With mutual congratulations on their good fortune, and many pious thanksgivings on the part of Dee, they arrived, without farther molestation, at the college, where Lettice was ill-humouredly awaiting their return.

Bartholomew threw down his burden in the study, where the Doctor, cautiously guarding against intrusion, wrenched open the chest.  His rage and agony may be conceived when he found the treasure transformed into a heap of stones, bearing the following malicious doggerel on their front:—­

    “My mare is lost, but I’ve the gold;
    My mare is better lost than sold. 
    Full fifty pieces, broad and bright,
    My bullies bring me home to-night. 
    My trap is baited!—­Springs it well,
    I get the kernel, thou the shell!

“From thy loving,

“BARNABUS HARDCASTLE, Armiger.”

FOOTNOTES: 

[19] “Johan Glaston,” vol. ii. fol. 535.

[20] Vide Casaubon’s folio concerning Dee’s intercourse with spirits.

[21] Casaubon.

[Illustration:  THE SEER.]

THE SEER.

      “Petruchio.  Pray, have you not a daughter
    Call’d Katharina, fair and virtuous?
      Baptista.  I have a daughter, sir, call’d Katharina,”

Taming of the Shrew, Act II.  Scene I.

    “What sudden chance is this, quoth he,
    That I to love must subject be,
    Which never thereto would agree,
      But still did it defie?”

King Cophetua and the Beggar-maid.

    “Yet she was coy, and would not believe
      That he did love her so;
    No, nor at any time would she
      Any countenance to him show.”

The Bailiff’s Daughter of Islington.

The wonderful exploits of Edward Kelly, one of which is recorded in the following narrative, would, if collected, fill a volume of no ordinary dimensions.  He was for a considerable time the companion and associate of John Dee, by courtesy called Doctor, from his great acquirements, performing for him the office of seer, a faculty not possessed by Dee, who was in consequence obliged to have recourse to Kelly for the revelations he has published respecting the world of spirits.  These curious transactions may be found in Casaubon’s work, entitled “A true and faithful Relation of what passed for many Years between Dr John Dee and some Spirits,”—­opening out another dark page in the history of imposture and credulity.  Dee says that he was brought into unison with Kelly by the mediation of the angel Uriel.  Afterwards he found himself deceived by him in his opinion that these spirits, which ministered unto him, were messengers of the Deity.  They had several quarrels before-time; but when he found Kelly degenerating into the worst species of the magic art for purposes of avarice and