THE PROSCRIBED. 259 



were, like those of a kite, incased in eyelids so large, and bordered 

 by a black circle so decidedly marked upon the top of his cheek, that 

 their orbs seemed to project. The fire of this magic eye had an 

 indefinable something of despotic and piercing, which seized upon the 

 heart. It was a glance weighty and full of ideas, a glance brilliant 

 and lucid as a bird's or a serpent's, but which stupified, which over- 

 whelmed by a too lively communication of an immense affliction or 

 of some super-human attributes. But then, in this man, all was 'in 

 harmony with this glance, leaden and flashing, fixed and mobile, 

 severe and calm. If in his large eagle-eye, terrestrial emotions 

 seemed in some degree extinguished, the visage bore also the traces 

 of unhappy passions and great events accomplished. He was lean 

 and dry. The nose fell straight, and was so prolonged that it appeared 

 as if retained by the nostrils. All the bones of the face were clearly 

 defined, and the fleshless cheeks were furrowed by long, straight 

 wrinkles. You might have described it as the bed of a dried-up 

 torrent, where the violence of the hurricane was attested by the 

 profundity of the channels, which betrayed some horrible and eternal 

 struggle. Large folds proceeding from each side of the nose, like 

 to the traces left by the oars of a bark upon the waves, accented, if 

 one may so say, powerfully his countenance, by giving to his mouth, 

 firm and without sinuosities, a character of bitter sadness. In fine, 

 all which was hollow in the face appeared sombre ; but his tranquil 

 forehead stood boldly and nobly forward, and crowned the rest as 

 with a cupola of marble. He preserved that intrepid and serious 

 air and demeanour contracted by men accustomed to misfortune, 

 formed by nature to confront with impassibility a furious multitude, 

 an imminent danger, and to look all perils in the face. He seemed 

 to move in a sphere of his own, from whence he hovered above hu- 

 manity. His gestures, equally with his looks, carried with them 

 irresistible power. You must have lowered your eyes had his 

 poured their rays upon them ; you must have trembled had his 

 words and his motions addressed themselves to your soul. He 

 walked surrounded with a silent and terrible majesty. His thin and 

 sinewy hands were those of a warrior, and you might have taken 

 him for a despot without guards, for a deity without rays. His 

 costume also contributed to the various ideas which the singularities 

 of his manner or of his physiognomy gave rise to, and was in ad- 

 mirable keeping with the whole appearance of this extraordinary 

 being. The mind, the body, and the dress, harmonised together 

 in a manner to produce an impression on the coldest imagination. 

 The stranger wore a kind of surplice, made of black cloth, without 

 sleeves, which fastened in front, and descended mid-leg, leaving the 

 throat bare and without a band. His closely-fitting coat, or just-au- 

 corps, and boots were all black. Upon his head he wore a calotte of 

 black velvet, similar to a priest's, and which described a circular line 

 above his forehead, without a single hair being suffered to escape 

 from its strict confinement. It was the most rigid mourning and 

 the most mournful habit in which a man could be clothed. But for 

 a long sword suspended at his side, supported by a leathern girdle, 



