“She caused to be erected, on the south-west side of the palace of Whitehall, a vast banqueting-house, made of timber, covered with canvass, and painted on the outside with a work called _rustic_, resembling stone. It was lighted with two hundred and ninety-two windows; whilst, from festoons of ivy and holly, hung pendants of flowers, mixed with fruits of various kinds; amongst which, pomegranates, oranges, pompions, cucumbers, grapes, and carrots are named. The whole was spangled with gold; whilst, between the festoons, appeared the ceiling, painted with a sky, sun, sunbeams, and stars, intermingled with scutcheons of the royal arms. Three hundred and seventy workmen were employed in its construction, and one thousand seven hundred and forty-four pounds expended upon it. “In this artificial palace the French ambassadors were received, and most ‘royally banqueted and feasted’ by the maiden queen; whilst her ministers were employed in drawing up, by her command, the marriage articles. “Meanwhile, several of the gentlemen and nobles, anxious to participate in the gay illusion and courtly pleasures of the day, agreed amongst themselves, to prepare a _triumph_; ‘the sumptuous service of which, and the valiant manner of performing it, redounding,’ according to Holinshed, ‘to their endless fame and honour.’ The plan was as follows: “The young earl of Arundel, lord Windsor, Philip Sidney, and Fulke Greville, called themselves the four foster-children of Desire; and to that end of the tilt-yard where the queen was seated, their _refined_ homage gave the name of the Fortress of Perfect Beauty. This castle her majesty was summoned to surrender, in an adulatory message, conveyed by a boy, dressed in red and white, the colours of Desire; and it is not the least part of this singular entertainment, that the first message was delivered to her on a Sunday, as she returned from chapel. “On her refusal, a day was fixed for the celebration of the pageant; and on that morning, a mount, placed upon wheels, was rolled into the tilt-yard, and the four cavaliers, in superb armour and accoutrements, and each at the head of a splendid troop, rode into the yard. When they had passed, in military order, before the queen, the boy who had given her the former defiance, addressed her again, in a strain so quaint and fulsome, that it would neither tend to your improvement nor pleasure, were I to repeat it.