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This is a most lovely place, and I hope you will like it. I am quite sure you will. We passed it in entrar the steamer coming from Trieste to

Durazzo. I knew the locality from the chart, and it was pointed out apontar, indicar, mostrar, salientar to me by one of the officers with whom I had become quite muito, completamente, totalmente friendly, and who kindly showed me interesting places whenever we got within sight of shore. The Spear of Ivan, on which the Castle stands, is a headland cabo, promontório, península running well out into the sea. It is quite a peculiar especial, estranho place--a sort of headland on a headland, jutting out into a deep,

wide bay, so that, though it is a promontory, it is as far away from the traffic of coast life as anything you can conceive imaginar, conceber. The main promontory is the end of a range of mountains, and looms up vast, towering over everything, a mass of sapphire blue. I can well

understand how the country came to be called the "Land of the Blue

Mountains," for it is all mountains, and they are all blue! The coast-line is magnificent--what is called "iron-bound"--being all

rocky; sometimes great frowning sombrio, ameaçador (carrancudo, de sobrancelhas franzidas) precipices; sometimes jutting spurs agulha

of rock; again little rocky islets, now and again clad with trees and verdure, at other places stark sólido, rígido and bare. Elsewhere are little rocky bays and indentations recorte fundo em ilha do litoral--always rock, and often with long, interesting caves caverna, gruta, subterrâneo (cove-enseada). Some of the shores of the bays are sandy, or else ridges local onde o mar ondula ou enruga ou encrespa (cume, junção de superfícies inclinadas, serrania, aresta) (to ridge- enrugar ou encrespar ou ondular de lago ou mar, abrir sulcos no solo, estriar, canelar) of beautiful pebbles seixo de praia, where the waves make endless murmur.

But of all the places I have seen--in this land or any other—the most absolutely beautiful is Vissarion. It stands at the ultimate

point of the promontory--I mean the little, or, rather, lesser promontory--that continues on the spur of the mountain range. For the lesser menor promontory or extension of the mountain is in reality vast; the lowest bit of cliff along the sea-front is not less than a couple of hundred feet high. That point of rock is really very

peculiar. I think Dame dona, senhora Nature must, in the early days of her housekeeping--or, rather, house-BUILDING--have intended to give her

little child, man, a rudimentary lesson in self-protection. It is just a natural bastion such as a titanic Vauban arquitecto militar Francês might have designed in primeval times. So far as the Castle is concerned, it is alone

visible from the sea. Any enemy approaching could see only that frowning sombrio, ameaçador wall of black rock, of vast height and perpendicular steepness. Even the old fortifications which crown it are not built,

but cut in the solid rock. A long narrow creek angra, ancoradouro, enseada of very deep water, walled in by high, steep cliffs, runs in behind the Castle, bending north and west, making safe and secret anchorage. Into the creek falls over a precipice a mountain-stream, which never fails in volume of water. On the western shore of that creek is the Castle, a huge pile of buildings of every style of architecture, from the Twelfth century to where such things seemed to stop in this dear old-world land--about the time of Queen Elizabeth. So it is pretty

picturesque. I can tell you. When we got the first glimpse of the place from the steamer the officer, with whom I was on the bridge,

pointed towards it and said:

"That is where we saw the dead woman floating in a coffin." That was rather interesting, so I asked him all about it. He took from his

pocket-book a cutting from an Italian paper, which he handed to me.

As I can read and speak Italian fairly well, it was all right; but as you, my dear Aunt Janet, are not skilled com aptidão in languages, and as I doubt if there is any assistance of the kind to be had at Croom, I do not send it. But as I have heard that the item has been produced in the last number of The Journal of Occultism, you will be easily able to get it. As he handed me the cutting he said: "I am Destilia!" His story was so strange that I asked him a good many questions about it.

He answered me quite frankly on every point, but always adhering stoutly to the main point--namely nomeadamente, isto é, that it was no phantom or mirage, no dream or imperfect vision in a fog. "We were four in all who saw it," he said--"three from the bridge and the Englishman, Caulfield--

from the bows—whose account exactly agreed with what we saw.

Captain Mirolani and Falamano and I were all awake and in good trim saúde, forma.

