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before I consent to part with her. The slave Wamba has this day saved

the life of my father Cedric--I will lose mine ere a hair of his head be

injured. "

" Thy affianced bride? --The Lady Rowena the affianced bride of a vassal

like thee? " said De Bracy; " Saxon, thou dreamest that the days of thy

seven kingdoms are returned again. I tell thee, the Princes of the House

of Anjou confer not their wards on men of such lineage as thine. "

" My lineage, proud Norman, " replied Athelstane, " is drawn from a source

more pure and ancient than that of a beggarly Frenchman, whose living

is won by selling the blood of the thieves whom he assembles under his

paltry standard. Kings were my ancestors, strong in war and wise in

council, who every day feasted in their hall more hundreds than thou

canst number individual followers; whose names have been sung by

minstrels, and their laws recorded by Wittenagemotes; whose bones were

interred amid the prayers of saints, and over whose tombs minsters have

been builded. "

" Thou hast it, De Bracy, " said Front-de-Boeuf, well pleased with the

rebuff which his companion had received; " the Saxon hath hit thee

fairly. "

" As fairly as a captive can strike, " said De Bracy, with apparent

carelessness; " for he whose hands are tied should have his tongue at

freedom. --But thy glibness of reply, comrade, " rejoined he, speaking to

Athelstane, " will not win the freedom of the Lady Rowena. "

To this Athelstane, who had already made a longer speech than was his

custom to do on any topic, however interesting, returned no answer. The

conversation was interrupted by the arrival of a menial, who announced

that a monk demanded admittance at the postern gate.

" In the name of Saint Bennet, the prince of these bull-beggars, " said

Front-de-Boeuf, " have we a real monk this time, or another impostor?

Search him, slaves--for an ye suffer a second impostor to be palmed

upon you, I will have your eyes torn out, and hot coals put into the

sockets. "

" Let me endure the extremity of your anger, my lord, " said Giles, " if

this be not a real shaveling. Your squire Jocelyn knows him well, and

will vouch him to be brother Ambrose, a monk in attendance upon the

Prior of Jorvaulx. "

" Admit him, " said Front-de-Boeuf; " most likely he brings us news from

his jovial master. Surely the devil keeps holiday, and the priests are

relieved from duty, that they are strolling thus wildly through the

country. Remove these prisoners; and, Saxon, think on what thou hast

heard. "

" I claim, " said Athelstane, " an honourable imprisonment, with due care

of my board and of my couch, as becomes my rank, and as is due to one

who is in treaty for ransom. Moreover, I hold him that deems himself the

best of you, bound to answer to me with his body for this aggression on

my freedom. This defiance hath already been sent to thee by thy sewer;

thou underliest it, and art bound to answer me--There lies my glove. "

" I answer not the challenge of my prisoner, " said Front-de-Boeuf;

" nor shalt thou, Maurice de Bracy. --Giles, " he continued, " hang the

franklin's glove upon the tine of yonder branched antlers: there shall

it remain until he is a free man. Should he then presume to demand it,

or to affirm he was unlawfully made my prisoner, by the belt of Saint

Christopher, he will speak to one who hath never refused to meet a foe

on foot or on horseback, alone or with his vassals at his back! "

The Saxon prisoners were accordingly removed, just as they introduced

the monk Ambrose, who appeared to be in great perturbation.

" This is the real 'Deus vobiscum', " said Wamba, as he passed the

reverend brother; " the others were but counterfeits. "

" Holy Mother, " said the monk, as he addressed the assembled knights, " I

am at last safe and in Christian keeping! "

" Safe thou art, " replied De Bracy; " and for Christianity, here is the

stout Baron Reginald Front-de-Boeuf, whose utter abomination is a Jew;

and the good Knight Templar, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, whose trade is to

slay Saracens--If these are not good marks of Christianity, I know no

other which they bear about them. "

" Ye are friends and allies of our reverend father in God, Aymer, Prior

of Jorvaulx, " said the monk, without noticing the tone of De Bracy's

reply; " ye owe him aid both by knightly faith and holy charity; for what

saith the blessed Saint Augustin, in his treatise 'De Civitate Dei'---"

" What saith the devil! " interrupted Front-de-Boeuf; " or rather what dost

thou say, Sir Priest? We have little time to hear texts from the holy

fathers. "

" 'Sancta Maria! '" ejaculated Father Ambrose, " how prompt to ire are

these unhallowed laymen! --But be it known to you, brave knights,

that certain murderous caitiffs, casting behind them fear of God, and

reverence of his church, and not regarding the bull of the holy see, 'Si

quis, suadende Diabolo'---"

