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In this episode of Mystery Theater, hosted by EG Marshall, we delve into the haunting tale of the Moncton family, plagued by rumors of hereditary insanity. The story, adapted from Wilkie Collins' classic by Ian Martin, follows the young Stephen Moncton, who is believed to be cursed by his family's dark past. As Stephen falls in love with Anne Elmsley, her family is torn by the fear of the Moncton curse. Despite the love between Anne and Stephen, the shadow of madness looms large, threatening their future together.
As the narrative unfolds, we explore the mysterious death of Stephen's uncle, Alfred Moncton, and the obsessive quest to find his body. This journey takes us through eerie encounters and spectral visions, culminating in a tragic shipwreck that seals Stephen's fate. The episode questions the power of love against the backdrop of a chilling prophecy and the enduring legacy of the Moncton curse. Will the cycle of madness be broken, or is it destined to continue?
(00:15) Introduction to Mystery Theater
(02:09) The Curse of the Moncton Family
(09:48) A Forbidden Love and a Family Secret
(17:59) The Search for Uncle Alfred's Body
(29:01) The Prophecy and Its Consequences
(37:00) The Final Journey and Its Tragic End
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[00:00:00]
Unknown:
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mystery theater.
[00:00:35] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. It is the fashion today, dating from Freud, to consider that insanity is not hereditary, even the predisposition to it. But the great Sigmund Freud died less than forty years ago. And before him, the taint of madness was accepted to run-in families, passed on down through the generations like some
[00:01:13] Unknown:
dad, mister Monckton is your best friend, has been all your life. Jim Monckton is one thing. He escaped the curse, thank the Lord. Well, you can't for a moment imagine that Steven, who happens to be my best friend, is anything but normal. I hope and pray he is, but he's still young yet. And they say it skips generations.
[00:01:32] Unknown:
I'm not going to argue anymore. I know your mother put you up to this. Mother had nothing to do with it. I'm thinking of my sister. Anne would be far better off with a short term headache than a lifetime of misery and despair. Oh, but far No, David. I'd rather put her in a convent than see her married to a Moncton. For as sure as I'm standing here, I know it in my bones that Stephen Moncton is marked by the curse of his family. He'll end up a raving maniac or dead before his time.
[00:02:10] Unknown:
Our mystery drama, Mad Moncton, was especially adapted from the Wilkie Collins classic for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Christopher Tabory. The great Scottish historian Carlyle said, history is a distillation of rumor. However, a contradictory quote is, where there's smoke, there's fire. Whichever may be true of the Moncton family, gossip had marked them as a family damned by hereditary insanity. Every kind of insanity had cropped up through the years, monomania being the most common. The world of the Moncton family shrank to almost nobody except for the Elmsleys, friends and neighbors.
[00:03:11] Unknown:
My father and mister Moncton had been school friends. And when years later, their paths crossed again, their friendship was renewed. By that time, my youngest sister and myself were almost of age with little more than a year separating us. Mister Moncton's son, Stephen, was about Anne's age. And I remember coming home in my last year of college to find that they were in love and wanted to be engaged. The Moncton family, my mother and myself were all for it. My dad was the only stumbling block. It makes me so mad, David.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I mean, dad can get so pig headed. Couldn't you shake him at all? You are my last hope. I did my best princess but was running my head against solid granite. But it's all so silly it's so unfair. It's not like him.
[00:03:57] Unknown:
No. Usually my father's pretty easy to get on with and usually you can twist him around your finger. Oh, mom. Not this time.
[00:04:05] Unknown:
How can he risk mister Mountain's friendship with some crazy notion? What made me use that word?
[00:04:12] Unknown:
Princess. What?
[00:04:15] Unknown:
You know, I know how much dad loves you and wants your happiness. It's hard to see him being so set against this except Except what? Well, I mean, dad is a doctor. He has a lot of special knowledge none of the rest of us have.
[00:04:31] Unknown:
Maybe David Elmsley,
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do you dare to stand out here in our garden and suggest in front of God and everybody that your best friend is Alright. Alright. Hold it. Just let's get a couple of things straight. First of all, you're my first interest in this. Second, sure, Steven is a friend, but not my best one. I'm away at college most of the time except summers like this. So you're against me too. No. I'm not. For all I can see, Steven's a darn nice guy. But if dad knows something, I mean, if there is some kind of disease
[00:05:05] Unknown:
we don't understand about All I know is I love Steven and I'm gonna marry him even if I have to run away with him. You can't do that. You're both underage. We can wait. It's not that long. And once we both get to be of age, we'll be married even though it's over dad's dead body.
[00:05:23] Unknown:
Poor Anne. She was gonna regret those words. But before that, she was gonna have more immediate regrets. For as soon as my father refused to give us consent to the engagement, and naturally, he was forced to reveal his reason for it, Moncton Abbey was closed to our family forever, and Stephen forbidden to go near any of us. Anne was beside herself till I worked out a little subterfuge. I returned to college and wrote my father that I was having a series of strange headaches, which brought him post taste to diagnose them. So while he was away, my mother could arrange to let the two lovebirds meet.
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David was an angel and got dad out of the way for a day or two.
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Now, Stephen,
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what are we going to do? Well, wait till you're 21
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and then I'm going to carry you off like a knight in the old stories of Daring Doo. If your father will let you. I'll be 21 in less than four months. There's nothing he can do to stop me. Nothing either of them can do. But would he try? I don't know. He's awfully angry with your father and he could be just as stubborn. That damn legend, you know? It it bothers him and doctor Elmsley hit him right where it hurts the most
[00:06:38] Unknown:
in his pride. But what started it all? Evan knows.
[00:06:42] Unknown:
The things I've heard, I won't shock you by repeating, but there's no proof for any of it. It all started so long, long ago. And it it never would have amounted to anything, I suppose, that people weren't so jealous. Because your family's always been so rich and powerful. Something like that. Lord knows there's enough money. We're rolling in it. We can live like whatever we please, wherever we please when I come into it. Unless your father's still angry enough to cut you off. Well, who would he leave it to? There's only uncle Alfred left. He's off in Europe somewhere and rich enough in his own right. What's he like? Oh, a monster. My esteemed uncle is enough to give the whole family a bad name just by himself.
I've only seen him twice. I honestly think he is so completely evil. My father pays him off to keep him out of the country. Let's not worry about uncle Alfie. He's not any part of our problems.
[00:07:41] Unknown:
Prophetic words again. If poor Steven could only have known, if any of us could have known the future when Anropia for meeting Steven. But we didn't. And if he had, this story might never have happened. Just before the Christmas holidays, Steven's father died very suddenly of a heart attack. Immediately after the funeral, my father claiming that a lingering bronchial infection was endangering my mother's life, moved the rest of our family to the South Of Spain. So it was that Steven and I spent the Christmas season together for many reasons. I appreciate your company, David. Where else would I go with my family over a thousand miles away? You could have joined them in Spain. Most of the time would have been spent getting there and back. Besides, it's more important now to find out about your plans for the future.
[00:08:38] Unknown:
In a few weeks, I shall be 21, my own master. I shall have an income of £30,000 a year. In six months, your sister will be 21 and her own mistress. I intend to marry her. Have you any objection? No. None.
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So you and Anne will be married by summer? Mhmm. With
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or without your father's consent?
[00:09:04] Unknown:
With or without my father's consent, even if it's over his dead body, phrases that haunt me and will haunt me, I suppose, to my grave. I hope not beyond. For a few days before my sister's 20 birthday, my father picked up a virulent case of the Spanish flu, and within three days was gone. My mother and Anne brought his body home to Wincott for burial, and I met them there. But during the week I waited for them to return, I learned of the strange goings on at Moncton Abbey and discovered that my one time friend, Steven, refused to see or talk to me.
But but why didn't he even come to the funeral, David? I don't know, Anne. He won't see me. The the servants barred the doors. I can't even force my way in. But doesn't he want to see?
