24-6 OF THE PROLONGATION 



year of the fourteenth and the firfi: of the fifteenth cen- 

 turies is juft the epocha in which a multitude of 

 churches and hofpitals were built and endowed in that 

 city by the pious contributions of wealthy citizens. 

 However, Fiamel, as it fhould feem, found fo much 

 pleafure in thus ti anfmitting his name to pofcerity, 

 and, at the fame time, to purchafe eternal maffes and 

 daily inter ceffions for his poor foul, that he mufl: at 

 length have become fufpected, by the very means he 

 made ufe of at firft to miilead the attention of people, 

 from the way whereby he had acquired his vaft riches. 

 Fiamel, who, in truth, was not fo fimple as he repre- 



. lents himfelf in his Livre des. Explications, might ea- 

 iily forefee, that he might be brought into very fatal 

 explications, efpecially under fo profligate, and rapa- 



. cious a reign as that of Charles VI. He therefore* kept 

 an explanation in readinefs, with which indeed in our 

 times neither the maitre des xequetes nor the king 

 would have been ealily put off, but which in his times, 

 was the fitteft and moft prudent that could be devifed. 

 He gave out, that, by the grace of God and the intercef- 

 fion of faint James of Compoftella, without any merit 

 or worthinefs of his own, he had made the difcovery 

 of the vaunted philofopher's ftone ; he delivered up the 

 hieroglyphical book of the pretended adept Abraham, 

 of which, it is very probable, he underftood no more 

 than any clerk of the king's, to the court, amufed the 

 king, as we have all reafon to, fuppofe, as long as he 

 could, with promifes, and preparatives to the mag- 

 num opus, (which it was no difficult matter to do 

 amidft the inexpreffible confufion and diffractions of 

 the ftate, which followed on the well-known aflaffina- 



tion 



/ 



