The Mysteries of the Tower of Saint-Michel, in Bordeaux.

— In one of the underground vaults of the Tower of Saint-Michel, in Bordeaux, one sees a certain number of mummified corpses which perhaps do not go back more than two or three centuries, having apparently been brought to that state by the nature of the soil. They are one of the curiosities of the city, which strangers never fail to visit. All the bodies have skin entirely like parchment; most are preserved in such a way as to allow one to distinguish the features of the face and the expression of the countenance; many have nails of an admirable freshness; some still preserve remnants of clothing and even very fine lace.

Among these mummies, one in particular draws attention: that of a man, whose contractions of the body, of the face, and of the arms, brought to the mouth, leave not the least doubt as to the manner of death: it is evident that he was buried alive and that he died in the convulsions of a terrible agony. A new newspaper of Bordeaux is publishing a serial, under the title of Mysteries of the Tower of Saint-Michel. We know the work only by name and through the great posters affixed to the walls of the city, depicting the underground vault of the tower. For this reason we do not know in what spirit it was conceived, nor the source from which the author gathered the facts he describes. What we are about to report has, at least, the merit of not being the fruit of human imagination, for it comes directly from beyond the tomb, which will perhaps make the author in question laugh a good deal. Be that as it may, we believe that this account is one of the most surprising episodes of the dramas that took place in that location. It will be read by all Spiritists with all the more interest as it contains a profound teaching. It is the story of a man buried alive and of two other persons connected with him, obtained in a series of evocations made at the Spiritist Society of Saint-Jean-d'Angély, last August, of which we were given knowledge when we passed through there. As regards the authenticity of the facts, we shall make reference in the observation that closes this article.

(Saint-Jean-d'Angély, August 9, 1862. – Medium: Mr. Del…, by typtology.)

Question to the protecting guide: May we evoke the Spirit that animated the body which is seen in the underground vault of the Tower of Saint-Michel, in Bordeaux, and which appears to have been buried alive? Answer. – Yes, and may this serve as a teaching.

Evocation.

Answer. – (The Spirit manifests its presence)

Could you tell us your name when you animated the body of which we speak?

Answer. – Guillaume Remone.

Was your death an expiation or a trial, chosen with a view to your progress?

Answer. – My God! why, in thy goodness, follow thy holy justice? You know that expiation is always obligatory and that whoever has committed a crime cannot avoid it. I was in this case: that is all I can say. After much suffering, I came to recognize my errors and I feel the repentance necessary to obtain grace before the Eternal.

Can you tell us what your crime was?

Answer. – I had murdered my wife in her bed.

(August 10. – Medium: Mrs. Guérin, by writing.)

Before reincarnation, when you chose the kind of trials, did you know that you would be buried alive?

Answer. – No; I only knew that I was to commit an odious crime, which would fill my life with burning remorse, and that life would end in atrocious pains. Soon I shall reincarnate. God had pity on my pain and my repentance. Observation. – This phrase: I knew that I was to commit a crime, is explained further on, in questions 30 and 31.

Did justice pursue anyone on the occasion of your wife's death?

Answer. – No; they believed in a sudden death. I had suffocated her.

What motive led you to that criminal act?

Answer. – Jealousy.

Was it through carelessness that they buried you alive?

Answer. – Yes.

Do you remember the instants of death?

Answer. – It was something terrible, impossible to describe. Imagine being in a grave, with ten feet of earth above you, wanting to breathe and lacking air, wanting to cry out: "I am alive!" and feeling the voice stifled; seeing oneself die and not being able to call for help; feeling oneself full of life and struck from the list of the living; being thirsty and not being able to slake it; feeling the pains of hunger and not being able to make them cease; in a word, dying in a fury of the damned.

In that supreme moment did you think that it was the moment of your punishment?

Answer. – I thought nothing. I died furious, beating against the walls of the coffin, wanting to get out of it alive at all costs.

Observation. – This answer is logical and is justified by the contortions seen when the corpse was examined, in the midst of which the individual died.

Once detached, did your Spirit see the body of Guillaume Remone?

Answer. – Right after death I still saw myself in the earth.

How long did you remain in that state, that is, with the Spirit bound to the body, although it no longer animated it?

Answer. – About 15 to eighteen days.

