s Jews were preparing
themselves by purification and prayer for the great day, a courier,
dark as a Moor with the sunburn of unresting travel, arrived in the
town with a letter from the Holy City. It was long before he could
obtain audience with Sabbatai, who, with his inmost disciples, was
celebrating a final fast, and meantime the populace was in a ferment
of curiosity, the messenger recounting how he had tramped for weeks
and weeks through the terrible heat to see the face of the Messiah and
kiss his feet and deliver the letter from the holy men of Jerusalem,
who were too poor to pay for his speedier journeying. But when at last
Sabbatai read the letter, his face lit up, though he gave no sign of
the contents. His disciples pressed for its publication, and, after
much excitement, Sabbatai consented that it should be read from the
_Al Memor_ of the synagogue. When they learned that it bore the homage
of repentant Jerusalem, their joy was tumultuous to the point of
tears. Sabbatai threw twenty silver crowns on a salver for the
messenger, and invited others to do the same, so that the happy envoy
could scarce stagger away with his reward.

Nevertheless Sabbatai still delayed to declare himself.

But at last the long silence drew to an end. The great year of 1666
was nigh, before many moons the New Year of the Christians would
dawn. Under the direction of Melisselda men were making sleeved robes
of white satin for the Messiah. And one day, thus arrayed in gleaming
white, at the head of a great procession walking two by two, Sabbatai
Zevi marched to the House of God.

XV

In the gloom of the great synagogue, while the worshippers swayed
ghostly, and the ram's horn sounded shrill and jubilant, Sabbatai,
standing before the Ark, where the Scrolls of the Law stood solemn,
proclaimed himself, amid a tense awe as of heavens opening in
ineffable vistas, the Righteous Redeemer, the Anointed of Israel.

A frenzied shout of joy, broken by sobs, answered him from the vast
assembly.

"Long live our King! Our Messiah!" Many fell prostrate on the ground,
their faces to the floor, kissing it, weeping, screaming, shouting in
ecstatic thankfulness; others rocked to and fro, blinded by their
tears, hoarse with exultation.

"_Messhiach! Messhiach!_"

"The Kingdom has come!"

"Blessed be the Messiah!"

In the women's gallery there were shrieks and moans: some swooned,
others fell a-prophesying, contorting themselves spasmodi