idge had heard the uproar from afar, and swarmed
down upon us in a flood, so that had we not held our own stoutly, we
should have been driven back upon the royal huntress herself.

"Stand, if you be men, and fall in after us!" I shouted.

"Ho! ho!" answered they; "since when was the printer's devil outside the
Bar made mayor of our town? Follow you us."

It was not a time for bandying words. From behind us came a shout,
"Pass on, pass on; room for the Queen!" And at the word we charged
forward, shoulder to shoulder, and brushed those unmannerly mercers and
barber-surgeons aside as a torrent the nettles that grow on its bank.
Let them follow as they list. The Queen went hunting to-day, and was
not to be kept standing for a score of London Bridges, if we knew it.

After that we passed shouting up the Cornhill, and so on to the Bishop's
Gate, where at length we halted and made a lane in our midst for her
Majesty to ride through.

Never, I think, did monarch ride down a prouder road than that, walled
four-deep for the length of two furlongs by youths who would fain have
spilt their blood twice over to do her service, and who, since that was
denied them, flung their shouts to heaven as she passed, and waved their
caps club-high. I think, in truth, she needed no telling what kind of
road it was, for as she cantered by her face was flushed and joyous, her
head was erect, and the hand she waved clenched on the little whip, as
though she grasped her people's hand. Then in a moment she was gone.

Thus for the first and only time did I set eyes on the great maiden
Queen; and when all was over, and the clattering hoofs and yelping
hounds and winding horns were lost in the distance, I came to myself and
found I was both hungry and athirst.

The crowd melted away. Some returned the way they had come: some slunk
back to their deserted shops: I to Finsbury Fields. For I accounted it
a crime that day to work--I would as soon have set up types on Lord
Mayor's Day. This day belonged to her Majesty, and I would e'en spend
it in her service, wrestling and leaping in the meadows, and training my
body to deeds of valour against her foes.

So I called on my clubs to follow me, and they came, and many besides;
for those who might not see the Queen hunt might see her loyal citizens
jump; and on a day like this it was odds if the nimblest 'prentices in
all London were not there to make good sport.

Therefore we straggled in a l