the dairy, instead
of giving themselves up to court intrigues. The two Matildas represent
the best element of the noble womanhood of the day; neither of them
was faultless, and the first was charged with an act of vindictiveness
toward a Saxon who spurned her love that ill comports with the
accepted estimate of her amiability and worth; but while not
impeccable, yet both reflected in their lives the signal qualities
which, when illustrated in times adverse to them, ennoble the sex.

Returning to the employments of the ladies of the castles, the most
typical of these as illustrating the manners of the times, next to the
industry of the bower, was the hospitality of the hall. The hostess
took her place beside her lord, by virtue of her recognized equality
of position, and directed the movements of the servants, who were kept
busily employed passing around the dishes--the meat being served upon
the spits, from which the guests might carve what they pleased. No
forks were used at the table, fingers answering every purpose. On very
great occasions the _piece de resistance_ was a boar's head, which was
brought into the hall with a fanfare of trumpets, the guests greeting
its appearance with noisy demonstrations. Another delicacy, which a
hostess was always pleased to serve to persons of consequence, was
peacock. The presence of this bird was the signal for the nobility
to pledge themselves afresh to deeds of knightly valor. Cranes formed
another of the unusual dishes generally found at these state banquets.
As the dinner proceeded, the thirst of the company was assuaged
by copious draughts of ale or mead and of spiced wines. That such
festivities invariably developed scenes of hilarity and disorder was
in the nature of the case, and it was not a strange thing to see
the valorous knights, under the mellowing influence of too frequent
potations, indulge in such disgraceful acts as throwing bones about
the room and at one another, until these bone battles passed into more
serious fracases. The woman of refinement had reason to dread these
carnivals of gluttony and debauch; and when they became too offensive,
she sought the seclusion of her private apartments.

All the while the minstrels played their instruments and sang their
songs, often improvising from incidents in the careers of those
present, or taking for a theme some vaunting sentiment to which a
cup-valorous knight gave expression. No bounds of propriety were
observe