The lower part of this ample apartment was filled
with squires and yeomen, who made way not without
some difficulty for Rebecca, attended by the Preceptor
and Mont-Fitchet, and followed by the guard of halberdiers,
to move forward to the seat appointed for her.
As she passed through the crowd, her arms folded and
her head depressed, a scrap of paper was thrust into
her hand, which she received almost unconsciously,
and continued to hold without examining its contents.
The assurance that she possessed some friend in this
awful assembly gave her courage to look around, and
to mark into whose presence she had been conducted.
She gazed, accordingly, upon the scene, which we shall
endeavour to describe in the next chapter.
CHAPTER XXXVII
Stern was the law which bade its vot’ries leave
At human woes with human hearts to grieve;
Stern was the law, which at the winning wile
Of frank and harmless mirth forbade to smile;
But sterner still, when high the iron-rod
Of tyrant power she shook, and call’d that power
of God.
The Middle Ages
The Tribunal, erected for the trial of the innocent
and unhappy Rebecca, occupied the dais or elevated
part of the upper end of the great hall—–a
platform, which we have already described as the place
of honour, destined to be occupied by the most distinguished
inhabitants or guests of an ancient mansion.
On an elevated seat, directly before the accused,
sat the Grand Master of the Temple, in full and ample
robes of flowing white, holding in his hand the mystic
staff, which bore the symbol of the Order. At
his feet was placed a table, occupied by two scribes,
chaplains of the Order, whose duty it was to reduce
to formal record the proceedings of the day.
The black dresses, bare scalps, and demure looks of
these church-men, formed a strong contrast to the
warlike appearance of the knights who attended, either
as residing in the Preceptory, or as come thither
to attend upon their Grand Master. The Preceptors,
of whom there were four present, occupied seats lower
in height, and somewhat drawn back behind that of
their superior; and the knights, who enjoyed no such
rank in the Order, were placed on benches still lower,
and preserving the same distance from the Preceptors
as these from the Grand Master. Behind them, but
still upon the dais or elevated portion of the hall,
stood the esquires of the Order, in white dresses
of an inferior quality.
The whole assembly wore an aspect of the most profound
gravity; and in the faces of the knights might be
perceived traces of military daring, united with the
solemn carriage becoming men of a religious profession,
and which, in the presence of their Grand Master,
failed not to sit upon every brow.
