The Sun.
London, England, 1848-06-15 00:00:00

HAROLD.

" The countenance of Harold was, though sorrowful
at that moment, and indeed habitually not without a
certain melancholy, wonderfully imposing from its calm
and sweetness. There, no devouring passions had left
the cloud or ploughed the line ; but all the smooth love-
liness of youth took dignity from the conscious resolve of
man. The long hair, of a fair brown, with a slight tinge
of;gold, as the last sunbeams shot through its luxuriance,
was parted from the temples, and fell in large waves half
way to the shoulder. The eye. brows, darker in hue,
arched and finely traced ; the straight features not
less manly than the Norman, but less strongly
marked ; the cheek, hardy with exercise and expo-
sure, but still retaining somewhat of youthful bloom
under the pale bronze of its sunburnt surface ; the form
tall, not gigantic, and vigorous rather from perfect pro-
portion and athletic habits than from breadth and bulk—
were all singularly characteristic of the Saxon beauty in
its highest and purest type. But what chiefly distin-
guished this personage, was that peculiar dignity, so
simple, so sedate, which no pomp seems to dazzle, no
danger to disturb; and which, perhaps, arises from a
strong sense of self-dependence, and is connected with
self-respect—a dignity common to the Indian and the
Arab, and rare except in that state of society in which
each man is a power in himself. The Latin tragic poet
touches close upon that sentiment in the fine lines—
" ' Rex est qui metuit nihil
Hoc regnum sibi quisque dat.'"
WILLIAM THE CONQUEROR.

"His vest, of a cramoisay so dark, that it seemed
black beside the snowy garb of the Confessor, was
edged by a deep band of embroidered gold; leaving
perfectly hare his firm, full throat--firm and full as a
column of granite,—a short jacket or manteline of fur,
pendant from the shoulders, left developed in all its
breadth a breast, that seemed meet to stay the march
of an army; and on the left arm, curved to support the
falcon, the vast muscles rose, round and gnarled,
through the close sleeve.
"In height, he was really but little above the stature
of many of those present; nevertheless, so did his port,
his air, the nobility of his large proportions, fill the eye,
that he seemed to tower immeasurably above the rest.
"His countenance was yet more remarkable than his
form; still in the prime of youth, he seemed at the first
glance younger, at the second older, than he was. At
the first glance younger; for his face was perfectly
shaven, without even the moustache which the Saxon
courtier, in imitating the Norman, still declined to sur-
render; and the smooth visage and bare throat sufficed
in themselves to give the air of youth to that dominant
and imperious presence. His small skull-cap left un-
concealed his forehead, shaded with short thick air, un-
curled, 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 fur-
rows crossed its broad, but not elevated expanse. That
trown spoke of hasty ire and the habit of stern com-
mand; those furrows spoke of deep thought and plot-
ting scheme: the one betrayed but temper and circum-
stance; the other, more noble, spake of the character
and the intellect. The face was square, and the regard
lion-like; the mouth—small, and even beautiful in out-
line—had a sinister expression in its exceeding firm-
ness; 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 con-
queror amongst men; such as it is seen in the effigies of
etesar, of Cortes, of Napoleon."

HILDA AND EDITH.
" Near the window sat a woman advanced in years,
and of a mien and aspect singularly majestic. Upon a
small tripod before her was a Runic manuscript, and an
inkstand of elegant form, with a silver graphium, or
pen. At her feet reclined a girl somewhat about the
age of sixteen, her long fair hair parted across her fore-
head, and falling far down her shoulders. Her dress
was a linen under tunic, with long sleeves, rising high
to the throat, and, without one of the modern artificial
restraints of the shape, the simple belt sufficed to show
the slender proportions and delicate outline of the
wearer. The colour of the dress was of the purest
white, but its hems, or borders, were richly embroidered.
This girl's beauty was something marvellous. In a
land proverbial for ?air women, it had already obtained
her the name the fair.' In that beauty were
blended, not as yet without a struggle for mastery, the
two expressions seldom united in one countenance, the
soft and the noble; indeed in the whole aspect there was
the evidence of some internal struggle; the intelligence
was not yet complete; the soul and heart were not yet
united: and Edith the Christian maid dwelt in the home
of Hilda the heathen prophetess. The girl's blue eyes,
rendered dark by the shade of their long lashes, were
fixed intently upon the stern and troubled countenance
which was bent upon her own, but bent with that ab-
stract gaze which shows that the soul is absent from the
sight. So sate Hilda, and so reclined her grandchild
Edith."