The Ebrard's Case
An example of how different accounts of the same events can occur
Ebrard, the writer of the book Gospel History, gives, from personal observation, a case showing how the knowledge of a hitherto unknown circumstance will often reduce several discordant incidents to harmonious consecution.
A messenger N. by name, was sent from Zürich to Pfäffikon on the occasion of an outbreak in the latter place. Accordingly Ebrard was informed by one trustworthy person that N. was sent, late in the evening, with a letter to Pfäffikon; another told him that N. was sent in the evening to Pfäffikon, but, after going a short distance, returned with the report that the alarm-bell had already been rung in Pfäffikon; a third related that two messengers had been sent on horseback to Pfäffikon; and a fourth that N. had sent two men on horseback to Pfäffikon. These seeming discrepancies vanished, when Ebrard afterward learned from N. himself that he had indeed been sent, but met on the way two messengers from Pfäffikon, who reported the outbreak of the riot; that he turned back with them to Zürich, where he immediatelly procured horses for them, and sent back to quiet the people in Pfäffikon. We thus see, that once in possession of the thread of the narrative it is an easy matter to arrange upon it seemingly refractory and incompatible circumstances.
