Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1905-04-19
SOME ROYAL GHOSTS
spEcTERs THAT PRowL ABOUT OLD
COUNTRY PALACES.

Queen Elizabeth Has Weakness
For Windsor and Catherine of Ar
aEOn For Hampton Court-Prus-
sia's White Lady.
The report that Queen Elizabeth has
again been seen promenading the libra
ry of Windsor castle reminds one of
the curious fact that, with but one soli-
tary exception, these restless royalties
who cannot sleep peacefully in their
graves are women.
1t Is some years now since Queen
Bess was last caught in the act of re-
visiting her old palace at Windsor, and
the circumstances We're these: A young
officer of the guards was reading one
evening In the library when he saw u
woman, clad from head to heels in
black, walk slowly across the library
and pass into an adjacent room. The
officer, moved by curiosity ut such an
unexpected sight, followed the lady
and to his amazemcnt found that she
had vanished us completely from view
as If the floor had swallowed her, and
this although the only exit from the
room was the one through which he
had followed her.
Why the wandering lady should on
such slight evidence be identified as
Elizabeth of glorious memory is not
made clear, but ut Windsor castle it is
firmly believed that Anne Boleyn's
daughter still tenants suit of rooms
adjacent to the library.
Hampton Court palace is richer than
the castle of Windsor in royal spooks.
Catherine of Aragon, in spite of her
not too pleasant memories of her hus-
band, Henry Will, is said still to walk
In black attire, taper in hand down one
OF the staircases and to disappear
through the Queens gate" and, more
disconcerting still, Henry's second
Catherine has, so they say, been seen
rushing along corridor with stream
Ing hair and white apparel, closely pur-
sued by equally unsubstantial soldiers
bent on capturing her.
This is supposed to be re-enactment
of a scene which actually took place
not many days before Catherine How
ards death on Tower hill in 1912. The
unhappy queen, who was then pris-
oner in room adjoining the long gal
lery, escaped from her guards and rush.
ed away to throw herself at the feet
OF her royal husband and beg for mer-
cy. She was pursued by her guards,
who caught her at the door of the chap
ell where Henry was praying and drag
ged her back again to her prison cham
Der.
Ill fated Anne Boleyn does not seem
to have ended her troubles on the block
at the Tower, for has she not been seen
driving down the avenue of Buckley
park behind four hcadless horses, driv-
en- by. an equally incomplete coach
man? And fair Rosamond seems doom
ed to walk O. nights along the river
bank at Godstone, awaiting her royal
lover, who never keeps his tryst
But English royalties have by no
means n monopoly of postmortem per-
ambulation. There is certain beauti-
full white lady, very fair and queenly,
who is said to haunt the rooms and cor
ridors of the castle of Schonbrunn.
Fair rs the vision is, her appearances
are never welcome, for they are said
always to herald death in the Inn
perial family of Austria. She was seen
in 1867 just before Maximtlian, en-
peror Of Mexico and brother of the Aus.
TRAN emperor, was foully murdered
and again before the deaths of Arch
duke Rudolph and his mother, the beau
tiful empress.
The royal house Of Prussia also has
its white lady," who is only seen in
the palace at Berlin before the death
of some member of the reigning family
Unlike her sister of Schonbrunn castle
however, the white lady Of Germany is
said to be Ill favored, If not downright
repulsive, and instead Of torch or scep.
ter she carries in her hand common
or domestic broom; hence she has been
irreverently christened 1.-THE sweeper"
There are white ladies' attached to
other European courts, notably that Of
Hesse- Darmstadt, the lady who. inspir.
ed Wagner's "Lohengrin," but the odd
est of all these royal wraiths is GER
tainly the red man who confines his
patronage to the royalties of France
He used to dog the steps of Catherine
de- Medici, wife Of one French king
and mother of three, along the corri
doris at the Tuileries; he had long In
terview, SO it is chronicled. with the
great Napoleon before he started on his
III starred Russian cnmnOign and A