 thee in thy
farther duty. Meanwhile, it is ill talking between a full man and a fasting.«
    He threw himself back on his seat, covered his brow with his hand, and was
silent.
 

                                Chapter Eleventh

                              The Hall of Roland.

 Painters show Cupid blind - Hath Hymen eyes?
 Or is his sight warp'd by those spectacles
 Which parents, guardians, and advisers, lend him,
 That he may look through them on lands and mansions,
 On jewels, gold, and all such rich dotations,
 And see their value ten times magnified? -
 Methinks 'twill brook a question
                                              The Miseries of Enforced Marriage.
 
Louis the XIth of France, though the sovereign in Europe who was fondest and
most jealous of power, desired only its substantial enjoyment; and though he
knew well enough, and at times exacted strictly, the observances due to his
rank, was in general singularly careless of show.
    In a prince of sounder moral qualities, the familiarity with which he
invited subjects to his board - nay, occasionally sat at theirs - must have been
highly popular; and even such as he was, the King's homeliness of manners atoned
for many of his vices with that class of his subjects who were not particularly
exposed to the consequences of his suspicion and jealousy. The tiers état, or
commons of France, who rose to more opulence and consequence under the reign of
this sagacious Prince, respected his person, though they loved him not; and it
was resting on their support that he was enabled to make his party good against
the hatred of the nobles, who conceived that he diminished the honour of the
French crown, and obscured their own splendid privileges, by that very neglect
of form which gratified the citizens and commons.
    With patience, which most other princes would have considered as degrading,
and not without a sense of amusement, the Monarch of France waited till his
Life-guards-man had satisfied the keenness of a youthful appetite. It may be
supposed, however, that Quentin had too much sense and prudence to put the royal
patience to a long or tedious proof; and indeed he was repeatedly desirous to
break off his repast ere Louis would permit him. »I see it in thine eye,« he
said, good-naturedly, »that thy courage is not half abated. Go on - God and
Saint Dennis! - charge again. I tell thee that meat and mass« (crossing himself)
»never hindered the work of a good Christian man. Take a cup of wine; but mind
thou be cautious of the wine-pot - it is
