FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  
I suffered wrongly, 'tis Christian to suffer, and Christian to forgive." "Then forgive me," said Gabriel, mazed by this persistent masquerading, "for 'twas I who innocently made thee suffer. Rather would I have torn out my tongue than injured a fellow Jew." "I am no Jew," cried the physician fiercely. "But why deny it to me when I tell thee I am one?" "'In vain is the net spread in the sight of any bird,'" quoted Dom Diego angrily. "Thou art as good a Christian as I,--and a worse fowler. A Jew, indeed, who knows not of the herbs! Nay, the bird-lime is smeared too thick, and there is no cord between the holes of the net." "True, I am neither Jew nor Christian," said the young man sadly. "I was bred a Christian, but my soul is torn with questionings. See, I trust my life in thy hand." But Dom Diego remained long obdurate, even when Gabriel made the candid admission that he was the masked man who had cried "Hypocrite!" in the torture-vault; 'twas not till, limping from the bed, he had satisfied himself that the young man had posted no auditors without, that he said at last: "Well, 'tis my word against thine. Mayhap I am but feigning so as to draw thee out." Then, winking, he took down the effigy of the Christ and thrust it into a drawer, and filling two wine-glasses from a decanter that stood at the bedside, he cried jovially, "Come! Confusion to the Holy Office!" A great weight seemed lifted off the young man's breast. He smiled as he quaffed the rich wine. "Meseems thou hast already wrought confusion to the Holy Office." "Ha! ha!" laughed the physician, expanding in the glow of the wine. "Yea, the fox hath escaped from the trap, but not with a whole skin." "No, alas! How feel thy wounds?" "I meant not my corporeal skin," said the physician, though he rubbed it with rueful recollection. "I meant the skin whereof my purse was made. To prove my loyalty to Holy Church I offered her half my estate, and the proof was accepted. 'Twas the surgeon of the Inquisition who gave me the hint. He is one of us!" "What! a Jew!" cried Gabriel, thunderstruck. "Hush! hush! or we shall have him replaced by an enemy. 'Twas his fellow-feeling to me, both as a brother and a medicus, that made him declare me on the point of death when I was still as lusty as a false credo. For the rest, I had sufficient science to hold in my breath while the clown tied me with cords, else had I been too straitened to breathe. But t
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   59   60   61   62   63   64   65   66   67   68   69   70   71   72   73   74   75   76   77   78   79   80   81   82   83  
84   85   86   87   88   89   90   91   92   93   94   95   96   97   98   99   100   101   102   103   104   105   106   107   108   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Christian

 

physician

 

Gabriel

 
Office
 
forgive
 

fellow

 
suffer
 

whereof

 

rubbed

 

rueful


recollection
 

corporeal

 

wounds

 

confusion

 

Meseems

 
quaffed
 

smiled

 

lifted

 

breast

 
wrought

loyalty

 
escaped
 

laughed

 

expanding

 

medicus

 

declare

 

sufficient

 
science
 

straitened

 

breathe


breath

 

brother

 

Inquisition

 

surgeon

 

accepted

 

offered

 

estate

 

thunderstruck

 

feeling

 

replaced


weight

 

Church

 

smeared

 

fowler

 

questionings

 

angrily

 
quoted
 

innocently

 

Rather

 

masquerading