Definition of "spectre"

To this extenuated spectre, perhaps, a crumb is not thrown once a year, but when ahungered and athirst to famine—when all humanity has forgotten the dying tenant of a decaying house—Divine Mercy remembers the mourner […]

1849, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], Shirley. A Tale. […], volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Smith, Elder and Co., […]