little house inhabited by the Armenian. It was opened at the fifth
blow without any visible agency, and closed as soon as the visitor
had entered. Cagliostro cautiously advanced along a narrow passage,
illuminated by a small iron lamp in a niche of the wall. At the
extremity of the passage a spacious door sprang open, giving admittance
into a ground-floor parlour which was illuminated by a four-branched
candelabra, holding tapers of wax, and was, in fact, a laboratory
furnished with all the apparatus in use among practical alchemists. The
Armenian, issuing from a neighbouring cabinet, greeted the visitor,
inquired after the safety of the gold, had intelligence of the truth
of his clairvoyance, and of the deserved fate of the malefactor, but
cut short the expressed astonishment and admiration of Cagliostro
by declaring that the art of divination was simply the result of
scientific combinations and close observations. He ended by asking his
hearer if he denied the infallible certitude of judicial astrology, but
the self-constituted count denied nothing except the superior power of
virtue over self-interest, whereat the Armenian inquired to whom he was
indebted for his training.
“I was about to say to the solicitude of my uncles and to the
apothecary in the Convent of the Bon Fratelli,” said Cagliostro; “but
to what purpose? You undoubtedly know.”
“I know,” replied the strange individual, “that you have trained
yourself; that the apothecary, equally with your uncles, has but opened
for you the door to knowledge. What are your plans?”
“I intend to enrich myself.”
“That is,” said the other, grandiloquently, “you would make yourself
superior to the imbecile mob--a laudable project, my son! Do you
propose to travel?”
“Certainly, so far as my thirty-seven ounces of gold will take me.”
“You are very young,” said the Armenian. “How is bread manufactured?”
“With flour.”
“And wine?”
“By means of the grape.”
“But gold?”
“I come to inquire of yourself.”
“We will solve that problem hereafter. Listen to me, young man. I
propose to depart for Grand Cairo, in Egypt. Will you accompany me?”
“With all my heart!” exclaimed Cagliostro, overjoyed, and they sat down
in large oak chairs, each at one end of the table where the candelabra
was placed.
“Egypt,” said the Armenian, “is the birthplace of all human science.
Astronomy alone had Chaldea for its fatherland; there the shepherds
first studied the courses of the stars. Egypt availed itself of
the astro-Chaldean initiations, and soon surpassed the methods and
increased the discoveries of the shepherds. Since the reign of the
Pharaoh Manes, and of his successors, Busiris, Osymandyas, Uchoreas,
and Moeris, Egyptian knowledge has advanced with giant strides. Joseph,
the dream-reader, established the basis of chiromancy; the priests
of Osiris and Isis invented the Zodiac; the Cosmogonies of Phre and
Horus revealed agriculture and other physical sciences; the priestesses
of Ansaki unveiled the secrets of philtres; the priests of Serapis
taught medicine. I might proceed with the sublime enumeration, but to
what end? Will you faithfully follow me to Egypt? I hope to embark
to-morrow, and we shall touch at Malta on the way--possibly also at
Candia--reaching the port of Phare in eight days.”
“’Tis settled!” cried the delighted Cagliostro. “I have my thirty-seven
ounces of gold for the journey.”
“And I not a single crown.”
“The devil!” ejaculated Cagliostro.
“What matters it? What need to have gold when one knows how to make
gold? What need to possess diamonds when one can extract them from
carbon more beautifully than from the mines of Golconda? Go to! you are
excessively simple.”
“Therefore, by your leave, I intend to become your disciple.”
The Armenian extended his hand, and their departure was fixed for the
morrow.
This Altotas, or Althotes, we are assured by Figuier, was no imaginary
character. The Roman Inquisition collected many proofs of his
existence, without, however, ascertaining where it began or ended,
for the mysterious personage vanished like a meteor. According to
the Italian biography of Joseph Balsamo, Altotas was in possession
of several Arabic manuscripts, and assumed great skill in chemistry.
According to Figuier, he was a magician and doctor as well, though
others represent him despising and rejecting the abused name of
physician. As to his divinatory abilities, he had already given a
signal proof of their extent to his pupil, but he showed him that he
was acquainted with all his Palermese antecedents.
