“In these very scales shalt thou weigh me out,” said the relentless Baron, “a thousand silver pounds, after the just measure and weight of the Tower of London .”

“Holy Abraham!” returned the Jew, finding voice through the very extremity of his danger, “heard man ever such a demand?⁠—Who ever heard, even in a minstrel’s tale, of such a sum as a thousand pounds of silver?⁠—What human sight was ever blessed with the vision of such a mass of treasure?⁠—Not within the walls of York , ransack my house and that of all my tribe, wilt thou find the tithe of that huge sum of silver that thou speakest of.”

“I am reasonable,” answered Front-de-Boeuf, “and if silver be scant, I refuse not gold. At the rate of a mark of gold for each six pounds of silver, thou shalt free thy unbelieving carcass from such punishment as thy heart has never even conceived.”

“Have mercy on me, noble knight!” exclaimed Isaac; “I am old, and poor, and helpless. It were unworthy to triumph over me⁠—It is a poor deed to crush a worm.”

“Old thou mayst be,” replied the knight; “more shame to their folly who have suffered thee to grow grey in usury and knavery⁠—Feeble thou mayst be, for when had a Jew either heart or hand⁠—But rich it is well known thou art.”

“I swear to you, noble knight,” said the Jew, “by all which I believe, and by all which we believe in common⁠—”