Ivanhoe, by Sir Walter Scott

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Mont-Fitchet took the letter from his Superior,
and was about to peruse it. ``Read it aloud, Conrade,''
said the Grand Master,---``and do thou'' (to
Isaac) ``attend to the purport of it, for we will question
thee concerning it.''

Conrade read the letter, which was in these
words: ``Aymer, by divine grace, Prior of the
Cistertian house of Saint Mary's of Jorvaulx, to
Sir Brian de Bois-Guilbert, a Knight of the holy
Order of the Temple, wisheth health, with the
bounties of King Bacchus and of my Lady Venus.
Touching our present condition, dear Brother, we
are a captive in the hands of certain lawless and
godless men, who have not feared to detain our
person, and put us to ransom; whereby we have
also learned of Front-de-Buf's misfortune, and
that thou hast escaped with that fair Jewish sorceress,
whose black eyes have bewitched thee. We
are heartily rejoiced of thy safety; nevertheless, we
pray thee to be on thy guard in the matter of this
second Witch of Endor; for we are privately assured
that your Great Master, who careth not a
bean for cherry cheeks and black eyes, comes from
Normandy to diminish your mirth, and amend your
misdoings. Wherefore we pray you heartily to
beware, and to be found watching, even as the
Holy Text hath it, _Invenientur vigilantes_. And the
wealthy Jew her father, Isaac of York, having prayed
of me letters in his behalf, I gave him these,
earnestly advising, and in a sort entreating, that
you do hold the damsel to ransom, seeing he will
pay you from his bags as much as may find fifty
damsels upon safer terms, whereof I trust to have
my part when we make merry together, as true
brothers, not forgetting the wine-cup. For what
saith the text, _Vinum ltificat cor hominis_; and
again, _Rex delectabitur pulchritudine tua_.

``Till which merry meeting, we wish you farewell.
Given from this den of thieves, about the
hour of matins,

``Aymer Pr. S. M. Jorvolciencis.

``_Postscriptum_. Truly your golden chain hath not
long abidden with me, and will now sustain, around
the neck of an outlaw deer-stealer, the whistle
wherewith he calleth on his hounds.''

``What sayest thou to this, Conrade?'' said the
Grand Master---``Den of thieves! and a fit residence
is a den of thieves for such a Prior. No wonder
that the hand of God is upon us, and that in
the Holy Land we lose place by place, foot by foot,
before the infidels, when we have such churchmen
as this Aymer.---And what meaneth he, I trow,
by this second Witch of Endor?'' said he to his
confident, something apart.
Conrade was better acquainted (perhaps by practice)
with the jargon of gallantry, than was his Superior;
and he expounded the passage which embarrassed
the Grand Master, to be a sort of language
used by worldly men towards those whom
they loved _par amours_; but the explanation did
not satisfy the bigoted Beaumanoir.

``There is more in it than thou dost guess,
Conrade; thy simplicity is no match for this deep
abyss of wickedness. This Rebecca of York was
a pupil of that Miriam of whom thou hast heard.
Thou shalt hear the Jew own it even now.'' Then
turning to Isaac, he said aloud, ``Thy daughter,
then, is prisoner with Brian de Bois-Guilbert?''

``Ay, reverend valorous sir,'' stammered poor
Isaac, ``and whatsoever ransom a poor man may
pay for her deliverance------''

``Peace!'' said the Grand Master. ``This thy
daughter hath practised the art of healing, hath she
not?''

``Ay, gracious sir,'' answered the Jew, with more
confidence; ``and knight and yeoman, squire and
vassal, may bless the goodly gift which Heaven
hath assigned to her. Many a one can testify that
she hath recovered them by her art, when every
other human aid hath proved vain; but the blessing
of the God of Jacob was upon her.''

