Une apparition en robe blanche ave une lumière brilante – Un cheval et cavalier terrifiés.
[De l'Eagle de Reading (Pennsylvanie)]
Une affaire palpitante a eu lieu il y a quelques nuits près de Sheridan. Notre informateur, qui jusqu'ici ne croyait pas aux fantômes ni aux hobgoblins, et qui est un homme aux nerfs calmes et d'acier, a été si unstrung par la vision horrible présentée à lui qu'il est plutôt peu enclin à discuter du suject. Les faits suivants, cependant, furent glanés de son récit de l'événement :
He was on his way home, on a rather dark and misty night, on horseback, and, as usual, without any thought of danger or of supernatural things, and, when some distance this side of Sheridan, he was astonished at the terror of his horse, which endeavored to turn back, and seemed wild with fright. On looking ahead, a little to one side, the rider was stricken first with astonishment, then with fear, at beholding a bright light on the bank of the lonely creek, at first gleaming brilliantly, and then gradually decreasing in intensity, until it almost disappeared, seeming to recede as if borne backward with incredible rapidity.
Stimulated by curiosity, he endeavored to approach it more closely, but his terrified horse refused to go forward, vainly struggling to turn and rush away. As the light almost disappeared in the distance the trembling animal was urged forward, and was already past the place where it had first appeared, which was some little distance from the road, when far up in a field of rising ground the light again appeared, borne by what appeared to be a human figure, clothed in white, approaching with amazing rapidity, while as it advanced, evidently gliding along the ground, the light, which it seemed to be carrying in one hand, blazed forth with fast increasing brilliancy.
What it was like he could not exactly say, but it was something shadowy and indistinct, and yet horrible and ghastly in the extreme. Horse and rider were motionless with wonder and curiosity, but when the horrible phantom had approached within about 100 yards, terror became master, and the frightened horse sprang forward with a burst of speed that almost unseated his master, and stopped not until he was at his own stable-door, when he was quickly put within, and the man, without mentioning the matter even to his wife, hastened to bed and spent a sleepless night.
His haggard appearance next day caused inquiry, and he was induced to give his account of the matter to an Eagle representative. It is hinted that a horrible tragedy once occurred near the haunted spot, and that the phantom is seen once every fifty years. How much truth there is in this latter statement our informant was unable to say; but he intends to leave the investigation to some one else, having had enough of ghosts for a long time to come.