great, connected with a secret only known to Rizzio's brother and to
the queen. It is "to be carried to one whose name the queen has
spoken in her new secretary's ear" (Joseph's), "but dare not trust
herself to write". "It would be idle now to seek to pry into the
mystery which was thus anxiously guarded," says Dr. Robertson, editor
of the queen's inventories. The doctor knew nothing of the vision
which, perhaps, so nearly pried into the mystery. There is nothing
like proof here, but there is just a presumption that the diamonds
connected with Rizzio, and secretly worn by the queen, seen in the
vision of 1845, are possibly the diamonds which, had Mary died in
1566, were to be carried by Joseph Rizzio to a person whose name might
not safely be written. {35a}

We now take a dream which apparently reveals a real fact occurring at
a distance. It is translated from Brierre de Boismont's book, Des
Hallucinations {35b} (Paris, 1845). "There are," says the learned
author, "authentic dreams which have revealed an event occurring at
the moment, or later." These he explains by accidental coincidence,
and then gives the following anecdote, as within his own intimate
knowledge:--

THE DEATHBED

Miss C., a lady of excellent sense, religious but not bigoted, lived
before her marriage in the house of her uncle D., a celebrated
physician, and member of the Institute. Her mother at this time was
seriously ill in the country. One night the girl dreamed that she saw
her mother, pale and dying, and especially grieved at the absence of
two of her children: one a cure in Spain, the other--herself--in
Paris. Next she heard her own Christian name called, "Charlotte!"