his art to some persons who reported him
to the Elector of Saxony. This prince fancying
that he had now got hold of a living
and inexhaustible treasure, seized upon his
person, and put him in prison; setting a strong
guard of soldiers over him, with orders to
keep him always in sight. At first, the Elector
endeavoured by fair words and fine promises
to persuade Sethon to make gold; and,
perhaps he might in time, have consented to
ransom himself, but the Elector was also
determined to obtain his secret, and this, as all
adepts of alchemy know, was a secret not to
be revealed to any under the penalty of their
eternal salvation; they did not dare to reveal
it even to their dearest friend; only when they
grew old might they select some one man as
their heir and instruct him in their method of
working, under the most solemn oath of secrecy.
Their works were always written in
enigmas, to mislead purposely all who came
with vain curiosity, and who were not elected
to the knowledge of the mystery. Sethon,
therefore, could by no means purchase his
own deliverance at the price of his secret.
Patience and fortitude were the qualities
which were developed by the pursuit of
alchemy, if nothing else, and Sethon was a
match for his noble jailor.

When fair means could not induce him to
speak, the Elector began by making his
captivity more rigorous, and tried what privation
would effect. When that failed he resorted
to more active measures, and Sethon was
subjected to a variety of tortures in the hope of
extorting his secret, which even if he could, or
would have imparted, the Elector would not
have been able to apply, for Sethon could not
have given his own skill. Nevertheless, he
remained obstinately silent, enduring whatever
it was the good, or rather, evil pleasure
of the Elector to inflict, and the tortures grew
more and more intolerable. Even fire was applied
to make him speak. This treatment
was continued at intervals for many months,
but all in vain.

At length one Michael Seudigovius, a
Polish nobleman, himself also a seeker after
the philosopher's stone, obtained from the
elector the liberty to visit Sethon in his
prison.

Feeling pity for Sethon's sufferings, and also
a hope that he might be induced to do from
gratitude, what he had refused to compulsion,
Michael offered to aid him to escape,
which offer of course Sethon gladly accepted.
Seudigovius came again in a few
days, and gave a feast to the soldiers
who guarded him. This he did more
than once. At last he regaled them better
than usual, and having made them drunk, he
and Sethon escaped in disguise; he had a
carriage in waiting. They stopped at the
house where Sethon's wife still lived, and got
the powder of transmutation, which her husband
had confided to her keeping. Whether
she accompanied them in their flight is
uncertain. Probably she remained in Dresden,
that the escape of her husband might appear
more mysterious.

Sethon and his deliverer escaped to Cracow,
where Seudigovius had a castle. He now
reminded Sethon of his promise to assist him in
his alchemical pursuit. Sethon presented him
with an ounce of his powder of transmutation,
which he declared was amply sufficient,
if used with prudence. But as regarded the
secret of making this powder, he said: "You
see what I have suffered; my nerves are
shrunk, my limbs are dislocated, emaciated
to an extremity, and my body almost corrupted;
even to avoid all this I did not disclose
the secrets of philosophy." It was clear
there was nothing to be done with such a
man; and, after trying every species of
entreaty and persuasion in vain, Seudigovius
allowed him reluctantly to depart.

Sethon did not long enjoy his liberty. He
was old, and the hardships he had endured
had worn him out. He died in sixteen hundred
and four, only two years after he had left his
peaceful laboratory in Scotland. Seudigovius
married his widow, but she knew nothing of
her husband's secrets. She however possessed
some of his manuscripts, and these Seudigovius
published under the name of the "Cosmopolitan,"
which was the title under which
Sethon was generally known.

The powder which Seudigovius had received
from Sethon is said to have done
him very little good in the end. It enabled
him for a while to live extravagantly,
and to waste his substance in riotous living.
He made no secret of the present he had
obtained. He presented himself at Prague
before Rudolph the Second, and made a
"projection" for him, for which the Emperor
appointed him to be Counsellor of
State. Seudigovius narrowly escaped the
fate of Sethon upon one occasion. He was
travelling through Moravia, and a nobleman
of the country having heard rumours of his
proceedings at Prague; and, believing that he
had a great quantity of the transmuting
powder in his possession, seized upon him and
put him in prison, threatening that he should
not obtain his liberty until he had given up
all his treasure. Seudigovius was not an
alchemist, but he knew other secrets, and
"obtained some matters with which he cut
through the iron bar of his prison-window;"
and, making a rope of his clothes escaped
almost naked. He summoned the little tyrant
before the Emperor's Court to answer for
what he had done; the nobleman was fined,
and a village on his estate was confiscated,
which Seudigovius gave to his daughter as a
dowry.

By this time the ounce of powder was
nearly expended. Seudigovius had run
through an enormous fortune, and beggary
stared him in the face. Sethon must have
seen in his character that he was not worthy
to possess the "Great Secret," and that his