false tellers of miracles" themselves reproduce them and worship them themselves and even believe in their reality.
The younger cadets did not know the “whole story”, the conversation about which, after the incident with the one who received a cruel punishment on the body, was strictly prosecuted, but they believed that the older cadets, among whom there were still comrades of the flogged or notched, knew the whole secret of the ghost. This gave the elders great prestige, and they enjoyed it until 1859 or 1860, when four of them themselves underwent a very terrible fright, which I will tell from the words of one of the participants in an inappropriate joke at the coffin.
Chapter Three
In that year, 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. He was hardly a beloved chief among the cadets and, as they say, he did not enjoy a better reputation with his superiors. They counted many reasons for this: they found that the general behaved with the children as if very severely and indifferently; little delved into their needs; did not care about their content, - and most importantly, he was bothersome, captious and petty harsh. In the corps, they said that the general himself would have been even more angry, but that his irresistible ferocity was tamed by the general’s quiet, like an angel, whom none of the cadets had ever seen, because she was constantly ill, but they considered her a good genius , protecting everyone from the ultimate ferocity of the general.
In addition to such glory in his heart, General Lamnovsky had very unpleasant manners. Among the latter were also funny ones, to which the children found fault, and when they wanted to "introduce" an unloved boss, they usually put forward one of his ridiculous habits to the point of caricature exaggeration.
Lamnovsky's most ridiculous habit was that, when he delivered a speech or made a suggestion, he always stroked his nose with all five fingers of his right hand. This, according to the Cadet definitions, came out as if he was "milking the words out of his nose." The deceased was not distinguished by eloquence, and he, as they say, often lacked the words to express his superior suggestions to the children, and therefore, with any such hesitation, the “milking” of the nose intensified, and the Cadets immediately lost their seriousness and began to laugh. Noticing this violation of subordination, the general became even more angry and punished them. Thus, relations between the general and the pupils became worse and worse, and in all this, in the opinion of the cadets, the “nose” was most to blame.
Not loving Lamnovsky, the Cadets did not miss an opportunity to annoy him and take revenge, spoiling his reputation in one way or another in the eyes of their new comrades. To this end, they spread a rumor in the building that Lamnovsky is known with evil spirits and is forcing demons to drag marble for him, which Lamnovsky supplied for some building, it seems for St. Isaac's Cathedral. But since the demons were tired of this work, they were told that they were impatiently waiting for the death of the general, as an event that would restore their freedom. And to make it seem even more reliable, once in the evening, on the general's name day, the Cadets made him a big nuisance by arranging a "funeral". It was arranged in such a way that when Lamnovsky’s guests were feasting in his apartment, a sad procession appeared in the corridors of the cadet premises: cadets covered with sheets, with candles in their hands, carried a stuffed animal with a long-nosed mask on their bed and quietly sang funeral songs. The organizers of this ceremony were open and punished, but on the next name day of Lamnovsky, the unforgivable joke with the funeral was repeated again. This went on until 1859 or 1860, when General Lamnovsky actually died and when his real funeral had to be held. According to the customs that existed then, the cadets had to be on duty at the coffin in shifts, and it was then that a terrible story happened that frightened those very heroes who had frightened others for a long time.
Chapter Four
General Lamnovsky died in late autumn, in the month of November, when Petersburg has the most misanthropic appearance: cold, penetrating dampness and dirt; especially cloudy foggy lighting has a heavy effect on the nerves, and through them on the brain and fantasy. All this produces morbid spiritual restlessness and excitement. Moleschott, for his scientific conclusions about the influence of light on life, could have obtained from us at that time the most curious data.
The days when Lamnovsky died were especially vile. The deceased was not brought into the church of the castle, because he was a Lutheran: the body stood in the large mourning hall of the general's apartment, and a cadet watch was established here, and, according to the Orthodox establishment, requiem services were served in the church. One memorial service was served during the day, and the other in the evening. All ranks of the castle, as well as cadets and ministers, had to appear at every memorial service, and this was strictly observed. Consequently, when memorial services were held in the Orthodox Church, the entire population of the castle gathered in this church, and the rest of the vast premises and the longest passages were completely empty. There was no one left in the apartment of the deceased, except for the shift on duty, which consisted of four cadets, who, with rifles and helmets on their elbows, stood around the coffin.
