into the skiffa, and seating himself on the edge of the fountain that played there, "you lean on a broken reed. My power is not sufficient to protect myself. Even now the soldiers might have taken my life, and robbed my house with impunity, had it not been for your courage, Lucien. My predecessor was shot in cold blood by a man who for the murder was only transported. If he had slain the poorest Turk, or even a Moor, he would have been strangled. We are a despised as well as persecuted race, and our influence or power to protect you is very small. Indeed, if it were known that I had given you shelter, my life would be forfeited, as well as yours. I have already placed it in great jeopardy in order to save Mariano—"
"Mariano!" exclaimed Francisco, turning an anxious gaze on the Jew; "is he, then, in danger?"
"He is captured by the Turks," replied Bacri, "and is now in the Bagnio."
"Where they will doubtless bastinado him to death," said Francisco, grinding his teeth and clenching his hands with suppressed passion. "Bacri, I feel that in me which makes me long to run a-muck among these Turks."
"I understand you not," said Bacri.
"Why, I will take the first opportunity that offers to cut the throats of as many of these fiends as possible, before they manage to cut mine. They say
