e gilded carriage and smiled and glanced with tight lips and
clear eyes. She was like some emblematic giant, moving in a processional
car, as fantastic as itself, dominant and serene above the heads of the
maddened crowds, on to some mysterious destiny. A sovereign, however
personally inglorious, has such a dignity in some measure; and Elizabeth
added to this an exceptional majesty of her own. Henry would not have
been ashamed for this daughter of his. What wonder then that these crowds
were delirious with love and loyalty and an exultant fear, as this
overwhelming personality went by:--this pale-faced tranquil virgin Queen,
passionate, wanton, outspoken and absolutely fearless; with a sufficient
reserve of will to be fickle without weakness; and sufficient grasp of
her aims to be indifferent to her policy; untouched by vital religion;
financially shrewd; inordinately vain. And when this strange dominant
creature, royal by character as by birth, as strong as her father and as
wanton as her mother, sat in ermine and velvet and pearls in a royal
carriage, with shrewd-faced wits, and bright-eyed lovers, and solemn
statesmen, and great nobles, vacuous and gallant, glittering and jingling
before her; and troops of tall ladies in ruff and crimson mantle riding
on white horses behind; and when the fanfares went shattering down the
street, vibrating through the continuous roar of the crowd and the shrill
cries of children and the mellow thunder of church-bells rocking
overhead, and the endless tramp of a thousand feet below; and when the
whole was framed in this fantastic twisted street, blazing with
tapestries and arched with gables and banners, all bathed in glory by the
clear frosty sunshine--it is little wonder that for a few minutes at
least this country boy felt that here at last was the incarnation of his
dreams; and that his heart should exult, with an enthusiasm he could not
interpret, for the cause of a people who could produce such a queen, and
of a queen who could rule such a people; and that his imagination should
be fired with a sudden sense that these were causes for which the
sacrifice of a life would be counted cheap, if they might thereby be
furthered.

Yet, in this very moment, by one of those mysterious suggestions that
rise from the depth of a soul, the image sprang into his mind, and poised
itself there for an instant, of the grey-haired man who had passed half
an hour ago, sobbing and shrinking at the cart