This anecdote he
selects out of "many stories scattered abroad at the time" as "upon a
better foundation of credit". The percipient was an officer in the
king's wardrobe at Windsor, "of a good reputation for honesty and
discretion," and aged about fifty. He was bred at a school in Sir
George's parish, and as a boy was kindly treated by Sir George, "whom
afterwards he never saw". On first beholding the spectre in his room,
the seer recognised Sir George's costume, then antiquated. At last
the seer went to Sir Ralph Freeman, who introduced him to the duke on
a hunting morning at Lambeth Bridge. They talked earnestly apart,
observed by Sir Ralph, Clarendon's informant. The duke seemed
abstracted all day; left the field early, sought his mother, and after
a heated conference of which the sounds reached the ante-room, went
forth in visible trouble and anger, a thing never before seen in him
after talk with his mother. She was found "overwhelmed with tears and
in the highest agony imaginable". "It is a notorious truth" that,
when told of his murder, "she seemed not in the least degree
surprised.
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