Legendary fictions of the Irish Celts

Witchcrajt, Sorcery^ Ghosts, and Fetches. 189
(horrible name). If this phantom be seen in the morn-
ing it betokens good fortune and long life to its proto-
type; if in the evening a near death awaits him. This
superstition was known and felt in England even in the
reign of Elizabeth. We quote a passage from Miss
Strickland's account of her last illness :
" As her mortal illness drew towards its close, the
superstitious fears of her simple ladies were excited
almost to ma.nia, even to conjuring up a spectral apparition
of the Queen while she was yet alive. Lady Guildford,
then in waiting on the Queen, leaving her in an
almost breathless sleep in her privy chamber, went out
to take a little air, and met Her Majesty, as she thought,
three or four chambers off. Alarmed at the thought of
being discovered in the act of leaving the royal patient
alone, she hurried forward in some trepidation, in order
to excuse herself, when the apparition vanished away.
She returned terrified to the chamber, but there lay the
Queen still in the same lethargic slumber in which she
left her."
Within a few days an unexplained mystery has been
communicated to us. It is here given without any
further commentary than our assurance of the good faith
of our infonnant, who equally vouched for the veracity
of her authorities, one of them being the principal wit
ness of the apparition.
—
THE DOCTOR'S FETCH.
In one of our Irish cities, and in a room where the
mild moonbeams of a summer night were resting on the
carpet and on a table near the window, Mrs. B , wife