We looked with our night-glasses, which are more than usually powerful. You know, we need good glasses for the east shore of the Adriatic and for among the islands to the south. There was a full

moon and a brilliant light. Of course we were a little way off, for though the Spear of Ivan is in deep water, one has to be careful of currents, for it is in just such places that the dangerous currents run." The agent of Lloyd's told me only a few weeks ago that it was only after a prolonged investigation of the tidal and sea currents that the house decided to except from ordinary sea risks losses due to a too close course by the Spear of Ivan. When I tried to get a little more definite account of the coffin-boat and the dead lady that is given in The Journal of Occultism he simply shrugged his

shoulders. "Signor, it is all," he said. "That Englishman wrote everything after endless questioning."

So you see, my dear, that our new home is not without superstitious interests of its own. It is rather a nice idea, is it not, to have a dead woman cruising round our promontory in a coffin? I doubt if even at Croom you can beat that. "Makes the place kind of homey caseiro, rústico (confortável, acolhedor)," as

an American would say. When you come, Aunt Janet, you will not feel

lonesome, at any rate, and it will save us the trouble of importing some of your Highland ghosts to make you feel at home in the new

land. I don't know, but we might ask the stiff cadáver, ‘tipo’ to come to tea with us. Of course, it would be a late tea. Somewhere between midnight and cock-crow amanhecer would be about estar ocupado com the etiquette cerimonial, etiqueta, regras of the thing, I fancy!

But I must tell you all the realities of the Castle and around it.

So I will write again within a day or two, and try to let you know enough to prepare you for coming here. Till then adieu, my dear.

Your loving

RUPERT.

 

From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,

Croom.

January 25, 1907.

I hope I did not frighten you, dear Aunt Janet, by the yarn patranha, história inverosímil of the lady in the coffin. But I know you are not afraid; you have told me too many weird stories for me to dread that. Besides, you have Second Sight--latent, at all events. However, there won't be any more ghosts, or about ghosts, in this letter. I want to tell you all about our new home. I am so glad you are coming out vir, aparecer so soon; I am beginning to feel so lonesome--I walk about sometimes aimlessly, and

find my thoughts drifting in such an odd way. If I didn't know better, I might begin to think I was in love! There is no one here to be in love with; so make your mind easy, Aunt Janet. Not that you would be unhappy, I know, dear, if I DID fall in love. I suppose I must marry some day. It is a duty now, I know, when there is such an estate as Uncle Roger has left me. And I know this: I shall never

marry any woman unless I love her. And I am right sure that if I do love her you will love her, too, Aunt Janet! Won't you, dear? It

wouldn't be half a delight if you didn't. It won't if you don't.

There, now!

But before I begin to describe Vissarion I shall throw a sop dádiva com o fim de conciliar to you as a chatelaine castelã; that may give you patience to read the rest. The Castle needs a lot of things to make it comfortable--as you would consider it. In fact, it is absolutely destitute desprovido, pobre of everything of a

domestic nature. Uncle Roger had it vetted corrigir (to vote-votar) on the defence side, and so far it could stand a siege. But it couldn't cook a dinner or go through a spring-cleaning limpeza feita na primavera! As you know, I am not much up in domestic

matters, and so I cannot give you details; but you may take it that it wants everything. I don't mean furniture, or silver, or even

gold-plate, or works of art, for it is full of the most magnificent old things that you can imagine. I think Uncle Roger must have been a collector, and gathered a lot of good things in all sorts of places, stored them for years, and then sent them here. But as to glass, china, delft louça, all sorts of crockery porcelanas, linen lençóis, roupa branca, household doméstico appliances instrumento, aparelho and machinery, cooking utensils--except of the simplest--there are none. I don't think Uncle Roger could have lived here more

than on a temporary picnic. So far as I only am concerned, I am all right; a gridiron grelha and a saucepan caçarola are all _I_ want--and I can use them myself. But, dear Aunt Janet, I don't want you to pig it viver numa pocilga. I would like you to have everything you can imagine, and all of the very

best. Cost doesn't count now for us, thanks to Uncle Roger; and so I want you to order all. I know you, dear--being a woman--won't object to shopping. But it will have to be wholesale venda por grosso, venda por atacado, massivo, generalizado. This is an enormous

place, and will swallow up all you can buy--like a quicksand areia movediça. Do as

you like about choosing, but get all the help you can. Don't be afraid of getting too much. You can't, or of being idle when you are

here. I assure you that when you come there will be so much to do and so many things to think of that you will want to get away from it all. And, besides, Aunt Janet, I hope you won't be too long.

