“Never fear, jewel!--Jew as you have this day the misfortune to be, you’re the best Christian any way ever I happened on! so never fear, honey, for yourself nor your daughter, God bless her! Not a soul shall go near yees, nor a finger be laid on her, good or bad. Sure I know them all--not a mother’s son o’ the _boys_ but I can call my frind--not a captain or lader that’s in it, but I can lade, dear, to the devil and back again, if I’d but whistle: so only you keep quite, and don’t be advertising yourself any way for a Jew, nor be showing your cloven _fut_, with or without the wooden shoes. _Keep ourselves to ourselves_, for I’ll tell you a bit of a sacret--I’m a little bit of a cat’olic myself, all as one as what _they_ call a _papish_; but I keep it to myself, and nobody’s the wiser nor the worse--they’d tear me to pieces, may be, did they suspect _the like_, but I keep never minding, and you, jewel, do the like. They call you a Levite, don’t they? then I, the Widow Levy, has a good right to advise ye; we were all brothers and sisters once--no offence--in the time of Adam, sure, and we should help one another in all times. ‘Tis my turn to help _yees_ now, and, by the blessing, so I will--accordingly I’ll be sitting all day and night, mounting guard on your steps there without. And little as you may think of me, the devil a guardian angel better than myself, only just the Widow Levy, such as ye see!” The Widow Levy took her stand, and kept her word. I stayed at Mr. Montenero’s all day, saw every thing that passed, and had frequent opportunities of admiring her address. She began by making the footman take down “the outlandish name from off the door; for no name at all, sure, was better _nor_ a foreign name these times.” She charged the footman to “say _sorrow_ word themselves to the mob for their lives, in case they would come; but to lave it all entirely to her, that knew how to spake to _them_. For see!” said she, aside to me--“For see! them powdered numskulls would spoil all--they’d be taking it too high or too low, and never hit the right _kay_, nor mind when to laugh or cry in the right place; moreover, when they’d get _frighted_ with a cross-examination, they’d be apt to be _cutting_ themselves. Now, the ould one himself, if he had me _on the table_ even, I’d defy to get the truth out of me, if not convanient, and I in the sarvice of a frind.”