Ivanhoe

We must now change the scene to the village of Ashby, or rather to a

country house in its vicinity belonging to a wealthy Israelite, with

whom Isaac, his daughter, and retinue, had taken up their quarters; the

Jews, it is well known, being as liberal in exercising the duties of

hospitality and charity among their own people, as they were alleged to

be reluctant and churlish in extending them to those whom they

termed Gentiles, and whose treatment of them certainly merited little

hospitality at their hand.

In an apartment, small indeed, but richly furnished with decorations of

an Oriental taste, Rebecca was seated on a heap of embroidered cushions,

which, piled along a low platform that surrounded the chamber, served,

like the estrada of the Spaniards, instead of chairs and stools. She

was watching the motions of her father with a look of anxious and

filial affection, while he paced the apartment with a dejected mien

and disordered step; sometimes clasping his hands together--sometimes

casting his eyes to the roof of the apartment, as one who laboured under

great mental tribulation. "O, Jacob!" he exclaimed--"O, all ye twelve

Holy Fathers of our tribe! what a losing venture is this for one who

hath duly kept every jot and tittle of the law of Moses--Fifty zecchins

wrenched from me at one clutch, and by the talons of a tyrant!"

"But, father," said Rebecca, "you seemed to give the gold to Prince John

willingly."

"Willingly? the blotch of Egypt upon him!--Willingly, saidst thou?--Ay,

as willingly as when, in the Gulf of Lyons, I flung over my merchandise

to lighten the ship, while she laboured in the tempest--robed the

seething billows in my choice silks--perfumed their briny foam with

myrrh and aloes--enriched their caverns with gold and silver work! And

was not that an hour of unutterable misery, though my own hands made the

sacrifice?"

"But it was a sacrifice which Heaven exacted to save our lives,"

answered Rebecca, "and the God of our fathers has since blessed your

store and your gettings."

"Ay," answered Isaac, "but if the tyrant lays hold on them as he did

to-day, and compels me to smile while he is robbing me?--O, daughter,

disinherited and wandering as we are, the worst evil which befalls our

race is, that when we are wronged and plundered, all the world laughs

around, and we are compelled to suppress our sense of injury, and to

smile tamely, when we would revenge bravely."

"Think not thus of it, my father," said Rebecca; "we also have

advantages. These Gentiles, cruel and oppressive as they are, are in

some sort dependent on the dispersed children of Zion, whom they despise

and persecute. Without the aid of our wealth, they could neither furnish

forth their hosts in war, nor their triumphs in peace, and the gold

which we lend them returns with increase to our coffers. We are like the

herb which flourisheth most when it is most trampled on. Even this day's

pageant had not proceeded without the consent of the despised Jew, who

furnished the means."