Page:Zawis and Kunigunde (1895).djvu/15

 and his mode of address is that of the modern school patterned after the pagan maxims of the unenlightened days, but reverenced by men of Eastern mental tastes. His companion is younger, and if I mistake not, is one of our brethren whose fathers’ home was in the sunny fields of France ere the whirlwind of cruelty drove them forth to such shelter as we and our neighbors can supply. I judge that he is bound on a mission of faith to our brethren in Hungary and Poland. He has learned some of the Dalmatian speech too, as he took occasion to let me perceive, and I infer that he bears a message from the exiles along that coast. He is less of a philosopher than his companion; but I doubt not that his heart is of the purified, and his light is from the Enlightener of men. But I marvel that our new friends have ventured hither at this moment, when the deadly embrace of death again menaces all. The new sworn ally of the Latin tyrant is again bearing down against us, and I fear that our gallant King must succumb to the treacherous combination that assails him.”

“But the books, father,” earnestly rejoined the old lady, “did you secure them from prying eyes, and possibly hands of covetousness or destruction? You know the Hebrews are no friends of the inspired wisdom of our revelation.”

“Be assured again, good heart,” said the old man; “our friends are not likely to injure or remove the sources whence is derived the hospitable and enlightening spirit that sheds harmony over the home of the one, surrounded as he is by many creeds and