Nikolay Leskov - Ghost in the Engineering Castle
Leskov Nikolay Semenovich
Ghost in the Engineering Castle
Leskov Nikolay Semenovich
Ghost in the Engineering Castle
(From cadet memories)
CHAPTER FIRST
Houses, like people, have their own reputations. There are houses where, by general opinion, it is unclean, that is, where they notice certain manifestations of some unclean or at least incomprehensible force. Spiritualists tried to do a lot to explain this kind of phenomena, but since their theories do not enjoy much confidence, the matter with scary houses remains in the same situation.
In St. Petersburg, in the opinion of many, the characteristic building of the former Pavlovsk Palace, now known as the Engineers' Castle, enjoyed a similar bad reputation for a long time. Mysterious phenomena attributed to spirits and ghosts have been noticed here almost from the very foundation of the castle. Even during the life of Emperor Paul, they say that the voice of Peter the Great was heard here, and, finally, even Emperor Paul himself saw the shadow of his great-grandfather. The latter, without any refutation, is recorded in foreign collections, where they found a place for describing the sudden death of Pavel Petrovich, and in the newest Russian book by Mr. Kobeko. The great-grandfather allegedly left the grave to warn his great-grandson that his days were short and their end was near. The prediction came true.
However, Petrov’s shadow was visible within the walls of the castle not only by Emperor Paul, but also by people close to him. In a word, the house was scary because shadows and ghosts lived there, or at least appeared there and said something so terrible, and in addition, it was also coming true. The unexpected suddenness of the death of Emperor Paul, on the occasion of which the society immediately remembered and started talking about the foreshadowing shadows that greeted the late emperor in the castle, further increased the gloomy and mysterious reputation of this gloomy house. Since then, the house has lost its former significance as a residential palace, and, according to popular expression, “went under the cadets.”
Nowadays, the cadets of the engineering department are housed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets have begun to “settle” in it. These were a people even younger and not yet freed from childhood superstition, and, moreover, playful and playful, curious and courageous. All of them, of course, were more or less aware of the fears that were told about their terrible castle. The children were very interested in the details of the scary stories and were imbued with these fears, and those who managed to get comfortable with them loved to scare others. This was in great circulation among the engineering cadets, and the authorities could not get rid of this bad custom until an incident occurred that immediately discouraged everyone from scaring and playing pranks.
The upcoming story will be about this incident.
CHAPTER TWO
It was especially fashionable to frighten newcomers or the so-called “little ones”, who, upon entering the castle, suddenly learned such a lot of fears about the castle that they became superstitious and timid to the extreme. What frightened them most was that at one end of the castle corridors there was a room that served as the bedroom of the late Emperor Paul, in which he lay down to rest healthy, and in the morning he was taken out of there dead. The “old men” assured that the spirit of the emperor lives in this room and every night comes out of there and inspects his beloved castle, and the “kids” believed this. This room was always tightly locked, and not with one, but with several locks, but for the spirit, as you know, no locks or bolts matter. And, besides, they said that it was possible to somehow get into this room. It seems that this was actually the case. At least there was and still is a legend that several “old cadets” succeeded in this and continued until one of them conceived a desperate prank, for which he had to pay dearly. He opened some unknown hole into the terrible bedroom of the late emperor, managed to smuggle a sheet there and hid it there, and in the evenings he climbed here, covered himself from head to toe with this sheet and stood in a dark window that overlooked Sadovaya Street and was clearly visible to anyone who, passing or driving, looks in this direction.
Thus playing the role of a ghost, the cadet actually managed to instill fear in many superstitious people who lived in the castle, and in passers-by who happened to see his white figure, which everyone took for the shadow of the late emperor.
This prank lasted for several months and spread a persistent rumor that Pavel Petrovich walked around his bedroom at night and looked out of the window at St. Petersburg. Many undoubtedly vividly and clearly imagined that the white shadow standing in the window more than once nodded its head and bowed; the cadet actually did such things. All this caused extensive conversations in the castle with foreshadowing interpretations and ended with the fact that the cadet who caused the described alarm was caught at the scene of the crime and, having received “an exemplary punishment on the body,” disappeared from the institution forever. There was a rumor that the ill-fated cadet had the misfortune of frightening with his appearance in the window one tall person who happened to be passing by the castle, for which he was punished in a manner not childish. Simply put, the cadets said that the unfortunate naughty man “died under the rods,” and since at that time such things did not seem incredible, they believed this rumor, and from then on this cadet himself became a new ghost. His comrades began to see him “all cut up” and with a grave rim on his forehead, and on the rim it was as if one could read the inscription: “Tasting the taste of little honey and now I am dying.”
