CHAPTER V.

 

AT FLORENCE, NAPLES, ROME, AND PARIS.

 

EARLY in the autumn of 1855 I went to Florence accompanied by the son of the gentleman with whom I had been residing at Ealing. I remained in Florence till the mouth of February, 1856, and although some persons there did all they could to injure me by false statements, I was only the more cherished by those who best knew me. I met there many distinguished men and women, and a Prince of one of the Royal Houses became deeply interested in what he witnessed. The manifestations while I was at Florence were very strong. I remember on one occasion while the Countess O—— was seated at one of Erard's grand action pianos, it rose and balanced itself in the air during the whole time she was playing. She also, whilst we were seated at a table in the room, took up an album which chanced to be lying there, and said, "Now if this is in reality the spirit of my dear father, I know you would wish to convince me, you can do so if you will, write your name on this page." She opened the book and placed it on her knees, and held a lead pencil in her hand. In a moment the pencil

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was taken out of her hand, and the name of her father, the Count O——, was written. On examination she said, "There is a slight resemblance to your writing, but I would wish it to be more distinct." She placed the open book again on her knees, and again the writing came in the same way, and also the words, "My dear daughter ——." This last writing she cut from my album, leaving in it the words first written, where they still are; and on going home she showed it to an old friend of her father's, saying, "Do you know whose writing that is?" "Of course," he said, "it is your father's." When the Countess told him it had been written that very evening, he thought that to a certainty she had lost her senses, and on appealing to her husband, and finding that he corroborated her statement, he was equally alarmed for them both.

 

At the house of an English resident at Florence, I had many seances at which the power was very great, and she wrote a private account of some of the phenomena, which will show the reader the nature and extent of the manifestations at that time. I am very glad that I am able thus to give the results of the observations of others rather than my own unsupported statements. The lady says:

 

"The house in which I at present reside, and which, for some years past, has been my home, is a large, rambling, old-fashioned villa in the neighbourhood of Florence, whose internal architecture gives evidence of its having been built at different periods—those periods probably distant from each other.

 

"The oldest parts of the house, judging from the ornaments of a chapel which forms part of it, must, I

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should say, have been constructed in the early part of the sixteenth century. The rooms which I occupy are almost immediately above the chapel, and communicate on one side with the lower part of the house by a narrow stone staircase. On first coming to reside here we learned that the villa had, in common with many others of the same description, the reputation of being haunted. Strange lights it was said had been seen issuing from the chapel windows, and unearthly noises heard in that part of the house to which I have alluded. Some friends passed the winter with us some five or six years since, and their servant occupied a small room on an entresol between the chapel and my rooms, but his rest became so broken, and he described the noises he heard as so peculiar, that he requested to be allowed to sleep elsewhere. I was formerly much in the habit of dismissing my maid early, and sitting up either reading or writing until a late hour. At such times I have been suddenly seized with a strange fearfulness, a kind of nervous dread, more easily imagined than described. In fact, it would be impossible to define my sensations at those moments, further than by saying that I felt I was no longer alone. This feeling usually lasted from five to ten minutes, and invariably left a painful impression on my spirits. I also often heard a peculiar rustling sound in my room, and around my bed, as though some one were agitating the bed curtains and this sound was invariably accompanied as if a door had been suddenly opened, and a strong current of cold wind had rushed with violence into the room.

 

"These sounds and the other painful sensations

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which I have described, and which I was totally unable to explain, continued at intervals with greater or lesser degrees of intensity until the month of October, 1855, when much sensation was created in Florence by the arrival of Mr. Home, whose reputation as a spirit medium had rendered him celebrated. A short time after his arrival in Florence, the sounds in my room became more distinct and more frequent, and the very peculiar nervous feelings of which I have spoken, were not confined so exclusively to myself, but were frequently shared by my sister, if she remained any time in my room. My rest at length became so broken, and in consequence my health so impaired, that I had my bed removed into a room adjoining the one in which I had been in the habit of sleeping, hoping that the change would bring me quiet.

