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memorable conquest of this night, a conquest obtained over an old man,

followed by a few timid hinds; and its booty, an unfortunate maiden,

transported against her will to the castle of a robber? "

" You are unjust, Lady Rowena, " said the knight, biting his lips in

some confusion, and speaking in a tone more natural to him than that of

affected gallantry, which he had at first adopted; " yourself free from

passion, you can allow no excuse for the frenzy of another, although

caused by your own beauty. "

" I pray you, Sir Knight, " said Rowena, " to cease a language so commonly

used by strolling minstrels, that it becomes not the mouth of knights or

nobles. Certes, you constrain me to sit down, since you enter upon such

commonplace terms, of which each vile crowder hath a stock that might

last from hence to Christmas. "

" Proud damsel, " said De Bracy, incensed at finding his gallant style

procured him nothing but contempt--" proud damsel, thou shalt be as

proudly encountered. Know then, that I have supported my pretensions to

your hand in the way that best suited thy character. It is meeter for

thy humour to be wooed with bow and bill, than in set terms, and in

courtly language. "

" Courtesy of tongue, " said Rowena, " when it is used to veil churlishness

of deed, is but a knight's girdle around the breast of a base clown. I

wonder not that the restraint appears to gall you--more it were for your

honour to have retained the dress and language of an outlaw, than

to veil the deeds of one under an affectation of gentle language and

demeanour. "

" You counsel well, lady, " said the Norman; " and in the bold language

which best justifies bold action I tell thee, thou shalt never leave

this castle, or thou shalt leave it as Maurice de Bracy's wife. I am

not wont to be baffled in my enterprises, nor needs a Norman noble

scrupulously to vindicate his conduct to the Saxon maiden whom he

distinguishes by the offer of his hand. Thou art proud, Rowena, and thou

art the fitter to be my wife. By what other means couldst thou be raised

to high honour and to princely place, saving by my alliance? How else

wouldst thou escape from the mean precincts of a country grange, where

Saxons herd with the swine which form their wealth, to take thy seat,

honoured as thou shouldst be, and shalt be, amid all in England that is

distinguished by beauty, or dignified by power? "

" Sir Knight, " replied Rowena, " the grange which you contemn hath been

my shelter from infancy; and, trust me, when I leave it--should that

day ever arrive--it shall be with one who has not learnt to despise the

dwelling and manners in which I have been brought up. "

" I guess your meaning, lady, " said De Bracy, " though you may think it

lies too obscure for my apprehension. But dream not, that Richard Coeur

de Lion will ever resume his throne, far less that Wilfred of Ivanhoe,

his minion, will ever lead thee to his footstool, to be there welcomed

as the bride of a favourite. Another suitor might feel jealousy while he

touched this string; but my firm purpose cannot be changed by a passion

so childish and so hopeless. Know, lady, that this rival is in my power,

and that it rests but with me to betray the secret of his being within

the castle to Front-de-Boeuf, whose jealousy will be more fatal than

mine. "

" Wilfred here? " said Rowena, in disdain; " that is as true as that

Front-de-Boeuf is his rival. "

De Bracy looked at her steadily for an instant.

" Wert thou really ignorant of this? " said he; " didst thou not know

that Wilfred of Ivanhoe travelled in the litter of the Jew? --a meet

conveyance for the crusader, whose doughty arm was to reconquer the Holy

Sepulchre! " And he laughed scornfully.

" And if he is here, " said Rowena, compelling herself to a tone of

indifference, though trembling with an agony of apprehension which she

could not suppress, " in what is he the rival of Front-de-Boeuf? or what

has he to fear beyond a short imprisonment, and an honourable ransom,

according to the use of chivalry? "

" Rowena, " said De Bracy, " art thou, too, deceived by the common error of

thy sex, who think there can be no rivalry but that respecting their own

charms? Knowest thou not there is a jealousy of ambition and of wealth,

as well as of love; and that this our host, Front-de-Boeuf, will push

from his road him who opposes his claim to the fair barony of Ivanhoe,

as readily, eagerly, and unscrupulously, as if he were preferred to him

by some blue-eyed damsel? But smile on my suit, lady, and the wounded

champion shall have nothing to fear from Front-de-Boeuf, whom else thou

mayst mourn for, as in the hands of one who has never shown compassion. "

" Save him, for the love of Heaven! " said Rowena, her firmness giving way

under terror for her lover's impending fate.

