."

"Sir, you speak well," she answered. "Be pleased ere we separate, to
meet no more perchance, to tell me your names that I may remember them
and hand them down among my people from generation to generation."

So he told her, and thrust onto her a gift of money and the most of such
food as remained to them. Then the poor woman lifted up her arms and
said:

"I, Rebecca, daughter of Onias and wife of Nathan, call down on you,
Hugh de Cressi, Richard Archer and David Day, and on your children
forever, the blessings of Jehovah, because you have rescued the widow
and her children from the fire and avenged the murder of the husband
and the father. O God of my people, as Thou didst save Lot and his house
from the flames of Sodom, so save these true-hearted and merciful men!
Turn from them the sword of Thy wrath when it smites the sinful cities!
Cast the cloak of Thy protection about them and all they love! Prosper
their handiwork in peace and in war, fulfil their desire upon their
enemies, and at last let them die full of years and honour and so be
gathered into Thy eternal bosom! Thus prayeth Rebecca, the daughter of
Onias, and thus shall it be."

Then, leading her children, she turned and vanished into the darkness.

"Now," said Dick when she had gone, "although they were spoken by a Jew
whom men call accursed because their forefathers, fulfilling prophecy,
or some few of them, wrought a great crime when the world was young and
thereby brought about the salvation of mankind, as we believe, those
are among the most comfortable words to which my ears have listened,
especially such of them as dealt with the fulfilling of our desire upon
our enemies in war. Well, they are spoke, and I doubt not registered in
a book which will not be lost. So, master, let us seek a lodging in this
city of Avignon, which, for my part, I do with a light heart."

Hugh nodded, and his heart also was lightened by those words of blessing
and good omen. Mounting their horses, they took a street that led them
past the great Roches des Doms, on the crest of which stood the mighty
palace of the Popes, as yet unfinished, but still one of the vastest
buildings they had ever seen. Here on the battlements and in front of
the gateway burned great fires, lit by order of his Holiness to purify
the air and protect him and his Court from the plague.

Leaving this place on their right they rode slowly along one of the
principal streets of the town, seeking