 

"The first night was undisturbed, but the next and succeeding nights were so painful that I frequently lay awake until morning. In the meantime, we made Mr. Home's acquaintance, and having been a witness of effects so wonderful as only to be ascribed to a supernatural cause, I determined to discover, if possible, through his agency, the real secret of my haunted rooms.

 

"Mr. Home having been invited to make a stay of a few days in our house, was on the first day of his arrival made acquainted with the mystery of my rooms, and he proposed that a seance should be held in them for the purpose of endeavouring to ascertain whether or not the strange sounds which disturbed me were to be attributed to supernatural agency. Accordingly about eleven o'clock on that same evening, my sister, Mr. Home and myself repaired to my room, and placed

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ourselves at a small round table in front of, and very near the fire­place. We were warmly covered, and the fire was blazing brightly; yet the cold that pervaded the room was intense, penetrating to the very bones. I should mention that for many previous days, I had suffered from what appeared to be a cold air which was quite independent of the atmospheric temperature, blowing over my body, especially over the lower limbs. This feeling never left me, and all artificial means failed in destroying the sensation of chilliness. This same cold air was now felt by both my sister and Mr. Home to such a degree as to be painful to them also. I have since found that it is a frequent accompaniment of the manifestations.

 

"Previously to placing himself at the table, Mr. Home had descended to the chapel, where, however, all was quiet. On reascending the stairs, he heard a sound as of a muffled bell tolling in the chapel. We had scarcely sat a moment at the table, when it began slowly to move about in different directions, generally inclining towards the side on which I sat. Presently the movements became more violent, and assumed, if I may be allowed the expression, an angry appearance. We asked if a spirit were present, and the table replied by making the three usual affirmative movements.

 

"We then further inquired whether the spirit present were a good one, and were answered in the negative. We spoke in harsh terms, which seemed to irritate the spirit, for the demonstrations became very angry. A high backed old fashioned chair, which stood at a little distance from the table was suddenly,

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and without human contact, drawn close to it, as though some one, in sitting down, had so drawn it. Nothing was, however, visible. Mr. Home proposed that we should move into the next room, my bedroom, and try whether any further manifestations would be made there. We did so: but all remained quiet. We then returned to the room we had just quitted, and sat down at another table covered with a cloth. We had previously heard a rustling sound about, and under the tables, such a sound as would be made by a person moving about in a heavy garment. This noise was accompanied by a scratching on the wood of the table, as though some one were scraping it with his nails. We then distinctly saw the cloth on the side of the table next to me move up, as though a hand raised it from beneath. The hand appeared to be in a menacing attitude. Mr. Home was also often touched on the knee, and he described the touch as peculiarly strong and disagreeable.

 

"We then entreated the spirit to leave us, requiring it should return on the following evening, and declare its purpose in thus tormenting us. This it promised, and on being further adjured in the name of the Holy Trinity to leave us, the demonstrations ceased.

 

"The night was very unquiet. The sensation of cold, of which I have before spoken, accompanied me every where, and I heard a frequent scratching under my pillow, and on my bed. On the next evening we met again in my room, and were joined by two other persons, one a member of our family, the other, a gentleman known to Mr. Home, and who was then investigating this phenomenon, both men of strong nerve

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and dispassionate judgment. The usual cold was felt, and the table became much agitated. A small stiletto, which I use as a paper­knife, was taken from the table as by an invisible hand, and drawn from the sheath. The table was then lifted from the ground, and was violently pushed across the room. It stopped opposite a door leading to the staircase, and we resumed our places.

 

"A small hand-bell was taken from off the table, and violently rung in different directions. The dagger was thrown about under the table, and rubbed against Mr. Home's knees. My elbow was violently grasped by a hand, the fingers of which I distinctly saw—they were long, yellow and shining. Other persons present, who felt its grasp, described its touch as clammy and horrible. I spoke gently to the spirit, who, in answer to my questions, said he was unhappy, and that perhaps I might be of some use to him. He promised to return and speak farther on the following evening, and after lifting the table several times high above our heads, he left us.

