Of what avail, then, was it to the poor Jews to have toiled and worked so hard, driven by the necessity of paying the hateful Jewish poll-tax, and thereby procuring for themselves a temporary toleration?  At any moment they could be driven off in case the rich Ephraim or the rich David Itzig, in the arrogance of their wealth, should venture to give to the world more than one child, and purchase for the sum of three thousand dollars another certificate of protection for the second!  Of what avail was their wealth even to the rich Jews Ephraim and Itzig?  They were nevertheless under the ban of their proscribed race.  No privileges, no offices existed for them.  They could only build factories or carry on commerce.  All other paths of life, even agriculture and horticulture, were forbidden to them.  And now they were called on to give up to the Russians their very life, the nerve of their existence, the heart which carried blood and warmth to their entire organization—­their money.

Ephraim and Itzig were rich and powerful in Berlin; they could build houses, found factories, and even determine the value of money, for the mint was in their hands.  They had farmed it from the king, and paid him an enormous rent for the same, which had increased each year, and in 1760 amounted to seven millions.  But, thanks to this farming, the value of money had increased exorbitantly.  Twenty dollars were paid for a Frederick d’or, and five-and-thirty for the mark of fine silver.  Owing to the labors of these Jewish lessees, there were many millions of light money, many millions of bad eight-groschen pieces, which, to this day, are known by the name of Ephraimites, and whose repudiation at a later period ruined many thousands of honest, worthy tradesmen, while Ephraim and Itzig became wealthy and powerful thereby.  Yet it was now this same money which brought misfortune to them, and was the cause of their suffering and mortal anxiety; for General Tottleben had threatened that if the Jews could not pay the tax imposed on them, he would take the mint farmers with him as hostages, and destroy their factories.  Besides this, he had, as we said before, arrested their elders and sworn to send them to Siberia, if the Jews did not pay.

The payment was to be made in three days.  But the three days had elapsed, and they had not been able to raise the money which was demanded of them.  In this dire extremity, the two mint-contractors remembered the man whom they had hitherto most cordially hated, and whose ruin was the cherished wish of their life.  They now recollected that John Gotzkowsky was the only man who, in the generosity and kindness of his heart, was capable of forgetting their former insults and injuries, and of remembering only their need and misery.  They determined, therefore, to apply to him, and request his intercession and assistance, but they did this with a bitter sigh, for they felt the hatred and grudge which they nursed in their hearts toward him become only more intense and stronger.