Beaumanoir turned to Mont-Fitchet with a grim
smile. ``See, brother,'' he said, ``the deceptions
of the devouring Enemy! Behold the baits with
which he fishes for souls, giving a poor space of
earthly life in exchange for eternal happiness hereafter.
Well said our blessed rule, __Semper percutiatur leo vorans_.
---Up on the lion! Down with the
destroyer!'' said he, shaking aloft his mystic abacus,
as if in defiance of the powers of darkness---
``Thy daughter worketh the cures, I doubt not,''
thus he went on to address the Jew, ``by words
and sighs, and periapts, and other cabalistical mysteries.''

``Nay, reverend and brave Knight,'' answered
Isaac, ``but in chief measure by a balsam of marvellous
virtue.''

``Where had she that secret?'' said Beaumanoir.

``It was delivered to her,'' answered Isaac, reluctantly,
``by Miriam, a sage matron of our tribe.''

``Ah, false Jew!'' said the Grand Master; ``was
it not from that same witch Miriam, the abomination
of whose enchantments have been heard of
throughout every Christian land?'' exclaimed the
Grand Master, crossing himself. ``Her body was
burnt at a stake, and her ashes were scattered to
the four winds; and so be it with me and mine
Order, if I do not as much to her pupil, and more
also! I will teach her to throw spell and incantation
over the soldiers of the blessed Temple.---
There, Damian, spurn this Jew from the gate---
shoot him dead if he oppose or turn again. With
his daughter we will deal as the Christian law and
our own high office warrant.''

Poor Isaac was hurried off accordingly, and expelled
from the preceptory; all his entreaties, and
even his offers, unheard and disregarded. He could
do not better than return to the house of the Rabbi,
and endeavour, through his means, to learn how his
daughter was to be disposed of. He had hitherto
feared for her honour, he was now to tremble for
her life. Meanwhile, the Grand Master ordered
to his presence the Preceptor of Templestowe.

CHAPTER XXXVI

Say not my art is fraud---all live by seeming.
The beggar begs with it, and the gay courtier
Gains land and title, rank and rule, by seeming;
The clergy scorn it not, and the bold soldier
Will eke with it his service.---All admit it,
All practise it; and he who is content
With showing what he is, shall have small credit
In church, or camp, or state---So wags the world.
_Old Play_.

Albert Malvoisin, President, or, in the language
of the Order, Preceptor of the establishment
of Templestowe, was brother to that Philip Malvoisin
who has been already occasionally mentioned
in this history, and was, like that baron, in close
league with Brian de Bois-Guilbert.

Amongst dissolute and unprincipled men, of
whom the Temple Order included but too many,
Albert of Templestowe might be distinguished;
but with this difference from the audacious Bois-Guilbert,
that he knew how to throw over his vices
and his ambition the veil of hypocrisy, and to assume
in his exterior the fanaticism which be internally
despised. Had not the arrival of the Grand
Master been so unexpectedly sudden, he would
have seen nothing at Templestowe which might
have appeared to argue any relaxation of discipline.
And, even although surprised, and, to a certain extent,
detected, Albert Malvoisin listened with such
respect and apparent contrition to the rebuke of
his Superior, and made such haste to reform the
particulars he censured,---succeeded, in fine, so well
in giving an air of ascetic devotion to a family
which had been lately devoted to license and pleasure,
that Lucas Beaumanoir began to entertain a
higher opinion of the Preceptor's morals, than the
first appearance of the establishment had inclined
him to adopt.

But these favourable sentiments on the part of
the Grand Master were greatly shaken by the intelligence
that Albert had received within a house
of religion the Jewish captive, and, as was to be
feared, the paramour of a brother of the Order;
and when Albert appeared before him, be was regarded
with unwonted sternness.

``There is in this mansion, dedicated to the purposes
of the holy Order of the Temple,'' said the
Grand Master, in a severe tone, ``a Jewish woman,
brought hither by a brother of religion, by your
connivance, Sir Preceptor.''

