'From this time the soul spoke no more, but it haunted everybody in the convent and church. The brother Cordeliers exorcised it. Brother Peter, of Arras, adopted a very awkward manner of conjuring it. He said to it--If thou art the soul of the late Madame de St. Memin, strike four knocks; and the four knocks were struck. If thou art damned, strike six knocks; and the six knocks were struck. If thou art still tormented in hell, because thy body is buried in holy-ground, knock six more times; and the other six knocks were heard still more distinctly. If we disinter thy body, and cease praying to God for thee, wilt thou be the less damned? Strike five knocks to certify it to us; and the soul certified it by five knocks. [Spirit-rapping is therefore more ancient than is generally supposed.} 'This interrogation of the soul, made by Peter, of Arras, was signed by twenty-two Cordeliers, at the head of which was the reverend father provincial. This father provincial the next day asked it the same questions, and received the same answers. 'It will be said that the soul having declared that it was in purgatory, the Cordeliers should not have supposed that it was in hell; but it is not my fault if theologians contradict one another. 'The Lord of St. Memin presented a request to the king against the father Cordeliers. They presented a request on their sides; the king appointed judges, at the head of whom was Adrian Fumee, master of requests. 'The Procureur-General of the commission required that the said Cordeliers should be burned; but the sentence only condemned them to make the "amende honorable," with a torch in their bosom, and to be banished from the kingdom. This sentence is of February 18th, 1535. 'After such a vision, it is useless to relate any others: they are all a species either of knavery or folly. Visions of the first kind are under the province of justice; those of the second are either visions of diseased fools, or of fools in good health. The first belong to medicine, the second to Bedlam.' Verse 3. 'Before the lamp of God went out.' I presume this refers to some lamp kept burning in the tabernacle; but it is a strange mode of description.