The Talisman | Page 9

little pennoncelle, to
dally with the faint breeze, or drop in the dead calm. To this cumbrous
equipment must be added a surcoat of embroidered cloth, much frayed
and worn, which was thus far useful that it excluded the burning rays of
the sun from the armour, which they would otherwise have rendered
intolerable to the wearer. The surcoat bore, in several places, the arms
of the owner, although much defaced. These seemed to be a couchant
leopard, with the motto, "I sleep; wake me not." An outline of the same
device might be traced on his shield, though many a blow had almost
effaced the painting. The flat top of his cumbrous cylindrical helmet
was unadorned with any crest. In retaining their own unwieldy
defensive armour, the Northern Crusaders seemed to set at defiance the

nature of the climate and country to which they had come to war.
The accoutrements of the horse were scarcely less massive and
unwieldy than those of the rider. The animal had a heavy saddle plated
with steel, uniting in front with a species of breastplate, and behind
with defensive armour made to cover the loins. Then there was a steel
axe, or hammer, called a mace-of-arms, and which hung to the
saddle-bow. The reins were secured by chain-work, and the front-stall
of the bridle was a steel plate, with apertures for the eyes and nostrils,
having in the midst a short, sharp pike, projecting from the forehead of
the horse like the horn of the fabulous unicorn.
But habit had made the endurance of this load of panoply a second
nature, both to the knight and his gallant charger. Numbers, indeed, of
the Western warriors who hurried to Palestine died ere they became
inured to the burning climate; but there were others to whom that
climate became innocent and even friendly, and among this fortunate
number was the solitary horseman who now traversed the border of the
Dead Sea.
Nature, which cast his limbs in a mould of uncommon strength, fitted
to wear his linked hauberk with as much ease as if the meshes had been
formed of cobwebs, had endowed him with a constitution as strong as
his limbs, and which bade defiance to almost all changes of climate, as
well as to fatigue and privations of every kind. His disposition seemed,
in some degree, to partake of the qualities of his bodily frame; and as
the one possessed great strength and endurance, united with the power
of violent exertion, the other, under a calm and undisturbed semblance,
had much of the fiery and enthusiastic love of glory which constituted
the principal attribute of the renowned Norman line, and had rendered
them sovereigns in every corner of Europe where they had drawn their
adventurous swords.
It was not, however, to all the race that fortune proposed such tempting
rewards; and those obtained by the solitary knight during two years'
campaign in Palestine had been only temporal fame, and, as he was
taught to believe, spiritual privileges. Meantime, his slender stock of
money had melted away, the rather that he did not pursue any of the
ordinary modes by which the followers of the Crusade condescended to
recruit their diminished resources at the expense of the people of
Palestine--he exacted no gifts from the wretched natives for sparing

their possessions when engaged in warfare with the Saracens, and he
had not availed himself of any opportunity of enriching himself by the
ransom of prisoners of consequence. The small train which had
followed him from his native country had been gradually diminished,
as the means of maintaining them disappeared, and his only remaining
squire was at present on a sick-bed, and unable to attend his master,
who travelled, as we have seen, singly and alone. This was of little
consequence to the Crusader, who was accustomed to consider his good
sword as his safest escort, and devout thoughts as his best companion.
Nature had, however, her demands for refreshment and repose even on
the iron frame and patient disposition of the Knight of the Sleeping
Leopard; and at noon, when the Dead Sea lay at some distance on his
right, he joyfully hailed the sight of two or three palm-trees, which
arose beside the well which was assigned for his mid-day station. His
good horse, too, which had plodded forward with the steady endurance
of his master, now lifted his head, expanded his nostrils, and quickened
his pace, as if he snuffed afar off the living waters which marked the
place of repose and refreshment. But labour and danger were doomed
to intervene ere the horse or horseman reached the desired spot.
As the Knight of the Couchant Leopard continued to fix his eyes
attentively on the yet distant cluster of palm-trees, it seemed to him