the Gymnasium the same thing has shown itself; in short such crowds have passed along to look at these windows, that the Governor has had the panes of glass washed with acids, but without effacing the pictures, and has even had fresh glass put into their places. But instantly the same crosses have shown themselves, and this even upon paper. At the convent the shutters of three windows have been closed. There are infamous people who say all manner of injurious thing concerning the nuns; but they have nothing to do with it. I have been to see these crosses which dilate as you look at them. This happens also at the Gymnasium-but I could not distinguish the head. The crosses were of the height of 25 centimètres and upwards. There are also double crosses. Throughout the environs crosses are to be seen, men on horseback armed, and heads. There are houses where these wonders are not to be seen. The women in the villages are filled with astonishment, not knowing what this may mean. Why has not this been ever seen before?"

The account as given in the Tablet is as follows:

"On Monday, the 12th of March, the fair took place at Lichtenberg, a spot much frequented on account of its beautiful scenery and splendid prospects. About two o'clock in the day, when the fair was at its height, there was seen a death's head, a sword, and a coffin. The panic spread on all sides, and the people fled in every direction. This place is at a [here a word is illegible in the MS.] from Baden, and three leagues from Seltz. I did not believe it.

"To-day, the 14th of March, there is a fair at Rastadt. The same phenomenon has manifested itself, and more strikingly than ever. In this place every one is in amazement. Yesterday evening black crosses appeared upon the windows at the railway station and upon the carriage windows in the trains. To prevent excitement the panes were taken out, and new ones put in their places, but the same figures immediately appeared on the new ones. They were black crosses two inches long, death's heads, skeletons, battles

"To-day, March 14th, the phenomenon has appeared in the city at the barracks, at the Hôtel de Ville, and in more than sixty-six private houses. People have broken their windows, they have put up their shutters, they have scrubbed with soap and water, but they have not caused to disappear the marks made by the finger of God. When the shutters were shut, the marks appeared in another place. Nobody thought any more about the fair, everybody crowded to see the sight. Some wept and lamented, others swore and jeered; but most agreed that it was a very bad sign. I have information from more

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than ten parishes in or near the Duchy of Baden, where the same thing has been seen. Some say that the phenomenon has been seen throughout the whole Duchy of Baden. I have myself talked with a great many persons who have witnessed it. Their scared and frightened manner bears witness to the truth of their story. Hundreds of persons from Rastadt tell of the same thing. Seltz, March, 18.-Clever Germans dispute the fact, but they do it in an odd way. I have just read in Mr. Ritter's paper, that the appearances are produced by a fault in the manufacture of the glass. When hot from the oven, the plates are laid upon an iron grating, which produces the marks, but yet so that they do not appear until after several years. It is a silly thing for clever people to say. Others say, 'It is a natural phenomenon. I cannot explain it.' But it must have been a wonderful artist who could put in those crosses. On about seventy houses the crosses are shaped like an X. The principal ones are on the railway carriage windows and at the Then what are we to about the rogue of a glass-blower who put in the death's heads? Why death's heads and not wreaths of laurels? Had it been so, Prince Bismarck would not have interdicted their mention by the press.

stations.

say

"Madame Beyer, the mayor's wife, called on Saturday, and asked me what I thought about it. I said that in point of fact there was no room for doubt, and that even the official papers did not venture to deny it. Curiously enough she remembered that similar crosses were much talked of twenty years ago, and that she had heard it said that when ignorance and irreligion reached their height, Almighty God would scatter crosses in Germany. People from our place are saying that in all the villages the crosses have been seen on the windows. People are made uncomfortable; the Protestants do not cease their insults.

"March 24.-Madame Beyer has sent me word that her husband, the Mayor of Seltz, who is by no means one of the credulous-being anxious to see for himself went with several other gentlemen to Rastadt. On his return, as soon as he entered the house, he said to his wife: Upon my word of honour, it is no use denying it.' The schoolmaster of Reschvoy also went to satisfy his curiosity. He possessed himself of one of the panes of glass that was marked with a cross and three death's heads. He had to pay pretty dearly for them, and wrapped them up carefully in paper. When he reached the Rhine, the floating-bridge was on the French side, so having to wait some time before he could pass over he took out his pane and looked at it attentively. When the bridge was ready for crossing, he showed it to the bridgemen, and then put it up and

crossed over to the French side. When there, the bridgemen who went with him, spoke of it to some persons on that side, and they begged him to give them also a sight of the wonderful glass. The schoolmaster hastened to gratify them, but what was his surprise and the surprise of all present to find the pane perfectly clear and plain! The cross and the three death's heads had vanished. The conclusion from this is that the sign is for Germany and the Germans only. On the German side of the Rhine the subject is tabooed. The police are beside themselves with anger. The Government schoolmasters even forbid the children of their schools to speak about it.

"The following copy of a letter from Strasburg, dated the 25th of May, has also been placed at our disposal:

"My dear Aunt,-We are feeling very much an occurrence that is now taking place here in Strasburg. The Prussians have just begun the works of the new fortifications. They are taking the land without paying the owners one half of its value; everybody is indignant, but might takes the place of right with these folks. Another phenomenon has just appeared. On the 21st of May (Whit-Tuesday) there was seen all at once on the windows of the girls' school of St. John's parish, a figure of the Blessed Virgin. She had a lion under her feet on which she seemed to be trampling; on each side of her there appeared the figures of Turcos and French soldiers, also of a ship that seemed to be sinking, and several small black crosses. The Curé of the parish was sent for; when he saw it, he broke all the panes, upon which there immediately appeared other figures of the same kind on the second story windows. Then the Curé sent for a scientific man to examine them; and that gentleman said that he could not understand it, but that the thing did not seem to him to be merely natural. People are frightened. What is going to happen to us? Dear aunt, pray for us!'

