823 IVANHOE; A ROMANCE. Now fitted the halter, now traversed the cart; VOL. II. A PRIOR. IVANHOE. CHAPTER I. A damn'd cramp piece of penmanship as ever I saw in my life! She Stoops to Conquer. WHEN the Templar reached the hall of the castle, he found De Bracy already there. "Your love-suit," said De Bracy, "hath, I suppose, been disturbed, like mine, by this obstreperous summons. But you have come later and more reluctantly, and therefore I presume your interview has proved more agreeable than mine.” "Has your suit, then, been unsuccessfully paid to the Saxon heiress ?" said the Templar. By the bones of Thomas a Becket,” answered De Bracy, "the Lady Rowena must have heard that I cannot endure the sight of women's tears." "Away!" said the Templar; "thou a leader of a Free Company, and regard a woman's tears! A few drops sprinkled on the torch of love, make the flame blaze the brighter." "Gramercy for the few drops of thy sprinkling," replied De Bracy; "but this damsel hath wept enough to extinguish a beacon-light. Never was such wringing of hands and such overflowing of eyes, since the days of St Niobe,* of whom Prior Aymer told us. A water-fiend hath pos sessed the fair Saxon." “A legion of fiends have occupied the bosom of the Jewess," replied the Templar; "for, I think no single one, not even Apollyon himself, could have inspired such indomitable pride and resolution.-But where is Front-de-Boeuf? That horn is sounded more and more clamorously." "He is negociating with the Jew, I suppose," replied De Bracy, coolly; "probably the howls of Isaac have drowned the blast of the bugle. Thou mayst know, by experience, Sir Brian, that a Jew parting with his treasures on such terms as our friend Front-de-Bœuf is like to offer, will raise a * I wish the Prior had also informed them when Niobe was sainted. Probably during that enlightened period when "Pan to Moses lent his pagan horn." L. T. |