by Walter Scott 11 страница

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which was courteously tendered him by the marshals of the field. On his

retiring to his tent, many who had lingered in the lists, to look upon

and form conjectures concerning him, also dispersed.

The signs and sounds of a tumultuous concourse of men lately crowded

together in one place, and agitated by the same passing events, were now

exchanged for the distant hum of voices of different groups retreating

in all directions, and these speedily died away in silence. No other

sounds were heard save the voices of the menials who stripped the

galleries of their cushions and tapestry, in order to put them in safety

for the night, and wrangled among themselves for the half-used bottles

of wine and relics of the refreshment which had been served round to the

spectators.

Beyond the precincts of the lists more than one forge was erected; and

these now began to glimmer through the twilight, announcing the toil of

the armourers, which was to continue through the whole night, in order

to repair or alter the suits of armour to be used again on the morrow.

A strong guard of men-at-arms, renewed at intervals, from two hours to

two hours, surrounded the lists, and kept watch during the night.

CHAPTER X

Thus, like the sad presaging raven, that tolls

The sick man's passport in her hollow beak,

And in the shadow of the silent night

Doth shake contagion from her sable wings;

Vex'd and tormented, runs poor Barrabas,

With fatal curses towards these Christians.

--Jew of Malta

The Disinherited Knight had no sooner reached his pavilion, than squires

and pages in abundance tendered their services to disarm him, to bring

fresh attire, and to offer him the refreshment of the bath. Their zeal

on this occasion was perhaps sharpened by curiosity, since every one

desired to know who the knight was that had gained so many laurels, yet

had refused, even at the command of Prince John, to lift his visor or

to name his name. But their officious inquisitiveness was not gratified.

The Disinherited Knight refused all other assistance save that of his

own squire, or rather yeoman--a clownish-looking man, who, wrapt in a

cloak of dark-coloured felt, and having his head and face half-buried

in a Norman bonnet made of black fur, seemed to affect the incognito

as much as his master. All others being excluded from the tent, this

attendant relieved his master from the more burdensome parts of his

armour, and placed food and wine before him, which the exertions of the

day rendered very acceptable.

The Knight had scarcely finished a hasty meal, ere his menial announced

to him that five men, each leading a barbed steed, desired to speak with

him. The Disinherited Knight had exchanged his armour for the long robe

usually worn by those of his condition, which, being furnished with a

hood, concealed the features, when such was the pleasure of the

wearer, almost as completely as the visor of the helmet itself, but the

twilight, which was now fast darkening, would of itself have rendered

a disguise unnecessary, unless to persons to whom the face of an

individual chanced to be particularly well known.

The Disinherited Knight, therefore, stept boldly forth to the front of

his tent, and found in attendance the squires of the challengers, whom

he easily knew by their russet and black dresses, each of whom led

his master's charger, loaded with the armour in which he had that day

fought.

" According to the laws of chivalry, " said the foremost of these men, " I,

Baldwin de Oyley, squire to the redoubted Knight Brian de Bois-Guilbert,

make offer to you, styling yourself, for the present, the Disinherited

Knight, of the horse and armour used by the said Brian de Bois-Guilbert

in this day's Passage of Arms, leaving it with your nobleness to retain

or to ransom the same, according to your pleasure; for such is the law

of arms. "

The other squires repeated nearly the same formula, and then stood to

await the decision of the Disinherited Knight.

" To you four, sirs, " replied the Knight, addressing those who had last

spoken, " and to your honourable and valiant masters, I have one common

reply. Commend me to the noble knights, your masters, and say, I should

do ill to deprive them of steeds and arms which can never be used by

braver cavaliers. --I would I could here end my message to these

gallant knights; but being, as I term myself, in truth and earnest, the

Disinherited, I must be thus far bound to your masters, that they will,

of their courtesy, be pleased to ransom their steeds and armour, since

that which I wear I can hardly term mine own. "

" We stand commissioned, each of us, " answered the squire of Reginald

Front-de-Boeuf, " to offer a hundred zecchins in ransom of these horses

and suits of armour. "

" It is sufficient, " said the Disinherited Knight. " Half the sum

my present necessities compel me to accept; of the remaining half,

distribute one moiety among yourselves, sir squires, and divide the

other half betwixt the heralds and the pursuivants, and minstrels, and

attendants. "

