a robe of tbe moat beautiful needlework, wrought upon cloth of gold tissue, and furred with sable, worth one thousand five hundred pounds ; and Sir Nicholas Vaux wore a gown of purple velvet, so thickly ornamented with pieces of massive gold, that the gold alone, independent of the silk and fur, was worth one thousand pounds." The royal bride and bridegroom passed their nuptial night in the Bishop of London's palace, and on the next day the King and Queen conducted them by water to Baynard's Castle. On the following Thursday, the royal party went in state to St. Paul's, and after hearing mass there, entered their barges at Paul's Wharf, and were rowed to Westminster, attended on their way by the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and Aldermen, in barges gaily decked with banners and devices, and having bands of minstrels on board, who sung and played right joyously. In honour of the marriage, tilts and other athletic sports took place in the space before Westminster Hall. Hound the outside of the lists, stalls and stages were built for the accommodation of the royal family, the nobles, and the common people, who nocked in thousands to witness the sport, which was attended with no little danger, as the combatants fought with sharp spears. When evening set in, the company retired within Westminster Hall, and taking their seats, the King and the nobles on the right side, and the Queen and the ladies on the left, they beheld three grand pageants, which succeeded each other, and were each drawn upon Wheels. The first was a castle, with ladies ; the second a ship in full sail ; and the third a mountain, with several armed knights upon it, who stormed the castle, and obliged the ladies to surrender. The show ended in a sort of ballet, the pageantry disappeared, and the pleasures of the evening were terminated with a dance, in which the bride and bridegroom, the Duke of York, and the Princess Margaret, took part, to the great and singular pleasure of the King and Queen. On the subsequent Sunday, a grand banquet was held in the Hall, and Ka-I therine bestowed the rewards of the tilt : a rich diamond to the Duke of Buckingham, a ruby to the Marquis of Dorset, and valuable gold rings to the other successful competitors. The court remained at Westminster till Saturday, when, attended by the Lord Mayor and Corporation of London, in barges " right well decked with standards and streamers, enblazoned with their conizances," it removed up the Thames to Richmond. On Sunday, after divine service, the King and the court indulged in unseemly diversions, more, says a religious chronicler, as if the day belonged to the devil than to God. They played at cards, dice, chess, and backgammon ; a Spaniard went up a high rope in the garden, and danced and tumbled on it, marvellously to behold ; and in tbe evening there was a pageant of a rock, with mermaids and mermen, and with doves, rabbits, and other living creatures running and flying out of it amongst the noble beholders, who were highly delighted with the novelty. On the following day, tbe Spanish embassy was presented with valuable gifts, and sent back to their native land. Shortly after her marriage, Katherine accompanied her husband to the castle of Ludlow, in Shropshire, where the royal pair ruled over Wales, and kept a miniature court of state. Their stay at Ludlow, however, was of short duration, for the Prince, whose sweetness of temper, and proficiency in learning, rendered him an object of general admiration, was attacked, on the fourth month after his marriage, by the plague, of which he died, on the second of April, 1502. Immediately after this mournful event, Queen Elizabeth, Katherine's truly kind mother-in-law, caused her to be escorted to London, and settled at the palace of Croydon. Ferdinand and Isabella, the parents of the young widow, being alarmed at this event, and anxious to preserve the friendship of England, hastened to propose a marriage between Katherine and the King of England's surviving son, Henry. Ferdinand had agreed to give two hundred thousand crowns as a marriage portion with his daughter ; one