Page 207 - A Jacobite Exile

"I will go and have a wash, and change my clothes the first thing," Charlie
said. "Mr. Ramsay's letter will keep till after that."

They went out to the well together.

"So you heard the story, that I had killed Ben Soloman, before you left?"

"Yes; before your letter arrived, Mr. Ramsay sent for me, and told me a
Jewish trader had just informed him that news had come that Ben Soloman

had been murdered, and the deed had been done by the young Scotchman
who had been with him. Mr. Ramsay did not believe the story in the
slightest. He admitted that Ben Soloman might have been murdered, and

even said frankly that, hated as he was, it was the most natural end for him
to come to; but that you should have done so was, he said, absurd. In the

first place, he did not think that you were alive; and in the second, it was far
more probable that you had been murdered by Ben Soloman, than that he
should have been murdered by you.

"However, even before your letter came, three or four hours later, there

seemed no longer any doubt that you had killed the Jew. By that time, there
was quite an uproar among his people. He was the leader of their
community, and had dealings with so many nobles that his influence was

great; and, although he was little liked, he was regarded as an important
person, and his loss was a very heavy one to the Jewish community. A

deputation went to the governor, and we heard that troops would be at once
sent out to capture you, and the band of brigands you had joined. Mr.
Ramsay told me that it was fortunate, indeed, that you had not returned to

the city. But, no doubt, he has told you all that in the letter."

"I feel quite another man, Stanislas," Charlie said, when he had changed his
garments. "Now I can read the letter you brought me."

After expressing the great satisfaction he felt, at the news that Charlie was
alive, Mr. Ramsay went on to say that, even were he well, he could not

return to Warsaw in the present state of public feeling.