digging in the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, together with a 

 book explaining the process, written by St. Dunstan, the 



same : 



"who in his cell's repose 

 Plucked the devil by the nose." 



Among the visitors to the now celebrated alchemists came 

 a Prince from distant Poland, Albert Laski by name, who 

 was visiting the Elizabethan Court with great pomp, and 

 incidentally seeking for an adept in transmutation by whose 

 aid he hoped to retrieve the fortune wasted through extra- 

 vagancy and folly. Being introduced to Dr. Dee by the Earl 

 of Leicester, to whose care the Pole had been committed by 

 her Majesty, he invited himself to dine with the famous 

 magician; Dee's poverty was however so great that he was 

 about to sell some silver-plate to provide an entertainment 

 suitable for so exalted a personage ; but this becoming known 

 to the Queen, she sent him a present of forty golden angels. 



At the feast the Polish nobleman was captivated by the 

 learning of Dee, and impressed by the impudent claims of 

 Kelley ; he admitted his belief in the Elixir Vitae, the Philo- 

 sophers' stone, and in other popular chimeras, showing him- 

 self so gullible that the English adventurers conceived a plan 

 to wrest from him a share of his supposed wealth. They dis- 

 coursed in low tones, with mysterious hints, of the magical 

 powers of the shew-stone, and the credulous Count besought 

 the favor of initiation into its secrets. After delays and 

 postponements calculated to stimulate curiosity, a seance was 

 arranged; Kelley sitting at a distance from the marvellous 

 crystal, gazed intently at it and spasmodically uttered aloud 

 the messages he claimed to hear and described the apparitions 

 he saw, while Dee, at a lighted table, transcribed the spiritual 

 communications, the Count being allowed to sit in a corner 

 of the darkened room. Amid an incoherent medley of ab- 



7 



