2

In the dead of night, Dee and Laski went by wherries to Greenwich, "to my friend Goodman Fern, the Potter, his house, where we refreshed ourselves." Probably a man whom Dee had employed to make retorts and other vessels for his chemical work. Perhaps they met there the rest of the party, but on the whole it seems more probable that all started together from Mortlake. The exit of such a company from the riverside house must have been quite an event. At Gravesend, a "great Tylte-boat" rowed up to Fern's house, on the quay, and took them out to the two vessels arranged to convey them abroad. These ships, which Dee had hired, were lying seven or eight miles down stream - a Danish double fly-boat, in which Laski, Dee, Kelly, Mrs. Dee and Mrs. Kelly and the three children, Arthur, Katherine and Rowland Dee, embarked at sunrise on Sunday morning; and a boyer, "a pretty ship," which conveyed the Prince's men, some servants of Dee, and a couple of horses. They sailed at once, but the wind coming from N.W., they anchored on the Spits. The fly-boat dragged her anchor, and the wind suddenly changing to N.E., they were in danger of grounding. However, next morning they made Queenborough Haven, and landed in small fishing boats. On the landing, the boat in which the party were seated was nearly upset. Water came in up to their knees, an oar was lost, and they were in considerable peril, but Kelly seems to have risen to the occasion by baling water out of the bottom with a great gauntlet. Dee thinks he saved their lives. Dee, poor man, was dropped from the captain's back on landing into ooze and mud, so that he was "foule arrayed" on reaching "Queenborough town, up the crooked creek." "God be praised for ever that all that danger was ended with so small grief or hurt," is his cheerful comment.

After three nights ashore, they again embarked, and at daybreak on the 27th sailed out into the Channel. On the 29th they landed at Brill. Here Laski's guardian angel, Jubanladec, seems to have granted them an interview. They only paused for two or three days, and hurried on, travelling forward each day by the sluggish Dutch canals, having exchanged their vessel for a hoy of Amsterdam at Rotterdam. They passed through Tergowd and Haarlem to Amsterdam; here they stayed three days, and Dee despatched Edmond Hilton with his heavy goods by sea to Dantzic. By Enkhuisen they sailed up the Zuyder Zee to Harlingen, then took the canals again in little "scuts," or small boats, to Leewarden, thence to Dokkum, in West Friesland, in somestill smaller craft. On the Sunday spent at Dokkum, Gabriel appeared in the crystal, and delivered to them the most searching and exalted code of ideals for the conduct of their lives. Everything was laid bare before his relentless and unerring eyes. They were bidden to live in brotherly charity, the imperfections of each to be by the other "perfectly shadowed in charity."

"Bear your own infirmities, and so the infirmities of others, with quiet and hidden minde...The Cross of Christ is the comparison in mildness over thy brethren...He that forsaketh the world for the love of God in Christ shall have his reward, but he that forsaketh himself shall be crowned with a diadem of glory. Bridle the flesh. Riotousness is the sleep of death and the slumber to destruction. Feed the soul, but bridle the flesh, for it is insolent. Look to your servants. Make them clean. Let your friendship be for the service of God. All frienship else is vain and of no account. Persevere to the end. Many men begin, but few end. He that leaveth off is a damned soul."

From Dokkum the travellers put out to sea again, beyond the islands, and sailed up the Western Ems to Embden. They arrived after dusk, and found the city gates shut, so they lay all night on shipboard. Next morning, the 18th October, Laski took up his quarters at "The White Swan," on the quay, for he was to remain there to see the Landgrave, and obtain money. The others "lay at `The Three Golden Keys,' by the English House," and left early next morning by a small boat to sail up the river Ems to Leer, and thence by a little tributary to Stickhuysen and Apen - "a very simple village," and so on to Oldenburg. A night there, and then on by Delmenhorst to Bremen, where they lodged at "an old widow, her house, at the signe of the Crown."