was freed from his embarrassments, and in a few years his coffers overflowed with wealth. But now gratitude began to fade from the fickle mind of the count, and he listened to the suspicious hints of his servants; until, altogether forgetful of the great benefits he had received at the hands of the unknown pilgrim, he commanded him to render up his accounts. The pilgrim made no objection; he exhibited his statements, and proved the integrity of his conduct so fully, that even his bitterest enemies could not answer a word. He then resumed his staff, scrip, and mantle, and, in despite of every entreaty of the repentant count, disappeared. Long, strict, and minute search was made after him, but he was never heard of more.
The visit of this friendly pilgrim, we may suppose, was subsequently to Raymond's marriage of his daughter Eleanor, since Matthew Paris represents him as an "illustrious and valiant man; but, through continual wars, almost all he had had vanished from his treasury." The proposal, therefore, of the King of England was peculiarly grateful, both to Raymond and to his wife, Beatrix of Savoy, whose three brothers looked anxiously, even from the commencement of their niece's marriage treaty, to the broad lands and rich church preferment which they anticipated they should soon possess in wealthy but ill-governed England. It was, therefore, with eager joy that the proposal of Henry was accepted by the needy count; and with equally eager joy, judging from his haste, did the king transmit his instructions for the marriage articles. In these he assigns to Eleanor, as dower, "those cities, lands, and tenements, which it has been customary for other kings, our predecessors, to assign to other queens." He then proceeds to state, that if Isabel should survive him, and should have recovered her dower, "then his procurators shall assign to Eleanor these towns; Gloster, Cambridge, and Huntingdon, and the villages of Wych, Basingstoke, Andover, Chiltham, Gumester, Clynes, Kingston, Ospringe, and Ludingland, to hold meanwhile;" and after Isabel's death, Eleanor in that case taking the usual dower, these towns and lands should revert to the king. In respect to Eleanor's portion, which id stated to be 20,000 marks, he directs his embassy to agree with the count that the sum shall not be less than that promised; and in a subsequent instrument he grants full power to the procurators to receive it. In the secret instructions which immediately follow, Henry seems to have apprehended, that if he pressed the count for immediate payment of his daughter's portion, he might lose his fifth chance of obtaining a wife.
He therefore directs, that if his procurators cannot fulfil his commands to the very letter, they shall, "over and above every power contained in the aforesaid letters, without the payment of the money appropriated for us, in whatever way ye can, take her with you, and safely and securely bring her to us in England." The youthful princess was accordingly placed in the hands of the ambassadors, and, amidst the rejoicings of the whole kingdom of Provence, she set forth, accompanied by a gallant cavalcade, in which were more than three hundred ladies on horseback. Her route lay through Navarre and France.
A romantic trait, illustrating the chivalrous feeling of the age, is recorded by Matthew Paris. The poet king of Navarre, Thibaut VII., whose songs are still remembered in the land over which he reigned, no sooner heard that the daughter of the minstrel-loving Raymond was to pass through his dominions, than he gallantly summoned a goodly array of men-at-arms, and joyfully made ready to accompany her for five days through his lands, defraying every expense, both for horses and men, although the royal train amounted to many hundreds.
When Eleanor arrived on the frontier of France, she received a hospitable welcome from the queen dowager and her son, who a short time previously had married an elder sister of the bride. The marriage train finally reached Dover, from whence it proceeded to Canterbury, where Henry awaited their coming. It was in that ancient city that the union took place, the service being performed by the Archbishop Edmund and the prelates who accompanied Eleanor. From Canterbury the newly-wedded pair set out for London, attended by a splendid array of nobles, prelates, knights, and ladies. On the 20th of January, being the feast of St. Fabian and St. Sebastian, Eleanor was crowned at Westminster with great splendour.
The historian Matthew Paris describes, not only the gallant array of the royal procession, but the gorgeous appearance which, even at that early period, was made by the city of London, with a minuteness which entitles him to the gratitude of every lover of antiquity:—
"There had assembled together so great a number of the nobility of both sexes, so great a number of the religious orders, so great a concourse of the populace, and so great a variety of players, that London could scarcely contain them in her capacious bosom. Therefore was the city adorned with silk hangings, and with banners, crowns, palls, tapera, and lamps, and with certain marvellous ingenuities and devices; all the streets being cleaned from dirt, mud, sticks, and everything offensive.
"The citizens of London going to meet the king and queen, ornamented and trapped and wondrously sported their swift horses; and on the same day they went from the city to Westminster, that they might discharge the service of butler to the king in his coronation, which ia acknowledged to belong to them of ancient right.
"They went in well marshalled array, adorned in silken vestments, wrapped in gold-woven mantles, with fancifully devised garments, sitting on valuable horses, refulgent with new bits and saddles: and they bore three hundred and sixty gold and silver cups, the king's trumpeters going before and sounding their trumpets; so that so wonderful a novelty produced a laudable astonishment in the spectators."
The worthy monk of St. Albans dilates with great gusto upon the splendour of the feast, and the order of the service of the different vassals of the crown, many of whom are called upon at a coronation to perform certain peculiar services down to the present day. He also remarks, with great complacency, that the abbot of his own convent took precedence of every other abbot in England at the dinner.
The following further and probably more accurate account is extracted from the city records. They are deeply interesting, as offering the earliest account of the ceremonies used at the coronation of a queen consort of England.
"In the twentieth year of the reign of King Henry, son of King John, Queen Eleanor, daughter of the Earl of Provence, was crowned at Westminster, on the Sunday before the Purification, the king wearing his crown, and the bishops assisting. And these served in order in that most elegant and unheard-of feast:—The Bishop of Chichester, the chancellor, with the cup of precious stones, which was
