THE CADENAS.
Reading edition
As a set-off against my barbarous Irish reliquary, the French cadenas, used at the royal table, in the Tuileries, upon occasions of grand ceremony, is worth quoting. It is the couvert reserved expressly for the king, containing his salt-seller, cruets, plates, glasses, &c. &c., locked up under a cadenas, or padlock. Having had the honour to be present at the wedding-dinner (or supper) of the Duke de Berri, I made some inquiries, of an ultra friend who sat near me, as to this coffer, which was carried to the head of the table. “’Tis an old custom,” she said, “and, in its origin, a precaution against poison.” “What, in the good old times?” I said. She shrugged, and replied by the unanswerable “Que voulez-vous? les méchans sont de tous les tems!”[44]