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"By this our letter, or by a copy thereof signed by a public notary, We command prince John, our dearly beloved son the Infante, dukes, prelates, marquisses, great masters, and military orders, priors, commanderies, or councillors, judges, and others our officers of justice whomsoever, belonging to our household, courts, and chancery, and constables of castles, commanders of forts and others, and all corporations, mayors, bailiffs, and magistrates, governors, judges, commanders, and sea officers; the aldermen, common councillors, officers, and good people, of all cities, towns, lands, and places in our kingdoms and dominions, and in those which you shall discover and subdue; and the captains, masters, mates, and all other officers and sailors, our natural subjects at present, or who shall so become hereafter, all or any of them, that when you shall have so discovered the said islands and continent in the ocean, and you or any that have your commission shall have taken the oaths usual in such cases, that they shall look upon you for the future so long as you live, and after you your son and heir, and so on from one heir to another for ever, as our admiral, viceroy, and governor of the said islands and continent by you Christopher Columbus to be discovered and conquered; and that they treat you, and your lieutenants by you appointed for executing the employments of admiral, viceroy, and governor, as such in all respects; and shall give you all the perquisites and other things belonging and appertaining to the said offices; and shall allow and cause to be allowed you, all honours, graces, concessions, preeminences, prerogatives, immunities, and other things, or any of them, which are due to you by virtue of your commands of admiral, viceroy, and governor, all to be observed completely, so that nothing shall be diminished: That they shall raise no objection to this or any part of it, nor suffer any such to be made; forasmuch as we by this our letter bestow on you the employments of admiral, viceroy and governor forever, and have put you in possession of the said offices and all of them, with full power to use and exercise them, and to receive the perquisites and salaries belonging to them, or any of them, as above said."

On the eleventh day of April, this act, with the conditions of inheritance, and the instrument, were reported, considered, unanimously approved, and solemnly proclaimed at the market-cross of Edinburgh, in presence of the lord president, assisted by the lord provost and magistracy of the city, the duke of Queensbury, the marquisses of Athol and Douglas, together with a great number of the nobility and gentry.

"If you will follow me," replied the courtier, motioning with his chapeau; and in another moment I was elbowing my way through the mob of marquisses and duchesses, on my way to the raised platform where the king was standing.

Naples is not destitute of a set of young noblemen, the disgrace of the titles they wear, who would be too happy to seduce the representative of the marquisses of Pescara into an imitation of their vices, and to screen their follies under so brilliant and conspicuous an example. My lord, there is no misfortune that I more sincerely regret than the loss of your society.

"I hope you have brought back with you a sound American heart, Miss Eve," resumed the guest, as soon as this little interruption had ceased. "We have had sundry rumours of French Marquisses, and German Barons; but I have, all along, trusted too much to your patriotism to believe you would marry a foreigner." "I hope you except Englishmen," cried Sir George, gaily: "we are almost the same people."

Before I go further, let me get rid of my remark upon Avignon, which is this: That I think it wrong, merely because a man's hat has been blown off his head by chance the first night he comes to Avignon, that he should therefore say, 'Avignon is more subject to high winds than any town in all France: for which reason I laid no stress upon the accident till I had enquired of the master of the inn about it, who telling me seriously it was so and hearing, moreover, the windiness of Avignon spoke of in the country about as a proverb I set it down, merely to ask the learned what can be the cause the consequence I saw for they are all Dukes, Marquisses, and Counts, there the duce a Baron, in all Avignon so that there is scarce any talking to them on a windy day.

About this time the earls of Kent, Lindsey, and Kingston, were raised to the rank of marquisses. The lords Wharton, Paulet, Godolphin, and Cholmondeley, were created earls. Lord Walden, son and heir-apparent to the earl of Suffolk, obtained the title of earl of Bindon. The lord-keeper Cowper, and sir Thomas Pelham, were ennobled as barons.