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.

"When this harangue was finished, (during the recital of which, music was heard within the mount, and the mount itself rose up in height,) the device was moved close to the queen, the music sounded, and one of the boys, accompanied by cornets, sung a fresh summons to the fortress; and when that was ended, another boy, turning to the foster-children and their retinue, sung an alarm, 'with a pleasant voice and a seemly countenance: which ended, the cannons were shot off, the one with sweet powder, and the other with sweet water, very odoriferous and pleasant; and the noise of the shooting was very excellent concent of melody within the mount. And after that, was store of pretty scaling-ladders, and the footmen threw

flowers, and such fancies, against the walls, with all such devices as might seem fit shot for Desire: all which did continue till the time 'the defendants came in.'

"These were about twenty in number, and each accompanied by his servants. Amongst them was Sir Henry Leigh, who came running in as unknown; and, after breaking six lances, went out again. Of this gentleman I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. Trumpeters and pages attended, and speeches were severally delivered to the queen, on the part of these knights, several of whom assumed fantastic characters; and surely none more so than Sir Thomas Perrot and Anthony Cook, who thought proper to personate Adam and Eve; being begirt with apples and fruit, and the latter having hair hung all down his helmet. These knights were accompanied by an angel.'

"The messengers, on the part of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, described their master as a forlorn knight, whom despair of achieving the fate of his peerless and sunlike mistress, had driven out of the haunts of men, into a cave of the desert, where moss was his bed, moss his ceiling, moss his candle, and moss, watered with salt tears, his food.'

Even here, the re

port of this assault on the fortress of Peerless Beauty, reached his ears, and roused him from his solitude-from bondage to a living death; and, in token of his devoted loyalty and inviolable fidelity to his excellent and divine lady, he had sent her his shield, hewn out of the hard cliff, only enriched with moss; which he begged her to accept, as the ensign of her fame, and the instrument of his glory; prostrating himself at her feet, as ready to undertake any adventures, in hopes of her gracious favour.

"On the part of the four sons of Sir Thomas Knolles, Mercury appeared, and described them as the legitimate sons of Despair, brethren to hard mishap, suckled with sighs, and swathed up in sorrow, weaned in woe, and drynursed by Desire; long time fostered with favourable countenance, and fed with sweet fancies; but now, of late, alas! wholly given over by grief and disgrace, with despair, &c.

"The speeches being ended, probably to the relief of the hearers, the tilting commenced, and continued till night, with some fresh circumstances of magnificence, and a few more harangues. At length the challengers presented to their sovereign an olive bough, in token of their humble submission; and both

parties were dismissed by her, with thanks and commendations.

"I told you I would give you some account of Sir Henry Leigh, whose formal resignation of the office of queen's champion, so long his glory and delight, and which took place four years preceding this last pageant, forms one of those romantic ceremonies which mark so well

the age of Elizabeth. The gallant earl of Cumberland was his destined successor, and the momentous transfer was effected after the following fashion.

"Having first performed their respective parts in the chivalrous exercises of the band of knight-tilters, Sir Henry and the earl presented themselves to her majesty, at the foot of the gallery where she was seated, surrounded by her ladies and nobles, to view the games.

"They advanced to slow music, and a concealed performer accompanied the strain with the following song:

"My golden locks time hath to silver turn'd,

(Oh, time! too swift, and swiftness, never ceasing,)
My youth 'gainst age, and age at youth hath spurn'd;
But spurn'd in vain, youth waneth by increasing:
Beauty, strength, and youth, flowers fading been;
Duty, faith, and love, are roots and evergreen.

My helmet now shall make a hive for bees,
And lover's songs shall turn to holy psalms;
A man at arms must now sit on his knees,
And feed on prayers that are old age's alms;
And so, from court to cottage I depart,
My saint is sure of mine unspotted heart.

"And when I sadly sit in homely cell,

I'll teach my swains this carol for a song:
'Bless'd be the hearts that think my sovereign well,
Curs'd be the souls that think to do her wrong.'
Goddess, vouchsafe this aged man his right

To be your beads-man now, that was your knight.

"During the performance, there arose out of the earth a pavilion of white taffeta, supported on pillars resembling porphyry, and formed to imitate the temple of the vestal virgins. A superb altar was placed within it, on which were laid some rich gifts for her majesty. Before the gate stood a crowned pillar, embraced by an eglantine; to which a votive table was attached, inscribed, to Elizabeth.' The gifts and the tablet being, with great reverence, delivered to the queen, the aged knight being in the mean time disarmed, he offered up his armour at the foot of the pillar, and, kneeling, presented the earl of Cumberland to her majesty; praying her to accept of him as a knight, and to continue these annual exercises. The