er than a handsomely-painted cart. It had no
springs, and travelling in it must have been a trying process. But the
horses bore superb silken housings, and the very bits were gilt. [Note
2.] Ten strong men in the royal livery walked, five on each side of the
char; and their office, which was to keep it upright in the miry
tracks--roads they were not--was by no means a sinecure.

The royal lady, seated on a Gothic chair which made the permanent seat
of the char, being fixed to it, was one of the most remarkable women who
have ever reigned in England. If a passage of Scripture illustrative of
the life and character were to be selected to append to the statue of
each of our kings and queens, there would be little difficulty in the
choice to be made for Eleonore of Aquitaine. "Whatsoever a man soweth,
that shall he also reap." She sowed the wind, and she reaped the
whirlwind. A youth of the wildest giddiness was succeeded by a middle
life of suffering and hardship, and both ended in an old age of
desolation.

But when Eleonore rode in that spring noon-day at the East Gate of
Oxford, the reaping-time was not yet. The headstrong giddiness was a
little toned down, but the terrible retribution had not begun.

The Queen's contemporaries are eloquent as to her wondrous loveliness
and her marvellous accomplishments. "Beauty possessed both her mind and
body," says one writer who lived in the days of her grandson, while
another expatiates on her "_clairs et verds yeux_," and a third on her
"exquisite mouth, and the most splendid eyes in the world." Her Majesty
was attired with equal stateliness and simplicity, for that was not an
era of superb or extravagant dress. A close gown with tight sleeves was
surmounted by a pelisse, the sleeves of which were very wide and full,
and the fur trimming showed the high rank of the wearer. A long white
veil came over her head, and fell around her, kept in its place by a
jewelled fillet. The gemmed collar of gold at the neck, and the thick
leather gloves (with no partitions for the fingers) heavily embroidered
on the back, were also indicative of regal rank.

The Queen's char stopped just within the gate, so that our friends had
an excellent view of her. She greeted the Earl and Countess of Oxford
with a genial grace, which she well knew how to assume; gave her hand to
be kissed to a small selection of the highest officials, and then the
char passed on, and the sight was over.