They took another ounce of the quicksilver and put it in the
crucible. The canon put in the powder and arranged the fire, but this
time he had his silver shavings hidden in a long cane of which the
end was stopped with wax as before. He made pretence to stir the
fire. "It burns not as brightly as it should," he said, "but I will
make the flames leap up." And so, as he poked it, he melted the wax
and let the silver fall into the crucible. Once more they poured the
metal into the mould and again the priest drew out a lump of silver.
"Yet a third time we will try," said the canon, "and this time we
will not use quicksilver but copper. Send your servant for an ounce
of it."

Again they heated the crucible, but this time the crafty canon had a
different trick. He knew that the copper would not change as the
quicksilver had done, but would melt and remain in the crucible.
Therefore he did not put the silver into the crucible along with the
copper, for he knew they would mix together. Instead he emptied the
contents of the crucible into the mould and put it into the water to
cool. Then he had to find some way of changing the lump of copper for
one of silver. This is what that crafty man did. When the mould and
the metal were in the water he plunged in his hand. From his sleeve
he drew a lump of silver--just an ounce in weight--and quickly taking
up the copper put the silver in its place. "Come," he said to the
priest, "and help me. Put in your hand and see what you can find."
The priest put in his hand and again found the lump of silver. "Ah!"
said the canon. "We have had success indeed. Let us go to the
goldsmith and find if it be true silver or not." The goldsmith
hammered the metal and put it in the fire, and every way it proved
silver, good and true.