nine in the evening
The poor Chancellor was not long in removing himself from this dangerous vicinity ; nor did the commission waste time in giving the royal assent to the work of the slavish Parliament , and appointing the morrow for the beheading of the premier peer of England , the luckless Duke of Norfolk . CHAPTER IX . The river pageant . At nine in the evening the whole vast river-front of the palace was blazing with light . The river itself , as far as the eye could reach citywards , was so thickly covered with watermen 's boats and with pleasure-barges , all fringed with coloured lanterns , and gently agitated by the waves , that it resembled a glowing and limitless garden of flowers stirred to soft motion by summer winds . The grand terrace of stone steps leading down to the water , spacious enough to mass the army of a German principality upon , was a picture to see , with its ranks of royal halberdiers in polished armour , and its troops of brilliantly costumed servitors flitting up and down , and to and fro , in the hurry of preparation . Presently a command was given , and immediately all living creatures vanished from the steps .