While the one struck a light with a flint and steel, the other disposed the charcoal in the large rusty grate which we have already mentioned, and exercised the bellows until the fuel came to a red glow.
"Seest thou, Isaac," said Front-de-Boeuf, "the range of iron bars above the glowing charcoal?
-- [28] on that warm couch thou shalt lie, stripped of thy clothes as if thou wert to rest on a bed of down.

One of these slaves shall maintain the fire beneath thee, while the other shall anoint thy wretched limbs with oil, lest the roast should burn .-- Now, choose betwixt such a scorching bed and the payment of a thousand pounds of silver; for, by the head of my father, thou hast no other option." "It is impossible," exclaimed the miserable Jew--"it is impossible that your purpose can be real! The good God of nature never made a heart capable of exercising such cruelty!" "Trust not to that, Isaac," said Front-de-Boeuf, "it were a fatal error.
Dost thou think that I, who have seen a town sacked, in which thousands of my Christian countrymen perished by sword, by flood, and by fire, will blench from my purpose for the outcries or screams of one single wretched Jew ?--or thinkest thou that these swarthy slaves, who have neither law, country, nor conscience, but their master's will--who use the poison, or the stake, or the poniard, or the cord, at his slightest wink--thinkest thou that THEY will have mercy, who do not even understand the language in which it is asked ?--Be wise, old man; discharge thyself of a portion of thy superfluous wealth; repay to the hands of a Christian a part of what thou hast acquired by the usury thou hast practised on those of his religion.

Thy cunning may soon swell out once more thy shrivelled purse, but neither leech nor medicine can restore thy scorched hide and flesh wert thou once stretched on these bars.

Tell down thy ransom, I say, and rejoice that at such rate thou canst redeem thee from a dungeon, the secrets of which few have returned to tell.

I waste no more words with thee--choose between thy dross and thy flesh and blood, and as thou choosest, so shall it be." "So may Abraham, Jacob, and all the fathers of our people assist me," said Isaac, "I cannot make the choice, because I have not the means of satisfying your exorbitant demand!" "Seize him and strip him, slaves," said the knight, "and let the fathers of his race assist him if they can." The assistants, taking their directions more from the Baron's eye and his hand than his tongue, once more stepped forward, laid hands on the unfortunate Isaac, plucked him up from the ground, and, holding him between them, waited the hard-hearted Baron's farther signal.