His features, naturally strong and harsh, had their
sternness exaggerated by one or two scars received in battle. These
features, naturally calculated to express the harsher passions, were
shaded by an open steel cap, with a projecting front, but having no
visor, over the gorget of which fell the black and grizzled beard of
the grim old Baron, and totally hid the lower part of his face. The
rest of his dress was a loose buff-coat, which had once been lined
with silk and adorned with embroidery, but which seemed much stained
with travel, and damaged with cuts, received probably in battle. It
covered a corslet, which had once been of polished steel, fairly
gilded, but was now somewhat injured with rust. A sword of antique
make and uncommon size, framed to be wielded with both hands, a kind
of weapon which was then beginning to go out of use, hung from his
neck in a baldrick, and was so disposed as to traverse his whole
person, the huge hilt appearing over his left shoulder, and the point
reaching well-nigh to the right heel, and jarring against his spur as
he walked. This unwieldy weapon could only be unsheathed by pulling
the handle over the left shoulder--for no human arm was long enough
to draw it in the usual manner. The whole equipment was that of a rude
warrior, negligent of his exterior even to misanthropical sullenness;
and the short, harsh, haughty tone, which he used towards his
attendants, belonged to the same unpolished character.
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