, as if ready to rid themselves by the most desperate means
from the apprehended contamination of his nearer approach.
    Probably the same motives which induced Cedric to open his hall to this son
of a rejected people would have made him insist on his attendants receiving
Isaac with more courtesy. But the Abbot had, at this moment, engaged him in a
most interesting discussion on the breed and character of his favourite hounds,
which he would not have interrupted for matters of much greater importance than
that of a Jew going to bed supperless. While Isaac thus stood an outcast in the
present society, like his people among the nations, looking in vain for welcome
or resting place, the pilgrim who sat by the chimney took compassion upon him,
and resigned his seat, saying briefly, »Old man, my garments are dried, my
hunger is appeased, thou art both wet and fasting.« So saying, he gathered
together, and brought to a flame, the decaying brands which lay scattered on the
ample hearth; took from the larger board a mess of pottage and seethed kid,
placed it upon the small table at which he had himself supped, and, without
waiting the Jew's thanks, went to the other side of the hall - whether from
unwillingness to hold more close communication with the object of his
benevolence, or from a wish to draw near to the upper end of the table, seemed
uncertain.
    Had there been painters in those days capable to execute such a subject, the
Jew, as he bent his withered form, and expanded his chilled and trembling hands
over the fire, would have formed no bad emblematical personification of the
winter season. Having dispelled the cold, he turned eagerly to the smoking mess
which was placed before him, and ate with a haste and an apparent relish, that
seemed to betoken long abstinence from food.
    Meanwhile the Abbot and Cedric continued their discourse upon hunting; the
Lady Rowena seemed engaged in conversation with one of her attendant females;
and the haughty Templar, whose eye wandered from the Jew to the Saxon beauty,
revolved in his mind thoughts which appeared deeply to interest him.
    »I marvel, worthy Cedric,« said the Abbot, as their discourse proceeded,
»that, great as your predilection is for your own manly language, you do not
receive the Norman-French into your favour, so far at least as the mystery of
wood-craft and hunting is concerned. Surely no tongue is so rich in the various
phrases which the field-sports demand, or furnishes means to the experienced
woodman so well to express his jovial art.
