rred with
sables. A cap of the same materials concealed his bald and shining head,
giving his pale shrivelled features a peculiar look of learning and hard
study. His face was long, and his beard pointed. Age and anxiety were
indelibly marked upon his lank visage; but his eye was yet undimmed;
small, keen, and restless, it seemed the image of his own insatiable
desire, consuming soul and body in the fire and fervour of its
inordinate and uncontrolled appetite.

"Thy name?" said Dee sharply, as the stranger bowed himself before the
reputed magician.

"Bartholomew Hickman."

"And thy business?" inquired the Doctor, with an inquisitive glance.

"Since your reverence hath dismissed Kelly, you have been but
indifferently served in the capacity of seer; mine errand is to this
purport:--If we agree for wages, I will serve you; and I doubt not but
my faculty of seeing will equal that of Master Kelly, provided you have
a glass whose quality and virtue shall be equivalent."

"My glass," replied the Doctor, "is not to be matched throughout the
world. Even Cornelius Agrippa had not its like; nor was his famous
mirror fit to compare with it. Hast heard aught of its history?"

"I would listen, Master Dee, for my knowledge thereof is but gathered
from the vulgar report."

"Know then," said Dee, with an air of great pride and complacency, "that
my stone was brought by the ministration of angels, in answer to fervent
and oft-repeated prayer. One night, as I sate with Kelly, discoursing on
the rise and fall of empires, the setting up and the downfall of
estates, and many other matters of grave and weighty import, he looked
uneasy for a while, saying that he felt a strange sensation, and, as it
were, a heavy weight on his right shoulder, as though something sat
there. He said a spirit, invisible at that time, was in all likelihood
hearkening to our discourse, and wished to communicate with us. He then
spake as though to some one behind him, and listened--'Sayest thou so'
said he; 'then will I speedily apprise the Doctor.' He then told me it
was the angel Uriel, who would bring us a wonderful glass or crystal,
whereby a seer, properly gifted, would be enabled to see many wonderful
things; but this surprising faculty I do not possess, by reason of a
fiery sign not occupying the cusp of my ascendant and medium cosli.
Edward Kelly was, however, permitted to supply this defect, and I might
confidently rely, he said, on the truth of tho