No one in England would dream of publishing in this form a work which was to be taken seriously, nor am I acquainted with any precedent for it abroad.

It is therefore a discreditable and unfortunate choice, but seeing that a section of the clerical press in France has agreed to pass over this point, and to accept Dr Bataille as a credible witness, and seeing also that he has been followed by other writers who must be taken into account and stand or fall with him, we must not regard his method as an excuse for refusing to hear him.

Apart from him and his adherents there is indeed no first-hand evidence for Palladian Masonry.

The present chapter will therefore contain a summary of what was seen and heard by Dr Bataille in the course of his researches.
Sec.2._Why Signor Carbuccia was Damned._ In the year 1880, Dr Hacks, who makes, I believe, no attempt to conceal himself under the vesture of Dr Bataille, was a ship's surgeon on board the steam-boat _Anadyr_, belonging to the _Compagnie des Messageries Maritimes_, and then returning from China with passengers and merchandise.

On a certain day in the June of the year mentioned, he was to the fore at his post of duty--that is to say, he was extended idly over the extreme length of a comfortable deck-chair, and the _hotel flottant_ was anchored at Point-de-Galle, a port at the southern extremity of Ceylon, and one of the reputed regions of the terrestrial paradise.