But
the hermit of Engaddi stepped forward, and assumed the air of one
charged with higher commands than those of a mere earthly
potentate. Indeed, his dress of shaggy skins, his uncombed and
untrimmed hair and beard, his lean, wild, and contorted features,
and the almost insane fire which gleamed from under his bushy
eyebrows, made him approach nearly to our idea of some seer of
Scripture, who, charged with high mission to the sinful Kings of
Judah or Israel, descended from the rocks and caverns in which he
dwelt in abstracted solitude, to abash earthly tyrants in the
midst of their pride, by discharging on them the blighting
denunciations of Divine Majesty, even as the cloud discharges the
lightnings with which it is fraught on the pinnacles and towers
of castles and palaces. In the midst of his most wayward mood,
Richard respected the church and its ministers; and though
offended at the intrusion of the hermit into his tent, he greeted
him with respect--at the same time, however, making a sign to Sir
Thomas de Vaux to hasten on his message.
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