Indeed, I don't wish to be selfish, but your boy is lonely, and wants you. And when you get here you will be an EMPRESS imperatriz. I don't altogether completamente like doing so, lest I should offend a millionairess milionária like you; but it may facilitate matters, and the way's of commerce are strict rigoroso, severo, though devious desonesto, desleal. So I send you a cheque for 1,000 pounds for the little things: and a letter to the bank to honour your own cheques for any amount I have got.

I think, by the way, I should, if I were you, take or send out enviar, despachar a few servants--not too many at first, only just enough to attend on tratar de our two selves. You can arrange to send for any more you may want later.

Engage them, and arrange for their being paid--when they are in our service we must treat them well--and then they can be at our call as you find that we want them. I think you should secure, say, fifty or a hundred--'tis an awfu' big place, Aunt Janet! And in the same way will you secure--and, of course, arrange for pay similarly além disso, igualmente--a hundred men, exclusive of excluindo any servants you think it well to have. I should like the General, if he can give the time, to choose or pass aprovar, aceitar them. I want clansmen membro do mesmo clã that I can depend on, if need be. We are going to live in a country which is at present strange to us, and it is well to look things in the face. I know Sir Colin will only have men who are

a credit to Scotland and to Ross and to Croom--men who will impress the Blue Mountaineers. I know they will take them to their hearts-- certainly if any quaisquer of them are bachelors the girls will! Forgive me!

But if we are to settle here, our followers will probably want to settle also. Moreover, the Blue Mountaineers may want followers also! And will want them to settle, too, and have successors!

Now for the description of the place. Well, I simply can't just now.

It is all so wonderful and so beautiful. The Castle--I have written so much already about other things that I really must keep the Castle for another letter! Love to Sir Colin if he is at Croom. And oh, dear Aunt Janet, how I wish that my dear mother was coming out vir! It all seems so dark and empty without her. How she would have enjoyed

it! How proud she would have been! And, my dear, if she could be with us again, how grateful she would have been to you for all you

have done for her boy! As I am, believe me, most truly and sincerely and affectionately grateful.

Your loving

RUPERT.

 

Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie, Croom.

January 26, 1907.

MY DEAR AUNT JANET,

Please read this as if it was a part of the letter I wrote yesterday.

The Castle itself is so vast that I really can't describe it in detail. So I am waiting till you come; and then you and I will go over it together and learn all that we can about it. We shall take

Rooke with us, and, as he is supposed to know every part of it, from the keep fortaleza, torre central de castelo, torre de menagem to the torture-chamber, we can spend a few days over it. Of course, I have been over most of it, since I came--that, is, I went

at various times to see different portions--the battlements ameia, seteira, parapeito, the bastions, the old guard-room, the hall, the chapel, the walls, the roof. And I have been through some of the network of rock de rocha (to rock-balouçar, abanar, agitar, ex: ‘Rock and Roll’) passages.

Uncle Roger must have spent a mint balúrdio (Casa da Moeda, menta, hortelã, origem, fonte, manancial) of money on it, so far as I can

see; and though I am not a soldier, I have been in so many places fortified in different ways that I am not entirely ignorant of the

subject. He has restored it in such an up-to-date moderno, actualizado way that it is practically impregnable to anything under big guns or a siege-train artilharia e outros apetrechos de cerco.

He has gone so far as to have certain outworks and the keep fortaleza, torre de menagem, torre central do castelo (subsistência, sustento, custódia, guarda) covered with armoured plating blindagem, revestimento com chapas de metal of what looks like harveyized steel aço especial. You will

wonder when you see it. But as yet I really know only a few rooms, and am familiar with only one--my own room. The drawing-room sala de visitas, salão para recepções—not the great hall, which is a vast place; the library--a magnificent one, but in sad disorder--we must get a librarian some day to put it

in trim bom estado, boas condições; and the drawing-room and boudoir aposento privado de senhora and bedroom suite which I have selected for you, are all fine. But my own room is what suits me best, though I do not think you would care for it for yourself.

