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name of God! "

Albert Malvoisin, alarmed and impatient at the duration of their

conference, now advanced to interrupt it.

" Hath the maiden acknowledged her guilt? " he demanded of Bois-Guilbert;

" or is she resolute in her denial? "

" She is indeed resolute, " said Bois-Guilbert.

" Then, " said Malvoisin, " must thou, noble brother, resume thy place

to attend the issue--The shades are changing on the circle of the

dial--Come, brave Bois-Guilbert--come, thou hope of our holy Order, and

soon to be its head. "

As he spoke in this soothing tone, he laid his hand on the knight's

bridle, as if to lead him back to his station.

" False villain! what meanest thou by thy hand on my rein? " said Sir

Brian, angrily. And shaking off his companion's grasp, he rode back to

the upper end of the lists.

" There is yet spirit in him, " said Malvoisin apart to Mont-Fitchet,

" were it well directed--but, like the Greek fire, it burns whatever

approaches it. "

The Judges had now been two hours in the lists, awaiting in vain the

appearance of a champion.

" And reason good, " said Friar Tuck, " seeing she is a Jewess--and yet,

by mine Order, it is hard that so young and beautiful a creature should

perish without one blow being struck in her behalf! Were she ten times

a witch, provided she were but the least bit of a Christian, my

quarter-staff should ring noon on the steel cap of yonder fierce

Templar, ere he carried the matter off thus. "

It was, however, the general belief that no one could or would appear

for a Jewess, accused of sorcery; and the knights, instigated by

Malvoisin, whispered to each other, that it was time to declare the

pledge of Rebecca forfeited. At this instant a knight, urging his horse

to speed, appeared on the plain advancing towards the lists. A

hundred voices exclaimed, " A champion! a champion! " And despite the

prepossessions and prejudices of the multitude, they shouted unanimously

as the knight rode into the tiltyard, The second glance, however, served

to destroy the hope that his timely arrival had excited. His horse,

urged for many miles to its utmost speed, appeared to reel from fatigue,

and the rider, however undauntedly he presented himself in the lists,

either from weakness, weariness, or both, seemed scarce able to support

himself in the saddle.

To the summons of the herald, who demanded his rank, his name, and

purpose, the stranger knight answered readily and boldly, " I am a good

knight and noble, come hither to sustain with lance and sword the just

and lawful quarrel of this damsel, Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York;

to uphold the doom pronounced against her to be false and truthless, and

to defy Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, as a traitor, murderer, and liar; as

I will prove in this field with my body against his, by the aid of God,

of Our Lady, and of Monseigneur Saint George, the good knight. "

" The stranger must first show, " said Malvoisin, " that he is good knight,

and of honourable lineage. The Temple sendeth not forth her champions

against nameless men. "

" My name, " said the Knight, raising his helmet, " is better known, my

lineage more pure, Malvoisin, than thine own. I am Wilfred of Ivanhoe. "

" I will not fight with thee at present, " said the Templar, in a changed

and hollow voice. " Get thy wounds healed, purvey thee a better horse,

and it may be I will hold it worth my while to scourge out of thee this

boyish spirit of bravado. "

" Ha! proud Templar, " said Ivanhoe, " hast thou forgotten that twice didst

thou fall before this lance? Remember the lists at Acre--remember the

Passage of Arms at Ashby--remember thy proud vaunt in the halls of

Rotherwood, and the gage of your gold chain against my reliquary, that

thou wouldst do battle with Wilfred of Ivanhoe, and recover the honour

thou hadst lost! By that reliquary and the holy relic it contains, I

will proclaim thee, Templar, a coward in every court in Europe--in every

Preceptory of thine Order--unless thou do battle without farther delay. "

Bois-Guilbert turned his countenance irresolutely towards Rebecca, and

then exclaimed, looking fiercely at Ivanhoe, " Dog of a Saxon! take thy

lance, and prepare for the death thou hast drawn upon thee! "

" Does the Grand Master allow me the combat? " said Ivanhoe.

