Charles took my hand and the ceremony began.

I could only nod my head when told to do so, for I was not able to say the words which were required of me.

I learned afterward that when the Bishop proclaimed us man and wife, what the people were shouting was: “Long may they live!”

There was to be a banquet and the King, holding me by the hand, took me to his apartment, the people following us.

There we stood side by side and many came to congratulate us and to wish us a long and happy life together. Charles explained this to me. He looked very happy — and so was I.

Lady Suffolk indicated that she would like one of the blue knots of ribbon on my dress. It would be a memento of this happy occasion which she would treasure all her life. I thought it was a charming suggestion, so I pulled one off and gave it to her.

People pressed round and I realized that they were all demanding a knot of blue ribbon.

“You cannot refuse them,” said Charles. “You are going to be ribbonless before they will let you go.”

It was all very merry and there was I, plucking off the knots of ribbon, which I knew later had been lightly tacked on so that they could easily be pulled off.

I looked down with dismay at my denuded dress.

“Do not regret the loss of the ribbons,” said Charles. “It still looks delightful, as any dress would on you.”

I noticed that only one knot had been left, and Charles plucked it off. “This one shall be mine,” he said. He kissed it and held it to his heart. Everyone applauded.

I turned to him and smiled. I was so happy. There was only one regret. My mother was not here to see my contentment, and the successful culmination of the dream we had shared through the years.

Suddenly I felt almost faint and might have fallen if Charles had not put an arm about me.

“You are unwell, my dearest?” he said with concern.

“No, just a little tired.”

Donna Maria, watching me intently, had seen what had happened. She was beside me, indignant and vociferous.

“I should think so. You have had enough. It is time you were in your bed. You will be ill. I have never heard the like…two weddings in one day.”

I was glad few could understand her.

The Countess of Suffolk was talking to the King. He looked grave.

Then he said to me: “They are saying you are overtired. This is too soon after your illness. The Countess thinks you should return to bed.”

I said: “There is the banquet…”

“Your good health is more important than all the banquets in my kingdom. The ladies are right. You must go to your bedchamber at once. You must rest.”

“But…,” I began.

“Yes,” he said firmly. “It is best. There is the rest of our lives for us to be together.”

Donna Maria was chattering about the folly of doing too much too soon. Elvira was with her. They knew, they were saying, what was best for me.

I said: “I shall miss the banquet…my wedding banquet…and I shall not be there.”

“A plague on banquets,” said Donna Maria. “Your health comes first.”

The King came with me to my bedchamber. Donna Maria pursed her lips and I wanted to remind her that he was my husband now.

Lady Suffolk was there. She implied that she, with my ladies, would help me to disrobe.

I lay in my bed. Yes, I was exhausted and it was a relief to rest. But I could not stop myself thinking of the splendid banquet, the merrymaking, and the King sitting there with an empty chair beside him, which made me feel a little dispirited, when the door was flung open suddenly, and two men appeared, carrying trays.

I thought: I do not want to eat. Oh, how I wished that I had been able to hide my weakness.

And then Charles was there. He gave an order to the men and one tray was set down on the bed. He seated himself on the other side of the tray, smiling at me.

“What…?” I began in Spanish, and he answered in that language.

“I could not sup on my wedding day without my wife.”

Oh, what a merry meal that was! How we laughed and how we talked! It was so amusing for us because we found our Spanish not always adequate and must resort to miming.

Charles said: “I wonder if you will share my view that this is far more agreeable than the grand banquet they are having downstairs.”

“It is the most enjoyable meal I ever had,” I told him.

We kissed over the tray, and I was happier than I had ever been before in the whole of my life.


* * *

I SPENT MY WEDDING NIGHT alone in my bed. Charles was so considerate that he realized I was too overcome by the excitement for anything else.

I scarcely slept. How rarely is the realization more delightful than the dream itself! That was what I believed had happened to me.

How charming he was! He had a nonchalant air, a carefree manner which implied that everything would be well if left to him. And above all, there was his kindness. I remembered how grim Don Francisco had become when I had told him I must have a Catholic marriage ceremony. How different from my dearest Charles! It was a delicate matter, I knew. I was asking something which had to be performed in private because the people here would not have wanted it to take place. But he had immediately understood how much it meant to me. He was wonderful. I must be the happiest woman in the world.

He was in the room early next morning asking me, with the utmost tenderness, how I was.

I told him I was completely well.

“We shall take care of you,” he said.

Then he talked of our honeymoon which, he said, if I were agreeable, should be spent at his palace of Hampton Court.

I said that would be most agreeable.

“It is one of my favorite palaces,” he told me. “You will enjoy it, as I shall. It is a place where a great deal has happened and I shall tell you of some of this. It was built many years ago…four hundred, I think, and much later it was bought by a man who is very well known in our history. He was called Cardinal Wolsey. He displeased the King, Henry VIII, who took the palace from him, and it has been royal property ever since.”

