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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7718.txt b/7718.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5e0fa62 --- /dev/null +++ b/7718.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3830 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Last Of The Barons, by Lytton, Volume 4. +#145 in our series by Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Last Of The Barons, Volume 4. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7718] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on May 6, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST OF THE BARONS, V4 *** + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + +BOOK IV. + +INTRIGUES OF THE COURT OF EDWARD IV. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +MARGARET OF ANJOU. + +The day after the events recorded in the last section of this +narrative, and about the hour of noon, Robert Hilyard (still in the +reverend disguise in which he had accosted Hastings) bent his way +through the labyrinth of alleys that wound in dingy confusion from the +Chepe towards the river. + +The purlieus of the Thames, in that day of ineffective police, +sheltered many who either lived upon plunder, or sought abodes that +proffered, at alarm, the facility of flight. Here, sauntering in twos +or threes, or lazily reclined by the threshold of plaster huts, might +be seen that refuse population which is the unholy offspring of civil +war,--disbanded soldiers of either Rose, too inured to violence and +strife for peaceful employment, and ready for any enterprise by which +keen steel wins bright gold. At length our friend stopped before the +gate of a small house, on the very marge of the river, which belonged +to one of the many religious orders then existing; but from its site +and aspect denoted the poverty seldom their characteristic. Here he +knocked; the door was opened by a lay-brother; a sign and a smile were +interchanged, and the visitor was ushered into a room belonging to the +superior, but given up for the last few days to a foreign priest, to +whom the whole community appeared to consider the reverence of a saint +was due. And yet this priest, who, seated alone, by a casement which +commanded a partial view of the distant Tower of London, received the +conspirator, was clad in the humblest serge. His face was smooth and +delicate; and the animation of the aspect, the vehement impatience of +the gesture, evinced little of the holy calm that should belong to +those who have relinquished the affairs of earth for meditation on the +things of heaven. To this personage the sturdy Hilyard bowed his +manly knees; and casting himself at the priest's feet, his eyes, his +countenance, changed from their customary hardihood and recklessness +into an expression at once of reverence and of pity. + +"Well, man--well, friend--good friend, tried and leal friend, speak! +speak!" exclaimed the priest, in an accent that plainly revealed a +foreign birth. + +"Oh, gracious lady! all hope is over; I come but to bid you fly. Adam +Warner was brought before the usurper; he escaped, indeed, the +torture, and was faithful to the trust. But the papers--the secret of +the rising--are in the hands of Hastings." + +"How long, O Lord," said Margaret of Anjou, for she it was, under that +reverend disguise, "how long wilt Thou delay the hour of triumph and +revenge?" + +The princess as she spoke had suffered her hood to fall back, and her +pale, commanding countenance, so well fitted to express fiery and +terrible emotion, wore that aspect in which many a sentenced man had +read his doom,--an aspect the more fearful, inasmuch as the passion +that pervaded it did not distort the features, but left them locked, +rigid, and marble-like in beauty, as the head of the Medusa. + +"The day will dawn at last," said Hilyard; "but the judgments of +Heaven are slow. We are favoured, at the least, that our secret is +confined to a man more merciful than his tribe." He then related to +Margaret his interview with Hastings at the house of the Lady +Lougueville, and continued: "This morning, not an hour since, I sought +him (for last evening he did not leave Edward, a council met at the +Tower), and learned that he had detected the documents in the recesses +of Warner's engine. Knowing from your Highness and your spies that he +had been open to the gifts of Charolois, I spoke to him plainly of the +guerdon that should await his silence. 'Friar,' he answered, 'if in +this court and this world I have found it were a fool's virtue to be +more pure than others, and if I know that I should but provoke the +wrath of those who profit by Burgundian gold, were I alone to disdain +its glitter, I have still eno' of my younger conscience left me not to +make barter of human flesh. Did I give these papers to King Edward, +the heads of fifty gallant men, whose error is but loyalty to their +ancient sovereign, would glut the doomsman; but,' he continued, 'I am +yet true to my king and his cause; I shall know how to advise Edward +to the frustrating all your schemes. The districts where you hoped a +rising will be guarded, the men ye count upon will be watched: the +Duke of Gloucester, whose vigilance never sleeps, has learned that the +Lady Margaret is in England, disguised as a priest. To-morrow all the +religious houses will be searched; if thou knowest where she lies +concealed, bid her lose not an hour to fly.'" + +"I Will NOT fly!" exclaimed Margaret; "let Edward, if he dare, +proclaim to my people that their queen is in her city of London. Let +him send his hirelings to seize her. Not in this dress shall she be +found. In robes of state, the sceptre in her hand, shall they drag +the consort of their king to the prison-house of her palace." + +"On my knees, great queen, I implore you to be calm; with the loss of +your liberty ends indeed all hope of victory, all chance even of +struggle. Think not Edward's fears would leave to Margaret the life +that his disdain has spared to your royal spouse. Between your prison +and your grave, but one secret and bloody step! Be ruled; no time to +lose! My trusty Hugh even now waits with his boat below. Relays of +horses are ready, night and day, to bear you to the coast; while +seeking your restoration, I have never neglected the facilities for +flight. Pause not, O gracious lady; let not your son say, 'My +mother's passion has lost me the hope of my grandsire's crown.'" + +"My boy; my princely boy, my Edward!" exclaimed Margaret, bursting +into tears, all the warrior-queen merged in the remembrance of the +fond mother. "Ah, faithful friend! he is so gallant and so beautiful! +Oh, he shall reward thee well hereafter!" + +"May he live to crush these barons, and raise this people!" said the +demagogue of Redesdale. "But now, save thyself!" + +"But what! is it not possible yet to strike the blow? Rather let us +spur to the north; rather let us hasten the hour of action, and raise +the Red Rose through the length and breadth of England!" + +"Ah, lady, if without warrant from your lord; if without foreign +subsidies; if without having yet ripened the time; if without gold, +without arms, and without one great baron on our side, we forestall a +rising, all that we have gained is lost; and instead of war, you can +scarcely provoke a riot. But for this accursed alliance of Edward's +daughter with the brother of icy-hearted Louis, our triumph had been +secure. The French king's gold would have manned a camp, bribed the +discontented lords, and his support have sustained the hopes of the +more leal Lancastrians. But it is in vain to deny, that if Lord +Warwick win Louis--" + +"He will not! he shall not!--Louis, mine own kinsman!" exclaimed +Margaret, in a voice in which the anguish pierced through the louder +tone of resentment and disdain. + +"Let us hope that he will not," replied Hilyard, soothingly; some +chance may yet break off these nuptials, and once more give us France +as our firm ally. But now we must be patient. Already Edward is fast +wearing away the gloss of his crown; already the great lords desert +his court; already, in the rural provinces, peasant and franklin +complain of the exactions of his minions; already the mighty House of +Nevile frowns sullen on the throne it built. Another year, and who +knows but the Earl of Warwick,--the beloved and the fearless, whose +statesman-art alone hath severed from you the arms and aid of France, +at whose lifted finger all England would bristle with armed men--may +ride by the side of Margaret through the gates of London?" + +"Evil-omened consoler, never!" exclaimed the princess, starting to her +feet, with eyes that literally shot fire. "Thinkest thou that the +spirit of a queen lies in me so low and crushed, that I, the +descendant of Charlemagne, could forgive the wrongs endured from +Warwick and his father? But thou, though wise and loyal, art of the +Commons; thou knowest not how they feel through whose veins rolls the +blood of kings!" + +A dark and cold shade fell over the bold face of Robin of Redesdale at +these words. + +"Ah, lady," he said, with bitterness, "if no misfortune can curb thy +pride, in vain would we rebuild thy throne. It is these Commons, +Margaret of Anjou--these English Commons--this Saxon People, that can +alone secure to thee the holding of the realm which the right arm +wins. And, beshrew me, much as I love thy cause, much as thou hast +with thy sorrows and thy princely beauty glamoured and spelled my +heart and my hand,--ay, so that I, the son of a Lollard, forget the +wrongs the Lollards sustained from the House of Lancaster; so that I, +who have seen the glorious fruitage of a Republic, yet labour for +thee, to overshadow the land with the throne of ONE--yet--yet, lady-- +yet, if I thought thou wert to be the same Margaret as of old, looking +back to thy dead kings, and contemptuous of thy living people, I would +not bid one mother's son lift lance or bill on thy behalf." + +So resolutely did Robin of Redesdale utter these words, that the +queen's haughty eye fell abashed as he spoke; and her craft, or her +intellect, which was keen and prompt where her passions did not deafen +and blind her judgment, instantly returned to her. Few women equalled +this once idol of knight and minstrel, in the subduing fascination +that she could exert in her happier moments. Her affability was as +gracious as her wrath was savage; and with a dignified and winning +frankness, she extended her hand to her ally, as she answered, in a +sweet, humble, womanly, and almost penitent voice,-- + +"O bravest and lealest of friends, forgive thy wretched queen. Her +troubles distract her brain,--chide her not if they sour her speech. +Saints above! will ye not pardon Margaret if at times her nature be +turned from the mother's milk into streams of gall and bloody purpose, +when ye see, from your homes serene, in what a world of strife and +falsehood her very womanhood hath grown unsexed?" She paused a moment, +and her uplifted eyes shed tears fast and large. Then, with a sigh, +she turned to Hilyard, and resumed more calmly, "Yes, thou art right, +--adversity hath taught me much. And though adversity will too often +but feed and not starve our pride, yet thou--thou hast made me know +that there is more of true nobility in the blunt Children of the +People than in many a breast over which flows the kingly robe. +Forgive me, and the daughter of Charlemagne shall yet be a mother to +the Commons, who claim thee as their brother!" + +Thoroughly melted, Robin of Redesdale bowed over the hand held to his +lips, and his rough voice trembled as he answered, though that answer +took but the shape of prayer. + +"And now," said the princess, smiling, "to make peace lasting between +us, I conquer myself, I yield to thy counsels. Once more the +fugitive, I abandon the city that contains Henry's unheeded prison. +See, I am ready. Who will know Margaret in this attire? Lead on!" + +Rejoiced to seize advantage of this altered and submissive mood, Robin +instantly took the way through a narrow passage, to a small door +communicating with the river. There Hugh was waiting in a small boat, +moored to the damp and discoloured stairs. + +Robin, by a gesture, checked the man's impulse to throw himself at the +feet of the pretended priest, and bade him put forth his best speed. +The princess seated herself by the helm, and the little boat cut +rapidly through the noble stream. Galleys, gay and gilded, with +armorial streamers, and filled with nobles and gallants, passed them, +noisy with mirth or music, on their way. These the fallen sovereign +heeded not; but, with all her faults, the woman's heart beating in her +bosom--she who in prosperity had so often wrought ruin, and shame, and +woe to her gentle lord; she who had been reckless of her trust as +queen; and incurred grave--but, let us charitably hope, unjust-- +suspicion of her faith as wife, still fixed her eyes on the gloomy +tower that contained her captive husband, and felt that she could have +forgotten a while even the loss of power if but permitted to fall on +that plighted heart, and weep over the past with the woe-worn +bridegroom of her youth. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +IN WHICH ARE LAID OPEN TO THE READER THE CHARACTER OF EDWARD THE +FOURTH AND THAT OF HIS COURT, WITH THE MACHINATIONS OF THE WOODVILLES +AGAINST THE EARL OF WARWICK. + +Scarcely need it be said to those who have looked with some philosophy +upon human life, that the young existence of Master Marmaduke Nevile, +once fairly merged in the great common sea, will rarely reappear +before us individualized and distinct. The type of the provincial +cadet of the day hastening courtwards to seek his fortune, he becomes +lost amidst the gigantic characters and fervid passions that alone +stand forth in history. And as, in reading biography, we first take +interest in the individual who narrates, but if his career shall pass +into that broader and more stirring life, in which he mingles with men +who have left a more dazzling memory than his own, we find the +interest change from the narrator to those by whom he is surrounded +and eclipsed,--so, in this record of a time, we scarce follow our +young adventurer into the court of the brilliant Edward ere the scene +itself allures and separates us from our guide; his mission is, as it +were, well-nigh done. We leave, then, for a while this bold, frank +nature-fresh from the health of the rural life--gradually to improve, +or deprave itself, in the companionship it finds. The example of the +Lords Hastings, Scales, and Worcester, and the accomplishments of the +two younger Princes of York, especially the Duke of Gloucester, had +diffused among the younger and gayer part of the court that growing +taste for letters which had somewhat slept during the dynasty of the +House of Lancaster; and Marmaduke's mind became aware that learning +was no longer the peculiar distinction of the Church, and that Warwick +was behind his age when he boasted "that the sword was more familiar +to him than the pen." He had the sagacity to perceive that the +alliance with the great earl did not conduce to his popularity at +court; and even in the king's presence, the courtiers permitted +themselves many taunts and jests at the fiery Warwick, which they +would have bitten out their tongues ere they would have vented before +the earl himself. But though the Nevile sufficiently controlled his +native candour not to incur unprofitable quarrel by ill-mannered and +unseasonable defence of the hero-baron when sneered at or assailed, he +had enough of the soldier and the man in him not to be tainted by the +envy of the time and place,--not to lose his gratitude to his patron, +nor his respect for the bulwark of the country. Rather, it may be +said, that Warwick gained in his estimation whenever compared with the +gay and silken personages who avenged themselves by words for his +superiority in deeds. Not only as a soldier, but as a statesman, the +great and peculiar merits of the earl were visible in all those +measures which emanated solely from himself. Though so indifferently +educated, his busy, practical career, his affable mixing with all +classes, and his hearty, national sympathies made him so well +acquainted with the interests of his country and the habits of his +countrymen, that he was far more fitted to rule than the scientific +Worcester or the learned Scales. The Young Duke of Gloucester +presented a marked contrast to the general levity of the court, in +speaking of this powerful nobleman. He never named him but with +respect, and was pointedly courteous to even the humblest member of +the earl's family. In this he appeared to advantage by the side of +Clarence, whose weakness of disposition made him take the tone of the +society in which he was thrown, and who, while really loving Warwick, +often smiled at the jests against him,--not, indeed, if uttered by the +queen or her family, of whom he ill concealed his jealousy and hatred. + +The whole court was animated and pregnant with a spirit of intrigue, +which the artful cunning of the queen, the astute policy of Jacquetta, +and the animosity of the different factions had fomented to a degree +quite unknown under former reigns. It was a place in which the wit of +young men grew old rapidly; amidst stratagem, and plot, and ambitious +design, and stealthy overreaching, the boyhood of Richard III. passed +to its relentless manhood: such is the inevitable fruit of that era in +civilization when a martial aristocracy first begins to merge into a +voluptuous court. + +Through this moving and shifting web of ambition and intrigue the +royal Edward moved with a careless grace: simple himself, because his +object was won, and pleasure had supplanted ambition. His indolent, +joyous temper served to deaden his powerful intellect; or, rather, his +intellect was now lost in the sensual stream through which it flowed. +Ever in pursuit of some new face, his schemes and counterschemes were +limited to cheat a husband or deceive a wife; and dexterous and +successful no doubt they were. But a vice always more destructive +than the love of women began also to reign over him,--namely, the +intemperance of the table. The fastidious and graceful epicurism of +the early Normans, inclined to dainties but abhorring excess, and +regarding with astonished disdain the heavy meals and deep draughts of +the