Legend
< Predictions Fulfilled (continued from page 3-85) >
was performed in sadness and in silence. The queen was to make her public entry into Paris, on the ensuing Sunday, and all expedition was used in preparing for that concluding ceremony. “The day after the coronation,” says Sully, “the king’s sadness so obviously increased, that all the courtiers were struck with his changed appearance. When he arose, he stated that he had enjoyed no rest M. de Vendome entreated the king to take care of himself on that day in particular, which had been predicted as fatal—and he requested his majesty not to go out. ‘I perceive,’ replied the king, ‘that you have consulted the almanac, and heard of that fool. La Brosse (the astrologer), and my cousin, the Count of Soissons: the former is an old idiot; and you are yet very young and inexperienced.’”
It was remarked that on the preceding evening. Henry prayed much longer than usual; his agitation was very great and he was overheard in fervent prayer. As soon as he rose, he withdrew to his study, and again prayed; soon after he proceeded to mass, and when the service was ended, he continued a considerable time in devotion.
After dinner, Henry lay down upon his couch, but could not rest. He then inquired the hour, saying he wished to go to the Arsenal, and visit Sully, who was indisposed. But his indecision was painfully evident; he seemed to be struggling against the prognostic which he refused to believe. He next consulted the queen, but did not wait for her reply: then, advancing to the window, and raising his hand to h s forehead, he exclaimed “My God! my God! there is something here that dreadfully troubles me! I know not what is the matter with me: I cannot go from hence!” Henry, at length, ordered the carriage, and quitted the Louvre with his suite. Upon the officer of the guard appearing, the king said, “I require neither you nor your guards; for these forty years past, I have almost uniformly been the captain of my own guards; I will not have any to surround my carriage.” To the coachman’s inquiry, Henry peevishly replied, “Drive me from hence.” Upon the driver repeating his question, the king replied “To the cross of Trahoir;” and on arriving at that spot, he said, in a bewildered manner, “To the cemetery of the Innocents.” Henry here desired that the curtains of the carriage, which were of leather, (there were then no glasses), should be raised; had they been let down, the assassin could not have directed his aim, or struck the fatal blow.”
The people made the air ring with their acclamations, as the king proceeded in his route. Hut Henry appeared insensible to this loyally, and in profound reverie—when the carriage was suddenly stopped, at the end of the street Ferronerie, by two wagons (one laden with wine, the other with corn) which blocked up the road; while the stalls at the end of the street rendered the passage very narrow. The king’s foot-pages now quitted the carriage, in order to see the way cleared, when one Francis Ravaillac, who had followed the carriage from the Louvre, placed his foot upon a spoke of one of the hind-wheels, on the side where the monarch was seated, and supporting himself with one hand upon the door of the carriage, he, with the other, struck the king with a two edged knife. The blow struck the second and third ribs, and would not have proved mortal: the king exclaimed, “I am wounded;” at the same instant, he received a second stab—the weapon pierced his heart—and he instantly expired. So determined was the assassin, that he aimed a third blow, when, however, he struck the sleeve of the Duke of Mont baron.
Of the seven persons in the carriage with the monarch, the only individual with whom he was on good terms was the Duke of Epernon. They were, doubtless, all occupied in observing the vehicles which impeded the royal carriage; in addition to which the blows were struck with the greatest rapidity. It was stated that during the morning, Ravaillac had been seen at the Louvre, seated upon the steps, intending to strike the king between the two doors had he not met the Duke of Epernon. Ravaillac subsequently acknowledged that he had followed Henry in the morning to the church of the Feuillans, but that the Duke of Vendome compelled him to keep at a distance.
Ravaillac, the assassin, was submitted to barbarous torture; bat he persisted that he had no accomplices, and that he had been moved by nothing but religious zeal. Ubaldini writes: “At last he has confessed his folly and guilt, with penitence, God be thanked, who, according to his wisdom and providence, has not permitted that more than one person should participate in this frightful crime, and that he should be preserved alive, in order to proclaim to the world the truth of the transaction, and to contradict the calumnies out of which endless mischiefs might have proceeded.”—Reaumur’s Hist. Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries.
The street in which the assassination was perpetrated was considerably widened in 1671, when the proprietor of the house, marking the spot, placed in front of it a bust of Henry IV, with this inscription:—
Henrici Magni recreat presentia cives, |
Howel, in his Familiar Letters, remarks: “A fatal thing it is that France should have three of her kings come to such violent deaths in so short a time; Henry II., running at tilt, was killed by a splinter of a lance that pierced his eye; Henry III., not long after, was killed by a young friar, who, instead of a letter which he pretended to have for him, pulled out of his long sleeve a knife, and thrusting it into the king’s abdomen, so dispatch him; but that regicide was hack to pieces in the place by the nobles. The same destiny attended this king (Henry IV.) by Ravaillac, which is now become a common name of reproach and infamy in France.”
