there was clotted cream; and of
course there was junket. There were apple puffs, and syllabubs, and
half-a-dozen different kinds of preserves. In the place which is now
occupied by the tea-pot was a gallon of sack, flanked by a flagon of
Gascon wine; beside which stood large jugs of new milk and home-brewed
ale. One thing at least was evident, there was no fear of starvation.
When the ladies had finished a little private conference, and all the
party were gathered round the table, Mr Tremayne was requested to open
his budget of news.

It was glad news for the Gospellers, for the grand item which in their
eyes overwhelmed every other, was that Bishop Gardiner had left Court--
not exactly in disgrace, yet with a tacit understanding that his stay
was no longer welcome--and that the King's uncle, the Earl of Hertford,
now created Duke of Somerset, was placed at the head of public affairs.
Somerset was a Lutheran, but just emerging from the twilight of
Lutheranism into the full Gospel day.

After the great subject came the smaller ones. The knighting of the
young King by his uncle Somerset; the creation of a large batch of
peers,--Somerset himself and his brother, the brother of Queen Katherine
(made Marquis of Northampton), the half-brother of Lady Frances Basset
(created Earl of Warwick), and Wriothesley the persecutor, who was made
Earl of Southampton. These were only a few of the number, but of them
we shall hear again. Then came the account of the coronation on Shrove
Sunday: how that grave, blue-eyed child of nine years old, had been
crowned and anointed in the venerable Abbey, by Archbishop Cranmer, in
the presence of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal; and how he had sat in
the throne at the coronation-feast in the Hall, with the crown of
England on the little head, and all the nobles at separate tables below.
[Note 10.] And throughout England rang the cry, "God bless him!" for
England's hope was all in God and him.

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Note 1. Arabella; originally spelt Orabele or Orabilia, now Arbel or
Arbella.

Note 2. Constance, at this time pronounced Custance.

Note 3. The members of the Tremayne family are imaginary persons.

Note 4. A fictitious character.

Note 5. The lost adjective of _compassion_.

Note 6. "A Litel Geste of Robyn Hode."

Note 7. "Scarborough warning--a word and a blow, and the blow come
first."--Then a very popul