Hi,Yes, the VM was indeed the test and do I have a nice extension to the gibbering giblets theory for you!
It was long time suspected that Kelley was in the service of Sir Walsingham and he
developed for him the new secret cipher. And what would be the best person to try it on than
the Emperor Rudolph himself?So he wrote the VM, using not gibberish, but a some funny text starting something like "Here
is looking at You, kid!" a similar compliments, hoping that Rudolph would not be able to
decipher it. Then he sold it to him and was watching very closely, if the VM could be ever
cracked by imperialists. If not, then the Englishmen could use that cipher quite safely from
then on, not talking about pocketing 600 ducats as well. Little did he know that not Rudolph,
but one of his scientists (no names, please!) did cracked it and Rudolph quite naturally
freaked out. So he put Kelley in prison and then it finally dawned on Kelley - rather late, if
you ask me - that they indeed cracked the VM cipher after all. In desperation, he jumped out of the window.Kelley was eventually pardoned by Emperor, when he realized it cost Kelley arm and leg
(well, actually two legs, but who's counting :-), but he was never allowed to return back to
England to tell Walsingham the truth about those tricky imperialists. And so he hid this secret in between the lines of his treatise "The Stone of the Philosophers" . How else can we explain the sentences like:
"Hence I have written a treatise, by means of which your imperial mind may be guided into all
the truth" or "If you diligently consider all that I have said, this Magistery will become known
to you."Here is looking at you,
Jan