If we remember the biblical story in which these words find a place, it comes out very touching.
Soon after the death of the cadet, the sleeping room from which the main fears of the Engineering Castle emanated was opened and received such a device that changed its creepy character, but the legends about the ghost lived on for a long time, despite the subsequent revelation of the secret. The cadets continued to believe that a ghost lived in their castle and sometimes appeared at night. This was a common belief that was held evenly among junior and senior cadets, with the difference, however, that the juniors simply blindly believed in a ghost, and the seniors sometimes themselves arranged for its appearance. One, however, did not interfere with the other, and the ghost counterfeiters themselves were also afraid of him. Thus, other “false tellers of miracles” reproduce them themselves and worship them themselves and even believe in their reality.
The younger cadets did not know “the whole story,” the conversation about which, after the incident with the one who received cruel punishment on the body, was strictly persecuted, but they believed that the senior cadets, among whom were also the comrades of the one who was flogged or flogged, knew the whole secret of the ghost. This gave the elders great prestige, and they enjoyed it until 1859 or 1860, when four of them themselves suffered a very terrible fright, which I will tell about from the words of one of the participants in the inappropriate joke at the coffin.
CHAPTER THREE
In 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. He was hardly a favorite boss among the cadets and, as they say, did not enjoy the best reputation among his superiors. They had many reasons for this: they found that the general behaved with the children as if very sternly and indifferently; little insight into their needs; did not care about their content, and most importantly, he was annoying, picky and pettyly harsh. In the corps they said that the general himself would have been even more angry, but that his irresistible ferocity was tamed by the quiet, angelic general’s wife, whom none of the cadets had ever seen, because she was constantly ill, but they considered her a kind genius , protecting everyone from the final cruelty of the general.
In addition to such fame after his own heart, General Lamnovsky had very unpleasant manners. Among the latter were funny ones, which the children found fault with, and when they wanted to “introduce” their unloved boss, they usually brought out one of his funny habits to the point of caricature exaggeration.
Lamnovsky’s funniest habit was that, when making a speech or making a suggestion, he always stroked his nose with all five fingers of his right hand. This, according to cadet definitions, came out as if he was “milking words out of his nose.” The deceased was not distinguished by his eloquence, and, as they say, he often lacked the words to express his superior suggestions to the children, and therefore, with any such hesitation, the “milking” of his nose intensified, and the cadets immediately lost their seriousness and began to laugh. Noticing this violation of subordination, the general began to get even more angry and punished them. Thus, the relationship between the general and the students became increasingly
Not loving Lamnovsky, the cadets did not miss an opportunity to annoy him and take revenge, somehow spoiling his reputation in the eyes of their new comrades. For this purpose, they spread a rumor in the building that Lamnovsky was acquainted with evil spirits and was forcing demons to carry marble for him, which Lamnovsky supplied for some building, it seems for St. Isaac's Cathedral. But since the demons were tired of this work, they said that they were impatiently waiting for the death of the general, as an event that would return their freedom. And to make this seem even more reliable, one evening, on the general’s name day, the cadets made him a big nuisance by holding a “funeral.” It was arranged in such a way that when guests were feasting at Lamnovsky’s apartment, a sad procession appeared in the corridors of the cadet premises: cadets covered with sheets, with candles in their hands, carried a stuffed animal with a long-nosed mask on a bed and quietly sang funeral songs. The organizers of this ceremony were open and punished, but on Lamnovsky’s next name day the unforgivable joke with the funeral was repeated again. This went on until 1859 or 1860, when General Lamnovsky actually died and when his real funeral had to be celebrated. According to the customs that existed then, the cadets had to watch in shifts at the coffin, and that’s where a terrible story happened, frightening those very heroes who had frightened others for a long time.
