Chapter 11

----The funeral baked meats
Did coldly furnish forth the marriage table.
HAMLET.

The religious rites which followed the funeral of Raymond
Berenger, endured without interruption for the period of six days;
during which, alms were distributed to the poor, and relief
administered, at the expense of the Lady Eveline, to all those who
had suffered by the late inroad. Death-meals, as they were termed,
were also spread in honour of the deceased; but the lady herself,
and most of her attendants, observed a stern course of vigil,
discipline, and fasts, which appeared to the Normans a more
decorous manner of testifying their respect for the dead, than the
Saxon and Flemish custom of banqueting and drinking inordinately
upon such occasions.

Meanwhile, the Constable De Lacy retained a large body of his men
encamped under the walls of the Garde Doloureuse, for protection
against some new irruption of the Welsh, while with the rest he
took advantage of his victory, and struck terror into the British
by many well-conducted forays, marked with ravages scarcely less
hurtful than their own. Among the enemy, the evils of discord were
added to those of defeat and invasion; for two distant relations
of Gwenwyn contended for the throne he had lately occupied, and on
this, as on many other occasions, the Britons suffered as much
from internal dissension as from the sword of the Normans. A worse
politician, and a less celebrated soldier, than the sagacious and
successful De Lacy, could not have failed, under such
circumstances, to negotiate as he did an advantageous peace,
which, while it deprived Powys of a part of its frontier, and the
command of some important passes, in which it was the Constable's
purpose to build castles, rendered the Garde Doloureuse more
secure than formerly, from any sudden attack on the part of
their fiery and restless neighbours. De Lacy's care also went to
re-establishing those settlers who had fled from their possessions,
and putting the whole lordship, which now descended upon an
unprotected female, into a state of defence as perfect as its
situation on a hostile frontier could possibly permit.

Whilst thus anxiously provident in the affairs of the orphan of
the Garde Doloureuse, De Lacy during the space we have mentioned,
sought not to disturb her filial grief by any personal
intercourse. His nephew, indeed, was despatched by times every
morning to lay before her his uncle's _devoirs,_ in the high-
flown language of the day, and acquaint her with the steps which
he had taken in her affairs. As a meed due to his relative's high
services, Damian was always admitted to see Eveline on such
occasions, and returned charged with her grateful thanks, and her