But all are heretics that are not Jews.”
No sooner has the deluded Lodowick departed, than his rival appears on the scene, and is treated likewise. But Barabas is counting without his daughter. Abigail, though indifferent to Lodowick, reciprocates Mathias’ affection. Besides, the double part she is induced to play for her father’s sake is abhorrent to her nature.
In the meantime Barabas, by foul lies and forged letters, brings about a mortal duel between the two rivals. Abigail, on hearing of her lover’s death and of her father’s villainy, indignant at having been made the instrument of his crime, revolted and sick of life, resolves to return to the nunnery and take the veil in earnest.
Barabas is exasperated by this last blow. He curses his daughter for her desertion, adopts for his heir a rascally Mohammedan slave, who had been his accomplice throughout, and makes use of him to poison all the nuns, his own daughter included.
Barabas is rejoicing at the success of his plot. On hearing the bells ring for the funeral of his victims, he breaks into fiendish exultation:
“There is no music to a Christian’s knell.
How sweet the bells ring now the nuns are dead!”
But his joy is short-lived. Before her death Abigail confessed the part which she had unwillingly taken in the conspiracy that brought about the mutual murder of the two young gentlemen. The friar who received Abigail’s confession taxes Barabas with the crime. The Jew, frightened, tries to save his life by feigned conversion. He promises to do penance:
“To fast, to pray, and wear a shirt of hair,
And on my knees creep to Jerusalem,”