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    170 ELIZABETH VON ' BECKS,

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    ~*» ' Past I. There Are Some Individuals...

    of Adoption , of which , he was to be the Grand Master , and into which females were to be admitted . This announcement but ill

    suited the notions of the lords of creation at that period , and the ladies finding this to be the casebegged Cagliostro to say no more

    about the scheme , but he persisted , , asserting that he had never yet undertaken anything which , he had not carried out , and that those

    who now most opposed him would in the end . be his firmest adherents . He then commenced a course of chemical experiments ,

    followed by magical seances , in which he made use of Frau von Recke ' s cousin , a little boy about six years old , as " medium .

    Scenes well known to his auditors , but which he had never seen , were accurately described ; conversations held with spirits ; and

    even the departed brother's shade invoked and declared to have been seen by the childthough Cagliostro never could obtain for

    Elizabeth herself a glimpse , of her loved and lost one , even in a dream ; a failure which he attributed entirely to her own deficiency

    and weakness of nerve . By eliciting as much as possible from each about the others , and by strictly forbidding them ever to mention

    to each other what had passed during his private conversations with them , he contrived to mystify all with the ¦ wonderful knowledge

    he seemed to possess of their most private affairs . To Frau von Heckefor whom he professed a peculiar regardthe more flattering

    inasmuch , as he entertained very little respect for , her sex in general , he held out an almost certain hope of being elevated to the rank of

    one of the seventy-two disciples of Elias , who had power over all nature and who could rejuvenate themselves and others . And when

    shefor whom this life had now but few charms , objected that she would , prefer not to have it protracted beyond its natural limits ,

    since it would only delay her re-union with departed friends , he d her for the selfishness thus displayedand drew such a

    p reprove icture of the mighty power for good with which , the position he promised would endow her , and the wonderful blessings she could

    confer on her fellow creatures , that he excited her imagination to the well hi eventuall ghest degree cost , and a severe filled strugg her with le to joy relinquish and gratitude these . dreams It might of

    ruling reason p and lanet be s y content and blessing with humbl worlds y , doing to return one' to s dut the y to sober one realm 's neigh of

    bour in , this narrow earthly sphere . But the aspirant ' s fine moral sense was never for a moment blunted , and it was through this that

    her suspicions were first aroused , when , as once or twice occurred , the deceiver ' s mask of virtue slipped aside for a momentaffording

    , a glimpse of his true character . When , after Iboasting that he _coulcj with ease melt small pearls and mould them into large oneshe drew

    , back when she "brought him her own jewellery begging that he would submit it to the operation that the proceeds might be devoted

    to a charitable purpose , pretending that the process would occupy more time than lie could spare , she accepted the excuse

    undoubtingly . When he refused to give any reason for the commands he

    170 Elizabeth Von ' Becks,

    170 ELIZABETH VON ' BECKS ,

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), May 1, 1860, page 170, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01051860/page/26/