sufficiently for his absence,
he returned unexpectedly, and entered the room where the little Arthur was
in vain endeavouring to distinguish something in the crystal. Dee, in
entering this circumstance in his journal, ascribes this sudden return to
a "miraculous fortune" and a "divine fate;" and goes on to record that
Kelly immediately saw the spirits which had remained invisible to little
Arthur. One of these spirits reiterated the previous command, that they
should have their wives in common. Kelly bowed his head and submitted; and
Dee, in all humility, consented to the arrangement.

This was the extreme depth of the wretched man's degradation. In this
manner they continued to live for three or four months, when, new quarrels
breaking out, they separated once more. This time their separation was
final. Kelly, taking the _elixir_ which he had found in Glastonbury Abbey,
proceeded to Prague, forgetful of the abrupt mode in which he had
previously been expelled from that city. Almost immediately after his
arrival, he was seized by order of the Emperor Rudolph, and thrown into
prison. He was released after some months' confinement, and continued for
five years to lead a vagabond life in Germany, telling fortunes at one
place, and pretending to make gold at another. He was a second time thrown
into prison, on a charge of heresy and sorcery; and he then resolved, if
ever he obtained his liberty, to return to England. He soon discovered
that there was no prospect of this, and that his imprisonment was likely
to be for life. He twisted his bed-clothes into a rope, one stormy night
in February 1595, and let himself down from the window of his dungeon,
situated at the top of a very high tower. Being a corpulent man, the rope
gave way, and he was precipitated to the ground. He broke two of his ribs
and both his legs; and was otherwise so much injured, that he expired a
few days afterwards.

Dee, for a while, had more prosperous fortune. The warming-pan he had sent
to Queen Elizabeth was not without effect. He was rewarded soon after
Kelly had left him with an invitation to return to England. His pride,
which had been sorely humbled, sprang up again to its pristine dimensions,
and he set out from Bohemia with a train of attendants becoming an
ambassador. How he procured the money does not appear, unless from the
liberality of the rich Bohemian Rosenberg, or perhaps from his plunder. He
travelled with three coaches for himself an