Greek and Roman Ghost Stories | Page 7

for some time
without anything happening; but at last the clanking of chains was
heard in the distance. Athenodorus did not raise his eyes or stop his
work, but kept his attention fixed and listened. The sounds gradually

drew nearer, and finally entered the room where he was sitting. Then he
turned round and saw the apparition. It beckoned him to follow, but he
signed to it to wait and went on with his work. Not till it came and
clanked its chains over his very head would he take up a lamp and
follow it. The figure moved slowly forward, seemingly weighed down
with its heavy chains, until it reached an open space in the courtyard.
There it vanished. Athenodorus marked the spot with leaves and grass,
and on the next day the ground was dug up in the presence of a
magistrate, when the skeleton of a man with some rusty chains was
discovered. The remains were buried with all ceremony, and the
apparition was no more seen.
Lucian tells the same story in the Philopseudus, with some ridiculous
additions, thoroughly in keeping with the surroundings.
An almost exactly similar story has been preserved by Robert Wodrow,
the indefatigable collector, in a notebook which he appears to have
intended to be the foundation of a scientific collection of marvellous
tales. Wodrow died early in the eighteenth century. Gilbert Rule, the
founder and first Principal of Edinburgh University, once reached a
desolate inn in a lonely spot on the Grampians. The inn was full, and
they were obliged to make him up a bed in a house near-by that had
been vacant for thirty years. "He walked some time in the room," says
Wodrow,[31] "and committed himself to God's protection, and went to
bed. There were two candles left on the table, and these he put out.
There was a large bright fire remaining. He had not been long in bed till
the room door is opened and an apparition in shape of a country
tradesman came in, and opened the curtains without speaking a word.
Mr. Rule was resolved to do nothing till it should speak or attack him,
but lay still with full composure, committing himself to the Divine
protection and conduct. The apparition went to the table, lighted the
two candles, brought them to the bedside, and made some steps toward
the door, looking still to the bed, as if he would have Mr. Rule rising
and following. Mr. Rule still lay still, till he should see his way further
cleared. Then the apparition, who the whole time spoke none, took an
effectual way to raise the doctor. He carried back the candles to the
table and went to the fire, and with the tongs took down the kindled

coals, and laid them on the deal chamber floor. The doctor then thought
it time to rise and put on his clothes, in the time of which the spectre
laid up the coals again in the chimney, and, going to the table, lifted the
candles and went to the door, opened it, still looking to the Principal, as
he would have him following the candles, which he now, thinking there
was something extraordinary in the case, after looking to God for
direction, inclined to do. The apparition went down some steps with the
candles, and carried them into a long trance, at the end of which there
was a stair which carried down to a low room. This the spectre went
down, and stooped, and set down the lights on the lowest step of the
stair, and straight disappears."
"The learned Principal," continues Burton, "whose courage and
coolness deserve the highest commendation, lighted himself back to
bed with the candles, and took the remainder of his rest undisturbed.
Being a man of great sagacity, on ruminating over his adventure, he
informed the Sheriff of the county 'that he was much of the mind there
was murder in the case.' The stone whereon the candles were placed
was raised, and there 'the plain remains of a human body were found,
and bones, to the conviction of all.' It was supposed to be an old affair,
however, and no traces could be got of the murderer. Rule undertook
the functions of the detective, and pressed into the service the influence
of his own profession. He preached a great sermon on the occasion, to
which all the neighbouring people were summoned; and behold in the
time of his sermon, an old man near eighty years was awakened, and
fell a-weeping, and before the whole company acknowledged that at the
building of that house, he was the murderer."
The main features of the story have changed very little in the course of
ages, except in the important point of the conviction of the