caps; and half an hour afterwards the Chancellor, accompanied by several
masters of the Court of Requests, and dressed from head to foot in black
velvet, took his place below the First President in the great hall of
the Augustine monastery, where the young King was to hold his Bed of
Justice, the ordinary place of meeting being still encumbered with the
costly preparations which had been made for the state-reception of the
Queen. This ceremonial was essential to the legal tenure of the regency
by his mother, which required the ratification of the sovereign; and his
assent in the presence of his princes, dukes, peers, and officers of the
Crown, to her assumption of entire and complete control over his own
education, and the administration of the government during his minority,
as well as his approval of the decree delivered on the previous day by
the Parliament.[33]

Then arrived in rapid succession the Duc de Mayenne, the Connétable de
Montmorency, the cardinals, prelates, and other great dignitaries; who
were finally succeeded by the King himself, habited in a suit of violet
velvet, and surrounded and followed by a numerous retinue of princes,
dukes, nobles, and high officers of the Court. Louis himself was mounted
on a white palfrey, but all the members of his suite, whatever their
rank, were on foot. The Queen came next in her coach, attended by the
Princesses of the Blood and the other great ladies of her household; not
as she had anticipated only two days previously, blazing with jewels and
clad in royal robes, but covered with an ample mourning drapery of
black crape.

The necessary ceremonies having been observed, the King at length took
his place upon the Bed of Justice, having the Queen upon his right hand;
while below their Majesties were seated the Prince de Conti, the Comte
d'Enghien, who represented his father, M. de Soissons, the Duc de Guise,