Ivanhoe: A Romance

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXVIII

  This wandering race, sever'd from other men, Boast yet their intercourse with human arts; The seas, the woods, the deserts, which they haunt, Find them acquainted with their secret treasures: And unregarded herbs, and flowers, and blossoms, Display undreamt-of powers when gather'd by them. --The Jew

  Our history must needs retrograde for the space of a few pages, toinform the reader of certain passages material to his understanding therest of this important narrative. His own intelligence may indeed haveeasily anticipated that, when Ivanhoe sunk down, and seemed abandoned byall the world, it was the importunity of Rebecca which prevailed on herfather to have the gallant young warrior transported from the lists tothe house which for the time the Jews inhabited in the suburbs of Ashby.

  It would not have been difficult to have persuaded Isaac to this step inany other circumstances, for his disposition was kind and grateful. Buthe had also the prejudices and scrupulous timidity of his persecutedpeople, and those were to be conquered.

  "Holy Abraham!" he exclaimed, "he is a good youth, and my heart bleedsto see the gore trickle down his rich embroidered hacqueton, and hiscorslet of goodly price--but to carry him to our house!--damsel, hastthou well considered?--he is a Christian, and by our law we may not dealwith the stranger and Gentile, save for the advantage of our commerce."

  "Speak not so, my dear father," replied Rebecca; "we may not indeed mixwith them in banquet and in jollity; but in wounds and in misery, theGentile becometh the Jew's brother."

  "I would I knew what the Rabbi Jacob Ben Tudela would opine on it,"replied Isaac;--"nevertheless, the good youth must not bleed to death.Let Seth and Reuben bear him to Ashby."

  "Nay, let them place him in my litter," said Rebecca; "I will mount oneof the palfreys."

  "That were to expose thee to the gaze of those dogs of Ishmael and ofEdom," whispered Isaac, with a suspicious glance towards the crowd ofknights and squires. But Rebecca was already busied in carrying hercharitable purpose into effect, and listed not what he said, untilIsaac, seizing the sleeve of her mantle, again exclaimed, in a hurriedvoice--"Beard of Aaron!--what if the youth perish!--if he die in ourcustody, shall we not be held guilty of his blood, and be torn to piecesby the multitude?"

  "He will not die, my father," said Rebecca, gently extricating herselffrom the grasp of Isaac "he will not die unless we abandon him; and ifso, we are indeed answerable for his blood to God and to man."

  "Nay," said Isaac, releasing his hold, "it grieveth me as much to seethe drops of his blood, as if they were so many golden byzants from mineown purse; and I well know, that the lessons of Miriam, daughter of theRabbi Manasses of Byzantium whose soul is in Paradise, have made theeskilful in the art of healing, and that thou knowest the craft of herbs,and the force of elixirs. Therefore, do as thy mind giveth thee--thouart a good damsel, a blessing, and a crown, and a song of rejoicing untome and unto my house, and unto the people of my fathers."

  The apprehensions of Isaac, however, were not ill founded; and thegenerous and grateful benevolence of his daughter exposed her, on herreturn to Ashby, to the unhallowed gaze of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. TheTemplar twice passed and repassed them on the road, fixing his boldand ardent look on the beautiful Jewess; and we have already seen theconsequences of the admiration which her charms excited when accidentthrew her into the power of that unprincipled voluptuary.

  Rebecca lost no time in causing the patient to be transported to theirtemporary dwelling, and proceeded with her own hands to examine andto bind up his wounds. The youngest reader of romances and romanticballads, must recollect how often the females, during the dark ages, asthey are called, were initiated into the mysteries of surgery, and howfrequently the gallant knight submitted the wounds of his person to hercure, whose eyes had yet more deeply penetrated his heart.

  But the Jews, both male and female, possessed and practised the medicalscience in all its branches, and the monarchs and powerful barons of thetime frequently committed themselves to the charge of some experiencedsage among this despised people, when wounded or in sickness. The aidof the Jewish physicians was not the less eagerly sought after, thougha general belief prevailed among the Christians, that the Jewish Rabbinswere deeply acquainted with the occult sciences, and particularly withthe cabalistical art, which had its name and origin in the studies ofthe sages of Israel. Neither did the Rabbins disown such acquaintancewith supernatural arts, which added nothing (for what could add aught?)to the hatred with which their nation was regarded, while it diminishedthe contempt with which that malevolence was mingled. A Jewish magicianmight be the subject of equal abhorrence with a Jewish usurer, but hecould not be equally despised. It is besides probable, considering thewonderful cures they are said to have performed, that the Jews possessedsome secrets of the healing art peculiar to themselves, and which, withthe exclusive spirit arising out of their condition, they took greatcare to conceal from the Christians amongst whom they dwelt.

