petted, you shall not be spoilt. Do not expect me to show like that
undertakerly tree till my years are one hundred. Even then it will be
dangerous to repose beneath my branches in the belief that I am sapless
because I have changed colour. We Jews have a lusty blood. We are
strong of the earth. We serve you, but you must minister to us.
Sensual? We have truly excellent appetites. And why not? Heroical too!
Soldiers, poets, musicians; the Gentile's masters in mental arithmetic--
keenest of weapons: surpassing him in common sense and capacity for
brotherhood. Ay, and in charity; or what stores of vengeance should we
not have nourished! Already we have the money-bags. Soon we shall hold
the chief offices. And when the popular election is as unimpeded as the
coursing of the blood in a healthy body, the Jew shall be foremost and
topmost, for he is pre-eminently by comparison the brain of these latter-
day communities. But that is only my answer to the brutish contempt of
the Jew. I am no champion of a race. I am for the world, for man!'

Clotilde remarked that he had many friends, all men of eminence, and a
large following among the people.

He assented: 'Yes: Tresten, Retka, Kehlen, the Nizzian. Yes, if I were
other than for legality:--if it came to a rising, I could tell off able
lieutenants.'

'Tell me of your interview with Ironsides,' she said proudly and fondly.

'Would this ambitious little head know everything?' said Alvan, putting
his lips among the locks. 'Well, we met: he requested it. We agreed
that we were on neutral ground for the moment: that he might ultimately
have to decapitate me, or I to banish him, but temporarily we could
compare our plans for governing. He showed me his hand. I showed him