A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal: The Next Day after Her Death, to one Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury, the 8th of September, 1705; which Apparition Recommends the Perusal of Drelincourt's Book of Consolations against the Fears of DeathDefoe, Daniel
General
A True Relation of the Apparition of one Mrs. Veal: The Next Day after Her Death, to one Mrs. Bargrave, at Canterbury, the 8th of September, 1705; which Apparition Recommends the Perusal of Drelincourt's Book of Consolations against the Fears of Death
Defoe, Daniel
Apparitions -- England -- Canterbury -- Case studies; Veal, Margaret, -1705
Veal, I do not care if I do; but I'll warrant you, this mad fellow,
(meaning Mrs. Bargrave's husband,) has broke all your trinkets. But,
says Mrs. Bargrave, I'll get something to drink in for all that; but
Mrs. Veal waived it, and said, It is no matter, let it alone; and so
it passed.
All the time I sat with Mrs. Bargrave, which was some hours, she
recollected fresh sayings of Mrs. Veal. And one material thing more
she told Mrs. Bargrave, that old Mr. Breton allowed Mrs. Veal ten
pounds a year; which was a secret, and unknown to Mrs. Bargrave, till
Mrs. Veal told it her.
Mrs. Bargrave never varies in her story; which puzzles those who doubt
of the truth, or are unwilling to believe it. A servant in the
neighbour's yard, adjoining to Mrs. Bargrave's house, heard her
talking to somebody an hour of the time Mrs. Veal was with her. Mrs.
Bargrave went out to her next neighbour's the very moment she parted
with Mrs. Veal, and told her what ravishing conversation she had with
an old friend, and told the whole of it. Drelincourt's Book of Death
is, since this happened, bought up strangely. And it is to be
observed, that notwithstanding all the trouble and fatigue Mrs.
Bargrave has undergone upon this account, she never took the value of
a farthing, nor suffered her daughter to take anything of anybody, and
therefore can have no interest in telling the story.
But Mr. Veal does what he can to stifle the matter, and said, he would
see Mrs. Bargrave; but yet it is certain matter of fact that he has
been at captain Watson's since the death of his sister, and yet never
went near Mrs. Bargrave; and some of his friends report her to be a
liar, and that she knew of Mr. Breton's ten pounds a year. But the
person who pretends to say so, has the reputation of a notorious liar,
among persons whom I know to be of undoubted credit. Now Mr. Veal is
more of a gentleman than to say she lies; but says, a bad husband has
crazed her. But she needs only present herself, and it will
effectually confute that pretence. Mr. Veal says, he asked his sister
on her death-bed, whether she had a mind to dispose of anything? And
she said, No. Now, the things which Mrs. Veal's apparition would have
disposed of, were so trifling, and nothing of justice aimed at in
their disposal, that the design of it appears to me to be only in
order to make Mrs. Bargrave so to demonstrate the truth of her
appearance, as to satisfy the world of the reality thereof, as to what
she had seen and heard; and to secure her reputation among the
reasonable and understanding part of mankind. And then again, Mr. Veal
owns, that there was a purse of gold; but it was not found in her
cabinet, but in a comb-box. This looks improbable; for that Mrs.
Watson owned, that Mrs. Veal was so very careful of the key of the
cabinet, that she would trust nobody with it. And if so, no doubt she
would not trust her gold out of it. And Mrs. Veal's often drawing her
hand over her eyes, and asking Mrs.
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