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Doesn't he ask
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for me? He and I don't know how to tell you this. He well, ever since shortly after his father's death, peculiar things have been going on at the Abbey. What peculiar things?
[00:10:16] Unknown:
It's it's too soon to talk about them now. What's he been doing locked up in that lonely old mausoleum all alone?
[00:10:22] Unknown:
I can only tell you what the local gossip is. If you insist on hearing it. Oh, but I do David. I must. Well, the local farm laborer that's been on the estate near the house says that he's been wandering and walking about carrying dusty, old, crumbling papers in his hand. That he's forcing open scores of old windows as if to let the light into rooms that have been closed for years. You know, there must be some 80 rooms in the Abbey. And at once, towards evening, he was even observed standing on the very highest of the crumbling turrets never ascended before in recent memory, which is supposed to be inhabited only by the ghosts of the ancient monks who once possessed the buildings. But what's he looking for? Anne, I don't know.
Unless
[00:11:10] Unknown:
Unless what?
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Unless the old story is true. Your legend that Steven has lost his mind. No.
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And where are you going? I'm going to find out for myself to prove you're all wrong.
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I should have followed Anne, I suppose. But I thought perhaps it was better for her to find out the truth for herself, whatever the truth might be. She came back later that evening, evening, her face gray and haggard, but composed. I saw her right up the drive and went down to the stable to help her dismount. Well, did you see Steven?
[00:11:58] Unknown:
Yes. We are not going to be married right away, of course. It's only decent to mourn father a while.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
This sounds strange. Is Steven alright? He will be. You mean he is insane? No.
[00:12:14] Unknown:
He he has to go abroad for a few months to settle settle an affair of of honor. And then he'll come back and we'll be married.
[00:12:27] Unknown:
Are you sure? I hope I am. And I But there's nothing more to be said David. It's
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just gonna take a little time. You must go back to college and finish. And by that time then and we'll see. It'll work out. It's got to work out.
[00:12:54] Unknown:
I couldn't get any more out of her. Stephen still refused to see me. I went back to college, graduated, and returned. My mother could tell me nothing new. I looked for Anne and I found her in the garden gazing off towards the greater bulk of Moncton Abbey. Her face was drawn in white and she was painfully thin. But when she saw me, she jumped up to hug me with joy. Oh, David. David.
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Oh, good to have you back. Hello, Princess.
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Let me look at you. You don't look yourself. Is it still Steven? Yes. Steven.
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You miss him so much. I used to have letters every day. Then less and less and now
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I haven't heard from him in over a month. Well, perhaps it's just as well. No.
[00:13:44] Unknown:
I love him. I'll never love anyone else. I'll wait for him till till he finds what he has to find.
[00:13:53] Unknown:
What is he doing in Europe?
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I can't tell you. That's his secret.
[00:13:59] Unknown:
Where was he when you last heard from him? Italy and Naples.
[00:14:04] Unknown:
David, aren't you going to Europe? Yes.
[00:14:09] Unknown:
I've been planning to travel a bit before I settle down to the law. Then
[00:14:14] Unknown:
find him for me, please?
[00:14:17] Unknown:
I might as well start at Naples as any other place. Oh. My best language is Italian anyway. Alright. If I find him, then what? Tell him.
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Tell him I need him and I want him. I want him to come home and marry me. Tell him it doesn't matter that we'll learn to live with this ghastly thing somehow.
[00:14:40] Unknown:
And that was the most I could get out of my sister. Whatever this ghastly thing was. So I went to Naples, and as chance would have it, my first day there, I had news of Steven. I ran into Chip Travers, an old friend from school now with the embassy.
[00:14:59] Unknown:
Heard of him? My dear Helmsley, we can't even comb him out of our hair. What do you mean? The man has an obsession. The sick one, I might add. Frankly, I'd say that old Moncton has gone round the bend. He's as mad as a hatter.
[00:15:22] Unknown:
And so it seems that the black cloud of tragedy does indeed hang over the house of Moncton. That madness is an inherited trait. Yet Anne denies it. Is she blinded by love? And if not, what is the ghastly secret
[00:15:55] Unknown:
Monomania.
[00:15:57] Unknown:
An insanity in which the psychotic thinking is confined to one idea or group of ideas. Dictionary definition. And the whispers and rumors and accusations which have been voiced about the Moncton family for centuries about the curse that lies on it have tended to stress this particular form of madness. But what one idea or group of ideas? What is the dread obsession that has seized his forebears and apparently has reached into modern times
[00:16:32] Unknown:
to fester now in Stephen Monckton's brain? Why do you say that? And why should he be bothering the embassy? Well, you know he had an uncle, a pretty bad lot. He's been traveling around Europe for years. Yes. Alfred Moncton. That's our boy. Apparently, one of his past misdeeds caught up with him and he got himself shot in a duel somewhere in Italy. News of it reached Stephen and he arrived here a few weeks ago. But since then has been pestering living daylights out of us. The police or the authorities. To have some action taken against the man who killed his uncle? Oh, Lord. No. The police are trying to follow that up naturally since under present law, it constitutes murder.
The opponent and the seconds disappeared into thin air. But Monckton, by all evidence, doesn't give a hang about them. All he wants is his uncle's body. Is that so impossible? Oh, probably. I don't understand. Look. We only heard of this duel from a French journal some weeks after it happened. Moncton's second died and left some papers constituting a partial confession. But the one vital thing not included was where the duel was fought. So nobody knows where Alfred Monckton was buried or if he was buried at all.
[00:18:00] Unknown:
Yes? Steven. How are you? David. David Elmsley. How good to see you. But but you're you're not alone. Of course I am. Who would be
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oh, if you mean Anne. No. I'm sorry. She isn't here. No. No. I I didn't mean Anne.
[00:18:21] Unknown:
Come in. Come in. Thank you. Sit sit down. Sit down. There by the reading lamp by the fire. You must tell me all about, about home and Anne.
[00:18:36] Unknown:
As I crossed the shadowed room lit only by the one lamp, my spine was still cold from that peculiar moment at the door. The moment when Steven at first so obviously grabbed to see me and let his eyes wander for a moment and stay fixed at a spot over my shoulder as though someone stood there behind me watching, waiting for what?
[00:19:06] Unknown:
David, what brings you here to Naples?
[00:19:08] Unknown:
Oh, part touring the continent? Part of promise to Anne? You haven't written her in a long time.
[00:19:16] Unknown:
No.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
She's pretty heartbroken, Steven. No more than I.
[00:19:21] Unknown:
I I haven't written because because for all my searchings I've I've nothing to report.
[00:19:27] Unknown:
She sent you a message, Steven. Oh. May may I see it? Well, it's a verbal one. She was afraid her letters were going astray. What's the message? She said, tell him I need him and I want him. Tell him to come home and marry me. Tell him it doesn't matter. We'll learn to live with this ghastly thing somehow.
[00:19:48] Unknown:
Yeah. She's she still believes. What?
[00:19:53] Unknown:
That I'm not mad.
[00:19:54] Unknown:
I don't quite know what you mean. Well, sometimes
[00:19:57] Unknown:
sometimes I be I begin to wonder myself. Steven. Steven, what it is you're what is it you're looking at over my shoulder?
[00:20:04] Unknown:
There's nothing there. There's nothing that that you can see. But, since you're here, since Anne sent you, you have a right to know. Only before I tell you no. No. No. Don't leave your chair. I must, I wanna make an alteration. Do you mind sitting in a strong light? No. It's quite dark in here anyway. Well, then just wait a moment.
[00:20:33] Unknown:
I won't pretend I was well, what's the word? Uneasy? Shaken? Or to be totally candid, frightened. Especially as I watched my friend's preparation with the extra light. Well, glitter of his eyes in the dark shadows beneath them. From an adjoining room, he brought a large reading lamp, then two candles from a table and two more from the mantle, placing them between us. His hand trembled so much, I had to light them for him. And at his direction, take the shade off the reading lamp. At last, he seemed satisfied and we sat down. He started his story without hesitation.
