He never recovered his spirits, and died next day, forty-eight hours after he had seen the spectre. Colonel S—— had conversed with the sergeant about it, who quietly remarked:
“It was a bad job, but he was only a recruit, and must get used to it like the rest.”
“What!” said Colonel S——, “have you heard of others seeing the same?”
“Oh, yes,” answered the sergeant, “there are many queer, unaccountable things seen here, I assure you, and many of our recruits faint a time or two; but they get used to it, and it don't hurt them.”
“Mrs. S—— never got used to it. She remained in a state of dejection for six weeks, and then died. Colonel S—— was long recovering from the impression, and was reluctant to speak of it; but he said he would never deny the thing he had seen.”
What explanation Sir David Brewster has given of this singular apparition, the present writer does not happen to know. We quote it for its strangeness, and leave the reader to make of it what he can. We proceed with a curious instance of mental absence:
Lessing, the German philosopher, being remarkably absent, knocked at his own door one evening, when the servant looking out of the window, and not recognizing him, said:
“The professor is not at home!”
“Oh, very well!” replied Lessing, composedly walking away; “I shall call another time.”
There is an anecdote of successful coolness, of earlier date, which will serve very well to accompany the foregoing: