Real Ghost Stories

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"Before very long one young man's place was empty. No mention being made
of the vow that they had taken, probably time enough had elapsed for it
to have been more or less, for the present, forgotten.

"The meetings continued. One evening when they were sitting smoking
round the fire, one of the party uttered an exclamation, causing the
rest to look up. Following the direction of his gaze, each man saw
distinctly for himself a _shadowy_ figure, in the likeness of the
only absent one of their number, distinctly facing them on the other
side of the room. The eyes looked earnestly, with a yearning, sad
expression in them, slowly upon each member there assembled, and then
vanished as a rainbow fades out of existence from the evening sky.

"For a few seconds no one spoke, then the most confirmed unbeliever
among them tried to explain it all away, but his words fell flat, and no
one echoed his sentiments; and then the widow's son spoke. 'Poor ---- is
dead' he said, 'and has appeared to us according to his vow.' Then
followed a comparison of their sensations during the visitation, and all
agreed in stating that they felt a cold chill similar to the entrance of
a winter fog at door or window of a room which has been warm, and when
the appearance had faded from their view the cold breath also passed
away.

"I _think_, but will not be positive on _this_, the son of the
widow lady died long after this event, but how long or how short a time
I never heard; but the facts of the above story were told me by the
sister of this young man. I also knew their mother well. She was of a
gentle, placid disposition, by no means excitable or likely to credit
any superstitious tales. Her son returned home on that memorable evening
looking very white and subdued, and, sinking into a chair, he told her
he should never doubt again the truths that she had taught him, and a
little reluctantly he told her the above, bit by bit, as it were, as she
drew it from him."

A similar story to the foregoing one was supplied me by the wife of the
Rev. Bloomfield James, Congregational minister at Wimbledon. (1891). It
is as follows:--

"My mother, aunt, and Miss E., of Bideford, North Devon, were at school
together at Teignmouth. The two latter girls formed a great friendship,
and promised whichever died first would come to the other. About the
year 1815 or 1816 my aunt Charlotte was on the stair coming from her
room when she saw Miss E. walking up. Aunt was not at all frightened, as
she was expecting her friend on a visit, and called out, 'Oh, how glad I
am to see you, but why did you not write!' A few days afterwards news
came of Miss E.'s death on that evening."

It is very rare that the apparition speaks; usually it simply appears,
and leaves those who see it to draw their own inferences. But sometimes
the apparition shows signs of the wound which caused its death. The most
remarkable case of this description is that in which Lieutenant Colt, of
the Fusiliers, reported his death at Sebastopol to his brother in
Scotland more than a fortnight before the news of the casualty arrived
in this country.

_The Case of Lieutenant Colt._

Captain G. F. Russell Colt, of Gartsherrie, Coatbridge, N.B., reports
the case as follows to the Psychical Society (Vol. i. page 125):--

"I had a very dear brother (my eldest brother), Oliver, lieutenant in
the 7th Royal Fusiliers. He was about nineteen years old, and had at
that time been some months before Sebastopol. I corresponded frequently
with him, and once when he wrote in low spirits, not being well, I said
in answer that he was to cheer up, but that if anything did happen to
him he was to let me know by appearing to me in my room. This letter, I
found subsequently, he received as he was starting to receive the
sacrament from a clergyman who has since related the fact to me.

"Having done this he went to the entrenchments and never returned, as in
a few hours afterwards the storming of the Redan commenced. He, on the
captain of his company falling, took his place and led his men bravely
on. He had just led them within the walls, though already wounded in
several places, when a bullet struck him in the right temple and he fell
amongst heaps of others, where he was found in a sort of kneeling
posture (being propped up by the other dead bodies) thirty-six hours
afterwards. His death took place, or rather he fell, though he may not
have died immediately, on September 8th, 1855.

"That night I awoke suddenly and saw facing the window of my room by my
bedside, surrounded by a light sort of phosphorescent mist, as it were,
my brother kneeling. I tried to speak but could not. I buried my head in
the bedclothes, not at all afraid (because we had all been brought up
not to believe in ghosts and apparitions), but simply to collect my
ideas, because I had not been thinking or dreaming of him, and indeed
had forgotten all about what I had written to him a fortnight before. I
decided that it must be fancy and the moonlight playing on a towel, or
something out of place; but on looking up again there he was, looking
lovingly, imploringly, and sadly at me. I tried again to speak, but
found myself tongue-tied. I could not utter a sound. I sprang out of
bed, glanced through the window, and saw that there was no moon, but it
was very dark and raining hard, by the sound against the panes. I turned
and still saw poor Oliver. I shut my eyes, walked through it, and
reached the door of the room. As I turned the handle, before leaving the
room, I looked once more back. The apparition turned round his head
slowly, and again looked anxiously and lovingly at me, and I saw then
for the first time a wound on the right temple with a red stream from
it. His face was of a waxy pale tint, but transparent looking, and so
was the reddish mark. But it was almost impossible to describe his
appearance. I only know I shall never forget it. I left the room and
went into a friend's room, and lay on the sofa the rest of the night. I
told him why, I also told others in the house, but when I told my father
he ordered me not to repeat such nonsense, and especially not to let my
mother know.

