appointed by queen Elizabeth to enquire into his circumstances) came
from Trebona to England in a state little inferior to that of an
ambassador. He had three coaches, with four horses harnessed to each
coach, two or three loaded waggons, and a guard, sometimes of six,
and sometimes of twenty-four soldiers, to defend him from enemies,
who were supposed to lie in wait to intercept his passage. Immediately
on his arrival he had an audience of the queen at Richmond, by whom
he was most graciously received. She gave special orders, that he
should do what he would in chemistry and philosophy, and that no one
should on any account molest him.

But here end the prosperity and greatness of this extraordinary man.
If he possessed the power of turning all baser metals into gold, he
certainly acted unadvisedly in surrendering this power to his
confederate, immediately before his return to his native country.
He parted at the same time with his gift of prophecy, since, though
he brought away with him his miraculous stone, and at one time
appointed one Bartholomew, and another one Hickman, his interpreters
to look into the stone, to see the marvellous sights it was expected
to disclose, and to hear the voices and report the words that issued
from it, the experiments proved in both instances abortive. They
wanted the finer sense, or the unparalleled effrontery and
inexhaustible invention, which Kelly alone possessed.

The remainder of the voyage of the life of Dee was "bound in shallows
and in miseries." Queen Elizabeth we may suppose soon found that her
dreams of immense wealth to be obtained through his intervention were
nugatory. Yet would she not desert the favourite of her former years.
He presently began to complain of poverty and difficulties. He
represented that the revenue of two livings he held in the church