192 MASTER SKYLARK

eyes which saw her there, might stand in second place te
no dominion in the world, however rich or great.

It was a very house of gold.

Over the door where the lads marched in was the Queen’s
device, a golden rose, 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 golden trees,
of purest metal and finest silk, costly beyond compare. The
royal presence-chamber shone with tapestries of gold, of
silver, and of oriental silks, of as many shifting colors as
the birds of paradise, and wrought in exquisite design,
The throne was set with diamonds, with rubies, garnets,
and sapphires, glittering like a pastry-crust of stars, and
garnished with gold-lace work, pearls, and ornament; and
under the velvet canopy which hung above the throne was
embroidered in seed-pearls, “Vivat Regina Elizabetha!”
There was no door without a gorgeous usher, no room
without a page, no corridor without a guard, no post with-
out a man of noble birth to fill it.

On the walls of the great gallery were masterly paint-
ings of great folk, globes showing all the stars fast in the
sky, and drawings of the world and all its parts, so real
that one could see the savages in the New World hanging
to the under side by their feet, like flies upon the ceiling.
How they stuck was more than Nick could make out; and
where they landed if they chanced to slip and fall troubled
him a deal, until in the sheer multiplication of wonders
he could not wonder any more.

When they came to rehearse in the afternoon the stage