“Oh, Father Abraham, my ruin is certain, this maniac will
discover all, and Manasseh-ben-Solomon, my son, will die uncircumcised.”

“These words operating on my delirium, I started up, and, grasping the
Jew by the throat, arraigned him as a prisoner of the Inquisition. The
terrified wretch, falling on his knees, vociferated, “My cock,--my
cock,--my cock! oh! I am undone!” Then, grasping my knees, “I am no
Jew,--my son, Manasseh-ben-Solomon, is a Christian; you will not betray
him, you will not betray _me_,--me who have saved your life. Manasseh,--I mean Antonio,--Rebekah,--no, Maria, help me to hold him. Oh
God of Abraham, my cock, and my sacrifice of expiation, and this maniac
to burst on the recesses of our privacy, to tear open the veil of the
tabernacle!”--“Shut the tabernacle,” said Rebekah, the old domestic whom
I have before mentioned; “yea, shut the tabernacle, and close up the
veils thereof, for behold there be men knocking at the door,--men who
are children of Belial, and they knock with staff and stone; and,
verily, they are about to break in the door, and demolish the carved
work thereof with axes and hammers.”--“Thou liest,” said the Jew, in
much perturbation: “there is no carved work thereabout, nor dare they
break it down with axes and hammers; peradventure it is but an assault
of the children of Belial, in their rioting and drunkenness. I pray
thee, Rebekah, to watch the door, and keep off the sons of Belial, even
the sons of the mighty of the sinful city--the city of Madrid, while I
remove this blaspheming carrion, who struggleth with me,--yea,
struggleth mightily,” (and struggle I did mightily). But, as I
struggled, the knocks at the door became louder and stronger; and, as I
was carried off, the Jew continued to repeat, “Set thy face against
them, Rebekah; yea, set thy face like a flint.” As he retired, Rebekah
exclaimed, “Behold I have set my back against them, for my face now
availeth not. My back is that which I will oppose, and verily I shall
prevail.”--“I pray thee, Rebekah,” cried the Jew, “oppose thy FACE unto
them, and verily that shall prevail. Try not the adversary with thy
back, but oppose thy face unto them; and behold, if they are men, they
shall flee, even though they were a thousand, at the rebuke of one. I
pray thee try thy face once more, Rebekah, while I send this scape-goat
into the wilderness. Surely thy face is enough to drive away those who
knocked by night at the door of that house in Gibeah, in the matter of
the wife of the Benjamite.” The knocking all this time increased. “Behold my back is broken,” cried Rebekah, giving up her watch and ward,
“for, of a verity, the weapons of the mighty do smite the lintels and
door-posts; and mine arms are not steel, neither are my ribs iron, and
behold I fail,--yea, I fail, and fall backwards into the hands of the
uncircumcised.” And so saying, she fell backwards as the door gave way,
and fell not, as she feared, into the hands of the uncircumcised, but
into those of two of her countrymen, who, it appeared, had some
extraordinary reason for this late visit and forcible entrance. “The Jew, apprized who they were, quitted me, after securing the door,
and sat up the greater part of the night, in earnest conversation with
his visitors. Whatever was their subject, it left traces of the most
intense anxiety on the countenance of the Jew the next morning. He went
out early, did not return till a late hour, and then hastened to the
room I occupied, and expressed the utmost delight at finding me sane and
composed. Candles were placed on the table, Rebekah dismissed, the door
secured, and the Jew, after taking many uneasy turns about the narrow
apartment, and often clearing his throat, at length sat down, and
ventured to entrust me with the cause of his perturbation, in which,
with the fatal consciousness of the unhappy, I already began to feel _I_
must have a share. He told me, that though the report of my death, so
universally credited through Madrid, had at first set his mind at ease,
there was now a wild story, which, with all its falsehood and
impossibility, might, in its circulation, menace us with the most
fearful consequences. He asked me, was it possible I could have been so
imprudent as to expose myself to view on the day of that horrible
execution? and when I confessed that I had stood at a window, and had
involuntarily uttered cries that I feared might have reached some ears,
he wrung his hands, and a sweat of consternation burst out on his pallid
features. When he recovered himself, he told me it was universally
believed that my spectre had appeared on that terrible occasion,--that I
had been seen hovering in the air, to witness the sufferings of the
dying wretch,--and that my voice had been heard summoning him to his
eternal doom. He added, that this story, possessing all the credibility
of superstition, was now repeated by a thousand mouths; and whatever
contempt might be attached to its absurdity, it would infallibly operate
as a hint to the restless vigilance, and unrelaxing industry of the holy
office, and might ultimately lead to my discovery. He therefore was
about to disclose to me a secret, the knowledge of which would enable me
to remain in perfect security even in the centre of Madrid, until some
means might be devised of effecting my escape, and procuring me the
means of subsistence in some Protestant country, beyond the reach of the
Inquisition. “As he was about to disclose this secret on which the safety of both
depended, and which I bent in speechless agony to hear, a knock was
heard at the door, very unlike the knocks of the preceding night. It was
single, solemn, peremptory,--and followed by a demand to open the doors
of the house in the name of the most holy Inquisition. At these terrible
words, the wretched Jew flung himself on his knees, blew out the
candles, called on the names of the twelve patriarchs, and slipped a
large rosary on his arm, in less time than it is possible to conceive
any human frame could go through such a variety of movements. The knock
was repeated,--I stood paralyzed; but the Jew, springing on his feet,
raised one of the boards of the floor in a moment, and, with a motion
between convulsion and instinct, pointed to me to descend. I did so, and
found myself in a moment in darkness and in safety. “I had descended but a few steps, on the last of which I stood
trembling, when the officers of the Inquisition entered the room, and
stalked over the very board that concealed me. I could hear every word
that passed.