ied Elias; "I see it already in his
grasp!"

"Nay, thinkest thou so?--and wherefore?" asked Ximen, startled into
sincere, because selfish anxiety.

"Mark me! Under licence of the truce, I went, last night, to the
Christian camp: I had an interview with the Christian king; and when
he heard my name and faith, his very beard curled with ire. 'Hound of
Belial!' he roared forth, 'has not thy comrade carrion, the sorcerer
Almamen, sufficiently deceived and insulted the majesty of Spain? For
his sake, ye shall have no quarter. Tarry here another instant, and thy
corpse shall be swinging to the winds! Go, and count over thy misgotten
wealth; just census shall be taken of it; and if thou defraudest our
holy impost by one piece of copper, thou shalt sup with Dives!' Such
was my mission, and mine answer. I return home to see the ashes of mine
house! Woe is me!"

"And this we owe to Almamen, the pretended Jew!" cried Isaac, from his
solitary but not idle place at the board. "I would this knife were at
his false throat!" growled Elias, clutching his poniard with his long
bony fingers.

"No chance of that," muttered Ximen; "he will return no more to Granada.
The vulture and the worm have divided his carcass between them ere this;
and (he added inly with a hideous smile) his house and his gold have
fallen into the hands of old childless Ximen."

"This is a strange and fearful vault," said Isaac, quaffing a large
goblet of the hot wine of the Vega; "here might the Witch of Endor have
raised the dead. Yon door--whither doth it lead?"

"Through passages none that I know of, save my master, hath trodden,"
answered Ximen. "I have heard that they reach even to the Alhambra.
Come, worthy Elias! thy form trembles with the cold: take this wine."

"Hist!" said Elias, shaking from limb to limb; "our pursuers are upon
us--I hear a step!"

As he spoke, the door to which Isaac had pointed slowly opened and
Almamen entered the vault.

Had, indeed, a new Witch of Endor conjured up the dead, the apparition
would not more have startled and appalled that goodly trio. Elias,
griping his knife, retreated to the farthest end of the vault. Isaac
dropped the goblet he was about to drain, and fell upon his knees.
Ximen, alone, growing, if possible, a shade more ghastly--retained
something of self-possession, as he muttered to himself--"He lives! and
his gold is not mine! Curse him!"

Seemingly unconscious of the strange guests his sanctuary shro