“The vision at first did not speak, and simply looked kindly at him, said M. Meurice.
“The hallucination used to build itself up in the following manner: the medium saw a bluish cloud floating about near a particular armchair in his bedroom; the cloud or shadow remained ill defined, ‘as though several veils were being successively removed’; and only one feature at a time—at a vision—seemed to be distinctly shown, e.g. at one time, the eyes were well shown, the rest of the vision being very indistinct; at another time, the nose was the prominent feature, or the mouth, the hair or the beard, etc.; as though the personification wished to impress one thing at a time upon the medium’s perception.
“Finally on the 6th October 1903, in a short journey which M. Meurice made one day to Arcachon, H. B. appeared to him in broad daylight, in an avenue of the forest through which the medium was driving.
“M. Meurice saw, on the roadway a short distance ahead, a person walking very slowly and peculiarly: ‘he limped as though the right leg was shorter than the left.’ He was a stout man with a round, clean-shaven face. He had a peculiar mark near one of his eyes. He was wearing a tall straw hat, a high collar, the ends rising and meeting in points under the chin, a yellowish walking-stick, the handle of which was made of ivory and fastened to the stick by a silver band; the personage was reading a newspaper, the title of which was in Gothic lettering ‘like the Matin.’ He was wearing a thick gold chain and trinkets. M. Meurice thought he was looking upon a real individual, and it was not until the carriage had driven past, and my friend saw the supposed man suddenly disappear, leaving but a ‘whitish blur on the ground,’ that he recognised H. B. and the hallucinatory character of his perception.
“I saw M. Meurice about five hours after he had had this vision, when he gave me the above details; I recognised the following as being correct:—
“1. The walk.
“2. A peculiar mark near one of the eyes.
“3. The newspaper; H. B. took in the Temps, the title of which is in Gothic lettering like the Matin.
“4. The walking-stick, every detail being exact.
“5. The description of the collar was correct.