brought the news that Ganganelli had suddenly died at eight o'clock in the morning; the body began to putrefy so promptly that the usual ceremonies of kissing the pope's feet and the transfer to St. Peter's became impossible! The most curious effects of the girl's predictions appeared however, when the Conclave was held to elect a successor. Many Cardinals were extremely anxious that Braschi should not be elected, lest this should be interpreted as a confirmation of the prediction, and hence as the work of the Evil One; others again looked upon the girl's words as an indication from on high; they carried the day. Braschi was really chosen, and ascended the throne as Pius VI. The commission, however, continued the work of investigation, and finally acquitted the Jesuits of the charge of collusion; Beatrice Rensi's predictions were declared to be supernatural, but suggested by the Father of Lies, the accused were all set free. The Bishop of Montefiascone, Maury, reported officially in 1804 that the girl had received a pension from Rome until the French invasion, then she left the convent in which she had peacefully and quietly lived so long, and was not heard of again. The famous predictions of Jacques Cazotte, a man of high literary renown and the greatest respectability, were witnessed by persons of unimpeachable character and have been repeatedly mentioned as authentic by eminent writers. Laharpe--not the tutor of the Russian Emperor Alexander--reports them fully in his _OEuvres choisies_, etc. (i. p. 62); so do Boulard, in his _Encycl. des gens du Monde_, and William Burt, who was present when they were made, in his "Observations on the Curiosities of Nature." It is well known that Cazotte had joined the sect of Martinists, and among these enthusiasts increased his natural sensitiveness and his religious fervor. With a mind thus predisposed to receive strong impressions from outside, and filled with fearful apprehensions of the future, it was no wonder that he should fall suddenly into a trance and thus be enabled by extraordinary magical influences to predict the horrors of the Revolution, the sad fate of the king and the queen, and his own tragic end.