The apparition that saved a life
In the 1880s, Lord Dufferin, who was later to become British
Ambassador to Paris, was on vacation in Tullamore when he saw an apparition
that was destined to save his life.
One night, at about 2 o’clock in the morning, he was startled
from a deep sleep. He got up, went to the window and saw, in the moonlight, a
hunchbacked figure on the lawn, staggering under the weight of a
coffin-shaped object. Lord Dufferin raced downstairs, out onto the lawn, and
asked the figure what he was doing, what he was carrying and why was he
there. As the man lifted his head, Lord Dufferin saw that he had an
extremely ugly-looking face which was utterly repulsive. The figure then
vanished before his eyes. The following morning, he told his host of his
experience but his friend was at a complete loss to explain the strange man.
Certainly, there had been no reports of a ghost at Tullamore.
A few years later, Lord
Dufferin was to attend a diplomatic function at
the Grand Hotel in Paris. He waited at the elevator with his secretary and
the hotel manager. Just as they were about to enter the elevator, Lord
Dufferin drew back in horror and flatly refused to get on it. The elevator
operator was the same man he had seen carrying the coffin on the lawn at his
friend’s house in Tullamore. The elevator doors closed and the cage began its
ascent. When it reached the fifth floor, the cable snapped and the cage
crashed to the bottom of the shaft, killing all of the occupants.
The accident was fully
investigated, but there was nobody who knew
who the strange elevator operator was.
