Joseph Thomas Sheridan Le Fanu 28 August 1814 – 7 February 1873) was an Irish writer of Gothic tales, mystery novels, and horror fiction. He was a leading ghost story writer of his time, central to the development of the genre in the Victorian era. M. R. James described Le Fanu as "absolutely in the first rank as a writer of ghost stories". Three of his best-known works are the locked-room mystery Uncle Silas, the vampire novella Carmilla, and the historical novel The House by the Churchyard.
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00:00The White Cat of Drumganyol by J.S. Le Fanu
00:06Performed by Catherine Byers
00:10There is a famous story of a white cat with which we all become acquainted in the nursery.
00:15I am going to tell a story of a white cat very different from the amiable and enchanted
00:20princess who took that disguise for a season.
00:24The white cat of which I speak was a more sinister animal.
00:29The traveller from Limerick toward Dublin after passing the hills of Killaloe upon the
00:33left, as Keeper Mountain rises high in view, finds himself gradually hemmed in, up the
00:40right by a range of lower hills.
00:43An undulating plain that dips gradually to a lower level than that of the road interposes,
00:49and some scattered hedgerows relieve its somewhat wild and melancholy character.
00:55One of the few human habitations that send up their films of turf-smoke from that lonely
01:00plain is the loosely thatched, earth-built dwelling of a strong farmer, as the more prosperous
01:06of the tenant farming classes are termed in Munster.
01:10It stands in a clump of trees near the edge of a wandering stream, about half-way between
01:15the mountains and the Dublin road, and had been for generations tenanted by people named
01:20Donovan.
01:22In a distant place, desirous of studying some Irish records which had fallen into my hands,
01:27and inquiring for a teacher capable of instructing me in the Irish language, a Mr. Donovan, dreamy,
01:34harmless and learned, was recommended to me for the purpose.
01:38I found that he had been educated as a scissor in Trinity College, Dublin.
01:43He now supported himself by teaching, and the special direction of my studies, I suppose,
01:49I was flattered his national partialities, for he unbosomed himself of much of his long-reserved
01:55thoughts and recollections about his country and his early days.
02:00It was he who told me this story, and I mean to repeat it as nearly as I can in his own
02:06words.
02:07I have myself seen the old farmhouse with its orchard of huge, moss-grown apple-trees.
02:13I have looked round on the peculiar landscape, the roofless, ivied tower, that two hundred
02:19years before had afforded a refuge from raid and reparee, and which still occupies its
02:25old place in the angle of the haggard.
02:29The bush-grown list, that scarcely a hundred and fifty steps away, records the labours
02:33of a bygone race, the dark and towering outline of old Keeper in the background, and the lonely
02:40range of firs and heath-clad hills that form a nearer barrier, with many a line of grey
02:46rock and clump of dwarf oak or birch.
02:50The pervading sense of loneliness made it a scene not unsuited for a wild and unearthly
02:55story.
02:56And I could quite fancy now, seen in the grey of a wintry morning shrouded far and wide
03:02in snow, or in the melancholy glory of an autumnal sunset, or in the chill splendour
03:08of a moonlight night, it might have helped to tone a dreamy mind like honest Dan Donovan's
03:15to superstition, and a proneness to the illusions of fancy.
03:20It is certain, however, that I never anywhere met with a more simple-minded creature or
03:24one on whose good faith I could more entirely rely.
03:29When I was a boy, said he, living at home at Drumgun Yule, I used to take my goldsmith's
03:35Roman history in my hand and go down to my favourite seat, the flat stone sheltered by
03:40a hawthorn tree beside the little luff, a large and deep pool such as I have heard called
03:45a tarn in England.
03:48It lay in the gentle hollow of a field that is overhung toward the north by the old orchard,
03:54and being a deserted place was favourable to my studious quietude.
03:58One day, reading here as usual, I wearied at last, and began to look about me, thinking
04:03of the heroic scenes I had just been reading of.
04:06I was as wide awake as I am at this moment, and I saw a woman appear at the corner of
04:11the orchard and walk down the slope.
04:14She wore a long, light grey dress, so long that it seemed to sweep the grass behind her,
04:20and so singular was her appearance in a part of the world where female attire is so inflexibly
04:25fixed by custom, that I could not take my eyes off her.
