him one day to beg that he would change his landlord, saying that
every night there came into his bed-room a spirit, which would not
allow him to sleep. The Count Despilliers sent him away, and laughed
at his simplicity. Some days after, the same horseman came back and
made the same request to him; the only reply of the captain would
have been a volley of blows with a stick, had not the soldier avoided
them by a prompt flight. At last, he returned a third time to the
charge, and protested to his captain that he could bear it no longer,
and should be obliged to desert if his lodgings were not changed.
Despilliers, who knew the soldier to be brave and reasonable, said to
him, with an oath, "I will go this night and sleep with you, and see
what is the matter."

At ten o'clock in the evening, the captain repaired to his soldier's
lodging, and having laid his pistols ready primed upon the table, he
lay down in his clothes, his sword by his side, with his soldier, in a
bed without curtains. About midnight he heard something which came
into the room, and in a moment turned the bed upside down, covering
the captain and the soldier with the mattress and paillasse.
Despilliers had great trouble to disengage himself and find again his
sword and pistols, and he returned home much confounded. The
horse-soldier had a new lodging the very next day, and slept quietly
in the house of his new host.

M. Despilliers related this adventure to any one who would listen to
it. He was an intrepid man, who had never known what it was to fall
back before danger. He died field-marshal of the armies of the Emperor
Charles VI. and governor of the fortress of Segedin. His son has
confirmed this adventure to me within a short time, as having heard it
from his father.

The person who writes to me adds: "I doubt not that spirits sometimes
return; but I have found myself in a great many places which it was
said they haunted. I have even tried several times to see them, but I
have never seen any. I found myself once with more than four thousand
persons, who all said they saw the spirit; I was the only one in the
assembly who saw nothing." So writes me a very worthy officer, this
year, 1745, in the same letter wherein he relates the affair of M.
Despilliers.

Footnotes:

[284] St. Sulpit. Sever. Dialog. ii. c. 14, 15.

[285] Bodin Demonomania, lib. ii. c. 2.

[286] Guillelm. Paris, 2 Part. quaest. 2, c. 8.

[287] Grot. Epist. Part. ii. Ep. 40