 reason to desire the
return of Richard to England, or the succession of Arthur, his legitimate heir.
For the opposite reason, Prince John hated and contemned the few Saxon families
of consequence which subsisted in England, and omitted no opportunity of
mortifying and affronting them; being conscious that his person and pretensions
were disliked by them, as well as by the greater part of the English commons,
who feared farther innovation upon their rights and liberties, from a sovereign
of John's licentious and tyrannical disposition.
    Attended by this gallant equipage, himself well mounted, and splendidly
dressed in crimson and in gold, bearing upon his hand a falcon, and having his
head covered by a rich fur bonnet, adorned with a circle of precious stones,
from which his long curled hair escaped and overspread his shoulders, Prince
John, upon a grey and high-mettled palfrey, caracoled within the lists at the
head of his jovial party, laughing loud with his train, and eyeing with all the
boldness of royal criticism the beauties who adorned the lofty galleries.
    Those who remarked in the physiognomy of the Prince a dissolute audacity,
mingled with extreme haughtiness and indifference to the feelings of others,
could not yet deny to his countenance that sort of comeliness which belongs to
an open set of features, well formed by nature, modelled by art to the usual
rules of courtesy, yet so far frank and honest, that they seemed as if they
disclaimed to conceal the natural workings of the soul. Such an expression is
often mistaken for manly frankness, when in truth it arises from the reckless
indifference of a libertine disposition, conscious of superiority of birth, of
wealth, or of some other adventitious advantage, totally unconnected with
personal merit. To those who did not think so deeply, and they were the greater
number by a hundred to one, the splendour of Prince John's rheno (i.e. fur
tippet), the richness of his cloak, lined with the most costly sables, his
maroquin boots and golden spurs, together with the grace with which he managed
his palfrey, were sufficient to merit clamorous applause.
    In his joyous caracole round the lists, the attention of the Prince was
called by the commotion, not yet subsided, which had attended the ambitious
movement of Isaac towards the higher places of the assembly. The quick eye of
Prince John instantly recognised the Jew, but was much more agreeably attracted
by the beautiful daughter of Zion, who, terrified by the tumult, clung close to
the arm of her aged father.
    The figure of Rebecca might indeed have compared with the proudest beauties
of England
