mercy." And he let the corpse fall gently back and closed the
glassy eyes. The bystanders had a momentary thrill. Death had lent
dignity even to the old Jew. He lay there, felled by an apoplectic
stroke, due to the forced heavy meal, the tinsel gleaming grotesquely
on his white sodden cloak, his naked legs rigid and cold. From afar
the rumors of revelry, the _brouhaha_ of a mad population, saluted his
deaf ears, the distant music of lutes and viols. The captain of the
soldiers went hot and cold. He had harried the heels of the rotund
runner in special amusement, but he had not designed murder. A wave of
compunction traversed the spectators. But the Judge recovered himself.

"Seize this recreant priest!" he cried. "He is a backslider. He has
gone back to his people. He is become a Jew again--he shall be flayed
alive."

"Back, in the name of Holy Church!" cried Fra Giuseppe, veering round
to face the captain, who, however, had sat his horse without moving.
"I am no Jew. I am as good a Christian as his Holiness, who but just
now sat at yon jalousie, feasting his eyes on these heathen
saturnalia."

"Then why didst thou race with the Jews? It is contamination. Thou
hast defiled thy cloth."

"Nay, I wore not my cloth. Am I not half naked? Is this the cloth I
should respect--this gaudy frippery, which your citizens have made a
target for filth and abuse?"

"Thou hast brought it on thyself," put in the captain mildly.
"Wherefore didst thou race with this pestilent people?"

The Dominican bowed his head. "It is my penance," he said in tremulous
tones. "I have sinned against my brethren. I have aggravated their
griefs. Therefore would I be of them at the moment of their extremest
humiliation, and that I might share their martyrdom did I beg his
place from one of the runners. But penance is not all my motive." And
he lifted up his eyes and they blazed terribly, and his tones became
again a thunder that rolled through the crowd and far down the bridge.
"Ye who know me, faithful sons and daughters of Holy Church, ye who
have so often listened to my voice, ye into whose houses I have
brought the comfort of the Word, join with me now in ending the long
martyrdom of the Jews, your brethren. It is by love, not hate, that
Christ rules the world. I deemed that it would move your hearts to see
me, whom I know ye love, covered with filth, which ye had never thrown
had ye known me in this strange guise. But lo, this poor old man
ple