cession arrived in
the middle of the city, some officers of the city government approached
the queen's chariot, and delivered to her a present of a very large and
heavy purse filled with gold. The queen had to employ both hands in
lifting it in. It contained an amount equal in value to two or three
thousand dollars.

The queen was very affable and gracious to all the people on the way.
Poor women would come up to her carriage and offer her flowers, which
she would very condescendingly accept. Several times she stopped her
carriage when she saw that any one wished to speak with her, or had
something to offer; and so great was the exaltation of a queen in those
days, in the estimation of mankind, that these acts were considered by
all the humble citizens of London as acts of very extraordinary
affability, and they awakened universal enthusiasm. There was one branch
of rosemary given to the queen by a poor woman in Fleet Street; the
queen put it up conspicuously in the carriage, where it remained all the
way, watched by ten thousand eyes, till it got to Westminster.

The coronation took place at Westminster on the following day. The crown
was placed upon the young maiden's head in the midst of a great throng
of ladies and gentlemen, who were all superbly dressed, and who made the
vast edifice in which the service was performed ring with their
acclamations and their shouts of "Long live the Queen!" During the
ceremonies, Elizabeth placed a wedding ring upon her finger with great
formality, to denote that she considered the occasion as the celebration
of her _espousal_ to the realm of England; she was that day a bride, and
should never have, she said, any other husband. She kept this, the only
wedding ring she ever wore, upon her finger, without once removing it,
for more than forty years.

CHAPTER VII.

THE WAR IN SCOTLAND.

1559-1560

Elizabeth and Mary Queen of Scots.--Their rivalry.--Character of
Mary.--Character of Elizabeth.--Elizabeth's celebrity while
living.--Interest in Mary when dead.--Real nature of the question
at issue between Mary and Elizabeth.--The two marriages.--One or
the other necessarily null.--Views of Mary's friends.--Views of
Elizabeth's friends.--Circumstances of Henry the Eighth's first
marriage.--The papal dispensation.--Doubts about it.--England
turns Protestant.--The marriage annulled.--Mary in France.--She
becomes Queen of France.--Mary's pretensions to the English
crown.--Elizab