Ivanhoe by Walter Scott (world best books to read .TXT) 📖

of a long course of brutal

debauchery.

It was to this person, such as we have described him, that the

Prince addressed his imperious command to make place for Isaac

and Rebecca. Athelstane, utterly confounded at an order which

the manners and feelings of the times rendered so injuriously

insulting, unwilling to obey, yet undetermined how to resist,

opposed only the “vis inertiae” to the will of John; and, without

stirring or making any motion whatever of obedience, opened his

large grey eyes, and stared at the Prince with an astonishment

which had in it something extremely ludicrous. But the impatient

John regarded it in no such light.

“The Saxon porker,” he said, “is either asleep or minds me not

---Prick him with your lance, De Bracy,” speaking to a knight

who rode near him, the leader of a band of Free Companions, or

Condottieri; that is, of mercenaries belonging to no particular

nation, but attached for the time to any prince by whom they were

paid. There was a murmur even among the attendants of Prince

John; but De Bracy, whose profession freed him from all scruples,

extended his long lance over the space which separated the

gallery from the lists, and would have executed the commands of

the Prince before Athelstane the Unready had recovered presence

of mind sufficient even to draw back his person from the weapon,

had not Cedric, as prompt as his companion was tardy, unsheathed,

with the speed of lightning, the short sword which he wore, and

at a single blow severed the point of the lance from the handle.

The blood rushed into the countenance of Prince John. He swore

one of his deepest oaths, and was about to utter some threat

corresponding in violence, when he was diverted from his purpose,

partly by his own attendants, who gathered around him conjuring

him to be patient, partly by a general exclamation of the crowd,

uttered in loud applause of the spirited conduct of Cedric. The

Prince rolled his eyes in indignation, as if to collect some safe

and easy victim; and chancing to encounter the firm glance of the

same archer whom we have already noticed, and who seemed to

persist in his gesture of applause, in spite of the frowning

aspect which the Prince bent upon him, he demanded his reason for

clamouring thus.

“I always add my hollo,” said the yeoman, “when I see a good

shot, or a gallant blow.”

“Sayst thou?” answered the Prince; “then thou canst hit the white

thyself, I’ll warrant.”

“A woodsman’s mark, and at woodsman’s distance, I can hit,”

answered the yeoman.

“And Wat Tyrrel’s mark, at a hundred yards,” said a voice from

behind, but by whom uttered could not be discerned.

This allusion to the fate of William Rufus, his Relative, at once

incensed and alarmed Prince John. He satisfied himself, however,

with commanding the men-at-arms, who surrounded the lists, to

keep an eye on the braggart, pointing to the yeoman.

“By St Grizzel,” he added, “we will try his own skill, who is so

ready to give his voice to the feats of others!”

“I shall not fly the trial,” said the yeoman, with the composure

which marked his whole deportment.

“Meanwhile, stand up, ye Saxon churls,” said the fiery Prince;

“for, by the light of Heaven, since I have said it, the Jew shall

have his seat amongst ye!”

“By no means, an it please your Grace!---it is not fit for such

as we to sit with the rulers of the land,” said the Jew; whose

ambition for precedence though it had led him to dispute Place

with the extenuated and impoverished descendant of the line of

Montdidier, by no means stimulated him to an intrusion upon the

privileges of the wealthy Saxons.

“Up, infidel dog when I command you,” said Prince John, “or I

will have thy swarthy hide stript off, and tanned for

horse-furniture.”

Thus urged, the Jew began to ascend the steep and narrow steps

which led up to the gallery.

“Let me see,” said the Prince, “who dare stop him,” fixing his

eye on Cedric, whose attitude intimated his intention to hurl the

Jew down headlong.

The catastrophe was prevented by the clown Wamba, who, springing

betwixt his master and Isaac, and exclaiming, in answer to the

Prince’s defiance, “Marry, that will I!” opposed to the beard of

the Jew a shield of brawn, which he plucked from beneath his

cloak, and with which, doubtless, he had furnished himself, lest

the tournament should have proved longer than his appetite could

endure abstinence. Finding the abomination of his tribe opposed

to his very nose, while the Jester, at the same time, flourished

his wooden sword above his head, the Jew recoiled, missed his

footing, and rolled down the steps,---an excellent jest to the

spectators, who set up a loud laughter, in which Prince John and

his attendants heartily joined.

“Deal me the prize, cousin Prince,” said Wamba; “I have

vanquished my foe in fair fight with sword and shield,” he added,

brandishing the brawn in one hand and the wooden sword in the

other.

“Who, and what art thou, noble champion?” said Prince John, still

laughing.

“A fool by right of descent,” answered the Jester; “I am Wamba,

the son of Witless, who was the son of Weatherbrain, who was the

son of an Alderman.”

“Make room for the Jew in front of the lower ring,” said Prince

John, not unwilling perhaps to, seize an apology to desist from

his original purpose; “to place the vanquished beside the victor

were false heraldry.”

“Knave upon fool were worse,” answered the Jester, “and Jew upon

bacon worst of all.”

“Gramercy! good fellow,” cried Prince John, “thou pleasest me

---Here, Isaac, lend me a handful of byzants.”