When it was possible to leave the body, where did you find yourself?

Answer. – I saw myself surrounded by a multitude of Spirits, like me seized by pain, not daring to lift their heart to God, still bound to the Earth, and despairing of receiving his pardon. Observation. – Bound to the body, and still suffering the torture of the last instants, since he found himself among suffering Spirits, without hope of pardon, is this not hell, with its weeping and gnashing of teeth? Will there be any need to build a furnace with flames and tridents? As is known, the belief in the perpetuity of sufferings is one of the punishments inflicted upon guilty Spirits. Such a state will last as long as the Spirits do not repent and would last forever, were they never to repent [this only does not happen because repentance may come very late but does not last forever; as stated by St. Louis in The Spirits' Book, questions No. 1006 and 1007], for God only pardons the repentant sinner. As soon as repentance enters his heart, a ray of hope will let him glimpse the possibility of an end to his ills. But mere repentance is not enough; God wants expiation and reparation, and it is through successive reincarnations that He gives imperfect Spirits the possibility of improving themselves. In erraticity they make resolutions which they seek to carry out in corporeal life. It is thus that, in each existence, leaving behind some impurities, they manage to perfect themselves gradually and take a step forward toward eternal happiness. Thus the door of happiness is never closed to them, being reached in a more or less long time, according to the will and the work they do upon themselves to deserve it. The omnipotence of God cannot be admitted without prescience. This being so, one asks why God, in creating a soul, knowing that it must fail without being able to rise again, drew it out of nothingness to destine it to eternal torments? Did He, then, wish to create unhappy souls? Such a proposition is irreconcilable with the idea of infinite goodness, which is one of His essential attributes. It is one of two things: either He knew, or He did not know; if He did not know, He is not omnipotent; if He knew, He is neither just nor good. Now, to take away a portion of the infinitude of God's attributes is to deny the Divinity. On the contrary, everything is reconciled with the possibility left to the Spirit to repair its faults. God knew that, by virtue of its free will, the Spirit would fail, but He knew, equally, that it would rise again. He knew that, taking the bad path, it would delay its arrival; nevertheless, sooner or later, it would arrive; and it is in order to make it arrive sooner that He multiplies the warnings along the way. It will be the more guilty if it does not heed them and deserves the prolongation of its trials. Which of these two doctrines is the more rational? A. K.

(August 11.)

Would our questions be disagreeable to you?

Answer. – This brings back to me poignant memories. But now that I have entered into grace through repentance, I feel happy to be able to give my life as an example, in order to forewarn my brothers against the passions that could drag them down, as they did me.

Compared with that of your wife, your manner of death leads us to suppose that the law of retaliation was applied to you and that in you these words of Christ were fulfilled: "Whoever strikes with the sword shall die by the sword." n Will you tell us how you suffocated your victim? Answer. – In her bed, as I said, between two pillows, after gagging her, to prevent her from crying out.

Did you enjoy a good reputation among your neighbors?

Answer. – Yes. I was poor, but honest and esteemed. My wife was also of an honorable family. It happened one night, on which jealousy had kept me awake, that I saw a man leave her room. Drunk with fury, and not knowing what I was doing, I became guilty of the crime that I have revealed to you.

Did you see your wife again in the world of Spirits?

Answer. – She was the first Spirit who presented herself to my sight, as if to reproach my crime. I saw her for a long time, also unhappy. Only after it was decided that I would reincarnate did I free myself from her presence. Observation. – The incessant vision of the victims is one of the most common punishments inflicted upon criminal Spirits. Those who plunge into the darkness, which is very frequent, generally cannot escape. They see nothing, except that which can remind them of the crime.

Did you ask her to pardon you?

Answer. – No. We fled incessantly from one another and always found ourselves face to face, in order to torture each other reciprocally.

Yet, at the moment of repentance, was it necessary that you ask her pardon?

Answer. – From the moment I repented I saw her no more.

Do you know where she is now?

Answer. – I do not know what became of her, but it will be easy for you to gather information from Saint John the Baptist, your spiritual guide.

What were your sufferings as a Spirit?

Answer. – I was surrounded by despairing Spirits; I myself imagined that I would never come out of that unhappy state. No glimmer of hope shone for my hardened soul. The vision of the victim crowned my martyrdom.

