son, and stayed all night. Still, however, the lieutenant continued a sinner. He only went to church about once a year, and it was reported by the people who sat near him, that he had been heard on those occasions whistling to himself—yes, actually, while M'Candle was most pathetic in addressing his "dear braythren"-whistling that touching 'Twas on a windy night,

song,

At two o'clock in the morning,

gently under his breath, and when he was tired of that, going to sleep and snoring audibly. However, Lieutenant Tomkins's toddy was very good, and he wasn't a bad fellow when he wasn't quite drunk, or when you didn't contradict him, so M'Candle winked at the eccentricity of his religious convictions. The lieutenant, indeed, had become most affable to Mr. M'Candle, and when the divine ventured respectfully to suggest that it would be for the immense benefit of Messrs. Bob and Horatio Nelson Tomkins if they were put under his care to complete their studies, the affectionate parent complied at once (very glad, in fact, to get rid of the ingenuous youths for a short time), and Mr. M'Candle had a large room fitted up at his manse for the especial use of the Messrs. Tomkins, who were admitted as parlour-boarders. But unfortunate M'Candle was obliged very soon to request Lieutenant Tomkins to remove his charges again, "for," as he mournfully remarked, "they raly would require meelatry deescipleene and a coort-mortial on them every morning, sir." There was no sort of prank which could be imagined that these misguided boys did not bring to bear upon M'Candle and his household. They wakened him in the morning, about four, fighting with the water out of the wash-hand jug, their boots, Mr. M'Candle's boots, which they found outside his door, his books, and the kitchen fire-irons. Then old Kitty, his servant, would fetch him after breakfast to look at the young gentlemen's bedroom, with the pathetic request, "Na, just look ye here, sir" upon which the bewildered minister, entering, would find all the bedclothes stripped off the bed, and thrown on the fender and floor, the jug in the bed, brushes and combs in the basin, and Virgil and Sallust in a woful condition on the threshold.

"An' I widna care fur dat, sir," old Kitty added, one day, "if da waratches wid remyn i' deir nown room an' uggle deir nown articles, but may I be blissed if dat Messter Rashy haesna' been an' pittin' me best mutch upo' da filty dug, an' dan Messter Bub goes and rives o'er da lass's bit o' kist, an' geens awa doon o'er da shore wi' her pitticotts upon him, an' her muckle caim i' da croon o' his head."

But even all this the minister might have forgiven for the sake of the angelic Julia (seeing that, after all, old Kitty and "the lass," her satellite, had the worst of it, and that upon them, not him, devolved the task of turning chaos into order), had the high-spirited youths refrained from personal insult and attack on himself. But these quickly followed.

"Mr. M'Candle," said Master Bob to him one day, "had you ever a father ?""

"Yes, my dear."

"My eye! had you? What an ugly old thing he must have been! What a funny nose you have!"

* Cap.

"Mr. M'Candle, inquired Master Nelson, on another occasion, "why don't you marry Kitty? Wouldn't she take you? I'm sure no one else would. I heard Julia say to Kirsty Sweynson that she wouldn't marry you if you were made of gold and silver."

All this was very galling to the divine. However, he put up with it, and he didn't believe that his adored one had ever given utterance to the remark reported by her brother. But there are bounds to endurance. The young imps played practical jokes on him. They put cinders into his tea, nettles into his boots, and the cat, after having been rolled in the ashes, into his bed. They took the dog to church, and encouraged him to howl and worry other dogs in the aisle during service. They stole his sermons. They conveyed away his book of psalms and paraphrases from the pulpit and substituted "Robinson Crusoe." They made "the lass" laugh during family prayers; and, on a similar occasion, they gave the dog snuff and set him a-sneezing. Finally, there was a regular row. Mr. M'Candle determined to stand this insolence no longer; and one day at dinner he ordered Master Bob to leave the room, having detected him, during grace, making wry faces expressive of levity and contempt. Master Bob appeared to comply, but, returning immediately afterwards, stealthily, he got behind the divine's chair, and when the reverend gentleman was endeavouring to discover the component parts of something black which was in his barley-broth, and narrowly inspecting his plate-for he was rather short-sighted-the irreverent urchin ducked the unfortunate gentleman's face into the hot mixture, nearly skinning his fine Roman nose with the scalding and the friction combined. Then, feeling that rebellion of this description was not to be pardoned, and that they had passed the Rubicon and might not return, the Master Tomkinses fled. They did not go straight home, but took refuge in a cottage for the night. However, the lieutenant soon unearthed them, and conveyed them home, promising them "a reglar good cow-hiding next Sunday," which promise, on the arrival of the Sabbath, he faithfully kept.

