is own will in Tetuan; he was required to work the will of the woman. Katrina's will was an evil one, and Israel got the blame of it, for still he seemed to sta

her wages was to be hated as the bane of the bashalic, to be clamoured agains

le condition. But nothing seemed to move Israel to pity. Men were cast into prison for no reason save that they were rich, and the relations of such as were there already were allowed to redeem

tened him. It had brought him to look on other children with tenderness, and looking tenderly on other children had led him to think of other fathers with

at was impossible also. Katrina had come, and she was a vain woman and a lover of all luxury, and she commanded Israel to tax the people afresh. He obeyed her through three bad years; but many a time his heart reproached him that he dealt corruptly by the poor people, and when he saw them borr

th sweetness, and out of this coming of the Spanish wife of Ben Aboo

rs in his waistband, he unstrapped his belt and laid it on the edge of the fountain while he washed his feet before entering, for his back was no longer supple. Then a younger Moor

on a visit to him. "Ask him how much more he ha

wered that he

lars for the chance of all he

than a pannier of flie

ere cast into prison on a penalty of two hundred and fifty do

her in the court outside while the evil work was done. No one heard the Kaid of Fez when he whispered to Ben Aboo, but every

lowed his father to Fez, and visited him in prison. The old man had been ordered a hundred lashes, and the flesh was hanging from his limbs. Absalam was great of heart, and, in pity of his father's miserable condition he went to the Governor an

s man's ransom, in God's name, and his children and his children's children will live to bless you." But when he g

s calamities, sold their goods at a sacrifice, collected the three hundred dollars of his fine, bought him out of prison, and went in a body through the gate to mee

ding outside the walls, "what is the use

e!" answered s

ng, this man Israel take

m! Curse his relation

ck into Tetuan?

"Fez is worse," said another. "W

nto the plains and into the mounta

like the flint

t have nothing are best off of all," said Absa

he fields," said Absalam, "and feed

e sold up and closed, and the men who had kept them were gone away with their wiv

with anger, for the doctrine which Absalam had preached to his neighbours outside the walls was not his own doctrine merely, b

is spreading,"

ollow where these men lead, who will s

o with them?"

up," sai

salam and his little fellowship, taking Israel along with him to reckon their taxes, that he might compel them to return to Te

rugged precipice in front. This place they selected for its safety, intending to push forward, as occasion offered, to the sanctuaries of Shawan, trusting rather to the humanity of the wild people, called the Shawanis, than to the mercy of their late cruel masters. But the valley wherein they had hidden is thick with trees, and Ben Aboo tracked them and cam

But without a shout or a cry they knelt, as with one accord, at the mouth of the precipice, with their backs to it, men and women and children, knee to knee in a line, and

ext instant, when suddenly they began to sing where they knelt at the edge of the

fallen on them, and Israel was crying out of his dry throat, "Fear noth

pity, he drew from the folds of his selham a long knife such as the Reefians wear, and taking his father by his white hair he slew him and cast his body

in a moving voice; "

with eyes of compassion, as seeming to pity them that they must fall again into the hands of Israel and

id, "It is the end, O Lord God, it is the end-polluted w

to the soldiers, who committed them to the pris

. In passing through the streets the next day on his way to his house the people hissed him openly. "Allah h

rom the cupboard of the wall and laid it upon his knees, that he read the passage whereon the page opened of itself, scarce knowing what he

e children of Israel, and because of their transgressions in all their sins. . . . And when he hath, made an end of reconciling the holy place, and the tabernacle of the congregation, and the altar, he shall bring the live goat: and Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and

elf, "and this is a Mukabar-an Arab graveyard-the most desolate place in the world of God." But, looking again, he saw that the roofless walls covered the ground as far as the eye could see, and the thought came to him that this ashen desert was the earth itself, and that all the world of life and man was dead. Then, suddenly, in the motionless wilderness, a solitary creature moved. It was a goat,

nse of it that he could not rest in his bed until he had first seen Naomi with his waking eyes, that he might laugh in his heart to think how t

w on either side of her beautiful face, and rippling in little curls about her ne

nd who should think that it was not the face of a homely-hearted girl? Israel loved these moments when he was alone with Naomi while she slept, for then only did she seem to be entirely his own, and he was not so lonely while he was sitting there. Though men thought he was strong, yet he was very weak. He had no one in the world to talk to save Naomi, an

t of undeceivi

bed, through the corridor of the patio, he heard a night-cry behin

like the first; but what his dream would be to us is nought, and what it was to him is everything. T

a dull red light as of dying flame crossed the foot of the bed, and a v

id, and answered, "Speak,

whereon the high priest cast lots, one lot for

ered trembling,

for thy transgressions, for thee and for thy household, and therefore she is dumb to all uses of speech, and blind to all serv

len upon me, O Lord, that Thou mightest be justified when thou speakes

, hath the lot fallen, even the lot of the s

ple, so cost thou carry the iniquities of thy master, Ben Aboo, and of his wife, Katrina; and even as the goat bears the sins of the peop

Lord, but sweated as it were drops of bl

hee to the country by Mequinez and to the man there whereof tho

ng, "Shall my soul live? Shall the lot be lifte

light died out from across the

nd having plain sight of all common things about him-his room and his bed; and the canopy that covered it. And on rising in the morning, at daydawn, so actual was the sense of what he ha

his constant right hand and helpmate, Israel first sent to the Governor, saying he should be ten days

morning? They answered him that she had not yet left her room, and he sent the black woman Fatimah to fetch her. And when she came and he had kissed her, bidding her farewe

well?" h

t her again, he saw that her face, which had used to be cheerful, was now sad. At that he almost repented of his purpose, and but for shame in his own eyes he might have gone

with many words of tender protest which she did not hear,

dier and guide and muleteers and tentmen were already mo

d befall Naomi while I am away, will you watch

utly. He was Naomi's playfellow

set off on