silent and deserted;
and the strollers whom we met, tired of gazing upon gayer figures,
scarcely honoured us with a passing look, although, at any other time,
we should, among these vulgar suburbs, have attracted a troublesome
share of observation. We crossed at length a broad street, where many
soldiers were on guard, while others, exhausted with previous duty, were
eating, drinking, smoking, and sleeping beside their piled arms.

'"One day, Nixon," whispered my uncle, "we will make these redcoated
gentry stand to their muskets more watchfully."

'"Or it will be the worse for them," answered his attendant, in a voice
as unpleasant as his physiognomy.

'Unquestioned and unchallenged by any one, we crossed among the guards;
and Nixon tapped thrice at a small postern door in a huge ancient
building, which was straight before us. It opened, and we entered
without my perceiving by whom we were admitted. A few dark and narrow
passages at length conveyed us into an immense Gothic hall, the
magnificence of which baffles my powers of description.

'It was illuminated by ten thousand wax lights, whose splendour at first
dazzled my eyes, coming as we did from these dark and secret avenues.
But when my sight began to become steady, how shall I describe what
I beheld? Beneath were huge ranges of tables, occupied by princes and
nobles in their robes of state--high officers of the crown, wearing
their dresses and badges of authority--reverend prelates and judges, the
sages of the church and law, in their more sombre, yet not less awful
robes--with others whose antique and striking costume announced their
importance, though I could not even guess who they might be. But at
length the truth burst on me at once--it was, and the murmurs around
confirmed it, the Coronation Feast. At a table above the rest, and
extending across the upper end of the hall, sat enthroned the youthful
sovereign himself, surrounded by the princes of the blood, and other
dignitaries, and receiving the suit and homage of his subjects. Heralds
and pursuivants, blazing in their fantastic yet splendid armorial
habits, and pages of honour, gorgeously arrayed in the garb of other
days, waited upon the princely banqueters. In the galleries with which
this spacious hall was surrounded, shone all, and more than all, that
my poor imagination could conceive, of what was brilliant in riches, or
captivating in beauty. Countless rows of ladies, whose diamonds, jewels,
and