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