" Brother priest, " said the Templar, " all this we know or guess at--tell

us plainly, is thy master, the Prior, made prisoner, and to whom? "

" Surely, " said Ambrose, " he is in the hands of the men of Belial,

infesters of these woods, and contemners of the holy text, 'Touch not

mine anointed, and do my prophets naught of evil. '"

" Here is a new argument for our swords, sirs, " said Front-de-Boeuf,

turning to his companions; " and so, instead of reaching us any

assistance, the Prior of Jorvaulx requests aid at our hands? a man is

well helped of these lazy churchmen when he hath most to do! --But speak

out, priest, and say at once, what doth thy master expect from us? "

" So please you, " said Ambrose, " violent hands having been imposed on my

reverend superior, contrary to the holy ordinance which I did already

quote, and the men of Belial having rifled his mails and budgets, and

stripped him of two hundred marks of pure refined gold, they do yet

demand of him a large sum beside, ere they will suffer him to depart

from their uncircumcised hands. Wherefore the reverend father in God

prays you, as his dear friends, to rescue him, either by paying down

the ransom at which they hold him, or by force of arms, at your best

discretion. "

" The foul fiend quell the Prior! " said Front-de-Boeuf; " his morning's

drought has been a deep one. When did thy master hear of a Norman baron

unbuckling his purse to relieve a churchman, whose bags are ten times

as weighty as ours? --And how can we do aught by valour to free him, that

are cooped up here by ten times our number, and expect an assault every

moment? "

" And that was what I was about to tell you, " said the monk, " had your

hastiness allowed me time. But, God help me, I am old, and these foul

onslaughts distract an aged man's brain. Nevertheless, it is of verity

that they assemble a camp, and raise a bank against the walls of this

castle. "

" To the battlements! " cried De Bracy, " and let us mark what these knaves

do without; " and so saying, he opened a latticed window which led to

a sort of bartisan or projecting balcony, and immediately called from

thence to those in the apartment--" Saint Dennis, but the old monk hath

brought true tidings! --They bring forward mantelets and pavisses, [32]

and the archers muster on the skirts of the wood like a dark cloud

before a hailstorm. "

Reginald Front-de-Boeuf also looked out upon the field, and immediately

snatched his bugle; and, after winding a long and loud blast, commanded

his men to their posts on the walls.

" De Bracy, look to the eastern side, where the walls are lowest--Noble

Bois-Guilbert, thy trade hath well taught thee how to attack and defend,

look thou to the western side--I myself will take post at the barbican.

Yet, do not confine your exertions to any one spot, noble friends! --we

must this day be everywhere, and multiply ourselves, were it possible,

so as to carry by our presence succour and relief wherever the attack is

hottest. Our numbers are few, but activity and courage may supply that

defect, since we have only to do with rascal clowns. "

" But, noble knights, " exclaimed Father Ambrose, amidst the bustle and

confusion occasioned by the preparations for defence, " will none of

ye hear the message of the reverend father in God Aymer, Prior of

Jorvaulx? --I beseech thee to hear me, noble Sir Reginald! "

" Go patter thy petitions to heaven, " said the fierce Norman, " for we

on earth have no time to listen to them. --Ho! there, Anselm I see that

seething pitch and oil are ready to pour on the heads of these audacious

traitors--Look that the cross-bowmen lack not bolts. [33]--Fling abroad

my banner with the old bull's head--the knaves shall soon find with whom

they have to do this day! "

" But, noble sir, " continued the monk, persevering in his endeavours

to draw attention, " consider my vow of obedience, and let me discharge

myself of my Superior's errand. "

" Away with this prating dotard, " said Front-de Boeuf, " lock him up in

the chapel, to tell his beads till the broil be over. It will be a new

thing to the saints in Torquilstone to hear aves and paters; they have

not been so honoured, I trow, since they were cut out of stone. "

" Blaspheme not the holy saints, Sir Reginald, " said De Bracy, " we shall

have need of their aid to-day before yon rascal rout disband. "

" I expect little aid from their hand, " said Front-de-Boeuf, " unless we

were to hurl them from the battlements on the heads of the villains.

There is a huge lumbering Saint Christopher yonder, sufficient to bear a

whole company to the earth. "

The Templar had in the meantime been looking out on the proceedings of

the besiegers, with rather more attention than the brutal Front-de-Boeuf

or his giddy companion.

