on heaps of
carpeting and matting--bedsteads of wood and iron--crockery and
glass--were all piled indiscriminately. Similar articles had also
overflowed along the passage down the wooden steps leading to the square
stone court below, which was lumbered with barrels, packing-cases, and
pieces of old iron. This court was entered from the street, and an
arched door on one side of it, barred and padlocked, opened on a large
warehouse, which nobody except the Jew had set foot in for many months.

The Jew himself was a spare, rather small man, with a thin eager face,
small sharp features, and a scanty beard. Being by descent a Barbary
Jew, he wore the costume peculiar to that branch of his race--a black
skull-cap; a long-skirted, collarless, cloth coat, buttoned close, the
waist fastened with a belt; loose light-coloured trousers and yellow
slippers--altogether he looked somewhat like an overgrown Blue-coat Boy.
He was busied in turning over old parchment-covered ledgers, when an
officer entered.

Von Dessel was a captain in Hardenberg's Hanoverian regiment. He was a
square, strong-built man, about forty, with very light hair, as was
apparent since the governor's order had forbidden the use of powder to
the troops, in consequence of the scarcity of flour. His thick, white,
overhanging eyebrows, close lips, and projecting under jaw, gave
sternness to his countenance.

"Good afternoon, captain," said the Jew; "what I do for you to-day,
sare?"

"Do for me! By Gott, you have done for me already, with your cursed
Hebrew tricks," said the captain. The German and the Jew met on a
neutral ground of broken English.

"I always treat every gentleman fair, sare," said the Jew. "I tell you,
captain, I lose by that last bill of yours."

"_Der teufel!_ who gains, then?" said Von Dessel, "for you cut me off
thirty per cent."

The Jew shrugged his shoulders.

"I don't make it so, sare; the siege makes it so. When the port is open,
you shall have more better exchange."

"Well, money must be had," said the German. "What will you give now for
my bill for twenty pounds?"

The Jew consulted a book of figures--then made some calculations on
paper--then appeared to consider intently.

"Curse you, speak!" said the choleric captain. "You have made up your
mind about how much roguery long ago."

"Captain, sare, I give you feefty dollars," said the Jew.

The captain burst forth with a volley of German execrations.

"Captain," said the