The Knight of the Spectacles was voted an agreeable
man in a grave way; and gave some very elegant, though quiet, parties,
and was received in the best society of York.
It was just at assize-time, the lawyers and barristers had arrived, and
the town was unusually gay; when, one morning, the attorney, whom we
have mentioned as Sir Wilfrid's man of business, and a most respectable
man, called upon his gallant client at his lodgings, and said he had a
communication of importance to make. Having to communicate with a
client of rank, who was condemned to be hanged for forgery, Sir Roger
de Backbite, the attorney said, he had been to visit that party in the
condemned cell; and on the way through the yard, and through the bars of
another cell, had seen and recognized an old acquaintance of Sir Wilfrid
of Ivanhoe--and the lawyer held him out, with a particular look, a note,
written on a piece of whity-brown paper.
What were Ivanhoe's sensations when he recognized the handwriting of
Rowena!--he tremblingly dashed open the billet, and read as follows:--
"MY DEAREST IVANHOE,--For I am thine now as erst, and my first love was
ever--ever dear to me. Have I been near thee dying for a whole year,
and didst thou make no effort to rescue thy Rowena? Have ye given to
others--I mention not their name nor their odious creed--the heart that
ought to be mine? I send thee my forgiveness from my dying pallet of
straw.
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