'I have always seen or
felt, or whatever you may call it, things that others do not. Don't
you remember how nobody would believe that I saw Lucy Brooke?'
'That was in the beginning of the measles.'
' I know; and I will tell you something curious. When I was at
Gibraltar I met Mrs. Emmott--'
'Mary Brooke?'
'Yes; I spent a very happy Sunday with her. We talked over old
times, and she told me that Lucy had all through her illness been
very uneasy about having promised to bring me a macaw's feather the
next time we played in the Square gardens. It could not be sent to
me for fear of carrying the infection, but the dear girl was too
light-headed to understand, and kept on fretting and wandering about
breaking her word. I have no doubt the wish carried her spirit to
me the moment it was free,' he added, with tears springing to his
eyes. He also said that before the court-martial he had, night
after night, dreams of sinking and drowning in huge waves, and his
friend Coles struggling to come to his aid, but being forcibly
withheld; and he had since learnt that Coles had actually
endeavoured to come from Plymouth to bear testimony to his previous
character, but had been refused leave, and told that he could do no
good.
There had been other instances of perception of a presence and of a
prescient foreboding. 'It is like a sixth sense,' he said, 'and a
very uncomfortable one.
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