Evening Star Newspaper, January 8, 1933, Page 63

Features Fiction he Sunday - Stad | Magasine WASHINGTON, D. C - Art Notes | | Books JANUARY 8, 1933 VERY CASTLE HAS A It Is Said That Strange Things Occur, Usually at Night, in Man y of Europe’s Ancient Castles. Unearthly Noises, Mysterious Voices and Hair-Raising Apparitions—If They Are Not Ghosts, What Are They?—Interesting Tales of the Best Known Specters. HERE are many peo- ple in this modern world of ours who sneer at the mention of ghosts. “Non- sense!” they declare, “Such things do not exist! Show me one!” Yet those who loudly proclaim that they do not be- lieve in ghosts probably would draw back if asked to spend a night alone in haunted Glamis Castle, the Palace of the Louvre or the locked bed- chamber of the Palace of Belgrade. Most royal palaces have their ghosts, but in many cases only the royal family and their retainers know of the phantoms and the outside world seldom hears the full story. In England no place is more haunted than the Tower of London. Scarcely any part of the tower is with- out its ghosts or its ghostly On the night of May 18 each year there appezars one of the most authentic ghosts of the tower. This restle® spirit is that of “the Lady in White.” When the full moon rides high in the sky her dim fig- ure can be seen walking along the battlements, wringing her hands and weeping. She is very beautiful, with a slen- der figure, and she wears a magnificent Tudor period dress. This unhappy iady is re- ported to have been seen fre- quently, but no one has been able to identify her facial features. Yet there is a sig- nificance in the date she chooses for her annual ap- pearance, for on the morning of May 19 Anne Boleyn, one of the wives of King Henry VIII, died beneath the heads- man’s ax. IKE many ghost stories, several connected with the Tower of London have no satisfactory conclusion. Many years ago a very strange thing happened to an officer of the guard, which is looked upon as one of the chief mysteries of the tower. He chanced one night to be passing the Norman Chapel when he noticed a light issuing from a window above his head. Thinking this strange, and expecting to discover some one in there without law- ful purpose, he secured a ladder and put it up to the window. Climbing up, he looked in, and saw something so hor- rible that he fell to the ground, terror stricken. Nor could he ever he induced to say what he had seen. The Serbs are notoriously a supersti- tious race, and it may very well be that the story of the sealed room of the Palace of Belgrade is Based entirely on fears of the supernatural engrained in the minds of the palace servants. But if you believe that ghosts do haunt the scenes of tragedy, then you could not deny their existence in the palace that was so recently the scene of one of the most fearful tragedies of history. The story goes that there is one room which is never opened in the Palace of Belgrade. It is locked and sealed, and ‘Draga was formed. “In many cases only the royal family By the Hon. Mrs. Frances Lascelles those whose duty brings them into its vicinity at night hurry past with silent footfalls, not daring to stop lest they see or hear something of the ghostly tragedy which, they say, is re-enacted within by the wraiths of those who can- not sleep. In this room, in 1903, King Alexander and his beautiful wife, Draga, called “the divine,” were murdered in the most fearful circumstances. Since that night the bedchamber has been kept locked, unused. King Alexander met Draga, who was one of his mother’s ladies-in-waiting, at Biarritz, where she was instrumental in saving him from drowning. Falling in love with his beautiful rescuer, the King insisted on marrying her, although aware of the unpopularity of the union in Serbia. His tenure of the throne was nade all the more insecure by this act, and a conspiracy against Alexander and It was headed by Col. Maschin, Draga’s brother-in-law. It was Maschin who headed the band of assassins that burst into the palace on the fatal night. Smashing down the and their retainers know of the phantoms.” door of the royal bed room, they tore their victims from their bed. Queen Draga was shot by Col. Maschin, and then, as she screamed with terror and pain, was stabbed to death with sabers in a corner of the room. THE King tried to escape by the window, and although shot through the body managed to hang from the sill for some time. But at last repeated blows of a saber broke his hold and he fell into the courtyard. Not content with what they had done, the assassins smashed everything in the bed room, flinging chairs and tables and blood-stained hangings and gar- ments in all directions. The body of the Queen was thrown into the courtyard, and there the two dead monarchs lay until the Russian Minister, Tcharikoff, insisted on their removal. So terrible was the assassins’ work that when servants, sent to restore order, saw the state of the royal bedchamber they fled in terror and refused to return. At last a majordomo locked up the room, leaving it as it was—and thus, if rumor be true, it remains. syHOS In view of the terrible hap- penings in this room, it is hardly surprising that legends of ghostly happenings have grown up around it. It is said that on the anniversary of that night in June, 1903, the scene of death is re-enacted and that the secreams of the unh®ppy queen and the oaths of the assassins can be heard again. Servants who have left the royal employ assert that they have heard the ghostly sounds. "One has re- lated how, crossing the courtyard, he heard a scream. He looked up and saw a win- dow open in the sealed room, and the king hanging by his hands until he dropped with an agonizing shriek into the court. Most royal houses are cred- ited with the possession of a “banshee,” or death-warning, and of those which haunt the palace as foretellers of death or disaster few are more in- teresting than “the White Lady of the Hohenzollerns.” Acording to the stories, the White Lady made -her ap- pearance to Germany’s ruling house on several occasions, and is said to have appeared at Potsdam on that fatal eve in August, 1914, when a Hohenzollern gave orders that were to end in his own down- fall. More than 300 years ago, in 1628, the White Lady was met by a minor princess on a ter- race outside the Castle of Neuhaus, in Bohemia. Being possessed of considerable courage, the princess ap- proached the specter, and found her to be a beautiful young woman, dressed in the clothes of a bygone age, but with eyes that were red with weeping. As the princess came closer the White Lady glided to the end of the terrace, raised her hands to the moon, and cried out: “Come! Judge the quick and the dead! I wait for judgment!” The princess’ story aroused consider- able interest, for although the legend was known, no one had been able to identify the White Lady. The princess went through the portrait gallery at Neuhaus and pointed dut two pictures which were very much like her. One was that of a princess, the other of a long-dead Countess of Orlamunde. For years it could not be decided which the White Lady was, and it was the Kaiser himself who was eventually in- strumental in discovering the identity of his family ghost. A princess and her daughter were visit- ing at Potsdam and were allotted apart- ments on the ground floor overlooking a terrace, where the little girl used to play. Ome day the child was surprised to see a lady dressed in white sitting en - the terrace playing a harp. She ran up to her, whereupon the harpist vanished, The child ran to her mother, and the two went out on the terrace searching for the strange harpist. There was the White Lady again, seated before a harp. The princess raised her stick and made to strike the interloper, but before the