TREACHERIES AT BANQUETS

Evening Star, Issue 22722, 9 August 1937, Page 12

TREACHERIES AT BANQUETS

FAMGNS FEASTS RECALLED The Dean of St. Patrick’s has immortalised an Irish festival of the eighteenth century by declaring that— O’Rourke’s noble feast will ne’er be forgot By those who were there—or those who were not. Some such memory will long cling to many a family or historic banquet which—like the tragic one depicted in ' Macbeth,’ where the ghost of the murdered Banquo makes its uncanny appearance, or that remarkable feast described by Lord Lytton where Zandin drinks with impunity the poisoned cup, remarking to the prince, “ I pledge you even in this wine ” —has been the scene of some unusual and extraordinary occurrence. A curious tale is told of Bulgaden Hall, once the most magnificent seat in the south of Ireland. George Evans, the youthful master of this property, fell in love with the beautiful daughter of his host, Colonel Stainer. At that period the early wedding banquet was devoted to wine and feasting, and the marriage did not take place till the evening. According to custom, sobriety at these bridal feasts was, we are told, “ a positive violation of all good breeding. The guests would have thought themselves highly dishonoured had the bridegroom escaped scatheless from the weddineg banquet.” Accordingly, halfunconscious of passing events, George Evans was led to the altar. As soon as he had recovered from the effects of the bridal feast he discovered, to his dismay, that his _ bride was not the woman of his choice—that he was the victim of a cheat. Indignant at the imposture, he ascertained that the plot emanated from the woman who till then had been the idol of his soul, and that she had substituted her veiled sister Anne at the altar. The young bridegroom left his home and country, never to meet again the woman who had so wronged him, Tho Castelian do Coney forms the subject of one of Uhland’s 'most remarkable poems. The tale rune that the young de Coney fell madly in love, at first sight, with the fair lady of Fayal, who treated him with indifference and scorn. Finding that— No hope had he to win the heart Of her who heeded not his sighing! he leaves his home. Having joined “in many a hot affray.” he is at last mortally wounded, telling his page as ho expires:— When this fond heart has ceased its beating, To the fair lady of Fayal Bear it, with de Coney’s greeting. Her jealous husband, thinking that his wife had been false, has the heart daintily cooked and served upon a golden dish in their banquet hall. As soon as the gruesome secret is revealed to her she passionately declares that so long as the young de Coney had lived she had scorned him, but after the wrong and insult she had received “ she would never more in this world partake of earthly nourishment.” A terrible banquet was that to which the Earl of Douglas was invited by Sir Alexander Livingstone and the Chancellor Crichton—who dissembled their intentions—to sup at the royal table in the Castle of Edinburgh. The earl was foolhardy enough to accept the ill-fated invitation. Shortly after he had taken his place at the festive hoard the head of a black hull—the certain omen, in those days in Scotland, of. immediate death—was placed _on the table. The earl sprang to his feet anticipating treachery, and aimed to escape; but with his younger brother ho was hurried into the courtyard of tho castle and beheaded.