Читать «Айвенго / Ivanhoe» онлайн - страница 35

When Front-de-Boeuf returned, he ordered to bring him Cedric of Rotherwood and his companion. His servants brought the two Saxon captives. They could not see Wamba’s face from under his cap and there was little light in the room, so they didn’t know about Cedric’s escape.

“Nobles of England,” said Front-de-Boeuf, “if you don’t pay me a lot of money, I will hang you up by the feet from these windows, until you die! – Tell me how much you will pay for your lives? – What do you say, you of Rotherwood?”

“Not a coin,” answered Wamba—“and they say my brain has always been upside down, so if you hang me by my feet you may by chance fix it.”

“Saint Genevieve!” said Front-de-Boeuf, “what have we got here?”

He struck Cedric’s cap from the head of the Jester, and discovered the silver collar round his neck.

“I think I can tell you,” said De Bracy, who just entered the apartment. “This is Cedric’s clown. But that means that Cedric escaped in the monk’s cloak!”

“And I showed him the way out myself!” exclaimed Front-de-Boeuf, “Then destruction is near to us, and we have no way of communication with our friends.”

He looked out from the window, saw the enemy and commanded his men to their posts on the walls.

* * *

When Ivanhoe fainted, and seemed to be abandoned by all the world, it was Rebecca who persuaded her father to have the young knight transported from the lists to their house in Ashby. It was not difficult, because he was naturally kind and grateful.

“Holy Abraham!” he exclaimed, “he is a good man, and must not bleed to death. Let Seth and Reuben bear him to Ashby.”

“No, let them place him in my litter,” said Rebecca; “I will ride one of the horses.”

“Everybody will see you,” whispered Isaac, but Rebecca was already busy with her task.

Isaac’s fears however were not without reason, and the generous behavior of his daughter exposed her, on her return to Ashby, to the eyes of Brian de Bois-Guilbert.

The Jews were famous as doctors in that age, and the monarchs and powerful barons often needed their services. Beautiful Rebecca had studied medicine under an old Jewish woman called Miriam, the daughter of one of their best doctors, who loved Rebecca as her own child. Miriam had become a victim of the Christian fanatics, but her secrets had survived in her pupil. Rebecca was universally respected and admired by her own people. Even her father was often guided by her opinion.

When Ivanhoe was brought to Isaac’s house, he was still unconscious because of the loss of blood. Rebecca examined the wound and informed her father that if fever could be avoided, there was no reason to fear for his guest’s life, and that he might with safety travel to York with them on the next day. Isaac was going to leave the knight at Ashby. To this, however, Rebecca opposed many reasons, two of which persuaded Isaac. One was that she would not give the precious balsam into the hands of another doctor even of her own tribe, the other – that this wounded knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, was a favourite of Richard, and that, in case the monarch returns, Isaac, who had supplied his brother John with money, would need a powerful protector before Richard’s face.