"Be not angry, good mother," said Rebecca.

"Thou needst say no more," replied Urfried "men know a fox by the train,

and a Jewess by her tongue."

"For the sake of mercy," said Rebecca, "tell me what I am to expect as

the conclusion of the violence which hath dragged me hither! Is it

my life they seek, to atone for my religion? I will lay it down

cheerfully."

"Thy life, minion?" answered the sibyl; "what would taking thy life

pleasure them?--Trust me, thy life is in no peril. Such usage shalt thou

have as was once thought good enough for a noble Saxon maiden. And shall

a Jewess, like thee, repine because she hath no better? Look at me--I

was as young and twice as fair as thou, when Front-de-Boeuf, father of

this Reginald, and his Normans, stormed this castle. My father and his

seven sons defended their inheritance from story to story, from chamber

to chamber--There was not a room, not a step of the stair, that was not

slippery with their blood. They died--they died every man; and ere their

bodies were cold, and ere their blood was dried, I had become the prey

and the scorn of the conqueror!"

"Is there no help?--Are there no means of escape?" said

Rebecca--"Richly, richly would I requite thine aid."

"Think not of it," said the hag; "from hence there is no escape but

through the gates of death; and it is late, late," she added, shaking

her grey head, "ere these open to us--Yet it is comfort to think that we

leave behind us on earth those who shall be wretched as ourselves. Fare

thee well, Jewess!--Jew or Gentile, thy fate would be the same; for thou

hast to do with them that have neither scruple nor pity. Fare thee well,

I say. My thread is spun out--thy task is yet to begin."

"Stay! stay! for Heaven's sake!" said Rebecca; "stay, though it be to

curse and to revile me--thy presence is yet some protection."

"The presence of the mother of God were no protection," answered the old

woman. "There she stands," pointing to a rude image of the Virgin Mary,

"see if she can avert the fate that awaits thee."

She left the room as she spoke, her features writhed into a sort of

sneering laugh, which made them seem even more hideous than their

habitual frown. She locked the door behind her, and Rebecca might hear

her curse every step for its steepness, as slowly and with difficulty

she descended the turret-stair.




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