day, but with a face which even sickliness, that refines most faces,
could not divest of the most vacant dulness, and a mien and gait to
which no attire could give dignity, passed through the group, bowing
awkwardly to the right and left, and saying, in a thick, husky voice,
"You are too good, sirs,--too good: I must not presume so overmuch on my
seignorie. The king would keep me,--he would indeed, sirs; um--um--why,
Katherine--dame--thy stiff gorget makes me ashamed of thee. Thou wouldst
not think, Lord Hastings, that Katherine had a white skin,--a parlous
white skin. La, you now, fie on these mufflers!" The courtiers sneered;
Hastings, with a look of malignant and pitiless triumph, eyed the
Lady of Bonville. For a moment the colour went and came across her
transparent cheek; but the confusion passed, and returning the insulting
gaze of her ancient lover with an eye of unspeakable majesty, she placed
her arm upon her lord's, and saying calmly, "An English matron cares but
to be fair in her husband's eyes," drew him away; and the words and
the manner of the lady were so dignified and simple, that the courtiers
hushed their laughter, and for the moment the lord of such a woman was
not only envied but respected.

While this scene had passed, the procession preceding Edward had
filed into the garden in long and stately order. From another entrance
Elizabeth, the Princess Margaret, and the Duchess of Bedford, with their
trains, had already issued, and were now ranged upon a flight of marble
steps, backed by a columned alcove, hung with velvet striped into the
royal baudekin, while the stairs themselves were covered with leathern
carpets, powdered with the white rose and the fleur de lis; either side
lined by the bearers of the many banners of Edward, displaying the white
lion of March, the black bull of Clare, the cross of Jerusalem, the
dragon of Arragon, and the rising sun, which he had assumed as his
peculiar war-badge since the battle of Mortimer's Cross. Again, and
louder, came the flourish of music; and a murmur through the crowd,
succeeded by deep silence, announced the entrance of the king. He
appeared, leading by the hand the Count de la Roche, and followed by the
Lords Scales, Rivers, Dorset, and the Duke of Clarence. All eyes were
bent upon the count, and though seen to disadvantage by the side of
the comeliest and stateliest and most gorgeously-attired prince in
Christendom, his high forehead, bright sagacious e