Читать «Айвенго / Ivanhoe» онлайн - страница 14

“My master,” answered Baldwin, “will never use this horse or this armour again.”

“Don’t leave them here, take them for your own use then, they are yours.”

Baldwin bowed and left with his companions, and the Disinherited Knight entered the tent.

“Thus far, Gurth,” he said to his servant, “the reputation of English knights has not suffered in my hands.”

“And I,” said Gurth, “for a Saxon swineherd, have well played the role of a Norman squire.”

“Take this bag of gold to Ashby,” said his master, “and find Isaac the Jew of York. Pay him for the horse and arms with which his credit supplied me. And here are ten coins for yourself.”

Gurth thanked his master and left him to his thoughts.

When Gurth came to Isaac’s house in Ashby, a servant let him in. Isaac and his daughter were sitting in a room decorated in the Eastern fashion.

The door opened, and Gurth entered.

“Are you Isaac the Jew of York?” said Gurth, in Saxon.

“I am,” replied Isaac, in the same language, – “and who are you?”

“It doesn’t matter,” answered Gurth, “I bring money from the Disinherited Knight.” It is the price of the armour Kirjath Jairam of Leicester supplied to him on your recommendation. The horse is returned to your stable. I want to know the amount of money which I am to pay for the armour.”

“I said he was a good man!” exclaimed Isaac joyfully. “A cup of wine will do you no harm,” he added, filling and handing to the swineherd a cup of very expensive wine. “And how much money,” continued Isaac, “have you brought with you?”

“A small sum.”

“Well, then”—said Isaac, hesitating between his love of money and a new desire to be generous, “if I should say that I would take eighty golden coins for the good horse and the rich armour, do you have enough money to pay me?”

“Barely,” said Gurth, though the sum demanded was more reasonable than he had expected, “and it will leave my master almost without money. Nevertheless, if this is your demand, I must be content.”

“Fill yourself another cup of wine,” said the Jew.

Gurth put eighty coins upon the table. The Jew’s hand trembled with joy when he counted his eighty pieces of gold.

“I believe you have more coins in that bag,” he added.

Gurth smiled when he replied, “About the same amount that I have paid you.” He then drank a third goblet of wine without invitation and left the apartment.

When Isaac turned to speak to his daughter, he saw that she had left the apartment.

In the meanwhile, Gurth had reached the hall but was not sure where the door was. At this moment a figure in white with a small silver lamp in her hand asked him to come to another room. Gurth hesitated, then followed his guide to another room where he found to his surprise and relief that it was the daughter of the Jew.