He lost his fears; his misgivings faded
out and died; his embarrassments departed, and gave place to an easy
and confident bearing. He worked the whipping-boy mine to
ever-increasing profit.
He ordered my Lady Elizabeth and my Lady Jane Grey into his
presence when he wanted to play or talk, and dismissed them when he
was done with them, with the air of one familiarly accustomed to
such performances. It no longer confused him to have these lofty
personages kiss his hand at parting.
He came to enjoy being conducted to bed in state at night, and
dressed with intricate and solemn ceremony in the morning. It came
to be a proud pleasure to march to dinner attended by a glittering
procession of officers of state and gentlemen-at-arms; insomuch,
indeed, that he doubled his guard of gentlemen-at-arms, and made
them a hundred. He liked to hear the bugles sounding down the long
corridors, and the distant voices responding, 'Way for the King!'
He even learned to enjoy sitting in throned state in council,
and seeming to be something more than the Lord Protector's mouthpiece.
He liked to receive great ambassadors and their gorgeous trains, and
listen to the affectionate messages they brought from illustrious
monarchs who called him 'brother.' Oh, happy Tom Canty, late of
Offal Court!
He enjoyed his splendid clothes, and ordered more; he found his
four hundred servants too few for his proper grandeur, and trebled
them. The adulation of salaaming courtiers came to be sweet music to
his ears.
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