meantime forty lashes of the scourge. Next!"

Nathan walked out with firm step and head erect. A low sob burst from
some one in the crowd. It was the wife of Nathan, weeping, while little
Manasseh and Mary clung to her weeping too.

Yusuf touched her on the arm. "Hush! Be calm!" he said. "All will yet be
well. I, for one, know that he is innocent, and I will not rest until he
is free."

"Thank God! He has not forsaken us!" exclaimed the woman.

Yusuf put a piece of money into Manasseh's hand. "Here, take your mother
home, and buy some bread," he said.

"And here, pretty lad, know you the touch of gold?" said Amzi, as he
slipped another coin into the child's hand. "Now, Yusuf," he went on,
"come, let us see your Jewish friends of yester-even."

"Alas, Amzi, these are they," returned the priest, sadly, "and I fear
yon poor woman feels little like talking to us in the freshness of her
grief."

Amzi laughed, mysteriously. "So your teacher has proved but a common Jew
thief," he said.

Yusuf turned almost fiercely. "Do you believe this vile story?" he
exclaimed. "Did you not see truth stamped upon Nathan's face?"

"You must admit that circumstances are against him. The proof seems