Chapter III

"Having heard from several people of the ghost at the Church of the
Holy Trinity, Micklegate, York, on Sunday, at the end of September,
1869, a friend and myself made up our minds to go and see if we
also could be favoured with a sight of this wonderful apparition.

"Well, we went up into the gallery, the only place whence they say
it is to be seen. You may, perhaps, already know that the gallery
faces the east window, which is filled with modern stained glass.

"I am afraid that our attention rambled somewhat from the service,
for we were looking out for the ghostly visitant. However, we
watched and watched, as we began to think, in vain, until at the
very end of the second lesson, when, just before the beginning of
the 'Jubilate Deo,' I saw a figure, I should say of a shortish
woman, with something white folded over her, covering even her head
and face, but still I could see what it was. The figure appeared to
walk very fast across the two middle lights of the east window,
from right to left (_i.e._, from south to north), and seemed to be
at some distance from the window.

"The strange thing is, that I saw it clearly through the thick
painted glass.

"The whole thing happened so suddenly, and really surprised me so
much, that for some time I could hardly get up from the seat or
find my place at the beginning of the chant. Just as it disappeared
my friend said, 'Did you see that?' To which, of course, I
answered, 'Yes; did you?' that was all we saw; and a lady who was
there at the same time, whom we knew, saw it also, exactly as we
did, only apparently not with the same distinctness.

"Many persons have seen a great deal more. I believe that the
figure is generally seen to walk across the window in the reverse
way to that which my friend and I saw, and returns with a child,
some say with two.

"We examined outside the window. It is a good deal above the
ground, about five feet, I should think, and at the side of it is a
very old gravestone, with no inscription on the headstone as far as
I could make out. I believe it is currently reported that the
apparition issues from that grave.

"Some people thought that it might be a shadow caused in some
peculiar manner by the trees that grew outside; but it was not, for
the trees were cut down about three years ago, and the apparition
is still seen, as it has been, I have been told, for a century.

"I have nothing to add, except that this is a true and
unexaggerated account of what I saw."