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precaution, for to the arm of none of our holy Order would we more

willingly confide this or a more weighty cause. "

" Reverend father, " answered the Preceptor of Goodalricke, " no spell can

effect the champion who comes forward to fight for the judgment of God. "

" Thou sayest right, brother, " said the Grand Master. " Albert Malvoisin,

give this gage of battle to Brian de Bois-Guilbert. --It is our charge to

thee, brother, " he continued, addressing himself to Bois-Guilbert, " that

thou do thy battle manfully, nothing doubting that the good cause shall

triumph. --And do thou, Rebecca, attend, that we assign thee the third

day from the present to find a champion. "

" That is but brief space, " answered Rebecca, " for a stranger, who is

also of another faith, to find one who will do battle, wagering life

and honour for her cause, against a knight who is called an approved

soldier. "

" We may not extend it, " answered the Grand Master; " the field must be

foughten in our own presence, and divers weighty causes call us on the

fourth day from hence. "

" God's will be done! " said Rebecca; " I put my trust in Him, to whom an

instant is as effectual to save as a whole age. "

" Thou hast spoken well, damsel, " said the Grand Master; " but well know

we who can array himself like an angel of light. It remains but to name

a fitting place of combat, and, if it so hap, also of execution. --Where

is the Preceptor of this house? "

Albert Malvoisin, still holding Rebecca's glove in his hand, was

speaking to Bois-Guilbert very earnestly, but in a low voice.

" How! " said the Grand Master, " will he not receive the gage? "

" He will--he doth, most Reverend Father, " said Malvoisin, slipping the

glove under his own mantle. " And for the place of combat, I hold the

fittest to be the lists of Saint George belonging to this Preceptory,

and used by us for military exercise. "

" It is well, " said the Grand Master. --" Rebecca, in those lists shalt

thou produce thy champion; and if thou failest to do so, or if thy

champion shall be discomfited by the judgment of God, thou shalt then

die the death of a sorceress, according to doom. --Let this our judgment

be recorded, and the record read aloud, that no one may pretend

ignorance. "

One of the chaplains, who acted as clerks to the chapter, immediately

engrossed the order in a huge volume, which contained the proceedings of

the Templar Knights when solemnly assembled on such occasions; and when

he had finished writing, the other read aloud the sentence of the Grand

Master, which, when translated from the Norman-French in which it was

couched, was expressed as follows. --

" Rebecca, a Jewess, daughter of Isaac of York, being attainted of

sorcery, seduction, and other damnable practices, practised on a Knight

of the most Holy Order of the Temple of Zion, doth deny the same; and

saith, that the testimony delivered against her this day is false,

wicked, and disloyal; and that by lawful 'essoine' [54] of her body as

being unable to combat in her own behalf, she doth offer, by a champion

instead thereof, to avouch her case, he performing his loyal 'devoir' in

all knightly sort, with such arms as to gage of battle do fully

appertain, and that at her peril and cost. And therewith she proffered

her gage. And the gage having been delivered to the noble Lord and

Knight, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, of the Holy Order of the Temple of Zion,

he was appointed to do this battle, in behalf of his Order and himself,

as injured and impaired by the practices of the appellant. Wherefore the

most reverend Father and puissant Lord, Lucas Marquis of Beaumanoir, did

allow of the said challenge, and of the said 'essoine' of the

appellant's body, and assigned the third day for the said combat, the

place being the enclosure called the lists of Saint George, near to the

Preceptory of Templestowe. And the Grand Master appoints the appellant

to appear there by her champion, on pain of doom, as a person convicted

of sorcery or seduction; and also the defendant so to appear, under the

penalty of being held and adjudged recreant in case of default; and the

noble Lord and most reverend Father aforesaid appointed the battle to be

done in his own presence, and according to all that is commendable and

profitable in such a case. And may God aid the just cause! "

" Amen! " said the Grand Master; and the word was echoed by all around.

Rebecca spoke not, but she looked up to heaven, and, folding her hands,

remained for a minute without change of attitude. She then modestly

reminded the Grand Master, that she ought to be permitted some

opportunity of free communication with her friends, for the purpose of

making her condition known to them, and procuring, if possible, some

champion to fight in her behalf.

" It is just and lawful, " said the Grand Master; " choose what messenger

thou shalt trust, and he shall have free communication with thee in thy

prison-chamber. "

" Is there, " said Rebecca, " any one here, who, either for love of a good

cause, or for ample hire, will do the errand of a distressed being? "

All were silent; for none thought it safe, in the presence of the Grand

Master, to avow any interest in the calumniated prisoner, lest he

should be suspected of leaning towards Judaism. Not even the prospect of

reward, far less any feelings of compassion alone, could surmount this

apprehension.

