othes, and taking his letters and credentials,
as was but reasonable, I passed myself off for the messenger of the
emperor, and so rode the rest of that journey at the expense of the
heathen; and I hereby return you the balance saved.'

'Never mind the balance. Keep it, thou worthy son of Jacob. What next?'

'When I came to Tarentum, I sailed in the galley which I had chartered
from certain sea-robbers. Valiant men they were, nevertheless, and kept
true faith with me. For when we had come halfway, rowing with all our
might, behold another galley coming in our wake and about to pass us by,
which I knew for an Alexandrian, as did the captain also, who assured me
that she had come from hence to Brundusium with letters from Orestes.'

'Well?'

'It seemed to me both base to be passed, and more base to waste all the
expense wherewith you and our elders had charged themselves; so I took
counsel with the man of blood, offering him over and above our bargain,
two hundred gold pieces of my own, which please to pay to my account
with Rabbi Ezekiel, who lives by the watergate in Pelusium. Then the
pirates, taking counsel, agreed to run down the enemy; for our galley
was a sharp-beaked Liburnian, while theirs was only a messenger
trireme.'

'And you did it?'

'Else had I not been here. They were delivered into our hands, so that
we struck them full in mid-length, and they sank like Pharaoh and his
host.'

'So perish all the enemies of the nation!' cried Miriam. 'And now it is
impossible, you say, for fresh news to arrive for these ten days?'

'Impossible, the captain assured me, owing to the rising of the wind,
and the signs of southerly storm.'

'Here, take this letter for the Chief Rabbi, and the blessing of a
mother in Israel. Thou Last played the man for thy people; and thou
shalt go to the grave full of years and honours, with men-servants and
maid-servants, gold and silver, children and children's children, with
thy foot on the necks of heathens, and the blessing of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, to eat of the goose which is fattening in the desert, and
the Leviathan which lieth in the great sea, to be meat for all true
Israelites at the last day.'

And the Jew turned and went out, perhaps, in his simple fanaticism, the
happiest man in Egypt at that moment.

He passed out through the ante-chamber, leering at the slave-girls, and
scowling at Philammon; and the youth was ushered into the presence of
Miriam.

She sat,