“I want to see it very much.”

“We shall dally there for a while. You will like the gardens. You will like the river which runs alongside, and you will not be afraid of the ghosts who haunt the palace, because I shall be there to protect you.”

I told him I should not feel afraid of anything if he were there.

Now our relationship had deepened. I was young, innocent and ignorant. He, as I learned later, was as well versed in the art of lovemaking as anyone on the earth. And I was sure he must have been born with it. How charmingly and romantically he initiated me. And what an apt pupil I was. I believed I delighted him. I did not realize then that it was because of my innocence, which must have made me very different from most of the women he had known. Few would have lived such a sheltered life as I had.

I found life enchanting. We were together for most of the days and nights during the time we spent in Portsmouth; and we were to leave for Hampton Court as soon as enough carts could be found to take the court there.

Charles joked about the Portuguese costumes which my ladies had brought with them.

“It is fortunate that the ladies of England do not follow the same fashions. If they did, there would not be enough carts in England to carry them and their belongings from place to place.”

It was about four days after our wedding when we left for Hampton Court.

What a welcome we received there! There were two reasons for rejoicing. It was the twenty-ninth of May, the King’s thirty-second birthday, and the second anniversary of his restoration to the throne. The English loved excuses for holidays and pageants and making merry. Moreover, Charles told me, they were also celebrating his marriage and my arrival in England.

“So you see, my love, there is ample reason for rejoicing.”

There were bonfires all along the route. People lined the roads to see the King and Queen. They shouted loyal greetings and threw garlands at us. We smiled and waved as we passed along.

They seemed pleased to see me. I had learned to recognize the shouts of “God save the Queen.” Charles was always delighted by their recognition of me.

And thus we came to Hampton.

It has always been one of my favorite palaces. To me now it is the one place where I was most happy, where I had spent those magical days…childlike in my innocence. How happy I could have been if I had never lost that innocence! But one cannot go blindfold through life.

When we arrived at the palace, the guards were waiting to greet us. How I wished that we could have come there alone and have entered the palace without ceremony, but we had to pass through the lines of soldiery, followed by our retinue, and there must be presentations and kissing of hands. As the new Queen, there were important people whom I had to receive. It was so difficult because of the language. I could only nod and smile, for I was not at that stage ready to attempt those few words which Charles had taught me.

Hoy joyous that homecoming could have been if only we were alone!


* * *

MY MEMORIES OF THOSE DAYS at Hampton Court will remain with me forever. I was perfectly happy during them, or almost, the only flaw being that we were so rarely alone. But to be otherwise would be asking too much. Charles was, after all, the King and I the new Queen; and it was our duty to receive the many people who were eager to see us.

There were morning levees at which Charles must present the leading people of the court to me; and it seemed there was always some ceremony to perform. He would smile at me apologetically during these sessions, because I believed he too was wishing that we could be alone; and happily I would return his look with understanding.

It was only at night that we were free.

There was continual revelry. The Portuguese court had been much more formal. The English flung themselves into pleasure with an abandonment which at first astonished me. Then I reminded myself that they had only just escaped from Puritan rule, so perhaps in time they would grow a little more restrained.

There were banquets and balls, pageants on the river; plays were performed and there was much dancing. Charles was always at the center of these. He was noted for his wit and was as addicted to pleasure, light-hearted banter and laughter as the rest. He danced most gracefully, and I always applauded him loudly, and during those halcyon days he always looked at me and acknowledged my approval. It was deeply touching, and I was more in love every day.

There were minor disappointments.

For instance, on the first day after our arrival, I was preparing to go down to the levee where certain ladies were to be presented to me. Six of my ladies-in-waiting came with me, dressed in the costumes of our country. Their hair was frizzed to resemble a periwig, and in their farthingales — I now noticed — they walked awkwardly.

Donna Maria looked at them with approval.

She said to me: “They look like ladies. I declare the loose fashions of the English shock me. Indeed, they shock me deeply. I tremble to think what your mother would say if she saw you in these unholy English fashions. Come, let us dress you as a Portuguese queen should be dressed. Let us give you back your dignity.”

I wondered, after, that I allowed it. It was due to the mention of my mother, perhaps. I knew that she would not have approved of the English customs.

So I relented and sat there meekly while they dressed me. They called in the hairdresser, whom we had brought with us from Portugal and whose services I had not yet used because Charles had so admired my hair that I had worn it loosely dressed most of the time.

So I went down to the reception with my attendants, in the costume of my native land.

There was a brief silence, which was eloquent enough. I saw one or two of the ladies put their hands to their mouths, as though holding in their laughter.

Charles was looking at me. For a few seconds I saw his expression of bewildered amazement. Was it horror? Or dismay? I glanced at the ladies. The somber colors made their skins look darker. Or did they seem so against the English skins, which for the most part were fair?

Charles took my hand. He was then smiling as blandly as ever.