Saxon, had long ceased to characterize the offspring of that +noblest of all noble races. Warwick, whose stately manliness was +disgusted with whatever savoured of effeminacy or debauch, used to +declare that he would rather fight fifty battles for Edward IV. than +once sup with him! Feasts were prolonged for hours, and the banquets +of this king of the Middle Ages almost resembled those of the later +Roman emperors. The Lord Montagu did not share the abstemiousness of +his brother of Warwick. He was, next to Hastings, the king's chosen +and most favourite companion. He ate almost as much as the king, and +drank very little less. Of few courtiers could the same be said! +Over the lavish profligacy and excess of the court, however, a veil +dazzling to the young and high-spirited was thrown. Edward was +thoroughly the cavalier, deeply imbued with the romance of chivalry, +and, while making the absolute woman his plaything, always treated the +ideal woman as a goddess. A refined gallantry, a deferential courtesy +to dame and demoiselle, united the language of an Amadis with the +licentiousness of a Gaolor; and a far more alluring contrast than the +court of Charles II. presented to the grim Commonwealth seduced the +vulgar in that of this most brave and most beautiful prince, when +compared with the mournful and lugubrious circles in which Henry VI. +had reigned and prayed. Edward himself, too, it was so impossible to +judge with severe justice, that his extraordinary popularity in +London, where he was daily seen, was never diminished by his faults; +he was so bold in the field, yet so mild in the chamber; when his +passions slept, he was so thoroughly good-natured and social, so kind +to all about his person, so hearty and gladsome in his talk and in his +vices, so magnificent and so generous withal; and, despite his +indolence, his capacities for business were marvellous,--and these +last commanded the reverence of the good Londoners; he often +administered justice himself, like the caliphs of the East, and with +great acuteness and address. Like most extravagant men, he had a +wholesome touch of avarice. That contempt for commerce which +characterizes a modern aristocracy was little felt by the nobles of +that day, with the exception of such blunt patricians as Lord Warwick +or Raoul de Fulke. The great House of De la Pole (Duke of Suffolk), +the heir of which married Edward's sister Elizabeth, had been founded +by a merchant of Hull. Earls and archbishops scrupled not to derive +revenues from what we should now esteem the literal resources of +trade. [The Abbot of St. Alban's (temp. Henry III.) was a vendor of +Yarmouth bloaters. The Cistercian Monks were wool-merchants; and +Macpherson tells us of a couple of Iceland bishops who got a license +from Henry VI. for smuggling. (Matthew Paris. Macpherson's "Annals of +Commerce," 10.) As the Whig historians generally have thought fit to +consider the Lancastrian cause the more "liberal" of the two, because +Henry IV. was the popular choice, and, in fact, an elected, not an +hereditary king, so it cannot be too emphatically repeated, that the +accession of Edward IV. was the success of two new and two highly-- +popular principles,--the one that of church reform, the other that of +commercial calculation. All that immense section, almost a majority +of the people, who had been persecuted by the Lancastrian kings as +Lollards, revenged on Henry the aggrieved rights of religious +toleration. On the other hand, though Henry IV., who was immeasurably +superior to his warlike son in intellect and statesmanship, had +favoured the growing commercial spirit, it had received nothing but +injury under Henry V., and little better than contempt under Henry VI. +The accession of the Yorkists was, then, on two grounds a great +popular movement; and it was followed by a third advantage to the +popular cause,--namely, in the determined desire both of Edward and +Richard III. to destroy the dangerous influence of the old feudal +aristocracy. To this end Edward laboured in the creation of a court +noblesse; and Richard, with the more dogged resolution that belonged +to him, went at once to the root of the feudal power, in forbidding +the nobles to give badges and liveries (this also was forbidden, it is +true, by the edict of Edward IV. as well as by his predecessors from +the reign of Richard II.; but no king seems to have had the courage to +enforce the prohibition before Richard III.),--in other words, to +appropriate armies under the name of retainers. Henry VII., in short, +did not originate the policy for which he has monopolized the credit; +he did but steadily follow out the theory of raising the middle class +and humbling the baronial, which the House of York first put into +practice.] shown itself on this point more liberal in its policy, more +free from feudal prejudices, than that of the Plantagenets. Even +Edward II. was tenacious of the commerce with Genoa, and an +intercourse with the merchant princes of that republic probably served +to associate the pursuits of commerce with the notion of rank and +power. Edward III. is still called the Father of English Commerce; +but Edward IV. carried the theories of his ancestors into far more +extensive practice, for his own personal profit. This king, so +indolent in the palace, was literally the most active merchant in the +mart. He traded largely in ships of his own, freighted with his own +goods; and though, according to sound modern economics, this was +anything but an aid to commerce, seeing that no private merchant could +compete with a royal trader who went out and came in duty-free, yet +certainly the mere companionship and association in risk and gain, and +the common conversation that it made between the affable monarch and +the homeliest trader, served to increase his popularity, and to couple +it with respect for practical sense. Edward IV. was in all this pre- +eminently THE MAN OF HIS AGE,--not an inch behind it or before! And, +in addition to this happy position, he was one of those darlings of +Nature, so affluent and blest in gifts of person, mind, and outward +show, that it is only at the distance of posterity we ask why men of +his own age admired the false, the licentious, and the cruel, where +those contemporaries, over-dazzled, saw but the heroic and the joyous, +the young, the beautiful,--the affable to friend, and the terrible to +foe! + +It was necessary to say thus much on the commercial tendencies of +Edward, because, at this epoch, they operated greatly, besides other +motives shortly to be made clear, in favour of the plot laid by the +enemies of the Earl of Warwick, to dishonour that powerful minister +and drive him from the councils of the king. + +One morning Hastings received a summons to attend Edward, and on +entering the royal chamber, he found already assembled Lord Rivers, +the queen's father, Anthony Woodville, and the Earl of Worcester. + +The king seemed thoughtful; he beckoned Hastings to approach, and +placed in his hand a letter, dated from Rouen. "Read and judge, +Hastings," said Edward. + +The letter was from a gentleman in Warwick's train. It gave a glowing +account of the honours accorded to the earl by Louis XI., greater than +those ever before manifested to a subject, and proceeded thus:-- + +"But it is just I should apprise you that there be strange rumours as +to the marvellous love that King Louis shows my lord the earl. He +lodgeth in the next house to him, and hath even had an opening made in +the partition-wall between his own chamber and the earl's. Men do say +that the king visits him nightly, and there be those who think that so +much stealthy intercourse between an English ambassador and the +kinsman of Margaret of Anjou bodeth small profit to our grace the +king." + +"I observe," said Hastings, glancing to the superscription, "that this +letter is addressed to my Lord Rivers. Can he avouch the fidelity of +his correspondent?" + +"Surely, yes," answered Rivers; "it is a gentleman of my own blood." + +"Were he not so accredited," returned Hastings, "I should question the +truth of a man who can thus consent to play the spy upon his lord and +superior." + +"The public weal justifies all things," said the Earl of Worcester +(who, though by marriage nearly connected to Warwick, eyed his power +with the jealous scorn which the man of book-lore often feels for one +whose talent lies in action),--"so held our masters in all state- +craft, the Greek and Roman." + +"Certes," said Sir Anthony Woodville, "it grieveth the pride of an +English knight that we should be beholden for courtesies to the born +foe of England, which I take the Frenchman naturally to be." + +"Ah," said Edward, smiling sternly, "I would rather be myself, with +banner and trump, before the walls of Paris, than sending my cousin +the earl to beg the French king's brother to accept my sister as a +bride. And what is to become of my good merchant-ships if Burgundy +take umbrage and close its ports?" + +"Beau sire," said Hastings," thou knowest how little cause I have to +love the Earl of Warwick. We all here, save your gracious self, bear +the memory of some affront rendered to us by his pride and heat of +mood! but in this council I must cease to be William de Hastings, and +be all and wholly the king's servant. I say first, then, with +reference to these noble peers, that Warwick's faith to the House of +York is too well proven to become suspected because of the courtesies +of King Louis,--an artful craft, as it clearly seems to me, of the +wily Frenchman, to weaken your throne, by provoking your distrust of +its great supporter. Fall we not into such a snare! Moreover, we may +be sure that Warwick cannot be false, if he achieve the object of his +embassy,--namely, detach Louis from the side of Margaret and Lancaster +by close alliance with Edward and York. Secondly, sire, with regard +to that alliance, which it seems you would repent,--I hold now, as I +have held ever, that it is a master-stroke in policy, and the earl in +this proves his sharp brain worthy his strong arm; for as his highness +the Duke of Gloucester hath now clearly discovered that Margaret of +Anjou has been of late in London, and that treasonable designs were +meditated, though now frustrated, so we may ask why the friends of +Lancaster really stood aloof; why all conspiracy was, and is, in +vain?--Because, sire, of this very alliance with France; because the +gold and subsidies of Louis are not forthcoming; because the +Lancastrians see that if once Lord Warwick win France from the Red +Rose, nothing short of such a miracle as their gaining Warwick instead +can give a hope to their treason. Your Highness fears the anger of +Burgundy, and the suspension of your trade with the Flemings; but-- +forgive me--this is not reasonable. Burgundy dare not offend England, +matched, as its arms are, with France; the Flemings gain more by you +than you gain by the Flemings, and those interested burghers will not +suffer any prince's quarrel to damage their commerce. Charolois may +bluster and threat, but the storm will pass, and Burgundy will be +contented, if England remain neutral in the feud with France. All +these reasons, sire, urge me to support my private foe, the Lord +Warwick, and to pray you to give no ear to the discrediting his Honour +and his embassy." + +The profound sagacity of these remarks, the repute of the speaker, and +the well-known grudge between him and Warwick, for reasons hereafter +to be explained, produced a strong effect upon the intellect of +Edward, always vigorous, save when clouded with passion. But Rivers, +whose malice to the earl was indomitable, coldly recommenced,-- + +"With submission to the Lord Hastings, sire, whom we know that love +sometimes blinds, and whose allegiance to the earl's fair sister, the +Lady of Bonville, perchance somewhat moves him to forget the day when +Lord Warwick--" + +"Cease, my lord," said Hastings, white with suppressed anger; "these +references beseem not the councils of grave men." + +"Tut, Hastings," said Edward, laughing merrily, "women mix themselves +up in all things: board or council, bed or battle,--wherever there is +mischief astir, there, be sure, peeps a woman's sly face from her +wimple. Go on, Rivers." + +"Your pardon, my Lord Hastings," said Rivers, "I knew not my thrust +went so home; there is another letter I have not yet laid before the +king." He drew forth a scroll from his bosom, and read as follows:-- + +"Yesterday the earl feasted the king, and as, in discharge of mine +office, I carved for my lord, I heard King Louis say, 'Pasque Dieu, my +Lord Warwick, our couriers bring us word that Count Charolois declares +he shall yet wed the Lady Margaret, and that he laughs at your +ambassage. What if our brother, King Edward, fall back from the +treaty?' 'He durst not!' said the earl." + +"Durst not I" exclaimed Edward, starting to his feet, and striking the +table with his clenched hand, "durst not! Hastings, hear you that?" + +Hastings bowed his head in assent. "Is that all, Lord Rivers?" + +"All! and methinks enough." + +"Enough, by my halidame!" said Edward, laughing bitterly; "he shall +see what a king dares, when a subject threatens. Admit the worshipful +the deputies from our city of London,--lord chamberlain, it is thine +office,--they await in the anteroom." + +Hastings gravely obeyed, and in crimson gowns, with purple hoods and +gold chains, marshalled into the king's presence a goodly deputation +from the various corporate companies of London. + +These personages advanced within a few paces of the dais, and there +halted and knelt, while their spokesman read, on his knees, a long +petition, praying the king to take into his gracious consideration the +state of the trade with the Flemings; and though not absolutely +venturing to name or to deprecate the meditated alliance with France, +beseeching his grace to satisfy them as to certain rumours, already +very prejudicial to their commerce, of the possibility of a breach +with the Duke of Burgundy. The merchant-king listened with great +attention and affability to this petition; and replied shortly, that +he thanked the deputation for their zeal for the public weal,--that a +king would have enough to do if he contravened every gossip's tale; +but that it was his firm purpose to protect, in all ways, the London +traders, and to maintain the most amicable understanding with the Duke +of Burgundy. + +The supplicators then withdrew from the royal presence. + +"Note you how gracious the king was to me?" whispered Master Heyford +to one of his brethren; "he looked at me while he answered." + +"Coxcomb!" muttered the confidant, "as if I did not catch his eye when +he said, 'Ye are the pillars of the public weal!' But because Master +Heyford has a handsome wife he thinks he tosseth all London on his own +horns!" + +As the citizens were quitting the palace, Lord Rivers joined them. +"You will thank me for suggesting this deputation, worthy sirs," said +he, smiling significantly; "you have timed it well!"--and passing by +them, without further comment, he took the way to the queen's chamber. + +Elizabeth was playing with her infant daughter, tossing the child in +the air, and laughing at its riotous laughter. The stern old Duchess +of Bedford, leaning over the back of the state-chair, looked on with +all a grandmother's pride, and half chanted a nursery rhyme. It was a +sight fair to see! Elizabeth never seemed more lovely: her +artificial, dissimulating smile changed into hearty, maternal glee, +her smooth cheek flushed with exercise, a stray ringlet escaping from +the stiff coif!--And, alas, the moment the two ladies caught sight of +Rivers, all the charm was dissolved; the child was hastily put on the +floor; the queen, half ashamed of being natural, even before her +father, smoothed back the rebel lock, and the duchess, breaking off in +the midst of her grandam song, exclaimed,-- + +"Well, well! how thrives our policy?" + +"The king," answered Rivers, "is in the very mood we could desire. At +the words, 'He durst not!' the Plantagenet sprung up in his breast; +and now, lest he ask to see the rest of the letter, thus I destroy it; +"and flinging the scroll in the blazing hearth, he watched it consume. + +"Why this, sir?" said the queen. + +"Because, my Elizabeth, the bold words glided off into a decent +gloss,--'He durst not,' said Warwick, 'because what a noble heart +dares least is to belie the plighted word, and what the kind heart +shuns most is to wrong the confiding friend." + +"It was fortunate," said the duchess, "that Edward took heat at the +first words, nor stopped, it seems, for the rest!" + +"I was prepared, Jacquetta; had he asked to see the rest, I should +have dropped the scroll into the brazier, as containing what I would +not presume to read. Courage! Edward has seen the merchants; he has +flouted Hastings,--who would gainsay us. For the rest, Elizabeth, be +it yours to speak of affronts paid by the earl to your highness; be it +yours, Jacquetta, to rouse Edward's pride by dwelling on Warwick's +overweening power; be it mine to enlist his interest on behalf of his +merchandise; be it Margaret's to move his heart by soft tears for the +bold Charolois; and ere a month be told, Warwick shall find his +embassy a thriftless laughing-stock, and no shade pass between the +House of Woodville and the sun of England." + +"I am scarce queen while Warwick is minister," said Elizabeth, +vindictively. "How he taunted me in the garden, when we met last!" + +"But hark you, daughter and lady liege, hark you! Edward is not +prepared for the decisive stroke. I have arranged with Anthony, whose +chivalrous follies fit him not for full comprehension of our objects, +how upon fair excuse the heir of Burgundy's brother--the Count de la +Roche--shall visit London; and the count once here, all is ours! +Hush! take up the little one,--Edward comes!" + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +WHEREIN MASTER NICHOLAS ALWYN VISITS THE COURT, AND THERE LEARNS +MATTER OF WHICH THE ACUTE READER WILL JUDGE FOR HIMSELF. + +It was a morning towards the end of May (some little time after +Edward's gracious reception of the London deputies), when Nicholas +Alwyn, accompanied by two servitors armed to the teeth,--for they +carried with them goods of much value, and even in the broad daylight +and amidst the most frequented parts of the city, men still confided +little in