The squires, with cap in hand, and low reverences, expressed their deep

sense of a courtesy and generosity not often practised, at least upon a

scale so extensive. The Disinherited Knight then addressed his discourse

to Baldwin, the squire of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. " From your master, "

said he, " I will accept neither arms nor ransom. Say to him in my name,

that our strife is not ended--no, not till we have fought as well with

swords as with lances--as well on foot as on horseback. To this

mortal quarrel he has himself defied me, and I shall not forget the

challenge. --Meantime, let him be assured, that I hold him not as one of

his companions, with whom I can with pleasure exchange courtesies; but

rather as one with whom I stand upon terms of mortal defiance. "

" My master, " answered Baldwin, " knows how to requite scorn with scorn,

and blows with blows, as well as courtesy with courtesy. Since you

disdain to accept from him any share of the ransom at which you have

rated the arms of the other knights, I must leave his armour and his

horse here, being well assured that he will never deign to mount the one

nor wear the other. "

" You have spoken well, good squire, " said the Disinherited Knight,

" well and boldly, as it beseemeth him to speak who answers for an absent

master. Leave not, however, the horse and armour here. Restore them to

thy master; or, if he scorns to accept them, retain them, good friend,

for thine own use. So far as they are mine, I bestow them upon you

freely. "

Baldwin made a deep obeisance, and retired with his companions; and the

Disinherited Knight entered the pavilion.

" Thus far, Gurth, " said he, addressing his attendant, " the reputation of

English chivalry hath not suffered in my hands. "

" And I, " said Gurth, " for a Saxon swineherd, have not ill played the

personage of a Norman squire-at-arms. "

" Yea, but, " answered the Disinherited Knight, " thou hast ever kept me in

anxiety lest thy clownish bearing should discover thee. "

" Tush! " said Gurth, " I fear discovery from none, saving my playfellow,

Wamba the Jester, of whom I could never discover whether he were most

knave or fool. Yet I could scarce choose but laugh, when my old master

passed so near to me, dreaming all the while that Gurth was keeping his

porkers many a mile off, in the thickets and swamps of Rotherwood. If I

am discovered---"

" Enough, " said the Disinherited Knight, " thou knowest my promise. "

" Nay, for that matter, " said Gurth, " I will never fail my friend for

fear of my skin-cutting. I have a tough hide, that will bear knife or

scourge as well as any boar's hide in my herd. "

" Trust me, I will requite the risk you run for my love, Gurth, " said the

Knight. " Meanwhile, I pray you to accept these ten pieces of gold. "

" I am richer, " said Gurth, putting them into his pouch, " than ever was

swineherd or bondsman. "

" Take this bag of gold to Ashby, " continued his master, " and find out

Isaac the Jew of York, and let him pay himself for the horse and arms

with which his credit supplied me. "

" Nay, by St Dunstan, " replied Gurth, " that I will not do. "

" How, knave, " replied his master, " wilt thou not obey my commands? "

" So they be honest, reasonable, and Christian commands, " replied Gurth;

" but this is none of these. To suffer the Jew to pay himself would be

dishonest, for it would be cheating my master; and unreasonable, for it

were the part of a fool; and unchristian, since it would be plundering a

believer to enrich an infidel. "

" See him contented, however, thou stubborn varlet, " said the

Disinherited Knight.

" I will do so, " said Gurth, taking the bag under his cloak, and leaving

the apartment; " and it will go hard, " he muttered, " but I content him

with one-half of his own asking. " So saying, he departed, and left the

Disinherited Knight to his own perplexed ruminations; which, upon more

accounts than it is now possible to communicate to the reader, were of a

nature peculiarly agitating and painful.

We must now change the scene to the village of Ashby, or rather to a

country house in its vicinity belonging to a wealthy Israelite, with

whom Isaac, his daughter, and retinue, had taken up their quarters; the

Jews, it is well known, being as liberal in exercising the duties of

hospitality and charity among their own people, as they were alleged to

be reluctant and churlish in extending them to those whom they

termed Gentiles, and whose treatment of them certainly merited little

hospitality at their hand.