"On the Monday following I received a note from Sir Alexander Milne to
say that the Redan was stormed, but no particulars. I told my friend to
let me know if he saw the name among the killed and wounded before me.
About a fortnight later he came to my bedroom in his mother's house in
Athole Crescent in Edinburgh, with a very grave face. I said, 'I suppose
it is to tell me the sad news I expect,' and he said, 'Yes.' Both the
colonel of the regiment and one or two officers who saw the body
confirmed the fact that the appearance was much according to my
description, and the death-wound was exactly where I had seen it. His
appearance, if so, must have been some hours after death, as he appeared
to me a few minutes after two in the morning.

"Months later his little Prayer-book and the letter I had written to him
were returned to Inveresk, found in the inner breast pocket of the tunic
which he wore at his death. I have them now."

APPENDIX.

SOME HISTORICAL GHOSTS.

The following collection presents a list of names--more or less well
known--with which ghost stories of some kind are associated. The
authority for these stories, though in many cases good, is so varied in
quality that they are not offered as evidential of anything except the
wide diversity of the circles in which such things find acceptance.

_Royal._

Henry IV., of France, told d'Aubigne (see d'Aubigne Histoire
Universelle) that in presence of himself, the Archbishop of Lyons, and
three ladies of the Court, the Queen (Margaret of Valois) saw the
apparition of a certain cardinal afterwards found to have died at the
moment. Also he (Henry IV.) was warned of his approaching end, not long
before he was murdered by Ravaillac, by meeting an apparition in a
thicket in Fontainebleau. ("Sully's Memoirs.")

Abel the Fratricide, King of Denmark was buried in unconsecrated ground,
and still haunts the wood of Poole, near the city of Sleswig.

Valdemar IV. haunts Gurre Wood, near Elsinore.

Charles XI., of Sweden, accompanied by his chamberlain and state
physician, witnessed the trial of the assassin of Gustavus III., which
occurred nearly a century later.

James IV., of Scotland, after vespers in the chapel at Linlithgow, was
warned by an apparition against his intended expedition into England.
He, however, proceeded, and was warned again at Jedburgh, but,
persisting, fell at Flodden Field.

Charles I., of England, when resting at Daventree on the Eve of the
battle of Naseby, was twice visited by the apparition of Strafford,
warning him not to meet the Parliamentary Army, then quartered at
Northampton. Being persuaded by Prince Rupert to disregard the warning,
the King set off to march northward, but was surprised on the route, and
a disastrous defeat followed.

Orleans, Duke of, brother of Louis XIV., called his eldest son
(afterwards Regent) by his second title, Duc de Chartres, in preference
to the more usual one of Duc de Valois. This change is said to have been
in consequence of a communication made before his birth by the
apparition of his father's first wife, Henrietta of England, reported to
have been poisoned.

_Historical Women._

Elizabeth, Queen is said to have been warned of her death by the
apparition of her own double. (So, too, Sir Robert Napier and Lady Diana
Rich.)

Catherine de Medicis saw, in a vision, the battle of Jarnac, and cried
out, "Do you not see the Prince of Conde dead in the hedge?" This and
many similar stories are told by Margaret of Valois in her Memoirs.

Philippa, Wife of the Duke of Lorraine, when a girl in a convent, saw in
vision the battle of Pavia, then in progress, and the captivity of the
king her cousin, and called on the nuns about her to pray.

Joan of Arc was visited and directed by various Saints, including the
Archangel Michael, S. Catherine, S. Margaret, etc.

_Lord Chancellors._

Erskine, Lord, himself relates (Lady Morgan's "Book of the Boudoir,"
1829, vol. i. 123) that the spectre of his father's butler, whom he did
not know to be dead, appeared to him in broad daylight, "to meet your
honour," so it explained, "and to solicit your interference with my lord
to recover a sum due to me which the steward at the last settlement did
not pay," which proved to be the fact.

