OLD 8AKNIA. 295 



Whatever be the speculations of fancy on the remote 

 origin of the Castle Spectre, the rattling chains seem to have 

 been a recent interpolation, and to demand sei)arate and par- 

 ticular notice. It tells, in almost poetic language, that the 

 Beauregard " revenant " or phantom personated the fanatic or 

 the heretic — those innocent victims of bigotry and superstition 

 whose shriek of agony, when stretched upon the rack, or 

 suspended from the dislocating cord, must often have terrified 

 and alarmed their relatives and friends. We are told that 

 the place of execution where these unhappy beings were sup- 

 posed to expiate imaginary offences was in the Bailey or yard 

 near the haunted tower — the scene of their confinement and 

 frightful death. The very pavement and grass were stained 

 with blood and ashes : and on a spot where murder had too 

 long revelled under the mask of Justice it was natural that 

 imagination should conjure up a \ariety of hideous forms. 



Le Chien Bodu. 



Another very uglv dog I a resident, perhaps, of la Ville 

 Baudu, once the slaughter-house of the Benedictine monks of 

 St. Michel du Valle. There was once a time when the simple 

 question, " () tu I'tchien Bodu ?" (do you hear the Bodu dog) 

 would have frightened away the gayest juvenile party in the 

 twinkling of an eye. To see this black dog Avas taken as a 

 sure sign of approaching death. 



In Sir Edgar MacCulloch's book, edited by Miss Edith 

 Carey, is found the following concerning ghostly dogs and 

 other animals that haunted the (juernsey roads at night : — 



" Then there is the ' Kue de la Bete ' at St. Andrew's, 

 on the borders of the Fief Ruhais. Near this lane there was 

 formerly a prison, so that it is probably full of associations of 

 crime and malefactors. There is also a Rue de la Bete near 

 FEree, between Claire Mare and the Rouvets, Avhere, to this 

 day, people will not go alone after dark, and they still tell the 

 story (so wrote Miss Le Pelley, Avho lived in that neighbour- 

 hood) of a man, a Monsieur Yaucoui-t, Avho, driving down that 

 lane in the dark, the Bete got up into the cart, which so scared 

 the unfortunate man that he died the next day. There was 

 also a black dog which haunted the Forest-road, clanking its 

 chains. The father of one old Avoman, who told the story, 

 saw and was followed by this beast one night when Avalking 

 home from St. Martin's to his house near the Forest Church. 

 He was so frightened that he took to his bed and died of the 

 shock very shortly afterwards. There is also ' La Bete de la 

 Rue Maze,' on the western limits of the town parish ; ' Le 



