Berlin, and, under the name of Tzarogy, at the Court of the
Margrave of Anspach. Then he went, they say, to Italy, and then
north to the Landgrave Charles of Hesse, who dabbled in alchemy.
Here he is said to have died about 1780-85, leaving his papers to
the Landgrave but all is very vague after he disappeared from Paris
in 1760. When next I meet Saint-Germain he is again at Paris,
again mysteriously rich, again he rather disappears than dies, he
calls himself Major Fraser, and the date is in the last years of
Louis Philippe. My authority may be caviled at; it is that of the
late ingenious Mr. Van Damme, who describes Major Fraser in a book
on the characters of the Second Empire. He does not seem to have
heard of Saint-Germain, whom he does not mention.

Major Fraser, "in spite of his English (sic) name, was decidedly
not English, though he spoke the language." He was (like Saint-
Germain) "one of the best dressed men of the period. . . . He
lived alone, and never alluded to his parentage. He was always
flush of money, though the sources of his income were a mystery to
everyone." The French police vainly sought to detect the origin of
Saint-Germain's supplies, opening his letters at the post-office.
Major Fraser's knowledge of every civilized country at every period
was marvelous, though he had very few books. "His memory was
something prodigious. . . . Strange to say, he used often to hint
that his was no mere book knowledge. "'Of course, it is perfectly
ridiculous,'" he remarked, with a strange smile, "'but every now
and then I feel as if this did not come to me from reading, but
from personal experience. At times I become almost convinced that
I lived with Nero, that I knew Dante personally, and so forth.'"[1]
At the major's death not a letter was found giving a clew to his
antecedents, and no money was discovered. DID he die? As in the