niversary of the
marriage--the uncanonical marriage, alas!--of the royal pair, if
marriage it had truly been?

Eels of enormous size, fine as the Roman lamprey, pike roasted with
puddings in their bellies, tench and carp stewed; while the sea yielded
its skate, its sturgeon, and its porpoise, which the skill of the cook
had so curiously dressed with fragrant spices that it won him great
renown. The very smell, said a young gourmand, was a dinner in itself;
and the wild buck supplied its haunch, and the boar its head, while fowl
of all kinds were handed round on spits.

The drinking was of like sumptuous character, and Rhenish wine contended
with the wines of sunny France for precedence, as they were passed round
in silver cups and gold-mounted horns; for glass was seldom, if ever,
used for such purposes then.

The floor was strewed with the sweetest summer flowers, and exhaled an
odour balmy as the breath of eastern climes, where the breeze plays with
the orange blossoms. The tapestry was beautifully woven by foreign
artists, and represented the loves of the gods; while there was nothing
in keeping with the olden style throughout the whole apartment.

But one seat was vacant near the king's throne, and every now and then
Edwy seemed to cast a wistful eye upon it, as if he would fain see its
ordinary occupant there.

The gleemen rose and sang, the harpers harped, but something was
wanting; they brought tears to the eyes of the fair queen by their
plaintive songs of hapless lovers, which had superseded alike the war
songs of Athelstane and the monkish odes of Edred.

"Where is Elfric? He promised to be back by our wedding day; why does he
delay, my Edwy?" asked Elgiva.

"It is little less than treason to the queen of youth and beauty to be
thus absent, my Elgiva, but remember he has been unwell, and Redwald
told me that for prudential reasons they delayed his return to court."

"And your brother Edgar--"

"Is somewhere in Mercia: the churlish boy has declined our invitation to
honour our feast with his presence. We do not want his serious face at
the board. I am sure he would preach on the duty of fasting."

"He has but seldom been our visitor."

"No; he is afraid, perhaps, to trust his cold heart within the magic of
my Elgiva's sunshine, lest the ice should be melted."

These had been asides, while all the company were listening to the
gleeman; but now Edwy threw himself heart and soul into the current
con