A faithful account of the appearance of the White Lady was published in
_The Iris_, a Frankfort journal, in 1829, and was vouched for by the
editor, George Doring. Doring's mother, who was companion to one of the
ladies at the Prussian Court, had two daughters, aged fourteen and
fifteen, who were in the habit of visiting her at the Palace. On one
occasion, when the two girls were alone in their mother's sitting-room,
doing some needlework, they were immeasurably surprised to hear the sounds
of music, proceeding, so it seemed to them, from behind a big stove that
occupied one corner of the apartment. One girl got up, and, taking a yard
measure, struck the spot where she fancied the music was coming from;
whereupon the measure was instantly snatched from her hand, the music, at
the same time, ceasing. She was so badly frightened that she ran out of
the room and took refuge in someone else's apartment.
On her return some minutes later, she found her sister lying on the floor
in a dead faint. On coming to, this sister stated that directly the other
had quitted the apartment, the music had begun again and, not only that,
but the figure of a woman, all in white, had suddenly risen from behind
the stove and began to advance towards her, causing her instantly to faint
with fright.
The lady in whose house the occurrence took place, on being acquainted
with what had happened, had the flooring near the stove taken up; but,
instead of discovering the treasure which she had hoped might be there, a
quantity of quick-lime only was found; and the affair eventually getting
to the King's ears, he displayed no surprise, but merely expressed his
belief that the apparition the girl had seen was that of the Countess
Agnes of Orlamunde, who had been bricked up alive in that room.
She had been the mistress of a former Margrave of Brandenburg, by whom she
had had two children, and when the Margrave's legitimate wife died the
Countess hoped he would marry her. This, however, he declined to do on the
plea that her offspring, at his death, would very probably dispute the
heirship to the property with the children of his lawful marriage. The
Countess then, in order to remove this obstacle to her union, poisoned her
two children, which act so disgusted the Margrave that he had her walled
up alive in the room where she had committed the crimes. The King went on
to explain that the phantasm appeared about every seven years, but more
often to children, to whom it was believed to be very much attached, than
to adults.
Against this explanation, however, is the more recent one that the White
Lady is Princess Bertha or Perchta von Rosenberg. This theory is founded
on the discovery of a portrait of Princess Bertha, which was identified by
someone as the portrait of the White Lady whom they had just seen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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