ll-set, strong, and beautifully white
teeth; his head small, and set upon the neck with much grace. His age
could not exceed thirty, but if the effects of toil and climate were
allowed for, might be three or four years under that period. His form
was tall, powerful, and athletic, like that of a man whose strength
might, in later life, become unwieldy, but which was hitherto united
with lightness and activity. His hands, when he withdrew the mailed
gloves, were long, fair, and well-proportioned; the wrist-bones
peculiarly large and strong; and the arms remarkably well-shaped and
brawny. A military hardihood and careless frankness of expression
characterized his language and his motions; and his voice had the tone
of one more accustomed to command than to obey, and who was in the habit
of expressing his sentiments aloud and boldly, whenever he was called
upon to announce them.

The Saracen Emir formed a marked and striking contrast with the Western
Crusader. His stature was indeed above the middle size, but he was at
least three inches shorter than the European, whose size approached the
gigantic. His slender limbs and long, spare hands and arms, though well
proportioned to his person, and suited to the style of his countenance,
did not at first aspect promise the display of vigour and elasticity
which the Emir had lately exhibited. But on looking more closely, his
limbs, where exposed to view, seemed divested of all that was fleshy or
cumbersome; so that nothing being left but bone, brawn, and sinew, it
was a frame fitted for exertion and fatigue, far beyond that of a bulky
champion, whose strength and size are counterbalanced by weight, and
who is exhausted by his own exertions. The countenance of the Saracen
naturally bore a general national resemblance to the Eastern tribe from
whom he descended, and was as unlike as possible to the exaggerated
terms in which the minstrels of the day were wont to represent the
infidel champions, and the fabulous description which a sister art still
presents as the Saracen's Head upon signposts. His features were small,
well-formed, and delicate, though deeply embrowned by the Eastern sun,
and terminated by a flowing and curled black beard, which seemed trimmed
with peculiar care. The nose was straight and regular, the eyes keen,
deep-set, black, and glowing, and his teeth equalled in beauty the ivory
of his deserts. The person and proportions of the Saracen, in short,
stretched on the