, forgiving,
and royal in his moods. He was incapable of bearing malice. Although
haughty of his dignity, he was entirely free from any personal pride,
and while he would maintain to the death every right and privilege
against another monarch, he could laugh and joke with the humblest of
his subjects on terms of hearty good fellowship. He was impatient of
contradiction, eager to carry out whatever he had determined upon; and
nothing enraged him so much as hesitation or procrastination. The delays
which were experienced in the course of the Crusade angered him more
than all the opposition offered by the Saracens, or than the hardships
through which the Christian host had to pass.

At a flourish of trumpets all took their seats at dinner, their places
being marked for them by a herald, whose duty it was to regulate nicely
the various ranks and dignities.

The Earl of Evesham was placed next to a noble of Brabant. Cuthbert took
his place behind his lord and served him with wines and meats, the
Brabant being attended by a tall youth, who was indeed on the verge of
manhood.

As the dinner went on the buzz of conversation became fast and furious.
In those days men drank deep, and quarrels often arose over the cups.
From the time that the dinner began Cuthbert noticed that the manner of
Sir de Jacquelin Barras, Count of Brabant, was rude and offensive.

It might be that he was accustomed to live alone with his retainers, and
that his manners were rude and coarse to all. It might be that he had a
special hostility to the English. At any rate, his remarks were
calculated to fire the anger of the earl.

He began the conversation by wondering how a Norman baron could live in
a country like England, inhabited by a race but little above pigs.

The earl at once fired up at this, for the Normans were now beginning to
feel themselves English, and to resent attacks upon a people for whom
their grandfathers had entertained contempt.

He angrily repelled the attack upon them by the Brabant knight, and
asserted at once that the Saxons were every bit as civilized, and in
some respects superior to the Normans or French.

The ill-feeling thus began at starting clearly waxed stronger as dinner
went on. The Brabant knight drank deeply, and although his talk was not
clearly directed against the English, yet he continued to throw out
innuendos and side attacks, and to talk with a vague boastfulness, which
greatly irritated Sir Walter.