Here some kind of restless horror began to wind up: everyone began to feel something restless and began to be afraid of something; and then suddenly somewhere they said that again someone “gets up” and again someone “walks”. It became so unpleasant that everyone started to stop others, saying, “Enough, enough, leave it; Well, to hell with such stories! You only spoil your own nerves and people!” And then they themselves said the same thing, which was why they appeased others, and by nightfall everyone was already scared. This was especially aggravated when the cadet smelled "dad", that is, what kind of priest was there then.
He shamed them for their joy on the occasion of the death of the general and somehow briefly but well knew how to touch them and alert their feelings.
“Walks,” he told them, repeating their own words. “And it goes without saying that someone is walking around whom you cannot see and cannot see, and in him there is a force that you cannot control. This is a gray man - he does not get up at midnight, but at dusk, when it is gray, and he wants to tell everyone that there is something bad in his thoughts. This gray man is a conscience: I advise you not to disturb him with lousy joy at the death of others. Someone loves every person, someone pities - see that the gray man does not throw himself at them and does not give you a hard lesson!
The Cadets somehow took this deeply to their hearts, and as soon as it began to get dark that day, they just look around: is there a gray man and in what form is he? It is known that at dusk some special sensitivity is revealed in the souls - a new world appears, overshadowing the one that was in the light: well-known objects of ordinary forms become something whimsical, incomprehensible and, finally, even scary. At this time, for some reason, every feeling seems to be looking for some indefinite, but intensified expression for itself: the mood of feelings and thoughts constantly fluctuates, and in this swift and dense disharmony of the whole inner world of a person, fantasy begins its work: the world turns into a dream, and sleep - into the world ... It is tempting and scary, and the more scary, the more tempting and enticing ...
Most of the cadets were in this state, especially before the night watch at the coffin. On the last evening before the day of burial, the most important persons were expected to visit the church for a memorial service, and therefore, in addition to the people who lived in the castle, there was a large congress from the city. Even from Lamnovsky's apartment itself, everyone went to the Russian church to see the assembly of distinguished persons; the deceased remained surrounded by one children's guard. Four cadets stood guard this time: G-ton, V-nov, Z-sky, and K-din, all of whom are still in good health and now occupy solid positions in the service and in society.
Chapter Five
Of the four fellows who made up the guard, one, namely K-din, was the most desperate rascal, who bothered the late Lamnovsky more than anyone else and therefore, in turn, more often than others was subjected to increased penalties from the deceased. The dead man especially did not like K-dean because this rascal could perfectly mimic him "in terms of milking his nose" and took an active part in arranging the funeral processions that were made on the general's name day.
When such a procession was made on Lamnovsky's last namesake, K-dean himself pretended to be a dead man and even delivered a speech from the coffin, with such antics and such a voice that he made everyone laugh, not excluding the officer sent to disperse the blasphemous procession.
It was known that this incident had driven the late Lamnovsky into extreme anger, and there was a rumor among the Cadets that the angry general had "sworn to punish K-dean for life." The Cadets believed this, and, taking into consideration the character traits of their superior known to them, they had no doubt that he would fulfill his oath over K-din.
During the last year, K-Din was considered "hanging by a thread", and since, due to the liveliness of his character, it was very difficult for this cadet to refrain from frisky and risky pranks, his position seemed very dangerous, and this was only expected in the institution. that K-dean is about to fall into something, and then Lamnovsky will not stand on ceremony with him and will bring all his fractions to the same denominator, "will let himself be remembered for life."
The fear of the boss's threat was so strongly felt by K-din that he made desperate efforts on himself and, like a drunkard from wine, he fled from all sorts of pranks, until he had the opportunity to test for himself the saying that "a peasant does not drink for a year, but like the devil break through, so he will drink everything.
