nobilities would take much interest in a scientific experiment were
there no profit at the end of it. Each man entering the laboratory
pays what he pleases to the money taker at the table, but it must not
be less than one gold bonnet-piece. When all have entered, the doors
are closed and locked. The amount of money collected is weighed
against small bars of gold which the alchemist places in the opposite
scale until the two are equally balanced. This bar of gold he then
throws into the crucible."
"Oh, he puts gold into the crucible, does he? Where then is the
profit? I thought these necromancers made gold from iron."
"Signor Farini's method is different, your majesty. He asserts that
like attracts like, and that the gold in the crucible will take to
itself the minute unseen particles which he believes exists in all
soils; the intense heat burning away the dross and leaving the refined
gold."
"I see; and how ends this experiment?"
"The residue is cooled and weighed. Sometimes it is double the amount
of gold put in, sometimes treble; and I have known him upon occasion
take from the crucible quadruple the gold of the bar, but never have I
known a melting fall below double the amount collected by the man at
the table. At the final act each noble has returned to him double or
treble the gold he relinquished on entering."
"Where then arises the profit to your Italian? I never knew these
foreigners to work for nothing."
"He says he does it for love of Scotland and hatred of England; an
ancient enemy. Were but the Scottish nation rich, he thinks they could
the better withstand incursions from the south."
"Well, Davie, that seems to me a most unsubstantial reason. Scotland's
protection has been her poverty in all except hard knocks. Were she as
wealthy as France it would be the greater temptation for Englishers to
overrun the country. My grandfather, James the Third, had a black
chest full of gold and jewels, yet he was murdered flying from defeat
in battle. When does this golden wizard fire his cauldron, Davie?"
"To-night, your majesty. That is the reason the nobles of your court
were making sly haste to his domicile."
"Ah, and Sir David Lyndsay was hurrying to the same spot so blindly
that he nearly overran his monarch."
"It is even so, your majesty."
"Then am I hindering you from much profit, and you must even blame
yourself for being so long in the telling. However, it is never too
late to turn one bonnet-piece into two. So, Davie, lead the way, for I
would see this alchemist turn out gold from a pot as a housewife boils
potatoes."
"I fear, your majesty, that the doors will be shut."
"If they are, Davie, the king's name will open them. Lead the way;
lead the way."
The doors were not shut but were just on the point of closing when Sir
David put his shoulder to them and forced his way in, followed closely
by his companion. The king and his henchman found themselves in a
small ante-room, furnished only with a bench and a table; on the
latter was a yellow heap of bonnet-pieces of the king's own coinage.
Beside this heap lay a scroll with the requisites for writing. The
money-taker, a gaunt foreigner clad in long robes like a monk, closed
the door and barred it securely, then returned to the table. He
nodded to Sir David, and glanced with some distrust upon his
plaid-covered companion.
"Whom have you brought to us, Sir Lyndsay?" asked the man
suspiciously.
"A friend of mine, the Master of Ballengeich; one who can keep his own
counsel and who wishes to turn an honest penny."
"We admit none except those connected with the court," demurred the
money-taker.
"Well, in a manner, Ballengeich is connected with the court. He
supplies the castle with the products of his farm."
The man shook his head.
"That will not do," he said, "my orders are strict. I dare not admit
him."
"Is not my money as good as another's?" asked Ballengeich, speaking
for the first time.
"No offence is meant to you, sir, as your friend Sir Lyndsay knows,
but I have my orders and dare not exceed them."
"Do you refuse me admittance then?"
"I am compelled to do so, sir, greatly to my regret."
"Is not my surety sufficient?" asked Sir David.
"I am deeply grieved to refuse you, sir, but I cannot disobey my
strict instructions."
"Oh, very well then," said the king impatiently, "we will stay no
further question. Sir David here is a close friend of the king, and a
friend of my own, therefore we will return to the castle and get the
king's warrant, which, I trust, will open any door in Stirling."
The warder seemed nonplussed at this and looked quickly from one to
the other; finally he said,--
"Will you allow me a moment to consult with my master?"
"Very well, so that you do not hold us long," replied the Master of
Ballengeich.