They embarked on board a Genoese vessel, sailed along the Archipelago,
landed at Alexandria, where they tarried for forty days, performing
several operations in chemistry, by which they are said to have
produced a considerable sum of money, but whether by transmutation or
by imposture is not apparently clear. Cagliostro’s respect for his
master did not prevent him, with true Sicilian subtlety, inquiring as
to his own antecedents, till Altotas, weary of resorting to the same
stratagems of evasion, declared to him once for all that he was himself
in complete ignorance as to his birth and parentage.
“This may surprise you,” he said, “but science, which can enlighten us
on the part of another, is almost invariably impotent to instruct us
concerning ourselves.”
He declared himself to be much older than would appear, but that he
was in possession of certain secrets for the conservation of strength
and health. He had discovered the scientific methods of producing gold
and precious stones, spoke ten or twelve languages fluently, and was
acquainted with almost the entire circle of human sciences. “Nothing
astonishes me,” he said, “nothing grieves me, save the evils which I
am powerless to prevent, and I trust to reach in peace the term of my
protracted existence.”
He confessed that his name of Altotas was self-chosen, yet was it truly
his. His early years had been passed on the coast of Barbary, near
Tunis, where he belonged to a Mussulman privateer, who was a rich and
humane man, and who had purchased him from pirates, by whom he had
been stolen from his family. At twelve years of age he spoke Arabic
like a native, read the Koran to his master, who was a true believer,
studied botany under his direction, and learned the best methods for
making sherbet and coffee. A post of honour was in store for him in
the household of his master; but destiny decreed that when Altotas
was sixteen, the worthy Mussulman should be gathered to his fathers.
In his will he gave the young slave his liberty, and bequeathed him a
sum which was equivalent to six thousand _livres_, wherewith Altotas
quitted Tunis to indulge his passion for travelling.
Cagliostro represented that he had followed his instructor into
Africa and the heart of Egypt, that he visited the pyramids, making
the acquaintance of the priests of different temples, and penetrating
into the arcana of their mysterious sanctuaries. Moreover, he declares
himself to have visited, during the space of three years, all the
principal kingdoms of Africa and Asia. These statements are identical
in their value with the romantic story of his education in the
palace of the muphti at Medina. It is altogether doubtful whether he
ever visited Arabia, which was in any case the extreme limit of his
wanderings, and he is subsequently discovered at Rhodes still in the
society of Altotas, and pursuing, in common with that mysterious being,
his doubtful chemical operations.
At Malta they had letters of introduction to the Grand Master, Pinto,
and tarried for some time to work in his laboratory, for the “supreme
chief of Maltese chivalry” was infatuated with alchemical experiments,
and, after the fashion of that extravagant period, had a strong bias
towards the marvellous. The history of the failure or success of the
errant adepts remains in the laboratory of the Grand Master; but
from this moment Altotas, the chemist and alchemist--Altotas, the
phenomenal, the wise man, the scientist--disappears completely. “Malta
was his sepulchre, or haply the place of his apotheosis.” “There,” says
the Count, in his Memoir, “it was my misery to lose my best friend, the
most wise, the most illuminated of mortals, the venerable Altotas.
He clasped my hands shortly before his death. ‘My son,’ he said, in a
failing voice, ‘keep ever before thine eyes the fear of the Eternal and
the love of thy neighbour. Thou wilt soon learn the truth of all which
I have taught thee.’”
With every mark of respect on the part of the Grand Master, and
accompanied by the Chevalier d’Aquino, of the illustrious house of
Caramania, and himself a Knight of Malta, Cagliostro repaired to
Naples, where he supported himself for some time with money which
had been presented to him by Pinto, and perhaps by loans from his
possibly opulent companion, who, however, eventually quitted him to
proceed into France. In Naples Cagliostro met with a Sicilian prince
who was infected by the prevalent gold fever, and was so enraptured
with the high-sounding theories of Cagliostro that he invited him to
his chateau in the neighbourhood of Palermo, where they might pursue
their operations in common. It was imprudent, but the pupil of the
great Altotas could not resist the desire to revisit his native land.
