Ivanhoe, Walter Scott [the lemonade war series txt] 📗
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purchase the praise of a zealous friend; and yet did his proof of
loyalty to Henry fall far short of what I am about to afford; for
rather would I assail a whole calendar of saints, than put spear
in rest against Coeur-de-Lion.---De Bracy, to thee I must trust
to keep up the spirits of the doubtful, and to guard Prince
John’s person. If you receive such news as I trust to send you,
our enterprise will no longer wear a doubtful aspect.---Page,” he
said, “hie to my lodgings, and tell my armourer to be there in
readiness; and bid Stephen Wetheral, Broad Thoresby, and the
Three Spears of Spyinghow, come to me instantly; and let the
scout-master, Hugh Bardon, attend me also.---Adieu, my Prince,
till better times.” Thus speaking, he left the apartment. “He
goes to make my brother prisoner,” said Prince John to De Bracy,
“with as little touch of compunction, as if it but concerned the
liberty of a Saxon franklin. I trust he will observe our orders,
and use our dear Richard’s person with all due respect.”
De Bracy only answered by a smile.
“By the light of Our Lady’s brow,” said Prince John, “our orders
to him were most precise---though it may be you heard them not,
as we stood together in the oriel window---Most clear and
positive was our charge that Richard’s safety should be cared
for, and woe to Waldemar’s head if he transgress it!”
“I had better pass to his lodgings,” said De Bracy, “and make him
fully aware of your Grace’s pleasure; for, as it quite escaped my
ear, it may not perchance have reached that of Waldemar.”
“Nay, nay,” said Prince John, impatiently, “I promise thee he
heard me; and, besides, I have farther occupation for thee.
Maurice, come hither; let me lean on thy shoulder.”
They walked a turn through the hall in this familiar posture, and
Prince John, with an air of the most confidential intimacy,
proceeded to say, “What thinkest thou of this Waldemar Fitzurse,
my De Bracy?---He trusts to be our Chancellor. Surely we will
pause ere we give an office so high to one who shows evidently
how little he reverences our blood, by his so readily undertaking
this enterprise against Richard. Thou dost think, I warrant,
that thou hast lost somewhat of our regard, by thy boldly
declining this unpleasing task---But no, Maurice! I rather
honour thee for thy virtuous constancy. There are things most
necessary to be done, the perpetrator of which we neither love
nor honour; and there may be refusals to serve us, which shall
rather exalt in our estimation those who deny our request. The
arrest of my unfortunate brother forms no such good title to the
high office of Chancellor, as thy chivalrous and courageous
denial establishes in thee to the truncheon of High Marshal.
Think of this, De Bracy, and begone to thy charge.”
“Fickle tyrant!” muttered De Bracy, as he left the presence of
the Prince; “evil luck have they who trust thee. Thy Chancellor,
indeed!---He who hath the keeping of thy conscience shall have an
easy charge, I trow. But High Marshal of England! that,” he
said, extending his arm, as if to grasp the baton of office, and
assuming a loftier stride along the antechamber, “that is indeed
a prize worth playing for!”
De Bracy had no sooner left the apartment than Prince John
summoned an attendant.
“Bid Hugh Bardon, our scout-master, come hither, as soon as he
shall have spoken with Waldemar Fitzurse.”
The scout-master arrived after a brief delay, during which John
traversed the apartment with, unequal and disordered steps.
“Bardon,” said he, “what did Waldemar desire of thee?”
“Two resolute men, well acquainted with these northern wilds, and
skilful in tracking the tread of man and horse.”
“And thou hast fitted him?”
“Let your grace never trust me else,” answered the master of the
spies. “One is from Hexamshire; he is wont to trace the Tynedale
and Teviotdale thieves, as a bloodhound follows the slot of a
hurt deer. The other is Yorkshire bred, and has twanged his
bowstring right oft in merry Sherwood; he knows each glade and
dingle, copse and high-wood, betwixt this and Richmond.”
“‘Tis well,” said the Prince.---“Goes Waldemar forth with them?”
“Instantly,” said Bardon.
“With what attendance?” asked John, carelessly.
“Broad Thoresby goes with him, and Wetheral, whom they call, for
his cruelty, Stephen Steel-heart; and three northern men-at-arms
that belonged to Ralph Middleton’s gang---they are called the
Spears of Spyinghow.”
“‘Tis well,” said Prince John; then added, after a moment’s
pause, “Bardon, it imports our service that thou keep a strict
watch on Maurice De Bracy---so that he shall not observe it,
however---And let us know of his motions from time to time
---with whom he converses, what he proposeth. Fail not in this,
as thou wilt be answerable.”
Hugh Bardon bowed, and retired.
“If Maurice betrays me,” said Prince John---“if he betrays me, as
his bearing leads me to fear, I will have his head, were Richard
thundering at the gates of York.”
CHAPTER XXXV
Arouse the tiger of Hyrcanian deserts,
Strive with the half-starved lion for his prey;
Lesser the risk, than rouse the slumbering fire
Of wild Fanaticism.
Anonymus
Our tale now returns to Isaac of York.---Mounted upon a mule, the
gift of the Outlaw, with two tall yeomen to act as his guard and
guides, the Jew had set out for the Preceptory of Templestowe,
for the purpose of negotiating his daughter’s redemption. The
Preceptory was but a day’s journey from the demolished castle of
Torquilstone, and the Jew had hoped to reach it before nightfall;
accordingly, having dismissed his guides at the verge of the
forest, and rewarded them with a piece of silver, he began to
press on with such speed as his weariness permitted him to exert.
