The Arcanum Read Online Free Page A
Author: Janet Gleeson
circumstances that
he could not control, he had every reason to expect that he would be tortured and put to death as soon as his sham was exposed.
With no wish to precipitate such an unpleasant end Böttger decided on a characteristically dramatic and audacious plan. Instead
of preparing himself to meet his king (and his maker), he waited for nightfall and crept from his lodgings. For the next two
days he found sanctuary nearby in the secluded house of his grocer friend Röber, while he sent word to Kunckel begging for
assistance.
At the Prussian court, meanwhile, Frederick had quickly realized that something was amiss and sent out search parties of soldiers
to look for the alchemist who had failed to present himself as ordered. Throughout the city proclamations were read aloud
and bills posted stating that the king was prepared to pay a reward of 1,000 thalers for Böttger's capture alive. Böttger
knew that, with such a price on his head, if he stayed in Berlin his chances of avoiding arrest would be minimal, and presumably
Röber must also have been keen to get rid of such a dangerous house-guest. Escape from the country was the only solution.
On the third night of hiding, Böttger persuaded a sympathetic relative of Röber's to allow him to hide in his covered wagon
while it was driven out of Prussia. For this dangerous assistance he paid two ducats with the usual promise of a sack of gold
in addition—as soon as he had time to make it.
Cowering in the bottom of the wagon, Böttger was spirited across the Prussian border to the comparative safety of the medieval
Saxon town of Wittenberg. Once settled there he lay low and enrolled at the university medical school as a student. Kunckel
still had contacts within the university from his time as head of the College of Chemical Experimentation, and Böttger had
faithfully promised that he would pursue his studies there diligently.
But somehow news of the successful getaway reached the royal court, where Frederick, unaccustomed to such a blatant flouting
of his royal will, was more determined than ever to capture the fugitive. He summoned one of his most trusted men, a Lieutenant
Mentzel, and dispatched him, together with a detachment of a dozen troops, to find Böttger and bring him back at all costs.
It was not hard for Mentzel to trace his quarry. Saxony, whose border lay a mere thirty miles to the southwest, was the obvious
escape route. However, the diplomatic relationship between Prussia and Saxony, although currently peaceful, was always sensitive,
and once Böttger had been located by the Prussian lieutenant, protocol demanded that the permission of the king's representative
in Wittenberg be obtained before he could make an arrest. Leaving his soldiers camped outside the town walls the lieutenant
requested an audience with Johann von Ryssell, the local court official, from whom he begged formal permission to apprehend,
“for certain important reasons,” a fugitive from Prussian justice.
Such requests were clearly not run-of-the-mill, and von Ryssell was immediately suspicious. Why should a common fugitive warrant
a detachment of a dozen Prussian soldiers? The matter clearly needed investigating further before he could comply with such
a demand.
Placing Böttger under a precautionary Saxon guard, von Ryssell made a few more inquiries. Unfortunately for Böttger, the magistrate
somehow managed to come across Röber, who happened to be visiting Wittenberg at the time. Terrified for his own safety, Röber
did not need much persuasion to reveal the real reason the Prussians wanted to recapture the fugitive: he knew the arcanum
for making gold.
On hearing this account of events von Ryssell realized the potential sensitivity of such a matter, and word was sent immediately
to the king in Dresden. Meanwhile, aware that the net was closing around him, and deciding that his chances of survival with
Augustus of
he could not control, he had every reason to expect that he would be tortured and put to death as soon as his sham was exposed.
With no wish to precipitate such an unpleasant end Böttger decided on a characteristically dramatic and audacious plan. Instead
of preparing himself to meet his king (and his maker), he waited for nightfall and crept from his lodgings. For the next two
days he found sanctuary nearby in the secluded house of his grocer friend Röber, while he sent word to Kunckel begging for
assistance.
At the Prussian court, meanwhile, Frederick had quickly realized that something was amiss and sent out search parties of soldiers
to look for the alchemist who had failed to present himself as ordered. Throughout the city proclamations were read aloud
and bills posted stating that the king was prepared to pay a reward of 1,000 thalers for Böttger's capture alive. Böttger
knew that, with such a price on his head, if he stayed in Berlin his chances of avoiding arrest would be minimal, and presumably
Röber must also have been keen to get rid of such a dangerous house-guest. Escape from the country was the only solution.
On the third night of hiding, Böttger persuaded a sympathetic relative of Röber's to allow him to hide in his covered wagon
while it was driven out of Prussia. For this dangerous assistance he paid two ducats with the usual promise of a sack of gold
in addition—as soon as he had time to make it.
Cowering in the bottom of the wagon, Böttger was spirited across the Prussian border to the comparative safety of the medieval
Saxon town of Wittenberg. Once settled there he lay low and enrolled at the university medical school as a student. Kunckel
still had contacts within the university from his time as head of the College of Chemical Experimentation, and Böttger had
faithfully promised that he would pursue his studies there diligently.
But somehow news of the successful getaway reached the royal court, where Frederick, unaccustomed to such a blatant flouting
of his royal will, was more determined than ever to capture the fugitive. He summoned one of his most trusted men, a Lieutenant
Mentzel, and dispatched him, together with a detachment of a dozen troops, to find Böttger and bring him back at all costs.
It was not hard for Mentzel to trace his quarry. Saxony, whose border lay a mere thirty miles to the southwest, was the obvious
escape route. However, the diplomatic relationship between Prussia and Saxony, although currently peaceful, was always sensitive,
and once Böttger had been located by the Prussian lieutenant, protocol demanded that the permission of the king's representative
in Wittenberg be obtained before he could make an arrest. Leaving his soldiers camped outside the town walls the lieutenant
requested an audience with Johann von Ryssell, the local court official, from whom he begged formal permission to apprehend,
“for certain important reasons,” a fugitive from Prussian justice.
Such requests were clearly not run-of-the-mill, and von Ryssell was immediately suspicious. Why should a common fugitive warrant
a detachment of a dozen Prussian soldiers? The matter clearly needed investigating further before he could comply with such
a demand.
Placing Böttger under a precautionary Saxon guard, von Ryssell made a few more inquiries. Unfortunately for Böttger, the magistrate
somehow managed to come across Röber, who happened to be visiting Wittenberg at the time. Terrified for his own safety, Röber
did not need much persuasion to reveal the real reason the Prussians wanted to recapture the fugitive: he knew the arcanum
for making gold.
On hearing this account of events von Ryssell realized the potential sensitivity of such a matter, and word was sent immediately
to the king in Dresden. Meanwhile, aware that the net was closing around him, and deciding that his chances of survival with
Augustus of
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