Albert Malvoisin was overwhelmed with confusion;
for the unfortunate Rebecca had been confined
in a remote and secret part of the building,
and every precaution used to prevent her residence
there from being known. He read in the looks of
Beaumanoir ruin to Bois-Guilbert and to himself,
unless he should be able to avert the impending
storm.

``Why are you mute?'' continued the Grand
Master.

``Is it permitted to me to reply?'' answered the
Preceptor, in a tone of the deepest humility, although
by the question he only meant to gain an instant's
space for arranging his ideas.

``Speak, you are permitted,'' said the Grand
Master---``speak, and say, knowest thou the capital
of our holy rule,---_De commilitonibus Templi in
sancta civitate, qui cun miserrimis mulieribus versantur,
propter oblectationem carnis?''*

* The edict which he quotes, is against communion with
* women of light character.

``Surely, most reverend father,'' answered the
Preceptor, ``I have not risen to this office in the
Order, being ignorant of one of its most important
prohibitions.''

``How comes it, then, I demand of thee once
more, that thou hast suffered a brother to bring
a paramour, and that paramour a Jewish sorceress,
into this holy place, to the stain and pollution
thereof?''

``A Jewish sorceress!'' echoed Albert Malvoisin;
``good angels guard us!''

``Ay, brother, a Jewish sorceress!'' said the
Grand Master, sternly. ``I have said it. Darest
thou deny that this Rebecca, the daughter of that
wretched usurer Isaac of York, and the pupil of
the foul witch Miriam, is now---shame to be thought
or spoken!---lodged within this thy Preceptory?''

``Your wisdom, reverend father,'' answered the
Preceptor, ``hath rolled away the darkness from
my understanding. Much did I wonder that so
good a knight as Brian de Bois-Guilbert seemed so
fondly besotted on the charms of this female, whom
I received into this house merely to place a bar
betwixt their growing intimacy, which else might
have been cemented at the expense of the fall of
our valiant and religious brother.''

``Hath nothing, then, as yet passed betwixt
them in breach of his vow?'' demanded the Grand
Master.

``What! under this roof?'' said the Preceptor,
crossing himself; ``Saint Magdalene and the ten
thousand virgins forbid!---No! if I have sinned in
receiving her here, it was in the erring thought that
I might thus break off our brother's besotted devotion
to this Jewess, which seemed to me so wild
and unnatural, that I could not but ascribe it to
some touch of insanity, more to be cured by pity
than reproof. But since your reverend wisdom
hath discovered this Jewish quean to be a sorceress,
perchance it may account fully for his enamoured
folly.''

``It doth!---it doth!'' said Beaumanoir. ``See,
brother Conrade, the peril of yielding to the first
devices and blandishments of Satan! We look
upon woman only to gratify the lust of the eye,
and to take pleasure in what men call her beauty;
and the Ancient Enemy, the devouring Lion, obtains
power over us, to complete, by talisman and spell,
a work which was begun by idleness and folly. It
may be that our brother Bois-Guilbert does in this
matter deserve rather pity than severe chastisement;
rather the support of the staff, than the
strokes of the rod; and that our admonitions and
prayers may turn him from his folly, and restore
him to his brethren.''

``It were deep pity,'' said Conrade Mont-Fitchet,
to lose to the Order one of its best lances, when
the Holy Community most requires the aid of its
sons. Three hundred Saracens hath this Brian de
Bois-Guilbert slain with his own hand.''

``The blood of these accursed dogs,'' said the
Grand Master, ``shall be a sweet and acceptable
offering to the saints and angels whom they despise
and blaspheme; and with their aid will we
counteract the spells and charms with which our
brother is entwined as in a net. He shall burst the
bands of this Delilah, as Sampson burst the two
new cords with which the Philistines had bound
him, and shall slaughter the infidels, even heaps
upon heaps. But concerning this foul witch, who
hath flung her enchantments over a brother of the
Holy Temple, assuredly she shall die the death.''

``But the laws of England,''---said the Preceptor,
who, though delighted that the Grand Master's
resentment, thus fortunately averted from himself
and Bois-Guilbert, had taken another direction, began
now to fear he was carrying it too far.

