This preparation enabled him to be so minute and circumstantial
in his detail, and so coherent in his replies to her questions,
that the lady fell implicitly into the delusion, and was delighted
to find that her lord was alive and in health, and in high favour
with the king, and performing prodigies of valour in the name
of his lady, whose miniature he always wore in his bosom.
The baron guessed at this circumstance from the customs of that age,
and happened to be in the right.
"This miniature," added the baron, "I have had the felicity
to see, and should have known you by it among a million."
The baron was a little embarrassed by some questions of the lady
concerning her lord's personal appearance; but Robin came to his aid,
observing a picture suspended opposite to him on the wall,
which he made a bold conjecture to be that of the lord in question;
and making a calculation of the influences of time and war,
which he weighed with a comparison of the lady's age, he gave
a description of her lord sufficiently like the picture in its
groundwork to be a true resemblance, and sufficiently differing
from it in circumstances to be more an original than a copy.
The lady was completely deceived, and entreated them to partake
her hospitality for the night; but this they deemed it prudent
to decline, and with many humble thanks for her kindness,
and representations of the necessity of not delaying their
homeward course, they proceeded on their way.
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