" I may not deny what thou hast challenged, " said the Grand Master,

" provided the maiden accepts thee as her champion. Yet I would thou

wert in better plight to do battle. An enemy of our Order hast thou ever

been, yet would I have thee honourably met with. "

" Thus--thus as I am, and not otherwise, " said Ivanhoe; " it is the

judgment of God--to his keeping I commend myself. --Rebecca, " said he,

riding up to the fatal chair, " dost thou accept of me for thy champion? "

" I do, " she said--" I do, " fluttered by an emotion which the fear of

death had been unable to produce, " I do accept thee as the champion whom

Heaven hath sent me. Yet, no--no--thy wounds are uncured--Meet not that

proud man--why shouldst thou perish also? "

But Ivanhoe was already at his post, and had closed his visor, and

assumed his lance. Bois-Guilbert did the same; and his esquire remarked,

as he clasped his visor, that his face, which had, notwithstanding the

variety of emotions by which he had been agitated, continued during the

whole morning of an ashy paleness, was now become suddenly very much

flushed.

The herald, then, seeing each champion in his place, uplifted his voice,

repeating thrice--" Faites vos devoirs, preux chevaliers! " After the

third cry, he withdrew to one side of the lists, and again proclaimed,

that none, on peril of instant death, should dare, by word, cry, or

action, to interfere with or disturb this fair field of combat. The

Grand Master, who held in his hand the gage of battle, Rebecca's glove,

now threw it into the lists, and pronounced the fatal signal words,

" Laissez aller".

The trumpets sounded, and the knights charged each other in full career.

The wearied horse of Ivanhoe, and its no less exhausted rider, went

down, as all had expected, before the well-aimed lance and vigorous

steed of the Templar. This issue of the combat all had foreseen; but

although the spear of Ivanhoe did but, in comparison, touch the shield

of Bois-Guilbert, that champion, to the astonishment of all who beheld

it reeled in his saddle, lost his stirrups, and fell in the lists.

Ivanhoe, extricating himself from his fallen horse, was soon on foot,

hastening to mend his fortune with his sword; but his antagonist arose

not. Wilfred, placing his foot on his breast, and the sword's point

to his throat, commanded him to yield him, or die on the spot.

Bois-Guilbert returned no answer.

" Slay him not, Sir Knight, " cried the Grand Master, " unshriven and

unabsolved--kill not body and soul! We allow him vanquished. "

He descended into the lists, and commanded them to unhelm the conquered

champion. His eyes were closed--the dark red flush was still on his

brow. As they looked on him in astonishment, the eyes opened--but they

were fixed and glazed. The flush passed from his brow, and gave way to

the pallid hue of death. Unscathed by the lance of his enemy, he had

died a victim to the violence of his own contending passions.

" This is indeed the judgment of God, " said the Grand Master, looking

upwards--" 'Fiat voluntas tua! '"

CHAPTER XLIV

So! now 'tis ended, like an old wife's story.

Webster

When the first moments of surprise were over, Wilfred of Ivanhoe

demanded of the Grand Master, as judge of the field, if he had manfully

and rightfully done his duty in the combat? " Manfully and rightfully hath

it been done, " said the Grand Master. " I pronounce the maiden free and

guiltless--The arms and the body of the deceased knight are at the will

of the victor. "

" I will not despoil him of his weapons, " said the Knight of Ivanhoe,

" nor condemn his corpse to shame--he hath fought for Christendom--God's

arm, no human hand, hath this day struck him down. But let his

obsequies be private, as becomes those of a man who died in an unjust

quarrel. --And for the maiden--"

He was interrupted by a clattering of horses' feet, advancing in such

numbers, and so rapidly, as to shake the ground before them; and the

Black Knight galloped into the lists. He was followed by a numerous band

of men-at-arms, and several knights in complete armour.

" I am too late, " he said, looking around him. " I had doomed

Bois-Guilbert for mine own property. --Ivanhoe, was this well, to take on

thee such a venture, and thou scarce able to keep thy saddle? "

" Heaven, my Liege, " answered Ivanhoe, " hath taken this proud man for its

victim. He was not to be honoured in dying as your will had designed. "

" Peace be with him, " said Richard, looking steadfastly on the corpse,

" if it may be so--he was a gallant knight, and has died in his steel

harness full knightly. But we must waste no time--Bohun, do thine

office! "

A Knight stepped forward from the King's attendants, and, laying his

hand on the shoulder of Albert de Malvoisin, said, " I arrest thee of

High Treason. "

The Grand Master had hitherto stood astonished at the appearance of so

many warriors. --He now spoke.

" Who dares to arrest a Knight of the Temple of Zion, within the girth

of his own Preceptory, and in the presence of the Grand Master? and by

whose authority is this bold outrage offered? "

" I make the arrest, " replied the Knight--" I, Henry Bohun, Earl of Essex,

Lord High Constable of England. "

" And he arrests Malvoisin, " said the King, raising his visor, " by the

order of Richard Plantagenet, here present. --Conrade Mont-Fitchet, it

is well for thee thou art born no subject of mine. --But for thee,

Malvoisin, thou diest with thy brother Philip, ere the world be a week

older. "

" I will resist thy doom, " said the Grand Master.

