CHAPTER XX.
King James the First.
Meantime the royal cavalcade came slowly up the avenue.

It was very numerous, and all the more brilliant in appearance, since it comprised nearly as many high-born dames as nobles.

Amongst the distinguished foreigners who with their attendants swelled the party were the Venetian lieger-ambassador Giustiniano, and the Marquis de Tremouille, of the family des Ursins, ambassador from France.
These exalted personages rode close behind the King, and one or the other of them was constantly engaged in conversation with him.
Giustiniano had one of those dark, grave, handsome countenances familiarized to us by the portraits of Titian and Tintoretto, and even the King's jests failed in making him smile.

He was apparelled entirely in black velvet, with a cloak bordered with the costly fur of the black fox.

All his followers were similarly attired.