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.
On an elevated seat, directly before the accused, sat the Grand
Master of the Temple, in full and ample robes of flowing white,
holding in his hand the mystic staff, which bore the symbol of
the Order. At his feet was placed a table, occupied by two
scribes, chaplains of the Order, whose duty it was to reduce to
formal record the proceedings of the day. The black dresses,
bare scalps, and demure looks of these church-men, formed a
strong contrast to the warlike appearance of the knights who
attended, either as residing in the Preceptory, or as come
thither to attend upon their Grand Master. The Preceptors, of
whom there were four present, occupied seats lower in height,
and somewhat drawn back behind that of their superior; and the
knights, who enjoyed no such rank in the Order, were placed on
benches still lower, and preserving the same distance from the
Preceptors as these from the Grand Master. Behind them, but
still upon the dais or elevated portion of the hall, stood the
esquires of the Order, in white dresses of an inferior quality.
The whole assembly wore an aspect of the most profound gravity;
and in the faces of the knights might be perceived traces of
military daring, united with the solemn carriage becoming men of
a religious profession, and which, in the presence of their Grand
Master, failed not to sit upon every brow.
The remaining and lower part of the hall was filled with guards,
holding partisans, and with other attendants whom curiosity had
drawn thither, to see at once a Grand Master and a Jewish
sorceress. By far the greater part of those inferior persons
were, in one rank or other, connected with the Order, and were
accordingly distinguished by their black dresses. But peasants
from the neighbouring country were not refused admittance; for it
was the pride of Beaumanoir to render the edifying spectacle of
the justice which he administered as public as possible. His
large blue eyes seemed to expand as he gazed around the assembly,
and his countenance appeared elated by the conscious dignity, and
imaginary merit, of the part which he was about to perform. A
psalm, which he himself accompanied with a deep mellow voice,
which age had not deprived of its powers, commenced the
proceedings of the day; and the solemn sounds, "Venite exultemus
Domino", so often sung by the Templars before engaging with
earthly adversaries, was judged by Lucas most appropriate to
introduce the approaching triumph, for such he deemed it, over
the powers of darkness. The deep prolonged notes, raised by a
hundred masculine voices accustomed to combine in the choral
chant, arose to the vaulted roof of the hall, and rolled on
amongst its arches with the pleasing yet solemn sound of the
rushing of mighty waters.
When the sounds ceased, the Grand Master glanced his eye slowly
around the circle, and observed that the seat of one of the
Preceptors was vacant. Brian de Bois-Guilbert, by whom it had
been occupied, had left his place, and was now standing near the
extreme corner of one of the benches occupied by the Knights
Companions of the Temple, one hand extending his long mantle, so
as in some degree to hide his face; while the other held his
cross-handled sword, with the point of which, sheathed as it was,
he was slowly drawing lines upon the oaken floor.
"Unhappy man!" said the Grand Master, after favouring him with a
glance of compassion. "Thou seest, Conrade, how this holy work
distresses him. To this can the light look of woman, aided by
the Prince of the Powers of this world, bring a valiant and
worthy knight!---Seest thou he cannot look upon us; he cannot
look upon her; and who knows by what impulse from his tormentor
his hand forms these cabalistic lines upon the floor?---It may be
our life and safety are thus aimed at; but we spit at and defy
the foul enemy. 'Semper Leo percutiatur!'"
This was communicated apart to his confidential follower, Conrade
Mont-Fitchet. The Grand Master then raised his voice, and
addressed the assembly.
"Reverend and valiant men, Knights, Preceptors, and Companions of
this Holy Order, my brethren and my children!---you also,
well-born and pious Esquires, who aspire to wear this holy Cross!
