Other wants, however, arise. The guest becomes clamorous for supper, observing,

“For certainly, as I you say,

I ne had never so sorry a day,

That I ne had a merry night.”

“For certainly, as I you say, I ne had never so sorry a day, That I ne had a merry night.”

But this indication of his taste for good cheer, joined to the annunciation of his being a follower of the Court, who had lost himself at the great hunting-match, cannot induce the niggard Hermit to produce better fare than bread and cheese, for which his guest showed little appetite; and “thin drink,” which was even less acceptable. At length the King presses his host on a point to which he had more than once alluded, without obtaining a satisfactory reply: