Atholbane: A Romance of Kenmore Castle

JUNE 20, A.D. 1098. Towards the close of the day a man stood upon the

shore of Loch Tay, one of the most beautiful and picturesque sheets of

water in Scotland, gazing at times over the towering summit of Ben

Lawers, where the clouds were rolling up in great black masses, and anon

upon a small boat that was struggling with the rising wind near the

middle of the lake. The man was young--not more than five-and-twenty--of

medium height, and finely proportioned; possessing a face of rare

beauty; a rich profusion of light brown curls escaping from beneath the

rim of his cap; while his eyes, though of the softest and warmest shade

of blue, betrayed a capacity of quick fire and earnest determination, as

well as of deep feeling and sympathetic emotion. He was dressed in the

ordinary garb of a gentleman of that period, though the short cloak of

fine black cloth, secured at the throat by a jewelled brooch, and the

blue velvet cap, with its white ostrich feather, were not exactly after

the pattern of those usually worn by the gentry of the Scottish court.

The pommel of the sword which hung at his side--a globe of burnished

steel surmounted by a cross of gold--and the peculiar fashion of the

spurs which graced the heels of his russet boots, told very plainly that

he had been admitted to the order of knighthood which William the

Conqueror had instituted in England, and which Malcolm Canmore had

received and introduced into Scotland. Close by his side, with the loose

rein drawn over his arm, stood a richly caparisoned Norman charger,

while at no great distance was a second horse, bearing a broad

pack-saddle, upon which was strapped a large leathern sack that

evidently contained the knight's luggage; and that our knight had

travelled a goodly distance on that day might be safely judged from the

dust upon his garments, and from the sweat that lay in white ridges and

flakes upon the sides and limbs of his beasts.