Part 9

‘True, my beloved,’ replied the husband; ‘but I have seen her. When that tremendous noise was heard at supper, as the door was supernaturally opened, I saw her. She fixed those dreadful eyes of her’s upon me; she proceeded to the fire-place, and stood in the midst of the children, and there she remained till the servant came in.’

‘My dearest husband,’ said Mrs. Harding, ‘this is but a disorder of the imagination!’

‘Be it what it may,’ said he, ‘I have seen her. Human or superhuman—natural or supernatural—there she was. I shall not strive to argue upon a point where I am likely to meet with little credit: all I ask is, pray fervently, have faith, and we will hope the misfortune, whatever it is, may be averted.’

He kissed his wife’s cheek tenderly, and after a fitful feverish hour or two fell into a slumber.

From that slumber never awoke he more.—He was found dead in his bed in the morning.

‘Whether the force of imagination, coupled with the unexpected noise, produced such an alarm as to rob him of life, I know not,’ said my communicant; ‘but he was dead.’

The story was told me by my friend Ellis in walking from the City to Harley-street late one evening; and when we came to this part of the history we were in Bedford-square, at the dark and dreary corner of it where Caroline-street joins it.

‘And there,’ said Ellis, pointing downward, ‘is the street where the circumstance occurred.’

‘Come, come,’ said I, ‘you tell the story well, but I suppose you do not expect it to be received as gospel.’

‘Faith,’ said he, ‘I know so much of it that I was one of the twelfth-night party, and heard the noise.’

‘But you did not see the spectre?’ cried I.

‘No,’ replied Ellis, ‘I certainly did not.’

‘Nor anybody else,’ said I, ‘I’ll be sworn.’—A quick footstep was just then heard behind us.—I turned half round to let the person pass, and saw a woman enveloped in a red cloak, whose sparkling black eyes, shone upon by the dim lustre of a lamp above her head, dazzled me.—I was startled—‘Pray remember old MARTHA, THE GIPSY,’ said the hag.

It was like a thunder-stroke.—I instantly slipped my hand into my pocket, and hastily gave her three from a five-shilling piece.

‘Thanks, my bonny one,’ said the woman, and setting up a shout of contemptuous laughter she bounded down Caroline-street towards Russell-street, singing, or rather yelling a wild air.

Ellis did not speak during this scene—he pressed my arm tightly, and we quickened our pace. We said nothing to each other till we turned into Bedford-street, and the lights and passengers of Tottenham-court-road re-assured us.

‘What do you think of _that_?’ said Ellis to me.

‘_Seeing is believing_,’ was my reply.

I have never passed that dark corner of Bedford-square in the evening since.

REMARKABLE FULFILMENT OF A PREDICTION.

A certain German author relates the following:

In my younger days, there was a dinner given in the _Florenburg Westphalen_, where I was born, on the occasion of a baptism to which a clergyman was invited. During dinner, the conversation turned upon the gravedigger of the place, who was well known on account of his second-sight; for, as often as he saw a corpse, he was always telling that there would be a funeral from such and such a house. Now, as the event invariably took place, the inhabitants of the house he indicated were placed by the man’s tale in the greatest anxiety.

This man’s prophecying was an abomination to the clergyman. He therefore forbade him, but all to no purpose; for the poor dolt, although he was a drunkard, and a man of low and vulgar sentiments, believed firmly that it was a prophetic gift of God, and that he must make it known, in order that the people might still repent. At length the clergyman gave him notice that, if he announced one funeral more, he should be deprived of his place, and expelled from the village. This availed—the gravedigger was silent from that time forward. Half a year afterward, in the autumn of 1745, the gravedigger came to the clergyman, and said to him: ‘Sir, you have forbidden me to announce any more funerals, and I have not done so since, nor will I do it any more; but I must tell you something that is particularly remarkable, that you may see that my second sight is really true. In a few weeks a corpse will be brought up the meadow, which will be drawn on a sledge by an ox.’ The clergyman seemingly paid no attention to this, but listened to it with indifference, and replied: ‘Only go about your business, and leave off such superstitious follies. It is sinful to have anything to do with them.’

Some weeks after a strong body of Austrian troops passed through the village on their way to the Netherlands. While resting there a day, the snow fell nearly three feet deep. At the same time, a woman died in another village of the same parish. The military took away all the horses out of the country to drag the waggons. Meanwhile the corpse lay there, no horses came back; the body began to putrify; they were, therefore, compelled to make a virtue of necessity—to place the corpse upon a sledge, and harness an ox to it.

