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nydus/Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of CrowdsPublic
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THE ALCHYMISTS; OR Searchers for the Philosopher’s Stone and the Water of Life.

sup with the shade of Lucretius in the apartments of Cagliostro; a military officer who would not discuss the art of war with Cæsar, Hannibal, or Alexander; or an advocate or counsellor who would not argue legal points with the ghost of Cicero.” These interviews with the departed were very expensive; for, as Cagliostro said, the dead would not rise for nothing. The countess, as usual, exercised all her ingenuity to support her husband’s credit. She was a great favourite with her own sex, to many a delighted and wondering auditory of whom she detailed the marvellous powers of Cagliostro. She said he could render himself invisible, traverse the world with the rapidity of thought, and be in several places at the same time.22

He had not been long at Paris before he became involved in the celebrated affair of the queen’s necklace. His friend the Cardinal de Rohan, enamoured of the charms of Marie Antoinette, was in sore distress at

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