  The beautiful Rebecca had been heedfully brought up in all the knowledgeproper to her nation, which her apt and powerful mind had retained,arranged, and enlarged, in the course of a progress beyond her years,her sex, and even the age in which she lived. Her knowledge of medicineand of the healing art had been acquired under an aged Jewess, thedaughter of one of their most celebrated doctors, who loved Rebecca asher own child, and was believed to have communicated to her secrets,which had been left to herself by her sage father at the same time, andunder the same circumstances. The fate of Miriam had indeed been to falla sacrifice to the fanaticism of the times; but her secrets had survivedin her apt pupil.

  Rebecca, thus endowed with knowledge as with beauty, was universallyrevered and admired by her own tribe, who almost regarded her as one ofthose gifted women mentioned in the sacred history. Her father himself,out of reverence for her talents, which involuntarily mingled itselfwith his unbounded affection, permitted the maiden a greater libertythan was usually indulged to those of her sex by the habits of herpeople, and was, as we have just seen, frequently guided by her opinion,even in preference to his own.

  When Ivanhoe reached the habitation of Isaac, he was still in a stateof unconsciousness, owing to the profuse loss of blood which had takenplace during his exertions in the lists. Rebecca examined the wound,and having applied to it such vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed,informed her father that if fever could be averted, of which the greatbleeding rendered her little apprehensive, and if the healing balsam ofMiriam retained its virtue, there was nothing to fear for his guest'slife, and that he might with safety travel to York with them on theensuing day. Isaac looked a little blank at this annunciation. Hischarity would willingly have stopped short at Ashby, or at most wouldhave left the wounded Christian to be tended in the house where hewas residing at present, with an assurance to the Hebrew to whom itbelonged, that all expenses should be duly discharged. To this, however,Rebecca opposed many reasons, of which we shall only mention two thathad peculiar weight with Isaac. The one was, that she would on noaccount put the phial of precious balsam into the hands of anotherphysician even of her own tribe, lest that valuable mystery should bediscovered; the other, that this wounded knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, wasan intimate favourite of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, and that, in case themonarch should return, Isaac, who had supplied his brother John withtreasure to prosecute his rebellious purposes, would stand in no smallneed of a powerful protector who enjoyed Richard's favour.

  "Thou art speaking but sooth, Rebecca," said Isaac, giving way to theseweighty arguments--"it were an offending of Heaven to betray the secretsof the blessed Miriam; for the good which Heaven giveth, is not rashlyto be squandered upon others, whether it be talents of gold andshekels of silver, or whether it be the secret mysteries of a wisephysician--assuredly they should be preserved to those to whomProvidence hath vouchsafed them. And him whom the Nazarenes of Englandcall the Lion's Heart, assuredly it were better for me to fall into thehands of a strong lion of Idumea than into
his, if he shall have gotassurance of my dealing with his brother. Wherefore I will lend ear tothy counsel, and this youth shall journey with us unto York, and ourhouse shall be as a home to him until his wounds shall be healed. And ifhe of the Lion Heart shall return to the land, as is now noised abroad,then shall this Wilfred of Ivanhoe be unto me as a wall of defence, whenthe king's displeasure shall burn high against thy father. And if hedoth not return, this Wilfred may natheless repay us our charges when heshall gain treasure by the strength of his spear and of his sword, evenas he did yesterday and this day also. For the youth is a good youth,and keepeth the day which he appointeth, and restoreth that which heborroweth, and succoureth the Israelite, even the child of my father'shouse, when he is encompassed by strong thieves and sons of Belial."

  It was not until evening was nearly closed that Ivanhoe was restored toconsciousness of his situation. He awoke from a broken slumber, underthe confused impressions which are naturally attendant on the recoveryfrom a state of insensibility. He was unable for some time to recallexactly to memory the circumstances which had preceded his fall in thelists, or to make out any connected chain of the events in which he hadbeen engaged upon the yesterday. A sense of wounds and injury, joinedto great weakness and exhaustion, was mingled with the recollectionof blows dealt and received, of steeds rushing upon each other,overthrowing and overthrown--of shouts and clashing of arms, and all theheady tumult of a confused fight. An effort to draw aside the curtain ofhis couch was in some degree successful, although rendered difficult bythe pain of his wound.