``The laws of England,'' interrupted Beaumanoir,
``permit and enjoin each judge to execute justice
within his own jurisdiction. The most petty baron
may arrest, try, and condemn a witch found within
his own domain. And shall that power be denied
to the Grand Master of the Temple within a preceptory
of his Order?---No!---we will judge and
condemn. The witch shall be taken out of the land,
and the wickedness thereof shall be forgiven. Prepare
the Castle-hall for the trial of the sorceress.''

Albert Malvoisin bowed and retired,---not to
give directions for preparing the hall, but to seek
out Brian de Bois-Guilbert, and communicate to
him how matters were likely to terminate. It was
not long ere he found him, foaming with indignation
at a repulse he had anew sustained from the
fair Jewess. ``The unthinking,'' he said, ``the ungrateful,
to scorn him who, amidst blood and flames,
would have saved her life at the risk of his own!
By Heaven, Malvoisin! I abode until roof and
rafters crackled and crashed around me. I was the
butt of a hundred arrows; they rattled on mine
armour like hailstones against a latticed casement,
and the only use I made of my shield was for her
protection. This did I endure for her; and now
the self-willed girl upbraids me that I did not
leave her to perish, and refuses me not only the
slightest proof of gratitude, but even the most distant
hope that ever she will be brought to grant
any. The devil, that possessed her race with obstinacy,
has concentrated its full force in her single
person!''

``The devil,'' said the Preceptor, ``I think, possessed
you both. How oft have I preached to you
caution, if not continence? Did I not tell you that
there were enough willing Christian damsels to be
met with, who would think it sin to refuse so brave
a knight _le don d'amoureux merci_, and you must
needs anchor your affection on a wilful, obstinate
Jewess! By the mass, I think old Lucas Beaumanoir
guesses right, when he maintains she hath
cast a spell over you.''

``Lucas Beaumanoir!''---said Bois-Guilbert reproachfully
---``Are these your precautions, Malvoisin?
Hast thou suffered the dotard to learn that
Rebecca is in the Preceptory?''

``How could I help it?'' said the Preceptor. ``I
neglected nothing that could keep secret your mystery;
but it is betrayed, and whether by the devil
or no, the devil only can tell. But I have turned
the matter as I could; you are safe if you renounce
Rebecca. You are pitied---the victim of magical
delusion. She is a sorceress, and must suffer as
such.''

``She shall not, by Heaven!'' said Bois-Guilbert.

``By Heaven, she must and will!'' said Malvoisin.
``Neither you nor any one else can save her.
Lucas Beaumanoir hath settled that the death of a
Jewess will be a sin-offering sufficient to atone for
all the amorous indulgences of the Knights Templars;
and thou knowest he hath both the power
and will to execute so reasonable and pious a purpose.''

``Will future ages believe that such stupid bigotry
ever existed!'' said Bois-Guilbert, striding up
and down the apartment.

``What they may believe, I know not,'' said
Malvoisin, calmly; ``but I know well, that in this
our day, clergy and laymen, take ninety-nine to the
hundred, will cry _amen_ to the Grand Master's sentence.''

``I have it,'' said Bois-Guilbert. ``Albert, thou
art my friend. Thou must connive at her escape,
Malvoisin, and I will transport her to some place
of greater security and secrecy.''
``I cannot, if I would,'' replied the Preceptor;
``the mansion is filled with the attendants of the
Grand Master, and others who are devoted to him.
And, to be frank with you, brother, I would not
embark with you in this matter, even if I could
hope to bring my bark to haven. I have risked
enough already for your sake. I have no mind to
encounter a sentence of degradation, or even to lose
my Preceptory, for the sake of a painted piece of
Jewish flesh and blood. And you, if you will be
guided by my counsel, will give up this wild-goose
chase, and fly your hawk at some other game.
Think, Bois-Guilbert,---thy present rank, thy future
honours, all depend on thy place in the Order.
Shouldst thou adhere perversely to thy passion for
this Rebecca, thou wilt give Beaumanoir the power
of expelling thee, and he will not neglect it. He
is jealous of the truncheon which he holds in his
trembling gripe, and he knows thou stretchest thy
bold hand towards it. Doubt not he will ruin thee,
if thou affordest him a pretext so fair as thy protection
of a Jewish sorceress. Give him his scope
in this matter, for thou canst not control him.
When the staff is in thine own firm grasp, thou
mayest caress the daughters of Judah, or burn
them, as may best suit thine own humour.''

