She smiled at him and he returned the smile.

Then remembering what was required of him he took her hand and kissed it.

He is only a boy, she thought, younger than I. There is nothing to fear from him.

The King was smiling on them benignly. There was no doubt that they had taken a fancy to each other.

Good! thought the King, but Arthur is too frail as yet for the consummation.

He hurried through the ceremony, and murmured something to Arthur’s squire that the Prince should take off his damp clothes as soon as possible, be rubbed down and put into dry ones.

The Bride and

the Widow

As she was residing in the Bishop’s house it was she who invited the King and the Prince to her apartments to sup and the Bishop being prepared for this was determined to win the King’s favor by making sure that his household provided such a meal as he would get in one of his royal palaces. Henry himself was no glutton, and in fact resented the amount of money which was wasted on food; but he was fully aware of the impression which must be made, not so much on the Princess as on her attendants who would return to Spain and report on the manner in which the Princess had been received and that would include a description of what there had been to eat at the Bishop’s table.