The minister was rather ashamed to show his face at Lieutenant Tomkins's for some time after this; he felt as if he had lost caste by the ignominy which had been thrust upon him, and he suspected that Miss Tomkins would be likely to look upon the whole thing in a ridiculous light. However, when they did meet, the young lady kept her countenance wonderfully, sympathised with him in a most grave manner on the treatment which he had received, and expressed her opinion that "no person would ever make anything of those horrid boys.' She also had a request to prefer, which had been suggested to her by her handmaiden Kirsty, which was that Mr. M'Candle should take little Tammie as a pupil, the latter to make himself "generally useful" in Mr. M'Candle's establishment in return therefor. M'Candle, delighted to have it in his power to grant a favour to the lady of his love, joyfully assented; and not only this, but he "belled the cat" voluntarily, broke the matter to Mr. Eric Sweynson, and after a little grumbling on the part of that estimable individual, obtained his consent. So little Tammie Sweynson went to the manse and pursued his studies in a very satisfactory manner, while the young Master Tomkinses returned to their old habits again, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants of Grevavoe.

CAGLIOSTRO:

MESMERIST, MAGICIAN, AND NECROMANCER.

IN philosophical Paris, as it was in the eighteenth century, the belief in prodigies and in the supernatural kept pace with the teachings of the Encyclopædia and the march of religious scepticism. This has always been the case; in proportion as mankind hold themselves aloof from the teachings of a refined and polished system, or discard faith for rationalism, without either the science or knowledge as such men as the Encyclopædists really possessed-without a basis, in fact, for their scepticismthey inevitably fall into the wildest mazes suggested by imagination and wonder, two of the most active principles in the human economy.

passes,

Cagliostro appeared on the scene at the same time that it was occupied by Mesmer, and hence they have been proclaimed as rivals. Certain it is that Cagliostro cured as well as Mesmer, but he did this without steel wands, or manipulations. Nor did Cagliostro, like Mesmer, extract money from his patients; on the contrary, one of his greatest peculiarities was that wherever he went he exhibited the most remarkable prodigality, he cured the sick for nothing, provided them with means, and even generously helped themselves or their families. As to his means of accomplishing these munificent ends, he was as carefully silent as he was upon the system by which his cures were brought about. He went on boldly, acting as with authority, and everywhere he produced an astonishment which no doubt singularly contributed to his success. noble stature and handsome physiognomy were aided by an Oriental costume of extraordinary magnificence. He was attended by a numerous suite, and King Louis XVI., who laughed at Mesmer, denounced at one time as guilty of high treason those who would have done an injury to Cagliostro.

His

According to French accounts, Cagliostro arrived from Russia when he first ventured into their extra martial and civilised territory. It is even said that whilst he was at St. Petersburg, Potemkin paid great attentions to his wife Lorenza, or Seraphina, as she was variously designated, and that he purchased Cagliostro's silence by large subsidies. But the Czarina Catherine II. gave still larger subsidies to obtain the removal of her rival, and naturally succeeded. This may probably be set down as one of those absurd stories so easily received by Parisians to account for the possession of large means by disreputable persons.

Whether from prudence or discretion, Cagliostro did not go at once to Paris, which at that epoch (1780) belonged exclusively to Mesmer. He selected Strasbourg, where Count de Puységur established two of the greatest magnetic societies that have existed in Europe as the theatre of his preliminary operations. Cagliostro, it is also said, was an adept in freemasonry. He had been admitted in England (how does this tally with his coming from Russia ?) to the rank of Great Copt, that is to say, of supreme chief of Egyptian freemasons. Hence, at Strasbourg, he began by forming adepts in that branch of science which he declared it was his wish to engraft on the ancient European freemasonry. An amusing and

not an unimportant anecdote is related in connexion with his first entrance into the capital of Alsatia.

It was the 19th of September, 1780. A considerable number of people had gone out to the bridge of Kehl to await the arrival of the wonderful man, whose appearance had been previously elaborately announced. His distant travels in Asia, Africa, and Europe were the theme of most conversations. The immense riches that he had acquired by transmuting the vile metals into gold occupied the attention of others. Some called him a saint and a prophet, gifted beyond other mortals; others declared him to be an infernal genius in compact with Satan. The first party were the most numerous, the more especially so as Cagliostro gave out himself that the Deity had justified his mission by granting to him the power of performing miracles, and that he had frequent communication with angels.

"Communication with angels!" exclaimed an old man, overhearing the latter opinion openly broached-" communication with angels ! Why, what age can this man be ?"

