nancial Court, Jean Auber; and the President of Parliament, Jean de
Brinon. By three o'clock these gentlemen joined the royal cortege and
advanced towards Rouen itself, being met at the bridge by the Town
Councillors bearing above the King's head a great and spacious canopy
of cloth of gold, the highest mark of honour that the town could
render.

Before His Majesty rode the "Grand Ecuyer," Galeas de Severin, bearing
the sword of state on a great white horse. On his right was Cardinal
de Boisy, brother of Admiral Bonivet, and on his left Cardinal Antoine
Bohier, the nephew of Chancellor Duprat. Next to the King was Monsieur
d'Alencon, whose powers as Lieutenant-Governor of Normandy were
wielded by d'Amboise during his absence at the Italian wars. Behind
him came Charles de Bourbon the Constable, who was to die as a rebel
in Rome two years later. With them were John Stuart, Duke of Albany,
nephew of James III. of Scotland; the Comte de St. Pol; Louis de la
Tremouille, the most brilliant knight of his time; Maximilian Sforza,
the eldest son of that Il Moro who had been imprisoned in the dungeons
of Loches; Jacques de Chabannes; Anne de Montmorency, who had been one
of the King's playfellows and grew up into the sternest Constable
France ever had; Guillaume, Sieur de St. Vallier, the father of Diane
de Poitiers, who also learnt the horrors of Loches for his share in
Bourbon's wild conspiracy; the second Georges d'Amboise, himself
Archbishop of Rouen, with their Lordships of Lisieux, Avranches,
Evreux, and Paris; Antoine Duprat, the Chancellor; and Florimond
Robertet, the King's Treasurer, whose house is still at Blois.

Men were thinking little of the future of this brilliant company as
they passed through Rouen in the summer sunshine, and even on the
south side of the river the welcoming pageantry began. For at the
first "theatre" the King beheld a great Fleur de Lys, which opened and
slowly displayed three damsels representing the virtues of His
Majesty, of the Queen, and of Madame la Regente. The stream itself, on
each side of the bridge, was gay with the flags and sails of every
craft along the quays. Beyond it was a group of Titans, thunderstruck
by Jupiter amid the stupor of the other gods in a dismayed Olympus.
The next stage showed Theseus welcomed by Thalia, Euphrosyne and
Aglaia, who led the hero to Pallas to receive from her the shield of
Prudence, and take his place among the starry divinities. Need it be
adde