 

"The whole of the next day I was more or less tormented by the cold air, which blew over my face and limbs, especially in the evening, a short time before the hour appointed for the seance. This wind then became very strong, and again a hand raised the cloth of the table on which I was leaning, and touched my arm as if to remind me of my engagement. We repaired to my room, one member only of my family being present, my sister having suffered too much from alarm on the previous evening to join us.

 

"The demonstrations of the table immediately began,

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but in a quieter manner than on former occasions. I immediately spoke (I should say that Italian was the only language used*), in a soothing manner. In reply to many questions the spirit told me he was unhappy, and had wandered about the house for many many years, that his name was Giannana, that he had been, a monk, and had died in the room which I then occupied. I desired to know whether I should have masses said for the peace of his soul. He answered in the negative, but requested that I should pray that it might find some repose. I further begged him to tell me why on the previous evening he had made so much use of the little dagger, and he answered that in life he had but too well known how to employ it. He then promised me never again to return to my rooms; and since that evening those painful sensations and strange noises, of which I have spoken so much, have left me, and never have returned. Frequent seances, where good and loving spirits have given us comforting communications, have been since held by their own especial request in my room. The dagger has by them been drawn from its sheath, and the bell rung, as though the touch of holy hands were needful in order to destroy any painful recollections in my mind connected with these articles, or any reluctance I might feel to again make use of them. In fact my rooms seem to have undergone a complete purification, and I feel that whatever painful influence did once exist

 

 

* Here the writer omits a rather curious circumstance. The Italian, she observed, was incorrectly spelled; but, on afterwards comparing it with the state of the language in the sixteenth century, it was found to be correct.

134                        AT FLORENCE, NAPLES, there, it has disappeared wholly, and I trust for ever."

 

The above was written shortly after the strange event it records. On the 3rd of April, 1860, being then in London, I received a letter from the same lady, dated Florence, 27th March, of which the following is an extract:

 

"I believe I told you that the noises at the Villa are worse than ever, and the new proprietor is dreadfully disturbed by them. The house has been exorcised, but without effect. My own rooms are the most disturbed."

 

On the 5th of December, 1855, whilst I was returning to my rooms late at night in Florence, the streets being deserted, I observed a man stepping from the doorway of the adjoining house. I was on the step leading to my own door, and was looking up at the window to see if the servant was still up, when I received a violent blow on my left side, the force of which and the emotion caused by it, threw me forward breathless in the corner of the doorway. The blow was again repeated on my stomach, and then another blow on the same place, and the attempted assassin cried out, "Dio mio, Dio mio," and turning with his arm outstretched, he ran. I distinctly saw the gleam of his poignard, and as he turned, the light of the lamp also fell full on his face, but I did not recognise his features. I was perfectly powerless, and could not cry out or make any alarm, and I stood thus for at least two minutes after which I groped my way along the wall to the door of a neighbour, where I was admitted. I thought I must have received some serious injury,

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but on examining myself I found that the first blow had struck the door key, which I happened to have in my breast pocket, immediately over the region of my heart. I wore a fur coat, and this had chanced to be twice doubled in front. The second blow had gone through the four folds of it, through a corner of my dress coat, my waistcoat, and the band of my trousers, without inflicting any wound. The third blow had penetrated the four folds of my coat, and also my trowsers and linen, and made a slight incision, which bled, but not freely.

 

I had that morning received from a dear friend, who had in his house a clairvoyant of remarkable powers, a letter begging me not to go out that evening, as she had received a warning of impending danger, but to this I paid no attention. I never discovered the perpetrator, nor the cause of my life being attacked. Many reasons were assigned, amongst them robbery, mistaken identity, and religious intolerance.

