One day in Strasburg, he stopped before a huge crucifix of carved wood, and contemplated it with melancholy countenance. “The likeness is excellent,” he remarked to one of his votaries, “but I cannot understand how the artist, who certainly never saw Christ, could have secured such a perfect portrait.” “You knew Christ, then?” inquired the neophyte, breathlessly. “We were on the most intimate terms.” “My dear Count!—” “I mean what I say. How often we strolled together on the sandy shore of the Lake of Tiberias. How infinitely sweet his voice. But, alas, he would not heed my advice. He loved to walk on the seashore, where he picked up a band of _lazzaroni_—of fishermen and beggars. This and his preaching brought him to a bitter end.” Turning to his servant, Cagliostro added: “Do you remember that evening at Jerusalem when they crucified Christ?” “No, Monsieur le Comte,” replied the well-tutored lackey, bowing low, “you forget that I have only been in your employ for the last fifteen hundred years.” Baron Munchausen is not to be compared to Cagliostro. {64} [14] Beugnot, Comte de. _Mémoires._ Paris, 1866. V. Cagliostro was at the height of his fame, when suddenly he was arrested and thrown into the Bastille. He was charged with complicity in the affair of the diamond necklace. Here is his own account of the arrest: “On the 22d of August, 1785, a commissaire, an exempt, and eight policemen entered my home. The pillage began in my presence. They compelled me to open my secretary. Elixirs, balms, and precious liquors all became the prey of the officers who came to arrest me. I begged the commissaire to permit me to use my carriage. He refused! The agent took me by the collar. He had pistols, the stocks of which appeared from the pockets of his coat. They hustled me into the street and scandalously dragged me along the boulevard all the way to the rue Notre Dame du Nazareth. There a carriage appeared which I was permitted to enter to take the road to the Bastille.” What was this mysterious affair of the diamond necklace which led to his incarceration in a state prison? In brief the story is as follows: