ists. Thomas Vaughan placed the broad ocean between himself and the
scene of his marriage, and he never re-visited his daughter, who, in
spite of her miraculous origin, does not appear to have distinguished
herself in any way, at least up to the point at present reached by the
history.

Miss Vaughan says that all the Elect Magi do not accept this legend of
the blood royal, and she admits her own doubts subsequent to her
conversion. As an article of intellectual faith I should prefer the
birth-story of Gargantua, but it satisfied Miss Vaughan till the age of
thirty years, and her father and grandfather before her, even supposing
that it was _fabriquee par mon bisaieul James, de Boston_, as hazarded
by elect Magi whom a remnant of reason hinders.

The "Memoirs of an Ex-Palladist" have not at present proceeded further
than the translation of Thomas Vaughan into the paradise of Lucifer, but
from the "Free and Regenerated Palladium" and from other sources the
chief incidents of Miss Vaughan's early life may be collected and
summarised briefly. We learn that she is the daughter of an American
Protestant of Kentucky and of a French lady, also of that persuasion.
She was born in Paris, and a part of her education seems to have been
received in that city; her mother died in Kentucky when Diana was in her
fourteenth year, and I infer that subsequently to this event she must
have lived with her father, who had considerable property in the
immediate vicinity of Louisville. When the Sovereign Rite of Palladism
was created by Albert Pike, Vaughan became affiliated therewith, and was
one of the founders of the Louisville triangle 11 + 7; he presided at
the initiation of his daughter as apprentice, according to the Rite of
Adoption, in 1883. She was raised to the grade of Companion, and
subsequently to that of Mistress, and at the age of 20 years, says Dr
Bataille, she crossed the threshold of the Triangles, as the Palladian
lodges are termed.

Three issues were published of "The Free and Regenerated Palladium," but
since the conversion of Miss Vaughan, they have been withdrawn from
circulation, except among ecclesiastics of the Roman Church, and up to
the present I have failed to obtain copies. For the autobiographical
portions of this organ, I am indebted to the notices which have appeared
in the _Revue Mensuelle_. They contain an account of two apparitions on
the part of the demon Asmodeus, accompanied by phenomena of levitation