Louange à Dieu du bien qu'il nous envoye."
Mary's courteous grace in acknowledging the acclamation with which she was greeted as usual pleased the people, and she passed on down the tapestry-hung streets, and through the crowds of cheering people, passed the Fontaine du Ponceau, where the water was scattered over two plants, a lily and a rose; passed the convent of the Holy Trinity, where she saw herself presenting the Pax to her husband, passed the Porte au Peintres, the Holy Innocents, and then on by the Chatelet, where Justice and Truth met together, and she herself, labelled "Stella Maris," was in the foreground, to the Palais Royale, where the angel Gabriel was greeting Mary in the field of France, and they sang,
"Comme la paise entre Dieu et les hommes
Par le moyen de la vierge Marie
Fut jadis faicte, ainsy à présent somme
Bourgoys Francoys deschargez de nos sommes
Car Marie avecque nous se marie."
But this was not the end, though the afternoon was wearing on. The procession now proceeded to Notre Dame de Paris, where all the learned in theology, law and medicine met her in their furred gowns, and outside the church she was harangued by a venerable doctor. Through the open doors of the Cathedral could be seen dimly the group of great ecclesiastics waiting to welcome her. Mary got out of her litter and entered the doors, and at once the bells rang out, and the organs sounded, while the whole clergy chanted the Te Deum, as they turned and led the procession to the high altar. There the whole company adored the Mass, and then the Archbishop of Paris bade the Queen welcome. Back again in her litter to the Palais Royale (and it was now six o'clock) went the Queen with no chance of rest, for the gargantuan part of her day's work remained, and she had to sup in public at the celebrated marble table, the centre of the government of France. In the Grande Salle the doric pillars were all surrounded by sideboards laden with gold and silver plate, the walls were hung with tapestry, and the air was so melodious with clarion and trumpet, that it seemed paradise rather than a room in an earthly palace. Mary had Madame Louise de Savoie, and her daughter the Duchess of Alençon, with the Duchess of Nevers, at her table, while her ladies, English and French, dined near by. There were many wonderful dishes of the four and twenty blackbirds type; a phœnix beating its wings till fire consumed it; a cock and a hare jousting; a St George on horseback leading La Pucelle against the English. The heralds and musicians cried "Largesse," and Mary gave to them a ship of silver, and at last, after being rejoiced by a few more pastimes and diversions, she was at liberty to take her leave.[ [339] Next day after Mass she rode to the Hôtel des Tournelles (which Suffolk calls Turnells tout court), and there she found her husband awaiting her. The remainder of the week was filled by ceremonies incident to the presentations of gifts by the guilds and merchants of the city of Paris, but Mary found time to write to Wolsey for temporary help till her estate was settled for her whilom French master, John Palsgrave, who had not returned to England with the rest of her rejected train, but had made his way to Paris, evidently encouraged by his mistress, in order to study.[ [340]