more sympathetic hand altered and softened the endorsement to "Alphabet of an English man in Flanders": see No. II. This particular cipher was a very simple one. Numerals and arbitrary symbols were substituted for the ordinary letters of the alphabet; and, as was often the case, the vowels were given three "changes" at the discretion of the cipher-writer in order to add to the complexity of his secret message; here, the letter s was also thus treated. For the rest, other arbitrary symbols were entered on this cipher as representing the names of well-known persons and places required for mention in a letter. The last mark on this facsimile was probably that used by the "English Rebell" himself- Prestall-as the superscription of his letters: a common device in the days when this cipher was drawn up, for secretly informing a correspondent that the letter received by him was genuine. No. 12 is another cipher used by Marie Stuart: not the last she used, for she struggled on until 1587, and this one is dated 1571-but the last that will be shown here. The method of it is akin to that made use of in the other ciphers of the unfortunate Queen which we have now looked at, and which have been stowed away for centuries-not wholly unregarded, perhaps, but certainly not regarded with that interest which intrinsically attaches to these rare gems of past centuries. How strange it is to reflect for a moment that the originals of these very ciphers we have been examining were actually handled and used by Marie Stuart— murdered—as was another cipher-writing Stuart in the century that followed Mary's! Ma Alpbabeth betwene the 3. of Scouts and the Busshop of Glake, then her ambay No. 12.-Facsimile of "An Alphabeth betwene the Q. of Scots and the Busshop of Glasco, There is a curious interest about No. 13. In the first place I found it among some papers that belonged to Marie, Queen of Scots, and which had been overhauled by Walsingham, Elizabeth's Secretary of State. This minister conducted the detective department of the Government at a time when plots were numerous, and cipher-letters to be suspected. Walsingham employed an Elizabethan expert to decipher the letters which fell into his hands, and No. 13 is the key of one of those letters so deciphered. There is no special interest about the method here used; for, as No. 13 shows, the letters of the alphabet written in the top line were represented by those written below them-quite an elementary process. This "Scottish gentleman" was probably one of Marie Stuart's adherents; and it is curious to notice the distinction between "Scottish gentleman” and “English woman,” because, at a time when only the upper classes-and not all of these could read and write, we may be almost sure that the person designated an English woman" was really some lady of position, from the simple fact of her being able to use this cipher. Is it not strange to have this little bit of evidence of an old intrigue now before us, at a time when the hands that used this cipher have been dust for probably three hundred years, and when all the fierce thoughts and deeds which culminated in the death of Marie Stuart at the hands of Elizabeth have now long faded into the misty shadows of bygone centuries? What a tale could this little piece of faded paper unfold to one who should be able to draw out from it the secrets it has hidden in the past! No. 13.-Facsimile of a Cipher used in 1574 "betwene a Scottish gentleman and an English woman." The originals of the curious cipher signatures and addresses of letters which are shown in No. 14 are in the possession of the Marquis of Salisbury, who gave me his permission to examine the Cecil MSS. at his house and to reproduce these specimens. What extraordinary interest there is in these old MSS., now guarded at Hatfield by Mr. R. T. Gunton, which were many of them addressed to Elizabeth's great minister Cecil, and which are now held by a prime minister of Victoria's reign who is a worthy descendant of the Elizabethan statesman. Some of these old letters still retain the gilded edges of the writing-paper of royal communications; others have intact the thick skein of fine floss silk which connected two seals on the letter, and which -by stage usage--is often lightly "cut" by a dagger, whose edge would be foiled by the shining silk. Actually, the opener of such a letter would pull away one seal by aid of the silk connection; and we may see hanging one detached seal to one still on the paper where it was stamped three hundred years ago. Mr. Guntonto whom many thanks-told me that one of these connecting bands between the two seals of an Elizabethan letter at Hatfield consists of human hair instead of the floss silk which I handled. In I. of No. 14 we have the cipher signature on a letter addressed to Archibald Douglas. The next is "the mark which Jacques Barler will use in his letters for his name "--to quote from a