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174 |
Book
Five |
Ch.
2. |
“The second General Mode”, (which is our first Mode), “is the Mode wherein the writer goes ahead and the reader follows: for example, the aforementioned sentence: Miserere Omnipotens Deus: may be hidden thus: Lbrdqdqd Nlmbonsdmr Cdtr. These letters, while, as they stand, they signify nothing, may be easily read if, as in the case of the first Mode, we introduce among them vowels.”
That Natural Transposition which makes use of the reverse process arises from a different form of the table; whence it here results that the letter A has the value of B, B or C, and so on. This method, we are told by Suetonius, was followed by Augustus. Variations thereof are shown by the following table, which begins where the aforementioned table in Bk. 3.c.12 leaves off: thus,
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ABCDEFGHIKLMNOPQRSTVXYZ
1 |
The table here presented requires a few additional words of explanation. This table, like that given above in Bk. 3.c.12. consists of a Transpositive alphabet and an alphabet to be transposed. The former stands forth in capital letters at the top; the latter is written below, and, for the sake of variation, it is repeated twenty-one times. In this case, the writer follows, while the reader goes ahead; whence, from the sentence given above, arises the following form: Nktfsfsf Pnokqpufot Efrt. If, however, in the two tables that have been given, we let the alphabet in capital letters be the one to be transposed, and consider that in small letters the Transpositive alphabet, |
the present table will then answer for the former Mode, while the table given in Bk.3.c.12 will quite properly apply here.
There comes next the Transposition which we may call Successive Transposition, employed because the other methods easily betray themselves by their very simplicity. The peculiarity of this method lies herein, that you make use of the same two tables, but in a different way. For in the case of those two Modes, you selected a certain definite alphabet, -- first one such and then another, -- and by means of this you wrote your discourse to the end. Now the present Mode requires that you place before you all the alphabets written in order, and that from the first alphabet you transpose the first word of the secret, or if you please, the whole of the first line, and from the second alphabet, the second word or line, and so on, --thus building up your discourse from many diverse sources. Let us take an example in the letters written according to the table given in this chapter, first agreeing upon this, that the first letter, the letter that is, of the alphabet of capitals, shall stand without change, while the alphabets of small letters shall suffer Transposition successively: Morgen wil ich su dir commen: Mnpdah Onab Ypt Kf Mqz Pspofn. Now do not overlook this further fact, that you may make use of this Successive Mode in any way that may suit your pleasure: for example, you may agree to take the Transpositive letters now from the first alphabet, and now from the fifth or any other alphabet.