Palladian Rhapsody: The Return of Léo Taxil

As an onboard medic with a major French merchant shipping company, Doctor Bataille had the opportunity to see the world and meet a range of fascinating people. One regular passenger of his was an Italian silk merchant by the name of Carbuccia, who Bataille had always thought of as being an accident-prone but basically harmless chap. On one trip, however, Carbuccia seemed troubled, and on checking in with him Bataille was the astonished recipient of an incredible confession. Carbuccia, it seems, was an enthusiastic Freemason – a subject which, as a devout Catholic, Bataille had never particularly looked into given the Church’s loudly-expressed disapproval of the Masons. Whilst most Masonic lodges are mere talking shops, Carbuccia had gotten himself recruited into a hidden order within the Masons which was engaged in something much darker. Breathlessly relating to Bataille a Masonic ritual in which Lucifer himself appeared, Carbuccia implored Bataille for his help. Bataille, naturally,…