as
speaking to Bois-Guilbert very earnestly, but in a low voice.

"How!" said the Grand Master, "will he not receive the gage?"

"He will--he doth, most Reverend Father," said Malvoisin, slipping the
glove under his own mantle. "And for the place of combat, I hold the
fittest to be the lists of Saint George belonging to this Preceptory,
and used by us for military exercise."

"It is well," said the Grand Master.--"Rebecca, in those lists shalt
thou produce thy champion; and if thou failest to do so, or if thy
champion shall be discomfited by the judgment of God, thou shalt then
die the death of a sorceress, according to doom.--Let this our judgment
be recorded, and the record read aloud, that no one may pretend
ignorance."

One of the chaplains, who acted as clerks to the chapter, immediately
engrossed the order in a huge volume, which contained the proceedings of
the Templar Knights when solemnly assembled on such occasions; and when
he had finished writing, the other read aloud the sentence of the Grand
Master, which, when translated from the Norman-French in which it was
couched, was expressed as follows.--

"Rebecca, a Jewess, daughter of Isaac of York, being attainted of
sorcery, seduction, and other damnable practices, practised on a Knight
of the most Holy Order of the Temple of Zion, doth deny the same; and
saith, that the testimony delivered against her this day is false,
wicked, and disloyal; and that by lawful 'essoine' [54] of her body as
being unable to combat in her own behalf, she doth offer, by a champion
instead thereof, to avouch her case, he performing his loyal 'devoir' in
all knightly sort, with such arms as to gage of battle do fully
appertain, and that at her peril and cost. And therewith she proffered
her gage. And the gage having been delivered to the noble Lord and
Knight, Brian de Bois-Guilbert, of the Holy Order of the Temple of Zion,
he was appointed to do this battle, in behalf of his Order and himself,
as injured and impaired by the practices of the appellant. Wherefore the
most reverend Father and puissant Lord, Lucas Marquis of Beaumanoir, did
allow of the said challenge, and of the said 'essoine' of the
appellant's body, and assigned the third day for the said combat, the
place being the enclosure called the lists of Saint George, near to the
Preceptory of Templestowe. And the Grand Master appoints the appellant
to appear there by her champion, on pain of doom, as a person convicte