the people from you
and the covenant?"

Todros looked at him sternly:

"You do not know the spirit of the people if you can speak and think
like that. Have not I and my fathers before me tried to mould and
educate the people and make them faithful to their religion? Let him
read the papers--let the abomination come forth from its
hiding-place, where it has lain till now; it will be easier to fight
against it and crush it down, once and for ever. Let him read it:
the measure of his transgressions will then be full, and my
avenging hand will come down upon him!"

A long silence followed upon these words. The master was absorbed in
thought, and the humble follower looked at him in silent adoration.

"Moshe!"

"What is your will, Nassi?"

"That writing must be taken from him and delivered into my hands."

"Nassi! how is it to be taken from him?"

"That writing must be taken and delivered into my hands!" repeated
the Rabbi decisively.

"Nassi! who is to take it from him?" Todros fixed his glaring eyes
upon his follower. "That writing must be taken from him and delivered
into my hands," he repeated for the third time.

Moshe bent his head.

"Rabbi!" he whispered, "I understand. Rest in peace. When he reads
the abomination before the people such a storm will break over his
head that it will lay him in the dust."

Again there was silence. The Rabbi interrupted it:

"Moshe!"

"Yes, Nassi!"

"When is he going to read that blasphemous writing?"

"He is going to read it in the Bet-ha-Midrash after sunset."

"Moshe! go at once to the shamos (messenger) and tell him to convoke
the elders and the judges in the Bet-ha-Kahol for a solemn judgment."

Moshe rose obediently, and went towards the door. The Rabbi, raising
both arms, exclaimed "Woe to the headstrong and disobedient! Woe to
him who touches the leper and spreads contagion!"

Saying this, his whole face became suffused with a wave of dark,
relentless hatred. And yet, a quarter of an hour ago the same face
was full of brotherly love; the same mouth spoke gentle and
comforting words, and the eyes were full of tears.

Thus gentleness and wrath, love and relentless hatred dwelt side by
side in the same heart; virtues and dark crimes flow from the same
source. Charity goes hand in hand with persecution and neighbour
often stands for enemy. Man, who tended to human suffering and healed
the sick, with the same hand lit the stakes and prepared the
instrument