Ivanhoe, Walter Scott [the lemonade war series txt] 📗
- Author: Walter Scott
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But who may resist his fate? The buffet of the Knight was given
with such strength and good-will, that the Friar rolled head over
heels upon the plain, to the great amazement of all the
spectators. But he arose neither angry nor crestfallen.
“Brother,” said he to the Knight, “thou shouldst have used thy
strength with more discretion. I had mumbled but a lame mass an
thou hadst broken my jaw, for the piper plays ill that wants the
nether chops. Nevertheless, there is my hand, in friendly
witness, that I will exchange no more cuffs with thee, having
been a loser by the barter. End now all unkindness. Let us put
the Jew to ransom, since the leopard will not change his spots,
and a Jew he will continue to be.”
“The Priest,” said Clement, “is not half so confident of the
Jew’s conversion, since he received that buffet on the ear.”
“Go to, knave, what pratest thou of conversions?---what, is there
no respect?---all masters and no men?---I tell thee, fellow, I
was somewhat totty when I received the good knight’s blow, or I
had kept my ground under it. But an thou gibest more of it, thou
shalt learn I can give as well as take.”
“Peace all!” said the Captain. “And thou, Jew, think of thy
ransom; thou needest not to be told that thy race are held to be
accursed in all Christian communities, and trust me that we
cannot endure thy presence among us. Think, therefore, of an
offer, while I examine a prisoner of another cast.”
“Were many of Front-de-Boeuf’s men taken?” demanded the Black
Knight.
“None of note enough to be put to ransom,” answered the Captain;
“a set of hilding fellows there were, whom we dismissed to find
them a new master---enough had been done for revenge and profit;
the bunch of them were not worth a cardecu. The prisoner I speak
of is better booty---a jolly monk riding to visit his leman, an I
may judge by his horse-gear and wearing apparel.---Here cometh
the worthy prelate, as pert as a pyet.” And, between two yeomen,
was brought before the silvan throne of the outlaw Chief, our old
friend, Prior Aymer of Jorvaulx.
CHAPTER XXXIII
------Flower of warriors,
How is’t with Titus Lartius?
MARCIUS.—As with a man busied about decrees,
Condemning some to death and some to exile,
Ransoming him or pitying, threatening the other.
Coriolanus
The captive Abbot’s features and manners exhibited a whimsical
mixture of offended pride, and deranged foppery and bodily
terror.
“Why, how now, my masters?” said he, with a voice in which all
three emotions were blended. “What order is this among ye? Be
ye Turks or Christians, that handle a churchman?---Know ye what
it is, ‘manus imponere in servos Domini’? Ye have plundered my
mails---torn my cope of curious cut lace, which might have served
a cardinal!---Another in my place would have been at his
‘excommunicabo vos’; but I am placible, and if ye order forth my
palfreys, release my brethren, and restore my mails, tell down
with all speed an hundred crowns to be expended in masses at the
high altar of Jorvaulx Abbey, and make your vow to eat no venison
until next Pentecost, it may be you shall hear little more of
this mad frolic.”
“Holy Father,” said the chief Outlaw, “it grieves me to think
that you have met with such usage from any of my followers, as
calls for your fatherly reprehension.”
“Usage!” echoed the priest, encouraged by the mild tone of the
silvan leader; “it were usage fit for no hound of good race
---much less for a Christian---far less for a priest---and least
of all for the Prior of the holy community of Jorvaulx. Here is
a profane and drunken minstrel, called Allan-a-Dale---‘nebulo
quidam’---who has menaced me with corporal punishment---nay, with
death itself, an I pay not down four hundred crowns of ransom, to
the boot of all the treasure he hath already robbed me of---gold
chains and gymmal rings to an unknown value; besides what is
broken and spoiled among their rude hands, such as my pouncer-box
and silver crisping-tongs.”
“It is impossible that Allan-a-Dale can have thus treated a man
of your reverend bearing,” replied the Captain.
“It is true as the gospel of Saint Nicodemus,” said the Prior;
“he swore, with many a cruel north-country oath, that he would
hang me up on the highest tree in the greenwood.”
“Did he so in very deed? Nay, then, reverend father, I think you
had better comply with his demands---for Allan-a-Dale is the very
man to abide by his word when he has so pledged it.” *
A commissary is said to have received similar consolation from a certain Commander-in-chief, to whom he complained that a general officer had used some such threat towards him as that in the text.“You do but jest with me,” said the astounded Prior, with a
forced laugh; “and I love a good jest with all my heart. But,
ha! ha! ha! when the mirth has lasted the livelong night, it is
time to be grave in the morning.”
“And I am as grave as a father confessor,” replied the Outlaw;
“you must pay a round ransom, Sir Prior, or your convent is
likely to be called to a new election; for your place will know
you no more.”
“Are ye Christians,” said the Prior, “and hold this language to a
churchman?”
“Christians! ay, marry are we, and have divinity among us to
boot,” answered the Outlaw. “Let our buxom chaplain stand forth,
and expound to this reverend father the texts which concern this
matter.”
The Friar, half-drunk, half-sober, had huddled a friar’s frock
over his green cassock, and now summoning together whatever
scraps of learning he had acquired by rote in former days, “Holy
father,” said he, “‘Deus faciat salvam benignitatem vestram’
---You are welcome to the greenwood.”
