📔 The Talisman

Thou hast been trained from thy post by some deep guile — some well-devised stratagem — the cry of some distressed maiden has caught thine ear, or the laughful look of some merry one has taken thine eye.

" […] Formerly, it is said, they were leopards; but now they are become lions at all points, and must take precedence of beast, fish, or fowl, or woe worth the gainstander."

Of all people who ever lived, the Persians were perhaps most remarkable for their unshaken credulity in amulets, spells, periapts, and similar charms, framed, it was said, under the influence of particular planets, and bestowing high medical powers, as well as the means of advancing men's fortunes in various manners.

But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger.

An outline of the same device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost effaced the painting.

Lo you! let me have a blue robe, and—search for the ruby carcanet, which was part of the King of Cyprus's ransom—it is either in the steel-casket, or somewhere else.

The knight fixed his eyes on the opening with breathless anxiety, and continuing to kneel in the attitude of devotion which the place and scene required, expected the consequence of these preparations.

The rose-buds, withered as they were, were still treasured under his cuirass, and nearest to his heart.

Salisbury and his attendants were also now drawing near, with bills and partisans brandished, and bows already bended.

"But to yonder pavilion . . . the moon is glimmering on the gilded ball which crowns its roof, and which is worth a king's ransom."