When there, mark
HILDEBRANDT AND OTTO!"
CHAPTER III.
THE FESTIVAL.
The festival was indeed begun. Coming on horseback, or in their
caroches, knights and ladies of the highest rank were assembled in the
grand saloon of Godesberg, which was splendidly illuminated to receive
them. Servitors, in rich liveries, (they were attired in doublets of the
sky-blue broadcloth of Ypres, and hose of the richest yellow sammit--the
colors of the house of Godesberg,) bore about various refreshments
on trays of silver--cakes, baked in the oven, and swimming in melted
butter; manchets of bread, smeared with the same delicious condiment,
and carved so thin that you might have expected them to take wing and
fly to the ceiling; coffee, introduced by Peter the Hermit, after his
excursion into Arabia, and tea such as only Bohemia could produce,
circulated amidst the festive throng, and were eagerly devoured by the
guests. The Margrave's gloom was unheeded by them--how little indeed is
the smiling crowd aware of the pangs that are lurking in the breasts
of those who bid them to the feast! The Margravine was pale; but woman
knows how to deceive; she was more than ordinarily courteous to her
friends, and laughed, though the laugh was hollow, and talked, though
the talk was loathsome to her.
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