1900-1901
I must now note a curious episode connected with my friend Judge Forbes, whose astral influence I had traced clinging to the rooms he once occupied in Cambridge.
As before mentioned, he had married, and I had lost sight of him and his whole family for many years. But we had several mutual friends, through whom I had heard of the birth of his only son and only child, and later of the boy being sent to Eton, and eventually entering the army.
This was very shortly before the breaking out of the South African War, and the young fellow was one of many who were drafted from India, after a few months" service there, to help to defend their Queen"s possessions and their countrymen"s lives and property in South Africa.
Later, young Forbes was shut up in Ladysmith, and one cold, dismal day in January (6th January 1900) I was lying very ill in bed with a severe bronchial attack in the house of my eldest brother in Hampshire, when the latter came home one evening from the Winchester Club and told us of the celebrated _sortie_ and the death of three young English officers.
The name of Forbes of the Royal Rifles figured amongst these, and I felt convinced that it must be the only child of my old friend.
Without hesitation I prepared to write a few short lines of sympathy with the heart-broken father. In vain my sister-in-law protested against my concluding at once that it must be the judge"s son, since other members of the family of the same name were known to be in the army. I had not a moment"s doubt that this was the boy already mentioned, and even a silence of over twenty years seemed to present no difficulty in expressing one"s deep sympathy, in the face of such a sorrow.
The real drawback lay in my weak state of health and physical inability to write more than a few lines. But in these I expressed a hope that _in time_ my poor friend might come to realise that his boy was "as much alive and as near to him as ever--perhaps nearer."
It will indicate how entirely all relations between us had been broken off for many years, when I say that I did not even know the judge"s private address, and was forced to send my letter to his court. In a day or two I received a very touching and grateful answer, pathetic not only in its grief, but even more in his frankly avowed inability to derive any consolation from the thoughts that my short note had suggested.
Resignation to the inscrutable will of G.o.d was the keynote of the letter. In some far-distant future he might be permitted once more to see his beloved son, but meanwhile all was gloom and misery.
The episode was over. I had expressed my sincere sympathy with an overwhelming sorrow, I had received a most kind and appreciative answer--no more could be done in the matter.
This was _my_ conclusion, but evidently not the conclusion of young Talbot Forbes. I had never seen this boy in my life, nor his mother; but I suppose my old friendship with his father, and my deep sympathy with the latter, enabled the son to approach me soon after he had pa.s.sed into the next sphere.
Anyway, he made me conscious of his presence by my bedside during the greater part of the night following my receipt of his father"s letter.
Owing to my severe illness I was sleeping very little, and once or twice in the night an attendant came in to make up my fire and keep the temperature of the room even, so that I had ample opportunity for realising the presence of my hitherto unknown visitor.
Those who know what "hearing with the inner ear" means will realise the method through which the following conversation took place, so far as I can now recall it:--
_TALBOT._--"_Yes, it is Talbot Forbes. I want to speak to you. Please listen to me! I want to tell you, you must do more for them than this--you have to help them about me._"
E. K. B.--"Who do you mean by "_them_"?"
_TALBOT._--"_My parents, of course. Don"t you understand what I am saying? You have to do more for them--you must make them know I am close to them._"
Now I could only suppose that he wished me to write again to his father, and explain more fully my own ideas on the subject of our departed friends. As this would have involved a wearisome and almost certainly _useless_ discussion on a topic which I had reason to know was very distasteful to the boy"s father, I said rather shortly, and I am afraid with some of the petulance of an invalid:
"Oh, do be quiet, and leave me alone! I have done all I can, and there is no more to be said about it. I am very sorry for you, but I really can"t help you in this. I don"t know your mother or what her views about it may be; and as for your father--well, I am not going to worry and torment him about ideas that he dislikes and disapproves of, and just now, too, when he is so miserable! No, I won"t do it, not even if you come and worry me about it every night."
I was feeling ill and weary, and longing for sleep, and hoped this would be a quietus to my young friend. Not a bit of it! His next remark was:
"_What does it matter what_ YOU _think or what you mean to do or not to do? You have to help them, not to think about your own feelings._"
This was frank at anyrate, but not altogether convincing. Soon afterwards, tired out with the discussion, I really did fall asleep, and only woke a short time before my breakfast and daily budget of letters arrived. Amongst these letters was one in an unknown handwriting, which proved to be from _Mrs_ Forbes, saying she had seen my letter to her husband, and begging that I would tell her the grounds I had for my a.s.surance that those we love are close to us after the great change we call death.
Evidently the boy knew that this letter was coming to me, and was trying to prepare me to answer it in such a way as should help him to convince his mother of his continued existence in her immediate presence.
As this case is one well known to the Society for Psychical Research (the lady I have called Mrs Forbes appearing on their records both as Mrs Scott and under the pseudonym I have borrowed from them), it is unnecessary to go into further details. Suffice it to say that my nocturnal visitor was successful in his aim.
I answered his mother"s letter as he wished. This led to a long correspondence between us, and to my making her acquaintance shortly afterwards and renewing my old friendship with her husband.
