U VWXYZAB GHIJKLM Z U DEFGHIJKLMNOPQRST |}JKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZABCDEFGHI A B C DEFGHIJKLMNO P QRS TUVWXYZA ABCDEFG | H | I | J | K | L | M | NOPQRSTUVWXYZ No. 4-The Pass-Word Cipher. II. The Key-based upon the Pass-word PRUDENTIA. order of each word in the secret message shown in No. 3 telling us which of the nine alphabets running from left to right across No. 4 is to be used (in conjunction with the ordinary alphabet at the top) to solve each individual word of the message. The ninth word of the message is VT, and from the alphabet belonging to the ninth letter of PRUDENTIA (A), we see that Vт means us. The tenth word of the message in No. 3 is EH. We begin again with the "p-line" of the pass-word in No. 4, and we see, by referring to the top of No. 4, that EH in the "p-line" means or in the alphabet at the head of this key. The ordinary alphabet is repeated at the bottom of No. 4 merely for convenience in reading the cipher. The great advantage of this cipher is that the same letters of the real message are expressed in the cipher message (No. 3) by different letters. For example, the (of the soldiers) is represented in No. 3 by JXU, whilst the (of the enemy) is represented by HVS: therefore the would-be decipherer is put quite off the scent by the use of some such pass-word as this here used-PRUDENTIA,—which gives to an otherwise simple cipher an element of great complexity to the uninitiated, whilst leaving the cipher very simple for solution by those who know the pass-word. As now described, this cipher was used in the sixteenth and early in the seventeenth century; but as the germ of it dates back to many centuries ago, I have included this among ancient methods of secret writing. The principle of a pass-word, illustrated by this early cipher, also enters into the most ingenious cipher of modern times, which will be described later on-the secret writing of the Russian Nihilists. And now we must pass to the time when at least as regards the chief European nations the use of cipher was frequent. We can understand the reason for having to go to Elizabeth's reign for some of our earliest existing ciphers, by looking through a collection of autographs: for we there see that until this period, and even later, only persons of note and professional scribes could use the pen. In earlier times than those of Elizabeth, one sees the most famous names either written as a "mark," or written with such evident labour that we can almost see the men whose right hand fitted every niche and crevice in the sword-hilt, but to whom the pen was strange we can almost see these men with the out-lolling tongue and laboured action of a very schoolboy who is learning to write his name. Thus it is that we find no cipher in the days of men who with here and there a scholar--could barely form the letters of their signature. There is a glamour about the "golden age" of Queen Elizabeth-those times of men who did great deeds, and of great thinkers and writers who burst out of the dense wrappings of past ignorance to emblazon their names for time upon history's shield of honour -which gives special interest to the old cipher-key shown in No. 5. This is a facsimile of a state-cipher used for communicating with Spain in Queen Elizabeth's time. The method of it gave to each letter of the alphabet (j and u were omitted from the left-hand column, and w was placed after z) twelve other letters which are written in the twelve columns that extend across the key. These substituted letters are somewhat irregularly arranged, probably to increase the difficulty of deciphering a message written in this cipher, when the key was not possessed by the decipherer: given this key, the reading of a message was easily accomplished. Inspection of No. 5 shows us that A might be represented in the cipher message by any one of the twelve letters written above the line, viz., by a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, k, l, or m, and that B might be represented by any one of the twelve letters written below the line, viz., by n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, x, y, z, w-and similarly for the other letters set out in the left-hand column of this facsimile. When writing a message in this cipher, the writer substituted for each of the letters which held his meaning, one or other of the twelve letters written in the twelve columns. He informed his correspondent, who also possessed a key, which of the twelve letters had been selected, by prefixing one of the numerals 1 to 12 to each letter of his cipher message thereby enlightening the receiver of the message as to which of the twelve columns of the key was to be referred to in reading off the meaning of the secret message. But this cipher key was badly constructed: it was apparently made in haste, and ill made. The twenty-four letters in the left-hand column were some of them smudged, the dividing lines of the twelve columns were carelessly drawn by hand, not by aid of a rule, and inspection of the first column of small letters, for example, shows us that the same letter of the alphabet was repeated in the same vertical column: the letter a occurs four times, b occurs three times, etc. This last-mentioned defect is bad, because it causes unnecessary trouble to the addressee of a cipher message-he is temporarily in doubt as to what is the real meaning of certain letters in the cipher he receives, until he writes out the context and this defect might easily have been avoided by letting each of the twelve vertical columns contain twentyfour different letters of the alphabet instead of containing, as they do, some letters repeated more than once. But Elizabethan cipher attracts us more by the interest 2 f No. 6.