  To his great surprise he found himself in a room magnificentlyfurnished, but having cushions instead of chairs to rest upon, and inother respects partaking so much of Oriental costume, that he began todoubt whether he had not, during his sleep, been transported backagain to the land of Palestine. The impression was increased, when,the tapestry being drawn aside, a female form, dressed in a rich habit,which partook more of the Eastern taste than that of Europe, glidedthrough the door which it concealed, and was followed by a swarthydomestic.

  As the wounded knight was about to address this fair apparition, sheimposed silence by placing her slender finger upon her ruby lips, whilethe attendant, approaching him, proceeded to uncover Ivanhoe's side, andthe lovely Jewess satisfied herself that the bandage was in its place,and the wound doing well. She performed her task with a graceful anddignified simplicity and modesty, which might, even in more civilizeddays, have served to redeem it from whatever might seem repugnant tofemale delicacy. The idea of so young and beautiful a person engaged inattendance on a sick-bed, or in dressing the wound of one of a differentsex, was melted away and lost in that of a beneficent being contributingher effectual aid to relieve pain, and to avert the stroke of death.Rebecca's few and brief directions were given in the Hebrew languageto the old domestic; and he, who had been frequently her assistant insimilar cases, obeyed them without reply.

  The accents of an unknown tongue, however harsh they might have soundedwhen uttered by another, had, coming from the beautiful Rebecca,the romantic and pleasing effect which fancy ascribes to the charmspronounced by some beneficent fairy, unintelligible, indeed, to the ear,but, from the sweetness of utterance, and benignity of aspect, whichaccompanied them, touching and affecting to the heart. Without makingan attempt at further question, Ivanhoe suffered them in silence to takethe measures they thought most proper for his recovery; and it was notuntil those were completed, and this kind physician about to retire,that his curiosity could no longer be suppressed.--"Gentle maiden," hebegan in the Arabian tongue, with which his Eastern travels had renderedhim familiar, and which he thought most likely to be understood by theturban'd and caftan'd damsel who stood before him--"I pray you, gentlemaiden, of your courtesy---"

  But here he was interrupted by his fair physician, a smile which shecould scarce suppress dimpling for an instant a face, whose generalexpression was that of contemplative melancholy. "I am of England, SirKnight, and speak the English tongue, although my dress and my lineagebelong to another climate."

  "Noble damsel,"--again the Knight of Ivanhoe began; and again Rebeccahastened to interrupt him.

  "Bestow not on me, Sir Knight," she said, "the epithet of noble. It iswell you should speedily know that your handmaiden is a poor Jewess, thedaughter of that Isaac of York, to whom you were so lately a good andkind lord. It well becomes him, and those of his household, to render toyou such careful tendance as your present state necessarily demands."

  I know not whether the fair Rowena would have been altogether satisfiedwith the species of emotion with which her devoted knight had hithertogazed on the beautiful features, and fair form, and lustrous eyes, ofthe lovely Rebecca; eyes whose brilliancy was shaded, and, as it were,mellowed, by the fringe of her long silken eyelashes, and which aminstrel would have compared to the evening star darting its raysthrough a bower of jessamine. But Ivanhoe was too good a Catholic toretain the same class of feelings towards a Jewess. This Rebecca hadforeseen, and for this very purpose she had hastened to mention herfather's name and lineage; yet--for the fair and wise daughter of Isaacwas not without a touch of female weakness--she could not but sighinternally when the glance of respectful admiration, not altogetherunmixed with tenderness, with which Ivanhoe had hitherto regarded hisunknown benefactress, was exchanged at once for a manner cold, composed,and collected, and fraught with no deeper feeling than that whichexpressed a grateful sense of courtesy received from an unexpectedquarter, and from one of an inferior race. It was not that Ivanhoe'sformer carriage expressed more than that general devotional homage whichyouth always pays to beauty; yet it was mortifying that one word shouldoperate as a spell to remove poor Rebecca, who could not be supposedaltogether ignorant of her title to such homage, into a degraded class,to whom it could not be honourably rendered.