The devil broke through K-din precisely at the coffin of the general, who reposed without carrying out his threat. Now the general was not afraid of the cadet, and the boy's long restrained agility found an opportunity to recoil like a long coiled spring. He just went crazy.
Chapter six
The last funeral service, which gathered all the inhabitants of the castle in the Orthodox Church, was scheduled for eight o'clock, but since the highest persons were expected to attend it, after which it was indelicate to enter the church, everyone went there much earlier. In the hall, the deceased had one cadet shift left: G-ton, V-nov, Z-sky and K-din. There was not a soul in any of the adjoining huge rooms ...
At half-past seven the door opened for a moment, and for a moment a parade-de-camp appeared, with whom at that very moment an empty incident happened, which intensified the terrible mood: the officer, approaching the door, was either frightened of his own steps, or it seemed to him that his someone overtakes: he first stopped to give way, and then suddenly exclaimed: “Who is this! Who!" - and, hastily sticking his head in the door, with the other half of the same door he crushed himself and again cried out, as if someone had grabbed him from behind.
Of course, after that, he recovered and, hastily glancing around the mourning hall with a restless glance, guessed from the local desertion that everyone had already gone to church; then he closed the doors again and, clanging his saber loudly, rushed at an accelerated pace along the corridors leading to the castle temple.
The Cadets standing by the coffin clearly noticed that even the big ones were frightened of something, and fear had a contagious effect on everyone.
Chapter Seven
The cadets on duty heard the steps of the departing officer and noticed how with each step their situation here became more orphaned - as if they had been brought here and walled up with the dead for some insult, which the dead did not forget and did not forgive, but, on the contrary, would rise and certainly take revenge for him. And he will take revenge terribly, in a deadly way ... This only needs its own hour - a convenient hour of midnight,
...when the rooster crows
And the undead rush about in the dark...
But they won’t make it here until midnight, they will be replaced, and besides, they are not afraid of the “undead”, but the gray man, whose time is at dusk.
Now it was the deepest twilight: a dead man in a coffin, and around the most terrible silence ... The wind howled with ferocious fury in the yard, pouring whole streams of a muddy autumn downpour over the huge windows, and rattled the sheets of roofing bends; the chimneys hummed intermittently, as if they were sighing, or as if something had burst into them, lingered, and again pushed even harder. All this was not conducive either to sobriety of feelings or to calmness of mind. The severity of this whole impression was even more intensified for the guys, who had to stand in dead silence: everything is somehow confused; the blood, rushing to his head, hit his temples, and something like the monotonous mill clatter was heard. Anyone who has experienced such sensations knows this strange and very special rattling of blood - it is like a mill is grinding, but it does not grind grain, but grinds itself. This soon brings a person into a painful and irritating state, similar to the one that unusual people feel when descending into a dark mine to the miners, where the usual daylight for us is suddenly replaced by a smoking bowl ... It becomes impossible to withstand silence, - I want to hear at least my own voice, I want to poke my head somewhere - to do something the most reckless.
Chapter Eight
One of the four Cadets standing at the coffin of the general, it was K-din, experiencing all these sensations, forgot discipline and, standing under the gun, whispered:
- Spirits climb to us for daddy's nose.
Lamnovsky was sometimes jokingly called "folder", but this time the joke did not make the comrades laugh, but, on the contrary, increased the horror, and two of the officers on duty, noticing this, answered K-din:
“Shut up… it’s already scary,” and everyone looked anxiously into the dead man’s face wrapped in muslin.
"That's why I'm saying that you're scared," replied K-dean, "but I, on the contrary, am not scared, because he won't do anything to me now." Yes: one must be above prejudices and not be afraid of trifles, and every dead person is already a real trifle, and I will prove it to you now.
Please don't prove anything.
No, I'll prove it. I'll prove to you that the folder can't do anything to me now, even if I take him by the nose right now, this very minute.