Rebecca stood for a few moments in indescribable anxiety, and then

exclaimed, " Is it really thus? --And, in English land, am I to be

deprived of the poor chance of safety which remains to me, for want of

an act of charity which would not be refused to the worst criminal? "

Higg, the son of Snell, at length replied, " I am but a maimed man,

but that I can at all stir or move was owing to her charitable

assistance. --I will do thine errand, " he added, addressing Rebecca, " as

well as a crippled object can, and happy were my limbs fleet enough

to repair the mischief done by my tongue. Alas! when I boasted of thy

charity, I little thought I was leading thee into danger! "

" God, " said Rebecca, " is the disposer of all. He can turn back the

captivity of Judah, even by the weakest instrument. To execute his

message the snail is as sure a messenger as the falcon. Seek out Isaac

of York--here is that will pay for horse and man--let him have this

scroll. --I know not if it be of Heaven the spirit which inspires me,

but most truly do I judge that I am not to die this death, and that a

champion will be raised up for me. Farewell! --Life and death are in thy

haste. "

The peasant took the scroll, which contained only a few lines in Hebrew.

Many of the crowd would have dissuaded him from touching a document so

suspicious; but Higg was resolute in the service of his benefactress.

She had saved his body, he said, and he was confident she did not mean

to peril his soul.

" I will get me, " he said, " my neighbour Buthan's good capul, [55] and I

will be at York within as brief space as man and beast may. "

But as it fortuned, he had no occasion to go so far, for within a

quarter of a mile from the gate of the Preceptory he met with two

riders, whom, by their dress and their huge yellow caps, he knew to be

Jews; and, on approaching more nearly, discovered that one of them was

his ancient employer, Isaac of York. The other was the Rabbi Ben Samuel;

and both had approached as near to the Preceptory as they dared, on

hearing that the Grand Master had summoned a chapter for the trial of a

sorceress.

" Brother Ben Samuel, " said Isaac, " my soul is disquieted, and I wot not

why. This charge of necromancy is right often used for cloaking evil

practices on our people. "

" Be of good comfort, brother, " said the physician; " thou canst deal with

the Nazarenes as one possessing the mammon of unrighteousness, and canst

therefore purchase immunity at their hands--it rules the savage minds of

those ungodly men, even as the signet of the mighty Solomon was said

to command the evil genii. --But what poor wretch comes hither upon his

crutches, desiring, as I think, some speech of me? --Friend, " continued

the physician, addressing Higg, the son of Snell, " I refuse thee not the

aid of mine art, but I relieve not with one asper those who beg for alms

upon the highway. Out upon thee! --Hast thou the palsy in thy legs? then

let thy hands work for thy livelihood; for, albeit thou be'st unfit for

a speedy post, or for a careful shepherd, or for the warfare, or for the

service of a hasty master, yet there be occupations--How now, brother? "

said he, interrupting his harangue to look towards Isaac, who had but

glanced at the scroll which Higg offered, when, uttering a deep groan,

he fell from his mule like a dying man, and lay for a minute insensible.

The Rabbi now dismounted in great alarm, and hastily applied the

remedies which his art suggested for the recovery of his companion. He

had even taken from his pocket a cupping apparatus, and was about

to proceed to phlebotomy, when the object of his anxious solicitude

suddenly revived; but it was to dash his cap from his head, and to throw

dust on his grey hairs. The physician was at first inclined to ascribe

this sudden and violent emotion to the effects of insanity; and,

adhering to his original purpose, began once again to handle his

implements. But Isaac soon convinced him of his error.

