not know the customs of that accursed folk. They
have a damnable practice of treating every member of their nation as a
brother, and helping each freely and faithfully without reward; whereby
they are enabled to plunder all the rest of the world, and thrive
themselves, from the least to the greatest. Don't fancy that your bonds
are in Miriam's hands. They have been transferred months ago. Your
real creditors may be in Carthage, or Rome, or Byzantium, and they will
attack you from thence; while all that you would find if you seized the
old witch's property, would be papers, useless to you, belonging to
Jews all over the empire, who would rise as one man in defence of their
money. I assure you, it is a net without a bound. If you touch one you
touch all.... And besides, my diligence, expecting some such command,
has already taken the liberty of making inquiries as to Miriam's place
of abode; but it appears, I am sorry to say, utterly unknown to any of
your Excellency's servants.'

'You lie!' said Orestes.... 'I would much sooner believe that you have
been warning the hag to keep out of the way.'

Orestes had spoken, for that once in his life, the exact truth.

The secretary, who had his own private dealings with Miriam, felt every
particular atom of his skin shudder at those words; and had he had hair
on his head, it would certainly have betrayed him by standing visibly on
end. But as he was, luckily for him, close shaven, his turban remained
in its proper place, as he meekly replied-- 'Alas! a faithful servant can
feel no keener woe than the causeless suspicion of that sun before whose
rays he daily prostrates his--'

'Confound your periphrases! Do you know where she is?'

'No!' cried the wretched secretary, driven to the lie direct at last;
and confirmed the negation with such a string of oaths, that Orestes
stopped his volubility with a kick, borrowed of him, under threat of
torture, a thousand gold pieces as largess to the soldiery, and ended
by concentrating the stationaries round his own palace, for the double
purpose of protecting himself in case of a riot, and of increasing the
chances of the said riot, by leaving the distant quarters of the city
without police.

'If Cyril would but make a fool of himself, now that he is in the
full-blown pride of victory--the rascal!--about that Ammonius, or about
Hypatia, or anything else, and give me a real handle against him! After
all, truth works better than lying now