Sprach: 'Johann Franke, Du musst hin, 

 Dass wir der Sachen werden inn 

 Und erfahren den rechten Grund. 

 Warum saume Dich nicht zur Stund. N 

 Ein Gnadenpfennig mit Demant schon 

 Sollt Du ihm verehren thun, 

 Und sagen ihm dass Wir begehren 

 Seine Kunst ganzlich zu lehren. 

 Kan aber dass nit geschiehn, 

 Muss er Unser Gefangener sin.' 

 Er ist in weissen Thurm gebracht, 

 Kam aber weg in einer Nacht. 

 Ward zu Strassburg wieder gefangen. 

 Der Keyser trug gross Yerlangen 

 Bis er wieder nach Prage kam. 

 Musst im weissen Thurme sitzen 

 Und vor grosser Angst schwitzen. 

 Und das End wird weisen aus 

 Erfahren wir aus des Keyser's Haus." 



The lives and experiences of alchemists are almost always 

 shrouded in mystery, everything relating to them is marvelous 

 and magnificent; the heroes of hermetic art are the most 

 fortunate of men who create gold by the ton, heal all manner 

 of diseases supposed to be incurable and attain in some in- 

 stances immortal youth. But on a closer examination their 

 careers appear by no means so brilliant; they travel from 

 country to country, wandering from town to town, and live 

 from hand to mouth, and though they may for a season en- 

 joy luxurious living at the expense of a credulous patron, 

 they are eventually detected in fraud, suifer imprisonment and 

 torture, and die miserable deaths. Those who chronicle their 

 adventures seldom have a critical spirit and weave into the 

 narratives truth and falsehood, the authentic and the fabu- 

 lous, making it difficult for a student to distinguish truth 

 from fiction. Such obstacles are met with in attempting 

 to portray the joint careers of a Scotch alchemist named 

 Alexander Seton and of a Moravian named Michael Sensophax, 



122 



'W 



