Church, separated from us by the blood of our saviour
(trucidatus Salvatore inter nos). Interrogated
by us as to why he appeared without the green cap
upon his head, and the yellow wheel in the apparent
locality of the heart in his garment, according to
the ecclesiastical and royal ordinances, the said
de Rastchid has exhibited to us letters patent of
the seneschal of Touraine and Poitou. Then the
said Jew has declared to us to have done a large business
for the lady dwelling in the house of the innkeeper
Tortebras, to have sold to her golden chandeliers,
with many branches, minutely engraved, plates of red
silver, cups enriched with stones, emeralds and rubies;
to have brought for her from the Levant a number of
rare stuffs, Persian carpets, silks, and fine linen;
in fact, things so magnificent that no queen in Christendom
could say she was so well furnished with jewels and
household goods; and that he had for his part received
from her three hundred thousand pounds for the rarity
of the purchases in which he had been employed, such
as Indian flowers, poppingjays, birds’ feathers,
spices, Greek wines, and diamonds. Requested
by us, the judge, to say if he had furnished certain
ingredients of magical conjuration, the blood of new-born
children, conjuring books, and things generally and
whatsoever made use of by sorcerers, giving him licence
to state his case without that thereupon he should
be the subject to any further inquest or inquiry,
the said al Rastchid has sworn by his Hebrew faith
never to have had any such commerce; and has stated
that he was involved in too high interests to give
himself to such miseries, seeing that he was the agent
of certain most powerful lords, such as the Marquis
de Montferrat, the King of England, the King of Cyprus
and Jerusalem, the Court of Provence, lords of Venice,
and many German gentleman; to have belonging to him
merchant galleys of all kinds, going into Egypt with
the permission of the Sultan, and he trafficking in
precious articles of silver and of gold, which took
him often into the exchange of Tours. Moreover,
he has declared that he considered the said lady, the
subject of inquiry, to be a right royal and natural
woman, with the sweetest limbs, and the smallest he
has ever seen. That in consequence of her renown
for a diabolical spirit, pushed by a wild imagination,
and also because that he was smitten with her, he had
heard once that she was husbandless, proposed to her
to be her gallant, to which proposition she willingly
acceded. Now, although from that night he felt
his bones disjointed and his bowels crushed, he had
not yet experienced, as certain persons say, that
who once yielded was free no more; he went to his
fate as lead into the crucible of the alchemist.
Then the said Salomon, to whom we have granted his
liberty according to the safe conduct, in spite of
the statement, which proves abundantly his commerce
with the devil, because he had been saved there where
all Christians have succumbed, has admitted to us an
agreement concerning the said demon. To make known
that he had made an offer to the chapter of the cathedral
to give for the said semblance of a woman such a ransom,
if she were condemned to be burned alive, that the
highest of the towers of the Church of St. Maurice,
at present in course of construction, could therewith
be finished.