rs' blisses. And there was left too on our minds, an
idea that Ivanhoe had liked the Jewess almost as well as Rowena, and
that Rowena might possibly have become jealous. Thackeray's mind at once
went to work and pictured to him a Rowena such as such a woman might
become after marriage; and as Ivanhoe was of a melancholy nature and apt
to be hipped, and grave, and silent, as a matter of course Thackeray
presumes him to have been henpecked after his marriage.

Our dear Wamba disturbs his mistress in some devotional conversation
with her chaplain, and the stern lady orders that the fool shall have
three-dozen lashes. "I got you out of Front de Boeuf's castle," said
poor Wamba, piteously, appealing to Sir Wilfrid of Ivanhoe, "and canst
thou not save me from the lash?"

"Yes; from Front de Boeuf's castle, _when you were locked up with the
Jewess in the tower_!" said Rowena, haughtily replying to the timid
appeal of her husband. "Gurth, give him four-dozen,"--and this was all
poor Wamba got by applying for the mediation of his master. Then the
satirist moralises; "Did you ever know a right-minded woman pardon
another for being handsomer and more love-worthy than herself?" Rowena
is "always flinging Rebecca into Ivanhoe's teeth;" and altogether life
at Rotherwood, as described by the later chronicles, is not very happy
even when most domestic. Ivanhoe becomes sad and moody. He takes to
drinking, and his lady does not forget to tell him of it. "Ah dear axe!"
he exclaims, apostrophising his weapon, "ah gentle steel! that was a
merry time when I sent thee crashing into the pate of the Emir Abdul
Melek!" There was nothing left to him but his memories; and "in a word,
his life was intolerable." So he determines that he will go and look
after king Richard, who of course was wandering abroad. He anticipates a
little difficulty with his wife; but she is only too happy to let him
go, comforting herself with the idea that Athelstane will look after
her. So her husband starts on his journey. "Then Ivanhoe's trumpet blew.
Then Rowena waved her pocket-handkerchief. Then the household gave a
shout. Then the pursuivant of the good knight, Sir Wilfrid the Crusader,
flung out his banner,--which was argent, a gules cramoisy with three
Moors impaled,--then Wamba gave a lash on his mule's haunch, and
Ivanhoe, heaving a great sigh, turned the tail of his war-horse upon the
castle of his fathers."

Ivanhoe finds Coeur de Leon besieging the Castle