on his brow
amounting almost to agony. His hands and arms moved convulsively, as
if struggling with the nightmare; and besides several ejaculations in
Hebrew, the following were distinctly heard in the Norman-English, or
mixed language of the country: "For the sake of the God of Abraham,
spare an unhappy old man! I am poor, I am penniless--should your irons
wrench my limbs asunder, I could not gratify you!"

The Palmer awaited not the end of the Jew's vision, but stirred him with
his pilgrim's staff. The touch probably associated, as is usual, with
some of the apprehensions excited by his dream; for the old man started
up, his grey hair standing almost erect upon his head, and huddling some
part of his garments about him, while he held the detached pieces with
the tenacious grasp of a falcon, he fixed upon the Palmer his keen black
eyes, expressive of wild surprise and of bodily apprehension.

"Fear nothing from me, Isaac," said the Palmer, "I come as your friend."

"The God of Israel requite you," said the Jew, greatly relieved; "I
dreamed--But Father Abraham be praised, it was but a dream." Then,
collecting himself, he added in his usual tone, "And what may it be your
pleasure to want at so early an hour with the poor Jew?"

"It is to tell you," said the Palmer, "that if you leave not this
mansion instantly, and travel not with some haste, your journey may
prove a dangerous one."

"Holy father!" said the Jew, "whom could it interest to endanger so poor
a wretch as I am?"

"The purpose you can best guess," said the Pilgrim; "but rely on this,
that when the Templar crossed the hall yesternight, he spoke to his
Mussulman slaves in the Saracen language, which I well understand, and
charged them this morning to watch the journey of the Jew, to seize upon
him when at a convenient distance from the mansion, and to conduct
him to the castle of Philip de Malvoisin, or to that of Reginald
Front-de-Boeuf."

It is impossible to describe the extremity of terror which seized upon
the Jew at this information, and seemed at once to overpower his whole
faculties. His arms fell down to his sides, and his head drooped on his
breast, his knees bent under his weight, every nerve and muscle of his
frame seemed to collapse and lose its energy, and he sunk at the foot of
the Palmer, not in the fashion of one who intentionally stoops, kneels,
or prostrates himself to excite compassion, but like a man borne down on
all sides by the pre