‘My assiduity has discovered this afternoon that they have been buying up and exporting all the provisions which they could obtain.’
‘Scoundrels! Then they must have known of Heraclian’s failure!’
‘Your sagacity has, I fear, divined the truth. They have been betting largely against his success for the last week, both in Canopus and Pelusium.’
‘For the last week! Then Miriam betrayed me knowingly!’ And Orestes broke forth again into a paroxysm of fury.
‘Here—call the tribune of the guard! A hundred gold pieces to the man who brings me the witch alive!’
‘She will never be taken alive.’
‘Dead, then—in any way! Go, you Chaldee hound! what are you hesitating about?’
‘Most noble lord,’ said the secretary, prostrating himself upon the floor, and kissing his master’s feet in an agony of fear....
‘Remember, that if you touch one Jew you touch all! Remember the bonds! remember the—the—your own most august reputation, in short.’
‘Get up, brute, and don’t grovel there, but tell me what you mean, like a human being. If old Miriam is once dead, her bonds die with her, don’t they?’