[00:21:13] Unknown:
Has Anne told you anything of why our marriage is delayed, why I'm here? No. I came here to find the body of my uncle Alfred. Yes. I know that much and the jewel
[00:21:23] Unknown:
and that no one knows where it took place. Who told you that? Chip Travers, an attache at the embassy. He said something about your uncle's
[00:21:32] Unknown:
second having made a confession. Oh, yes. Yes. His name was Foulon. He died in Paris two days before I located him. The confession he left failed to tell us where the duel had taken place. Yes. But he must have given you some idea. Oh, if only he had.
[00:21:47] Unknown:
I I have the whole document here. You you can read it later. Was it fought honestly?
[00:21:51] Unknown:
Well, apparently. If any duel can be considered so, they they tossed for first fire. My uncle lost. They were placed 30 feet apart. The winner of the toss advanced 10 paces and fired. Had he missed, my uncle could have walked right up to the other and shot him through the heart or head as he desired. But he didn't miss? No. My uncle was dead before he hit the ground. Monsieur Foulant then states that he tore a leaf from his pocketbook describing the circumstances of the death and pinned it to my uncle's chest. Then they started with their plan to dispose of my uncle's corpse.
Well, go on, Stephen. Go on. I can't. That's where it ended. David, I've I've hunted. Heaven knows I've thrown money around like a drunken sailor and a rich one at that. But I don't know the country. I don't know the language. I'm insulted,
[00:22:48] Unknown:
laughed at almost to my face. Steven, wait a minute. Can I ask a couple of questions? Of course. How often have you seen your uncle?
[00:22:57] Unknown:
Twice. Well, when I was a child. Did you like him that much? Like him?
[00:23:03] Unknown:
I hated him.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
As the family did, he he disgraced our name wherever he went. He was a liar, a cheat.
[00:23:10] Unknown:
For all I know, a murderer. I gathered from my friend that's sort of the official attitude too. I don't care about their attitude. What I'm trying to say is maybe you are being given the runaround, but maybe they don't think you're in earnest.
[00:23:24] Unknown:
Not in earnest? Come with me. I'll convince you.
[00:23:31] Unknown:
He leaped to his feet, grabbing a candle and hustled me into the next room. On one side of his bed was a packing case at least seven feet long. The top was open so that I could see the case contained a lead coffin magnificently emblazoned with the Moncton arms and on a plate the name, Alfred Moncton, with his age and the manner of his death inscribed underneath. Now,
[00:24:01] Unknown:
I must tell you the secret so that you don't pick me completely mad.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
What is it? You're looking over my shoulder again as
[00:24:10] Unknown:
if look at me, Steven, please. Yes. Yes. If if you will just take your seat again with the lights between us. So. Now now you know the Monkton's reputation. Steven, let's spare ourselves all the old wives tales. I can't. You must be part of it now. Do you also know or have you heard the family prophecy? No. I can show you the original fading parchment. I I will. But for the moment, it's easier to recite it. When in Abby's vault, a place waits for one of Moncton's race. When that forlorn one shall lie, grave less under open sky, beggared of six feet of earth, the lord of acres from his birth, that shall be a certain sign of the end on Moncton's line.
From mortal men, from light of day, the last Moncton
[00:25:13] Unknown:
shall pass away.
[00:25:15] Unknown:
Now really, Stephen For a thousand years, at no matter what cost, no matter where he fell or how he died, at at no matter what cost to sacrifice, in the vault, under the abbey at Wyncotte, lies every one of my ancestors. The succession of the dead in Moncton Valley Vault has never been broken till now. I can see by your face you you wanna ask me how I can believe in a dog or old prophecy written and uttered in an age of superstition and ignorance.
[00:25:46] Unknown:
I'll tell you why I do.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Because behind you, right at this moment, as he has ever since you came, confirming my belief, stands Alfred Monckton himself.
[00:26:07] Unknown:
Something about the tone of his voice, the fixity of his stare, his own total belief in what he saw kept me from turning my head. At that moment, I too believed that if I looked over my shoulder, I would see. He stands behind you. Death glare in his eyes. As I've seen him, I've seen him walking and sleeping from the moment he was shot. What do you mean from the moment he was shot? How could you? When when your father whisked Anne away from me to Spain, I I was at loose ends,
[00:26:44] Unknown:
waiting for Anne to come of age so that we could be married. I had to fill my days with something to do, and
[00:26:51] Unknown:
I was in a mood to clean out all specters, throw away the past.
[00:26:55] Unknown:
I decided to look in every nook and cranny of the Abbey, clear out the the debris, search my family history, and try to lay the ghost for once and for all. What did you find?
[00:27:07] Unknown:
Great cabinets and iron clasped chests filled with loads of secrets of horrors and darkness. Damn. I suppose we were neither better nor worse than all medieval barons, but the things I found well, that's dead and gone, I thought. It's the past which I'm gonna cut myself free of and start a new future.
[00:27:34] Unknown:
I'd worked myself to the highest turret by this time and I was choked with dust.
[00:27:38] Unknown:
I stepped out just before sunset, choosing my footing carefully, watching the setting sun and thinking of Anne. And suddenly, yes, standing in front of me beyond the battlements in mid air
[00:27:59] Unknown:
was the figure of Alfred Moncton, faintly luminous.
[00:28:06] Unknown:
As he stands behind you now, Did he speak? No. Was this before the news of the duel reached Wincut? Two weeks?
[00:28:21] Unknown:
I I I didn't know the date of it then as I do now. It was March 14, the same day as I stood on the battlement.
[00:28:33] Unknown:
The very moment the bullet entered his side and killed him. And now, now you know why I dare not marry your sister. Not till I fill the empty place in the mountain Abbey with the body of my uncle.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
And then, by God, I will burn it to the ground.
[00:29:01] Unknown:
So now we know what the monomania of Stephen Munton's is. But can it be cured by finding his uncle's body and the other means he plans? Or is it doomed by the ancient prophecy that from mortal Ken, from light of day, he's the last Monckton to pass away. I'll return shortly with Act three. Poor David Elmsley, caught between his desire for his sister's happiness and a friend who held it in his hand but suffered from what seemed to be a hereditary and incurable malady. But was it incurable? Was it only an aberration which could be disposed of by the simple means of finding an errant corpse?
[00:30:05] Unknown:
After I left Steven that night, I sat and thought long and hard. I knew Steven could no longer go this alone. Besides, while I could not believe the phantom, I was intrigued by the story of the jewel and the missing corpse. I read all the papers Steven had given me carefully before going to bed. By the next morning, I had seen Chip, the police, and all the authorities concerned and made my decision.
[00:30:36] Unknown:
David, I I thought you deserted me. Quite the contrary.
[00:30:39] Unknown:
We have plans to make and a journey to take. Well, what is it you have in mind? First, here are your papers. I've talked with all the authorities. As you know, there's no language barrier for me. So I now know all that they have done.
[00:30:54] Unknown:
Nothing
[00:30:55] Unknown:
for all the money I've spent. Not true. Just misguided, I believe. Now look, the due was arranged here in Naples two days before it took place. The police have concentrated on trying to find Count Saint Lo, the other principal and his second. So they have searched the road towards Rome. I agree with you that they were less than thorough. Where would you search? Since the route was so roundabout and since they wanted to be out of the Neapolitan States, I think that you was actually fought not far from here. All the rest was a blind to circle back.
But where? I'm not clairvoyant, but I think we ought to start looking as close by as possible.
[00:31:38] Unknown:
You're right. I I can feel it. We're going to find him and take him home and and at last this long nightmare will be over.
