One of the most remarkable cases of modern prophesying which has been officially recorded, is connected with the death of Pope Ganganelli. The latter heard that a number of persons in various parts of Italy had predicted that he would soon end his life by a violent death. He attached sufficient importance to these reports to hand the matter over to a special commission previously appointed to examine grave charges which had been brought against the Jesuits, perhaps suspecting that the Order of Jesus was not unconnected with those predictions. Among the persons who were thereupon arrested was a simple, ignorant peasant-girl, Beatrice Rensi, who told the gendarme very calmly: "Ganganelli has me arrested, Braschi will set me free," implying that the latter would be the next pope. The priest at Valentano, who was arrested on the same day (12th of May, 1774), exclaimed quite joyously: "What happens to me now has been predicted three times already; take these papers and see what my daughter (the Rensi) has foretold." Upon examination it appears that the girl had fixed the pope's day upon the day of equinoxes, in the month of September; she announced that he would proclaim a year of absolution, but not live to see it; that none of the faithful would kiss his foot, nor would they take him, as usual, to the Church of St. Peter. At the same time she spoke of a fierce inward struggle through which the Holy Father would have to pass before his death. Soon after these predictions were made officially known to the pope, the bull against the order of Jesuits was laid before him; the immense importance of such a decree, and the evident dangers with which it was fraught, caused him great concern, and when he one night rose from his bed to affix his signature, and, frightened by some considerations, threw away the pen only to take it up at last and sign the paper, he suddenly recalled the prophecy of the peasant-girl. He drove at once to a great prelate in Rome, who had formerly been the girl's confessor, and inquired of him about her character; the priest testified to her purity, her unimpeached honesty, and her simplicity, adding that in his opinion she was evidently favored by heaven with special and very extraordinary powers. Ganganelli was made furious by this suggestion, and insisted upon it that his commission should declare all these predictions wicked lies, the inspirations of the Devil, and condemn the sixty-two persons who had been arrested to pay the extreme penalty in the Castle of St. Angelo on the 1st of October. In the meantime, however, his health began to suffer, and his mind was more and more deeply affected. Beatrice Rensi had been imprisoned in a convent at Montefiascone; on the 22d of September she told the prioress that prayers might be held for the soul of the Holy Father; the latter informed the bishop of the place, and soon the whole town was in an uproar. Late in the afternoon couriers