" Child of my sorrow, " he said, " well shouldst thou be called Benoni,

instead of Rebecca! Why should thy death bring down my grey hairs to the

grave, till, in the bitterness of my heart, I curse God and die! "

" Brother, " said the Rabbi, in great surprise, " art thou a father in

Israel, and dost thou utter words like unto these? --I trust that the

child of thy house yet liveth? "

" She liveth, " answered Isaac; " but it is as Daniel, who was called

Beltheshazzar, even when within the den of the lions. She is captive

unto those men of Belial, and they will wreak their cruelty upon her,

sparing neither for her youth nor her comely favour. O! she was as a

crown of green palms to my grey locks; and she must wither in a night,

like the gourd of Jonah! --Child of my love! --child of my old age! --oh,

Rebecca, daughter of Rachel! the darkness of the shadow of death hath

encompassed thee. "

" Yet read the scroll, " said the Rabbi; " peradventure it may be that we

may yet find out a way of deliverance. "

" Do thou read, brother, " answered Isaac, " for mine eyes are as a

fountain of water. "

The physician read, but in their native language, the following words: --

" To Isaac, the son of Adonikam, whom the Gentiles call Isaac of York,

peace and the blessing of the promise be multiplied unto thee! --My

father, I am as one doomed to die for that which my soul knoweth

not--even for the crime of witchcraft. My father, if a strong man can be

found to do battle for my cause with sword and spear, according to the

custom of the Nazarenes, and that within the lists of Templestowe, on

the third day from this time, peradventure our fathers' God will give

him strength to defend the innocent, and her who hath none to help her.

But if this may not be, let the virgins of our people mourn for me as

for one cast off, and for the hart that is stricken by the hunter, and

for the flower which is cut down by the scythe of the mower. Wherefore

look now what thou doest, and whether there be any rescue. One Nazarene

warrior might indeed bear arms in my behalf, even Wilfred, son of

Cedric, whom the Gentiles call Ivanhoe. But he may not yet endure

the weight of his armour. Nevertheless, send the tidings unto him, my

father; for he hath favour among the strong men of his people, and as

he was our companion in the house of bondage, he may find some one to do

battle for my sake. And say unto him, even unto him, even unto Wilfred,

the son of Cedric, that if Rebecca live, or if Rebecca die, she liveth

or dieth wholly free of the guilt she is charged withal. And if it be

the will of God that thou shalt be deprived of thy daughter, do not

thou tarry, old man, in this land of bloodshed and cruelty; but betake

thyself to Cordova, where thy brother liveth in safety, under the shadow

of the throne, even of the throne of Boabdil the Saracen; for less

cruel are the cruelties of the Moors unto the race of Jacob, than the

cruelties of the Nazarenes of England. "

Isaac listened with tolerable composure while Ben Samuel read the

letter, and then again resumed the gestures and exclamations of Oriental

sorrow, tearing his garments, besprinkling his head with dust, and

ejaculating, " My daughter! my daughter! flesh of my flesh, and bone of

my bone! "

" Yet, " said the Rabbi, " take courage, for this grief availeth nothing.

Gird up thy loins, and seek out this Wilfred, the son of Cedric. It may

be he will help thee with counsel or with strength; for the youth hath

favour in the eyes of Richard, called of the Nazarenes Coeur-de-Lion,

and the tidings that he hath returned are constant in the land. It may

be that he may obtain his letter, and his signet, commanding these men

of blood, who take their name from the Temple to the dishonour thereof,

that they proceed not in their purposed wickedness. "

" I will seek him out, " said Isaac, " for he is a good youth, and hath

compassion for the exile of Jacob. But he cannot bear his armour, and

what other Christian shall do battle for the oppressed of Zion? "

" Nay, but, " said the Rabbi, " thou speakest as one that knoweth not the

Gentiles. With gold shalt thou buy their valour, even as with gold thou

buyest thine own safety. Be of good courage, and do thou set forward to

find out this Wilfred of Ivanhoe. I will also up and be doing, for great

sin it were to leave thee in thy calamity. I will hie me to the city of

York, where many warriors and strong men are assembled, and doubt not I

will find among them some one who will do battle for thy daughter; for

gold is their god, and for riches will they pawn their lives as well as

their lands. --Thou wilt fulfil, my brother, such promise as I may make

unto them in thy name? "

" Assuredly, brother, " said Isaac, " and Heaven be praised that raised me

up a comforter in my misery. Howbeit, grant them not their full demand

at once, for thou shalt find it the quality of this accursed people that

they will ask pounds, and peradventure accept of ounces--Nevertheless,

be it as thou willest, for I am distracted in this thing, and what would

my gold avail me if the child of my love should perish! "

" Farewell, " said the physician, " and may it be to thee as thy heart

desireth. "

They embraced accordingly, and departed on their several roads. The

crippled peasant remained for some time looking after them.

