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By
Celia Moss.
Chapter I.
Between four and five hundred years ago there stood
in one of the narrow streets of the Jewish quarter in Worms, a large,
strongly-built house, inhabited by a man named Judah Hallevy, who held
the then dangerous pre-eminence of Warden of the Synagogue. Hallevy was
a man of great reputed wealth, and undoubted probity; benevolent, pious,
and intelligent, and esteemed by all his brethren. In happier times for
his people he was precisely the man to have gained honourable
distinction. But among the fanatic and ignorant populace of Worms all
his good qualities availed nothing to shield him from the universal
contempt and hatred under which his brethren suffered.
According to the custom of his people Judah had
wedded early, but within the first year his wife died after giving birth
to a son. The parents of the lost one took charge of the motherless
babe, and when, after the lapse of a few years, they went to reside in
Palestine, the child accompanied them. In course of time Hallevy wedded
again, and his second wife was a widow with one daughter, who, with a
brother and sister, the offspring of the second marriage, resided under
the roof of her step-father.
In a small dark room in the house of Hallevy, the
furniture of which was scant and mean, sat two persons, on the day our
narrative commences. One of them was a young man of three or four and
twenty. His figure was slight, and his pale, delicate features, blue
eyes and flaxen hair, at once marked him as not of the Hebrew race. His
countenance had been handsome, but the wearying effects of early and
constant dissipation were distinctly marked on it. He was well but
plainly dressed, and unarmed, with the exception of the jewel-hilted
dagger in his belt, yet so marked were the distinctions of rank in that
age that no one would have hesitated to pronounce him of noble birth.
His companion was in every respect dissimilar. Without the flowing robes
of Eastern fashion, the high conical cap and badge on the breast, any
beholder would have recognised him as one of the noblest specimens of
the Hebrew race. His figure was stately, and his stature above the
middle height; but alas! he was of a despised and degraded race, and
although yet in the prime and vigour of life, the bowed head and
stooping body of him who stood before the haughty noble showed a
consciousness of humiliation and self-debasement. The Count, for such
was the rank of Hallevy’s visiter, was the first to break silence. “So
you think to deceive me with the pretence of poverty,” he said, casting
a contemptuous glance around the miserable room in which they were
seated, “but do I not know that all your tribe lie, cozen and client,
that they fatten upon the usury they wring from thoughtless spendthrifts
like thyself? And do I not also know that you, Judah Hallevy, are the
richest amongst these vampyres, and yet you pretend, forsooth, that you
cannot afford to lend me a paltry thousand crowns. Go to, thou art a
liar, like all thine accursed race.”
An angry reply rose to the lips of Hallevy, but he
remembered that he was a Jew, and consequently had no right to resent
insult, and checking himself he replied calmly, “You forget, noble
Count, that during the whole of the past year you continually borrowed
large sums of me, which you promised speedily to repay, but up to the
present time I have received nothing; and when did promises satisfy your
princes and magistrates when they wished to wring money from a Jew?”
“Well,” replied the Count Elric scornfully, “for
what other purpose think you they consent to breathe the same air, or to
dwell in the same city polluted by your presence? Were it not that ye
possess a faculty for accumulating gold unknown to others, think ye that
the nobles and princes of the land would not long since have utterly
extirpated you?”
“Israel has a mightier Protector than king or
noble,” answered Hallevy, forgetting for an instant all prudential
considerations, while his eye flashed, and his stately form was erect as
he added reverently, “the Lord of Hosts is His name.”
“Miserable Jew,” laughed the Count, “thinkest thou
indeed that thy blaspheming race is under the protection of Heaven?”
“That belief is part of the heritage I received
from my forefathers,” said Hallevy; then, remembering that he might be
provoked into a discussion that could easily lead to dangerous results,
he added, “In what can I serve you, my Lord?”
“In naught save in granting the loan I have asked
thee,” answered the Count, sullenly.
“Which loan I grieve it is not in the power of thy
servant to grant,” was the reply. “Can I do aught besides to serve you?”
