were permitted at Saint Paul's.
Some from dislike of the Bible-reading, a few from honest kindly
feeling towards the reader, managed to take care that the lectern was
otherwise occupied, during the hour which alone John Laurence could
usually spare from other duties.

At last King Philip landed in England, and his meeting and marriage with
the Queen took place at Winchester. The City and suburbs blazed with
bonfires, and rang with bells; the _Te Deum_ was chanted in every
church; the utmost delight had to be felt, or at any rate professed, by
all who did not wish to be reported as disaffected persons. On the
twelfth of August, the royal bride and bridegroom made their state entry
into London. A heretic had been burnt at Uxbridge four days previous.

Every house in Cow Lane, imitating every other street in London, poured
forth its members to see the procession. The good folks locked their
doors, and left their houses to take care of themselves. Agnes, who
liked a pretty sight as well as other people, had taken her stand with
the crowd, and was looking out with interest as the first of the
advancing horsemen who opened the procession became visible, when
suddenly she felt a hand upon her own. She looked up into the welcome
face of John Laurence.

"Art come to see the sight, John?" she asked with a smile.

"I am come to see two sights," said he, returning it,--but his smiles
were always grave. "To wit, the King's and Queen's Graces of the one
hand, and Agnes Stone of the other. Hast a mind for a walk toward the
Clerks' Well, when all be gone by?"

"With a very good will," she answered.

But the pageant was coming past now, and they exchanged the use of their
tongues for that of their eyes. It was entirely equestrian, and came
over London Bridge, from Suffolk Place, where the King and Queen had
passed the night. Our friends were not prepossessed by the royal
bridegroom, whose low stature, want of beauty, and gloomy expression,
struck them in the same light that they did most Englishmen, as denoting
neither grace nor graciousness. Only two persons are recorded ever to
have loved Philip--Queen Mary herself, and her successor, the fair and
sagacious Elizabeth of France.

Just opposite the place where Agnes and the Friar stood was an
allegorical group, of which one painted figure, supposed to be Henry the
Eighth, was holding out to the Queen an open Bible, inscribed with the
words _Verbum Dei_. But before n