Heart to Heart: Ashton Ford, Psychic Detective Read Online Free PDF Page B

details which had reference in common to both, to their
sojourn in the Venitian States. He offered, if she still doubted
him, to bring back to her memory certain circumstances and
remarks, which—
    "'No, no,' interrupted the old ambassadress,
'I am already convinced. For all that you are a most extraordinary
man, a devil.'
    "'For pity's sake!' exclaimed St. Germain in
a thundering voice, 'no such names!'
    "He appeared to be seized with a cramp-like
trembling in every limb, and left the room immediately.
    "I mean to get to know this peculiar man
more intimately. St. Germain is of medium height and elegant
manners; his features are regular; his complexion brown; his hair
black; his face mobile and full of genius; his carriage bears the
impress and the nobility common only to the great. The Count
dresses simply but with taste. His only luxury consists of a large
number of diamonds, with which he is fairly covered; he wears them
on every finger, and they are set in his snuffboxes and his
watches. One evening he appeared at court with shoebuckles, which
Herr v. Gontaut, an expert on precious stones, estimated at 200,000
Francs."
    Another contemporary view
places St. Germain in England during the Jacobite revolution of
1745. In a letter to a friend in Florence, Horace Walpole, Earl of
Oxford, writes: "The other day they seized an odd man who goes by
the name of Count St. Germain. He has been here these two years,
and will not tell who he is or whence, but professes that he does
not go by his right name. He sings and plays on the violin
wonderfully, is mad, and not very sensible."
    Apparently the authorities
had suspected St. Germain of revolutionary activities, but he was
quickly released with full apologies and entertained at dinner by
William Stanhope, Earl of Harrington, Secretary of the Treasury.
Commenting on this incident, the British
Gazetteer further elaborated: "The author
of the Brussels' Gazette tells us that the person who styles
himself Comte de St. Germain, who lately arrived here from Holland,
was born in Italy in 1712. He speaks German and French as fluently
as Italian, and expresses himself pretty well in English. He has a
smattering of all the arts and sciences, is a good chemist, a
virtuoso in musick, and a very agreeable companion."
    It seems that the mystery
man lived as a prince in Vienna for a year or two, close friend to
Prince Ferdinand von Lobkowitz who was first minister to Emperor
Francis I. He traveled Europe with the wealthy grandson of Fou-
quet, Marechal de Belle-Isle, who was "strongly taken with the
brilliant and witty St. Germain," and went to India with British
General Clive and Vice Admiral Watson. Louis XV assigned him a
suite of rooms at his royal Chateau of Chambord and outfitted an
experimental laboratory in which St. Germain taught certain skills
to an august assemblage of students that included such as the Baron
de Gleichen, the Marquise d'Urfe, and the Princess of Anhalt-Zerbst
(mother of Catherine II of Russia).
    The Gazette of the Netherlands reported
in 1761: "The so-called Count of St. Germain is an incomprehensible
man of whom nothing is known: neither his name nor his origin, nor
his position; he has an income, no one knows from whence it is
derived; acquaintances, no one knows where he made them; entry into
the Cabinets of Princes without being acknowledged by
them!
    "Letters from Paris state that when starting
for this country, to which he came without asking permission of the
King, M. de St. Germain returned his Red Ribbon: but it is
practically certain that he has an understanding with the King of
Denmark."
    The British Museum was the
repositor of pieces of music composed by the Comte de St. Germain
in 1745 and 1760, and Prince Ferdinand von Lobkowitz's library in
the castle of Raudnitz in Bohemia proudly displayed a personally
autographed book of music by St. Germain, where it was said that he
was a splendid violinist and "played like an orchestra."
    He has been linked