 

In the month of January, Signor Landucci, then Minister of the Interior to the Grand. Duke of Tuscany, sent to me to request that I would not walk about the house at night between the lights and the window, or go out in the streets in the day time, giving as a reason that some of my enemies had been playing upon the superstitions of the peasantry, and telling them that it was my practice to administer the seven sacraments of the Catholic church to toads, in order by spells and incantations to raise the dead. This had so enraged and excited them that they were fully bent on

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taking my life, and for that purpose were concealed about the neighbourhood with fire arms.

 

I met at this time a Polish nobleman, who with his family was about to visit Naples and Rome, and who most kindly pressed me to accompany them. I was left in Florence without money, and my friends in England having their credulity imposed upon by some scandalmongers, and thinking me to be leading a most dissolute life, refused to send me even money of my own which had been entrusted to their care. I told the Count B—— that I would travel with him, and the very day I gave this assent, the spirits told me that my power would leave me for a year. This was on the evening of the 10th of February, 1856. Feeling that the Count and his family must have felt an interest in me, arising only from the singular phenomena which they had witnessed in my presence, and that this cause being removed, their interest in me would have diminished, I wrote the following morning to inform them of what I was told, and to say that I could no longer entertain the idea of joining them. They at once told me that it was for myself, even more than for the strange gift I possessed, that they had become interested in me. I went to them, and in a day or two we left Florence for Naples. While here, although my powers had left me, still my presence seemed to develope the power in others; for I met, at his own residence, the Hon. Robert Dale Owen, who was the American Minister to the Court of Naples, and it was in the presence of one of the Royal Princes of that family, himself a medium, that he was first convinced. Mr. Owen has since written a most able and carefully

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arranged book of authentic facts, entitled, "Footfalls on the Boundaries of another World," in which he has brought together both the facts and the philosophy of this great subject. We remained in Naples nearly six weeks, and then proceeded to Rome. Here in the absence of the power, my mind sought in the natural world for that consolation—which it had hitherto found in the spiritual, and now this being withdrawn, life seemed to me a blank. I read with intense eagerness all the books I could find relating to the doctrines of the Romish church, and finding them expressive of so many facts which I had found coincident in my own experience, I thought that all contending and contradictory beliefs would be for ever set at rest, could I but be received as a member of that body. My experiences of life and its falsity had already left so indelible a mark on my soul, from my recent experiences of it at Florence, that I wished to shun every thing which pertained to this world, and I determined to enter a monastery.

 

After two or three weeks of serious deliberations on the part of the authorities, it was decided that I should be received as a member of the church, and I was confirmed. The Princess O—— was my godmother, and the Count B—— my godfather on, the occasion. I was most kindly received by the Pope, who questioned me much regarding my past life. He pointed to a crucifix which stood near to us, and said, "My, child, it is upon what is on that table that we place our faith." He also gave me a large silver medal, which it has since been my misfortune to lose.

 

It has since been frequently said of me that at this

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interview with the Pope, I had promised him that I would not have any more manifestations; but it is hardly necessary, after what I have narrated, to say that I could not have made any such promise, nor did he ask any such promise to be made.

 

In June, 1856, I went to Paris, and as I had been advised to do by the Pope, I sought the counsel of the Pere de Ravignan, one of the most learned and excellent men of the clay. The purpose of my remaining in France was to acquire a facility in the language. During the winter I again fell ill, and Dr. Louis, one of the most celebrated physicians in France for consumptive cases, decided on auscultation that my left lung was diseased, and advised a more genial climate. This could not, however, be accomplished, and for some time I was confined to my bed. The time was fast drawing nigh when the year would expire, during which my power was to be suspended. The Pere de Ravignan always assured me that as I was now a member of the Catholic church it would not return to me. For myself I had no opinion on the subject, as I was quite without data except his assurance on the point.

 

On the night of the 10th of February, 1857, as the clock struck twelve, I was in bed, to which I had been confined, when there came loud rappings in my room, a hand was placed gently upon my brow, and a voice said, "Be of good cheer, Daniel, you will soon be well." But a few minutes had elapsed Wore I sank into a quiet sleep, and I awakened in the morning feeling more refreshed than I had done for a long time. I wrote to the Pere de Ravignan, telling him what had occurred, and the same afternoon he came to see me.