the security of the law,--arrived at the Tower, and was +conducted to the presence of the queen. + +Elizabeth and her mother were engaged in animated but whispered +conversation when the goldsmith entered; and there was an unusual +gayety in the queen's countenance as she turned to Alwyn and bade him +show her his newest gauds. + +While with a curiosity and eagerness that seemed almost childlike +Elizabeth turned over rings, chains, and brooches, scarcely listening +to Alwyn's comments on the lustre of the gems or the quaintness of the +fashion, the duchess disappeared for a moment, and returned with the +Princess Margaret. + +This young princess had much of the majestic beauty of her royal +brother; but, instead of the frank, careless expression so fascinating +in Edward, there was, in her full and curved lip and bright large eye, +something at once of haughtiness and passion, which spoke a decision +and vivacity of character beyond her years. + +"Choose for thyself, sweetheart and daughter mine," said the duchess, +affectionately placing her hand on Margaret's luxuriant hair, "and let +the noble visitor we await confess that our rose of England outblooms +the world." + +The princess coloured with complaisant vanity at these words, and, +drawing near the queen, looked silently at a collar of pearls, which +Elizabeth held. + +"If I may adventure so to say," observed Alwyn, "pearls will mightily +beseem her highness's youthful bloom; and lo! here be some adornments +for the bodice or partelet, to sort with the collar; not," added the +goldsmith, bowing low, and looking down,--"not perchance displeasing +to her highness, in that they are wrought in the guise of the fleur de +lis--" + +An impatient gesture in the queen, and a sudden cloud over the fair +brow of Margaret, instantly betokened to the shrewd trader that he had +committed some most unwelcome error in this last allusion to the +alliance with King Louis of France, which, according to rumour, the +Earl of Warwick had well-nigh brought to a successful negotiation; and +to convince him yet more of his mistake, the duchess said haughtily, +"Good fellow, be contented to display thy goods, and spare us thy +comments. As for thy hideous fleur de lis, an' thy master had no +better device, he would not long rest the king's jeweller." + +"I have no heart for the pearls," said Margaret, abruptly; "they are +at best pale and sicklied. What hast thou of bolder ornament and more +dazzling lustrousness?" + +"These emeralds, it is said, were once among the jewels of the great +House of Burgundy," observed Nicholas, slowly, and fixing his keen, +sagacious look on the royal purchasers. + +"Of Burgundy!" exclaimed the queen. + +"It is true," said the Duchess of Bedford, looking at the ornament +with care, and slightly colouring,--for in fact the jewels had been a +present from Philip the Good to the Duke of Bedford, and the +exigencies of the civil wars had led, some time since, first to their +mortgage, or rather pawn, and then to their sale. + +The princess passed her arm affectionately round Jacquetta's neck, and +said, "If you leave me my choice, I will have none but these +emeralds." + +The two elder ladies exchanged looks and smiles. "Hast thou +travelled, young man?" asked the duchess. + +"Not in foreign parts, gracious lady, but I have lived much with those +who have been great wanderers." + +"Ah, and what say they of the ancient friends of mine House, the +princes of Burgundy?" + +"Lady, all men agree that a nobler prince and a juster than Duke +Philip never reigned over brave men; and those who have seen the +wisdom of his rule, grieve sorely to think so excellent and mighty a +lord should have trouble brought to his old age by the turbulence of +his son, the Count of Charolois." + +Again Margaret's fair brow lowered, and the duchess hastened to +answer, "The disputes between princes, young man, can never be rightly +understood by such as thou and thy friends. The Count of Charolois is +a noble gentleman; and fire in youth will break out. Richard the Lion +Hearted of England was not less puissant a king for the troubles he +occasioned to his sire when prince." + +Alwyn bit his lip, to restrain a reply that might not have been well +received; and the queen, putting aside the emeralds and a few other +trinkets, said, smilingly, to the duchess, "Shall the king pay for +these, or have thy learned men yet discovered the great secret?" + +"Nay, wicked child," said the duchess, "thou lovest to banter me; and +truth to say, more gold has been melted in the crucible than as yet +promises ever to come out of it; but my new alchemist, Master Warner, +seems to have gone nearer to the result than any I have yet known. +Meanwhile, the king's treasurer must, perforce, supply the gear to the +king's sister." + +The queen wrote an order on the officer thus referred to, who was no +other than her own father, Lord Rivers; and Alwyn, putting up his +goods, was about to withdraw, when the duchess said carelessly, "Good +youth, the dealings of our merchants are more with Flanders than with +France, is it not so?" + +"Surely," said Alwyn; "the Flemings are good traders and honest folk." + +"It is well known, I trust, in the city of London, that this new +alliance with France is the work of their favourite, the Lord +Warwick," said the duchess, scornfully; "but whatever the earl does is +right with ye of the hood and cap, even though he were to leave yon +river without one merchant-mast." + +"Whatever be our thoughts, puissant lady," said Alwyn, cautiously, "we +give them not vent to the meddling with state affairs." + +"Ay," persisted Jacquetta, "thine answer is loyal and discreet. But +an' the Lord Warwick had sought alliance with the Count of Charolois, +would there have been brighter bonfires than ye will see in +Smithfield, when ye hear that business with the Flemings is +surrendered for fine words from King Louis the Cunning?" + +"We trust too much to our king's love for the citizens of London to +fear that surrender, please your Highness," answered Alwyn; "our king +himself is the first of our merchants, and he hath given a gracious +answer to the deputation from our city." + +"You speak wisely, sir," said the queen; "and your king will yet +defend you from the plots of your enemies. You may retire." + +Alwyn, glad to be released from questionings but little to his taste, +hastened to depart. At the gate of the royal lodge, he gave his +caskets to the servitors who attended him, and passing slowly along +the courtyard, thus soliloquized: + +"Our neighbours the Scotch say, 'It is good fishing in muddy waters;' +but he who fishes into the secrets of courts must bait with his head. +What mischief doth that crafty queen, the proud duchess, devise? Um! +They are thinking still to match the young princess with the hot Count +of Charolois. Better for trade, it is true, to be hand in hand with +the Flemings; but there are two sides to a loaf. If they play such a +trick on the stout earl, he is not a man to sit down and do nothing. +More food for the ravens, I fear,--more brown bills and bright lances +in the green fields of poor England!--and King Louis is an awful carle +to sow flax in his neighbour's house, when the torches are burning. +Um! Where is fair Marmaduke. He looks brave in his gay super-tunic. +Well, sir and foster-brother, how fare you at court?" + +"My dear Nicholas, a merry welcome and hearty to your sharp, +thoughtful face. Ah, man! we shall have a gay time for you venders of +gewgaws. There are to be revels and jousts, revels in the Tower and +jousts in Smithfield. We gentles are already hard at practice in the +tilt-yard." + +"Sham battles are better than real ones, Master Nevile! But what is +in the wind?" + +"A sail, Nicholas! a sail bound to England! Know that the Count of +Charolois has permitted Sir Anthony Count de la Roche, his bastard +brother, to come over to London, to cross lances with our own Sir +Anthony Lord Scales. It is an old challenge, and right royally will +the encounter be held." + +"Um!" muttered Alwyn, "this bastard, then, is the carrier pigeon.-- +And," said he, aloud, "is it only to exchange hard blows that Sir +Anthony of Burgundy comes over to confer with Sir Anthony of England? +Is there no court rumour of other matters between them?" + +"Nay. What else? Plague on you craftsmen! You cannot even +comprehend the pleasure and pastime two knights take in the storm of +the lists!" + +"I humbly avow it, Master Nevile. But it seemeth, indeed, strange to +me that the Count of Charolois should take this very moment to send +envoys of courtesy when so sharp a slight has been put on his pride, +and so dangerous a blow struck at his interests, as the alliance +between the French prince and the Lady Margaret. Bold Charles has +some cunning, I trow, which your kinsman of Warwick is not here to +detect." + +"Tush, man! Trade, I see, teaches ye all so to cheat and overreach, +that ye suppose a knight's burgonet is as full of tricks and traps as +a citizen's flat-cap. Would, though, that my kinsman of Warwick were +here," added Marmaduke, in a low whisper, "for the women and the +courtiers are doing their best to belie him." + +"Keep thyself clear of them all, Marmaduke," said Alwyn; "for, by the +Lord, I see that the evil days are coming once more, fast and dark, +and men like thee will again have to choose between friend and friend, +kinsman and king. For my part, I say nothing; for I love not +fighting, unless compelled to it. But if ever I do fight, it will not +be by thy side, under Warwick's broad flag." + +"Eh, man?" interrupted Nevile. + +"Nay, nay," continued Nicholas, shaking his head, "I admire the great +earl, and were I lord or gentle, the great earl should be my chief. +But each to his order; and the trader's tree grows not out of a +baron's walking-staff. King Edward may be a stern ruler, but he is a +friend to the goldsmiths, and has just confirmed our charter. 'Let +every man praise the bridge he goes over,' as the saw saith. Truce to +this talk, Master Nevile. I hear that your young hostess--ehem!-- +Mistress Sibyll, is greatly marvelled at among the court gallants, is +it so?" + +Marmaduke's frank face grew gloomy. "Alas! dear foster-brother," he +said, dropping the somewhat affected tone in which he had before +spoken, "I must confess to my shame, that I cannot yet get the damsel +out of my thoughts, which is what I consider it a point of manhood and +spirit to achieve." + +"How so?" + +"Because, when a maiden chooseth steadily to say nay to your wooing, +to follow her heels, and whine and beg, is a dog's duty, not a man's." + +"What!" exclaimed Alwyn, in a voice of great eagerness, "mean you to +say that you have wooed Sibyll Warner as your wife?" + +"Verily, yes!" + +"And failed?" + +"And failed." + +"Poor Marmaduke!" + +"There is no 'poor' in the matter, Nick Alwyn," returned Marmaduke, +sturdily; "if a girl likes me, well; if not, there are too many others +in the wide world for a young fellow to break his heart about one. +Yet," he added, after a short pause, and with a sigh,--"yet, if thou +hast not seen her since she came to the court, thou wilt find her +wondrously changed." + +"More's the pity!" said Alwyn, reciprocating his friend's sigh. + +"I mean that she seems all the comelier for the court air. And +beshrew me, I think the Lord Hastings, with his dulcet flatteries, +hath made it a sort of frenzy for all the gallants to flock round +her." + +"I should like to see Master Warner again," said Alwyn; "where lodges +he?" + +"Yonder, by the little postern, on the third flight of the turret that +flanks the corridor, [This description refers to that part of the +Tower called the King's or Queen's Lodge, and long since destroyed.] +next to Friar Bungey, the magician; but it is broad daylight, and +therefore not so dangerous,--not but thou mayest as well patter an ave +in going up stairs." + +"Farewell, Master Nevile," said Alwyn, smiling; "I will seek the +mechanician, and if I find there Mistress Sibyll, what shall I say +from thee?" + +"That young bachelors in the reign of Edward IV. will never want fair +feres," answered the Nevile, debonairly smoothing his lawn partelet. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +EXHIBITING THE BENEFITS WHICH ROYAL PATRONAGE CONFERS ON GENIUS,--ALSO +THE EARLY LOVES OF THE LORD HASTINGS; WITH OTHER MATTERS EDIFYING AND +DELECTABLE. + +The furnace was still at work, the flame glowed, the bellows heaved; +but these were no longer ministering to the service of a mighty and +practical invention. The mathematician, the philosopher, had +descended to the alchemist. The nature of the TIME had conquered the +nature of a GENIUS meant to subdue time. Those studies that had gone +so far to forestall the master-triumph of far later ages were +exchanged for occupations that played with the toys of infant wisdom. +O true Tartarus of Genius, when its energies are misapplied, when the +labour but rolls the stone up the mountain, but pours water upon water +through the sieve! + +There is a sanguineness in men of great intellect which often leads +them into follies avoided by the dull. When Adam Warner saw the ruin +of his contrivance; when be felt that time and toil and money were +necessary to its restoration; and when the gold he lacked was placed +before him as a reward for alchemical labours, he at first turned to +alchemy as he would have turned to the plough,--as he had turned to +conspiracy,--simply as a means to his darling end. But by rapid +degrees the fascination which all the elder sages experienced in the +grand secret exercised its witchery over his mind. If Roger Bacon, +though catching the notion of the steam-engine, devoted himself to the +philosopher's stone; if even in so much more enlightened an age Newton +had wasted some precious hours in the transmutation of metals, it was +natural that the solitary sage of the reign of Edward IV. should grow, +for a while at least, wedded to a pursuit which promised results so +august. And the worst of alchemy is, that it always allures on its +victims: one gets so near and so near the object,--it seems that so +small an addition will complete the sum! So there he was--this great +practical genius--hard at work on turning copper into gold! + +"Well, Master Warner," said the young goldsmith, entering the +student's chamber, "methinks you scarcely remember your friend and +visitor, Nicholas Alwyn?" + +"Remember, oh, certes! doubtless one of the gentlemen present when +they proposed to put me to the brake. [the old word for rack] Please +to stand a little on this side--what is your will?" + +"I am not a gentleman, and I should have been loth to stand idly by +when the torture was talked of for a free-born Englishman, let alone a +scholar. And where is your fair daughter, Master Warner? I suppose +you see but little of her now she is the great dame's waiting-damsel?" + +"And why so, Master Alwyn?" asked a charming voice; and Alwyn for the +first time perceived the young form of Sibyll, by the embrasure of a +window, from which might be seen in the court below a gay group of +lords and courtiers, with the plain, dark dress of Hastings, +contrasting their gaudy surcoats, glittering with cloth-of-gold. +Alwyn's tongue clove to his mouth; all he had to say was forgotten in +a certain bashful and indescribable emotion. + +The alchemist had returned to his furnace, and the young man and the +girl were as much alone as if Adam Warner had been in heaven. + +"And why should the daughter forsake the sire more in a court, where +love is rare, than in the humbler home, where they may need each other +less?" + +"I thank thee for the rebuke, mistress," said Alwyn, delighted with +her speech; "for I should have been sorry to see thy heart spoiled by +the vanities that kill most natures." Scarcely had he uttered these +words, than they seemed to him overbold and presuming; for his eye now +took in the great change of which Marmaduke had spoken. Sibyll's +dress beseemed the new rank which she held: the corset, fringed with +gold, and made of the finest thread, showed the exquisite contour of +the throat and neck, whose ivory it concealed. The kirtle of rich +blue became the fair complexion and dark chestnut hair; and over all +she wore that most graceful robe, called the sasquenice, of which the +old French poet sang,-- + + "Car nulie robe n'est si belle + A dame ne a demoiselle." + +This garment, worn over the rest of the dress, had perhaps a classical +origin, and with slight variations may be seen on the Etruscan vases; +it was long and loose, of the whitest and finest linen, with hanging +sleeves, and open at the sides. But it was not the mere dress that +had embellished the young maiden's form and aspect,--it was rather an +indefinable alteration in the expression and the bearing. She looked +as if born to the airs of courts; still modest indeed, and simple, but +with a consciousness of dignity, and almost of power; and in fact the +woman had been taught the power that womanhood possesses. She had +been admired, followed, flattered; she had learned the authority of +beauty. Her accomplishments, uncommon in that age among her sex, had +aided her charm of person; her natural pride, which, though hitherto +latent, was high and ardent, fed her heart with sweet hopes; a bright +career seemed to extend before her; and, at peace as to her father's +safety, relieved from the drudging cares of poverty, her fancy was +free to follow the phantasms of sanguine youth through the airy land +of dreams. And therefore it was that the maid was changed! + +At the sight of the delicate beauty, the self-possessed expression, +the courtly dress, the noble air of Sibyll, Nicholas Alwyn recoiled +and turned pale; he no longer marvelled at her rejection of Marmaduke, +and he started at the remembrance of the bold thoughts which he had +dared himself to indulge. + +The girl smiled at the young man's confusion. + +"It is not prosperity that spoils the heart," she said touchingly, +"unless it be mean indeed. Thou rememberest, Master Alwyn, that when +God tried His saint, it was by adversity and affliction." + +"May thy trial in these last be over," answered Alwyn; "but the humble +must console their state by thinking that the great have their trials +too; and, as our homely adage hath it, 'That is not always good in the +maw which is sweet in the mouth.' Thou seest much of my gentle foster- +brother, Mistress Sibyll?" + +"But in