If you do, you shall have it. It was Uncle Roger's own room when he stayed here; living in it for a few days served to give me more

insight to his character--or rather to his mind--than I could have otherwise had. It is just the kind of place I like myself; so, naturally, I understand the other chap who liked it too. It is a fine big room, not quite within the Castle, but an outlying part of it. It is not detached, or anything of that sort, but is a sort of garden-room built on to it. There seems to have been always some

sort of place where it is, for the passages and openings inside seem to accept or recognize it. It can be shut off if necessary--it would

be in case of attack--by a great slab of steel, just like the door of

a safe, which slides from inside the wall, and can be operated from

either inside or outside--if you know how. That is from my room or from within the keep fortaleza (to keep-conservar, manter, continuar, permanecer, ficar, possuir, cuidar de, sustentar). The mechanism is a secret, and no one but

Rooke and I know it. The room opens out through a great French

window--the French window is modern, I take it, and was arranged by or for Uncle Roger; I think there must have been always a large

opening there, for centuries at least--which opens on a wide terrace or balcony varanda, sacada of white marble, extending right and left. From this a white marble stair lies straight in front of the window, and leads

down to the garden. The balcony and staircase are quite ancient—of old Italian work, beautifully carved, and, of course, weather-worn through centuries. There is just that little tinging tinge-coloração, matiz, cor (to tinge-tingir, colorir) of green here and there which makes all outdoor marble so charming. It is hard to believe at times that it is a part of a fortified castle, it is so elegant and free largo, folgado, aberto, grande and open vasto, amplo. The first glance of it would make a

burglar's heart glad. He would say to himself: "Here is the sort of crib cabana, choupana (berço, manjedoura) I like when I'm on the job. You can just walk in and out as you choose." But, Aunt Janet, old Roger was cuter cute-esperto, perspicaz (giro, queridinho, fofo, adorável) than any burglar. He had the place so guarded that the burglar would have been a baffled

burglar. There are two steel shields which can slide out from the wall and lock into the other side right across the whole big window.

One is a grille grade, gradeado of steel bands that open out into diamond-shaped

lozenges losango. Nothing bigger than a kitten could get through; and yet you can see the garden and the mountains and the whole view--much the same as you ladies can see through your veils. The other is a great sheet of steel, which slides out in a similar way in different grooves sulco, entalhe. It is not, of course, so heavy and strong as the safe-door

which covers the little opening in the main wall, but Rooke tells me it is proof against the heaviest rifle-hall ??.

Having told you this, I must tell you, too, Aunt Janet, lest you should be made anxious by the arriere-pensee de segunda intenção, previamente pensado (expressão Francesa) of all these warlike measures of defence, that I always sleep at night with one of these

iron screens across the window. Of course, when I am awake I leave it open. As yet I have tried only, but not used, the grille; and I

don't think I shall ever use anything else, for it is a perfect guard. If it should be tampered with tentar forçar from outside it would sound an

alarm at the head of the bed, and the pressing of a button would roll

out the solid steel screen in front of it. As a matter of fact, I have been so used to the open that I don't feel comfortable shut in.

I only close windows against cold or rain. The weather here is delightful--as yet até agora, at all events seja como for, de qualquer modo--but they tell me that the rainy season will be on us before very long.

I think you will like my den gabinete privado onde se pode estar sem ser incomodado, aunty dear, though it will doubtless be a worry to you to see it so untidy. But that can't be helped. I must be untidy SOMEWHERE; and it is best in my own den!

Again I find my letter so long that I must cut it off interromper (cortar) now and go on

again to-night. So this must go as it stands estar válido, manter-se em vigor. I shall not cause you

to wait to hear all I can tell you about our new home.

Your loving terno, afectuoso, amoroso, dedicado, que ama

RUPERT.

 

From Rupert Sent Leger, Vissarion, to Janet MacKelpie,

Croom.

January 29, 1907.

MY DEAR AUNT JANET,

My den looks out, as I told you in my last letter, on the garden, or, to speak more accurately, on ONE of the gardens, for there are acres

of them. This is the old one, which must be almost as old as the Castle itself, for it was within the defences in the old days of bows. The wall that surrounds the inner portion of it has long ago been levelled, but sufficient remains at either end where it joined the outer externo, exterior defences to show the long casemates casamata for the bowmen to shoot through and the raised stone gallery where they stood. It is just the same kind of building as the stone-work of the sentry's walk on the roof and of the great old guard-room quartel, casa da guarda under it.

