Of all this the multitude knew nothing. They were busy with speculation elsewhere. “Il Schafanoya,” the Italian gossip-monger, gives an interesting account of the coronation ceremony and the self-sufficient pomposity of Arundel, who was Lord Steward, “with a silver wand a yard long, commanding everybody, from the Duke (of Norfolk) downwards.”[17] Lord Robert Dudley as Master of the Horse “led a fair white hackney covered with cloth of gold after the Queen’s litter,” but no one as yet seemed to regard him as her possible consort. That came afterwards. Schafanoya, writing to the Mantuan ambassador in Brussels (January, 1559), says: “Some persons declare that she will take the Earl of Arundel, he being the chief peer of this realm, notwithstanding his being old in comparison with the Queen. This report is founded on the constant daily favours he receives in public and private from her Majesty. Others assert that she will take a very handsome youth, eighteen or twenty years of age and robust, judging from passion, and because at dances and other public places she prefers him to any one else. A third opinion is that she will marry an individual who until now has been in France on account of his religion, though he has not yet made his appearance, it being well known how much she loved him. He is a very handsome gallant gentleman whose name I forget. But all are agreed that she will take an Englishman, although the ambassadors of the King of Sweden seek the contrary.” The “very handsome youth” was perhaps the Earl of Oxford; the “handsome gentleman” was certainly Sir William Pickering, who for a time was the favourite candidate. It is known that there had been love passages long before between Elizabeth and him, but to what extent was never discovered. He can hardly have been a very stable character, for he had fled to France under Mary, but had very soon entered into treacherous correspondence with the Spanish party to spy upon the actions of the Carews and the rest of the Protestant exiles. Shortly before Mary’s death he had been commissioned to go to Germany and bring thence to England a regiment of mercenaries which had been raised for Mary. They were, however, used by Philip for his own purposes, and when Elizabeth ascended the throne, Pickering thought proper to have a long diplomatic illness at Dunkirk, to learn how he would be received in England after his more than doubtful dealings. As soon as he was satisfied that bygones would be bygones, he came to England in fine feather. Tiepolo writes to the Doge, February 23rd: “Concerning her marriage it still continues to be said that she will take that Master Pickering, who from information received by me, is about thirty-six years of age, of tall stature, handsome, and very successful with women, for he is said to have enjoyed the intimacy of many and great ones.”[18] Parliament had sent a deputation to the Queen to urge her to marry, and to represent