abbit-skins, nor of cheap brown fur, but of heavy silk and ermine,
of spotted fur and flowered silks, bordered with heavy and stiff gold
braid. Alexander, who conquered so much that he subdued the whole world,
and who was so lavish and rich, compared with him was poor and mean.
Caesar, the Emperor of Rome, and all the kings whose names you hear in
stories and in epic songs, did not distribute at any feast so much
as Arthur gave on the day that he crowned Erec; nor would Caesar and
Alexander dare to spend so much as he spent at the court. The raiment
was taken from the chests and spread about freely through the halls; one
could take what he would, without restraint. In the midst of the court,
upon a rug, stood thirty bushels of bright sterlings; [143] for since
the time of Merlin until that day sterlings had currency throughout
Britain. There all helped themselves, each one carrying away that night
all that he wanted to his lodging-place. At nine o'clock on Christmas
day, all came together again at court. The great joy that is drawing
near for him had completely filched Erec's heart away. The tongue and
the mouth of no man, however skilful, could describe the third, or the
fourth, or the fifth part of the display which marked his coronation. So
it is a mad enterprise I undertake in wishing to attempt to describe
it. But since I must make the effort, come what may, I shall not fail to
relate a part of it, as best I may.

(Vv. 6713-6809.) The King had two thrones of white ivory, well
constructed and new, of one pattern and style. He who made them beyond a
doubt was a very skilled and cunning craftsman. For so precisely did he
make the two alike in height, in breadth, and in ornamentation, that you
could nor look at them from every side to distinguish one from the other
and find in one aught that was not in the other. There was no part of
wood, but all of gold and fine ivory. Well were they carved with great
skill, for the two corresponding sides of each bore the representation
of a leopard, and the other two a dragon's shape. A knight named Bruiant
of the Isles had made a gift and present of them to King Arthur and the
Queen. King Arthur sat upon the one, and upon the other he made Erec
sit, who was robed in watered silk. As we read in the story, we find the
description of the robe, and in order that no one may say that I lie,
I quote as my authority Macrobius, [144] who devoted himself to the
description of it. Macrobius i