were apt to indulge to
excess in the pleasures of the trencher and the goblet; and indeed it is
well known that his death was occasioned by a surfeit upon peaches and
new ale. His conduct, however, was an exception to the general manners
of his countrymen.

With sly gravity, interrupted only by private signs to each other, the
Norman knights and nobles beheld the ruder demeanour of Athelstane
and Cedric at a banquet, to the form and fashion of which they were
unaccustomed. And while their manners were thus the subject of sarcastic
observation, the untaught Saxons unwittingly transgressed several of the
arbitrary rules established for the regulation of society. Now, it is
well known, that a man may with more impunity be guilty of an actual
breach either of real good breeding or of good morals, than appear
ignorant of the most minute point of fashionable etiquette. Thus Cedric,
who dried his hands with a towel, instead of suffering the moisture to
exhale by waving them gracefully in the air, incurred more ridicule than
his companion Athelstane, when he swallowed to his own single share
the whole of a large pasty composed of the most exquisite foreign
delicacies, and termed at that time a "Karum-Pie". When, however, it
was discovered, by a serious cross-examination, that the Thane of
Coningsburgh (or Franklin, as the Normans termed him) had no idea
what he had been devouring, and that he had taken the contents of the
Karum-pie for larks and pigeons, whereas they were in fact beccaficoes
and nightingales, his ignorance brought him in for an ample share of the
ridicule which would have been more justly bestowed on his gluttony.

The long feast had at length its end; and, while the goblet circulated
freely, men talked of the feats of the preceding tournament,--of
the unknown victor in the archery games, of the Black Knight, whose
self-denial had induced him to withdraw from the honours he had
won,--and of the gallant Ivanhoe, who had so dearly bought the honours
of the day. The topics were treated with military frankness, and the
jest and laugh went round the hall. The brow of Prince John alone was
overclouded during these discussions; some overpowering care seemed
agitating his mind, and it was only when he received occasional hints
from his attendants, that he seemed to take interest in what was passing
around him. On such occasions he would start up, quaff a cup of wine
as if to raise his spirits, and then mingle in the