On my conducting him into the state parlour (which he entered without wiping his dirty boots), he demanded of me a gold coin, and while I was looking for it, he produced from his breast pocket a green silk handkerchief, in which were folded up five medals, the gold of which was infinitely superior to that of my gold piece.”  Here follows the inscriptions on the medals.  “I was filled with admiration, and asked my visitor whence he had obtained that wonderful knowledge of the whole world.  He replied that it was a gift freely bestowed on him by a friend who had stayed a few days at his house.”  Here follows the stranger’s account of this friend’s experiments.  “When my strange visitor had concluded his narrative, I besought him to give me a proof of his assertion, by performing the transmutatory operation on some metals in my presence.  He answered evasively, that he could not do so then, but that he would return in three weeks, and that, if he was then at liberty to do so, he would show me something that would make me open my eyes.  He appeared punctually to the promised day, and invited me to take a walk with him, in the course of which we discoursed profoundly on the secrets of Nature in fire, though I noticed that my companion was very chary in imparting information about the Grand Arcanum....  At last I asked him point blank to show me the transmutation of metals.  I besought him to come and dine with me, and to spend the night at my house; I entreated; I expostulated; but in vain.  He remained firm.  I reminded him of his promise.  He retorted that his promise had been conditional upon his being permitted to reveal the secret to me.  At last, however, I prevailed upon him to give me a piece of his precious stone—­a piece no larger than a grain of rape seed....  He bid me take half an ounce of lead ... and melt it in the crucible; for the Medicine would certainly not tinge more of the base metal than it was sufficient for....  He promised to return at nine o’clock the next morning....  But at the stated hour on the following day he did not make his appearance; in his stead, however, there came, a few hours later, a stranger, who told me that his friend the artist was unavoidably detained, but that he would call at three o’clock in the afternoon.  The afternoon came; I waited for him till half-past seven o’clock.  He did not appear.  Thereupon my wife came and tempted me to try the transmutation myself.  I determined however to wait till the morrow.  On the morrow ...  I asked my wife to put the tincture in wax, and I myself ... prepared six drachms of lead; I then cast the tincture, enveloped as it was in wax, on the lead; as soon as it was melted, there was a hissing sound and a slight effervescence, and after a quarter of an hour I found that the whole mass of lead had been turned into the finest gold....  We immediately took it to the goldsmith, who at once declared it the finest gold he had ever seen, and offered to pay fifty florins an ounce for it.”  He then describes various tests which were made to prove the purity of the gold.  “Thus I have unfolded to you the whole story from beginning to end.  The gold I still retain in my possession, but I cannot tell you what has become of the Artist Elias.”

CHAPTER VI.