ers, excited
a prodigious sensation, thrilling civilized mankind. On the Exchanges
of Europe men took the odds for and against a Jewish kingdom.

Upon the Jews of the world the news that the Messiah had passed from a
far-off aspiration into a reality fell like a thunderbolt; they were
dazed with joy; then they began to prepare for the great journey.
Everywhere self-flagellation, almsgiving, prophetic ecstasies and
trances, the scholars and the mob at one in joyous belief. And
everywhere also profligacy, adultery, incest, through the spread of a
mystical doctrine that the sinfulness of the world could only be
overcome by the superabundance of sin.

XVI

Amsterdam and Hamburg--the two wealthiest communities--receiving
constant prophetic messages from Nathan of Gaza, became eager
participators in the coming Kingdom. In the Dutch capital, the houses
of prayer grew riotous with music and dancing, the dwelling-houses
gloomy with penitential rigors. The streets were full of men and women
prophesying spasmodically, the printing presses panted, turning out
new prayer-books with penances and formulae for the faithful. And in
these _Tikkunim_, starred with mystic emblems of the Messiah's
dominance, the portrait of Sabbatai appeared side by side with that of
King David. At Hamburg the Jews were borne heavenwards on a wave of
exultation; they snapped their fingers at the Christian tormentor,
refused any longer to come to the compulsory Christian services. Their
own services became pious orgies. Stately Spanish Jews, grave
blue-blooded Portuguese, hitherto smacking of the Castilian hidalgo,
noble seigniors like Manuel Texeira, the friend of a Queen of Sweden,
erudite physicians like Bendito de Castro, president of the
congregation, shed their occidental veneer and might have been seen in
the synagogue skipping like harts upon the mountains, dancing wild
dances with the Holy Scroll clasped to their bosoms.

"_Hi diddi hulda hi ti ti!_" they carolled in merry meaninglessness.

"Nay, but this is second childhood," quoth the venerable Jacob
Sasportas, chief Rabbi of the English Jews, as he sat in the
presidential pew, an honored visitor at Hamburg. "Surely thy flock is
demented."

De Castro's brow grew black.

"Have a care, or my sheep may turn dog. An they overhear thee, it were
safer for thee even to go back to thy London."

Sasportas shook his head with a humorous twinkle.

"Yea, if Sabbatai will accompany me. An he be M