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

>man, but that I can at all stir or move was owing to her

charitable assistance.---I will do thine errand,” he added,

addressing Rebecca, “as well as a crippled object can, and happy

were my limbs fleet enough to repair the mischief done by my

tongue. Alas! when I boasted of thy charity, I little thought I

was leading thee into danger!”

“God,” said Rebecca, “is the disposer of all. He can turn back

the captivity of Judah, even by the weakest instrument. To

execute his message the snail is as sure a messenger as the

falcon. Seek out Isaac of York---here is that will pay for horse

and man---let him have this scroll.---I know not if it be of

Heaven the spirit which inspires me, but most truly do I judge

that I am not to die this death, and that a champion will be

raised up for me. Farewell!---Life and death are in thy haste.”

The peasant took the scroll, which contained only a few lines in

Hebrew. Many of the crowd would have dissuaded him from touching

a document so suspicious; but Higg was resolute in the service of

his benefactress. She had saved his body, he said, and he was

confident she did not mean to peril his soul.

“I will get me,” he said, “my neighbour Buthan’s good capul,*

“Capul”, i.e. horse; in a more limited sense, work-horse.

and I will be at York within as brief space as man and beast

may.”

But as it fortuned, he had no occasion to go so far, for within a

quarter of a mile from the gate of the Preceptory he met with two

riders, whom, by their dress and their huge yellow caps, he knew

to be Jews; and, on approaching more nearly, discovered that one

of them was his ancient employer, Isaac of York. The other was

the Rabbi Ben Samuel; and both had approached as near to the

Preceptory as they dared, on hearing that the Grand Master had

summoned a chapter for the trial of a sorceress.

“Brother Ben Samuel,” said Isaac, “my soul is disquieted, and I

wot not why. This charge of necromancy is right often used for

cloaking evil practices on our people.”

“Be of good comfort, brother,” said the physician; “thou canst

deal with the Nazarenes as one possessing the mammon of

unrighteousness, and canst therefore purchase immunity at their

hands---it rules the savage minds of those ungodly men, even as

the signet of the mighty Solomon was said to command the evil

genii.---But what poor wretch comes hither upon his crutches,

desiring, as I think, some speech of me?---Friend,” continued the

physician, addressing Higg, the son of Snell, “I refuse thee not

the aid of mine art, but I relieve not with one asper those who

beg for alms upon the highway. Out upon thee!---Hast thou the

palsy in thy legs? then let thy hands work for thy livelihood;

for, albeit thou be’st unfit for a speedy post, or for a careful

shepherd, or for the warfare, or for the service of a hasty

master, yet there be occupations---How now, brother?” said he,

interrupting his harangue to look towards Isaac, who had but

glanced at the scroll which Higg offered, when, uttering a deep

groan, he fell from his mule like a dying man, and lay for a

minute insensible.

The Rabbi now dismounted in great alarm, and hastily applied the

remedies which his art suggested for the recovery of his

companion. He had even taken from his pocket a cupping

apparatus, and was about to proceed to phlebotomy, when the

object of his anxious solicitude suddenly revived; but it was to

dash his cap from his head, and to throw dust on his grey hairs.

The physician was at first inclined to ascribe this sudden and

violent emotion to the effects of insanity; and, adhering to his

original purpose, began once again to handle his implements. But

Isaac soon convinced him of his error.

“Child of my sorrow,” he said, “well shouldst thou be called

Benoni, instead of Rebecca! Why should thy death bring down my

grey hairs to the grave, till, in the bitterness of my heart, I

curse God and die!”

“Brother,” said the Rabbi, in great surprise, “art thou a father

in Israel, and dost thou utter words like unto these?---I trust

that the child of thy house yet liveth?”

“She liveth,” answered Isaac; “but it is as Daniel, who was

called Beltheshazzar, even when within the den of the lions. She

is captive unto those men of Belial, and they will wreak their

cruelty upon her, sparing neither for her youth nor her comely

favour. O! she was as a crown of green palms to my grey locks;

and she must wither in a night, like the gourd of Jonah!---Child

of my love!---child of my old age!---oh, Rebecca, daughter of

Rachel! the darkness of the shadow of death hath encompassed

thee.”

“Yet read the scroll,” said the Rabbi; “peradventure it may be

that we may yet find out a way of deliverance.”

“Do thou read, brother,” answered Isaac, “for mine eyes are as a

fountain of water.”

The physician read, but in their native language, the following

words:---

“To Isaac, the son of Adonikam, whom the Gentiles call Isaac of

York, peace and the blessing of the promise be multiplied unto

thee!---My father, I am as one doomed to die for that which my

soul knoweth not---even for the crime of witchcraft. My father,

if a strong man can be found to do battle for my cause with

sword and spear, according to the custom of the Nazarenes, and

that within the lists of Templestowe, on the third day from this

time, peradventure our fathers’ God will give him strength to

defend the innocent, and her who hath none to help her. But if

this may not be, let the virgins of our people mourn for me as

for one cast off, and for the hart that is stricken by the

hunter, and for the flower which is cut down by the scythe of the

mower. Wherefore look now what thou doest, and whether there be

any rescue. One Nazarene warrior might indeed bear arms in my

behalf, even Wilfred, son of Cedric, whom the Gentiles call

Ivanhoe. But he may not yet endure the weight of his armour.

