The Witching Hour

by Anne Rice

  There is a saying that all the Mayfairs "feel it" when the beneficiary of the legacy dies.

  Descendants of the Mayfair family fear Carlotta Mayfair, the guardian of Deirdre Mayfair, the present beneficiary, and regard her as a "witch," but the word in this case is more closely related to the vernacular term for an unpleasant woman than to anything pertaining to the supernatural.

  SUMMARY OF MATERIALS

  RELATING TO THE SAINT-DOMINGUE YEARS

  To return to an appraisal of the family in the seventeen hundreds, it is undeniably characterized by strength, success, and wealth, by longevity and enduring relationships. And the witches of the period must be perceived as extremely successful. It can safely be assumed that they controlled Lasher completely to their satisfaction. However, we honestly do not know whether or not this is true. We simply have no evidence to the contrary. There are no specific sightings of Lasher. There is no evidence of tragedy within the family.

  Accidents befalling enemies of the family, the family's continued accumulation of jewels and gold, and the countless stories told by the slaves as to the omnipotence or infallibility of their mistresses constitute the only evidence of supernatural intervention, and none of this is reliable evidence.

  Closer observation through trained investigators might have told a very different tale.

  THE MAYFAIR FAMILY IN LOUISIANA

  IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY

  Several days before the Haitian revolution (the only successful slave uprising in history), Marie Claudette was warned by her slaves that she and her family might be massacred. She and her children, her brother Lestan and his wife and children, and her uncle Maurice and his two sons and their wives and children escaped with apparent ease and an amazing amount of personal possessions, a veritable caravan of wagons leaving Maye Faire for the nearby port. Some fifty of Marie Claudette's personal slaves, half of whom were of mixed blood, and some of whom were undoubtedly the progeny of Mayfair men, went with the family to Louisiana. We can assume that numerous books and written records also went with them, and some of these materials have been glimpsed since, as these reports will show.

  Almost from the moment of their arrival in Louisiana, the Talamasca was able to acquire more information about the Mayfair Witches. Several of our contacts in Louisiana were already established on account of two dramatic hauntings that had taken place in that city; and at least two of our members had visited the city, one to investigate a haunting and the other on his way to other places in the South.

  Another reason for the increased information was that the Mayfair family itself seems to have become more "visible" to people. Torn from its position of near feudal power and isolation in Saint-Domingue, it was thrown into contact with countless new persons, including merchants, churchmen, slave traders, brokers, colonial officials, and the like. And the wealth of the Mayfairs, as well as their sudden appearance on the scene so to speak, aroused immense curiosity.

  All sorts of tales were collected about them from the very hour of their arrival. And the flow of information became even richer as time went on.

  Changes in the nineteenth century also contributed, inevitably, to the increased flow of information. The growth of newspapers and periodicals, the increase in the keeping of detailed records, the invention of photography, all made it easier to compile a more detailed anecdotal history of the Mayfair family.

  Indeed, the growth of New Orleans into a teeming and prosperous port city created an environment in which dozens of people could be questioned about the Mayfairs without anyone's ever noticing us or our investigators.

  So what must be borne in mind as we study the continued history of the Mayfairs is that, though the family appears to change dramatically in the nineteenth century, it could be that the family did not change at all. The only change may have been in our investigative methods. We learned more about what went on behind closed doors.

  In other words, if we knew more about the Saint-Domingue years, we might have seen greater continuity. But then again, perhaps not.

  Whatever the case, the witches of the 1800s--with the exception of Mary Beth Mayfair, who was not born until 1872--appear to have been much weaker than those who ruled the family during the Saint-Domingue years. And the decline of the Mayfair Witches, which became so marked in the twentieth century, can be seen--on the basis of our fragmentary evidence--to have begun before the Civil War. But the picture is more complicated than that, as we shall see.