And with that, unexpectedly for everyone else, K-Din at the same moment, intercepting the gun on his elbow, quickly ran up the steps of the hearse and, taking the dead man by the nose, cried out loudly and cheerfully:
- Yeah, daddy, you're dead, but I'm alive and I'm shaking your nose, and you won't do anything to me!
The comrades were dumbfounded by this prank and did not have time to utter a word, when suddenly they all at once clearly and distinctly heard a deep, painful sigh - a sigh very similar to someone sitting down on a rubber pillow inflated with air with a flap not tightly wrapped ... And this sigh, - to everyone it seemed - apparently, he was walking straight from the coffin ...
K-din quickly grabbed his hand and, stumbling, flew with a thunder with his gun from all the steps of the hearse, while the other three, not realizing what they were doing, in fear took their guns at the ready to defend themselves from the rising dead man.
But this was not enough: the dead man not only sighed, but actually pursued the scoundrel who offended him or held him by the hand: a whole wave of coffin muslin crawled behind K-din, from which he could not fight back - and, screaming terribly, he fell to the floor ... This creeping wave of muslin really seemed to be a completely inexplicable and, of course, terrible phenomenon, especially since the dead man covered by it was now completely opening with his folded hands on his sunken chest.
The rascal lay with his gun dropped, and, covering his face with his hands in horror, uttered terrible groans. Obviously, he was in his memory and was waiting for the dead man to take care of him in his own way.
Meanwhile, the sigh was repeated, and, in addition to it, a soft rustle was heard. It was such a sound that could come from the movement of one cloth sleeve over another. Obviously, the dead man spread his arms, and suddenly there was a quiet noise; then a stream of a different temperature ran like a stream over the candles, and at the same moment a ghost appeared in the moving curtains with which the doors of the inner chambers were closed. Gray man! Yes, a quite clearly formed ghost in the form of a man appeared to the frightened eyes of the children ... Was it the very soul of the deceased in a new shell received by her in another world, from which she returned for a moment to punish insulting insolence, or, perhaps, it was still a more terrible guest, the very spirit of the castle, who emerged from the dungeon through the floor of the next room! ..
Chapter Nine
The ghost was not a dream of the imagination - it did not disappear and resembled in its appearance the description made by the poet Heine for the "mysterious woman" he saw: both this and that represented "a corpse in which the soul is enclosed." In front of the frightened children was an extremely emaciated figure, all in white, but in the shadows it seemed gray. She had a terribly thin, bluish-pale, and completely faded face; on the head, thick and long hair disheveled in disarray. From a strong gray hair, they also seemed gray and, scattering in disorder, covered the chest and shoulders of the ghost! .. The eyes were bright, inflamed and shining with a painful fire ... Their sparkle from dark, deeply sunken orbits was like the sparkle of burning coals. The apparition had slender, skeletal hands, and with both of these hands it held on to the heavy door hangings.
Convulsively squeezing matter in weak fingers, these hands produced that dry cloth rustle that the Cadets heard.
The mouths of the ghost were completely black and open, and from them, after short intervals, with a whistle and wheezing, that tense half-groan-half-sigh escaped, which was first heard when K-ding took the dead man by the nose.
Chapter Ten
Seeing this formidable apparition, the three remaining guards turned to stone and froze in their defensive positions stronger than K-din, who lay in a layer with a coffin-cover attached to it.
The ghost did not pay any attention to this whole group: his eyes were fixed on one coffin, in which now lay a completely open dead man. It swayed softly and seemed to want to move. Finally he succeeded. Holding on to the wall with his hands, the ghost slowly moved off and began to step closer to the coffin with intermittent steps. It was a terrible movement, trembling convulsively at every step, and with anguish catching the air with its open mouth, it vomited from its empty chest those terrible sighs which the Cadets took for sighs from the coffin. And then another step, and another step, and, finally, it was close, it approached the coffin, but before climbing the steps of the hearse, it stopped, took K-dean by the hand from which, answering the feverish trembling of his body, the edge of the agitated coffin muslin trembled, and with his thin, dry fingers he unhooked this muslin from the scruffy button of the rascal; then she looked at him with inexplicable sadness, quietly threatened him and… crossed him…
Then, barely holding on on shaky legs, it climbed the steps of the hearse, grabbed the edge of the coffin and, wrapping its skeletal arms around the shoulders of the deceased, sobbed ...