In an apartment, small indeed, but richly furnished with decorations of

an Oriental taste, Rebecca was seated on a heap of embroidered cushions,

which, piled along a low platform that surrounded the chamber, served,

like the estrada of the Spaniards, instead of chairs and stools. She

was watching the motions of her father with a look of anxious and

filial affection, while he paced the apartment with a dejected mien

and disordered step; sometimes clasping his hands together--sometimes

casting his eyes to the roof of the apartment, as one who laboured under

great mental tribulation. " O, Jacob! " he exclaimed--" O, all ye twelve

Holy Fathers of our tribe! what a losing venture is this for one who

hath duly kept every jot and tittle of the law of Moses--Fifty zecchins

wrenched from me at one clutch, and by the talons of a tyrant! "

" But, father, " said Rebecca, " you seemed to give the gold to Prince John

willingly. "

" Willingly? the blotch of Egypt upon him! --Willingly, saidst thou? --Ay,

as willingly as when, in the Gulf of Lyons, I flung over my merchandise

to lighten the ship, while she laboured in the tempest--robed the

seething billows in my choice silks--perfumed their briny foam with

myrrh and aloes--enriched their caverns with gold and silver work! And

was not that an hour of unutterable misery, though my own hands made the

sacrifice? "

" But it was a sacrifice which Heaven exacted to save our lives, "

answered Rebecca, " and the God of our fathers has since blessed your

store and your gettings. "

" Ay, " answered Isaac, " but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did

to-day, and compels me to smile while he is robbing me? --O, daughter,

disinherited and wandering as we are, the worst evil which befalls our

race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs

around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury, and to

smile tamely, when we would revenge bravely. "

" Think not thus of it, my father, " said Rebecca; " we also have

advantages. These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in

some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise

and persecute. Without the aid of our wealth, they could neither furnish

forth their hosts in war, nor their triumphs in peace, and the gold

which we lend them returns with increase to our coffers. We are like the

herb which flourisheth most when it is most trampled on. Even this day's

pageant had not proceeded without the consent of the despised Jew, who

furnished the means. "

" Daughter, " said Isaac, " thou hast harped upon another string of sorrow.

The goodly steed and the rich armour, equal to the full profit of my

adventure with our Kirjath Jairam of Leicester--there is a dead loss

too--ay, a loss which swallows up the gains of a week; ay, of the space

between two Sabbaths--and yet it may end better than I now think, for

'tis a good youth. "

" Assuredly, " said Rebecca, " you shall not repent you of requiting the

good deed received of the stranger knight. "

" I trust so, daughter, " said Isaac, " and I trust too in the rebuilding

of Zion; but as well do I hope with my own bodily eyes to see the walls

and battlements of the new Temple, as to see a Christian, yea, the very

best of Christians, repay a debt to a Jew, unless under the awe of the

judge and jailor. "

So saying, he resumed his discontented walk through the apartment; and

Rebecca, perceiving that her attempts at consolation only served to

awaken new subjects of complaint, wisely desisted from her unavailing

efforts--a prudential line of conduct, and we recommend to all who set

up for comforters and advisers, to follow it in the like circumstances.

The evening was now becoming dark, when a Jewish servant entered the

apartment, and placed upon the table two silver lamps, fed with perfumed

oil; the richest wines, and the most delicate refreshments, were at the

same time displayed by another Israelitish domestic on a small ebony

table, inlaid with silver; for, in the interior of their houses, the

Jews refused themselves no expensive indulgences. At the same time the

servant informed Isaac, that a Nazarene (so they termed Christians,

while conversing among themselves) desired to speak with him. He that

would live by traffic, must hold himself at the disposal of every one

claiming business with him. Isaac at once replaced on the table the

untasted glass of Greek wine which he had just raised to his lips, and

saying hastily to his daughter, " Rebecca, veil thyself, " commanded the

stranger to be admitted.

Just as Rebecca had dropped over her fine features a screen of silver

gauze which reached to her feet, the door opened, and Gurth entered,

wrapt in the ample folds of his Norman mantle. His appearance was rather

suspicious than prepossessing, especially as, instead of doffing his

bonnet, he pulled it still deeper over his rugged brow.

" Art thou Isaac the Jew of York? " said Gurth, in Saxon.

" I am, " replied Isaac, in the same language, (for his traffic had

rendered every tongue spoken in Britain familiar to him)--" and who art

thou? "

" That is not to the purpose, " answered Gurth.

