Laffont; 5th, The Pope's
Mistress, a "grand historical romance," written in collaboration with
Karl Milo; 6th, Pius the Ninth before history, his life political and
pontifical, his debaucheries, follies, and crimes, 3 vols.; 7th, The
Poisoner Leo Thirteenth, an account of thefts and poisoning committed
with the complicity of the present pontiff; 8th, Contemporary
Prostitution, a collection of revolting statistics upon, _inter alia_,
the methods, habits, and physical peculiarities of persons who practice
paederasty.

It will be seen that since his conversion our author has changed his
objects without altering his methods. As in the past he unveiled the
supposed ill-doings of popes and priests, as he exposed the corrupt
practices of the Parisian police in the matter of crying social evils,
so now he divulges the infamies of Masonic gatherings in the present. He
claimed then to be actuated by a high motive and he claims it now. We
must not deny the motive, but we certainly abhor the proceeding. In some
very curious memoirs which have obtained wide circulation Leo Taxil
acknowledges that he was gravely mistaken then, and he may be mistaken
now. It must also be respectfully stated in conclusion that few persons
who have contributed to lubricity in literature have ever failed to
speak otherwise than from an exalted standpoint. When a short time ago
M. Huysman went in search of a type to which he could refer Luciferian
"blasphemies" and outrages, he could find nothing more suitable to his
purpose than Leo Taxil's "Bouffe Jesus." We do not refuse to accept him
as a witness against Masonry because of these facts, but we must ask
him as an honourable gentleman not to insist that we should do so on
trust, and at the present moment the only opportunities which he has
given us to check his statements do not wholly encourage us to accept
them. It will be seen therefore that the knowledge of Palladian Masonry
was first brought to light under circumstances of a debatable kind.

CHAPTER V

THE DISCOVERY OF M. RICOUX

By the year 1891 Masonic revelations in Paris had become too numerous
for one more or less to fix the volatile quality of public interest
unless a new horror were attached to it. Passwords and signs and
catechisms, all the purposes and the better half of the
secrets--everyone outside the Fraternity who concerned themselves with
Masonry and cared for theoretical initiation knew these, or was
satisfied by the bel