hat the Venetian had announced to his majesty that his republic had
ordered his men new liveries on the occasion, an honour, he adds, not
usual with princes--the Spanish ambassador, not finding himself well for
the first day (because, by the way, he did not care to dispute
precedence with the Frenchman), his majesty conceiving that the
solemnity of the marriage being one continued act through divers days,
it admitted neither _prius_ nor _posterius_: and then James proves too
much, by boldly asserting, that the _last day_ should be taken for the
_greatest day!_--as in other cases, for instance in that of Christmas,
where Twelfth-day, the last day, is held as the greatest.

But the French and Venetian ambassadors, so envied by the Spanish and
the archduke's, were themselves not less chary, and crustily fastidious.
The insolent Frenchman first attempted to take precedence of the Prince
of Wales; and the Venetian stood upon this point, that they should sit
on chairs, though the prince had but a stool; and, particularly, that
the carver should not stand before him. "But," adds Sir John, "neither
of them prevailed in their reasonless pretences."

Nor was it peaceable even at the nuptial dinner, which closed with the
following catastrophe of etiquette:--

Sir John having ushered among the countesses the lady of the French
ambassador, he left her to the ranging of the lord chamberlain, who
ordered she should be placed at the table next beneath the countesses,
and above the baronesses. But lo! "The Viscountess of Effingham
standing to her _woman's right_, and possessed already of her proper
place (as she called it), would not remove lower, so _held the hand_ of
the ambassadrice, till after dinner, when the French ambassador,
informed of the difference and opposition, called out for his wife's
coach!" With great trouble, the French lady was persuaded to stay, the
Countess of Kildare and the Viscountess of Haddington making no scruple
of yielding their places. Sir John, unbending his gravity, facetiously
adds, "The Lady of Effingham, in the interim, forbearing (with rather
too much than little stomach) both her supper and her company." This
spoilt child of quality, tugging at the French ambassadress to keep her
down, mortified to be seated at the side of the Frenchwoman that day,
frowning and frowned on, and going supperless to bed, passed the
wedding-day of the Palatine and Princess Elizabeth like a cross girl on
a form.

One