Poor fool! she thought herself in wondrous price
With God, as if in Paradise she were;
But, were she not in a fool's paradise,
She might have seen more reason to despair,
And, therefore, as that wretch hew'd out his cell
Under the bowels, in the heart of hell!
So she, above the moon, amid the stars would dwell.
GILES FLETCHER.
We must leave Cecil Place for a while--suffer Manasseh Ben Israel to
pursue his journey to Hampton Court--offer no intrusion upon the
solitude of the preacher Fleetword--take no note of aught concerning
Walter De Guerre or Major Wellmore--nor heed, for a time, whether the
Buccaneer steered his course by land or water: attend to nothing, in
fact, for the present, except the motives and actions of Zillah Ben
Israel.
The Jewish females were brought up, at the period of which we treat,
with the utmost strictness, and kept in great seclusion, scarcely ever
associating but with their own people, and enduring many privations in
consequence of never mixing in general society. It is true they had
companions of their own nation, and amusements befitting (according to
the notions of the Elders) their state and age; but, nevertheless, they
were held under much and injudicious restraint, the result of which was
evil. It is seldom that the young can be held back by a tight and
galling rein, without either biting the bit, or breaking the bridle.
Zillah was the only child of her father, and nothing could exceed the
expense or the care lavished upon her. Had Manasseh himself
superintended her education, it is but fair to infer that his wisdom and
judgment would have curbed the headstrong and stubborn nature of her
mind and temper; but, deprived in her infancy of a mother's
watchfulness, and Ben Israel's duty and business calling him continually
from one country to another, she was necessarily intrusted to the care
of certain relatives of his own, Polish Jews; who, though excellent
friends in their way, and well versed in all the rites and ceremonies of
the Mosaic law, were totally ignorant of the proper course to be pursued
with a wild, high-spirited girl, fully aware of the importance of her
father's wealth and influence, and panting for the time when she should
share in both. The people with whom she resided perceived her
wilfulness; but, instead of combating it with reason, they sought to
overcome it by force--and the best of all force, according to their
ideas, was that which a staid and sober husband might exercise. The
person upon whom they fixed was a Jew diamond-dealer, who had numbered
about as many years as her father, but was greatly his inferior both in
sagacity and power; indeed, there were very few who could compete with
the learned Rabbi, Manasseh Ben Israel, in either of these qualities.
Cromwell thought most highly of his talents, and bestowed upon him a
degree of confidence he reposed in few, treating him with a respect and
attention which all classes of Christians thought he carried much too
far; for, at that time, Toleration was only in its infancy, and true
peace-loving Religion suffered much from the persecutions with which the
successful party never failed to visit those over whom they had
triumphed. Catholic against Protestant--Protestant against
Catholic--Sectarian against both--both against Sectarian--all against
Jew--and the defamed and despised Israelite obliged, in self-defence, to
act by subtlety (for his strength had departed from him) against all!
