apel in one of the churches of the city where her votary
was quartered. The soldier acquired such familiarity with the object of
his devotion, and was so much confided in by the priests, that he
watched for and found an opportunity of possessing himself of a
valuable diamond necklace belonging to the Madonna. Although the
defendant was taken in the manner, he had the impudence, knowing the
case was to be heard by the King, to say that the Madonna herself had
voluntarily presented him with her necklace, observing that, as her
good and faithful votary, he had better apply it to his necessities,
than that it should remain useless in her custody.

The King, happy of the opportunity of tormenting the priests, demanded
of them, whether there was a possibility that the soldier's defence
might be true. Their faith obliged them to grant that the story was
possible, while they exhausted themselves on the improbabilities which
attended it. "Nevertheless," said the King, "since it is possible, we
must, in absence of proof, receive it as true, in the first instance.
All I can do to check an imprudent generosity of the saints in future,
is to publish an edict, or public order, that all soldiers in my
service, who shall accept any gift from the Virgin, or any saint
whatever, shall, _eo ipso_, incur the penalty of death."

Amongst English trials, there is only mention of a ghost in a very
incidental manner, in that of John Cole, fourth year of William and
Mary, State Trials, vol. xii. The case is a species of supplement to
that of the well-known trial of Henry Harrison, which precedes it in
the same collection, of which the following is the summary.

A respectable doctor of medicine, Clenche, had the misfortune to offend
a haughty, violent, and imperious woman of indifferent character, named
Vanwinckle, to whom he had lent money, and who he wished to repay it. A
hackney-coach, with two men in it, took up the physician by night, as
they pretended, to carry him to visit a patient. But on the road they
strangled him with a handkerchief, having a coal, or some such hard
substance, placed against their victim's windpipe, and escaped from the
coach. One Henry Harrison, a man of loose life, connected with this Mrs
Vanwinckle, the borrower of the money, was tried, convicted, and
executed, on pretty clear evidence, yet he died denying the crime
charged. The case being of a shocking nature, of course interested the
feelings of the common peopl