rably
above the rest.

His countenance was yet more remarkable than his form; still in the prime
of youth, he seemed at the first glance younger, at the second older,
than he was. At the first glance younger; for his face was perfectly
shaven, without even the moustache which the Saxon courtier, in imitating
the Norman, still declined to surrender; and the smooth visage and bare
throat sufficed in themselves to give the air of youth to that dominant
and imperious presence. His small skull-cap left unconcealed his
forehead, shaded with short thick hair, uncurled, but black and glossy as
the wings of a raven. It was on that forehead that time had set its
trace; it was knit into a frown over the eyebrows; lines deep as furrows
crossed its broad, but not elevated expanse. That frown spoke of hasty
ire and the habit of stern command; those furrows spoke of deep thought
and plotting scheme; the one betrayed but temper and circumstance; the
other, more noble, spoke of the character and the intellect. The face
was square, and the regard lion-like; the mouth--small, and even
beautiful in outline--had a sinister expression in its exceeding
firmness; and the jaw--vast, solid, as if bound in iron--showed
obstinate, ruthless, determined will; such a jaw as belongs to the tiger
amongst beasts, and the conqueror amongst men; such as it is seen in the
effigies of Caesar, of Cortes, of Napoleon.

That presence was well calculated to command the admiration of women, not
less than the awe of men. But no admiration mingled with the terror that
seized the girl as she gazed long and wistful upon the knight. The
fascination of the serpent on the bird held her mute and frozen. Never
was that face forgotten; often in after-life it haunted her in the
noon-day, it frowned upon her dreams.

"Fair child," said the knight, fatigued at length by the obstinacy of the
gaze, while that smile peculiar to those who have commanded men relaxed
his brow, and restored the native beauty to his lip, "fair child, learn
not from thy peevish grandam so uncourteous a lesson as hate of the
foreigner. As thou growest into womanhood, know that Norman knight is
sworn slave to lady fair;" and, doffing his cap, he took from it an uncut
jewel, set in Byzantine filigree work. "Hold out thy lap, my child; and
when thou nearest the foreigner scoffed, set this bauble in thy locks,
and think kindly of William, Count of the Normans." [14]

He dropped the jewel on