when Desfontaines minor
was going to study at Caen, he worried Bezuel into signing, in his
blood, a covenant that the first who died should appear to the
survivor. The lads corresponded frequently, every six weeks. On
July 31, 1697, at half-past two, Bezuel, who was hay-making, had a
fainting fit. On August 1, at the same hour, he felt faint on a
road, and rested under a shady tree. On August 2, at half-past two,
he fainted in a hay-loft, and vaguely remembered seeing a half-naked
body. He came down the ladder, and seated himself on a block, in
the Place des Capucins. Here he lost sight of his companions, but
did see Desfontaines, who came up, took his left arm, and led him
into an alley. The servant followed, and told Bezuel's tutor that
he was talking to himself. The tutor went to him, and heard him
asking and answering questions. Bezuel, for three-quarters of an
hour, conversed, as he believed, with Desfontaines, who said that he
had been drowned, while bathing, at Caen, about half-past two on
July 31. The appearance was naked to the waist, his head bare,
showing his beautiful yellow locks. He asked Bezuel to learn a
school task that had been set him as a penalty, the seven
penitential psalms: he described a tree at Caen, where he had cut
some words; two years later Bezuel visited it and them; he gave
other pieces of information, which were verified, but not a word
would he say of heaven, hell, or purgatory; 'he seemed not to hear
my questions'. There were two or three later interviews, till
Bezuel carried out the wishes of the phantasm.

When the spectral Desfontaines went away, on the first occasion,
Bezuel told another boy that Desfontaines was drowned. The lad ran
to the parents of Desfontaines, who had just received a letter to
that effect. By some error, the boy thought that the _elder_
Desfontaines had perished, and said so to Bezuel, who denied it,
and, on a second inquiry, Bezuel was found to be right.

The explanation that Bezuel was ill (as he certainly was), that he
had heard of the death of his friend just _before_ his
hallucination, and had forgotten an impressive piece of news, which,
however, caused the apparition, is given by the narrator of 1708.
The kind of illusion in which a man is seen and heard to converse
with empty air, is common to the cases of Bezuel and of Briggs, and
the writer is acquainted, at first hand, with a modern example.

Mrs. Crowe cites, on the authority of t