[He sits down beside AHASUERUS; the Jew stares at him.]
You seem amazed, fair sir.
AHASUERUS [slowly]. I am a Jew.
[The monk starts, then sits down again, while the Jew regards him
attentively.]
ANSELM. A Jew?
AHASUERUS [bitterly]. "Dog Jew," they call me.
ANSELM. God forbid!
Yet once I would have scorned thee like the rest.
But, long years past, before I sought these walls,
Adventurous I rode into the East
And underneath the walls of Joppa fell
A victim to the fever. Many days
I lingered in its grasp, and when I woke
To strength, I found a Jew had tended me.
E'en then I scorned him, but with gentle words
He heaped great coals of fire on my head.
And then I dreamed a dream--upon a cross--
Two other crosses near--outlined against
A dark and dreadful sky, I saw a man;
And lo, it was a Jew--Christ was a Jew.
With tears I sought mine host, and told the tale,
And he was swift to pardon--he, a Jew.
[AHASUERUS will not trust himself to reply, but gazes steadfastly into
the fire.
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