The King's Talisman — page 16: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE KINGS TALISMAN, 7 Though but eighteen years had passed since his birth, yet the graceful rounding of his limbs, and the muscular undu- lations of his chest and shoulders gave token of a more advanced age. As he now reclined upon the rough stone bench, his appearance presented a subject worthy of much study, not only from the physical proportions, but also from those higher and nobler developments of the inner man. ‘There was none of the lumbering, massive iron in his structure—a massiveness which betokens the physical elephant, and which awakens awe by its external alone; but rather like the fine, subtle steel of Toledo and Milan, was the youth before us. There was an ease, an elasticity and .grace even in his very sitting that bespoke the pliant muscle and enduring frame. ‘The eye, as it swept the distant waste, and anon rested upon the granite-bound city, was in very truth as the needle upon the face of the dial; through its lustrous, sparkling depths, the whole man could be seen, and its language was of a kind that might have won the heart of earth’s fairest maiden, or have sent a thrill of fear to the bosom of the most powerful enemy. The youth’s dress was plain, but yet not so scanty as was that of his aged companion. It consisted of loose yellow trousers, bound by small cords around the ankles, a sort of a doublet made from camel’s hide, which laced up in front just to the top of the breast, over which was worn a shirt of blue stuff, secured at the waist by a sword belt, while his head was covered by an embroidered cap, from which dangled a small golden tassel. From his belt was suspended _a@ somewhat heavy Damascus sword, and from a convenient socket in the left breast of the camel’s hide doublet pro- jected the handle of a small dagger, while upon the bench at his side lay a light javelin. It would not have taken a very close observer to have seen that these weapons be- longed to one who, should occasion offer, might use them to advantage. In this picture we have drawn Noureddin, (EMMI OKOOL KS co