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

almost senseless, with the rapid change

of circumstances around her. But one word from Isaac at length

recalled her scattered feelings.

“Let us go,” he said, “my dear daughter, my recovered treasure

---let us go to throw ourselves at the feet of the good youth.”

“Not so,” said Rebecca, “O no---no---no---I must not at this

moment dare to speak to him---Alas! I should say more than---No,

my father, let us instantly leave this evil place.”

“But, my daughter,” said Isaac, “to leave him who hath come forth

like a strong man with his spear and shield, holding his life as

nothing, so he might redeem thy captivity; and thou, too, the

daughter of a people strange unto him and his---this is service

to be thankfully acknowledged.”

“It is---it is---most thankfully---most devoutly acknowledged,”

said Rebecca---“it shall be still more so---but not now---for the

sake of thy beloved Rachel, father, grant my request---not now!”

“Nay, but,” said Isaac, insisting, “they will deem us more

thankless than mere dogs!”

“But thou seest, my dear father, that King Richard is in

presence, and that------”

“True, my best---my wisest Rebecca!---Let us hence---let us

hence!---Money he will lack, for he has just returned from

Palestine, and, as they say, from prison---and pretext for

exacting it, should he need any, may arise out of my simple

traffic with his brother John. Away, away, let us hence!”

And hurrying his daughter in his turn, he conducted her from the

lists, and by means of conveyance which he had provided,

transported her safely to the house of the Rabbi Nathan.

The Jewess, whose fortunes had formed the principal interest of

the day, having now retired unobserved, the attention of the

populace was transferred to the Black Knight. They now filled

the air with “Long life to Richard with the Lion’s Heart, and

down with the usurping Templars!”

“Notwithstanding all this lip-loyalty,” said Ivanhoe to the Earl

of Essex, “it was well the King took the precaution to bring thee

with him, noble Earl, and so many of thy trusty followers.”

The Earl smiled and shook his head.

“Gallant Ivanhoe,” said Essex, “dost thou know our Master so

well, and yet suspect him of taking so wise a precaution! I was

drawing towards York having heard that Prince John was making

head there, when I met King Richard, like a true knight-errant,

galloping hither to achieve in his own person this adventure of

the Templar and the Jewess, with his own single arm. I

accompanied him with my band, almost maugre his consent.”

“And what news from York, brave Earl?” said Ivanhoe; “will the

rebels bide us there?”

“No more than December’s snow will bide July’s sun,” said the

Earl; “they are dispersing; and who should come posting to bring

us the news, but John himself!”

“The traitor! the ungrateful insolent traitor!” said Ivanhoe;

“did not Richard order him into confinement?”

“O! he received him,” answered the Earl, “as if they had met

after a hunting party; and, pointing to me and our men-at-arms,

said, ‘Thou seest, brother, I have some angry men with me---thou

wert best go to our mother, carry her my duteous affection, and

abide with her until men’s minds are pacified.’”

“And this was all he said?” enquired Ivanhoe; “would not any one

say that this Prince invites men to treason by his clemency?”

“Just,” replied the Earl, “as the man may be said to invite

death, who undertakes to fight a combat, having a dangerous

wound unhealed.”

“I forgive thee the jest, Lord Earl,” said Ivanhoe; “but,

remember, I hazarded but my own life---Richard, the welfare of

his kingdom.”

“Those,” replied Essex, “who are specially careless of their own

welfare, are seldom remarkably attentive to that of others---But

let us haste to the castle, for Richard meditates punishing some

of the subordinate members of the conspiracy, though he has

pardoned their principal.”

From the judicial investigations which followed on this occasion,

and which are given at length in the Wardour Manuscript, it

appears that Maurice de Bracy escaped beyond seas, and went into

the service of Philip of France; while Philip de Malvoisin, and

his brother Albert, the Preceptor of Templestowe, were executed,

although Waldemar Fitzurse, the soul of the conspiracy, escaped

with banishment; and Prince John, for whose behoof it was

undertaken, was not even censured by his good-natured brother.

No one, however, pitied the fate of the two Malvoisins, who only

suffered the death which they had both well deserved, by many

acts of falsehood, cruelty, and oppression.

Briefly after the judicial combat, Cedric the Saxon was summoned

to the court of Richard, which, for the purpose of quieting the

counties that had been disturbed by the ambition of his brother,

was then held at York. Cedric tushed and pshawed more than once

at the message---but he refused not obedience. In fact, the

return of Richard had quenched every hope that he had entertained

of restoring a Saxon dynasty in England; for, whatever head the

Saxons might have made in the event of a civil war, it was plain

that nothing could be done under the undisputed dominion of

Richard, popular as he was by his personal good qualities and

military fame, although his administration was wilfully careless,

now too indulgent, and now allied to despotism.

