The individual known to history as Comte Cagliostro, or more familiarly
as Cagliostro, was of the family name of Balsamo and was received into
the Church under the saintly name of Joseph. The familiarity of history
is an appanage of greatness in some form. Greatness is in no sense a
quality of worth or morality. It simply points to publicity, and if
unsuccessful, to infamy. Joseph Balsamo was of poor parentage in the
town of Palermo, Sicily, and was born in 1743. In his youth he did
not exhibit any talent whatever, such volcanic forces as he had being
entirely used in wickedness--base, purposeless, sordid wickedness,
from which devolved no benefit to any one--even to the criminal
instigator. In order to achieve greatness, or publicity, in any form,
some remarkable quality is necessary; Joseph Balsamo’s claim was based
not on isolated qualities but on a union of many. In fact he appears to
have had every necessary ingredient for this kind of success--except
one, courage. In his case however, the lacking ingredient in the
preparation of his hell-broth was supplied by luck; though such luck
had to be paid for at the devil’s usual price--failure at the last.
His biographers put his leading characteristics in rather a negative
than a positive way--“indolent and unruly”; but as time went on the
evil became more marked--even _ferae naturae_, poisonous growths,
and miasmatic conditions have to manifest themselves or to cease to
prevail. In the interval between young boyhood and coming manhood,
Balsamo’s nature--such as it was--began to develop, unscrupulousness
working on an imaginative basis being always a leading characteristic.
The unruly boy shewed powers of becoming an unruly man, fear being the
only restraining force; and indolence giving way to wickedness. When
he was about fifteen he was sent to a monastery to learn chemistry and
pharmacy. The boy who had manifested a tendency to “grow downwards”
found the beginning of a kind of success in these studies in which,
to the surprise of all, he exhibited a form of aptitude. Chemistry
has certain charms to a mind like his, for in its working are many
strange surprises and lurid effects not unattended with entrancing
fears. These he used before long to his own pleasure in the concern
of others. When he was expelled from the religious house he led a
dissolute and criminal life in Palermo. Amongst other wickednesses he
robbed his uncle and forged his will. Here too, he committed a crime,
not devoid of a certain humorous aspect, but which had a reflex action
on his own life. Under promise of revealing a hidden treasure, he
persuaded a goldworker, one Morano, to give him custody of a quantity
of his wares. It was what, in criminal slang is called “a put-up job,”
and was worked by a gang of young thieves with Balsamo at their head.
Having filled the soft head of the foolish goldsmith with ideas to
suit his purpose, Joseph brought him on a treasure hunt into a cave
where he was shortly surrounded by the gang dressed as fiends, who,
in the victim’s paralysis of fear, robbed him at their ease of some
sixty ounces of gold. Morano, as might have been expected, was not
satisfied with the proceedings and vowed vengeance which he tried to
effect later. Balsamo’s pusillanimity worked hand in hand with Morano’s
vindictiveness, to the effect that the culprit incontinently absconded
from his native town. He conferred the benefit of his presence on
Messina where he was naturally attracted to a noted alchemist called
Althotas, to whom he became a sort of disciple. Althotas was a man
of great learning, according to the measure of that time and his own
occupation. He was skilled in Eastern tongues and an adept occultist.
It was said that he had actually visited Mecca and Medina in the
disguise of an Oriental prince. Having attached himself to Althotas,
Cagliostro went with him to Malta where he persuaded the Grand Master
of the Knights to supply them with a laboratory for the manufacture of
gold, and also with letters of introduction which he afterwards used
with much benefit to himself.
[Illustration: CAGLIOSTRO]
From Malta he went to Rome where he employed himself in forging
engravings. Like other criminals, great and small, Comte Alessandro
Cagliostro--as he had now become by his own creation of nobility--had
a faculty of working hard and intelligently so long as the end he
aimed at was to be accomplished by crooked means. Work in the ordinary
ways of honesty he loathed and shunned; but work as a help to his
nefarious schemes seemed to be a joy to him. Then he set himself up as
a wonder-worker, improving as he went on all the customs and tricks
of that calling. He sold an elixir which he said had all the potency
usually attributed to such compounds but with an added efficacy all its
own. He pretended to be able to transmute metals and to make himself
invisible; indeed to perform all the wonders of the alchemist, the
“cheap jack,” and the charlatan. At Rome he became acquainted with
and married a very beautiful woman, Lorenza de Feliciani, daughter of
a lacemaker, round whom later biographers weave romances. According
to contemporary accounts she seems to have been dowered with just
such qualities as were useful in such a life as she had entered on.
