No other guests were admitted to this board, so that, save Edward, all were Norman.

The dishes were of gold and silver, the cups inlaid with jewels.

Before each guest was a knife, with hilt adorned by precious stones, and a napkin fringed with silver.

The meats were not placed on the table, but served upon small spits, and between every course a basin of perfumed water was borne round by high-born pages.

No dame graced the festival; for she who should have presided--she, matchless for beauty without pride, piety without asceticism, and learning without pedantry--she, the pale rose of England, loved daughter of Godwin, and loathed wife of Edward, had shared in the fall of her kindred, and had been sent by the meek King, or his fierce counsellors, to an abbey in Hampshire, with the taunt "that it was not meet that the child and sister should enjoy state and pomp, while the sire and brethren ate the bread of the stranger in banishment and disgrace." But, hungry as were the guests, it was not the custom of that holy court to fall to without due religious ceremonial.