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The Historical Co that the English can discover nothing of the true origins, of the Count Saint-Gerland has no secret police However, the French can learn nothing of him, either, and they have the most efficient secret police in the world"

The Prime Minister was not alone in his perplexity His letter echoes statements of many other men and women of his tient, well-traveled, and cultured stranger in all the courts of Europe It was not as if le Co-quite the contrary He was a proure for about forty years and no one ever unraveled his hted him

To the Baron von Gleichen, who hadin France, that le Co equivocal answer: "It amuses me to allow it to be believed that I have lived in ancient tiine that I aht, because it pleases me and them Of course, I am really far older than I look" Von Gleichen adds in his memoirs that after reflection, he realized that Saint-Geriven him no useful information at all, and he found himself in sympathy with the bewildered Frenchmen

Two of those Parisians left descriptions of le Comte Madame du Hausset recalled him in her memoirs thus: "Le Comte seemed to be forty years old, or perhaps a trifle more; well-made and deep chested, he was neither corpulent nor thin; he had a fine wry countenance and always appeared to advantage His taste in clothes was extrearala with shoe-buckles and garters thickly studded with diamonds It is not known by anyone where the extraordinary wealth of this[Louis XVI would not tolerate any condescending ortalk about M le Comte, and was often closeted with him in his laboratory" Madame de Genlis confirms these impressions in her memoirs: "He [Saint-Germain] was so, and very active in his movements His hair was dark, nearly black; his coent face was expressive of talent He had the most re character, so that it seemed he could read the very souls of all who antly with a little accent, and likewise English, Italian, Spanish, Geruese He was also said to converse in Latin and Greek He was an excellenton the harpsichord extempore, and with a perfection that astonished Philidor, asHe often entertained us with iuitar"

Casanova met him on at least three occasions, and did not like him at all When news of Saint-Germain&039;s "death" reached him, he remarked in his memoirs that it was learned that the imposter Saint-Germain was really the violinist Giovannini The composer Rameau concluded that Saint-Gerh, there is soests both Casanova and Ra aspect of thelist of aliases In the Netherlands, for instance, when it was learned that le Coe amount of money in a particular fir equipovernment required hi a foreigner, he was not allowed to have so ht be militarily critical to the Netherlands Saint-Gerovernment was satisfied, as they never learned that the ht Saint-Germain&039;s share of the business was, in fact, another of le Co more than twenty aliases in a dozen countries How uess

He was an alchemist, a mystic, a coantly, lived conspicuously well, traveled everywhere, and was received by the erly There are four and possibly five literary works attributed to hih only one poem, in Poemes Philosophiques sur l&039;homme (Paris, 1795), is known to have come truly from his pen The other titles are questionable He was Anton Mesmer&039;s teacher for three or four years He hobnobbed with all the ures of his day And he remained a mystery

He claiure was not put to the test, there is hard evidence that he spoke es, including Polish (he served as Polish translator for Frederick the Great) and Czech (he translated dispatches intercepted by French couriers) He most certainly had Russian (translations into Italian), Greek (more translations and conversations), Arabic and Turkish (translations for an Austrian nobleuest in 1755 or 1756), Swedish (he spoke with the ambassador to the Prussian court), and several Balkan dialects When writing songs, he preferred to set thethat they were es than French

In occult circles it is generally accepted that Saint-Germain was the son of the Prince of Transylvania, Francis (or Franz or Ferenc) Ragoczy (or Rakoczi), whose fortune were varied, but who lost his title, lands, rights, and crown before the end of his life His family was exiled and two of his children were taken into the "protection" of the Hapsburgs The third child (either the eldest or youngest, depending on which school you favor) was "lost" and therefore assuether the few solid bits of information about this man (and there are comparatively few for a man who led so public a life), I have coround of this brilliant, elusive man

First, as to nationality, I believe he was Czech: his face was occasionally described as Slavic, and his skill with languages suggests an Eastern European background and education In the western part of Europe there was no particular reason to learn Russian, Polish, Hungarian, Greek, or Turkish; in Eastern Europe there was real necessity for a polyglot fluency His broad and well-developed knowledge of arian because at that tiary was such that few children and young people received instruction in music and art beyond the most rudimentary levels Saint-Germain was not only talented, but very well trained; his virtuoso accomplishments were not the result of catch-as-catch-can studies

