endid that had been known for many years. From
Windsor he went on the sixteenth of August to Portsmouth, walked round
the fortifications, touched some scrofulous people, and then proceeded
in one of his yachts to Southampton. From Southampton he travelled to
Bath, where he remained a few days, and where he left the Queen. When he
departed, he was attended by the High Sheriff of Somersetshire and by
a large body of gentlemen to the frontier of the county, where the High
Sheriff of Gloucestershire, with a not less splendid retinue, was
in attendance. The Duke of Beaufort soon met the royal coaches, and
conducted them to Badminton, where a banquet worthy of the fame which
his splendid housekeeping had won for him was prepared. In the afternoon
the cavalcade proceeded to Gloucester. It was greeted two miles from the
city by the Bishop and clergy. At the South Gate the Mayor waited with
the keys. The bells rang and the conduits flowed with wine as the King
passed through the streets to the close which encircles the venerable
Cathedral. He lay that night at the deanery, and on the following
morning set out for Worcester. From Worcester he went to Ludlow,
Shrewsbury, and Chester, and was everywhere received with outward signs
of joy and respect, which he was weak enough to consider as proofs that
the discontent excited by his measures had subsided, and that an easy
Victory was before him. Barillon, more sagacious, informed Lewis that
the King of England was under a delusion that the progress had done
no real good, and that those very gentlemen of Worcestershire and
Shropshire who had thought it their duty to receive their Sovereign and
their guest with every mark of honour would be found as refractory as
ever when the question of the test should come on. [293]

On the road the royal train was joined by two courtiers who in temper
and opinions differed widely from each other. Penn was at Chester on
a pastoral tour. His popularity and authority among his brethren had
greatly declined since he had become a tool of the King and of the
Jesuits. [294] He was, however, most graciously received by James, and,
on the Sunday, was permitted to harangue in the tennis court, while
Cartwright preached in the Cathedral, and while the King heard mass at
an altar which had been decked in the Shire Hall. It is said, indeed,
that His Majesty deigned to look into the tennis court and to listen
with decency to his friend's melodious eloquence. [295