Reindeer meat, purchased from the wandering Lapps, and a trencher of pickled herrings, occupied one end of the table; a venison pie the other. There was a platter of ryemeal pudding, another of sharke, or meat cut into thin slices, sprinkled with spices, and dried in the wind; there were rye-loaves baked so hard that they would have required King Erick's axe to split them, and crisped pancakes and rolls made of meal, mixed with bark of the pine, dried and ground. There were preserved wild-fruits and cloud-berries, floating in thick cream; but the only liquors were Norwegian ale, and the native dricka, a decoction of barley and juniper-tree.
Bothwell, who, as we have said, had seated himself beside the Lady Anna, and was wholly occupied with her, scarcely remarked the rudeness of the repast; but hungry Hob of Ormiston, whose whole and undivided affections were about to be lavished on the table, looked exceedingly blank, and the aspect of the venison pie, and trencher of purple cloudberries, swimming in thick yellow cream, alone prevented him from exhibiting some very marked signs of disdain.
Supper proceeded, and was partaken of with due Scandinavian voracity. The portly governor of Aggerhuis wedged himself in his gilded chair at the head of the table; Sueno the chamberlain seated himself at the foot. Cornelius Van Dribbel, the bulbous-shaped Dutch butler of Bergen, overlooked the cups and tankards; and to the company already mentioned who occupied seats above the salt, were added a few Danish crossbowmen in the scarlet livery of King Frederick, with Hans Knuber, Jans Thorson, and the servants of the fortress, who devoured vast quantities of sharke and oatmeal bread, drenching their red mustaches in the muddy ale, as deeply as their ancestors, the fair-haired warriors of Olaff and of Ivarre, could have done.
This motley company were assisted to whatever they required by four pages, who bore the king's cipher embossed on the breasts of their crimson doublets, which had those of Erick Rosenkrantz similarly wrought on the back.
Bothwell, who had been accustomed to all those continental luxuries, which the long and close intercourse with France had introduced among the Scottish noblesse, exchanged but one furtive glance of scorn with the tall knight of Teviotdale, and then proceeded at once to gain the heart of the honest and unsophisticated governor, by draining a long horn of ale, to the standard toast of the Nordlanders—"Old Norway!"
"Gammle Norgé!" cried the old governor, and all present emptied their cups with enthusiasm, not excepting the Danes; for the keen eye of Rosenkrantz was fixed upon them in particular.
Oblivious of the presence of the burly governor, of young Konrad's changing cheek and kindling eye, of bearded Ormiston's louring visage, and all others around the board, the Earl of Bothwell, with all the nonchalance of a soldier united to the suavity of a courtier, and the air of a man who habitually pleased himself without valuing a jot the ideas of others, was soon seen to make himself quite at home, to lounge on the stuffed chair, and to stoop his head so close to Anna's, that at times his black locks mingled with her glossier curls as they conversed softly in French, but with a rapidity and gaiety that astonished even themselves.
She was thus enabled to coquette, and he to make love with impunity, under the very eyes of Konrad and her uncle. The former was painfully watchful, but the latter divided his attention between a dish of savoury sharke and a great pewter flagon of dricka; for, like a true old Norseman, he was capable of eating any thing and in any quantity; and he paused at times only to impress upon Sueno Throndson the necessity of having the necromancer of Cronenborg strung up in one of his own cords.
"Holy Hansdag!" said he; "such things cannot be permitted. Vessels will never pass the Sound, and the toll will go to the devil! Konrad of Saltzberg, thou art a bold lad, and hast done gallant things in these seas against the Lubeckers, and to thee will I commit the charge of conveying this knave in fetters to King Frederick."
"If he sells fair winds, Sir Erick," began Konrad.