---and you also, Christian brethren, of every degree!---Be it
known to you, that it is not defect of power in us which hath
occasioned the assembling of this congregation; for, however
unworthy in our person, yet to us is committed, with this batoon,
full power to judge and to try all that regards the weal of this
our Holy Order. Holy Saint Bernard, in the rule of our knightly
and religious profession, hath said, in the fifty-ninth capital,*
* The reader is again referred to the Rules of the Poor
Military Brotherhood of the Temple, which occur in the
Works of St Bernard. L. T.
that he would not that brethren be called together in council,
save at the will and command of the Master; leaving it free to
us, as to those more worthy fathers who have preceded us in this
our office, to judge, as well of the occasion as of the time and
place in which a chapter of the whole Order, or of any part
thereof, may be convoked. Also, in all such chapters, it is our
duty to hear the advice of our brethren, and to proceed according
to our own pleasure. But when the raging wolf hath made an
inroad upon the flock, and carried off one member thereof, it is
the duty of the kind shepherd to call his comrades together, that
with bows and slings they may quell the invader, according to our
well-known rule, that the lion is ever to be beaten down. We
have therefore summoned to our presence a Jewish woman, by name
Rebecca, daughter of Isaac of York---a woman infamous for
sortileges and for witcheries; whereby she hath maddened the
blood, and besotted the brain, not of a churl, but of a Knight
---not of a secular Knight, but of one devoted to the service of
the Holy Temple---not of a Knight Companion, but of a Preceptor
of our Order, first in honour as in place. Our brother, Brian de
Bois-Guilbert, is well known to ourselves, and to all degrees who
now hear me, as a true and zealous champion of the Cross, by
whose arm many deeds of valour have been wrought in the Holy
Land, and the holy places purified from pollution by the blood of
those infidels who defiled them. Neither have our brother's
sagacity and prudence been less in repute among his brethren than
his valour and discipline; in so much, that knights, both in
eastern and western lands, have named De Bois-Guilbert as one who
may well be put in nomination as successor to this batoon, when
it shall please Heaven to release us from the toil of bearing it.
If we were told that such a man, so honoured, and so honourable,
suddenly casting away regard for his character, his vows, his
brethren, and his prospects, had associated to himself a Jewish
damsel, wandered in this lewd company, through solitary places,
defended her person in preference to his own, and, finally, was
so utterly blinded and besotted by his folly, as to bring her
even to one of our own Preceptories, what should we say but that
the noble knight was possessed by some evil demon, or influenced
by some wicked spell?---If we could suppose it otherwise, think
not rank, valour, high repute, or any earthly consideration,
should prevent us from visiting him with punishment, that the
evil thing might be removed, even according to the text, 'Auferte
malum ex vobis'. For various and heinous are the acts of
transgression against the rule of our blessed Order in this
lamentable history.---1st, He hath walked according to his proper
will, contrary to capital 33, 'Quod nullus juxta propriam
voluntatem incedat'.---2d, He hath held communication with an
excommunicated person, capital 57, 'Ut fratres non participent
cum excommunicatis', and therefore hath a portion in 'Anathema
Maranatha'.---3d, He hath conversed with strange women, contrary
to the capital, 'Ut fratres non conversantur cum extraneis
mulieribus'.---4th, He hath not avoided, nay, he hath, it is to
be feared, solicited the kiss of woman; by which, saith the last
rule of our renowned Order, 'Ut fugiantur oscula', the soldiers
of the Cross are brought into a snare. For which heinous and
multiplied guilt, Brian de Bois-Guilbert should be cut off and
cast out from our congregation, were he the right hand and right
eye thereof."
He paused. A low murmur went through the assembly. Some of the
younger part, who had been inclined to smile at the statute 'De
osculis fugiendis', became now grave enough, and anxiously waited
what the Grand Master was next to propose.
"Such," he said, "and so great should indeed be the punishment of
a Knight Templar, who wilfully offended against the rules of his
Order in such weighty points. But if, by means of charms and of
spells, Satan had obtained dominion over the Knight, perchance
because he cast his eyes too lightly upon a damsel's beauty, we
are then rather to lament than chastise his backsliding; and,
imposing on him only such penance as may purify him from his
iniquity, we are to turn the full edge of our indignation upon
the accursed instrument, which had so well-nigh occasioned his
utter falling away.---Stand forth, therefore, and bear witness,
ye who have witnessed these unhappy doings, that we may judge of
the sum and bearing thereof; and judge whether our justice may be
satisfied with the punishment of this infidel woman, or if we
must go on, with a bleeding heart, to the further proceeding
against our brother."
