CHAPTER XV.
Ascend the watch-tower yonder, valiant soldier,
Look on the field, and say how goes the battle.
Schiller's Maid of Orleans.
A moment of peril is often also a moment of
open-hearted kindness and affection. We are
thrown off our guard by the general agitation of
our feelings, and betray the intensity of those,
which, at more tranquil moments, our prudence
at least conceals if it cannot altogether suppress
them. In finding herself once more by the side
of Ivanhoe, Rebecca was astonished at the keen
sensation of pleasure which she experienced,
even in a moment when all around them both
was danger, if not despair. As she felt his
pulse and enquired after his health, there was a
softness in her touch and in her accents, implying a kinder interest than she would herself have