"The Univers appends to the foregoing a letter dated the 6th of June, and addressed to the editor by Dr. Imbert Gourbeyre, the able physician who lately rendered a valuable service to religion by his scientific and searching examination of the case of Louise Lateau, the stigmatisée of Hainault, Belgium, and who has since been in Italy engaged in investigating the marvellous case of Palma of Oria. He writes as follows:

"Sir, I am quite disposed to believe in the crosses of Alsace and the other places. I do not at all admit the theories either of mystification, of vitrification, or of hallucination. Alsace is indeed mystified but in a very different way; she is truly unfortunate and is under no hallucination whatever.

"Two reasons lead me to think that a miracle has taken place in this case. The first is, that Prussia has forbidden the

newspapers under its authority to speak of it. The second is, the account of the Wurtemberg apothecary who ran to get some chemical with which to rub off and take out the mark of the mysterious cross. Whilst he was doing it the children were crying out that another cross had come upon the next pane. Thereupon the worthy practitioner, furious at his failure with the first, breaks the second pane with a blow of his fist. This apothecary broke his windows, and by so doing, forces me, who am a doctor myself and a professor of medicine, to believe in a miracle. Mysterious crosses are not a new thing. In 1826 we had the celebrated cross of Migné, which appeared for many hours on the great windows of the heavens. Older still, as far back as the 6th century, there was, if I am not mistaken, all about Tréves, an apparition of numerous crosses, not upon windows but upon clothes. History is silent as to whether the apothecaries and the scourers were able to clean them off or take them out with acid, but the Bollandists, who are strong in historical criticism, affirm the facts in some one or other of their volumes. Besides this, enquirers may find a number of analogous facts in an old book that should be consulted on the subject of miracles. It is in two vols. folio, and is entitled, Admiranda Orbis Christiani Auctore Bagatha. Venetiis, 1680.

"If I hazard any remarks to-day on the subject of mysterious crosses, it is because I have seen a good many-seen them with my own eyes. Some readers of the Univers will perhaps remember that I have announced, as about to appear at the end of this year, a work upon the stigmatisées of Bois d'Haine and of Oria. Now, during the four days which I spent last October near the celebrated Palma, I saw on several different occasions the blood fall from the forehead of the stigmatisée upon handkerchiefs and there form numerous crosses before my eyes. Twice have I seen Palma struggling with that interior and mysterious fire, when linen placed in contact with her was riddled (so to speak) with charred emblems, in the midst of which there were crosses in plenty.

"It will perhaps be said that I was under hallucination, but I brought away with me the handkerchiefs and other convincing proofs. If you do not believe come and see me, and I will show them to you, when I hope you will be no more the victim of hallucination than I am. Palma produces every day some of those mysterious crosses. She does many other things also, for she is the most extraordinary woman of our time. It seems as if Providence had raised her up to hurl defiance at the freethinkers of the day. Just as they are pluming themselves on having driven away the supernatural, it comes back upon them au galop.

"The other day, in the Journal des Débats, Monsieur Ratisbonne denied the fact of ecstacy with elevation from the ground. The Hebrew writer had forgotten his Bible and Elias and several other things.

"A. IMBERT GOURBEYRE, M.D., "Professor at the Medical School of Clermont-Ferraud."" We would, however, receive these accounts with caution, knowing the feelings of animosity which are entertained by the Jesuits towards the Germans, who are menacing them with expulsion from the country. But supposing these to be genuine spirit-manifestations, we can very well understand how Jesuit spirits may be at work-endeavouring to prognosticate coming judgments through military calamities to Germany, as these emblems are made to appear visible in Germany and disappear from the panes of glass when carried into France. Our readers may remember that we have drawn their attention to similar persistent and zealous interference of partisan-spirits in the affairs of man in the furtherance of reactionary movement in politics and religion, vide Spiritual Magazine for 1866, Vol. I., New Series, page 211, where instances of spiritual reactionary movement are given in the case of Julian the Apostate, the Holy Maid of Kent, and in our own day in Madagascar and New Zealand.

The phenomena of these mysterious crosses, &c., probably belongs to the same class of emblematic spirit-photography of which manifestations were given in the 17th century to Dr. Pordage and the Philadelphian Brethren, and also in the year 1839, in Sunderland. In Howitt's History of the Supernatural, Vol. II., page 246, we find as follows:

"But what was most remarkable, the spirits painted on the glass of the windows and on the tiles of the house all kinds of extraordinary figures of men and animals, which appeared continually to move as if alive. On the tiles of the fireplace they had drawn the two hemispheres of the earth, full of men and beasts which also appeared to move. When the visitation was over, they attempted to wash these out, but they found them indelible, and could only get rid of them by breaking them up with a hammer. The matter had made a great public sensation, and numbers of people, magistrates and others, made a particular examination of the circumstances, and proved the truth of them. These events," continues our author, "extraordinary as they are, have been in many particulars corroborated by events of to-day. In the case of Mary Jobson, of Sunderland, published by Dr. Reid Clanny, physician to the Duke of Sussex, the sun, moon and other things, were painted on the ceiling in