ath was held.

Keeping the same amused incredulous face, Red Judah gulped down a
draught. But as the liquid met his palate a horrible distortion
overcame his smile, his hands flew heavenwards. Dropping the bottle,
and with a hoarse cry, 'Mercy, O God!' he fell before the Ark, foaming
at the mouth. The red fluid spread in a vivid pool.

'Hear, O Israel!' A raucous cry of horror rose from all around, and
was echoed more shrilly from above. Almighty Father! The Jew-haters
had worked their fiendish trick. Now the men were become as the women,
shrieking, wringing their hands, crying, '_Ai, vai!_' '_Gewalt!_' The
Rabbi shook as with palsy. 'Satan! Satan!' chattered through his
teeth.

But Ben Amram had moved at last, and was stooping over the scarlet
stain.

'A soldier should know blood, Excellency!' the physician said quietly.

The officer's face relaxed into a faint smile.

'A soldier knows wine too,' he said, sniffing. And, indeed, the spicy
reek of the Consecration wine was bewildering the nearer bystanders.

'Your Excellency frightened poor Judah into a fit,' said the
physician, raising the beadle's head by its long red beard.

His Excellency shrugged his shoulders, sprang to his saddle, and cried
a retreat. The Cossacks, unable to turn in the aisle, backed
cumbrously with a manifold thudding and rearing and clanking, but ere
the congregation had finished rubbing their eyes, the last conical hat
and leaded knout had vanished, and only the tarry reek of their boots
was left in proof of their actual passage. A deep silence hung for a
moment like a heavy cloud, then it broke in a torrent of
ejaculations.

But Ben Amram's voice rang through the din. 'Brethren!' He rose from
wiping the frothing lips of the stricken creature, and his face had
the fiery gloom of a seer's, and the din died under his uplifted palm.
'Brethren, the Lord hath saved us!'

'Blessed be the name of the Lord for ever and ever!' The Rabbi began
the phrase, and the congregation caught it up in thunder.

'But hearken how. Last night at the _Seder_, as I opened the door for
Elijah, there entered Maimon the _Meshummad_! 'Twas he quaffed
Elijah's cup!'

There was a rumble of imprecations.

'A pretty Elijah!' cried the Rabbi.

'Nay, but God sends the Prophet of Redemption in strange guise,' the
physician said. 'Listen! Maimon was pursued by a drunken mob, ignorant
he was a deserter from our camp. When he found how I had saved him and
dressed