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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
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