[00:31:50] Unknown:
Poor Steven. He built his expectations so high. For three days, we coursed the neighborhood without success. Each day is hope diminished. And traveling through that rough country, even by mule, I was beginning to realize how few physical resources my poor friend had left. So on the fourth day, I went alone. There was a pitiless sun that day, and I gradually ascended into a deeper woods over the stony ground. By the time my watch suggested, my return, I suddenly came out of the thick greenery and saw before me an ancient monastery halfway crumbling into ruins.
On my way to it, I was oppressed by an overbearing odor, a smell that suggested only one thing to me. I turned my mule off the path to a building from which the odor came. It was closed, save for a jagged hole where the roof had broken in. By standing up in my stirrups, I could glimpse almost to the floor. The sight of horror grasped my gut. Stretched on a rude table supported by trestles was the decomposing body of what had once been a man. The sheet that had once covered it rotted away. Suppressing my desire to scream, I cleared my head with a pinch of snuff.
Then I rode the mule down the hill to the monastery and by its ancient gate, pulled on the bell cord.
[00:33:24] Unknown:
What is it you're pleased to want? I'm a traveler who We live in a miserable place. We have nothing to show, travelers. I don't come to see anything
[00:33:36] Unknown:
except what I have already seen. Will you please come out or must I force my way in? Are you alone? Yes. Quite alone.
[00:33:45] Unknown:
Oh, you mean with you? No. None. A man, sir, by the grace of God.
[00:33:53] Unknown:
I have just seen a gruesome and horrible sight. In that outbuilding back there is the decomposing body of an unburied man. An ugly sight. Do you know about it? Everything.
[00:34:09] Unknown:
Everything. Some months ago, we are at our poor meal in the refractory and we hear of a sudden bang. A gun.
[00:34:26] Unknown:
We thought it to be a hunter.
[00:34:28] Unknown:
Where did the sound come from? From the meadow beyond the trees. And that's all you heard? Be patient. The old goes slow. Let me see. Oh, yes. There was a ring at this gate. Oh, the devil of a ring. And the father superior said, Go, brother. See who it is. I opened the door and lying on the threshold was a man dead with black eyes open, staring to the sky's blood soaked shirt. The same man who lies out there. They're the same.
[00:35:10] Unknown:
But why did you not give him a decent burial?
[00:35:13] Unknown:
I think I can answer that, sir. I am the father superior of this monastery. You may leave us, brother. I have been hoping and praying that the Lord would send you Me? Yes. Are you not some relative of the deceased? Are you not seeking him? I myself am not a relative, but his nephew is nearby in Fundy. Yes. I'm
[00:35:33] Unknown:
but his nephew is nearby in Fondy. Yes. I was seeking him, but you still haven't answered my question. This piece of paper pinned to the man's chest when we found him, do you read French?
[00:35:46] Unknown:
I'm afraid with difficulty. Then I shall translate it for you. This paper is attached to the body of an Englishman, mister Alfred Monckton. He has been shot and killed fairly in a duel. Since we must fly to escape the law, the body is placed at the door of this monastery to receive burial at the hands of its inmates. It is signed only with the initial F.
[00:36:13] Unknown:
Of course, he's second. But father, why haven't you buried him?
[00:36:19] Unknown:
The man is not of our faith. He died unshriven. This is consecrated ground and we are not, by the laws of our order, permitted to leave its confines. We did what we could. I had sent a missive to Rome by those who were bringing our food once a month, asking permission from my superiors to take what action they deemed right and sanctified. But as yet, I have had no answer. Has this nephew papers to prove his relationship? Everything. To prove it beyond a doubt. Then I pray to you, my son. Bring him to take his uncle and bury him so that he may be commended to God.
[00:37:01] Unknown:
The next ten days were a fever of activity. I arranged to have embalmers with what chemical assistance was needed. Stephen wrote immediately to Anne, warning to expect him home and that all was well. They would be married as soon as he returned and placed the casket with his uncle in the vault. Only one small hitch seemed to halt our arrangements. There was no space on any merchant vessel leaving Naples. That was quickly solved by our chartering a stout little brig and within a fortnight, Steven, myself, and Uncle Alfred, casketed and boxed securely in his crate, were on our way home.
But the end was not yet in sight.
[00:37:45] Unknown:
I can almost smell England. How much longer do you suppose? The captain says that's up to the wind. Two days? Four at most? Can't believe it's almost over. It is.
[00:37:57] Unknown:
Tell me, does the phantom still appear to you? Oh, yes.
[00:38:01] Unknown:
Didn't I tell you he followed me everywhere? I shan't lose him till the empty place is filled in the Abbott Vault. I'm tired, David, good friend.
[00:38:11] Unknown:
I think I'll go below for a while.
[00:38:13] Unknown:
Till later, take a good rest. Your troubles are over.
[00:38:18] Unknown:
I'm I'm afraid not quite, mister Elmsley.
[00:38:22] Unknown:
Why, captain? You startled me. I I didn't see you. I were waiting behind the bulkhead.
[00:38:27] Unknown:
I wanted to talk to you alone. Mister Elmsley, we have a serious problem. And, yes, what is that? You see there's a Maltese boy aboard of that sort. He's told the whole crew that the pack and case in mister Moncton's cabin contains a dead body. Now if we're in for some rough weather, there's a squall almost on top of us, it'll it'll give us a breather. But after it's over, you have one or two choices. Either tell the crew the boy is lying and I'll hand him up to the rope or throw that pack and case overboard if it does contain a body. And suppose I refuse both conditions? Yes, sir. Then we'll have a mutiny on our hands and either the box will go over or I'll have to put in for the nearest I'll have there's no time to discuss that now.
Get on below. You'll only be in the way here.
[00:39:29] Unknown:
I seriously made it below deck when the squall hit us. The brig strained and groaned and we could feel her whirl about. Then came a deafening crash and a flood of water poured into the capitol. It was sent hurtling to one side, and The rest was madness. After I knocked Steven out, I got him on deck somehow. We came to and he was like a maniac. It took five of us to get him aboard the longboat and hold him as we pulled away from the ship. The swell passed as suddenly as it come up. And by that time, the brig, dragged down by her broken mast and sail and the water she had shipped sank to the bottom taking Alfred Moncton with her.
And as she went, Stephen sagged in her arms and lay quiet and hopeless. I'm sorry I'm too late, Anne. I didn't get your message in time. It doesn't matter, David.
[00:41:16] Unknown:
He spoke of you at the last. He was quite lucid about what a good friend you are and how hard you tried to save him.
[00:41:25] Unknown:
I'm glad he's gone. It's been a terrible year for you, princess. Why you ever married him? I loved him.
[00:41:33] Unknown:
And he had to have someone to take care of him? Oh, he was quite mad. He was ill. That's all. He lies there, David.
[00:41:42] Unknown:
Next to the empty spot where Alfred Moncton's casket should lie. The prophecy fulfilled.
[00:41:49] Unknown:
Oh, no. No. Steven was not the last of the Monctons. You see, I'm carrying his child. You must be mad too. No. No. For someday he will fill the empty spot and the nonsense will be gone forever. Our grandchildren could come out in the sun. The curse will be dead. And this family will at last escape from the heritage of being the mad Moncktons.
[00:42:23] Unknown:
So goes the story. Anne Monckton never married again, but she did bear her child. Was she right that the taint was ever removed or had love betrayed her into perpetuating a legend? That is something only time can tell. I'll be back shortly. Just one addendum to our tale. Shortly after the events in it, a raging fire swept the abbey. And its ancient stone structure weakened by the flaming heat and its own antiquity collapsed in a mass of rubble. Fortunately, missus Monckton and her young boy, Steven, were away visiting her brother, mister David Elmsley, and his wife in America where David had gone to live.
As far as I know, their heirs still live here. Happily, I hope, and especially for the Moncton family ever afterwards. Our cast included Christopher Tabory, Marion Sautis, Russell Horton, Ken Harvey, and Paul Hecht. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.
