“‘While I am by no means inclined to accept the compliments which M---- is kind enough to pay me, and while I am particularly anxious that my signature should not be held to prejudice in any way my opinion, either for or against magnetism, still I cannot refrain from affirming that the incidents recorded above are ABSOLUTELY CORRECT, _and that the more I think about them the more impossible I find it to class them with those which form the subject of my profession and of my performances_. “‘Robert Houdin. “‘May 4th, 1847.’” It will be seen at a glance that the signature in this case refers to a mystification by card handling, clairvoyance, forecasting, etc. His second letter was written a fortnight later and is as follows: “Monsieur, (Alexis Didier) as I informed you, I was anxious to have a second sitting. This sitting which was held at Marcillet’s house yesterday proved even more extraordinary than the first, and has left me without a shadow of a doubt as to the clairvoyance of Alexis. I went to this seance, fully determined to keep a careful watch on the game of _écarté_, which had astounded me so much before. This time I took much greater precautions than at the first seance, for distrusting myself I took a friend, whose natural imperturbability enabled him to form a cool judgment and helped me to steady mine. I append an account of what took place, and you will see that trickery could never have produced such results as those which I am about to recount. “I undo a pack of cards, which I had brought with me in a marked wrapper to guard against another pack being substituted for it. I shuffle and it is my deal. I deal with every precaution known to a man well up in all the dodges of his profession. It is all of no use, Alexis stops me, and pointing to one of the cards that I had just placed in front of him on the table, says: “‘I’ve got the King.’ “‘But you can’t possibly know yet; the trump card has not been turned up.’ “‘You will see,’ he replies. ‘Go on.’ “As a matter of fact I turn up the eight of Diamonds, and his was the King of Diamonds. The game was continued in an odd enough manner, for he told me the cards I had to play, though my cards were hidden under the table and held close together in my hands. To each lead of mine he played one of his own cards without turning it up, and it was always the right card to have played against mine. I left this seance then in the greatest possible state of amazement, and convinced of the utter impossibility of chance or conjuring having been responsible for such marvellous results.--Yours, etc., (Signed) “Robert Houdin, “16th May, 1847.”