e to feed their valour."

Annibaldi pressed his companion's hand: "I understand thee," he replied
with a slight blush, "and, indeed, I could but ill brook the complacent
triumph of the barbarian. I accept thy offer."

Chapter 3.III. The Conversation between the Roman and the
Provencal--Adeline's History--the Moonlit Sea--the Lute and the Song.

As soon as Annibaldi, with the greater part of the retinue, was gone,
Adrian, divesting himself of his heavy greaves, entered alone the
pavilion of the Knight of St. John. Montreal had already doffed all his
armour, save the breastplate, and he now stepped forward to welcome his
guest with the winning and easy grace which better suited his birth
than his profession. He received Adrian's excuses for the absence of
Annibaldi and the other knights of his train with a smile which seemed
to prove how readily he divined the cause, and conducted him to the
other and more private division of the pavilion in which the repast
(rendered acceptable by the late exercise of guest and host) was
prepared; and here Adrian for the first time discovered Adeline. Long
inurement to the various and roving life of her lover, joined to a
certain pride which she derived from conscious, though forfeited, rank,
gave to the outward manner of that beautiful lady an ease and freedom
which often concealed, even from Montreal, her sensitiveness to her
unhappy situation. At times, indeed, when alone with Montreal, whom she
loved with all the devotion of romance, she was sensible only to the
charm of a presence which consoled her for all things; but in his
frequent absence, or on the admission of any stranger, the illusion
vanished--the reality returned. Poor lady! Nature had not formed,
education had not reared, habit had not reconciled, her to the breath of
shame!

The young Colonna was much struck by her beauty, and more by her gentle
and highborn grace. Like her lord she appeared younger than she was;
time seemed to spare a bloom which an experienced eye might have told
was destined to an early grave; and there was something almost girlish
in the lightness of her form--the braided luxuriance of her rich auburn
hair, and the colour that went and came, not only with every moment,
but almost with every word. The contrast between her and Montreal
became them both--it was the contrast of devoted reliance and protecting
strength: each looked fairer in the presence of the other: and as Adrian
sate down to th