ok his leave to go to matins, and did
not return till noon. In the mean time the two Dutch officers came home,
and soon learnt what had happened, though the landlord took all the
pains he could to conceal it. The reports they heard were confirmed by
the pale and terrified appearance of the girl; their curiosity was
greatly excited, and they asked her innumerable questions. Her answers,
instead of extinguishing, increased it. They assured the landlord, they
would not leave his house, but, on the contrary, would afford him all
the assistance in their power.

As they were young gentlemen of a military profession, and Protestants,
they were at once bold and incredulous. They pretended, however, to
adopt the opinion of the landlord, that the appearances were
supernatural; but it happened that, upon going into the room, they found
the remainder of the taper, on the virtues of which the landlord had so
largely expatiated, and immediately perceived that it was only a common
candle of a large size, which he had brought by mistake in his fright.

This discovery convinced them that there was a fraud, and that
appearances that vanished at the approach of unconsecrated light must be
produced by mere human artifice.

They therefore consulted together, and at length agreed, that the masses
should be continued; that the landlord should not say one word of the
candle, or the suspicions it had produced; that his daughter, the next
night, should sleep in the apartment which had been quitted by the
ladies; and that one of the officers should lie in the girl's bed, while
the other, with the landlord, should wait in the kitchen, to see the
issue.

This plan was accordingly, with great secrecy, carried into execution.

For two hours after the officer had been in bed, all was silent and
quiet, and he began to suspect that the girl had either been fanciful,
or that their secret had transpired: when, all on a sudden, he heard
the latch of the door gently raised; and, perceiving something approach
the bed and attempt to take up the clothes, he resisted with sufficient
strength to frustrate the attempt, and immediately the room appeared to
be all in a flame; he saw many crosses, and inscriptions enjoining
silence and a passive acquiescence in whatever should happen; he saw
also, in the middle of the room, something of a human appearance, very
tall, and very luminous. The officer was at first struck with terror,
and the vision made a second ap