moiety among yourselves, sir squires, and divide the other half betwixt the heralds and the pursuivants, and minstrels, and attendants."

The squires, with cap in hand, and low reverences, expressed their deep sense of a courtesy and generosity not often practised, at least upon a scale so extensive. The Disinherited Knight then addressed his discourse to Baldwin, the squire of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. "From your master," said he," I will accept neither arms nor ransom. Say to him in my name, that our strife is not ended-no, not till we have fought as well with swords as with lances-as well on foot as on horseback. To this mortal quarrel he has himself defied me, and I shall not forget the challenge.-Meantime, let him be assured, that I hold him not as one of his companions, with whom I can with pleasure exchange courtesies: but rather as one with whom I stand upon terms of mortal defiance."

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My master," answered Baldwin, "knows how to requite scorn with scorn, and blows with blows, as well as courtesy with courtesy. Since you disdain to accept from him any share of the ransom at which you have rated the arms of the other knights, I must leave his armour and his horse here, being well assured that he will never mount the one nor wear the other."

"You have spoken well, good squire," said the Disinherited Knight, "well and boldly, as it be

seemeth him to speak who answers for an absent master, Leave not, however, the horse and armour here. Restore them to thy master; or, if he scorns to accept them, retain them, good friend, for thine own use. So far as they are mine, I bestow them upon you freely."

Baldwin made a deep obeisance, and retired with his companions; and the Disinherited Knight entered the pavilion.

"Thus far, Gurth," said he, addressing his attendant," the reputation of English chivalry hath not suffered in my hands."

"And I,” said Gurth, "for a Saxon swine-herd, have not ill played the personage of a Norman squire-at-arms."

Yea, but," answered the Disinherited Knight, "thou hast ever kept me in anxiety lest thy clownish bearing should discover thee,"

"Tush!" said Gurth, "I fear discovery from none, saving my play-fellow, Wamba the Jester, of whom I could never discover whether he were most knave or fool. Yet I could scarce choose but laugh, when my old master passed so near to me, dreaming all the while that Gurth was keeping his porkers many a mile off, in the thickets and swamps of Rotherwood. If I am discovered"

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Enough," said the Disinherited Knight, “thou knowest my promise."

"Nay, for that matter," said Gurth, "I will

never fail my friend for fear of my skin-cutting. I have a tough hide, that will bear the scourge as well as any boar's hide in my herd."

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"Trust me, I will requite the risk you run for my love, Gurth," said the Knight. Meanwhile, I pray you to accept these ten pieces of gold."

"I am richer," said Gurth, putting them into his pouch," than ever was swine-herd or bondsman."

"Take this bag of gold to Ashby," continued his master," and find out Isaac the Jew of York, and let him pay himself for the horse and arms with which his credit supplied me."

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Nay, by St Dunstan," replied Gurth, "that I will not do."

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How, knave," replied his master," wilt thou not obey my commands ?"

"So they be honest, reasonable, and Christian commands,” replied Gurth; " but this is none of these. To suffer the Jew to pay himself would be dishonest, for it would be cheating my master; and unreasonable, for it were the part of a fool; and unchristian, since it would be plundering a believer to enrich an infidel."

"See him contented, however, thou varlet," said the Disinherited Knight.

"I will do so," said Gurth, taking the bag under his cloak, and leaving the apartment; " and it will go hard," he muttered, "but I content him

with one-fourth of his own asking." So saying, he departed, and left the Disinherited Knight to his own perplexed ruminations; which, upon more accounts than it is now possible to communicate to the reader, were of a nature peculiarly agitating and painful.

We must now change the scene to the village of Ashby, or rather to a country house in its vicinity belonging to a wealthy Israelite, with whom Isaac, his daughter, and retinue, had taken up their quarters; the Jews, it is well known, being as liberal in exercising the duties of hospitality and charity among their own people, as they were alleged to be reluctant and churlish in extending them to others.

In an apartment, small indeed, but richly furnished with decorations of an Oriental taste, Rebecca was seated on a heap of embroidered cushions, which, piled along a low platform that surrounded the apartment, served like the estrada of the Spaniards, instead of chairs and stools. She was watching the motions of her father with a look of anxious and filial affection, while he paced the apartment with a dejected mien and disordered step; sometimes clasping his hands together-sometimes casting his eyes to the roof of the apartment, as one who laboured under great mental tribulation. “O, Jacob!" he exclaimed-" O, all ye twelve Holy Fathers of our tribe! what a losing venture is this

for one who hath duly kept every jot and tittle of the law of Moses-Fifty zecchins wrenched from me at one clutch, and by the talons of a tyrant!" "But, father," said Rebecca," you seemed to give the gold to Prince John willingly.”

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Willingly? the blotch of Egypt upon him!— Willingly, saidst thou ?-Ay, as willingly as when, in the Gulph of Lyons, I flung over my merchandise to lighten the ship, while she laboured in the tempest-robed the seething billows in my choice silks-perfumed their briny foam with myrrh and aloes-enriched their caverns with gold and silver work! And was not that an hour of unutterable misery, though my own hands made the sacrifice?”

"But it was to save our lives, father," answered Rebecca, " and the God of our fathers has since blessed your store and your gettings."

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Ay," answered Isaac, "but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did to-day, and compels me to smile while he is robbing me?-O daughter, disinherited and wandering as we are, the worst evil that befalls our race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury, and to smile tamely, when we should revenge bravely." Think not thus of it, my father," said Rebecca; "we also have advantages. These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom

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