"I shall do my errand quickly, for at this moment I am keeping the
whole nobility of Scotland waiting."
The man disappeared, taking, however, the gold with him in a bag. In a
short space of time he returned and bowing to the two waiting men he
said,--
"My master is anxious to please you, Sir Lyndsay, and will accept the
money of your friend." Whereupon the two placed upon the table five
gold pieces each, and the amount was credited opposite their names
upon the parchment.
[Illustration: "THE FIGURE OF A TALL MAN."]
Sir David, leading the way, drew aside one heavy curtain and then a
second one, which allowed them to enter a long low-roofed room almost
in total darkness, as far as the end to which they were introduced was
concerned; but the upper portion of the hall was lit in lurid fashion.
At the further end of the Refectory was a raised platform on which
the heads of the Order had dined, during the prosperous days of the
edifice, while the humbler brethren occupied, as was customary, the
main body of the lower floor. Upon this platform stood a metal tripod,
which held a basket of dazzling fire, and in this basket was set a
crucible, now changing from red to white, under the constant exertions
of two creatures who looked like imps from the lower regions rather
than inhabitants of the upper world. These two strove industriously
with a huge bellows which caused the fire to roar fiercely, and this
unholy light cast its effulgence upon the faces of many notable men
packed closely together in the body of the hall; it also shone on the
figure of a tall man, the ghastly pallor of whose countenance was
enhanced by a fringe of hair black as midnight. He had a nose like a
vulture's beak, and eyes piercing in their intensity, as black as his
midnight hair. His costume also resembled that of a monk in cut, but
it was scarlet in hue; and the radiance of the furnace caused it to
glow as if illumined by some fire from within.
At the moment the last two entered, Farini was explaining to his
audience, in an accent palpably foreign, that he was a man of science,
and that the devil gave him no aid in his researches, an assertion
doubtless perfectly accurate. His audience listened to him with
visible impatience, evidently anxious for talk to cease and practical
work to begin.
The wizard held in his right hand the bag of gold that the king had
seen taken from the outer room. Presently there entered through
another curtained doorway, on what might be called the stage, the
money-taker in the monk's dress, who handed to the necromancer the
coins given him by Lyndsay and Ballengeich, which the wizard tossed
carelessly into the bag. The attendant placed the scroll upon a table
and then came forward with a weighing-machine held in his hand. The
alchemist placed the gold from the bag upon one side of the scale, and
threw into the other, bar after bar of yellow metal until the two were
equal. Then the bag of gold was placed on the table beside the scroll,
and the wizard carefully deposited the yellow bars within the
crucible, the two imps now working the bellows more strenuously than
ever.
The experiment was carried on precisely as Sir David had foretold, but
there was one weird effect which the poet had not mentioned. When the
necromancer added to the melting-pot huge lumps of what appeared to be
common soil from the field, the mixture glared each time with a new
colour. Once a vivid violet colour flamed up, which cast such a livid
death-like hue on the faces of the knights there present, that each
looked upon the other in obvious fear. Again the flame was pure white;
again scarlet; again blue; again yellow. When at last the incantation
was complete, the bellows-work was stopped. The coruscating caldron
was lifted from the fire by an iron hook and chain, and set upon the
stone floor to cool, bubbling and sparkling like a thing of evil; but
the radiance became duller and duller as time went on, and finally its
contents were poured out into a mould of sand, and there congealing,
the result was lifted by tongs and laid upon the scale. The bag of
gold was placed again in the opposite disc, but the heated metal far
outweighed it. The wizard then unlocked a desk and threw coin after
coin in the pan that held the bag, until at last the beam of the scale
hung level. The secretary now pushed forward a table to the edge of
the platform, and on the table placed a rush-light which served but to
illuminate the parchment before him. With great rapidity he counted
the gold pieces which were not in the bag, then whispered to his
master.
The room was deathly still as the man in scarlet stepped forward to
make his announcement.
"I regret," he said, "that our experiment has not been as successful
as I had hoped. This doubtless has been caused by the poverty of the
earth from which I took my material. I shall dig elsewhere against our
next meeting, and then we may look for better results. To-night I can
return to you but double the money you gave to my treasurer."
