table; but, as he was the representant of so
great a Prince as the archduke, one who
would never allow it,' he said, ' so much as a
question or thought of competition betweene
him, a monarchall sovereigne, and a meane
republique, governed by a sort of burghers,
who had but an handfull of territory in
comparison with his master, and (as would be
averred, he said, by ancient proofes, had ever
yielded precedence to the archduke's
predecessors when they were but Dukes of
Burgundie), hee could not be present at that
solemnity."

The soul of the Master of the Ceremonies
is sore vexed at this punctilio of the
archduke's ambassador; he flies for assistance to
various quarters. The Lord High Chamberlain
looks at his silver stick, but can extract
no information from that bedizened piece of
wood. At last the sagacious James is applied
to, and he exercises his usual ingenuity in
solving the knotty point. He even writes a
letter to the recalcitrant envoy, laying it
down, that being invited for the third day is
no derogation from his lofty rank, "in regard
that the solemnity of the marriage being but
one continued act, though performed divers
daies, admitted neither prius nor posterius in
itselfe; but it is to be understood that each
day had the like dignity. Nay, if one would
argumentize thereupon, it might be alledged
that the last day should be taken for the
greatest day, as it is understood in many
other cases, and particularly upon the festivalls
of Christmas, wherein the twelfth day, or the
festivall of the Three Kings, which is the
last, is taken for the greatest day."

We are sorry to say this royal eloquence
does not seem to have been successful. The
archduke's ambassador is sulky and stays
away; but where are a gentleman usher's
anxieties to end? The wife of the French
ambassador is left to the "maviging" of the
Lord Chamberlain at the marriage feast.
He orders her to be placed at the table
next beneath the countesses and above
the baronesses: "but the Viscountesse of
Effingham, standing to her woman's right,
and possesst already of her proper place (as
shee called it) would not move lower, so held
the hand of the ambassadrice, till, after dinner,
the ambassador, her husband, informed of
the difference and opposition, tooke it for an
indignity, and calling for his wive's coach
wished that by her departure it might be
seen he was sensible." But this attempt to
prove himself a profoundly sensible personage
was prevented by some arrangement among
the ladies themselves, and she sate at supper
between a countess and a viscountess.
Whereupon the infuriated Viscountess of
Effingham, " with rather too much than too
little stomach, forebore both her supper and
the company"

The punctilio of the archduke's ambassador
may perhaps be accounted for, when
we remember that his master was the Archduke
Ferdinand of Austria; who, on his
elevation to the Empire, waged such deadly war
with the Elector Palatine, who had then been
promoted to the crown of Bohemia. The
quarrel was rankling even at this time, and
M. de Boiscot's hostility at the marriage
solemnity was a sort of prelude to the Thirty
Years' War.

The great Gustavus Adolphus sends an
ambassador to the English Court, and the
choice he made of a gentleman to fill that
office, seems to have been a departure from
the usual wisdom of the Lion of the North.
At his first audience, the envoy commenced
an oration—to the astonishment of James and
all his nobles as well as of some other envoys
who were present—which went on and on, on
every variety of subject, and in every tense
and mood of the Latin tongue, with no apparent
hope of conclusion. When at last the
orator committed a slight pause, the British
Solomon broke in at the opening so
fortunately left, and answered, "shortly and
pithily, in the same language." But the
Swede was not to be daunted. "The ambassador
turned to the prince, and beginning to
him another formall speech, the King left him;
so did the ambassadors; and after a whyle
the prince, and returned to his lodgings,"
and the horrified Master of the Ceremonies
had the task of conducting the Swedish
orator to his rooms in Crouched Friars with
the remainder of his speech still sticking in
his throat.

The Emperor of Russia sends over various
ambassadors in the course of those years.
The first gives evidence of the barbarous
magnificence affected by that oriental potentate,
and reminds us of the procession sent
by Aladdin with presents to his royal
father-in-law. That the Muscovites were held in
great contempt at that period, is plain, from
the merely civic manner of their reception at
landing. It is curious that the contempt then
entertained for the Muscovite Embassy, gave
rise to the depreciatory word "muff:" still
in use in promiscuous society but then
employed by the politest of gentleman ushers,
merely to designate a Russian.

"An ambassador sent from the Emperor of
Muscovy was received at Tower Wharf by
the Lord Compton, having been first met at
Gravesend by Sir Richard Smith and others,
sent in the name of the City, and brought up
in their barges. The king's coach, and five or
six others, tooke them in at Tower Wharfe,
but with such disorder of gentlemen come
from Court (more than were appointed) that
too soone pressed into them, as without my
care and boldness to displace, some must of
the better sort of Muffes have walked on foot
to their lodgings. They were encountered on
Tower Hill by the Aldermen of the City, in
their scarlet gownes, and other citizens in
their velvet coates and chaines of gold, all on
horseback, and thence conducted to their
house in Bishopsgate Street, where they were