Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1911-10-27
ROYAL SPOOKS.
Shades That Have Wandered Through
European Palaces.


European Palaces.
England Is rich in royal spooks. Not
so very long ago the shade OF no less
a parsonage than good Queen Bess
was caught visiting the old palace. at
Windsor. The story is that one even
ing, while a young officer OF the
guards was reading in the library, he
saw a woman, clad from head to heels
in black, walk slowly across the room
and pass into an adjacent room. The
officer, naturally amazed at such an
unexpected visit, followed the spook;
but It soon vanished from his view
as completely as If the floor had
swallowed 1t up, and this although
the only exit through the room was
one through which he had followed
the shade.
Hampton court palace Is richer In
royal spooks than the castle at Wind
sor. Catherine Of Arragon, despite
her none too pleasant memories OF
Henry VIII, is reported still to walk
in black attire, taper in hand, down
one of the staircases and to disappear
through the Queens gate" Henry's
second Catherine, too, continues to
visit this world, and Ehere are not
wanting those who assert that she
nay be seen rushing along a corri-
dor with streaming hair, closely pur-
sued by soldier ghosts, apparently
bent on capturing her. This Is sup
posed to be a re-enactment of the
scene that actually took place not
many days before Catherine How
ards death on Tower Hill In 1912
The unhappy queen, who was then
prisoner in a room adjoining the lone
gallery. escaped from her guards and
rushed to throw herself at the feet
of her royal husband. there to plead
for mercy. She was pursued by her
guards, who caught her at the door
of the chapel. where Henry was al
the time at his devotions, and dragged
her back to her prison chamber.
The ill-fated Anne Boleyn does
not seem to have ended her troubles
on the block, for she Is to be seen
driving down the avenue Of Berkeley
mark behind four headless horses,
driven by coachmen also lacking
heads. Fair ROsamond is doomed to
walk o nights along the river bank
at Godstone. awaiting her royal lover
who never keeps his tryst.
Put English royalties have by no
means a monopoly Of the spook busi-
ness. There is a certain beautiful
white lady" very fair and very
uueenly, who haunts the corridors of
the castle of Schonbrunn. Fair as
the apparition may be, her appear
ances are never welcomed, seeing
that they are always to herald death
in the imperial family of Austria.
This ghost was seen in 1867. just be-
fore the execution Of Maximilian in
Mexico. and just before the tragic
death of the Archduke Rudolph and
that of his mother, the beautiful en-
press.
The royal house Of Prussia has also
it's white lady" who Is seen in the
palace at Berlin only before the death
of some member of the reigning fam
ily. Unlike her sister of the castle
of Schonbrunn, this white lady" is
not of fair aspect. but downright re-
pulsivr. Instead of torch or scepter.
this spook bears a broom, a circum-
stance that has led the irreverent to
dub her THE Sweeper"
There are white ladies' attached
to other European courts. notably that
Of Hesse- Darmstadt, the spook that
is said to have inspired Wagner S
"Lohengrin": but the oldest of all
these royal wraiths is certainly the
red man." who confines his patron
age to the French. He Is said all
these centuries to have dogged the
footsteps Of Catherine de Medici and
a long list Of French royalties follow
ing her. His favorite ground is the
Tuilleries. He Is reported to have
had a long interview with Napoleon
prior to the Corsican's entrance upon
the Russian adventure; so it may he
that through not following the spec
ter's advice Ronaparte had such a
sad homecoming. The red man"
was also seen by the Empress Eu-
genie shortly before disaster over
took her husband.-Harper's Weekly.