" By the faith of mine order, " he said, " these men approach with more

touch of discipline than could have been judged, however they come by

it. See ye how dexterously they avail themselves of every cover which

a tree or bush affords, and shun exposing themselves to the shot of our

cross-bows? I spy neither banner nor pennon among them, and yet will

I gage my golden chain, that they are led on by some noble knight or

gentleman, skilful in the practice of wars. "

" I espy him, " said De Bracy; " I see the waving of a knight's crest,

and the gleam of his armour. See yon tall man in the black mail, who is

busied marshalling the farther troop of the rascaille yeomen--by Saint

Dennis, I hold him to be the same whom we called 'Le Noir Faineant', who

overthrew thee, Front-de-Boeuf, in the lists at Ashby. "

" So much the better, " said Front-de-Boeuf, " that he comes here to give

me my revenge. Some hilding fellow he must be, who dared not stay to

assert his claim to the tourney prize which chance had assigned him. I

should in vain have sought for him where knights and nobles seek their

foes, and right glad am I he hath here shown himself among yon villain

yeomanry. "

The demonstrations of the enemy's immediate approach cut off all farther

discourse. Each knight repaired to his post, and at the head of the

few followers whom they were able to muster, and who were in numbers

inadequate to defend the whole extent of the walls, they awaited with

calm determination the threatened assault.

CHAPTER XXVIII

This wandering race, sever'd from other men,

Boast yet their intercourse with human arts;

The seas, the woods, the deserts, which they haunt,

Find them acquainted with their secret treasures:

And unregarded herbs, and flowers, and blossoms,

Display undreamt-of powers when gather'd by them.

--The Jew

Our history must needs retrograde for the space of a few pages, to

inform the reader of certain passages material to his understanding the

rest of this important narrative. His own intelligence may indeed have

easily anticipated that, when Ivanhoe sunk down, and seemed abandoned by

all the world, it was the importunity of Rebecca which prevailed on her

father to have the gallant young warrior transported from the lists to

the house which for the time the Jews inhabited in the suburbs of Ashby.

It would not have been difficult to have persuaded Isaac to this step in

any other circumstances, for his disposition was kind and grateful. But

he had also the prejudices and scrupulous timidity of his persecuted

people, and those were to be conquered.

" Holy Abraham! " he exclaimed, " he is a good youth, and my heart bleeds

to see the gore trickle down his rich embroidered hacqueton, and his

corslet of goodly price--but to carry him to our house! --damsel, hast

thou well considered? --he is a Christian, and by our law we may not deal

with the stranger and Gentile, save for the advantage of our commerce. "

" Speak not so, my dear father, " replied Rebecca; " we may not indeed mix

with them in banquet and in jollity; but in wounds and in misery, the

Gentile becometh the Jew's brother. "

" I would I knew what the Rabbi Jacob Ben Tudela would opine on it, "

replied Isaac; --" nevertheless, the good youth must not bleed to death.

Let Seth and Reuben bear him to Ashby. "

" Nay, let them place him in my litter, " said Rebecca; " I will mount one

of the palfreys. "

" That were to expose thee to the gaze of those dogs of Ishmael and of

Edom, " whispered Isaac, with a suspicious glance towards the crowd of

knights and squires. But Rebecca was already busied in carrying her

charitable purpose into effect, and listed not what he said, until

Isaac, seizing the sleeve of her mantle, again exclaimed, in a hurried

voice--" Beard of Aaron! --what if the youth perish! --if he die in our

custody, shall we not be held guilty of his blood, and be torn to pieces

by the multitude? "

" He will not die, my father, " said Rebecca, gently extricating herself

from the grasp of Isaac " he will not die unless we abandon him; and if

so, we are indeed answerable for his blood to God and to man. "

" Nay, " said Isaac, releasing his hold, " it grieveth me as much to see

the drops of his blood, as if they were so many golden byzants from mine

own purse; and I well know, that the lessons of Miriam, daughter of the

Rabbi Manasses of Byzantium whose soul is in Paradise, have made thee

skilful in the art of healing, and that thou knowest the craft of herbs,

and the force of elixirs. Therefore, do as thy mind giveth thee--thou

art a good damsel, a blessing, and a crown, and a song of rejoicing unto

me and unto my house, and unto the people of my fathers. "

The apprehensions of Isaac, however, were not ill founded; and the

generous and grateful benevolence of his daughter exposed her, on her

return to Ashby, to the unhallowed gaze of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. The

Templar twice passed and repassed them on the road, fixing his bold

and ardent look on the beautiful Jewess; and we have already seen the

consequences of the admiration which her charms excited when accident

threw her into the power of that unprincipled voluptuary.