-Facsimile of an early Elizabethan French StateCipher (about 1559), used by the Duc de Guise, the leader of the French Catholics, and who. in 1558, recaptured Calais from Queen Mary, after this town had been held by England for 211 years. The Duc de Guise commanded the Catholics at the battle of Dreux in 1562, when they defeated the Huguenots; at the moment of victory Guise was shot dead by an assassin. The Prince de Conde, leader of the Huguenots, and whose name occurs in the above cipher was taken prisoner at this battle. Conde's cipher is shown in No. 7. not be too critical with these old methods of secret writing. The two ciphers facsimiled in Nos. 6 and 7 are of great historical interest. No. 6 is that of the Duc de Guise, who recaptured Calais from Queen Mary in 1558, and who led the French Catholics against the Huguenots in 1562: No. 7 is the cipher of his opponent, the Prince de Condé, the leader of the Huguenots-those brave people who came to England when driven from France, and from whom many of us are descended. It will be seen that these early Elizabethan ciphers— which, by the way, both found their way into the keeping of our Foreign Office---are of a very simple kind. Underneath each of the letters of the alphabet are written three, sometimes four, peculiar marks-something between modern shorthand and ancient hieroglyphics. The old-time writer made use of any one of these three marks to represent a letter of the alphabet, and his correspondent merely had to look at his key in order to ascertain the meaning of the particular marks written in the cipher-letter, sent to him by the Duc de Guise, or by the Prince de Condé. = In both ciphers the names of important persons were represented by other peculiar marks, or by single letters. For example, and taking No. 6: A Roy de france; Rg Roy d'espaigne; M = Pape (the Pope); = Roy de scosse (King of Scotland); whilst the Duc de Guise used this curious A to denote his powerful enemy the Prince de Condé. Condé appended to his key a much longer list of these marks than that contained in the Duc de Guise's cipher. His enemy, Guise, was represented by 0; Le Roy, by S; Angleterre by W; Flandres by n; and La Royne d'Angleterre (Queen Elizabeth) by a small a. It is interesting to note in the original of No. 7 that the words " a. . La Royne d'Angleterre" stand by themselves, and arewritten widely across the cipher key, as if to show by his gesture the importance attached by the Huguenot leader Condé to the Protestant and friendly Queen of England. Thus are we graphically reminded, by these two old documents, of the great religious struggle which, in 1572, culminated in the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew: the originals of Nos. 6 and 7 bore their silent part in the No. 7.-Facsimile of a portion of the Prince de Conde's cipher, dated December 2, 1562. (See No. 6.) fight, and many a secret message of vital interest has been written and read by aid of these old ciphers, now stained and faded by the lapse of more than three hundred years of time. We have in No. 8 a facsimile of the cipher used between Marie Stuart and the French ambassador "La Motthe fenelon." Regarded as cipher, there is nothing remarkable or ingenious about this; for the method consists of substituting for the letters of the alphabet various symbols and arbitrarily chosen letters-a No. 8.-Facsimile of one of Marie Stuart's Ciphers: "Alphabeth of a Cifre betwene the Q. of Scottes, and the frenche ambassador La Motthe fenelon. choice of from one to five symbols being given to the user of it for the better disguising of the secret message. Appended to the original, but not shown here, is a list of the names of prominent persons of Marie Stuart's day, each one of whom was represented in this cipher by a peculiar symbol used by the Queen of Scots. The Fénelon here mentioned was probably Bertrand de Salignac de Fénelon, ambassador of Charles IX. at Elizabeth's court-he who answered, when charged by his master to apologise to Queen Elizabeth for the Massacre of Saint Bartholomew, "Sire, address yourself to those who have advised you to it." A variation is shown by No. 9, the original of which was probably used by Mary herself. The subscription is the R, or Rg, usually appended to a Queen's signature; and the superscription, or address, cipher being a D, suggests that this was the cipher used by Marie Stuart for communicating with Lord Darnley, whom she married in 1565, and who was blown up in a house by gunpowder on the early morning of February 10th, 1567. Here we see marks and letters substituted for the alphabetical letters: symbols used as "Nulles" in order to confuse a chance finder of a secret message-for these "nulles" or nullities" had no significance; and there are other symbols and numerals set down as representing frequently-used words and the names of leading personages. As yet, English ingenuity had not been turned upon these devices. The letter shown in No. 10 is so interesting and may now be so appropriately shown that I have inserted it although it was not written in cipher. Marie Stuart had just landed in Cumberland after her escape from Lochleven Castle, where for eleven months she had been confined by the Earl of Murray under the charge of his mother. The unhappy lady wrote: "I entreat you to send for me as soon as possible, for I am in a piteous state, not for a queen but for a gentlewoman; for I have nothing in the world but my person as I have escaped. From Workington this 17th of May. MARIE R." How the agitation and distress of mind come out in these old gestures of the Queen who made them 327 years ago! Not perhaps in the spelling of the words. pray jo sap sond to the that this. this with. Which. What. Wohh. و Ħ f Lotte. recoane. bearar. Ꭺ 8 the h of france. the h⋅ of Spano the q⋅ of England. Ho.q. of Scotland. the piñe of tech 2 28 Superfoription No. 9.-Facsimile of a Cipher found among the papers of Marie Queen of Scots. --for they are old French --but in the agitated movement of the hand across the page, in the depressed "run" of the lines of writing, in the omission of letters necessary even to the old French words, and in the disregard of punctuation marks. This, then, is the famous letter by writing which Marie rashly threw herself upon the generosity of her rival-of Elizabeth-who had no generosity in her Tudor heart, but who, of the beautiful Stuart, had a dry-hearted-woman's jealousy. 18 Vons Suplie le j'hotest que pourres mennoyer querir car ze fous expofeu xeste non your royne mays pour gefillfume cartenay ежу chose du monde que mapersone comme leme ele mey ManeR No. 10.-A reduced Facsimile of a passage from a letter written by Marie Stuart to Queen Elizabeth, at Workington, in Cumberland, 17th May, 1568: "je vous suplie le plus tost que pourres m'envoyer querir, car je suis en pileux esta [t], non pour royne mays pour gentilifame; car je n'ay chose du monde que ma persone comme je me suis sauvée. De Wirkinton, ce xvii de mey. MARIE R." ( |