" These dog-Jews! " said he; " to take no more notice of a free

guild-brother, than if I were a bond slave or a Turk, or a circumcised

Hebrew like themselves! They might have flung me a mancus or two,

however. I was not obliged to bring their unhallowed scrawls, and run

the risk of being bewitched, as more folks than one told me. And what

care I for the bit of gold that the wench gave me, if I am to come to

harm from the priest next Easter at confession, and be obliged to give

him twice as much to make it up with him, and be called the Jew's

flying post all my life, as it may hap, into the bargain? I think I was

bewitched in earnest when I was beside that girl! --But it was always so

with Jew or Gentile, whosoever came near her--none could stay when she

had an errand to go--and still, whenever I think of her, I would give

shop and tools to save her life. "

CHAPTER XXXIX

O maid, unrelenting and cold as thou art,

My bosom is proud as thine own.

--Seward

It was in the twilight of the day when her trial, if it could be

called such, had taken place, that a low knock was heard at the door

of Rebecca's prison-chamber. It disturbed not the inmate, who was then

engaged in the evening prayer recommended by her religion, and which

concluded with a hymn we have ventured thus to translate into English.

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her father's God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame.

By day, along the astonish'd lands

The cloudy pillar glided slow;

By night, Arabia's crimson'd sands

Return'd the fiery column's glow.

There rose the choral hymn of praise,

And trump and timbrel answer'd keen,

And Zion's daughters pour'd their lays,

With priest's and warrior's voice between.

No portents now our foes amaze,

Forsaken Israel wanders lone;

Our fathers would not know THY ways,

And THOU hast left them to their own.

But, present still, though now unseen;

When brightly shines the prosperous day,

Be thoughts of THEE a cloudy screen

To temper the deceitful ray.

And oh, when stoops on Judah's path

In shade and storm the frequent night,

Be THOU, long-suffering, slow to wrath,

A burning, and a shining light!

Our harps we left by Babel's streams,

The tyrant's jest, the Gentile's scorn;

No censer round our altar beams,

And mute our timbrel, trump, and horn.

But THOU hast said, the blood of goat,

The flesh of rams, I will not prize;

A contrite heart, and humble thought,

Are mine accepted sacrifice.

When the sounds of Rebecca's devotional hymn had died away in silence,

the low knock at the door was again renewed. " Enter, " she said, " if

thou art a friend; and if a foe, I have not the means of refusing thy

entrance. "

" I am, " said Brian de Bois-Guilbert, entering the apartment, " friend or

foe, Rebecca, as the event of this interview shall make me. "

Alarmed at the sight of this man, whose licentious passion she

considered as the root of her misfortunes, Rebecca drew backward with

a cautious and alarmed, yet not a timorous demeanour, into the farthest

corner of the apartment, as if determined to retreat as far as she

could, but to stand her ground when retreat became no longer possible.

She drew herself into an attitude not of defiance, but of resolution,

as one that would avoid provoking assault, yet was resolute to repel it,

being offered, to the utmost of her power.

" You have no reason to fear me, Rebecca, " said the Templar; " or if I

must so qualify my speech, you have at least NOW no reason to fear me. "

" I fear you not, Sir Knight, " replied Rebecca, although her short-drawn

breath seemed to belie the heroism of her accents; " my trust is strong,

and I fear thee not. "

" You have no cause, " answered Bois-Guilbert, gravely; " my former frantic

attempts you have not now to dread. Within your call are guards, over

whom I have no authority. They are designed to conduct you to death,

Rebecca, yet would not suffer you to be insulted by any one, even by me,

were my frenzy--for frenzy it is--to urge me so far. "

" May Heaven be praised! " said the Jewess; " death is the least of my

apprehensions in this den of evil. "

" Ay, " replied the Templar, " the idea of death is easily received by the

courageous mind, when the road to it is sudden and open. A thrust with a

lance, a stroke with a sword, were to me little--To you, a spring from

a dizzy battlement, a stroke with a sharp poniard, has no terrors,

compared with what either thinks disgrace. Mark me--I say this--perhaps

mine own sentiments of honour are not less fantastic, Rebecca, than

thine are; but we know alike how to die for them. "

" Unhappy man, " said the Jewess; " and art thou condemned to expose thy

life for principles, of which thy sober judgment does not acknowledge

the solidity? Surely this is a parting with your treasure for that which

is not bread--but deem not so of me. Thy resolution may fluctuate on the

wild and changeful billows of human opinion, but mine is anchored on the

Rock of Ages. "

" Silence, maiden, " answered the Templar; " such discourse now avails but

little. Thou art condemned to die not a sudden and easy death, such as

misery chooses, and despair welcomes, but a slow, wretched, protracted

course of torture, suited to what the diabolical bigotry of these men

calls thy crime. "

