ence the expression, to eat from
the same plate.

Historians relate that in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, at
certain gala feasts, the dishes were brought in by servants in full
armour, mounted on caparisoned horses; but this is a custom exclusively
attached to chivalry. As early as those days, powerful and ingenious
machines were in use, which lowered from the story above, or raised from
that below, ready-served tables, which were made to disappear after use as
if by enchantment.

At that period the table service of the wealthy required a considerable
staff of retainers and varlets; and, at a later period, this number was
much increased. Thus, for instance, when Louis of Orleans went on a
diplomatic mission to Germany from his brother Charles VI., this prince,
in order that France might be worthily represented abroad, raised the
number of his household to more than two hundred and fifty persons, of
whom about one hundred were retainers and table attendants. Olivier de la
Marche, who, in his "Memoires," gives the most minute details of the
ceremonial of the court of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, tells us
that the table service was as extensive as in the other great princely
houses.

This extravagant and ruinous pomp fell into disuse during the reigns of
Louis XI., Charles VIII., and Louis XII., but reappeared in that of
Francis I. This prince, after his first wars in Italy, imported the
cookery and the gastronomic luxury of that country, where the art of good
living, especially in Venice, Florence, and Rome, had reached the highest
degree of refinement and magnificence. Henry II. and Francis II.
maintained the magnificence of their royal tables; but after them,
notwithstanding the soft effeminacy of the manners at court, the continued
wars which Henry III. and Charles IX. had to sustain in their own states
against the Protestants and the League necessitated a considerable economy
in the households and tables of those kings.

"It was only by fits and starts," says Brantome, "that one was well fed
during this reign, for very often circumstances prevented the proper
preparation of the repasts; a thing much disliked by the courtiers, who
prefer open table to be kept at both court and with the army, because it
then costs them nothing." Henry IV. was neither fastidious nor greedy; we
must therefore come down to the reign of Louis XIII. to find a vestige of
the splendour of the banquets of Francis I.

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