To convert their property into bills of exchange and movables was their only resource.

The market speedily was glutted: a house was given for an ass, a vineyard for a suit of clothes.

Vainly did the persecuted race endeavor to purchase a remission of the sentence by the payment of an exorbitant ransom.

Torquemada appeared before Ferdinand and his consort, raising the crucifix, and crying: 'Judas sold Christ for 30 pieces of silver; sell ye him for a larger sum, and account for the same to God!' The exodus began.

Eight hundred thousand Jews left Spain[1]--some for the coast of Africa, where the Arabs ripped their bodies up in search for gems or gold they might have swallowed, and deflowered their women--some for Portugal, where they bought the right to exist for a large head-tax, and where they saw their sons and daughters dragged away to baptism before their eyes.