Читаем Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 25, No. 2, August 13, 1927 полностью

Flynn’s Weekly Detective Fiction. Vol. 25, No. 2, August 13, 1927

Alexander Stewart , Allen Saunders , Carl Maddox , Peter Perry , Zeta Rothschild

“The terrified sentry remained at his post and sufficiently collected his wits to note every detail of the appalling sight.

“Slowly the headless bearers, with their ghastly burden, followed by the White Lady, moved away; and the man when he made his official report the next day, stated that he saw the figures gradually disappear ‘from the feet up.’

“The meaning of this appearance of the White Lady was soon revealed. Frederick William IV had been in poor health for some time, and during this visit to the Palace of Pillnitz the first grave symptoms of the distressing malady which later deprived him of his reason showed themselves.

“In the following October he was struck down with brain seizure, and his condition speedily became so bad that on the twenty-seventh of the same month the Prince of Prussia was reluctantly compelled to assume the regency. For three years the unhappy king lived with only a few occasional intervals of sanity, and died on January 2, 1861.”

When Mrs. Fraser’s husband was attached to the British Legation at Dresden, soon after the White Lady’s appearance, this terrible experience of the sentry at the Palace of Pillnitz was still a much discussed topic.

The latest appearance of the White Lady was, as already mentioned, during the World War. Disaster followed for the House of Hohenzollern.

The Dead Stambuloff

In an article in the Occult Review of November, 1915, Elliot O’Donnell states that Ferdinand, the King of Bulgaria, was haunted perpetually by the ghost of Stambuloff, the minister whose death he brought about in 1895.

“On several occasions,” he writes, “when Ferdinand had been seen out driving, or even walking, the spectators — though possibly those gifted with psychic powers only — have seen beside him a figure which they have easily recognized as the dead minister.

“On one occasion, when Ferdinand was visiting a certain princess, the latter seemed strangely agitated, as did her lady in waiting.

“Upon the latter being asked what was the matter with her and her royal mistress, she replied in an agitated whisper, that they were disturbed by the sight of the man who persisted in standing just behind his highness, and who looked just like a corpse.

“Her questioner said that the figure was quite invisible to him, but on her describing it, no doubt was left in his mind that what she and the princess had seen was the ghost of Stambuloff.

“On another occasion Ferdinand visited a pretty little Hungarian fortune teller and had his hand read. Then, thinking to trap the girl, he came to her again the next day, this time in disguise.

“Rather to his chagrin — for he flattered himself that his make-up was particularly good — the pretty fortune teller recognized him immediately as the gentleman who had consulted her the day before, and told him that she had been expecting him.

“ ‘How is that?’ asked Ferdinand. ‘Why, I’ve told nobody.’ ”

The girl answered that the gentleman who had accompanied him on his former visit had been to see her half an hour before, and told her that the king was already coming.

“Ferdinand, now becoming highly agitated, asked her to describe this strange person. She did so, and the description exactly tallied with that of the dead Stambuloff, while to his increasing horror the girl added that the gentleman had said to her:

“ ‘Tell him when he comes that he will perish in much the same manner as I have,’ and showed her his own hand.

“Ferdinand then asked the girl what she had seen written there, and she answered that she had seen the same ending to the life-line as she saw in his own; but what it was she would rather not say.

“Then she suddenly cried out that she saw his friend beckoning to him. But Ferdinand had heard enough, and, turning on his heel, left her hurriedly.”