"How, knave! wouldst thou have us commit our royal signature to conditions with such as thou art, to the chance of the public eye? The king's word is the king's bond!" The Hebrew took up the scroll with imperturbable composure, "My child!" said he; "will your majesty summon back my child? we would depart." "A sturdy mendicant this, by the Virgin!" muttered the king; and then, 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 servant?" "Thou art a subtle reasoner, my friend," said Ferdinand, smiling gently. "Peace go with thee! our conference for the time is ended. What ho, Perez!" The attendant appeared. "Thou hast left the maiden with the queen?" "Sire, you have been obeyed." "Conduct this stranger to the guard who led him through the camp. He quits us under the same protection. Farewell! yet stay--thou art assured that Muza Ben Abil Gazan is in the prisons of the Moor?" "Yes." "Blessed be the Virgin!" "Thou hast heard our conference, Father Tomas?" said the king, anxiously, when the Hebrew had withdrawn. "I have, son." "Did thy veins freeze with horror?" "Only when my son signed the scroll. It seemed to me then that I saw the cloven foot of the tempter." "Tush, father, the tempter would have been more wise than to reckon upon a faith which no ink and no parchment can render valid, if the Church absolve the compact. Thou understandest me, father?"