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