asle, a tall black man came and
seated himself near the consul. The preacher perceived him, and
appeared disconcerted at it. When he left the pulpit, he asked who
that stranger was who had taken his seat next to the chief magistrate;
no one had seen him but himself. When he went home, he heard more news
of the spectre. The black man had been there, and had caught up by the
hair the youngest and most tenderly loved of his children. After he
had thus raised the child from the ground, he appeared disposed to
throw him down so as to break his head; but he contented himself with
ordering the boy to warn his father that in three days he should
return, and he must hold himself in readiness. The child having
repeated to his father what had been said to him, Carlostadt was
terrified. He went to bed in alarm, and in three days he expired.
These apparitions of the demon's, by Luther's own avowal, were pretty
frequent, in the case of the first reformers.

These instances of the apparitions of spectres might be multiplied to
infinity; but if we undertook to criticise them, there is hardly one
of them very certain, or proof against a serious and profound
examination. Here follows one, which I relate on purpose because it
has some singular features, and its falsehood has at last been
acknowledged.[307]

Footnotes:

[304] Plutarch in Cimone.

[305] Pausanias, lib. i. c. 324.

[306] Moshovius, p. 22.

[307] See the following chapter.

CHAPTER XXXV.

EXAMINATION OF THE APPARITION OF A PRETENDED SPECTRE.

Business[308] having led the Count d'Alais[309] to Marseilles, a most
extraordinary adventure happened to him there: he desired Neure to
write to our philosopher (Gassendi) to know what he thought of it;
which he did in these words: the count and countess being come to
Marseilles, saw, as they were lying in bed, a luminous spectre; they
were both wide awake. In order to be sure that it was not some
illusion, they called their valets de chambre; but no sooner had
these appeared with their flambeaux, than the spectre disappeared.
They had all the openings and cracks which they found in the chamber
stopped up, and then went to bed again; but hardly had the valets de
chambre retired than it appeared again.

Its light was less shining than that of the sun; but it was brighter
than that of the moon. Sometimes this spectre was of an angular form,
sometimes a circle, and sometimes an oval. It was easy to read a
letter by