This tragic story happened in 1904 with the king of Italy Umberto I. And it began with a meeting, it would seem, in the most ordinary place - in a modest restaurant in the city of Monza, where His Majesty went to have a bite.
As soon as Umberto crossed the threshold of the restaurant, the owner of the establishment came up to him and, bowing, offered to go to a free table. But the king did not even budge, but only looked at the restaurateur with a surprised look. Before him Umberto saw … his own portrait, but not in a painting, but in living form. Height, face, lush white mustache and even eye color - the king noted all these characteristic features of the person who stood opposite him.
Finally, Umberto came to his senses and proceeded to the table. But he did not let the owner go, but invited him to join him.
When the restaurateur sat down on a chair, the king asked his name.
“Umberto, your royal majesty,” he replied in surprise.
- Umberto? - said the king thoughtfully. - Where and when was he born?
- In Turin on March 14, 1844.
- That is, on the same day and in the same place as me. Umberto's face was visibly surprised.
Promotional video:
And a little later it turned out that the restaurateur's wife's name is the same as the queen's - Malgorzata. Moreover, it turned out that both the king and the owner of the restaurant even got married at the same time: April 2, 1866.
The conversation drew more and more into the king.
- What about children? Do you have a lot of them?
- One son.
- And the name?
- Vittorio.
- Incredible. Just like the heir to the throne. The king thought for a second. - And since when have you been in charge of this restaurant? - followed by his next question.
- I opened this restaurant on January 8, 1878.
But on the same day, Umberto was crowned.
In the course of an apparently prolonged conversation, they learned about other common moments in their lives. The king and the restaurateur were participants in the same battles, both received medals for bravery, both were fond of athletics.
The king was very interested in a person so similar to him, so Umberto suggested continuing the conversation at the athletics competition, which was to be held the next day.
However, the intended conversation did not take place. “The restaurateur is dead. An accident with a weapon … - someone from his entourage told the king.
“It's a pity,” Umberto I sighed. “Although, on the other hand… you don't feel very comfortable when you learn about your living copy. However, not everything coincided in our destinies. He is already dead, and I …
Umberto I did not have time to finish: shots rang out, and the king fell dead …
Most likely, it is unlikely that everything happened as described above. And perhaps, and even most likely, the King of Italy never had such a confidential conversation with some restaurateur unknown to him.
But nevertheless it is well known that Umberto I did indeed have a double who almost completely repeated his fate.
So, above, an amazing phenomenon was described when completely alien people who have no family ties turn out to be so similar to each other, as if they were real twins.
However, there are many such cases in history. True, although they are similar to each other, they have some variations: an eyewitness to this phenomenon can meet either his own double, or the double of a person he knows well. And if the case with Umberto can be attributed to the first category, then the incident with the chamberlain of the Swedish king Baron Sulz is most likely in the second. The baron described in great detail in his diary what happened to him.
“I met,” the baron wrote, “at the entrance to the park of my father in his usual suit, with a stick in his hands. I greeted, and we talked for a long time, heading to the house. Already entering his room, I saw my father sound asleep in bed. And at that moment the ghost disappeared. A few minutes later my father woke up and looked at me questioningly."
The famous Byron also had to visit as a ghost-double. When the great poet was suffering from a severe fever in Greece in 1810, his slender figure was noticed several times on the streets of London. In particular, he was informed about this in a letter by Secretary of State Peel, who swore that he had met him twice on Saint-Germain street.
He brought the case with a double and Mark Twain. It happened during his trip to Canada. One day he ended up in Montreal, where a reception was organized in his honor. At this event, the writer noticed one of his old acquaintances - Mrs. R., whom he had not met for at least twenty years.
She stood almost next to Twain in the company of other invitees, exchanging short, unimportant phrases with some of them. But, to the writer's surprise, she not only did not go up to him, but did not even nod to him in greeting.
But an even bigger surprise awaited Mark Twain a little later. When he was preparing for the evening performance, he was informed that a certain lady wanted to meet with him.
In the visitor, who literally flew into his working room, the writer recognized Mrs. R. At the same time, which he was also a little surprised, she looked and was dressed exactly the same as during the day.
“But I saw you at the party today and recognized you immediately,” Twain said gallantly.
However, Mrs. R. was astonished at these words.
“I was not at the reception,” she replied, embarrassed. “I just arrived from Quebec about an hour ago.
“She was not at the reception, not even in the city,” Twain concluded his note of the event. “And yet I saw her there, I saw her quite clearly and unmistakably. I swear to it. I did not think about her at all at that moment, as I had not thought about her for many years. But she undoubtedly thought of me at the time. Perhaps her thoughts, flying the distance that separated us, brought with them such a clear and pleasant image of herself. It seems to me like this."
A somewhat similar incident took place in the life of the famous Irish poet Yeats, although then he himself was in the role of a ghost.
Somehow, during his student days, Yeats learned the news that needed to be communicated as quickly as possible to a friend who was at that time in another city.
And apparently, while Yeats was intensely thinking about the problem that had arisen, his friend unexpectedly saw Yeats in the lobby of the hotel in which he lived. Convinced that the real Yeats was in front of him, a friend invited the poet to meet a little later in his room. And indeed, around midnight, Yeats went into the room, broke the news and, referring to being busy, left.
The poet P. A. Vyazemsky. Moreover, this double even left written evidence that he actually appeared before the poet. Vyazemsky told about this to the St. Petersburg bishop Porfiry, who wrote down an amazing story that happened to the poet in his diary.
“Once,” Vyazemsky said, “at night I was returning to my apartment on Nevsky Prospect. At Anichkov Bridge I saw a bright light in the windows of my office. Not knowing the reason for this, I enter the house and ask my servant: "Who is in my office?" The servant said to me: "There is nobody there," and gave me the key to this room. I unlocked the office, entered there and saw that in the back of this room a man was sitting with his back to me and was writing something. I went up to him and, reading the text over his shoulder, screamed loudly, grabbed my chest and fell unconscious. When I woke up, I no longer saw the one who was writing, and took the sheet covered by him, hid it and to this day I melt, and before I die, I will order to put this secret of mine with me in the coffin. I think I saw myself writing."
Bernatsky Anatoly