Rebecca was now to expect a fate even more dreadful than that of Rowena;
for what probability was there that either softness or ceremony would be
used towards one of her oppressed race, whatever shadow of these might
be preserved towards a Saxon heiress? Yet had the Jewess this advantage,
that she was better prepared by habits of thought, and by natural
strength of mind, to encounter the dangers to which she was exposed. Of
a strong and observing character, even from her earliest years, the pomp
and wealth which her father displayed within his walls, or which she
witnessed in the houses of other wealthy Hebrews, had not been able to
blind her to the precarious circumstances under which they were enjoyed.
Like Damocles at his celebrated banquet, Rebecca perpetually beheld,
amid that gorgeous display, the sword which was suspended over the heads
of her people by a single hair. These reflections had tamed and brought
down to a pitch of sounder judgment a temper, which, under other
circumstances, might have waxed haughty, supercilious, and obstinate.
From her father's example and injunctions, Rebecca had learnt to bear
herself courteously towards all who approached her. She could not indeed
imitate his excess of subservience, because she was a stranger to the
meanness of mind, and to the constant state of timid apprehension, by
which it was dictated; but she bore herself with a proud humility, as
if submitting to the evil circumstances in which she was placed as
the daughter of a despised race, while she felt in her mind the
consciousness that she was entitled to hold a higher rank from her
merit, than the arbitrary despotism of religious prejudice permitted her
to aspire to.
Thus prepared to expect adverse circumstances, she had acquired the
firmness necessary for acting under them. Her present situation required
all her presence of mind, and she summoned it up accordingly.
Her first care was to inspect the apartment; but it afforded few hopes
either of escape or protection. It contained neither secret passage nor
trap-door, and unless where the door by which she had entered joined the
main building, seemed to be circumscribed by the round exterior wall of
the turret. The door had no inside bolt or bar. The single window opened
upon an embattled space surmounting the turret, which gave Rebecca,
at first sight, some hopes of escaping; but she soon found it had no
communication with any other part of the battlements, being an isolated
bartisan, or balcony, secured, as usual, by a parapet, with embrasures,
at which a few archers might be stationed for defending the turret, and
flanking with their shot the wall of the castle on that side.