CHAPTER XXVII
THE QUEEN'S PLAISANCE
It was a frosty morning when they all marched down to the boats thatbumped along Paul's wharf.
The roofs of London were white with frost and rosy with the dawn. In theshadow of the walls the air lay in still pools of smoky blue; and in theeast the horizon stretched like a swamp of fire. The winking lights onLondon Bridge were pale. The bridge itself stood cold and gray,mysterious and dim as the stream below, but here and there along itscrest red-hot with a touch of flame from the burning eastern sky. Out ofthe river, running inland with the tide, came steamy shreds that driftedhere and there. Then over the roofs of London town the sun sprang uplike a thing of life, and the veil of twilight vanished in bright daywith a million sparkles rippling on the stream.
Warm with piping roast and cordial, keen with excitement, and blithewith the sharp, fresh air, the red-cheeked lads skipped and chatteredalong the landing like a flock of sparrows alighted by chance in a landof crumbs.
"Into the wherries, every one!" cried the old precentor. _"Ad unumomnes_, great and small!"
"Into the wherries!" echoed the under-masters.
"Into the wherries, my bullies!" roared old Brueton the boatman, fendingoff with a rusty hook as red as his bristling beard. "Into the wherries,yarely all, and we's catch the turn o' the tide! 'Tis gone highwater now!"
Then away they went, three wherries full, and Master Gyles behind themin a brisk sixpenny tilt-boat, resplendent in new ash-colored hose, acloak of black velvet fringed with gold, and a brand-new periwig curledand frizzed like a brush-heap in a gale of wind.
How they had worked for the last few days! New songs, new dances, newlines to learn; gallant compliments for the Queen, who was as fond offlattery as a girl; new clothes, new slippers and caps to try, and athousand what-nots more. The school had hummed like a busy mill frommorning until night. And now that the grinding was done and they hadcome at last to their reward,--the hoped-for summons to the court, whichhad been sought so long in vain,--the boys of St. Paul's bubbled withglee until the under-masters were in a cold sweat for fear theirprecious charges would pop from the wherries into the Thames, like somany exuberant corks.
They cheered with delight as London Bridge was shot and the boats wentflying down the Pool, past Billingsgate and the oystermen, the WhiteTower and the Traitors' Gate, past the shipping, where brown,foreign-looking faces stared at them above sea-battered bulwarks.
The sun was bright and the wind was keen; the air sparkled, and all theworld was full of life. Hammers beat in the builders' yards; wildbargees sang hoarsely as they drifted down to the Isle of Dogs; and inslow ships that crept away to catch the wind in the open stream below,with tawny sails drooping and rimmed with frost, they heard the hail ofsalty mariners.
The tide ran strong, and the steady oars carried them swiftly down.London passed; then solitary hamlets here and there; then dun fieldsrunning to the river's edge like thirsty deer.
In Deptford Reach some lords who were coming down by water passed them,racing with a little Dutch boat from Deptford to the turn. Their boatshad holly-bushes at their prows and holiday garlands along their sides.They were all shouting gaily, and the stream was bright with theirscarlet cloaks, Lincoln-green jerkins, and gold embroidery. But theywere very badly beaten, at which they laughed, and threw the Dutchmen ahandful of silver pennies. Thereupon the Dutchmen stood up in their boatand bowed like jointed ninepins; and the lords, not to be outdone, stoodup likewise in their boats and bowed very low in return, with theirhands upon their breasts. Then everybody on the river laughed, and theboys gave three cheers for the merry lords and three more for the sturdyDutchmen. The Dutchmen shouted back, "Goot Yule!" and bowed and boweduntil their boat turned round and went stern foremost down the stream,so that they were bowing to the opposite bank, where no one was at all.At this the rest all laughed again till their sides ached, and cheeredthem twice as much as they had before.
And while they were cheering and waving their caps, the boatmen restedupon their oars and let the boats swing with the tide, which thereaboutset strong against the shore, and a trumpeter in the Earl of Arundel'sbarge stood up and blew upon a long horn bound with a banner of blueand gold.
Instantly he had blown, another trumpet answered from the south, andwhen Nick turned, the shore was gay with men in brilliant livery. Beyondwas a wood of chestnut-trees as blue and leafless as a grove of spears;and in the plain between the river and the wood stood a great palace ofgray stone, with turrets, pinnacles, and battlemented walls, over thetopmost tower of which a broad flag, blazoned with golden lions andsilver lilies square for square, whipped the winter wind. Amid a groupof towers large and small a lofty stack poured out a plume of sea-coalsmoke against the milky sky, and on the countless windows in the wallthe sunlight flashed with dazzling radiance.