" Proud Templar, " said the King, " thou canst not--look up, and behold the

Royal Standard of England floats over thy towers instead of thy Temple

banner! --Be wise, Beaumanoir, and make no bootless opposition--Thy hand

is in the lion's mouth. "

" I will appeal to Rome against thee, " said the Grand Master, " for

usurpation on the immunities and privileges of our Order. "

" Be it so, " said the King; " but for thine own sake tax me not with

usurpation now. Dissolve thy Chapter, and depart with thy followers to

thy next Preceptory, (if thou canst find one), which has not been made

the scene of treasonable conspiracy against the King of England--Or, if

thou wilt, remain, to share our hospitality, and behold our justice. "

" To be a guest in the house where I should command? " said the

Templar; " never! --Chaplains, raise the Psalm, 'Quare fremuerunt

Gentes? '--Knights, squires, and followers of the Holy Temple, prepare to

follow the banner of 'Beau-seant! '"

The Grand Master spoke with a dignity which confronted even that of

England's king himself, and inspired courage into his surprised and

dismayed followers. They gathered around him like the sheep around the

watch-dog, when they hear the baying of the wolf. But they evinced not

the timidity of the scared flock--there were dark brows of defiance, and

looks which menaced the hostility they dared not to proffer in words.

They drew together in a dark line of spears, from which the white cloaks

of the knights were visible among the dusky garments of their retainers,

like the lighter-coloured edges of a sable cloud. The multitude, who had

raised a clamorous shout of reprobation, paused and gazed in silence

on the formidable and experienced body to which they had unwarily bade

defiance, and shrunk back from their front.

The Earl of Essex, when he beheld them pause in their assembled force,

dashed the rowels into his charger's sides, and galloped backwards and

forwards to array his followers, in opposition to a band so formidable.

Richard alone, as if he loved the danger his presence had provoked,

rode slowly along the front of the Templars, calling aloud, " What, sirs!

Among so many gallant knights, will none dare splinter a spear with

Richard? --Sirs of the Temple! your ladies are but sun-burned, if they

are not worth the shiver of a broken lance? "

" The Brethren of the Temple, " said the Grand Master, riding forward in

advance of their body, " fight not on such idle and profane quarrel--and

not with thee, Richard of England, shall a Templar cross lance in my

presence. The Pope and Princes of Europe shall judge our quarrel, and

whether a Christian prince has done well in bucklering the cause which

thou hast to-day adopted. If unassailed, we depart assailing no one. To

thine honour we refer the armour and household goods of the Order which

we leave behind us, and on thy conscience we lay the scandal and offence

thou hast this day given to Christendom. "

With these words, and without waiting a reply, the Grand Master gave the

signal of departure. Their trumpets sounded a wild march, of an Oriental

character, which formed the usual signal for the Templars to advance.

They changed their array from a line to a column of march, and moved off

as slowly as their horses could step, as if to show it was only the will

of their Grand Master, and no fear of the opposing and superior force,

which compelled them to withdraw.

" By the splendour of Our Lady's brow! " said King Richard, " it is pity

of their lives that these Templars are not so trusty as they are

disciplined and valiant. "

The multitude, like a timid cur which waits to bark till the object of

its challenge has turned his back, raised a feeble shout as the rear of

the squadron left the ground.

During the tumult which attended the retreat of the Templars, Rebecca

saw and heard nothing--she was locked in the arms of her aged father,

giddy, and almost senseless, with the rapid change of circumstances

around her. But one word from Isaac at length recalled her scattered

feelings.

