A FRENCH MIRACLE EXPOSED.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 63, 13 March 1880, Page 1

A FRENCH MIRACLE EXPOSED.

The Government have taken up the question of miracles, and in this material age those who work cures, &c M have to be on their guard against the inquisitivenesa of the polioe, who' have put down spiritualists with a strong hand. The public have to be protected • against thosb who practise ou their credulity. The tracquility of the Lake of Aoneoy was disturbed Borne tim» e «o by the rumor that a mystic vision bad been seen by Jarqueline Bosse, a young sheperdees of 15, while abe was pufe in the fields attending to her master's fleck. As she wbs sitting on 'the hillside a ronn appeared, gave her something lo drink " very like white »iue ' bade her fear nothing and then told her to look up into a tree. She saw a jigure dressed in white, girt about with rt^hlue sash, and surrounded by "a lutni* ooue halo. Her master* aon went with ber next day; be saw the light, but was not quite certain as to the figure until Jacquelioe poioted it out to him, , and asked it questions. Replies were given in "a sweet fiute-Hke voice." Jacqueline was told that the Virgin desired that a shrine should be built ia her honor among the trees where the via n bad appeared. . Some sceptics climbed the trees where the light had &een seep, and found some empty l>lafifcing-botfcles. fitted with cotton wicks and hmßg:oil intheoM These ezploN , eta-attempt^ *p. -throw. doubts on the 1 authenticity oi the vision, but Jacqueline took them with hen, aa<i let *hem hear her converse with, the mystic pew .aonage. . The fame of .St. Jorioz- spread; throughout the country., and ; the hotel-; keepers in the neigh bolrhoodi with the village* farmers, were iquite, ready to! fcuild the shrine demanded by Jaoque-I f( li^ patroness; for the halt^ the mftim, .aad j(bj9 blind^nocked to the place where ,the huoabJe ghepberdes3 had found Buch /avor. The clerical party without ex-! ercising proper cauiiot, took up the; tnirafite aadj asserted ila authenticity,, although: *&c&. P^iah priest, w&o kosv^ that JdcquaUue was anything but a prophetess anaong t^ o WQ f«oode, owiog to the immoral a»d diehoaeat prc-i penalties Bhe bad exhibited, warned every one against believing what she! eai<i. Nothing could destroy her in-'

creasing icflueuce, until oae day, when an immense concourse of people had assembled at her invitation, waiting to see the apparition she had promised . would be visible to everyone, she was started by the appearance of the Public : Prosecutor and his myrmidons, who arrested her. Jacqueline was sent to prison, and the magistrates wormed the truth out of her. It appears she had grown tired of keeping sheep, and bad determined to tu.. to account a talent for ventriloquism she bad acquired during her lonely hours. She had imagined the vision, the luminous accessories had been supplied by her own hands, and she had no difficulty io p9rguading the rural population, by questions and answers in different voices, that the Virgin was. really conversing wiih her, while one or two miraculous cures had established her reputation. Her hope was that she would gain admissioa into some convent, where she would be pampered and privileged, bat, , instead of thie, she has bean seat to a reformatory, where she will be detained until she is of age. , V