Gabriel Lindsay by William Mudford (1782-1848) proves that The Iron Shroud was not the only classic horror short story Mudford had in him. This tale of pestilence was first printed in the January 1832 issue of Atkinson's Casket and remains largely unknown today since it was published anonymously by Mudford. It merely stated that it was "[b]y the author of 'The Unrevealed.'" When I searched on this title I found a thread to it in The Royal Lady's Magazine, Vol. III of 1832 where the author of "The Three Letters" is listed as the author of "The Unrevealed." Following the literary trail of bread through the forest, I next found "The Three Letters" published in the June 1832 issue of The Canterbury Magazine and listed as by the author of The Five Nights of St. Albans, which is the best Gothic novel Mudford wrote.
The horror short story takes place during the 1600s at a time when the plague was rampant. Gabriel Lindsay, on returning to his small village and expecting to find a red cross painted on his door to signify the plague had reached the house, it elated to learn his family is still alive. He stays with them, listening to the passing the dead-cart at midnight until his family also begins to succumb to the disease. Take this example,
I believe I was roused from this stupor by the rumbling of the dead-cart at midnight, the hollow sound of the bell, and the hoarse, horrid cry of 'Bring out your dead.' I have never had, and have not now, the recollection of any thing that passed till then, from the moment my poor Rachael was kneeling at my feet. I had been permitted too (or, for aught I know, I would do so,) to sit all those hours with my mournful burden in my arms; for when the coming of the dead-cart awakened me to consciousness, the corpse of Alice was still resting on my bosom.
While The Iron Shroud contains the death machinations of William Mudford, Gabriel Lindsay is equally full of impending doom only this time from the unseen. It is surely one of the Top 30 classic horror short stories from 1800-1849.
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