he would not expose
himself to the weather, but postpone his departure to the following day.
The prince, not understanding the messenger, who spoke in English, and
suspecting that it was intended by Mary to warn him of some danger in
his path, instantly drew up by the road-side, and took counsel with Alva
and Egmont as to what was to be done. One of the courtiers, who
perceived his embarrassment, rode up and acquainted the prince with the
real purport of the message. Relieved of his alarm, Philip no longer
hesitated, but, with his red felt cloak wrapped closely about him and a
broad beaver slouched over his eyes, manfully pushed forward, in spite
of the tempest.

As he advanced, his retinue received continual accessions from the
neighboring gentry and yeomanry, until it amounted to some thousands
before he reached Winchester. It was late in the afternoon when the
cavalcade, soiled with travel and thoroughly drenched with rain, arrived
before the gates of the city. The mayor and aldermen, dressed in their
robes of scarlet, came to welcome the prince, and, presenting the keys
of the city, conducted him to his quarters.

That evening Philip had his first interview with Mary. It was private,
and he was taken to her residence by the chancellor, Gardiner, bishop of
Winchester. The royal pair passed an hour or more together; and, as Mary
spoke the Castilian fluently, the interview must have been spared much
of the embarrassment that would otherwise have attended it.[103]

[Sidenote: MARRIAGE OF PHILIP AND MARY.]

On the following day the parties met in public. Philip was attended by
the principal persons of his suite, of both sexes; and as the
procession, making a goodly show, passed through the streets on foot,
the minstrelsy played before them till they reached the royal residence.
The reception-room was the great hall of the palace. Mary, stepping
forward to receive her betrothed, saluted him with a loving kiss before
all the company. She then conducted him to a sort of throne, where she
took her seat by his side, under a stately canopy. They remained there
for an hour or more, conversing together, while their courtiers had
leisure to become acquainted with one another, and to find ample food,
doubtless, for future criticism, in the peculiarities of national
costume and manners. Notwithstanding the Spanish blood in Mary's veins,
the higher circles of Spain and England had personally almost as little
intercourse with one