_Cabinet Ministers._

Buckingham, Duke of, was exhorted to amendment and warned of approaching
assassination by apparition of his father, Sir George Villiers, who was
seen by Mr. Towers, surveyor of works at Windsor. All occurred as
foretold.

Castlereagh, Lord (who succeeded the above as Foreign Secretary), when a
young man, quartered with his regiment in Ireland, saw the apparition of
"The Radiant Boy," said to be an omen of good. Sir Walter Scott speaks
of him as one of two persons "of sense and credibility, who both
attested supernatural appearances on their own evidence."

Peel, Sir Robert, and his brother, both saw Lord Byron in London in
1810, while he was, in fact, lying dangerously ill at Patras. During the
same fever, he also appeared to others, and was even seen to write down
his name among the inquirers after the King's health.

_Emperors._

Trajan, Emperor, was extricated from Antioch during an earthquake, by a
spectre which drove him out of a window. (Dio Cassius, lib. lxviii.)

Caracalla, Emperor, was visited by the ghost of his father Severus.

Julian the Apostate, Emperor, (1) when hesitating to accept the Empire,
saw a female figure, "The Genius of the Empire," who said she would
remain with him, but not for long. (2) Shortly before his death, he saw
his genius leave him with a dejected air. (3) He saw a phantom
prognosticating the death of the Emperor Constans. (See S. Basil.)

Theodosius, Emperor, when on the eve of a battle, was reassured of the
issue by the apparition of two men; also seen independently by one of
his soldiers.

_Soldiers._

Curtius Rufus (pro-consul of Africa) is reported by Pliny to have been
visited, while still young and unknown, by a gigantic female--the Genius
of Africa--who foretold his career. (Pliny, b. vii. letter 26.)

Julius Caesar was marshalled across the Rubicon by a spectre, which
seized a trumpet from one of the soldiers and sounded an alarm.

Xerxes, after giving up the idea of carrying war into Greece, was
persuaded to the expedition by the apparition of a young man, who also
visited Artabanus, uncle to the king, when, upon Xerxes' request,
Artabanus assumed his robe and occupied his place. (Herodotus, vii.)

Brutus was visited by a spectre, supposed to be that of Julius Caesar,
who announced that they would meet again at Philippi, where he was
defeated in battle, and put an end to his own life.

Drusus, when seeking to cross the Elbe, was deterred by a female
spectre, who told him to turn back and meet his approaching end. He died
before reaching the Rhine.

Pausanius, General of the Lacedaemonians, inadvertently caused the death
of a young lady of good family, who haunted him day and night, urging
him to give himself up to justice. (Plutarch in Simone.)

Dio, General, of Syracuse, saw a female apparition sweeping furiously in
his house, to denote that his family would shortly be swept out of
Syracuse, which, through various accidents was shortly the case.

Napoleon, at S. Helena, saw and conversed with the apparition of
Josephine, who warned him of his approaching death. The story is
narrated by Count Montholon, to whom he told it.

Blucher, on the very day of his decease, related to the King of Prussia
that he had been warned by the apparition of his entire family, of his
approaching end.

Fox, General, went to Flanders with the Duke of York shortly before the
birth of his son. Two years later he had a vision of the
child--dead--and correctly described its appearance and surroundings,
though the death occurred in a house unknown to him.

Garfield, General, when a child of six or seven, saw and conversed with
his father, lately deceased. He also had a premonition, which proved
correct, as to the date of his death--the anniversary of the battle of
Wickmauga, in which he took a brave part.

Lincoln, President, had a certain premonitory dream which occurred three
times in relation to important battles, and the fourth on the eve of his
assassination.

Coligni, Admiral, was three times warned to quit Paris before the Feast
of St. Bartholemew but disregarded the premonition and perished in the
Massacre (1572).

_Men of Letters._

Petrarch saw the apparition of the bishop of his diocese at the moment
of death.

Epimenides, a poet contemporary with Salon, is reported by Plutarch to
have quitted his body at will and to have conversed with spirits.

Dante, Jacopo, son of the poet, was visited in a dream by his father,
who conversed with him and told him where to find the missing thirteen
cantos of the Commedia.

Tasso saw and conversed with beings invisible to those about him.

Goethe saw his own double riding by his side under conditions which
really occurred years later. His father, mother, and grandmother were
all ghost-seers.

Donne, Dr., when in Paris, saw the apparition of his wife in London
carrying a dead child at the very hour a dead infant was in fact born.

