The murderer Lemaire.

Condemned to the ultimate penalty by the jury of the Aisne, and executed on December 31, 1857. Evoked on January 29, 1858.

[see Communication: Sur l’assassin Lemaire et la criminalité, par P.

Broca.]

I pray Almighty God to permit the murderer Lemaire, executed on December 31, 1857, to come to us. Answer. – Here I am.

How were you able to answer our call so promptly?

Answer. – Rachel said so. n

Seeing us, what sensation do you experience?

Answer. – That of shame.

How can a young woman, gentle as a lamb, serve as intermediary to a being as bloodthirsty as you? Answer. – God permits it.

Did you retain your senses until the last moment?

Answer. – Yes.

After the execution did you have an immediate notion of this new existence?

Answer. – I was plunged into a great disturbance, from which, moreover, I have not yet freed myself. I felt an immense pain, it seeming to me that it was the heart that suffered it. I saw something or other roll at the foot of the scaffold, I saw the blood that flowed, and my pain became more poignant to me.

Was it a purely physical pain, analogous to that which would result from a great wound, from the amputation of a limb, for example? Answer. – No; picture to yourselves rather a remorse, a great moral pain.

When did you begin to feel this pain?

Answer. – From the moment I was set free.

But the physical pain of the torment, who experienced it: the body or the Spirit?

Answer. – The moral pain was in my Spirit, the body feeling the physical pain; but the detached Spirit also felt it.

Did you see the mutilated body?

Answer. – I saw something shapeless, to which I seemed integrated; nevertheless, I recognized myself as intact, that is, that I was myself…

What impressions came to you from this fact?

Answer. – I felt my pain greatly, I was completely bound to it.

Is it true that the body still lives some instants after decapitation, the executed one having consciousness of his ideas? Answer. – The Spirit withdraws little by little; the more the material bonds retain it, the less prompt is the separation.

How long does this last?

Answer. – More or less. (See the preceding answer.)

It is said that the expression of anger and movements have been noted in the physiognomy of certain executed persons, as if they wished to speak; is this an effect of nervous contractions, or an act of the will? Answer. – Of the will, since the Spirit had not yet detached itself.

What was the first sentiment you experienced upon entering the new existence?

Answer. – An intolerable suffering, a kind of poignant remorse, whose cause I did not know.

Did you find yourself reunited with your accomplices executed at the same time?

Answer. – Unfortunately, yes, to our misfortune, for this mutual sight is a continual torment, each reproaching the others for their crimes.

Have you encountered your victims?

Answer. – I see them… they are happy; their gazes pursue me… I feel that they pierce my being and in vain I try to flee them.

What impression do these gazes cause you?

Answer. – Shame and remorse. I brought them about voluntarily and I still abominate them.

And what impression do you cause them?

Answer. – Of pity.

Will they in their turn have hatred and the desire for vengeance?

Answer. – No; their vows draw the expiation toward me. You cannot gauge the horrible torment of owing everything to those whom we hate.

Do you regret the loss of corporeal life?

Answer. – I regret only my crimes. If the matter still depended on me, I would no longer succumb.

How were you led to the criminal life that you led?

Answer. – Understand! I judged myself strong; I chose a harsh trial; I yielded to the temptations of evil.

Was the inclination toward evil in your nature, or were you also influenced by the milieu in which you lived? Answer. – Being an inferior Spirit, the tendency toward evil was in my own nature. I wished to rise rapidly, but I asked more than my strength could bear.

If you had received sound principles of education, would you have turned away from the criminal path? Answer. – Yes, but I had chosen the condition of birth.

Could you not perhaps have made yourself a man of good?

Answer. – A weak man is incapable both of good and of evil. I might, perhaps, correct in life the evil inherent in my nature, but never raise myself to the practice of good.

When incarnate, did you believe in God?

Answer. – No.

It is said that in the last hour you repented; is it true?

Answer. – Because I believed in a vengeful God, it was natural that I feared Him…

And now is your repentance more sincere?

Answer. – Indeed! I see what I did…

What do you think of God, now?

Answer. – I feel Him, but I do not understand Him.

Do you find just the punishment that was inflicted on you on Earth?

Answer. – Yes.

Do you hope to obtain the pardon of your crimes?

Answer. – I do not know.

How do you intend to repair them?

Answer. – Through new trials, although it seems to me that there exists an eternity between them and me.

Will these trials be fulfilled on Earth or in another world?

Answer. – I do not know.

How will you be able to expiate your past faults in a new existence, if you do not retain the remembrance of them? Answer. – I shall have the prescience of them. n

Where do you find yourself now?

Answer. – I am in my suffering.

We ask what is the place in which you find yourself…

Answer. – Near Ermance.

Are you reincarnated or wandering?

Answer. – Wandering; if I were reincarnated, I would have hope. I have already said: it seems to me that eternity is between me and the expiation.

Since it is thus, under what form would we see you, if such were possible for us?

Answer. – You would see me under my corporeal form: the head separated from the trunk.

Could you appear to us?

Answer. – No. Leave me.

Could you tell us how you escaped from the prison of Montdidier?

Answer. – I know nothing more… my suffering is so great that I retain only the remembrance of the crime… Leave me.

Could we contribute to relieving you of this suffering?

Answer. – Make vows that the expiation may come.

[1] This section title, formerly named “Particular evocations,” was renamed by Allan Kardec “Conversations from beyond the tomb,” and from this number of the Spiritist Review onward received the title “Familiar conversations from beyond the tomb.” [2] Translator's note: See Heaven and Hell, by Allan Kardec – Second Part, chapter VI – Repentant criminals. [3] Having been evoked some days earlier through the same medium, Mademoiselle Rachel presented herself instantly. In this regard, the following questions were put to her: – How is it that you came so promptly, at the very instant we evoked you? One would say you were prepared. Ans. – When Ermance (the medium) calls us, we come quickly.

— You have, then, much sympathy for Mademoiselle Ermance?

Ans. – There is a bond between her and us. She came to us; we go to her.

— Yet there is no resemblance between her character and yours; how is it, then, that there is sympathy? Ans. – She has never entirely left the world of the Spirits.

[4] Translator's note: Prescience (préscience) in the original French. In the context above, the more appropriate term would be intuition.