In the middle of the procession, under a
beautiful canopy, marched priests in white robes adorned
with costly lace, or in bright-colored, silk stoles; one of
them held in his hand a sun-like, golden vessel, which, on
arriving at a shrine by the market-corner, he raised on high,
while he half-sang, half-spoke in Latin--when all at once
a little bell rang, and all the people around, becoming silent,
fell to their knees and made the sign of the cross. "Shut
your eyes, Sara!" cried the Rabbi again, and he hastily
drew her away through a labyrinth of narrow, crooked
streets, and at last over the desolate, empty place which
separated the new Jewish quarter from the rest of the city.

Before that time the Jews dwelt between the Cathedral and the bank of
the Main, that is, from the bridge down as far as the Lumpenbrunnen, and
from the Mehlwage as far as Saint Bartholomew's. But the Catholic
priests obtained a Papal bull forbidding the Jews to live so near the
high church, for which reason the magistrates assigned them a place on
the Wollgraben, where they built their present quarter. This was
surrounded by high walls, the gate of which was held by iron chains to
keep out the rabble. For here, too, the Jews lived in misery and
anxiety, and with far more vivid memories of previous suffering than
they have at present. In 1240 the unrestrained populace had caused awful
bloodshed among them, which people called the first Jewish massacre. In
1349, when the Flagellants, in passing through the town, set fire to it,
and accused the Jews of the deed, the latter were nearly all murdered or
burned alive in their own houses; this was called the second Jewish
massacre. After this the Jews were often threatened with similar
slaughter, and during the internal dissensions of Frankfort, especially
during a dispute between the council and the guilds, the mob was often
on the point of breaking into the Jewish quarter, which, as has been
said, was surrounded by a wall. The latter had two gates in it, which on
Catholic holidays were closed from without and on Jewish holidays from
within, and before each gate was a watch-house with city soldiers.

When the Rabbi with his wife came to the entrance to the Jewish quarter,
the soldiers, as one could see through the open windows, lay on the
wooden bench inside the watch-house, while out before the door in the
sunshine sat the drummer beating capriciously on his large drum. He was
a heavy, fat fellow, we