one ungratefully forgets the days of his degradation."

"They accused me in Palermo of falsifying documents by which rightful
owners were deprived of their lawful possessions. They threw me
into subterranean dungeons, and I was near dying, when the Invisible
Protectors rescued me."

"Was the accusation well founded? Had you committed the crime you were
accused of?"

"Yes," answered Cagliostro, in a low voice, "I was guilty."

"For whom, by whose authority?"

"For the pious fathers, who commanded me, and whose pretensions to
the possessions of the Duc Costa Rica were clearly proved by those
documents."

"You then learned the power and the gratitude of our order. From
underground prisons they freed you, and procured a way of escape to
Rome, to find a safe asylum in the house of a believer. But just at
that time condemnation burst upon us, and from a powerful order we were
changed into a persecuted one. The forger Joseph Balsamo sought the
brazier Feliciano, who gave him money, letters of recommendation, and
instructed him how to serve the order, and procure an agreeable life for
himself. Is it not so?"

"It is so," answered Cagliostro, softly. "It was the order of the
General which united you in marriage to your beloved Lorenza Feliciana,
who initiated you in the secret sciences and the secrets of Nature, that
you might employ them for the well-being of humanity."

"It is so, master."

"You implored also, as you were about to separate, to see the face of
your benefactor, to engrave it upon your heart. Would you now be able to
recognize it?"

"I could in an instant, among thousands."

The General slowly raised the mask; a pale, emaciated face was visible,
with great black eyes in sunken sockets, thin bloodless lips, and a
high, bony brow. "Do you recognize me?"

"No!" sadly answered Cagliostro, "it is not the same face."

"You see, my son, man changes, but knowledge not. I am another, and yet
the same, for the outward human form is only the vessel of the eternal
band into which everlasting truth and the holy doctrines are poured.
If the vessel breaks, it is replaced by another, and an inexhaustible
spring. Thought and holy knowledge flow into the renewed vessel. I am a
new vessel, but the same spirit which formerly spoke to you. I know your
past life, and for what purpose you are in the world. As the General
then spoke to you, so speak I now. The unholy have put the holy under
a ban--they have persecuted a