This story happened near Paris in one small village of only fifty citizens.

You can believe it or not, but i'm as honest as my friends were when they told me about this unbelievable case and as their granparents were when they retold it from time to time.

Strange things started to disturb contryside minds in a week after the horrible murder of one student. He was a poet and a dreamer and unfortunately a gambler. In freezing December 1900 he directed his steps towards to his squalid flat (probably the cheepest in whole Paris) and the darkest night hid the terror of his death from greedy frightened eyes.In the morning when fog cleared away,the student was found by liveried servant who was in a hurry to pay for his drunk libertine senior in a tavern. Student's face was disfigured violently, his body was all-bended and fractured, his clothes was ripped and all his trifling sum (if it had really existed) was missed.

Poor boy had no living relatives and no friends to pay for his funeral and all his poetry and prose were put in a pledge. One reach (and greedy) creditor sold his works to a popular publishing house. Suddenly a terrible story of student's death drew over his naive and unskilful poetry a veil of tragedy which made it very popular. Human sorrow made a miracle and pitful student who used to be a bad poet was buried near Oscar Wilde himself (noone knows that great writer found his last shelter on a modest graveyard near our small village; in a few decades Wilde's fans started to bother citizens and they invented a myth about Wilde interred on Per-Lacheze, Paris, they even standed a fake monument there which was recognized as an object of pilgrimage in the end of 20th century).

So, just in a week after the last psalm ceased upon the student's grave a mystic events began to happen in the village. The first case happened with a cemetery guard, who was a confirmed drunkard. He broke into the cityhall at the dawn. Raven-haired yesterday he was completely grey-haired that morning. He was trembling with fear and hardly told his story. He said that he was just cheking his "campus" (a lot of youth died that year) when a tall and thin figure appeared from the mist, singing inhuman words quetly at first and then loudly and more loudly (at this part of his story old drunkard touched his skin near his right ear which was covered with blood). As the figure came closer our hero passed away. Atl the dawn he found himself lying in a fresh grave. Well, nobody mentioned. When the guard refused to return to his job citizens just left him with his young daughter (they never survived that winter, girl froze to death and the oldman died suffering from famine). Well, that's not the end (if it were, than it would be Anderson's tale, not Ghost story).

The next night one young lady - barber's wife - who was expecting a baby left her shack to take the air (she was very sick because of pregnancy). Her house was the nearest to the graveyard. Well, what she saw was a young man (firstly she thought that he was just a drunkark) lightly-clothed for December, singing something not very clear. As he came closer she saw his face and immediately lost her child even before she stopped screaming and fell down. Next three years she spent rocking the empty cradle and singing ghost's song (which was recognized by the only schooled man in the village as "Gaudeamus" - an old hymn of educated youth written in classical latin).

Ten days of horror passed before people decided to take steps to solve the situation. Ghost was seen every night and once in the afternoon. Sometimes he appeared as unbodied spirit and sometimes as rottening corpse. He was gloomily singing Gaudeamus or swearing in latin, french or even german. Two kids were frightened to death (they had a bet on spending night at the graveyard), three young ladies lost their minds and a few more people became gray-hairedd. Ghost was seen on a lonely roads or after nightfall and he always seemed to be angry and upset or firstly upset and then (after all that screemeng-fainting staff) angry, and there still were some people who hardly believed in his existence.

So, after ten days passed, citizens called a famous mystifier to speak with the ghost and prevent depopulation of the village.

One dark everning Dean, Dean's wife, the mystifier and a neighbours couple sat around the table, lit a candle and started to call The Spirit of The Student. For more then ten minets there was no answer, but the mystifier kept trying to reach for the ghost and suddenly candle-fire rose up to the ceiling and a misty figure appeared behind the mystifier.

- Gaudeamus ... - it started vacillating, but Mystifier interrupted him asking:

- Why are you disturbing all this nice people? Why can not you just rest in peace for Lord's joy, demon?

Ghost's answer was a real surprise to everyone:

- I'd better walk around and wait for the second date with The Grim Reaper, rather lie near that disgusting libertine!

- What are you talking about? - the Dean's wife asked with a lot of curiosity in her voice, she even moved a bit closer to the ghost, because she always liked tales about vicious men especially lords, who used to wallow in luxury and can afford themselves fancies which she could not even imagine.

- Explain us! - Dean demanded.

- Oscar Wilde, sir. That's what i'm talking about, - The Ghost said, - He lies just next to me and every night he starts to tell all this crasy and indecent things, that I just can't stand it...

- Well, it's not the reason to harm people. For Lord, think about how many evil you made since you've died! - A neighbour said.

- There's no evil and good after you cross the line, - answered The Ghost, than it turned his head to thewindow and said, - How can I enjoy the eternity if that common person is saying such a cynical things? Lasciate ogni speranza! - he yelled and flew out throught the window.

Mystifier took his reward and left Dean, Dean's wife and a couple of neighbours confused. At the end of the night they decided to remove student's bones. But it is a true story, not a fairy-tale, and noone appeared to dare to disentomb the body. Desperated people reached for a studen't collegue from the medicine faculty, asking him to do the job, but he said: "I know a better way, which does not require such an efforts... I'll show you the way... for a few golden coins". Poor people had no choise except giving him the money.

To their surprise he immediately turned his steps to the graveyard. What he did was putting on the student's grave dices and playing-cards.

Since that day ghost never appeared in the village anymore, but if you were quiet and carefull enough, you could sneak up to the darkest side of the graveyard to see two shiny and transparent figures, sitting on their own gravestones and excitedly playing cards. Their bets are parts of the eternity and their faces are full of passion while the endless game lasts.

People say, that Satan himself once came there at night and left a few hours later looking upset and embarrassed... well, that's a different story.