As the procession went past the gates of the Mellah, two companies came out into the town.  The one was a company of soldiers returning to the Kasbah after sacking and wrecking Israel’s house; the other was a company of old Jews, among whom were Reuben Maliki, Abraham Pigman, and Judah ben Lolo.  At the advent of the three usurers a new impulse seized the people.  They pretended to take the procession for a triumphal progress—­the departure of a Kaid, a Shereef, a Sultan.  The soldier and police fell into the humour of the multitude.  Salaams were made to Israel; selhams were flung on the ground before the feet of Naomi.  Reuben Maliki pushed through the crowd, and walked backward, and cried, in his harsh, nasal croak—­

“Brothers of Tetuan, behold your benefactor!  Make way for him!  Make way! make way!”

Then there were loud guffaws, and oaths, and cries like the cry of the hyena.  Last of all, old Abraham Pigman handed over the people’s heads a huge green Spanish umbrella to a negro farrier that walked within; and the black fellow, showing his white teeth in a wide grim, held it over Israel’s head.

Then from fifty rasping throats came mocking cries.

“God bless our Lord!”

“Saviour of his people!”

“Benefactor!  King of men!”

And over and between these cries came shrieks and yells of laughter.

All this time Israel had sat motionless on his ass, neither showing humiliation nor fear.  His face was worn and ashy, but his eyes burned with a piteous fire.  He looked up and saw everything; saw himself mocked by the soldier and the crier, insulted by the Muslimeen, derided by the Jews, spat upon and smitten by the people whose hungry mouths he had fed with bread.  Above all, he saw Naomi going before him in her shame, and at that sight his heart bled and his spirit burred.  And, thinking that it was he who had brought her to this ignominy, he sometimes yearned to reach her side and whisper in her ear, and say, “Forgive me, my child, forgive me.”  But again he conquered the desire, for he remembered what God had that day done for her; and taking it for a sign of God’s pleasure, and a warranty that he had done well, he raised his eyes on her with tears of bitter joy, and thought, in the wild fever of his soul, “She is sharing the triumph of my humiliation.  She is walking through the mocking and jeering crowd, but see!  God Himself is walking beside her!”

The procession had now come to the walled lane to the Bab Toot, the gate going out to Tangier and to Shawan.  There the way was so narrow and the concourse so great that for a moment the procession was brought to a stand.  Seizing this opportunity, Reuben Maliki stepped up to Israel and said, so that all might hear, “Look at the crowds that have come out to speed you, O saviour of your people!  Look! look!  We shall all remember this day!”

“So you shall!” cried Israel.  “Until your days of death you shall all remember it!”