Believe me, brother, I am as good a Christian as the next man; I go to church every holy day, even when I am ill; but I feel easier, when I pray for my soul's salvation, if I know my gun is loaded and primed." "Then you are no true believer in God," returned Manasseh, in a tone of reproof.

"You worship that Jesus in whose name the massacre of St.
Bartholomew was perpetrated, the burning of heretics sanctioned, and the crusades undertaken; but you are no true follower of that Jesus who came with a message of peace and good-will to mankind, and who said to Peter, 'They that take the sword shall perish with the sword.'" "I am not so sure that he really said that," rejoined Aaron, shrewdly.
"Matthew has it that he did, but Mark and Luke make no mention of it, and, according to John, Jesus simply said to Peter, after the latter had cut off the ear of Malchus, the high priest's servant, 'Put up thy sword into the sheath.' At any rate, I am not clear what I should have done had he said it to me; but I know one thing, if I had been there when the Saviour handed the sop to Judas, I should have dealt Iscariot such a blow on the head that he wouldn't have had wit enough left to betray his master.

And just so I will strike down the traitor who leads a foe against Toroczko, if he once comes within my reach." "What traitor do you mean ?" "The one that the girl spoke of yesterday when she said, 'If a traitor rises up from amidst your own people, then tremble!' I know whom she meant now: with the insurgents is a man, lately come into notice, who surpasses all his fellows in cruelty.

He is our Iscariot." "What makes you think so ?" "Because he calls himself Diurbanu.

No genuine Wallachian would have taken the nickname of his king, Decebalus.