Of all these nobles, the most hostile to Geneva was the Sire de Pontverre. Of athletic frame, herculean strength, and violent character, bold and energetic, he was, from his marked superiority, recognised as their chief by the gentlemen assembled at the castle of Bursinel. If these men despised the burgesses, the latter returned the compliment. 'They are holding a meeting of bandits and brigands at Bursinel,' said some of the Genevans. We must not, however, take these somewhat harsh words too literally. The depredations of these gentlemen doubtless undermined the social organisation, and it was time to put an end to these practices of the middle ages. Many of them were, however, good sons and husbands, good fathers, and even good landlords; but they had no mercy for Geneva. As they sat at table they said that the princes had succeeded in France and elsewhere in destroying the franchises of the municipal towns, and that this free city, the last that survived, deserved a similar fate much more than the others, since it was beginning to add a new vice to its former vices ... it was listening to Luther. 'A contest must decide,' they added, 'whether the future times shall belong to the knights or to the burgesses, to the Church or to heresy.' If Geneva were overthrown, they thought they would be masters of the future. Pontverre has been compared to the celebrated Roman who feared the Carthaginians, and, like him, never forgot to repeat at every meeting of the nobles: _Delenda Carthago_.[771] [Sidenote: THE ORDER OF THE SPOON.] The dinner was drawing to an end; the servants of the lord of Bursinel had brought the best wines from the castle cellars; the libations were numerous, and the guests drank copiously. 'It chanced,' says Bonivard, 'that some rice (_papet_) was brought in, with as many spoons as there were persons at table.'[772] Pontverre rose, took up a spoon with the same hand that wielded the sword so vigorously, plunged it into the dish of rice, and, lifting it to his mouth, ate and said: 'Thus will I swallow Geneva and the Genevese.' In an instant all the gentlemen, 'heated with wine and anger,' took up their spoons, and exclaimed as they ate, 'that they would make but one mouthful of all the huguenots.' Pontverre did not stop at this: he took a little chain, hung the spoon round his neck, and said: 'I am a _knight of the Spoon_, and this is my decoration.'—'We all belong to the same order,' said the others, similarly hanging the spoons on their breasts. They then grasped each other's hands, and swore to be faithful to the last. At length the party broke up; they mounted their horses, and returned to their mansions; and when their neighbours looked with surprise at what hung round their necks, and asked what the spoon meant, they answered: 'We intend to eat the Genevans with it; will you not join us?' And thus the fraternity was formed which had the conquest of Geneva for its object.