Ghost Story Review: “Pichon and Sons, of the Croix Rousse” by J. Sheridan Le Fanu

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Set in the years following the French Revolution, this story deals with efforts at getting the scion of the erstwhile noble house of Sénanges out of France. The Chateau Sénanges was confiscated during the Revolution and sold to a wealthy lawyer, Prosper Alix, a widower with one daughter. He quickly renamed it “Maison Alix.” The former owner, the Marquis Sénanges, was out of the country when the Revolution broke out. He’s accepted the loss of the property. Indeed, there is convoluted family tie between him and citoyen Alix. So when the exiled former Marquis requests the citoyen’s help in retrieving a package from the chateau/maison as well as a getting surviving nephew out of the country, he agrees. Regarding the nephew: he “…was reduced to being thankful that he had escaped with his life, and to watching for an opportunity of leaving France and gaining some country where the reign of liberty, fraternity, and equality was not so quite oppressive.” The young Paul de Sénanges arrives with an alias and a cover story as a house decorator, something that would allow him to hunt for the package his uncle wanted. At a signal from his uncle, he would leave and join him in Spain. But the signal doesn’t come. And Berthe Alix has a nice smile… This is a sad little tale, a bit long perhaps, and it betrays the author’s feeling toward the French Revolution. Author Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu was Irish but of French Huguenot descent. I was unable to find a direct connection between his family and the Revolution, an event roughly 100 years old when the collection the story appeared in was published. This short story is available from Project Gutenberg in the collection A Stable for Nightmares or Weird Tales . _____ Title: “Pichon and Sons, of the Croix Rousse” Author: J. Sheridan Le Fanu (1814-1873) First published: A Stable for Nightmares or Weird Tales 1896 (although ISFDB notes the year 1868) Source: ISFDB