At this there went up what seemed to be a sigh of relief from the
audience, which had been holding its breath with all the eagerness of
a gambler, who had made a stake and awaited the outcome of the throw.
The necromancer, taking the parchment, called out name after name, and
as each title was enunciated the bearer of it came to the edge of the
platform and received from the secretary double the amount of gold
pieces set down on the parchment. As each man secreted his treasure he
passed along out of the hall; and so it came about that Sir David and
Ballengeich, being the last on the list, received the remaining coins
on the table, and silently took their departure.
The king spoke no word until they had entered the castle and were
within his private room. Once there, the first thing he did was to
pull from his pouch the coins he had received and examine them
carefully one by one. There was no doubt about them, each was a good
Scottish gold piece, with the king's profile and bonnet stamped
thereon.
"You will find them genuine," said Sir David. "I had my own fears
regarding them at first, thinking that this foreigner was trying the
trick which Robert Cockran, the mason, accomplished so successfully
during the reign of your grandfather, mixing the silver coins with
copper and lead; but I had them tested by a goldsmith in Edinburgh and
was assured the pieces are just what they claim to be."
"Prudent man!" exclaimed the king, throwing himself down on a seat and
jingling the gold pieces. "Well, Davie, what do you think of it all?
Give me an opinion as honest as the coin."
"Truth to tell, your majesty, I do not know what to think of it. It
may be as he says, that the earth here contains particles of gold,
that are drawn to the bars he throws in the melting-pot. If the man
is a cheat, where can he hope for his profit?"
"Where indeed? I mind you told me he had other marvellous inventions;
what are they?"
"He has a plan by which a man in full armour can enter the water and
walk beneath it for any length of time without suffocating."
"Have you seen this tried?"
"No, your majesty; there has been no opportunity."
"What an admirable contrivance for invading Ireland! What are his
plans as far as England is concerned? He seems, if I remember your
tale aright, to have some animosity in that direction."
"He has constructed a pair of wings, and each soldier being provided
with them can sail through the air across the Border."
"Admirable, admirable!" exclaimed the king nodding his head. "Now
indeed is England ours, and France too for that matter, if his wings
will carry so far. Have you seen these wings?"
"Yes, your majesty, but I have not seen them tried. They seem to be
made of fine silk stretched on an extremely light framework, and are
worked by the arms thrust up or down; thus, he says, a man may rise or
fall at will."
"As to the falling, I believe him, and the rising I shall believe when
I see it. Has our visit to-night then taught you nothing, David?"
"Nothing but what I knew before. What has it taught your majesty?"
"In the first place our charlatan does not want the king to know what
he is doing, because when his subordinate refused me admittance and I
said to him I would appeal to the king, he saw at once that this was
serious, and wished to consult his master. His master was then willing
to admit anyone so long as there was no appeal to the king. I
therefore surmise he is most anxious to conceal his operations from
me. What is your opinion, Davie?"
"It would seem that your majesty is in the right."
"Then again if he is a real scientist and has discovered an easy
method of producing gold and is desirous to enrich Scotland, why
should he object to a plain farmer like the Guidman of Ballengeich
profiting by his production?"
"That is quite true, your majesty; but I suppose the line must be
drawn somewhere, and I imagine he purposes to enrich only those of the
highest rank, as being more powerful than the yeomen."
"Then we come back, Davie, to what I said before; why exclude the king
who is of higher rank than any noble?"
"I have already confessed, your majesty, that I cannot fathom his
motives."
"Well, you see at what we have arrived. This foreigner wishes to
influence those who can influence the king. He wishes to have among
his audience none but those belonging to the court. He has some
project that he dare not place before the king. We will now return to
the consideration of that project. In the first place, the man is not
an Italian. Did a scholar like you, Davie, fail to notice that when he
was in want of a word, it was a French word he used? He is therefore
no Italian, but a Frenchman masquerading as an Italian. Therefore, the
project, whatever it is, pertains to France, and it is his desire that
this shall not be known. Now what does France most desire Scotland to
do at this moment?"
