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Page 81
'What terms?' said Puck quickly. 'The Fortieth of the Great Charter
says: "To none will we sell, refuse, or delay right or justice."'
'True, but the Barons had written first: _To no free man_. It cost me
two hundred broad pieces of gold to change those narrow words. Langton,
the priest, understood. "Jew though thou art," said he, "the change is
just, and if ever Christian and Jew came to be equal in England thy
people may thank thee." Then he went out stealthily, as men do who deal
with Israel by night. I think he spent my gift upon his altar. Why not?
I have spoken with Langton. He was such a man as I might have been
if--if we Jews had been a people. But yet, in many things, a child.
'I heard Elias and Adah abovestairs quarrel, and, knowing the woman was
the stronger, I saw that Elias would tell the King of the gold and that
the King would continue in his stubbornness. Therefore I saw that the
gold must be put away from the reach of any man. Of a sudden, the Word
of the Lord came to me saying, "The Morning is come, O thou that
dwellest in the land."'
Kadmiel halted, all black against the pale green sky beyond the wood--a
huge robed figure, like the Moses in the picture-Bible.
'I rose. I went out, and as I shut the door on that House of
Foolishness, the woman looked from the window and whispered, "I have
prevailed on my husband to tell the King!" I answered: "There is no
need. The Lord is with me."
'In that hour the Lord gave me full understanding of all that I must do;
and His Hand covered me in my ways. First I went to London, to a
physician of our people, who sold me certain drugs that I needed. You
shall see why. Thence I went swiftly to Pevensey. Men fought all around
me, for there were neither rulers nor judges in the abominable land. Yet
when I walked by them they cried out that I was one Ahasuerus, a Jew,
condemned, as they believe, to live for ever, and they fled from me
everyways. Thus the Lord saved me for my work, and at Pevensey I bought
me a little boat and moored it on the mud beneath the Marsh-gate of the
Castle. That also God showed me.'
He was as calm as though he were speaking of some stranger, and his
voice filled the little bare wood with rolling music.
'I cast'--his hand went to his breast, and again the strange jewel
gleamed--'I cast the drugs which I had prepared into the common well of
the Castle. Nay, I did no harm. The more we physicians know, the less do
we do. Only the fool says: "I dare." I caused a blotched and itching
rash to break out upon their skins, but I knew it would fade in fifteen
days. I did not stretch out my hand against their life. They in the
Castle thought it was the Plague, and they ran out, taking with them
their very dogs.
'A Christian physician, seeing that I was a Jew and a stranger, vowed
that I had brought the sickness from London. This is the one time I have
ever heard a Christian leech speak truth of any disease. Thereupon the
people beat me, but a merciful woman said: "Do not kill him now. Push
him into our Castle with his Plague, and if, as he says, it will abate
on the fifteenth day, we can kill him then." Why not? They drove me
across the drawbridge of the Castle, and fled back to their booths. Thus
I came to be alone with the treasure.'
'But did you know this was all going to happen just right?' said Una.
'My Prophecy was that I should be a Lawgiver to a People of a strange
land and a hard speech. I knew I should not die. I washed my cuts. I
found the tide-well in the wall, and from Sabbath to Sabbath I dove and
dug there in that empty, Christian-smelling fortress. H�! I spoiled the
Egyptians! H�! If they had only known! I drew up many good loads of
gold, which I loaded by night into my boat. There had been gold-dust
too, but that had been washed out by the tides.'
'Didn't you ever wonder who had put it there?' said Dan, stealing a
glance at Puck's calm, dark face under the hood of his gown. Puck shook
his head and pursed his lips.
'Often; for the gold was new to me,' Kadmiel replied. 'I know the Golds.
I can judge them in the dark; but this was heavier and redder than any
we deal in. Perhaps it was the very gold of Parvaim. Eh, why not? It
went to my heart to heave it on to the mud, but I saw well that if the
evil thing remained, or if even the hope of finding it remained, the
King would not sign the New Laws, and the land would perish.'
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