04:30Her course lay diagonally from corner to corner of the field, which was a large one,
04:35and she pursued it without swerving.
04:38When she came near I could see that her feet were bare, and that she seemed to be looking
04:43steadfastly upon some remote object for guidance.
04:47Her route would have crossed me had the tarn not interposed about ten or twelve yards below
04:52the point at which I was sitting.
04:55But instead of arresting her course at the margin of the luff, as I had expected, she
05:00went on without seeming conscious of its existence, and I saw her, as plainly as I see you, ma'am,
05:06walk across the surface of the water and pass without seeming to see me at about the distance
05:12I had calculated.
05:15I was ready to faint from sheer terror.
05:17I was only thirteen years old then, and I remember every particular as if it had happened
05:22this hour.
05:24The figure passed through the gap at the far corner of the field, and there I lost sight
05:28of it.
05:29I had hardly strength to walk home, and was so nervous and ultimately so ill that for
05:34three weeks I was confined to the house, and could not bear to be alone for a moment.
05:40I never entered that field again.
05:42Such was the horror with which from that moment every object in it was closed.
05:47Even at this distance of time I should not like to pass through it.
05:52This apparition I connected with a mysterious event, and also with a singular liability,
05:58that has for nearly eight years distinguished, or rather afflicted, our family.
06:04It is no fancy.
06:06Everybody in that part of the country knows all about it.
06:09Everybody connected what I had seen with it.
06:12I will tell it all to you as well as I can.
06:16When I was about fourteen years old, that is, about a year after the sight I had seen
06:20in the loft field, we were one night expecting my father home from the fair of Killaloe.
06:27My mother sat up to welcome him home, and I with her, for I liked nothing better than
06:31such a vigil.
06:33My brothers and sisters and the farm servants, except the men who were driving home the cattle
06:37from the fair, were asleep in their beds.
06:41My mother and I were sitting in the chimney corner chatting together and watching my father's
06:45supper, which was kept hot over the fire.
06:48We knew that he would return before the men who were driving home the cattle, for he was
06:53told us that he would only wait to see them fairly on the road, and then push homeward.
06:59At length we heard his voice and the knocking of his loaded whip at the door, and my mother
07:03let him in.
07:04I don't think I ever saw my father drunk, which is more than most people of my age from
07:09the same part of the country could say of theirs.
07:12But he could drink his glass of whisky as well as another, and he usually came home
07:17from fair or market a little merry and mellow, and with a jolly flush in his cheeks.
07:23Tonight he looked sunken, pale, and sad.
07:26He entered with the saddle and bridle in his hand, and he dropped them against the wall
07:30near the door, and put his arms round his wife's neck, and kissed her kindly.
07:35"'Welcome home, Michal,' she said, kissing him heartily.
07:39"'God bless you, Mavrine,' he answered.
07:42And hugging her again, he turned to me, who was plucking him by the hand, jealous of his
07:47notice.
07:48I was little and light of my age, and he lifted me up in his arms and kissed me, and my arms
07:54being about his neck, he said to my mother, "'Draw the bolt, Akushla.'
07:59She did so, and setting me down very dejectedly, he walked to the fire, and sat down on a stool,
08:05and stretched his feet toward the glowing turf, leaning with his hands on his knees.
08:10"'Rouse up, Mick, darling,' said my mother, who was growing anxious.
08:14"'And tell me, how did the cattle sell, and did everything go lucky at the fair?
08:19Or is there anything wrong with the landlord?
08:21Or what in the Mick Jewel?'
08:23"'Nothing, Molly.
08:25The cows sold well, thank God, and there's nothing fell out between me and the landlord.
08:31And everything's the same way.
08:33There's no fault to find anywhere.'
08:35"'Well, then, Mickey, since so it is, turn round to your hot supper and ate it, and tell
08:41us, is there anything new?'
08:43"'I got my supper, Molly, on the way, and I can't eat a bit,' he answered.
08:48"'Got your supper on the way, and you knowin't was waitin' for you at home, and your wife's
08:54sittin' up and all,' cried my mother reproachfully.
