they were so many golden byzants from mine own purse;
and I well know, that the lessons of Miriam, daughter of the Rabbi Manasses of
Byzantium, whose soul is in Paradise, have made thee skilful in the art of
healing, and that thou knowest the craft of herbs and the force of elixirs.
Therefore, do as thy mind giveth thee - thou art a good damsel, a blessing and a
crown, and a song of rejoicing unto me and to my house, and unto the people of
my fathers.«
    The apprehensions of Isaac, however, were not ill-founded; and the generous
and grateful benevolence of his daughter exposed her, on her return to Ashby, to
the unhallowed gaze of Brian de Bois-Guilbert. The Templar twice passed and
repassed them on the road, fixing his bold and ardent look on the beautiful
Jewess; and we have already seen the consequences of the admiration which her
charms excited, when accident threw her into the power of that unprincipled
voluptuary.
    Rebecca lost no time in causing the patient to be transported to their
temporary dwelling, and proceeded with her own hands to examine and to bind up
his wounds. The youngest reader of romances and romantic ballads must recollect
how often the females, during the dark ages, as they are called, were initiated
into the mysteries of surgery, and how frequently the gallant knight submitted
the wounds of his person to her cure, whose eyes had yet more deeply penetrated
his heart.
    But the Jews, both male and female, possessed and practised the medical
science in all its branches, and the monarchs and powerful barons of the time
frequently committed themselves to the charge of some experienced sage among
this despised people, when wounded or in sickness. The aid of the Jewish
physicians was not less eagerly sought after, though a general belief prevailed
among the Christians, that the Jewish Rabbins were deeply acquainted with the
occult sciences, and particularly with the cabalistical art which had its name
and origin in the studies of the sages of Israel. Neither did the Rabbins disown
such acquaintance with supernatural arts, which added nothing (for what could
add aught?) to the hatred with which the nation was regarded, while it
diminished the contempt with which that malevolence was mingled. A Jewish
magician might be the subject of equal abhorrence with a Jewish usurer, but he
could not be equally despised. It is besides probable, considering the wonderful
cures they are said to have performed, that the Jews possessed some secrets of
the healing art peculiar to themselves, and which, with the exclusive spirit
arising out of their condition, they took