ke, a beautiful girl rushed shrieking out of an adjoining
house, followed by some half-drunk ruffian, who was clutching at the
gold chains and trinkets with which she was profusely bedecked, after
the fashion of Jewish women. The rascal had just seized with one hand
her streaming black tresses, and with the other a heavy collar of gold,
which was wound round her throat, when a priest, stepping up, laid a
quiet hand upon his shoulder. The fellow, too maddened to obey, turned,
and struck back the restraining arm...and in an instant was felled to
the earth by a young monk..

'Touchest thou the Lord's anointed, sacrilegious wretch?' cried the man
of the desert, as the fellow dropped on the pavement, with his booty in
his hand.

The monk tore the gold necklace from his grasp, looked at it for a
moment with childish wonder, as a savage might at some incomprehensible
product of civilised industry, and then, spitting on it in contempt,
dashed it on the ground, and trampled it into the mud.

'Follow the golden wedge of Achan, and the silver of Iscariot, thou root
of all evil!' And he rushed on, yelling, 'Down with the circumcision!
Down with the blasphemers!'--while the poor girl vanished among the
crowd.

Raphael watched him with a quaint thoughtful smile, while Miriam
shrieked aloud at the destruction of the precious trumpery.

'The monk is right, mother. If those Christians go on upon that method,
they must beat us. It has been our ruin from the first, our fancy for
loading ourselves with the thick clay.'

'What will you do?' cried Miriam, clutching him by the arm.

'What will you do?'

'I am safe. I have a boat waiting for me on the canal at the garden
gate, and in Alexandria I stay; no Christian hound shall make old Miriam
move afoot against her will. My jewels are all buried--my girls are
sold; save what you can, and come with me!'

'My sweet mother, why so peculiarly solicitous about my welfare, above
that of all the sons of Judah?'

'Because--because--No, I'll tell you that another time. But I loved your
mother, and she loved me. Come!'

Raphael relapsed into silence for a few minutes, and watched the tumult
below.

'How those Christian priests keep their men in order! There is no use
resisting destiny. They are the strong men of the time, after all,
and the little Exodus must needs have its course. Miriam, daughter of
Jonathan--'

'I am no man's daughter! I have neither father nor mother, husband
nor--