The Talisman

The warriors arose from their place of brief rest and simple refreshment, and courteously aided each other while they carefully replaced and adjusted the harness from which they...

It had been agreed, on account of the heat of the climate, that the judicial combat which was the cause of the present assemblage of various nations at the Diamond of the Desert...

One thing is certain in our Northern land-- Allow that birth or valour, wealth or wit, Give each precedence to their possessor, Envy, that follows on such eminence, As comes the...

On the subsequent morning Richard was invited to a conference by Philip of France, in which the latter, with many expressions of his high esteem for his brother of England, comm...

This work desires a planetary intelligence Of Jupiter and Sol; and those great spirits Are proud, fantastical. It asks great charges To entice them from the guiding of their sph...

When beauty leads the lion in her toils, Such are her charms, he dare not raise his mane, Far less expand the terror of his fangs. So great Alcides made his club a distaff, And...

Times of danger have always, and in a peculiar degree, their seasons of good-will and security; and this was particularly so in the ancient feudal ages, in which, as the manners...

Kenneth the Scot was uncertain how long his senses had been lost in profound repose, when he was roused to recollection by a sense of oppression on his chest, which at first sug...

A grain of dust Soiling our cup, will make our sense reject Fastidiously the draught which we did thirst for; A rusted nail, placed near the faithful compass, Will sway it from...

The Baron of Gilsland walked with slow step and an anxious countenance towards the royal pavilion. He had much diffidence of his own capacity, except in a field of battle, and c...

There never was a time on the march parts yet, When Scottish with English met, But it was marvel if the red blood ran not As the rain does in the street. --BATTLE OF OTTERBOURNE.

Must we then sheathe our still victorious sword; Turn back our forward step, which ever trod O'er foemen's necks the onward path of glory; Unclasp the mail, which with a solemn...

“I weep not for the silent dead. Their pains are past, their sorrows o'er; And those that loved their steps must tread, When death shall join to part no more.”

Our narrative retrogrades to a period shortly previous to the incidents last mentioned, when, as the reader must remember, the unfortunate Knight of the Leopard, bestowed upon t...

“This is a strange tale, Sir Thomas,” said the sick monarch, when he had heard the report of the trusty Baron of Gilsland. “Art thou sure this Scottish man is a tall man and true?”

The scene must change, as our programme has announced, from the mountain wilderness of Jordan to the camp of King Richard of England, then stationed betwixt Jean d'Acre and Asca...

'Mid these wild scenes Enchantment waves her hand, To change the face of the mysterious land; Till the bewildering scenes around us seem The Vain productions of a feverish dream...

The Marquis of Montserrat and the Grand Master of the Knights Templars stood together in the front of the royal pavilion, within which this singular scene had passed, and beheld...

You talk of Gaiety and Innocence! The moment when the fatal fruit was eaten, They parted ne'er to meet again; and Malice Has ever since been playmate to light Gaiety, From the f...

Were every hair upon his head a life, And every life were to be supplicated By numbers equal to those hairs quadrupled, Life after life should out like waning stars Before the d...

The feather'd songster, chanticleer, Had wound his bugle-horn, And told the early villager The coming of the morn. King Edward saw the ruddy streaks Of light eclipse the grey, A...

All my long arrear of honour lost, Heap'd up in youth, and hoarded up for age. Hath Honour's fountain then suck'd up the stream? He hath--and hooting boys may barefoot pass, And...

When King Richard returned to his tent, he commanded the Nubian to be brought before him. He entered with his usual ceremonial reverence, and having prostrated himself, remained...

--and wither'd Murder, Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf, Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace, With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design Moves like a...

In the days of chivalry, a dangerous post or a perilous adventure was a reward frequently assigned to military bravery as a compensation for its former trials; just as, in ascen...

The burning sun of Syria had not yet attained its highest point in the horizon, when a knight of the Red Cross, who had left his distant northern home and joined the host of the...

The high-born Berengaria, daughter of Sanchez, King of Navarre, and the Queen-Consort of the heroic Richard, was accounted one of the most beautiful women of the period. Her for...

The most profound silence, the deepest darkness, continued to brood for more than an hour over the chapel in which we left the Knight of the Leopard still kneeling, alternately...