Ivanhoe

"Perjure not thyself," said the Norman, interrupting him, "and let not

thine obstinacy seal thy doom, until thou hast seen and well considered

the fate that awaits thee. Think not I speak to thee only to excite thy

terror, and practise on the base cowardice thou hast derived from thy

tribe. I swear to thee by that which thou dost NOT believe, by the

gospel which our church teaches, and by the keys which are given her to

bind and to loose, that my purpose is deep and peremptory. This

dungeon is no place for trifling. Prisoners ten thousand times more

distinguished than thou have died within these walls, and their fate

hath never been known! But for thee is reserved a long and lingering

death, to which theirs were luxury."

He again made a signal for the slaves to approach, and spoke to them

apart, in their own language; for he also had been in Palestine, where

perhaps, he had learnt his lesson of cruelty. The Saracens produced from

their baskets a quantity of charcoal, a pair of bellows, and a flask

of oil. While the one struck a light with a flint and steel, the other

disposed the charcoal in the large rusty grate which we have already

mentioned, and exercised the bellows until the fuel came to a red glow.

"Seest thou, Isaac," said Front-de-Boeuf, "the range of iron bars above

the glowing charcoal?-- [28] on that warm couch thou shalt lie, stripped

of thy clothes as if thou wert to rest on a bed of down. One of these

slaves shall maintain the fire beneath thee, while the other shall

anoint thy wretched limbs with oil, lest the roast should burn.--Now,

choose betwixt such a scorching bed and the payment of a thousand pounds

of silver; for, by the head of my father, thou hast no other option."

"It is impossible," exclaimed the miserable Jew--"it is impossible that

your purpose can be real! The good God of nature never made a heart

capable of exercising such cruelty!"

"Trust not to that, Isaac," said Front-de-Boeuf, "it were a fatal error.

Dost thou think that I, who have seen a town sacked, in which thousands

of my Christian countrymen perished by sword, by flood, and by fire,

will blench from my purpose for the outcries or screams of one single

wretched Jew?--or thinkest thou that these swarthy slaves, who have

neither law, country, nor conscience, but their master's will--who use

the poison, or the stake, or the poniard, or the cord, at his slightest

wink--thinkest thou that THEY will have mercy, who do not even

understand the language in which it is asked?--Be wise, old man;

discharge thyself of a portion of thy superfluous wealth; repay to the

hands of a Christian a part of what thou hast acquired by the usury thou

hast practised on those of his religion. Thy cunning may soon swell

out once more thy shrivelled purse, but neither leech nor medicine can

restore thy scorched hide and flesh wert thou once stretched on these

bars. Tell down thy ransom, I say, and rejoice that at such rate thou

canst redeem thee from a dungeon, the secrets of which few have returned

to tell. I waste no more words with thee--choose between thy dross and

thy flesh and blood, and as thou choosest, so shall it be."