He tarried a certain period with his companion, but going one day
into Messina, he encountered an old acquaintance, a certain dissolute
priest, his confederate in the affair of Marano, and who had, in
fact, acted as one of the sable fiends whose stout clubs had agonised
the unfortunate goldsmith. The adventurer warned Cagliostro not to
enter Palermo, where justice was highly offended at his youthful
indiscretions. He persuaded him to join fortunes with himself, return
to Naples, and there open a gaming-house for the benefit, or rather for
the bleeding, of the wealthy foreigners who visited Italy. This method
of gold-making was quite after the heart of his hearer, who soon took
his leave of the Sicilian prince, but they were regarded with so much
suspicion by the Neapolitan Government that they retired into the Papal
states. Cagliostro’s companion had, however, received the tonsure,
and he trembled for his safety on the consecrated ground which was
the stronghold of the Holy Inquisition, so he hastened his departure
to less orthodox places, and does not figure further in the chequered
history of his brother in chicanery.
Cagliostro remained, and is said to have assumed several different
characters, occasionally including the sacerdotal habit. According
to some accounts, he made himself remarkable for his extreme piety,
visiting all the churches, fulfilling the duties of religion, and
frequenting the palaces of cardinals. By means of some letters of
recommendation which he had brought with him from Naples, he obtained
access to several persons of distinction, among others to the Seneschal
de Breteuil, at that time Ambassador from Malta to Rome, and who,
hearing of his former connection with the Grand Master, received him
with much warmth, and procured him other honourable connections. One
illustrious dupe ensured others, and we find him in a short time
established in the Holy City, retailing wonderful recipes and specifics
for all the diseases which afflict fallen humanity in Rome and the
universe. Crowns and ducats flowed in upon him; he lived in some state
and luxury, refraining, however, from scandalous enjoyments.
The Italian biography which represents the opinions, embodies the
researches, and champions the cause of the Inquisition, draws, however,
a different picture to those of Saint-Felix and Louis Figuier.
“He employed himself at this period,” says this doubtful, because
indisputably biassed, authority, “in making drawings on paper, the
outlines of which were produced by means of a copperplate engraving,
and afterwards were filled up with Indian ink. These he sold as designs
made by means of the pen alone. Having taken up his abode at the Sign
of the Sun, in the neighbourhood of the Rotunda, he quarrelled with
one of the waiters and suffered imprisonment for three days.”
Whatever these statements are worth, there is no doubt hanging over the
most important incident of his Roman career. It was in that place and
at this period that he first beheld the young and beautiful Lorenza
Feliciani, and having in two days fallen violently in love with her,
he demanded her in marriage from her father, who, fascinated by his
birth, his aristocratic name, and opulent appearance, consented,
together with the lady. The marriage took place, not without _éclat_,
says one section of the witnesses, and the pair resided in the house
of the father-in-law. The Italian life, minimising to the uttermost
the success of Cagliostro, says that he received as a dower a trifling
fortune proportionate to their condition.
According to the testimony of all the biographers, inquisitorial or
otherwise, Lorenza was not only young and beautiful, but “rich in every
quality of the heart, being tender, devoted, honest, and modest;” but
her husband conceived the diabolical design of advancing his fortunes
at the expense of her honour, and in private conversation took occasion
to rally her notions of virtue, which he sought to undermine. The first
lesson which the young bride received from her husband, according
to her own confession, was intended to instruct her in the means of
attracting and gratifying the passions of the opposite sex. The most
wanton coquetry and the most lascivious arts were the principles with
which he endeavoured to inspire her. The mother of Lorenza, scandalised
at his conduct, had such frequent altercations with her son-in-law,
that he resolved to remove from her house, and in other quarters found
it a simpler task to corrupt the mind and morals of his wife. Then,
according to the Italian author, he presented her to two persons well
qualified for the exercise of her talents, having instructed her to
entangle them both by her allurements. With one of these she did not
succeed, but over the other she acquired a complete victory. Cagliostro
himself conducted her to the house destined for the pleasure of the
lover, left her alone in his company, and retired to another chamber.
The interview and the offers made to her were such as entirely
corresponded to the wishes of the husband, but the wife on this
occasion did not exhibit a proper instance of conjugal obedience, and
upon imparting the whole affair confidentially to her husband, received
the most bitter reproach and the most violent and dreadful menaces.
