Chronicles and Characters :: :: University of Virginia Library

The years went on apace.
Manassah his son, his youngest born,
Trading the isleted sea for corn,
Was wreck'd and pick'd up by the smuggler boat
Of a certain prowling Candiote;
And, being young and hale, was sold
By the Greek a bondsman to the Turk.
Zillah, his wife, wax'd white and old.
Rachel, his daughter, loved not work,
But walk'd by the light of her own dark eyes
In wicked ways for the sake of gain.
Meanwhile, Israel's destinies
Survived the scorching stake, and Spain
At length grew weary of burning men;
When hunger'd, and haggard, and gaunt, these two
Forlorn Jew women crept again
Into Cordova; because they knew
Where Rabbi Ben Ephraim by stealth,

When he turn'd his back on his own house-door,
Had buried the whole of his wondrous wealth
In the evil place; and they two were poor.