The Banqueting Hall had its walls all hung over with very rich tapestry,
representing all kinds of merry scenes of hunting and fighting and the
like, and there were great presses along the walls, piled with plate of
gold and silver. The music was all on the balusters above--wind-music,
trumpets and kettledrums, that played as Their Majesties came in, after
the heralds and Black Rod. I had not had before an opportunity of seeing
the Queen so well as I saw her now; and I watched her closely, for I was
sorry for the poor woman. She was very gloriously dressed in a pale
brocade, with quantities of Flanders lace upon her shoulders and at her
elbows, that set off her little figure very well. She was very handsome,
I thought, though so little; and her complexion and her face were both
very good, except that her teeth shewed too much as she smiled. She
had, however, nothing of that witty or brilliant air about her that
pleased the King so much in women; and she sat very quietly throughout
supper, beside the King, not speaking a great deal. But I thought I saw
in her at first a very piteous desire to please him; and he listened,
smiling, as a man might listen to a dull child; and, indeed, I think
that that was all that he thought of her. His Majesty himself appeared
very noble and gallant, in His Order of the Garter, and with the Golden
Fleece too, over his rich suit. Both Their Majesties wore a good number
of jewels.
Their Majesties sat at a little high table, under a state, with their
gentlemen and ladies standing behind them; and the Spaniards, with the
King's other guests at a table that ran down the middle of the hall, yet
close enough at the upper end for the Ambassador and the King to speak
together. My Lord Shaftesbury was there; and it was strange to see him,
I knowing how much he was privately under His Majesty's displeasure, and
Prince Rupert, very fat and pale and stupid; and Sir Thomas Killigrew
and a score of others. His Majesty was served by the Lords and
pensioners; and the rest by pages and the like, and gentlemen. About the
middle of the dinner toasts were drunk--and first of all His Majesty's,
and the trumpets sounded and the music played, all standing, and when
they were sat down again I heard the guns shot off at the Tower; and I
thought of him who lay there, and how he heard them near at hand, and
how he might have been here, supping with the Spaniards, had he not
fallen under the popular displeasure on account of his religion. It was
a wonderful thing to see the toast drunk, all that company standing upon
its feet, and shouting.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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