camino di quaranta miglia
fatto con extraordinaria prestezza.--_Epist._ Reg.
Pol. vol. v.]

The November evening had closed in when the cavalcade entered
Canterbury. The streets were thronged, and the legate made his way
through the crowd, amidst the cries of "God save your grace." At the
door of the house--probably the archbishop's palace--where he was to
pass the night, Harpsfeld, the archdeacon, was standing to receive
him, with a number of the clergy; and with the glare of torches
lighting up the scene, Harpsfeld commenced an oration as the legate
alighted, so beautiful, so affecting, says Pole's Italian friend, that
all the hearers were moved to tears. The archdeacon spoke of the
mercies of God, and the marvellous workings of his providence. He
dwelt upon the history of the cardinal, whom God had preserved through
a thousand dangers for the salvation of his country; and, firing up at
last in a blaze of enthusiasm, he {p.164} exclaimed, "Thou art Pole,
and thou art our Polar star, to light us to the kingdom of the
heavens. Sky, rivers, earth, these disfigured walls--all things--long
for thee. While thou wert absent from us all things were sad, all
things were in the power of the adversary. At thy coming all things
are smiling, all glad, all tranquil."[388] The legate listened so far,
and then checked the flood of the adoring eloquence. "I heard you with
pleasure," he said, "while you were praising God. My own praises I do
not desire to hear. Give the glory to Him."

[Footnote 388: "Tu es Polus, qui aperis nobis Polum
regni caelorum. Aer, flumina, terra, parietes ipsi,
omnia denique te desiderant. Quamdiu abfuisti omnia
fuerunt tristia et adversa. In adventu tuo, omnia
rident, omnia laeta, omnia tranquilla." I have
endeavoured to preserve the play on the word Polus,
altering the meaning as little as the necessities
of translation would allow. It has been suggested
to me that the word "parietes" implies properly
_internal_ walls, and the allusion was to the
defacement of the cathedral.]

From Canterbury, Richard Pate, who, as titular Bishop of Worcester,
had sat at the council of Trent, was sent forward to the queen with an
answer to her letter, and a request for further