He also repeatedly assured her that adultery was no crime when it
was committed by a woman to advance her interests, and not through
affection for other men. He even added example to precept, by showing
how little he himself respected the ties of conjugal fidelity--that is,
apparently, he sold himself to lascivious females of advanced age, and
on these occasions aroused his dormant passions by drinking a certain
Egyptian wine, composed of aromatics which possessed the necessary
qualities for the completion of his intention. His wife, hearkening
at length to his instructions, was conducted several times to the
place where she had formerly proved so disobedient to his orders. She
sometimes received, says the same witness, either clothes or trinkets,
and sometimes a little money, as the reward of her condescension. One
day her husband wrote a letter, in the name of his wife, in which he
begged the loan of a few crowns; these were immediately sent. In return
for them an interview was promised during the course of the next day,
and the lady was faithful to the appointment.
Such is the version of this disgraceful business given by the
enemies of Cagliostro, but all biographers agree that he corrupted
the morals of his wife. Indeed, the only question is whether the
transaction took place on the sordid scale described by the Italian
writer. Other authorities tell us that his success tempted “a
beautiful Roman--Lorenza Feliciani--to share his rising fortunes.
Unscrupulous, witty, and fascinating, Lorenza was an admirable partner
for Cagliostro, who speedily made her an adept in all his pretended
mysteries.” Whatever were her natural virtues or failings, it is highly
improbable that she sold her uncommon attractions for such paltry and
miserable advantages.
The house which was taken by Cagliostro became the resort of sharpers,
two of whom, Ottavio Nicestro, who was eventually hanged, and a
so-called Marquis d’Agriata, both Sicilians, became intimate associates
of their host. With the latter he was frequently closeted for hours
together. Their occupation is uncertain; but as Cagliostro’s wealth
increased at no ordinary rate, and as the Marquis was an unparalleled
proficient in the production of counterfeit writing, they are supposed
to have succeeded in forging numerous bills of exchange; and it is, at
any rate, certain that the letters patent by which the great charlatan
was authorised to assume the uniform of a Prussian colonel, which he
subsequently did to his definite advantage, were the production of this
skilful miscreant. But a quarrel arose between the three confederates;
Nicastro betrayed his accomplices, the Marquis fled from Rome,
Cagliostro and the unhappy Lorenza incontinently following his example.
Our three fugitives took the road to Venice, reached Bergamo, and there
practised several unparticularised rogueries, till their identity was
discovered by the Government. The marquis again managed to escape,
the others after a short imprisonment were expelled from the town,
and being stripped of all their resources, undertook a pilgrimage
into Galicia, hoping to cross Spain, through the charity of the clergy
and conventual communities. They travelled through the territories of
the King of Sardinia, through Genoa, and so arrived at Antibes. From
this moment the life of the Count Cagliostro was for several years
one of incessant wandering. According to the Italian biographer, as
beggary proved unprofitable, Lorenza was again forced by her husband
to augment their resources through the sale of her charms. In this way
they arrived at Barcelona, where they tarried for six months, the same
course of infamous prostitution, followed by Lorenza with the most
manifest reluctance, contributing in the main to their support.
From Barcelona they proceeded to Madrid, where also certain noble
Spaniards proved sensible to the charms of Lorenza. From Madrid they
journeyed to Lisbon, and thence sailed to England, where Cagliostro
is said to have adopted the profession of a common quack, to have
fallen into prison, to have been bought out by his wife, in whose
person he still continued to traffic, bartering her charms to every
opulent man who wished to become a purchaser; but the frequency of her
prostitutions has probably been grossly exaggerated.
An English Life of the Count Cagliostro, dedicated, in 1787, to Madame
la Comtesse, and written in the interests of the charlatan, gives a
singular account of his misfortunes in London, showing that when he
arrived there he was in possession of plate, jewels, and specie to the
amount of three thousand pounds, that he hired apartments in Whitcomb
Street, where he dedicated a large portion of his time to his favourite
studies of chemistry and physics, and that all he suffered must be
entirely attributed to the profuse generosity and charity of himself
and his lady.
In 1772, Cagliostro and his wife crossed over to France, accompanied by
one M. Duplaisir, who lodged with them at Paris, and seems to have been
intimate with Lorenza. But Cagliostro was insatiable, says St Felix. He
sold his honour at a high price, and the fortune of Duplaisir melted
in the crucible of another’s follies and extravagances. At length,
in alarm, the victim took leave of his rapacious guests, not without
strongly warning Lorenza to return to her parents, for he had learned
to esteem the natural good qualities which she possessed. According to
one account, she attempted to follow this advice, but others say that
she sought refuge from incessant prostitution with Duplaisir himself.
