not there. Yea, many of Godwin's noblest foes sighed for the English-
hearted Earl, banished by Norman guile on behalf of English law.

At the oval table on the dais the guests were select and chosen. At
the right hand of the King sat William; at the left Odo of Bayeux.
Over these three stretched a canopy of cloth of gold; the chairs on
which each sate were of metal, richly gilded over, and the arms carved
in elaborate arabesques. At this table too was the King's nephew, the
Earl of Hereford, and, in right of kinsmanship to the Duke, the
Norman's beloved baron and grand seneschal, William Fitzosborne, who,
though in Normandy even he sate not at the Duke's table, was, as
related to his lord, invited by Edward to his own. No other guests
were admitted to this board, so that, save Edward, all were Norman.
The dishes were of gold and silver, the cups inlaid with jewels.
Before each guest was a knife, with hilt adorned by precious stones,
and a napkin fringed with silver. The meats were not placed on the
table, but served upon small spits, and between every course a basin
of perfumed water was borne round by high-born pages. No dame graced
the festival; for she who should have presided--she, matchless for
beauty without pride, piety without asceticism, and learning without
pedantry--she, the pale rose of England, loved daughter of Godwin, and
loathed wife of Edward, had shared in the fall of her kindred, and had
been sent by the meek King, or his fierce counsellors, to an abbey in
Hampshire, with the taunt "that it was not meet that the child and
sister should enjoy state and pomp, while the sire and brethren ate
the bread of the stranger in banishment and disgrace."

But, hungry as were the guests, it was not the custom of that holy
court to fall to without due religious ceremonial. The rage for
psalm-singing was then at its height in England; psalmody had excluded