Several witnesses were called upon to prove the risks to which
Bois-Guilbert exposed himself in endeavouring to save Rebecca
from the blazing castle, and his neglect of his personal defence
in attending to her safety. The men gave these details with the
exaggerations common to vulgar minds which have been strongly
excited by any remarkable event, and their natural disposition to
the marvellous was greatly increased by the satisfaction which
their evidence seemed to afford to the eminent person for whose
information it had been delivered. Thus the dangers which
Bois-Guilbert surmounted, in themselves sufficiently great,
became portentous in their narrative. The devotion of the Knight
to Rebecca's defence was exaggerated beyond the bounds, not only
of discretion, but even of the most frantic excess of chivalrous
zeal; and his deference to what she said, even although her
language was often severe and upbraiding, was painted as carried
to an excess, which, in a man of his haughty temper, seemed
almost preternatural.
The Preceptor of Templestowe was then called on to describe the
manner in which Bois-Guilbert and the Jewess arrived at the
Preceptory. The evidence of Malvoisin was skilfully guarded.
But while he apparently studied to spare the feelings of
Bois-Guilbert, he threw in, from time to time, such hints, as
seemed to infer that he laboured under some temporary alienation
of mind, so deeply did he appear to be enamoured of the damsel
whom he brought along with him. With sighs of penitence, the
Preceptor avowed his own contrition for having admitted Rebecca
and her lover within the walls of the Preceptory---"But my
defence," he concluded, "has been made in my confession to our
most reverend father the Grand Master; he knows my motives were
not evil, though my conduct may have been irregular. Joyfully
will I submit to any penance he shall assign me."
"Thou hast spoken well, Brother Albert," said Beaumanoir; "thy
motives were good, since thou didst judge it right to arrest
thine erring brother in his career of precipitate folly. But
thy conduct was wrong; as he that would stop a runaway steed,
and seizing by the stirrup instead of the bridle, receiveth
injury himself, instead of accomplishing his purpose. Thirteen
paternosters are assigned by our pious founder for matins, and
nine for vespers; be those services doubled by thee. Thrice
a-week are Templars permitted the use of flesh; but do thou keep
fast for all the seven days. This do for six weeks to come, and
thy penance is accomplished."
With a hypocritical look of the deepest submission, the Preceptor
of Templestowe bowed to the ground before his Superior, and
resumed his seat.
"Were it not well, brethren," said the Grand Master, "that we
examine something into the former life and conversation of this
woman, specially that we may discover whether she be one likely
to use magical charms and spells, since the truths which we have
heard may well incline us to suppose, that in this unhappy course
our erring brother has been acted upon by some infernal
enticement and delusion?"
Herman of Goodalricke was the Fourth Preceptor present; the other
three were Conrade, Malvoisin, and Bois-Guilbert himself. Herman
was an ancient warrior, whose face was marked with scars
inflicted by the sabre of the Moslemah, and had great rank and
consideration among his brethren. He arose and bowed to the
Grand Master, who instantly granted him license of speech. "I
would crave to know, most Reverend Father, of our valiant
brother, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, what he says to these wondrous
accusations, and with what eye he himself now regards his unhappy
intercourse with this Jewish maiden?"
"Brian de Bois-Guilbert," said the Grand Master, "thou hearest
the question which our Brother of Goodalricke desirest thou
shouldst answer. I command thee to reply to him."
Bois-Guilbert turned his head towards the Grand Master when thus
addressed, and remained silent.
"He is possessed by a dumb devil," said the Grand Master. "Avoid
thee, Sathanus!---Speak, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, I conjure thee,
by this symbol of our Holy Order."
Bois-Guilbert made an effort to suppress his rising scorn and
indignation, the expression of which, he was well aware, would
have little availed him. "Brian de Bois-Guilbert," he answered,
"replies not, most Reverend Father, to such wild and vague
charges. If his honour be impeached, he will defend it with his
body, and with that sword which has often fought for
Christendom."
"We forgive thee, Brother Brian," said the Grand Master; "though
that thou hast boasted thy warlike achievements before us, is a
glorifying of thine own deeds, and cometh of the Enemy, who
tempteth us to exalt our own worship. But thou hast our pardon,
judging thou speakest less of thine own suggestion than from the
impulse of him whom by Heaven's leave, we will quell and drive
forth from our assembly." A glance of disdain flashed from the
dark fierce eyes of Bois-Guilbert, but he made no reply.---"And
now," pursued the Grand Master, "since our Brother of
Goodalricke's question has been thus imperfectly answered, pursue
we our quest, brethren, and with our patron's assistance, we will
search to the bottom this mystery of iniquity.---Let those who
have aught to witness of the life and conversation of this Jewish
woman, stand forth before us." There was a bustle in the lower
part of the hall, and when the Grand Master enquired the reason,
it was replied, there was in the crowd a bedridden man, whom the
prisoner had restored to the perfect use of his limbs, by a
miraculous balsam.
