THE MAN IN THE BELL.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1157, 4 May 1894, Page 10

THE MAN IN THE BELL.

Blackwood's Magazine. In my younger days, bell-ringing was much more in fashion among tho young men of than it is now. Nobody, I believe, practises it there at present except the servants of the church, and the melody has been much injured in consequence. Some fifty years ago, about twenty of us who dwelt in the vicinity of the Cathedral formed a club, which used to ring every peal that was called for; and, from continual practice and a rivalry which arose between us and a club attached to another steeple, and which tended considerably to sharpen our zeal, we became very Mozarts on our favourite instruments. But my bell-ringing practice was shortened by a singular accident, which not only stopped my performance, but made even the sound of a bell terrible in my ears. One Sunday I went with another into the belfry to ring for noon prayers, but the second stroke we had pulled showed us that the clapper of the bell we were at was muffled. Some one had been buried that morning, and it had been prepared, of course, to ring a mournful note. We did not know this, but the remedy was easy. “ Jack,” said my companion, “ step up to the loft and cut off tho hatfor the way we had of muffling was by tying a piece of an old hat, or of cloth (the former was preferred), to one side of the clapper, which deadened every second toll. I complied, and, mounting into the belfry, crept as usual into the bell, where I began to cut away. The hat had been tied on in some more complicated manner than usual, and I was perhaps three or four minutes in getting it off, during which time my companion below was hastily called away —by a message from his sweetheart, I believe, but that is not material to my Btory. The person who called him was a brother of the club, who, knowing that the time had come for. ringing for service, and not thinking that anyone was above, began to pull. At this moment I was just getting out, when I felt the bell moving; I guessed the reason at once. It was a moment of terror, but by a hasty and almost convulsive effort I succeeded in jumping down and throwing myself on the flat of my back under the bell.

The room, m which ifc was, was little more than sufficient to contain it, the bottom of the bell coming within a couple of feet of the floor of lath. At that time I certainly was not so bulky as I am now, but as I lay it was within an inch of my face. I had not laid myself down a second when the ringing began. It was a dreadful situation.

Over me swung an immense ma3s of metal, one touch of which would have crushed me to pieces; the floor under mo was composed of crazy laths, and if they gave way, I was precipitated to the distance of about fifty feet upon a loft, which would, in all probability, have sunk under the impulse of toy fall, and sent me to be dashed to atoms upon the marble floor of the chancel, a hundred feet below. I remembered —for fear is quick in recollection —how a common clock-weight, about a month before, had fallen, and, bursting through the floors of the steeple, driven in the ceilings of the porch, and even broken into the marble tombstone of a bishop who slept beneath. This was my first terror, but the ringing had not continued a minute before a more awful and immediate dread came on me. The deafening sound of the bell smote into my ears with a thunder which made me fear their drum 3 would crack—there was not a fibre of my body it did not thrill through. It entered my very soul; thought and reflection were almost utterly banished; I only retained the sensation of agonizing terror. Every moment I saw the bell sweep within an inch of my face; and my eyes—l could not close them, though to look at the object was bitter as death—followed it instinctively in its oscillating progress until it came back again. It was in vain I said to myself that it could come no nearer at any future swing than it did at first; every time it descended, I endeavoured to shrink into the very floor to avoid being buried under the down-sweeping mass; and then, reflecting on the danger of pressing too

Weightily on my frail support, would cower up .again as (ar as I dared. ' . At first, my fears were mere: matter of fact. I was afraid tho pulleys above would give way, and let the boll plunge on me. At anothor time, the possibility of the clapper being shot out in some sweep, and dashing through my body, as I had seen a ramrod glido through a door, flitted across my mind. The dread, also, as I have already mentioned, of the crazy floor, tormented me; but these soon gave way to fears not more unfounded, but more visionary, and of course more tremendous. Tho roaring of the boll confused my intellect, and my fancy soon began to teem, with all sorts of strange and terrifying ideas. The bell pealing above, and opening its jaws -with a hideous clamour, seemed to me at one time a ravening monster, raging to devour me; at another, a whirlpool ready to suck me into its belloWirf§ abyss. Aa I gazed oil it> it assumed all shapes; it was a flying eagle, or rather a roc of the Arabian Storytellers, clapping its Wings and screaming over me; As 1 looked upward into it, it would appear sometimes to lengtlieri into indefinite extent, or to bo twisted at tho end into the spiral folds of the tail of a flying-dtagon. Nor was the flaming breath or fiery glance of that fabled animal wanting to , complete the picture; My eyes; inflanied, bloodshot arid glaring; invested the supposed monster with a full proportion of tlnholy light; It would be endless were I to nierqly hint at all the fancies, that possessed my mind; Every object that was hideous and roaring presented itself to my imagination. I ofteri thought that I was . iri a hurricane at sea, and that the vessel in which I was embarked tossed under me with the most furious vehemence. The air, set in motion by the swinging of the bell, blew over me, nearly with tho violence, and more than the thunder, of a tempest; and the floor seemed to reel under me, as under a drunken man. But the most awful of all the ideas that soized on me were drawn from the supernatural. In the vast cavern of tho bell hideous faces appeared and glared down on mo with terrifying frowns, or with grinning mockery still more appalling. At last, the devil himself, accoutred as in the common description of the evil spirit, with hoof, horn and tail, and eyes of infernal lustre, made his appearance, and called on me to curse God and worship him, who was powerful to save me. This dread suggestion he uttered with the full-toned clangour of the bell. I had him within an inch of me, and I thought on the fate of the Santon Barsisa. Strenuously and desperately, I defied him, and bade him begone. Reason, then, for a moment, resumed her sway, but it was only to fill me with fresh terror, just as the lightning dispels the gloom that surrounds the benighted mariner, but to show him that his vessel is driving on a rock, where she must inevitably be dashed to pieces. I found I was becoming delirious, and trembled lest reason should utterly desert me. This is at all times an agonising thought, but it smote me then with tenfold agony. I feared lest, when utterly deprived of my senses, I should rise—to do which I was every 1 moment tempted by that strange feeling which calls on a man, whose head is dizzy from standing on the battlement of a lofty castle, to precipitate himself from it, and then death would be instant and tremendous.

