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The Affliction of Margaret has been the affliction of most of us.
There are curious historical examples of these appearances of the
living. Goethe declares that he once met himself at a certain place
in a certain dress, and several years later found himself there in
that costume. Shelley was seen by his friends at Lerici to pass along
a balcony whence there was no exit. However, he could not be found
there. The story of the wraith of Catherine the Great is variously
narrated. We give it as told by an eye-witness, the Comte de
Ribaupierre, about 1862 to Lady Napier and Ettrick. The Count, in
1862, was a very old man, and more than thirty years have passed since
he gave the tale to Lady Napier, whose memory retains it in the
following form:--
THE WRAITH OF THE CZARINA
"In the exercise of his duties as one of the pages-in-waiting,
Ribaupierre followed one day his august mistress into the throne-room
of the palace. When the Empress, accompanied by the high officers of
her court and the ladies of her household, came in sight of the chair
of state which she was about to occupy, she suddenly stopped, and to
the horror and astonished awe of her courtiers, she pointed to a
visionary being seated on the imperial throne.
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