The Best Ghost Stories | Page 8

And if so, no doubt she would not trust
her gold out of it. And Mrs. Veal's often drawing her hand over her eyes, and asking Mrs.
Bargrave whether her fits had not impaired her, looks to me as if she did it on purpose to
remind Mrs. Bargrave of her fits, to prepare her not to think it strange that she should put
her upon writing to her brother to dispose of rings and gold, which looked so much like a
dying person's request; and it took accordingly with Mrs. Bargrave, as the effects of her
fits coming upon her; and was one of the many instances of her wonderful love to her,
and care of her, that she should not be affrighted; which indeed appears in her whole
management, particularly in her coming to her in the day-time, waiving the salutation,
and when she was alone; and then the manner of her parting, to prevent a second attempt
to salute her.
Now, why Mr. Veal should think this relation a reflection, as it is plain he does, by his
endeavoring to stifle it, I cannot imagine; because the generality believe her to be a good
spirit, her discourse was so heavenly. Her two great errands were to comfort Mrs.
Bargrave in her affliction, and to ask her forgiveness for the breach of friendship, and
with a pious discourse to encourage her. So that, after all, to suppose that Mrs. Bargrave
could hatch such an invention as this from Friday noon till Saturday noon, supposing that
she knew of Mrs. Veal's death the very first moment, without jumbling circumstances,
and without any interest too; she must be more witty, fortunate, and wicked too, than any
indifferent person, I dare say, will allow. I asked Mrs. Bargrave several times, if she was
sure she felt the gown? She answered modestly, If my senses be to be relied on, I am sure
of it. I asked her, if she heard a sound when she clapped her hand upon her knee? She
said, she did not remember she did; but said she appeared to be as much a substance as I
did, who talked with her. And I may, said she, be as soon persuaded, that your apparition
is talking to me now, as that I did not really see her: for I was under no manner of fear,
and received her as a friend, and parted with her as such. I would not, says she, give one
farthing to make any one believe it: I have no interest in it; nothing but trouble is entailed
upon me for a long time, for aught I know; and had it not come to light by accident, it
would never have been made public. But now, she says, she will make her own private
use of it, and keep herself out of the way as much as she can; and so she has done since.
She says, She had a gentleman who came thirty miles to her to hear the relation; and that
she had told it to a room full of people at a time. Several particular gentlemen have had

the story from Mrs. Bargrave's own mouth.
This thing has very much affected me, and I am as well satisfied, as I am of the
best-grounded matter of fact. And why we should dispute matter of fact, because we
cannot solve things of which we can have no certain or demonstrative notions, seems
strange to me. Mrs. Bargrave's authority and sincerity alone, would have been undoubted
in any other case.
TO THE READER
The origin of the foregoing curious story seems to have been as follows:--
An adventurous bookseller had ventured to print a considerable edition of a work by the
Reverend Charles Drelincourt, minister of the Calvinist church in Paris, and translated by
M. D'Assigny, under the title of "The Christian's Defense against the Fear of Death, with
several directions how to prepare ourselves to die well." But however certain the prospect
of death, it is not so agreeable (unfortunately) as to invite the eager contemplation of the
public; and Drelincourt's book, being neglected, lay a dead stock on the hands of the
publisher. In this emergency, he applied to De Foe to assist him (by dint of such means as
were then, as well as now, pretty well understood in the literary world) in rescuing the
unfortunate book from the literary death to which general neglect seemed about to
consign it.
De Foe's genius and audacity devised a plan which, for assurance and ingenuity, defied
even the powers of Mr. Puff in the Critic: for who but himself would have thought of
summoning up a ghost from the grave to bear witness in favor of a halting body of
divinity? There is