" As much as my name is to thee, " replied Isaac; " for without knowing

thine, how can I hold intercourse with thee? "

" Easily, " answered Gurth; " I, being to pay money, must know that I

deliver it to the right person; thou, who are to receive it, will not, I

think, care very greatly by whose hands it is delivered. "

" O, " said the Jew, " you are come to pay moneys? --Holy Father Abraham!

that altereth our relation to each other. And from whom dost thou bring

it? "

" From the Disinherited Knight, " said Gurth, " victor in this day's

tournament. It is the price of the armour supplied to him by Kirjath

Jairam of Leicester, on thy recommendation. The steed is restored to thy

stable. I desire to know the amount of the sum which I am to pay for the

armour. "

" I said he was a good youth! " exclaimed Isaac with joyful exultation. " A

cup of wine will do thee no harm, " he added, filling and handing to the

swineherd a richer drought than Gurth had ever before tasted. " And how

much money, " continued Isaac, " has thou brought with thee? "

" Holy Virgin! " said Gurth, setting down the cup, " what nectar these

unbelieving dogs drink, while true Christians are fain to quaff ale as

muddy and thick as the draff we give to hogs! --What money have I

brought with me? " continued the Saxon, when he had finished this uncivil

ejaculation, " even but a small sum; something in hand the whilst. What,

Isaac! thou must bear a conscience, though it be a Jewish one. "

" Nay, but, " said Isaac, " thy master has won goodly steeds and rich

armours with the strength of his lance, and of his right hand--but 'tis

a good youth--the Jew will take these in present payment, and render him

back the surplus. "

" My master has disposed of them already, " said Gurth.

" Ah! that was wrong, " said the Jew, " that was the part of a fool. No

Christians here could buy so many horses and armour--no Jew except

myself would give him half the values. But thou hast a hundred zecchins

with thee in that bag, " said Isaac, prying under Gurth's cloak, " it is a

heavy one. "

" I have heads for cross-bow bolts in it, " said Gurth, readily.

" Well, then" --said Isaac, panting and hesitating between habitual love

of gain and a new-born desire to be liberal in the present instance, " if

I should say that I would take eighty zecchins for the good steed and

the rich armour, which leaves me not a guilder's profit, have you money

to pay me? "

" Barely, " said Gurth, though the sum demanded was more reasonable than

he expected, " and it will leave my master nigh penniless. Nevertheless,

if such be your least offer, I must be content. "

" Fill thyself another goblet of wine, " said the Jew. " Ah! eighty

zecchins is too little. It leaveth no profit for the usages of the

moneys; and, besides, the good horse may have suffered wrong in this

day's encounter. O, it was a hard and a dangerous meeting! man and steed

rushing on each other like wild bulls of Bashan! The horse cannot but

have had wrong. "

" And I say, " replied Gurth, " he is sound, wind and limb; and you may

see him now, in your stable. And I say, over and above, that seventy

zecchins is enough for the armour, and I hope a Christian's word is as

good as a Jew's. If you will not take seventy, I will carry this bag"

(and he shook it till the contents jingled) " back to my master. "

" Nay, nay! " said Isaac; " lay down the talents--the shekels--the eighty

zecchins, and thou shalt see I will consider thee liberally. "

Gurth at length complied; and telling out eighty zecchins upon the

table, the Jew delivered out to him an acquittance for the horse and

suit of armour. The Jew's hand trembled for joy as he wrapped up the

first seventy pieces of gold. The last ten he told over with much

deliberation, pausing, and saying something as he took each piece from

the table, and dropt it into his purse. It seemed as if his avarice were

struggling with his better nature, and compelling him to pouch zecchin

after zecchin while his generosity urged him to restore some part at

least to his benefactor, or as a donation to his agent. His whole speech

ran nearly thus:

" Seventy-one--seventy-two; thy master is a good youth--seventy-three,

an excellent youth--seventy-four--that piece hath been clipt

within the ring--seventy-five--and that looketh light of

weight--seventy-six--when thy master wants money, let him come to Isaac

of York--seventy-seven--that is, with reasonable security. " Here he made

a considerable pause, and Gurth had good hope that the last three pieces

might escape the fate of their comrades; but the enumeration

proceeded. --" Seventy-eight--thou art a good fellow--seventy-nine--and

deservest something for thyself---"

Here the Jew paused again, and looked at the last zecchin, intending,

doubtless, to bestow it upon Gurth. He weighed it upon the tip of his

finger, and made it ring by dropping it upon the table. Had it rung too

flat, or had it felt a hair's breadth too light, generosity had carried

the day; but, unhappily for Gurth, the chime was full and true, the

zecchin plump, newly coined, and a grain above weight. Isaac could not

find in his heart to part with it, so dropt it into his purse as if in

absence of mind, with the words, " Eighty completes the tale, and I trust

thy master will reward thee handsomely. --Surely, " he added, looking

earnestly at the bag, " thou hast more coins in that pouch? "

Gurth grinned, which was his nearest approach to a laugh, as he replied,

" About the same quantity which thou hast just told over so carefully. "

He then folded the quittance, and put it under his cap, adding, --" Peril

of thy beard, Jew, see that this be full and ample! " He filled himself

unbidden, a third goblet of wine, and left the apartment without

ceremony.

