er--a wonderful
underground river. How should the foolish Kings know _that_ while they
fight and steal and kill?'

The children's faces showed that they knew nothing at all as, with open
eyes, they trotted and turned beside the long-striding old man. He
twitched his gown over his shoulders, and a square plate of gold, studded
with jewels, gleamed for an instant through the fur, like a star through
flying snow.

'No matter,' he said. 'But, credit me, my Prince saw peace or war decided
not once, but many times, by the fall of a coin spun between a Jew from
Bury and a Jewess from Alexandria, in his father's house, when the Great
Candle was lit. Such power had we Jews among the Gentiles. Ah, my little
Prince! Do you wonder that he learned quickly? Why not?' He muttered to
himself and went on:--

'My trade was that of a physician. When I had learned it in Spain I went
to the East to find my Kingdom. Why not? A Jew is as free as a sparrow--or
a dog. He goes where he is hunted. In the East I found libraries where men
dared to think--schools of medicine where they dared to learn. I was
diligent in my business. Therefore I stood before Kings. I have been a
brother to Princes and a companion to beggars, and I have walked between
the living and the dead. There was no profit in it. I did not find my
Kingdom. So, in the tenth year of my travels, when I had reached the
Uttermost Eastern Sea, I returned to my father's house. God had
wonderfully preserved my people. None had been slain, none even wounded,
and only a few scourged. I became once more a son in my father's house.
Again the Great Candle was lit; again the meanly-apparelled ones tapped on
our door after dusk; and again I heard them weigh out peace and war, as
they weighed out the gold on the table. But I was not rich--not very rich.
Therefore, when those that had power and knowledge and wealth talked
together, I sat in the shadow. Why not?

'Yet all my wanderings had shown me one sure thing, which is, that a King
without money is like a spear without a head. He cannot do much harm. I
said, therefore, to Elias of Bury, a great one among our people: "Why do
our people lend any more to the Kings that oppress us?" "Because," said
Elias, "if we refuse they stir up their people against us, and the People
are tenfold more cruel than Kings. If thou doubtest, come with me to Bury
in England and live as I live."

'I saw my mother's face across the candle-flame, and I said, "I wil