He therefore journeyed at a great rate, and made
short halts, and shorter repasts, so that he passed by Cedric and Athelstane,
who had several hours the start of him, but who had been delayed by their
protracted feasting at the convent of Saint Withold's. Yet such was the virtue
of Miriam's balsam, or such the strength of Ivanhoe's constitution, that he did
not sustain from the hurried journey that inconvenience which his kind physician
had apprehended.
    In another point of view, however, the Jew's haste proved somewhat more than
good speed. The rapidity with which he insisted on travelling, bred several
disputes between him and the party whom he had hired to attend him as a guard.
These men were Saxons, and not free by any means from the national love of ease
and good living which the Normans stigmatised as laziness and gluttony.
Reversing Shylock's position, they had accepted the employment in hopes of
feeding upon the wealthy Jew, and were very much displeased when they found
themselves disappointed by the rapidity with which he insisted on their
proceeding. They remonstrated also upon the risk of damage to their horses by
these forced marches. Finally, there arose betwixt Isaac and his satellites a
deadly feud, concerning the quantity of wine and ale to be allowed for
consumption at each meal. And thus it happened, that when the alarm of danger
approached, and that which Isaac feared was likely to come upon him, he was
deserted by the discontented mercenaries on whose protection he had relied,
without using the means necessary to secure their attachment.
    In this deplorable condition the Jew, with his daughter and her wounded
patient, was found by Cedric, as has already been noticed, and soon afterwards
fell into the power of De Bracy and his confederates. Little notice was at first
taken of the horse-litter, and it might have remained behind but for the
curiosity of De Bracy, who looked into it under the impression that it might
contain the object of his enterprise, for Rowena had not unveiled herself. But
De Bracy's astonishment was considerable when he discovered that the litter
contained a wounded man, who, conceiving himself to have fallen into the power
of Saxon outlaws, with whom his name might be a protection for himself and his
friends, frankly avowed himself to be Wilfred of Ivanhoe.
    The ideas of chivalrous honour, which amidst his wildness and levity, never
utterly abandoned De Bracy, prohibited him from doing the knight any injury in
his defenceless condition, and equally interdicted his betraying him to
Front-de-Boeuf, who would have had no