Part 59 (2/2)
”The noise which was heard several times during the night by the master, the female servant, and the neighbors, is quite equivocal; and the most prejudiced persons cannot deny that it may have been produced by different causes which are all quite natural.
”The same reply may be given as to the papers which were heard to rustle, since a breath of air or a mouse might have moved them.
”The moving of the bed is something more serious, because it is reported to have been witnessed by several persons; but I hope that a little reflection will dispense us from having recourse to fantastic hands in order to explain it.
”Let us imagine a bedstead upon castors; a person whose imagination is impressed, or who wishes to enliven himself by frightening his domestics, is lying upon it, and rolls about very much, complaining that he is tormented. Is it surprising that the bedstead should be seen to move, especially when the floor of the room is waxed and rubbed? But, you will say, some of the witnesses even made useless efforts to prevent this movement. Who are these witnesses? Two are youths in the service of the patient, who trembled all over with fright, and were not capable of examining the secret causes of this movement; and the other has since told several people that he would give ten pistoles not to have affirmed that he saw this bedstead remove itself without help.
”In regard to the voice, whose secret has been so carefully kept, as there is no witness of it, we can only judge of it by the state in which he who had been favored with this pretended revelation was found. Repeated cries from the man who, hearing his closet door beaten in, draws back the bolts which he had apparently drawn himself, his eyes quite wild, and his whole person in extraordinary disorder, would have caused the ancient heathens to take him for a sibyl full of enthusiasm, and must appear to us rather the consequence of some convulsion than of a conversation with a spiritual being.
”Lastly, the violent blows given upon the walls and panes of gla.s.s, in the night, in the presence of two witnesses, might make some impression, if we were sure that the patient, who was lying directly under the window in a small bed, had no part in the matter; for of the two witnesses who heard this noise, one was his mother, and the other an intimate friend, who, even reflecting on what he saw and heard, declares that it can only be the effect of a spell.
”How much good soever you may wish for this place, I do not believe, sir, that what I have just remarked on the circ.u.mstances of the adventure, will lead you to believe that it has been honored with an angelic apparition; I should rather fear that, attributing it to a disordered imagination, you may accuse the subtility of the air which there predominates as having caused it. As I am somewhat interested in not doing the climate of St. Maur such an injury, I am compelled to add something else to what I have said of the person in question, in order that you may know his character.
”You need not be very clever in the art of physiognomy to remark in his countenance the melancholy which prevails in his temperament. This sad disposition, joined to the fever which has tormented him for some time, carried some vapors to his brain, which might easily lead him to believe that he heard all he has publicly declared; besides which, the desire to divert himself by alarming his domestics may have induced him to feign several things, when he saw that the adventure had come to the ears of a prince who might not approve of such a joke, and be severe upon it. Thus then, sir, you will think as I do, that the report of the celebrated Marescot on the subject of the famous Margaret Brossier agrees perfectly with our melancholy man, and well explains his adventure: _a natura multa, plura ficta, a daemone nulla_.
His temperament has made him fancy he saw and heard many things; he feigned still more in support of what his wanderings or his sport had induced him to a.s.sert; and no kind of spirit has had any share in his adventure. Without stopping to relate several effects of his melancholy, I shall simply remark that an embarkation which he made on one of the last _jours gras_, setting off at ten o'clock at night to make the tour of the peninsula of St. Maur, in a boat where he covered himself up with straw on account of the cold, appeared so singular to the great prince before mentioned, that he took the trouble to question him as to his motives for making such a voyage at so late an hour.
”I shall add that the discernment of his highness made him easily judge whence this adventure proceeded, and his behavior on this occasion has shown that he is not easily deceived. I do not think it is allowable for me to omit the opinion of his father, a man of distinguished merit, on this adventure of his son, when he learned all the circ.u.mstances by a letter from his wife, who was at St. Maur. He told several persons that he was certain that the spirit which acted on this occasion was that of his wife and son. The author of the relation was right in endeavoring to weaken such testimony; but I do not know if he flatters himself that he has succeeded, in saying that he who gave this opinion is an _esprit fort_, or freethinker who makes it a point of honor to be of the fas.h.i.+onable opinion concerning spirits.
”Lastly, to fix your judgment and terminate agreeably this little dissertation in which you have engaged me, I know of nothing better than to repeat the words of a princess,[671] who is not less distinguished at court by the delicacy of her wit than by her high rank and personal charms. As they were conversing in her presence of the singularity of the adventure which here happened at St. Maur, 'Why are you so much astonished?' said she, with that gracious air which is so natural to her; 'Is it surprising that the son should have to do with spirits, since the mother sees the eternal Father three times every week? This woman is very happy,' added the witty princess; 'for my part, I should ask no other favor than to see him once in my life.'
”Laugh with your friends at this agreeable reflection; but, above all, take care, sir, not to make my letter public: it is the only reward that I ask for the exact.i.tude with which I have obeyed you on so delicate an occasion.
”I am, sir, ”Your very humble, &c.
_St. Maur, May 8, 1706._”
APPROBATION.
”By order of the Lord Chancellor, this dissertation on what we must think of spirits in general, and of that of St. Maur in particular, has been read by me, and I have found nothing therein which ought to hinder its being printed.
”Done at Paris, the 17th of October, 1706.
(_Signed_) ”LA MARQUE TILLADET.
”The king's permission bears date the 21st November, 1706.”
Footnotes:
[662] St. Ambrose, Com. on St. Luke, i. c. 1.
[663] Martha Brossier, daughter of a weaver at Romorantin, was shown as a demoniac, in 1578. See De Thou on this subject, book cxxiii. and tom. v. of the Journal of Henry III., edition of 1744, p. 206, &c. The affair of Loudun took place in the reign of Louis XIII.; and Cardinal Richelieu is accused of having caused this tragedy to be enacted, in order to ruin Urban Grandier, the cure of Loudun, for having written a cutting satire against him.
[664] M. de Lannoy has made a particular dissertation De Causa Secessionis S. Brunonis: he solidly refutes this fable. Nevertheless, this event is to be found painted in the fine pictures of the little monastery of the Chartreux at Paris.
[665] Eliberitan Council, an. 305 or 313, in the kingdom of Grenada.
Others have thought, but mistakenly, that it was Collioure in Roussillon.
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