There were people on the battlements, and at the port between two towerswhere the Queen went in and out the press was so thick that men's headslooked like the cobbles in the street.
The shore was stayed with piling and with timbers like a wharf, so thata hundred boats might lie there cheek by jowl and scarcely rub theirpaint. The lords made way, and the children players came ashore throughan aisle of uplifted oars. They were met by the yeomen of the guard,tall, brawny fellows clad in red, with golden roses on their breasts andbacks, and with them marched up to the postern two and two, Master Gylesthe last of all, as haughty as a Spanish don come courting fairQueen Bess.
A smoking dinner was waiting them, of whitebait with red pepper, and ayellow juice so sour that Nick's mouth drew up in a knot; but it wasvery good. There were besides, silver dishes full of sugared redcurrants, and heaps of comfits and sweetmeats, which Master Gyles wouldnot allow them even to touch, and saffron cakes with raisins in them,and spiced hot cordial out of tiny silver cups. Bareheaded pages clad insilk and silver lace waited upon them as if they were fledgling kings;but the boys were too hungry to care for that or to try to put on airs,and waded into the meat and drink as if they had been starved for afortnight.
But when they were done Nick saw that the table off which they had eatenwas inlaid with pearl and silver filigree, and that the table-cloth wasof silk with woven metal-work and gems set in it worth more than athousand crowns. He was very glad he had eaten first, for such wonderfulservice would have taken away his appetite.
And truly a wonderful palace was the Queen's Plaisance, as GreenwichHouse was called. Elizabeth was born in it, and so loved it most of all.There she pleased oftenest to receive and grant audiences to envoys fromforeign courts. And there, on that account, as was always her proud,jealous way, she made a blinding show of glory and of wealth, ofscience, art, and power, that England, to the eyes which saw her there,might stand in second place to no dominion in the world, however richor great.
It was a very house of gold.
Over the door where the lads marched in was the Queen's device, a goldenrose, with a motto set below in letters of gold, "Dieu et mon droit";and upon the walls were blazoned coats of noble arms on branching goldentrees, of purest metal and finest silk, costly beyond compare. The royalpresence-chamber shone with tapestries of gold, of silver, and oforiental silks, of as many shifting colors as the birds of paradise, andwrought in exquisite design, The throne was set with diamonds, withrubies, garnets, and sapphires, glittering like a pastry-crust of stars,and garnished with gold-lace work, pearls, and ornament; and under thevelvet canopy which hung above the throne was embroidered inseed-pearls, "Vivat Regina Elizabetha!" There was no door without agorgeous usher, no room without a page, no corridor without a guard, nopost without a man of noble birth to fill it.
On the walls of the great gallery were masterly paintings of great folk,globes showing all the stars fast in the sky, and drawings of the worldand all its parts, so real that one could see the savages in the NewWorld hanging to the under side by their feet, like flies upon theceiling. How they stuck was more than Nick could make out; and wherethey landed if they chan
ced to slip and fall troubled him a deal, untilin the sheer multiplication of wonders he could not wonder any more.
When they came to rehearse in the afternoon the stage was hung withstiff, rich silks that had come in costly cedar chests from the looms ofold Cathay; and the curtain behind which the players came and went wasbroidered with gold thread in flowers and birds like meteors forsplendor. The gallery, too, where the musicians sat, was draped withsilk and damask.
Some of the lads would have made out by their great airs as if this wereall a common thing to them; but Nick stared honestly with round eyes,and went about with cautious feet, chary of touching things, and feelingvery much out of place and shy.
It was all too grand, too wonderful,--amazing to look upon, no doubt,and good to outface foreign envy with, but not to be endured every daynor lived with comfortably. And as the day went by, each passing momentwith new marvels, Nick grew more and more uneasy for some simple littlenook where he might just sit down and be quiet for a while, as one coulddo at home, without fine pages peering at him from the screens, orsplendid guards patrolling at his heels wherever he went, or obsequiousushers bowing to the floor at every turn, and asking him what he mightbe pleased to wish. And by the time night fell and the attendant came tolight them to their beds, he felt like a fly on the rim of a wheel thatwent so fast he could scarcely get his breath or see what passed him by,yet of which he durst not let go.
The palace was much too much for him.