e. No sooner had I done
this, than, with a bright smile irradiating all his features, he fell
back upon his pillow and expired. I noticed that in less than a minute
afterward his corpse had all the stern rigidity of stone. His brow was
of the coldness of ice. Thus, ordinarily, should it have appeared, only
after long pressure from Azrael's hand. Had the sleep-waker, indeed,
during the latter portion of his discourse, been addressing me from out
the region of the shadows?

THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR

OF course I shall not pretend to consider it any matter for wonder, that
the extraordinary case of M. Valdemar has excited discussion. It would
have been a miracle had it not-especially under the circumstances.
Through the desire of all parties concerned, to keep the affair from the
public, at least for the present, or until we had farther opportunities
for investigation--through our endeavors to effect this--a garbled or
exaggerated account made its way into society, and became the source of
many unpleasant misrepresentations, and, very naturally, of a great deal
of disbelief.

It is now rendered necessary that I give the facts--as far as I
comprehend them myself. They are, succinctly, these:

My attention, for the last three years, had been repeatedly drawn to
the subject of Mesmerism; and, about nine months ago it occurred to me,
quite suddenly, that in the series of experiments made hitherto, there
had been a very remarkable and most unaccountable omission:--no person
had as yet been mesmerized in articulo mortis. It remained to be seen,
first, whether, in such condition, there existed in the patient any
susceptibility to the magnetic influence; secondly, whether, if any
existed, it was impaired or increased by the condition; thirdly, to what
extent, or for how long a period, the encroachments of Death might be
arrested by the process. There were other points to be ascertained,
but these most excited my curiosity--the last in especial, from the
immensely important character of its consequences.

In looking around me for some subject by whose means I might test these
particulars, I was brought to think of my friend, M. Ernest Valdemar,
the well-known compiler of the "Bibliotheca Forensica," and author
(under the nom de plume of Issachar Marx) of the Polish versions of
"Wallenstein" and "Gargantua." M. Valdemar, who has resided principally
at Harlaem, N.Y., since the year 1839, is (or was) particularly