08:57"'You're takin' a wrong meanin' out of what I say,' said my father.
09:02"'There's somethin' happened that leaves me that I can't ate a mouthful, and I'll not
09:06be dark with you, Molly, for maybe it ain't very long I have to be here, and I'll tell
09:11you what it was.
09:13It's what I've seen.
09:15The white cat!'
09:17"'The Lord between us and harm!' exclaimed my mother in a moment, as pale and as chap-fallen
09:23as my father.
09:24And then, trying to rally with a laugh, she said, "'Ha!
09:27"'Tis only fun in me, you are.
09:30Sure a white rabbit was snared a Sunday last in Grady's wood.
09:34And take seen a big white cat in the haggard yesterday.'
09:37"'Twas neither rat nor rabbit was in it.
09:41Don't you think but I'd know a rat or a rabbit from a big white cat, with green eyes as big
09:46as Happiny's, and its back rizzed up like a bridge trottin' on and across me, and ready,
09:52if I dare stop, to rub its sides against my shins, and maybe to make a jump and seize
09:58my throat.
09:59If that is a cat at all, and not something worse!'
10:04As he ended his description in a low tone, looking straight at the fire, my father drew
10:08his big hand across his forehead once or twice, his face being damp and shining with the moisture
10:14of fear, and he sighed, or rather groaned, heavily.
10:20My mother had relapsed into panic, and was praying again in her fear.
10:24I too was terribly frightened, and on the point of crying, for I knew all about the
10:29white cat.
10:31Clapping my father on the shoulder by way of encouragement, my mother leaned over him,
10:35kissing him, and at last began to cry.
10:38He was wringing her hands in his, and seemed in great trouble.
10:42"'There was nothin' came into the house with me,' he asked in a very low tone, turning
10:47to me.
10:48"'There was nothin', father,' I said, "'but the saddle and bridle that was in your hand.'
10:54"'Nothin' white came in at the door with me,' he repeated.
10:57"'Nothin' at all,' I answered.
11:00"'So best,' said my father, and making the sign of the cross, he began mumbling to himself,
11:05and I knew he was saying his prayers.
11:08Waiting for a while to give him time for this exercise, my mother asked him where he first
11:13saw it.
11:14When I was riding up the bothering, the Irish term meaning a little road, such as leads
11:19up to the farmhouse, I bethought myself that the men on the road with the cattle, and no
11:24one to look to the horse barrin' myself, so I thought I might as well leave him in the
11:29crooked field below, and I took him there, he being cool, and not a hair turned, for
11:35I rode him easy all the way.
11:38It was when I turned after letting him go, the saddle and bridle being in my hand, that
11:42I saw it, pushing out of the long grass at the side of the path, and it walked across
11:47it in front of me, and then back again before me, the same way, and sometimes at one side
11:53and then at the other, lookin' at me with them shinin' eyes.
11:58And I can say that I heard it growlin' as it kept beside me, as close as ever you see,
12:03till I came up to the door here, and knocked and called as you heard me.
12:09Now what was it, in so simple an incident, that agitated my father, my mother, myself,
12:15and finally every member of this rustic household, with a terrible foreboding?
12:21It was this that we, one and all, believed that my father had received, in thus encountering
12:27the white cat, a warning of his approaching death.
12:32The omen had never failed hitherto.
12:35It did not fail now.
12:37In a week after, my father took the fever that was going, and before a month he was
12:41dead.
12:43My honest friend, Dan Donovan, paused here.
12:47I could perceive that he was praying, for his lips were busy, and I concluded that it
12:51was for the repose of that departed soul.
12:55In a little while he resumed.
12:57It is eighty years now since that omen first attached to my family.
13:02Eighty years!
13:03Ay, is it!
13:05Eighty is nearer the mark, and I have spoken to many old people in those earlier times
13:10who had a distinct recollection of everything connected with it.
13:15It happened in this way.
13:18My grand-uncle, Connor Donovan, had the old farm of Drumguignol in his day.
13:24He was richer than ever my father was, or my father's father either, for he took a short
13:29lease of Balrigan and made money of it.
13:32But money won't soften a hard heart, and I'm afraid my grand-uncle was a cruel man.