the court dances, Master Alwyn; for most of the hours in which +my lady duchess needs me not are spent here. Oh, my father hopes +great things! and now at last fame dawns upon him." + +"I rejoice to hear it, mistress; and so, having paid ye both my +homage, I take my leave, praying that I may visit you from time to +time, if it be only to consult this worshipful master touching certain +improvements in the horologe, in which his mathematics can doubtless +instruct me. Farewell. I have some jewels to show to the Lady of +Bonville." + +"The Lady of Bonville!" repeated Sibyll, changing colour; "she is a +dame of notable loveliness." + +"So men say,--and mated to a foolish lord; but scandal, which spares +few, breathes not on her,--rare praise for a court dame. Few Houses +can have the boast of Lord Warwick's,--'that all the men are without +fear, and all the women without stain.'" + +"It is said," observed Sibyll, looking down, "that my Lord Hastings +once much affectioned the Lady Bonville. Hast thou heard such +gossip?" + +"Surely, yes; in the city we hear all the tales of the court; for many +a courtier, following King Edward's exemplar, dines with the citizen +to-day, that he may borrow gold from the citizen to-morrow. Surely, +yes; and hence, they say, the small love the wise Hastings bears to +the stout earl." + +"How runs the tale? Be seated, Master Alwyn." + +"Marry, thus: when William Hastings was but a squire, and much +favoured by Richard, Duke of York, he lifted his eyes to the Lady +Katherine Nevile, sister to the Earl of Warwick, and in beauty and in +dower, as in birth, a mate for a king's son." + +"And, doubtless, the Lady Katherine returned his love?" + +"So it is said, maiden; and the Earl of Salisbury her father and Lord +Warwick her brother discovered the secret, and swore that no new man +(the stout earl's favourite word of contempt), though he were made a +duke, should give to an upstart posterity the quarterings of Montagu +and Nevile. Marry, Mistress Sibyll, there is a north country and +pithy proverb, 'Happy is the man whose father went to the devil.' Had +some old Hastings been a robber and extortioner, and left to brave +William the heirship of his wickedness in lordships and lands, Lord +Warwick had not called him 'a new man.' Master Hastings was dragged, +like a serf's son, before the earl on his dais; and be sure he was +rated soundly, for his bold blood was up, and he defied the earl, as a +gentleman born, to single battle. Then the earl's followers would +have fallen on him; and in those days, under King Henry, he who +bearded a baron in his hall must have a troop at his back, or was like +to have a rope round his neck; but the earl (for the lion is not as +fierce as they paint him) came down from his dais, and said, 'Man, I +like thy spirit, and I myself will dub thee knight that I may pick up +thy glove and give thee battle.'" + +"And they fought? Brave Hastings!" + +"No. For whether the Duke of York forbade it, or whether the Lady +Katherine would not hear of such strife between fere and frere, I know +not; but Duke Richard sent Hastings to Ireland, and, a month after, +the Lady Katherine married Lord Bonville's son and heir,--so, at +least, tell the gossips and sing the ballad-mongers. Men add that +Lord Hastings still loves the dame, though, certes, he knows how to +console himself." + +"Loves her! Nay, nay,--I trove not," answered Sibyll, in a low voice, +and with a curl of her dewy lip. + +At this moment the door opened gently and Lord Hastings himself +entered. He came in with the familiarity of one accustomed to the +place. + +"And how fares the grand secret, Master Warner? Sweet mistress! thou +seemest lovelier to me in this dark chamber than outshining all in the +galliard. Ha! Master Alwyn, I owe thee many thanks for making me +know first the rare arts of this fair emblazoner. Move me yon stool, +good Alwyn." + +As the goldsmith obeyed, he glanced from Hastings to the blushing face +and heaving bosom of Sibyll, and a deep and exquisite pang shot +through his heart. It was not jealousy alone; it was anxiety, +compassion, terror. The powerful Hastings, the ambitious lord, the +accomplished libertine--what a fate for poor Sibyll, if for such a man +the cheek blushed and the bosom heaved! + +"Well, Master Warner," resumed Hastings, "thou art still silent as to +thy progress." + +The philosopher uttered an impatient groan. "Ah, I comprehend. The +goldmaker must not speak of his craft before the goldsmith. Good +Alwyn, thou mayest retire. All arts have their mysteries." + +Alwyn, with a sombre brow, moved to the door. + +"In sooth," he said, "I have overtarried, good my lord. The Lady +Bonville will chide me; for she is of no patient temper." + +"Bridle thy tongue, artisan, and begone!" said Hastings, with unusual +haughtiness and petulance. + +"I stung him there," muttered Alwyn, as he withdrew. "Oh, fool that I +was to--nay, I thought it never, I did but dream it. What wonder we +traders hate these silken lords! They reap, we sow; they trifle, we +toil; they steal with soft words into the hearts which--Oh, Marmaduke, +thou art right-right!--Stout men sit not down to weep beneath the +willow. But she--the poor maiden--she looked so haughty and so happy. +This is early May; will she wear that look when the autumn leaves are +strewn?" + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE WOODVILLE INTRIGUE PROSPERS.--MONTAGU CONFERS WITH HASTINGS, +VISITS THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, AND IS MET ON THE ROAD BY A STRANGE +PERSONAGE. + +And now the one topic at the court of King Edward IV. was the expected +arrival of Anthony of Burgundy, Count de la Roche, bastard brother of +Charolois, afterwards, as Duke of Burgundy, so famous as Charles the +Bold. Few, indeed, out of the immediate circle of the Duchess of +Bedford's confidants regarded the visit of this illustrious foreigner +as connected with any object beyond the avowed one of chivalrous +encounter with Anthony Woodville, the fulfilment of a challenge given +by the latter two years before, at the time of the queen's coronation. +The origin of this challenge, Anthony Woodville Lord Scales has +himself explained in a letter to the bastard, still extant, and of +which an extract may be seen in the popular and delightful biographies +of Miss Strickland. [Queens of England, vol. iii. p. 380] It seems +that, on the Wednesday before Easter Day, 1465, as Sir Anthony was +speaking to his royal sister, "on his knees," all the ladies of the +court gathered round him, and bound to his left knee a band of gold +adorned with stones fashioned into the letters S. S. (souvenance or +remembrance), and to this band was suspended an enamelled "Forget-me- +not." "And one of the ladies said that 'he ought to take a step +fitting for the times.'" This step was denoted by a letter on vellum, +bound with a gold thread, placed in his cap; and having obtained the +king's permission to bring the adventure of the flower of souvenance +to a conclusion, the gallant Anthony forwarded the articles and the +enamelled flower to the Bastard of Burgundy, beseeching him to touch +the latter with his knightly hand, in token of his accepting the +challenge. The Count de la Roche did so, but was not sent by his +brother amongst the knights whom Charolois despatched to England, and +the combat had been suspended to the present time. + +But now the intriguing Rivers and his duchess gladly availed +themselves of so fair a pretext for introducing to Edward the able +brother of Warwick's enemy and the French prince's rival, Charles of +Burgundy; and Anthony Woodville, too gentle and knightly a person to +have abetted their cunning projects in any mode less chivalrous, +willingly consented to revive a challenge in honour of the ladies of +England. + +The only one amongst the courtiers who seemed dissatisfied with the +meditated visit of the doughty Burgundian champion was the Lord +Montagu. This penetrating and experienced personage was not to be +duped by an affectation of that chivalry which, however natural at the +court of Edward III., was no longer in unison with the more intriguing +and ambitious times over which presided the luxurious husband of +Elizabeth Woodville. He had noticed of late, with suspicion, that +Edward had held several councils with the anti-Nevile faction, from +which he himself was excluded. The king, who heretofore had delighted +in his companionship, had shown him marks of coldness and +estrangement; and there was an exulting malice in the looks of the +Duchess of Bedford, which augured some approaching triumph over the +great family which the Woodvilles so openly laboured to supplant. One +day, as Marmaduke was loitering in the courtyard of the Tower, +laughing and jesting with his friends, Lord Montagu, issuing from the +king's closet, passed him with a hurried step and a thoughtful brow. +This haughty brother of the Earl of Warwick had so far attended to the +recommendation of the latter, that he had with some courtesy excused +himself to Marmaduke for his language in the archery-ground, and had +subsequently, when seeing him in attendance on the king, honoured him +with a stately nod, or a brief "Good morrow, young kinsman." But as +his eye now rested on Marmaduke, while the group vailed their bonnets +to the powerful courtier, he called him forth, with a familiar smile +he had never before assumed, and drawing him apart, and leaning on his +shoulder, much to the envy of the standers by, he said caressingly,-- + +"Dear kinsman Guy--" + +"Marmaduke, please you, my lord." + +"Dear kinsman Marmaduke, my brother esteems you for your father's +sake. And, sooth to say, the Neviles are not so numerous in court as +they were. Business and state matters have made me see too seldom +those whom I would most affect. Wilt thou ride with me to the More +Park? I would present thee to my brother the archbishop." + +"If the king would graciously hold me excused." + +"The king, sir! when I--I forgot," said Montagu, checking himself-- +"oh, as to that, the king stirs not out to-day! He hath with him a +score of tailors and armourers in high council on the coming +festivities. I will warrant thy release; and here comes Hastings, who +shall confirm it." + +"Fair my lord!"--as at that moment Hastings emerged from the little +postern that gave egress from the apartments occupied by the alchemist +of the Duchess of Bedford--"wilt thou be pleased, in thy capacity of +chamberlain, to sanction my cousin in a day's absence? I would confer +with him on family matters." + +"Certes, a small favour to so deserving a youth. I will see to his +deputy." + +"A word with you, Hastings," said Montagu, thoughtfully, and he drew +aside his fellow courtier: "what thinkest thou of this Burgundy +bastard's visit?" + +"That it has given a peacock's strut to the popinjay Anthony +Woodville." + +"Would that were all!" returned Montagu. "But the very moment that +Warwick is negotiating with Louis of France, this interchange of +courtesies with Louis's deadly foe, the Count of Charolois, is out of +season." + +"Nay, take it not so gravely,--a mere pastime." + +"Hastings, thou knowest better. But thou art no friend of my great +brother." + +"Small cause have I to be so," answered Hastings, with a quivering +lip. "To him and your father I owe as deep a curse as ever fell on +the heart of man. I have lived to be above even Lord Warwick's +insult. Yet young, I stand amongst the warriors and peers of England +with a crest as haught and a scutcheon as stainless as the best. I +have drunk deep of the world's pleasures. I command, as I list, the +world's gaudy pomps, and I tell thee, that all my success in life +countervails not the agony of the hour when all the bloom and +loveliness of the earth faded into winter, and the only woman I ever +loved was sacrificed to her brother's pride." + +The large drops stood on the pale brow of the fortunate noble as he +thus spoke, and his hollow voice affected even the worldly Montagu. + +"Tush, Hastings!" said Montagu, kindly; "these are but a young man's +idle memories. Are we not all fated, in our early years, to love in +vain?--even I married not the maiden I thought the fairest, and held +the dearest. For the rest, bethink thee,--thou wert then but a simple +squire." + +"But of as ancient and pure a blood as ever rolled its fiery essence +through a Norman's veins." + +"It may be so; but old Houses, when impoverished, are cheaply held. +And thou must confess thou wert then no mate for Katherine. Now, +indeed, it were different; now a Nevile might be proud to call +Hastings brother." + +"I know it," said Hastings, proudly,--"I know it, lord; and why? +Because I have gold, and land, and the king's love, and can say, as +the Centurion, to my fellow-man, 'Do this, and he doeth it;' and yet I +tell thee, Lord Montagu, that I am less worthy now the love of beauty, +the right hand of fellowship from a noble spirit, than I was then, +when--the simple squire--my heart full of truth and loyalty, with lips +that had never lied, with a soul never polluted by unworthy pleasures +or mean intrigues, I felt that Katherine Nevile should never blush to +own her fere and plighted lord in William de Hastings. Let this pass, +let it pass! You call me no friend to Warwick. True! but I am a +friend to the king he has served, and the land of my birth to which he +has given peace; and therefore, not till Warwick desert Edward, not +till he wake the land again to broil and strife, will I mingle in the +plots of those who seek his downfall. If in my office and stated rank +I am compelled to countenance the pageant of this mock tournament, and +seem to honour the coming of the Count de la Roche, I will at least +stand aloof and free from all attempt to apply a gaudy pageant to a +dangerous policy; and on this pledge, Montagu, I give you my knightly +hand." + +"It suffices," answered Montagu, pressing the hand extended to him. +"But the other day I heard the king's dissour tell him a tale of some +tyrant, who silently showed a curious questioner how to govern a land, +by cutting down, with his staff, the heads of the tallest poppies; and +the Duchess of Bedford turned to me, and asked, 'What says a Nevile to +the application?' 'Faith, lady,' said I, 'the Nevile poppies have oak +stems.' Believe me, Hastings, these Woodvilles may grieve and wrong +and affront Lord Warwick, but woe to all the pigmy goaders when the +lion turns at bay!" + +With this solemn menace, Montagu quitted Hastings, and passed on, +leaning upon Marmaduke, and with a gloomy brow. + +At the gate of the palace waited the Lord Montagu's palfrey and his +retinue of twenty squires and thirty grooms. "Mount, Master +Marmaduke, and take thy choice among these steeds, for we shall ride +alone. There is no Nevile amongst these gentlemen." Marmaduke +obeyed. The earl dismissed his retinue, and in little more than ten +minutes,--so different, then, was the extent of the metropolis,--the +noble and the squire were amidst the open fields. + +They had gone several miles at a brisk trot before the earl opened his +lips, and then, slackening his pace, he said abruptly, "How dost thou +like the king? Speak out, youth; there are no eavesdroppers here." + +"He is a most gracious master and a most winning gentleman." + +"He is both," said Montagu, with a touch of emotion that surprised +Marmaduke; "and no man can come near without loving him. And yet, +Marmaduke (is that thy name?)--yet whether it be weakness or +falseness, no man can be sure of his king's favour from day to day. +We Neviles must hold fast to each other. Not a stick should be lost +if the fagot is to remain unbroken. What say you?" and the earl's +keen eye turned sharply on the young man. + +"I say, my lord, that the Earl of Warwick was to me patron, lord, and +father, when I entered yon city a friendless orphan; and that, though +I covet honours, and love pleasure, and would be loth to lift finger +or speak word against King Edward, yet were that princely lord--the +head of mine House--an outcast and a beggar, by his side I would +wander, for his bread I would beg." + +"Young man," exclaimed Montagu, "from this hour I admit thee to my +heart! Give me thy hand. Beggar and outcast?