But whatever the garden may have been, and no matter how it was guarded, it is a most lovely place. There are whole sections of

garden here of various styles--Greek, Italian, French, German, Dutch,

British, Spanish, African, Moorish--all the older nationalities. I am going to have a new one laid out to lay out-planear, organizar, conceber for you--a Japanese garden. I have sent to the great gardener of Japan, Minaro, to make the plans for it, and to come over vir, aparecer, chegar (fazer uma visita, passar em) with workmen to carry it out. He is to bring trees and shrubs and flowers and stone-work, and everything

that can be required; and you shall superintend the finishing, if not the doing, of it yourself. We have such a fine head of water here, and the climate is, they tell me, usually so lovely that we can do anything in the gardening way. If it should ever turn out revelar-se that the

climate does not suit, we shall put a great high glass roof over it, and MAKE a suitable climate.

This garden in front of my room is the old Italian garden. It must have been done with extraordinary taste and care, for there is not a bit of it which is not rarely beautiful. Sir Thomas Browne himself, for all his Quincunx disposição de objectos em que quatro objectos ficam nos vértices do quadrado e o quinto fica no centro do mesmo, would have been delighted with it, and have found material for another "Garden of Cyrus." It is so big that there are endless "episodes" of garden beauty I think all Italy must have been ransacked revistar, esquadrinhar, saquear, pilhar in old times for garden stone-work of exceptional

beauty; and these treasures have been put together by some masterhand perito, especialista.

Even the formal borders of the walks are of old porous stone, which takes the weather-staining so beautifully, and are carved in endless variety. Now that the gardens have been so long neglected or left in abeyance suspensão, sem uso, the green staining has become perfect. Though the stone-work is itself intact, it has all the picturesque effect of the

wear and ruin wrought by many centuries. I am having it kept for you just as it is, except that I have had the weeds and undergrowth

cleared away so that its beauties might be visible.

But it is not merely the architect work of the garden that is so beautiful, nor is the assembling there of the manifold variado, diverso wealth of floral beauty--there is the beauty that Nature creates by the hand of her servant, Time. You see, Aunt Janet, how the beautiful garden

inspires a danger-hardened old tramp vagabundo like me to high-grade sentiments

of poetic fancy! Not only have limestone calcário and sandstone arenito, and even

marble, grown green in time, but even the shrubs planted and then neglected have developed new kinds of beauty of their own. In some far-distant time some master-gardener of the Vissarions has tried to

realize an idea--that of tiny plants that would grow just a little higher than the flowers, so that the effect of an uneven desigual floral surface would be achieved without any hiding of anything in the garden seen from anywhere. This is only my reading of what has been from the effect of what is! In the long period of neglect the shrubs have outlived durar mais tempo que the flowers. Nature has been doing her own work all

the time in enforcing the survival of the fittest. The shrubs have grown and grown, and have overtopped flower and weed, according to their inherent próprio, intrínseco varieties of stature; to the effect that now you see irregularly scattered through the garden quite a number--for it is a big place--of vegetable products which from a landscape standpoint have something of the general effect of statues without the cramping que entrava ou limita ou prejudica feeling of detail. Whoever it was that laid out that part of the garden or made the choice of items, must have taken pains esforços, trabalhos to get strange specimens, for all those taller shrubs are in special colours, mostly yellow or white--white cypress, white holly azevinho, yellow yew teixo, grey-golden box buxo, silver juniper zimbro, variegated maple ácer, spiraea espireia, and numbers of dwarf anão shrubs whose names I don't know. I only know that when the moon shines--and this, my dear Aunt Janet, is the very land

of moonlight itself!--they all look ghastly pale. The effect is weird to the last degree, and I am sure that you will enjoy it. For myself, as you know, uncanny estranho, misterioso, inquietante, sinistro things hold no fear. I suppose it is that I have been up against enfrentar so many different kinds of fears, or, rather, of things which for most people have terrors of their own, that I have come to have a contempt desprezo, desdém--not an active contempt, you know, but a tolerative contempt--for the whole family of them. And you, too, will enjoy yourself here famously otimamente, I know. You'll have to collect all the stories of such matters in our new world and make a new book of facts for the Psychical Research Society. It will be

nice to see your own name on a title-page, won't it, Aunt Janet?

 Tradução/estudo completos

 

Nota máxima para:

IMAGENS DESCRITIVAS DE CENAS e OBJECTOS

 

 

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