SCENE III.--_The hall in_ NATHAN'S _house_. NATHAN _and the friar,

BONAFIDES.

BONAFIDES: The Patriarch hath ever work for me, And some I like not. Listen. He hath heard That hereabouts there dwells a certain Jew Who hath brought up a Christian as his child.

NATHAN: How?

BONAFIDES: Hear me out. I fear me that I gave Occasion for this sin, when I, a squire, Brought you, full eighteen years ago, the babe, The orphan babe of Leonard, Lord of Filnek. He fell at Askalon.

NATHAN: Ay so; and I, Bereft by Christians of my wife and sons, Received the infant as a gift from Heaven, And made it mine. And now, belike, I suffer For this my charity. But tell me now, Was not the mother sister to a Templar, Conrade of Stauffen?

BONAFIDES: Let me fetch a book, In Arabic, I had from my dead lord. 'Tis said to tell the lineage of the babe.

NATHAN: Go, fetch it quickly. [_Exeunt._