The Talisman | Page 7

guests were
summoned to wash by the music of the waits. The king took his seat
attended by the principal officers of his court, at the high table, and the
rest of the company were marshalled at a long table below him. On the
cloth were placed portions of salt at the usual distances, but neither
bread, wine, nor water. The ambassadors, rather surprised at this
omission, but still free from apprehension, awaited in silence the arrival
of the dinner, which was announced by the sound of pipes, trumpets,
and tabours; and beheld, with horror and dismay, the unnatural banquet
introduced by the steward and his officers. Yet their sentiments of
disgust and abhorrence, and even their fears, were for a time suspended
by their curiosity. Their eyes were fixed on the king, who, without the
slightest change of countenance, swallowed the morsels as fast as they

could be supplied by the knight who carved them.
"Every man then poked other; They said, 'This is the devil's brother,
That slays our men, and thus hem eats!'
"Their attention was then involuntarily fixed on the smoking heads
before them. They traced in the swollen and distorted features the
resemblance of a friend or near relation, and received from the fatal
scroll which accompanied each dish the sad assurance that this
resemblance was not imaginary. They sat in torpid silence, anticipating
their own fate in that of their countrymen; while their ferocious
entertainer, with fury in his eyes, but with courtesy on his lips, insulted
them by frequent invitations to merriment. At length this first course
was removed, and its place supplied by venison, cranes, and other
dainties, accompanied by the richest wines. The king then apologized
to them for what had passed, which he attributed to his ignorance of
their taste; and assured them of his religious respect for their characters
as ambassadors, and of his readiness to grant them a safe-conduct for
their return. This boon was all that they now wished to claim; and
"King Richard spake to an old man, 'Wendes home to your Soudan! His
melancholy that ye abate; And sayes that ye came too late. Too slowly
was your time y-guessed; Ere ye came, the flesh was dressed, That men
shoulden serve with me, Thus at noon, and my meynie. Say him, it
shall him nought avail, Though he for-bar us our vitail, Bread, wine,
fish, flesh, salmon, and conger; Of us none shall die with hunger, While
we may wenden to fight, And slay the Saracens downright, Wash the
flesh, and roast the head. With OO [One] Saracen I may well feed Well
a nine or a ten Of my good Christian men. King Richard shall warrant,
There is no flesh so nourissant Unto an English man, Partridge, plover,
heron, ne swan, Cow ne ox, sheep ne swine, As the head of a Sarazyn.
There he is fat, and thereto tender, And my men be lean and slender.
While any Saracen quick be, Livand now in this Syrie, For meat will
we nothing care. Abouten fast we shall rare, And every day we shall eat
All as many as we may get. To England will we nought gon, Till they
be eaten every one.'" ELLIS'S SPECIMENS OF EARLY ENGLISH
METRICEL ROMANCES.
The reader may be curious to know owing to what circumstances so
extraordinary an invention as that which imputed cannibalism to the
King of England should have found its way into his history. Mr. James,

to whom we owe so much that is curious, seems to have traced the
origin of this extraordinary rumour.
"With the army of the cross also was a multitude of men," the same
author declares, "who made it a profession to be without money. They
walked barefoot, carried no arms, and even preceded the beasts of
burden in their march, living upon roots and herbs, and presenting a
spectacle both disgusting and pitiable.
"A Norman, who, according to all accounts, was of noble birth, but
who, having lost his horse, continued to follow as a foot soldier, took
the strange resolution of putting himself at the head of this race of
vagabonds, who willingly received him as their king. Amongst the
Saracens these men became well known under the name of THAFURS
(which Guibert translates TRUDENTES), and were beheld with great
horror from the general persuasion that they fed on the dead bodies of
their enemies; a report which was occasionally justified, and which the
king of the Thafurs took care to encourage. This respectable monarch
was frequently in the habit of stopping his followers, one by one, in a
narrow defile, and of causing them to be searched carefully, lest the
possession of the least sum of money should render them unworthy of
the name of his subjects. If even