"I know it, sire. He offered for a hundred thousand florins to renounce Rachel and deliver her up to me—Here is his letter; your majesty can see it."
The emperor took the letter, and read it. "It is his writing," murmured he, sorrowfully; "it is too true."
"I refused," continued Eskeles. "I would not buy my daughter back. I therefore waited to see what would follow."
"What followed?"
The banker was silent for a moment; then sighing, he said, in low, trembling tones: "Not long after, I received another letter. He said he was straitened in means, that Rachel was pampered, and required so many luxuries that she had exhausted his purse. As I would not listen to his first proposition, he had another to make. I would give him a certain sum, and he would do me a substantial service."
"He offered a thousand ducats, did he not?"
"I do not remember. The sum is stated in the letter. Here it is, your majesty." And with these words Eskeles drew a paper from his bosom.
"It is, it is," said the emperor, in a voice of anguish. "I can no longer doubt his treachery."
Eskeles Flies returned the paper to his bosom. "I keep this on my person," said he, "because when Rachel returns to me, it will cure her of her love for such a villain. "
"Gunther, then, received the money?" said Joseph.