Byron, Lord is said to have seen the Black Friar of Newstead on the eve
of his ill-fated marriage. Also, with others, he saw the apparition of
Shelley walk into a wood at Lerici, though they knew him at the time to
be several miles away.

Shelley, while in a state of trance, saw a figure wrapped in a cloak
which beckoned to him and asked, Siete soddisfatto?--are you satisfied?

Benvenuto Cellini, when in captivity at Rome by order of the Pope, was
dissuaded from suicide by the apparition of a young man who frequently
visited and encouraged him.

Mozart was visited by a mysterious person who ordered him to compose a
Requiem, and came frequently to inquire after its progress, but
disappeared on its completion, which occurred just in time for its
performance at Mozart's own funeral.

Ben Jonson, when staying at Sir Robert Cotton's house, was visited by
the apparition of his eldest son with a mark of a bloody cross upon his
forehead at the moment of his death by the plague. He himself told the
story to Drummond of Hawthornden.

Thackeray, W. M. writes, "It is all very well for you who have probably
never seen spirit manifestations, to talk as you do, but had you seen
what I have witnessed you would hold a different opinion."

Mrs. Browning's spirit appeared to her sister with warning of death.
Robert Browning writes, Tuesday, July 21st, 1863, "Arabel (Miss Barrett)
told me yesterday that she had been much agitated by a dream which
happened the night before--Sunday, July 19th. She saw _her_, and asked,
When shall I be with you? The reply was, Dearest, in five years, where
upon Arabel awoke. She knew in her dream that it was not to the living
she spoke." In five years, within a month of their completion, Miss
Barrett died, and Browning writes, "I had forgotten the date of the
dream, and supposed it was only three years, and that two had still to
run."

Hall, Bishop, and his brother, when at Cambridge each had a vision of
their mother looking sadly at them, and saying she would not be able to
keep her promise of visiting them. She died at the time.

Dr. Guthrie was directed, by repeated pullings at his coat, to go in a
certain direction, contrary to previous intention, and was thus the
means of saving the life of a parishioner.

Miller, Hugh, tells, in his "Schools and Schoolmasters," of the
apparition of a bloody hand, seen by himself and the servant but not by
others present. Accepted as a warning of the death of his father.

Porter, Anna Maria, when living at Esher, was visited one afternoon by
an old gentleman--a neighbour, who frequently came in to tea. On this
occasion he left the room without speaking, and fearing that something
had happened she sent to inquire, and found that he had died at the
moment of his appearance.

Edgworth, Maria, was waiting with her family for an expected guest, when
the vacant chair was suddenly occupied by the apparition of a sailor
cousin, who stated that his ship had been wrecked and he alone saved.
The event proved the contrary--he alone was drowned.

Marryat, Captain--the story is told by his daughter--while staying in a
country-house in the North of England saw the family ghost--an
ancestress of the time of Queen Elizabeth who had poisoned her husband.
He tried to shoot her, but the ball passed harmlessly into the door
behind, and the lady faded away--always smiling.

De Stael, Madame, was haunted by the spirit of her father, who
counselled and helped her in all times of need.

L.E.L.'s ghost was seen by Dr. Madden in the room in which she died at
Cape Coast Castle.

De Morgan, Professor, writes: "I am perfectly convinced that I have both
seen and heard, in a manner that should make unbelief impossible, things
called spiritual which cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable
of explanation by imposture, coincidence, or mistake."

Foote, Samuel, in the year 1740, while visiting at his father's house in
Truro, was kept awake by sounds of sweet music. His uncle was about the
same time murdered by assassins.

_Men of Science._

Davy, Sir Humphrey, when a young man, suffering from yellow fever on the
Gold Coast, was comforted by visions of his guardian angel, who, years
after, appeared to him again--incarnate--in the person of his nurse
during his last illness.

Harvey, William, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, used to
relate that his life was saved by a dream. When a young man he was
proceeding to Padua, when he was detained--with no reason alleged--by
the governor at Dover. The ship was wrecked, and all on board lost, and
it was then explained that the governor had received orders--in a
dream--to prevent a person, to whose description Harvey answered, from
going on board that night.

Farquhar, Sir Walter, physician (made a baronet in 1796), visited a
patient at Pomeroy Castle. While waiting alone a lady appeared to him,
exhibiting agony and remorse (who proved to be the family ghost)
prognosticating, the death of the patient, which followed.

