pen would in vain endeavor to depict. Old Isaac staggered back in a
fit, and nobody took the least notice of him. Groans, curses, yells of
men, shrieks of women, filled room with such a furious jabbering, as
might have appalled the any heart less stout than Rebecca's; but that
brave woman was prepared for all; expecting, and perhaps hoping, that
death would be her instant lot. There was but one creature who pitied
her, and that was her cousin and father's clerk, little Ben Davids, who
was but thirteen, and had only just begun to carry a bag, and whose
crying and boohooing, as she finished speaking, was drowned in the
screams and maledictions of the elder Israelites. Ben Davids was madly
in love with his cousin (as boys often are with ladies of twice their
age), and he had presence of mind suddenly to knock over the large
brazen lamp on the table, which illuminated the angry conclave; then,
whispering to Rebecca to go up to her own room and lock herself in, or
they would kill her else, he took her hand and led her out.
From that day she disappeared from among her people. The poor and the
wretched missed her, and asked for her in vain. Had any violence been
done to her, the poorer Jews would have risen and put all Isaac's
family to death; and besides, her old flame, Prince Boabdil, would have
also been exceedingly wrathful. She was not killed then, but, so to
speak, buried alive, and locked up in Isaac's back-kitchen: an
apartment into which scarcely any light, entered, and where she was fed
upon scanty portions of the most mouldy bread and water. Little Ben
Davids was the only person who visited her, and her sole consolation
was to talk to him about Ivanhoe, and how good and how gentle he was;
how brave and how true; and how he slew the tremendous knight of the
Templars, and how he married a lady whom Rebecca scarcely thought
worthy of him, but with whom she prayed he might be happy ; and of what
color his eyes were, and what were the arms on his shield viz. a tree
with the word "Desdichado" written underneath, &c.
&c. &c.: all which talk would not have interested little Davids, had
it come from anybody else's mouth, but to which he never tired of
listening as it fell from her sweet lips.
So, in fact, when old Isaac of York came to negotiate with Don Beltran
de Cuchilla for the ransom of the Alfaqui's daughter of Xixona, our
dearest Rebecca was no more dead than you and I; and it was in his rage
and fury against Ivanhoe that Isaac told that cavalier the falsehood
which caused the knight so much pain and such a prodigious deal of
bloodshed to the Moors: and who knows, trivial as it may seem, whether
it was not that very circumstance which caused the destruction in Spain
of the Moorish power?
Although Isaac, we may be sure, never told his daughter that Ivanhoe
had cast up again, yet Master Ben Davids did, who heard it from his
employer; and he saved Rebecca's life by communicating the
intelligence, for the poor thing would have infallibly perished but for
this good news. She had now been in prison four years three months and
twenty-four days, during which time she had partaken of nothing but
bread and water (except such occasional tidbits as Davids could bring
her and these were few indeed; for old Isaac was always a curmudgeon,
and seldom had more than a pair of eggs for his own and Davids' dinner)
; and she was languishing away, when the news came suddenly to revive
her. Then, though in the darkness you could not see her cheeks, they
began to bloom again: then her heart began to beat and her blood to
flow, and she kissed the ring on her neck a thousand times a day at
least; and her constant question was, "Ben Davids!
Ben Davids! when is he coming to besiege Valencia?" She knew he would
come: and, indeed, the Christians were encamped before the town ere a
month was over.
And now, my dear boys and girls, I think I perceive behind that dark
scene of the back-kitchen (which is just a simple flat, painted
stone-color, that shifts in a minute,) bright streaks of light flashing
out, as though they were preparing a most brilliant, gorgeous, and
altogether dazzling illumination, with effects never before attempted
on any stage. Yes, the fairy in the pretty pink tights and spangled
muslin is getting into the brilliant revolving chariot of the realms of
bliss. Yes, most of the fiddlers and trumpeters have gone round from
the orchestra to join in the grand triumphal procession, where the
whole strength of the company is already assembled, arrayed in costumes
of Moorish and Christian Chivalry, to celebrate the "Terrible
Escalade," the "Rescue of Virtuous Innocence the "Grand Entry of the
Christians into Valencia" - "Appearance of the Fairy Day-Star," and
"Unexampled displays of pyrotechnic festivity." Do you not, I say,
perceive that we are come to the end of our history; and, after a
quantity of rapid and terrific fighting, brilliant change of scenery,
and songs appropriate or otherwise, are bringing our hero and heroine
together? Who wants a long scene at the last? Mammas are putting the
girls' cloaks and boas on; papas have gone out to look for the
carriage, and left the box-door swinging open, and letting in the cold
air: if there were any stage-conversation, you could not hear it, for
the scuffling of the people who are leaving the pit. See, the
orange-women are preparing to retire. To-morrow their play-bills will
be as so much waste-paper so will some of our masterpieces, woe is me:
but lo! here we come to Scene the last, and Valencia is besieged and
captured by the Christians.
Who is the first on the wall, and who hurls down the green standard of
the Prophet? Who chops off the head of the Emir Aboo What-dye-call'im,
just as the latter has cut over the cruel Don Beliran de Cuchillay &c.?
Who, attracted to the Jewish quarter by the shrieks of the inhabitants
who are being slain by the Moorish soldiery, and by a little boy by the
name of Ben Davids, who recognizes the knight by his shield, finds
Isaac of York _egorge on a threshold, and clasping a large kitchen key?
Who but Ivanhoe who but Wilfrid? "An Ivanhoe to the rescue," he
bellows out; he has heard that news from little Ben Davids which makes
him sing. And who is it that comes out of the house trembling panting
with her arms out in a white dress with her hair down who is it but
dear Rebecca? Look, they rush together, and Master Wamba is waving an
immense banner over them, and knocks down a circumambient Jew with a
ham, which he happens to have in his pocket.... As for Rebecca, now her
head is laid upon Ivanhoe's heart, I shall not ask to hear what she is
whispering, or describe further that scene of meeting; though I declare
I am quite affected when I think of it. Indeed I have thought of it
any time these five-and-twenty years ever since, as a boy at school, I
commenced the noble study of novels ever since the day when, lying on
sunny slopes of half-holidays, the fair chivalrous figures and
beautiful shapes of knights
and ladies were visible to me ever since I
grew to love Rebecca, that sweetest creature of the poet's fancy, and
longed to see her righted.
That she and Ivanhoe were married, follows of course; for Rowena's
promise extorted from him was, that he would never wed a Jewess, and a
better Christian than Rebecca now was never said her catechism. Married
I am sure they were, and adopted little Cedric; but I don't think they
had any other children, or were subsequently very boisterously happy.
Of some sort of happiness melancholy is a characteristic, and I think
these were a solemn pair, and died rather early.
Rebecca and Rowena Page 8