[00:43:46] Unknown:
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[00:00:17] Unknown:
mystery theater.
[00:00:35] Unknown:
Come in. Welcome. I'm EG Marshall. It is the fashion today, dating from Freud, to consider that insanity is not hereditary, even the predisposition to it. But the great Sigmund Freud died less than forty years ago. And before him, the taint of madness was accepted to run-in families, passed on down through the generations like some
[00:01:13] Unknown:
dad, mister Monckton is your best friend, has been all your life. Jim Monckton is one thing. He escaped the curse, thank the Lord. Well, you can't for a moment imagine that Steven, who happens to be my best friend, is anything but normal. I hope and pray he is, but he's still young yet. And they say it skips generations.
[00:01:32] Unknown:
I'm not going to argue anymore. I know your mother put you up to this. Mother had nothing to do with it. I'm thinking of my sister. Anne would be far better off with a short term headache than a lifetime of misery and despair. Oh, but far No, David. I'd rather put her in a convent than see her married to a Moncton. For as sure as I'm standing here, I know it in my bones that Stephen Moncton is marked by the curse of his family. He'll end up a raving maniac or dead before his time.
[00:02:10] Unknown:
Our mystery drama, Mad Moncton, was especially adapted from the Wilkie Collins classic for the mystery theater by Ian Martin and stars Christopher Tabory. The great Scottish historian Carlyle said, history is a distillation of rumor. However, a contradictory quote is, where there's smoke, there's fire. Whichever may be true of the Moncton family, gossip had marked them as a family damned by hereditary insanity. Every kind of insanity had cropped up through the years, monomania being the most common. The world of the Moncton family shrank to almost nobody except for the Elmsleys, friends and neighbors.
[00:03:11] Unknown:
My father and mister Moncton had been school friends. And when years later, their paths crossed again, their friendship was renewed. By that time, my youngest sister and myself were almost of age with little more than a year separating us. Mister Moncton's son, Stephen, was about Anne's age. And I remember coming home in my last year of college to find that they were in love and wanted to be engaged. The Moncton family, my mother and myself were all for it. My dad was the only stumbling block. It makes me so mad, David.
[00:03:43] Unknown:
I mean, dad can get so pig headed. Couldn't you shake him at all? You are my last hope. I did my best princess but was running my head against solid granite. But it's all so silly it's so unfair. It's not like him.
[00:03:57] Unknown:
No. Usually my father's pretty easy to get on with and usually you can twist him around your finger. Oh, mom. Not this time.
[00:04:05] Unknown:
How can he risk mister Mountain's friendship with some crazy notion? What made me use that word?
[00:04:12] Unknown:
Princess. What?
[00:04:15] Unknown:
You know, I know how much dad loves you and wants your happiness. It's hard to see him being so set against this except Except what? Well, I mean, dad is a doctor. He has a lot of special knowledge none of the rest of us have.
[00:04:31] Unknown:
Maybe David Elmsley,
[00:04:34] Unknown:
do you dare to stand out here in our garden and suggest in front of God and everybody that your best friend is Alright. Alright. Hold it. Just let's get a couple of things straight. First of all, you're my first interest in this. Second, sure, Steven is a friend, but not my best one. I'm away at college most of the time except summers like this. So you're against me too. No. I'm not. For all I can see, Steven's a darn nice guy. But if dad knows something, I mean, if there is some kind of disease
[00:05:05] Unknown:
we don't understand about All I know is I love Steven and I'm gonna marry him even if I have to run away with him. You can't do that. You're both underage. We can wait. It's not that long. And once we both get to be of age, we'll be married even though it's over dad's dead body.
[00:05:23] Unknown:
Poor Anne. She was gonna regret those words. But before that, she was gonna have more immediate regrets. For as soon as my father refused to give us consent to the engagement, and naturally, he was forced to reveal his reason for it, Moncton Abbey was closed to our family forever, and Stephen forbidden to go near any of us. Anne was beside herself till I worked out a little subterfuge. I returned to college and wrote my father that I was having a series of strange headaches, which brought him post taste to diagnose them. So while he was away, my mother could arrange to let the two lovebirds meet.
[00:06:01] Unknown:
David was an angel and got dad out of the way for a day or two.
[00:06:07] Unknown:
Now, Stephen,
[00:06:09] Unknown:
what are we going to do? Well, wait till you're 21
[00:06:13] Unknown:
and then I'm going to carry you off like a knight in the old stories of Daring Doo. If your father will let you. I'll be 21 in less than four months. There's nothing he can do to stop me. Nothing either of them can do. But would he try? I don't know. He's awfully angry with your father and he could be just as stubborn. That damn legend, you know? It it bothers him and doctor Elmsley hit him right where it hurts the most
[00:06:38] Unknown:
in his pride. But what started it all? Evan knows.
[00:06:42] Unknown:
The things I've heard, I won't shock you by repeating, but there's no proof for any of it. It all started so long, long ago. And it it never would have amounted to anything, I suppose, that people weren't so jealous. Because your family's always been so rich and powerful. Something like that. Lord knows there's enough money. We're rolling in it. We can live like whatever we please, wherever we please when I come into it. Unless your father's still angry enough to cut you off. Well, who would he leave it to? There's only uncle Alfred left. He's off in Europe somewhere and rich enough in his own right. What's he like? Oh, a monster. My esteemed uncle is enough to give the whole family a bad name just by himself.
I've only seen him twice. I honestly think he is so completely evil. My father pays him off to keep him out of the country. Let's not worry about uncle Alfie. He's not any part of our problems.
[00:07:41] Unknown:
Prophetic words again. If poor Steven could only have known, if any of us could have known the future when Anropia for meeting Steven. But we didn't. And if he had, this story might never have happened. Just before the Christmas holidays, Steven's father died very suddenly of a heart attack. Immediately after the funeral, my father claiming that a lingering bronchial infection was endangering my mother's life, moved the rest of our family to the South Of Spain. So it was that Steven and I spent the Christmas season together for many reasons. I appreciate your company, David. Where else would I go with my family over a thousand miles away? You could have joined them in Spain. Most of the time would have been spent getting there and back. Besides, it's more important now to find out about your plans for the future.
[00:08:38] Unknown:
In a few weeks, I shall be 21, my own master. I shall have an income of £30,000 a year. In six months, your sister will be 21 and her own mistress. I intend to marry her. Have you any objection? No. None.
[00:08:54] Unknown:
So you and Anne will be married by summer? Mhmm. With
[00:08:58] Unknown:
or without your father's consent?
[00:09:04] Unknown:
With or without my father's consent, even if it's over his dead body, phrases that haunt me and will haunt me, I suppose, to my grave. I hope not beyond. For a few days before my sister's 20 birthday, my father picked up a virulent case of the Spanish flu, and within three days was gone. My mother and Anne brought his body home to Wincott for burial, and I met them there. But during the week I waited for them to return, I learned of the strange goings on at Moncton Abbey and discovered that my one time friend, Steven, refused to see or talk to me.
But but why didn't he even come to the funeral, David? I don't know, Anne. He won't see me. The the servants barred the doors. I can't even force my way in. But doesn't he want to see?
[00:10:00] Unknown:
Doesn't he ask
[00:10:03] Unknown:
for me? He and I don't know how to tell you this. He well, ever since shortly after his father's death, peculiar things have been going on at the Abbey. What peculiar things?
[00:10:16] Unknown:
It's it's too soon to talk about them now. What's he been doing locked up in that lonely old mausoleum all alone?
