The young dame in question was about seventeen; her
face was oval in form, with features of the utmost delicacy and
regularity. Her complexion was fair and pale, and contrasted strikingly
with her jetty brows and magnificent black eyes, of oriental size,
tenderness, and lustre. Her dark and luxuriant tresses were confined
by a cap of black velvet faced with white satin, and ornamented with
pearls. Her gown was of white satin worked with gold, and had long
open pendent sleeves, while from her slender and marble neck hung a
cordeliere--a species of necklace imitated from the cord worn by
Franciscan friars, and formed of crimson silk twisted with threads of
Venetian gold..
This fair creature was the Lady Elizabeth Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald
Fitzgerald, ninth Earl of Kildare, who claimed descent from the Geraldi
family of Florence; but she was generally known by the appellation of
the Fair Geraldine--a title bestowed upon her, on account of her beauty,
by the king, and by which she still lives, and will continue to live, as
long as poetry endures, in the deathless and enchanting strains of her
lover, the Earl of Surrey. At the instance of her mother, Lady Kildare,
the Fair Geraldine was brought up with the Princess Mary, afterwards
Queen of England; but she had been lately assigned by the royal order
as one of the attendants--a post equivalent to that of maid of honour--to
Anne Boleyn.
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