Cromwell took advantage of this state of things, and with much policy,
but it is to be hoped also with much sincerity, exerted himself
continually to render England a place of security and happiness to the
wandering children of Israel. To quote his own words, his opinion was,
"Since there was a promise that they should be converted, means ought to
be used to that end; and the most likely way was, the preaching of the
Gospel in truth and sincerity, as it was then in Britain--devoid of all
Popish idolatry, which had rendered the Christian religion odious to
them." But the design was so violently and so generally opposed, that it
came to nothing. Many scrupled not to affirm, that the Protector had
secured a conditional bribe, to an enormous amount, in case he procured
for them equal toleration with English subjects; while others, with more
show of truth, declared, that when Cromwell "understood what dealers the
Jews were every where in that trade which depends on news, the advancing
money upon high or low interest, in proportion to the risk they ran, or
the gain to be made as affairs might turn up, and in the buying and
selling of the actions of money so advanced, he, more upon that account,
than with a view to tolerate their principles, brought a company of them
over, and gave them leave to build a synagogue." It is certain that they
were sure and trusty spies for him, especially with relation to Spain
and Portugal, and that they never betrayed his confidence.--Is it not,
however, most extraordinary, in these our own times, when the spirit of
liberty is bestriding the whole earth "like a Colossus," that a people
so faithful, so influential, and so peaceable, should be deprived of so
many privileges?--privileges, which we are labouring with mind, pen, and
purse, to procure for tribes of ignorant and uncivilised savages, who as
yet are utterly unable to comprehend the nature of the freedom we seek
to thrust upon them, but who are too often ready and eager to bite the
hand that would bestow it? God forbid that we should desire it to be
withholden from a single human being, whether black or white, who bears
the impress of his Maker. But reason, policy, and humanity, may alike
teach us that the blessing should _first_ be shared by those who have
done most to deserve it--who know best how it should be used--and who
have the most powerful hereditary claims upon the sympathy and
consideration of Christians. The time is surely at hand, when the badge
of ignominy shall be removed from them--at least in Britain--where, but
for the exception to which we refer, Freedom is the birthright of every
native of the soil. Cromwell knew their value to a state; and had he
lived a few years longer, the Jew would have been at liberty to
cultivate his own lands, and manure them (if it so pleased him) with his
own gold, any where within the sea-girt isle of England.
We must no longer digress, although upon a most important and most
interesting topic, but proceed to inform our readers what they must
already have anticipated, that Zillah had little inclination towards the
husband procured for her by her injudicious friends. The Rabbi thought
it altogether a suitable match, particularly as Ichabod could trace his
descent from the tribe of Levi, and was of undoubted wealth, and,
according to belief, unspotted reputation; but Zillah cared little for
reputation, she knew not its value--little for wealth, for the finest
and rarest jewels of the world sparkled in gorgeous variety upon her
person, so that she moved more like a rainbow than a living
woman--little, very little for the tribe of Levi, and less than all for
Ichabod. His black eyes she likened to burnt cinders; she saw no beauty
in a beard striped and mottled with grey, although it was perfumed with
the sweets of Araby, and oiled with as pure and undefiled an unction as
that which flowed from the horn of the ancient Samuel upon the head of
the youthful David. His stateliness provoked her mirth--his deafness her
impatience; and when she compared him with the joyous cavaliers, the
brilliant and captivating men who graced the court of the gay and
luxurious Louis, for whose gallant plumes and glittering armour she so
often watched through her half-closed lattice, she turned from the
husband they would have given with a disgust that was utterly
insupportable.
Her father had prevailed upon the family with whom she lived to remove
to Paris during his residence in England, which had been prolonged from
day to day, in compliance with the desire of the Protector. He was
anxious that his child should be instructed in such elegant arts as
those in which the ladies of France and England excelled--not
remembering that, in a young, forward, and ill-educated woman, the
dangerous desire of display succeeds the acquirement of accomplishments
as surely and as regularly as day follows night.
Thus, shut up in one of the most gloomy hotels in Paris--conveyed in a
close carriage once or twice a week to the Bois de Boulogne, or the
gardens of Versailles--fearing to express delight, lest she should be
reproved for levity--or desire for any thing, lest it should be the very
thing she would not be permitted to possess--the proud, warm,
frank-hearted Jewess became gradually metamorphosed into the cunning,
passionate, deceptive intriguante, only waiting for an opportunity
to deceive her guardians, and obtain that which, from being so
strictly forbidden, she concluded must be the greatest possible
enjoyment--freedom of word and action. Alas! if we may use a homely
phrase, many are the victims to strait-lacing, both of stays and
conscience!
But if the old, grey-bearded Ichabod had been an object of dislike to
the youthful and self-willed Jewess before she saw Sir Willmott Burrell,
how did she regard him afterwards!
Manasseh Ben Israel had, as we have intimated, intrusted some packages
for his daughter to the charge of the treacherous knight; and how he
abused the trust has been already shown. But the poor Jewess found to
her cost, that though she loved him with all the warmth and ardour of
her own nature, he regarded her only as an object of pastime and
pleasure; the idea of in reality marrying a Jewess never once entered
into his calculation, though he was obliged to submit to something like
the ceremony, before he could overcome scruples that are implanted with
much care in the heart of every Jewish maiden. Although she deceived her
guardians and her antiquated lover with great dexterity, it never
occurred to her that Sir Willmott could be so base as to deceive her.
