But, though luxurious, the Norman nobles were not generally speaking

an intemperate race. While indulging themselves in the pleasures of

the table, they aimed at delicacy, but avoided excess, and were apt to

attribute gluttony and drunkenness to the vanquished Saxons, as vices

peculiar to their inferior station. Prince John, indeed, and those who

courted his pleasure by imitating his foibles, were apt to indulge to

excess in the pleasures of the trencher and the goblet; and indeed it is

well known that his death was occasioned by a surfeit upon peaches and

new ale. His conduct, however, was an exception to the general manners

of his countrymen.

With sly gravity, interrupted only by private signs to each other, the

Norman knights and nobles beheld the ruder demeanour of Athelstane

and Cedric at a banquet, to the form and fashion of which they were

unaccustomed. And while their manners were thus the subject of sarcastic

observation, the untaught Saxons unwittingly transgressed several of the

arbitrary rules established for the regulation of society. Now, it is

well known, that a man may with more impunity be guilty of an actual

breach either of real good breeding or of good morals, than appear

ignorant of the most minute point of fashionable etiquette. Thus Cedric,

who dried his hands with a towel, instead of suffering the moisture to

exhale by waving them gracefully in the air, incurred more ridicule than

his companion Athelstane, when he swallowed to his own single share

the whole of a large pasty composed of the most exquisite foreign

delicacies, and termed at that time a "Karum-Pie". When, however, it

was discovered, by a serious cross-examination, that the Thane of

Coningsburgh (or Franklin, as the Normans termed him) had no idea

what he had been devouring, and that he had taken the contents of the

Karum-pie for larks and pigeons, whereas they were in fact beccaficoes

and nightingales, his ignorance brought him in for an ample share of the

ridicule which would have been more justly bestowed on his gluttony.

The long feast had at length its end; and, while the goblet circulated

freely, men talked of the feats of the preceding tournament,--of

the unknown victor in the archery games, of the Black Knight, whose

self-denial had induced him to withdraw from the honours he had

won,--and of the gallant Ivanhoe, who had so dearly bought the honours

of the day. The topics were treated with military frankness, and the

jest and laugh went round the hall. The brow of Prince John alone was

overclouded during these discussions; some overpowering care seemed

agitating his mind, and it was only when he received occasional hints

from his attendants, that he seemed to take interest in what was passing

around him. On such occasions he would start up, quaff a cup of wine

as if to raise his spirits, and then mingle in the conversation by some

observation made abruptly or at random.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024