letter written at Brussels in Latin to Sir John Conway on "April 30," 1591. In this dating we have an early example of stating both the old and the new style of chronological reckoning, which was adopted in England by Act of Parliament not until September 1752, when the third day was reckoned as the fourteenth-giving the modern difference of twelve days, not ten, as in Pope Gregory's time, between the two styles. . The two ciphers III. and IV. in No. 14 are the signature of a letter endorsed by Lord Burghley "From Moody," and the end of its address, which said, "To the most honourable Knighte" here followed the cipher shown in IV. The letter was written at Brussels to the Earl of Essex, and relates to political affairs, whilst another letter written on the same day by "Moody"—probably to Burghley himself -contains cipher passages, and concludes with the words: "If you would deal with her Majesty that some peace might be made between the King of Spain and her, I know it would be hearkened unto here, although they assure themselves they shall in time weary both her and the King of France." This Moody also wrote to the Earl of Essex on October 7th, 1591, from "Anwarpe" (Antwerp), and again used the cipher address shown in iv. of No. 14. He wrote:- "Of those hangings which you wished me to provide for you, having now seen sufficient choice, these are to let you understand that I have provided a suit or two of the most fairest hangings that are in this country. The one suit is of the story of Cyrus, 8 pieces of six Flemish ells deep. The lowest price I can drive them unto is nine florins an ell, of this cyther I will send the explanato act in obter have this daye meryard a fix for the ply to whom 月 I have set 2 or 3 more a work was I see any wird gend them, hoppy from some of throm better linke the on hom the titl No. 15.-Facsimile of a late Elizabethan Cipher: "the Cypher given to Hugh Floyd gone to Douay, from. . . ." which is 18s. Eng lish. Another suit there is of the same deepness, very fair, of beasts, fowls, trees, and the price 10 florins an ell...." Moody went on to say that he had assumed "the habit and name of a Scottish merchant "—whether for political reasons, or whether the better to "drive" down the price of those "most fairest hangings" in Flanders, remains a matter of con jecture. The facsimile v. in No. 14 is the now unknown address on a cipher letter written February 28th, 1594, with only the following sentence in ordinary characters : “Le Roi fût sacré hier, dont le discours et le récit sera plus facile à ceux qui y ont assisté, c'est pourquoi je n'en importunerai point; et aujourd'hui il a pris l'ordre du Saint Esprit. (The King was crowned yesterday, of which event the discourse and narration will be more easy to those who attended it, and so I will not trouble you with it; and to-day he has taken the order of the Holy Ghost.)" This letter probably related to Henry IV. of France, who, although named successor to the crown in 1539, did not gain possession of his capital until 1594, when he entered Paris without further resistance from his opponents. This No. 15 was written to Walsingham by one of his numerous spies. This statesman was Elizabeth's minister of foreign affairs. He is said to have overreached the Jesuits in their own game of equivocation and mental reservation, and to have maintained fifty-three agents and eighteen spies in foreign courts. is what the agent wrote to Walsingham :-- Here "Of this cypher I will send the explanation att an other tyme. I have this day receyved a letter from the g lye [great lady] to whom I gave it the substance wherof I have writen in this letter, which comes herwith accompaned, beseeching your honor to pardon me if I be too troblesome with such sundry cyphers geuen [given] to divers persons. I have sett 2 or 3 more a work, which as I see any effect I will send them, hoping from some of them better fruite than I see came from the first." We have here a good specimen of Walsingham's secret methods. A man of strict integrity in private life, he had eminently a genius for detective work, and turned it to useful account, employing his agents and spies to protect his royal mistress from plots and plotters. It was Walsingham who detected Anthony Babington's conspiracy to assassinate Elizabeth; and, for alleged complicity in this plot, Marie Stuart was executed by the Queen, who-still acting an assumed partthrew the blame on Walsingham's colleague, and then dismissed this tool Davison from her service, after she had used him to do that which she herself shirked. I end with a short sentence in cipher, which probably will soon be detected by ingenious readers. Next month we will look at the key of this specimen of Stuart cipher. 53818961473726713415632195734647174931 4737292198333 9696197627471329274 41341 21 47372 6777 4 956426 29 226 22 4 VOL. VIII.-No. 33. (To be continued.) J. HOLT SCHOOLING. 6 |