  Changing attitudes and changing times in general may have played a significant role in the decline of the witches. That is, as the family became less aristocratic and feudal, and more "civilized" or "bourgeois," its members might have become more confused regarding their heritage and their powers, and more generally inhibited. For though the planter class of Louisiana referred to itself as "the aristocracy," it was definitely not aristocratic in the European sense of that word, and was characterized by what we now define as "middle-class values."

  "Modern psychiatry" also seems to have played a role in inhibiting and confusing the Mayfair Witches, and we will go into that in greater detail when we deal with the Mayfair family in the twentieth century.

  But for the most part we can only speculate about these things. Even when direct contact between the order and the Mayfair Witches was established in the twentieth century, we were unable to learn as much as we had hoped.

  Bearing all this in mind ...

  THE HISTORY CONTINUES ...

  Upon arrival in New Orleans, Marie Claudette moved her family into a large house in the Rue Dumaine, and immediately acquired an enormous plantation at Riverbend, south of the city, building a plantation house that was larger and more luxurious than its counterpart in Saint-Domingue. This plantation was called La Victoire at Riverbend, and was known later simply as Riverbend. It was carried away by the river in 1896; however, much of the land there is still owned by the Mayfairs, and is presently the site of an oil refinery.

  Maurice Mayfair, Marie Claudette's uncle, lived out his life at this plantation, but his two sons purchased adjacent plantations of their own, where they lived in close contact with Marie Claudette's family. A few descendants of these men stayed on that land up until 1890, and many other descendants moved to New Orleans. They made up the ever increasing number of "cousins" who were a constant factor in Mayfair life for the next one hundred years.

  There are numerous published drawings of Marie Claudette's plantation house and even several photographs in old books, now out of print. It was large even for the period and, predating the ostentatious Greek Revival style, it was a simple colonial structure with plain rounded columns, a pitched roof, and galleries, much like the house in Saint-Domingue. It was two rooms thick, with hallways bisecting it from north to south and east to west, and had a full lower floor, as well as a very high and spacious attic floor.

  The plantation included two enormous garconnieres where the male members of the family lived, including Lestan in his later widowhood, and his four sons, all of whom went by the name of Mayfair." (Maurice always lived in the main house.)

  Marie Claudette was every bit as successful in Louisiana as she and her ancestors had been in Saint-Domingue. Once again, she cultivated sugar, but gave up the cultivation of coffee and tobacco. She bought smaller plantations for each of Lestan's sons, and gave lavish gifts to their children and their children's children.

  From the first weeks of their arrival, the family was regarded with awe and suspicion. Marie Claudette frightened people, and entered into a number of disputes in setting up business in Louisiana, and was not above threatening anyone who stood in her path. She bought up enormous numbers of slaves for her fields, and in the tradition of her ancestors, treated these slaves very well. But she did not treat merchants very well, and drove more than one merchant off her property with a whip, insisting that he had tried to cheat her.

  She was described by the local witnesses as "formidable" and "unpleasant," though still a handsome woman. And h
er personal slaves and free mixed-blood servants were greatly feared by the slaves she purchased in Louisiana.

  Within a short time, she was heralded as a sorceress by the slaves on her land; it was said that she could not be deceived, and that she could give "the evil eye," and that she had a demon whom she could send after anyone who crossed her. Her brother Lestan was more generally liked, and apparently fell in at once with the drinking and gambling planter class of the area.

  Henri Marie Landry, her husband, seems to have been a likable but passive individual who left absolutely everything to his wife. He read botanical journals from Europe and collected rare flowers from all over the South and designed and cultivated an enormous garden at Riverbend.

  He died in bed, in 1824, after receiving the sacraments.

  In 1799 Marie Claudette gave birth to the last of her children, Marguerite, who later became the designee of the legacy, and who lived in Marie Claudette's shadow until Marie Claudette's death in 1831.

  There was much gossip about Marie Claudette's family life. It was said that her oldest daughter, Claire Marie, was feebleminded, and there are numerous stories about this young woman wandering about in her nightgown, and saying strange though often delightful things to people. She saw ghosts and talked to them all the time, sometimes right in the middle of supper before amazed guests.