But his strength failed him totally ere he had reached within
four miles of the Temple-Court; racking pains shot along his back
and through his limbs, and the excessive anguish which he felt at
heart being now augmented by bodily suffering, he was rendered
altogether incapable of proceeding farther than a small
market-town, were dwelt a Jewish Rabbi of his tribe, eminent in
the medical profession, and to whom Isaac was well known. Nathan
Ben Israel received his suffering countryman with that kindness
which the law prescribed, and which the Jews practised to each
other. He insisted on his betaking himself to repose, and used
such remedies as were then in most repute to check the progress
of the fever, which terror, fatigue, ill usage, and sorrow, had
brought upon the poor old Jew.
On the morrow, when Isaac proposed to arise and pursue his
journey, Nathan remonstrated against his purpose, both as his
host and as his physician. It might cost him, he said, his life.
But Isaac replied, that more than life and death depended upon
his going that morning to Templestowe.
“To Templestowe!” said his host with surprise again felt his
pulse, and then muttered to himself, “His fever is abated, yet
seems his mind somewhat alienated and disturbed.”
“And why not to Templestowe?” answered his patient. “I grant
thee, Nathan, that it is a dwelling of those to whom the despised
Children of the Promise are a stumbling-block and an abomination;
yet thou knowest that pressing affairs of traffic sometimes carry
us among these bloodthirsty Nazarene soldiers, and that we visit
the Preceptories of the Templars, as well as the Commanderies of
the Knights Hospitallers, as they are called.” *
The establishments of the Knight Templars were called Preceptories, and the title of those who presided in the Order was Preceptor; as the principal Knights of Saint John were termed Commanders, and their houses Commanderies. But these terms were sometimes, it would seem, used indiscriminately.“I know it well,” said Nathan; “but wottest thou that Lucas de
Beaumanoir, the chief of their Order, and whom they term Grand
Master, is now himself at Templestowe?”
“I know it not,” said Isaac; “our last letters from our brethren
at Paris advised us that he was at that city, beseeching Philip
for aid against the Sultan Saladine.”
“He hath since come to England, unexpected by his brethren,” said
Ben Israel; “and he cometh among them with a strong and
outstretched arm to correct and to punish. His countenance is
kindled in anger against those who have departed from the vow
which they have made, and great is the fear of those sons of
Belial. Thou must have heard of his name?”
“It is well known unto me,” said Isaac; “the Gentiles deliver
this Lucas Beaumanoir as a man zealous to slaying for every point
of the Nazarene law; and our brethren have termed him a fierce
destroyer of the Saracens, and a cruel tyrant to the Children of
the Promise.”
“And truly have they termed him,” said Nathan the physician.
“Other Templars may be moved from the purpose of their heart by
pleasure, or bribed by promise of gold and silver; but Beaumanoir
is of a different stamp---hating sensuality, despising treasure,
and pressing forward to that which they call the crown of
martyrdom---The God of Jacob speedily send it unto him, and unto
them all! Specially hath this proud man extended his glove over
the children of Judah, as holy David over Edom, holding the
murder of a Jew to be an offering of as sweet savour as the
death of a Saracen. Impious and false things has he said even of
the virtues of our medicines, as if they were the devices of
Satan---The Lord rebuke him!”
“Nevertheless,” said Isaac, “I must present myself at
Templestowe, though he hath made his face like unto a fiery
furnace seven times heated.”
He then explained to Nathan the pressing cause of his journey.
The Rabbi listened with interest, and testified his sympathy
after the fashion of his people, rending his clothes, and saying,
“Ah, my daughter!---ah, my daughter for the beauty of
Zion for the captivity of Israel!”
“Thou seest,” said Isaac, “how it stands with me, and that I may
not tarry. Peradventure, the presence of this Lucas Beaumanoir,
being the chief man over them, may turn Brian de Bois-Guilbert
from the ill which he doth meditate, and that he may deliver to
me my beloved daughter Rebecca.”
“Go thou,” said Nathan Ben Israel, “and be wise, for wisdom
availed Daniel in the den of lions into which he was cast; and
may it go well with thee, even as thine heart wisheth. Yet, if
thou canst, keep thee from the presence of the Grand Master, for
to do foul scorn to our people is his morning and evening
delight. It may be if thou couldst speak with Bois-Guilbert in
private, thou shalt the better prevail with him; for men say that
these accursed Nazarenes are not of one mind in the Preceptory
---May their counsels be confounded and brought to shame! But do
thou, brother, return to me as if it were to the house of thy
father, and bring me word how it has sped with thee; and well do
I hope thou wilt bring with thee Rebecca, even the scholar of the
wise Miriam, whose cures the Gentiles slandered as if they had
been wrought by necromancy.”
Isaac accordingly bade his friend farewell, and about an hour’s
riding brought him before the Preceptory of Templestowe.
This establishment of the Templars was seated amidst fair meadows
and pastures, which the devotion of the former Preceptor had
bestowed upon their Order. It was strong and well fortified, a
point never neglected by these knights, and which the disordered
state of England rendered peculiarly necessary. Two halberdiers,
clad
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