--No! If the storm +come, the meaner birds take to shelter, the eagle remains solitary in +heaven!" So saying, he relapsed into silence, and put spurs to his +steed. Towards the decline of day they drew near to the favourite +palace of the Archbishop of York. There the features of the country +presented a more cultivated aspect than it had hitherto worn. For at +that period the lands of the churchmen were infinitely in advance of +those of the laity in the elementary arts of husbandry, partly because +the ecclesiastic proprietors had greater capital at their command, +partly because their superior learning had taught them to avail +themselves, in some measure, of the instructions of the Latin writers. +Still the prevailing characteristic of the scenery was pasture land,-- +immense tracts of common supported flocks of sheep; the fragrance of +new-mown hay breathed sweet from many a sunny field. In the rear +stretched woods of Druid growth; and in the narrow lanes, that led to +unfrequent farms and homesteads, built almost entirely either of wood +or (more primitive still) of mud and clay, profuse weeds, brambles, +and wild-flowers almost concealed the narrow pathway, never intended +for cart or wagon, and arrested the slow path of the ragged horse +bearing the scanty produce of acres to yard or mill. But though to +the eye of an economist or philanthropist broad England now, with its +variegated agriculture, its wide roads, its white-walled villas, and +numerous towns, may present a more smiling countenance, to the early +lover of Nature, fresh from the child-like age of poetry and romance, +the rich and lovely verdure which gave to our mother-country the name +of "Green England;" its wild woods and covert alleys, proffering +adventure to fancy; its tranquil heaths, studded with peaceful flocks, +and vocal, from time to time, with the rude scrannel of the shepherd, +--had a charm which we can understand alone by the luxurious reading of +our elder writers. For the country itself ministered to that mingled +fancy and contemplation which the stirring and ambitious life of towns +and civilization has in much banished from our later literature. + +Even the thoughtful Montagu relaxed his brow as he gazed around, and +he said to Marmaduke, in a gentle and subdued voice,-- + +"Methinks, young cousin, that in such scenes, those silly rhymes +taught us in our childhood of the green woods and the summer cuckoos, +of bold Robin and Maid Marian, ring back in our ears. Alas that this +fair land should be so often dyed in the blood of her own children! +Here, how the thought shrinks from broils and war,--civil war, war +between brother and brother, son and father! In the city and the +court, we forget others overmuch, from the too keen memory of +ourselves." + +Scarcely had Montagu said these words, before there suddenly emerged +from a bosky lane to the right a man mounted upon a powerful roan +horse. His dress was that of a substantial franklin; a green surtout +of broadcloth, over a tight vest of the same colour, left, to the +admiration of a soldierly eye, an expanse of chest that might have +vied with the mighty strength of Warwick himself. A cap, somewhat +like a turban, fell in two ends over the left cheek, till they touched +the shoulder, and the upper part of the visage was concealed by a +half-vizard, not unfrequently worn out of doors with such head-gear, +as a shade from the sun. Behind this person rode, on a horse equally +powerful, a man of shorter stature, but scarcely less muscular a +frame, clad in a leathern jerkin, curiously fastened with thongs, and +wearing a steel bonnet, projecting far over the face. + +The foremost of these strangers, coming thus unawares upon the +courtiers, reined in his steed, and said in a clear, full voice, "Good +evening to you, my masters. It is not often that these roads witness +riders in silk and pile." + +"Friend," quoth the Montagu, "may the peace we enjoy under the White +Rose increase the number of all travellers through our land, whether +in pile or russet!" + +"Peace, sir!" returned the horseman, roughly,--"peace is no blessing +to poor men, unless it bring something more than life,--the means to +live in security and ease. Peace hath done nothing for the poor of +England. Why, look you towards yon gray tower,--the owner is, +forsooth, gentleman and knight; but yesterday he and his men broke +open a yeoman's house, carried off his wife and daughters to his +tower, and refuseth to surrender them till ransomed by half the year's +produce on the yeoman's farm." + +"A caitiff and illegal act," said Montagu. + +"Illegal! But the law will notice it not,--why should it? Unjust, if +it punish the knight and dare not touch the king's brother!" + +"How, sir?" + +"I say the king's brother! Scarcely a month since, twenty-four +persons under George Duke of Clarence entered by force a lady's house, +and seized her jewels and her money, upon some charge, God wot, of +contriving mischief to the boy-duke. [See for this and other +instances of the prevalent contempt of law in the reign of Edward IV., +and, indeed, during the fifteenth century, the extracts from the +Parliamentary Rolls, quoted by Sharon Turner, "History of England," +vol. iii. p. 399.] Are not the Commons ground by imposts for the +queen's kindred? Are not the king's officers and purveyors licensed +spoilers and rapiners? Are not the old chivalry banished for new +upstarts? And in all this, is peace better than war?" + +"Knowest thou not that these words are death, man?" + +"Ay, in the city! but in the fields and waste thought is free. Frown +not, my lord. Ah, I know you, and the time may come when the baron +will act what the franklin speaks. What! think you I see not the +signs of the storm? Are Warwick and Montagu more safe with Edward +than they were with Henry? Look to thyself! Charolois will outwit +King Louis, and ere the year be out, the young Margaret of England +will be lady of your brave brother's sternest foe!" + +"And who art thou, knave?" cried Montagu, aghast, and laying his +gloved hand on the bold prophet's bridle. + +"One who has sworn the fall of the House of York, and may live to +fight, side by side, in that cause with Warwick; for Warwick, whatever +be his faults, has an English heart, and loves the Commons." + +Montagu, uttering an exclamation of astonishment, relaxed hold of the +franklin's bridle; and the latter waved his hand, and spurring his +steed across the wild chain of commons, disappeared with his follower. + +"A sturdy traitor!" muttered the earl, following him with his eye. +"One of the exiled Lancastrian lords, perchance. Strange how they +pierce into our secrets! Heardst thou that fellow, Marmaduke?" + +"Only in a few sentences, and those brought my hand to my dagger. But +as thou madest no sign, I thought his grace the king could not be much +injured by empty words." + +"True! and misfortune has ever a shrewish tongue." + +"An' it please you, my lord," quoth Marmaduke, "I have seen the man +before, and it seemeth to me that he holds much power over the rascal +rabble." And here Marmaduke narrated the attack upon Warner's house, +and how it was frustrated by the intercession of Robin of Redesdale. + +"Art thou sure it is the same man, for his face was masked?" + +"My lord, in the North, as thou knowest, we recognize men by their +forms, not faces,--as in truth we ought, seeing that it is the sinews +and bulk, not the lips and nose, that make a man a useful friend or +dangerous foe." + +Montagu smiled at this soldierly simplicity. "And heard you the name +the raptrils shouted?" + +"Robin, my lord. They cried out 'Robin,' as if it had been a 'Montagu +I or a 'Warwick.'" + +"Robin! ah, then I guess the man,--a most perilous and stanch +Lancastrian. He has more weight with the poor than had Cade the +rebel, and they say Margaret trusts him as much as she does an Exeter +or Somerset. I marvel that he should show himself so near the gates +of London. It must be looked to. But come, cousin. Our steeds are +breathed,--let us on!" + +On arriving at the More, its stately architecture, embellished by the +prelate with a facade of double arches, painted and blazoned somewhat +in the fashion of certain old Italian houses, much dazzled Marmaduke. +And the splendour of the archbishop's retinue--less martial indeed +than Warwick's--was yet more imposing to the common eye. Every office +that pomp could devise for a king's court was to be found in the +household of this magnificent prelate,--master of the horse and the +hounds, chamberlain, treasurer, pursuivant, herald, seneschal, captain +of the body-guard, etc.,--and all emulously sought for and proudly +held by gentlemen of the first blood and birth. His mansion was at +once a court for middle life, a school for youth, an asylum for age; +and thither, as to a Medici, fled the letters and the arts. + +Through corridor and hall, lined with pages and squires, passed +Montagu and Marmaduke, till they gained a quaint garden, the wonder +and envy of the time, planned by an Italian of Mantua, and perhaps the +stateliest one of the kind existent in England. Straight walks, +terraces, and fountains, clipped trees, green alleys, and smooth +bowling-greens abounded; but the flowers were few and common: and if +here and there a statue might be found, it possessed none of the art +so admirable in our earliest ecclesiastical architecture, but its +clumsy proportions were made more uncouth by a profusion of barbaric +painting and gilding. The fountains, however, were especially +curious, diversified, and elaborate: some shot up as pyramids, others +coiled in undulating streams, each jet chasing the other as serpents; +some, again, branched off in the form of trees, while mimic birds, +perched upon leaden boughs, poured water from their bills. Marmaduke, +much astonished and bewildered, muttered a paternoster in great haste; +and even the clerical rank of the prelate did not preserve him from +the suspicion of magical practices in the youth's mind. + +Remote from all his train, in a little arbour overgrown with the +honeysuckle and white rose, a small table before him bearing fruits, +confectionery, and spiced wines (for the prelate was a celebrated +epicure, though still in the glow of youth), they found George Nevile, +reading lazily a Latin manuscript. + +"Well, my dear lord and brother," said Montagu, laying his arm on the +prelate's shoulder, "first let me present to thy favour a gallant +youth, Marmaduke Nevile, worthy his name and thy love." + +"He is welcome, Montagu, to our poor house," said the archbishop, +rising, and complacently glancing at his palace, splendidly gleaming +through the trellis-work. 'Puer ingenui vultus.' Thou art acquainted, +doubtless, young sir, with the Humaner Letters?" + +"Well-a-day, my lord, my nurturing was somewhat neglected in the +province," said Marmaduke, disconcerted, and deeply blushing, "and +only of late have I deemed the languages fit study for those not +reared for our Mother Church." + +"Fie, sir, fie! Correct that error, I pray thee. Latin teaches the +courtier how to thrive, the soldier how to manoeuvre, the husbandman +how to sow; and if we churchmen are more cunning, as the profane call +us (and the prelate smiled) than ye of the laity, the Latin must +answer for the sins of our learning." + +With this, the archbishop passed his arm affectionately through his +brother's, and said, "Beshrew me, Montagu, thou lookest worn and +weary. Surely thou lackest food, and supper shall be hastened. Even +I, who have but slender appetite, grow hungered in these cool gloaming +hours." + +"Dismiss my comrade, George,--I would speak to thee," whispered +Montagu. + +"Thou knowest not Latin?" said the archbishop, turning with a +compassionate eye to Nevile, whose own eye was amorously fixed on the +delicate confectioneries,--"never too late to learn. Hold, here is a +grammar of the verbs, that, with mine own hand, I have drawn up for +youth. Study thine amo and thy moneo, while I confer on Church +matters with giddy Montagu. I shall expect, ere we sup, that thou +wilt have mastered the first tenses." + +"But--" + +"Oh, nay, nay; but me no buts. Thou art too tough, I fear me, for +flagellation, a wondrous improver of tender youth,"--and the prelate +forced his grammar into the reluctant hands of Marmaduke, and +sauntered down one of the solitary alleys with his brother. + +Long and earnest was their conference, and at one time keen were their +dispute's. + +The archbishop had very little of the energy of Montagu or the +impetuosity of Warwick, but he had far more of what we now call mind, +as distinct from talent, than either; that is, he had not their +capacities for action, but he had a judgment and sagacity that made +him considered a wise and sound adviser: this he owed principally to +the churchman's love of ease, and to his freedom from the wear and +tear of the passions which gnawed the great minister and the aspiring +courtier; his natural intellect was also fostered by much learning. +George Nevile had been reared, by an Italian ecclesiastic, in all the +subtle diplomacy of the Church; and his ambition, despising lay +objects (though he consented to hold the office of chancellor), was +concentrated in that kingdom over kings which had animated the august +dominators of religious Rome. Though, as we have said, still in that +age when the affections are usually vivid, [He was consecrated Bishop +of Exeter at the age of twenty; at twenty-six he became Archbishop of +York, and was under thirty at the time referred to in the text.] +George Nevile loved no human creature,--not even his brothers; not +even King Edward, who, with all his vices, possessed so eminently the +secret that wins men's hearts. His early and entire absorption in the +great religious community, which stood apart from the laymen in order +to control them, alienated him from his kind; and his superior +instruction only served to feed him with a calm and icy contempt for +all that prejudice, as he termed it, held dear and precious. He +despised the knight's wayward honour, the burgher's crafty honesty. +For him no such thing as principle existed; and conscience itself lay +dead in the folds of a fancied exemption from all responsibility to +the dull herd, that were but as wool and meat to the churchman +shepherd. But withal, if somewhat pedantic, he had in his manner a +suavity and elegance and polish which suited well his high station, +and gave persuasion to his counsels. In all externals he was as +little like a priest as the high-born prelates of that day usually +were. In dress he rivalled the fopperies of the Plantagenet brothers; +in the chase he was more ardent than Warwick had been in his earlier +youth; and a dry sarcastic humour, sometimes elevated into wit, gave +liveliness to his sagacious converse. + +Montagu desired that the archbishop and himself should demand solemn +audience of Edward, and gravely remonstrate with the king on the +impropriety of receiving the brother of a rival suitor, while Warwick +was negotiating the marriage of Margaret with a prince of France. + +"Nay," said the archbishop, with a bland smile, that fretted Montagu +to the quick, "surely even a baron, a knight, a franklin, a poor +priest like myself, would rise against the man who dictated to his +hospitality. Is a king less irritable than baron, knight, franklin, +and priest,--or rather, being, as it were, per legem, lord of all, +hath he not irritability eno' for all four? Ay, tut and tush as thou +wilt, John, but thy sense must do justice to my counsel at the last. I +know Edward well; he hath something of mine own idlesse and ease of +temper, but with more of the dozing lion than priests, who have only, +look you, the mildness of the dove. Prick up his higher spirit, not +by sharp remonstrance, but by seeming trust. Observe to him, with thy +gay, careless laugh--which, methinks, thou hast somewhat lost of late +--that with any other prince Warwick might suspect some snare, some +humiliating overthrow of his embassage, but that all men know how +steadfast in faith and honour is Edward IV." + +"Truly," said Montagu, with a forced smile, "you understand mankind; +but yet, bethink you--suppose this fail, and Warwick return to England +to hear that he hath been cajoled and fooled; that the Margaret he had +crossed the seas to affiance to the brother of Louis is betrothed to +Charolois--bethink you, I say, what manner of heart beats under our +brother's mail." + +"Impiger, iracundus!" said the archbishop; "a very Achilles, to whom +our English Agamemnon, if he cross him, is a baby. All this is sad +truth; our parents spoilt him in his childhood, and glory in his +youth, and wealth, power, success, in his manhood. Ay! if Warwick be +chafed, it will be as the stir of the sea-serpent, which, according to +the Icelanders, moves a world. Still, the best way to prevent the +danger is to enlist the honour of the king in his behalf,--to show +that our eyes are open, but that we disdain to doubt, and are frank to +confide. Meanwhile send messages and warnings privately to Warwick." + +These reasonings finally prevailed with Montagu, and the brothers +returned with one mind to the house. Here, as after their ablutions +they sat down to the evening meal, the archbishop remembered poor +Marmaduke, and despatched to him one of his thirty household +chaplains. Marmaduke was found fast asleep over the second tense of +the verb amo. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +THE ARRIVAL OF THE COUNT DE LA ROCHE, AND THE VARIOUS EXCITEMENT +PRODUCED ON MANY PERSONAGES BY THAT EVENT. + +The prudence of the archbishop's counsel was so far made manifest, +that on the next day Montagu found all remonstrance would have been +too late. The Count de la Roche had already landed, and was on his +way to London. The citizens, led by Rivers partially to suspect the +object of the visit, were delighted not only by the prospect of a +brilliant pageant, but by the promise such a visit conveyed of a +continued peace with their commercial ally; and the preparations made +by the wealthy merchants increased the bitterness and discontent of +Montagu. At length, at the head of a gallant and princely retinue, +the Count de la Roche entered London. Though Hastings made no secret +of his distaste to the Count de la Roche's visit, it became his office +as lord chamberlain to meet the count at Blackwall, and escort him and +his train, in gilded barges, to the palace. + +In the great hall of the Tower, in which the story of Antiochus was +painted by the great artists employed under Henry III., and on the +elevation of the dais, behind which, across Gothic columns, stretched +draperies of cloth-of-gold, was placed Edward's chair of state. +Around him were grouped the Dukes of Clarence and Gloucester, the +Lords Worcester, Montagu, Rivers, D'Eyncourt, St. John, Raoul de +Fulke, and others. But at the threshold of the chamber stood Anthony +Woodville, the knightly challenger, his knee bound by the ladye-badge +of the S. S., and his fine person clad in white-flowered velvet of +Genoa, adorned with pearls. Stepping forward, as the count appeared, +the gallant Englishman bent his knee half-way to the ground, and +raising the count's hand to his lips, said in French, "Deign, noble +sir, to accept the gratitude of one who were not worthy of encounter +from so peerless a hand, save by the favour of the ladies of England, +and your own courtesy, which ennobles him whom it stoops to." So +saying, he led the count towards the king. + +De la Roche, an experienced and profound courtier, and justly +deserving Hall's praise as a man of "great witte, courage, +valiantness, and liberalitie," did not affect to conceal the +admiration which the remarkable presence of Edward never failed to +excite; lifting his hand to his eyes, as if to shade them from a +sudden blaze of light, he would have fallen on both knees, but Edward +with quick condescension raised him, and, rising himself, said gayly,-- + +"Nay, Count de la Roche, brave and puissant chevalier, who hath +crossed the seas in honour of knighthood and the ladies, we would, +indeed, that our roiaulme boasted a lord like thee, from whom we might +ask such homage. But since thou art not our subject, it consoles us +at least that thou art our guest. By our halidame, Lord Scales, thou +must look well to thy lance and thy steed's girths, for never, I trow, +hast thou met a champion of goodlier strength and knightlier mettle." + +"My lord king," answered the count, "I fear me, indeed, that a knight +like the Sieur Anthony, who fights under the eyes of such a king, will +prove invincible. Did kings enter the lists with kings, where, +through broad Christendom, find a compeer for your Highness?" + +"Your brother, Sir Count, if fame lies not," returned Edward, slightly +laughing, and lightly touching the Bastard's shoulder, "were a fearful +lance to encounter, even though Charlemagne himself were to revive +with his twelve paladins at his back. Tell us, Sir Count," added the +king, drawing himself up,--"tell us, for we soldiers are curious in +such matters, hath not the Count of Charolois the advantage of all +here in sinews and stature?" + +"Sire," returned De la Roche, "my princely brother is indeed mighty +with the brand and battle-axe, but your Grace is taller by half the +head,--and, peradventure, of even a more stalwart build; but that mere +strength in your Highness is not that gift of God which strikes the +beholder most." + +Edward smiled good-humouredly at a compliment the truth of which was +too obvious to move much vanity, and said with a royal and knightly +grace, "Our House of York hath been taught, Sir Count, to estimate +men's beauty by men's deeds, and therefore the Count of Charolois hath +long been known to us--who, alas, have seen him not!