midnight
The splendid throng fell back on either hand in profoundest silence and expectation . The grand usher mysteriously disappeared , and in his place there stalked forward a score of soldiers , with clanking swords and fierce moustaches , in the gorgeous uniform of the king 's body-guard . These showy warriors arranged themselves silently on either side of the crimson throne , and were followed by half a dozen dazzling personages , the foremost crowned with mitre , armed with crozier , and robed in the ecclesiastical glory of an archbishop , but the face underneath , to the deep surprise and scandal of Sir Norman , was that of the fastest young roue of Charles court , after him came another pompous dignitary , in such unheard of magnificence that the unseen looker-on set him down for a prime minister , or a lord high chancellor , at the very least . The somewhat gaudy-looking gentlemen who stepped after the pious prelate and peer wore the stars and garters of foreign courts , and were evidently embassadors extraordinary to that of her midnight majesty . After them came a snowy flock of fair young girls , angels all but the wings , slender as sylphs , and robed in purest white . Each bore on her arm a basket of flowers , roses and rosebuds of every tint , from snowy white to darkest crimson , and as they floated in they scattered them lightly as they went . And then after all came another vision , `` the last , the brightest , the best -- the Midnight Queen , '' herself .