When I thought of this, I became desperate. I caught the floor with a grasp which drove the blood from my nails, and I yelled with the cry of despair. I called for help, I prayed, I shouted, but all the efforts of my voice were of course drowned in the bell. As it passed over my mouth, it occasionally echoed my cries, which mixed not with its own sound, but preserved their distinct character. Perhaps this was but fancy. To me, I know, they then sounded as if they were the shouting, howling or laughing of the fiends with which my imagination had peopled the gloomy cave which swung over me. You may accuse me of exaggerating my feelings, but lam not. Many a scene of dread have I since passed through, but they are nothing to the self-inflicted terrors of this half-hour. The ancients have doomed one of the damned, in their Tartarus, to lie under a rock, which every moment seems to be descending to annihilate him—and an awful punishment it would be. But if to this you add a clamour as loud as if ten thousand furies were howling about you —a deafening uproar, banishing reason, and driving you to madness —you must altow that the bitterness of the pang was rendered more terrible. There is no man, firm as his nerves may be, who could retain his courage in this situation.

In twenty minutes the ringing was done. Half of that time passed over me without power of computation—the other half appeared an age. When it ceased, I became gradually more quiet, but a new fear retained me. I knew that five minutes would elapse without ringing, but, at the end of that short time, the bell would be rung a second time, for five minutes more. I could not calculate time. A minute and an hour were of equal duration. I feared to rise, lest the five minutes should have elapsed, and the ringing be again commenced, in which case I should be crushed, before I could escape, against the walls or frame-work of the bell. I therefore still continued to lie down, cautiously shifting myself, however, with a careful gliding, so that my eye no longer looked into the hollow. This was of itself a considerable relief. The cessation of the noise had, in a great measure, the effect of stupefying me, for my attention being no longer occupied by the chimeras I had conjured up, began to flag. All that now distressed me was the constant expectation of the second ringing, for which, however, I settled myself with a kind of stupid resolution. I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth as firmly as if they wero screwed in a vise.

At last the dreaded moment came, and the first swing of the boll extorted a groan

from mo, as , they say the mos i resolute victim screams at the sight of the rack, to which he is for trie second time destined. After this, However, I lay. silent and lethargic, without a thought. Wrapt in tho defensive armour of stupidity, I defied tho bell and its intonations.

When it ceased, I was roused a little by tho hopo of escapo. I did not, however, decide on this step hastily, but, putting up my hands with the utmost caution, I touched the rim. Though tho ringing had ceased, it still was tremulous from the sound, and shook under my hand, which instantly recoiled as from an electric jar. A quarter of an hour probably elapsed before I again dared to make tho experiment, and then I found it at rest. I determined to lose no time, fearing that I might have lain then already too long, and that the hell for evening servico would catch me. This dread stimulated me, and I slipped out with the utmost rapidity, and arose. I stood* I suppose, for a minute, looking With silly wonder on the place of my imprisonment* penetrated with joy at escaping, bnt then riiShed down the stony and irregular stair With the velocity of lightand arrived iri the bell-ringer’s roorii; This was tho last act 1 had power to accomplish; I leant agairist the Wall, niotionleas and deprived of thought* in which posture my coiripariions found m 0 when; iri the coilrso of a couplo of hours; they returried to their occupation; They were shocked, as Well they might: at tlie figure before theui. Tho Wirid of the bell had excoriated niy face, arid my dim arid stupefied eyes wero fixed with. a lack-liistro gaze iri my, raw eyelids; My hands were torri and bleeding, my hair dishevelled, and my clothes tattered. They spoke to me, but I gave no answer. They shook me, but I remained insensible. They then became alarmed, and hastened to remove me. He who had first gone up with me in the forenoon met them as they carried me through tho churchyard, and through him, who was shocked at having, in some moasure, occasioned tho accident, the cause of my misfortune was discovered. I was put to bod at homo, and remained for three days delirious, but gradually recovered my senses. You may bo sure the bell formed a prominent topic of my ravings, and if I hoard a peal they were instantly increased to tho utmost violence. Even when the delirium abated, my sleep was continually disturbed by imagined ringings, and my dreams wero haunted by the fancies which almost maddened me while in the steeple. My friends removed me to a house in the country, which was sufficiently distant from any place of worship to save me from the apprehensions of hearing the church-going bell; for what Alexander Selkirk, in Cowper’s poem, complained of as a misfortune was then to me as a blessing. Here I recovered; but, even long after recovery, if a gale wafted tho notes of a peal towards me I started with nervous apprehension. I felt a Mohammedan hatred to all the bell tribe, and envied the subjects of the Commander of the Faithful the sonorous voice of their Muezzin. Time cured this, as it does the most of our follies; but even at tho present day if, by chance, my nerves bo unstrung, some particular tones of the Cathedral bell have power to surprise mo into a momentary start.