the silver swan;" he wore on his breast the badge of
St. George; and the single ostrich plume, which made his cognizance as
Prince of Wales, waved over a fair and ample forehead, on which were
even then traced the lines of musing thought and high design; his
chestnut hair curled close to his noble head; his eye shone dark
and brilliant beneath the deep-set brow, which gives to the human
countenance such expression of energy and intellect,--all about him,
in aspect and mien, seemed to betoken a mind riper than his years,
a masculine simplicity of taste and bearing, the earnest and grave
temperament mostly allied in youth to pure and elevated desires, to an
honourable and chivalric soul.

Below the dais stood some of the tried and gallant gentlemen who had
braved exile, and tasted penury in their devotion to the House of
Lancaster, and who had now flocked once more round their queen, in the
hope of better days. There were the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset, their
very garments soiled and threadbare,--many a day had those great lords
hungered for the beggar's crust! [Philip de Comines says he himself
had seen the Dukes of Exeter and Somerset in the Low Countries in as
wretched a plight as common beggars.] There stood Sir John Fortescue,
the patriarch authority of our laws, who had composed his famous
treatise for the benefit of the young prince, overfond of exercise with
lance and brand, and the recreation of knightly song. There were Jasper
of Pembroke, and Sir Henry Rous, and the Earl of Devon, and the Knight
of Lytton, whose House had followed, from sire to son, the fortunes of
the Lancastrian Rose; [Sir Robert de Lytton (whose grandfather had been
Comptroller to the Household of Henry IV., and Agister of the Forests
allotted to Queen Joan), was one of the most powerful knights of the
time; and afterwards, according to Perkin Warbeck, one of the ministers
most trusted by Henry VII. He was lord of Lytton, in Derbyshire (where
his ancestors had been settled since the Conquest), of Knebworth in
Herts (the ancient seat and manor of Plantagenet de Brotherton, Earl
of Norfolk and Earl Marshal), of Myndelesden and Langley, of Standyarn,
Dene, and Brekesborne, in Northamptonshire, and became in the reign of
Henry VII. Privy Councillor, Uuder-Treasurer, and Keeper of the great
Wardrobe.] and, contrasting the sober garments of the exiles, shone the
jewels and cloth-of-gold that decked the persons of the more prosperous
foreigners,