" I can--I will--it is my purpose, " said De Bracy; " for, when Rowena

consents to be the bride of De Bracy, who is it shall dare to put forth

a violent hand upon her kinsman--the son of her guardian--the companion

of her youth? But it is thy love must buy his protection. I am not

romantic fool enough to further the fortune, or avert the fate, of one

who is likely to be a successful obstacle between me and my wishes. Use

thine influence with me in his behalf, and he is safe, --refuse to employ

it, Wilfred dies, and thou thyself art not the nearer to freedom. "

" Thy language, " answered Rowena, " hath in its indifferent bluntness

something which cannot be reconciled with the horrors it seems to

express. I believe not that thy purpose is so wicked, or thy power so

great. "

" Flatter thyself, then, with that belief, " said De Bracy, " until

time shall prove it false. Thy lover lies wounded in this castle--thy

preferred lover. He is a bar betwixt Front-de-Boeuf and that which

Front-de-Boeuf loves better than either ambition or beauty. What will

it cost beyond the blow of a poniard, or the thrust of a javelin, to

silence his opposition for ever? Nay, were Front-de-Boeuf afraid to

justify a deed so open, let the leech but give his patient a wrong

draught--let the chamberlain, or the nurse who tends him, but pluck

the pillow from his head, and Wilfred in his present condition, is sped

without the effusion of blood. Cedric also--"

" And Cedric also, " said Rowena, repeating his words; " my noble--my

generous guardian! I deserved the evil I have encountered, for

forgetting his fate even in that of his son! "

" Cedric's fate also depends upon thy determination, " said De Bracy; " and

I leave thee to form it. "

Hitherto, Rowena had sustained her part in this trying scene with

undismayed courage, but it was because she had not considered the

danger as serious and imminent. Her disposition was naturally that which

physiognomists consider as proper to fair complexions, mild, timid,

and gentle; but it had been tempered, and, as it were, hardened, by the

circumstances of her education. Accustomed to see the will of all, even

of Cedric himself, (sufficiently arbitrary with others, ) give way before

her wishes, she had acquired that sort of courage and self-confidence

which arises from the habitual and constant deference of the circle in

which we move. She could scarce conceive the possibility of her will

being opposed, far less that of its being treated with total disregard.

Her haughtiness and habit of domination was, therefore, a fictitious

character, induced over that which was natural to her, and it deserted

her when her eyes were opened to the extent of her own danger, as well

as that of her lover and her guardian; and when she found her will, the

slightest expression of which was wont to command respect and attention,

now placed in opposition to that of a man of a strong, fierce, and

determined mind, who possessed the advantage over her, and was resolved

to use it, she quailed before him.

After casting her eyes around, as if to look for the aid which was

nowhere to be found, and after a few broken interjections, she raised

her hands to heaven, and burst into a passion of uncontrolled vexation

and sorrow. It was impossible to see so beautiful a creature in such

extremity without feeling for her, and De Bracy was not unmoved, though

he was yet more embarrassed than touched. He had, in truth, gone too

far to recede; and yet, in Rowena's present condition, she could not be

acted on either by argument or threats. He paced the apartment to and

fro, now vainly exhorting the terrified maiden to compose herself, now

hesitating concerning his own line of conduct.

If, thought he, I should be moved by the tears and sorrow of this

disconsolate damsel, what should I reap but the loss of these fair hopes

for which I have encountered so much risk, and the ridicule of Prince

John and his jovial comrades? " And yet, " he said to himself, " I feel

myself ill framed for the part which I am playing. I cannot look on so

fair a face while it is disturbed with agony, or on those eyes when they

are drowned in tears. I would she had retained her original haughtiness

of disposition, or that I had a larger share of Front-de-Boeuf's

thrice-tempered hardness of heart! "

Agitated by these thoughts, he could only bid the unfortunate Rowena be

comforted, and assure her, that as yet she had no reason for the

excess of despair to which she was now giving way. But in this task of

consolation De Bracy was interrupted by the horn, " hoarse-winded blowing

far and keen, " which had at the same time alarmed the other inmates

of the castle, and interrupted their several plans of avarice and

of license. Of them all, perhaps, De Bracy least regretted the

interruption; for his conference with the Lady Rowena had arrived at a

point, where he found it equally difficult to prosecute or to resign his

enterprise.

