ill of him that sent her will
permit; but she hath a short continuance, and her answer must be brief.
With respect to the country, make thine own choice, and thou shalt be
directed in it for thy good. The other questions she says she cannot
solve, but will send one of the seven who bear rule over the seals of
the metals and their matrix. She hath departed, yet I saw her not. She
went like a sudden stroke of light; and now there cometh a man clad in
sober apparel, with an inkhorn at his girdle. He holdeth a pen, as
though he would write, but his face is veiled."

"'Tis a motion that I should bring my tablets," said the Doctor.

"Now he is writing," continued the seer. "He showeth me a roll of
parchment. But the glass becometh dim, and I think that evil spirits are
troubling us, for the whole seems to waver, like the glowing air over
the furnace."

The Doctor now fell to his prayers, when Bartholomew assured him the
glass grew brighter, gradually becoming still, like the subsiding of
waves after some accidental disturbance. He could now see the writing
distinctly, and the veil was also removed.

"Give me the words to the very letter," said Dee earnestly, as he
prepared to write.

"It runs thus:--'The most noble and divine magister; the beginning and
continuation of life. Watch well, and gather him so at the highest; for
in one hour he descendeth or ascendeth from the purpose.

"'_Take common Audcal, purge and work it by Rlodnr, of four divers
digestions, continuing the last digestion for fourteen days in one and a
swift proportion, until it be Dlasod fixed, a most red and luminous
body, the image of resurrection. Take also Lulo of Red Roxtan, and work
him through the four fiery degrees, until thou have his Audcal, and then
gather him. Then double every degree of your Rlodnr, and by the law of
mixture and conjunction work them diligently together. Notwithstanding
backward through every degree, multiply the lower and last Rlodnr, his
due office finished by one degree more than the highest. So doth it
become Darr, the thing you seek for; a holy, just, glorious, red, and
dignified Dlasod_.'"

"Methinks I have heard this before," said Dee, "and understood it not. I
am truly in great perplexity for want of money; but still I understand
not the purport of these symbols, the which, I beseech thee, now
vouchsafe to thine unworthy servant."

"'See thou take the season,'" said the voice, "'and get her while it is
yet time.