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Sweets in all sorts of curious shapes, as, for instance, cakes like castles with little men made of sweet~stuff for sentries on the battlements, each complete in gilded armour and with a halberd over his shoulder. (A rare sight!) And eagles carved of ice hovering over silver dishes filled with apricots.

Then followed the smaller dishes:

Tiny cakes as white and delicate as ladies’ fingers;

Birds’ nests made of spun sugar (and in the nests were eggs of marsh-mallow, and in each egg was a tiny chicken made of caramel!);

Figs and dates from the desert;

Other fruits, in and out of season;

Syrups and preserves fetched from the four corners of the world;

Wines cooled in snow from the distant mountains.

One might fill pages merely by setting down the names of all the delicacies.

Each dish was brought in by the servants in a kind of procession, headed by the Master-Cook, looking as grand and solemn as an archbishop, for he was a grave and dignified person, and of course he had a great responsibility. The guests were served by little page-boys of noble birth,