4. IV.
In the presence of the Baron and Baroness Staremberg,
Bertha very judiciously being absent,
the youthful Rodolph found himself much sooner
than he expected. He certainly felt, as he looked
upon their distinct faces, that he need not have
been in such an exceeding hurry. The old baron
looked quite as grim as the Saracen that his grandfather
slew in the fifth crusade, the reeking head
of whom was painted in gigantic lines upon the
trembling tapestry before them; the baroness, if
possible, more outrageously grim, and not a whit
less unhandsome than her liege lord, sat like a
stone fortress of exceeding strength and dimensions,
upright in his way. She looked impenetrable
as a dozen dungeons. Rodolph was no
longer in a hurry. He really began to wonder
what he had come for; he certainly had not the
gift of languages at that moment, and would — if
he had known any thing about that burning and
shining light, at this early period — have given
the world for only half an hour's preliminary conversation
with the Reverend Edward Irving.
