The Horla Read Online Free Page B
Author: Guy de Maupassant
Herestauss, doctor of philosophy and theogony, has written the history and manifestations of all the invisible beings that prowl around mankind,or that we dream of. He describes their origins, their dwelling-places, their powers. But not one of them resembles the one that is haunting me. We might reason that, ever since man began to think, he has had a premonition and a dread of some new being, stronger than he, his successor in this world, and that, feeling him nearby yet being unable to foresee the nature of this master, he has created, in his terror, the entire fantastic population of occult beings, vague phantoms born from fear.
After reading till one in the morning, I went to sit down near my open window in order to cool my forehead and my thoughts in the calm night breeze.
It was fine and warm out. How I would have loved this night, once upon a time!
No moon. The stars in the depths of the black sky twinkled quaveringly. Who lives in those worlds? What forms, what living beings, what animals, what plants are there? What do the sentient beings in those distant universes know, more than we do? What more are they capable of doing than we? What do they see that we have not the least knowledge of? Some day or other, won’t one of them, crossing space, appear on our earth to conquer it, just as long ago the Normans crossed the sea to subjugate people who were weaker?
We are so infirm, so helpless, so ignorant, so small, we others, on this spinning grain of mud mixed with a drop of water.
I dozed off, musing like that, in the cool evening wind.
After sleeping for about forty minutes, though, I reopened my eyes without making a movement, awakened by some confused, strange emotion. At first I saw nothing; then, all of a sudden, it seemed to me that a page of the book that I had left open on my table had just turned, all by itself. No breath of air had entered through my window. I was surprised, and I waited. After about four minutes, I saw, yes, I saw with my own eyes, another page rise up and fall back on the one before, as if a finger had turned it. My armchair was empty, seemed empty; but I understood that he was there, seated in my place, and that he was reading. With a furious leap, the leap of a rebellious animal who is about to disembowel his tamer, I crossed my room to seize him, strangle him, kill him!… But before I could reach it, my chair was knocked over, as if someone were fleeing before me … my table rocked back and forth, my lamp fell and went out, and my window slammed as if a surprised thief had rushed out into the night, grabbing the shutters.
So he had run away. He had been afraid. He, afraid of me!
Then … then … tomorrow … or the day after … or someday … I’ll be able to hold him in my fists, and crush him to the ground! Don’t dogs, sometimes, bite and choke their masters?
August 18
. I have been thinking all day. Oh, yes, I will obey him, follow his impulses, accomplish all his wishes, make myself humble, submissive, cowardly. He is the stronger one. But a time will come.…
August 19
. I know … I know … I know everything! I have just read this in the
Revue du Monde Scientifique
:
A rather curious piece of news has reached us from Rio de Janeiro. A madness, an epidemic of madness, like the contagious dementias that attacked the population of Europe in the Middle Ages, is raging now in the province of Saõ Paulo. The inhabitants, distraught, are leaving their houses, deserting their villages, abandoning their crops, claiming they are pursued, possessed, ruled like human livestock by invisible but tangible beings, sorts of vampires, which feed on their life while they sleep, and which drink water and milk without seeming to touch any other food
.
Prof. Dom Pedro Henriquez, accompanied by several learned doctors, has left for the province of Saõ Paulo, in order to study on site the origins and manifestations of this surprising madness, and to suggest to the
After reading till one in the morning, I went to sit down near my open window in order to cool my forehead and my thoughts in the calm night breeze.
It was fine and warm out. How I would have loved this night, once upon a time!
No moon. The stars in the depths of the black sky twinkled quaveringly. Who lives in those worlds? What forms, what living beings, what animals, what plants are there? What do the sentient beings in those distant universes know, more than we do? What more are they capable of doing than we? What do they see that we have not the least knowledge of? Some day or other, won’t one of them, crossing space, appear on our earth to conquer it, just as long ago the Normans crossed the sea to subjugate people who were weaker?
We are so infirm, so helpless, so ignorant, so small, we others, on this spinning grain of mud mixed with a drop of water.
I dozed off, musing like that, in the cool evening wind.
After sleeping for about forty minutes, though, I reopened my eyes without making a movement, awakened by some confused, strange emotion. At first I saw nothing; then, all of a sudden, it seemed to me that a page of the book that I had left open on my table had just turned, all by itself. No breath of air had entered through my window. I was surprised, and I waited. After about four minutes, I saw, yes, I saw with my own eyes, another page rise up and fall back on the one before, as if a finger had turned it. My armchair was empty, seemed empty; but I understood that he was there, seated in my place, and that he was reading. With a furious leap, the leap of a rebellious animal who is about to disembowel his tamer, I crossed my room to seize him, strangle him, kill him!… But before I could reach it, my chair was knocked over, as if someone were fleeing before me … my table rocked back and forth, my lamp fell and went out, and my window slammed as if a surprised thief had rushed out into the night, grabbing the shutters.
So he had run away. He had been afraid. He, afraid of me!
Then … then … tomorrow … or the day after … or someday … I’ll be able to hold him in my fists, and crush him to the ground! Don’t dogs, sometimes, bite and choke their masters?
August 18
. I have been thinking all day. Oh, yes, I will obey him, follow his impulses, accomplish all his wishes, make myself humble, submissive, cowardly. He is the stronger one. But a time will come.…
August 19
. I know … I know … I know everything! I have just read this in the
Revue du Monde Scientifique
:
A rather curious piece of news has reached us from Rio de Janeiro. A madness, an epidemic of madness, like the contagious dementias that attacked the population of Europe in the Middle Ages, is raging now in the province of Saõ Paulo. The inhabitants, distraught, are leaving their houses, deserting their villages, abandoning their crops, claiming they are pursued, possessed, ruled like human livestock by invisible but tangible beings, sorts of vampires, which feed on their life while they sleep, and which drink water and milk without seeming to touch any other food
.
Prof. Dom Pedro Henriquez, accompanied by several learned doctors, has left for the province of Saõ Paulo, in order to study on site the origins and manifestations of this surprising madness, and to suggest to the