ransmutation five or six times before me at Senes, and made me
perform it myself before him without his putting his hand to any thing.
You have seen, sir, the letter of my nephew, the Pere Berard, of the
Oratoire at Paris, on the experiment that he performed at Castellane, and
the truth of which I hereby attest. Another nephew of mine, the Sieur
Bourget, who was here three weeks ago, performed the same experiment in my
presence, and will detail all the circumstances to you personally at
Paris. A hundred persons in my diocese have been witnesses of these
things. I confess to you, sir, that, after the testimony of so many
spectators and so many goldsmiths, and after the repeatedly successful
experiments that I saw performed, all my prejudices vanished. My reason
was convinced by my eyes; and the phantoms of impossibility which I had
conjured up were dissipated by the work of my own hands.

"It now only remains for me to speak to you on the subject of his person
and conduct. Three suspicions have been excited against him: the first,
that he was implicated in some criminal proceeding at Cisteron, and that
he falsified the coin of the realm; the second, that the king sent him two
safe-conducts without effect; and the third, that he still delays going to
court to operate before the king. You may see, sir, that I do not hide or
avoid any thing. As regards the business at Cisteron, the Sieur Delisle
has repeatedly assured me that there was nothing against him which could
reasonably draw him within the pale of justice, and that he had never
carried on any calling injurious to the king's service. It was true that,
six or seven years ago, he had been to Cisteron to gather herbs necessary
for his powder, and that he had lodged at the house of one Pelouse, whom
he thought an honest man. Pelouse was accused of clipping Louis-d'ors; and
as he had lodged with him, he was suspected of being his accomplice. This
mere suspicion, without any proof whatever, had caused him to be condemned
for contumacy; a common case enough with judges, who always proceed with
much rigour against those who are absent. During my own sojourn at Aix, it
was well known that a man, named Andre Aluys, had spread about reports
injurious to the character of Delisle, because he hoped thereby to avoid
paying him a sum of forty _Louis_ that he owed him. But permit me, sir, to
go further, and to add that, even if there were well-founded suspicions
against Delisle, we sho