to his proud spirit, it was punishment enough that he should be reduced to sue for favor to one of his bitterest foes.  But it was no part of their plan to refuse that.  By way of expediting my mother’s arrival, a military courier, with every facility for the journey, was forwarded to her without delay.  My mother, her two daughters, and myself, were then residing in Venice.  I had, through the aid of my father’s connections in Austria, been appointed in the imperial service, and held a high commission for my age.  But, on my father’s marching northward with the French army, I had been recalled as an indispensable support to my mother.  Not that my years could have made me such, for I had barely accomplished my twelfth year; but my premature growth, and my military station, had given me considerable knowledge of the world and presence of mind.

“Our journey I pass over; but as I approach your city, that sepulcher of honor and happiness to my poor family, my heart beats with frantic emotions.  Never do I see that venerable dome of your minster from the forest, but I curse its form, which reminds me of what we then surveyed for many a mile as we traversed the forest.  For leagues before we approached the city, this object lay before us in relief upon the frosty blue sky; and still it seemed never to increase.  Such was the complaint of my little sister Mariamne.  Most innocent child! would that it never had increased for thy eyes, but remained forever at a distance!  That same hour began the series of monstrous indignities which terminated the career of my ill-fated family.  As we drew up to the city gates, the officer who inspected the passports, finding my mother and sisters described as Jewesses, which in my mother’s ears (reared in a region where Jews are not dishonored) always sounded a title of distinction, summoned a subordinate agent, who in coarse terms demanded his toll.  We presumed this to be a road tax for the carriage and horses, but we were quickly undeceived; a small sum was demanded for each of my sisters and my mother, as for so many head of cattle.  I, fancying some mistake, spoke to the man temperately, and, to do him justice, he did not seem desirous of insulting us; but he produced a printed board, on which, along with the vilest animals, Jews and Jewesses were rated at so much a head.  While we were debating the point, the officers of the gate wore a sneering smile upon their faces—­ the postilions were laughing together; and this, too, in the presence of three creatures whose exquisite beauty, in different styles, agreeably to their different ages, would have caused noblemen to have fallen down and worshiped.  My mother, who had never yet met with any flagrant insult on account of her national distinctions, was too much shocked to be capable of speaking.  I whispered to her a few words, recalling her to her native dignity of mind, paid the money, and we drove to the prison.  But the hour was