they could command riches to purchase protection, had no place of
refuge left but the distant country of Lithuania, where Boleslav
V., Duke of Poland (1227-1279) had before granted them liberty of
conscience; and King Casimir the Great (1333-1370), yielding to
the entreaties of Esther, a favourite Jewess, received them, and
granted them further protection; on which account, that country is
still inhabited by a great number of Jews, who by their secluded
habits have, more than any people in Europe, retained the manners
of the Middle Ages.

But to return to the fearful accusations against the Jews; it was
reported in all Europe that they were in connection with secret
superiors in Toledo, to whose decrees they were subject, and from
whom they had received commands respecting the coining of base
money, poisoning, the murder of Christian children, &c; that they
received the poison by sea from remote parts, and also prepared it
themselves from spiders, owls, and other venomous animals; but, in
order that their secret might not be discovered, that it was known
only to their Rabbis and rich men. Apparently there were but few
who did not consider this extravagant accusation well founded;
indeed, in many writings of the fourteenth century, we find great
acrimony with regard to the suspected poison-mixers, which plainly
demonstrates the prejudice existing against them. Unhappily,
after the confessions of the first victims in Switzerland, the
rack extorted similar ones in various places. Some even
acknowledged having received poisonous powder in bags, and
injunctions from Toledo, by secret messengers. Bags of this
description were also often found in wells, though it was not
unfrequently discovered that the Christians themselves had thrown
them in; probably to give occasion to murder and pillage; similar