"I suppose that's why he's in this procession, because when he lived he really belonged to Belgium as well as to Holland," said Alfred thoughtfully.
"Oh!" cried Betty, clapping her hands, "I know who that next lot are! The lady in the ruff, with the little jeweled band in her hair, must be Queen Elizabeth, and those are her courtiers. Now every one of us has a namesake in the pageant, except Francis."
"If I'm not mistaken," said her aunt, "Francis has a namesake in this very group. Yes, surely—do you see the man with the pointed beard and the model of a ship in his hand? That is Sir Francis Drake, the great seaman. Over and over his little ship went in chase of the Spaniards, who were England's greatest enemies at this time. Elizabeth ruled at the same time when the Dutch, too, were fighting Spain. There was nothing too daring or dangerous for Drake to attempt. He was the first Englishman to sail around the world, a voyage which took more than two years. Once he sailed right into a Spanish harbor and burned all the Spanish ships there, which were being made ready for an attack on England. And he and his friends, bold adventurers like himself, laid the foundation of the power of England on the sea."
"I suppose the man with the red velvet cloak is Raleigh, and that's the cloak he spread down for Elizabeth to walk on."
"Yes. And do you see that kind, merry-looking man in black, with the simple white collar, carrying an actor's mask in his hand? That must be Shakespeare, the greatest writer of plays that ever lived. And I believe the man beside him, holding a great roll of manuscript and a quill pen, is Spenser, the poet who wrote a wonderful book called the 'Faerie Queen' in honor of Queen Elizabeth."
"We've had somebody from France and Belgium and England," said Betty. "I wonder if there won't be an American pretty soon?"
"There couldn't have been an American yet, stupid," Alfred informed her, "because there weren't any people in our part of America in Queen Elizabeth's time."
"Oh, so there weren't. There comes a soldier with an Indian chief and an Indian girl close behind him—he must be American, or the Indians wouldn't be there."