It was a detached house surrounded by a garden; it contained two bedrooms, a sitting-room, and a vestibule which served as a dining-room. In order to make my recital intelligible, I am obliged to give a few details about the furniture and its arrangement. A night-table separated my bed from the fireplace. Above the table was a holy-water fount; above the latter an oil painting representing the Virgin; finally, near the ceiling, the statuette on its bracket. To the left of the night-table, in the recess beside the chimney, there was a panoply composed of swords and sabres. When we were settled, Madame Vergniat again visited Périgord. It was during her absence that the first manifestation took place, but I attached no great importance to it. Here are the circumstances under which the phenomenon occurred. I was awakened in the night by the sound of a violent blow as of some one hammering at the front door. I promptly lit the candle, and looked at the time; it was one o’clock. This visit was not of a reassuring nature, for, to be able to knock at the front door at this hour of the night, it was necessary to leap over the gate, which, securely closed, barred access to the house. Before proceeding to open the door, I waited for a second knock, but in vain. I was awakened, at the same hour on the following night, by a similar rap. The nurse, sleeping with the children in the next room, hearing the knock, got frightened. I tried to reassure her by saying: ‘_To-morrow a loaded gun will receive the individual who takes such a pleasure in arousing us._’ I underline these words, because further on we will have occasion of seeing them repeated in a surprising manner. A few months later, and without any new incidents occurring in the meantime, our nurse was discharged, and replaced by a strong healthy girl from the Pyrenees. The nocturnal visit had been quite forgotten, when on the 23rd January 1868, Madame Vergniat and the nurse, who were busy in my room, heard something like a rustling on the window-panes, and saw the statuette bow twice, as though saluting them. At first they thought an earthquake had happened, and when I entered they related the incident to me in scared tones. The statuette was indeed displaced; but was that sufficient to convince me? No. I laughed at the story, convinced that my wife and the nurse were victims of an illusion. However, on the morrow and following days, the same phenomena occurring at the same hour, that is to say towards eleven o’clock in the morning, I determined to stay at home and verify _de visu_ this marvellous fact. I got what I wanted; for on that day, the statuette turned about now to the right, now to the left, twelve or fourteen times. Sometimes it advanced and balanced itself on the edge of the pedestal. The evolution was so prompt and so unexpected, that the eye could scarcely follow the movement.