Page:Poems of Emma Lazarus vol 2.djvu/143

Rh flames. I purposed reatoring her to her father, but when I returned to Nordhausen, I found my . child lying on her bier, and my wife ia fevered frenzy calling for her babe, I soogbt the leech, who counselled me to show the Christian child to the bereaved mother as her own. The pious trick prevailed ; the fever broke, the mother was restored. But never would she part with the child, even when, she had learned to whom it belonged, and until Bhe was gathered with the dead — may peace be with her soul ! — she fostered in our Jewish home the offspring of the Gentile knight. Then again would I have yielded the girl to her parent, but Schnetzen was my foe, and I feared the haughty baron would disown the daughter who came from the hands of the Jew. Now however the maiden's tempo- ral happiness demands that she be acknowledged by her rightful father- Let him see what I have written. As a token, behold this golden cross bound by the Lady Schnetzen round the infant's neck. May the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob redeem and biess me as I have writ the truth."

I thank the Saints that this has come betimes. Thou shale renounce thy hate. Vengeance is mine, The Lord hath said.