divisions from side to side, the letters of the alphabet were written in the little squares formed by the intersection of these divisional lines-the letters / and U being omitted. Examination of No. 19 will show that to a large extent these letters were entered irregularly in the squares in order to make the cipher more difficult. The "sliding-card" itself is a slip of stout, curious-looking cardboard, which projects at top and bottom of the ruled sheet of paper, and which has two slits cut in it, through which the paper is passed: the card can thus slide easily from side to side of the sheet of paper. The alphabet is written in regular order from top to bottom of the middle part of this slip of card, and therefore each letter of the alphabet on the card may be represented by different letters upon the sheet of paper, which vary as the card is slid backwards or forwards (see No. 19). The two persons who used this cipher each possessed one of the appliances here illustrated. The writer of the cipher "set" his slide where he chose, notified his correspondent, by prefixing a numeral, at which division the card was set, and wrote his message in the letters substituted for those upon the slip of card. The reader of the cipher saw, by the numeral prefixed to the letter, where to set his sliding-card, and then easily read off, from the letters down the middle of the sliding card, the intended meaning of the cipher message. This is a rather clever device. The intentional irregularity of the letters written in the ten columns of the sheet of paper was also made more confusing by shifting the position of the sliding-card at intervals during the writing of a message, each change in position being notified by the entry of the appropriate numeral representing the column temporarily made use of. The three ciphers shown in No. 20 are excellent examples of diagrammatic cipher as contrasted with numerical and with letter-cipher. The dots, the triangles and the lines. each form an independent mode of secret writing, and they look particularly destitute of meaning to any one who is unacquainted with these interesting Stuart ciphers. as soon as we see the application of the key, shown at the bottom of No. 20, to each of the three letters therein contained, these inexplicable-looking messages are easily read -in fact, the ready solution of them probably caused their disuse in favour of more subtle methods. I have found no instance of the use of them later than 1694. No. 20.-Three early Stuart Ciphers, and the Key to them. The same message is written above in each of the three ciphers: There is no safety but by flight. (For explanation see text, and No. 21.) These three ciphers can be read thus: The key at the bottom of No. 20 is placed at the top of, say, the "Dot" cipher, so that the short side-lines of the key coincide with the longer side-lines which enclose the message written in dots. The key is then slowly moved down the "Do" cipher, and, as it moves, first one and then another of the dots it contains will be pointed to by one of the twenty-six arrow-heads of the key. Thus each of these dots is seen to represent a letter of the alphabet, which is then written against the dot as the key is moved down the cipher message. When the key reaches the bottom of the "Dot" cipher in No. 20, the various letters having been inserted during the moving of the key, this cipher will look like the "solution of the 'Dot' cipher" given at the top of No. 21. We then read off the message from No. 21, beginning at the top and reading from left to right, as in the ordinary way of reading a letter-thus, There is no safety but by flight. And similarly with the "Triangle" cipher in No. 20. As the key passes down the secret message it will be seen that every angle of every triangle, etc., is directly pointed to by one of the arrow-heads of the key, and, the letter of the alphabet being thereby disclosed, the solution of the "Triangle" cipher will be seen as in No. 21, and this again is read off at sight as, There is no safety but by flight. The 66 Line" cipher is solved after a similar fashion; for the ends of the lines will be found to coincide with one or other of the twenty-six arrow-heads of the key, and by inserting the disclosed letter at the end of each line as we use the key, we obtain the solution given at the bottom of No. 21, which reads, There is no safety but by flight. I may point out, as regards the "Triangle" cipher, that, in writing a message by this mode, dots are first inserted by means of the key, as in the "Dot" cipher, and that then these dots are connected in groups of three, so as to form a number of triangles. The dots are connected in any order that may be found to facilitate the making of the triangles; for, as one triangle does not necessarily denote one complete word, the order in which the dots are connected is of no importance. When nearly all the dots have been connected and transformed into triangles, those dots which remain and which cannot be put into triangular form are used to compose the angles of whatever irregular geometrical figure can be drawn so as to take in all the remaining dots. See, for example, the irregular five-sided figure in the right bottom corner of the "Triangle cipher in No. 20. How simple this cipher is when explained but how devoid of meaning, as a secret message, are these dots, triangles and lines when we look at them as shown in No. 20, without knowledge of the secret which discloses their hidden message! A man might inspect these triangles for a month without arriving at their real meaning. We have in No. 22 a form of secret writing that was commonly used for state purposes in the time of the Stuarts. This particular cipher was that used by Sir Dudley Carleton, the ambassador of James I. at Venice. It seems strange nowadays to hear of an English ambassador at Venice; but the Venice of 1610 was, politically, a very different and far more important city than the Venice of 1894. The Gears of r. 5. u 16. 