At this period we have the celebrated Vatel, one of the most illustrious officers of the household that ever flourished in the palace of the Princes of Condé. This inimitable major-domo understood that a dinner without fish was a cheerless one. One day when his noble master entertained Louis XIV. at a royal banquet, at Chantilly, which the genius of Vatel rendered more brilliant, the fish from the coast failed; he sent everywhere, but none could be found. He was completely bewildered: he met his august master, whose kind words, full of benevolence, only served to increase his desperation; he left him, ran to his chamber, took his sword, and three times pierced his heart. Shortly after, fish arrived from all quarters. Vatel was called--no Vatel! He was sought for, and at last discovered--Vatel was no more! It appears that, in former times, there was a remarkable consumption of fish in England on the 4th of July, the Festival of St. Ulric. The following verses, by Barnaby Gouge prove it:-- ST. HULDRYCHE. “Wheresoever Huldryche hath his place, the people there brings in Both capes and pykes, and mullets fat, his favour here to win. Amid the church there sittieth one, and to the aultar nie, That selleth fish, and so good cheep, that every man may buie; Nor any thing he loseth here, bestowing thus his paine, For when it hath beene offred once, ’tis brought him all againe, That twise or thrise he selles the same, vngodlinesse such gaine Both still bring in, and plentiously the kitchen doth maintaine, Whence comes this same religion newe? What kind of God is this, Same Huldryche here, that so desires and so delightes in fishe?”[XXI-28] An ordinance of King John informs us that, in the 14th century, people eat porpoises and even seals.[XXI-29] In the days of the troubadours, they fished for dolphins and whales in the Mediterranean, and the flesh of these sea monsters was considered excellent.[XXI-30] STURGEON. This enormous cartilaginous inhabitant of the ocean, the Mediterranean, the Red, Black, and Caspian Seas, received from the Greeks, after its death, honours in which none of the most delicate or renowned fish participated. It was announced to the guests by the sound of trumpets; and slaves, magnificently dressed, placed it on the table in the midst of garlands and flowers.[XXI-31] Joy brightened every face; a more generous wine filled fresh goblets, and some flatterers--for the sturgeon possessed many--with eyes fixed on the noble accipenser, compared its flesh to the ambrosia of the immortals.[XXI-32] The high price of the sturgeon contributed in no small degree to such brilliant praise. This king of banquets would have ruined a modest citizen of Athens, and hardly did the exiguity of its proportions permit its figuring among the expensive rarities of an Attic supper, when it had cost only a thousand drachms, or about £16 sterling.[XXI-33]