On the walls were inlaid
breastplates and helmets, pieces of chain armour, swords and daggers of
exquisite workmanship. On shelves stood drinking vessels of rougher
make, but the best that northern craftsmen could produce. The seats were
rude and massive: one of them, placed by a window fronting the setting
sun, was evidently the favourite resting-place of Judith. Above this
seat was a shelf on which lay some of the mysterious scrolls of which
Jean had seen specimens in the possession of the fathers. Instruments of
witchcraft, if such existed, must have been in the upper story: none
were visible. All this splendour was manifestly inconsistent with the
homely taste and abstracted mode of thought of the sorceress. In point
of fact she was hardly aware of its existence. The decorator was Tita,
in whom was the instinct of the connoisseur, supported by no
inconsiderable knowledge to which she had attained in those early years
of which she never could be induced to speak. When a rich prize was
brought into the bay, freighted with a cargo from Asia, Africa, or the
European shores of the Mediterranean, she never failed to attend the
unloading, during which, by the help of cajolery, judicious
depreciation, and other ingenious devices still dear to the virtuoso,
she succeeded in obtaining possession of articles which would have
enraptured a modern collector.
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