She was new to the world and its ways; and the full torrent of her
anger, jealousy, and disappointment burst upon him, when she found that
the charms of a fair-haired lady had superseded her own, and that
Burrell was already treating her with coldness. Of all the passions
inherent in the heart of a woman, that of jealousy is the most dangerous
to herself and others: it is fierce and restless in its nature; when
infuriated, nothing can oppose its progress; and although most powerful
in the most feeble-minded, it frequently assumes the semblance of
intellectual strength. Zillah's jealousy kept pace with her headlong
love, and in one of its most violent paroxysms she made the attempt on
the life of Burrell, which, it is easy to believe, he never forgave.
Subsequently, and during the remainder of his stay in Paris, he humoured
her fancy, and led her to imagine that he had sufficient influence with
Cromwell to prevail on him to interest her father on her behalf, and do
what no Israelite of the time had ever done--recognise a Christian
son-in-law. After Burrell's departure, however, she soon saw how little
reliance was to be placed upon his promises, and therefore resolved to
act for herself. Suspicion and jealousy divided her entire soul between
them; and she determined not to trust Dalton to bring her over to
England, because Burrell had recommended her to do so. Jeromio was known
to the person at whose house she lodged at St. Vallery, and, hearing
that she wanted to get to England, and would dispense much largess to
secure a passage, he thought he could make something by secreting her on
board, and then passing her off to his captain as a dumb boy. To this
plan Zillah readily agreed, for her imagination was at all times far
stronger than her reason. She had cast her life upon a die, and cared
not by what means her object was to be secured.
It is one of the most extraordinary anomalies in the female character,
that, having once outstepped the boundaries that are never even thought
upon but with danger, it plunges deeper and deeper still into
irretrievable ruin. Perhaps it is because women must feel most acutely
that society never permits them to retrieve, or, what is much the same,
takes no cognisance of their repentance, be it ever so sincere: their
station once lost is never to be regained; it would seem as if Dante's
inscription on the gates of Hell were to be for ever their motto--"All
hope abandon." Man may err, and err, and be forgiven; but poor woman,
with all his temptations and but half his strength, is placed beyond the
pale of earthly salvation if she be but once tempted into crime! It is a
hard, even though it may be a salutary law.
It must be borne in mind that Zillah had committed as great an iniquity
in the eyes of her people by marrying as by intriguing; nor could she
expect pardon for either one or the other, except by some wonderful and
powerful interposition, such as Burrell held out. It was astonishing to
witness the fortitude with which the fragile and delicate Jewess, who
had been clothed in purple and fine linen, fed on the most costly
viands, and slept on the most downy couch, encountered the illness,
terrors, and miseries attendant on a sea voyage in the vessel of a
Buccaneer. The Fire-fly certainly deserved every encomium bestowed upon
her by her captain; yet was she not the most pleasing residence for a
delicately-nurtured female. No murmur escaped her sealed lips, nor, in
fact, did she perceive the inconveniences by which she was surrounded;
her mind was wholly bent upon the prevention of Sir Willmott Burrell's
marriage, of which she had heard from undoubted authority; and it would
appear that she had no feelings, no ideas to bestow upon, or power to
think of, other things.
