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- Sweets in all sorts of curious shapes, as, for instance, cakes like castles with little men made of sweet~stuff for sentries on the battlements, each complete in gilded armour and with a halberd over his shoulder. (A rare sight!) And eagles carved of ice hovering over silver dishes filled with apricots.
- Tiny cakes as white and delicate as ladies’ fingers;
- Birds’ nests made of spun sugar (and in the nests were eggs of marsh-mallow, and in each egg was a tiny chicken made of caramel!);
- Figs and dates from the desert;
- Other fruits, in and out of season;
- Syrups and preserves fetched from the four corners of the world;
- Wines cooled in snow from the distant mountains.
Each dish was brought in by the servants in a kind of procession, headed by the Master-Cook, looking as grand and solemn as an archbishop, for he was a grave and dignified person, and of course he had a great responsibility. The guests were served by little page-boys of noble birth,