lamation. He actually sold or mortgaged to his brother Richard all
the Jews in the realm for five thousand marks, giving him full power
over their property and persons; our records still preserve the terms
of this extraordinary bargain and sale.

Popular opinion, which in the worst times is some restraint upon the
arbitrary oppressions of kings, in this case would rather applaud the
utmost barbarity of the monarch than commiserate the wretchedness of
the victims; for a new tale of the crucifixion of a Christian child,
called Hugh of Lincoln, was now spreading horror throughout the
country. The fact was confirmed by a solemn trial and the conviction
and execution of the criminals. It was proved, according to the mode
of proof in those days, that the child had been stolen, fattened on
bread and milk for ten days, and crucified with all the cruelties and
insults of Christ's Passion, in the presence of all the Jews in
England, summoned to Lincoln for this especial purpose; a Jew of
Lincoln sat in judgment as Pilate. But the earth could not endure to
be an accomplice in the crime; it cast up the buried remains, and the
affrighted criminals were obliged to throw the body into a well, where
it was found by the mother. A great part of this story refutes itself,
but among the ignorant and fanatic Jews there might be some who,
exasperated by the constant repetition of this charge, might brood
over it so long as at length to be tempted to its perpetration.

I must not suppress the fearful vengeance wreaked on the supposed
perpetrators of this all-execrated crime. The Jew into whose house the
child, it was said, had gone to play, tempted by the promise of life
and security from mutilation, made full confession, and threw the
guilt upon his brethren. The King, indignant at this unauthorized
covenant of mercy, ordered him to execution. The Jew, in his despair
or frenzy, entered into a still more minute and terrible denunciation
of all the Jews of the realm, as consenting to the act. He was
dragged, tied to a horse's tail, to the gallows; his body and his soul
delivered to the demons of the air. Ninety-one Jews of Lincoln were
sent, to London as accomplices, and thrown into dungeons. If some
Christians felt pity for their sufferings, their rivals, the Caorsini,
beheld them with dry eyes.

The King's inquest declared all the Jews of the realm guilty of the
crime. The mother made her appeal to the King. Eighteen of the richest
and mo