"It thinks we should avenge Flodden; and many belonging to the court
are in agreement with France on this point."
"Has your necromancer ever mentioned Flodden?"
"Once or twice he spoke of it with regret."
"I thought so," continued the king; "and now I hope you are beginning
to see his design."
"What your majesty says is very ingenious; but if I may be permitted
to raise an objection to the theory, I would ask your majesty why this
was not done through the French ambassador? French gold has been used
before now in the Scottish Court; and it seems to me that a great
nation like France would not stoop to enlist the devices of a
charlatan, if this man be a charlatan."
"Ah, now we enter the domain of State secrets, Davie, and there is
where a king has an advantage over the commoner. Of course I know many
things hidden from you which give colour to my surmise. Some while ago
the French ambassador offered me a subsidy. Now I am not so avaricious
as my grandfather, nor so lavish as my father, and I told the
ambassador that I would depend on Scottish gold. I acquainted him with
the success of my German miners in extracting gold from Leadhills in
the Clydesdale, and I showed him my newly coined pieces. He was so
condescendingly pleased and interested that he begged the privilege of
having his own bars of metal coined in my mint, in order to disburse
his expenses in the coin of the realm, and also to send some of our
bonnet-pieces as specimens to France itself. This right of coinage I
willingly bestowed upon him; firstly, because he asked it; secondly, I
was glad to have some account of his expenditure. When I came in just
now I examined these coins closely, and you imagined that I was
suspicious of the purity of the metal. This was not so. I told my
mint-master to coin all the bars the ambassador gave him, to keep a
strict account of the issue, and to mark each piece with the letter
'F' on the margin. I find three of the coins which we received
to-night bearing this private mark; therefore, they have passed
through the hands of the French ambassador to the alchemist."
Sir David gave forth an exclamation of surprise. He left his seat,
took the bonnet-pieces from his pocket and placed them under the lamp.
"Now," said the king, "you need sharp eyes to detect this mark, but
there it is, and there, and there. Let us look a little closer into
the object of France. The battle of Flodden was fought when I was
little more than a year old; it destroyed the king, the flower of
Scottish nobility, and ten thousand of her common soldiers. Who was
responsible for this frightful calamity? My mother was strongly
against the campaign, which was to bring the forces of her husband in
contention with the forces of her brother, at that moment absent in
France. The man who urged on the conflict was De la Motte, the French
ambassador, standing ever at my father's side, whispering his
treacherous, poisonous advice into an ear too willing to listen.
England was not a bitter enemy, for England did not follow up her
victory and march into Scotland, where none were left to command a
Scottish army, and no Scottish army was left to obey. Scotland, on
this occasion, was merely the catspaw of France. Now I am the son of
an Englishwoman. The English king is my uncle, and France fears that I
will keep the peace with my neighbour; so through his ambassador, he
sounds me, and learns that such indeed is my intention. France
resolves to leave me alone and accomplish its object by corrupting,
with gold coined in my own mint, the nobles of my court, and, by God!"
cried James in sudden anger, bringing his fist down on the table and
making the coins jingle, "France is succeeding, through the blind
stupidity of men who might have been expected to know their right hand
from their left. The greatest heads of my realm are being cozened by a
trickster; befooled in a way that any humble ploughman should be
ashamed of. You see now why they wish to keep the silly proceedings
from the king. I tell you, Davie, that Italian's head comes off, and
thus in some small measure will I avenge Flodden."
Sir David Lyndsay sat meditatively silent for some moments while the
king in angry impatience strode up and down the small limits of the
room. When the heat of his majesty's temper had partially cooled, Sir
David spoke with something of diplomatic shrewdness.
"I never before realised the depth and penetration of your majesty's
mind. You have gone straight to the heart of this mystery, and have
thrown light into its obscurest corner, as a dozen flaming torches
would have illumined that dark laboratory in the Monastery. I have
shared the stupidity of your nobles, which the clarity of your
judgment now exposes so plainly; therefore, I feel that it would be
presumption on my part to offer advice to your majesty in the further
prosecution of this affair."
