10 
PREFACE 
 
Egypt he hired an old native nurse, and sailed for 
Odessa.  Once in Russia he could find Gog and 
Magog, and present to them the child as Antichrist. 
For he was now persuaded that he himself was the 
First Beast, and would ask the sceptic to count his 
seven heads and ten horns.  The heads, however, rarely 
totted up accurately !  
At this point the accounts of Mr. Turle and Mathilde 
diverge slightly.  The cleric affirms that he was induced 
by a Tartar lady, of an honourable and ancient pro-
fession, to accompany her to Thibet “ to be initiated into 
the 
mysteries ”.  He 
was, 
of 
course, 
robbed 
and 
murdered with due punctuality, in the town of Kiev. 
Mathilde’s story is that he travelled to Kiev on the 
original quest, and died of typhoid or cholera.  In any 
case, he died at Kiev in 1839.  This fixes the date of 
the child’s birth at 1837.  His faithful nurse conveyed 
him safely to England, where his relatives provided 
for his maintenance and education. 
With the close of this romantic chapter in his early 
history we lose all reliable traces for some years.  One 
flash alone illumines the darkness of his boyhood ;  in 
1853, after being prepared for confirmation, he cried 
out in full assembly, instead of kneeling to receive the