Page:Notes on the folk-lore of the northern counties of England and the borders.djvu/362

 340 and Charles,” said the poor wife, “would press to the margin of the dangerous pit to see what had become of him, and I was endeavouring to keep you back.” While she was uttering these words the sound of a horse galloping into the courtyard roused her husband. He went to the window, threw it up, and asked what was the matter. The reply was, “Come over directly to ———. Your brother, Mr. James B———, is just dead.” It appeared afterwards that Mr. James B——— had been in his usual health till about three o’clock that morning, when he was seized with violent internal pains and died in a few minutes.

The wife, who related this to my informant, dwelt a good deal on the appearance in her dream of the young man lately in her husband’s employ, saying he had once before appeared to her in a dream which had been duly fulfilled. During an absence of her husband, she had been much alarmed by a report that the vessel in which he had sailed for London was lost, but she had been reassured by a dream in which this young man had told her he was safe and would write to her within three days, which came to pass accordingly.

A very touching dream, also a portent of death, has been thus reported to me on credible authority. It is said to have occurred some years ago in the family of an Irish bishop. A little boy came downstairs one morning, saying, “Oh, mamma, I have had such a nice dream; somebody gave me such a pretty box, and I am sure it was for me, for there was my name on it. Look, it was just like this,” and taking up a slate and pencil the child drew the shape of a coffin. The parents gazed at one another in alarm, not lessened by the gambols of the child, who frolicked about in high health and spirits. The father was obliged to go out that morning, but he begged the mother to keep the child in her sight through the day. She did so, till on dressing to go out in her carriage the little boy slipped away to the stables, where he begged the coachman to take him by his side while he drove to the house-door, a thing he had often done before. On this occasion, however, the horses were restive, the driver lost control over them, and the child was flung off and killed on the spot.