Page:The Queens of England.djvu/284

 244 THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND. there is reason to suppose that he might have still longer post- poned her coronation had not the partisans of the house of York betrayed sundry symptoms of discontent that it had not already taken place. This grand ceremony, like most similar ones of that age, was graced by a magnificent procession on the Thames, to conduct the queen from Greenwich to the Tower, where she was received by the king with a show of tenderness very gratifying to those who witnessed it, a general belief pre- vailing that he was harsh and unkind in his conduct towards her. No device or pageantry that could add splendor to the scene had been omitted in this procession by water. The barges of the different civic companies escorted the royal one, and many were the picturesque decorations, in which the arms and emblems of the House of Tudor with the Roses of York and Lancaster, no longer rivals, but united in garlands, were tastefully introduced. Joyous music was not wanting, and often was it interrupted by the loyal acclamations of the crowds who lined the shore to view the pageant. The following day the queen proceeded in state from the Tower to the palace s£- Westminster, nor was the procession formed to attend her less splendid than that of the previous day. Hitherto Elizabeth had been seldom seen by her subjects. Her life, before her marriage, had been secluded, either in the privacy of the pal- ace or the gloom of the sanctuary; and subsequently, the greater portion had been spent in the country, at Winchester and elsewhere. Her loveliness had therefore all the additional attraction of novelty for the eyes that gazed on her, as if they never could turn from her beautiful face and graceful yet dig- nified figure, which lent to, instead of acquiring, charms from the regal habiliments. These consisted of a robe composed of white cloth of gold, trimmed with ermine, and confined to her shape, over which fell a mantle of the same materials. Her fair hair in rich profusion floated down her back, confined to her head by a network of gold, and a circlet of precious stones, the dazzling luster of which seemed to give a glory to the se- raphic character of her face. Faultless in features and figure, with a complexion of exquisite fairness, and eyes of cerulean blue, the trials she had already passed through, though only then in her twenty-second year, had given her countenance an expression of such heavenly resignation and serenity that none could behold her without a mingled sentiment of reverence and adoration, such as men believe that beatified saints only can inspire.