And here we cannot but think it necessary to offer some better proof

than the incidents of an idle tale, to vindicate the melancholy

representation of manners which has been just laid before the reader. It

is grievous to think that those valiant barons, to whose stand against

the crown the liberties of England were indebted for their existence,

should themselves have been such dreadful oppressors, and capable of

excesses contrary not only to the laws of England, but to those of

nature and humanity. But, alas! we have only to extract from the

industrious Henry one of those numerous passages which he has collected

from contemporary historians, to prove that fiction itself can hardly

reach the dark reality of the horrors of the period.

The description given by the author of the Saxon Chronicle of the

cruelties exercised in the reign of King Stephen by the great barons and

lords of castles, who were all Normans, affords a strong proof of the

excesses of which they were capable when their passions were inflamed.

" They grievously oppressed the poor people by building castles; and when

they were built, they filled them with wicked men, or rather devils, who

seized both men and women who they imagined had any money, threw them

into prison, and put them to more cruel tortures than the martyrs ever

endured. They suffocated some in mud, and suspended others by the feet,

or the head, or the thumbs, kindling fires below them. They squeezed the

heads of some with knotted cords till they pierced their brains, while

they threw others into dungeons swarming with serpents, snakes, and

toads. " But it would be cruel to put the reader to the pain of perusing

the remainder of this description. [29]

As another instance of these bitter fruits of conquest, and perhaps the

strongest that can be quoted, we may mention, that the Princess Matilda,

though a daughter of the King of Scotland, and afterwards both Queen of

England, niece to Edgar Atheling, and mother to the Empress of Germany,

the daughter, the wife, and the mother of monarchs, was obliged, during

her early residence for education in England, to assume the veil of a

nun, as the only means of escaping the licentious pursuit of the Norman

nobles. This excuse she stated before a great council of the clergy of

England, as the sole reason for her having taken the religious habit.

The assembled clergy admitted the validity of the plea, and the

notoriety of the circumstances upon which it was founded; giving thus

an indubitable and most remarkable testimony to the existence of that

disgraceful license by which that age was stained. It was a matter of

public knowledge, they said, that after the conquest of King William,

his Norman followers, elated by so great a victory, acknowledged no

law but their own wicked pleasure, and not only despoiled the conquered

Saxons of their lands and their goods, but invaded the honour of their

wives and of their daughters with the most unbridled license; and hence

it was then common for matrons and maidens of noble families to assume

the veil, and take shelter in convents, not as called thither by the

vocation of God, but solely to preserve their honour from the unbridled

wickedness of man.

Such and so licentious were the times, as announced by the public

declaration of the assembled clergy, recorded by Eadmer; and we need add

nothing more to vindicate the probability of the scenes which we have

detailed, and are about to detail, upon the more apocryphal authority of

the Wardour MS.

CHAPTER XXIV

I'll woo her as the lion woos his bride.

--Douglas

While the scenes we have described were passing in other parts of the

castle, the Jewess Rebecca awaited her fate in a distant and sequestered

turret. Hither she had been led by two of her disguised ravishers, and

on being thrust into the little cell, she found herself in the presence

of an old sibyl, who kept murmuring to herself a Saxon rhyme, as if to

beat time to the revolving dance which her spindle was performing upon

the floor. The hag raised her head as Rebecca entered, and scowled at

the fair Jewess with the malignant envy with which old age and ugliness,

when united with evil conditions, are apt to look upon youth and beauty.

" Thou must up and away, old house-cricket, " said one of the men; " our

noble master commands it--Thou must e'en leave this chamber to a fairer

guest. "

" Ay, " grumbled the hag, " even thus is service requited. I have known

when my bare word would have cast the best man-at-arms among ye out of

saddle and out of service; and now must I up and away at the command of

every groom such as thou. "

" Good Dame Urfried, " said the other man, " stand not to reason on it,

but up and away. Lords' hests must be listened to with a quick ear. Thou

hast had thy day, old dame, but thy sun has long been set. Thou art now

the very emblem of an old war-horse turned out on the barren heath--thou

hast had thy paces in thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of

them--Come, amble off with thee. "

" Ill omens dog ye both! " said the old woman; " and a kennel be your

burying-place! May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb, if I

leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp on my distaff! "

" Answer it to our lord, then, old housefiend, " said the man, and

retired; leaving Rebecca in company with the old woman, upon whose

presence she had been thus unwillingly forced.

