latter went to the door and there saw the well-remembered form of his
nightly visitor, who told him that he would die in eight days. He told
his friends and his family what had happened, but only met with
laughter, as he was in perfect health and nothing seemed more improbable
than his sudden death. But as he sat, on the eighth day, at table with
his family, a book was mentioned which he wished to see, and he got up
to look for it in his library. Instantly a shot is heard; the guests
rush out and find him lying on the floor and weltering in his blood.
Upon inquiry it appeared that a man, desperately in love with the
chamber-maid and jealous of a rival, had mistaken the president for the
latter and murdered him with a pistol (De Ségur, _Galérie morale et
politique_, p. 221).
Among the numerous accounts of visions which seem to have been caused by
an instinctive and perfectly unconscious perception of human remains,
the story of the Rev. Mr. Lindner, in Königsberg, is perhaps the best
authenticated, and from the character of the man to whom the revelation
was made, the most trustworthy. It is fully reported by Professor
Ehrmann of Strasburg, in _Kies. Archiv._ x. iii., p. 143. The minister,
a modest, pious man, awoke in the middle of the night, and saw, by the
bright moonlight which was shining into the room, another minister in
gown and bands, standing before his open bible, apparently searching for
some quotation. He had a small child in his arms, and a larger child
stood by his side. After some time spent in speechless astonishment, Mr.
Lindner exclaimed: "All good spirits praise God!" whereupon the stranger
turned round, went up to him and offered three times to shake hands with
him. Mr. Lindner, however, refused to do so, gazing at the same time
intently at his features, and after a while he found himself looking at
the air, for all had disappeared. It was a long time afterwards, when
sauntering through the cloisters of his church, he was suddenly arrested
by a portrait which bore all the features of the minister he had seen on
that night. It was one of his predecessors in office, who had died
nearly fifty years ago in rather bad odor, reports having been current
at the time, as very old men still living testified, that he had had
several illegitimate children, of whose fate nothing was known. But
there was a still further sequel to the minister's strange adventure. In
the course of the next year his study was enlarged, and for that purpose
the huge German stove had to be removed; to the horror of the workmen
and of Mr. Lindner, who was promptly called to the spot, the remains of
several children were found carefully concealed beneath the solid
structure. As there is no reason to suspect self-delusion in the
reverend man, and the vision cannot well be ascribed to any outward
cause, it must be presumed that his sensitive nature was painfully
affected by the skeletons in his immediate neighborhood, and that this
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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