It seemed as if two deaths were kissing in the coffin; but soon that too was over. From the other end of the castle came the rumor of life: the memorial service was over, and the advanced ones, who had to be here in case of visiting high-ranking persons, hurried from the church to the dead man's apartment.
Chapter Eleven
The cadets heard the echoing footsteps approaching along the corridors and the last echoes of the funeral song escaping after them from the open church door.
The revitalizing change of impressions made the cadets cheer up, and the duty of habitual discipline placed them in their proper position in their proper place.
That adjutant, who was the last person to look here before the memorial service, and now hurriedly ran first into the mourning hall and exclaimed:
“My God, how did she get here!”
A corpse in white, with flowing gray hair, lay embracing the dead man, and it seemed that he himself was no longer breathing. The matter came to an end.
The apparition that frightened the cadets was the late general's widow, who herself was near death and yet had the misfortune to outlive her husband. Due to extreme weakness, she could not leave the bed for a long time, but when everyone went to the front memorial service in the church, she slid off her deathbed and, leaning her hands on the walls, appeared at the coffin of the deceased. The dry rustle, which the cadets mistook for the rustle of the dead man's sleeves, was her touch on the walls. Now she was in a deep faint, in which the cadets, by order of the adjutant, carried her out in an armchair behind the drapery.
This was the last fear in the Engineer's Castle, which, according to the narrator, left a deep impression on them forever.
“From this incident,” he said, “it became outrageous for all of us to hear if anyone rejoiced at anyone’s death. We always remembered our unforgivable prank and the blessing hand of the last ghost of the Engineer's Castle, which alone had the power to forgive us by the holy right of love. From the same time, fears from ghosts also ceased in the corps. The one we saw was the last one.
Cadets served in the engineering castle. There was a colonel, no one liked him, he was evil. He had a sick wife, she was kind and gentle. The cadets played him every year on his birthday by putting on sheets and placing a coffin in the corridor of his house, they were caught and punished. And then one day the colonel died, the cadets stood at his coffin, and one of them, grabbing his nose, said, “What are you going to do to me now? “And they immediately saw his ghost, the cadets ran in fright. Then it turned out that it was not the ghost that was chasing them, but the colonel's wife.
Nikolai Semyonovich Leskov (1831-1895) was deeply interested in all life phenomena and valued true stories, preferring them to fiction. Stories - and Leskov especially liked to write them - are most often written in the form of memoirs. "Ghost in the Engineer's Castle" is subtitled "From Cadet Memoirs". This story was told to the writer by one of its participants, a former pupil of the cadet corps (as military educational institutions for boys, children of nobles, were called in pre-revolutionary Russia). The narrator's speech contains many words and expressions typical of cadets and their mentors. Leskov is a great artist of the word; the characters in his books always speak in their own way. That is why the language of the writer's works is bright and varied.
Leskov tells in a leisurely, calm tone, but at the same time he never forgets about entertaining, liveliness, "interestingness". Therefore, most often he writes stories in small chapters. Pay attention to this when you read "The Ghost in the Engineer's Castle".
The peculiarity and gift of the writer is the ability to prompt the reader with assessments and conclusions without imposing them. Gradually, imperceptibly, N. S. Leskov leads us, who read this story, to think that it is not good to rejoice at someone else's misfortune, we must try to be attentive and cordial to each other.
Nikolay Leskov
Ghost in the engineering castle
(From cadet memoirs)
Chapter first
Houses, like people, have a reputation. There are houses where, by all accounts, unclean, that is, where one or another manifestation of some kind of impure or at least incomprehensible force is noticed. Spiritualists tried to do a lot to explain this kind of phenomena, but since their theories do not enjoy great confidence, the matter of terrible houses remains in the same position.