Clark, Sir James, Wife of, while living in their house in Brook Street,
saw the apparition of her son, Dr. J. Clark, then in India, carrying a
dead baby wrapped in an Indian shawl. Shortly afterwards, he did, in
fact, send home the body of a child for interment, which had died at the
hour noted, to fill up the coffin it was wrapped up in an Indian scarf.

Herbert of Cherbury, Lord, one of the first to systematise deism, when
in doubt whether he should publish his "De Veritate," as advised by
Grotius, prayed for a sign, and heard sounds "like nothing on earth,
which did so comfort and cheer me, that I took my petition as granted."

Bacon, Francis, was warned in a dream of his father's approaching end,
which occurred in a few days.

_Theologians._

Luther, Martin, was visited by apparitions,--one, according to
Melancthon, who announced his coming by knocking at the door.

Melancthon says that the apparition of a venerable person came to him in
his study and told him to warn his friend Grynaeus to escape at once
from the danger of the Inquisition, a warning which saved his life.

Zwingli was visited by an apparition "with a perversion of a text of
Scripture."

Oberlin, Pastor, was visited almost daily by his deceased wife, who
conversed with him, and was visible not only to himself, but to all
about him.

Fox, George, while walking on Pendle Hill, Yorkshire, saw his future
converts coming towards him "along a river-side, to serve the Lord."

Newman, Cardinal, relates in a letter, Jan. 3rd, 1833, that when in
quarantine in Malta, he and his companions heard footsteps not to be
accounted for by human agency.

Wilberforce, Bishop, experienced remarkable premonitions, and phenomena
even more startling are attributed to him.

Saints.--The stories of visions, apparitions, etc. which are told in
connection with the Saints are far too numerous to quote. The following,
however, may be referred to as of special interest:--(1) _Phantasms of
the Living._--St. Ignatius Loyala, Gennadius (the friend of St.
Augustine), St. Augustine himself, twice over (he tells the story
himself, Serm. 233), St. Benedict and St. Meletius, all appeared during
life in places distant from their actual bodily whereabouts. (2)
_Phantasms of the Dead._--St. Anselm saw the slain body of William
Rufus, St. Basil that of Julian the Apostate, St. Benedict the ascent to
heaven of the soul of St. Germanus, bishop of Capua--all at the moment
of death. St. Augustine and St. Edmund, Archbishops of Canterbury, are
said to have conversed with spirits. St. Ambrose and St. Martin of Tours
received information concerning relics from the original owners of the
remains. (3) _Premonitions._--St. Cyprian and St. Columba each foretold
the date and manner of his own death as revealed in visions.

_Miscellaneous._

Harcourt, Countess when Lady Nuneham, mentioned one morning having had
an agitating dream, but was met with ridicule. Later in the day Lord
Harcourt--her husband's father--was missing. She exclaimed, "Look in the
well," and fainted away. He was found there with a dog, which he had
been trying to save.

Aksakoff, Mme., wife of Chancellor Aksakoff, on the night of May 12th,
1855, saw the apparition of her brother, who died at the time. The story
is one very elaborate as to detail.

Rich, Lady Diana, was warned of her death by a vision of her own double
in the avenue of Holland House.

Breadalbane, May, Lady, her sister (both daughters of Lord Holland), was
also warned in vision of her death.

The Daughter of Sir Charles Lee.--This story, related by the Bishop of
Gloucester, 1662, is very well known. On the eve of her intended
marriage with Sir W. Perkins, she was visited by her mother's spirit,
announcing her approaching death at twelve o'clock next day. She
occupied the intervening time with suitable preparations, and died
calmly at the hour foretold.

Beresford, Lady, wife of Sir Tristam, before her marriage in 1687, made
a secret engagement with Lord Tyrone, that which ever should die first
would appear to the other. He fulfilled his promise on October 15th,
1693, and warned her of her death on her forty-eighth birthday. All was
kept secret, but after the fated day had passed, she married a second
time, and appeared to enter on a new lease of life. Two years later,
when celebrating her birthday, she accidentally discovered that she was
two years younger than had been supposed, and expired before night. The
story is one of the best known and most interesting in ghost-lore.

Fanshawe, Lady, when visiting in Ireland, heard the banshee of the
family with whom she was visiting, one of whom did in fact die during
the night. She also relates (in her "Memoirs," p. 28) that her mother
once lay as dead for two days and a night. On her return to life she
informed those about her that she had asked of two apparitions, dressed
in long, white garments, for leave, like Hezekiah, to live for fifteen
years, to see her daughter grow up, and that it was granted. She died in
fifteen years from that time.

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