still had the silver basin in her right hand, while the
Rabbi held her left, and she felt that his fingers were ice-cold, and
that his arm was trembling; but still she went on with him in silence,
perhaps because she had become accustomed to obey her husband blindly
and unquestioningly--perhaps, too, because her lips were mute with
fear and anxiety.

Below Castle Sonneck, opposite Lorch, about the place where the hamlet
of Nieder Rheinbach now lies, there rises a cliff which arches out over
the Rhine bank. The Rabbi ascended this with his wife, looked around on
every side, and gazed on the stars. Trembling and shivering, as with the
pain of death, Beautiful Sara looked at his pale face, which seemed
ghastly in the moonlight, and seemed to express by turns pain, terror,
piety, and rage. But when the Rabbi suddenly snatched from her hands the
silver basin and threw it far out into the Rhine, she could no longer
endure the agony of uncertainty, and crying out "_Schadai_, be
merciful!" threw herself at his feet and conjured him to explain the
dark mystery.

At first unable to speak, the Rabbi moved his lips without uttering a
sound; but finally he cried, "Dost thou see the Angel of Death? There
below he sweeps over Bacharach. But we have escaped his sword. God be
praised!" Then, in a voice still trembling with excitement, he told her
that, while he was happily and comfortably singing the _Agade_, he
happened to glance under the table, and saw at his feet the bloody
corpse of a little child. "Then I knew," continued the Rabbi, "that our
two guests were not of the community of Israel, but of the army of the
godless, who had plotted to bring that corpse into the house by stealth
so as to accuse us of child-murder, and stir up the people to plunder
and murder us. Had I given a sign that I saw through that work of
darkness I should have brought destruction on the instant down upon me
and mine, and only by craft did I save our lives. Praised be God! Grieve
not, Beautiful Sara. Our relatives and friends shall also be saved; it
was only my blood which the wretches wanted. I have escaped them, and
they will be satisfied with my silver and gold. Come with me, Beautiful
Sara, to another land. We will leave misfortune behind us, and so that
it may not follow us I have thrown to it the silver ewer, the last of my
possessions, as an offering. The God of our fathers will not forsake us.
Come down, thou art weary. There is Dumb William st