``Malvoisin,'' said Bois-Guilbert, ``thou art a
cold-blooded---''

``Friend,'' said the Preceptor, hastening to fill
up the blank, in which Bois-Guilbert would probably
have placed a worse word,---``a cold-blooded
friend I am, and therefore more fit to give thee advice.
I tell thee once more, that thou canst not
save Rebecca. I tell thee once more, thou canst but
perish with her. Go hie thee to the Grand Master
---throw thyself It his feet and tell him---''

``Not at his feet, by Heaven! but to the dotard's
very beard will I say---''

``Say to him, then, to his beard,'' continued Malvoisin,
coolly, ``that you love this captive Jewess
to distraction; and the more thou dost enlarge on
thy passion, the greater will be his haste to end it
by the death of the fair enchantress; while thou,
taken in flagrant delict by the avowal of a crime
contrary to thine oath, canst hope no aid of thy
brethren, and must exchange all thy brilliant visions
of ambition and power, to lift perhaps a mercenary
spear in some of the petty quarrels between
Flanders and Burgundy.''

``Thou speakest the truth, Malvoisin,'' said Brian
de Bois-Guilbert, after a moment's reflection. ``I
will give the hoary bigot no advantage over me;
and for Rebecca, she hath not merited at my hand
that I should expose rank and honour for her sake.
I will cast her off---yes, I will leave her to her fate,
unless---''

``Qualify not thy wise and necessary resolution,''
said Malvoisin; ``women are but the toys which
amuse our lighter hours---ambition is the serious
business of life. Perish a thousand such frail baubles
as this Jewess, before thy manly step pause in
the brilliant career that lies stretched before thee!
For the present we part, nor must we be seen to
hold close conversation---I must order the hall for
his judgment-seat.''

``What!'' said Bois-Guilbert, ``so soon?''

``Ay,'' replied the Preceptor, ``trial moves rapidly
on when the judge has determined the sentence
beforehand.''

``Rebecca,'' said Bois-Guilbert, when he was left
alone, ``thou art like to cost me dear---Why cannot
I abandon thee to thy fate, as this calm hypocrite
recommends?---One effort will I make to save
thee---but beware of ingratitude! for if I am again
repulsed, my vengeance shall equal my love. The
life and honour of Bois-Guilbert must not be hazarded,
where contempt and reproaches are his only
reward.''

The Preceptor had hardly given the necessary
orders, when he was joined by Conrade Mont-Fitchet,
who acquainted him with the Grand Master's
resolution to bring the Jewess to instant trial for
sorcery.

``It is surely a dream,'' said the Preceptor; ``we
have many Jewish physicians, and we call them not
wizards though they work wonderful cures.''

``The Grand Master thinks otherwise,'' said
Mont-Fitchet; ``and, Albert, I will be upright
with thee---wizard or not, it were better that this
miserable damsel die, than that Brian de Bois-Guilbert
should be lost to the Order, or the Order
divided by internal dissension. Thou knowest his
high rank, his fame in arms---thou knowest the
zeal with which many of our brethren regard him
---but all this will not avail him with our Grand
Master, should he consider Brian as the accomplice,
not the victim, of this Jewess. Were the souls of
the twelve tribes in her single body, it were better
she suffered alone, than that Bois-Guilbert were
partner in her destruction.''

