Two French gentlemen, refugees, who resided together in New York on terms of great amity, freighted a ship for India. Everything was prepared for their departure, and they waited only a favourable wind. One of them, B——, of a calm and placid temperament, apparently excited by the uncertainty and delay of the time of sailing, began to manifest a degree of restlessness which surprised his companion. One day he entered the apartment where his friend was engaged in writing letters for Europe, and under the influence of an excitement so great that he had difficulty to suppress it, he exclaimed: "Why lose time in writing letters?—they will never go to their destination. Come with me and take a turn on the Battery. The wind may become favourable; we are, perhaps, nearer the point of departure than we suppose!" Acceding to the request, his friend accompanied him, and as they proceeded, arm-in-arm, he was astonished at the rapid and excited manner in which B—— walked. On reaching the Battery, B—— precipitated his rate of walking still more, until they approached the parapet. He spoke in a high and quick tone, expressing in florid terms his admiration of the scenery. Suddenly he arrested his incoherent discourse, and his friend separated from him. "I regarded him fixedly," to continue the narrative in the words of the narrator; "he turned away as if intimidated and cast-down. 'B——,' I cried, 'you intend to kill me, you wish to throw me from this height into the sea! Deny it, monster, if you dare!' The madman looked me in the face with haggard eyes for a moment, but I was careful not to lose his glance, and he lowered the head. He murmured some incoherent words, and sought to pass by me. I barred the way, extending my arms. After looking vaguely right and left, he threw himself on my neck, and melted into tears. 'It is true, it is true, my friend! The thought has haunted me night and day, as a torch of hell. It was for this end that I brought you here; had you been but a foot from the border of the parapet, the work had been done.' The demon had abandoned him, his eyes were without expression, a foam covered his dried lips; the excitement was passed. I reconducted him to the house. Some days of repose, together with bleeding and low diet, re-established him completely; and what is still more extraordinary, we never more spoke of this event."
Are we, with Boismont, to regard this as an example of "sudden and mysterious inspiration?" Would it not have been still more mysterious if a minute examination of the countenance of a madman, who was talking incoherently near the verge of a precipitous descent, and big with intent to murder, had not been sufficient to unravel his purpose? We think it would, and that there is no evidence here of anything beyond the pale of the laws of common observation.
It would be needless to multiply instances of presentiment which have carried conviction to the minds of persons less accustomed to analyze the operations of the senses and intellect than Boismont, and in whom errors of observation are infinitely more likely to occur; nevertheless there are instances on record which, if the authority upon which they are stated be admitted, receive no explanation from natural laws so far as we are yet acquainted with them.
One of the best and most striking examples of this kind is given on the authority of Mrs. Crowe.
She writes:—
"One of the most remarkable cases of presentiment I know, is that which occurred not very long since on board one of Her Majesty's ships, when lying off Portsmouth. The officers being one day at the mess-table, a young Lieutenant P. suddenly laid down his knife and fork, pushed away his plate, and turned extremely pale. He then rose from the table, covering his face with his hands, and retired from the room. The president of the mess, supposing him to be ill, sent one of the young men to inquire what was the matter. At first Mr. P. was unwilling to speak, but, on being pressed, he confessed that he had been seized by a sudden and irresistible impression that a brother he had then in India was dead. 'He died,' said he, 'on the 12th of August, at six o'clock; I am perfectly certain of it!' No argument could overthrow this conviction, which in due course of post was verified to the letter. The young man had died at Cawnpore, at the precise period mentioned."[79]
A singular story is also related of the early days of the Empress Josephine, which may fitly be detailed here.
"She was born in the West Indies," writes Sir Archibald Alison, "and it had early been prophesied by an old negress that she should lose her first husband, be extremely unfortunate, but that she should afterwards be greater than a queen. This prophecy, the authenticity of which is placed beyond a doubt, was fulfilled in the most singular manner. Her first husband, Count Alexander Beauharnais, a general in the army on the Rhine, had been guillotined during the Reign of Terror, solely on account of his belonging to the nobility; and she herself, who was also imprisoned at the same time, was only saved from impending death by the fall of Robespierre. So strongly was the prophecy impressed on her mind, that while lying in the dungeons of the Conciergerie, expecting every hour to be summoned to the Revolutionary Tribunal, she mentioned it to her fellow-prisoners, and, to amuse them, named some of them as ladies of the bed-chamber,—a jest which she afterwards lived to realise to one of their number."
Sir Archibald Alison adds the following note in confirmation of the prophecy:—