which were eaten with boiled radishes, and peas in their shells.[6]

A profusion of the precious metals graced the table, more especially in
drinking cups; those of horn, which were formerly in general use, having
about this period gone out of vogue. The luxury of forks, it is true,
had not yet been invented; but when it is remembered that the hands were
washed publicly, before and after meals, not as a fashionable form, but
in absolute earnest, it will not be feared that any indelicacy in the
feasters contrasted with the taste and splendour of the feast.[7]

The wines filled by Guillaume, who waited particularly on the Count,
besides the fashionable vin d'Aï of the district,[8] included the vin
de Beaume of Burgundy, the vin d'Orleans, so much prized by Louis le
Jeune, and the powerful vin de Rebrechien (another Orleans wine) which
used formerly to be carried to the field by Henry I. to animate his
courage.[9]

After dinner the guests partook of the amusement of the chase, which
afforded Arthault an opportunity of exhibiting, in all its extent, his
newly-acquired estates--and which, indeed, comprehended a great part of
the family property of Sansavoir; although the Count did not observe,
and therefore no one else was so ill-bred as to do so, an old blackened
building mouldering near the garden-wall, which Sir Launcelot had still
preserved, and where he continued to reside in a kind of dogged defiance
of his enemy.

The festivities of the day were closed by a splendid supper, attended by
music and minstrel songs; and when the sleeping cup had passed round,
the Count Henri retired to the chamber prepared for him, which he found
to be not at all inferior to his own in luxury and magnificence. Vessels