Dudley in horsemanship and all other exercises belonging to his rank.  He was bareheaded, as were all the courtiers in the train, and the red torchlight shone upon his long curled tresses of dark hair and on his noble features, to the beauty of which even the severest criticism could only object the lordly fault, as it may be termed, of a forehead somewhat too high.  On that proud evening he wore all the graceful solicitude of a subject, to show himself sensible of the high honour which the Queen was conferring on him, and all the pride and satisfaction which became so glorious a moment.  The train, male and female, who attended immediately upon the Queen’s person, were of course of the bravest and the fairest—­the highest born nobles and the wisest councellors of that distinguished reign, and were followed by a crowd of knights and gentlemen.  It was now the part of the huge porter, a man of immense size, to deliver an address and drop his club and resign his keys to give open way to the Goddess of the Night and all her magnificent train, but as he was so overwhelmed with confusion of spirit—­the contents of one immense black jack of double ale—­Sir Walter only records the substance of what the gigantic warder ought to have said in his address: 

  What stir, what turmoil, have we for the nones? 
  Stand back, my masters, or beware your bones! 
  Sirs, I’m a warder, and no man of straw,
  My voice keeps order, and my club gives law. 
  Yet soft,—­nay stay—­what vision have we here? 
  What dainty darling this—­what peerless peer? 
  What loveliest face, that loving ranks enfold. 
  Like brightest diamond chased in purest gold? 
  Dazzled and blind, mine office I forsake,
  My club, my Key, my knee, my homage take. 
  Bright paragon, pass on in joy and bliss;—­
  Beshrew the gate that opes not wide at such a sight as this!

Elizabeth received most graciously the homage of the herculean porter and then passed through the guarded tower amidst the sounds of trumpets and other instruments stationed on the tower and in various parts of the castle, and dismounted near Mortimer’s Tower, which was as light as day as she walked across the long bridge built especially for her and lit with torches on either side.  She had no sooner stepped upon the bridge than a new spectacle was provided, for as soon as the music gave signal that she was so far advanced, a raft on the lake, disposed as to resemble a small floating island, illuminated by a great variety of torches, and surrounded by floating pageants formed to represent sea-horses, on which sat Tritons, Nereids, and other fabulous deities of the seas and rivers, made its appearance upon the lake, and, issuing from behind a small heronry where it had been concealed, floated gently towards the farther end of the bridge.  On the islet appeared a beautiful woman, clad in a watchet-coloured silken mantle, bound with a broad girdle, inscribed with characters like