"No, Davie, no," said the king, stopping in his march and speaking
with pleased cordiality, "no, I value your advice; you are an honest
man, and it is not to be expected that the subtilty and craftiness of
these foreigners should be as clear to you as the sunshine on a
Highland hill. Speak out, Davie, and if you give me your counsel, I
know it will be as wholesome as oatmeal porridge."
"Well, your majesty, you must meet subtilty with subtilty."
"I am not sure that the adage holds good, Davie," demurred the king.
"You cannot outrace a Highlandman in his own glen, although you may
fight him fairly in the open. Once this Frenchman's head is off, you
stop his boiling-pot."
"That is quite true, your majesty, but if the French ambassador should
put in a claim for his worthless carcass, you will find yourself on
the eve of a break with France, if you proceed to his execution."
"But I shall have made France throw off its mask."
"It is not France I am thinking about, your majesty. Your own nobles
have gone clean daft over this Italian. He is their goose that lays
the golden eggs, and you saw yourself to-night with what breathless
expectation they watched his experimenting. I am sure, your majesty,
that they will stand by him, and that you will find not only France
but Scotland arrayed against you. A moment's reflection will show you
the danger. These meetings have been going on for months past, yet no
whisper of their progress has reached your majesty's ears."
"That is true; even you yourself, Davie, kept silent."
"I swore an oath of silence, and honestly, I did not think that this
gold-making was an affair of State."
"Very well. I will act with caution. The breath of the money-getter
tarnishes the polish of the sword; and in my dealings I shall try to
recollect that I have to do with men growing rapidly rich, as well as
with nobles who should be too proud to accept unearned gold from any
man. Now, Davie, I'll need your help in this, and in aiding me you
will assist yourself, thus will virtue be its own reward, as is
preached to us. I will give you as many gold pieces as you need, and
instead of paying three pieces at the entrance, give the man three
hundred. Urge all the nobles to increase their wagers; for thus we
shall soon learn the depths of this yellow treasury. If I attempt to
wring the neck of the goose before the eggs are laid, my followers
would be justified in saying that the English part of my nature had
got the better of the Scotch. Meanwhile, I will know nothing of this
man's doings, and I hope for your sake, Davie, that the gold mine will
prove as prolific as my own in the Clydesdale."
The nobles followed the example set to them by the lavish Sir David.
They needed no urging from him to increase their stakes. The fever of
the gambler was on each of them, and soon the alleged Italian began to
be embarrassed in keeping up the pace he had set for himself. It
required now an enormous sum to pay even double the amount taken at
the door. The necromancer announced that the meetings would be held
less often, but the nobles would not have it so. Then his experiments
became less and less successful. One night the bonus amounted only to
half the coins given to the treasurer, and then there were ominous
grumblings. At the next meeting the bare amount paid in was given
back, and the deep roar of resentment which greeted this proclamation
made the foreigner tremble in his red robe. The ambassador was sending
messenger after messenger to France, and looked anxiously for their
return, while the necromancer did everything to gain time. At last
there came an experiment which failed entirely; no gold was produced
in the crucible. The alchemist begged for a postponement, but
swords flashed forth and he was compelled on the spot to renew his
incantation. If gold could be made on one occasion why not on another?
cried the barons with some show of reason. The conjurer had conjured
up a demon he could not control; the demon of greed.
The only man about the court who seemed to know nothing of what was
going forward was the king himself. The French ambassador narrowly
watched his actions, but James was the same free-hearted, jovial,
pleasure-seeking monarch he had always been. He hunted and caroused,
and was the life of any party of pleasure which sallied forth from the
castle. He disappeared now and then, as was his custom, and could not
be found, although his nobles winked at one another, while the
perturbed French ambassador looked anxiously for the treasure ship
that never came.
At last the nobles, who, in spite of their threatenings, had too much
shrewdness to kill the gold-maker, hoping his lapse of power was only
temporary, forced the question to a head and made appeal to the
astonished king himself. Here was a man, they said, who could make
gold and wouldn't. They desired a mandate to go forth, compelling him
to resume the lucrative occupation he had abandoned.