nificence, that day being Whitsun-eve, May 30th. Queen Katherine, with her train, were lodged at the Louvre, while her mother and king Charles took up their abode at the hôtel de St. Pol. "And on Whit-Sunday queen Katherine sat at table at the Louvre, gloriously apparelled, having her crown on her head. The English princes and nobles were partakers with the great lords of France at this feast, each seated according to his rank, while the tables were covered with the richest viands and wines. Queen Katherine next day held a great court, and all the Parisians went to see their princess and her lord sitting enthroned, crowned with their most precious diadems; but," continues Monstrelet, "as no meat or drink was offered to the populace, they went away much discontented. For when, of old, the kings of France kept open court, much good cheer was freely given to all comers. King Charles VI. had once been as courteous and liberal as any of his predecessors; but now he was seated at a table with his queen quite forsaken by his nobles, who all flocked to pay their court to his daughter and her husband, at which the common people grieved much." Katherine likewise gave great offence by having the 'ermines' carried before her coach, as if she had been sovereign of France.'

The last year's harassing warfare had greatly injured the constitution of Henry V. He was ill when his queen arrived, yet he paid no regard to his failing health: he scarcely allowed himself a day's repose. But conquest, empire, and all worldly things were fast fleeting from the grasp of the warlike lord of Katherine the Fair. At Senlis he was seized with a mortal distemper. He struggled fiercely against its encroachments, for he daily expected to hear of a battle between his friend the duke of Burgundy and the dauphin, and hoped to assist his ally in person. He had even assumed his armour, and marched as far as Melun; but the strong hand of disease was too powerful even for the energies of his mighty mind. Sorely smitten with illness, he was obliged to give up his march; and the malady increasing every minute, he was forced to be carried back to Senlis in a litter. He had left his queen at Senlis, 1 Goodwin. It is difficult to guess what the ermines implied.

but for greater security she had retired to her father's castle. in the wood of Vincennes; thither the "mighty victor, mighty lord," was borne to her, helpless, on that litter which was almost a funeral couch to him.

In the castle of Vincennes, near Paris, which has so often. been the theatre of the destinies of France, Katherine and her mother attended the last hours of Henry V.1 He made

a very penitential end, but was so little conscious of his bloodguiltiness, that when his confessor was reading the seven Psalms in the service for the dying, he stopped him when he came to the verse, “Build thou the walls of Jerusalem,” with an earnest protestation "that, when he had completed his conquests in Europe, he always intended to undertake a crusade." When he had arranged his affairs, he asked his physicians "How long he had to live?" One of them replied, on his knees, "That, without a miracle, he could not survive two hours at the most."-" Comfort my dear wife," he said to the duke of Bedford, "the most afflicted creature living." In a will he made on his death-bed, he leaves Katherine a gold sceptre. He expired on the 31st of August, 1422. At the time of Henry's death, his fair widow had not attained her twenty-first year. Her affection was, as the dying hero observed to his brother, most violent, but it certainly proved in the end rather evanescent.

In person Henry V. was tall and agile, and so swift of foot, that he could, with the aid of two of his lords, capture deer in the royal enclosures without the assistance of dogs. His portraits possess that distinctive character which proves personal resemblance: his features are regular, though very strongly marked; the perceptive brow denotes the great general; the eyes are majestic and overpowering; the nose well cut, but stern in the expression of the nostril; the mouth wide, but closely pressed, and the haughty upper lip curls with no very

Those who trace closely the locality of Katherine and her mother, will be convinced that they were with Henry at the Bois de Vincennes; for Monstrelet brings Henry to Katherine's care at Senlis, and affirms her mother was with the hero when he retired to die at Vincennes-castle, then used as a residence by the royal family. Was it likely he would leave his wife at the camp? Besides, he points out the affliction of Katherine to his brother, and Katherine immediately appears, as chief mourner, in the funeral rites of her departed lord.

2 Speed.

benevolent expression. There is a great developement of frontal brain in his portraits: they are all profiles, excepting that over the chantry at Westminster-abbey, which has a wen on the right side of the neck. Henry was a learned prince, but he had the bad habit of borrowing books and never returning them. After his death, a petition was sent to the regency by the lady Westmoreland, his relative, praying that her Chronicles of Jerusalem, and the Expedition of Godfrey of Boulogne, borrowed of her by the late king, might be returned. The prior of Christchurch, likewise, sent in a most pitiful complaint, that he had lent the works of St. Gregory to his dear lord, king Henry, who had never restored them to him, their rightful owner.

