cock that would not fight.

There remained betwixt Cedric and the determination which the lovers
desired to come to, only two obstacles--his own obstinacy, and his
dislike of the Norman dynasty. The former feeling gradually gave way
before the endearments of his ward, and the pride which he could not
help nourishing in the fame of his son. Besides, he was not insensible
to the honour of allying his own line to that of Alfred, when the
superior claims of the descendant of Edward the Confessor were abandoned
for ever. Cedric's aversion to the Norman race of kings was also much
undermined,--first, by consideration of the impossibility of ridding
England of the new dynasty, a feeling which goes far to create loyalty
in the subject to the king "de facto"; and, secondly, by the personal
attention of King Richard, who delighted in the blunt humour of Cedric,
and, to use the language of the Wardour Manuscript, so dealt with the
noble Saxon, that, ere he had been a guest at court for seven days, he
had given his consent to the marriage of his ward Rowena and his son
Wilfred of Ivanhoe.

The nuptials of our hero, thus formally approved by his father, were
celebrated in the most august of temples, the noble Minster of York.
The King himself attended, and from the countenance which he afforded on
this and other occasions to the distressed and hitherto degraded Saxons,
gave them a safer and more certain prospect of attaining their just
rights, than they could reasonably hope from the precarious chance of
a civil war. The Church gave her full solemnities, graced with all
the splendour which she of Rome knows how to apply with such brilliant
effect.

Gurth, gallantly apparelled, attended as esquire upon his young master
whom he had served so faithfully, and the magnanimous Wamba, decorated
with a new cap and a most gorgeous set of silver bells. Sharers of
Wilfred's dangers and adversity, they remained, as they had a right to
expect, the partakers of his more prosperous career.

But besides this domestic retinue, these distinguished nuptials were
celebrated by the attendance of the high-born Normans, as well as
Saxons, joined with the universal jubilee of the lower orders, that
marked the marriage of two individuals as a pledge of the future peace
and harmony betwixt two races, which, since that period, have been so
completely mingled, that the distinction has become wholly invisible.
Cedric lived to see this union approximate tow