The poor peasant, a Saxon by birth, was dragged forward to the
bar, terrified at the penal consequences which he might have
incurred by the guilt of having been cured of the palsy by a
Jewish damsel. Perfectly cured he certainly was not, for he
supported himself forward on crutches to give evidence. Most
unwilling was his testimony, and given with many tears; but he
admitted that two years since, when residing at York, he was
suddenly afflicted with a sore disease, while labouring for Isaac
the rich Jew, in his vocation of a joiner; that he had been
unable to stir from his bed until the remedies applied by
Rebecca's directions, and especially a warming and spicy-smelling
balsam, had in some degree restored him to the use of his limbs.
Moreover, he said, she had given him a pot of that precious
ointment, and furnished him with a piece of money withal, to
return to the house of his father, near to Templestowe. "And may
it please your gracious Reverence," said the man, "I cannot think
the damsel meant harm by me, though she hath the ill hap to be a
Jewess; for even when I used her remedy, I said the Pater and the
Creed, and it never operated a whit less kindly---"
"Peace, slave," said the Grand Master, "and begone! It well
suits brutes like thee to be tampering and trinketing with
hellish cures, and to be giving your labour to the sons of
mischief. I tell thee, the fiend can impose diseases for the
very purpose of removing them, in order to bring into credit
some diabolical fashion of cure. Hast thou that unguent of which
thou speakest?"
The peasant, fumbling in his bosom with a trembling hand,
produced a small box, bearing some Hebrew characters on the lid,
which was, with most of the audience, a sure proof that the devil
had stood apothecary. Beaumanoir, after crossing himself, took
the box into his hand, and, learned in most of the Eastern
tongues, read with ease the motto on the lid,---"The Lion of the
tribe of Judah hath conquered."
"Strange powers of Sathanas."
said he, "which can convert Scripture into blasphemy, mingling
poison with our necessary food!---Is there no leech here who can
tell us the ingredients of this mystic unguent?"
Two mediciners, as they called themselves, the one a monk, the
other a barber, appeared, and avouched they knew nothing of the
materials, excepting that they savoured of myrrh and camphire,
which they took to be Oriental herbs. But with the true
professional hatred to a successful practitioner of their art,
they insinuated that, since the medicine was beyond their own
knowledge, it must necessarily have been compounded from an
unlawful and magical pharmacopeia; since they themselves, though
no conjurors, fully understood every branch of their art, so far
as it might be exercised with the good faith of a Christian.
When this medical research was ended, the Saxon peasant desired
humbly to have back the medicine which he had found so salutary;
but the Grand Master frowned severely at the request. "What is
thy name, fellow?" said he to the cripple.
"Higg, the son of Snell," answered the peasant.
"Then Higg, son of Snell," said the Grand Master, "I tell thee it
is better to be bedridden, than to accept the benefit of
unbelievers' medicine that thou mayest arise and walk; better to
despoil infidels of their treasure by the strong hand, than to
accept of them benevolent gifts, or do them service for wages.
Go thou, and do as I have said."
"Alack," said the peasant, "an it shall not displease your
Reverence, the lesson comes too late for me, for I am but a
maimed man; but I will tell my two brethren, who serve the rich
Rabbi Nathan Ben Samuel, that your mastership says it is more
lawful to rob him than to render him faithful service."
"Out with the prating villain!" said Beaumanoir, who was not
prepared to refute this practical application of his general
maxim.
Higg, the son of Snell, withdrew into the crowd, but, interested
in the fate of his benefactress, lingered until he should learn
her doom, even at the risk of again encountering the frown of
that severe judge, the terror of which withered his very heart
within him.
