sable to the successful
operation of a new magical rite composed by the Supreme Pontiff of
Universal Freemasonry and Vicegerent of Lucifer, General Albert Pike. A
seance was about to be held; Brother George Shekleton of immortal
memory, the hero who had obtained the skulls, was present with those
trophies; and the petrified quondam atheist took part, not because he
wished to remain, but because he did not dare to go. The proceedings
began, the skulls were placed on the tables; Adonai and his Christ were
cursed impressively, Lucifer as solemnly blessed and invoked at the
altar of Baphomet. Nothing could be possibly more successful--result,
shocks of earthquake, threatened immediate demolishment of the whole
place, confident expectation of being entombed alive, terrific burst of
thunder, a brilliant light, an impressive silence of some seconds, and
then the sudden manifestation of a being in human form seated in the
chair of the Grand Master. It was an instantaneous apparition of
absolute bodily substance, which carried its own warrant of complete
_bona fides_. Everyone fell on their knees; everyone was invited to
rise; everyone rose accordingly; and Carbuccia found that he had to do
with a male personage not exceeding eight and thirty years, naked as a
drawn sword, with a faint flush of Infernus suffusing his skin, a
species of light inherent which illuminated the darkness of the
salon--in a word, a beardless Apollo, tall, distinguished, infinitely
melancholy, and yet with a nervous smile playing at the corners of his
mouth, the apparition of _Aut Diabolus aut Nihil_ divested of evening
dress. This Unashamed Nakedness, who was accepted as the manifestation
of Lucifer, discoursed pleasantly to his children, electing to use
excellent English, and foretold his ultimate victory over his eternal
enemy; he assured them of continued protection, alluded in passing to
the innumerable hosts which surrounded him in his eternal domain, and
incited his hearers to work without ceasing for the emancipation of
humanity from superstition.

The discourse ended, he quitted the dais, approached the Grand Master,
and eye to eye fixed him in deep silence. After a pause he passed on,
without committing himself to any definite observation; yet there seems
to have been a meaning in the ceremony, for he successively repeated it
in the case of every dignitary congregated at the eastern side, and
finally of the ordinary members. When it came to the