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 Frontde-Bœuf, « 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-Bœuf, « 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-deBoeuf, 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 Fainéant, 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 shewn himself among yon villain yeomanry.>> The demonstrations of the enemy's immediate approach cut off all further 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 XIV. This wandering race, severed from other men, 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 corselet 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 bezants 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, hath 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 |