h to smother
the boy's cries if he should call out for help. But he was very calm and
did not resist them.

"What would you?" he asked.

"And what doest thou in a Christian church?" asked Lazarus in low fierce
tones.

"What Christians do, since I am one of them," answered the youth,
unmoved.

Lazarus said nothing, but he struck the boy on the mouth with his hard
hand so that the blood ran down.

"Not here!" exclaimed Levi, anxiously looking about.

And they hurried him away through dark and narrow lanes. He opposed no
resistance to Levi's rough strength, not only suffering himself to
be dragged along but doing his best to keep pace with the man's long
strides, nor did he murmur at the blows and thrusts dealt him from time
to time by his father from the other side. During some minutes they were
still traversing the Christian part of the city. A single loud cry for
help would have brought a rescue, a few words to the rescuers would have
roused a mob of fierce men and the two Jews would have paid with their
lives for the deeds they had not yet committed. But Simon Abeles uttered
no cry and offered no resistance. He had said that he feared not death,
and he had spoken the truth, not knowing what manner of death was to be
his. Onward they sped, and in the vision the way they traversed seemed
to sweep past them, so that they remained always in sight though always
hurrying on. The Christian quarter was passed; before them hung the
chain of one of those gates which gave access to the city of the Jews.
With a jeer and an oath the bearded sentry watched them pass--the martyr
and his torturers. One word to him, even then, and the butt of his heavy
halberd would have broken Levi's arm and laid the boy's father in the
dust. The word was not spoken. On through the filthy ways, on and on,
through narrow courts and tortuous passages to a dark low doorway. Then,
again, the vision showed but an empty street and there was silence for a
space, and a horror of long waiting in the falling night.

Lights moved within the house, and then one window after another was
bolted and barred from within. Still the silence endured until the ear
was grown used to it and could hear sounds very far off, from deep down
below the house itself, but the walls did not open and the scene did not
change. A dull noise, bad to hear, resounded as from beneath a vault,
and then another and another--the sound of cruel blows upon a human
body. Then a pause.