Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 02.pdf/598

 Causes Célèbres.

55 1

CAUSES CÉLÈBRES. XXI. A GHOST IN COURT. WHETHER or not the defective ven tilation of our courts of law be ini mical to the subtle fluid of which phantoms are composed, or whether these sensitive essences, oppressed with the absurdities of forensic costume and manners, take fright at the first glimmer of a counsellor's wig or at the titter which follows a counsellor's joke, there can be no question of the extreme dif ficulty that has always been experienced in bringing a spectre fairly to judicial book. So long as the proceedings retain an extra judicial character, no gentleman on the ex tensive r6le of attorneys could devote his time and abilities more zealously to the get ting up of a case than has your unfee'd film. Not content with fulfilling the office of de tective, the indefatigable phantom has sug gested needful testimony, indicated lines of prosecution, collected witnesses, and — all being ready — marched, so to speak, up to the very door of the judgment hall. There, however, for some reason or other, the spectre has invariably come to a stand. The prospect of a cross-examination by a scepti cal counsellor, whose incredulity goes the length of doubting one's very existence, may have something to do with it. Whatever the cause may be, certain it is that his ghostship remains outside, and a tacit understand ing seems to have been arrived at to eliminate the accusing shade altogether. In the French courts the questions of ghost or no ghost— and if the former, what might be the worth of the ghost's tes timony — seem to have been permitted a wider range. Counsel have been freely heard on either part. In a case that many years ago stirred up the whole philosophy of the subject, so much curious matter was

elicited as to make the record worth preserv ing. It is an illustration of the familiar man ner in which a not distant generation dealt with the subject. Honore Mirabel, a poor laborer, on the es tate of a family named Gay, near Marseilles, invoked the protection of the law under the following extraordinary circumstances : — He declared that while lying under an almond-tree, late one night, striving to sleep, he suddenly noticed a man of remarkable appearance standing, in the full moonlight, at the window of a neighboring house. Knowing the house to be unoccupied, he rose to question the intruder, when the latter disappeared. A ladder being at hand, Mira bel mounted to the window, and on entering found no one. Struck with a feeling of ter ror, he descended the ladder with all speed, and had barely touched the ground, when a voice at his back accosted him, — "Pertuisan [he was of Pertuis], there is a large treasure buried close at hand. Dig, and it is yours." A small stone was dropped on the terrace, as if to mark the spot alluded to. For reasons not explained, the favored Mirabel shrank from pursuing the adventure alone, but communicated with a friend, one Bernard, a laborer in the employ of the farmeress Paret. This lady being admitted to theit confidence, the three assembled next night at the place indicated by the spectre, and, after digging to a considerable depth, came upon a large parcel wrapped in many folds of linen. Struck with the pickaxe, it returned unmistakably the melodious sound of coin; but the filthy and, as Paret sug gested, plague-stricken appearance of the covering checked their eager curiosity, un