Here Richard kneeled while prayers were said and the
Litany was sung by the priests. His barons and nobles, and the great
officers of state, kneeled around him. After the prayers were over, he
was conducted to an elevated seat, which was richly decorated with
carvings and gold.

A bishop then ascended to a pulpit built against one of the vast
Gothic columns of the church, and preached a sermon. The sermon was on
the subject of the duty of a king; explaining how a king ought to
conduct himself in the government of his people, and enjoining upon
the people, too, the duty of being faithful and obedient to their
king.

Richard paid little attention to this sermon, being already tired of
the scene. He was, moreover, bewildered by the multitude of people
crowded into the church, and all gazing intently and continually upon
him. There were bishops and priests in their sacerdotal robes of
crimson and gold, and knights and nobles brilliant with nodding plumes
and glittering armor of steel. When the sermon was finished, the oath
was administered to Richard. It was read by the archbishop, Richard
assenting to it when it was read. As soon as the oath had thus been
administered, the archbishop, turning in succession to each quarter of
the church, repeated the oath in a loud voice to the people, four
times in all, and called upon those whom he successively addressed to
ask whether they would submit to Richard as their king. The people on
each side, as he thus addressed them in turn, answered, with a loud
voice, that they would obey him. This ceremony being ended, the
archbishop turned again toward Richard, pronounced certain additional
prayers, and then gave him his benediction.

The ceremony of anointing came next. The archbishop advanced to
Richard and began to take off the robes in which he was attired. At
the same time, four earls held over and around him, as a sort of
screen, a coverture, as it was called, of cloth of gold. Richard
remained under this coverture while he was anointed. The archbishop
took off nearly all his clothes, and then anointed him with the holy
oil. He applied the oil to his head, his breast, his shoulders, and
the joints of his arms, repeating, as he did so, certain prayers. The
choir, in the mean time, chanted a portion of the Scriptures relating
to the anointing of King Solomon. When the oil had been applied, the
archbishop put upon the king a long robe, and directed him to kneel.
Richard accordingl