"Thou sayst well," said the Jester; "had I been born a Norman, as I

think thou art, I would have had luck on my side, and been next door to

a wise man."

At this moment Gurth appeared on the opposite side of the moat with the

mules. The travellers crossed the ditch upon a drawbridge of only two

planks breadth, the narrowness of which was matched with the straitness

of the postern, and with a little wicket in the exterior palisade, which

gave access to the forest. No sooner had they reached the mules, than

the Jew, with hasty and trembling hands, secured behind the saddle

a small bag of blue buckram, which he took from under his cloak,

containing, as he muttered, "a change of raiment--only a change of

raiment." Then getting upon the animal with more alacrity and haste

than could have been anticipated from his years, he lost no time in so

disposing of the skirts of his gabardine as to conceal completely from

observation the burden which he had thus deposited "en croupe".

The Pilgrim mounted with more deliberation, reaching, as he departed,

his hand to Gurth, who kissed it with the utmost possible veneration.

The swineherd stood gazing after the travellers until they were lost

under the boughs of the forest path, when he was disturbed from his

reverie by the voice of Wamba.

"Knowest thou," said the Jester, "my good friend Gurth, that thou art

strangely courteous and most unwontedly pious on this summer morning? I

would I were a black Prior or a barefoot Palmer, to avail myself of thy

unwonted zeal and courtesy--certes, I would make more out of it than a

kiss of the hand."

"Thou art no fool thus far, Wamba," answered Gurth, "though thou arguest

from appearances, and the wisest of us can do no more--But it is time to

look after my charge."

So saying, he turned back to the mansion, attended by the Jester.

Meanwhile the travellers continued to press on their journey with a

dispatch which argued the extremity of the Jew's fears, since persons at

his age are seldom fond of rapid motion. The Palmer, to whom every path

and outlet in the wood appeared to be familiar, led the way through the

most devious paths, and more than once excited anew the suspicion of

the Israelite, that he intended to betray him into some ambuscade of his

enemies.

His doubts might have been indeed pardoned; for, except perhaps the

flying fish, there was no race existing on the earth, in the air, or

the waters, who were the object of such an unintermitting, general, and

relentless persecution as the Jews of this period. Upon the slightest

and most unreasonable pretences, as well as upon accusations the most

absurd and groundless, their persons and property were exposed to every

turn of popular fury; for Norman, Saxon, Dane, and Briton, however

adverse these races were to each other, contended which should look with

greatest detestation upon a people, whom it was accounted a point of

religion to hate, to revile, to despise, to plunder, and to persecute.

The kings of the Norman race, and the independent nobles, who followed

their example in all acts of tyranny, maintained against this devoted

people a persecution of a more regular, calculated, and self-interested

kind. It is a well-known story of King John, that he confined a wealthy

Jew in one of the royal castles, and daily caused one of his teeth to

be torn out, until, when the jaw of the unhappy Israelite was half

disfurnished, he consented to pay a large sum, which it was the tyrant's

object to extort from him.




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