se, produced universal excitement. No certain tidings
of the movements of the bride had been heard for some weeks before,
and no one could tell when to expect her. Her arrival awakened
universal joy. Parliament was in session at the time. They voted a
large sum of money to be expended in arrangements for receiving the
young queen in a proper manner, and in public rejoicings on the
occasion. They then immediately adjourned, and all the world began to
prepare for the arrival of the royal cortege in London.

The princess, after resting a day in Dover, moved on to Canterbury,
admiring, as she journeyed, the beautiful scenery of the country over
which she was henceforth to be queen. Richard's uncle Thomas, the Duke
of Gloucester, with a large retinue, was ready there to receive her.
He conducted her to London. As they approached the city, the
lord-mayor of London and all the great civic functionaries, with a
long train of attendants, came out in great state to receive her and
escort her into town. The place of their meeting with her was
Blackheath, the same place which a year before had been the bivouac of
the immense horde of ragged and miserable men that Wat Tyler and his
fellow-insurgents had brought to London. But how changed now was the
scene! Then the country was excited by the deepest anxiety and alarm,
and the spectacle on the field was that of one immense mass of squalid
poverty and wretchedness, of misery reduced by hopeless suffering to
recklessness and despair. Now all was gayety and splendor in the
spectacle, and the whole country was excited to the highest pitch of
exultation and joy.

At Blackheath the grand cavalcade was formed for passing through
London. Splendid preparations had been made in London to receive the
bride, and to do honor to her passage through the city. Many of these
preparations were similar to those which had been made on the occasion
of the king's coronation. There was a castle and tower, with young
girls at the top throwing down a shower of golden snow, and fountains
at the sides flowing with wine, with fancifully-dressed pages
attending to offer the princess drink from golden cups. In a word, the
young and beautiful bride was received by the civic authorities of
London with the same tokens of honor and the same public rejoicings
that had been accorded to the king.

In a few days the marriage took place. The ceremony was performed in
the chapel royal of the king's palace at Westminster