beth passed from the Tower to the Abbey. The
women flung flowers into her lap, groups of children sang welcomes, even
old men wept for gladness. The Bishop of Carlisle crowned the Queen.

James I. was crowned in the time of the Plague, so there was no
procession. There was a slight hitch because his wife refused the
sacrament. She had "changed once from Lutheran to Presbyterian, and that
was enough." The coronation of Charles I. was marked by a slight
earthquake shock. This was not the only bad omen. The dove of gold on
the staff of Edward the Confessor had been broken, none knew how, and
had to be replaced. Oliver Cromwell did not venture on a ceremony in the
Abbey; he was enthroned, as I have already said, in Westminster Hall.

At the Restoration, Charles II. was crowned "with the greatest solemnity
and glory," as the old historian says. The Regalia was all new, to
replace that which had been lost during the Commonwealth. The crown was
placed on the king's head by the weak and aged Archbishop Juxon, who had
attended Charles I. on the scaffold. At the coronation of James II., a
hundred thousand pounds were spent over the Queen's robes and jewels,
and the procession was omitted to save expense, much to the wrath of the
Londoners. As the crown was placed on James's head, it tottered and
would have fallen, but for the Keeper of the Robes, who held it up.

The next coronation, that of William and Mary, was delayed two hours by
the receipt of the news that James II. had just landed in Ireland. The
Queen, being very short, had to be lifted into the chair of state. When
girt with the sword and invested with crown and sceptre, the Princess
Anne, who stood near her, said, "Madame, I pity your fatigue." The Queen
sharply replied, "A crown, sister, is not so heavy as it seems." When
the King came to make the usual offering, he found he had no money with
him, and had to borrow twenty guineas from a nobleman. Anne was
suffering from gout when her turn came to be crowned, and she had to be
carried to the Abbey. Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, acted as Lord High
Chamberlain. At the coronation of George I., the king knew no English
and his ministers knew no German, but they all knew Latin imperfectly,
and everything had to be explained to the monarch in that language. The
crowning of George II. presents no particular feature of interest; that
of George III. was a splendid show, and was marked by a curious
incident. Amongst the witness