The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Ivanhoe by Walter Scott: ``I am a broken and impoverished man; a beggar's
staff must be my portion through life, supposing
I were to pay you fifty crowns.''
``The Prior shall judge of that matter,'' replied
the Captain.---``How say you, Father Aymer?
Can the Jew afford a good ransom?''
``Can he afford a ransom?'' answered the Prior
``Is he not Isaac of York, rich enough to redeem
the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel, who were
led into Assyrian bondage?---I have seen but little
of him myself, but our cellarer and treasurer have
 Ivanhoe |