710 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



versed with her.* The following incident may be mentioned to 

 illustrate the adroitness with which she played her part: M. Pierre 

 Lautier states that he once breakfasted with her, and offered to 

 pour a little Chartreuse into her coffee, but she refused it with a 

 singular sign of aversion, and took a few drops of old cognac in- 

 stead. As an ex-Luciferian, she instinctively shrank from a drink 

 made in a cloister, or what she called " an Adonaic liquor." That 

 she should have thought of such a feint on the spur of the moment 

 indicates that she had not only made a thorough study of her role, 

 but also had been endowed by ISTature with genuine theatrical tal- 

 ent. A full account of the solemn sham, published in the Ptevue 

 Mensuelle, served to strengthen the faith of waverers in the reality 

 of Diana Vaughan, and furnished an admirable opportunity for 

 discoursing on the difficulty of throwing off" Satanic influences; for 

 here was a young lady who, although she had received absolution 

 and tlrus become a child of grace, could not forget the terrible effect 

 of a few drops of Lourdes water on one of her former demonola- 

 trous associates, and recoiled with horror from a glass of Char- 

 treuse. Taxil and his confederates' confess that they often " dou- 

 bled up with laughter " over the success of their imposture, and 

 indulged in jokes about it in their writings. Thus Dr. Bataille, 

 in the ffrst volume of The Devil in the Nineteenth Century, re- 

 marks, as a peculiarity of Diana Vaughan, that she " is very fond 

 of wearing male attire," but no allusions of this kind, however 

 pointed, seemed to have excited any suspicion of guile in minds 

 predisposed to credulity by Nature and by education. 



Taxil's long series of mystifications, extending over a dozen 

 years, culminated in the convocation of an antimasonic congress 

 at Trent, on September 26, 1896, to the president of which Leo 

 XIII addressed an apostolical brief with his benediction, and ex- 

 pressed the hope that the assembled representatives of the Church 

 would not rest until the " detestable sect " had been unmasked and 

 the evil utterly eradicated. A '" central executive committee," 

 consisting of a score of Italian papists, issued a circular summoning 

 all Catholics to join " the new crusade," and declaring that the 

 Vatican had now raised a war-cry against Freemasonry, " the den 

 of Satan," as it did eight centuries ago against Islam. Taxil was 

 received with ovations, and did not hesitate to poke fun at the 

 venerable prelates to their very faces. "With an assumption of 

 modesty he reproved them for what might be misplaced enthu- 

 siasm. " One can never be sure," he said, " of a converted Free- 

 mason, but must always fear lest he may return to his former 

 friends. Not until the convert is dead can one be wholly free from 

 this anxiety. I am well aware that this general principle applies 



