They then discovered that they had no seal fit for the purpose, and a new consultation was holden on the propriety of affixing a cypher which was offered them by one of the Garde Nationale.

He was apprenticed to a silversmith, and from cutting cyphers on silver spoons, he rose to be sergeant painter to the kingand from engraving arms and shop-bills, to painting kings and queensthe very top of the artist's ladder.

Not even to Dawson would the Admiralty entrust its private cypher.

Had other confirmation been wanting, after the mark on Tamar's shoulder had been acknowledged, the vagrant added it, by producing a clasp of one armlet, which she had retained, and carried about with her in a leathern bag, amongst sundry other heterogeneous relics; and she accounted for having preserved it, from the fear she had of exposing a cypher wrought on a precious stone, which might, she thought, lead to detection.

But it's too late now, of course, and, besides, you could not have read the cypher.'

He wants a cypher.