" Let us go, " he said, " my dear daughter, my recovered treasure--let us

go to throw ourselves at the feet of the good youth. "

" Not so, " said Rebecca, " O no--no--no--I must not at this moment dare

to speak to him--Alas! I should say more than--No, my father, let us

instantly leave this evil place. "

" But, my daughter, " said Isaac, " to leave him who hath come forth like a

strong man with his spear and shield, holding his life as nothing, so

he might redeem thy captivity; and thou, too, the daughter of a

people strange unto him and his--this is service to be thankfully

acknowledged. "

" It is--it is--most thankfully--most devoutly acknowledged, " said

Rebecca--" it shall be still more so--but not now--for the sake of thy

beloved Rachel, father, grant my request--not now! "

" Nay, but, " said Isaac, insisting, " they will deem us more thankless

than mere dogs! "

" But thou seest, my dear father, that King Richard is in presence, and

that---"

" True, my best--my wisest Rebecca! --Let us hence--let us hence! --Money

he will lack, for he has just returned from Palestine, and, as they say,

from prison--and pretext for exacting it, should he need any, may arise

out of my simple traffic with his brother John. Away, away, let us

hence! "

And hurrying his daughter in his turn, he conducted her from the lists,

and by means of conveyance which he had provided, transported her safely

to the house of the Rabbi Nathan.

The Jewess, whose fortunes had formed the principal interest of the

day, having now retired unobserved, the attention of the populace was

transferred to the Black Knight. They now filled the air with " Long life

to Richard with the Lion's Heart, and down with the usurping Templars! "

" Notwithstanding all this lip-loyalty, " said Ivanhoe to the Earl of

Essex, " it was well the King took the precaution to bring thee with him,

noble Earl, and so many of thy trusty followers. "

The Earl smiled and shook his head.

" Gallant Ivanhoe, " said Essex, " dost thou know our Master so well, and

yet suspect him of taking so wise a precaution! I was drawing towards

York having heard that Prince John was making head there, when I met

King Richard, like a true knight-errant, galloping hither to achieve in

his own person this adventure of the Templar and the Jewess, with

his own single arm. I accompanied him with my band, almost maugre his

consent. "

" And what news from York, brave Earl? " said Ivanhoe; " will the rebels

bide us there? "

" No more than December's snow will bide July's sun, " said the Earl;

" they are dispersing; and who should come posting to bring us the news,

but John himself! "

" The traitor! the ungrateful insolent traitor! " said Ivanhoe; " did not

Richard order him into confinement? "

" O! he received him, " answered the Earl, " as if they had met after a

hunting party; and, pointing to me and our men-at-arms, said, 'Thou

seest, brother, I have some angry men with me--thou wert best go to our

mother, carry her my duteous affection, and abide with her until men's

minds are pacified. '"

" And this was all he said? " enquired Ivanhoe; " would not any one say

that this Prince invites men to treason by his clemency? "

" Just, " replied the Earl, " as the man may be said to invite death, who

undertakes to fight a combat, having a dangerous wound unhealed. "

" I forgive thee the jest, Lord Earl, " said Ivanhoe; " but, remember, I

hazarded but my own life--Richard, the welfare of his kingdom. "

" Those, " replied Essex, " who are specially careless of their own

welfare, are seldom remarkably attentive to that of others--But let

us haste to the castle, for Richard meditates punishing some of the

subordinate members of the conspiracy, though he has pardoned their

principal. "

From the judicial investigations which followed on this occasion, and

which are given at length in the Wardour Manuscript, it appears that

Maurice de Bracy escaped beyond seas, and went into the service of

Philip of France; while Philip de Malvoisin, and his brother Albert, the

Preceptor of Templestowe, were executed, although Waldemar Fitzurse, the

soul of the conspiracy, escaped with banishment; and Prince John,

for whose behoof it was undertaken, was not even censured by his

good-natured brother. No one, however, pitied the fate of the two

Malvoisins, who only suffered the death which they had both well

deserved, by many acts of falsehood, cruelty, and oppression.

Briefly after the judicial combat, Cedric the Saxon was summoned to the

court of Richard, which, for the purpose of quieting the counties that

had been disturbed by the ambition of his brother, was then held at

York. Cedric tushed and pshawed more than once at the message--but he

refused not obedience. In fact, the return of Richard had quenched every

hope that he had entertained of restoring a Saxon dynasty in England;

for, whatever head the Saxons might have made in the event of a civil

war, it was plain that nothing could be done under the undisputed

dominion of Richard, popular as he was by his personal good qualities

and military fame, although his administration was wilfully careless,

now too indulgent, and now allied to despotism.