In either case, Cagliostro had recourse to the authority of the king,
and obtaining an order for her arrest, she was imprisoned in the
penitentiary of Sainte Pélagie, and was detained there several months,
during which Cagliostro abandoned himself to a life of congenial
dissipation. The sale of a certain wash for beautifying the complexion
appears to have procured him a considerable revenue about this period.
The imprisonment of Lorenza did not prevent a reconciliation with her
husband immediately after her release, which occurred on December
21, 1772, on which date, having obtained under false pretences some
magnificent dresses from the _costumiers_, Cagliostro appeared at the
ball of a dancing-master in a peculiarly brilliant costume.
It is from this period that our adventurer’s success as an alchemist
must be dated. Here he found means to form an acquaintance with two
persons of distinction, who carried their love of chemistry to a
ridiculous excess. He pretended to have discovered some miraculous
secrets in the transcendent science, proclaimed himself publicly a
depository of the Hermetic Mystery, and posing as a supernatural
personage in possession of the great arcanum of the philosophers’
stone and of the glorious life-elixir. This also was the epoch of
mesmerism, of which novel science Cagliostro decided to avail himself.
After a time, according to the Italian biography, his two dupes
entertained suspicions of his veracity, and being in fear of arrest,
he obtained a passport under a fictitious name, fled with great
precipitation to Brussels, traversed Germany and Italy, and once more
arrived at his native city Palermo.[AM]
At Palermo he was speedily arrested by the implacable Marano, but
the protection of a noble, to whom he had obtained a powerful
recommendation while at Naples, ensured his speedy release, and he
embarked with his wife for Malta, where, according to the Italian
biographer, he ostensibly supported himself by the sale of his pomade
for the improvement of the complexion, but his more certain income
appears to have been his wife. Monsieur Saint-Félix, however, declares,
and this, on the whole, is most probable, that they were received with
the most marked distinction by the Grand Master. In either case, they
soon retired to Naples, when Cagliostro professed in public for three
months both chemistry and the Kabbalah. At Naples they were joined by a
younger brother of Feliciani, a lad named Paolo, who was remarkable for
his extraordinary loveliness. Cagliostro, seeing that he might prove
useful, persuaded him to share their fortunes. They embarked with a
great train for Marseilles, and thence proceeded to Barcelona. The star
of the great adventurer was now fairly in the ascendant, and from this
time he seems always to have travelled in considerable state. He met,
however, with no dupes of importance in the peninsula till he reached
its extremity, where he cheated a fanatical alchemist of a hundred
thousand crowns, under the pretence of a colossal accomplishment of the
_magnum opus_. After this signal success he incontinently departed for
England, while Paolo, with whom he had quarrelled, returned to Rome,
much to the grief of his sister.
The commencement of the grandeur of Cagliostro is to be dated from
his second visit to London. It was then that he was initiated into
masonry, and conceived his titanic project of the mysterious Egyptian
rite. Saint Félix accredits him even from the moment of his admission
into the order with an unavowed object. Cagliostro, he informs us,
was resolved one day to seat himself on the throne of the grand
master of a rival and more potent institution, and he appears to have
lived henceforth in the light of his high aspiration, and to have
eschewed--theoretically at least--all petty rogueries.
He incessantly visited the various London lodges, and a correspondence
printed in English at Strasburg during the year 1788, relates that by
a pure chance he picked up a curious manuscript at an obscure London
bookstall. This manuscript appears to have belonged to a certain George
Gaston, who is absolutely unknown. It treated of Egyptian masonry, and
abounded in magical and mystical notions which excited the curiosity
of its purchaser, nourished both his ambition and his imagination,
and in a short time he developed his own system from its suggestive
hints. The source of his inspiration, of course, remained concealed.
He pretended to have received his masonic tradition by succession from
Enoch and Elias. Privately, however, he pursued his former rogueries,
and his sojourn in London was not infrequently disturbed by his
squabbles with the police. Those who are interested in this part of the
Cagliostro controversy will do well to refer to the English biography,
dedicated to the countess, and which contains much curious information.