The Prince Castel-Forte then rose to speak, and his observations upon the merits of Corinne excited the attention of the whole assembly.

He was about fifty years of age, and there was in his speech and in his deportment much deliberate ease and dignity.

The assurances which Lord Nelville received from those about him, that he was only the friend of Corinne, excited, in his lordship's mind, an interest for the portrait which he drew of her, unmixed with any other emotion.

Without such a security a confused sentiment of jealousy would have already disturbed the soul of Oswald.
The Prince Castel-Forte read some unpretentious pages of prose which were particularly calculated to display the genius of Corinne.

He first pointed out the peculiar merit of her work, and said that that merit partly consisted of her profound study of foreign literature: she united, in the highest degree, imagination, florid description and all the brilliancy of the south, with that knowledge, that observation of the human heart, which falls to the share of those countries where external objects excite less interest.
He extolled the elegant graces and the lively disposition of Corinne--a gaiety which partook of no improper levity, but proceeded solely from the vivacity of the mind and the freshness of the imagination.