Ezra drew from his wallet a variety of articles, and giving Anna a handkerchief of soft white stuff, bordered with gold, he bade her bind it on her head and confine her hair under it. “No daughter of our race had ever hair so light in colour,” he said, “and it is better that thou shouldst take the semblance of my daughter--my Rachel--my flower of beauty. Eheu! Eheu! She had borne up so long, but, weak and ailing, she tripped and fell on Watling Street, striking her head upon the stones of the highway, and scarcely spoke a word after. I bore her in my arms to a house in Verulam; but they were rough and cruel barbarians, and turned us out. “Then I thought to reach Radburn, where I knew the people were more friendly; and hearing a small body of Roman soldiers were guarding some prisoners there, I essayed to ascend the steps to the guard-house, and here my child struggled hard for breath. I sat me down with her, and then all was still--her spirit had departed, and Ichabod is my name!” Anna had heard of the Jewish race, and knew that her Lord had been born of them. She knew, also, that the Jews had crucified Him, and that the Cross had been set on a hill in their city. Once she remembered to have seen a man richly clothed in long garments, and heard that he had come with merchandise and pearls to the Roman nobles. He was one of the scattered people, who, like the Greeks, were sometimes conveyed to Britain in the train of the Romans. But Anna knew little about the Jews. Agatha had, indeed, while rehearsing in her ears many of the instructions which had fallen from the lips of Amphibalus and Heraclius, told her of the Jews’ city, Jerusalem, and how the Romans held the province as they held Britain; and that the Jews, as a punishment for their sins, were sent forth to wander restlessly over the face of the earth. But all this time a Jew was seldom seen in Britain except as an appendage of some great person, so that Anna had never seen other Jews besides the man in the rich garment, of whom she heard afterwards that he had been robbed of his treasures and slain on the highway, no one interfering to save or protect him. Her heart was filled with strange doubts as she heard the Jew, who denounced her Saviour with fury, pray to his Lord Jehovah, and chant in a low monotone from a roll of parchment which he kept hidden in the breast of his robe, and fastened by a band round his neck. The low, monotonous chant was one of the Psalms of David--the Penitential Psalm-- “Out of the deep have I called.” But the Hebrew rhythm, though pleasant to the ear, was an unknown tongue to the British maiden, and while Ezra chanted and wept, Anna, soothed, she scarcely knew why, rested on a skin which was spread upon the floor of the hut, and slept till Ezra awoke her and said they must push on towards the sea.