" What devil's deed have they now in the wind? " said the old hag,

murmuring to herself, yet from time to time casting a sidelong and

malignant glance at Rebecca; " but it is easy to guess--Bright eyes,

black locks, and a skin like paper, ere the priest stains it with his

black unguent--Ay, it is easy to guess why they send her to this lone

turret, whence a shriek could no more be heard than at the depth of

five hundred fathoms beneath the earth. --Thou wilt have owls for thy

neighbours, fair one; and their screams will be heard as far, and as

much regarded, as thine own. Outlandish, too, " she said, marking the

dress and turban of Rebecca--" What country art thou of? --a Saracen?

or an Egyptian? --Why dost not answer? --thou canst weep, canst thou not

speak? "

" Be not angry, good mother, " said Rebecca.

" Thou needst say no more, " replied Urfried " men know a fox by the train,

and a Jewess by her tongue. "

" For the sake of mercy, " said Rebecca, " tell me what I am to expect as

the conclusion of the violence which hath dragged me hither! Is it

my life they seek, to atone for my religion? I will lay it down

cheerfully. "

" Thy life, minion? " answered the sibyl; " what would taking thy life

pleasure them? --Trust me, thy life is in no peril. Such usage shalt thou

have as was once thought good enough for a noble Saxon maiden. And shall

a Jewess, like thee, repine because she hath no better? Look at me--I

was as young and twice as fair as thou, when Front-de-Boeuf, father of

this Reginald, and his Normans, stormed this castle. My father and his

seven sons defended their inheritance from story to story, from chamber

to chamber--There was not a room, not a step of the stair, that was not

slippery with their blood. They died--they died every man; and ere their

bodies were cold, and ere their blood was dried, I had become the prey

and the scorn of the conqueror! "

" Is there no help? --Are there no means of escape? " said

Rebecca--" Richly, richly would I requite thine aid. "

" Think not of it, " said the hag; " from hence there is no escape but

through the gates of death; and it is late, late, " she added, shaking

her grey head, " ere these open to us--Yet it is comfort to think that we

leave behind us on earth those who shall be wretched as ourselves. Fare

thee well, Jewess! --Jew or Gentile, thy fate would be the same; for thou

hast to do with them that have neither scruple nor pity. Fare thee well,

I say. My thread is spun out--thy task is yet to begin. "

" Stay! stay! for Heaven's sake! " said Rebecca; " stay, though it be to

curse and to revile me--thy presence is yet some protection. "

" The presence of the mother of God were no protection, " answered the old

woman. " There she stands, " pointing to a rude image of the Virgin Mary,

" see if she can avert the fate that awaits thee. "

She left the room as she spoke, her features writhed into a sort of

sneering laugh, which made them seem even more hideous than their

habitual frown. She locked the door behind her, and Rebecca might hear

her curse every step for its steepness, as slowly and with difficulty

she descended the turret-stair.

Rebecca was now to expect a fate even more dreadful than that of Rowena;

for what probability was there that either softness or ceremony would be

used towards one of her oppressed race, whatever shadow of these might

be preserved towards a Saxon heiress? Yet had the Jewess this advantage,

that she was better prepared by habits of thought, and by natural

strength of mind, to encounter the dangers to which she was exposed. Of

a strong and observing character, even from her earliest years, the pomp

and wealth which her father displayed within his walls, or which she

witnessed in the houses of other wealthy Hebrews, had not been able to

blind her to the precarious circumstances under which they were enjoyed.

Like Damocles at his celebrated banquet, Rebecca perpetually beheld,

amid that gorgeous display, the sword which was suspended over the heads

of her people by a single hair. These reflections had tamed and brought

down to a pitch of sounder judgment a temper, which, under other

circumstances, might have waxed haughty, supercilious, and obstinate.

From her father's example and injunctions, Rebecca had learnt to bear

herself courteously towards all who approached her. She could not indeed

imitate his excess of subservience, because she was a stranger to the

meanness of mind, and to the constant state of timid apprehension, by

which it was dictated; but she bore herself with a proud humility, as

if submitting to the evil circumstances in which she was placed as

the daughter of a despised race, while she felt in her mind the

consciousness that she was entitled to hold a higher rank from her

merit, than the arbitrary despotism of religious prejudice permitted her

to aspire to.

Thus prepared to expect adverse circumstances, she had acquired the

firmness necessary for acting under them. Her present situation required

all her presence of mind, and she summoned it up accordingly.