How did you come to a better state?

Answer. – From the midst of my brothers in despair, one day I made out a goal, which I soon understood I could reach only through repentance.

What was that goal?

Answer. – God, of whom, despite themselves, all have an idea.

You have already said twice that you would soon reincarnate. Would it be indiscreet to ask what kind of trial you have chosen?

Answer. – Death will reap all the beings who are dear to me and I myself shall suffer the most abject infirmities.

Are you happy now?

Answer. – In relative terms, yes, for I glimpse an end to the sufferings. In fact, no.

From the moment when you fell into lethargy, until the awakening in the coffin, did you see and hear what was happening around you?

Answer. – Yes, but so vaguely that I thought I was dreaming.

In what year did you die?

Answer. – In 1612.

(To Saint John the Baptist) Might G. Remone, as a punishment, have been obliged to consent to our evocation in order to confess the crime? This seems to result from his first answer, in which he speaks of God's justice. Ans. – Yes. He was forced, but he resigned himself willingly, when he saw an additional means of pleasing God, by serving your studies.

Surely the Spirit was mistaken when he said (question 6): "I knew that I was to commit a crime." Probably he knew he was exposed to committing a crime, but, endowed with free will, he could well have not succumbed to temptation. Answer. – He explained himself poorly. He should have said: "I knew that my life would be full of remorse." He was free to choose another kind of trial. Now, in order to feel remorse, one must imagine that he committed an evil action.

Could it not be admitted that he had free will only in the state of erraticity, in choosing this or that trial? That is, once the trial was chosen, would he no longer, as an incarnate being, have had the liberty not to commit the action, the crime thus having necessarily to be committed? Answer. – He could have avoided it. He was endowed with free will in the condition of Spirit and as an incarnate being; he could, therefore, have resisted, but the passions dragged him down. Observation. – Evidently the Spirit did not give himself a perfect account of the situation; he confused the trial, that is, the temptation to do, with the action. And as he succumbed, he believed in a fatal action, chosen by himself, which would not be rational. Free will is the most beautiful privilege of the human Spirit and an incontestable proof of God's justice, which makes the Spirit the arbiter of its destiny, for on it depends whether to shorten the suffering or prolong it through its hardening and ill will. To suppose that it could lose moral liberty as an incarnate being would be to remove its responsibility for its acts. By this one can see that we must not accept certain answers of the Spirits except after mature examination [see answer to question No. 6], above all when they do not conform to logic in all points. A. K.

Is it permissible to suppose that a Spirit could choose as a trial a life of crimes, provided that it has chosen remorse, which is nothing other than the infraction of the divine law? Answer. – He can choose the trial and be exposed to it; since, however, he has free will, he can also not fail. Thus, G. Remone had chosen a life full of domestic griefs, which, by arousing the idea of crime, was to fill his life with remorse, if he carried it out. He wished, then, to attempt this trial in the expectation of coming out victorious. Your language is so little in harmony with the manner in which Spirits communicate that often corrections become necessary in some phrases, given by the mediums, especially of intuitive mediums. Through the combination of fluids we transmit to them the idea, which they translate more or less well, according as the combination between the fluid of our perispirit and the animal fluid of the medium is more or less easy.

REMONE'S WIFE.

(August 12.)

(To Saint John) Could we evoke the Spirit of G. Remone's wife?

Answer. – No; she is reincarnated.

On Earth?

Answer. – Yes.

If we cannot evoke her as a wandering Spirit, could we do so as an incarnate being? And could you not tell us when she will be asleep?

Answer. – You may do so at this moment, because, for that Spirit, the nights are the days for you. [See No. 55.]

Evocation of the Spirit of Remone's wife.

Answer. – (The Spirit manifests itself.)

Do you remember the existence in which you were called Mrs. Remone?

Answer. – Yes. Oh! why remind me of my shame and my unhappiness?

If these questions cause you any grief, we will stop.

Answer. – Please, ask them.

Our aim is not to cause you grief. We do not know you and perhaps will never know you. We wish only to make Spiritist studies.

Answer. – My Spirit is tranquil; why agitate it with painful memories? Could you not make such studies with wandering Spirits?

