Ivanhoe by Walter Scott (top 10 ebook reader .txt) ๐
Description
Set in 12th-century England, Prince John rules while his brother King Richard is away during the Crusades. During his reign, Prince John and others of Norman nobility abuse their power over the Saxons, forcing Saxons off their lands and many Saxon nobles into serfdom.
Ivanhoe, a man disowned by his own Saxon father for going to war alongside the Norman King Richard, returns from the Crusades in disguise and appears in a tournament at Ashby. After revealing himself, Prince John and his advisors learn that King Richard, too, has returned from the crusades.
Foiling Prince Johnโs plot against King Richardโs return to power, King Richard battles against Prince Johnโs allies, and executes the most guilty of his conspirators. After the events of the story, Ivanhoe leads a heroic career under King Richard until the kingโs untimely death.
Ivanhoe is the first novel to feature the character Robin Hood, his merry men, and Friar Tuck, and serves as the basis for the portrayals of his character we still see in many modern adaptations.
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- Author: Walter Scott
Read book online ยซIvanhoe by Walter Scott (top 10 ebook reader .txt) ๐ยป. Author - Walter Scott
A crowd of conflicting emotions seemed to have occupied Cedric, and kept him silent during this discussion. Gratified pride, resentment, embarrassment, chased each other over his broad and open brow, like the shadow of clouds drifting over a harvest-field; while his attendants, on whom the name of the sixth knight seemed to produce an effect almost electrical, hung in suspense upon their masterโs looks. But when Rowena spoke, the sound of her voice seemed to startle him from his silence.
โLady,โ said Cedric, โthis beseems not; were further pledge necessary, I myself, offended, and justly offended, as I am, would yet gage my honour for the honour of Ivanhoe. But the wager of battle is complete, even according to the fantastic fashions of Norman chivalryโ โIs it not, Father Aymer?โ
โIt is,โ replied the Prior; โand the blessed relic and rich chain will I bestow safely in the treasury of our convent, until the decision of this warlike challenge.โ
Having thus spoken, he crossed himself again and again, and after many genuflections and muttered prayers, he delivered the reliquary to Brother Ambrose, his attendant monk, while he himself swept up with less ceremony, but perhaps with no less internal satisfaction, the golden chain, and bestowed it in a pouch lined with perfumed leather, which opened under his arm. โAnd now, Sir Cedric,โ he said, โmy ears are chiming vespers with the strength of your good wineโ โpermit us another pledge to the welfare of the Lady Rowena, and indulge us with liberty to pass to our repose.โ
โBy the rood of Bromholme,โ said the Saxon, โyou do but small credit to your fame, Sir Prior! Report speaks you a bonny monk, that would hear the matin chime ere he quitted his bowl; and, old as I am, I feared to have shame in encountering you. But, by my faith, a Saxon boy of twelve, in my time, would not so soon have relinquished his goblet.โ
The Prior had his own reasons, however, for persevering in the course of temperance which he had adopted. He was not only a professional peacemaker, but from practice a hater of all feuds and brawls. It was not altogether from a love to his neighbour, or to himself, or from a mixture of both. On the present occasion, he had an instinctive apprehension of the fiery temper of the Saxon, and saw the danger that the reckless and presumptuous spirit, of which his companion had already given so many proofs, might at length produce some disagreeable explosion. He therefore gently insinuated the incapacity of the native of any other country to engage in the genial conflict of the bowl with the hardy and strong-headed Saxons; something he mentioned, but slightly, about his own holy character, and ended by pressing his proposal to depart to repose.
The grace-cup was accordingly served round, and the guests, after making deep obeisance to their landlord and to the Lady Rowena, arose and mingled in the hall, while the heads of the family, by separate doors, retired with their attendants.
โUnbelieving dog,โ said the Templar to Isaac the Jew, as he passed him in the throng, โdost thou bend thy course to the tournament?โ
โI do so propose,โ replied Isaac, bowing in all humility, โif it please your reverend valour.โ
โAy,โ said the Knight, โto gnaw the bowels of our nobles with usury, and to gull women and boys with gauds and toysโ โI warrant thee store of shekels in thy Jewish scrip.โ
โNot a shekel, not a silver penny, not a halflingโ โso help me the God of Abraham!โ said the Jew, clasping his hands; โI go but to seek the assistance of some brethren of my tribe to aid me to pay the fine which the Exchequer of the Jews have imposed upon meโ โFather Jacob be my speed! I am an impoverished wretchโ โthe very gaberdine I wear is borrowed from Reuben of Tadcaster.โ14
The Templar smiled sourly as he replied, โBeshrew thee for a false-hearted liar!โ and passing onward, as if disdaining farther conference, he communed with his Muslim slaves in a language unknown to the bystanders. The poor Israelite seemed so staggered by the address of the military monk, that the Templar had passed on to the extremity of the hall ere he raised his head from the humble posture which he had assumed, so far as to be sensible of his departure. And when he did look around, it was with the astonished air of one at whose feet a thunderbolt has just burst, and who hears still the astounding report ringing in his ears.
The Templar and Prior were shortly after marshalled to their sleeping apartments by the steward and the cupbearer, each attended by two torchbearers and two servants carrying refreshments, while servants of inferior condition indicated to their retinue and to the other guests their respective places of repose.
VITo buy his favour I extend this friendship:
If he will take it, so; if not, adieu;
And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not.
As the Palmer, lighted by a domestic with a torch, passed through the intricate combination of apartments of this large and irregular mansion, the cupbearer coming behind him whispered in his ear, that if he had no objection to a cup of good mead in his apartment, there were many domestics in that family who would gladly hear the news he had brought from the Holy Land, and particularly that which concerned the Knight of Ivanhoe. Wamba presently appeared to urge the same request, observing that a cup after midnight was worth three after curfew. Without disputing a maxim urged by such grave authority, the Palmer thanked them for their courtesy, but observed that he had included in his religious vow, an obligation never to speak in
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