ernity.
The name of his master has never been discovered; but it is pretended that
he rendered himself in some manner obnoxious to the government of Louis
XIV., and was obliged, in consequence, to take refuge in Switzerland.
Delisle accompanied him as far as Savoy, and there, it is said, set upon
him in a solitary mountain-pass, and murdered and robbed him. He then
disguised himself as a pilgrim, and returned to France. At a lonely inn,
by the road-side, where he stopped for the night, he became acquainted
with a woman, named Aluys; and so sudden a passion was enkindled betwixt
them, that she consented to leave all, follow him, and share his good or
evil fortune wherever he went. They lived together for five or six years
in Provence, without exciting any attention, apparently possessed of a
decent independence. At last, in 1706, it was given out that he was the
possessor of the philosopher's stone; and people from far and near came
flocking to his residence, at the Chateau de la Palu, at Sylanez, near
Barjaumont, to witness the wealth he could make out of pumps and
fire-shovels. The following account of his operations is given in a letter
addressed by M. de Cerisy, the Prior of Chateauneuf, in the Diocese of
Riez, in Provence, to the Vicar of St. Jacques du Hautpas, at Paris, and
dated the 18th of November, 1706:

"I have something to relate to you, my dear cousin, which will be
interesting to you and your friends. The philosopher's stone, which so
many persons have looked upon as a chimera, is at last found. It is a man
named Delisle, of the parish of Sylanez, and residing within a quarter of
a league of me, that has discovered this great secret. He turns lead into
gold, and iron into silver, by merely heating these metals red hot, and
pouring upon them in that state some oil and powder he is possessed of; so
that it would not be impossible for any man to make a million a day, if he
had sufficient of this wondrous mixture. Some of the pale gold which he
had made in this manner, he sent to the jewellers of Lyons, to have their
opinion on its quality. He also sold twenty pounds weight of it to a
merchant of Digne, named Taxis. All the jewellers say they never saw such
fine gold in their lives. He makes nails, part gold, part iron, and part
silver. He promised to give me one of them, in a long conversation which I
had with him the other day, by order of the Bishop of Senes, who saw his
operations with his own eyes, and det