and Grosley inclines to think that the Count found his way into a
French prison, where he was treated with extraordinary respect.

Von Gleichen, on the other hand, shows the Count making love to a
daughter of Madame Lambert, and lodging in the house of the mother.
Here Von Gleichen met the man of mystery and became rather intimate
with him. Von Gleichen deemed him very much older than he looked,
but did not believe in his elixir.

In any case, he was not a cardsharper, a swindler, a professional
medium, or a spy. He passed many evenings almost alone with Louis
XV., who, where men were concerned, liked them to be of good family
(about ladies he was much less exclusive). The Count had a grand
manner; he treated some great personages in a cavalier way, as if
he were at least their equal. On the whole, if not really the son
of a princess, he probably persuaded Louis XV. that he did come of
that blue blood, and the King would have every access to authentic
information. Horace Walpole's reasons for thinking Saint-Germain
"not a gentleman" scarcely seem convincing.

The Duc de Choiseul did not like the fashionable Saint-Germain. He
thought him a humbug, even when the doings of the deathless one
were perfectly harmless. As far as is known, his recipe for health
consisted in drinking a horrible mixture called "senna tea"--which
was administered to small boys when I was a small boy--and in not
drinking anything at his meals. Many people still observe this
regimen, in the interest, it is said, of their figures. Saint-
Germain used to come to the house of de Choiseul, but one day, when
Von Gleichen was present, the minister lost his temper with his
wife. He observed that she took no wine at dinner, and told her