"Pardon us," said the priest, gently. "We go; yet, warden, ere we depart, may I ask you to deal leniently with that poor wretch?" and he pointed to the Jew, who was now crouched shivering in his chains. "We but do as we are ordered," returned the warden unfeelingly. "The officers will be here presently with the scourge; we can not prevent that." The peddler winced, and Nathan raised a face full of pity. "Warden," he said, "if you have a drop of mercy in your heart, if you hope for mercy for yourself, treat him as a man. Let him not die for want of a pittance of water." He turned the sleeve of his loose garment back to expose the emaciated arm with the bones showing through the loose skin. "There," he said, "let that touch your heart, if heart you have, and spare him. Poor Abraham!"--turning to the peddler--"did I not see you here, the joy of my release would be unspeakable." But Abraham only turned to bestow a look of hate and malice upon the priest. Then Yusuf and Nathan passed out into the pure, fresh air, now growing cool with the approach of evening. Never did air seem so pure and sweet; never did swallows twitter so gladly; never did the peak of Abu Kubays shine so gloriously in the sun; never did the voices of people sound so joyous or their faces beam so brightly. "Come," said Nathan, "to my wife and children, that we may all return thanks together. Verily 'Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all.' 'Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.' 'I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.' 'My flesh faileth, but God is the strength of my heart, and my portion forever.'" So, uttering exclamations from the pages of Scripture, did the devout Jew pass onward to his home, which was once more filled with "joy and gladness, thanksgiving and the voice of melody." Before leaving, Yusuf presented him with the ring containing the little stone, as a memento of his deliverance. And Abraham? He received the full weight of the scourge; and may we be pardoned in anticipating, and say that for two days he lay nursing his wrath and his wounds; but, on the third day after his imprisonment, his agility suddenly returned. He managed in some inexplicable way known only to himself to work free of his fetters, and when the keeper came with food in the evening, blinded by the dim light of the cell, he did not perceive the little peddler crouched in a heap in the middle of the floor. Scarcely was the door opened when the Jew bounced like a ball past the keeper's feet, almost upsetting him; then, darting like an arrow between the astonished guards without, he was off. A hue and cry was raised, but the little peddler had disappeared as completely as if the earth had opened up and swallowed him. CHAPTER IX. AMZI AT MEDINA.