“Je n’en counis pouïnt.” (“I do not know any.”)
His last hour was, however, rapidly approaching, and he desired the press to be opened, and certain books which it contained to be thrown on the hearth where a large fire was blazing. His orders were obeyed, but, to the great astonishment of the servants and attendants, instead of being consumed in the flames, the books extinguished the fire![178] Fresh faggots were, by the orders of the dying man, heaped on the hearth, and kindled, and, at last, the mysterious books, if not consumed, at least disappeared. The press had ceased to creak from the moment the books were taken out of it, and shortly afterwards Robin breathed his last.
A storm of unusual violence was raging at the time, but the most singular circumstance remains yet to be told. A crow of unusual size was seen to hover over the house, and finally alighted on the roof, and, it is said, that on the day of the funeral, as the corpse was leaving the house, it flew down and perched on the coffin. In vain did the bearers endeavour to drive it off; it held its ground, and even when the body was lowered into the grave it would not quit the station which it had chosen, but suffered itself to be covered with the mould by the sexton.[179]
[177] A double is the smallest copper coin in Guernsey currency, value one-eighth of a penny.
[178] Editor’s Note.—In Traditions et Superstitions de la Haute Bretagne, Tome I., p. 304, M. Sebillot tells the story of a priest, who, at the request of a penitent “sorcier,” tries to burn Le Petit Albert:—“Il le mit dans le foyer pour le brûler; mais le livre sautait dans le feu comme s’il avait voulu en sortir. Le prêtre le repoussait dans les flammes avec sa canne, et il brûla longtemps sans se consumer.”
[179] From Miss Elizabeth Chepmell, Nancy Bichard, and Rachel Duport.
Editor’s Note.
“In German Switzerland, a crow perching on the roof of a house where a corpse lies, is a sure sign that the dead is damned.” Swainson’s Folk-Lore, p. 84.
“In Germany ravens are believed to hold the souls of the damned, sometimes to be the evil one himself.” Idem., p. 90. “The raven was indeed, from of old endowed with the holy awfulness of the Christian dove in the Norse mythology. Odin was believed to have given this bird the colour of the night, that it might the better spy out the deeds of darkness.” Demonology and Devil-Lore, by Conway, Vol. 2., p. 368.