A REMARKABLE GHOST STORY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 869, 23 July 1910, Page 4

A REMARKABLE GHOST STORY.

The newspapers in Lisbon devote considerable attention to what surely will be one of the most remarkable “ghost stories" of recent years. The incidents related are said to have occurred at the country residence, near Coimbra, ot an elderly judge, a large rambling mansion, chosen by its present resident largely on account of its isolation.

The gentleman in question recently married a young wife, and it was just previous to the marriage that he rented the house, which was destined to prove so troublesome a property, and to which the couple retired soon afterwards. The old gentleman was a heavy sleeper, but his young bride was alarmed by strange noises almost immediately after they had arrived at tire place —noises of knocking upon windows, of opening and shutting of doors, and of footsteps along the corridors, which were audible only after all lights had been put out for the night. For a time she said nothing to her husband, fearing that he would only laugh at her fancies, but when an intimate friend of the family chanced to call, she confided to him her fears, and assured him that if the noises continued she would go mad. The friend thereupon agreed to keep watch one night outside the couple’s bedroom without saying anything to the husband on the subject. Immediately the lights were out the strange noises were heard, and the watcher felt assured that footsteps were approaching him in the corridor. Suddenly the bedroom door was flung open by some invisible agency, and the husband awoke to the sound of his wife’s screams. She had jumped terrorstricken from the bed, and outside in the corridor the husband found their friend bitting out wildly at some invisible object. All noises, had, however ceased the moment the light was struck, and considerable explanation was required to convince the old man that nothing more serious than a ghost story was the cause of the strange scene.

The following night the husband and friend watched together, and as soon as the lights were extinguished they were aware ot the strange manifestations. Suddenly the husband felt a small box on the ears, and hit out sharply in reply. His friend struck a light, and nothing was to be seen or heard. As the match died down sounds were again heard, proceeding apparently from a room opposite to the bedroom. The two men opened the door and rushed in, but hardly had they entered when the door was slammed behind them, and they found it locked. A shrill scream of terror was heard fram the wife now alone in her bedroom, and, rushing at it with all their force, the men burst open the door and ran into the other room, to find the woman in a swoon on the floor. The judge and his wife left the place next day, unable to face the unknown and unseen terror again, and the young wife is stated to be in a serious condition as the result of her terrible experiences. The police were informed of the matter, and three men were set to watch for a night in the haunted bedroom and along the corridor, but shortly after the lights had been extinguished the man stationed in the corridor was heard wildly shouting, and the others, on going to his assistance, found him hammering madly at the walls, quite insane. An extraordinary feature of the manifestations, if the newspapers may be relied upon, is that the servants who have slept in another wing of the house, have never heard the slightest noise or witnessed anything unusual until the night when they were aroused by the struggle in the bedroom.