“There spoke old Harry Grace à Dieu!” cried Seymour. “I know his tremendous tones well enough.”
“‘Tis the first time I have heard those guns,” observed Edward. “In sooth, they have a terrible sound.”
Your enemies think so, sire,” rejoined Sir Thomas, with a laugh. “Few who withstood the shot of those guns would care to hear them again. But you will have more of it presently. The cannoniers I see are once more ready on the White Tower. Heaven grant your Highness be not deafened by the din!”
“Nay, I like it, gentle uncle,” replied the young king, with boyish delight.
As he spoke, the ordnance from the Tower belched forth again; the roar being continued by the guns of the various ships, and closed by the deep-voiced cannon of the great Harry.
“‘Tis a grand sound!” exclaimed Edward, with a glowing countenance. “I should like to witness a siege, uncle.”
“Perchance your highness may have your wish,” replied Seymour. “The French are like to give us somewhat to do at Calais and Boulloign, ere long; and if they fail, the Scots are certain to find us employment. Your Grace must visit Berwick. But here comes the Constable of the Tower to conduct you to the fortress.”
As the second roar of ordnance died away, Sir John Gage, mounted upon a powerful sorrel charger, very richly caparisoned, issued forth from the Bulwark Gate. He was closely followed by the Lieutenant of the Tower, Sir John Markham, two esquires, likewise on horseback, and by a long train on foot, headed by the chaplain of the Tower in his surplice, attended by the verger bearing the cross, and consisting of the chief porter, the gentleman-jailer, and other officers, with forty yeomen of the guard, armed with halberds, and clad in their scarlet liveries, with the Rose and Crown embroidered upon the back—the latter walking two and two.
When within a short distance of the youthful sovereign, Sir John dismounted, and committing his charger to an esquire, bent the knee before Edward, and welcomed him to the Tower. The lieutenant followed the example of his superior, after which the chaplain pronounced a solemn benediction. This done, the constable and lieutenant remounted their steeds; the yeomen of the guard and the others wheeled round, and returned as they had come, while Sir John Gage preceded the young monarch to the fortress.
On the stone bridge, built across the moat between the barbican and the By-ward Tower, were collected all the illustrious persons constituting the upper and lower councils appointed by the late king’s will, except such as were actually in attendance at the moment. Chief amongst them were the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Durham, and the Lord Chancellor; the two former being in full ecclesiastical costume, and the latter in his robes of office, with the collar of the Garter round his shoulders. Instead of sharing in the general animation, Wriothesley looked on with lowering brows, and to judge from the sternness of his visage and the coldness of his manner towards his companions, he meditated some hostile course against them. In the next rank were the Earl of Arundel, the venerable Lord Russell, the Earl of Essex, brother to Queen Catherine Parr, and the Lords St. John and Lisle. Most of these wore the Garter, and Lord Lisle was attired with extraordinary splendor. Behind them were the three judges in their robes, Montague, North, and Bromley. The rest of the brilliant assemblage consisted of Sir William Paget, chief secretary of state; Sir Anthony Denny and Sir William Herbert, chief gentlemen of the privy chamber; the vice-chamberlain, the treasurer, and several others. Yeomen of the guard bearing halberds, trumpeters sounding loud flourishes, bearers of standards, banners, and pennons, heralds in coats of arms, pursuivants of arms and marshals of arms with maces, came first, and the members of the council drew back on either side to allow them passage.
Next came the Constable of the Tower, compelling his charger to move backwards along the whole length of the bridge, until he brought him under the vaulted archway of the By-ward Tower, where horse and rider remained motionless as an equestrian statue. While this feat was performed with so much address that no disturbance was caused to the bystanders, amid loud cheers from the beholders gathered on the walls and towers of the fortress, the king rode upon the bridge, and had got about half way across it, when the lords of the council, headed by Cranmer, advanced to pay him homage. A short address, concluding with a benediction, was pronounced by the primate, during which all the others, except Tunstal, knelt down. The blessing over, the kneeling lords arose, and exclaimed with one voice, “Vive le noble roi Edouard!” And the same cry was repeated with the utmost enthusiasm by Sir Thomas Seymour, who was close behind his royal nephew, by the Earl of Hertford, Sir Anthony Brown, and all upon the bridge.