the Brabant being attended by a tall youth, who was indeed on the
verge of manhood.

As the dinner went on the buzz of conversation became fast and furious.
In those days men drank deep, and quarrels often arose over the cups.
From the time that the dinner began, Cuthbert noticed that the manner of
Sir de Jacquelin Barras, Count of Brabant, was rude and offensive.

It might be that he was accustomed to live alone with his retainers, and
that his manners were rude and coarse to all. It might be that he had a
special hostility to the English. At any rate, his remarks were
calculated to fire the anger of the earl.

He began the conversation by wondering how a Norman baron could live in a
country like England, inhabited by a race but little above pigs.

The earl at once fired up at this, for the Normans were now beginning to
feel themselves English, and to resent attacks upon a people for whom
their grandfathers had entertained contempt.

He angrily repelled the attack upon them by the Brabant knight, and
asserted at once that the Saxons were every bit as civilized, and in some
respects superior, to the Normans or French.

The ill-feeling thus begun at starting clearly waxed stronger as dinner
went on. The Brabant knight drank deeply, and although his talk was not
clearly directed against the English, yet he continued to throw out
innuendoes and side attacks, and to talk with a vague boastfulness, which
greatly irritated Sir Walter.