Chapter 19 - Page 2

advantage a presence of itself prepossessing. His jerkin
and hose were of coarse rustic cloth, and his cap of the same. A belt
round his waist served at once to sustain the broad-sword which we
have already mentioned, and to hold five or six arrows and bird-bolts,
which were stuck into it on the right side, along with a large knife
hilted with buck-horn, or, as it was then called, a dudgeon-dagger. To
complete his dress, we must notice his loose buskins of deer's hide,
formed so as to draw up on the leg as high as the knee, or at pleasure
to be thrust down lower than the calves. These were generally used at
the period by such as either had their principal occupation, or their
chief pleasure, in silvan sports, as they served to protect the legs
against the rough and tangled thickets into which the pursuit of game
frequently led them.--And these trifling particulars complete his
external appearance.

It is not easy to do justice to the manner in which young
Glendinning's soul spoke through his eyes when ushered so suddenly
into the company of those whom his earliest education had taught him
to treat with awe and reverence. The degree of embarrassment, which
his demeanor evinced, had nothing in it either meanly servile, or
utterly disconcerted. It was no more than became a generous and
ingenuous youth of a bold spirit, but totally inexperienced, who
should for the first time be called upon to think and act for himself
in such society and under such disadvantageous circumstances. There
was not in his carriage a grain either of forwardness or of timidity,
which a friend could have wished away.

He kneeled and kissed the Abbot's hand, then rose, and retiring two
paces, bowed respectfully to the circle around, smiling gently as he
received an encouraging nod from the Sub-Prior, to whom alone he was
personally known, and blushing as he encountered the anxious look of
Mary Avenel, who beheld with painful interest the sort of ordeal to
which her foster-brother was about to be subjected. Recovering from
the transient flurry of spirits into which the encounter of her glance
had thrown him, he stood composedly awaiting till the Abbot should
express his pleasure.

The ingenuous expression of countenance, noble form, and graceful
attitude of the young man, failed not to prepossess in his favor the
churchmen in whose presence he stood. The Abbot looked round, and
exchanged a gracious and approving glance with his counsellor Father
Eustace, although probably the appointment of a ranger, or bow-bearer,
was one in which he might have been disposed to proceed without the
Sub-Prior's advice, were it but to show his own free agency. But the
good mien of the young man now in nomination was such, that he rather