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During the conversation loud rappings were heard on the ceiling and on the floor, and as he was about to give me his benediction before leaving, loud raps came on the bedstead. He left me without expressing any opinion whatever on the subject of the phenomena.

 

The following clay I had sufficiently, recovered to take a drive, and on Friday the 13th, I was presented to their Majesties at the Tuileries, where manifestations of an extraordinary nature occurred. The following morning, I called on the Pere de Ravignan to inform him of this. He expressed great dissatisfaction at my being the subject of such visitations, and said that he would not give me absolution unless I should at once return to my room, shut myself up there, and not listen to any rappings, or pay the slightest attention to whatever phenomena might occur in my presence. I wished to reason with him, and to explain that I could not prevent myself from hearing and seeing, for that God having blessed me with the two faculties, it was not in my power to ignore them. As for shutting myself up, I did not think, from my having before tried the experiment, that it was consistent with my nervous temperament, and that the strain on my system would be too great if I were thus isolated. He would not listen to me, and told me I had no right to reason," Do as I bid you, otherwise bear the consequences." I left him in great distress of mind. I wished not to be disobedient, and yet I felt that God is greater than man, and that He having bestowed the power of reason on me, I could not see why I should be thus deprived of it. On reaching my room, I found there a very dear and valued

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friend, the Count do K——. He observed my agitation, and questioned me as to the cause. I told him all, and he said, "There is but one thing to do, come home with me, and we will send for the Abbe de C——, and consult him." The Abbe came, and after hearing my story, he said, "That they might as well put me in my grave alive, as to carry out what had been ordered," adding, "I would like very much to witness some of these wonderful things." Most fortunately my emotion had not destroyed the power, as is usually the case when I am agitated, for while we were together several interesting phenomena occurred. His words were, "Let this power be what it will, it is in no way of your making." He recommended me to seek another spiritual adviser, and added, "I myself would gladly be your adviser, but as it would be known, I should only be persecuted." He gave me the name of one of the most eloquent preachers of the day, and I introduced myself to him, and remained under his guidance during the few weeks of my stay in Paris previous to my going to America to bring back my sister. During my absence, the curiosity had become very great to find out who was my confessor, and the Countess I——, having heard that he was a distinguished man, called upon several of the most noted in Paris, and after a short conversation, she abruptly said to each, "So you are Mr. Home's confessor." Most naturally on one such occasion, she chanced to find the right one, and his look of surprise betrayed him. His surprise was that I should have revealed his name, and this he expressed to the Countess, who told him that I had not betrayed him, but that she had

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used that artifice to ascertain the fact. This was the cause of my not continuing with him longer as my confessor.

 

The extract I here give is one from the recently published life of the great confessor, the Pere de Ravignan, who had been recommended to me by the Pope, and I can only regret he is no longer here to contradict, with his own pen, the false statements concerning me, made by his biographer, the Jesuit Father A. de Ponlevoy. At the termination of Chapter XXIV, this person says," We could not close this chapter without making mention of that famous American medium, who had the sad talent of turning other things than the tables, and invoking the dead to amuse the living. A great deal has been said, even in the papers, of his acquaintance, religiously and intimately, with Father de Ravignan, and they have seemed to wish, under the passport of a creditable name, to introduce and establish in France these fine discoveries of the New World. Here is the fact in all its simplicity. It is very true, that the young foreigner, after his conversion in Italy, was recommended from Rome to the Father de Ravignan, but at that period, in abjuring Protestantism, he also repudiated magic, and he was received with that interest that a priest owes to every soul ransomed by the blood of Jesus Christ, and more, perhaps, to a soul which has been converted, and brought to the bosom of the church. On his arrival in Paris, all his old practices were again absolutely forbidden. The Father de Ravignan, according to all the principles of the faith, which forbids superstition, forbade under the most severe penalties he could inflict,

