rson in question, in
order that you may know his character.

"You need not be very clever in the art of physiognomy to remark in
his countenance the melancholy which prevails in his temperament. This
sad disposition, joined to the fever which has tormented him for some
time, carried some vapors to his brain, which might easily lead him to
believe that he heard all he has publicly declared; besides which, the
desire to divert himself by alarming his domestics may have induced
him to feign several things, when he saw that the adventure had come
to the ears of a prince who might not approve of such a joke, and be
severe upon it. Thus then, sir, you will think as I do, that the
report of the celebrated Marescot on the subject of the famous
Margaret Brossier agrees perfectly with our melancholy man, and well
explains his adventure: _a natura multa, plura ficta, a daemone nulla_.
His temperament has made him fancy he saw and heard many things; he
feigned still more in support of what his wanderings or his sport had
induced him to assert; and no kind of spirit has had any share in his
adventure. Without stopping to relate several effects of his
melancholy, I shall simply remark that an embarkation which he made on
one of the last _jours gras_, setting off at ten o'clock at night to
make the tour of the peninsula of St. Maur, in a boat where he covered
himself up with straw on account of the cold, appeared so singular to
the great prince before mentioned, that he took the trouble to
question him as to his motives for making such a voyage at so late an
hour.

"I shall add that the discernment of his highness made him easily
judge whence this adventure proceeded, and his behavior on this
occasion has shown that he is not easily deceived. I do not think it
is allowable for me to omit the opinion of his father, a man of
distinguished merit, on this adventure of his son, when he learned all
the circumstances by a letter from his wife, who was at St. Maur. He
told several persons that he was certain that the spirit which acted
on this occasion was that of his wife and son. The author of the
relation was right in endeavoring to weaken such testimony; but I do
not know if he flatters himself that he has succeeded, in saying that
he who gave this opinion is an _esprit fort_, or freethinker who makes
it a point of honor to be of the fashionable opinion concerning
spirits.

"Lastly, to fix your judgment and terminate agreeably this li