In addition to great and unusual beauty she was graceful, passionate,
seductive, clever, plausible, soothing, and attractive in all ways dear
and convincing to men. She must have had some winning charm which
has lasted beyond her time, for a hundred years afterwards we find
so level-headed a writer as Dr. Charles Mackay crediting her, quite
unwarrantably with, amongst other good qualities, being a faithful
wife. Her life certainly after her marriage was such that faithfulness
in any form was one of the last things to expect in her. Her husband
was nothing less than a swindler of a protean kind. He had had a great
number of aliases before he finally fixed on Comte de Cagliostro as
a _nomme de guerre_. He called himself successively Chevalier de
Fischio, Marquis de Melina (or Melissa), Marquis de Pellegrini, Comte
de Saint-German, Baron de Belmonte; together with such names as Fenix,
Anna, Harat. He wrote a work somewhat of the nature of a novel called
_Le Grand Cophte_--which he found useful later when he was pushing his
scheme of a sort of new Freemasonry. After his marriage he visited
several countries, Egypt, Arabia, Persia, Poland, Russia, Greece,
Germany; as well as such towns as Naples, Palermo, Rhodes, Strasbourg,
Paris, London, Lisbon, Vienna, Venice, Madrid, Brussels--in fact any
place where many fools were crowded into a small space. In many of
these he found use for the introductory letters of the Grand Master
of the Knights of Malta, as well as those of other dupes from whom it
was his habit to secure such letters before the inevitable crash came.
Wherever he travelled he was accustomed to learn all he could of the
manners, customs and facts of each place he was in, thus accumulating
a vast stock of a certain form of knowledge which he found most useful
in his chosen occupation--deceit. With regard to the last he utilised
every form of human credulity which came under his notice. The latter
half of the eighteenth century was the very chosen time of strange
beliefs. Occultism became a fashion, especially amongst the richer
classes, with the result that every form of swindle came to the fore.
At this time Cagliostro, then nearing his fortieth year, began to have
a widespread reputation for marvellous cures. As mysticism in all sorts
of forms had a vogue, he used all the tricks of the cult, gathering
them from various countries, especially France and Germany, where the
fashion was pronounced. For this trickery he used all his knowledge of
the East and all the picturesque aids to credulity which he had picked
up during his years of wandering; and for his “patter,” such medical
terminology as he had learned--he either became a doctor or invented
a title for himself. This he interlarded with scraps of various forms
of fraudulent occultism and all sorts of suggestive images of eastern
quasi-religious profligacy. He took much of the imagery which he used
in his rituals of fraud from records of ancient Egypt. This was a
pretty safe ground for his purpose, for in his time the Egypt of the
past was a sealed book. It was only in 1799 that the Rosetta stone
was discovered, and more than ten years from then before Dr. Young was
able to translate its three inscriptions--Hieroglyphic Demotic and
Greek--whence Hieroglyphic knowledge had its source. _Omne ignotum
pro magnifico_ might well serve as a motto for all occultism, true
or false. Cagliostro, whose business it was to deceive and mislead,
understood this and took care that in his cabalistic forms Egyptian
signs were largely mixed with the pentagon, the signs of the Zodiac,
and other mysterious symbols in common use. His object was primarily
to catch the eye and so arrest the intelligence of any whom he wished
to impress. For this purpose he went about gorgeously dressed and with
impressive appointments. In Germany for instance he always drove in
a carriage with four horses with courier and equerries in striking
liveries. Happily there is extant a pen picture of him by Comte de
Beugnot who met him in Paris at the house of the Comtesse de la Motte:
“of medium height and fairly fat, of olive colour, with short
neck and round face, big protruberant eyes, a snub nose with open
nostrils.”
This gives of him anything but an attractive picture; but yet M. de
Beugnot says: “he made an impression on women whenever he came into a
room.” Perhaps his clothing helped, for it was not of a commonplace
kind. De Beugnot who was manifestly a careful and intelligent observer
again comes to our aid with his pen:
“He wore a coiffure new in France; his hair parted in several
little cadenottes (queues or tresses) uniting at the back of the
head in the form known as a ‘catogan’ (hair clubbed or bunched).
A dress, French fashion, of iron grey, laced with gold, scarlet
waistcoat broidered with bold _point de spain_, red breeches, a
basket-hilted sword and a hat with white plumes!”