  But the gentleness and candour of Rebecca's nature imputed no fault toIvanhoe for sharing in the universal prejudices of his age and religion.On the contrary the fair Jewess, though sensible her patient nowregarded her as one of a race of reprobation, with whom it wasdisgraceful to hold any beyond the most necessary intercourse, ceasednot to pay the same patient and devoted attention to his safety andconvalescence. She informed him of the necessity they were under ofremoving to York, and of her father's resolution to transport himthither, and tend him in his own house until his health should berestored. Ivanhoe expressed great repugnance to this plan, which hegrounded on unwillingness to give farther trouble to his benefactors.

  "Was there not," he said, "in Ashby, or near it, some Saxon franklin,or even some wealthy peasant, who would endure the burden of a woundedcountryman's residence with him until he should be again able to bearhis armour?--Was there no convent of Saxon endowment, where he could bereceived?--Or could he not be transported as far as Burton, where he wassure to find hospitality with Waltheoff, the Abbot of St Withold's, towhom he was related?"

  "Any, the worst of these harbourages," said Rebecca, with a melancholysmile, "would unquestionably be more fitting for your residence than theabode of a despised Jew; yet, Sir Knight, unless you would dismiss yourphysician, you cannot change your lodging. Our nation, as you well know,can cure wounds, though we deal not in inflicting them; and in our ownfamily, in particular, are secrets which have been handed down sincethe days of Solomon, and of which you have already experienced theadvantages. No Nazarene--I crave your forgiveness, Sir Knight--noChristian leech, within the four seas of Britain, could enable you tobear your corslet within a month."

  "And how soon wilt THOU enable me to brook it?" said Ivanhoe,impatiently.

  "Within eight days, if thou wilt be patient and conformable to mydirections," replied Rebecca.

  "By Our Blessed Lady," said Wilfred, "if it be not a sin to name herhere, it is no time for me or any true knight to be bedridden; and ifthou accomplish thy promise, maiden, I will pay thee with my casque fullof crowns, come by them as I may."

  "I will accomplish my promise," said Rebecca, "and thou shalt bear thinearmour
on the eighth day from hence, if thou will grant me but one boonin the stead of the silver thou dost promise me."

  "If it be within my power, and such as a true Christian knight may yieldto one of thy people," replied Ivanhoe, "I will grant thy boon blithelyand thankfully."

  "Nay," answered Rebecca, "I will but pray of thee to believehenceforward that a Jew may do good service to a Christian, withoutdesiring other guerdon than the blessing of the Great Father who madeboth Jew and Gentile."

  "It were sin to doubt it, maiden," replied Ivanhoe; "and I repose myselfon thy skill without further scruple or question, well trusting you willenable me to bear my corslet on the eighth day. And now, my kind leech,let me enquire of the news abroad. What of the noble Saxon Cedric andhis household?--what of the lovely Lady--" He stopt, as if unwillingto speak Rowena's name in the house of a Jew--"Of her, I mean, who wasnamed Queen of the tournament?"

  "And who was selected by you, Sir Knight, to hold that dignity, withjudgment which was admired as much as your valour," replied Rebecca.

  The blood which Ivanhoe had lost did not prevent a flush from crossinghis cheek, feeling that he had incautiously betrayed a deep interest inRowena by the awkward attempt he had made to conceal it.

  "It was less of her I would speak," said he, "than of Prince John; and Iwould fain know somewhat of a faithful squire, and why he now attends menot?"

  "Let me use my authority as a leech," answered Rebecca, "and enjoin youto keep silence, and avoid agitating reflections, whilst I apprize youof what you desire to know. Prince John hath broken off the tournament,and set forward in all haste towards York, with the nobles, knights, andchurchmen of his party, after collecting such sums as they could wring,by fair means or foul, from those who are esteemed the wealthy of theland. It is said he designs to assume his brother's crown."

  "Not without a blow struck in its defence," said Ivanhoe, raisinghimself upon the couch, "if there were but one true subject in England Iwill fight for Richard's title with the best of them--ay, one or two, inhis just quarrel!"

  "But that you may be able to do so," said Rebecca touching his shoulderwith her hand, "you must now observe my directions, and remain quiet."

  "True, maiden," said Ivanhoe, "as quiet as these disquieted times willpermit--And of Cedric and his household?"

