Kings & rulers > Kenilworth > Volume 1

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XENIL WOR TIF.
features not in themselves unpleasing, are never¬
theless so far from handsome, that, whether from
the expression of their features, or the tone of
their voice, or from their gait and manner, there
arises, on the whole, a disinclination to their so¬
ciety. The stranger’s address was bold, without
being frank, and seemed eagerly and hastily to
claim for him a degree of attention and defer¬
ence, which he feared would be refused, if not in¬
stantly vindicated as his right. His attire was a
riding-cloak, wrhich, when opened, displayed a
handsome jerkin, overlaid with lace, and belted
with a buff girdle, which sustained a broadsword
and a pair of pistols.
“ You ride well provided, sir,” said the host,
looking at the weapons as he placed on the table
the mulled sack which the traveller had ordered.
“ Yes, mine host; I have found the use on’t in
dangerous times, and I do not, like your modern
grandees, turn off my followers the instant they
are useless.”
“ Ay, sir ?” said Giles Gosling; “ then you
are from the Low Countries, the land of pike and
caliver ?”
“I have been high and low, my friend, broad
and wide, far and near; but here is to thee in a
cup of thy sack—fill thyself another to pledge
me ; and, if it is less than superlative, e’en drink
as you have brewed.”
“■ Less than superlative ?” said Giles Gosling,
drinking off the cup, and smacking his lips with
an air of ineffable relish,—“ I know nothing of su¬
perlative, nor is there such a wine at the Three
Cranes, in the Vintry, to my knowledge ; but if
you find better sack than that in Sheres, or in
the Canaries either, I would I may never touch
either pot or penny more. Why, hold it up be¬
twixt you and the light, you shall see the little