The proposers being in their coaches, the train for the pomp, the same
that is used at the reception of ambassadors, proceeded in this order.
In the front marched the troop with the cornet in the van and the
captain in the rear; next the troop came the twenty messengers or
trumpets, the ballotins upon the curvet with their usher in the van,
and the master of the horse in the rear; next the ballotins, Bronchus de
Rauco, in the tribe of Bestia, king of the heralds, with his fraternity
in their coats-of-arms, and next to Sir Bronchus, Boristhenes de
Holiwater in the tribe of Ave, master of the ceremonies; the mace and
the seal of the chancery went immediately before the coaches, and
on either side, the doorkeepers or guard of the Senate, with their
pole-axes, accompanied with some 300 or 400 footmen belonging to the
knights or senators, the trumpeters, ballotins, guards, postilions,
coachmen and footmen, being very gallant in the liveries of the
commonwealth, but all, except the ballotins, without hats, in lieu
whereof they wore black velvet calots, being pointed with a little peak
at the forehead. After the proposers came a long file of coaches full of
such gentlemen as use to grace the commonwealth upon the like occasions.
In this posture they moved slowly through the streets (affording, in the
gravity of the pomp and the welcomeness of the end, a most reverend and
acceptable prospect to the people all the way from the Pantheon,
being about half a mile) and arrived at the halo, where they found the
prerogative in a close body environed with scaffolds that were covered
with spectators. The tribunes received the proposers, and conducted them
into a seat placed in the front of the tribe, like a pulpit, but that it
was of some length, and well adorned by the heralds with all manner of
birds and beasts, except that they were ill-painted, and never a one of
his natural color. The tribunes were placed at a table that stood below
the long seat, those of the horse in the middle, and those of the foot
at either end, with each of them a bowl or basin before him, that on the
right hand being white, and the other green: in the middle of the table
stood a third, which was red. And the housekeepers of the pavilion, who
had already delivered a proportion of linen balls or pellets to
every one of the tribe, now presented boxes to the ballotins. But the
proposers as they entered the gallery, or long seat, having put off
their hats by way of salutation, were answered by the people with a
shout; whereupon the younger commissioners seated themselves at either
end; and the first, standing in the middle, spoke after this manner:
“MY LORDS, THE PEOPLE OF OCEANA:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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