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228 THE WHITE GHOST OF BERLIN".
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Dating Of Its Foundation Its Origin Alik...
and Ifashion that extends she had Its " influ changed ence with even the into times the _reg ' In ions point of g of hbstdom attire .
But who was the personage represented by this colourless vision which had gleamed palely before so many . credible witnesses and
been attested by so many historical documents ? Many theories were at different times proposed to account for the Schloss being
thus haunted , one , as we have seen , having been countersigned even by a king ; but the most noted stories respecting the origin of the
White X < ady are the following three . At her first showing In 1598 she was held to be the spirit of the Jane Shore of Prussian
_historj' _-, the beautiful Anna Sydow , widow of the metal-founder Dietrich Sydow , and afterwards mistress to the Elector Joachim II .
On his deathbed the Elector , mindful ( like our Charles II . of his " poor Nell" ) of her whom he had loved so well in lifeexacted
, a solemn promise from his son and successor John George , that he would do her no Injury either In person or property ; yet no sooner
was his father dead , tlian in violation of this pledge , and also of a written safe-conduct which he had further given to her , he had her
arrested and threw her into life-long confinement in the Fortress of Spandau . Pity for hex misfortunes , heightened by interest in her
beauty , led the Brandenburghers at one time to imagine , that moved by a never-dying spirit of revenge for his perfidy , the ghost
of the lovely Anna appeared as a death-warning to him and all his descendants . But worse sufferings had been endured , and _loy
far more innocent sufferers , without the dead rising out of the grave to avenge them ; for the frail widow , independently of her frailty ,
had displayed great haughtiness in the time of her prosperity , her behaviour to the reigning Princess having often been very offensive ,
so that John _Gf-eorge had some excuse for his harshness towards her when it is considered as an avenging of the wrongs of his mother .
[ Besides , if he had brought down vengeance on himself for his broken word , what had his successors , being also the successors
of her lover and benefactor Joachim , done to incur the visitations of Anna Sydow ? Such , reflections tended to throw discredit upon
this story , and a more probable explanation of the phenomenon being sought , it was then referred to the history of the Countess of
Orlamundeone version of which was mentioned in G-eorge Doring _' _snarration . , The more popular one asserts that this lady , a born
Hohenzollern , was _tlie wife of Count Otto I ., and that after his deathher fancy being attracted by Albert the Handsome , Burgrav _©
, of _INTurenburg , she _offered her hand to him , an honour which was declined on the ground of her not being " without encumbrance , "
as she had had two children by her first marriage . The fatal " handsomeness" of Albert hadhowevermade so strong an
im-, , pression upon her , that in her passion for him . she forgot every other feeling of nature , and anxious to remove at all cost every
obstacle to the desired union , crept to the bedside of her children as
228 The White Ghost Of Berlin".
228 THE WHITE GHOST OF BERLIN " .
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), June 1, 1863, page 228, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01061863/page/12/
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