the Duke of Lorraine, Rene
II., being a nun at St. Claire du Pont-a-Mousson, saw during her
orisons the unfortunate battle of Pavia. She cried out suddenly, "Ah!
my sisters, my dear sisters, for the love of God, say your prayers; my
son De Lambesc is dead, and the king (Francis I.) my cousin is made
prisoner." Some days after, news of this famous event, which happened
the day on which the duchess had seen it, was received at Nancy.
Certainly, neither the young Prince de Lambesc nor the king Francis I.
had any knowledge of this revelation, and they took no part in it. It
was, then, neither their spirit nor their phantoms which appeared to
the princess; it was apparently their angel, or God himself, who by
his power struck her imagination, and represented to her what was
passing at that moment.

Mezeray affirms that he had often heard people of quality relate that
the duke (Charles the Third) of Lorraine, who was at Paris when King
Henry II. was wounded with the splinter of a lance, of which he died,
told the circumstance often of a lady who lodged in his hotel having
seen in a dream, very distinctly, that the king had been struck and
brought to the ground by a blow from a lance.

To these instances of the apparition of living persons to other living
persons in their sleep, we may add an infinite number of other
instances of apparitions of angels and holy personages, or even of
dead persons, to the living when asleep, to give them instructions,
warn them of dangers which menace them, inspire them with salutary
counsel relative to their salvation, or to give them aid; thick
volumes might be composed on such matters. I shall content myself with
relating here some examples of those apparitions drawn from profane
authors.

Xerxes, king of Persia, when deliberating in council whether he should
carry the war into Greece, was strongly dissuaded from it by
Artabanes, his paternal uncle. Xerxes took offence at this liberty,
and uttered some very disobliging words to him. The following night he
reflected seriously on the arguments of Artabanes, and changed his
resolution. When he was asleep, he saw in a dream a man of
extraordinary size and beauty, who said to him, "You have then
renounced your intention of making war on the Greeks, although you
have already given orders to the Persian chiefs to assemble your army.
You have not done well to change your resolve, even should no one be
of your opinion. Go forward; believe me. Foll