"Well, your excellency, I am enchanted at that circumstance, for it must enhance the credit of my experiment. Now, with your permission I will proceed."
"Good gracious me, sir, you did not consult me before destroying the watch. Do what you please, it is no concern of mine."
The identity of the cardinal's watch thus proved, I wished to pass into the Pope's pocket the one I had bought the previous evening. But I could not dream of this so long as his Holiness remained seated. Hence, I sought some pretext to make him rise, and soon found one.
A brass mortar, with an enormous pestle, was now brought in. I placed it on the table, threw in the fragments of the chronometer, and began pounding furiously. Suddenly, a slight detonation was heard, and a vivid light came from the vessel, which cast a ruddy hue over the spectators, and produced a magical appearance. All this while, bending over the mortar, I pretended to see something that filled me with the liveliest astonishment.
Through respect for the Pope, no one ventured to rise, but the Pontiff, yielding to his curiosity, approached the table, followed by a portion of the audience. They might look and look: nothing was to be seen but flame.
"I know not whether I must attribute it to the dazed state of my brain," said his Holiness, passing his hand over his eyes, "but I can distinguish nothing."
I, too, had much the same idea, but, far, from confessing it, I begged the Pope to come round the table and chose a more favorable spot. During this time I slipped my reserve watch into the Pope's pocket. The experiment was certain, and the cardinal's watch had, by this time, been reduced to a small ingot, which I held up to the spectators.
"Now," I said, "I will restore this ingot to its original shape, and the transformation shall be performed during its passage to the pocket of a person who cannot be suspected of complicity."
"Aha!" the Pope said, in a jocular tone, "that is becoming a little too strong. But what would you do, my good sorcerer, if I asked you to choose my pocket?"
"Your Holiness need only order for me to obey."
"Your Holiness shall be immediately satisfied."
I then took the ingot in my fingers, showed it to the company, and it disappeared on my uttering the word "Pass."