Thus it would appear that nothing eatable was as yet placed on the table but bread. Presently, the supper was served round to them, of which there was only one “service,” out of courtesy on the part of the rich members of the company towards those who were poor, as there was to be an equal division of the expenses of the supper. In return, the highest places of the table were yielded to the persons of best estate, and these, as an acknowledgment, gave a cup of wine round at their own expense, and then left the table to retire to their beds. But the less genteel of the company, the miller and the cook, with the sompnour, the yeoman, the reeve, and the manciple, remained “drinking by the moon,”--that is, they had no candle. There was, however, one candle in the bedroom, which seems to have served to light the whole company,--for it is evident that they all slept in beds in one room,--and this candle was only put out when they were all gone to bed, which was the moment the Pardoner awaited to steal away and pursue his intrigue. Next morning they were out of their beds so early that they left the town on their homeward journey at sunrise. CHAPTER XIX. THE CHAMBER AND ITS FURNITURE AND USES.--BEDS.--HUTCHES AND COFFERS.--THE TOILETTE; MIRRORS. The chambers were now, except in smaller houses, mostly above the ground-floor; and, as I have already observed, the privacy of the chamber was much greater than formerly. In the poem of “Lady Bessy,” quoted in a former chapter (the whole poem is given in Mr. Halliwell’s privately printed “Palatine Anthology”), when the earl of Derby was plotting with the lady Bessy for calling in the earl of Richmond, he proposed to repair secretly to her in her chamber, in order to prepare the letters:-- _“We must depart_ (separate), _lady,” the earle said then;_ _“Wherefore keep this matter secretly,_ _And this same night, betwix nine and ten,_ _In your chamber I think to be._ _Look that you make all things ready,_ _Your maids shall not our councell hear,_ _For I will bring no man with me_ _But Humphrey Brereton, my true esquire.”_ _He took his leave of that lady fair,_ _And to her chamber she went full light,_ _And for all things she did prepare,_ _Both pen and ink, and paper white._ The earl, on his part,--