Ghost in the engineering castle
Nikolay Leskov
Ghost in the engineering castle
(From cadet memories)
Chapter first
Houses, like people, have their own reputations. There are houses where, by general opinion, it is unclean, that is, where they notice certain manifestations of some unclean or at least incomprehensible force. Spiritualists tried to do a lot to explain this kind of phenomena, but since their theories do not enjoy much confidence, the matter with scary houses remains in the same situation.
In St. Petersburg, in the opinion of many, the characteristic building of the former Pavlovsk Palace, now known as the Engineers' Castle, enjoyed a similar bad reputation for a long time. Mysterious phenomena attributed to spirits| and ghosts have been noticed here almost from the very foundations of the castle. Even during the life of Emperor Paul, they say that the voice of Peter the Great was heard here, and, finally, even Emperor Paul himself saw the shadow of his great-grandfather. The latter, without any refutation, is recorded in foreign collections, where they found a place for describing the sudden death of Pavel Petrovich, and in the newest Russian book by Mr. Kobeko. The great-grandfather allegedly left the grave to warn his great-grandson that his days were short and their end was near. The prediction came true.
However, Petrov’s shadow was visible within the walls of the castle not only by Emperor Paul, but also by people close to him. In a word, the house was scary because shadows and ghosts lived there, or at least appeared there and said something so terrible, and in addition, it was also coming true. The unexpected suddenness of the death of Emperor Paul, on the occasion of which the society immediately remembered and started talking about the foreshadowing shadows that greeted the late emperor in the castle, further increased the gloomy and mysterious reputation of this gloomy house. Since then, the house has lost its former significance as a residential palace, and, according to popular expression, “went under the cadets.”
Nowadays, the cadets of the engineering department are housed in this abolished palace, but the former engineering cadets have begun to “settle” in it. These were a people even younger and not yet freed from childhood superstition, and, moreover, playful and playful, curious and courageous. All of them, of course, were more or less aware of the fears that were told about their terrible castle. The children were very interested in the details of the scary stories and were imbued with these fears, and those who managed to get comfortable with them loved to scare others. This was in great circulation among the engineering cadets, and the authorities could not get rid of this bad custom until an incident occurred that immediately discouraged everyone from scaring and playing pranks.
The upcoming story will be about this incident.
Chapter two
It was especially fashionable to frighten newcomers or the so-called “little ones”, who, upon entering the castle, suddenly learned such a lot of fears about the castle that they became superstitious and timid to the extreme. What frightened them most was that at one end of the corridors of the castle there was a room that served as the bedroom of the late Emperor Paul, in which he lay down to rest healthy, and in the morning he was taken out of there dead. The “old men” assured that the spirit of the emperor lives in this room and every night comes out of there and inspects his beloved castle, and the “kids” believed this. This room was always tightly locked, and not with one, but with several locks, but for the spirit, as you know, no locks or bolts matter. And, besides, they said that it was possible to somehow get into this room. It seems that this was actually the case. At least there was and still is a legend that several “old cadets” succeeded in this and continued until one of them conceived a desperate prank, for which he had to pay dearly. He opened some well-known hole into the terrible bedroom of the late emperor, managed to smuggle a sheet there and hid it there, and in the evenings he climbed here, covered himself from head to toe with this sheet and stood in a dark window that overlooked Sadovaya Street and was clearly visible to anyone who, passing or driving, looks in this direction.
Thus playing the role of a ghost, the cadet actually managed to instill fear in many superstitious people who lived in the castle, and in passers-by who happened to see his white figure, which everyone took for the shadow of the late emperor.
This prank lasted for several months and spread a persistent rumor that Pavel Petrovich walked around his bedroom at night and looked out of the window at St. Petersburg. Many undoubtedly vividly and clearly imagined that the white shadow standing in the window more than once nodded its head and bowed; the cadet actually did such things. All this caused extensive conversations in the castle with foreshadowing interpretations and ended with the cadet who caused the described alarm being caught in the act and, having received “an exemplary punishment on the body,” disappeared from the establishment forever. There was a rumor that the ill-fated cadet had the misfortune of frightening with his appearance in the window one tall person who happened to be passing by the castle, for which he was punished in a manner not childish. Simply put, the cadets said that the unfortunate naughty man “died under the rods,” and since at that time such things did not seem incredible, they believed this rumor, and from then on this cadet himself became a new ghost. His comrades began to see him “all cut up” and with a grave rim on his forehead, and on the rim it was as if one could read the inscription: “Tasting the taste of little honey and now I am dying.”