21. and 26. and all points are 3.5. 39 35. 41 32 39. Bensons basing smb کار In this cipher the five vowels were represented by the numbers written underneath each-four different numbers for each vowel, in order to add to the difficulty of the cipher. The consonants were also represented by the numerals written in No. 22-two different numbers for each consonant-either of these to be used at the option of the cipher-writer. Letters of the alphabet were used only for the names of persons, and in the list that follows in the original, only part of which is here shown in facsimile, are contained these names and many more, each of which was represented by the single letter now quoted: "King, A; Queene, B; Prince, C; Parliament, F; Archbishop of Canterbury, H; Lord Chancellor, K; the French Ambassador, T," and so on, through a very long list, which first exhausted all the capital letters, then all the small letters of the alphabet, and then went on with numbers from 63 upwards (see the last sentence of No. 22). Pentors are noted by Liss as far as the Alshabet Sta greater of one will gre, the rest by figures beginning at the end of these last numbers No. 22.-A Facsimile of the Cipher used in the reign of James the First (1610 – 1615) for communicating with the English Ambassador at Venice. 1. The Key. This Cipher Key here ends: "Persons are noted by Letters as far as the Alphabet both greater and lesse will goe, the rest by figures beginning at he end of these last numbers." It will be perceived that a message written in this cipher consisted of a series of numerals and letters, which, as they were arbitrarily selected, and could be to a large extent varied in one message, produced a cipher-letter that was very difficult to solve in the absence of the key shown in No. 22. In No. 23 I give an illustration of the actual use of this ambassador's cipher, which contains a sufficiently characteristic question that was often asked in the times of the Stuart kings. I will leave the reader to play the ambassador's part, 29 22 45 59 7·2· 51 · 23 · 12 · 53 · 17 · 24 · 41 ·8·25·46·33·9.52·55·37·18 ·A· No. 23.-Cipher used in the reign of James I. (1610-1615 for communicating with the English Ambassador at Venice. II. A Cipher Letter. and to decipher this letter for himself, by aid of the key in No. 22 and the description I have given of it. The Two-Word Square cipher, illustrated in Nos. 24 and 25, is a very clever one. It was used in and Flanders, when England was at war with France, and when Buckingham made a mess of the relief of Rochelle, and was driven back to his ships by the French. The merit of this cipher will be seen by looking at No. 24, which is the key of the cipher. The letters of the alphabet, twice written inside the square, are each represented in the cipher (sce No. 25) by two letters one of which is always taken from the Latin word OPTIMVS, the top of the square, and the other .from the word DOMINVS, at the right hand of the square. The oldfashioned stands for the modern U. at No. 24.-The Two Word Square Cipher. A Facsimile of a State Cipher used in Charles the First's Time (1627) for communicating with France and Flanders. 1. The Key. This cypher is made doble (double) going twise over the alphabet only for varietie to make it harder to be deciphered. When in writing aine thing (anything) in this cypher you are to make use of letters to express your woords, you are not to use the letter itself, but in place thereof to set down two letters, one such letter of the woord OPTIMUS, as is set directly over the letter you meane: and the other such letter of the woord DOMINUS, as is directly opposite to the said letter you meane to write. Now, as the alphabet is twice written inside the square, it is clear that the same letter of it may be represented in cipher by two different pairs of letters taken from the two key-words; and herein lies the ingenuity of this method. For example, a may be represented by OD, or by II; b by PD, or by MI, and so on. Thus the double letters seen in No. 25, so far from giving to the decipherer a clue to the double e's, double l's, etc., which may exist in a message, actually put him on a false scent, as will be seen as we now read off the cipher in No. 25. Here is the meaning of No. 25. We refer to the key, and we see that TM = r, ON = e, PO = i, PV = n, VD = ƒ, TV = 0, VV = r, TD = c, MD = e, OV = m, TMONPOPVVDTVVVTDM DOVONVOOSIMSOPVMMIN MDTSODMS No. 25-The Two-Word Square Cipher. Used for State purposes in 1627, when England was at war |