" And to whom--if such my fate--to whom do I owe this? " said Rebecca

" surely only to him, who, for a most selfish and brutal cause, dragged

me hither, and who now, for some unknown purpose of his own, strives to

exaggerate the wretched fate to which he exposed me. "

" Think not, " said the Templar, " that I have so exposed thee; I would

have bucklered thee against such danger with my own bosom, as freely as

ever I exposed it to the shafts which had otherwise reached thy life. "

" Had thy purpose been the honourable protection of the innocent, " said

Rebecca, " I had thanked thee for thy care--as it is, thou hast claimed

merit for it so often, that I tell thee life is worth nothing to me,

preserved at the price which thou wouldst exact for it. "

" Truce with thine upbraidings, Rebecca, " said the Templar; " I have my

own cause of grief, and brook not that thy reproaches should add to it. "

" What is thy purpose, then, Sir Knight? " said the Jewess; " speak it

briefly. --If thou hast aught to do, save to witness the misery thou

hast caused, let me know it; and then, if so it please you, leave me to

myself--the step between time and eternity is short but terrible, and I

have few moments to prepare for it. "

" I perceive, Rebecca, " said Bois-Guilbert, " that thou dost continue to

burden me with the charge of distresses, which most fain would I have

prevented. "

" Sir Knight, " said Rebecca, " I would avoid reproaches--But what is more

certain than that I owe my death to thine unbridled passion? "

" You err--you err, " --said the Templar, hastily, " if you impute what

I could neither foresee nor prevent to my purpose or agency. --Could I

guess the unexpected arrival of yon dotard, whom some flashes of frantic

valour, and the praises yielded by fools to the stupid self-torments

of an ascetic, have raised for the present above his own merits, above

common sense, above me, and above the hundreds of our Order, who think

and feel as men free from such silly and fantastic prejudices as are the

grounds of his opinions and actions? "

" Yet, " said Rebecca, " you sate a judge upon me, innocent--most

innocent--as you knew me to be--you concurred in my condemnation, and,

if I aright understood, are yourself to appear in arms to assert my

guilt, and assure my punishment. "

" Thy patience, maiden, " replied the Templar. " No race knows so well as

thine own tribes how to submit to the time, and so to trim their bark as

to make advantage even of an adverse wind. "

" Lamented be the hour, " said Rebecca, " that has taught such art to

the House of Israel! but adversity bends the heart as fire bends the

stubborn steel, and those who are no longer their own governors, and

the denizens of their own free independent state, must crouch before

strangers. It is our curse, Sir Knight, deserved, doubtless, by our own

misdeeds and those of our fathers; but you--you who boast your freedom

as your birthright, how much deeper is your disgrace when you stoop to

soothe the prejudices of others, and that against your own conviction? "

" Your words are bitter, Rebecca, " said Bois-Guilbert, pacing the

apartment with impatience, " but I came not hither to bandy reproaches

with you. --Know that Bois-Guilbert yields not to created man, although

circumstances may for a time induce him to alter his plan. His will is

the mountain stream, which may indeed be turned for a little space aside

by the rock, but fails not to find its course to the ocean. That scroll

which warned thee to demand a champion, from whom couldst thou think it

came, if not from Bois-Guilbert? In whom else couldst thou have excited

such interest? "

" A brief respite from instant death, " said Rebecca, " which will little

avail me--was this all thou couldst do for one, on whose head thou hast

heaped sorrow, and whom thou hast brought near even to the verge of the

tomb? "

" No maiden, " said Bois-Guilbert, " this was NOT all that I purposed. Had

it not been for the accursed interference of yon fanatical dotard, and

the fool of Goodalricke, who, being a Templar, affects to think and

judge according to the ordinary rules of humanity, the office of the

Champion Defender had devolved, not on a Preceptor, but on a Companion

of the Order. Then I myself--such was my purpose--had, on the sounding

of the trumpet, appeared in the lists as thy champion, disguised indeed

in the fashion of a roving knight, who seeks adventures to prove his

shield and spear; and then, let Beaumanoir have chosen not one, but two

or three of the brethren here assembled, I had not doubted to cast them

out of the saddle with my single lance. Thus, Rebecca, should thine

innocence have been avouched, and to thine own gratitude would I have

trusted for the reward of my victory. "

" This, Sir Knight, " said Rebecca, " is but idle boasting--a brag of what

you would have done had you not found it convenient to do otherwise. You

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