His leathern doublet was frayed and stained by the friction of often-tried armor, and in his richly studded belt glistened a diamond handled poniard.  Around his massive settle stood servants to do his bidding, while at his side were two or three shaggy hounds, resting their chins upon their master’s knee-now soliciting a caress, and now a share of the banquet.  Next to the sturdy baron sat the fair Joan, his daughter.  Her features were regular, and surpassingly beautiful, and her moist, dark eyes strained upon the palmer, were eloquent of the deep and passionate feelings of her heart.  The cut and fashion of her habit were well calculated to exhibit the contour of a bust, and waist that would have triumphed over the strictest criticism of a sculptor or painter-connoisseur.  From the multitudinous folds of an ample sleeve peeped forth a little jewelled hand, white as snow, and soft and round as a child’s.  The chair in which she reclined, was of massive oak, inlaid richly with ivory, and canopied with purple velvet, embroidered with, flowers of gold.  Her foot-encased within the smallest shoe in Burgundy, and ornamented with a flashing jewel upon the instep-rested upon a footstool of massive oak, magnificently carved and inlaid.

Together with the baron and his daughter, there sat upon a dais, at the head of the board, several guests of distinction-all listening with intense eagerness to the tales of the exploits of the Crusaders, in battling for the holy sepulchre.  Around the walls of the banquet-hall, were suspended the implements and spoils of war or the chase.  Crossbows and hunting-spears, helmets and corselets, the tusks of the wild-boar and the antlers of the deer, were displayed in picturesque confusion upon the walls, and within the niches of the apartment.

“O, it was a glorious sight to see!” said the palmer, continuing his narration, while his eyes flashed, and his whole form dilated with enthusiasm.  “The gorgeous trappings of the horses glistened in the sunbeams, pennons and banners flashed and fluttered in the wind, and the axes, and morions, and gorgets of polished steel, surging and plunging, as the chargers reared, made the Christian army appear like a billowy sea of silver sheen.  Before them stood a host of turbaned Moslems, defending the gates of Jerusalem.  The crescents upon their turbans gleamed, and long lines of myriads of scimitars offered a barrier of naked steel against the crusading host, which had come to rescue the Holy Sepulchre.  I saw in the van of the Christian array, a knight locked in complete black steel, and enveloped in all the magnificent panoply of war.  His charger was coal-black, compact, and of gigantic proportions.  The harnessings were of cloth of gold, which swept the ground,—­the bridle was sprinkled with stars and jewels,—­and pendant from the bridle-rein were fringes of the most precious stones.  He rode by the side of the Prince D’Olivar, and he sat in his saddle, as if he were a part of the animal that bore him so gallantly.