er speed. On the 20th
of November in the same year, another witness came forward in the person
of Dr Bataille, who speedily made it apparent that he was in a position
to reveal everything about Universal Masonry and diabolism in connection
therewith, because, unlike those who had preceded him, he possessed
first-hand knowledge. If he had not himself beheld Lucifer in all his
lurid glory, he had at least seen his messengers; he was an initiate of
most secret societies which remotely or approximately are supposed to
connect with Masonry; he had visited Charleston; he had examined the
genuine Baphomet and the skull of Jacques de Molay; he was personally
acquainted with Albert Pike, Phileas Walder, and Gallatin Mackey; he
was, moreover, an initiate of the Palladium. He was evidently the
missing witness who could unveil the whole mystery, and it would be
difficult to escape from his conclusions. Finally, he was not a person
who had come out of Masonry by a suspicious and sudden conversion;
believing it to be evil, he had entered it with the intention of
exposing it, had spent ten years in his researches, and now stepped
forward with his results. The office of a spy is not usually clean or
wholesome, but occasionally such services are valuable, and in some
cases there may be certain ends which justify the use of means which
would in other cases be questionable, so that until we can prove the
contrary, it will be reasonable to accept the solemn declaration of this
witness that he acted with a good intention, and that what he did was in
the interests of the church and the world.

But, unfortunately, Dr Bataille has seen fit to publish his testimony in
precisely that form which was most calculated to challenge the motive;
it is a perfervid narrative issued in penny numbers with absurd
illustrations of a highly sensational type; in a word, _Le Diable au
XIX^e Siecle_, which is the title given to his memoirs by the present
witness, connects in manner and appearance with that class of literature
which is known as the "penny dreadful." Some years ago the slums of
London and Paris were inundated with romances published in this fashion
and continued so long as they maintained a remunerative circulation; in
many cases, they ended abruptly, in others they extended, like _Le
Diable au XIX^e Siecle_ to hundreds of issues; they possess special
characteristics which are known to experts in the by-ways of periodical
literature, and all these