XVI. The Independent Protector's Court, whilst eminently virtuous and religious, exhibited also a degree of magnificence, little inferior to that of any court in Christendom. Louis the Fourteenth would not have found in the apartments at Whitehall splendour equal to that which blazed at Versailles; but the envoy of Sweden, when he visited England in the summer of 1655, beheld a scene of pomp and magnificence which filled him with perfect surprise. Soldiers were drawn up at the entrance; guards in livery lined the stairs; the banqueting house was hung with arras; and multitudes of ladies waited in the galleries, to receive the Ambassador and his attendants, consisting of "two hundred persons, generally proper handsome men, and fair-haired; they were all in mourning, very genteel." At the upper end of the room stood his Highness, with a chair of state behind him, and divers of his council and servants, the master of the ceremonies regulating the interview. His Highness did not put off his hat till the Swede had put off his, and whenever the latter named the king his master, or Sweden, or the Protector, or England, he moved his hat. And, if he used the Divine name, or spoke of the good of Christendom, he put off his hat very low, the Protector assuming "like postures of civility."[439] As an illustration of the social life of Whitehall, an amusing incident may be related respecting one of the clergy in attendance upon Oliver, indicative of those flirtations which neither clerical office nor the strictest forms of religious profession can banish either from royal courts or from the scenes of humble life. Jeremiah White, of Trinity College, Cambridge, a handsome young man, noted for "facetiousness," and at the time enjoying a court chaplainship, became an admirer of the lively Lady Frances Cromwell. He was one day found by his Highness on his knees, kissing the lady's hand. "What is the meaning of that posture," the grave soldier sternly enquired. "May it please your Highness," replied the chaplain, "I have a long time courted that young gentlewoman there, my lady's woman, and cannot prevail. I was therefore humbly praying her ladyship to intercede for me." The Protector demanded of the girl what she meant, by refusing the honour which Mr. White proposed. She, too glad of the opportunity, curtsied and said, "If the reverend gentleman had any such wish, she could not refuse." "Sayst thou so, my lass," answered Cromwell, "call Goodwin, this business shall be done presently before I go out of the room." The couple were married, and the bride received from the Protector five hundred pounds dowry.[440] [Sidenote: _Cromwell's Court._]