Aided by these adjuncts he was a great success in Paris whither he
returned in 1785. As an impostor he knew his business and played “the
game” well. When he was at work he brought to bear the influence of all
his “properties,” amongst them a tablecloth embroidered with cabalistic
signs in scarlet and the symbols of the Rosy Cross of high degree; the
same mysterious emblems marked the globe without which no wizard’s
atelier is complete.
Here too were various little Egyptian figures--“ushabtui” he would
doubtless have called them had the word been in use in his day. From
these he kept his dupes at a distance, guarding carefully against
any discovery. He evidently did not fear to hurt the religious
susceptibilities of any of his votaries, for not only were the crucifix
and other emblems of the kind placed amongst the curios of his ritual,
but he made his invocation in the form of a religious ceremony, going
down on his knees and in all ways cultivating the emotions of those
round him. He was aided by a young woman whom he described as pure
as an angel and of great sensibility. The said young person kept
her blue eyes fixed on a globe full of water. Then he proceeded to
expound the Great Secret which he told his hearers had been the same
since the beginning of things and whose mystery had been guarded by
Templars of the Rosy Cross, by Magicians, by Egyptians and the like.
He had claimed, as the Comte Saint-German said, that he had already
existed for many centuries; that he was a contemporary of Christ; and
that he had predicted His crucifixion by the Jews. As statements of
this kind were made mainly for the purpose of selling the elixir which
he peddled, it may easily be imagined that he did not shrink from
lying or blasphemy when such seemed to suit his purpose. Daring and
recklessness in his statements seemed to further his business success,
so prophecy--or rather boastings of prophecy _after the event_--became
part of the great fraud. Amongst other things he said that he had
predicted the taking of the Bastille. Such things shed a little light
on the methods of such impostors, and help to lay bare the roots or
principles through which they flourish.
After his Parisian success he made a prolonged tour in France. In la
Vendée he boasted of some fresh miracle--of his own doing--on each day;
and at Lyons the boasting was repeated. Of course he occasionally had
bad times, for now and again even the demons on whose acquaintance and
help he prided himself did not work. In London after 1772, things had
become so bad with him that he had to work as a house painter under
his own name. Whatever may have been his skill in his art this was
probably about the only honest work he ever did. He did not stick to
it for long however, for four years afterwards he lost three thousand
pounds by frauds of others by whom he was introduced to fictitious
lords and ladies. Here too he underwent a term of imprisonment for debt.
Naturally such an impostor found in Freemasonry, which is a secret
cult, a way of furthering his ends. With the aid of his wife, who all
through their life together seems to have worked with him, he founded a
new branch of freemasonry in which a good many rules of that wonderful
organisation were set at defiance. As the purpose of the new cult was
to defraud, its net was enlarged by taking women into the body. The
name used for it was the _Grand Egyptian Lodge_--he being himself the
head of it under the title of the _Cophte_ and his wife the _Grand
Priestess_. In the ritual were some appalling ceremonies, and as these
made eventually for profitable publicity, the scheme was a great
success--and the elixir sold well. This elixir was the backbone of
his revenue; and indeed it would have been well worthy of success if
it had been all that he claimed for it. Dispensers of elixirs are not
usually backward in proclaiming the virtues of their wares; but in his
various settings forth Cagliostro went further than others. He claimed
not only to restore youth and health and to make them perpetual,
but to restore lost innocence and effect a whole moral regeneration.
No wonder that he achieved success and that money rolled in! And no
wonder that women, especially of the upper classes, followed him like
a flock of sheep! No wonder that a class rich, idle, pleasure-loving,
and fond of tasting and testing new sensations, found thrilling moments
in the great impostor’s mélange of mystery, religion, fear, and hope;
of spirit-rapping and a sort of “black mass” in which Christianity
and Paganism mingled freely, and where life and death, good and evil,
whirled together in a maddening dance.
It was not, however, through his alleged sorcery that Cagliostro crept
into a place in history; but by the association of his name with a
sordid crime which involved the names of some of the great ones of the
earth. The story of the Queen’s Necklace, though he was acquitted at
the trial which concluded it, will be remembered when the vapourings
of the unscrupulous quack who had escaped a thousand penalties justly
earned, have been long forgotten. Such is the irony of history! The
story of the necklace involved Marie Antoinette, Cardinal Prince de
Rohan, Comte de la Motte--an officer of the private guard of “Monsieur”
(the Comte d’Artois), his wife Jeanne de Valois, descended from Henry
II through Saint-Remy, his natural son and Nicole de Savigny. Louis XV
had ordered from MM. Boemer et Bassange, jewellers to the Court of
France, a beautiful necklace of extraordinary value for his mistress
Madame du Barry, but died before it was completed. The du Barry was
exiled by his successor, so the necklace remained on the hands of its
makers. It was, however, of so great intrinsic value that they could
not easily find a purchaser. They offered it to Marie Antoinette for
one million eight hundred thousand livres; but the price was too
high even for a queen, and the necklace remained on hand. So Boemer
showed it to Madame de la Motte and offered to give a commission on
the sale to whoever should find a buyer. She induced her husband,
Comte de la Motte, to join with her in a plot to accomplish the sale.