Nevertheless, send the tidings unto him, my father; for he hath

favour among the strong men of his people, and as he was our

companion in the house of bondage, he may find some one to do

battle for my sake. And say unto him, even unto him, even unto

Wilfred, the son of Cedric, that if Rebecca live, or if Rebecca

die, she liveth or dieth wholly free of the guilt she is charged

withal. And if it be the will of God that thou shalt be deprived

of thy daughter, do not thou tarry, old man, in this land of

bloodshed and cruelty; but betake thyself to Cordova, where thy

brother liveth in safety, under the shadow of the throne, even of

the throne of Boabdil the Saracen; for less cruel are the

cruelties of the Moors unto the race of Jacob, than the cruelties

of the Nazarenes of England.”

Isaac listened with tolerable composure while Ben Samuel read the

letter, and then again resumed the gestures and exclamations of

Oriental sorrow, tearing his garments, besprinkling his head with

dust, and ejaculating, “My daughter! my daughter! flesh of my

flesh, and bone of my bone!”

“Yet,” said the Rabbi, “take courage, for this grief availeth

nothing. Gird up thy loins, and seek out this Wilfred, the son

of Cedric. It may be he will help thee with counsel or with

strength; for the youth hath favour in the eyes of Richard,

called of the Nazarenes Coeur-de-Lion, and the tidings that he

hath returned are constant in the land. It may be that he may

obtain his letter, and his signet, commanding these men of blood,

who take their name from the Temple to the dishonour thereof,

that they proceed not in their purposed wickedness.”

“I will seek him out,” said Isaac, “for he is a good youth, and

hath compassion for the exile of Jacob. But he cannot bear his

armour, and what other Christian shall do battle for the

oppressed of Zion?”

“Nay, but,” said the Rabbi, “thou speakest as one that knoweth

not the Gentiles. With gold shalt thou buy their valour, even as

with gold thou buyest thine own safety. Be of good courage, and

do thou set forward to find out this Wilfred of Ivanhoe. I will

also up and be doing, for great sin it were to leave thee in thy

calamity. I will hie me to the city of York, where many warriors

and strong men are assembled, and doubt not I will find among

them some one who will do battle for thy daughter; for gold is

their god, and for riches will they pawn their lives as well as

their lands.---Thou wilt fulfil, my brother, such promise as I

may make unto them in thy name?”

“Assuredly, brother,” said Isaac, “and Heaven be praised that

raised me up a comforter in my misery. Howbeit, grant them not

their full demand at once, for thou shalt find it the quality of

this accursed people that they will ask pounds, and peradventure

accept of ounces---Nevertheless, be it as thou willest, for I am

distracted in this thing, and what would my gold avail me if the

child of my love should perish!”

“Farewell,” said the physician, “and may it be to thee as thy

heart desireth.”

They embraced accordingly, and departed on their several roads.

The crippled peasant remained for some time looking after them.

“These dog-Jews!” said he; “to take no more notice of a free

guild-brother, than if I were a bond slave or a Turk, or a

circumcised Hebrew like themselves! They might have flung me a

mancus or two, however. I was not obliged to bring their

unhallowed scrawls, and run the risk of being bewitched, as more

folks than one told me. And what care I for the bit of gold that

the wench gave me, if I am to come to harm from the priest next

Easter at confession, and be obliged to give him twice as much to

make it up with him, and be called the Jew’s flying post all my

life, as it may hap, into the bargain? I think I was bewitched

in earnest when I was beside that girl!---But it was always so

with Jew or Gentile, whosoever came near her---none could stay

when she had an errand to go---and still, whenever I think of

her, I would give shop and tools to save her life.”

CHAPTER XXXIX

O maid, unrelenting and cold as thou art,

My bosom is proud as thine own.

Seward

It was in the twilight of the day when her trial, if it could be

called such, had taken place, that a low knock was heard at the

door of Rebecca’s prison-chamber. It disturbed not the inmate,

who was then engaged in the evening prayer recommended by her

religion, and which concluded with a hymn we have ventured thus

to translate into English.

When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her father’s God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame.

By day, along the astonish’d lands

The cloudy pillar glided slow;

By night, Arabia’s crimson’d sands

Return’d the fiery column’s glow.

There rose the choral hymn of praise,

And trump and timbrel answer’d keen,

And Zion’s daughters pour’d their lays,

With priest’s and warrior’s voice between.

No portents now our foes amaze,

Forsaken Israel wanders lone;

Our fathers would not know THY ways,

And