Saint-Germain was intimately familiar with the traditions and rituals of the Orthodox Church as well as with those of the Roinnings Although he was familiar with the occult disciplines of the Kabbalah, Saint-Ger of Jewish traditions and regular religious practices, which see his lifeti those languages which he spoke easily, although he was able to read it, which reenforces this conclusion

Because of the ease hich Saint-Gerh European financial capitals and institutions, I believe he had a background in commerce I think he came from a very upper-level merchant&039;s faroup of merchants dealt in jewels, and Saint-Germain himself was famous for the number and quality of his jewels, it appears possible that he came from a family of Czech jewel merchants The quality of his education supports this In the eighteenth century, the children of well-to-do jewelin other rare substances (exotic fabrics, woods, and spices, primarily) often received education at least on a par with the nobility, and were generally hly motivated to expand their studies than those of superior social classes The son of a merchant would wish to prepare himself to travel extensively on business, to be pleasant coraces for the benefit of business Saint-Germain&039;s interest in occult and alcheround, for jewel merchants often sponsored such experienuine jeould be discovered

But ould the son of a wealthy Czech diamond merchant want to baffle most of the European nobility for nearly forty years? Probably for no more complicated reason than siht in watching the investigators of various countries and governments try to discover his "true" identity He threw out tantalizing clues that led nowhere, or contradicted others he had offered at an earlier time From one or two of his recorded re, and found the confusion that resulted fro that he was in fact not forty but in his mid-twenties when he first came to France in 1743, he would have been in his mid-sixties at the tiuise his age effectively is not especially surprising, as at that time both men and woe one&039;s appearance to seem somewhat older In a youth-oriented culture it is not easy to understand why he would wish to do so, but the society of the French court, and indeed all European courts, was not enamored with youth for youth&039;s sake To say that he was in his mid-forties, or to let it be assumed that he ould make Saint-Gerus of twenty-five is rather silly, but an experienced, well-traveled e, is another matter entirely He was a man to be trusted and confided in As a merchant&039;s son, he would have had the opportunity for travel that ht not be available to the children of noble houses in such troubled ti he began to go on journeys in his early teens, which was fairly co rich merchants&039; heirs, he would have had at least ten years of international travel behind hi of 1743

At one ti his years at various European courts, he attended es He ell regarded by all those groups, and his studies were taken seriously He was also interested in all aspects of technology At one tiood deal of e for clearing silted-up canals (that was before he had to sell off his foundry shares) On another occasion he financed a project to develop a es Both ventures were fairly successful He was believed during his lifeti coher than that

Saint-Gerhly suspicious circumstances-he was alone but for servants at a friend&039;s isolated chateau When he "died", his body either disappeared mysteriously, or had to be buried at once for fear of infection, depending on which of the two most prevalent stories you wish to believe Yet he was seen by those who had known him several times after his "death", and in one instance aided a few aristocratic friends to escape frouillotine in 1793 The noble family he aided said afterward, when they had reached Germany, that they had traveled part of the ith the courier for a firm of jewel merchants

The last authentic contact with Saint-Germain was in Genoa in 1802, when a French military officer saw him at the palazzo of one of the Genovese noblemen At the tiypt to further his occult studies According to the French colonel, Saint-Germain sailed four days later, and that was the last anyone saw of him However, it is curious to note that there is a persistent oral tradition in soher occult circles in the Near East, that claius died near Cairo in 1817 It is my personal conviction that the very old and powerful European Magus was Saint-Geran to develop the idea for the Saint-Ger the eighteenth century for Hotel Transylvania At the time it was not my intention to use Saint-Germain as a vampire, but as a major secondary character, as I used Botticelli and Nero in later books In the years I have studied occult subjects, I had becoht that he would be a colorful and auous addition to an historical horror story However, the more I read about him, the more convinced I became that I did not need to invent a vampire and juxtapose him with Saint-Germain: my vampire was already developed and available He stood five-foot-six; wore black and white almost exclusively; rarely, if ever, ate or drank in public, though he often gave extravagant supper parties; was believed to have uncanny powers; clai frouist and widely traveled; was enorreat hly equivocal word and assued were true and went on fro I claioczy that he did not claim for himself in his lifetireat longevity by drinking the Elixir of Life, I doubt va the point too far