Vice-Chamberlain, Sir Christopher Hatton. But think not that the
Vice-Chamberlain hastily proclaimed the royal pardon. Not at all. He
left Thomas on the ladder for a while; he made an oration on the
heinousness of the offence: he made everybody kneel while he prayed for
the safety of the Queen: and then, when all hearts were softened and all
eyes bedewed, he pronounced the Queen's pardon, which the prisoner
acknowledged in suitable language. Thomas Appletree was then taken back
to the Marshalsea, where he remained, one hopes, a very short time after
this. We may be quite sure that whatever destiny was in store for this
young man, shooting at random with a caliver or arquebus would have
nothing to do with it.
Another association of Greenwich is that of Sir John Willoughby's
departure for the Arctic seas. He was going to endeavour to open a new
way for trade round the N.E. Arctic sea along the north coast of Asia.
He embarked at Ratcliff Stairs: you may take boat there to this day. As
he passed down the river, with flags and streamers flying, they brought
out the little King Edward, who was dying, to see the sailing of the
stout old sailor. So with firing of guns the ships passed on their way,
and they carried the dying King back to his bed. In a day or two Edward
was dead. In six months, or it might be less, Willoughby was dead too,
frozen to death in his cabin, where the Russians found him, his dead
hand on his papers.
If you wish to know what state was kept by Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich,
you will find an account of it in Hentzner, that excellent traveller who
remarked so much, and put all down on paper.
'We arrived at the Royal Palace of Greenwich, reported to have been
originally built by Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and to have received
very magnificent additions from Henry VII. It was here Elizabeth, the
present Queen, was born, and here she generally resides; particularly
in Summer, for the Delightfulness of its Situation. We were admitted by
an Order Mr. Rogers had procured from the Lord Chamberlain, into the
Presence-Chamber, hung with rich Tapestry, and the Floor, after the
English fashion, strewed with Hay,[2] through which the Queen commonly
passes in her way to chapel: At the Door stood a Gentleman dressed in
Velvet, with a Gold Chain, whose Office was to introduce to the Queen
any Person of Distinction, that came to wait on her: It was Sunday, when
there is usually the greatest Attendance of Nobility. In the same Hall
were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of London, a great Number
of Counsellors of State, Officers of the Crown, and Gentlemen, who
waited the Queen's coming out; which she did from her own Apartment,
when it was Time to go to Prayers, attended in the following Manner:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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