sed the Upper House without
amendment. All the preparations were complete; and, on the eleventh
of April, the coronation took place. In some things it differed from
ordinary coronations. The representatives of the people attended the
ceremony in a body, and were sumptuously feasted in the Exchequer
Chamber. Mary, being not merely Queen Consort, but also Queen Regnant,
was inaugurated in all things like a King, was girt with the sword,
lifted up into the throne, and presented with the Bible, the spurs, and
the orb. Of the temporal grandees of the realm, and of their wives and
daughters, the muster was great and splendid. None could be surprised
that the Whig aristocracy should swell the triumph of Whig principles.
But the Jacobites saw, with concern, that many Lords who had voted for a
Regency bore a conspicuous part in the ceremonial. The King's crown
was carried by Grafton, the Queen's by Somerset. The pointed sword,
emblematical of temporal justice, was borne by Pembroke. Ormond was Lord
High Constable for the day, and rode up the Hall on the right hand
of the hereditary champion, who thrice flung down his glove on the
pavement, and thrice defied to mortal combat the false traitor who
should gainsay the title of William and Mary. Among the noble damsels
who supported the gorgeous train of the Queen was her beautiful and
gentle cousin, the Lady Henrietta Hyde, whose father, Rochester, had
to the last contended against the resolution which declared the throne
vacant, [102] The show of Bishops, indeed, was scanty. The Primate did
not make his appearance; and his place was supplied by Compton. On one
side of Compton, the paten was carried by Lloyd, Bishop of Saint Asaph,
eminent among the seven confessors of the preceding year. On the
other side, Sprat, Bishop of Rochester, lately a member of the High
Commission, had charge of the chalice. Burnet, the junior prelate,
preached with all his wonted ability, and more than his wonted taste
and judgment. His grave and eloquent discourse was polluted neither by
adulation nor by malignity. He is said to have been greatly applauded;
and it may well be believed that the animated peroration in which he
implored heaven to bless the royal pair with long life and mutual love,
with obedient subjects, wise counsellors, and faithful allies, with
gallant fleets and armies, with victory, with peace, and finally with
crowns more glorious and more durable than those which then glittered
on the