But it is a great thing to be a young Duke. The
pasties, and the venison, and the game, the pines, and the peaches, and
the grapes, the cakes, and the confectionery, and the ices, which proved
that the still-room at Hauteville was not an empty name, were all most
popular. But the wines, they were marvellous! And as the finest cellars
in the country had been ransacked for excellence and variety, it is not
wonderful that their produce obtained a panegyric. There was hock of a
century old, which made all stare, though we, for our part, cannot see,
or rather taste, the beauty of this antiquity. Wine, like woman, in
our opinion, should not be too old, so we raise our altar to the infant
Bacchus; but this is not the creed of the million, nor was it the
persuasion of Sir Chetwode Chetwode or of Sir Tichborne Tichborne, good
judges both. The Johannisberger quite converted them. They no longer
disliked the young Duke. They thought him a fool, to be sure, but at the
same time a good-natured one. In the meantime, all were interested, and
Carlstein with his key bugle, from out a neighbouring brake, afforded
the only luxury that was wanting.
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