THE CHRONICLE OF CLEMENDY
taken as ladies sometimes are, even in matters that concern them nearest, for the adept was very strong and had worked up all sorts of things in those crucibles of his besides The Green Lion and The Sun blessed of the Fire. Sometimes he would come out of his laboratory and walk in the galleries whence he could see the country far and wide, and looked down into the bailey and watched the Knights pass to and fro and the men at arms, but he spoke only when he could not help speaking, and few save the High Constable troubled him with their conversation. In fact Dom Benedict stunk abominably of chemical materials, and it was best to keep at a distance from him, since he made one feel faint and sickly and dried up the throat: but my lord when he would talk with him always had a boy with a flagon of wine by his side; and as he drank all the time he was in the tower it is no great wonder that he often felt confused about the operation of Hermes when he came out, and found going down the ladder a mighty ticklish affair. There could be no doubt that the alchemist was a very different personage to all the other ingenious gentlemen entertained in the castle, for Maistre Jehan Doucereutz, though a moral and didactical versifier, more profitable for young maidens than any other tutor, was a great favourite with everybody and fitted his conversation to all needs, for as he moralises in his poem the wise man is like a key that will turn back any bolt, and open every door. To my lord he told tales, some say better and pithier relations than any in the
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