Short Fiction · Chapter
IX: Requiescat explained
Captain Barton's final night is marked by terror and a mysterious death.
What happens
Captain Barton's final night is marked by terror and a mysterious death. His servant, searching for an owl that Barton dreads, witnesses a supernatural presence in the room. General Montague finds Barton dead, with signs of a struggle and an unexplained indentation on the bed. The narrative concludes with no resolution, hinting at a past sin—a guilty attachment and harsh retribution—that may have led to Barton's fate.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural and the Uncanny
The mysterious presence in Barton's room, the owl's spectral warning, and the unexplained events surrounding his death.
Guilt and Retribution
Barton's past sin—a guilty attachment and harsh punishment of a sailor—is implied to be the cause of his supernatural persecution and death.
Characters to notice
- Captain Barton
Dies in his bed after a night of terror, haunted by a supernatural presence and his past sins.
- General Montague
Discovers Barton's body and witnesses the owl's flight; attempts to restore order.
- Mr. Smith
Barton's servant, who searches for the owl and hears the final, horrifying sounds from the chamber.
- Miss Montague
Barton's fiancée, who cares for him but is not heartbroken; her pet owl is a source of Barton's antipathy.
Key passages
“It is needless to follow the personages so slightly connected with this narrative, into the events of their after life; it is enough to say, that no clue to the solution of these mysterious occurrences was ever after discovered; and so long an interval having now passed since the event which I have just described concluded this strange history, it is scarcely to be expected that time can throw any new lights upon its dark and inexplicable outline.”
The story ends without any explanation of the mysterious events, and it's unlikely that time will ever reveal the truth.
The narrator closes the tale, emphasizing the enduring mystery.
“The only occurrence in Captain Barton’s former life to which reference was ever made, as having any possible connection with the sufferings with which his existence closed, and which he himself seemed to regard as working out a retribution for some grievous sin of his past life, was a circumstance which not for several years after his death was brought to light.”
The only clue to Barton's suffering was a secret from his past, revealed only after his death, which he saw as punishment for a serious sin.
The narrative hints at a past sin that may have led to Barton's fate.