ies.[31] Look at
my bleeding mouth."

[31] This was a common way of extracting help from the Jews.
King John Lackland often tried it.

"I know, I know; but I come to obtain from you the very means of
destroying your Bishop. When the Pope gets a cuffing, the Bishop will
not hold out long."

"Who says so?"

"_Toledo._"[32]

[32] Toledo seems to have been the holy city of Wizards, who
in Spain were numberless. These relations with the civilized
Moors, with the Jews so learned and paramount in Spain, as
managers of the royal revenues, had given them a very high
degree of culture, and in Toledo they formed a kind of
University. In the sixteenth century, it was christianised,
remodelled, reduced to mere _white magic_. See the
_Deposition of the Wizard Achard, Lord of Beaumont, a
Physician of Poitou_. Lancre, _Incredulite_, p. 781.

He hung his head. She spoke and blew: within her was her own soul and
the Devil to boot. A wondrous warmth filled the room: he himself was
aware of a kind of fiery fountain. "Madam," said he, looking at her
from under his eyes, "poor and ruined as I am, I had some pence still
in store to sustain my poor children."

"You will not repent of it, Jew. I will swear to you the _great oath_
that kills whoso breaks it. What you are about to give me, you shall
receive back in a week, at an early hour in the morning. This I swear
by your _great oath_ and by mine, which is yet greater: '_Toledo_.'"

* * * * *

A year went by. She had grown round and plump; had made herself one
mass of gold. Men were amazed at her power of charming. Every one
admired and obeyed her. By some devilish miracle the Jew had grown so
generous as to lend at the slightest signal. By herself she maintained
the castle, both through her own credit in the town, and through the
fear inspired in the village by her rough extortion. The all-powerful
green gown floated to and fro, ever newer and more beautiful. Her own
beauty grew, as it were, colossal with success and pride. Frightened
at a result so natural, everyone said, "At her time of life how tall
she grows!"

Meanwhile we have some news: the lord is coming home. The lady, who
for a long time had not dared to come forth, lest she might meet the
face of this other woman down below, now mounted her white horse.
Surrounded by all her people, she goes to meet her husband; she stops
and salutes him.