ch a broad flag, blazoned with golden lions and
silver lilies square for square, whipped the winter wind. Amid a group
of towers large and small a lofty stack poured out a plume of sea-coal
smoke against the milky sky, and on the countless windows in the wall
the sunlight flashed with dazzling radiance.

There were people on the battlements, and at the port between two towers
where the Queen went in and out the press was so thick that men's heads
looked like the cobbles in the street.

The shore was stayed with piling and with timbers like a wharf, so that
a hundred boats might lie there cheek by jowl and scarcely rub their
paint. The lords made way, and the children players came ashore through
an aisle of uplifted oars. They were met by the yeomen of the guard,
tall, brawny fellows clad in red, with golden roses on their breasts and
backs, and with them marched up to the postern two and two, Master Gyles
the last of all, as haughty as a Spanish don come courting fair
Queen Bess.

A smoking dinner was waiting them, of whitebait with red pepper, and a
yellow juice so sour that Nick's mouth drew up in a knot; but it was
very good. There were besides, silver dishes full of sugared red
currants, and heaps of comfits and sweetmeats, which Master Gyles would
not allow them even to touch, and saffron cakes with raisins in them,
and spiced hot cordial out of tiny silver cups. Bareheaded pages clad in
silk and silver lace waited upon them as if they were fledgling kings;
but the boys were too hungry to care for that or to try to put on airs,
and waded into the meat and drink as if they had been starved for a
fortnight.

But when they were done Nick saw that the table off which they had eaten
was inlaid with pearl and silver filigree, and that the table-cloth was
of silk with woven metal-work and gems set in it worth more than a
thousand crowns. He was very glad he had eaten first, for such wonderful
service would have taken away his appetite.

And truly a wonderful palace was the Queen's Plaisance, as Greenwich
House was called. Elizabeth was born in it, and so loved it most of all.
There she pleased oftenest to receive and grant audiences to envoys from
foreign courts. And there, on that account, as was always her proud,
jealous way, she made a blinding show of glory and of wealth, of
science, art, and power, that England, to the eyes which saw her there,
might stand in second place to no dominion in the world, however ric