Then followed barges of statesmen, nobility, and
courtiers, with their retinues, brave in numbers, gay in colours,
and attended by bands of music. And finally came the king and
queen, seated side by side in a galley of antique shape, all
draped with crimson damask, bearing a canopy of cloth of gold,
supported by Corinthian pillars, wreathed with ribbons, and
festooned with garlands of fragrant flowers.
The whole city was abroad, watchful of their approach; the Thames
was covered with boats to the number of ten thousand; and the
banks were crowded with spectators beyond reckoning. On this
fair August day the sky had not a single cloud to mar its
universal blue; the sun shone gloriously bright, turning the
river to sheets of gleaming gold: whilst the air was filled with
roaring of cannon, strains of music, and hearty shouts of a loyal
multitude.
Mr. Samuel Pepys, though he offered as much as eight shillings
for a boat to attend him that day, could not obtain one, and was
therefore obliged to view this gallant procession from the roof
of the royal banqueting hall, which commanded a glorious view of
the Thames. But what pleased his erratic fancy best on this
occasion was, not the great spectacle he had taken such trouble
to survey, but a sight of my Lady Castlemaine, who stood over
against him "upon a piece of Whitehall." The worthy clerk of the
Admiralty "glutted" himself with looking on her; "but methought
it was strange," says he, "to see her lord and her upon the same
place walking up and down without taking notice of one another,
only at first entry he put off his hat, and she made him a very
civil salute, but afterwards took no notice of one another; but
both of them now and then would take their child, which the nurse
held in her arms, and dandle it.
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