Tables were laid all along the
vast hall. She was placed at the upper one to her relief, beside an
old lady, Dame Gresford, whom she remembered to have seen at
Montacute Castle in her childhood, as one of the attendants on the
Countess. She was forced to put back her veil, and she saw some of
the young knights and squires staring at her, then nudging one
another and laughing.
"Never mind them, sweetheart," said Dame Gresford kindly; "they are
but unmannerly lurdanes, and the Lord Earl would make them know what
is befitting if his eye fell on them."
The good lady must have had a hint from the authorities, for she kept
Grisell under her wing in the huge household, which was like a city
in itself. There was a knight who acted as steward, with innumerable
knights, squires, and pages under him, besides the six hundred red
jacketed yoemen, and servants of all degrees, in the immense court of
the buttery and kitchen, as indeed there had need to be, for six oxen
were daily cooked, with sheep and other meats in proportion, and any
friend or acquaintance of any one in this huge establishment might
come in, and not only eat and drink his fill, but carry off as much
meat as he could on the point of his dagger.
Goodwife Hall, as coming from Salisbury, stayed there in free
quarters, while she made the round of all the shrines in London, and
she was intensely gratified by the great Earl recollecting, or
appearing to recollect, her and inquiring after her husband, that
hearty burgess, whose pewter was so lasting, and he was sure was
still in use among his black guard.
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