blessed memory, that the choice fell
upon him in this wise: Saul Wahl was a favorite with Polish noblemen,
and highly esteemed for his shrewdness and ability. The king of Poland
had died. Now it was customary for the great nobles of Poland to
assemble for the election of a new king on a given day, on which it was
imperative that a valid decision be reached. When the day came, many
opinions were found to prevail among the electors, which could not be
reconciled. Evening fell, and they realized the impossibility of
electing a king on the legally appointed day. Loth to transgress their
own rule, the nobles agreed to make Saul Wahl king for the rest of that
day and the following night, and thus conform with the letter of the
law. And so it was. Forthwith all paid him homage, crying out in their
own language: 'Long live our lord and king!' Saul, loaded with royal
honors, reigned that night. I heard from my father that they gave into
his keeping all the documents in the royal archives, to which every king
may add what commands he lists, and Wahl inscribed many laws and decrees
of import favorable to Jews. My father knew some of them; one was that
the murderer of a Jew, like the murderer of a nobleman, was to suffer
the death penalty. Life was to be taken for life, and no ransom
allowed--a law which, in Poland, had applied only to the case of
Christians of the nobility. The next day the electors came to an
agreement, and chose a ruler for Poland.--That this matter may be
remembered, I will not fail to set forth the reasons why Saul Wahl
enjoyed such respect with the noblemen of Poland, which is the more
remarkable as his father, Rabbi Samuel Judah, was rabbi first at Padua
and then at Venice, and so lived in Italy. My father told me how it came
about. In his youth, during his father's lifetime, Saul Wahl conceived a
desire to travel in foreign parts. He left his paternal home in Padua,
and journeying from town to town, from land to land, he at last reached
Brzesc in Lithuania. There he married the daughter of David Drucker, and
his pittance being small, he led but a wretched life.

It happened at this time that the famous, wealthy prince, Radziwill, the
favorite of the king, undertook a great journey to see divers lands, as
is the custom of noblemen. They travel far and wide to become
acquainted with different fashions and governments. So this prince
journeyed in great state from land to land, until his purse was empty.
He kn