I found the Marquis and the Marquise, cheerful and welcoming, in an 18th century living room on the ground floor in which were hung beautiful, family portraits. I hastened to accept the port and the cheese sticks that were offered me. It seemed, at least, that the ghost had not managed to leave his mark…
I felt the cloud thicken. I felt that I had fallen victim to a disease – at the time there so many about which we knew nothing. So the conviction was born inside me that I was to die young. All this is an image, you understand, but I imagined finding myself in the middle…
Castle Beaumont La Ronce “This is my best friend’s parents’ castle,” my lovely little niece, Adelaide, told me, “It is haunted by a great lady who was murdered over questions of money. Those who were arrested and executed for the crime were, however, innocent and the true assassins were allowed to escape for they had…
The seaside resort of Zaraus hardly seems the place to conjure up visions of the supernatural. Of course ghosts can settle anywhere but I hardly feared that they would be inspired by these modest, mundane seaside constructions dolefully aligned along rectilinear avenues or by the recent villas which have sprung up and that clashed with…
One of the President’s friends saw the whole scene. He hurried after Booth, who, first withdrew his hunting knife, and then struck him. Then the actor climbed up the balustrade of the box and leapt onto the stage. His spur became caught in one of the flags that adorn the balustrade, and he lost his…
On April 14, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln awoke in his room at the White House at seven o’clock, as usual. It promised to be a glorious, spring day. In the parks and gardens, the scent of the lilacs permeate throughout the garden, the willows shade the banks of the Potomac River with their great branches….
Randolph Hearst was the most formidable press tycoon. As illustrated by Orson Wells in “Citizen Kane”, he was a killer, a ruthless businessman, a conqueror that backed down for nothing. North of Los Angeles, he built a most extravagant castle in San Simeon, amongst the green hills. The façade was that of a Mexican cathedral,…
The trial of Elizabeth Bathory took place during the reign of King Rodolph II of Hungary. The great lady was desperate about preserving her youth. Witchcraft provided her with a magic remedy, and an astonishing degree of perversion was involved in her attempts to apply it. She had a considerable number of young girls kidnapped…
When, in 1759, the child Isabelle of Parma, known as Isabellita, reached the age of eighteen she was, without any doubt, one of the most accomplished princesses in Europe. Tall, with a beautiful figure, an oval face adorned with big, brown eyes and long black hair and snow–white skin. All the men were attracted to…
A young high society woman was travelling in Austria many years ago. She had a young daughter, just two or three years old, whom she loved dearly. One evening, she arrived at an inn that was part of an old landowner’s domain. The walls were extremely thick and the doors and windows were low and…