fic, and his proposals were rejected by each. At last,
fatigued by the toil, and exasperated at the ill success of his
expedition, and half mad with the recollection of his finances, which
were now drained to half-a-crown, "Since we have nothing to expect,"
cried he, "from the favour of Christians, let us have recourse to the
descendants of Judah. Though they lie under the general reproach of
nations, as a people dead to virtue and benevolence, and wholly devoted
to avarice, fraud, and extortion, the most savage of their tribe cannot
treat me with more barbarity of indifference, than I have experienced
among those who are the authors of their reproach."

Although Fathom looked upon this proposal as an extravagant symptom of
despair, he affected to approve of the scheme, and encouraged Renaldo
with the hope of succeeding in another quarter, even if this expedition
should fail; for, by this time, our adventurer was half resolved to
export him at his own charge, rather than he should be much longer
restricted in his designs upon Monimia.

Meanwhile, being resolved to try the experiment upon the children of
Israel, they betook themselves to the house of a rich Jew, whose wealth
they considered as a proof of his rapaciousness; and, being admitted into
his counting-house, they found him in the midst of half a dozen clerks,
when Renaldo, in his imagination, likened him unto a minister of darkness
surrounded by his familiars, and planning schemes of misery to be
executed upon the hapless sons of men. In spite of these suggestions,
which were not at all mitigated by the forbidding aspect of the Hebrew,
he demanded a private audience; and, being ushered into another
apartment, he explained his business with manifest marks of disorder and
affliction. Indeed, his confusion was in some measure owing to the looks
of the Jew, who, in the midst of this exordium, pulled down his eyebrows,
which were surprisingly black and bushy, so as, in appearance, totally to
extinguish his visage, though he was all the time observing our youth
from behind those almost impenetrable thickets.

Melvil, having signified his request, "Young gentleman," said the
Israelite, with a most discordant voice, "what in the name of goodness
could induce you to come to me upon such an errand? Did you ever hear
that I lent money to strangers without security?" "No," replied Renaldo,
"nor did I believe I should profit by my application; but my affairs are
desp