140
IVANHOE.
whose thread-bare tunic bore witness to his poverty, as his sword and dagger and golden chain
intimated his pretensions to rank,—"whelp of a she-wolf! darest thou press upon a Christian, and a Norman gentleman of the blood of Montdidier?"
This rough expostulation was addressed to no other than our acquaintance Isaac, who, richly and even magnificently dressed in a gaberdine ornamented with lace and lined with fur, endeavoured to make place in the foremost row beneath the gallery for his daughter, the beautiful Rebecca, who had joined him at Ashby, and who was now hanging on her father's arm, not a little terrified for the displeasure which seemed generally excited by her parent's presumption. But Isaac, though we have seen him sufficiently timid upon other occasions, knew well that upon the present he had nothing to fear. It was not in places of general resort, or where their equals were assembled, that any avaricious or malevolent noble durst offer him injury. On such occasions the Jews were under the protection of the general law; and if that proved a weak as-