Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 45, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1884 — A Cruel Blew. The First Health-Drinking. [ARTICLE]

A Cruel Blew.

The First Health-Drinking.

“Healths” in honor of mortals came to us from abroad. The first given in Britain was proposed by a lady. It was the “Health of the King,” and mischief came of it. The lady was Rowena, the daughter of Hengist. That Saxon ally of the British King, Vortigern, entertained at a banquet the monarch whom he first intended to make his son-in-law and then destroy. After dinner the ladies were admitted, a custom which has not yet died out on occasions of public festivity, and Rowena was at the head of them. She carried aloft a capacious goblet of wine, and, approaching the and delighted King, she said, with a courteous reverence : “ Lord King, I drink your health.” This was said in Saxon, and Vortigern shook his head to imply that he had not been taught Saxon, and was sorry for it. He looked inquiringly at his interpreter, and that official translated the lady’s words. But this rendered Vortigern little the wiser, as Rowena stood silently gazing at him. cup in hand, and he found himself in utterly new circumstances and in dreadful want of a master of cereihonies. ~“7 “What ought I to do ?” he asked the interpreter, and the latter replied: “As the lady has offered to drink your health, saying, ‘Wacht heil?’ you should bid her quaff the wine, saying, ‘ Drinc heil!’ ” And Vortigern shaped his British mouth to the utterance.