“ No,” said the Count, abruptly, as he strode
haughtily to the door, “but, Jew, thou mayest ere long repent having
disobliged Elric Eberhard!”
With the last words he turned, and fixed his blue
eyes on Judah with such an expression of wrath and hate as to make him,
though not a coward, turn sick with undefined dread; but before he had
time to utter a deprecatory word the Count was gone.
For a few moments after the departure of the Count,
Hallevy stood wrapt in painful thought, and then exclaimed, “The foolish
spendthrift must think I coin money to support his, extravagance.” He
then advanced to the farther end of the little room, and turning a
spring, a portion of the oak paneling opened noiselessly. Within was a
door close to the wainscotting to prevent its giving a hollow sound when
struck. Passing into a long dark passage Hallevy took a lamp that was
burning in a recess, and proceeded onward until he reached what appeared
to be a solid wall; he paused, removed a stone fitted with such
exactness as to defy scrutiny, and fixing it again on the other side,
entered a second passage, and descending a flight of broad stone steps
stopped at the open door of a large apartment through which a soft light
was diffused from a seven-branched lamp that hung suspended from the
ceiling. The room was richly furnished, and looked like a fairy palace
by the light of the lamp. A middle-aged but still beautiful woman was
reading by a table, but at the sound of the Hebrew’s step she rose to
greet him. Hallevy’s wife wore the dress of the East, for so great was
the cruelty the Jews at that time endured from the Christians of Europe,
that they neither adopted the dress nor the manners of their oppressors.
According to the fashion of Jewish matrons her hair was entirely
concealed beneath her turban, and this gave an older appearance to her
countenance than it would otherwise have worn. Subterranean abodes, such
as Hallevy and his family then inhabited, were common among the Jews of
that period, and I have been told are yet to be found among the
concealed Jews of Spain. Exposed at any moment to the violence of a
fanatic mob, whose passions, easily excited, were never quenched save in
the blood of the defenceless, and receiving only nominal protection from
the princes and nobles, as Count Elric had said, on account of their
wealth, whenever any of these latter wished to propitiate their people,
the Jews were the parties to be sacrificed as alike hateful to all.
In the free cities of Germany especially this was
often the case. The inhabitants, just emerging from the state of feudal
slaves, had begun to discover some of the advantage to be derived from
commerce. The nobles and clergy, although still holding aloof from the
trading communities, and scorning every profession but those of arms and
religion as unsuited to gentle blood, were yet glad to receive the gold
of the burghers in return for privileges and protection afforded them.
To these trading communities the Jews, active, intelligent and
industrious, were formidable opponents. The common tie of religion that
bound them together, and enabled them to know all that was passing
throughout the civilized world, also conferred on them immense
advantages, and thus they were more obnoxious to the burghers than even
to the clergy and nobility. It was no uncommon thing for this hapless
race to seek protection in the palaces of the bishops from the outrages
of the people. In the free cities then the Jews were forced to avoid any
outward display of great wealth.
Thus these underground dwellings became at once
places of refuge and safe depositaries of the riches and splendour, a
taste for which they derived from their Eastern origin.
But to return to Hallevy and his wife. Judith had
noted, on her husband’s entrance, that his cheeks were flushed, and he
appeared greatly excited, and she inquired anxiously if anything
unpleasant had occurred to him. In a few words Hallevy related his
interview with Count Elric, and its results.
“And you fear this man, Hallevy?” demanded his
wife, sadly.
“I do, for, alas! I am like a man who has made his
dwelling near a volcano, and knows not at what hour its fires may burst
forth, and destroy his dearest treasures. But where are our children,
wife?” he added, “why are they not with thee?”
“The fair commenced to-day,” replied Judith, “and
Aaron and Esther wished to purchase some trifles therein. Zillah
accompanied them, as I feared to trust them without her, as I know her
prudence and judgment may be relied upon.”
“I would they were returned,” said Hallevy gravely;
then noting his wife’s look of alarm he added, “yet why should I fear?
All has gone on quietly of late,—no doubt they will come back in
safety.”
(To be continued.)
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