take place till some days after their union; but on the night when it actually occurred, Captain Georges and his lady having retired to rest, a figure resembling Sir Tristram stood beside their bed, and having undrawn the curtains nearest his late wife, upbraided her with the indecent haste she had used in concluding her second marriage, which had caused her, in fact, to be for many days guilty of an adulterous connexion with her present husband.—­She asked him, whether he were yet living?—­He answered, that he had died that very hour; and also said, that she had made a disastrous choice, for that her husband would prove very unkind to her, and that she should die in giving birth to their fifth child.

“Captain G. had fallen into a profound slumber, from which, although during this conversation his wife made every effort to arouse him, he could not be awakened.  She then said to the semblance of Sir Tristram—­

“’How shall I know that this is not a trick, and that you are not some person disguised to deceive me?’

“Upon which the spectre took up the curtains of the bed, which were suspended from a ring over the tester, and throwing them from his hand, passed them through the ring thrice, saying—­’No human being could do that.’

“’And yet, replied the lady, it is possible that people may say I did it myself.  Can you give me no better token?’

“Then the spectre caught her by the wrist, exclaiming—­’Unto thee shall this be a token!’—­when the sinews of that wrist immediately shrivelled up, and the apparition, laying his hand on an escritoire, vanished!

“Captain Georges instantly awoke; and his lady asking him whether he had seen or heard any thing, he replied in the negative; but the sinews of her wrist were seared and shrunken ever after, and the impression of a hand was burnt into the escritoire.[15]

[15] This escritoire is said to be in the possession of Lady
Clauwilliam, at Giltown, her father having married the
sister and co-heiress of Lady Beresford; and a picture
was lately existing, and may he now, at Catherine Grove
(the seat of Richard Georges Meredith, Esq., her grandson
on Capt.  Georges’ side), exhibiting Lady B. with a broad
black ribbon round the wrist, which the apparition of Sir
Tristram is said to have scorched.

“Shortly afterwards accounts arrived, identifying the hour of Sir Tristram’s decease with that in which his apparition had appeared to his widow; and she was a second time married to Capt.  Georges, with whom she lived some years, and had four children; but as she experienced much ill-treatment from him, they parted:  he joined his regiment, and she continued to reside in Ballygawley Castle.

“Some years after this separation, they again became friends.  He returned to reside with her; and in giving birth to their fifth child, she died, as had been foretold by the apparition.

“The son of Sir Tristram by this lady was Sir Marcus Beresford, who married the heiress of the estates and title of Le Pen; was created Baron Beresford and Earl of Tyrone; and was father of George Beresford, first Marquess of Waterford, the late Right Hon. John Beresford, William Beresford, late Archbishop of Tuam, Lady Frances Flood, Lady Araminta Monk, Lady Catherine Jones, Lady Glenawley, and Lady Betty Cobbe.”