In the meantime the clergyman, and the teacher with his scholars, proceeded to the village to meet the corpse; and, as the funeral came along the meadow in this array, the gravedigger came up to the clergyman, pulled him by the gown, pointed with his finger toward the sledge, and said not a word.

Such was the tale as related by the clergyman. I was well acquainted with the good man, and he was incapable of telling an untruth, much less in a matter which contradicted all his principles.

PROVIDENTIAL FOREBODING.

IN the ‘Museum of Wonders,’ Vol. II., page 153, there is a striking presentiment related, which Madame de Beaumont received from the lips of a credible person. This individual had a friend in the country, who, being unmarried, committed his domestic concerns to the care of an housekeeper who had been with him for many years. When his birthday arrived, he made many preparations for celebrating it, and told his housekeeper in the morning to clean out a certain arbour in the garden, which he named, because, as the weather was fine, he intended to pass the day in it with his guests. She seeming quite amazed at this, told and entreated him to receive his guests in a room, for she had last night in her dream a presentiment that the arbour would that day be struck by lightning. He laughed at the assertion, as there was no appearance of a storm coming on that day, and he told her not to mind her foolish dream, and to prepare the arbour for the reception of his guests. She did as she was ordered, the guests arrived, and as the day was fine, made themselves merry. But in the meantime clouds gathered in the distant horizon and were at last powerfully driven to that place by the wind. The company were so intent on their entertainment that they did not in the least observe it: but scarcely was the housekeeper aware that the storm was approaching, than she begged her master to leave the arbour with his company, for she could not divest herself at all of the idea of the lightning striking it. At first they would not listen, but at last, when she continued her entreaties and the thunder commenced to approach with great violence, they suffered themselves to be induced to leave the arbour. Hardly had they reached the room when they heard a heavy crash of thunder, and the quick following lightning struck the arbour and dashed everything that had been left in it to pieces.

WONDERFUL PRESENTIMENT.

Madame Beaumont relates the following:

My whole family still remember an accident from which my father was preserved by a presentiment of danger. On one occasion, he agreed with a party to sail to Port St. Osmer. When it was time to go on board, an aunt of my father’s, who was deaf and dumb, uttered a kind of howl, placed herself at the door, blocked up the way with her arms, struck her hands together, and gave him, by signs, to understand that she conjured him to stay at home. My father, who had promised himself much pleasure from this excursion, only laughed at her entreaties; but the lady fell at his feet, and manifested such signs of poignant grief, that he at length determined to yield to her entreaties, and postponed his excursion to Port St. Osmer until some other day.

He therefore endeavoured to detain the rest also; but they laughed at him for being so easily persuaded, and set sail. Scarcely had the vessel proceeded half the distance, before those on board of it had the greatest reason to repent that they had not followed his advice. Some serious accidents happened to the vessel, so that it broke to pieces; several lost their lives, and those who saved themselves by swimming were so much terrified at their narrow escape, that they, with difficulty, got the better of it.

By some written statements the dumb afterwards made, it was shown that, in the night preceding, she had an awful and life-like dream, in which it seemed that the excursion-boat, which would set sail on the following day for Port St. Osmer, would be wrecked; and that most of the persons on board would either get drowned or barely escape. The warning angel found that he could influence no one more effectually than the deaf and dumb aunt; he therefore selected her for the execution of his commission. My father, all his life, was profoundly thankful, both to her and the guardian angel, for this providential warning and foreboding.

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PRINTED FOR THE BOOKSELLERS.

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NOTES.

{7} Or acknowledgment, which, by the tenure of some estates, is given to every new lord of a manor.

{10} The term used in this country for a lane.

{16} A few years ago, (since the above was written) Mr. E of O—, was killed by a fall from his horse, at his own gate, as he was returning from hunting.

{32a} The Duke of Buckingham (favourite of James and Charles I. who was beheaded) assassinated by J. Felton.

{32b} The Scots, who sold their King, Charles I. for a large sum of money, to the English rebels.

{32c} Supposed to have been the Marquis of Montrose.

{33a} Supposed to have been Oliver Cromwell, at whose death the greatest storm of wind happened that had been known in England.

{33b} The plague and fire of London were here plainly foretold.

{33c} The Great Yellow Fruit, supposed to have been the Prince of Orange, King William III.

{34} This was said in the book whence the PREDICTIONS were extracted, to mean oppression of the poor.

{43} It is reported that there is a room in this house the door and windows of which are kept closely fastened, and no one is ever permitted to enter the same except the next heir, when he attains his twenty-first year, at which time he goes in alone and when he returns it is shut up as before.

{51} The original prophecy says, “Richard the son of Richard.”

{184} Sir Walter Raleigh.

{185a} Tobacco.

{185b} The Potatoe.