when people dared not speak
above a breath of what might be happening in the Tower, that the corpse
of Henry VI. was borne through Cheapside to St. Paul's, barefaced, on a
bier, so that all might see it, though it was surrounded by more brown
bills and glaives than torches.

By-and-by, after the fierce retribution of Bosworth, came the Tudors,
culminating and ending with Elizabeth.

As Elizabeth of York (Henry VII.'s consort) went from the Tower to
Westminster to be crowned, the citizens hung velvets and cloth of gold
from the windows in Chepe, and stationed children, dressed like angels,
to sing praises to the Queen as she passed by. When the Queen's corpse
was conveyed from the Tower, where she died, in Cheapside were stationed
thirty-seven virgins, the number corresponding with the Queen's age, all
dressed in white, wearing chaplets of white and green, and bearing
lighted tapers.

As Anne Boleyn, during her short felicity, proceeded from the Tower to
Westminster, on the eve of her coronation, the conduit of Cheapside ran,
at one end white wine, and at the other red. At Cheapside Cross stood
all the aldermen, from amongst whom advanced Master Walter, the City
Recorder, who presented the Queen with a purse, containing a thousand
marks of gold, which she very thankfully accepted, with many goodly
words. At the Little Conduit of Cheapside was a rich pageant, full of
melody and song, where Pallas, Venus, and Juno gave the Queen an apple
of gold, divided into three compartments, typifying wisdom, riches, and
felicity.

When Queen Elizabeth, young, happy and regal, proceeded through the City
the day before her coronation, as she passed through Cheapside, she
smiled; and being asked the reason, she replied, "Because I have just
heard one say in the crowd, 'I remember old King Harry the Eighth.'"
When she came to the grand allegory of Time and Truth, at the Little
Conduit, in Cheapside, she asked, who an old man was that sat with his
scythe and hour-glass. She was told "Time." "Time?" she repeated; "and
Time has brought me here!"

In this pageant she spied that Truth held a Bible, in English, ready for
presentation to her; and she bade Sir John Perrot (the knight nearest to
her, who held up her canopy, and a kinsman, afterwards beheaded) to step
forward and receive it for her; but she was informed such was not the
regular manner of presentation, for it was to be let down into her
chariot by a silken string. She therefo