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Flammarion, C., Carroll, L,
Death and its mystery: before death, proofs of the existence of the soul

Monsieur Constans, Minister of the Interior, President of the Council of Ministers, while he was dining one day, with Madame Constans, at my table in my observatory of Juvisy,  told us the following incident as it had happened to him-self:

It was in 1889, at the time of the great struggle against General Boulanger and. his party over the revision of the French Constitution. One morning, in his office, a book was handed him with his mail. As he was in a hurry to leave for the Council of Ministers, he flung it on a table, asking Madame Constans to see what it was, and went out.

Madame Constans, who was having her hair arranged by her maid, took the book on her knees and started to open it: she thought it was a prayer-book sent by a cousin: But three days before she had received, she said, "some horrible things" which had made her prudent. 'When with great care she had half opened the book she thought she saw ''some vile things.''

She immediately gave the whole package to her maid, saying: "Carry that out to the entrance hall, it 's some more filth." This confidential servant had hardly gone out when Madame Constans, half-dressed, her hair down her back, ran to the entrance and cried: "Don't open it, don't touch it!"

Why? She sent for Monsieur Cassel, the Director of Public Safety, and urged him to examine the object, as she had a presentiment of some mystery connected with it. When Monsieur Cassel shook the book, he saw certain little white particles fall on the table. He put a match to them, and they caught fire. He realized the danger, put the book under his arm, and left for the prefecture, for the laboratory of Monsieur Girard.

At the end of an hour Monsieur Cassel came back and told, Madame Constans that the book contained enough dynamite to blow up the wing of the Ministry that was occupied by the minister. Madame Constans fainted and remained ill for eight days.