solute),--"O king! if thou
believest me actuated by personal and selfish interests in this our
compact, thou has but to make, my service minister to my interest, and
the lore of human nature will tell thee that thou hast won a ready and
submissive slave. But if thou thinkest I have avowed sentiments less
abject, and developed qualities higher than those of the mere bargainer
for sordid power, oughtest thou not to rejoice that chance has thrown
into thy way one whose intellect and faculties may be made thy tool? If
I betray another, that other is my deadly foe. Dost not thou, the lord
of armies, betray thine enemy? The Moor is an enemy bitterer to myself
than to thee. Because I betray an enemy, am I unworthy to serve a
friend? If I, a single man, and a stranger to the Moor, can yet command
the secrets of palaces, and render vain the counsels of armed men, have
I not in that attested that I am one of whom a wise king can make an
able servant?"

"Thou art a subtle reasoner, my friend," said Ferdinand, smiling gently.
"Peace go with thee! our conference for the time is ended. What ho,
Perez!" The attendant appeared.

"Thou hast left the maiden with the queen?"

"Sire, you have been obeyed."

"Conduct this stranger to the guard who led him through the camp. He
quits us under the same protection. Farewell! yet stay--thou art assured
that Muza Ben Abil Gazan is in the prisons of the Moor?"

"Yes."

"Blessed be the Virgin!"

"Thou hast heard our conference, Father Tomas?" said the king,
anxiously, when the Hebrew had withdrawn.

"I have, son."

"Did thy veins freeze with horror?"

"Only when my son signed the scroll. It seemed to me then that I saw the
cloven foot of the tempter."

"Tush, father, the tempter would have been more wise than to reckon upon
a faith which no ink and no parchment can render valid, if the Church
absolve the compact. Thou understandest me, father?"

"I do. I know your pious heart and well-judging mind."

"Thou wert right," resumed the king, musingly, "when thou didst tell
us that these caitiff Jews were waxing strong in the fatness of their
substance. They would have equal laws--the insolent blasphemers!"

"Son!" said the Dominican, with earnest adjuration, "God, who has
prospered your arms and councils, will require at your hands an account
of the power intrusted to you. Shall there be no difference between His
friends and His foes--His disciples and His crucifiers?"

"Priest," sai