De la Motte was a friend of Cagliostro, and he too was brought in as
he had influence with the Cardinal Prince de Rohan whom they looked
on as a likely person to be of service. He had his own ambitions to
acquire influence over the queen and use her for political purposes as
Mazarin had used Anne of Austria. De Rohan was then a man of fifty--not
considered much of an age in these days, but the Cardinal’s life had
not made for comparative longevity. He was in fact something of that
class of fool which has no peer in folly--an old fool; and Jeanne
de la Motte fooled him to the top of his bent. She pretended to him
that Marie Antoinette was especially friendly to her, and shewed him
letters from the queen to herself all of which had been forged for the
purpose. As at this time Madame de la Motte had borrowed or otherwise
obtained from the Cardinal a hundred and twenty thousand livres, she
felt assured he could be used for the contemplated fraud. She probably
had not ever even spoken to the queen but she was not scrupulous in
such a small matter as one more untruth. She finally persuaded him that
Marie Antoinette wished to purchase the necklace through his agency, he
acting for her and buying it in her name. To aid in the scheme she got
her pet forger, Retaux de Vilette, to prepare a receipt signed “Marie
Antoinette de France.” The Cardinal fell into the trap and obtained
the jewel, giving to Boemer four bills due successively at intervals
of six months. At Versailles de Rohan gave the casket containing the
necklace to Madame de la Motte, who in his presence handed it to a
valet of the royal household for conveyance to the queen. The valet
was none other than the forger Retaux de Vilette. Madame de la Motte
sent to the Cardinal a letter by the same forger asking him to meet her
(the queen) in the shrubbery at Versailles between eleven o’clock and
midnight. To complete the deception a girl was procured, one Olivia,
who in figure resembled the queen sufficiently to pass for her in the
dusk. The meeting between de Rohan and the alleged queen was held at
the Baths of Apollo--to the deception and temporary satisfaction of the
ambitious churchman. When the first instalment for the purchase of the
necklace was due, Boemer tried to find out if the queen really had
possession of the necklace--which had in the meanwhile been brought to
London, it was said, by Comte de la Motte. As Boemer could not manage
to get an audience with the queen he came to the conclusion that he
had been robbed, and made the matter public. This was reported to
M. de Breteuil, Master of the King’s household, and an enemy of de
Rohan. De Breteuil saw the queen secretly and they agreed to act in
concert in the matter. Louis XVI asked for details of the purchase
from Boemer, who told the truth so far as he knew it, producing as a
proof the alleged receipt of the queen. Louis pointed out to him that
he should have known that the queen did not sign after the manner of
the document. He then asked de Rohan, who was Grand Almoner of France,
for his written justification. This being supplied, he had him arrested
and sent to the Bastille. Madame de la Motte accused Cagliostro of the
crime, alleging that he had persuaded de Rohan to buy the necklace. She
was also arrested as were Retaux de Vilette, and, later on at Brussels,
Olivia, who threw some light on the fraud. The King brought the whole
matter before Parliament, which ordered a prosecution. As the result of
the trial which followed, Comte de la Motte and Retaux de Vilette were
banished for life; Jeanne de la Motte was condemned to make _amende
honourable_, to be whipped and branded with V on both shoulders, and
to be imprisoned for life. Olivia and Cagliostro were acquitted. The
Cardinal was cleared of all charges. Nothing seems to have been done
for the poor jewellers, who, after all, had received more substantial
injury than any of the others, having lost nearly two million livres.
After the affair of the Necklace, Cagliostro spent a time in the
Bastille and when free, after some months, he and his wife travelled
again in Europe. In 1789 he was arrested at Rome by order of the
Inquisition and condemned to death as a Freemason. The punishment was
later commuted to perpetual imprisonment. He ended his days in the
Château de Saint-Leon near Rome. His wife was condemned to perpetual
seclusion and died in the Convent of Sainte-Appolive.