Ladies’ Edinburgh Magazine > Volume 5

The Trellaji Mystery. 89
'Thud, thud, thud!' Oh, that ghastly half - forgotten
sound ! A shiver runs through the congregation, but no one
moves—all seem petrified with fear and horror. This time it
is repeated, ' Thud, thud, thud!' Still all sit motionless with
pallid faces and fixed eyes; one girl has fainted, one or two
creep from their seats to go to her assistance, and now the
spell seems broken. The vicar breaks the awed silence. ' My
friends, I am now willing and desirous that we should put
an end to this trouble at once. May our labour on this
holy day be forgiven us; but this mystery must not rest
undiscovered a moment longer. I fear there is some
wickedness at work here.' And then, with somewhat faint
hearts, the strong men once more bend to raise that great
slab of stone; it is loose at last, and now they lift it; but
what is this so close beneath it, which seems to be rocking
to and fro ? It is Sir Richard's coffin, sure enough; but it is
floating, not in air, but in water, which reflects the light
they hold down to it in its black depths.
And so the mysterious, ghastly sounds are explained at last,
and the belief of Trellan in ghosts is shaken for ever. No ghost
was that which rapped beneath Sir Richard's vault-stone ; it
turned out to be only a very curious natural phenomenon.
The vault was afterwards thoroughly examined, and it was
found that a stream from the hills above had formed itself a
subterranean watercourse, no doubt the work of centuries,
which passed right under the church and the Trellan vault
in the chancel, and thence found its way through a fissure
in the rocks below down to the sea. A small natural crevice
was discovered in the floor of the vault, through which, at a
very high tide, the mountain torrent, forced back by the
unusual height of the waves, made its way with considerable
force, even rising to the top of the vault. This might never
have been discovered but for the circumstance that Sir
Richard Trellan's coffin, being of wood, was floated to the
surface and struck against the slab above each time some
giant wave forced the descending torrent back more effectually.
And thus the Trellan mystery was cleared up. Considerable
disappointment was occasioned by this very simple and
natural explanation of the much boasted Trellan ghost; but
there were not wanting those, among whom was the vicar,
who moralized on the retributive justice of the elements,
which would not suffer the bones of the sinful knight of
Trellan, even in their grave, to rest in peace.
E. M. S.