‘If I had no confidence in any Church,’ said Tancred, with agitation, ‘I would fall down before God and beseech him to enlighten me; and, in this land,’ he added, in a tone of excitement, ‘I cannot believe that the appeal to the Mercy-seat would be made in vain.’ ‘But human wit ought to be exhausted before we presume to invoke divine interposition,’ said the lady. ‘I observe that Jesus was as fond of asking questions as of performing miracles; an inquiring spirit will solve mysteries. Let me ask you: you think that the present state of my race is penal and miraculous?’ Tancred gently bowed assent. ‘Why do you?’ asked the lady. ‘It is the punishment ordained for their rejection and crucifixion of the Messiah.’ ‘Where is it ordained?’ ‘Upon our heads and upon our children be his blood.’ ‘The criminals said that, not the judge. Is it a principle of your jurisprudence to permit the guilty to assign their own punishment? They might deserve a severer one. Why should they transfer any of the infliction to their posterity? What evidence have you that Omnipotence accepted the offer? It is not so announced in your histories. Your evidence is the reverse. He, whom you acknowledge as omnipotent, prayed to Jehovah to forgive them on account of their ignorance. But, admit that the offer was accepted, which in my opinion is blasphemy, is the cry of a rabble at a public execution to bind a nation? There was a great party in the country not disinclined to Jesus at the time, especially in the provinces where he had laboured for three years, and on the whole with success; are they and their children to suffer? But you will say they became Christians. Admit it. We were originally a nation of twelve tribes; ten, long before the advent of Jesus, had been carried into captivity and scattered over the East and the Mediterranean world; they are probably the source of the greater portion of the existing Hebrews; for we know that, even in the time of Jesus, Hebrews came up to Jerusalem at the Passover from every province of the Roman Empire. What had they to do with the crucifixion or the rejection?’ ‘The fate of the Ten Tribes is a deeply interesting question,’ said Tancred; ‘but involved in, I fear, inexplicable-obscurity. In England there are many who hold them to be represented by the Afghans, who state that their ancestors followed the laws of Moses. But perhaps they ceased to exist and were blended with their conquerors.’