“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.  If ye let the harvest pass, ye shall desire to gather and shall not be able.’”

“Take pity on mine infirmities, and make it plain,” supplicated the Doctor, who now began to fear the usual evasions and disappointments.

“‘Before I go,’” replied the vision, “’I will not be hidden from thee.  Read thy lesson.’”

“I read, ‘Take common Audcal’ and so on.”

“‘What is Audcal?’ inquireth the spirit.”

“Alas!  I know not; but thou knowest.”

“‘It is gold, and Dlasod is sulphur.’”

“Take also, it says, Lulo of Red Roxtan.”

“‘Roxtan is pure and simple wine in herself, and Lulo is her mother.’”

“There is yet in these words no slight ambiguity.”

“’Lulo is tartar of red wine, and Audcal is his mercury.  Darr, in the angelical tongue, is the true name of the stone.’”

“He said before that Audcal was gold,” said Dee, addressing the seer.

“Be thankful,” replied Bartholomew, “and keep what thou hast received.”

The Doctor was for the present satisfied; but a little reflection afterwards, and another trial, left him as ignorant and as poor as ever.

He now returned thanks in the Latin tongue, it being his general custom at the end of each revelation, or motion, as it was called.

“Deo nostro omnipotenti sit omnis Laus, Honor, Gloria, et Jubilatio." Unto which the seer responded, “Amen.”

“Now for the third question.”