Rebecca lost no time in causing the patient to be transported to their

temporary dwelling, and proceeded with her own hands to examine and

to bind up his wounds. The youngest reader of romances and romantic

ballads, must recollect how often the females, during the dark ages, as

they are called, were initiated into the mysteries of surgery, and how

frequently the gallant knight submitted the wounds of his person to her

cure, whose eyes had yet more deeply penetrated his heart.

But the Jews, both male and female, possessed and practised the medical

science in all its branches, and the monarchs and powerful barons of the

time frequently committed themselves to the charge of some experienced

sage among this despised people, when wounded or in sickness. The aid

of the Jewish physicians was not the less eagerly sought after, though

a general belief prevailed among the Christians, that the Jewish Rabbins

were deeply acquainted with the occult sciences, and particularly with

the cabalistical art, which had its name and origin in the studies of

the sages of Israel. Neither did the Rabbins disown such acquaintance

with supernatural arts, which added nothing (for what could add aught? )

to the hatred with which their nation was regarded, while it diminished

the contempt with which that malevolence was mingled. A Jewish magician

might be the subject of equal abhorrence with a Jewish usurer, but he

could not be equally despised. It is besides probable, considering the

wonderful cures they are said to have performed, that the Jews possessed

some secrets of the healing art peculiar to themselves, and which, with

the exclusive spirit arising out of their condition, they took great

care to conceal from the Christians amongst whom they dwelt.

The beautiful Rebecca had been heedfully brought up in all the knowledge

proper to her nation, which her apt and powerful mind had retained,

arranged, and enlarged, in the course of a progress beyond her years,

her sex, and even the age in which she lived. Her knowledge of medicine

and of the healing art had been acquired under an aged Jewess, the

daughter of one of their most celebrated doctors, who loved Rebecca as

her own child, and was believed to have communicated to her secrets,

which had been left to herself by her sage father at the same time, and

under the same circumstances. The fate of Miriam had indeed been to fall

a sacrifice to the fanaticism of the times; but her secrets had survived

in her apt pupil.

Rebecca, thus endowed with knowledge as with beauty, was universally

revered and admired by her own tribe, who almost regarded her as one of

those gifted women mentioned in the sacred history. Her father himself,

out of reverence for her talents, which involuntarily mingled itself

with his unbounded affection, permitted the maiden a greater liberty

than was usually indulged to those of her sex by the habits of her

people, and was, as we have just seen, frequently guided by her opinion,

even in preference to his own.

When Ivanhoe reached the habitation of Isaac, he was still in a state

of unconsciousness, owing to the profuse loss of blood which had taken

place during his exertions in the lists. Rebecca examined the wound,

and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed,

informed her father that if fever could be averted, of which the great

bleeding rendered her little apprehensive, and if the healing balsam of

Miriam retained its virtue, there was nothing to fear for his guest's

life, and that he might with safety travel to York with them on the

ensuing day. Isaac looked a little blank at this annunciation. His

charity would willingly have stopped short at Ashby, or at most would

have left the wounded Christian to be tended in the house where he

was residing at present, with an assurance to the Hebrew to whom it

belonged, that all expenses should be duly discharged. To this, however,

Rebecca opposed many reasons, of which we shall only mention two that

had peculiar weight with Isaac. The one was, that she would on no

account put the phial of precious balsam into the hands of another

physician even of her own tribe, lest that valuable mystery should be

discovered; the other, that this wounded knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, was

an intimate favourite of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, and that, in case the

monarch should return, Isaac, who had supplied his brother John with

treasure to prosecute his rebellious purposes, would stand in no small

need of a powerful protector who enjoyed Richard's favour.

