submissive terms on the part of his contumacious vassals. When the great day arrived, the town guilds and companies with their masters assembled at St. Martin's Place, all dressed in their best, and drawn up around their banners.
As ten strokes sounded from the great tower, the bells began to ring, and on both sides of the square the doors of St. Martin's and of the Town Hall were thrown open. From the church issued the long procession of white-robed clergy, and on the steps of the Town Hall appeared the green and yellow gowns of the Mayor and aldermen. These dignified bodies exchanged profound bows over the heads of us, who stood below them; and then they marched slowly down; first the beadles, with their red cloaks and redder noses, and then the town bailiffs, adorned with their gold chains of oifice, and striking their staves loudly on the pavement as they advanced.
We formed a great ring around the square, with our backs to the houses; and the authorities placed themselves just in the middle.
The whole town was there to the last man; the pettifoggers and barristers were ranged under the banner of St. Ivés, (the man of business of Our Father,) while the apothecaries, leeches and mediciners, men of St. Cosmo, formed a guard of honor
