speaking aloud, "Give me the paper, I will scan it."

Running his eyes hastily over the words, Ferdinand paused a moment, and
then drew towards him the implements of writing, signed the scroll, and
returned it to Almamen.

The Israelite kissed it thrice with oriental veneration, and replaced it
in his breast.

Ferdinand looked at him hard and curiously. He was a profound reader of
men's characters; but that of his guest baffled and perplexed him.

"And how, stranger," said he, gravely,--"how can I trust that man who
thus distrusts one king and sells another?"

"O king!" replied Almamen (accustomed from his youth to commune with and
command the possessors of thrones yet more absolute),--"O king! if thou
believest me actuated by personal and selfish interests in this our
compact, thou has but to make, my service minister to my interest, and
the lore of human nature will tell thee that thou hast won a ready and
submissive slave. But if thou thinkest I have avowed sentiments less
abject, and developed qualities higher than those of the mere bargainer
for sordid power, oughtest thou not to rejoice that chance has thrown
into thy way one whose intellect and faculties may be made thy tool? If
I betray another, that other is my deadly foe. Dost not thou, the lord
of armies, betray thine enemy? The Moor is an enemy bitterer to myself
than to thee. Because I betray an enemy, am I unworthy to serve a
friend? If I, a single man, and a stranger to the Moor, can yet command
the secrets of palaces, and render vain the counsels of armed men, have I
not in that attested that I am one of whom a wise king can make an able