Adonijah continued, “Then, when my task is completed, then will I
be gathered to my fathers, trusting surely in the Hope of Israel, that
mine eyes shall “behold the King in his beauty,--they shall see the land
that is very far off.” And peradventure,” he added, in a voice that
grief rendered solemn, mellow, and tremulous, “peradventure there shall
I meet in bliss, those with whom I parted in woe--even thou, Zachariah,
the son of my loins, and thou, Leah, the wife of my bosom;”
apostrophizing two of the silent skeletons that stood near. “And in the
presence of the God of our fathers, the redeemed of Zion shall meet--and
meet as those who are to part no more for ever and ever.” At these
words, he closed his eyes, lifted up his hands, and appeared to be
absorbed in mental prayer. Grief had perhaps subdued my prejudices--it
had certainly softened my heart--and at this moment I half-believed that
a Jew might find entrance and adoption amid the family and fold of the
blessed. This sentiment operated on my human sympathies, and I inquired,
with unfeigned anxiety, after the fate of Solomon the Jew, whose
misfortune in harbouring me had exposed him to the visit of the
Inquisitors. “Be at peace,” said Adonijah, waving his bony and wrinkled
hand, as if dismissing a subject below his present feelings, “our
brother Solomon is in no peril of death; neither shall his goods be
taken for a spoil. If our adversaries are mighty in power, so are we
mighty also to deal with them by our wealth or our wisdom. Thy flight
they never can trace, thy existence on the face of the earth shall also
be unknown to them, so thou wilt hearken to me, and heed my words.”

“I could not speak, but my expression of mute and imploring anxiety
spoke for me. “Thou didst use words,” said Adonijah, “last night,
whereof, though I remember not all the purport, the sound yet maketh
mine ears to tingle; even mine, which have not vibrated to such sounds
for four times the space of thy youthful years. Thou saidst thou wert
beset by a power that tempted thee to renounce the Most High, whom Jew
and Christian alike profess to worship; and that thou didst declare,
that were the fires kindled around thee, thou wouldst spit at the
tempter, and trample on the offer, though thy foot pressed the coal
which the sons of Dominick were lighting beneath its naked sole.”--“I
did,” I cried, “I did--and I would--So help me God in mine extremity.”

“Adonijah paused for a moment, as if considering whether this were a
burst of passion, or a proof of mental energy. He seemed at last
inclined to believe it the latter, though all men of far-advanced age
are apt to distrust any marks of emotion as a demonstration rather of
weakness than of sincerity. “Then,” said he, after a long and solemn
pause, “then thou shalt know the secret that hath been a burthen to the
soul of Adonijah, even as his hopeless solitude is a burthen to the soul
of him who traverseth the desert, none accompanying him with step, or
cheering him with voice. From my youth upward, even until now, have I
laboured, and behold the time of my deliverance is at hand; yea, and
shall be accomplished speedily. “In the days of my childhood, a rumour reached mine ears, even mine, of
a being sent abroad on the earth to tempt Jew and Nazarene, and even the
disciples of Mohammed, whose name is accursed in the mouth of our
nation, with offers of deliverance at their utmost need and extremity,
so they would do that which my lips dare not utter, even though there be
no ear to receive it but thine. Thou shudderest--well, then, thou art
sincere, at least, in thy faith of errors. I listened to the tale, and
mine ears received it, even as the soul of the thirsty drinketh in
rivers of water, for my mind was full of the vain fantasies of the
Gentile fables, and I longed, in the perverseness of my spirit, to see,
yea, and to consort with, yea, and to deal with, the evil one in his
strength. Like our fathers in the wilderness, I despised angel’s food,
and lusted after forbidden meats, even the meats of the Egyptian
sorcerers. And my presumption was rebuked as thou seest:--childless,
wifeless, friendless, at the last period of an existence prolonged
beyond the bounds of nature, am I now left, and, save thee alone,
without one to record its events. I will not trouble thee now with the
tale of my eventful life, farther than to tell thee, that the skeletons
thou tremblest to behold, were once clothed in flesh far fairer than
thine. They are those of my wife and child, whose history thou must not
now hear--but those of the two others thou must both hear and relate.”
And he pointed to the two other skeletons opposite, in their upright
cases. “On my return to my country, even Spain, if a Jew can be said to
have a country, I set myself down on this seat, and, lighted by this
lamp, I took in my hand the pen of a scribe, and vowed by a vow, that
this lamp should not expire, nor this seat be forsaken, nor this vault
untenanted, until that the record is written in a book, and sealed as
with the king’s signet. But, behold, I was traced by those who are keen
of scent, and quick of pursuit, even the sons of Dominick. And they
seized me, and laid my feet fast in the bonds; but my writings they
could not read, because they were traced in a character unknown to this
idolatrous people. And behold, after a space they set me free, finding
no cause of offence in me; and they bade me depart, and trouble them no
more. Then vowed I a vow unto the God of Israel, who had delivered me
from their thraldom, that none but he who could read these characters
should ever transcribe them. Moreover, I prayed, and said, O Lord God of
Israel! who knowest that we are the sheep of thy fold, and our enemies
as wolves round about us, and as lions who roar for their evening prey,
grant, that a Nazarene escaped from their hands, and fleeing unto us,
even as a bird chased from her nest, may put to shame the weapons of the
mighty, and laugh them to scorn. Grant also, Lord God of Jacob, that he
may be exposed to the snare of the enemy, even as those of whom I have
written, and that he may spit at it with his mouth, and spurn at it with
his feet, and trample on the ensnarer, even as they have trampled; and
then shall my soul, even mine, have peace at the last. Thus I
prayed--and my prayer was heard, for behold, _thou_ art here.”

“As I heard these words, a horrid foreboding, like a night-mare of the
heart, hung heavily on me. I looked alternately at the withering
speaker, and the hopeless task. To bear about that horrible secret
inurned in my heart, was not that enough? but to be compelled to scatter
its ashes abroad, and to rake into the dust of others for the same
purpose of unhallowed exposure, revolted me beyond feeling and
utterance.