The story of the wraith of Catherine the Great is variously narrated.

We give it as told by an eye-witness, the Comte de Ribaupierre, about 1862 to Lady Napier and Ettrick.

The Count, in 1862, was a very old man, and more than thirty years have passed since he gave the tale to Lady Napier, whose memory retains it in the following form:-- THE WRAITH OF THE CZARINA "In the exercise of his duties as one of the pages-in-waiting, Ribaupierre followed one day his august mistress into the throne-room of the palace.

When the Empress, accompanied by the high officers of her court and the ladies of her household, came in sight of the chair of state which she was about to occupy, she suddenly stopped, and to the horror and astonished awe of her courtiers, she pointed to a visionary being seated on the imperial throne.

The occupant of the chair was an exact counterpart of herself.