In St. Petersburg, in the opinion of many, the characteristic building of the former Pavlovsk Palace, now known as the Engineering Castle, enjoyed such a bad reputation for a long time. Mysterious phenomena attributed to spirits | and ghosts, noticed here almost from the very foundations of the castle. Even during the life of Emperor Paul, they say, they heard the voice of Peter the Great, and, finally, even Emperor Paul himself saw the shadow of his great-grandfather. The latter, without any refutation, is recorded in foreign collections, where they found a place for describing the sudden death of Pavel Petrovich, and in the latest Russian book by Mr. Kobeko. It was as if the great-grandfather left the grave to warn his great-grandson that his days are short and their end is near. The prediction came true.
However, the shadow of Petrov was visible in the walls of the castle not only by Emperor Paul, but also by people close to him. In a word, the house was terrible because shadows and ghosts lived there, or at least appeared and said something so terrible, and in addition it still came true. The unexpected suddenness of the death of Emperor Paul, on the occasion of which the society immediately remembered and started talking about the foreboding shadows that met the late emperor in the castle, further increased the gloomy and mysterious reputation of this gloomy house. Since then, the house has lost its former meaning of a residential palace, and, according to the popular expression, “went under the Cadets”.
Today, the cadets of the engineering department are placed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets began to “settle in” it. This was a people even younger and not yet completely freed from childish superstition, and, moreover, frisky and playful, curious and courageous. All of them, of course, were more or less aware of the fears that told about their terrible castle. The children were very interested in the details of terrible stories and were fed by these fears, and those who managed to get used to them enough liked to frighten others very much. This was in full swing among the engineering cadets, and the authorities could not get rid of this bad custom until an incident occurred that immediately discouraged everyone from scaring and pranks.
This case will be the next story.
Chapter Two
It was especially fashionable to frighten the newcomers or the so-called "kids", who, getting into the castle, suddenly recognized such a mass of fears about the castle that they became superstitious and timid to the extreme. Most of all, they were frightened that at one end of the corridors of the castle there was a room that served as a bedroom for the late Emperor Paul, in which he lay down to rest healthy, and in the morning they carried him out dead. The "old men" assured that the spirit of the emperor lives in this room and every night comes out of there and inspects his beloved castle - and the "little ones" believed this. This room was always tightly locked, and moreover, not with one, but with several locks, but for the spirit, as you know, no locks and locks matter. And, besides, they said that it was possible to somehow penetrate into this room. It seems that this was indeed the case. At least, there was and still is a legend that several “old Cadets” succeeded in this and continued until one of them conceived a desperate prank, for which he had to pay dearly. He opened some well-known hole in the terrible bedroom of the late emperor, managed to carry a sheet there and hid it there, and in the evenings he climbed here, covered himself from head to toe with this sheet and stood in a dark window that overlooked Sadovaya Street and was clearly visible to anyone who, passing or passing, looks in this direction.
Acting in this way the role of a ghost, the cadet really managed to instill fear in many superstitious people who lived in the castle, and on passers-by who happened to see his white figure, which everyone took for the shadow of the late emperor.
This prank continued for several months and spread a stubborn rumor that Pavel Petrovich walked around his bedroom at night and looked out of the window at Petersburg. Undoubtedly, many imagined vividly and clearly that the white shadow standing in the window repeatedly nodded its head and bowed to them; the cadet did indeed do such things. All this caused extensive conversations in the castle with foreboding interpretations and ended with the fact that the cadet who caused the described alarm was caught at the scene of the crime and, having received "an exemplary punishment on the body", disappeared forever from the institution. There was a rumor that the ill-fated cadet had the misfortune to frighten with his appearance in the window one tall person who happened to be passing by the castle, for which he was punished not like a child. Simply put, the Cadets said that the unfortunate rascal "died under the rods," and since at that time such things did not seem unbelievable, they believed this rumor, and from that time on this cadet himself became a new ghost. The comrades began to see him “all cut up” and with a coffin aureole on his forehead, and on the aureole it was as if one could read the inscription: “Eating little honey and now I die.”
