ours older, however, a company of the palace guards defiled his house
by entering it on the Sabbath, and dragged him into the presence of the
Emperor of Morocco.

"Dog of a Jew!" shouted the emperor. "You dare to send the imperial
servants, who were pursuing a fugitive, on a false scent into the
mountains, while the slave was fleeing towards the coast, and very
nearly escaped on a Spanish ship. Seize him, soldiers! A hundred on his
soles, and a hundred zecchini from his purse! The more his feet swell
under the lash, the more his purse will collapse."

You know, O Sire, that in the kingdom of Fez and Morocco the people
love swift justice; and so the poor Abner was whipped and taxed without
consulting his own inclinations beforehand. He cursed his fate, that
condemned his feet and his purse to suffer every time it pleased his
majesty to lose any thing. As he limped out of the room, bellowing and
groaning, amidst the laughter of the rough court people, Schnuri, the
jester, said to him: "You ought to be contented, Abner, ungrateful
Abner; is it not honor enough for you that every loss that our gracious
emperor--whom God preserve--suffers, likewise arouses in your bosom the
profoundest grief? But if you will promise me a good fee, I will come
to your shop in Jews Alley an hour before the Sovereign of the West is
to lose any thing, and say: 'Don't go out of your house, Abner; you
know why; shut yourself up in your bedroom under lock and key until
sunset.'"

This, O Sire, is the story of _Abner, the Jew, Who had seen Nothing_.

When the slave had finished, and every thing was quiet in the _salon_,
the young writer reminded the old man that the thread of their
discourse had been broken, and requested him to declare wherein lay the
captivating power of tales.

"I will reply to your question," returned the old man. "The human
spirit is lighter and more easily moved than water, although that is
tossed into all kinds of shapes, and by degrees, too, bores through the
thickest objects. It is light and free as the air, and, like that
element, the higher it is lifted from earth, the lighter and purer it
is. Therefore is there an inclination in humanity to lift itself above
the common events of life, in order to give itself the freer play
accorded in more lofty domains, even if it be only in dreams. You
yourself, my young friend, said to me: 'We lived in those stories, we
thought and felt with those beings,' and hence the charm