CHAPTER VII.
THE DEVIL AND THE DOCTOR Sec.1._Le Diable au XIX^e Siecle_ Although the New and Reformed Palladium is said to have been founded so far back as the year 1870, it will be seen that at the close of the year 1891 very little had become public concerning it.

It is difficult to conceive that an institution diffused so widely should have remained so profound a secret, when the many enemies of the Fraternity, who in their way are sleepless, would have seized eagerly upon the slightest hint of a directing centre of Masonry.

Moreover, an association which initiates ladies is perhaps the last which one would expect to be unknown, for while the essential matter of a secret is undeniably safe with women, it is on condition that they are known to possess it.

When the first hint was provided in 1891, Leo Taxil certainly lost no time, and Mgr.

Meurin must have written his large treatise almost at fever speed.