, the duke
expected all his pokers and fire-shovels to be made silver, and all his
pewter utensils gold; and thought the honour of his acquaintance was
reward sufficient for a _roturier_, who could not want wealth since he
possessed so invaluable a secret. Aluys, seeing that so much was expected
of him, bade adieu to his excellency, and proceeded to Bohemia accompanied
by a pupil, and by a young girl who had fallen in love with him in Vienna.
Some noblemen in Bohemia received him kindly, and entertained him at their
houses for months at a time. It was his usual practice to pretend that he
possessed only a few grains of his powder, with which he would operate in
any house where he intended to fix his quarters for the season. He would
make the proprietor the present of a piece of gold thus transmuted, and
promise him millions, if he could only be provided with leisure to gather
his _lunaria major_ and _minor_ on their mountain-tops, and board,
lodging, and loose cash for himself, his wife, and his pupil, in the
interval.

He exhausted in this manner the patience of some dozen of people, when,
thinking that there was less danger for him in France under the young king
Louis XV. than under his old and morose predecessor, he returned to
Provence. On his arrival at Aix, he presented himself before M. le Bret,
the president of the province, a gentleman who was much attached to the
pursuits of alchymy, and had great hopes of being himself able to find the
philosopher's stone. M. le Bret, contrary to his expectation, received him
very coolly, in consequence of some rumours that were spread abroad
respecting him; and told him to call upon him on the morrow. Aluys did not
like the tone of the voice, or the expression of the eye of the learned
president, as that functionary looked down upon him. Suspecting that all
was not right, he left Aix secretly the same evening, and proceeded to
Marseilles. But the police were on the watch for him; and he had not been
there four-and-twenty hours, before he was arrested on a charge of
coining, and thrown into prison.

As the proofs against him were too convincing to leave him much hope of an
acquittal, he planned an escape from durance. It so happened that the
gaoler had a pretty daughter, and Aluys soon discovered that she was
tender-hearted. He endeavoured to gain her in his favour, and succeeded.
The damsel, unaware that he was a married man, conceived and encouraged a
passion for him, and