"I fear, then," replied the stranger, "if you have nothing else to dispose of, you must even take to the arquebuse, buy no horse, and serve in the infantry. You will most likely find many a leader who will be glad to give you arms for your services; though I cannot think that a man of your figure was made for a _pedescal_. I should think that your father would rather see you part with the dagger than so lower yourself." "My father is dead," I replied; "but, were he living, I think that what you say is true, and therefore I will part with it; but I would fain place it in such hands that I may redeem it again, in case of ever being able to do so." "There are Jews in the world," the stranger exclaimed, with a laugh; "there are Jews in the world. Thank Heaven for all things--there are Jews in the world. They will take it for six months, and lend you as much money thereon as will serve your purpose. Before that period is over, it is to be hoped that you will have clipped some of these gilded troops of the enemy of quite a sufficient portion of their golden fleece to recover your weapon. After dinner we will go and see what is the value of the knife. It is a pretty toy, and doubtless of good steel; for these Turks declare, and I believe it true, that the waters of Damascus temper iron far better than those either of Toledo or Milan." It was joyful news for me to hear that I might thus obtain that which I most wanted, without absolutely parting with a thing which I prized, not from its intrinsic value, but from the memories associated with it, and because I had some recollection of being told, in my earliest youth, never to give it away. I thanked my new companion, therefore, warmly and sincerely for the advice he had given. "We may have more to say to each other hereafter," he answered, smiling. "I am not, perhaps, any more than yourself, quite what I seem; and the truth is, I am here recruiting men for a company of men-at-arms. I must not venture, indeed, to place any one therein who is not a tried and well-known man; otherwise, to say the truth, from your height, and look, and manner, I should not have scrupled to engage with you at once. We may meet again, however, as I have said, and then the first vacancy you may join us, if you have proved your manhood well upon the enemy. I am glad to find you come of a fighting race, however: that is a great thing in a man's favour; for courage runs in the blood as well as cowardice." "If it be an inheritance," I replied, "I have every right to it; and at present it is my only one." "I cannot say that originally I was much better provided myself," replied the stranger. "Good blood, strong limbs, and a heart without fear, however, have increased my inheritance; and I look upon the beginning of this war as just a call to the sheep-shearing. I take it as a matter of course, when I talk of your entering our band, that your blood is noble, one way or another." "It is as good as your own," I replied.