He had made himself so like Mr.
Blanchard that I actually believed I had been addressing that
gentleman, and that I had done so in some absence of mind that I
could not account for. Instead of being amused at the quandary I
was in, he seemed offended: indeed, he never was truly amused
with anything. And he then asked me sullenly, if I conceived such
personages as he to have no other endowments than common
mortals?
I said I never conceived that princes or potentates had any greater
share of endowments than other men, and frequently not so much.
He shook his head, and bade me think over the subject again; and
there was an end of it. I certainly felt every day the more disposed
to acknowledge such a superiority in him; and, from all that I
could gather, I had now no doubt that he was Peter of Russia.
Everything combined to warrant the supposition, and, of course, I
resolved to act in conformity with the discovery I had made.
For several days the subject of Mr. Blanchard's doubts and
doctrines formed the theme of our discourse. My friend
deprecated them most devoutly; and then again he would deplore
them, and lament the great evil that such a man might do among
the human race.
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