During the repast, two choice minstrels were seated in the
gallery above, to sing the friendship of King Alfred of England with
Gregory the Great of Caledonia. The squires and other military
attendants of the nobles present, were placed at tables in the lower
part of the hall, and served with courteous hospitality.
Resentful, alike at his captivity and thwarted passion, De Valence had
hitherto refused to show himself beyond the ramparts of the citadel; he
was therefore surprised, on entering the hall of Snawdoun with De
Warenne, to see such regal pomp; and at the command of the woman who
had so lately been his prisoner at Dumbarton, and whom (because she
resembled an English lady who had rejected him) he had treated with the
most rigorous contempt. Forgetting these indignities, in the pride of
displaying her present consequence, Lady Mar came forward to receive
her illustrious guests. Her dress corresponded with the magnificence
of the banquet, a robe of cloth of Baudkins enriched, while it
displayed, the beauties of her person; her wimple blazed with jewels,
and a superb carkanet emitted its various rays from her bosom.**
**Cloth of Baudkins was one of the richest stuffs worn in the
thirteenth century.
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