13:38A profligate man he was, surely, and that is mostly a cruel man at heart.
13:43He drank his share too, and cursed and swore, when he was vexed, more than was good for
13:48his soul, I'm afraid.
13:50At that time there was a beautiful girl of the Colmans, up in the mountains not far from
13:55Capercullen.
13:56I am told that there are no Colmans there now at all, and that the family has passed
14:00away.
14:02The famine years made great changes.
14:05Ellen Colman was her name.
14:07The Colmans were not rich, but being such a beauty she might have made a good match.
14:12Worse than she did for herself poor things she could not.
14:16Con Donovan, my grand-uncle, God forgive him, sometimes in his rambles saw her at fairs
14:21or patterns, and he fell in love with her as who might not.
14:25He used her ill, he promised her marriage and persuaded her to come away with him, and
14:30after all he broke his word.
14:32It was just the old story.
14:34He tired of her, and he wanted to push himself in the world.
14:38And he married a girl of the Colopies that had a great fortune, twenty-four cows, seventy
14:43sheep and a hundred and twenty goats.
14:46He married this merry Colopy and grew richer than before, and Ellen Colman died broken-hearted.
14:53But that did not trouble the strong farmer much.
14:56He would have liked to have had children, but he had none, and this was the only cross
15:00he had to bear, for everything else went much as he wished.
15:04One night he was returning from the fair of Nenna.
15:07A shallow stream at the time crossed the road.
15:10They have thrown a bridge over it, I am told, some time since, and its channel was often
15:14dry in summer weather.
15:16When it was so, as it passes close by the old farmhouse of Drumgunnul, without a great
15:22deal of winding, it makes a sort of road which people then used as a shortcut to reach
15:27the house by.
15:29Into this dry channel, as there was plenty of light from the moon, my grand-uncle turned
15:33his horse, and when he had reached the two ash trees at the nearing of the farm, he turned
15:38his horse short into the river-field, intending to ride through the gap, at the other end,
15:44under the oak tree, and so he would have been within a few hundred yards of his door.
15:49As he approached the gap, he saw, or thought he saw, with a slow motion, gliding along
15:55the ground toward the same point, and then with a soft bound, a white object, which he
15:59described as being white, but what it was he could not see as it moved along the hedge
16:03and disappeared at the point to which he was himself tending.
16:07The horse stopped short.
16:08He urged and coaxed it in vain.
16:11He got down to lead it through, but it recoiled, snorted, and fell into a wild trembling fit.
16:16He mounted it again, but its terror continued, and it obstinately resisted his caresses and
16:22his whip.
16:24It was bright moonlight, and my grand-uncle was chafed by the horse's resistance, and
16:28seeing nothing to account for it, and being so near home, what little patience he possessed
16:33forsook him, and plying his whip and spur in earnest, he broke into oaths and curses.
16:40All on a sudden the horse sprang through, and Condonovan, as he passed under the broad
16:44branch of the oak, saw clearly a woman standing on the bank beside him, her arm extended with
16:50the hand of which, as he flew by, she struck him a blow upon the shoulders.
16:56It threw him forward upon the neck of the horse, which in wild terror reached the door
17:00at a gallop, and stood there quivering and steaming all over.
17:05Less alive than dead, my grand-uncle got in.
17:09He told his story, at least so much as he chose.
17:12His wife did not quite know what to think, but that something very bad had happened she
17:17could not doubt.
17:18He was very faint and ill, and begged that the priest should be sent forthwith.
17:24When they were getting him to his bed they saw distinctly the marks of the five finger-points
17:28on the flesh of his shoulder where the spectral blow had fallen.
17:33These singular marks, which they said resembled in tint the hue of a body struck by lightning,
17:39seemed imprinted on his flesh, and were buried with him.
17:44When he had recovered sufficiently to talk with the people about him, speaking, like
17:47a man at his last hour, from a burdened heart and troubled conscience, he repeated his story,
17:53but said he did not see, or at all events know, the face of the figure that stood in
17:58the gap.
18:00No one believed him.
18:02He told more about it to the priest than to others.
18:04He certainly had a secret to tell.