But, moreover, it could not escape even Cedric's reluctant observation,

that his project for an absolute union among the Saxons, by the marriage

of Rowena and Athelstane, was now completely at an end, by the mutual

dissent of both parties concerned. This was, indeed, an event which, in

his ardour for the Saxon cause, he could not have anticipated, and even

when the disinclination of both was broadly and plainly manifested, he

could scarce bring himself to believe that two Saxons of royal descent

should scruple, on personal grounds, at an alliance so necessary for the

public weal of the nation. But it was not the less certain: Rowena had

always expressed her repugnance to Athelstane, and now Athelstane was

no less plain and positive in proclaiming his resolution never to pursue

his addresses to the Lady Rowena. Even the natural obstinacy of Cedric

sunk beneath these obstacles, where he, remaining on the point of

junction, had the task of dragging a reluctant pair up to it, one with

each hand. He made, however, a last vigorous attack on Athelstane, and

he found that resuscitated sprout of Saxon royalty engaged, like country

squires of our own day, in a furious war with the clergy.

It seems that, after all his deadly menaces against the Abbot of Saint

Edmund's, Athelstane's spirit of revenge, what between the natural

indolent kindness of his own disposition, what through the prayers of

his mother Edith, attached, like most ladies, (of the period, ) to the

clerical order, had terminated in his keeping the Abbot and his monks in

the dungeons of Coningsburgh for three days on a meagre diet. For this

atrocity the Abbot menaced him with excommunication, and made out a

dreadful list of complaints in the bowels and stomach, suffered by

himself and his monks, in consequence of the tyrannical and unjust

imprisonment they had sustained. With this controversy, and with the

means he had adopted to counteract this clerical persecution, Cedric

found the mind of his friend Athelstane so fully occupied, that it had

no room for another idea. And when Rowena's name was mentioned the noble

Athelstane prayed leave to quaff a full goblet to her health, and that

she might soon be the bride of his kinsman Wilfred. It was a desperate

case therefore. There was obviously no more to be made of Athelstane;

or, as Wamba expressed it, in a phrase which has descended from Saxon

times to ours, he was a cock that would not fight.

There remained betwixt Cedric and the determination which the lovers

desired to come to, only two obstacles--his own obstinacy, and his

dislike of the Norman dynasty. The former feeling gradually gave way

before the endearments of his ward, and the pride which he could not

help nourishing in the fame of his son. Besides, he was not insensible

to the honour of allying his own line to that of Alfred, when the

superior claims of the descendant of Edward the Confessor were abandoned

for ever. Cedric's aversion to the Norman race of kings was also much

undermined, --first, by consideration of the impossibility of ridding

England of the new dynasty, a feeling which goes far to create loyalty

in the subject to the king " de facto"; and, secondly, by the personal

attention of King Richard, who delighted in the blunt humour of Cedric,

and, to use the language of the Wardour Manuscript, so dealt with the

noble Saxon, that, ere he had been a guest at court for seven days, he

had given his consent to the marriage of his ward Rowena and his son

Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

The nuptials of our hero, thus formally approved by his father, were

celebrated in the most august of temples, the noble Minster of York.

The King himself attended, and from the countenance which he afforded on

this and other occasions to the distressed and hitherto degraded Saxons,

gave them a safer and more certain prospect of attaining their just

rights, than they could reasonably hope from the precarious chance of

a civil war. The Church gave her full solemnities, graced with all

the splendour which she of Rome knows how to apply with such brilliant

effect.

Gurth, gallantly apparelled, attended as esquire upon his young master

whom he had served so faithfully, and the magnanimous Wamba, decorated

with a new cap and a most gorgeous set of silver bells. Sharers of

Wilfred's dangers and adversity, they remained, as they had a right to

expect, the partakers of his more prosperous career.

But besides this domestic retinue, these distinguished nuptials were

celebrated by the attendance of the high-born Normans, as well as

Saxons, joined with the universal jubilee of the lower orders, that

marked the marriage of two individuals as a pledge of the future peace

and harmony betwixt two races, which, since that period, have been so

completely mingled, that the distinction has become wholly invisible.

Cedric lived to see this union approximate towards its completion; for

as the two nations mixed in society and formed intermarriages with each

other, the Normans abated their scorn, and the Saxons were refined from

their rusticity. But it was not until the reign of Edward the Third

that the mixed language, now termed English, was spoken at the court

of London, and that the hostile distinction of Norman and Saxon seems

entirely to have disappeared.

It was upon the second morning after this happy bridal, that the Lady

Rowena was made acquainted by her handmaid Elgitha, that a damsel

desired admission to her presence, and solicited that their parley might

be without witness. Rowena wondered, hesitated, became curious, and

ended by commanding the damsel to be admitted, and her attendants to

withdraw.

She entered--a noble and commanding figure, the long white veil,

in which she was shrouded, overshadowing rather than concealing the

elegance and majesty of her shape. Her demeanour was that of respect,

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