[Illustration: MARGARET OF AUSTRIA DUCHESS OF PARMA By Pastorino] [Illustration: ANTOINE PERRENOT CARDINAL GRANVELLE By Leone Leoni _To face p. 412_] [Sidenote: FEB., 1557] CHRISTINA AT WHITEHALL] The King had a calm passage to Dover, but the ladies were less fortunate, for an equinoctial gale sprang up when they were halfway across the Channel. "The Duchesses," wrote Philip's secretary, Jean de Courteville, "had to dance without music between Dover and Calais, and the results were such as are commonly the case with travellers unaccustomed to the sea. The great festivities we are having here this Lent will grieve them the less."[522] But if the passage was disagreeable, nothing was lacking in the kindness of their reception. The Queen sent her litter to meet them at Dover, with chariot and hackney horses for their suite, and at Gravesend, Lady Lennox and Lady Kildare were waiting to conduct them in the royal barge to Whitehall. Here Philip received them at the water-gate, and led them up the steps into the great hall, where Mary welcomed her guests. The King and Queen who had only arrived from Greenwich the day before rode in state through the city, with the Lord Mayor carrying the sceptre at the head of the guilds and crafts of London, while a salute was fired from the Tower and bells rang from all the churches. Both the Duchesses were lodged in the Palace of Westminster, Christina in rooms on the ground-floor, looking on the gardens, and Margaret in an apartment on the upper floor, commanding a view of the Thames.[523] Soon after their arrival another visitor was brought by the Bishop of London to see Their Majesties--an Envoy from the Czar of Muscovy, who was lodged in Fenchurch Street, as the guest of the Company of Muscovite Merchants. Englishmen and Spaniards, Lorrainers and Italians, alike looked with curious eyes at this stranger from the shores of the Polar Sea, who was clad in robes of Oriental splendour, and whose turban glittered with gems. He brought the Queen a present of magnificent sables from the Czar, and saluted her by bowing his whole body down and touching the ground with his hand. In spite of his strange clothes and barbarous language, he was a cultivated person, as keen to see the sights of London as Christina herself. One day he dined with the Lord Mayor in gorgeous attire, another he attended Mass at Westminster and saw St. Edward's shrine, with the relics which had been fortunately preserved when the Abbey was plundered.[524] [Sidenote: APRIL, 1557] ST. GEORGE'S FEAST]