Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1872-06-27

or, and sought to endow the struggling,
toiling peasant, with the means of rest
and ease. And, with regard to this reap
pearance, a striking modern instance
seemed pertinent to the question at issue.
The Marquis de Rambouillet and the Sieur
de Precy, aged respectively twenty-five
and thirty, were intimate friends. Speak
ing one day of the prospect of future
state of being, their conversation ended
with mutual compact that the first who
died should reveal himself to the survi-
vor. Three months afterward the Mar
quis went to the war in Flanders, while
De Precy, sick with the fever, remained
in Paris. One night, the latter, while
in bed, heard the curtains move, and,
turning, recognized his friend, in buff
| coat and riding boots, standing by the
bed. Starting up, he attempted to en-
brace the visitor, but the latter, evading
him, drew apart, and, in solemn tone,
informed him that such greetings were no
longer fitting that he had been slain the
previous night in a skirmish, that he had
come to redeem his promise, and to an
nounce to his friend that all that had been
spoken of world to come was most GER
tainly true, and that it behooved him Ode
Precy) to amend his life without delay, as
he himself would be slain within a very
brief period. Finding his hearer still in
credulous, the Marquis exhibited dead
ly wound below the breast, and imme
diately disappeared. The arrival of
post from Flanders confirmed the vision.
ner mentioned. De Precy himself fell in
the civil war, then impending.
The speaker here cited anumber of kin
dred examples belonging to the period,
such as, in latter days, have found paral-
lels in the well-known stories of Lord Ty-
rome and Lady Betty Cobb, Lord Lyttle-
ton and M. P. Andrews, Prince Dol
gorouki and Apraxin, the ex-Queen of
Etruria and Chipanti, with long list of
similar cases, and then addressed himself
| to the terrestrial facts.
1t was proved by Magdalene Paret that
the treasure was actually found By the
possession of Auguier. By other wit
nesses, it was shown that Auguier had
made use of many artifces to obtain the
custody of the gold, cultivating roman
tic attachment for this humble laborer,
and seeking to inspire him with fears for
his personal safety, so long as he retained
possession of so large sum. Upon the
whole, unless it had been practicable to
secure the attendance and oral testimony
of the very phantom itself, the claim of
Mirabel could hardly address itself more
forcibly to the favorable judgment of
the court.
1t may be that this little deficiency in
! the chain of evidence weighed more than
was expected with the Parliament of AK
At all events, they demanded further
proof, and the peasant, Bernard, was
brought forward, and underwent a very
rigid examination.
He stated that, on certain day in May,
Mirabel informed him that ghost had re-
vealed to him the existence of some Sc
creted treasure. That, on the following
morning, they proceeded together to the
spot indicated by the apparition, but
found no money. That he laughed at
Mirabel, snapped his fingers at the story,
and went away. That he neverthe-
| less agreed to a further search-the
witness, Magdalene Paret, being present
but again found nothing. That, subse-
quently, Mirabel declared that he had dis
covered eighteen pieces of gold; then
twelve, finally, thirty five, but displayed
none of them. That Mirabel had, how
ever, sent by him twenty soils to priest,
to say masses for the soul of the depart
ed, to whom he owed so much and that
he had spoken of handing over the treas
ure to Auguier, and taking the latter's re-
ceipt, which certainly seemed to be the
same now produced, signed "Louis Au-
guier."
The matter was obscure and puzAing.
There was, by this time, no question that
this large sum of money had, somehow,
come into the possession of Mirabel. He
could not, by skill or labor, have realized
the hundredth part of it. No one had
been robbed, for the notoriety of the case
would at once have produced the loser.
If Mirabel had found it land there were
the witnesses who proved the discovery
many feet below the surface, in an undis-
turbed corner of the terrace), who re-
vealed the precious deposit to this poor
simple clown !? The scale was inclining,
slowly and steadily, to the spectral side,
when some new and startling evidence
appeared.
| Augier proved that subsequently to the
alleged delivery of the treasure into his
hands, Mirabel had declared that, it was
still concealed in the ground, and had in
vited his two brothers-in- law from Pertuis
to see it. Placing them at little distance
from the haunted spot, he made pretence
of digging, but suddenly raising white
shirt, which he had attached to sticks
placed crosswise, he rushed toward them,
crying out, s"The ghost! the ghostl" One
of these unlucky persons died from the
impressions engendered by this piece of
pleasantly. The survivor delivered this
testimony.
The case now began to look less favor
able for the specter. 1t was hardly prob
able that Mirabel should take so unwar-
rantable liberty with an apparition in
which he believed as to represent him,
and that for DO explainabie purpose, by
an ola white shirt! Was it barely possible
that Mirabel was after all a humbug, and
that the whole story was pure fabrica-
ton, for the purpose of obtaining dam
ages from the well-to-do Auguier?
1t does not appear to what astute judi
cial intellect this not wholly impossible
idea presented ITSELF At all events, a
new process was decreed, the great OBJ
ject of which was to discover in the first
instance how and whence came the money
into MirabePs possession.
Under the pressure of this inquiry, the
witness Paret was at length brought to
confess-frst, that she had never actually
beheld one coin belonging to the suppos-
ed treasure; secondly, that she did not
credit one word of Mirabel's story; third
ly, that if she had already deposed other
wise, it was at the earnest entreaty OF
Mirabel himself
Two experts were then examined as to
the alleged receipt. These differed in
opinion as to its being in the handwriting
of Auguier; but third being added to
the consultation, all three finally agreed
that it was a wellexecuted forgery.
This, after twenty months, three pro-
cesses, and the examination of fifty-two
witnesses, was fatal to the ghost. He
was put out of court.
The final decree acquitted Auguier, and
condemned Mirabel to the galleys fol
life, he having previously been submitted
to the question. Under the torture, Mira
bel confessed that one Etienne Berthelemy
declared enemy of Auguier, had de
vised the spectral fable, as ground fol
the intended accusation, and, to substan
, tiate the latter, had lent him (for exhibi
, tion) the sum of twenty thousand livres
By an after-process, Barthelemy was sen
fenced to the galleys for life, and the wit
nesses, Deleuil and Fourniere to be huns
up by the armpits, in some public place
as false witnesses.
So far as records go, this singular cast
+ was the last in which, in French law