'
The poor Chancellor was not long in removing himself from this
dangerous vicinity; nor did the commission waste time in giving the
royal assent to the work of the slavish Parliament, and appointing the
morrow for the beheading of the premier peer of England, the
luckless Duke of Norfolk.*(5)
CHAPTER IX
The River Pageant
AT nine in the evening the whole vast river-front of the palace
was blazing with light. The river itself, as far as the eye could
reach cityward, was so thickly covered with watermen's boats and
with pleasure barges, all fringed with colored lanterns, and gently
agitated by the waves, that it resembled a glowing and limitless
garden of flowers stirred to soft motion by summer winds. The grand
terrace of stone steps leading down to the water, spacious enough to
mass the army of a German principality upon, was a picture to see,
with its ranks of royal halberdiers in polished armor, and its
troops of brilliantly costumed servitors flitting up and down, and
to and fro, in the hurry of preparation.
Presently a command was given, and immediately all living
creatures vanished from the steps. Now the air was heavy with the hush
of suspense and expectancy. As far as one's vision could carry, he
might see the myriads of people in the boats rise up, and shade
their eyes from the glare of lanterns and torches, and gaze toward the
palace.
A file of forty or fifty state barges drew up to the steps.
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