(To Saint John) Should we cease the questions, which seem to awaken in this Spirit an afflicting memory?

Answer. – I advise you to. She is still a child and the fatigue of her Spirit would react upon the body. Besides, it would be more or less the repetition of what the husband has already said.

Have Remone and his wife pardoned one another reciprocally?

Answer. – No; for that it is necessary that they reach a higher degree of perfection.

If these two Spirits were to meet again on Earth as incarnate beings, what sentiments would they experience for one another?

Answer. – Only antipathy.

If G. Remone, as a visitor, were to see his body again in the underground vault of Saint-Michel, would he experience a sensation unknown to the other curious visitors?

Answer. – Yes; but such a sensation would seem to him quite natural.

Has he seen the body again since it was removed from the Earth?

Answer. – Yes.

What were his impressions?

Answer. – None. You know perfectly well that Spirits, once detached from their envelope, see earthly things in a manner different from that of incarnate beings.

Could we obtain some information about the present position of Remone's wife?

Answer. – Ask.

What is her sex today?

Answer. – Feminine.

Her native country?

Answer. – She is in the Antilles, as the daughter of a rich merchant.

The Antilles belong to several powers. What is her nation?

Answer. – She lives in Havana.

Could we know her name?

Answer. – Do not ask it.

What is her age?

Answer. – Eleven years.

What will be her trials?

Answer. – The loss of fortune; an illegitimate and hopeless love, joined to misery and the most grievous labors.

You say an illegitimate love. Will she perhaps love her father, her brother, or one of her own?

Answer. – She will love a man consecrated to God, alone and without hope of being requited. [Note that these last questions were answered by St. John when the Spirit of Mrs. Remone, reincarnated, was at that time only 11 years old.]

Now that we know the trials of this Spirit, if we were to evoke her from time to time during sleep, in her days of misfortune, could we not give her some counsel to revive her courage and place her hope in God? Would this influence the resolutions she might take while awake? Answer. – Very little. That young girl already has an imagination of fire and a head of iron.

You said that in the country where she lives the nights are the days for us [35]. Now, between Havana and Saint-Jean-d'Angély there is a difference of only five and a half hours [less]. At the moment of the evocation, since here it was two o'clock, n in Havana it should have been half past eight in the morning. Answer. – No matter! she was still dozing when you evoked her, whereas you awoke a good while ago. In those parts one sleeps late, when one is rich and has nothing to do.

Observation. – From this evocation several teachings stand out. If, in the outer life of relations, the incarnate Spirit does not remember its past, it recalls it when detached from the body during sleep. There is, then, no break of continuity in the life of the Spirit which, in the moments of emancipation, can cast a retrospective glance over its previous existences and bring from there an intuition, which may direct it in the waking state. On various occasions we have already pointed out the drawbacks that, in the waking state, the precise memory of the past would represent. These evocations furnish us with an example. It was said that, if G. Remone and his wife were to meet, they would experience antipathy for one another. What would it be, then, if they remembered the former relations! Hatred between them would inevitably awaken. Instead of two beings merely antipathetic or indifferent toward one another, they would perhaps be mortal enemies. With their ignorance, they are more themselves and march more freely along the new route they must travel. The memory of the past would disturb them, humiliating them in their own eyes and in those of others. Forgetfulness does not make them lose the fruit of experience, because they are born with what they have acquired in intelligence and in morality; they are what they have made themselves, and, for them, this is a new point of departure. If, with the new trials that Mr. Remone will have to suffer, were joined the memory of the tortures of his final death, it would be an atrocious torment which God wished to avoid, by casting a veil over his past. A. K.

JACQUES NOULIN.

(August 15.)

(To Saint John) May we evoke the accomplice of Remone's wife?

Answer. – Yes.

Evocation.

Answer. – (The Spirit manifests itself).

Swear in the name of God that you are the Spirit of the one who was Remone's rival.

Answer. – I will swear in the name of whatever you wish. — Swear in the name of God. Answer. – I swear in the name of God.

It appears that you are not a very advanced Spirit.

Answer. – Mind your own business and let me go.

Observation. – As there are no closed doors for Spirits, if this one asks to be let go, it is because a superior power obliges him to stay, certainly for his instruction.

We are minding our business, because we wish to know how, in the other life, virtue is rewarded and vice punished.