--as the fairest +gentleman of Europe. My Lord Scales, we must here publicly crave your +pardon. Our brother-in-law, Sir Count, would fain have claimed his +right to hold you his guest, and have graced himself by exclusive +service to your person. We have taken from him his lawful office, for +we kings are jealous, and would not have our subjects more honoured +than ourselves." Edward turned round to his courtiers as he spoke, +and saw that his last words had called a haughty and angry look to the +watchful countenance of Montagu. "Lord Hastings," he continued, "to +your keeping, as our representative, we intrust this gentleman. He +must need refreshment ere we present him to our queen." + +The count bowed to the ground, and reverently withdrew from the royal +presence, accompanied by Hastings. Edward then, singling Anthony +Woodville and Lord Rivers from the group, broke up the audience, and, +followed by those two noblemen, quitted the hall. + +Montagu, whose countenance had recovered the dignified and high-born +calm habitual to it, turned to the Duke of Clarence, and observed +indifferently, "The Count de la Roche hath a goodly mien, and a fair +tongue." + +"Pest on these Burgundians!" answered Clarence, in an undertone, and +drawing Montagu aside. "I would wager my best greyhound to a +scullion's cur that our English knights will lower their burgonets." + +"Nay, sir, an idle holiday show. What matters whose lance breaks, or +whose destrier stumbles?" + +"Will you not, yourself, cousin Montagu--you who are so peerless in +the joust--take part in the fray?" + +"I, your Highness,--I, the brother of the Earl of Warwick, whom this +pageant hath been devised by the Woodvilles to mortify and disparage +in his solemn embassy to Burgundy's mightiest foe!--I!" + +"Sooth to say," said the young prince, much embarrassed, "it grieves +me sorely to hear thee speak as if Warwick would be angered at this +pastime. For, look you, Montagu, I, thinking only of my hate to +Burgundy and my zeal for our English honour, have consented, as high +constable, and despite my grudge to the Woodvilles, to bear the +bassinet of our own champion, and--" + +"Saints in heaven!" exclaimed Montagu, with a burst of his fierce +brother's temper, which he immediately checked, and changed into a +tone that concealed, beneath outward respect, the keenest irony, "I +crave your pardon humbly for my vehemence, Prince of Clarence. I +suddenly remember me that humility is the proper virtue of knighthood. +Your Grace does indeed set a notable example of that virtue to the +peers of England; and my poor brother's infirmity of pride will stand +rebuked for aye, when he hears that George Plantagenet bore the +bassinet of Anthony Woodville." + +"But it is for the honour of the ladies," said Clarence, falteringly; +"in honour of the fairest maid of all--the flower of English beauty-- +the Lady Isabel--that I--" + +"Your Highness will pardon me," interrupted Montagu; "but I do trust +to your esteem for our poor and insulted House of Nevile so far as to +be assured that the name of my niece Isabel will not be submitted to +the ribald comments of a base-born Burgundian." + +"Then I will break no lance in the lists!" + +"As it likes you, prince," replied Montagu, shortly; and, with a low +bow, he quitted the chamber, and was striding to the outer gate of the +Tower, when a sweet, clear voice behind him called him by his name. +He turned abruptly, to meet the dark eye and all-subduing smile of the +boy-Duke of Gloucester. + +"A word with you, Montagu, noblest and most prized, with your princely +brothers, of the champions of our House,--I read your generous +indignation with our poor Clarence. Ay, sir! ay!--it was a weakness +in him that moved even me. But you have not now to learn that his +nature, how excellent soever, is somewhat unsteady. His judgment +alone lacks weight and substance,--ever persuaded against his better +reason by those who approach his infirmer side; but if it be true that +our cousin Warwick intends for him the hand of the peerless Isabel, +wiser heads will guide his course." + +"My brother," said Montagu, greatly softened, "is much beholden to +your Highness for a steady countenance and friendship, for which I +also, believe me--and the families of Beauchamp, Montagu, and Nevile-- +are duly grateful. But to speak plainly (which your Grace's youthful +candour, so all-acknowledged, will permit), the kinsmen of the queen +do now so aspire to rule this land, to marry or forbid to marry, not +only our own children, but your illustrious father's, that I foresee +in this visit of the bastard Anthony the most signal disgrace to +Warwick that ever king passed upon ambassador or gentleman. And this +moves me more!--yea, I vow to Saint George, my patron, it moves me +more--by the thought of danger to your royal House than by the grief +of slight to mine; for Warwick--but you know him." + +"Montagu, you must soothe and calm your brother if chafed. I impose +that task on your love for us. Alack, would that Edward listened more +to me and less to the queen's kith! These Woodvilles!--and yet they +may live to move not wrath but pity. If aught snapped the thread of +Edward's life (Holy Paul forbid!), what would chance to Elizabeth, her +brothers, her children?" + +"Her children would mount the throne that our right hands built," said +Montagu, sullenly. + +"Ah, think you so?--you rejoice me! I had feared that the barons +might, that the commons would, that the Church must, pronounce the +unhappy truth, that--but you look amazed, my lord! Alas, my boyish +years are too garrulous!" + +"I catch not your Highness's meaning." + +"Pooh, pooh! By Saint Paul, your seeming dulness proves your loyalty; +but with me, the king's brother, frankness were safe. Thou knowest +well that the king was betrothed before to the Lady Eleanor Talbot; +that such betrothal, not set aside by the Pope, renders his marriage +with Elizabeth against law; that his children may (would to Heaven it +were not so!) be set aside as bastards, when Edward's life no longer +shields them from the sharp eyes of men." + +"Ah," said Montagu, thoughtfully; "and in that case, George of +Clarence would wear the crown, and his children reign in England." + +"Our Lord forefend," said Richard, "that I should say that Warwick +thought of this when he deemed George worthy of the hand of Isabel. +Nay, it could not be so; for, however clear the claim, strong and +powerful would be those who would resist it, and Clarence is not, as +you will see, the man who can wrestle boldly,--even for a throne. +Moreover, he is too addicted to wine and pleasure to bid fair to +outlive the king." + +Montagu fixed his penetrating eyes on Richard, but dropped them, +abashed, before that steady, deep, unrevealing gaze, which seemed to +pierce into other hearts, and show nothing of the heart within. + +"Happy Clarence!" resumed the prince, with a heavy sigh, and after a +brief pause,--"a Nevile's husband and a Warwick's son--what can the +saints do more for men? You must excuse his errors--all our errors-- +to your brother. You may not know, peradventure, sweet Montagu, how +deep an interest I have in maintaining all amity between Lord Warwick +and the king. For methinks there is one face fairer than fair +Isabel's, and one man more to be envied than even Clarence. Fairest +face to me in the wide world is the Lady Anne's! happiest man between +the cradle and the grave is he whom the Lady Anne shall call her lord! +and if I--oh, look you, Montagu, let there be no breach between +Warwick and the king! Fare you well, dear lord and cousin,--I go to +Baynard's Castle till these feasts are over." + +"Does not your Grace," said Montagu, recovering from the surprise into +which one part of Gloucester's address had thrown him--"does not your +Grace--so skilled in lance and horsemanship--preside at the lists?" + +"Montagu, I love your brother well enough to displease my king. The +great earl shall not say, at least, that Richard Plantagenet in his +absence forgot the reverence due to loyalty and merit. Tell him that; +and if I seem (unlike Clarence) to forbear to confront the queen and +her kindred, it is because you should make no enemies,--not the less +for that should princes forget no friends." + +Richard said this with a tone of deep feeling, and, folding his arms +within his furred surcoat, walked slowly on to a small postern +admitting to the river; but there, pausing by a buttress which +concealed him till Montagu had left the yard, instead of descending to +his barge, he turned back into the royal garden. Here several of the +court of both sexes were assembled, conferring on the event of the +day. Richard halted at a distance, and contemplated their gay dresses +and animated countenances with something between melancholy and scorn +upon his young brow. One of the most remarkable social +characteristics of the middle ages is the prematurity at which the +great arrived at manhood, shared in its passions, and indulged its +ambitions. Among the numerous instances in our own and other +countries that might be selected from history, few are more striking +than that of this Duke of Gloucester, great in camp and in council at +an age when nowadays a youth is scarcely trusted to the discipline of +a college. The whole of his portentous career was closed, indeed, +before the public life of modern ambition usually commences. Little +could those accustomed to see on our stage "the elderly ruffian" +[Sharon Turner] our actors represent, imagine that at the opening of +Shakspeare's play of "Richard the Third" the hero was but in his +nineteenth year; but at the still more juvenile age in which he +appears in this our record, Richard of Gloucester was older in +intellect, and almost in experience, than many a wise man at the date +of thirty-three,--the fatal age when his sun set forever on the field +of Bosworth! + +The young prince, then, eyed the gaudy, fluttering, babbling +assemblage before him with mingled melancholy and scorn. Not that he +felt, with the acuteness which belongs to modern sentiment, his bodily +defects amidst that circle of the stately and the fair, for they were +not of a nature to weaken his arm in war or lessen his persuasive +influences in peace. But it was rather that sadness which so often +comes over an active and ambitious intellect in early youth, when it +pauses to ask, in sorrow and disdain, what its plots and counterplots, +its restlessness and strife, are really worth. The scene before him +was of pleasure,--but in pleasure neither the youth nor the manhood of +Richard III. was ever pleased; though not absolutely of the rigid +austerity of Amadis or our Saxon Edward, he was comparatively free +from the licentiousness of his times. His passions were too large for +frivolous excitements. Already the Italian, or, as it is falsely +called, the Machiavelian policy, was pervading the intellect of +Europe, and the effects of its ruthless, grand, and deliberate +statecraft are visible from the accession of Edward IV. till the close +of Elizabeth's reign. With this policy, which reconciled itself to +crime as a necessity of wisdom, was often blended a refinement of +character which disdained vulgar vices. Not skilled alone in those +knightly accomplishments which induced Caxton, with propriety, to +dedicate to Richard "The Book of the Order of Chivalry," the Duke of +Gloucester's more peaceful amusements were borrowed from severer +Graces than those which presided over the tastes of his royal +brothers. He loved, even to passion, the Arts, Music,--especially of +the more Doric and warlike kind,--Painting and Architecture; he was a +reader of books, as of men,--the books that become princes,--and hence +that superior knowledge of the principles of law and of commerce which +his brief reign evinced. More like an Italian in all things than the +careless Norman or the simple Saxon, Machiavel might have made of his +character a companion, though a contrast to that of Castruccio +Castrucani. + +The crowd murmured and rustled at the distance, and still with folded +arms Richard gazed aloof, when a lady, entering the garden from the +palace, passed by him so hastily that she brushed his surcoat, and, +turning round in surprise, made a low reverence, as she exclaimed, +"Prince Richard! and alone amidst so many!" + +"Lady," said the duke, "it was a sudden hope that brought me into this +garden,--and that was the hope to see your fair face shining above the +rest." + +"Your Highness jests," returned the lady, though her superb +countenance and haughty carriage evinced no opinion of herself so +humble as her words would imply. + +"My Lady of Bonville," said the young duke, laying his hand on her +arm, "mirth is not in my thoughts at this hour." + +"I believe your Highness; for the Lord Richard Plantagenet is not one +of the Woodvilles. The mirth is theirs to-day." + +"Let who will have mirth,--it is the breath of a moment. Mirth cannot +tarnish glory,--the mirror in which the gods are glassed." + +"I understand you, my lord," said the proud lady; and her face, before +stern and high, brightened into so lovely a change, so soft and +winning a smile, that Gloucester no longer marvelled that that smile +had rained so large an influence on the fate and heart of his +favourite Hastings. The beauty of this noble woman was indeed +remarkable in its degree, and peculiar in its character. She bore a +stronger likeness in feature to the archbishop than to either of her +other brothers; for the prelate had the straight and smooth outline of +the Greeks,--not like Montagu and Warwick, the lordlier and manlier +aquiline of the Norman race,--and his complexion was feminine in its +pale clearness. But though in this resembling the subtlest of the +brethren, the fair sister shared with Warwick an expression, if +haughty, singularly frank and candid in its imperious majesty; she had +the same splendid and steady brilliancy of eye, the same quick quiver +of the lip, speaking of nervous susceptibility and haste of mood. The +hateful fashion of that day which pervaded all ranks, from the highest +to the lowest, was the prodigal use of paints and cosmetics, and all +imaginable artificial adjuncts of a spurious beauty. This extended +often even to the men, and the sturdiest warrior deemed it no shame to +recur to such arts of the toilet as the vainest wanton in our day +would never venture to acknowledge. But the Lady Bonville, proudly +confident of her beauty, and possessing a purity of mind that revolted +from the littleness of courting admiration, contrasted forcibly in +this the ladies of the court. Her cheek was of a marble whiteness, +though occasionally a rising flush through the clear, rich, +transparent skin showed that in earlier youth the virgin bloom had not +been absent from the surface. There was in her features, when they +reposed, somewhat of the trace of suffering,--of a struggle, past it +may be, but still remembered. But when she spoke, those features +lighted up and undulated in such various and kindling life as to +dazzle, to bewitch, or to awe the beholder, according as the impulse +moulded the expression. Her dress suited her lofty and spotless +character. Henry VI. might have contemplated with holy pleasure its +matronly decorum; the jewelled gorget ascended to the rounded and +dimpled chin; the arms were bare only at the wrists, where the blue +veins were seen through a skin of snow; the dark glossy locks, which +her tirewoman boasted, when released, swept the ground, were gathered +into a modest and simple braid, surmounted by the beseeming coronet +that proclaimed her rank. The Lady Bonville might have stood by the +side of Cornelia, the model of a young and high-born matron, in whose +virtue the honour of man might securely dwell. + +"I understand you, my lord," she said, with her bright, thankful +smile; "and as Lord Warwick's sister, I am grateful." + +"Your love for the great earl proves you are noble enough to forgive," +said Richard, meaningly. "Nay, chide me not with that lofty look; you +know that there are no secrets between Hastings and Gloucester." + +"My lord duke, the head of a noble House hath the right to dispose of +the hands of the daughters; I know nothing in Lord Warwick to +forgive." + +But she turned her head as she spoke, and a tear for a moment trembled +in that haughty eye. + +"Lady," said Richard, moved to admiration, "to you let me confide my +secret. I would be your nephew. Boy though I be in years, my heart +beats as loudly as a man's; and that heart beats for Anne." + +"The love of Richard Plantagenet honours even Warwick's daughter!" + +"Think you so? Then stand my friend; and, being thus my friend, +intercede with Warwick, if he angers at the silly holiday of this +Woodville pageant." + +"Alas, sir! you know that Warwick listens to no interceders between +himself and his passions. But what then? Grant him wronged, +aggrieved, trifled with,--what then? Can he injure the House of +York?" + +Richard looked in some surprise at the fair speaker. + +"Can he injure the House of York?