business of
great moment regarding his own welfare and that of the matter or event
whose _corollarium_ he is now studying."

Lettice, wearied through his importunity, and hoping by compliance to
rid herself from these solicitations, went to the Doctor's private
chamber, where, having delivered her message through the thumb-hole of
the latch--for on no account would he allow of personal intrusion--to
her great surprise, he bade her be gone.

"Show the stranger up-stairs," said he. "Why hast thou kept him so long
tarrying?"

Lettice, with little speed and less good-will, obeyed the Doctor's
behest, grumbling loud at the capricious and uncertain humours of her
master.

The visitor was at length ushered into the presence of this celebrated
scholar and professor of the celestial sciences, whose predictions at
one period astonished Europe; his presence, like some portentous comet,
threatening war and disaster, perplexing even emperors and princes, and
filling them with apprehension and dismay. But Dee was somewhat fallen
from this high and dangerous celebrity. He was become querulous and
ill-tempered. Never satisfied with his present condition, but always
aiming at some greater thing, he generally contrived to lose what he
already possessed. At one time, to control the destinies and acquire the
supreme direction of affairs, either as the High Priest or the Grand
Lama of Europe, was not beyond the compass of his thoughts or the scope
of his ambition. Now, he was petitioning the Queen for a small increase
to his worldly pittance, and an opportunity of clearing himself before
her Majesty's council from the foul and slanderous accusations by which
he was continually assailed. Yet he had not abandoned his former
projects. Though failing in his mission aforetime to the Emperor of
Germany, the King of Poland, and others, to whom he evidently went for
political purposes, and with offers of his aid, through the
foreknowledge and spiritual intercourse by which he thought himself
favoured, yet he still cherished the hope of promotion by such visionary
follies. That chimera of the imagination, the invention of the
philosopher's stone, still haunted him, and he did not yet despair of
one day becoming a ruler among princes, the supreme arbiter and
depositary of the fate of nations.

The delusions imposed on him by Kelly, his seer and confederate, had so
impressed him with this belief, that he still purposed going abroad on a
divine