6. VI.
It will be remembered that the impatient Amri, as
the evening of that day approached at the close of which
he hoped to obtain possession of the person of the Hebrew
maiden, wrapped himself in a disguise which he
deemed to be sufficient for concealment, and, accompanied
by one of the soldiers of Edacer who was appointed
to attend him, cautiously approached the dwelling
of the Hebrew Samuel, and narrowly examined its
several modes of entrance and egress. He was determined
not to be foiled again by events, if possible; and
he resolved to guard against the sudden flight of the
maiden through any unknown passage. His examination
resulted in a resolve to divide his attendants, in
order that each of the three doors which he discovered
to belong to the building might have its sufficient guard.
This determined upon, and the station which he was appointed
to keep designated to the eye of the soldier who
was with him, Amri took his departure from the spot,
and hurried away, as we have seen, to the fatal interview
with Urraca, which so terribly foiled his schemes and
terminated his career of crime.
But he pursued not his examination with so much
caution, nor hurried away so soon as to escape notice
and suspicion. It is not the guilty mind only which
suspicion haunts. It is the mind of the weak, the
humble, the oppressed—of him who is conscious of frequent
wrong during the past, and who has little hope of
better fortune from the future—which must regard all
objects with suspicious fear, and every strange aspect
with jealous circumspection. Even kindness to such a
spirit becomes an object of dread and apprehension, as
it is too frequently found an insidious cover to beguile
the poor heart into confidence the more securely to
ruin and to sting.
The fortune of the persecuted Jew had made him
thus jealous and apprehensive. Feeble and wronged,
he could only oppose to strong-handed injustice the
most sleepless vigilance and the nicest cunning. His
eyes slept never, and his hands were always quick to
convey his valuable possessions from the grasp of his
tyrant. The children of Samuel the Hebrew had early
imbibed the lessons of fear and watchfulness which the
necessities of their father and their people had taught
them. They beheld the suspicious stranger disguised
in his heavy cloak, and closely followed by a ferocious
and half-armed soldier of the governor, as he slowly
walked before and lingered about their dwelling; and
they at once conveyed the intelligence to the elder inmates.
At the first glance upon the suspicious person,
Thyrza was convinced that he was Amri, and a second
look fully confirmed her in her fears of her base enemy.
Amri had paused before the dwelling, and his hand was
uplifted as he pointed out to the eye of his companion
a door that opened from the house upon an inner court.
His cloak was discomposed by the movement of his uplifted
arm, and his bosom partially uncovered. The
colour of his vest was familiar to the eye of Thyrza, and,
with the oppressed and the suffering, to suspect is to fly.
“It is he,” she exclaimed, “it is Amri. I must fly,
my friends, I must seek my father.”
They would have dissuaded her from this sudden
determination; but she was resolute. Yet her resolve
to fly arose from no apprehensions which she entertained
for her own safety. She thought not then of herself.
She thought only of the meeting at the cave of the conspirators—she
feared for the life of her father—she
thought of the danger of another even dearer; and no
argument of Samuel, and no persuasions of those about
her, could move her from her purpose. She immediately
sought her chamber and proceeded to her preparations.
Once more the garment of the page was made
to conceal her lovely person; once more the dagger
of the desperate was fastened in her girdle, and hidden
by her cloak; and when the unwelcome visiters were
no longer to be seen in the neighbourhood, she sallied
forth, with a trembling heart and hurried footsteps, on
her way by the Fountain of the Damsels to the cave of
Wamba.