--Marry, yes," he replied bluntly. + +"But for what end? Whom else should he put upon the throne?" + +"What if he forgive the Lancastrians? What if--" + +"Utter not the thought, prince, breathe it not," exclaimed the Lady +Bonville, almost fiercely. "I love and honour my brave brother, +despite--despite--" She paused a moment, blushed, and proceeded +rapidly, without concluding the sentence. "I love him as a woman of +his House must love the hero who forms its proudest boast. But if, for +any personal grudge, any low ambition, any rash humour, the son of my +father Salisbury could forget that Margaret of Anjou placed the gory +head of that old man upon the gates of York, could by word or deed +abet the cause of usurping and bloody Lancaster,--I would--I would-- +Out upon my sex! I could do nought but weep the glory of Nevile and +Monthermer gone forever." + +Before Richard could reply, the sound of musical instruments, and a +procession of heralds and pages proceeding from the palace, announced +the approach of Edward. He caught the hand of the dame of Bonville, +lifted it to his lips, and saying, "May fortune one day permit me to +face as the earl's son the earl's foes," made his graceful reverence, +glided from the garden, gained his barge, and was rowed to the huge +pile of Baynard's Castle, lately reconstructed, but in a gloomy and +barbaric taste, and in which, at that time, he principally resided +with his mother, the once peerless Rose of Raby. + +The Lady of Bonville paused a moment, and in that pause her +countenance recovered its composure. She then passed on, with a +stately step, towards a group of the ladies of the court, and her eye +noted with proud pleasure that the highest names of the English +knighthood and nobility, comprising the numerous connections of her +family, formed a sullen circle apart from the rest, betokening, by +their grave countenances and moody whispers, how sensitively they felt +the slight to Lord Warwick's embassy in the visit of the Count de la +Roche, and how little they were disposed to cringe to the rising sun +of the Woodvilles. There, collected into a puissance whose discontent +hard sufficed to shake a firmer throne (the young Raoul de Fulke, the +idolater of Warwick, the impersonation in himself of the old Norman +seignorie, in their centre), with folded arms and lowering brows, +stood the earl's kinsmen, the Lords Fitzhugh and Fauconberg: with +them, Thomas Lord Stanley, a prudent noble, who rarely sided with a +malcontent, and the Lord St. John, and the heir of the ancient +Bergavennies, and many another chief, under whose banner marched an +army. Richard of Gloucester had shown his wit in refusing to mingle +in intrigues which provoked the ire of that martial phalanx. As the +Lady of Bonville swept by these gentlemen, their murmur of respectful +homage, their profound salutation, and unbonneted heads, contrasted +forcibly with the slight and grave, if not scornful, obeisance they +had just rendered to one of the queen's sisters, who had passed a +moment before in the same direction. The lady still moved on, and +came suddenly across the path of Hastings, as, in his robes of state, +he issued from the palace. Their eyes met, and both changed colour. + +"So, my lord chamberlain," said the dame, sarcastically, "the Count de +la Roche is, I hear, consigned to your especial charge." + +"A charge the chamberlain cannot refuse, and which William Hastings +does not covet." + +"A king had never asked Montagu and Warwick to consider amongst their +duties any charge they had deemed dishonouring." + +"Dishonouring, Lady Bonville!" exclaimed Hastings, with a bent brow +and a flushed cheek,--"neither Montagu nor Warwick had, with safety, +applied to me the word that has just passed your lips." + +"I crave your pardon," answered Katherine, bitterly. "Mine articles +of faith in men's honour are obsolete or heretical. I had deemed it +dishonouring in a noble nature to countenance insult to a noble enemy +in his absence. I had deemed it dishonouring in a brave soldier, a +well-born gentleman (now from his valiantness, merit, and wisdom +become a puissant and dreaded lord), to sink into that lackeydom and +varletaille which falsehood and cringing have stablished in these +walls, and baptized under the name of 'courtiers.' Better had +Katherine de Bonville esteemed Lord Hastings had he rather fallen +under a king's displeasure than debased his better self to a +Woodville's dastard schemings." + +"Lady, you are cruel and unjust, like all your haughty race; and idle +were reply to one who, of all persons, should have judged me better. +For the rest, if this mummery humbles Lord Warwick, gramercy! there is +nothing in my memory that should make my share in it a gall to my +conscience; nor do I owe the Neviles so large a gratitude, that rather +than fret the pile of their pride, I should throw down the scaffolding +on which my fearless step hath clomb to as fair a height, and one +perhaps that may overlook as long a posterity, as the best baron that +ever quartered the Raven Eagle and the Dun Bull. But," resumed +Hastings, with a withering sarcasm, "doubtless the Lady de Bonville +more admires the happy lord who holds himself, by right of pedigree, +superior to all things that make the statesman wise, the scholar +learned, and the soldier famous. Way there--back, gentles,"--and +Hastings turned to the crowd behind,--"way there, for my lord of +Harrington and Bonville!" + +The bystanders smiled at each other as they obeyed; and a heavy, +shambling, graceless man, dressed in the most exaggerated fopperies of +the day, but with a face which even sickliness, that refines most +faces, could not divest of the most vacant dulness, and a mien and +gait to which no attire could give dignity, passed through the group, +bowing awkwardly to the right and left, and saying, in a thick, husky +voice, "You are too good, sirs,--too good: I must not presume so +overmuch on my seignorie. The king would keep me,--he would indeed, +sirs; um--um--why, Katherine--dame--thy stiff gorget makes me ashamed +of thee. Thou wouldst not think, Lord Hastings, that Katherine had a +white skin,--a parlous white skin. La, you now, fie on these +mufflers!" The courtiers sneered; Hastings, with a look of malignant +and pitiless triumph, eyed the Lady of Bonville. For a moment the +colour went and came across her transparent cheek; but the confusion +passed, and returning the insulting gaze of her ancient lover with an +eye of unspeakable majesty, she placed her arm upon her lord's, and +saying calmly, "An English matron cares but to be fair in her +husband's eyes," drew him away; and the words and the manner of the +lady were so dignified and simple, that the courtiers hushed their +laughter, and for the moment the lord of such a woman was not only +envied but respected. + +While this scene had passed, the procession preceding Edward had filed +into the garden in long and stately order. From another entrance +Elizabeth, the Princess Margaret, and the Duchess of Bedford, with +their trains, had already issued, and were now ranged upon a flight of +marble steps, backed by a columned alcove, hung with velvet striped +into the royal baudekin, while the stairs themselves were covered with +leathern carpets, powdered with the white rose and the fleur de lis; +either side lined by the bearers of the many banners of Edward, +displaying the white lion of March, the black bull of Clare, the cross +of Jerusalem, the dragon of Arragon, and the rising sun, which he had +assumed as his peculiar war-badge since the battle of Mortimer's +Cross. Again, and louder, came the flourish of music; and a murmur +through the crowd, succeeded by deep silence, announced the entrance +of the king. He appeared, leading by the hand the Count de la Roche, +and followed by the Lords Scales, Rivers, Dorset, and the Duke of +Clarence. All eyes were bent upon the count, and though seen to +disadvantage by the side of the comeliest and stateliest and most +gorgeously-attired prince in Christendom, his high forehead, bright +sagacious eye, and powerful frame did not disappoint the expectations +founded upon the fame of one equally subtle in council and redoubted +in war. + +The royal host and the princely guest made their way where Elizabeth, +blazing in jewels and cloth-of-gold, shone royally, begirt by the +ladies of her brilliant court. At her right hand stood her mother, at +her left, the Princess Margaret. + +"I present to you, my Elizabeth," said Edward, "a princely gentleman, +to whom we nevertheless wish all ill-fortune,--for we cannot desire +that he may subdue our knights, and we would fain hope that he may be +conquered by our ladies." + +"The last hope is already fulfilled," said the count, gallantly, as on +his knee he kissed the fair hand extended to him. Then rising, and +gazing full and even boldly upon the young Princess Margaret, he +added, "I have seen too often the picture of the Lady Margaret not to +be aware that I stand in that illustrious presence." + +"Her picture! Sir Count," said the queen; "we knew not that it had +been ever limned." + +"Pardon me, it was done by stealth." + +"And where have you seen it?" + +"Worn at the heart of my brother the Count of Charolois!" answered De +la Roche, in a whispered tone. + +Margaret blushed with evident pride and delight; and the wily envoy, +leaving the impression his words had made to take their due effect, +addressed himself, with all the gay vivacity he possessed, to the fair +queen and her haughty mother. + +After a brief time spent in this complimentary converse, the count +then adjourned to inspect the menagerie, of which the king was very +proud. Edward, offering his hand to his queen, led the way, and the +Duchess of Bedford, directing the count to Margaret by a shrewd and +silent glance of her eye, so far smothered her dislike to Clarence as +to ask his highness to attend herself. + +"Ah, lady," whispered the count, as the procession moved along, "what +thrones would not Charolois resign for the hand that his unworthy +envoy is allowed to touch!" + +"Sir," said Margaret, demurely looking down, "the Count of Charolois +is a lord who, if report be true, makes war his only mistress." + +"Because the only loving mistress his great heart could serve is +denied to his love! Ah, poor lord and brother, what new reasons for +eternal war to Burgundy, when France, not only his foe, becomes his +rival!" + +Margaret sighed, and the count continued till by degrees he warmed the +royal maiden from her reserve; and his eye grew brighter, and a +triumphant smile played about his lips, when, after the visit to the +menagerie, the procession re-entered the palace, and the Lord Hastings +conducted the count to the bath prepared for him, previous to the +crowning banquet of the night. And far more luxurious and more +splendid than might be deemed by those who read but the general +histories of that sanguinary time, or the inventories of furniture in +the houses even of the great barons, was the accommodation which +Edward afforded to his guest. His apartments and chambers were hung +with white silk and linen, the floors covered with richly-woven +carpets; the counterpane of his bed was cloth-of-gold, trimmed with +ermine; the cupboard shone with vessels of silver and gold; and over +two baths were pitched tents of white cloth of Rennes fringed with +silver. [See Madden's Narrative of the Lord Grauthuse; Archaelogia, +1830.] + +Agreeably to the manners of the time, Lord Hastings assisted to +disrobe the count; and, the more to bear him company, afterwards +undressed himself and bathed in the one bath, while the count +refreshed his limbs in the other. + +"Pri'thee," said De la Roche, drawing aside the curtain of his tent, +and putting forth his head--"pri'thee, my Lord Hastings, deign to +instruct my ignorance of a court which I would fain know well, and let +me weet whether the splendour of your king, far exceeding what I was +taught to look for, is derived from his revenue as sovereign of +England, or chief of the House of York?" + +"Sir," returned Hastings, gravely, putting out his own head, "it is +Edward's happy fortune to be the wealthiest proprietor in England, +except the Earl of Warwick, and thus he is enabled to indulge a state +which yet oppresses not his people." + +"Except the Earl of Warwick!" repeated the count, musingly, as the +fumes of the odours with which the bath was filled rose in a cloud +over his long hair,--"ill would fare that subject, in most lands, who +was as wealthy as his king! You have heard that Warwick has met King +Louis at Rouen, and that they are inseparable?" + +"It becomes an ambassador to win grace of him he is sent to please." + +"But none win the grace of Louis whom Louis does not dupe." + +"You know not Lord Warwick, Sir Count. His mind is so strong and so +frank, that it is as hard to deceive him as it is for him to be +deceived." + +"Time will show," said the count, pettishly, and he withdrew his head +into the tent. + +And now there appeared the attendants, with hippocras, syrups, and +comfits, by way of giving appetite for the supper, so that no further +opportunity for private conversation was left to the two lords. While +the count was dressing, the Lord Scales entered with a superb gown, +clasped with jewels, and lined with minever, with which Edward had +commissioned him to present the Bastard. In this robe the Lord Scales +insisted upon enduing his antagonist with his own hands, and the three +knights then repaired to the banquet. At the king's table no male +personage out of the royal family sat, except Lord Rivers--as +Elizabeth's father--and the Count de la Roche, placed between Margaret +and the Duchess of Bedford. + +At another table, the great peers of the realm feasted under the +presidence of Anthony Woodville, while, entirely filling one side of +the hall, the ladies of the court held their "mess" (so-called) apart, +and "great and mighty was the eating thereof!" + +The banquet ended, the dance began. The admirable "featliness" of the +Count de la Roche, in the pavon, with the Lady Margaret, was rivalled +only by the more majestic grace of Edward and the dainty steps of +Anthony Woodville. But the lightest and happiest heart which beat in +that revel was one in which no scheme and no ambition but those of +love nursed the hope and dreamed the triumph. + +Stung by the coldness even more than by the disdain of the Lady +Bonville, and enraged to find that no taunt of his own, however +galling, could ruffle a dignity which was an insult both to memory and +to self-love, Hastings had exerted more than usual, both at the +banquet and in the revel, those general powers of pleasing, which, +even in an age when personal qualifications ranked so high, had yet +made him no less renowned for successes in gallantry than the +beautiful and youthful king. All about this man witnessed to the +triumph of mind over the obstacles that beset it,--his rise without +envy, his safety amidst foes, the happy ease with which he moved +through the snares and pits of everlasting stratagem and universal +wile! Him alone the arts of the Woodvilles could not supplant in +Edward's confidence and love; to him alone dark Gloucester bent his +haughty soul; him alone, Warwick, who had rejected his alliance, and +knew the private grudge the rejection bequeathed,--him alone, among +the "new men," Warwick always treated with generous respect, as a wise +patriot and a fearless soldier; and in the more frivolous scenes of +courtly life, the same mind raised one no longer in the bloom of +youth, with no striking advantages of person, and studiously +disdainful of all the fopperies of the time, to an equality with the +youngest, the fairest, the gaudiest courtier, in that rivalship which +has pleasure for its object and love for its reward. Many a heart +beat quicker as the graceful courtier, with that careless wit which +veiled his profound mournfulness of character, or with that delicate +flattery which his very contempt for human nature had taught him, +moved from dame to donzell; till at length, in the sight and hearing +of the Lady Bonville, as she sat, seemingly heedless of his revenge, +amidst a group of matrons elder than herself, a murmur of admiration +made him turn quickly, and his eye, following the gaze of the +bystanders, rested upon the sweet, animated face of Sibyll, flushed +into rich bloom at the notice it excited. Then as he approached the +maiden, his quick glance darting to the woman he had first loved told +him that he had at last discovered the secret how to wound. An +involuntary compression of Katherine's proud lips, a hasty rise and +fall of the stately neck, a restless, indescribable flutter, as it +were, of the whole frame, told the experienced woman-reader of the +signs of jealousy and fear. And he passed at once to the young +maiden's side. Alas! what wonder that Sibyll that night surrendered +her heart to the happiest dreams; and finding herself on the floors of +a court, intoxicated by its perfumed air, hearing on all sides the +murmured eulogies which approved and justified the seeming preference +of the powerful noble, what wonder that she thought the humble maiden, +with her dower of radiant youth and exquisite beauty, and the fresh +and countless treasures of virgin love, might be no unworthy mate of +the "new lord"? + +It was morning [The hours of our ancestors, on great occasions, were +not always more seasonable than our own. Froissart speaks of court +balls, in the reign of Richard II., kept up till day.] before the +revel ended; and when dismissed by the Duchess of Bedford, Sibyll was +left to herself, not even amidst her happy visions did the daughter +forget her office. She stole into her father's chamber. He, too, was +astir and up,--at work at the untiring furnace, the damps on his brow, +but all Hope's vigour at his heart. So while Pleasure feasts, and +Youth revels, and Love deludes itself, and Ambition chases its shadows +(chased itself by Death),--so works the world-changing and world- +despised SCIENCE, the life within life, for all living,--and to all +dead! + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +THE RENOWNED COMBAT BETWEEN SIR ANTHONY WOODVILLE AND THE BASTARD OF +BURGUNDY. + +And now the day came for the memorable joust between the queen's +brother and the Count de la Roche. By a chapter solemnly convoked at +St. Paul's, the preliminaries were settled; upon the very timber used +in decking the lists King Edward expended half the yearly revenue +derived from all the forests of his duchy of York. In the wide space +of Smithfield, destined at a later day to blaze with the fires of +intolerant bigotry, crowded London's holiday population: and yet, +though all the form and parade of chivalry were there; though in the +open balconies never presided a braver king or a comelier queen; +though never a more accomplished chevalier than Sir Anthony Lord of +Scales, nor a more redoubted knight than the brother of Charles the +Bold, met lance to lance,--it was obvious to the elder and more +observant spectators, that the true spirit of the lists was already +fast wearing out from the influences of the age; that the gentleman +was succeeding to the knight, that a more silken and scheming race had +become the heirs of the iron men, who, under Edward III., had realized +the fabled Paladins of Charlemagne and Arthur. But the actors were +less changed than the spectators,--the Well-born than the People. +Instead of that hearty sympathy in the contest, that awful respect for +the champions, that eager anxiety for the honour of the national +lance, which, a century or more ago, would have moved the throng as +one breast, the comments of the bystanders evinced rather the cynicism +of ridicule, the feeling that the contest was unreal, and that +chivalry was out of place in the practical temper of the times. On +the great chessboard the pawns were now so marshalled, that the +knight's moves were no longer able to scour the board and hold in +check both castle and king. + +"Gramercy," said Master Stokton, who sat in high state as sheriff, +[Fabyan] "this is a sad waste of moneys; and where, after all, is the +glory in two tall fellows, walled a yard thick in armor, poking at +each other with poles of painted wood?" + +"Give me a good bull-bait!" said a sturdy butcher, in the crowd below; +"that's more English, I take it, than these fooleries." + +Amongst the ring, the bold 'prentices of London, up and away betimes, +had pushed their path into a foremost place, much to the discontent of +the gentry, and with their flat caps, long hair, thick bludgeons, loud +exclamations, and turbulent demeanour, greatly scandalized the formal +heralds. That, too, was a sign of the times. Nor less did it show +the growth of commerce, that, on seats very little below the regal +balconies, and far more conspicuous than the places of earls and +barons, sat in state the mayor (that mayor a grocer!) [Sir John +Yonge.