"For fear of the Saxons?" said De Bracy, laughing; "we should need no

weapon but our hunting spears to bring these boars to bay."

"A truce with your raillery, Sir Knights," said Fitzurse;--"and it

were well," he added, addressing the Prince, "that your highness should

assure the worthy Cedric there is no insult intended him by jests, which

must sound but harshly in the ear of a stranger."

"Insult?" answered Prince John, resuming his courtesy of demeanour; "I

trust it will not be thought that I could mean, or permit any, to be

offered in my presence. Here! I fill my cup to Cedric himself, since he

refuses to pledge his son's health."

The cup went round amid the well-dissembled applause of the courtiers,

which, however, failed to make the impression on the mind of the Saxon

that had been designed. He was not naturally acute of perception,

but those too much undervalued his understanding who deemed that this

flattering compliment would obliterate the sense of the prior insult. He

was silent, however, when the royal pledge again passed round, "To Sir

Athelstane of Coningsburgh."

The knight made his obeisance, and showed his sense of the honour by

draining a huge goblet in answer to it.

"And now, sirs," said Prince John, who began to be warmed with the wine

which he had drank, "having done justice to our Saxon guests, we

will pray of them some requital to our courtesy.--Worthy Thane," he

continued, addressing Cedric, "may we pray you to name to us some Norman

whose mention may least sully your mouth, and to wash down with a goblet

of wine all bitterness which the sound may leave behind it?"

Fitzurse arose while Prince John spoke, and gliding behind the seat of

the Saxon, whispered to him not to omit the opportunity of putting an

end to unkindness betwixt the two races, by naming Prince John. The

Saxon replied not to this politic insinuation, but, rising up, and

filling his cup to the brim, he addressed Prince John in these words:

"Your highness has required that I should name a Norman deserving to

be remembered at our banquet. This, perchance, is a hard task, since

it calls on the slave to sing the praises of the master--upon the

vanquished, while pressed by all the evils of conquest, to sing the

praises of the conqueror. Yet I will name a Norman--the first in arms

and in place--the best and the noblest of his race. And the lips that

shall refuse to pledge me to his well-earned fame, I term false and

dishonoured, and will so maintain them with my life.--I quaff this

goblet to the health of Richard the Lion-hearted!"




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