richest gilding and colours. The chimneypiece (a modern ornament)
rose to the roof, and represented in bold reliefs, gilt and decorated,
the signing of Magna Charta. The floor was strewed thick with dried
rushes and odorous herbs; the furniture was scanty, but rich. The
low-backed chairs, of which there were but four, carved in ebony, had
cushions of velvet with fringes of massive gold; a small cupboard, or
beaufet, covered with carpetz de cuir (carpets of gilt and painted
leather), of great price, held various quaint and curious ornaments of
plate inwrought with precious stones; and beside this--a singular
contrast--on a plain Gothic table lay the helmet, the gauntlets, and
the battle-axe of the master. Warwick himself, seated before a large,
cumbrous desk, was writing,--but slowly and with pain,--and he lifted
his finger as the Nevile approached, in token of his wish to conclude
a task probably little congenial to his tastes. But Marmaduke was
grateful for the moments afforded him to recover his self-possession,
and to examine his kinsman.

The earl was in the lusty vigour of his age. His hair, of the deepest
black, was worn short, as if in disdain of the effeminate fashions of
the day; and fretted bare from the temples by the constant and early
friction of his helmet, gave to a forehead naturally lofty yet more
majestic appearance of expanse and height. His complexion, though
dark and sunburned, glowed with rich health. The beard was closely
shaven, and left in all its remarkable beauty the contour of the oval
face and strong jaw,--strong as if clasped in iron. The features were
marked and aquiline, as was common to those of Norman blood. The form
spare, but of prodigious width and depth of chest, the more apparent
from the fashion of the short surcoat, which was thrown back, and left
in broad expanse a placard, not of holiday velvet and satins, but of
steel polished as a mirror, and inlaid with gold. And now as,