How to deliver out four aces, and to convert them into four knaves.
Make a pack of these eight cards, to wit, four knaves and four aces, and although the eight cards must be immediately together, yet must each knave and ace be evenly set together, and the same eight cards must lie also in the lowest place of the bunch, then shuffle them so always at the second shuffling, or, at leastwise, at the end of your shuffling the said pack, one ace may lay undermost, or so as you may know where he goeth and lieth always: I say, let your aforesaid pack, with three or four cards more, lie unseparable together; immediately upon, and with that ace; then using some speck, or other device, and putting your hands with the cards to the edge of the table, to hide the action, let out privately a piece of the second card, which is one of the knaves, holding forth the stock in both your hands, and shewing to the standers-by the nether card, which is the ace, or kept card, covering also the head or piece of the knave, which is the next card, and with your fore-finger draw out the same knave, laying it down on the table; then shuffle them again, keep your pack whole, and so have your two aces lying together in the bottom; and to reform that disordered card, and also to grace and countenance that action, take of the uppermost card of the bunch, and thrust it into the midst of the cards, and then take away the nethermost card, which is one of your said aces, and bestow him likewise; then may you, being as before, shewing another ace, and instead thereof lay down another knave and so forth, until, instead of your aces, you have laid down four knaves, the beholders all this while thinking that there lies four aces on the table, are greatly amused, and will marvel at the transformation: you must be well advised in shuffling of the bunch lest you overshoot yourself.
How to tell one what card he seeth at the bottoms when the card is shuffled in the stock.
When you have seen a card privately, or as though you marked it not, lay the same undermost, and shuffle the cards as before you are taught, till your card be again at the bottom; then shew the same to the beholders, bidding them to remember it; then shuffle the cards, or let any other shuffle them, for you know the card already, and therefore may at any time tell them what card they saw, which nevertheless must be done with caution, or shew of difficulty.
Another way to do the same, having yourself never seen the cards.
If you can see no card, or be suspected to have seen that which you mean to shew, then let a stander-by shuffle, and afterwards take you the cards into your hands, and having shewed them, and not seen the bottom card, shuffle again, and keep the same cards, as before you are taught; and either make shift then to see it when their suspicion is past, which may be done by letting some cards fall or else lay down all the cards in heaps, remembering where you laid the bottom card; then espy how many cards lie in some one heap, and lap the slap where your bottom card is, upon that heap, and all the other heaps upon the same, and so if there were five cards in the heap, whereon you laid your card, then the same must be the sixth card, which now you must throw out or look upon without suspicion, and tell them the card they saw.
To tell without confederacy, what card he thinketh on.
Lay three cards at a little distance, and bid a stander-by be true and not waver, but think on one of the three, and by his eye you shall assuredly perceive which he thinketh: and you shall do the like if you cast down a whole pack of cards with the faces upwards, whereof there will be few or none plainly perceived, and they also court cards: but as you cast them down suddenly, so must you take them up presently, marking both his eyes, and the card whereon he looketh.
How to make a card jump out of the pack, and run on the table.
This is a wonderful fancy if it be well handled: as thus,
Take a pack of cards, and let any one draw any card that they fancy best, and afterward take and put it into the pack, but so as you know where to find it at pleasure; for by this time, I suppose you know how to shuffle the cards, and where to find any card when it is put into the pack; then take a piece of wax, and put it under the thumb nail of your hand, and then fasten a hair to your thumb, and the other end of the hair to the card, then spread the pack of cards open on the table, then say, “If you are a pure virgin the card will jump out of the pack,” then by your words or charms seem to make it jump on the table.