Her first care was to inspect the apartment; but it afforded few hopes

either of escape or protection. It contained neither secret passage nor

trap-door, and unless where the door by which she had entered joined the

main building, seemed to be circumscribed by the round exterior wall of

the turret. The door had no inside bolt or bar. The single window opened

upon an embattled space surmounting the turret, which gave Rebecca,

at first sight, some hopes of escaping; but she soon found it had no

communication with any other part of the battlements, being an isolated

bartisan, or balcony, secured, as usual, by a parapet, with embrasures,

at which a few archers might be stationed for defending the turret, and

flanking with their shot the wall of the castle on that side.

There was therefore no hope but in passive fortitude, and in that strong

reliance on Heaven natural to great and generous characters. Rebecca,

however erroneously taught to interpret the promises of Scripture to

the chosen people of Heaven, did not err in supposing the present to be

their hour of trial, or in trusting that the children of Zion would be

one day called in with the fulness of the Gentiles. In the meanwhile,

all around her showed that their present state was that of punishment

and probation, and that it was their especial duty to suffer without

sinning. Thus prepared to consider herself as the victim of misfortune,

Rebecca had early reflected upon her own state, and schooled her mind to

meet the dangers which she had probably to encounter.

The prisoner trembled, however, and changed colour, when a step was

heard on the stair, and the door of the turret-chamber slowly opened,

and a tall man, dressed as one of those banditti to whom they owed

their misfortune, slowly entered, and shut the door behind him; his cap,

pulled down upon his brows, concealed the upper part of his face, and he

held his mantle in such a manner as to muffle the rest. In this guise,

as if prepared for the execution of some deed, at the thought of which

he was himself ashamed, he stood before the affrighted prisoner; yet,

ruffian as his dress bespoke him, he seemed at a loss to express what

purpose had brought him thither, so that Rebecca, making an effort

upon herself, had time to anticipate his explanation. She had already

unclasped two costly bracelets and a collar, which she hastened to

proffer to the supposed outlaw, concluding naturally that to gratify his

avarice was to bespeak his favour.

" Take these, " she said, " good friend, and for God's sake be merciful

to me and my aged father! These ornaments are of value, yet are they

trifling to what he would bestow to obtain our dismissal from this

castle, free and uninjured. "

" Fair flower of Palestine, " replied the outlaw, " these pearls are

orient, but they yield in whiteness to your teeth; the diamonds are

brilliant, but they cannot match your eyes; and ever since I have taken

up this wild trade, I have made a vow to prefer beauty to wealth. "

" Do not do yourself such wrong, " said Rebecca; " take ransom, and have

mercy! --Gold will purchase you pleasure, --to misuse us, could only bring

thee remorse. My father will willingly satiate thy utmost wishes; and

if thou wilt act wisely, thou mayst purchase with our spoils thy

restoration to civil society--mayst obtain pardon for past errors, and

be placed beyond the necessity of committing more. "

" It is well spoken, " replied the outlaw in French, finding it difficult

probably to sustain, in Saxon, a conversation which Rebecca had opened

in that language; " but know, bright lily of the vale of Baca! that thy

father is already in the hands of a powerful alchemist, who knows how to

convert into gold and silver even the rusty bars of a dungeon grate. The

venerable Isaac is subjected to an alembic, which will distil from

him all he holds dear, without any assistance from my requests or thy

entreaty. The ransom must be paid by love and beauty, and in no other

coin will I accept it. "

" Thou art no outlaw, " said Rebecca, in the same language in which he

addressed her; " no outlaw had refused such offers. No outlaw in this

land uses the dialect in which thou hast spoken. Thou art no outlaw, but

a Norman--a Norman, noble perhaps in birth--O, be so in thy actions, and

cast off this fearful mask of outrage and violence! "

" And thou, who canst guess so truly, " said Brian de Bois-Guilbert,

dropping the mantle from his face, " art no true daughter of Israel,

but in all, save youth and beauty, a very witch of Endor. I am not an

outlaw, then, fair rose of Sharon. And I am one who will be more prompt

to hang thy neck and arms with pearls and diamonds, which so well become

them, than to deprive thee of these ornaments. "

" What wouldst thou have of me, " said Rebecca, " if not my wealth? --We

can have nought in common between us--you are a Christian--I am a

Jewess. --Our union were contrary to the laws, alike of the church and

the synagogue. "

" It were so, indeed, " replied the Templar, laughing; " wed with a Jewess?

'Despardieux! '--Not if she were the Queen of Sheba! And know, besides,

sweet daughter of Zion, that were the most Christian king to offer me

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