18:07He might as well have divulged it frankly, for the neighbours all knew well enough that
18:11it was the face of the dead Ellen Coleman that he had seen.
18:16From that moment my grand-uncle never raised his head.
18:19He was a scared, silent, broken-spirited man.
18:22It was early summer then, and at the fall of the leaf in the same year he died.
18:28Of course there was a wake, such as beseemed a strong farmer so rich as he.
18:32For some reason the arrangements of this ceremonial were a little different from the
18:37usual routine.
18:39The usual practice is to place the body in the great room, or kitchen, as it is called,
18:43of the house.
18:45In this particular case there was, as I told you, for some reason an unusual arrangement.
18:52The body was placed in a small room that opened upon the greater one.
18:56The door of this, during the wake, stood open.
18:59There were candles about the bed, and pipes and tobacco on the table, and stools for such
19:03guests as chose to enter, the door standing open for their reception.
19:08The body, having been laid out, was left alone in this smaller room during the preparations
19:12for the wake.
19:14After nightfall one of the women approaching the bed to get a chair, which she had left
19:18near it, rushed from the room with a scream, and having recovered her speech at the further
19:23end of the kitchen, and surrounded by a gaping audience, she said at last,
19:28May I never sin if his face bain't rizz up again the back o' the bed, and he's starin'
19:34down to the door with eyes as big as pewter-plates.
19:38That he'd be shinin' the moon.
19:40That a woman is a cratchior, said one of the farm-boys, as they are termed, being men of
19:46any age you please.
19:48Ah, Molly, don't be talkin', woman, tis what you can say, did it, goin' into the dark room
19:53out o' the light?
19:55Why didn't you take a candle in your fingers, ye old madden? said one of her female companions.
20:01Candle or no candle, I seen it, insisted Molly, and what's more I could a-most take my oath
20:07I seen his arm to, stretchin' out o' the bed along the floor, three times as long as it
20:13should be, to take hold o' me be the foot.
20:17I seen since, ye fool, what did he want o' your foot? exclaimed one scornfully.
20:21Give me the candle, some o' yers, in the name o' God, said old Sal Doolan, that was straight
20:27and lean, and a woman that could pray like a priest almost.
20:31Give her a candle, agreed all.
20:34But whatever they might say, there wasn't one among them that did not look pale and
20:38stern enough as they followed Mrs. Doolan, who was praying as fast as her lips could
20:42patter, and leading the van with a tallow candle held like a taper in her fingers.
20:49The door was half open, as the panic-stricken girl had left it, and holding the candle on
20:53high the better to examine the room she made a step or so into it.
20:58If my grand-uncle's hand had been stretching along the floor in the unnatural way described,
21:04he had drawn it back again under the sheet that covered him, and tall Mrs. Doolan was
21:09in no danger of tripping over his arm as she entered.
21:13But she had not gone more than a step or two with her candle aloft, when with a drowning
21:17face she suddenly stopped short, staring at the bed which was now fully in view.
21:23Lord, bless us, Mrs. Doolan, ma'am, come back, said the woman next her, who had fast hold
21:29on her dress, or her coat, as they call it, and drawing her backwards with a frightened
21:34pluck, while a general recoil among her followers betokened the alarm which her hesitation had
21:41inspired.
21:42Whist, will you? said the leader, peremptorily.
21:45I can't hear my own ears with a noise you're making.
21:49And which of you has let the cat in here, and whose cat is it? she asked, peering suspiciously
21:54at a white cat that was sitting on the breast of the corpse.
21:58Put it away, will you? she resumed with horror at the profanation.
22:03Near corpses I stretched and crossed in the bed.
22:06The likes of that I never seen yet.
22:09The man of the house with a brute base like that mounted on him.
22:13Like a puke, O Lord, forgive me for naming the like in this room.
22:16Throw it away, some of you, out of that this minute, I tell you.
22:22Each repeated the order, but no one seemed inclined to execute it.
22:26They were crossing themselves and whispering their conjectures and misgivings as to the
22:31nature of the beast, which was no cat of that house, nor one that they had ever seen before.
22:37On a sudden the white cat placed itself on the pillow over the head of the body, and
22:42having from that place glared for a time at them over the features of the corpse, it crept
22:47softly along the body towards them, growling low and fiercely as it drew near.