Answer. – Yes, my dear fellow, each one receives reward or punishment, according to his works. See to it, then, that you walk straight.

Your bravado does not intimidate us; we place our confidence in God. But you appear still very backward.

Answer. – As before, I am still Big John.

Then can you not answer seriously to serious questions?

Answer. – O serious folk, why do you address yourselves to me? I prefer to laugh rather than to philosophize. I always liked good food, agreeable women, and good wine.

(To the guardian angel of the medium.) Can you give us some information about this Spirit?

Answer. – He is not advanced enough to give you good reasons.

Would there be danger in entering into communication with him? Could we awaken better sentiments in him?

Answer. – That would be more profitable to him than to you. Try; perhaps you may decide him to view things from another point of view.

(To the Spirit) Do you know that the Spirit must progress and, through successive reincarnations, reach up to God, from whom you appear to be distant?

Answer. – I had never thought of this. And how far I am from Him! I do not want to undertake so long a journey.

Observation. – Here is a Spirit who, by reason of his levity and little advancement, does not suspect reincarnation. When the moment comes for him to take up a new existence, what choice will he be able to make? Evidently a choice in conformity with his character and his habits, in order to enjoy and not to expiate, until his Spirit finds itself sufficiently developed to understand the consequences. It is the story of the inexperienced youth, who throws himself heedlessly into all adventures and who acquires experience at his own expense. Let us remember that, for backward Spirits, incapable of making a choice with knowledge of cause, there are compulsory incarnations. A. K.

Did you know G. Remone?

Answer. – Yes; truly a poor devil.

Did you suspect that he had murdered his wife?

Answer. – I was a bit selfish, occupying myself more with myself than with others. When I learned of the woman's death I wept sincerely, but I did not try to learn the cause.

What, then, was your position?

Answer. – I was a simple porter's assistant; an usher, as one says today.

After that woman's death, did you ever think of her?

Answer. – Do not remind me of all this.

We want you to remember because you appear better than you reveal.

Answer. – I thought of it a few times, but, as I was naturally carefree, her memory passed like a flash of lightning, leaving no traces.

What was your name?

Answer. – You are very curious; if I were not forced, I would already have left you with your morality and your sermons. [See the observation to question 59.]

You lived in a religious century: Did you, then, never pray for the woman you loved?

Answer. – That is just how it is.

Did you see G. Remone and his wife again in the world of Spirits?

Answer. – I went to find people like me; and when those weepers wanted to show themselves I turned my back on them. I do not like to cause grief and…

Continue.

Answer. – I am not such a chatterbox as you. I am going to stay here, if you consent.

Are you happy today?

Answer. – Why not? I amuse myself by playing tricks on credulous people, who think they are dealing with the good Spirits. As long as they occupy themselves with us, we play good tricks.

This is not happiness. The proof that you are not happy is that you said you were forced to come. Now, he is not happy who is forced to do what displeases him.

Answer. – Does one not always have superiors? This does not prevent one from being happy. Each one seizes happiness where he finds it.

With some effort, principally through prayer, you could attain the happiness of those who command you.

Answer. – I had not thought of this. You are going to make me ambitious. Do you not always deceive me? Do not needlessly disturb my poor Spirit.

We do not deceive you. Work, then, for your advancement.

Answer. – One must take pains, and I am lazy.

When one is lazy, one asks a friend to help us. We will help you, by praying for you.

Answer. – Pray, then, that I myself may decide to pray.

We will pray, but pray also.

Answer. – Do you believe that if I prayed I would have ideas similar to yours?

Without doubt; but pray equally. We will evoke you on Thursday, the 21st, to see the progress you will have made and to give you counsel, should this please you.

Answer. – Then, until soon.

Now will you give your name?

Answer. – Jacques Noulin.

The following day the Spirit was evoked again and several questions were put to him about Remone's wife. His answers, little edifying, were of the kind of the first ones. Consulted, Saint John answered: "You labored in error by disturbing this Spirit, awakening in him his old passions. It would have been better to wait for the appointed day; he found himself in a new perturbation; your disturbance had cast him into ideas of another order, completely different from his habitual ideas. He had not yet been able to take a firm decision, although he was disposing himself to try prayer. Do not intervene until the appointed day. From here until then, if he listens to the good Spirits, who wish to help you in your good work, you may obtain something from him." (Thursday, the 21st.)

