A GHOST STORY.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XVI, Issue 307, 27 December 1881, Page 3

A GHOST STORY.

The * Pall Mall Gszette" bas received the following extraordinary narrative from * correspondent for wbo*e good faith and professional scat_ n_ an of observation it c%r_ v-uicb. He substantiates his story with fall details of dates, Damps, and places, whicb, however, for tbe sake of ihe survivors, he does not wish to be published :— As my wife and I were sitting; at breakfast with a guest whom I will call Mr A — then on a visit for the first time to our house and neighbourhood — our maid servant passed out of tbe room on her way to the kitchen. As she closed the door, Mr A. 8 artled me by saying, *■ I saw a spirit o 1 a maD following that woman, who, as he pas»pd, said distinctly in my he ring, M Ood judgeth not as man judgeth. I was innocent of the murder for whioh I have been banged I was there, but I did not strike the blow.'" " Wbat is it like?" I asked. He replied by describing: a young Irishman, whom I recognised at once as the husband of my domestic, who a year or two before had been executed on the charge of murder. A,, a complete b ranger to the locality, had only met me for the first time two days before, and he was totally ignorant of the crime in which my servant was so deeply interested. For obvious reasons the subject was never alluded to in our household, where the widow was regarded with feelings of sympathy, which led ua to avoid as much as possible all reference to her husband's fate. I had previously good reason to doubt whether the evidence against him justified his execution. He had died protesting bis innocence. His wife and friends were firmly convinced that, although he had been in the fight, it was not by his hand the fatal blow had been dealt. In addition to this, I had good reason to believe that the real murderer was still at large. Tou can easily imagine my astonishment when Mr A. thus suddenly ventured npon forbidden ground, and abruptly declared that the spirit of a man who had Buffered the capital penalty, and whose personal appearance exactly coincided with that of the unfortunate Irishman ,was actually following the servant about the house, proclaiming his innocence in accents which, although inaudible to me, my guest declared were perfectly audible to him. I had heard that Mr A. had been a "seer," but I was not a little startled at this striking illustration of hia peculiar faculty. I remarked that it wss very strange, and informed him that the woman whom he had just seen for the first time with her ghostly companion wag really the widow of an eiecuted felon. Some time alterwards he exclaimed : " There he is again, repeating the same words !" Intensely interested by this sudden and apparently Buperuatoral confirmation of my snspicione. I determined to put the seer-hip of my guest to what I regarded as a crucial test. I told Mr A that shortly afterwards I waß going into the town, and as I should be passing the spot where the murder was committed perhaps his ghostly visitant might indicate the place where the dead man lay. When we left the house Mr A. remarked, ' There be is following us,' alluding to the " spirit." When we bad proceeded part of tb. way along the road, which was quite unknown to my friend. I mad > a < 6 <>ur to make a business call and went »1 <in_ another street. Mr A, following m_. Just as, without a word on my part we were fuming out of the main road, Mr A. said * The spirit ia standing »» tbe c mer. H^ sbjs we a»e n<>t goi. g the righr. way towards the place wher.tht. murder was c-mmitted. and whio be bhß promised to point out to me " J replied, " Oh, *c _ hall com* l ou*- in >r^ main road again by-and-by before we reach the spot." We proceeded on about a quarter of a roile, and baying done my business, and struck the main road again — which differed, I may remark, from none of the other roads we had traversed — Mr A. soon after declared, "There is that man just oa there waiting for us." As we continued our walk, I purposely refrained from uttering a word, or even from thinking, as far as I could, about the murder, so as to prevent any possibility of my companion obtaining any clue. As we were passing through one of the lowest parts of the town Mr A. suddenly exclaimed : — " He tells me it was here the murder was committed. It was just there (pointing to the place in the road where the murdered man fell). I see the hubbub and confusion rise before me as a picture, with the people around. He, however, again tells me that he did not strike the fatal blow. He does not excuse himself from being morally mixed up with those who accomplished the death of the man, but strongly maintains that he was not the murderer." I will only add in relation to the last incident that Mr A. described the exact spot where the murder was committed, and the circumstances in connection therewith. How can you account for that? Mr A. had never been in the town before; he had never lived within a couple of hundred miles of it ; he did not know within a day or two before he arrived that he would ever visit it j he could not by any possibility have known that the poor woman in my employ was the widow of a man who was hanged. He had no conceivable interest in deceiving me, nor was he concerned to pro. ecute the matter any further. I have in vain attempted to account for his story, nor can I on any popular hypothesis explain to my own satisfaction how he saw that ghost at noonday. 1 hat he did see it he assured me, much to my surprise, wh.n no one expected any such revelation; and, whatever he saw, it certainly led him to the exact spot where the murder waa committed.

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