English literature -- England -- Lancashire; Legends -- England -- Lancashire
"Seest thou no creature?" anxiously inquired the Doctor.
"None. But the pillar openeth as though it were cleft. Now a woman
cometh forth out of the pedestal, covered with a cloud. I can see her
face dimly at times through this veil, which seemeth to pass over as a
thin cloud before the dazzling sun. She standeth as though in a hollow
shell, glistening with such fair colours that no earthly brightness may
be comparable to it. She now seemeth to wrap the air about her as a
garment. She entereth into a thick cloud and disappears. There now
cometh one like unto a little girl, her hair turned up before, and
flowing behind in long and bright curls. Her raiment sparkles like unto
changeable silk, green and red."
"'Tis _Madini_," said Dee, with great delight. "Note well what she
sayeth, for she is my good angel."
"She sitteth down. Her lips move as though she were speaking, but I hear
nothing."
"I will speak to her," said Dee; "for she will answer me through thy
ministry, if it really be Madini. Art thou Madini, that has appeared to
me beforetime?"
"I think she answereth,'Yes.' But her voice is very feeble."
"I would thou shouldest resolve me three things," said the Doctor, again
addressing himself towards the glass. "To wit--Whereto shall I direct my
journey, and how shall I cause it to prosper? Secondly, I would speedily
be instructed in that great and heavenly mystery, the powder of
projection, which I have been oft promised, but never understood aright
by reason of my feeble apprehensions, or inability to accomplish the
grand and sublime arcanum. Thirdly, How may I find the treasure which
was shown to me in a dream three several times; but where it is hidden
is withheld from me?"
"She says she will answer so far as the will of him that sent her will
permit; but she hath a short continuance, and her answer must be brief.
With respect to the country, make thine own choice, and thou shalt be
directed in it for thy good. The other questions she says she cannot
solve, but will send one of the seven who bear rule over the seals of
the metals and their matrix. She hath departed, yet I saw her not. She
went like a sudden stroke of light; and now there cometh a man clad in
sober apparel, with an inkhorn at his girdle. He holdeth a pen, as
though he would write, but his face is veiled."
"'Tis a motion that I should bring my tablets," said the Doctor.
"Now he is writing," continued the seer. "He showeth me a roll of
parchment. But the glass becometh dim, and I think that evil spirits are
troubling us, for the whole seems to waver, like the glowing air over
the furnace."
The Doctor now fell to his prayers, when Bartholomew assured him the
glass grew brighter, gradually becoming still, like the subsiding of
waves after some accidental disturbance. He could now see the writing
distinctly, and the veil was also removed.
"Give me the words to the very letter," said Dee earnestly, as he
prepared to write.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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