, the assumed name of a very extraordinary person, was undoubtedly
, the assumed name of a
very extraordinary person, was undoubtedly a Frenchman
born; he had his education partly in a free-school, taught
by two Franciscan monks, and afterwards in a college of
Jesuits in an archiepiscopal city; the name of which, as
also of his birth-place and of his parents, remain yet inviolable secrets. Upon leaving the college, he was
recommended as a tutor to a young gentleman, but soon fell
into a mean rambling kind of life, that led him into many
disappointments and misfortunes. The first pretence he
took up with was that of being a sufferer for religion and
he procured a certificate that he was of Irish extraction,
had left the country for the sake of the Roman Catholic
religion, and was going on a pilgrimage to Rome. Not
being in a condition to purchase a pilgrim’s garb, he had
observed, in a chapel dedicated to a miraculous saint, that
such a one had been set up, as a monument of gratitude to
some wandering pilgrim and he contrived to take both
staff and cloak away at noon-day. “Being thus accoutred,
” says he, “and furnished with a pass, I began, at
all proper places, to beg my way in a fluent Latin accosting only clergymen, or persons of figure, by whom I
could be understood: and found them mostly so generous
and credulous, that I might easily have saved money, and
put myself into a much better dress, before I had gone
through a score or two of miles. But so powerful was
my vanity and extravagance, that as soon as I had got
what I thought a sufficient viaticum, I begged no more;
but viewed every thing worth seeing, and then retired to
some inn, where I spent my money as freely as I had obtained it.
”