New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1860-12-03
The Ghost In the Tower.

We find in Notes and Queries'' tie following
ghost story, which is related by Edmund Lenthal
Swifte:
have often, purposed to leave behind me a
faithful record of all that personally know of
this strange story. Forty three years have passed,
and its impression is as wildly before me as on
the moment of it's occurrence. Anecdotage, said
Wilkes, is an old mans dotage; and at So may
be suspected ofiapsing into omissions or exaggera-
tons; but there yet survivors who can testify
that have net at any time either amplifed or
abridged my ghostly experiences.
In 1914, was appointed keeper Of the crown
| jewels in the Tower, where ! resided with my
| family till my retirement in 1852. One Saturday
night in October, 1917, about "ths Witehing hour,
was at supper with my wife, our little boy, and
her sister, in the sittingroom of the Jewel House,
which, then comparatively undetermined, is said to
have been the "doleful prison. Of Anna Boleyn,
and of the ten bishops whom Oliver Cromwell
piously accommodated therein. The room YVES,
it still is, irregularly shaped having three dooFs
and two windows, which last are cnt nearly nine
feet deep into the outer wall; between these is
chmney-pi projecting far into the room, and
(then1 surinounted with large oil picture. On
the night In question the doors were all closed,
heavy and dark cloth enrtains were let down
the windows, and the only light in the roon.Was
that of two candles on the table.
sat at the foot of the table, my SON on myFight
hand, his mother fronting tie chimney-pieces and
her sister the opposite side. | had Offered
glass of wine and-water8to my wife, when, on
putting it to her lips, she paused, and exclaimed,
/ 'GO0d. GQQE WHAT Is INt.ss+t i lQUheu anu
saw, o eylndrical figure, Ike glass tube, SEEM
ingly about the thickness of my arm and towering
between the ceiling and the table; its contents APP
neared to he dense fluid white and pale azure,
like teathe gathering OF assuInmer cloud and inees-
sanity, rolling and mingiing within tbs cylinder.
| This lasted about two, minutes, when it began
slowly to move before my sister-in-iaw; then, fob
lowing the oblong shape OF the tabis, before ny
son and myself; passing behind my vile, it paused
| EfoF 3 naoment over her right shoulder. Observe
4 there MAS no mirror opposite 10 her IN which sht
Icead In en- behold it. Instantly she oronched down
AID, vi til both hands covering her shoulder, SHE
lshrieke out, "Oh, Christ? it has seized me
Sven -aow, while writing, feel the fresh horror o
that loment. | oaught up my CHAIR struck at thu
ains cot behind her, rushed up stairs to the othe
1ild renis room, and told the terrified nurse what
Ehad seen. Meanwhile, the other domestcs hal
Ehau led into the parlor, where their mistress re
cDr .nted to them the scene, even as was detaln!
Hin above stairs.
II "The marvel--some will say absurdity-of al
tt lis is enhanced by the fact that neither my sister
, Ia-aw nor my son beheld this appearance
Il Following hard at heel the visitation OF m,
4 household, one of the night sentries at the Jewe
J, Office was, as he said, alarmed by figure like
| huge bear issuing from underneath the door: h
| thrust at it with his bayonet, which stuck in tn
a door, even as my chair dinted the wainscot; b
' dropped in fit, and was carried senseless to tn
| guard-room His fellew-sentry declared that tn
man neither asleep nor drunk, he himself hay
e | ing seen him moment before awake and sober
{ OF all this ayouch nothing more than that say
/: the poor man in the guard-house Frustrated wit
g terror, and that i'll two or three days the fata
result, be it of factor of fancy wasthat he d1eo
n " My story may claim more space than you ca
1 afford . desiring TO be eireumsantial, ! have bee
diffuss This leave TO the editors discretion: lie
i it only be understood that to all which | hav
r therein set forth seen by myself, J. absolutel
pledge my faith and my honor.