r arrived. The season and the weather were favourable. From the
port where they landed to their arrival at the metropolis, the whole
country seemed poured out into the open air; triumphal arches, a way
of flags and banners, and bits of bunting on every hovel. The King and
Queen were received at the metropolitan station by Princes of the blood,
and accompanied to the palace, where the great officers of state and
the assembled ministry were gathered together to do them honour. A great
strain was thrown upon Endymion throughout these proceedings, as the
Prime Minister, who had been suffering the whole season, and rarely
present in his seat in parliament, was, at this moment, in his worst
paroxysm. He could not therefore be present at the series of balls
and banquets, and brilliant public functions, which greeted the royal
guests. Their visit to the City, when they dined with the Lord Mayor,
and to which they drove in royal carriages through a sea of population
tumultuous with devotion, was the most gratifying of all these splendid
receptions, partly from the associations of mysterious power and
magnificence connected with the title and character of LORD MAYOR.
The Duke of St. Angelo, the Marquis of Vallombrosa, and the Prince of
Montserrat, quite lost their presence of mind. Even the Princess of
Montserrat, with more quarterings on her own side than any house in
Europe, confessed that she trembled when Her Serene Highness courtesied
before the Lady Mayoress. Perhaps, however, the most brilliant, the most
fanciful, infinitely the most costly entertainment that was given on
this memorable occasion, was the festival at Hainault. The whole route
from town to the forest was lined with thousands, perhaps hundreds
of thousands, of spectators; a thousand guests were received at the
banquet, and twelve palaces were raised by that true magician, Mr.
Benjamin Edgington, in the park, for the countless visitors in the
evening. At night the forest was illuminated. Everybody was glad except
Lady Hainault, who sighed, and said, "I have no doubt the Queen would
have preferred her own room, and that we should have had a quiet dinner,
as in old days, in the little Venetian parlour."

When Endymion returned home at night, he found a summons to Gaydene; the
Prime Minister being, it was feared, in a dangerous state.

The next day, late in the afternoon, there was a rumour that the Prime
Minister had resigned. Then it was authoritatively contrad