``I have been working him even now to abandon
her,'' said Malvoisin; ``but still, are there grounds
enough to condemn this Rebecca for sorcery?---
Will not the Grand Master change his mind when
he sees that the proofs are so weak?''

``They must be strengthened, Albert,'' replied
Mont-Fitchet, ``they must be strengthened. Dost
thou understand me?''

``I do,'' said the Preceptor, ``nor do I scruple to
do aught for advancement of the Order---but there
is little time to find engines fitting.''

``Malvoisin, they _must_ be found,'' said Conrade;
``well will it advantage both the Order and thee.
This Templestowe is a poor Preceptory---that of
Maison-Dieu is worth double its value---thou
knowest my interest with our old Chief---find those
who can carry this matter through, and thou art
Preceptor of Maison-Dieu in the fertile Kent---
How sayst thou?''

``There is,'' replied Malvoisin, ``among those
who came hither with Bois-Guilbert, two fellows
whom I well know; servants they were to my
brother Philip de Malvoisin, and passed from his
service to that of Front-de-Buf---It may be they
know something of the witcheries of this woman.''

``Away, seek them out instantly---and hark thee,
if a byzant or two will sharpen their memory, let
them not be wanting.''

``They would swear the mother that bore them
a sorceress for a zecchin,'' said the Preceptor.

``Away, then,'' said Mont-Fitchet; ``at noon the
affair will proceed. I have not seen our senior in
such earnest preparation since he condemned to the
stake Hamet Alfagi, a convert who relapsed to the
Moslem faith.''

The ponderous castle-bell had tolled the point of
noon, when Rebecca heard a trampling of feet upon
the private stair which led to her place of confinement.
The noise announced the arrival of several
persons, and the circumstance rather gave her joy;
for she was more afraid of the solitary visits of the
fierce and passionate Bois-Guilbert than of any evil
that could befall her besides. The door of the
chamber was unlocked, and Conrade and the Preceptor
Malvoisin entered, attended by four warders
clothed in black, and bearing halberds.

``Daughter of an accursed race!'' said the Preceptor,
``arise and follow us.''

``Whither,'' said Rebecca, ``and for what purpose?''

``Damsel,'' answered Conrade, ``it is not for
thee to question, but to obey. Nevertheless, be it
known to thee, that thou art to be brought before
the tribunal of the Grand Master of our holy Order,
there to answer for thine offences.''

``May the God of Abraham be praised!'' said
Rebecca, folding her hands devoutly; ``the name
of a judge, though an enemy to my people, is to me
as the name of a protector. Most willingly do I
follow thee---permit me only to wrap my veil around
my head.''

They descended the stair with slow and solemn
step, traversed a long gallery, and, by a pair of
folding doors placed at the end, entered the great
hall in which the Grand Master had for the time
established his court of justice.

The lower part of this ample apartment was
filled with squires and yeomen, who made way not
without some difficulty for Rebecca, attended by
the Preceptor and Mont-Fitchet, and followed by
the guard of halberdiers, to move forward to the
seat appointed for her. As she passed through the
crowd, her arms folded and her head depressed, a
scrap of paper was thrust into her hand, which she
received almost unconsciously, and continued to
hold without examining its contents. The assurance
that she possessed some friend in this awful
assembly gave her courage to look around, and to
mark into whose presence she had been conducted.
She gazed, accordingly, upon the scene, which we
shall endeavour to describe in the next chapter.

CHAPTER XXXVII

Stern was the law which bade its vot'ries leave
At human woes with human hearts to grieve;
Stern was the law, which at the winning wile
Of frank and harmless mirth forbade to smile;
But sterner still, when high the iron-rod
Of tyrant power she shook, and call'd that power of God.
_The Middle Ages._

The Tribunal, erected for the trial of the innocent
and unhappy Rebecca, occupied the dais or elevated part
of the upper end of the great hall---a platform,
which we have already described as the place of honour,
destined to be occupied by the most distinguished inhabitants
or guests of an ancient mansion.