Mrs Forbes had several sittings with Mrs Thompson and other mediums, became convinced of her son"s presence with her, and very soon was independent of outside a.s.sistance in communicating with him. The judge also declared himself "unable to resist the evidence," but I don"t think he ever quite honestly _rejoiced_ in his convictions. It is hard to eradicate prejudices and traditions after fifty years of age, and the _human_ element in his son"s bright and happy messages always seemed to worry and perplex him a little.
He knows all about it now! Much as I deplore the earthly disappearance of such an old and faithful friend of my youth, I can sincerely rejoice in thinking of him as once more united with his son, in ways that will no longer appear to him unnatural or undesirable.
During the judge"s lifetime, and after the son"s death, I often stayed with him and his wife in their northern home. Mrs Forbes used frequently to say: "It was _Talbot_ who brought us all three together, we must remember!"
PEKIN STORY
It was during my first visit to Judge and Mrs Forbes, in the north of England, that another curious experience came to me.
This happened on the 4th of July 1900, for I remember saying to Mrs Forbes next morning: "I shall remember the date from its being American Independence Day."
It was the year of the Boxer rebellion in China, when the Pekin Emba.s.sy was in a state of siege, and by July almost all hope that any Europeans would be saved from their dire peril had faded away.
The Memorial Service, arranged by a too eager dignitary of the Church to take place in St Paul"s, had certainly been adjourned at the last moment; but as days and weeks pa.s.sed, and the little garrison was still unrelieved, very little hope was entertained. In fact, by July most people hoped and believed that their troubles must be already over, through the merciful interposition of death.
A connection of mine, whom I had known well when she was a child, but had not seen for many years, was shut up with her husband, children, and sister in the Pekin Emba.s.sy at the time. Thousands were lamenting her sad fate, and I naturally amongst them; but I wish to make clear that, owing to the years that had elapsed since I had seen this special member of the family, it was not in any sense a very personal sorrow, nor was I then--nor am I now--aware of any special tie of affinity between this lady and myself.
I had gone to bed about eleven o"clock on the night of 4th July 1900, and had been in bed about half-an-hour, without any attempt at going to sleep, when suddenly I felt extremely alert in mind, very much as Miss Porter described herself in the Captain Carbury episode. Almost immediately upon this feeling of mental alertness came the conviction that Mabel M"Leod (as I will call her) was in the room, close to me, and that she was in some dire and urgent need of help--instantaneous help, I mean. I could neither see nor hear on this occasion--I only _knew_ these facts through some power of intuition, all the more remarkable because, having made up my mind that all was over at the Emba.s.sy, I had not been thinking of her or of her fellow-sufferers for some days past.
My thoughts were fully engaged at the time with the grief of my host and hostess.
With the knowledge of Mabel"s presence came also the conviction that she was _still alive_--in the physical body--and that it was no excarnate spirit that was appealing to me for help.
The impression was so vivid that I called out instinctively: "What is it, Mabel? What can I do for you?" There was no response, either by outward or inner voice, only the insistent appeal for help, and knowledge of some imminent danger at hand for her. I am trying to explain that something more than the usual hourly peril in which they must be living, _if on this side the veil_, was implied by the impression I received. _It was some acute and additional danger which threatened her at the moment._ Feeling it was useless to waste time trying to find out by writing or other means what the exact nature of this danger might be, I jumped out of bed as quickly as possible, saying: "Never mind trying to make me understand--I will pray for you, whatever it is!" So I knelt down, and prayed most earnestly that this poor woman, whose spirit had appealed for help at some dread crisis, might be comforted, and delivered from any dangers threatening her at the time.
I had been very comfortably tucked up in bed, looking forward to the pleasant drowsiness which promises sleep, and I am quite sure I should not have put myself to all this inconvenience without a very strong motive.
When I felt the poor, tormented spirit was calmed and soothed by the atmosphere of prayer, I returned to my bed, and eventually fell asleep.
Next morning I told Mrs Forbes of my experience, making the remark quoted about the date.
The following week she and I were together at one of the meetings of the Society for Psychical Research, at the close of which, in shaking hands with Mr Frederic Myers, I begged him to make a note of my experience and the date.
"Ah, Miss Bates!" he said, taking out a small note-book, "I will make a note of it, but I fear there is not the remotest chance of any of them having been alive ten days ago."
"Then my experience goes for nothing," I answered. "It was a living woman, not an excarnate one, who came to my bedside on the 4th July."
Later, when the Emba.s.sy was relieved, and this lady (who had presented such a "stiff upper lip" to Fortune) was once more safe at home for a much-needed rest, I found that she had gone through a special time of accentuated suffering just when I felt her presence in my room. Her husband was down with dysentery, and she had not enough food either for him or for her poor little children, and the strain was almost too great, even for that brave soul.
Of course, she had been quite unconscious of any appeal to me.
But she has Scottish as well as Irish blood in her veins, and this heredity may have enabled her subconscious self to sense my locality and to realise my power and will to help her in her desperate need.
Truly it was a case of "vain is the help of man," or woman either! But we know too little of spiritual laws to be able to deny off-hand the efficacy of _any_ earnest prayer.
I saw Mr Myers make a note of the circ.u.mstance, but, unfortunately, this cannot be found amongst his papers. I asked Mrs Myers about it, and she remembered distinctly her husband having mentioned the case to her when he returned home after that meeting, but when I last saw her, she had hunted amongst his papers in vain for the note which he made at the time.