The funeral of Henry V. was arranged and conducted by queen Katherine with all the pomp of woe.1

"His body was Just above the

laid on a chariot drawn by four great horses. dead corpse they placed a figure made of boiled leather, representing his person as nigh as might be devised, painted curiously to the semblance of a living creature, on whose head was put an imperial diadem of gold and precious stones; on its body, a purple robe furred with ermine; in the right hand, a sceptre royal; in the left, an orb of gold, with a cross fixed thereon. And thus adorned, was this figure laid in a bed on the same chariot, with the visage uncovered towards the heavens; and the coverture of this bed was of red, beaten with gold; and besides, when the body should pass through any good town, a canopy of marvellous value was borne over it, by men of great worship. In this manner he was accompanied by the king of Scots, as chief mourner, and by all the princes, lords, and knights of his house, in vestures of deep mourning. At a distance from the corpse of about two English miles followed the widow, queen Katherine, right honourably accompanied. The body rested at the church of St. Offian, perhaps St. Ostian,3 in Abbeville, where masses were sung by the queen's orders, for the repose of Henry's soul, from the dawn of morning till the close of night. The procession moved through Abbeville with increased pomp. 2 Goodwin's Life of Henry.

1 Stowe.

3 MS. correction of Dr. Lingard, as there was no St. Offian. The cathedral at Abbeville is however, St. Wolfran or Wolstan.

The duke of Exeter, the earl of March, sir Louis Robsart the queen's knight, and many nobles, bore the banners of the saints. The hatchments were carried by twelve renowned captains; and around the bier-car rode four hundred men-atarms in black armour, their horses barbed black, their lances held with the points downwards. A great company clothed in white, bearing wax-torches, lighted, encompassed the procession. The queen, with a mighty retinue, came after at a mile's distance." Thus she passed, keeping her husband's corpse in view, through Hesdin, Montrieul, and Boulogne, till they came to Calais, where, on the 12th of October, the privy council had ordered vessels to meet the queen, with ladies to attend her.1

When the queen, after landing at Dover with the royal corpse, approached London, she was met by fifteen bishops in their pontifical habits, and by many abbots in their mitres and vestments, with a vast crowd of priests and people. The priests chanted, all the way from Blackheath and through the streets of the city, hymns for their dead king. A general and picturesque illumination was effected, by each householder standing at his door with a torch in his hand. The princes of the royal family rode in mournful postures next the funeral car. The grief of the young queen greatly edified the people, and they were still more impressed by the barbarian. magnificence of the tomb she raised to the memory of their royal hero, on which a Latin inscription expressed "that it was raised by his queen, Katherine." The famous silverplated statue, with the head of solid silver gilt, was placed on the tomb of Henry V. at the expense of his widow."

Directly after the obsequies of her husband, Katherine retired to Windsor-castle,' to embrace her babe, and pass the first weeks of her widowhood. Her little child was eight months old on the day of his warlike father's death. When

1 Minutes of Privy Council, vol. iii. p. 5. These documents tacitly confirm the assertion of Speed, that the little king Henry VI. was left in England; for no preparation is made for his reception, nor is the royal infant even mentioned in any of the arrangements for meeting his dead father and mourning mother at Dover, excepting that all orders are effected in his name.

* Goodwin. Stowe. Speed. Weever.

Speed.

the parliament met, she removed to London, and passed through the city on a moving throne drawn by white horses, and surrounded by all the princes and nobles of England. The infant king was seated on her lap, "and those pretty hands," says one of our quaint chroniclers, "which could not yet feed himself, were made capable of wielding a sceptre; and he, who was beholden to nurses for milk, did distribute sustenance to the law and justice of his nation. The queen, with her infant on her knee, was enthroned among the lords, whom, by the chancellor, the little king saluted, and spoke to them at large his mind by means of another's tongue." The king conducted himself with extraordinary quietness and gravity, considering he had not yet attained the age of twelve months.

Henry did not always behave so orderly, as that curious annal, the London Chronicle, thus bears grave testimony:' "This year, (1423,) upon Saturday the 13th of November, the king and his mother removed from Windsor to hold a parliament in London. At night the king and his mother the queen lodged at Staines, and upon the morrow, being Sunday, the king being borne towards his mother's car, he skreeked, he cried, he sprang, and would be carried no further; wherefore they bore him again to the inn, and there he abode the Sunday all day." The chronicler certainly means to insinuate that all this violence was because the royal babe, by a holy instinct, would not break the Sabbath by travelling, and therefore made this notable resistance, by shrieking and kicking when he was carried to his mother's car. In all probability he had been well amused at the inn at Staines, and did not wish to leave it. "On the Monday," continues

the chronicler of London, " he was borne to his mother's car or chair, he being then glad and merry of cheer; and so they came to Kingston, and rested that night. On the Tuesday queen Katherine brought him to Kennington-palace. On Wednesday he came to London, and, with glad semblance and merry cheer, on his n.other's barm [lap] in the car, rode 1 Chronicles of London, p. 111, (date 1423).

2 Barm' is an ancient word, signifying lap. An apron is by our early writers termed 'barm-cloth.'