The handsome Marquis de -- and the ladies, yet handsomer than he, looked conviction and delight.
But two men there were, seated next to each other, who joined not in the general talk: the one a stranger newly arrived in Paris, where his wealth, his person, and his accomplishments, had already made him remarked and courted; the other, an old man, somewhere about seventy,--the witty and virtuous, brave, and still light-hearted Cazotte, the author of "Le Diable Amoureux." These two conversed familiarly, and apart from the rest, and only by an occasional smile testified their attention to the general conversation.
"Yes," said the stranger,--"yes, we have met before." "I thought I could not forget your countenance; yet I task in vain my recollections of the past." "I will assist you.

Recall the time when, led by curiosity, or perhaps the nobler desire of knowledge, you sought initiation into the mysterious order of Martines de Pasqualis." (It is so recorded of Cazotte.

Of Martines de Pasqualis little is known; even the country to which he belonged is matter of conjecture.

Equally so the rites, ceremonies, and nature of the cabalistic order he established.

St.Martin was a disciple of the school, and that, at least, is in its favour; for in spite of his mysticism, no man more beneficent, generous, pure, and virtuous than St.Martin adorned the last century.