also reclined against the
back of his chair, which served him, when he walked abroad, for the purposes of
a staff or of a weapon, as chance might require.
    Several domestics, whose dress held various proportions betwixt the richness
of their master's, and the coarse and simple attire of Gurth the swineherd,
watched the looks and waited the commands of the Saxon dignitary. Two or three
servants of a superior order stood behind their master upon the dais; the rest
occupied the lower part of the hall. Other attendants there were of a different
description; two or three large and shaggy greyhounds, such as were then
employed in hunting the stag and wolf; as many slow-hounds of a large bony
breed, with thick necks, large heads, and long ears; and one or two of the
smaller dogs, now called terriers, which waited with impatience the arrival of
the supper; but, with the sagacious knowledge of physiognomy peculiar to their
race, forebore to intrude upon the moody silence of their master, apprehensive
probably of a small white truncheon which lay by Cedric's trencher, for the
purpose of repelling the advances of his four-legged dependants. One grisly old
wolf-dog alone, with the liberty of an indulged favourite, had planted himself
close by the chair of state, and occasionally ventured to solicit notice by
putting his large hairy head upon his master's knee, or pushing his nose into
his hand. Even he was repelled by the stern command, »Down, Balder, down! I am
not in the humour for foolery.«
    In fact, Cedric, as we have observed, was in no very placid state of mind.
The Lady Rowena, who had been absent to attend an evening mass at a distant
church, had but just returned, and was changing her garments, which had been
wetted by the storm. There was as yet no tidings of Gurth and his charge, which
should long since have been driven home from the forest; and such was the
insecurity of the period, as to render it probable that the delay might be
explained by some depredation of the outlaws, with whom the adjacent forest
abounded, or by the violence of some neighbouring baron, whose consciousness of
strength made him equally negligent of the laws of property. The matter was of
consequence, for great part of the domestic wealth of the Saxon proprietors
consisted in numerous herds of swine, especially in forest-land, where those
animals easily found their food.
    Besides these subjects of anxiety, the Saxon thane was impatient for the
presence of his favourite clown Wamba