66

They say," was the reply, "that Monsieur Count Cagliostro is three thousand years old, but he appears to be not more than thirty-six."

"Thirty-six!" re-echoed the contemplative old man; "about the age of the rascal that duped me. I must certainly see this man.'

At this very moment the Grand Copt arrived at the village of Kehl, followed by a numerous suite of valets and attendants in magnificent liveries. He assumed the airs of a prince, and by his side sat his wife Seraphina, glittering with diamonds and other meretricious charms. Scarcely had the procession arrived fairly on the bridge than the old man rushed forward, and seizing the carriage horses, he exclaimed:

"It is Joseph Balsamo, the very rascal who duped me." And then apostrophising the individual himself, he angrily exclaimed, "My sixty ounces of gold!-my sixty ounces of gold!"

The Grand Copt was not ruffled, his dignity and magnificence were alike undisturbed, but he appealed to his powers as a ventriloquist, and in the silence that succeeded to the storm, the following words were heard to descend, as it were, from the skies:

"Take away that madman; he is possessed by the infernal spirits." Many fell on their knees; those who had more control over themselves hastened to hurry away the poor old man, possessed by the devils, and nothing further occurred to impede the triumphal entry of the Grand Copt into the city of Strasbourg.

The procession halted at a place where all the sick and the afflicted, previously recruited by Cagliostro's emissaries, were assembled. It is said that the great empiric sent them all home cured, some by touch, others by the help of money, and some by his universal remedy. It is not known what this was. A writer in Michaud's Biography pretends that it was simply composed of gold and aromatics. This is more easily said than proved. When Cagliostro issued forth, after effecting these multiple cures, he was followed by the acclamations of the crowd to the hotel where apartments had been taken for him, and where, the same evening, he gave a soirée to the élite of society in Strasbourg. The marvels wrought on these occasions were analogous to the phenomena of magnetism. He operated through the medium of a boy or girl, whom

he designated his doves. These doves were supposed to be essentially innocent. They received a kind of consecration at his hands, and then they pronounced, before a carafe full of water, the words inspired by the angels. The angels themselves would then appear in the carafe, and would even answer questions propounded to them; but more commonly the answers were written on the water, and only visible to the "doves." Cagliostro superintended these soirées in his garb as Grand Copt, which consisted of a black silk robe with red hieroglyphs, a collar of emeraldgreen scarabæi, and an Egyptian turban. He also wore a red scarf, to which was attached a large sword, with the handle in the form of a cross. Seraphina prepared the "doves" by dressing them in white, perfuming them, and giving them an elixir to drink. The pair were further assisted by two valets, dressed as Egyptian slaves, as they are represented on the sculptures at Thebes. One of these valets presented a small golden trowel to Cagliostro upon a white velvet cushion. He then struck the table with its ivory handle, and inquired, “What is the man doing who insulted the Grand Copt this morning at the gates of the city ?"

The doves looked in the carafe, and declared that he was sleeping. A very satisfactory answer.

The persons present were then asked to question the doves.

One asked how old her husband was. There was no reply, which caused much laughter, as she had no husband. A worthy magistrate inquired what his wife was doing at home in his absence, and if the answer was not satisfactory to himself, it at least caused much merriment at his expense.

For nearly three years that Cagliostro remained at Strasbourg, he was sought after and befriended by the nobility and the magistracy, and even by the clergy. The worthy priest of Zurich, Lavater, also made a journey expressly to see the great man, but he could not obtain an audience.

"If you are the best informed of us two," Cagliostro wrote to him, "you do not want me; if it is I that am the best informed, I don't want you." It was at Strasbourg that Cagliostro made acquaintance with Cardinal Rohan, with whom he was subsequently implicated in the celebrated diamond necklace affair. In a memoir drawn up for his defence when a prisoner in the Bastille, he declares that he declined to see the prince of the Church while he was well, and only consented upon his intimating that he was afflicted with asthma. Meiners, professor at Göttingen, says that upon this occasion he pretended to be afflicted with epileptic attacks, as was usually his case, from the exhalations of atheists and infidels. So close did his intimacy with Cardinal Rohan become, that he used his carriage as if it had been his own.

Cagliostro was not, however, without enemies at Strasbourg. The old man whom we have before alluded to, and whose name was Marano, never ceased to denounce him. Marano was the descendant of a Jew of Morocco, and kept a jeweller's shop at Palermo. It was there that he became acquainted with a young Sicilian, Joseph Balsamo by name, at that time seventeen years of age, and to whom a reputation for performing miracles already attached itself. It was pretended that he held communication with angels, and that through their mediation he could obtain the revelation of important secrets. Marano, who had suffered large