The fourth whom we shall notice had no name that his companions knew of , and was chiefly distinguished by a sneer that always contorted his thin visage , and by a prodigious pair of spectacles which were supposed to deform and discolor the whole face of nature to this gentleman 's perception . The fifth adventurer likewise lacked a name , which was the greater pity , as he appeared to be a poet . He was a bright-eyed man , but woefully pined away , which was no more than natural if , as some people affirmed , his ordinary diet was fog , morning mist and a slice of the densest cloud within his reach , sauced with moonshine whenever he could get it . Certain it is that the poetry which flowed from him had a smack of all these dainties . The sixth of the party was a young man of haughty mien and sat somewhat apart from the rest , wearing his plumed hat loftily among his elders , while the fire glittered on the rich embroidery of his dress and gleamed intensely on the jewelled pommel of his sword . This was the lord De Vere , who when at home was said to spend much of his time in the burial-vault of his dead progenitors rummaging their mouldy coffins in search of all the earthly pride and vainglory that was hidden among bones and dust ; so that , besides his own share , he had the collected haughtiness of his whole line of ancestry . Lastly , there was a handsome youth in rustic garb , and by his side a blooming little person in whom a delicate shade of maiden reserve was just melting into the rich glow of a young wife 's affection . Her name was Hannah , and her husband 's Matthew -- two homely names , yet well enough adapted to the simple pair who seemed strangely out of place among the whimsical fraternity whose wits had been set agog by the Great Carbuncle . Beneath the shelter of one hut , in the bright blaze of the same fire , sat this varied group of adventurers , all so intent upon a single object that of whatever else they began to speak their closing words were sure to be illuminated with the Great Carbuncle . Several related the circumstances that brought them thither . One had listened to a traveller 's tale of this marvellous stone in his own distant country , and had immediately been seized with such a thirst for beholding it as could only be quenched in its intensest lustre . Another , so long ago as when the famous Captain Smith visited these coasts , had seen it blazing far at sea , and had felt no rest in all the intervening years till now that he took up the search . A third , being encamped on a hunting-expedition full forty miles south of the White Mountains , awoke at midnight and beheld the Great Carbuncle gleaming like a meteor , so that the shadows of the trees fell backward from it . They spoke of the innumerable attempts which had been made to reach the spot , and of the singular fatality which had hitherto withheld success from all adventurers , though it might seem so easy to follow to its source a light that overpowered the moon and almost matched the sun . It was observable that each smiled scornfully at the madness of every other in anticipating better fortune than the past , yet nourished a scarcely-hidden conviction that he would himself be the favored one . As if to allay their too sanguine hopes , they recurred to the Indian traditions that a spirit kept watch about the gem and bewildered those who sought it either by removing it from peak to peak of the higher hills or by calling up a mist from the enchanted lake over which it hung . But these tales were deemed unworthy of credit , all professing to believe that the search had been baffled by want of sagacity or perseverance in the adventurers , or such other causes as might naturally obstruct the passage to any given point among the intricacies of forest , valley and mountain . In a pause of the conversation the wearer of the prodigious spectacles looked round upon the party , making each individual in turn the object of the sneer which invariably dwelt upon his countenance . `` So , fellow-pilgrims , '' said he , `` here we are , seven wise men and one fair damsel , who doubtless is as wise as any graybeard of the company . Here we are , I say , all bound on the same goodly enterprise .
Methinks , now , it were not amiss XXXXX each of us declare what he proposes to do with the Great Carbuncle , provided he have the good hap to clutch it .
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