“Nor would I desire to leave your hospitable roof, venerable father,” said Ivanhoe, “did I not feel myself able to endure the journey, and compelled to undertake it.”

“And what can have urged you to so sudden a departure?” said the Prior.

“Have you never, holy father,” answered the Knight, “felt an apprehension of approaching evil, for which you in vain attempted to assign a cause?⁠—Have you never found your mind darkened, like the sunny landscape, by the sudden cloud, which augurs a coming tempest?⁠—And thinkest thou not that such impulses are deserving of attention, as being the hints of our guardian spirits, that danger is impending?”

“I may not deny,” said the Prior, crossing himself, “that such things have been, and have been of Heaven; but then such communications have had a visibly useful scope and tendency. But thou, wounded as thou art, what avails it thou shouldst follow the steps of him whom thou couldst not aid, were he to be assaulted?”