[00:10:22] Unknown:
I can only tell you what the local gossip is. If you insist on hearing it. Oh, but I do David. I must. Well, the local farm laborer that's been on the estate near the house says that he's been wandering and walking about carrying dusty, old, crumbling papers in his hand. That he's forcing open scores of old windows as if to let the light into rooms that have been closed for years. You know, there must be some 80 rooms in the Abbey. And at once, towards evening, he was even observed standing on the very highest of the crumbling turrets never ascended before in recent memory, which is supposed to be inhabited only by the ghosts of the ancient monks who once possessed the buildings. But what's he looking for? Anne, I don't know.
Unless
[00:11:10] Unknown:
Unless what?
[00:11:11] Unknown:
Unless the old story is true. Your legend that Steven has lost his mind. No.
[00:11:19] Unknown:
And where are you going? I'm going to find out for myself to prove you're all wrong.
[00:11:29] Unknown:
I should have followed Anne, I suppose. But I thought perhaps it was better for her to find out the truth for herself, whatever the truth might be. She came back later that evening, evening, her face gray and haggard, but composed. I saw her right up the drive and went down to the stable to help her dismount. Well, did you see Steven?
[00:11:58] Unknown:
Yes. We are not going to be married right away, of course. It's only decent to mourn father a while.
[00:12:07] Unknown:
This sounds strange. Is Steven alright? He will be. You mean he is insane? No.
[00:12:14] Unknown:
He he has to go abroad for a few months to settle settle an affair of of honor. And then he'll come back and we'll be married.
[00:12:27] Unknown:
Are you sure? I hope I am. And I But there's nothing more to be said David. It's
[00:12:34] Unknown:
just gonna take a little time. You must go back to college and finish. And by that time then and we'll see. It'll work out. It's got to work out.
[00:12:54] Unknown:
I couldn't get any more out of her. Stephen still refused to see me. I went back to college, graduated, and returned. My mother could tell me nothing new. I looked for Anne and I found her in the garden gazing off towards the greater bulk of Moncton Abbey. Her face was drawn in white and she was painfully thin. But when she saw me, she jumped up to hug me with joy. Oh, David. David.
[00:13:20] Unknown:
Oh, good to have you back. Hello, Princess.
[00:13:24] Unknown:
Let me look at you. You don't look yourself. Is it still Steven? Yes. Steven.
[00:13:32] Unknown:
You miss him so much. I used to have letters every day. Then less and less and now
[00:13:39] Unknown:
I haven't heard from him in over a month. Well, perhaps it's just as well. No.
[00:13:44] Unknown:
I love him. I'll never love anyone else. I'll wait for him till till he finds what he has to find.
[00:13:53] Unknown:
What is he doing in Europe?
[00:13:56] Unknown:
I can't tell you. That's his secret.
[00:13:59] Unknown:
Where was he when you last heard from him? Italy and Naples.
[00:14:04] Unknown:
David, aren't you going to Europe? Yes.
[00:14:09] Unknown:
I've been planning to travel a bit before I settle down to the law. Then
[00:14:14] Unknown:
find him for me, please?
[00:14:17] Unknown:
I might as well start at Naples as any other place. Oh. My best language is Italian anyway. Alright. If I find him, then what? Tell him.
[00:14:26] Unknown:
Tell him I need him and I want him. I want him to come home and marry me. Tell him it doesn't matter that we'll learn to live with this ghastly thing somehow.
[00:14:40] Unknown:
And that was the most I could get out of my sister. Whatever this ghastly thing was. So I went to Naples, and as chance would have it, my first day there, I had news of Steven. I ran into Chip Travers, an old friend from school now with the embassy.
[00:14:59] Unknown:
Heard of him? My dear Helmsley, we can't even comb him out of our hair. What do you mean? The man has an obsession. The sick one, I might add. Frankly, I'd say that old Moncton has gone round the bend. He's as mad as a hatter.
[00:15:22] Unknown:
And so it seems that the black cloud of tragedy does indeed hang over the house of Moncton. That madness is an inherited trait. Yet Anne denies it. Is she blinded by love? And if not, what is the ghastly secret
[00:15:55] Unknown:
Monomania.
[00:15:57] Unknown:
An insanity in which the psychotic thinking is confined to one idea or group of ideas. Dictionary definition. And the whispers and rumors and accusations which have been voiced about the Moncton family for centuries about the curse that lies on it have tended to stress this particular form of madness. But what one idea or group of ideas? What is the dread obsession that has seized his forebears and apparently has reached into modern times
[00:16:32] Unknown:
to fester now in Stephen Monckton's brain? Why do you say that? And why should he be bothering the embassy? Well, you know he had an uncle, a pretty bad lot. He's been traveling around Europe for years. Yes. Alfred Moncton. That's our boy. Apparently, one of his past misdeeds caught up with him and he got himself shot in a duel somewhere in Italy. News of it reached Stephen and he arrived here a few weeks ago. But since then has been pestering living daylights out of us. The police or the authorities. To have some action taken against the man who killed his uncle? Oh, Lord. No. The police are trying to follow that up naturally since under present law, it constitutes murder.
The opponent and the seconds disappeared into thin air. But Monckton, by all evidence, doesn't give a hang about them. All he wants is his uncle's body. Is that so impossible? Oh, probably. I don't understand. Look. We only heard of this duel from a French journal some weeks after it happened. Moncton's second died and left some papers constituting a partial confession. But the one vital thing not included was where the duel was fought. So nobody knows where Alfred Monckton was buried or if he was buried at all.
[00:18:00] Unknown:
Yes? Steven. How are you? David. David Elmsley. How good to see you. But but you're you're not alone. Of course I am. Who would be
[00:18:13] Unknown:
oh, if you mean Anne. No. I'm sorry. She isn't here. No. No. I I didn't mean Anne.
[00:18:21] Unknown:
Come in. Come in. Thank you. Sit sit down. Sit down. There by the reading lamp by the fire. You must tell me all about, about home and Anne.
[00:18:36] Unknown:
As I crossed the shadowed room lit only by the one lamp, my spine was still cold from that peculiar moment at the door. The moment when Steven at first so obviously grabbed to see me and let his eyes wander for a moment and stay fixed at a spot over my shoulder as though someone stood there behind me watching, waiting for what?
[00:19:06] Unknown:
David, what brings you here to Naples?
[00:19:08] Unknown:
Oh, part touring the continent? Part of promise to Anne? You haven't written her in a long time.
[00:19:16] Unknown:
No.
[00:19:17] Unknown:
She's pretty heartbroken, Steven. No more than I.
[00:19:21] Unknown:
I I haven't written because because for all my searchings I've I've nothing to report.
[00:19:27] Unknown:
She sent you a message, Steven. Oh. May may I see it? Well, it's a verbal one. She was afraid her letters were going astray. What's the message? She said, tell him I need him and I want him. Tell him to come home and marry me. Tell him it doesn't matter. We'll learn to live with this ghastly thing somehow.
[00:19:48] Unknown:
Yeah. She's she still believes. What?
[00:19:53] Unknown:
That I'm not mad.
[00:19:54] Unknown:
I don't quite know what you mean. Well, sometimes
[00:19:57] Unknown:
sometimes I be I begin to wonder myself. Steven. Steven, what it is you're what is it you're looking at over my shoulder?
[00:20:04] Unknown:
There's nothing there. There's nothing that that you can see. But, since you're here, since Anne sent you, you have a right to know. Only before I tell you no. No. No. Don't leave your chair. I must, I wanna make an alteration. Do you mind sitting in a strong light? No. It's quite dark in here anyway. Well, then just wait a moment.
[00:20:33] Unknown:
I won't pretend I was well, what's the word? Uneasy? Shaken? Or to be totally candid, frightened. Especially as I watched my friend's preparation with the extra light. Well, glitter of his eyes in the dark shadows beneath them. From an adjoining room, he brought a large reading lamp, then two candles from a table and two more from the mantle, placing them between us. His hand trembled so much, I had to light them for him. And at his direction, take the shade off the reading lamp. At last, he seemed satisfied and we sat down. He started his story without hesitation.
