When this function was over, Christina began to prepare for her journey to England, but the weather was so tempestuous that she did not cross the Channel until the first days of March. She rode from Dover, by way of Canterbury, to London, where the King and Queen received her in the most cordial manner, Philip made no secret of his affection for his cousin, the only woman in his family with whom he had ever been intimate, and Mary, in the first flush of her wedded happiness and in the proud expectation of soon being a mother, welcomed Christina warmly. Unluckily, we have no particulars of the Duchess's visit to this country, over which she might have reigned herself as Queen. We know that she was present with the rest of the Court at the great joust held on Lady Day in the tilting-yard at Whitehall, when Philip and a band of knights, armed with falchions and targets, and clad in blue and yellow, rode out against two other troops in red and green, and some 200 lances were broken.[497] But the only record that we have of this her first visit to England is a letter which she wrote to Mary on returning to Flanders. She thanked the Queen for the great honour and kindness which she had shown her, and commended the captain of the ship in which she sailed, who, as Her Majesty would doubtless learn, had rendered her notable service on this troublesome passage: "I will say no more," she adds, "except to regret that I am no longer in Your Majesty's presence to be able to render you some small service in return for all the goodness which I have received at your hands. I beg God, Madame, to send you good health and long life, and give you a fine boy, such as you desire. "Your very humble and obedient cousin and servant, "CHRESTIENNE. "A la Royne."[498] This letter bears no date, but the Duchess certainly left London before the King and Queen went to Hampton Court on the 4th of April, to spend Easter and prepare for the happy event which all England was anxiously expecting. She was at Antwerp with her aunt a month later, when, on the 3rd of May, "great news came over the seas." A messenger from the English ships in the port brought the Regent word that the Queen of England had been "brought to bed of a young Prince," upon which all the guns in the harbour were fired, and Mary ordered the big bells in the Tower to be rung, and sent the English sailors a hundred crowns to drink the royal infant's health. "I trust in God," wrote Sir Thomas Gresham, "that the news is true." The Emperor was more incredulous, and summoned Masone to his bedside at 5 a.m. the next morning, to know what he thought of the matter, but soon satisfied himself that the news was false.[499]