member of a family
otherwise free from its lugubrious influence.
An example in which an accurate vision of a coming event was seen some
months beforehand by second-sight has already been given. Here is
another and perhaps a more striking one, which I give exactly as it
was related to me by one of the actors in the scene.
"We plunged into the jungle, and had walked on for about an hour
without much success, when Cameron, who happened to be next to me,
stopped suddenly, turned pale as death, and, pointing straight before
him, cried in accents of horror:
"'See! see! merciful heaven, look there!'
"'Where? what? what is it?' we all shouted confusedly, as we rushed up
to him and looked round in expectation of encountering a tiger--a
cobra--we hardly knew what, but assuredly something terrible, since it
had been sufficient to cause such evident emotion in our usually
self-contained comrade. But neither tiger nor cobra was
visible--nothing but Cameron pointing with ghastly, haggard face and
starting eyeballs at something we could not see.
"'Cameron! Cameron' cried I, seizing his arm, "'for heaven's sake,
speak! What is the matter?'
"Scarcely were the words out of my mouth when a low, but very peculiar
sound struck on my ear, and Cameron, dropping his pointing hand, said
in a hoarse, strained voice, 'There! you heard it? Thank God it's
over' and fell to the ground insensible.
"There was a momentary confusion while we unfastened his collar, and I
dashed in his face some water which I fortunately had in my flask,
while another tried to pour brandy between his clenched teeth; and
under cover of it I whispered to the man next to me (one of our
greatest sceptics, by the way), 'Beauchamp, did _you_ hear anything?'
"'Why, yes,' he replied, a curious sound, very; a sort of crash or
rattle far away in the distance, yet very distinct; if the thing were
not utterly impossible, I could have sworn it was the rattle of
musketry.'
"'Just my impression,' murmured I; 'but hush! he is recovering.'
"In a minute or two he was able to speak feebly, and began to thank us
and apologize for giving trouble; and soon he sat up, leaning against
a tree, and in a firm, though still low voice said:
"'My dear friends, I feel I owe you an explanation of my extraordinary
behaviour. It is an explanation that I would fain avoid giving; but it
must come some time, and so may as well be given now. You may perhaps
have noticed that when duri
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