[00:21:13] Unknown:
Has Anne told you anything of why our marriage is delayed, why I'm here? No. I came here to find the body of my uncle Alfred. Yes. I know that much and the jewel
[00:21:23] Unknown:
and that no one knows where it took place. Who told you that? Chip Travers, an attache at the embassy. He said something about your uncle's
[00:21:32] Unknown:
second having made a confession. Oh, yes. Yes. His name was Foulon. He died in Paris two days before I located him. The confession he left failed to tell us where the duel had taken place. Yes. But he must have given you some idea. Oh, if only he had.
[00:21:47] Unknown:
I I have the whole document here. You you can read it later. Was it fought honestly?
[00:21:51] Unknown:
Well, apparently. If any duel can be considered so, they they tossed for first fire. My uncle lost. They were placed 30 feet apart. The winner of the toss advanced 10 paces and fired. Had he missed, my uncle could have walked right up to the other and shot him through the heart or head as he desired. But he didn't miss? No. My uncle was dead before he hit the ground. Monsieur Foulant then states that he tore a leaf from his pocketbook describing the circumstances of the death and pinned it to my uncle's chest. Then they started with their plan to dispose of my uncle's corpse.
Well, go on, Stephen. Go on. I can't. That's where it ended. David, I've I've hunted. Heaven knows I've thrown money around like a drunken sailor and a rich one at that. But I don't know the country. I don't know the language. I'm insulted,
[00:22:48] Unknown:
laughed at almost to my face. Steven, wait a minute. Can I ask a couple of questions? Of course. How often have you seen your uncle?
[00:22:57] Unknown:
Twice. Well, when I was a child. Did you like him that much? Like him?
[00:23:03] Unknown:
I hated him.
[00:23:05] Unknown:
As the family did, he he disgraced our name wherever he went. He was a liar, a cheat.
[00:23:10] Unknown:
For all I know, a murderer. I gathered from my friend that's sort of the official attitude too. I don't care about their attitude. What I'm trying to say is maybe you are being given the runaround, but maybe they don't think you're in earnest.
[00:23:24] Unknown:
Not in earnest? Come with me. I'll convince you.
[00:23:31] Unknown:
He leaped to his feet, grabbing a candle and hustled me into the next room. On one side of his bed was a packing case at least seven feet long. The top was open so that I could see the case contained a lead coffin magnificently emblazoned with the Moncton arms and on a plate the name, Alfred Moncton, with his age and the manner of his death inscribed underneath. Now,
[00:24:01] Unknown:
I must tell you the secret so that you don't pick me completely mad.
[00:24:07] Unknown:
What is it? You're looking over my shoulder again as
[00:24:10] Unknown:
if look at me, Steven, please. Yes. Yes. If if you will just take your seat again with the lights between us. So. Now now you know the Monkton's reputation. Steven, let's spare ourselves all the old wives tales. I can't. You must be part of it now. Do you also know or have you heard the family prophecy? No. I can show you the original fading parchment. I I will. But for the moment, it's easier to recite it. When in Abby's vault, a place waits for one of Moncton's race. When that forlorn one shall lie, grave less under open sky, beggared of six feet of earth, the lord of acres from his birth, that shall be a certain sign of the end on Moncton's line.
From mortal men, from light of day, the last Moncton
[00:25:13] Unknown:
shall pass away.
[00:25:15] Unknown:
Now really, Stephen For a thousand years, at no matter what cost, no matter where he fell or how he died, at at no matter what cost to sacrifice, in the vault, under the abbey at Wyncotte, lies every one of my ancestors. The succession of the dead in Moncton Valley Vault has never been broken till now. I can see by your face you you wanna ask me how I can believe in a dog or old prophecy written and uttered in an age of superstition and ignorance.
[00:25:46] Unknown:
I'll tell you why I do.
[00:25:50] Unknown:
Because behind you, right at this moment, as he has ever since you came, confirming my belief, stands Alfred Monckton himself.
[00:26:07] Unknown:
Something about the tone of his voice, the fixity of his stare, his own total belief in what he saw kept me from turning my head. At that moment, I too believed that if I looked over my shoulder, I would see. He stands behind you. Death glare in his eyes. As I've seen him, I've seen him walking and sleeping from the moment he was shot. What do you mean from the moment he was shot? How could you? When when your father whisked Anne away from me to Spain, I I was at loose ends,
[00:26:44] Unknown:
waiting for Anne to come of age so that we could be married. I had to fill my days with something to do, and
[00:26:51] Unknown:
I was in a mood to clean out all specters, throw away the past.
[00:26:55] Unknown:
I decided to look in every nook and cranny of the Abbey, clear out the the debris, search my family history, and try to lay the ghost for once and for all. What did you find?
[00:27:07] Unknown:
Great cabinets and iron clasped chests filled with loads of secrets of horrors and darkness. Damn. I suppose we were neither better nor worse than all medieval barons, but the things I found well, that's dead and gone, I thought. It's the past which I'm gonna cut myself free of and start a new future.
[00:27:34] Unknown:
I'd worked myself to the highest turret by this time and I was choked with dust.
[00:27:38] Unknown:
I stepped out just before sunset, choosing my footing carefully, watching the setting sun and thinking of Anne. And suddenly, yes, standing in front of me beyond the battlements in mid air
[00:27:59] Unknown:
was the figure of Alfred Moncton, faintly luminous.
[00:28:06] Unknown:
As he stands behind you now, Did he speak? No. Was this before the news of the duel reached Wincut? Two weeks?
[00:28:21] Unknown:
I I I didn't know the date of it then as I do now. It was March 14, the same day as I stood on the battlement.
[00:28:33] Unknown:
The very moment the bullet entered his side and killed him. And now, now you know why I dare not marry your sister. Not till I fill the empty place in the mountain Abbey with the body of my uncle.
[00:28:50] Unknown:
And then, by God, I will burn it to the ground.
[00:29:01] Unknown:
So now we know what the monomania of Stephen Munton's is. But can it be cured by finding his uncle's body and the other means he plans? Or is it doomed by the ancient prophecy that from mortal Ken, from light of day, he's the last Monckton to pass away. I'll return shortly with Act three. Poor David Elmsley, caught between his desire for his sister's happiness and a friend who held it in his hand but suffered from what seemed to be a hereditary and incurable malady. But was it incurable? Was it only an aberration which could be disposed of by the simple means of finding an errant corpse?
[00:30:05] Unknown:
After I left Steven that night, I sat and thought long and hard. I knew Steven could no longer go this alone. Besides, while I could not believe the phantom, I was intrigued by the story of the jewel and the missing corpse. I read all the papers Steven had given me carefully before going to bed. By the next morning, I had seen Chip, the police, and all the authorities concerned and made my decision.
[00:30:36] Unknown:
David, I I thought you deserted me. Quite the contrary.
[00:30:39] Unknown:
We have plans to make and a journey to take. Well, what is it you have in mind? First, here are your papers. I've talked with all the authorities. As you know, there's no language barrier for me. So I now know all that they have done.
[00:30:54] Unknown:
Nothing
[00:30:55] Unknown:
for all the money I've spent. Not true. Just misguided, I believe. Now look, the due was arranged here in Naples two days before it took place. The police have concentrated on trying to find Count Saint Lo, the other principal and his second. So they have searched the road towards Rome. I agree with you that they were less than thorough. Where would you search? Since the route was so roundabout and since they wanted to be out of the Neapolitan States, I think that you was actually fought not far from here. All the rest was a blind to circle back.
But where? I'm not clairvoyant, but I think we ought to start looking as close by as possible.
[00:31:38] Unknown:
You're right. I I can feel it. We're going to find him and take him home and and at last this long nightmare will be over.
