At the beginning of the last century a lady in Scotland had a very vivid dream about her son, who was a midshipman on board one of Lord Nelson’s battleships. One night she heard his footsteps; he was coming upstairs and then along the passage leading to her room. She could tell by the sound that he was walking with only one shoe on. She heard him stop outside her door and call her. At once she got- up and opened the door, but there was no one there.

Some weeks later, after the battle of Trafalgar, her son’s ship returned to England. Then the lady learnt that her son had gone lip in a storm to take in some sails. He had fallen, but one foot had caught in a rope, and he hung head downwards. Then the shoe came off the foot that was caught, and he fell to the deck and was killed at once.

The shoe that was caught had remained in the rope above. That, we may think, was why he sounded to his mother to have only one shoe.