"Fear nothing from me, Isaac," said the Palmer, "I come as your friend."
"The God of Israel requite you," said the Jew, greatly relieved; "I
dreamed--But Father Abraham be praised, it was but a dream." Then,
collecting himself, he added in his usual tone, "And what may it be your
pleasure to want at so early an hour with the poor Jew?"
"It is to tell you," said the Palmer, "that if you leave not this
mansion instantly, and travel not with some haste, your journey may
prove a dangerous one."
"Holy father!" said the Jew, "whom could it interest to endanger so poor
a wretch as I am?"
"The purpose you can best guess," said the Pilgrim; "but rely on this,
that when the Templar crossed the hall yesternight, he spoke to his
Mussulman slaves in the Saracen language, which I well understand, and
charged them this morning to watch the journey of the Jew, to seize upon
him when at a convenient distance from the mansion, and to conduct
him to the castle of Philip de Malvoisin, or to that of Reginald
Front-de-Boeuf."
It is impossible to describe the extremity of terror which seized upon
the Jew at this information, and seemed at once to overpower his whole
faculties. His arms fell down to his sides, and his head drooped on his
breast, his knees bent under his weight, every nerve and muscle of his
frame seemed to collapse and lose its energy, and he sunk at the foot of
the Palmer, not in the fashion of one who intentionally stoops, kneels,
or prostrates himself to excite compassion, but like a man borne down on
all sides by the pressure of some invisible force, which crushes him to
the earth without the power of resistance.
"Holy God of Abraham!" was his first exclamation, folding and elevating
his wrinkled hands, but without raising his grey head from the pavement;
"Oh, holy Moses! O, blessed Aaron! the dream is not dreamed for nought,
and the vision cometh not in vain! I feel their irons already tear my
sinews! I feel the rack pass over my body like the saws, and harrows,
and axes of iron over the men of Rabbah, and of the cities of the
children of Ammon!"
"Stand up, Isaac, and hearken to me," said the Palmer, who viewed
the extremity of his distress with a compassion in which contempt was
largely mingled; "you have cause for your terror, considering how your
brethren have been used, in order to extort from them their hoards, both
by princes and nobles; but stand up, I say, and I will point out to you
the means of escape. Leave this mansion instantly, while its inmates
sleep sound after the last night's revel. I will guide you by the secret
paths of the forest, known as well to me as to any forester that ranges
it, and I will not leave you till you are under safe conduct of some
chief or baron going to the tournament, whose good-will you have
probably the means of securing."