At the beginning of October, 1919, Homem Christo, a first year law student who had been expelled from the University of Coimbra for refusing to conform to a religious custom, and for armed revolt, rented a house in Coimbra. It consisted of a ground floor and a second story. Christo moved into it, together with his wife, their six weeks’ old baby and two maidservants.
On the first night his wife complained of strange noises in the house. Christo, a sound sleeper, had heard nothing and thought it was just imagination on her part.
Eight days later his friend, Gomez Paredes, a second year law student, visited Comeada on business. He remained overnight and was entertained at the home of Homem Christo.
Paredes retired about 1 A. M. His room was on the ground floor, and his host warned him to be sure to bolt the shutters of the windows so that thieves would not be able to enter the house.
The following is Paredes’s own story to Christo describing what happened:
“Having gone off to sleep after smoking a long time and using up all my matches, I was awakened by a sensation of brightness under the eyelids. It resembled that which is felt when one’s closed eyes are struck by the sudden ray of a lamp or fire.
“It fell on my eyelids with such intensity that at last I opened them. I perceived that the shutters I had carefully closed in accord with your recommendation, since I was on the ground floor had parted and that the moon’s light fell directly on my face.
“I was, or thought I was, sure that I had closed them tight and pushed the bolt into the sill as directed. But I might have made a mistake.
“Then, since I wanted to sleep, suspecting nothing, and since the moonlight bothered me, I went to the window, raised it, hung it to the spring provided to keep it up and bent over to pull in the parted shutters.
“They resisted.
“Now, there was no wind. Since it was on the ground floor it might have been caused by some one standing outside on the garden path. Therefore I called out in a chiding tone, but not loud enough to awaken any of you:
“ ‘Hullo, if anybody is there, let him get out or he’ll catch it.’
“But almost instantly the spring which held up the window came undone, and I got such a furious blow on my neck that I was nearly choked, and had to struggle a long time to get free. I did not want to call you, as I feared the ridicule of my position.
“When I was out of the trap I closed the window again. And, for greater safety, I went out and inspected the neighborhood of the garden gate. There was nothing in the garden, or on the road.
“The night was calm and a bright moon brought out the smallest details of my window shutters standing as I had left them. It showed no obstacle in front of them.
“Such evidence has the effect of bringing one back to order and coolness. It was clear I had been mistaken. The shutter had not been held by any hand. The falling of the window was a mere accident. I had been half awake. My movements had been badly coordinated, as sometimes happens when one wakes up suddenly.
“I closed my shutters very methodically, put the window down and went to bed.
“But this time I did not succeed in getting to sleep again. In the first place, the back of my neck hurt me very much. The blood was pounding in my arteries. I was restless and oppressed and could not settle down.
“It was then, with my eyes open to every possible reality, that I observed that horrible thing in front of me.
“The shutters opened again, their bolt having risen quite of itself. And I remembered the trouble I had had to get it into the hole deeply enough and without making a noise. Then, I heard behind my bed another horrible grinding sound like a muffled laugh.
“ ‘Somebody is making a fool of me. But who? Where is the fellow?’ I said, clenching my fist.
“A series of heavy blows replied, struck on the wall, on the floor and on the furniture. Blows which found a dull echo in myself as if aimed at me alone.”
Paredes sprang from his bed and looked around. He could hear footsteps as of some one walking about the room beside him. Doors, apparently, were being opened and closed all over the house. That horrible grating laugh again came from behind his bed. But as far as he could see—
“There was nothing in my room, neither a hidden animal, nor anything revolutionary. Nothing but myself, shivering in the cold moonlight.
“I did not take the trouble to warn you. I did not take time to think. I just bolted into the garden like a lunatic and ran straight before me, without even shutting a door. It did not take many minutes to get to my father’s house, for I went like the wind.”
The next morning Paredes told his father what had happened.
“That is singular,” his father said. “Another tenant, who occupied that house before your friend, left because of the strange noises in the place. And the woman who now takes care of the meteorological observatory opposite the house spent a night there once. She vows she will never enter it again, and declares the house is bewitched. Tell your friend to watch some night and try and find out what it is.”
As he thought over the occurrences of the night before, the thing which struck Paredes as most unusual was that nothing had happened as long as there was a light burning in his room.
He returned to Homem Christo’s house to explain the cause of his disappearance. As his friend heard the story he laughed. Christo writes:
“When my comrade had finished I was silent for a moment. I had vaguely heard our professors tell about ‘collective hallucinations,’ but I couldn’t explain to him so many things at the same time. And I was also struck by the circumstances that the actions or strange noises happened in relative darkness, light destroying the phantasmagoria.
“I drew his attention to that.
“ ‘Yes,’ he replied. ‘I had in fact used up my matches smoking last night. But I saw with my own eyes in the moonlight my shutters slowly opening, as if pulled by two hands. And when I wanted to pull them in I felt the queer resistance.’
“ ‘Whoever held them was stronger than I am, I assure you. I should swear to that, even though that guillotine window of yours should cut off my head again.
“ ‘And the noises I heard were the same noises as those described by your wife. She told you that several walked in the room, pulling burdens along and shaking all the furniture as if there was a moving going on; and yet you heard nothing, which is another mystery.’
“As for me, it seemed clear to me that after the row of my scandal at the university some practical jokers wanted to exasperate me. Another ‘rag’ among the jolly students of Coimbra! One had to forgive them even though their pleasantry was in rather bad taste, considering that there was a young wife and a seven weeks’ old baby in the case.”
Christo decided to sit up the next night and try to catch the students he believed responsible for everything.
“I installed myself in the suspected room after inspecting the house from cellar to attic and locking in the servants. Considering the artfulness of servants, it was always possible that they could be in league with the mischief-makers up to a certain point.
“I provided myself with matches. And, thinking that a candle was easier to light than a lamp, I took one with a high candlestick, saying to myself that this would not be blown out under my very nose.