ce at the table, for to-day the
Seneschal emerged in a new character, as Marshal of the Court; he bore a
wand in sign of office, and with this wand he indicated to each in turn
his place and showed the guests their seats. First of all, as the highest
in authority in the wojewodeship, the Chamberlain-Marshal took the place
of honour, a velvet chair with ivory arms; next him on the right sat
General Dombrowski, and on the left Kniaziewicz, Pac,203 and Malachowski.
Amid this company the Chamberlain's wife had her seat; farther on other
ladies, officers, magnates, country gentry, and neighbours, men and women
alternately, all took places in order as the Seneschal indicated.

The Judge, with a bow, withdrew from the banquet; in the yard he was
entertaining a throng of peasants, whom he had gathered at a table a
furlong in length; he himself sat at one end and the parish priest at the
other. Thaddeus and Sophia did not take seats at the table; being occupied
with serving the peasants, they ate as they walked. Such was the ancient
custom--that new owners of a farm, at the first feast, should wait on the
common folk.

Meanwhile the guests, as in the castle hall they awaited the bringing in
of the food, gazed with amazement at the great centrepiece, the metal and
the workmanship of which were equally precious. There is a tradition that
Prince Radziwill the Orphan204 had this set made to order in Venice, and
had it decorated in Polish style according to his own ideas. The
centrepiece had later been carried off in the time of the Swedish wars,205
and had found its way in some mysterious manner into this country
gentleman's mansion; to-day it had been brought forth from the treasury
and it now occupied the middle of the table, forming an immense circle,
like a coach wheel.

The centrepiece, which was coated from rim to rim with froth and sugar
white as snow, counterfeited marvellously well a winter landscape. In the
centre a huge grove of confections showed dark; on the sides were houses
which seemed to form peasant villages and hamlets of gentry, and which
were coated, not with hoar frost, but with sugary froth; the edges were
decorated with little porcelain figures in Polish costumes: like actors on
a stage, they were evidently representing some striking event; their
gestures were artistically reproduced, the colours were individual; they
lacked only voice--for the rest they seemed to be alive.

"What is it that they represent