After breakfast he was conducted, with regal ceremony, attended by his great

Officers and his guard of fifty Gentlemen Pensioners bearing gilt battle-axes,

To the throne-room, where he proceeded to transact business of state. His

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'uncle' Lord Hertford, took his stand by the throne, to assist he royal mind

With wise counsel.

The body of illustrious men named by the late king as his executors, appeared,

to ask Tom's approval of certain acts of theirs — rather a form, and yet not

Wholly a form, since there was no Protector as yet. The Archbishop of

Canterbury made report of the decree of the Council of Executors concerning

The obsequies of his late most illustrious majesty, and finished by reading the

signatures of the executors, to wit: the Archbishop of Canterbury; the Lord

Chancellor of England; William Lord St. John; John Lord Russell; Edward

Earl of Hertford; John Viscount Lisle; Cuthbert Bishop of Durham —

Tom was not listening — an earlier clause of the document was puzzling him.

At this point he turned and whispered to Lord Hertford:

'What day did he say the burial hath been appointed for?'

'The 16th of the coming month, my liege.'

''Tis a strange folly. Will he keep?'

Poor chap, he was still new to the customs of royalty; he was used to seeing

The forlorn dead of Offal Court hustled out of the way with a very different