as the sole reason for her having taken the religious
habit. The assembled clergy admitted the validity
of the plea, and the notoriety of the circumstances
upon which it was founded; giving thus an indubitable
and most remarkable testimony to the existence of
that disgraceful license by which that age was stained.
It was a matter of public knowledge, they said, that
after the conquest of King William, his Norman followers,
elated by so great a victory, acknowledged no law but
their own wicked pleasure, and not only despoiled the
conquered Saxons of their lands and their goods, but
invaded the honour of their wives and of their daughters
with the most unbridled license; and hence it was
then common for matrons and maidens of noble families
to assume the veil, and take shelter in convents,
not as called thither by the vocation of God, but solely
to preserve their honour from the unbridled wickedness
of man.
Such and so licentious were the times, as announced
by the public declaration of the assembled clergy,
recorded by Eadmer; and we need add nothing more to
vindicate the probability of the scenes which we have
detailed, and are about to detail, upon the more apocryphal
authority of the Wardour Ms.
I’ll woo her as the lion woos his bride.
Douglas
While the scenes we have described were passing in
other parts of the castle, the Jewess Rebecca awaited
her fate in a distant and sequestered turret.
Hither she had been led by two of her disguised ravishers,
and on being thrust into the little cell, she found
herself in the presence of an old sibyl, who kept
murmuring to herself a Saxon rhyme, as if to beat time
to the revolving dance which her spindle was performing
upon the floor. The hag raised her head as Rebecca
entered, and scowled at the fair Jewess with the malignant
envy with which old age and ugliness, when united
with evil conditions, are apt to look upon youth and
beauty.
“Thou must up and away, old house-cricket,”
said one of the men; “our noble master commands
it—–Thou must e’en leave this
chamber to a fairer guest.”
“Ay,” grumbled the hag, “even thus
is service requited. I have known when my bare
word would have cast the best man-at-arms among ye
out of saddle and out of service; and now must I up
and away at the command of every groom such as thou.”
“Good Dame Urfried,” said the other man,
“stand not to reason on it, but up and away.
Lords’ hests must be listened to with a quick
ear. Thou hast had thy day, old dame, but thy
sun has long been set. Thou art now the very
emblem of an old war-horse turned out on the barren
heath—–thou hast had thy paces in
thy time, but now a broken amble is the best of them—–Come,
amble off with thee.”
“Ill omens dog ye both!” said the old
woman; “and a kennel be your burying-place!
May the evil demon Zernebock tear me limb from limb,
if I leave my own cell ere I have spun out the hemp
on my distaff!”
