IVANHOE; A ROMANCE. CHAPTER XXIV. I'll woo her as the lion wooes his bride. DOUGLAS. WHILE the scenes we have described were passing in other parts of the castle, the Jewess Rebecca awaited her fate in a distant and sequestered turret. Hither she had been led by two of her disguised ravishers, and on being thrust into the little cell, she found herself in the presence of an old sibyl, who kept murmuring to herself a Saxon rhyme, as if to beat time to the revolving dance which her spindle was performing upon the floor. The hag raised her head as Rebecca entered, and scowled at the fair Jewess with the malignant envy which old age and ugliness, when united with evil conditions, are apt to look upon youth and beauty. "Thou must up and away, old house-cricket," said one of the men; 66 our noble master commands it-Thou must leave this chamber to a fairer guest." 66 "Ay," grumbled the hag, even thus is service requited. I have known when my bare word would 66 stand have cast the best man-at-arms among ye out of saddle and out of service; and now must I up and away at the command of every groom such as thou." "Good Dame Urfried," said the other man, not to reason on it, but up and away. Lord's hests must be listened to with a quick ear. Thou hast had thy day, old dame, but thy sun has long been set. Thou art now the very emblem of an old war-horse turned out on the barren heath-thou hast had thy paces in thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of them-Come, amble off with thee." "and "Ill omens dog ye both!" said the old woman, a kennel be your burying-place! May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb, if I leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp on my distaff!" "Answer it to our lord, then, old house-fiend," said the man, and retired; leaving Rebecca in company with the old woman, upon whose presence she had been thus unwillingly forced. "What devil's deed have they now in the wind?" said the old hag, murmuring to herself, yet from time to time casting a sidelong and malignant glance at Rebecca; "but it is easy to guess-Bright eyes, black locks, and a skin like paper, ere the priest stains it with his black unguent -Ay, it is easy to guess why they send her to this lone turret, whence a shriek could no more be heard than at the depth of five hundred fathoms beneath the earth.Thou wilt have owls for thy neighbours, fair one; and their screams will be heard as far, and as much regarded as thine own. Outlandish, too," she said, marking the dress and turban of Rebecca- "What country art thou of? a Saracen? or an Egyptian ?-Why dost not answer? -thou canst weep, canst thou not speak?" |