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 knight'y 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, suadente 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 nought of evil.' "Here is a new argument for our swords, sirs," said Front-deBoeuf, 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 besides, 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." VOL. IX. "The foul fiend quell the Prior!" said Front-de-Boeuf; "his morning's draught 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 Denis, but the old monk hath brought true tidings! They bring forward mantelets and pavisses,* and the archers muster on the skirts of the wood like a dark cloud before a hailstorm." Reginald Front-de-Bœuf 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 sideI myself will take post at the barbican. Yet, do not confine your exertions to any one spot, noble friends!-we must this day be every where, 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." 66 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! see that seething pitch and oil are ready to pour on the heads of these audacious traitors-Look that the cross-bow-men lack not bolts+-Fling abroad my banner with the old bull's * Mantelets were temporary and moveable defences formed of planks, under cover of which the assailants advanced to the attack of fortified places of old. Pavisses were a species of large shields covering the whole person, employed on the same occasions. The bolt was the arrow peculiarly fitted to the cross-bow, as that of the long-bow was called a shaft. Hence the English proverb-"I will either make a shaft or bolt of it," signifying a determination to make one use or other of the thing spoken of. 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-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, 66 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 Denis, I hold him to be the same whom we called Le Noir Faineant, who overthrew thee, Frontde-Bœuf, in the lists at Ashby." "So much the better," said Front-de-Bœuf, "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 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 XXIX. This wandering race, sever'd from other meL, 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." 66 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 tho |