  She also "knew" things about people and would blurt out these secrets at odd moments. She was kept at home, and though more than one man fell in love with her, Marie Claudette never allowed Claire Marie to marry. In her old age, after the death of her husband, Henri Marie Landry, Marie Claudette slept with Claire Marie, to watch her and keep her from roaming about and getting lost.

  She was often seen on the galleries in her nightgown.

  Marie Claudette's only son, Pierre, was never allowed to marry either. He "fell in love" twice, but both times gave in to his mother when she refused to grant permission for the wedding. His second "secret fiancee" tried to take her own life when she was rejected by Pierre. After that he seldom went out, but was often seen in the company of his mother.

  Pierre was a doctor of sorts to the slaves, curing them with various potions and remedies. He even studied medicine for a while with an old drunken doctor in New Orleans. But nothing much came of this. He also enjoyed botany and spent much time working in the garden, and drawing pictures of flowers. Botanical sketches done by Pierre are in existence today in the famous Mayfair house on First Street.

  It was no secret that about the year 1820 Pierre took a quadroon mistress in New Orleans, an exquisite young woman who might have passed for white, according to the gossip. By her Pierre had two children, a daughter who went north and passed into the white race, and a son, Francois, born in 1825, who remained in Louisiana and later handled substantial amounts of paperwork for the family in New Orleans. A genteel clerk, he seems to have been thought of affectionately by the white Mayfairs, especially the men who came into town to conduct business.

  Everyone in the family apparently adored Marguerite. When she was ten years old, her portrait was painted, showing her wearing the famous emerald necklace. This is an odd picture, because the child is small and the necklace is large. As of 1927, the picture was hanging on a wall in the First Street house in New Orleans.

  Marguerite was delicate of build, with dark hair and large slightly upturned black eyes. She was considered a beauty, and called La Petite Gypsy by her nurses, who loved to brush her long black wavy hair. Unlike her feebleminded sister and her compliant brother, she had a fierce temper and a violent and unpredictable sense of humor.

  At age twenty, against Marie Claudette's wishes, she married Tyrone Clifford McNamara, an opera singer, and another "very handsome" man, of an extremely impractical nature, who toured widely in the United States, starring in operas in New York, Boston, St. Louis, and other cities. It was only after he had left on one such tour that Marguerite returned from New Orleans to Riverbend and was received once more by her mother. In 1827 and 1828, she gave birth to boys, Remy and Julien. McNamara came home frequently during this period, but only for brief visits. In New York, Boston, Baltimore, and other places where he appeared he was famous for womanizing and drinking, and for getting into brawls. But he was a very popular "Irish tenor" of the period, and he packed houses wherever he went.

  In 1829, Tyrone Clifford McNamara and an Irishwoman, presumably his mistress, were found dead after a fire in a little house in the French Quarter which had been bought for the woman by McNamara. Police reports and newspaper stories of the time indicate the pair was overcome with smoke when trying vainly to escape. The lock on the front door had been broken. There was a child from this union, apparently, who was not in the house at the time of the fire. He later went north.

  This fire engendered considerable gossip in New Orleans, and it was at this time that the Talamasca gained more personal information about the family than it had been able to acquire in years.

  A French Quarter merchant told one of our "witnesses" that Marguerite had sent her devil to take care of "those two" and that Marguerite knew more about voodoo than any black person in Louisiana. Marguerite was reputed to have a voodoo altar in her home, to work with unguents and potions as cures and for love, and to go everywhere in the company of two beautiful quadroon servants, Marie and Virginie, and a mulatto coachman named Octavius. Octavius was said to be a bastard son of one of Maurice Mayfair's sons, Louis-Pierre, but this was not a well-circulated tale.