“What profane mummery is this?” said the Prior. “Friend, if thou
be’st indeed of the church, it were a better deed to show me how
I may escape from these men’s hands, than to stand ducking and
grinning here like a morris-dancer.”
“Truly, reverend father,” said the Friar, “I know but one mode in
which thou mayst escape. This is Saint Andrew’s day with us, we
are taking our tithes.”
“But not of the church, then, I trust, my good brother?” said the
Prior.
“Of church and lay,” said the Friar; “and therefore, Sir Prior
‘facite vobis amicos de Mammone iniquitatis’---make yourselves
friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness, for no other friendship
is like to serve your turn.”
“I love a jolly woodsman at heart,” said the Prior, softening his
tone; “come, ye must not deal too hard with me---I can well of
woodcraft, and can wind a horn clear and lustily, and hollo till
every oak rings again---Come, ye must not deal too hard with me.”
“Give him a horn,” said the Outlaw; “we will prove the skill he
boasts of.”
The Prior Aymer winded a blast accordingly. The Captain shook
his head.
“Sir Prior,” he said, “thou blowest a merry note, but it may not
ransom thee---we cannot afford, as the legend on a good knight’s
shield hath it, to set thee free for a blast. Moreover, I have
found thee---thou art one of those, who, with new French graces
and Tra-li-ras, disturb the ancient English bugle notes.---Prior,
that last flourish on the recheat hath added fifty crowns to thy
ransom, for corrupting the true old manly blasts of venerie.”
“Well, friend,” said the Abbot, peevishly, “thou art ill to
please with thy woodcraft. I pray thee be more conformable in
this matter of my ransom. At a word---since I must needs, for
once, hold a candle to the devil---what ransom am I to pay for
walking on Watling-street, without having fifty men at my back?”
“Were it not well,” said the Lieutenant of the gang apart to the
Captain, “that the Prior should name the Jew’s ransom, and the
Jew name the Prior’s?”
“Thou art a mad knave,” said the Captain, “but thy plan
transcends!---Here, Jew, step forth---Look at that holy Father
Aymer, Prior of the rich Abbey of Jorvaulx, and tell us at what
ransom we should hold him?---Thou knowest the income of his
convent, I warrant thee.”
“O, assuredly,” said Isaac. “I have trafficked with the good
fathers, and bought wheat and barley, and fruits of the earth,
and also much wool. O, it is a rich abbey-stede, and they do
live upon the fat, and drink the sweet wines upon the lees, these
good fathers of Jorvaulx. Ah, if an outcast like me had such a
home to go to, and such incomings by the year and by the month, I
would pay much gold and silver to redeem my captivity.”
“Hound of a Jew!” exclaimed the Prior, “no one knows better than
thy own cursed self, that our holy house of God is indebted for
the finishing of our chancel---”
“And for the storing of your cellars in the last season with the
due allowance of Gascon wine,” interrupted the Jew; “but that
---that is small matters.”
“Hear the infidel dog!” said the churchman; “he jangles as if our
holy community did come under debts for the wines we have a
license to drink, ‘propter necessitatem, et ad frigus
depellendum’. The circumcised villain blasphemeth the holy
church, and Christian men listen and rebuke him not!”
“All this helps nothing,” said the leader.---“Isaac, pronounce
what he may pay, without flaying both hide and hair.”
“An six hundred crowns,” said Isaac, “the good Prior might well
pay to your honoured valours, and never sit less soft in his
stall.”
“Six hundred crowns,” said the leader, gravely; “I am contented
---thou hast well spoken, Isaac---six hundred crowns.---It is a
sentence, Sir Prior.”
“A sentence!---a sentence!” exclaimed the band; “Solomon had not
done it better.”
“Thou hearest thy doom, Prior,” said the leader.
“Ye are mad, my masters,” said the Prior; “where am I to find
such a sum? If I sell the very pyx and candlesticks on the altar
at Jorvaulx, I shall scarce raise the half; and it will be
necessary for that purpose that I go to Jorvaulx myself; ye may
retain as borrows*
Borghs, or borrows, signifies pledges. Hence our word to borrow, because we pledge ourselves to restore what is lent.my two priests.”
“That will be but blind trust,” said the Outlaw; “we will retain
thee, Prior, and send them to fetch thy ransom. Thou shalt not
want a cup of wine and a collop of venison the while; and if thou
lovest woodcraft, thou shalt see such as your north country never
witnessed.”
“Or, if so please you,” said Isaac, willing to curry favour with
the outlaws, “I can send to York for the six hundred crowns, out
of certain monies in my hands, if so be that the most reverend
Prior present will grant me a quittance.”
“He shall grant thee whatever thou dost list, Isaac,” said the
Captain; “and thou shalt lay down the redemption money for Prior
Aymer as well as for thyself.”
“For myself! ah, courageous sirs,” said the Jew, “I am a broken
and impoverished man; a beggar’s staff must be my portion through
life, supposing I were to pay you fifty crowns.”
“The Prior shall judge of that matter,” replied the Captain.
---“How say you, Father Aymer? Can the Jew afford a good
ransom?”
“Can he afford a ransom?” answered the Prior “Is he not Isaac of
York, rich enough to redeem the captivity of the ten tribes of
Israel, who were led
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