Precisely as the clock dealt out eleven,
And all the hosts assembled—who were bidden—
Had ’fresh’d their bodies and each loving-soul,
They wend their way into the entrance-hall;
Thence to the front, where the first coach doth stand,
Awaiting famed Sir Humphrey, Jane, and Hollybrand:
When they were seated and prepared to start,
The second coach draws up, which (quite as smart)
Receives Lord Arnold Mountjoy, and beside
Those pretty twins,[250]—attendants on the Bride:
The third, and last, contain’d Sir Edward Knox,
His wife, and daughter, in rare silken-frocks
With whom, dear Mistress Toogood found a seat,
And thus the bridal-party is complete.
An instant more they’re on the happy road
To seal the contract in the house of God,
Where crowd the villagers,—some ’round the porch,
And some within the flint-embedded[251] church,
Where they, expectant, ’wait the hour to see
The heroine of the day’s festivity.
[250] Sir Humphrey’s two daughters.
[251] The exterior masonry.