" Thou art speaking but sooth, Rebecca, " said Isaac, giving way to these

weighty arguments--" it were an offending of Heaven to betray the secrets

of the blessed Miriam; for the good which Heaven giveth, is not rashly

to be squandered upon others, whether it be talents of gold and

shekels of silver, or whether it be the secret mysteries of a wise

physician--assuredly they should be preserved to those to whom

Providence hath vouchsafed them. And him whom the Nazarenes of England

call the Lion's Heart, assuredly it were better for me to fall into the

hands of a strong lion of Idumea than into his, if he shall have got

assurance of my dealing with his brother. Wherefore I will lend ear to

thy counsel, and this youth shall journey with us unto York, and our

house shall be as a home to him until his wounds shall be healed. And if

he of the Lion Heart shall return to the land, as is now noised abroad,

then shall this Wilfred of Ivanhoe be unto me as a wall of defence, when

the king's displeasure shall burn high against thy father. And if he

doth not return, this Wilfred may natheless repay us our charges when he

shall gain treasure by the strength of his spear and of his sword, even

as he did yesterday and this day also. For the youth is a good youth,

and keepeth the day which he appointeth, and restoreth that which he

borroweth, and succoureth the Israelite, even the child of my father's

house, when he is encompassed by strong thieves and sons of Belial. "

It was not until evening was nearly closed that Ivanhoe was restored to

consciousness of his situation. He awoke from a broken slumber, under

the confused impressions which are naturally attendant on the recovery

from a state of insensibility. He was unable for some time to recall

exactly to memory the circumstances which had preceded his fall in the

lists, or to make out any connected chain of the events in which he had

been engaged upon the yesterday. A sense of wounds and injury, joined

to great weakness and exhaustion, was mingled with the recollection

of blows dealt and received, of steeds rushing upon each other,

overthrowing and overthrown--of shouts and clashing of arms, and all the

heady tumult of a confused fight. An effort to draw aside the curtain of

his couch was in some degree successful, although rendered difficult by

the pain of his wound.

To his great surprise he found himself in a room magnificently

furnished, but having cushions instead of chairs to rest upon, and in

other respects partaking so much of Oriental costume, that he began to

doubt whether he had not, during his sleep, been transported back

again to the land of Palestine. The impression was increased, when,

the tapestry being drawn aside, a female form, dressed in a rich habit,

which partook more of the Eastern taste than that of Europe, glided

through the door which it concealed, and was followed by a swarthy

domestic.

As the wounded knight was about to address this fair apparition, she

imposed silence by placing her slender finger upon her ruby lips, while

the attendant, approaching him, proceeded to uncover Ivanhoe's side, and

the lovely Jewess satisfied herself that the bandage was in its place,

and the wound doing well. She performed her task with a graceful and

dignified simplicity and modesty, which might, even in more civilized

days, have served to redeem it from whatever might seem repugnant to

female delicacy. The idea of so young and beautiful a person engaged in

attendance on a sick-bed, or in dressing the wound of one of a different

sex, was melted away and lost in that of a beneficent being contributing

her effectual aid to relieve pain, and to avert the stroke of death.

Rebecca's few and brief directions were given in the Hebrew language

to the old domestic; and he, who had been frequently her assistant in

similar cases, obeyed them without reply.

The accents of an unknown tongue, however harsh they might have sounded

when uttered by another, had, coming from the beautiful Rebecca,

the romantic and pleasing effect which fancy ascribes to the charms

pronounced by some beneficent fairy, unintelligible, indeed, to the ear,

but, from the sweetness of utterance, and benignity of aspect, which

accompanied them, touching and affecting to the heart. Without making

an attempt at further question, Ivanhoe suffered them in silence to take

the measures they thought most proper for his recovery; and it was not

until those were completed, and this kind physician about to retire,

that his curiosity could no longer be suppressed. --" Gentle maiden, " he

began in the Arabian tongue, with which his Eastern travels had rendered

him familiar, and which he thought most likely to be understood by the

turban'd and caftan'd damsel who stood before him--" I pray you, gentle

maiden, of your courtesy---"

But here he was interrupted by his fair physician, a smile which she

could scarce suppress dimpling for an instant a face, whose general

expression was that of contemplative melancholy. " I am of England, Sir

Knight, and speak the English tongue, although my dress and my lineage

belong to another climate. "

" Noble damsel, " --again the Knight of Ivanhoe began; and again Rebecca

hastened to interrupt him.

" Bestow not on me, Sir Knight, " she said, " the epithet of noble. It is

well you should speedily know that your handmaiden is a poor Jewess, the

daughter of that Isaac of York, to whom you were so lately a good and

kind lord. It well becomes him, and those of his household, to render to

you such careful tendance as your present state necessarily demands. "

I know not whether the fair Rowena would have been altogether satisfied

with the species of emotion with which her devoted knight had hitherto

gazed on the beautiful features, and fair form, and lustrous eyes, of

the lovely Rebecca; eyes whose brilliancy was shaded, and, as it were,

mellowed, by the fringe of her long silken eyelashes, and which a

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