Page:The Naturalisation of the Supernatural.pdf/173

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Poltergeists
153

go home. Meeting Thorel, when with Tinel, he recognised in Thorel the spectre in the blouse.

Bunel, aged fourteen, the other pupil, corroborated Lemonnier, who, he said, had "lost consciousness" and "had a nervous attack" after meeting Thorel. The witness showed a black eye, caused by a stamping iron which flew in his face. He attested many eccentric movements of objects.

It was given in evidence further that Thorel had boasted of his power as a sorcerer, that he had used threats against M. Tinel, and that on being charged by the Curé with being the cause of the disturbance, Thorel had knelt to beg forgiveness of the younger boy, and had been struck with a stick by M. Tinel.

Most of the witnesses called in the case had only hearsay evidence to give; or could speak only of the occurrence of raps and thumps in the presence of the two boys, which they were satisfied the boys could not have produced. Two gendarmes had counted twenty-three broken panes of glass; but after spending an hour or two at the Presbytery had not seen or heard anything out of the way. But Cheval, the Mayor of the Commune, testified to having seen the tongs and shovel at the Presbytery "leave the hearth and go into the middle of the room." They were put back, and rushed out again. "My eyes were fixed on them to see what moved them, but I saw nothing at all." He also saw a "stocking dart like a thunderbolt from beside the bed on which the children were sleeping, to the