n could not have followed it.

On reaching the door of the church, the party, a little disturbed by
this rapid journey, would not have been sorry to alight. Everything
was ready for the ceremony and the bridal pair had long been expected;
but, instead of stopping, the cow redoubled her speed. Thirteen times
she ran round the church like lightning, then suddenly made her way in
a straight line across the fields to the castle, with such force that
the whole party were almost shaken to pieces before their arrival.

VII

No more marriage was to be thought of for that day; but the tables
were set and the dinner served, and the Baron Kerver was too noble a
knight to take leave of his brave Bretons until they had eaten and
drunk according to custom--that is, from sunset till sunrise, and even
a little later.

Orders were given for the guests to take their seats. Ninety-six
tables were ranged in eight rows. In front of them, on a large
platform covered with velvet, with a canopy in the middle, was a table
larger than the rest, and loaded with fruit and flowers, to say
nothing of the roast hares, and the peacocks smoking beneath their
plumage. At this table the bridal pair were to have been seated in
full sight, in order that nothing might be lacking to the pleasures
of the feast, and that the meanest peasant might have the honor of
saluting them by emptying his cup of hydromel to the honor and
prosperity of the high and mighty house of Kerver.

The baron seated the hundred knights at his table, and placed their
squires behind their chairs to serve them. At his right he put the
bride and Yvon, but he left the seat at his left vacant, and, calling
a page, "Child," said he, "run to the house of the stranger lady who
obliged us only too much this morning. It was not her fault if her
success exceeded her good will. Tell her that the Baron Kerver thanks
her for her help and invites her to the wedding feast of his son, Lord
Yvon."

On reaching the golden house, where Finette, in tears, was mourning
for her beloved, the page bent one knee to the ground and, in the
baron's name, invited the stranger lady to the castle to do honor to
the wedding of Lord Yvon.

"Thank your master for me," answered the young girl, proudly, "and
tell him that if he is too noble to come to my house, I am too noble
to go to his."

When the page repeated this answer to his master the Baron Kerver
struck the table such a blow that three plates flew