As the Jew, stunned by the request, afraid to refuse, and

unwilling to comply, fumbled in the furred bag which hung by his

girdle, and was perhaps endeavouring to ascertain how few coins

might pass for a handful, the Prince stooped from his jennet and

settled Isaac’s doubts by snatching the pouch itself from his

side; and flinging to Wamba a couple of the gold pieces which it

contained, he pursued his career round the lists, leaving the Jew

to the derision of those around him, and himself receiving as

much applause from the spectators as if he had done some honest

and honourable action.

CHAPTER VIII

At this the challenger with fierce defy

His trumpet sounds; the challenged makes reply:

With clangour rings the field, resounds the vaulted sky.

Their visors closed, their lances in the rest,

Or at the helmet pointed or the crest,

They vanish from the barrier, speed the race,

And spurring see decrease the middle space.

Palamon and Arcite

In the midst of Prince John’s cavalcade, he suddenly stopt, and

appealing to the Prior of Jorvaulx, declared the principal

business of the day had been forgotten.

“By my halidom,” said he, “we have forgotten, Sir Prior, to name

the fair Sovereign of Love and of Beauty, by whose white hand the

palm is to be distributed. For my part, I am liberal in my

ideas, and I care not if I give my vote for the black-eyed

Rebecca.”

“Holy Virgin,” answered the Prior, turning up his eyes in horror,

“a Jewess!---We should deserve to be stoned out of the lists; and

I am not yet old enough to be a martyr. Besides, I swear by my

patron saint, that she is far inferior to the lovely Saxon,

Rowena.”

“Saxon or Jew,” answered the Prince, “Saxon or Jew, dog or hog,

what matters it? I say, name Rebecca, were it only to mortify the

Saxon churls.”

A murmur arose even among his own immediate attendants.

“This passes a jest, my lord,” said De Bracy; “no knight here

will lay lance in rest if such an insult is attempted.”

“It is the mere wantonness of insult,” said one of the oldest and

most important of Prince John’s followers, Waldemar Fitzurse,

“and if your Grace attempt it, cannot but prove ruinous to your

projects.”

“I entertained you, sir,” said John, reining up his palfrey

haughtily, “for my follower, but not for my counsellor.”

“Those who follow your Grace in the paths which you tread,” said

Waldemar, but speaking in a low voice, “acquire the right of

counsellors; for your interest and safety are not more deeply

gaged than their own.”

From the tone in which this was spoken, John saw the necessity of

acquiescence “I did but jest,” he said; “and you turn upon me

like so many adders! Name whom you will, in the fiend’s name,

and please yourselves.”

“Nay, nay,” said De Bracy, “let the fair sovereign’s throne

remain unoccupied, until the conqueror shall be named, and then

let him choose the lady by whom it shall be filled. It will add

another grace to his triumph, and teach fair ladies to prize the

love of valiant knights, who can exalt them to such distinction.”

“If Brian de Bois-Guilbert gain the prize,” said the Prior, “I

will gage my rosary that I name the Sovereign of Love and

Beauty.”

“Bois-Guilbert,” answered De Bracy, “is a good lance; but there

are others around these lists, Sir Prior, who will not fear to

encounter him.”

“Silence, sirs,” said Waldemar, “and let the Prince assume his

seat. The knights and spectators are alike impatient, the time

advances, and highly fit it is that the sports should commence.”

Prince John, though not yet a monarch, had in Waldemar Fitzurse

all the inconveniences of a favourite minister, who, in serving

his sovereign, must always do so in his own way. The Prince

acquiesced, however, although his disposition was precisely of

that kind which is apt to be obstinate upon trifles, and,

assuming his throne, and being surrounded by his followers, gave

signal to the heralds to proclaim the laws of the tournament,

which were briefly as follows:

First, the five challengers were to undertake all comers.

Secondly, any knight proposing to combat, might, if he pleased,

select a special antagonist from among the challengers, by

touching his shield. If he did so with the reverse of his lance,

the trial of skill was made with what were called the arms of

courtesy, that is, with lances at whose extremity a piece of

round flat board was fixed, so that no danger was encountered,

save from the shock of the horses and riders. But if the shield

was touched with the sharp end of the lance, the combat was

understood to be at “outrance”, that is, the knights were to

fight with sharp weapons, as in actual battle.

Thirdly, when the knights present had accomplished their vow, by

each of them breaking five lances, the Prince was to declare the

victor in the first day’s tourney, who should receive as prize a

warhorse of exquisite beauty and matchless strength; and in

addition to this reward of valour, it was now declared, he should

have the peculiar honour of naming the Queen of Love and Beauty,

by whom the prize should be given on the ensuing day.

Fourthly, it was announced, that, on the second day, there should

be a general tournament, in which all the knights present, who

were desirous to win praise, might take part; and being divided

into two bands of equal numbers, might fight it out manfully,

until the signal was given by Prince John to cease the combat.

The elected Queen of Love and Beauty was then to crown the knight

whom the Prince should adjudge to have borne himself best in this

second day, with a coronet composed of thin gold plate, cut into

the shape of a laurel crown. On this second day the knightly

games ceased. But on that which was to follow, feats of archery,

of