If we remember the biblical story in which these words find a place, it comes out very touching.
Soon after the death of the cadet, the bedroom room from which the main fears of the Engineering Castle emanated was opened and received such a device that changed its creepy character, but the legends about the ghost lived on for a long time, despite the subsequent revelation of the secret. The cadets continued to believe that a ghost lived in their castle, and sometimes appeared at night. This was a common belief that was held evenly among junior and senior cadets, with the difference, however, that the juniors simply blindly believed in a ghost, and the seniors sometimes themselves arranged for its appearance. One, however, did not interfere with the other, and the ghost counterfeiters themselves were also afraid of him. Thus, other “false tellers of miracles” reproduce them themselves and worship them themselves and even believe in their reality.
The younger cadets did not know “the whole story,” the conversation about which, after the incident with the one who received cruel punishment on the body, was strictly persecuted, but they believed that the senior cadets, among whom were also the comrades of the one who was flogged or flogged, knew the whole secret of the ghost. This gave the elders great prestige, and they enjoyed it until 1859 or 1860, when four of them themselves suffered a very terrible fright, which I will tell about from the words of one of the participants in the inappropriate joke at the coffin.
Chapter Three
In 1859 or 1860, the head of this institution, General Lamnovsky, died in the Engineering Castle. He was hardly a favorite boss among the cadets and, as they say, did not enjoy the best reputation among his superiors. They had many reasons for this: they found that the general behaved with the children as if very sternly and indifferently; little insight into their needs; did not care about their maintenance, and most importantly, he was annoying, picky and pettishly harsh. In the corps they said that the general himself would have been even more angry, but that his irresistible ferocity was tamed by the quiet, angelic general’s wife, whom none of the cadets had ever seen, because she was constantly ill, but they considered her a kind genius , protecting everyone from the final cruelty of the general.
In addition to such fame after his own heart, General Lamnovsky had very unpleasant manners. Among the latter were funny ones, which the children found fault with, and when they wanted to “introduce” their unloved boss, they usually brought out one of his funny habits to the point of caricature exaggeration.
Lamnovsky’s funniest habit was that, when making a speech or making a suggestion, he always stroked his nose with all five fingers of his right hand. This, according to cadet definitions, came out as if he was “milking words out of his nose.” The deceased was not distinguished by his eloquence, and, as they say, he often lacked the words to express his superior suggestions to the children, and therefore, with any such hesitation, the “milking” of his nose intensified, and the cadets immediately lost their seriousness and began to laugh. Noticing this insubordination, the general became even more angry and punished them. Thus, the relationship between the general and the students became worse and worse, and in all this, in the opinion of the cadets, the “nose” was most to blame.
Not loving Lamnovsky, the cadets did not miss an opportunity to annoy him and take revenge, somehow spoiling his reputation in the eyes of their new comrades. For this purpose, they spread a rumor in the building that Lamnovsky was acquainted with evil spirits and was forcing demons to carry marble for him, which Lamnovsky supplied for some building, it seems for St. Isaac's Cathedral. But since the demons were tired of this work, they said that they were impatiently waiting for the death of the general, as an event that would return their freedom. And to make this seem even more reliable, one evening, on the general’s name day, the cadets made him a big nuisance by holding a “funeral.” It was arranged in such a way that when guests were feasting at Lamnovsky’s apartment, a sad procession appeared in the corridors of the cadet premises: cadets covered with sheets, with candles in their hands, carried a stuffed animal with a long-nosed mask on a bed and quietly sang funeral songs. The organizers of this ceremony were open and punished, but on Lamnovsky’s next name day the unforgivable joke with the funeral was repeated again. This went on until 1859 or 1860, when General Lamnovsky actually died and when his real funeral had to be celebrated. According to the customs that existed then, the cadets had to watch in shifts at the coffin, and that’s where a terrible story happened, frightening those very heroes who had frightened others for a long time.
