My daughter--O my ducats--O my daughter!

------O my Christian ducats!

Justice--the Law--my ducats, and my daughter!

--Merchant of Venice

Leaving the Saxon chiefs to return to their banquet as soon as their

ungratified curiosity should permit them to attend to the calls of their

half-satiated appetite, we have to look in upon the yet more severe

imprisonment of Isaac of York. The poor Jew had been hastily thrust into

a dungeon-vault of the castle, the floor of which was deep beneath

the level of the ground, and very damp, being lower than even the moat

itself. The only light was received through one or two loop-holes far

above the reach of the captive's hand. These apertures admitted, even

at mid-day, only a dim and uncertain light, which was changed for utter

darkness long before the rest of the castle had lost the blessing of

day.

Chains and shackles, which had been the portion of former captives,

from whom active exertions to escape had been apprehended, hung rusted

and empty on the walls of the prison, and in the rings of one of those

sets of fetters there remained two mouldering bones, which seemed to

have been once those of the human leg, as if some prisoner had been left

not only to perish there, but to be consumed to a skeleton.

At one end of this ghastly apartment was a large fire-grate, over the

top of which were stretched some transverse iron bars, half devoured

with rust.

The whole appearance of the dungeon might have appalled a stouter heart

than that of Isaac, who, nevertheless, was more composed under the

imminent pressure of danger, than he had seemed to be while affected by

terrors, of which the cause was as yet remote and contingent. The lovers

of the chase say that the hare feels more agony during the pursuit of

the greyhounds, than when she is struggling in their fangs. [27] And thus it is probable, that the Jews, by the very frequency of their

fear on all occasions, had their minds in some degree prepared for

every effort of tyranny which could be practised upon them; so that no

aggression, when it had taken place, could bring with it that surprise

which is the most disabling quality of terror. Neither was it the first

time that Isaac had been placed in circumstances so dangerous. He had

therefore experience to guide him, as well as hope, that he might again,

as formerly, be delivered as a prey from the fowler. Above all, he had

upon his side the unyielding obstinacy of his nation, and that unbending

resolution, with which Israelites have been frequently known to submit

to the uttermost evils which power and violence can inflict upon them,

rather than gratify their oppressors by granting their demands.




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