igious adventuress--a new term, I
grant, and perhaps only applicable to a very few. My aunt was
considered, by a certain sect, to be a great prophetess, which I hardly
need tell you, was all nonsense; nevertheless, there are hundreds who
believed in her, and do so now. Brought up with my aunt, I soon found
out what fools and dupes may be made of mankind by taking advantage of
their credulity. She had her religious inspirations, her trances, and
her convulsions, and I was always behind the scenes: she confided in me,
and I may say that I was her only confidant. You cannot, therefore,
wonder at my practising that deceit to which I have been brought up from
almost my infancy. In person I am the exact counterpart of what my aunt
was at my age, equally so in figure, although my figure is now disguised
to resemble that of a woman of her age. I often had dressed myself in my
aunt's clothes, put on her cap and front, and then the resemblance was
very striking. My aunt fell sick and died, but she promised the
disciples that she would re-appear to them, and they believed her. I did
not. She was buried, and by many her return was anxiously expected. It
occurred to me about a week afterwards that I might contrive to deceive
them. I dressed in my aunt's clothes, I painted and disguised my face as
you have seen, and the deception was complete, even to myself, as I
surveyed my countenance in the glass. I boldly set off in the evening to
the tabernacle, which I knew they still frequented--came into the midst
of them, and they fell down and worshipped me as a prophetess risen from
the dead; deceived, indeed, by my appearance, but still more deceived
by their own credulity. For two years I have been omnipotent with them;
but there is one difficulty which shakes the faith of the new converts,
and new converts I must have, Japhet, as the old ones die, or I should
not be able to fee my physician. It is this: by habit I can almost throw
myself into a stupor or a convulsion, but to do that effectually, to be
able to carry on the deception for so long a time, and to undergo the
severe fatigue attending such violent exertion, it is necessary that I
have recourse to stimulants--do you understand?"

"I do," replied I; "I have more than once thought you under the
influence of them towards the evening. I'm afraid that you take more
than is good for your health."

"Not more than I require for what I have to undergo to keep up the faith
of my discip