Thus this danger of being imprisoned and held for ransom until some fabulous amount of gold should be made became the constant menace of the alchemist.

It was useless for an alchemist to plead poverty once it was noised about that he had learned the secret.

For how could such a man be poor when, with a piece of metal and a few grains of magic powder, he was able to provide himself with gold?
It was, therefore, a reckless alchemist indeed who dared boast that he had made the coveted discovery.
The fate of a certain indiscreet alchemist, supposed by many to have been Seton, a Scotchman, was not an uncommon one.

Word having been brought to the elector of Saxony that this alchemist was in Dresden and boasting of his powers, the elector caused him to be arrested and imprisoned.

Forty guards were stationed to see that he did not escape and that no one visited him save the elector himself.