had a peculiarly melodious voice. He carried his torch in a
sort of lantern--beautiful Corinthian bronze-work on the handle,
transparent ivory forming the four-sided screen and the arched and
ornamentally-perforated lid--and lifting it high, put it into the iron
ring that held together the shattered centre column.

The white light fell upon a face beautiful as that of Apollo, with
laughing light-blue eyes; his fair hair was parted in the middle of his
forehead into two long and flowing tresses, which fell right and left
upon his shoulders. His mouth and nose, finely, almost softly
chiselled, were of perfect form; the first down of a bright golden
beard covered his pleasant lip and gently-dimpled chin. He wore only
white garments--a war-mantle of fine wool, held up on the right
shoulder by a clasp in the form of a griffin, and a Roman tunic of soft
silk, both embroidered with a stripe of gold. White leather straps
fastened the sandals to his feet, and reached, laced cross-wise, to his
knees. Two broad gold rings encircled his naked and shining white arms.
And as he stood reposing after his exertion, his right hand clasping a
tall lance which served him both for staff and weapon, his left resting
on his hip, looking down upon his slower companions, it seemed as if
there had again entered the grey old temple some youthful godlike form
of its happiest days.

The second of the new-comers had, in spite of a general family
likeness, an expression totally different from that of the
torch-bearer.

He was some years older, his form was stouter and broader. Low down
upon his bull-neck grew his short, thick, and curly brown hair. He was
of almost gigantic height and strength. There were wanting in his face
the sunny shimmer, the trusting joy and hope which illumined the
features of his younger brother. Instead of these, there was in his
whole appearance an expression of bear-like strength and bear-like
courage; he wore a shaggy wolf-skin, the jaws of which shaded his head
like a cowl, a simple woollen doublet beneath, and on his right
shoulder he carried a short and heavy club made of the hard root of an
oak.

The third comer followed the others with a cautious step; a middle-aged
man with a dignified and prudent expression of countenance. He wore the
steel helmet, the sword, and the brown war-mantle of the Gothic
footmen. His straight light-brown hair was cut square across the
forehead--an ancient Germanic mode of wearing th