!"

"Yes, yes," Tussmann said; "of course you mean those terrible
witchcraft trials which took place in those old days. Ah! they were
atrocious businesses; fortunately the enlightenment of the present age
has altered all those things."

The goldsmith cast strange looks at the old Jew and at Tussmann; and
presently asked the latter, with a mysterious smile, if he had ever
heard about the Jew-coiner, Lippold, and what had happened to him in
the year 1512.

Ere Tussmann could answer, the goldsmith went on to say: "This
Jew-coiner, Lippold, was accused of an important imposture, and a
serious roguery. He had at one time been much in the confidence of the
Elector, and was at the head of all the affairs of the mints and the
coinage in the country; always ready to produce large sums of money, no
matter how large, when required. Whether because he was clever at
shifts, or that he had powers at his command which enabled him to clear
himself from all blame in the Elector's eyes, or that he was able to
'shoot with a silver bullet' (to use an expression of those times)
those who had influence over the Elector's proceedings, he was on the
very point of getting off scot free from the accusations brought
against him. But he was still kept under guard, by the town-watch, in
his little house in Stralau Street. And it so chanced that he had a
quarrel with his wife, in the course of which she said to him, in the
hearing of the guard, 'If our gracious lord the Elector only knew what
a villain you are, and what atrocities you manage to commit by the help
of that magic book of yours, you'd be in your coffin long ago.' This
was reported to the Elector, who had careful search made in Lippold's
house. The magic book was found, and, when it was examined by those who
understood it, Lippold's guilt was clearly established. He had
practised magical arts to give him power over the Elector, and to
enable him to rule the whole country; and it was only the piety and
Godfearingness of the Elector which had enabled him to withstand those
spells. Lippold was burned in the market-place. But when the fire was
taking effect on his body and upon the magic book, a great mouse came
out from under the scaffold, and leaped into the fire. Many supposed
that this was Lippold's familiar demon."

Whilst the goldsmith had been relating this, the old Jew had sate
leaning his arms on the table, with his hands before his eyes, groaning
and sighing like one suffering