With what eagerness had he seized upon the history of the enterprise!
with what interest had he followed the redoubtable bibliographer and
his graphical squire in their adventurous roamings among Norman
castles, and cathedrals, and French libraries, and German convents and
universities; penetrating into the prison-houses of vellum
manuscripts, and exquisitely illuminated missals, and revealing their
beauties to the world!
When the parson had finished a rapturous eulogy on this most curious
and entertaining work, he drew forth from a little drawer a
manuscript, lately received from a correspondent, which had perplexed
him sadly. It was written in Norman French, in very ancient
characters, and so faded and mouldered away as to be almost illegible.
It was apparently an old Norman drinking song, that might have been
brought over by one of William the Conqueror's carousing followers.
The writing was just legible enough to keep a keen antiquity-hunter on
a doubtful chase; here and there he would be completely thrown out,
and then there would be a few words so plainly written as to put him
on the scent again. In this way he had been led on for a whole day,
until he had found himself completely at fault.
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