us stones, your Excellency," replied the
Jew, with a more submissive air than he had yet exhibited.

"Come with me then," said I; "for I always carry some of my less
valuable trinkets about with me, as the least cumbrous mode of taking
money." Leaving the landlord in the sitting-room, I passed into my
chamber, and speedily re-entered with a handsome emerald ring upon my
finger, and a ruby brooch of great size in my breast.

The Jew's eyes were lit up with a lustre only inferior to that of the
gems as he saw them, and in a voice tremulous with eagerness he said,
"Will your Excellency dispose of these?"

"Yes," said I, carelessly; "there are others also, which I am determined
to turn into cash. What value would you put upon this ring?"

"Five hundred crowns, Senhor, if it be really as pure as it seems."

"If that be your valuation, friend," rejoined I, "I would be a
purchaser, not a seller, in this city. That gem cost me six thousand
piastres! To be sure, something of the price must be laid to the charge
of historical associations. It was the present of the Sultan Al Hadgid
ak Meerun-ak-Roon to the Empress Matilda."

"Six thousand piastres!" echoed the Jew, whose astonishment stopped
short at the sum, without any regard for the great names I had hurled at
him.

"I believe I may have paid a trifle too much," said I, smiling; "the
Prince of Syracuse thought it dear! But then here is a much more
valuable stone, which only cost as much;" and, so saying, I took from
my pocket an immense emerald, which had once formed the ornament of a
dagger.

"Ah, Dios! that is fine," said the Jew, as he held it between him and
the light; "and, were it not for the flaw, would be a rare prize!"

"Were it not for the flaw, friend," said I, "it would still be where
it stood for upwards of eight hundred years,--in the royal crown of
Hungary, in the 'Schatzkammer' of Presburg. The Emperor Joseph had it
mounted in his own poignard; from his hands it reached the Caltons of
Auersberg; and then, at the value of six thousand piastres, by a wager,
came into my own."

"And at what price would you now dispose of it?" asked he, timidly.

"A friend might have it for ten thousand," said I, calmly; "to the world
at large the price would be twelve."

"Ah, your Excellency, such sums rest not in our humble city! You must go
to Madrid or Grenada for wealth like that."

"So I suspect," said I, coolly. "I will content myself with depositing
them wit