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ePaper created 2014-04-08, 18:05:31 | version 1.29.01
95 have well observed the manners and countenances of the family. He was conscious that, if any deception had been practised, its authors would be too delighted with their success to conceal the vanity of their triumph. When the guests assembled at the breakfast table the eye of Lord Castlereagh searched in vain for those conscious looks, that silent communication between the parties by which the authors and abettors of such domestic conspiracies are generally betrayed. Everything apparently proceeded in its ordinary course: the conversation flowed rapidly along from the subjects afforded at the moment, without any of the constraint which marks a party intent upon some secret and more interesting argument and endeavouring to afford an opportunity for its introduction. At last, the hero of the tale found himself compelled to mention the occurrence of the night. It was most extraordinary. He feared that he should not be credited; and then, after all due preparation, the story was related. Those among the auditors, who like himself, were strangers and visitors to the house, felt certain that some delusion must have been practised. The family alone seemed perfectly composed and calm. At last the gentleman whom Lord Londonderry was visiting interrupted their various surmises on the subject by saying. “The circumstances which you have just recounted must naturally appear to be extraordinary to those who have not long been inmates of my dwelling, and not long conversant with the legends of my family; and to those who are, the event which has happened will only serve as the corroboration of an old tradition that has long been related to the apartment in which you slept. You have seen the Radiant Boy. Be content. It is an omen of prosperous fortunes. I would rather that this subject should no more be mentioned”. St. John Seymour and Harry L. Nelligan, True Irish Ghost Stories (Dublin, 1914). (pp. 114-5) ‘Another similar story comes from the north of Ireland. In the year 1866 (as recorded in the Larne Reporter of March 31 in that year), two families residing at Upper Ballygowan, near Larne, suffered a series of annoyances from having stones thrown into their houses both by night and by day. Their neighbours came in great numbers to sympathise with them in their affliction, and on one occasion, after a volley of stones had been poured into the house through the window, a young man who was present fired a musket in the direction of the mysterious assailants. The reply was a loud peal of satanic laughter, followed by a volley of stones and turf. On another occasion a heap of potatoes, which was in an inner apartment of one of the houses, was seen to be in commotion, and shortly afterwards its contents were hurled into the kitchen, where the inmates of the house, with some of their neighbours, were assembled.