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that he should be an actor in, or even witness of these dangerous scenes, which are sometimes criminal. One day the unhappy medium, tempted by I know not what, man or demon, violated his Promise; he was retaken with a rigour which overwhelmed him. Coming in then by chance I saw him rolling on the ground, and drawing himself like a worm to the feet of the priest who was in saintly anger. The Father, however, touched by his convulsive repentance, lifted him up, forgave him, and sent him away, after having exacted, by writing this time, a promise under oath. But soon there was backsliding which made much noise (rechute eclatante), and the servant of God, breaking off with this slave of the spirits, had him told never again to appear in his presence."

 

If the rest of the book be no more truthful than this statement, it is certainly not worth reading. The good Father de Ravignan well knew that I was not an American, and that this power had began with me before I ever saw America, for I had told him all my history. He also knew that I never invoked the spirits. No good name is, or ever will be, required to introduce, or accredit a God­given truth, and I knew far too well the power of facts to think that they required the passport of even Father Ravignan's name. His biographer must have had a limited education too, both religious and historical, to write of these things as being the" fine discoveries" of the New World, for they are to be readily traced in every age and country of the world of which we have any record or history preserved to us. It is perfectly untrue that I ever abjured any magical, or other processes, for I never knew anything

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of such, and therefore I could not abjure them. The Father de Ravignan used to say to me, when I told him that the spirits had said they would return to me on the 10th of February, 1857, "There is no fear of that, my child, so long as you go on as you are now doing, observing carefully all the sacraments of our holy church; they will not be allowed to return." I followed out his injunctions most conscientiously; but on the very day promised, they came as I have described, and told me they were glad to find me in so pure a state of mind, as it greatly facilitated their approach. I never yet violated any promise to my knowledge, and as to the biographer coming in and finding me rolling on the ground, and crawling like a worm, it is an entire falsehood. But had it even been true, it would not have been the place of a priest to make such a thing public. If I took an oath, and wrote it down as alleged, that writing will have been kept. Let it be forthcoming to save the character of this Father A. de Ponlevoy, that he may prove the truth of the statement he makes. In the meantime, I say that it is without even any foundation of truth. The last time I saw the good Father de Ravignan, I would only reason with him, for as I then said to him, no man had a right to forbid that which God gave. I left him without confessing even, so I had not been on my knees at all, much less crawling like a worm.

 

As I have said, when the Abbe C—— came to see me, the conversation I had with him only tended to strengthen me in my opinion of what was right, for when priests are not agreed as touching such a matter, whom or what are we to rely on, if not on the reason

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God has given us. The Father de Ravignan Dever had me informed that he would not see me again. On the contrary, it was I who said I would not go to him till he would reason with me. I have letters of his to me in my possession, which will shew the kind feeling he ever had for me previous to this period, and I am well assured in my own mind, that he never said aught against me, even when I no longer saw him. He was so good, so pure, and so high minded, that I would that he had had a more truthful and honest chronicler to write his life.

 

The Countess I—— was herself a firm believer in the manifestations which she had frequently witnessed in my, presence, and she was also present when I had a vision which is described in one of the Paris papers in the following words:

 

"The recent failure of Mr. Thurneyssen recalls to us a strange fact that signalized the sojourn of Mr. Home in Paris during the last winter. The Countess —— had a dozen years ago a strange hallucination. One evening being busy with some embroidery, alone with her brother, he was reading to her one of the most irreligious books of the eighteenth century. As she listened mechanically to his reading, she raised her head, and looking at her brother she was struck with terror at the sight of the strange expression of his face. He was ordinarily a most gentle, benevolent, and sympathetic young man, with calm, quiet features, but at that moment they were frightfully contracted, the eye-brows singularly convulsed, the eyes wide open, the corners of the mouth distorted by a bitter and despairing smile, and altogether he had the peculiar expression

