The apparition of the great Cardinal of Lorraine at the moment of death,
is better authenticated. D'Aubigné tells us (_Hist. Univer._ 1574, p.
719) that the queen Catherine of Medici, was retiring one day, at an
earlier hour than usual, in the presence of the King of Navarre, the
Archbishop of Lyons, and a number of eminent persons, when she suddenly
hid her eyes under her hands and cried piteously for help. She made
great efforts to point out to the bystanders the form of the Cardinal,
whom she saw standing at the foot of her bed and offering her his hand.
She exclaimed repeatedly: "Monsieur le Cardinal, I have nothing to do
with you!" and was in a state of most fearful excitement. At last one of
the courtiers had the wit to go to the Cardinal's house, and soon
returned with the appalling news that the great man had died in that
very hour. To this class of cases belongs also the well-known vision of
Lord Lyttleton, who had been warned that he would die on a certain day,
at midnight, and who did die at the appointed hour, although his
friends had purposely advanced every clock and watch in the house by
half an hour, and he himself had gone to bed with his mind relieved of
all anxiety. Jarvis, in his "Accreditated Ghost Stories," p. 13, relates
the following remarkable case: "When General Stuart was Governor of San
Domingo, in the early part of our war of independence, he was one day
anxiously awaiting a certain Major von Blomberg, who had been expected
for some time. At last he determined to dictate to his secretary a
dispatch to the Home Government on this subject, when steps were heard
outside, and the major himself entered, desiring to confer with the
Governor in private. He said: 'When you return to England, pray go into
Dorsetshire to such and such a farm, where you will find my son, the
fruit of a secret union with Lady Laing. Take care of the poor orphan.
The woman who has reared him has the papers that establish his
legitimacy; they are in a red morocco pocket-book. Open it and make the
best use you can of the papers you will find. You will never see me
again.' Thereupon the major walked away, but nobody else had seen him
come or go, and nobody had opened the house for him. A few days later,
news reached the island that the vessel on which Blomberg had taken
passage, had foundered, and all hands had perished, at the very hour
when the former had appeared to his friend the Governor. It became also
known that the two friends had pledged each other, not only that the
survivor should take care of the children of him who died first, but
also that he should make an effort to appear to him if permitted to do
so. The Governor found everything as it had been told him; he took
charge of his friend's son, who became a _protégé_ of Queen Charlotte,
when she heard the remarkable story, and was educated as a companion of
the future George IV."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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