At this period of the trial, the Grand Master commanded Rebecca
to unveil herself. Opening her lips for the first time, she
replied patiently, but with dignity,---"That it was not the wont
of the daughters of her people to uncover their faces when alone
in an assembly of strangers." The sweet tones of her voice, and
the softness of her reply, impressed on the audience a sentiment
of pity and sympathy. But Beaumanoir, in whose mind the
suppression of each feeling of humanity which could interfere
with his imagined duty, was a virtue of itself, repeated his
commands that his victim should be unveiled. The guards were
about to remove her veil accordingly, when she stood up before
the Grand Master and said, "Nay, but for the love of your own
daughters---Alas," she said, recollecting herself, "ye have no
daughters!---yet for the remembrance of your mothers---for the
love of your sisters, and of female decency, let me not be thus
handled in your presence; it suits not a maiden to be disrobed
by such rude grooms. I will obey you," she added, with an
expression of patient sorrow in her voice, which had almost
melted the heart of Beaumanoir himself; "ye are elders among your
people, and at your command I will show the features of an
ill-fated maiden."
She withdrew her veil, and looked on them with a countenance in
which bashfulness contended with dignity. Her exceeding beauty
excited a murmur of surprise, and the younger knights told each
other with their eyes, in silent correspondence, that Brian's
best apology was in the power of her real charms, rather than of
her imaginary witchcraft. But Higg, the son of Snell, felt most
deeply the effect produced by the sight of the countenance of his
benefactress.
"Let me go forth," he said to the warders at the door of the
hall,---"let me go forth!---To look at her again will kill me,
for I have had a share in murdering her."
"Peace, poor man," said Rebecca, when she heard his exclamation;
"thou hast done me no harm by speaking the truth---thou canst not
aid me by thy complaints or lamentations. Peace, I pray thee
---go home and save thyself."
Higg was about to be thrust out by the compassion of the warders,
who were apprehensive lest his clamorous grief should draw upon
them reprehension, and upon himself punishment. But he promised
to be silent, and was permitted to remain. The two men-at-arms,
with whom Albert Malvoisin had not failed to communicate upon the
import of their testimony, were now called forward. Though both
were hardened and inflexible villains, the sight of the captive
maiden, as well as her excelling beauty, at first appeared to
stagger them; but an expressive glance from the Preceptor of
Templestowe restored them to their dogged composure; and they
delivered, with a precision which would have seemed suspicious to
more impartial judges, circumstances either altogether fictitious
or trivial, and natural in themselves, but rendered pregnant with
suspicion by the exaggerated manner in which they were told, and
the sinister commentary which the witnesses added to the facts.
The circumstances of their evidence would have been, in modern
days, divided into two classes---those which were immaterial, and
those which were actually and physically impossible. But both
were, in those ignorant and superstitions times, easily credited
as proofs of guilt.---The first class set forth, that Rebecca was
heard to mutter to herself in an unknown tongue---that the songs
she sung by fits were of a strangely sweet sound, which made the
ears of the hearer tingle, and his heart throb---that she spoke
at times to herself, and seemed to look upward for a reply---that
her garments were of a strange and mystic form, unlike those of
women of good repute---that she had rings impressed with
cabalistical devices, and that strange characters were broidered
on her veil.
All these circumstances, so natural and so trivial, were gravely
listened to as proofs, or, at least, as affording strong
suspicions that Rebecca had unlawful correspondence with mystical
powers.
But there was less equivocal testimony, which the credulity of
the assembly, or of the greater part, greedily swallowed, however
incredible. One of the soldiers had seen her work a cure upon a
wounded man, brought with them to the castle of Torquilstone.
She did, he said, make certain signs upon the wound, and repeated
certain mysterious words, which he blessed God he understood not,
when the iron head of a square cross-bow bolt disengaged itself
from the wound, the bleeding was stanched, the wound was closed,
and the dying man was, within a quarter of an hour, walking upon
the ramparts, and assisting the witness in managing a mangonel,
or machine for hurling stones. This legend was probably founded
upon the fact, that Rebecca had attended on the wounded Ivanhoe
when in the castle of Torquilstone. But it was the more
difficult to dispute the accuracy of the witness, as, in order to
produce real evidence in support of his verbal testimony, he drew
from his pouch the very bolt-head, which, according to his story,
had been miraculously extracted from the wound; and as the iron
weighed a full ounce, it completely confirmed the tale, however
marvellous.
His comrade had been a witness from a neighbouring battlement of
the scene betwixt Rebecca and Bois-Guilbert, when she was upon
the point of precipitating herself from the top of the tower.
