I return to Life--A strange Doctor--Torrini and Antonio: a Conjurer and a Fanatic for Music--A Murderer’s Confession--A perambulating House--The Fair at Angers--A portable Theatre--I witness for the first Time a Conjuring Performance--The blind Man’s Game at Piquet--A Dangerous Rival--Signor Castelli eats a Man alive......55 CHAPTER V. Antonio’s Confessions--How to gain Public Applause--The Count de ----, Mountebank--I repair an Automaton--A Mechanician’s Shop on Wheels--Nomadic Life--Happy Existence--Torrini’s Lessons--His Opinions about Sleight-of-Hand--A Fashionable Greek, Victim of his own Swindling--The Conjurer Comus--A Duel at Piquet--Torrini proclaimed Conqueror--Revelations--New Catastrophe--Poor Torrini!.....73 CHAPTER VI. Torrini relates his Life--Treachery of Chevalier Pinetti--A Conjurer through Malice--A Race between two Magicians--Death of Pinetti--Exhibits before Pius VII.--The Cardinal’s Chronometer--Twelve Hundred Francs spent on a Trick--Antonio and Antonia--The most bitter of Mystifications--Constantinople......90 CHAPTER VII. Continuation of Torrini’s History--The Grand Turk orders a Performance--A marvellous Trick--A Page cut in two--Pitying Protest of the Harem--Agreeable Surprise--Return to France--Torrini’s Son Killed--Madness--Decay--My first Performance--An annoying Accident--I return Home......121 CHAPTER VIII. The Prodigal Son--Mademoiselle Houdin--I go to Paris--My Marriage--Comte--Studies of the Public--A skillful Manager--Rose-colored Tickets--A Musky Style--The King of Hearts--Ventriloquism--The Mystifiers Mystified--Father Roujol--Jules de Rovère--Origin of the word _prestidigitateur_......136 CHAPTER IX. Celebrated Automata--A Brazen Fly--The Artificial Man--Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas d’Aquinas--Vaucanson--His Duck--His Flute-Player--Curious Details--The Automaton Chess-Player--Interesting Episode--Catherine II. and M. de Kempelen--I repair the Componium--Unexpected Success......155 CHAPTER X. An Inventor’s Calculations--One Hundred Thousand Francs a Year by an Inkstand: Deception--My new Automata--The First Magician in France: Decadence--I meet Antonio--Bosco--The Trick with the Cups--An Execution--Resurrection of the Criminals--Mistake in a Head--The Canary rewarded......176 CHAPTER XI. A Reverse of Fortune--Cookery and Clockwork--The Artist’s Home--Invention of an Automaton--Voluntary Exile--A modest Villa--The Inconveniences of a Speciality--Two August Visitors--The Throat of a mechanical Nightingale--The Tiou and the Rrrrrrrrouit--Seven Thousand Francs earned by making Filings......192 CHAPTER XII. The Inventive Genius of a Sugar-baker--Philippe the Magician--His Comic Adventures--Description of his Performance--Exposition of 1844--The King and Royal Family visit my Automata......221 CHAPTER XIII.