at her name was
Garnier; and addressing itself to the provost, said, "Alas! whence do
I come? from what distant country, through how many storms, dangers,
through snow, cold, fire, and bad weather, have I arrived at this
place! I have not received power to harm any one--but prepare
yourselves with the sign of the cross against a band of evil spirits,
who are here only to do you harm; have a mass of the Holy Ghost said
for me, and a mass for those defunct; and you, my dear sister-in-law,
give some clothes to the poor, for me."

They asked this spirit several questions on things past and to come,
to which it replied very pertinently; it explained even the salvation
and damnation of several persons; but it would not enter into any
argument, nor yet into conference with learned men, who were sent by
the Bishop of Mans; this last circumstance is very remarkable, and
casts some suspicion on this apparition.

Footnotes:

[357] Richer Senon. in Chronic. m. (Hoc non exstat in impresso).

[358] Herman Contraet. Chronic. p. 1006.

[359] D'Aubigne, Hist. Univ. lib. ii. c. 12. Ap. 1574.

[360] Henry IV.

[361] Mem. de Sully, in 4to. tom. i. liv. x. p. 562, note 26. Or Edit.
in 12mo. tom. iii. p. 321, note 26.

[362] Bongars, Epist. ad Camerarium.

[363] Chronic. Metens. Anno, 1330.

[364] Taillepied, Traite de l'Apparition des Esprits, c. xv. p. 173.

[365] Anecdote Mabill, p. 320. Edition in fol.

CHAPTER XLII.

ON THE APPARITIONS OF SPIRITS WHO IMPRINT THEIR HANDS ON CLOTHES OR ON
WOOD.

Within a short time, a work composed by a Father Premontre, of the
Abbey of Toussaints, in the Black Forest, has been communicated to me.
His work is in manuscript, and entitled, "Umbra Humberti, hoc est
historia memorabilis D. Humberti Birkii, mira post mortem apparitione,
per A. G. N."

This Humbert Birck was a burgess of note, in the town of Oppenheim,
and master of a country house called Berenbach; he died in the month
of November, 1620, a few days before the feast of St. Martin. On the
Saturday which followed his funeral, they began to hear certain noises
in the house where he had lived with his first wife; for at the time
of his death he had married again.

The master of this house, suspecting that it was his brother-in-law
who haunted it, said to him, "If you are Humbert, my brother-in-law,
strike three times against the wall." At the same time, they heard
three strokes only, for ordinarily he struck several