But while the cellarer muttered and looked askance, his heart not being Saxon or put in the right place, the noblest English lords that were there, and the highest dignitaries of the church, the archbishop and the bishops, the Lord Abbats, and the priors of houses, that were so high that even the priors were styled Lords, _Domini_,[87] and wore mitres, stood on their feet, and with their wine-cups raised high in their hands, shouted as in one voice, “Elfric the novice;” and all the obedientiarii or officials of the abbey of Ely that were of rank enow to be bidden to my Lord Abbat’s table, stood up in like manner and shouted, “Elfric the novice!” and, when the loud cheering was over, off went the wine, and down to the ringing board the empty silver cups and the golden-bound horns. He who had looked into those cups and horns might have smiled at Father Adhelm’s halves and quarters: they were nearly all filled to the brim: yet when they had quitted the lip and were put down upon the table, there was scarcely a heel-tap to be found except in the cup of the cellarer and in that of the envious prior of Ely. So strong were the heads and stomachs of our Saxon ancestors before the Normans came among us and brought with them all manner of people from the south with all manner of effeminacies. Judge ye if Elfric was a proud man that day! At wassail-time the wide doors of the Aula Magna were thrown wide open; and harpers, and meni-singers, and men that played upon the trumpet, the horn, the flute, the pipe and tabor, the cymbal and the drum, or that touched the strings of the viola, assembled outside, making good music with instrument and voice; and all that dwelt within the precincts of the abbey, or that were lodged for the nonce in the guest-house, came, an they chose, to the threshold of the hall, and saw and heard what was doing and saying inside and what outside. Now Elfric was there, with palmers and novices trooping all around him, and repeating (albeit dry-mouthed and without cups or horns to flourish) the wassail of the lords and prelates, “Elfric the novice!” If at that moment my Lord Abbat Thurstan or Father Adhelm had bidden the youth go and drive the Normans from the strong stone keep of their doubly-moated and trebly-walled castle by Cam-Bridge, Elfric would have gone and have tried to do it. He no longer trod upon base earth, his head struck the stars, as the poets say. The abbat’s feast, which began at one hour before noon, did not end until the hour of Ave Maria; nay, even then it was not finished, but only suspended for a short season by the evening service in the choir; for, after one hour of the night, the refectoriarius, or controller of the refectory, re-appeared in the hall with waxen torches and bright lanterns, and his servitors spread the table for supper.