22:54Out of the room they bounced in dreadful confusion, shutting the door fast after them, and not
22:59for a good while did the hardiest venture to peep in again.
23:03The white cat was sitting in its old place on the dead man's breast, but this time it
23:07crept quietly down the side of the bed and disappeared under it, the sheet which was
23:12spread like a coverlet and hung down nearly to the floor, concealing it from view.
23:17Praying, crossing themselves, and not forgetting a sprinkling of holy water, they peeped and
23:22finally searched, poking spades, wattles, pitchforks, and such implements under the
23:27bed.
23:28But the cat was not to be found, and they concluded that it had made its escape among
23:33their feet as they stood near the threshold.
23:36So they secured the door carefully with hasp and padlock.
23:41But when the door was opened next morning they found the white cat sitting, as if it
23:45had never been disturbed, upon the breast of the dead man.
23:50Nothing occurred very nearly the same scene with a like result, only that some said they
23:54saw the cat afterwards lurking under a big box in a corner of the outer room, where my
23:59grand-uncle kept his leases and papers and his prayer-book and beads.
24:05Mrs. Doolan heard it growling at her heels wherever she went, and although she could
24:09not see it, she could hear it spring on the back of her chair when she sat down, and growl
24:14in her ear so that she would bounce up with a scream and a prayer, fancying that it was
24:20on the point of taking her by the throat.
24:23And the priest's boy, looking round the corner, under the branches of the old orchard, saw
24:28a white cat sitting under the little window of the room where my grand-uncle was laid
24:32out and looking up at the four small panes of glass, as a cat will watch a bird.
24:38The end of it was that the cat was found on the corpse again when the room was visited,
24:44and do what they might, whenever the body was left alone, the cat was found again in
24:48the same ill-omened contiguity with the dead man.
24:52And this continued to the scandal and fear of the neighbourhood until the door was opened
24:56finally for the wake.
24:59My grand-uncle being dead, and with all due solemnities buried, I have done with him,
25:05but not quite yet with the white cat.
25:08No banshee ever yet was more inalienably attached to a family than this ominous apparition
25:14is to mine.
25:16But there is this difference.
25:18The banshee seems to be animated with an affectionate sympathy with the bereaved family, to which
25:24it is hereditarily attached, whereas this thing has about it a suspicion of malice.
25:30It is the messenger simply of death, and it is taking the shape of a cat, the coldest
25:35and, they say, the most vindictive of brutes, is indicative of the spirit of its visit.
25:42When my grand-father's death was near, although he seemed quite well at the time, it appeared
25:47not exactly, but very nearly, in the same way in which I told you it showed itself to
25:51my father.
25:53The day before my uncle Teg was killed by the bursting of his gun, it appeared to him
25:58in the evening, at twilight, by the loft, in the field, where I saw the woman who walked
26:02across the water, as I told you.
26:05My uncle was washing the barrel of his gun in the loft.
26:08The grass is short there, and there is no cover near it.
26:11He did not know how it approached, but the first he saw of it, the white cat was walking
26:16close round his feet, in the twilight, with an angry twist of its tail and a green glare
26:22in its eyes.
26:24And do what he would, it continued walking round and round him, in larger or smaller
26:28circles till he reached the orchard.
26:31And there he lost it.
26:33My poor Aunt Peg, she married one of the O'Briens near Oula, came to Drangonio to go
26:39to the funeral of a cousin who died about a mile away.
26:43She died herself, poor woman, only a month after.
26:47Coming from the wake, at two or three o'clock in the morning, as she got over the stile
26:51into the farm of Drangonio, she saw the white cat at her side, and it kept close beside
26:57her, she ready to faint all the time till she reached the door of the house, where it
27:01made a spring up into the white thorn tree that grows close by.
27:06And so it parted from her.
27:08And my little brother Jim saw it also just three weeks before he died.
27:12Every member of our family who dies or takes his death-sickness at Drangonio is sure to
27:18see the white cat, and no one of us who sees it need hope for long life after.
27:26End of The White Cat of Drangonio
27:29By J. S. Le Fanu