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94 DOCUMENTS CONCERNING SWEDENBORG.
who was still alive, and who had been ambassador from Prussia both to Holland
and France. It was, ’ That his brother-in-law (the Count de Marteville), ambas-
sador from Holland to Stockholm, having died suddenly, a shopkeeper demand-
ed of his widow the payment of a bill for some articles of drapery, which she
remembered had been paid in her husband’s life-time: th^* the widow, not
being able to find the shopkeeper’s receipt, had been advised to consult with
Swedenborg, who, she was told, could converse with the dead whenever he
pleased ; that she accordingly adopted this advice, though she did ao less from
credulity than curiosity; and at the end of a few days Swedenborg informed
her, that her deceased husband had taken the shopkeeper’s receipt for the money
on such a day, at such an hour, as he was reading such an article in Bayle’s
Dictionary in his cabinet ; and that his attention being called immediately after-
wards to some other concern, he put the receipt into the book to mark the place
at which he left off; wherein fact it was found, at the page described.’ The
queen replied, that though she was but little disposed to believe in such seem-
ing miracles, she nevertheless had been wiUing to put the power of Sweden-
borg, with whom she was acquainted, to the proof: that she was previously ac-
quainted with the anecdote I had related, and it was one of those that mostly*
had excited her astonishment, though she had never taken the pains to ascer-
tain the truth of it; but that Swedenborg having come one evening to her court,
she had taken him aside, and begged him to inform himself of her deceased
brother, the Prince Royal of Prussia, what he said to her at the moment of her
taking leave of him for the court of Stockholm. She added, that what she had
said was of a nature to render it impossible that the prince could have repeated
it to any one, nor had it ever escaped her own lips : that, some days after, Swe-
denborg returned, when she was seated at cards, and requested she would grant
him a private audience ; to which she replied, he might communicate what he
had to say before the company ; but Swedenborg assured her he could not dis-
close his errand in the presence of witnesses : that in consequence of this intima-
tion the queen became agitated, gave her cards to another lady, and requested
M. de Schwerin (who also was present whe;i she related the story to us,) to
accompany her : that they accordingly went together into another apartment,
where she posted M. de Schwerin at the door, and advanced towards the farthest
extremity of it with Swedenborg; who said to her, *
You took, madam, your
last leave of the Prince of Prussia, your late august brother, at Charlottenburgy
on such a day, and at such an hour of the afternoon ; as you were passing after-
wards through the long gallery, in the castle of Charlottenburg, you met him
again ; he then took you by the hand, and led you to such a window, where
you could not be overheard, and then said to you these words : ,’ The
queen did not repeat the words, but she protested to us they were the very same
her brother had pronounced, and that she retained the most perfect recollections
of them. She added, that she nearly fainted at the shock she experienced : and
she called on M. de Schwerin to answer for the truth of what she had said
;
who, in his laconic style, contented himself with saying, ’All you have said,
madam, is perfectly true—at least as far as I am concerned.’ I ought to add,.
(M. Thi#)ault continues,) that though th-e queen laid great stress on the truth of
her recital, she professed herself, at the same time, incredulous to Swedenborg’s.
supposed conferences with the dead. ’A thousand events^,’ said she, ’ appear
inexplicable and supernatural to us, who know only the irrmiediate conse-
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