(To Saint John). After the last evocation has Jacques Noulin mended his ways?

Answer. – He prayed, and light was made for his soul; now he believes that he is destined to become better and has disposed himself to work.

What course should we follow in his interest?

Answer. – Ask him about the present state of his soul and make him look at himself, in order that he may give an account of his change.

(To Jacques Noulin). Have you reflected, as you promised? Can you tell us what is today your manner of viewing things?

Answer. – Before all else I wish to thank you. You have spared me many years of blindness. For some days now I understand that God is my goal and that I must exert every effort to make myself worthy of reaching up to Him. A new era opens for me: the darkness has dissipated and now I see the path I must follow. My heart is full of hope and I am sustained by the good Spirits who come to the aid of the weak. I am going to follow this new way, in which I have already found tranquility and which is to lead me to [true] happiness.

Were you really happy, as you said? [75 and 76.]

Answer. – Now I see that I was very unhappy; but I felt happy, like all those who do not look upward. I did not think of the future; as on Earth, I wandered just like a carefree being, not taking the trouble to think seriously. Oh! how I deplore the blindness, which made me lose so precious a time! You have gained a friend, do not forget it. Call me whenever you wish and, if I can, I will come.

What do the Spirits with whom you habitually gathered think of your disposition?

Answer. – They mock me for having listened to the good Spirits, whose presence and counsel we detested.

Would it be permitted for you to go see them?

Answer. – Now I occupy myself only with my advancement. Besides, the good angels who watch over me and surround me with care no longer permit me to look back, except to show me to what debasement I had come. Observation. – Certainly there exists no material means of ascertaining the identity of the Spirits who manifested in the above evocations; thus, we will not affirm it in an absolute manner. We make this restriction for those who believe that we accept blindly all that comes from the Spirits. We prefer to err through an excess of distrust. It is that we must avoid giving as absolute truth that which cannot be verified. Now, in the absence of positive proofs, we must limit ourselves to ascertaining the possibility and seeking moral proofs, in the lack of physical proofs. In the fact in question, the answers have an evident character of probability, principally of high morality; in them one sees no contradiction, nor faults of logic that shock good sense and denounce deception; everything connects and links together perfectly; everything agrees with what experience has already demonstrated. One can, then, say that the story is, at least, plausible, which is already much. What is certain is that it is not a matter of a novel invented by men, but, rather, of a mediumistic work. If it were a fantasy of the Spirit, it could only come from a frivolous Spirit, for serious Spirits do not amuse themselves by telling stories and the frivolous ones always let themselves be betrayed. Let us add that the Spiritist Society of Saint-Jean-d'Angély is one of the most serious and best directed centers we have ever seen, constituted by persons as recommendable for their character as for their knowledge, carrying, so to speak, scruple to excess. One can judge it by the wisdom and the method with which the questions are presented and formulated. Thus, all the communications obtained there attest to the superiority of the Spirits that manifest. The above evocations were made under excellent conditions, both as to the milieu and as to the nature of the mediums. For us it is, at least, a guarantee of absolute sincerity. We will add that the veracity of the account was attested in the most explicit manner by several of the best mediums of the Society of Paris. Viewing the thing only from the moral point of view, a grave question presents itself. Here are two Spirits, Remone and Noulin, drawn out of their situation and brought to better sentiments by the evocation and by the counsel that was given them. One may ask whether they would have continued unhappy, had they not been evoked, and what happens with all the suffering Spirits who are not evoked? The answer has already been given in the History of a Damned Soul (Spirit of Castelnaudary), published in the Review of 1860. We will add that, the moment having arrived for these two Spirits at which they could be touched by repentance and receive the light, providential circumstances, although fortuitous in appearance, provoked their evocation, whether for their own good, or for our instruction. The evocation was a means, but, in the lack of this, God would not find Himself deprived of resources to come to the aid of the unfortunate; and we may be certain that every Spirit who wishes to progress will always find assistance, in one manner or another. A. K.

[1] Translator's Note: Matthew, 26:52.

[2] Translator's Note: Two o'clock in the afternoon.