The Mailed Ghost of Brixen Castle

At Brixen still stands the magnificent ancestral castle of the Lords

von Lachmüller--one of the most ancient families of the Tyrolian

nobility. In the old picture gallery of this deserted mansion, the

ghost of one of the knights whose portraits still hang there, wanders

about.

During the time of the French invasion in 1797, a French officer was

quartered in the castle with several soldiers. On account of the

numerous family of the proprietor, there were but a few small chambers

vacant in the building, and as the officer was not contented with

the room which had been allotted to him, he roughly demanded one

larger and with finer site. But there was only the picture gallery

left, in which the officer took up his abode, laughing and sneering

at the warnings given him by the host that the corridor was said to

be haunted. The strong-headed fellow took every precaution to guard

himself against either natural or supernatural apparition, and after he

had ordered a strong trooper to lie down close beside him, he went to

sleep devoid of any fear.

But, as he awoke at midnight, he saw a knight in full attire standing

before him, who regarded him most ferociously. The officer shouted

at him, but, as he stood his ground and paid no heed, he transfixed

the form with his long sharp sword, which lay unsheathed beside him.

At this instant, the apparition stretched out his arms, seized the

officer, and hugged him so closely and long, that he lost his breath.

The trooper awoke late in the morning, and, on finding his master

dying, he summoned all the inhabitants of the castle, to whom the

officer, who came to himself again, recounted in a feeble voice what

had happened to him, and pointed out one of the ancestral portraits as

the being who had appeared before his bed and hugged him so fearfully.

Two hours afterwards he died.