ly
promised, after the Sicilian manner, to assassinate. So Joe ran away
from Palermo, and went to Messina. Here he said he fell in with a
venerable humbug, named Athlotas, an "Armenian Sage," who united his
talents with Beppo's own, in making a peculiar preparation of flax and
hemp and passing it off upon the people of Alexandria, in Egypt, as a
new kind of silk. This feat made not only a sensation but plenty of
money; and the two swindlers now traversed Greece, Turkey, and Arabia,
in various directions, stirring up the Oriental "old fogies" in amazing
style. Harems and palaces, according to Cagliostro's own apocryphal
story, were thrown open to them everywhere, and while the Scherif of
Mecuca took Balsao under his high protection, one of the Grand Muftis
actually gave him splendid apartments in his own abode. It is only
necessary to reflect upon the unbounded reverence felt by all good
Mussulmen for these exalted dignitaries, to comprehend the height of
distinction thus attained by the Palermo thimble-rigger. But, among the
many obscure records that exist in the Italian, French, and German
languages, touching this arch impostor, there is a hint of a night
adventure in the harem of a high and mighty personage, at Mecca, whereby
the latter was put out of doors, with his robes torn and his beard
singed, by his own domestics, and left to wander in the streets, while
Beppo, in disguise, received the salaams and sequins of the
establishment, including the attentions of the fair ones therein caged,
for an entire night. His escape to the seacoast after this adventure was
almost miraculous; but escape he did, and shortly afterward turned up in
Rome, with the title (conferred by himself) of Count Cagliostro, the
reputation of enormous wealth, and genuine and enthusiastic letters of
recommendation from Pinto, Grand Master of the Knights of Malta. Pinto
was an alchymist, and had been fooled to the top of his bent by the
cunning Joseph.

These letters introduced our humbug into the first families of Rome;
who, like some other first families, were first also as fools. He also
married a very beautiful, very shrewd, and very wicked Roman donzella,
Lorenza Feliciani by name; and the worthy couple, combining their
various talents, and regarding the world as their oyster, at once
proceeded to open it in the most scientific style. I cannot follow this
wonderful human chameleon in all his transformations under his various
names of Fischio