Ivanhoe - Penn State University

vulnerary remedies as her art prescribed, informed her father
that if fever could be averted, of which the great bleeding
rendered her little apprehensive, and if the healing balsam of
Miriam retained its virtue, there was nothing to fear for his
guest’s life, and that he might with safety travel to York with
them on the ensuing day. Isaac looked a little blank at this
annunciation. His charity would willingly have stopped short
at Ashby, or at most would have left the wounded Christian
to be tended in the house where he was residing at present,
with an assurance to the Hebrew to whom it belonged, that
all expenses should be duly discharged. To this, however,
Rebecca opposed many reasons, of which we shall only mention
two that had peculiar weight with Isaac. The one was,
that she would on no account put the phial of precious balsam
into the hands of another physician even of her own tribe,
lest that valuable mystery should be discovered; the other,
that this wounded knight, Wilfred of Ivanhoe, was an intimate
favourite of Richard Coeur-de-Lion, and that, in case
the monarch should return, Isaac, who had supplied his brother
John with treasure to prosecute his rebellious purposes, would
stand in no small need of a powerful protector who enjoyed
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Richard’s favour.
“Thou art speaking but sooth, Rebecca,” said Isaac, giving
way to these weighty arguments—“it were an offending of
Heaven to betray the secrets of the blessed Miriam; for the
good which Heaven giveth, is not rashly to be squandered
upon others, whether it be talents of gold and shekels of silver,
or whether it be the secret mysteries of a wise physician—
assuredly they should be preserved to those to whom Providence
hath vouchsafed them. And him whom the Nazarenes
of England call the Lion’s Heart, assuredly it were better for
me to fall into the hands of a strong lion of Idumea than into
his, if he shall have got assurance of my dealing with his
brother. Wherefore I will lend ear to thy counsel, and this
youth shall journey with us unto York, and our house shall be
as a home to him until his wounds shall be healed. And if he
of the Lion Heart shall return to the land, as is now noised
abroad, then shall this Wilfred of Ivanhoe be unto me as a
wall of defence, when the king’s displeasure shall burn high
against thy father. And if he doth not return, this Wilfred
may natheless repay us our charges when he shall gain treasure
by the strength of his spear and of his sword, even as he did