"In the exercise of his duties as one of the pages-in-waiting,Ribaupierre followed one day his august mistress into the throne-roomof the palace. When the Empress, accompanied by the high officers ofher court and the ladies of her household, came in sight of the chairof state which she was about to occupy, she suddenly stopped, and tothe horror and astonished awe of her courtiers, she pointed to avisionary being seated on the imperial throne. The occupant of thechair was an exact counterpart of herself. All saw it and trembled,but none dared to move towards the mysterious presentment of theirsovereign."After a moment of dead silence the great Catherine raised her voiceand ordered her guard to advance and fire on the apparition. Theorder was obeyed, a mirror beside the throne was shattered, the visionhad disappeared, and the Empress, with no sign of emotion, took thechair from which her semblance had passed away." It is a strikingbarbaric scene!"Spirits of the living" of this kind are common enough. In theHighlands "second sight" generally means a view of an event oraccident some time before its occurrence. Thus an old man was sittingwith a little boy on a felled tree beside a steep track in a quarry atBallachulish. Suddenly he jerked the boy to one side, and threwhimself down on the further side of the tree. While the boy stared,the old man slowly rose, saying, "The spirits of the living are strongto-day!" He had seen a mass of rock dashing along, killing somequarrymen and tearing down the path. The accident occurred next day.It is needless to dwell on second sight, which is not peculiar toCelts, though the Highlanders talk more about it than other people.These appearances of the living but absent, whether caused by somemental action of the person who appears or not, are, at least,_unconscious_ on his part. {88} But a few cases occur in which aliving person is said, by a voluntary exertion of mind, to have madehimself visible to a friend at a distance. One case is vouched for byBaron von Schrenck-Notzig, a German psychologist, who himself made theexperiment with success. Others are narrated by Dr. Gibotteau. Acurious tale is told by several persons as follows:--
