y impervious to
arrow-shots, and given to him by a certain Jew, named Isaac of York, to
whom he had done some considerable services a few years back.

If King Richard had not been in such a rage at the repeated failures of
his attacks upon the castle, that all sense of justice was blinded in
the lion-hearted monarch, he would have been the first to acknowledge
the valor of Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, and would have given him a Peerage
and the Grand Cross of the Bath at least a dozen times in the course of
the siege: for Ivanhoe led more than a dozen storming parties, and with
his own hand killed as many men (viz, two thousand three hundred
and fifty-one) within six, as were slain by the lion-hearted monarch
himself. But his Majesty was rather disgusted than pleased by his
faithful servant's prowess; and all the courtiers, who hated Ivanhoe for
his superior valor and dexterity (for he would kill you off a couple of
hundreds of them of Chalus, whilst the strongest champions of the Kings
host could not finish more than their two dozen of a day), poisoned the
royal mind against Sir Wilfrid, and made the King look upon his feats of
arms with an evil eye. Roger de Backbite sneeringly told the King that
Sir Wilfrid had offered to bet an equal bet that he would kill more men
than Richard himself in the next assault: Peter de Toadhole said that
Ivanhoe stated everywhere that his Majesty was not the man he used to
be; that pleasures and drink had enervated him; that he could neither
ride, nor strike a blow with sword or axe, as he had been enabled to do
in the old times in Palestine: and finally, in the twenty-fifth assault,
in which they had very nearly carried the place, and in which onset
Ivanhoe slew seven, and his Majesty six, of the sons of the Count de
Chalus, its defender, Ivanhoe almost did for himself, by planting his
banner before the King's upon the wall; and only rescued himself from
utter disgrace by saving his Majesty's life several times in the course
of this most desperate onslaught.

Then the luckless knight's very virtues (as, no doubt, my respected
readers know,) made him enemies amongst the men--nor was Ivanhoe liked
by the women frequenting the camp of the gay King Richard. His young
Queen, and a brilliant court of ladies, attended the pleasure-loving
monarch. His Majesty would transact business in the morning, then fight
severely from after breakfast till about three o'clock in the afternoon;
from which time,