[00:31:50] Unknown:
Poor Steven. He built his expectations so high. For three days, we coursed the neighborhood without success. Each day is hope diminished. And traveling through that rough country, even by mule, I was beginning to realize how few physical resources my poor friend had left. So on the fourth day, I went alone. There was a pitiless sun that day, and I gradually ascended into a deeper woods over the stony ground. By the time my watch suggested, my return, I suddenly came out of the thick greenery and saw before me an ancient monastery halfway crumbling into ruins.
On my way to it, I was oppressed by an overbearing odor, a smell that suggested only one thing to me. I turned my mule off the path to a building from which the odor came. It was closed, save for a jagged hole where the roof had broken in. By standing up in my stirrups, I could glimpse almost to the floor. The sight of horror grasped my gut. Stretched on a rude table supported by trestles was the decomposing body of what had once been a man. The sheet that had once covered it rotted away. Suppressing my desire to scream, I cleared my head with a pinch of snuff.
Then I rode the mule down the hill to the monastery and by its ancient gate, pulled on the bell cord.
[00:33:24] Unknown:
What is it you're pleased to want? I'm a traveler who We live in a miserable place. We have nothing to show, travelers. I don't come to see anything
[00:33:36] Unknown:
except what I have already seen. Will you please come out or must I force my way in? Are you alone? Yes. Quite alone.
[00:33:45] Unknown:
Oh, you mean with you? No. None. A man, sir, by the grace of God.
[00:33:53] Unknown:
I have just seen a gruesome and horrible sight. In that outbuilding back there is the decomposing body of an unburied man. An ugly sight. Do you know about it? Everything.
[00:34:09] Unknown:
Everything. Some months ago, we are at our poor meal in the refractory and we hear of a sudden bang. A gun.
[00:34:26] Unknown:
We thought it to be a hunter.
[00:34:28] Unknown:
Where did the sound come from? From the meadow beyond the trees. And that's all you heard? Be patient. The old goes slow. Let me see. Oh, yes. There was a ring at this gate. Oh, the devil of a ring. And the father superior said, Go, brother. See who it is. I opened the door and lying on the threshold was a man dead with black eyes open, staring to the sky's blood soaked shirt. The same man who lies out there. They're the same.
[00:35:10] Unknown:
But why did you not give him a decent burial?
[00:35:13] Unknown:
I think I can answer that, sir. I am the father superior of this monastery. You may leave us, brother. I have been hoping and praying that the Lord would send you Me? Yes. Are you not some relative of the deceased? Are you not seeking him? I myself am not a relative, but his nephew is nearby in Fundy. Yes. I'm
[00:35:33] Unknown:
but his nephew is nearby in Fondy. Yes. I was seeking him, but you still haven't answered my question. This piece of paper pinned to the man's chest when we found him, do you read French?
[00:35:46] Unknown:
I'm afraid with difficulty. Then I shall translate it for you. This paper is attached to the body of an Englishman, mister Alfred Monckton. He has been shot and killed fairly in a duel. Since we must fly to escape the law, the body is placed at the door of this monastery to receive burial at the hands of its inmates. It is signed only with the initial F.
[00:36:13] Unknown:
Of course, he's second. But father, why haven't you buried him?
[00:36:19] Unknown:
The man is not of our faith. He died unshriven. This is consecrated ground and we are not, by the laws of our order, permitted to leave its confines. We did what we could. I had sent a missive to Rome by those who were bringing our food once a month, asking permission from my superiors to take what action they deemed right and sanctified. But as yet, I have had no answer. Has this nephew papers to prove his relationship? Everything. To prove it beyond a doubt. Then I pray to you, my son. Bring him to take his uncle and bury him so that he may be commended to God.
[00:37:01] Unknown:
The next ten days were a fever of activity. I arranged to have embalmers with what chemical assistance was needed. Stephen wrote immediately to Anne, warning to expect him home and that all was well. They would be married as soon as he returned and placed the casket with his uncle in the vault. Only one small hitch seemed to halt our arrangements. There was no space on any merchant vessel leaving Naples. That was quickly solved by our chartering a stout little brig and within a fortnight, Steven, myself, and Uncle Alfred, casketed and boxed securely in his crate, were on our way home.
But the end was not yet in sight.
[00:37:45] Unknown:
I can almost smell England. How much longer do you suppose? The captain says that's up to the wind. Two days? Four at most? Can't believe it's almost over. It is.
[00:37:57] Unknown:
Tell me, does the phantom still appear to you? Oh, yes.
[00:38:01] Unknown:
Didn't I tell you he followed me everywhere? I shan't lose him till the empty place is filled in the Abbott Vault. I'm tired, David, good friend.
[00:38:11] Unknown:
I think I'll go below for a while.
[00:38:13] Unknown:
Till later, take a good rest. Your troubles are over.
[00:38:18] Unknown:
I'm I'm afraid not quite, mister Elmsley.
[00:38:22] Unknown:
Why, captain? You startled me. I I didn't see you. I were waiting behind the bulkhead.
[00:38:27] Unknown:
I wanted to talk to you alone. Mister Elmsley, we have a serious problem. And, yes, what is that? You see there's a Maltese boy aboard of that sort. He's told the whole crew that the pack and case in mister Moncton's cabin contains a dead body. Now if we're in for some rough weather, there's a squall almost on top of us, it'll it'll give us a breather. But after it's over, you have one or two choices. Either tell the crew the boy is lying and I'll hand him up to the rope or throw that pack and case overboard if it does contain a body. And suppose I refuse both conditions? Yes, sir. Then we'll have a mutiny on our hands and either the box will go over or I'll have to put in for the nearest I'll have there's no time to discuss that now.
Get on below. You'll only be in the way here.
[00:39:29] Unknown:
I seriously made it below deck when the squall hit us. The brig strained and groaned and we could feel her whirl about. Then came a deafening crash and a flood of water poured into the capitol. It was sent hurtling to one side, and The rest was madness. After I knocked Steven out, I got him on deck somehow. We came to and he was like a maniac. It took five of us to get him aboard the longboat and hold him as we pulled away from the ship. The swell passed as suddenly as it come up. And by that time, the brig, dragged down by her broken mast and sail and the water she had shipped sank to the bottom taking Alfred Moncton with her.
And as she went, Stephen sagged in her arms and lay quiet and hopeless. I'm sorry I'm too late, Anne. I didn't get your message in time. It doesn't matter, David.
[00:41:16] Unknown:
He spoke of you at the last. He was quite lucid about what a good friend you are and how hard you tried to save him.
[00:41:25] Unknown:
I'm glad he's gone. It's been a terrible year for you, princess. Why you ever married him? I loved him.
[00:41:33] Unknown:
And he had to have someone to take care of him? Oh, he was quite mad. He was ill. That's all. He lies there, David.
[00:41:42] Unknown:
Next to the empty spot where Alfred Moncton's casket should lie. The prophecy fulfilled.
[00:41:49] Unknown:
Oh, no. No. Steven was not the last of the Monctons. You see, I'm carrying his child. You must be mad too. No. No. For someday he will fill the empty spot and the nonsense will be gone forever. Our grandchildren could come out in the sun. The curse will be dead. And this family will at last escape from the heritage of being the mad Moncktons.
[00:42:23] Unknown:
So goes the story. Anne Monckton never married again, but she did bear her child. Was she right that the taint was ever removed or had love betrayed her into perpetuating a legend? That is something only time can tell. I'll be back shortly. Just one addendum to our tale. Shortly after the events in it, a raging fire swept the abbey. And its ancient stone structure weakened by the flaming heat and its own antiquity collapsed in a mass of rubble. Fortunately, missus Monckton and her young boy, Steven, were away visiting her brother, mister David Elmsley, and his wife in America where David had gone to live.
As far as I know, their heirs still live here. Happily, I hope, and especially for the Moncton family ever afterwards. Our cast included Christopher Tabory, Marion Sautis, Russell Horton, Ken Harvey, and Paul Hecht. The entire production was under the direction of Hyman Brown.
[00:43:46] Unknown:
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