Not to be behind his companion, this fellow stated, that he had
seen Rebecca perch herself upon the parapet of the turret, and
there take the form of a milk-white swan, under which appearance
she flitted three times round the castle of Torquilstone; then
again settle on the turret, and once more assume the female form.
Less than one half of this weighty evidence would have been
sufficient to convict any old woman, poor and ugly, even though
she had not been a Jewess. United with that fatal circumstance,
the body of proof was too weighty for Rebecca's youth, though
combined with the most exquisite beauty.
The Grand Master had collected the suffrages, and now in a solemn
tone demanded of Rebecca what she had to say against the sentence
of condemnation, which he was about to pronounce.
"To invoke your pity," said the lovely Jewess, with a voice
somewhat tremulous with emotion, "would, I am aware, be as
useless as I should hold it mean. To state that to relieve the
sick and wounded of another religion, cannot be displeasing to
the acknowledged Founder of both our faiths, were also
unavailing; to plead that many things which these men (whom may
Heaven pardon!) have spoken against me are impossible, would
avail me but little, since you believe in their possibility; and
still less would it advantage me to explain, that the
peculiarities of my dress, language, and manners, are those of my
people---I had well-nigh said of my country, but alas! we have no
country. Nor will I even vindicate myself at the expense of my
oppressor, who stands there listening to the fictions and
surmises which seem to convert the tyrant into the victim.---God
be judge between him and me! but rather would I submit to ten
such deaths as your pleasure may denounce against me, than
listen to the suit which that man of Belial has urged upon me
---friendless, defenceless, and his prisoner. But he is of your
own faith, and his lightest affirmance would weigh down the most
solemn protestations of the distressed Jewess. I will not
therefore return to himself the charge brought against me---but
to himself---Yes, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, to thyself I appeal,
whether these accusations are not false? as monstrous and
calumnious as they are deadly?"
There was a pause; all eyes turned to Brain de Bois-Guilbert. He
was silent.
"Speak," she said, "if thou art a man---if thou art a Christian,
speak!---I conjure thee, by the habit which thou dost wear, by
the name thou dost inherit---by the knighthood thou dost vaunt
---by the honour of thy mother---by the tomb and the bones of thy
father---I conjure thee to say, are these things true?"
"Answer her, brother," said the Grand Master, "if the Enemy with
whom thou dost wrestle will give thee power."
In fact, Bois-Guilbert seemed agitated by contending passions,
which almost convulsed his features, and it was with a
constrained voice that at last he replied, looking to Rebecca,
---"The scroll!---the scroll!"
"Ay," said Beaumanoir, "this is indeed testimony! The victim of
her witcheries can only name the fatal scroll, the spell
inscribed on which is, doubtless, the cause of his silence."
But Rebecca put another interpretation on the words extorted as
it were from Bois-Guilbert, and glancing her eye upon the slip of
parchment which she continued to hold in her hand, she read
written thereupon in the Arabian character, "Demand a Champion!"
The murmuring commentary which ran through the assembly at the
strange reply of Bois-Guilbert, gave Rebecca leisure to examine
and instantly to destroy the scroll unobserved. When the whisper
had ceased, the Grand Master spoke.
"Rebecca, thou canst derive no benefit from the evidence of this
unhappy knight, for whom, as we well perceive, the Enemy is yet
too powerful. Hast thou aught else to say?"
"There is yet one chance of life left to me," said Rebecca, "even
by your own fierce laws. Life has been miserable---miserable, at
least, of late---but I will not cast away the gift of God, while
he affords me the means of defending it. I deny this charge---I
maintain my innocence, and I declare the falsehood of this
accusation---I challenge the privilege of trial by combat, and
will appear by my champion."
"And who, Rebecca," replied the Grand Master, "will lay lance in
rest for a sorceress? who will be the champion of a Jewess?"
"God will raise me up a champion," said Rebecca---"It cannot be
that in merry England---the hospitable, the generous, the free,
where so many are ready to peril their lives for honour, there
will not be found one to fight for justice. But it is enough
that I challenge the trial by combat---there lies my gage."
She took her embroidered glove from her hand, and flung it down
before the Grand Master with an air of mingled simplicity and
dignity, which excited universal surprise and admiration.