Jeromio's plotting but weak mind, never satisfied with the present,
eager for the future, and anxious to make it better by foul means, had
contrived to bring into use an abandoned excavation under the old tower
we have so frequently mentioned, which had been forsaken by Hugh
Dalton's party from its extreme dampness. They had filled the entrance
with fragments of rock and large stones; but it was known to Jeromio,
who, thinking that during his occasional visits to Gull's Nest he might
manage to smuggle a little on his own account, assisted by two other
Italians as evil-minded as himself, arranged the stones so as to permit
one person at a time to creep into the wretched hole, where he stowed
away such parts of the cargo of the Fire-fly as he could purloin from
his too-confiding commander. He admitted Zillah to a knowledge of this
cave, as a place in which she might shelter. He knew her to be a female
of wealth and consequence; yet had no idea of her connection with the
Master of Burrell, whom he had rarely seen; and though of necessity she
occasionally mixed with the people of the Gull's Nest, yet she expressed
so strong a desire for some place of privacy in the neighbourhood of
Cecil Place, and paid so liberally for it withal, that he confided to
her the secret of this cave--the entrance to which was nearly under the
window of the tower in which Barbara Iverk had been concealed on the
night when, by her lady's direction, she sought to communicate to Robin
Hays the perilous situation of the young Cavalier. At that time, also,
the Jewess saw Sir Willmott for the first time in England. She had been
on the watch ever since her landing, but terror for her own wretched
life had prevented her addressing him openly. The tones of his
well-known voice had reached her miserable cavern, and roused her from a
troubled slumber. She understood too little of his language to
comprehend the nature of his communication to Roupall, and her first
impulse was to strike a dagger to his heart; but this, her womanly
affection prevented, and she suddenly withdrew. Subsequently, she wrote
to Mrs. Constantia, and trusted much to her generosity and truth of
character, of which she had heard in France; but poor Constance, through
the cowardice of Jeromio, never received her packet, and, enraged and
maddened by the reports of his immediate marriage, she resolved on
seeing Mistress Cecil, and accomplished her purpose, as she thought,
when in fact she only saw Barbara. Her jealousy and violence defeated
her purpose at that time; but still her determination remained fixed to
prevent the union, if her life were to be the forfeit. After meeting
with the knight, she retreated into the earth, from which she had so
suddenly appeared, much to the Master of Burrell's astonishment, who had
no knowledge whatever of the cave, though he doubted not it was of
Dalton's preparing. After securing the preacher, he examined every
portion of the ruins most attentively, but without success, for she had
learned to be as wily as a fox, and had carefully secured the aperture,
through which even her delicate form passed with difficulty.
It would have touched a heart, retaining any degree of feeling, to see
that young and beautiful woman within that damp and noisome
excavation--so damp that cold and slimy reptiles clung to, and crept
over, its floor and walls, while the blind worm nestled in the old
apertures formed to admit a little air; and the foul toad, and still
more disgusting eft, looked upon her, as they would say, "Thou art our
sister."
"And here," thought she, "must the only child of Manasseh Ben Israel
array herself, to meet the gaze of the proud beauty who would not deign
to notice the letter or the supplication of the despised Jewess; to meet
the gaze of the cold stern English, and of the cruel man who points the
finger of scorn against her he has destroyed. Yet I seek but justice,
but to be acknowledged as his wife, in the open day and before an
assembled people, and then he shall hear and see no more of the Rabbi's
daughter! I will hide myself from the world, and look upon all mankind
as I do upon him--with a bitter hatred!--Yet I was not always thus," she
continued, as she clasped a jewel on her arm: "The bracelet is too wide
for the shrunk flesh! Out, out upon thee, bauble! O that I could
thus--and thus--and thus--trample into this black and slimy earth, every
vestige of what I was, and have no more the power to think of what I am!
Is this the happiness I looked for? Are these the feelings of my
girlhood? My heart seems cold within me, cold to every thought but
vengeance! Even the burden I carry--it is part of him, and with the
groans that come in woman's travail I will mingle curses, deep and
blasting, on its head. O that I could cast it from me! And yet--and yet
it will be my own child!" And the feelings of the mother triumphed; for,
at that thought, the Jewess wept, and tears are as balm to an
overwrought mind, at once a relief and a consolation. Zillah wept, and
was humanised. After a little time, she arrayed herself in befitting
garments, but placed pistols within her bosom. Long before the appointed
hour, and despite the watchfulness of Sir Willmott's spies, she was
secreted near the ruined chapel adjoining Cecil Place.