emon he could not exorcise--that in
his own breast, the tribulation of his own soul, bruising itself
perpetually against the realities of life and as torn now by the
shortcomings of Christendom as formerly by those of the Ghetto.

VIII

It was the Carnival week again--the mad blaspheming week of revelry
and devilry. The streets were rainbow with motley wear and thunderous
with the roar and laughter of the crowd, recruited by a vast inflow of
strangers; from the windows and roofs, black with heads, frolicsome
hands threw honey, dirty water, rotten eggs, and even boiling oil upon
the pedestrians and cavaliers below. Bloody tumults broke out,
sacrilegious masqueraders invaded the churches. They lampooned all
things human and divine; the whip and the gallows liberally applied
availed naught to check the popular licence. Every prohibitory edict
became a dead letter. In such a season the Jews might well tremble,
made over to the facetious Christian; always excellent whetstones for
wit, they afforded peculiar diversion in Carnival times. On the first
day a deputation of the chief Jews, including the three gonfaloniers
and the rabbis, headed the senatorial _cortege_, and, attired in a
parti-colored costume of red and yellow, marched across the whole
city, from the Piazza of the People to the Capitol, through a double
fire of scurrilities. Arrived at the Capitol, the procession marched
into the Hall of the Throne, where the three Conservators and the
Prior of the Caporioni sat on crimson velvet seats with the fiscal
advocate of the Capitol in his black toga and velvet cap. The Chief
Rabbi knelt upon the first step of the throne, and, bending his
venerable head to the ground, pronounced a traditional formula: "Full
of respect and of devotion for the Roman people, we, chiefs and rabbis
of the humble Jewish community, present ourselves before the exalted
throne of Your Eminences to offer them respectfully fidelity and
homage in the name of our co-religionists, and to implore their
benevolent commiseration. For us, we shall not fail to supplicate the
Most High to accord peace and a long tranquillity to the Sovereign
Pontiff, who reigns for the happiness of all; to the Apostolic Holy
Seat, as well as to Your Eminences, to the most illustrious Senate,
and to the Roman people."

To which the Chief of the Conservators replied: "We accept with
pleasure the homage of fidelity, of vassalage, and of respect, the
expression of which yo