liostro." He then respectfully withdrew, bowing profoundly as the
count passed, and closed quickly and noiselessly the doors behind him.

The two gentlemen within hastened to meet the count, who nodded
smilingly, and extended to them with a gracious condescension his white
hand sparkling with diamonds. "My dear brothers," said he, "you have
unfortunately announced me the truth--Wilhelmine Enke is faithless--is
an apostate."

"A courtesan, ensnared by the devil of unchastity," murmured the elder
of the two--a man of long, lank figure, pale, pock-marked face, the
broad high forehead shaded with but little hair, the watery blue eyes
turned upward, as if in pious ecstasy, and the large, bony hands either
folded as if in prayer, or as if in quiet contemplation, twirling his
thumbs around each other. "I have always said so," said he, with a
long-drawn sigh; "she is a temptress, whom Satan, in bodily repetition
of himself, has placed by the prince's side, and his salvation cannot be
counted upon until this person is removed."

"And you, my beloved brother, think otherwise--do you not?" asked
Cagliostro, gently.

"Yes," answered Bischofswerder, "you know well, sublime master and
ruler, how much I esteem and love the worthy and honorable Wollner,
and how much weight his opinion has with me. In all my reports to the
Invisible Fathers I have always particularly mentioned him, and it was
upon my wish and proposal that they appointed him director of one of the
three Berlin circles. He is occupied near me in the confederacy, and
is also in the service of the crown prince, for it was by my especial,
earnest recommendation that his highness called him to Berlin from the
exchequer of Prince Henry at Rheinsberg, that he might give him lectures
in politics and other branches of administration, I do not say it to
boast, although I have always regarded it as an honor to have opened the
way to a distinguished man, to have his great talents properly valued.
I only say it to prove my high appreciation of dear brother Wollner, and
to defend myself, master, in your eyes, that I differ in opinion from
him, and do not advise a violent removal of this person, to whom the
prince is more attached than he himself knows of."

"It is not necessary to excuse yourself to me, my son," said Cagliostro,
pompously. "The eyes which the Invisibles have lighted up with a beam of
revelation, see into the depths of things, and reveal the most hidden.
I have g