ever." And he felt his muscle complacently.

"To gaol with the rogue!" cried the Kaimacon.

Sabbatai, his face and mien full of celestial conviction, was placed
in the loathsome dungeon which served as a prison for Jewish debtors.

XX

For a day or so the Moslems made merry over the disconcerted Jews and
their Messiah. The street-boys ran after the Sabbatians, shouting,
"_Gheldi mi? Gheldi mi?_" (Is he coming? Is he coming?); the very bark
of the street-dogs sounded sardonic. But soon the tide turned.
Sabbatai's prophetic retinue testified unshaken to their
Master--Messiah because Sufferer. Women and children were rapt in
mystic visions, and miracles took place in the highways. Moses Suriel,
who in fun had feigned to call up spirits, suddenly hearing strange
singing and playing, fell into a foaming fury, and hollow prophecies
issued from him, sublimely eloquent and inordinately rapid, so that on
his recovery he went about crying, "Repent! Repent! I was a mocker and
a sinner. Repent! Repent!" The Moslems themselves began to waver. A
Turkish Dervish, clad in white flowing robes, with a stick in his
hand, preached in the street corners to his countrymen, proclaiming
the Jewish Messiah. "Think ye," he cried, "that to wash your hands
stained with the blood of the poor and full of booty, or to bathe your
feet which have walked in the way of unrighteousness, suffices to
render you clean? Vain imagination! God has heard the prayers of the
poor whom ye despise! He will raise the humble and abash the proud."
Bastinadoed in vain several times, he was at last brought before the
Cadi, who sent him to the _Timar-Hane_, the mad-house. But the doctors
testified that he was sound, and he was again haled before the Cadi,
who threatened him with death if he did not desist. "Kill me," said
the Dervish pleadingly, "and ye will deliver me from the spirits which
possess me and drive me to prophesy." Impressed, the Cadi dismissed
him, and would have laden him with silver, but the Dervish refused and
went his rhapsodical way. And in the heavens a comet flamed.

Soon Sabbatai had a large Turkish following. The Jews already in the
debtors' dungeon hastened to give him the best place, and made a rude
throne for him. He became King of the Prison. Thousands surged round
the gates daily to get a glimpse of him. The keeper of the prison did
not fail to make his profit of their veneration, and instead of the
five _aspres_ which friends of priso