Mary had the good sense and good nature to order four of those importunate petitioners to be admitted into the room where she was holding a Council.

She heard their complaints, and herself assured them that the rumour which had alarmed them was unfounded.

[462] By this time Saint Bartholomew's day drew near; and the great annual fair, the delight of idle apprentices and the horror of Puritanical Aldermen, was opened in Smithfield with the usual display of dwarfs, giants, and dancing dogs, the man that ate fire, and the elephant that loaded and fired a musket.

But of all the shows none proved so attractive as a dramatic performance which, in conception, though doubtless not in execution, seems to have borne much resemblance to those immortal masterpieces of humour in which Aristophanes held up Cleon and Lamachus to derision.

Two strollers personated Killegrew and Delaval.