  "His steward came but brief while since," said the Jewess, "panting withhaste, to ask my father for certain monies, the price of wool the growthof Cedric's flocks, and from him I learned that Cedric and Athelstaneof Coningsburgh had left Prince John's lodging in high displeasure, andwere about to set forth on their return homeward."

  "Went any lady with them to the banquet?" said Wilfred.

  "The Lady Rowena," said Rebecca, answering the question with moreprecision than it had been asked--"The Lady Rowena went not to thePrince's feast, and, as the steward reported to us, she is now on herjourney back to Rotherwood, with her guardian Cedric. And touching yourfaithful squire Gurth---"

  "Ha!" exclaimed the knight, "knowest thou his name?--But thou dost," heimmediately added, "and well thou mayst, for it was from thy hand, and,as I am now convinced, from thine own generosity of spirit, that hereceived but yesterday a hundred zecchins."

  "Speak not of that," said Rebecca, blushing deeply; "I see how easy itis for the tongue to betray what the heart would gladly conceal."

  "But this sum of gold," said Ivanhoe, gravely, "my honour is concernedin repaying it to your father."

  "Let it be as thou wilt," said Rebecca, "when eight days have passedaway; but think not, and speak not now, of aught that may retard thyrecovery."

  "Be it so, kind maiden," said Ivanhoe; "I were most ungrateful todispute thy commands. But one word of the fate of poor Gurth, and I havedone with questioning thee."

  "I grieve to tell thee, Sir Knight," answered the Jewess, "that he is incustody by the order of Cedric."--And then observing the distress whichher communication gave to Wilfred, she instantly added, "But the stewardOswald said, that if nothing occurred to renew his master's displeasureagainst him, he was sure that Cedric would pardon Gurth, a faithfulserf, and one who stood high in favour, and who had but committedthis error out of the love which he bore to Cedric's son. And he said,moreover, that he and his comrades, and especially Wamba the Jester,were resolved to warn Gurth to make his escape by the way, in caseCedric's ire against him could not be mitigated."

  "Would to God they may keep their purpose!" said Ivanhoe; "but it seemsas if I were destined to bring ruin on whomsoever hath shown kindness tome. My king, by whom I was honoured and distinguished, thou seestthat the brother most indebted to him is raising his arms to grasp hiscrown;--my regard hath brought restraint and trouble on the fairest ofher sex;--and now my father in his mood may slay this poor bondsmanbut for his love and loyal service to me!--Thou seest, maiden, what anill-fated wretch thou dost labour to assist; be wise, and let me go, erethe misfortunes which track my footsteps like slot-hounds, shall involvethee also in their pursuit."

  "Nay," said Rebecca, "thy weakness and thy grief, Sir Knight, make theemiscalculate the purposes of Heaven. Thou hast been restored to thycountry when it most needed the assistance of a strong hand and a trueheart, and thou hast humbled the pride of thine enemies and those of thyking, when their horn was most highly exalted, and for the evil whichthou hast sustained, seest thou not that Heaven has raised thee a helperand a physician, even among the most despised of the land?--Therefore,be of good courage, and trust that thou art preserved for some marvelwhich thine arm shall work before this people. Adieu--and having takenthe medicine which I shall send thee by the hand of Reuben, composethyself again to rest, that thou mayest be the more able to endure thejourney on the succeeding day."

  Ivanhoe was convinced by the reasoning, and obeyed the directions, ofRebecca. The drought which Reuben administered was of a sedativeand narcotic quality, and secured the patient sound and undisturbedslumbers. In the morning his kind physician found him entirely free fromfeverish symptoms, and fit to undergo the fatigue of a journey.

  He was deposited in the horse-litter which had brought him from thelists, and every precaution taken for his travelling with ease. In onecircumstance only even the entreaties of Rebecca were unable to securesufficient attention to the accommodation of the wounded knight. Isaac,like the enriched traveller of Juvenal's tenth satire, had ever the fearof robbery before his eyes, conscious that he would be alike accountedfair game by the marauding Norman noble, and by the Saxon outlaw. Hetherefore journeyed at a great rate, and made short halts, and shorterrepasts, so that he passed by Cedric and Athelstane who had severalhours the start of him, but who had been delayed by their protractedfeasting at the convent of Saint Withold's. Yet such was the virtue ofMiriam's balsam, or such the strength of Ivanhoe's constitution, thathe did not sustain from the hurried journey that inconvenience which hiskind physician had apprehended.