The Double
It was the spirit of an Austrian actor, who, after a night’s orgie, during his sleep wandered and came to our seance, keeping up an hour’s conversation with the circle. Requested to give his name, he signed it in full—G—
Being asked what his calling on earth was, he answered,—
‘I was not; I am.”
‘Who are you, then?’
‘One of those who move on the stage, representing the world.’
‘We suppose you to be the famous actor, G——?’
‘Even my adversaries must say so.’
‘By what reason are you here?’
‘You were speaking of Wurzburg this afternoon. Well, I like that place very much, for it reminds me of my dear Z——.The very mentioning of it attracted me. My body is slumbering now; but the name of Wurzburg awakened all my energies, and made me come here. It is not Dr. N——’s personality which attracted me; nothing of the sort.* I was dreaming of a railroad, and hearing you talk of Wurzburg, I came here.’
‘Can we do anything for you?’
‘I do not want anything.’
‘Can you materialize yourself?’
‘By no means.’
‘Will you, then, kindly retire, that we may have more profitable intercourse with other spirits?’
‘Wait till I am awakened.’
“After this, the medium was made to write for a quarter of an hour; and, on evoking the spirit of a diseased friend, the medium wrote— ‘G——is still in Morpheus’s arms.’ All attempts of conjuring this spirit away proving unavailable, we continued the seance some time longer, during which be advised the circle to make a great noise, to hiss him, and to make mesmeric passes in order to arouse him. All in vain. He went on discoursing of his adventures of that night, to the moment when his wife, Z——, brought some medicine to soothe him. He gave her family name, and bow their acquaintance was made up, etc., etc. Inquiries having been made about the statements of G——’s spirit, it was found that they were all perfectly true.”
“G. Conrad Horst, in his ‘Deuteroscopy,’ vol. ii. p. 147, mentions a case of a young lady named Seraphina, daughter of a German statesman. She was subject to fits of the momentary loss of her senses from the age of fifteen years. In her childhood she used to tell her sisters of her having been called up to heaven, and that she had played with angels. Nobody could say whether she was relating a dream or a vision. For her it was a reality, for she often refused playing with earthly children. Her eldest sister, aware of Seraphina's peculiarities, returning one day from a visit, found her standing like a statue in her father's study, before the window which faced the garden. Fearing to startle her. she approached very gently, and embraced her without uttering a word. But on looking into the garden, she saw the double of Seraphina walking at the side of her father. A sudden exclamation caused the double to disappear from the garden, and the rigid frame of her sister began to move in her arms, until she came to full consciousness. It was afterwards ascertained that their father thought he had been walking for some time in Seraphina’s company, who suddenly disappeared from his sight Some years after this event, Seraphina, one day looking in her mirror, was addressed by her own image.
Be not afraid of thy own double, which is speaking to thee to inform thee of thy approaching death.’
A prediction which was verified, for she died soon after this event.
“At vol. ii., p. 133, we find in the same author:—
‘Mrs. St--------, a relation of mine, whilst residing in the town of D--------. and in perfect health, appeared at my house, sitting and reading the Bible. My wife and the servant saw her as well as myself. Having mastered the first impression, which was a sort of awe, I resolutely approached the phantom, and looked in the open book. Whilst I did so. the apparition disappeared. Immediately after, we resolved to visit Mrs. St.——in her own house, at an hour’s distance from ours, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, and the inclemency of the weather. She was in bed, suffering from a slight hysteric attack. We never told her the cause of our unexpected visit, and she lived many years after this strange event The impending death of her husband was predicted by her; but how this was revealed to her she never would tell.’
“The narrative of these events is accompanied by the following remarks:—
‘There are many instances of a sudden and temporary separation of the spirit (or the ethereal form, or whatever you may choose to call it), from the body, and of its manifestation in the outer or physical world during real animal life. But this sort of Deuteroscopy has hitherto remained unexplained, and therefore every well authenticated additional fact bearing upon it is of the greatest importance.’
“The natives of Lapland are well known for possessing the gift of a second sight. A Lubeck merchant came to Bergen, Norway, where he met a Laplander, who told him he could give him news of his family at Lubeck. A wager was proponed and accepted. The Lapland man, in presence of the merchant and others, threw himself on the floor, and remained senseless for a time. Having recovered his senses, he rose and began to give particulars, referring to his wife, her personal appearance, her occupations at that moment in preparing for the wedding of a relation, and concluded with producing a large bread-knife, used shortly before, which was ac know ledged by the astonished Lubecker to belong to himself, and to have been left at Lubeck, and he paid the wager to the Laplander.”
* Dr. N——. Came from Wurzburg to be present at the séance.
Editor's notes
- ↑ The Double by Damiani, G., Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 21, January 27, 1876, pp. 249-50. From Human Nature
Sources
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Spiritual Scientist, v. 3, No. 21, January 27, 1876, pp. 249-50