A lute, rarely touched, preluded a sweet, plaintive air, sung by a balmy voice in the saloon. The Cardinal listened with pleasure and a little provocation; for the Duchess had twice refused to sing to him, and it was very bad of her to do so at the request of some one else. The little snatch of song ended abruptly in the minor. "Could not you enter into that?" said Ippolito, noticing a strange mixture of sadness and sarcasm on the physician's face. He replied with a distich-- "What saith the art of music among the Christians?-- 'I was assuredly stolen from the land of the Hebrews!'" "Do you mean that that is a Hebrew melody?" "O, yes!" "Jew! _why_ will you not convert, and be healed?" "It cannot be. I have seen whole families of slain Jews with gaping gashes in their bodies, heaped at their own thresholds--and those gashes were made by the swords of Christians!" "But that was in Spain." "Bear with me, Cardinal, while I repeat a parable to you. Pedro the Great of Arragon inquired of a learned Jew which was the best religion. He replied: 'Ours is best for us, and yours for you,' The king was not satisfied with this answer, and the Jew, after three days, returned to him seemingly in great perturbation, and said: 'A neighbour of mine journeyed to a far country lately, and gave each of his two sons a rich jewel to console them for his absence. The young men came to me to inquire which jewel was the most valuable. I assured them I was unable to decide, and said their father must be the best judge, on which they overwhelmed me with reproaches.' 'That was ill done of them,' said the king. 'O, king!' rejoined the Jew, 'beware how thou condemnest thyself. A jewel has been given unto the Hebrew and likewise to the Christian, and thou hast demanded that I should decide which is the most precious. I refer thee to our great Father, the Giver of all good gifts, who alone can exactly determine their comparative and absolute values.'" This apologue pleased the Cardinal, though, in fact, it was very superficial. He inquired whether Bar Hhasdai could help him to any rare manuscripts. "The few which I possess," said the physician, after a pause, "are not such as would be of any value in your eyes: being either on our own law, or on the science of medicine--" "Nay, but," said the Cardinal, "the latter are such as I should greatly prize." "They are altogether obsolete and unworthy of your notice," said Bar Hhasdai, "but I have a little treatise on Chess, which really is a curiosity in its way; and also a treatise on Aristotle's Ethics, by Rabbi Joseph ben Caspi, of Barcelona, which is at your service." "Let me have them both," said the Cardinal, "and in return I beg you to accept this ruby of small value." "This is a rare gem!" said the physician, with delight, "and cut with Hebrew characters. May I really have it?" "Certainly. And pray tell me before you go, do you think the Moorish girl will recover?" "I have some hope of it."