  Marie Claudette was still living then, but seldom went out anymore, and it was said that she had taught her daughter the black arts learned in Haiti. It was Marguerite who drew attention everywhere that she went, especially in view of the fact that her brother Pierre lived a fairly respectable life, was very discreet about his quadroon mistress, and Uncle Lestan's children were also entirely respectable and well liked.

  Even by her late twenties, Marguerite had become a gaunt and somewhat frightening figure, with often unkempt hair and glowing dark eyes, and a sudden disconcerting laugh. She always wore the Mayfair emerald.

  She received merchants and brokers and guests in an immense book-lined study at Riverbend which was full of "horrible and disgusting" things such as human skulls, stuffed and mounted swamp animals, trophy heads from African safaris, and animal-skin rugs. She had numerous mysterious bottles and jars, and people claimed to have seen human body parts in these jars. She was reputed to be an avid collector of trinkets and amulets made by slaves, especially those who had recently been imported from Africa.

  There were several cases of "possession" among her slaves at the time, which involved frightened slave witnesses running away and priests coming to the plantation. In every case, the victim was chained up and exorcism was tried without success, and the "possessed" creature died either from hunger because he could not be made to eat, or from some injury sustained in his wild convulsions.

  There were rumors that such a possessed slave was chained in the attic, but the local authorities never acted upon this investigation.

  At least four different witnesses mention Marguerite's "mysterious dark-haired lover," a man seen in her private apartments by her slaves, and also seen in her suite at the St. Louis Hotel when she came into New Orleans, and in her box at the French Opera. Much gossip surrounded the question of this lover or companion. The mysterious manner in which he came and went puzzled everyone.

  "Now you see him, now you don't," was the saying.

  These constitute the first mentions of Lasher in over one hundred years.

  Marguerite married almost immediately after Tyrone Clifford McNamara's death, a tall penniless riverboat gambler named Arlington Kerr who vanished completely six months after the marriage. Nothing is known about him except that he was "as beautiful as a woman," and a drunkard, and played cards all night long in the garconniere with various drunken guests and with the mulatto coachman. It is worth noting that more was heard about this man than was ever seen of him. That is, most of our stories
about him are thirdhand or even fourthhand. It is interesting to speculate that perhaps such a person never existed.

  He was however legally the father of Katherine Mayfair, born 1830, who became the next beneficiary of the legacy and the first of the Mayfair Witches in many generations who did not know her grandmother, as Marie Claudette died the following year.

  Slaves up and down the river coast circulated the tale that Marguerite had murdered Arlington Kerr and put his body in pieces in various jars, but no one ever investigated this tale, and the story let out by the family was that Arlington Kerr could not adapt to the planter's life, and so left Louisiana, penniless as he had come, and Marguerite said "good riddance."

  In her twenties, Marguerite was famous for attending the dances of the slaves, and even for dancing with them. Without doubt she had the Mayfair power to heal, and presided at births regularly. But as time passed she was accused of stealing the babies of her slaves, and this is the first Mayfair Witch whom the slaves not only feared but came to personally abhor.

  After the age of thirty-five, she did not actively manage the plantation but put everything in the hands of her cousin Augustin, a son of her uncle Lestan, who proved a more than capable manager. Pierre, Marguerite's brother, helped somewhat in the decisions that were made; but it was principally Augustin, answering only to Marguerite, who ran things.

  Augustin was feared by the slaves, but they apparently regarded him as predictable and sane.

  Whatever, the plantation during these years made a fortune. And the Mayfairs continued to make enormous deposits in foreign banks and northern American banks, and to throw money around wherever they went.

  By forty, Marguerite was "a hag," according to observers, though she could have been a handsome woman had she bothered to pin up her hair and give even the smallest attention to her clothing.

  When her eldest son, Julien, was fifteen, he began to manage the plantation along with his cousin Augustin, and gradually Julien took over the management completely. At his eighteenth birthday supper, an unfortunate "accident" took place with a new pistol, at which time "poor Uncle Augustin" was shot in the head and killed by Julien.