" Rebecca, " said the Jew, " that Ishmaelite hath gone somewhat beyond me.

Nevertheless his master is a good youth--ay, and I am well pleased that

he hath gained shekels of gold and shekels of silver, even by the speed

of his horse and by the strength of his lance, which, like that of

Goliath the Philistine, might vie with a weaver's beam. "

As he turned to receive Rebecca's answer, he observed, that during his

chattering with Gurth, she had left the apartment unperceived.

In the meanwhile, Gurth had descended the stair, and, having reached the

dark antechamber or hall, was puzzling about to discover the entrance,

when a figure in white, shown by a small silver lamp which she held in

her hand, beckoned him into a side apartment. Gurth had some reluctance

to obey the summons. Rough and impetuous as a wild boar, where only

earthly force was to be apprehended, he had all the characteristic

terrors of a Saxon respecting fawns, forest-fiends, white women, and

the whole of the superstitions which his ancestors had brought with them

from the wilds of Germany. He remembered, moreover, that he was in the

house of a Jew, a people who, besides the other unamiable qualities

which popular report ascribed to them, were supposed to be profound

necromancers and cabalists. Nevertheless, after a moment's pause, he

obeyed the beckoning summons of the apparition, and followed her into

the apartment which she indicated, where he found to his joyful surprise

that his fair guide was the beautiful Jewess whom he had seen at the

tournament, and a short time in her father's apartment.

She asked him the particulars of his transaction with Isaac, which he

detailed accurately.

" My father did but jest with thee, good fellow, " said Rebecca; " he owes

thy master deeper kindness than these arms and steed could pay, were

their value tenfold. What sum didst thou pay my father even now? "

" Eighty zecchins, " said Gurth, surprised at the question.

" In this purse, " said Rebecca, " thou wilt find a hundred. Restore to

thy master that which is his due, and enrich thyself with the remainder.

Haste--begone--stay not to render thanks! and beware how you pass

through this crowded town, where thou mayst easily lose both thy burden

and thy life. --Reuben, " she added, clapping her hands together, " light

forth this stranger, and fail not to draw lock and bar behind him. "

Reuben, a dark-brow'd and black-bearded Israelite, obeyed her summons,

with a torch in his hand; undid the outward door of the house, and

conducting Gurth across a paved court, let him out through a wicket in

the entrance-gate, which he closed behind him with such bolts and chains

as would well have become that of a prison.

" By St Dunstan, " said Gurth, as he stumbled up the dark avenue, " this

is no Jewess, but an angel from heaven! Ten zecchins from my brave young

master--twenty from this pearl of Zion--Oh, happy day! --Such another,

Gurth, will redeem thy bondage, and make thee a brother as free of thy

guild as the best. And then do I lay down my swineherd's horn and staff,

and take the freeman's sword and buckler, and follow my young master to

the death, without hiding either my face or my name. "

CHAPTER XI

1st Outlaw: Stand, sir, and throw us that you have about you;

If not, we'll make you sit, and rifle you.

Speed: Sir, we are undone! these are the villains

That all the travellers do fear so much.

Val: My friends, --

1st Out: That's not so, sir, we are your enemies.

2d Out: Peace! we'll hear him.

3d Out: Ay, by my beard, will we;

For he's a proper man.

--Two Gentlemen of Verona

The nocturnal adventures of Gurth were not yet concluded; indeed he

himself became partly of that mind, when, after passing one or two

straggling houses which stood in the outskirts of the village, he found

himself in a deep lane, running between two banks overgrown with hazel

and holly, while here and there a dwarf oak flung its arms altogether

across the path. The lane was moreover much rutted and broken up by the

carriages which had recently transported articles of various kinds to

the tournament; and it was dark, for the banks and bushes intercepted

the light of the harvest moon.

From the village were heard the distant sounds of revelry, mixed

occasionally with loud laughter, sometimes broken by screams, and

sometimes by wild strains of distant music. All these sounds, intimating

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