"It is false, most scandalously false," replied Bar Hhasdai, "and only invented by the Christians to colour their own outrages upon us. You might as well ask, if there were any truth in the old story of there being a magical brazen head in the castle of Tavora, which, on the approach of any one of our race, would exclaim, 'A Jew is in Tavora!' and, on his departure, 'The Jew is now out of Tavora!' O lady! revolting are the accusations that have been raised against us!--of our crucifying children, drinking their blood, and burning their hearts to ashes. Sometimes our people have been tortured till their agonies have wrung from them false confessions, which afterwards have been disproved; as in the case of the brothers Onkoa, who, in the reign of one of the Alonsos, were accused of stealing two of the king's golden vessels, and by torture were induced to confess it, in consequence of which they were hanged. Yet, three days after, the vessels were found in the possession of one of the king's own servants." "I have always held torture," said Giulia, "to be a very uncertain as well as cruel test." "Alonso quoted what I have related, as a case in point," said Bar Hhasdai, "when certain Jews were accused of secreting the dead body of a Christian, which, after all, turned out to have been cast into the house of one of them by his Christian debtor, who owed him a sum of money he had no mind to repay. Thus have obloquy and contumely been heaped upon us, without our having the power to avenge ourselves; for the Lord hath forgotten His footstool in the day of His wrath." "Who or what do you call His footstool?" "In a general sense, the whole earth; but in a more particular one, Jerusalem." "Since you admit that God has forgotten you, you must submit to your judicial punishment." "Lady, it is hard! Easy to say, but hard to do. The only consolation is in knowing that a good time is coming, when we shall--when the Gentiles themselves shall speed us to our city, even carrying us on their shoulders." "Do you really believe that?" "_Literally!_" said Bar Hhasdai. "But I do not expect to live to see it." "You are yet young----" "Ah, no! I am very old, and worn out with a life of trouble." "Tell me the story of your life," said the Duchess, with interest. "Tell me how you came to leave Spain."