In attempting to unriddle the meaning of this mystical warning, Guion advised Quarrè to leave the house where he lodged in Saumur, the unwholesome air of which had occasioned him several attacks of the cholic. But eight days afterwards, the prediction was fulfilled. Quarrè went, on public business, to Flavignac, and during his absence, the house fell down in the night, and crushed its inhabitants to death. Guion is said to have written a poem on the escape of his friend. This story rests, I believe, on the unsupported assertion of La Mare. If it be authentic, it seems to belong to the class of dreams. On the same principles we must explain the apparitions recorded by VINCENTIUS, in the SPECULUM HISTORIÆ, and extracted from him by WOLFIUS, in his LECTIONES MEMORABILES ET RECONDITÆ, particularly the appearance of Pope Benedict to the Bishop of Capua. “Idem lib. 25. Damianus refert: Episcopus, inquit, quidam Capuanus vidit Benedictum majorem Papam sibi olim familiarem, nigro, quasi corporabiter, equo insidentem: (vide quam conveniant scripturæ Apoc. 6 cum historiis) at is territus ea visione dicebat: Heus tu, nonne es Papa Benedictus, quem jam defunetum novimus? Ego sum, inquit, infelix iste. Quomodo, inquit, est tibi, pater? Graviter, inquit, torqueor, sed de Dei misericordia non dispero, si mihi adjutorium præbeatur, quia juvari possum: sed perge, quæso, ad fratrem meum Joannem, qui nunc sedem apostolicam occupat, eique de mea parte dic, ut illam summam, quæ potissimé in tali theca reposita est, in pauperes distribuat: sicque me redimendum esse quandocumque, cum hoc divina miseratio decreverit, cognoscat, nam cætera quæ pro me indigentibus tradita sunt, nihil, mihi penitus profuerint eo, quod de rapinis et injustitis acquisita sunt. His auditis, Episcopus Romam impiger adiit, et Joanni Papæ (cui et ipse apparuit ille Benedictus 9. precans idem, et dicens, O utinam Odilo Cluniacensis pro me rogaret!) fratris verba narravit, et episcopatum mox deposuit, et monachatum induit.” _Lection. Memorab. et zecondit. T._ i. _p. 530_. My observations on this subject may be strengthened, by observing the great prevalence of spectral delusions, during the inter-regnum, in this country, after the civil war, in 1649. The melancholic tendency of the rigid puritans of that period; their occupancy of old family seats, formerly the residence of hospitality and good cheer, which in their hands became desolate and gloomy; and the dismal stories propagated by the discarded retainers to the ancient establishments, ecclesiastical and civil, contributed altogether to produce a national horror unknown in other periods of our history.