riously set out with cedar, gold, jewels, &c., as he said of
Cleopatra's palace in Egypt,--[3258]_Crassumque trabes absconderat aurum_,
that the beholders were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some pageant or
sight go by, as at coronations, weddings, and such like solemnities, to see
an ambassador or a prince met, received, entertained with masks, shows,
fireworks, &c. To see two kings fight in single combat, as Porus and
Alexander; Canute and Edmund Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa the Turk;
when not honour alone but life itself is at stake, as the [3259]poet of
Hector,

------"nec enim pro tergore Tauri,
Pro bove nec certamen erat, quae praemia cursus
Esse solent, sed pro magni viraque animaque--Hectoris."

To behold a battle fought, like that of Crecy, or Agincourt, or Poitiers,
_qua nescio_ (saith Froissart) _an vetustas ullam proferre possit
clariorem_. To see one of Caesar's triumphs in old Rome revived, or the
like. To be present at an interview, [3260]as that famous of Henry the
Eighth and Francis the First, so much renowned all over Europe; _ubi tanto
apparatu_ (saith Hubertus Veillius) _tamque triumphali pompa ambo reges com
eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla unquam aetas tam celebria festa viderit
aut audieriti_, no age ever saw the like. So infinitely pleasant are such
shows, to the sight of which oftentimes they will come hundreds of miles,
give any money for a place, and remember many years after with singular
delight. Bodine, when he was ambassador in England, said he saw the
noblemen go in their robes to the parliament house, _summa cum jucunditate
vidimus_, he was much affected with the sight of it. Pomponius Columna,
saith Jovius in his life, saw thirteen Frenchmen, and so many Italians,
once fight for a whole army: _Quod jucundissimum spectaculum in vita dicit
sua_, the pleasantest sight that ever he saw in his life. Who would not
have been affected with such a spectacle? Or that single combat of [3261]
Breaute the Frenchman, and Anthony Schets a Dutchman, before the walls of
Sylvaducis in Brabant, anno 1600. They were twenty-two horse on the one
side, as many on the other, which like Livy's Horatii, Torquati and Corvini
fought for their own glory and country's honour, in the sight and view of
their whole city and army. [3262]When Julius Caesar warred about the banks
of Rhone, there came a barbarian prince to see him and the Roman army, and
when he had beheld Caesar a good