A land surveyor swore that the raps went on when he had placed the
boy in an attitude which made fraud (in his opinion) impossible. A
gentleman M. de B. 'took all possible precautions' but,
nevertheless, was entertained by 'a noise which performed the tunes
demanded'. He could discover no cause of the noise. M. Huet,
touching a table with his finger, received responsive raps, which
answered questions, 'at the very place where I struck, and beneath
my finger. I cannot explain the fact, which, I am convinced, was
not caused by the child, nor by any one in the house.' M. Cheval
saw things fly about, he slept in the boy's room, and his pillow
flew from under his head. He lay down between the children, holding
their hands, and placing his feet on theirs, when the coverlet of
the bed arose, and floated away. The Marquis de Mirville had a
number of answers by raps, which staggered him very much, but the
force was quite feeble when he asked for portions of Italian music.
Madame de St. Victor felt herself pushed, and her clothes pulled in
the cure's house, when no one was near her. She also saw furniture
behave in a fantastic manner, and M. Raoul Robert de St. Victor had
many such experiences. M. Paul de St. Victor was not present. A
desk sailed along: paused in air, and fell: 'I had never seen a
movement of this kind, and I admit that I was alarmed'. Le
Seigneur, a farmer, saw 'a variety of objects arise and sail about':
he was certain that the boys did not throw them, and when in their
company, in the open air, between Cideville and Anzooville, 'I saw
stones come to us, without striking us, hurled by some invisible
force'. There was other confirmatory evidence, from men of physic,
and of the law.
The juge de paix, as we have seen, pronounced that the clearest
point in the case was 'the absence of known cause for the effects,'
and he non-suited Thorel, the plaintiff.
The cause of the phenomena is, of course, as obscure for us as for
the worthy magistrate. We can only say that, when precisely similar
evidence was brought before judges and juries in England and New
England, at a period when medicine, law, and religion all recognised
the existence of witchcraft, magic, and diabolical possession, they
had scarcely any choice but to condemn the accused. Causa patet,
they said: 'The devil is at the bottom of it all, and the witch is
his minister'.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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