If we recall the biblical story in which these words find their place, then it comes out very touching.
Soon after the death of the cadet, the bedroom, from which the main fears of the Engineer's castle emanated, was opened and received such a device that changed its terrible character, but the legends about the ghost lived on for a long time, despite the subsequent revelation of the secret. The cadets continued to believe that a ghost lives in their castle, and sometimes at night there is a ghost. This was a common conviction, which was equally held by the junior and senior cadets, with the difference, however, that the juniors simply blindly believed in the apparition, while the seniors sometimes themselves arranged for its appearance. One, however, did not interfere with the other, and the forgers of the ghost themselves were also afraid of him. Thus, some "false tellers of miracles" themselves reproduce them and worship them themselves and even believe in their reality.
The younger cadets did not know the “whole story”, the conversation about which, after the incident with the one who received a cruel punishment on the body, was strictly prosecuted, but they believed that the older cadets, among whom there were still comrades of the flogged or notched, knew the whole secret of the ghost. This gave the elders great prestige, and they enjoyed it until 1859 or 1860, when four of them themselves underwent a very terrible fright, which I will tell from the words of one of the participants in an inappropriate joke at the coffin.
Chapter Three
In that year, 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. He was hardly a beloved chief among the cadets and, as they say, he did not enjoy a better reputation with his superiors. They counted many reasons for this: they found that the general behaved with the children as if very severely and indifferently; little delved into their needs; did not care about their content - and most importantly, he was bothersome, captious and petty harsh. In the corps, they said that the general himself would have been even more angry, but that his irresistible ferocity was tamed by the general’s quiet, like an angel, whom none of the cadets had ever seen, because she was constantly ill, but they considered her a good genius , protecting everyone from the ultimate ferocity of the general.
In addition to such glory in his heart, General Lamnovsky had very unpleasant manners. Among the latter were also funny ones, to which the children found fault, and when they wanted to "introduce" an unloved boss, they usually put forward one of his ridiculous habits to the point of caricature exaggeration.
Lamnovsky's most ridiculous habit was that, when he delivered a speech or made a suggestion, he always stroked his nose with all five fingers of his right hand. This, according to the Cadet definitions, came out as if he was "milking the words out of his nose." The deceased was not distinguished by eloquence, and he, as they say, often lacked the words to express his superior suggestions to the children, and therefore, with any such hesitation, the “milking” of the nose intensified, and the Cadets immediately lost their seriousness and began to laugh. Noticing this violation of subordination, the general became even more angry and punished them. Thus, relations between the general and the pupils became worse and worse, and in all this, in the opinion of the cadets, the “nose” was most to blame.
Not loving Lamnovsky, the Cadets did not miss an opportunity to annoy him and take revenge, spoiling his reputation in one way or another in the eyes of their new comrades. To this end, they spread a rumor in the building that Lamnovsky is known with evil spirits and is forcing demons to drag marble for him, which Lamnovsky supplied for some building, it seems for St. Isaac's Cathedral. But since the demons were tired of this work, they were told that they were impatiently waiting for the death of the general, as an event that would restore their freedom. And to make it seem even more reliable, once in the evening, on the general's name day, the Cadets made him a big nuisance by arranging a "funeral". It was arranged in such a way that when Lamnovsky’s guests were feasting in his apartment, a sad procession appeared in the corridors of the cadet premises: cadets covered with sheets, with candles in their hands, carried a stuffed animal with a long-nosed mask on their bed and quietly sang funeral songs. The organizers of this ceremony were open and punished, but on the next name day of Lamnovsky, the unforgivable joke with the funeral was repeated again. This went on until 1859 or 1860, when General Lamnovsky actually died and when his real funeral had to be held. According to the customs that existed then, the cadets had to be on duty at the coffin in shifts, and it was then that a terrible story happened that frightened those very heroes who had frightened others for a long time.
