The life of this pseudo-adept, and of Edward Kelly, his companion in alchemy, is involved in a cloud of necromancy and magico-Hermetical marvels, so that the fabulous and historical elements are not to be easily separated. The true name of Edward Kelly is supposed to have been Talbot. He is said to have been born at Worcester in 1555, and to have followed the profession of a lawyer in London. His talents in penmanship appear to have been utilised in the falsification of deeds. He was prosecuted at Lancaster, according to a narrative of his enemies, for an offence of this nature, and was condemned to lose his ears. By some he is said to have suffered this punishment,[X] by others to have evaded it, seeking safety in Wales, where he lodged at an obscure inn, and concealed his identity by adopting a new name. During this sojourn an old manuscript was shown him by the innkeeper, which was indecipherable by himself or his neighbours. The so-called Edward Kelly, being initiated into the mysteries of ancient writing, discovered it to be a treatise on transmutation, and his curiosity was highly excited. He inquired as to its history, and was told that it had been discovered in the tomb of a bishop who had been buried in a neighbouring church, and whose tomb had been sacrilegiously uptorn by some wretched heretical fanatics at that epoch of furious religiomania and rampant Elizabethan persecution. The object of this desecration was the discovery of concealed treasures in the resting-place of the prelate, to whom immense riches were attributed by popular tradition. The impiety was, however, rewarded by nothing but the manuscript in question, and two small ivory bottles, respectively containing a ponderous red and white powder. These pearls beyond price were rejected by the pigs of apostasy; one of them was shattered on the spot, and its ruddy, celestine contents for the most part lost. The remnant, together with the remaining bottle and the unintelligible manuscript, were speedily disposed of to the innkeeper in exchange for a skinful of wine. The unbroken bottle was transferred by the new owner as a plaything to his children, but the providence which in the main overwatches the accomplishment of the sublime act preserved its contents intact. When Edward Kelly, with an assumed antiquarian indifference about objects which were more curious than valuable, offered a pound sterling for all the articles, a bargain was promptly effected. The lawyer was by no means an alchemist, but he believed himself possessed of a Hermetic treasure; he determined, at all risks, to return to London, and consult with his friend Dr Dee, who abode in a cottage at Mortlake, and who, in matters of magical devilment, and in the tortuosities of the occult, was considered a man of men.