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which painters would give to a fallen angel. The frightened Countess had immediately, as it were a thought revealed to her, (for she never previously dreamed of the possibility of such a thing), she was convinced that her brother was possessed by a demon. Frequently afterwards she saw the same infernal expression on the face of her brother, even when he was most calm and happy; but the idea was so horrible to her that she never mentioned the circumstance. Last winter Mr. Home was introduced to the Countess. Being at her house one evening, and in his usual quiet frame of mind, his attention was drawn to a beautiful marble bust. He was not aware of its being that of the brother of the Countess, but immediately his whole visage changed, and he became in a state of most violent agitation. The Countess much alarmed inquired why he was so affected, when Mr. Home replied, 'Madame, the man whose bust this is, is possessed with a demon.' One may judge of the astonishment of the Countess on hearing Mr. Home say what she had thought twelve years before. She pressed him with questions, and he, recovering from his emotion, rose and went to examine the bust more closely, then turning to the Countess he said, 'In a short time your brother will have a great misfortune, and this misfortune will deliver him from his enemies.'

 

"And so it has occurred, the Count de P—— has lost in the bankruptcy of M. Thurneyssen a considerable part of his fortune. The prophecy came four months previous to the failure. Could it have been that the spirits saw the dishonesty of Thurneyssen? if so this might account why certain persons are so ready

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to oppose all communication with the other world, preferring the darkness to the light."

 

The day previous to my leaving Paris, a wonderful case of healing occurred through me in the manner which I will now relate.

 

On the 19th of March, 1857, when I was residing at 13, Rue des Champs Elysees, I received a letter from a stranger to me, Madame A. Mavoisin de Cardonne, of 233, Rue St. Dominique, St. Germain, stating that she had had a dream, in which she had seen her own mother and mine, and that the latter had told her to seek me at once, in order that her son, who had been deaf for four years from the effects of typhoid fever, might be cured. This was so strongly impressed upon her mind, that she wrote to me to say that she would call upon me with her son, the following morning at ten.

 

Accordingly the next morning she presented herself with her son at my rooms, there being present the Princess de B—— and Miss E——, who were with me, previous to my leaving Paris that very clay, to proceed on my voyage to America. I had been so overwhelmed by persons wishing to see me that I had uniformly refused such visits; but on this occasion I had been so much pre­occupied by my engagements in preparing for my voyage, that I had not been able to acknowledge her letter, or to write to her either in the affirmative or negative. I therefore received her with considerable embarrassment, which was fully reciprocated on her part. It was indeed an embarrassing meeting for both of us, the mother yearning for

ROME, AND PARIS.                             147

 

her son's recovery, and I, not knowing how I was expected to be instrumental in healing this long total deafness; the more so that operations had been performed on the boy, as I afterwards found, by eminent surgeons of Paris, who had said that it was impossible he should ever be restored to hearing.

 

She sat down on a chair near a sofa, I taking a seat on the sofa, and beckoning the son to be seated on my left. The son was in his fifteenth year, tall for his age, of a delicate complexion, with large dreamy blue eyes that looked as if they would supply the place of hearing, with their deep, thoughtful, enquiring gaze. The mother began her description of the boy's illness, commencing with the attack of the fever, and ending in the entire loss of hearing. During the recital, told with all the warmth and tenderness of a mother's heart, and describing the various surgical operations to which he had been subjected, my sympathies were deeply moved, and I had unwittingly thrown my left arm about the boy and drawn him towards me, so that the boy's head rested upon my shoulder. Whilst in this position, and Madame de Cardonne was telling some of the most painful particulars, I passed my hand caressingly over the boy's head, upon which he, partly lifting his head, suddenly exclaimed in a voice trembling with emotion, "Maman, je t'entends!" (Mamma, I hear you!) The mother fixed on him a look of astonishment, and said, "Emile," the boy's name, and he at once replied, "Quoi?" (What?) She then, seeing that the child had heard her question, fainted with emotion, and on her recovery the scene was a most