greatest part of our nobility and gentry were of the King's party,
but many of them likewise were of the Parliament's party; and I, who am
sent to wait upon your Majesty, can, without vanity, derive to myself an
ancient pedigree of a gentleman. They would not have given the honour to
any but a gentleman to kiss your Majesty's hand, and you are pleased to
do your servant right, and his company, by acknowledging that our
superiors have commanded gentlemen to wait on you.

_Qu._ I assure you that I esteem it the greater honour done to me, and
you are the more welcome to me because you are a gentleman; and had I not
known and found you to be so, your business would not have been so well
despatched as it is. I see you have all the qualities of a gentleman, and
I believe that you were excellent in your music and dancing in your
younger days.

_Wh._ I was bred up in the qualities of a gentleman, and in my youth was
accounted not inferior to others in the practice of them; but it is so
long since I used this of dancing, especially after we learned to march,
that had it not been to obey your Majesty, I should hardly have been
drawn to discover my deficiencies.

_Qu._ You have discovered nothing but what tends to your honour and to
my contentment; and I take it as a favour that you were willing to lay
aside your gravity and play the courtier upon my request, which I see you
can do so well when you please.

After the dancing ended, there was brought into the hall a sumptuous
banquet, the Hof-Marshal with his silver staff ushering it, and after
that distributed. The Queen and all the company went back in the same
order to the presence-chamber, and there the Queen bid the bride and
bridegroom good-night, and so all went to their lodgings, divers of the
nobles waiting on the bride to her chamber.

The Queen told Whitelocke that she believed the Prince would be here on
Tuesday next, and that Whitelocke should have his audience on Friday
next. Whitelocke took his coach, after it had waited nine hours at the
castle.

_May 11, 1654._

[SN: The abdication of Queen Christina.]

Early in the morning the master of the ceremonies came to accompany
Whitelocke to the castle, to see the manner of the assembly of the
Ricksdag, and brought him and his company to the castle to an upper room
or gallery, where he sat privately, not taken notice of by any, yet had
the full view of the great hall where the Ricksdag met, and heard what
was