And he who subdued the world had been
But the best wrestler on the green!'"
The shaft duly struck its intended mark, and the duke evidently seemed pleased, for flattery, although, generally speaking, it is often rather coarsely served up,
"Yet oft we find that men of wit
Still condescend to pick a bit."
The moment so important to Sir Patricius had now arrived—the time of dinner. The castle clock chimed forth the second hour, the baronet's eye sparkling with delight as he beheld the long extended commissary train of eatable artillery enter the salle de manger; many an ahem! and
DOSS MOI TANE STIGMEN!
were exultingly ejaculated forth when the dinner was duly arranged; and with delight he beheld the delicious banquet that lay before him, while gladly he observed the numerous delicacies which were duly recorded in his carte du jour, along with the choicest wines, from Malvoisie de Madere to "imperial Tokay." Various choice hors d'œuvres were served up, and succeeded by a splendid course of entremets, which concluded with a grand dessert.
Since the royal times of the Dukes of Brabant such an entertainment had not been witnessed in Tervuren Castle.
But there were luxuries this day produced which are not to be found in the carte du jour of either the famous restaurateurs Very, or Beauvillier, or at the celebrated Rocher de Cancale of modern Paris: videlicet—ortolan pies, the celebrated pâtes des foies gross[52] of Strasburgh, and the no less famed pâtès á croute de seigle des perdreaux rouges aux truffes, the far-famed Perigord pies, made of the red-legged partridge, and constructed by the confectionary skill and tact of the scientific pattissiers of Perigeux, the capital of the province of Perigord, in France,[53] a luxury well known, and often sent as acceptable presents to peers and princes.