The Poniard's Hilt; Or, Karadeucq and Ronan. A Tale of Bagauders and VagresSue, Eugène
History
The Poniard's Hilt; Or, Karadeucq and Ronan. A Tale of Bagauders and Vagres
Sue, Eugène
France -- History -- To 987 -- Fiction
What a beautiful, noble, glorious, luminous sight is that of a
longhaired prince, especially when his hair consists of a long tangled
mop, that scissors have never touched, such being one of the distinctive
attributes of the royal Frankish family. Unfortunately, although still
young, Prince Chram, being worn by drunkenness and all manner of
enervating excesses, was almost wholly bald. Only from his neck and
temples did a few long and straggling locks of light hair tumble down
upon his chest and arched back. His long dalmatica of purple fabric,
slit on the side at the height of his knees, half hid the shoulders and
crupper of his black horse. Bandelets of gilt leather criss-crossed his
tight-fitting hose from his ankles up to his knees. His spurred shoes
rested upon gilt stirrups; his long gold-hilted sword was sheathed in
white cloth and hung from a superbly ornamented belt. In lieu of a whip,
he carried a cane of precious wood with a head of chiseled gold, upon
which, when the worn-out debauchee walked, he leaned heavily. Prince
Chram's face was villainous. On his right Bishop Cautin rode as proudly
as a man of war. From time to time the prelate cast an uneasy glance at
Chram, because, though he sufficiently detested Chram, he was well aware
that Chram detested him still more. At the Prince's right rode the "Lion
of Poitiers," the hardened criminal who, together with Imnachair and
Spatachair, both of whom rode close behind him in the second rank,
constituted a trinity of perdition ample enough to damn Chram, had not
Chram been damned in his very mother's womb, as the priests express it.
Insolence and profligacy, haughty disdain and cruelty were so profoundly
graven on the features of the "Lion of Poitiers," the renegade Gaul,
that even a hundred years after his death it should not have been
difficult still to trace upon the bones of his face the words
"profligacy, insolence and cruelty."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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