  In another point of view, however, the Jew's haste proved somewhat morethan good speed. The rapidity with which he insisted on travelling, bredseveral disputes between him and the party whom he had hired to attendhim as a guard. These men were Saxons, and not free by any means fromthe national love of ease and good living which the Normans stigmatizedas laziness and gluttony. Reversing Shylock's position, they hadaccepted the employment in hopes of feeding upon the wealthy Jew, andwere very much displeased when they found themselves disappointed,by the rapidity with which he insisted on their proceeding. Theyremonstrated also upon the risk of damage to their horses by theseforced marches. Finally, there arose betwixt Isaac and his satellites adeadly feud, concerning the quantity of wine and ale to be allowed forconsumption at each meal. And thus it happened, that when the alarm ofdanger approached, and that which Isaac feared was likely to come uponhim, he was deserted by the discontented mercenaries on whose protectionhe had relied, without using the means necessary to secure theirattachment.

  In this deplorable condition the Jew, with his daughter and her woundedpatient, were found by Cedric, as has already been
noticed, and soonafterwards fell into the power of De Bracy and his confederates.Little notice was at first taken of the horse-litter, and it might haveremained behind but for the curiosity of De Bracy, who looked into itunder the impression that it might contain the object of his enterprise,for Rowena had not unveiled herself. But De Bracy's astonishment wasconsiderable, when he discovered that the litter contained a woundedman, who, conceiving himself to have fallen into the power of Saxonoutlaws, with whom his name might be a protection for himself and hisfriends, frankly avowed himself to be Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

  The ideas of chivalrous honour, which, amidst his wildness and levity,never utterly abandoned De Bracy, prohibited him from doing the knightany injury in his defenceless condition, and equally interdicted hisbetraying him to Front-de-Boeuf, who would have had no scruples to putto death, under any circumstances, the rival claimant of the fief ofIvanhoe. On the other hand, to liberate a suitor preferred by the LadyRowena, as the events of the tournament, and indeed Wilfred's previousbanishment from his father's house, had made matter of notoriety, wasa pitch far above the flight of De Bracy's generosity. A middlecourse betwixt good and evil was all which he found himself capable ofadopting, and he commanded two of his own squires to keep close by thelitter, and to suffer no one to approach it. If questioned, they weredirected by their master to say, that the empty litter of the LadyRowena was employed to transport one of their comrades who had beenwounded in the scuffle. On arriving at Torquilstone, while the KnightTemplar and the lord of that castle were each intent upon their ownschemes, the one on the Jew's treasure, and the other on his daughter,De Bracy's squires conveyed Ivanhoe, still under the name of a woundedcomrade, to a distant apartment. This explanation was accordinglyreturned by these men to Front-de-Boeuf, when he questioned them whythey did not make for the battlements upon the alarm.

  "A wounded companion!" he replied in great wrath and astonishment. "Nowonder that churls and yeomen wax so presumptuous as even to lay leaguerbefore castles, and that clowns and swineherds send defiances to nobles,since men-at-arms have turned sick men's nurses, and Free Companions aregrown keepers of dying folk's curtains, when the castle is about to beassailed.--To the battlements, ye loitering villains!" he exclaimed,raising his stentorian voice till the arches around rung again, "to thebattlements, or I will splinter your bones with this truncheon!"

  The men sulkily replied, "that they desired nothing better than to go tothe battlements, providing Front-de-Boeuf would bear them out with theirmaster, who had commanded them to tend the dying man."

  "The dying man, knaves!" rejoined the Baron; "I promise thee we shallall be dying men an we stand not to it the more stoutly. But Iwill relieve the guard upon this caitiff companion of yours.--Here,Urfried--hag--fiend of a Saxon witch--hearest me not?--tend me thisbedridden fellow since he must needs be tended, whilst these knavesuse their weapons.--Here be two arblasts, comrades, with windlaces andquarrells [34]--to the barbican with you, and see you drive each boltthrough a Saxon brain."

  The men, who, like most of their description, were fond of enterpriseand detested inaction, went joyfully to the scene of danger as they werecommanded, and thus the charge of Ivanhoe was transferred to Urfried,or Ulrica. But she, whose brain was burning with remembrance of injuriesand with hopes of vengeance, was readily induced to devolve upon Rebeccathe care of her patient.