mmed-si-Koualdia betook
himself to the house of one Antonio, interpreter and public scribe, and
ordered him to translate into French the following letter, which he
dictated in Arabic. Afterwards he carried this letter to Father
Stephen, prior to the monastery of the Greek Hicrosolymites:

"May heaven paint your cheeks with the colors of health, most venerable
father, and may happiness reign in your heart! I have the honor to
inform you that the Rev. John Feathercock has just left for Bayreuth,
but that he has had put upon his trunks the address of a city called
Liverpool, which, I am informed, is in the kingdom of England; and
also, everything points to the belief that he will never return.
Therefore, I dare to hope that you will send me the second part of the
reward you agreed upon as well as a generous present for Hakem, Mr.
Feathercock's valet, who carried every day a new turtle to the house of
the clergyman, and carried away the old one under his cloak.

"I also pray you to tell your friends that I have for sale, at prices
exceptionally low, fifty-five turtles, all of different sizes, the last
and smallest of which is no larger than the watch of a European
_houri_. I have been at infinite pains to find them, and they have
served to prove to me with what exquisite care Allah fashions the
members of the least of His creatures and ornaments their bodies with
the most delicate designs."

VILLIERS DE L'ISLE ADAM

_The Torture by Hope_

Many years ago, as evening was closing in, the venerable Pedro Arbuez
d'Espila, sixth prior of the Dominicans of Segovia, and third Grand
Inquisitor of Spain, followed by a _fra redemptor_, and preceded by two
familiars of the Holy Office, the latter carrying lanterns, made their
way to a subterranean dungeon. The bolt of a massive door creaked, and
they entered a mephitic _in-pace_, where the dim light revealed between
rings fastened to the wall a bloodstained rack, a brazier, and a jug.
On a pile of straw, loaded with fetters and his neck encircled by an
iron carcan, sat a haggard man, of uncertain age, clothed in rags.

This prisoner was no other than Rabbi Aser Abarbanel, a Jew of Arragon,
who--accused of usury and pitiless scorn for the poor--had been daily
subjected to torture for more than a year. Yet "his blindness was as
dense as his hide," and he had refused to abjure his faith.

Proud of a filiation dating back thousands of years, proud of his
ancestors--for all