"I thought," said De' Medici, "your genealogies were lost?"
"Not when we came to Spain. But it is believed that many Jews were in Spain even prior to the first captivity—Jews who came over with the merchant ships of Hiram in the days of David and Solomon, and who remitted large sums of money towards the erection of the Temple. You may see a tombstone that confirms this, without the walls of Saguntum, to this day. It bears the following inscription in Hebrew—'The sepulchre of Adoniram, the servant of King Solomon, who came hither to collect tribute.' The tomb was opened about fifty years ago, and found to contain an embalmed corpse of unusual stature."
"This is curious," said the Cardinal, reflectively,—"and merely a matter of curiosity."
"It ought not to be so in your eyes—nor in the eyes of any thoughtful Christian," said Bar Hhasdai.
"Why not?"
"Because we Sephardim were not consenting unto the death of him whom you term the Christ."
"Ha!—But you would have done so, most probably, if you had been on the spot."
"That is a gratuitous supposition. On the contrary, we wrote an epistle to Caiaphas the High Priest, pleading for the life of Jesus, whose good report had been brought us."
"Can this be so?"