But, moreover, it could not escape even Cedric’s reluctant

observation, that his project for an absolute union among the

Saxons, by the marriage of Rowena and Athelstane, was now

completely at an end, by the mutual dissent of both parties

concerned. This was, indeed, an event which, in his ardour for

the Saxon cause, he could not have anticipated, and even when the

disinclination of both was broadly and plainly manifested, he

could scarce bring himself to believe that two Saxons of royal

descent should scruple, on personal grounds, at an alliance so

necessary for the public weal of the nation. But it was not the

less certain: Rowena had always expressed her repugnance to

Athelstane, and now Athelstane was no less plain and positive in

proclaiming his resolution never to pursue his addresses to the

Lady Rowena. Even the natural obstinacy of Cedric sunk beneath

these obstacles, where he, remaining on the point of junction,

had the task of dragging a reluctant pair up to it, one with each

hand. He made, however, a last vigorous attack on Athelstane,

and he found that resuscitated sprout of Saxon royalty engaged,

like country squires of our own day, in a furious war with the

clergy.

It seems that, after all his deadly menaces against the Abbot of

Saint Edmund’s, Athelstane’s spirit of revenge, what between the

natural indolent kindness of his own disposition, what through

the prayers of his mother Edith, attached, like most ladies, (of

the period,) to the clerical order, had terminated in his keeping

the Abbot and his monks in the dungeons of Coningsburgh for three

days on a meagre diet. For this atrocity the Abbot menaced him

with excommunication, and made out a dreadful list of complaints

in the bowels and stomach, suffered by himself and his monks, in

consequence of the tyrannical and unjust imprisonment they had

sustained. With this controversy, and with the means he had

adopted to counteract this clerical persecution, Cedric found the

mind of his friend Athelstane so fully occupied, that it had no

room for another idea. And when Rowena’s name was mentioned the

noble Athelstane prayed leave to quaff a full goblet to her

health, and that she might soon be the bride of his kinsman

Wilfred. It was a desperate case therefore. There was obviously

no more to be made of Athelstane; or, as Wamba expressed it, in a

phrase which has descended from Saxon times to ours, he was a

cock that would not fight.

There remained betwixt Cedric and the determination which the

lovers desired to come to, only two obstacles---his own

obstinacy, and his dislike of the Norman dynasty. The former

feeling gradually gave way before the endearments of his ward,

and the pride which he could not help nourishing in the fame of

his son. Besides, he was not insensible to the honour of allying

his own line to that of Alfred, when the superior claims of the

descendant of Edward the Confessor were abandoned for ever.

Cedric’s aversion to the Norman race of kings was also much

undermined,---first, by consideration of the impossibility of

ridding England of the new dynasty, a feeling which goes far to

create loyalty in the subject to the king “de facto”; and,

secondly, by the personal attention of King Richard, who

delighted in the blunt humour of Cedric, and, to use the language

of the Wardour Manuscript, so dealt with the noble Saxon, that,

ere he had been a guest at court for seven days, he had given his

consent to the marriage of his ward Rowena and his son Wilfred of

Ivanhoe.

The nuptials of our hero, thus formally approved by his father,

were celebrated in the most august of temples, the noble Minster

of York. The King himself attended, and from the countenance

which he afforded on this and other occasions to the distressed

and hitherto degraded Saxons, gave them a safer and more certain

prospect of attaining their just rights, than they could

reasonably hope from the precarious chance of a civil war. The

Church gave her full solemnities, graced with all the splendour

which she of Rome knows how to apply with such brilliant effect.

Gurth, gallantly apparelled, attended as esquire upon his young

master whom he had served so faithfully, and the magnanimous

Wamba, decorated with a new cap and a most gorgeous set of silver

bells. Sharers of Wilfred’s dangers and adversity, they

remained, as they had a right to expect, the partakers of his

more prosperous career.

But besides this domestic retinue, these distinguished nuptials

were celebrated by the attendance of the high-born Normans, as

well as Saxons, joined with the universal jubilee of the lower

orders, that marked the marriage of two individuals as a pledge

of the future peace and harmony betwixt two races, which, since

that period, have been so completely mingled, that the

distinction has become wholly invisible. Cedric lived to see

this union approximate towards its completion; for as the two

nations mixed in society and formed intermarriages with each

other, the Normans abated their scorn, and the Saxons were

refined from their rusticity. But it was not until the reign of

Edward the Third that the mixed language, now termed English, was

spoken at the court of London, and that the hostile distinction

of Norman and Saxon seems entirely to have disappeared.

It was upon the second morning after this happy bridal, that the

Lady Rowena was made acquainted by her handmaid Elgitha, that a

damsel desired admission to her presence, and solicited that

their parley might be without witness. Rowena wondered,

hesitated, became curious, and ended by commanding the damsel to

be admitted, and her attendants to withdraw.

She entered---a noble and commanding figure, the long white veil,

in which she was shrouded, overshadowing rather than concealing

the elegance and majesty of her shape. Her demeanour was that of

respect, unmingled by the least shade either of fear, or of a

wish to propitiate favour. Rowena was ever ready to acknowledge

the claims, and attend to the feelings, of others. She arose,

and would have conducted her lovely visitor to a seat; but the

stranger looked at Elgitha, and again intimated a wish to

discourse with the Lady Rowena alone. Elgitha had no sooner

retired with unwilling steps, than, to the surprise of the Lady

of Ivanhoe, her fair visitant kneeled on one knee, pressed her

hands to her forehead, and bending her head to the ground, in

spite of Rowena’s resistance, kissed the embroidered hem of her

tunic.

“What means this, lady?”