“As I said then, so I say now--I was not asleep, but wide awake. After a lapse of nine years my memory is quite clear on the subject. I have not the least doubt, I saw the man--have not the least doubt that the conversation took place between us.
“I may add that I had examined the butler in the morning--who had given me back the MS. in the envelope when I went to the court after breakfast--as to whether he had locked the door as usual, and if any one could have got in. He said that he had done everything as usual, adding that no one could have got in if even he had not _locked_ the door, as there was no handle outside--which there was not. I examined the coolies and other servants, who all said they opened the door as usual that morning--turned the key and undid the chains, and I have no doubt they spoke the truth. The servants’ apartments were separated from the house, but communicated with it by the gallery at the back, some distance from the entrance hall.
“The reporter’s residence was about a mile and a quarter from where I lived, and his infirmities prevented him from walking any distance except slowly; in fact, he almost invariably drove.
The publication of this remarkable story led to its correction in several important particulars. From the _North China Herald_ (August, 1884) it appears that not only was Sir Edmund’s memory defective in connection with several of the minor details of the narrative, but he had also been either wholly misinformed, or was quite forgetful regarding the actual time of the editor’s death. That person was, in fact, alive and in his usual health at the time of his supposed apparition in the judge’s chamber, and did not die till between eight and nine o’clock on the same morning. He had “attended a temperance committee meeting the night before, and had left about half-past ten in good health and excellent spirits.... He slept at home, rose shortly before eight, and visited his office to arrange some _matter_ for that day’s paper. He then returned to his room to dress, and in a few minutes afterward was found dead upon the floor.”