him his bride.

[Illustration: Ancient Portrait of Queen Margaret.]

[Sidenote: Repair of the palaces.]

[Sidenote: The king's want of money.]

Margaret was thus left to herself in the new station and new sphere of
duty to which she had been transferred. All the royal palaces had
been fitted up expressly for her reception. This was very necessary in
fact, for some years had elapsed since there had been a queen in
England, and all the royal residences had become very much out of
repair. Those were rude times, and even the palaces and castles that
were built for kings and queens were at best very comfortless
dwellings. But when, during a long minority, they were abandoned to
the rude tenants and rough usages to which at such times they were
sure to be devoted, they came, in the end, to be little better than so
many barracks for soldiery. It required a great deal of time, and no
little expense, to prepare the Tower and the palaces of Westminster
and Richmond for the reception of a young and beautiful queen, and of
the gay company of ladies that were to attend her. King Henry was so
destitute of money at this time that he found it extremely difficult
to provide the means of paying the workmen. There is still extant a
petition which the clerk of the works sent in to the king, praying him
to supply him with more money to pay the men, for the labor was so
poorly paid, and the wages were so much in arrears, that it was
extremely difficult for him to find men, he said, to go on with the
work.

[Sidenote: The queen attaches herself to Cardinal Beaufort.]

[Sidenote: Jealousy of Gloucester.]

The palaces were, however, at last made ready before Margaret came.
There were apartments for her in the Tower, and there were also three
other palaces in and near London, in either of which she could reside
at her pleasure. Besides this, the cardinal, who, as has already been
remarked, was possessed of immense wealth, owned, among his other
establishments, a beautiful mansion at Waltham Forest, a few miles
north of London. The cardinal set apart a state chamber in this house
for the exclusive use of the queen when she came to visit him, and
caused it to be fitted up and furnished in a magnificent manner for
her. The drapery of the bed was of cloth of gold from Damascus, and
the other furniture and fittings were to correspond. The queen used
often to go and visit the cardinal at this country seat. She soon
became very fond of him, an