On the Performances of different Ventriloquists. 255 



proceeding from Louis, whose countenance exhibited no change, 

 and whose lips were close and motionless, was instantly attended 

 to, and the widow announced her compliance with the wishes 

 of her departed husband. 



As Louis, however, required money for the completion of 

 the marriage, he ventured to work upon the fears of one Cor- 

 nu, an old and wealthy banker at Lyons, who had amassed 

 immense riches by usury and extortion, and, like the possessor 

 of ill-gotten treasures, was troubled with remorse of conscience. 



Having obtained an interview with the miser, he introduced 

 the subject of demons and spectres, and the torments of pur- 

 gatory ; and, during an interval of silence, a voice, resembling 

 that of the banker's deceased father, was heard complaining 

 of his dreadful situation in purgatory, and calling upon him 

 to rescue him from his sufferings, by putting into the hands 

 of Louis Brabant a large sum to redeem the Christians that 

 were enslaved by the Turks, and also threatening him with 

 eternal damnation if he did not thus expiate his own sins. 

 The old banker, however, seems to have taken these ad- 

 vices into consideration, for the ventriloquist was under the 

 necessity of paying him a second visit. On this occasion he 

 heard from above the complaints and groans of his father, and 

 of all his deceased relations, entreating him for the love of 

 God, and in the name of every saint in the Jkalendar, to have 

 mercy on his own soul and theirs. The number and loudness 

 of their complaints subdued the hitherto impregnable spirit of 

 Cornu, who gave Louis ten thousand crowns, after which he 

 returned to Paris and completed his marriage. When the 

 banker was afterwards undeceived, he is said to have been so 

 mortified that he died of vexation. 



M. De La Chapelle, from whose work these two cases are 

 extracted, and who paid particular attention to the performan- 

 ces of M. St Gille, is of opinion that the factitious voice em- 

 ployed on these occasions proceeds from the inner parts of the 

 mouth and throat, and that it may be acquired by almost any 

 person ardently desirous of obtaining it. We may add, how- 

 ever, that the possession of this power is, as we shall after- 

 wards see, but a small part of the art of the ventriloquist. 