--Fabyan] and aldermen of the city. + +A murmur, rising gradually into a general shout, evinced the +admiration into which the spectators were surprised, when Anthony +Woodville Lord Scales--his head bare--appeared at the entrance of the +lists,--so bold and so fair was his countenance, so radiant his +armour, and so richly caparisoned his gray steed, in the gorgeous +housings that almost swept the ground; and around him grouped such an +attendance of knights and peers as seldom graced the train of any +subject, with the Duke of Clarence at his right hand, bearing his +bassinet. + +But Anthony's pages, supporting his banner, shared at least the +popular admiration with their gallant lord: they were, according to +the old custom, which probably fell into disuse under the Tudors, +disguised in imitation of the heraldic beasts that typified his +armourial cognizance; [Hence the origin of Supporters] and horrible +and laidly looked they in the guise of griffins, with artful scales of +thin steel painted green, red forked tongues, and griping the banner +in one huge claw, while, much to the marvel of the bystanders, they +contrived to walk very statelily on the other. "Oh, the brave +monsters!" exclaimed the butcher. "Cogs bones, this beats all the +rest!" + +But when the trumpets of the heralds had ceased, when the words +"Laissez aller!" were pronounced, when the lances were set and the +charge began, this momentary admiration was converted into a cry of +derision, by the sudden restiveness of the Burgundian's horse. This +animal, of the pure race of Flanders, of a bulk approaching to +clumsiness, of a rich bay, where, indeed, amidst the barding and the +housings, its colour could be discerned, had borne the valiant Bastard +through many a sanguine field, and in the last had received a wound +which had greatly impaired its sight. And now, whether scared by the +shouting, or terrified by its obscure vision, and the recollection of +its wound when last bestrode by its lord, it halted midway, reared on +end, and, fairly turning round, despite spur and bit, carried back the +Bastard, swearing strange oaths, that grumbled hoarsely through his +vizor, to the very place whence he had started. + +The uncourteous mob yelled and shouted and laughed, and wholly +disregarding the lifted wands and drowning the solemn rebukes of the +heralds, they heaped upon the furious Burgundian all the expressions +of ridicule in which the wit of Cockaigne is so immemorially rich. +But the courteous Anthony of England, seeing the strange and +involuntary flight of his redoubted foe, incontinently reined in, +lowered his lance, and made his horse, without turning round, back to +the end of the lists in a series of graceful gambadas and caracoles. +Again the signal was given, and this time the gallant bay did not fail +his rider; ashamed, doubtless, of its late misdemeanour, arching its +head till it almost touched the breast, laying its ears level on the +neck, and with a snort of anger and disdain, the steed of Flanders +rushed to the encounter. The Bastard's lance shivered fairly against +the small shield of the Englishman; but the Woodville's weapon, more +deftly aimed, struck full on the count's bassinet, and at the same +time the pike projecting from the gray charger's chaffron pierced the +nostrils of the unhappy bay, which rage and shame had blinded more +than ever. The noble animal, stung by the unexpected pain, and bitted +sharply by the rider, whose seat was sorely shaken by the stroke on +his helmet, reared again, stood an instant perfectly erect, and then +fell backwards, rolling over and over the illustrious burden it had +borne. Then the debonair Sir Anthony of England, casting down his +lance, drew his sword, and dexterously caused his destrier to curvet +in a close circle round the fallen Bastard, courteously shaking at him +the brandished weapon, but without attempt to strike. + +"Ho, marshal!" cried King Edward, "assist to his legs the brave +count." + +The marshal hastened to obey. "Ventrebleu!" quoth the Bastard, when +extricated from the weight of his steed, "I cannot hold by the clouds, +but though my horse failed me, surely I will not fail my companions;" +and as he spoke, he placed himself in so gallant and superb a posture, +that he silenced the inhospitable yell which had rejoiced in the +foreigner's discomfiture. Then, observing that the gentle Anthony had +dismounted, and was leaning gracefully against his destrier, the +Burgundian called forth,-- + +"Sir Knight, thou hast conquered the steed, not the rider. We are now +foot to foot. The pole-axe, or the sword,--which? Speak!" + +"I pray thee, noble sieur," quoth the Woodville, mildly, "to let the +strife close for this day, and when rest bath--" + +"Talk of rest to striplings,--I demand my rights!" + +"Heaven forefend," said Anthony Woodville, lifting his hand on high, +"that I, favoured so highly by the fair dames of England, should +demand repose on their behalf. But bear witness," he said (with the +generosity of the last true chevalier of his age, and lifting his +vizor, so as to be heard by the king, and even through the foremost +ranks of the crowd)--"bear witness, that in this encounter, my cause +hath befriended me, not mine arm. The Count de la Roche speaketh +truly; and his steed alone be blamed for his mischance." + +"It is but a blind beast!" muttered the Burgundian. + +"And," added Anthony, bowing towards the tiers rich with the beauty of +the court--"and the count himself assureth me that the blaze of yonder +eyes blinded his goodly steed." Having delivered himself of this +gallant conceit, so much in accordance with the taste of the day, the +Englishman, approaching the king's balcony, craved permission to +finish the encounter with the axe or brand. + +"The former, rather please you, my liege; for the warriors of Burgundy +have ever been deemed unconquered in that martial weapon." + +Edward, whose brave blood was up and warm at the clash of steel, bowed +his gracious assent, and two pole-axes were brought into the ring. + +The crowd now evinced a more earnest and respectful attention than +they had hitherto shown, for the pole-axe, in such stalwart hands, was +no child's toy. "Hum," quoth Master Stokton, "there may be some +merriment now,--not like those silly poles! Your axe lops off a limb +mighty cleanly." The knights themselves seemed aware of the greater +gravity of the present encounter. Each looked well to the bracing of +his vizor; and poising their weapons with method and care, they stood +apart some moments, eying each other steadfastly,--as adroit fencers +with the small sword do in our schools at this day. + +At length the Burgundian, darting forward, launched a mighty stroke at +the Lord Scales, which, though rapidly parried, broke down the guard, +and descended with such weight on the shoulder that but for the +thrice-proven steel of Milan, the benevolent expectation of Master +Stokton had been happily fulfilled. Even as it was, the Lord Scales +uttered a slight cry,--which might be either of anger or of pain,--and +lifting his axe with both hands, levelled a blow on the Burgundian's +helmet that well nigh brought him to his knee. And now for the space +of some ten minutes, the crowd with charmed suspense beheld the almost +breathless rapidity with which stroke on stroke was given and parried; +the axe shifted to and fro, wielded now with both hands, now the left, +now the right, and the combat reeling, as it were, to and fro,--so +that one moment it raged at one extreme of the lists, the next at the +other; and so well inured, from their very infancy, to the weight of +mail were these redoubted champions, that the very wrestlers on the +village green, nay, the naked gladiators of old, might have envied +their lithe agility and supple quickness. + +At last, by a most dexterous stroke, Anthony Woodville forced the +point of his axe into the vizor of the Burgundian, and there so firmly +did it stick, that he was enabled to pull his antagonist to and fro at +his will, while the Bastard, rendered as blind as his horse by the +stoppage of the eye-hole, dealt his own blows about at random, and was +placed completely at the mercy of the Englishman. And gracious as the +gentle Sir Anthony was, he was still so smarting under many a bruise +felt through his dinted mail, that small mercy, perchance, would the +Bastard have found, for the gripe of the Woodville's left hand was on +his foe's throat, and the right seemed about to force the point +deliberately forward into the brain, when Edward, roused from his +delight at that pleasing spectacle by a loud shriek from his sister +Margaret, echoed by the Duchess of Bedford, who was by no means +anxious that her son's axe should be laid at the root of all her +schemes, rose, and crying, "Hold!" with that loud voice which had so +often thrilled a mightier field, cast down his warderer. + +Instantly the lists opened; the marshals advanced, severed the +champions, and unbraced the count's helmet. But the Bastard's martial +spirit, exceedingly dissatisfied at the unfriendly interruption, +rewarded the attention of the marshals by an oath worthy his +relationship to Charles the Bold; and hurrying straight to the king, +his face flushed with wrath and his eyes sparkling with fire,-- + +"Noble sire and king," he cried, "do me not this wrong! I am not +overthrown nor scathed nor subdued,--I yield not. By every knightly +law till one champion yields he can call upon the other to lay on and +do his worst." + +Edward paused, much perplexed and surprised at finding his +intercession so displeasing. He glanced first at the Lord Rivers, who +sat a little below him, and whose cheek grew pale at the prospect of +his son's renewed encounter with one so determined, then at the +immovable aspect of the gentle and apathetic Elizabeth, then at the +agitated countenance of the duchess, then at the imploring eyes of +Margaret, who, with an effort, preserved herself from swooning; and +finally beckoning to him the Duke of Clarence, as high constable, and +the Duke of Norfolk, as earl marshal, he said, "Tarry a moment, Sir +Count, till we take counsel in this grave affair." The count bowed +sullenly; the spectators maintained an anxious silence; the curtain +before the king's gallery was closed while the council conferred. At +the end of some three minutes, however, the drapery was drawn aside by +the Duke of Norfolk; and Edward, fixing his bright blue eye upon the +fiery Burgundian, said gravely, "Count de la Roche, your demand is +just. According to the laws of the list, you may fairly claim that the +encounter go on." + +"Oh, knightly prince, well said! My thanks. We lose time.--Squires, +my bassinet!" + +"Yea," renewed Edward, "bring hither the count's bassinet. By the +laws, the combat may go on at thine asking,--I retract my warderer. +But, Count de la Roche, by those laws you appeal to, the said combat +must go on precisely at the point at which it was broken off. +Wherefore brace on thy bassinet, Count de la Roche; and thou, Anthony +Lord Scales, fix the pike of thine axe, which I now perceive was +inserted exactly where the right eye giveth easy access to the brain, +precisely in the same place. So renew the contest, and the Lord have +mercy on thy soul, Count de la Roche!" + +At this startling sentence, wholly unexpected, and yet wholly +according to those laws of which Edward was so learned a judge, the +Bastard's visage fell. With open mouth and astounded eyes, he stood +gazing at the king, who, majestically reseating himself, motioned to +the heralds. + +"Is that the law, sire?" at length faltered forth the Bastard. + +"Can you dispute it? Can any knight or gentleman gainsay it?" + +"Then," quoth the Bastard, gruffly, and throwing his axe to the +ground, "by all the saints in the calendar, I have had enough! I came +hither to dare all that beseems a chevalier, but to stand still while +Sir Anthony Woodville deliberately pokes out my right eye were a feat +to show that very few brains would follow. And so, my Lord Scales, I +give thee my right hand, and wish thee joy of thy triumph, and the +golden collar." [The prize was a collar of gold, enamelled with the +flower of the souvenance.] + +"No triumph," replied the Woodville, modestly, "for thou art only, as +brave knights should be, subdued by the charms of the ladies, which no +breast, however valiant, can with impunity dispute." + +So saying, the Lord Scales led the count to a seat of honour near the +Lord Rivers; and the actor was contented, perforce, to become a +spectator of the ensuing contests. These were carried on till late at +noon between the Burgundians and the English, the last maintaining the +superiority of their principal champion; and among those in the melee, +to which squires were admitted, not the least distinguished and +conspicuous was our youthful friend, Master Marmaduke Nevile. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +HOW THE BASTARD OF BURGUNDY PROSPERED MORE IN HIS POLICY THAN WITH THE +POLE-AXE.-AND HOW KING EDWARD HOLDS HIS SUMMER CHASE IN THE FAIR +GROVES OF SHENE. + +It was some days after the celebrated encounter between the Bastard +and Lord Scales, and the court had removed to the Palace of Shene. +The Count de la Roche's favour with the Duchess of Bedford and the +young princess had not rested upon his reputation for skill with the +pole-axe, and it had now increased to a height that might well +recompense the diplomatist for his discomfiture in the lists. + +In the mean while, the arts of Warwick's enemies had been attended +with signal success. The final preparations for the alliance now +virtually concluded with Louis's brother still detained the earl at +Rouen, and fresh accounts of the French king's intimacy with the +ambassador were carefully forwarded to Rivers, and transmitted to +Edward. Now, we have Edward's own authority for stating that his +first grudge against Warwick originated in this displeasing intimacy, +but the English king was too clear-sighted to interpret such +courtesies into the gloss given them by Rivers. He did not for a +moment conceive that Lord Warwick was led into any absolute connection +with Louis which could link him to the Lancastrians, for this was +against common-sense; but Edward, with all his good humour, was +implacable and vindictive, and he could not endure the thought that +Warwick should gain the friendship of the man he deemed his foe. +Putting aside his causes of hatred to Louis in the encouragement which +that king had formerly given to the Lancastrian exiles, Edward's pride +as sovereign felt acutely the slighting disdain with which the French +king had hitherto treated his royalty and his birth. The customary +nickname with which he was maligned in Paris was "the Son of the +Archer," a taunt upon the fair fame of his mother, whom scandal +accused of no rigid fidelity to the Duke of York. Besides this, +Edward felt somewhat of the jealousy natural to a king, himself so +spirited and able, of the reputation for profound policy and +statecraft which Louis XI. was rapidly widening and increasing +throughout the courts of Europe. And, what with the resentment and +what with the jealousy, there had sprung up in his warlike heart a +secret desire to advance the claims of England to the throne of +France, and retrieve the conquests won by the Fifth Henry to be lost +under the Sixth. Possessing these feelings and these views, Edward +necessarily saw in the alliance with Burgundy all that could gratify +both his hate and his ambition. The Count of Charolois had sworn to +Louis the most deadly enmity, and would have every motive, whether of +vengeance or of interest, to associate himself heart in hand with the +arms of England in any invasion of France; and to these warlike +objects Edward added, as we have so often had cause to remark, the +more peaceful aims and interests of commerce. And, therefore, +although he could not so far emancipate himself from that influence, +which both awe and gratitude invested in the Earl of Warwick, as to +resist his great minister's embassy to Louis; and though, despite all +these reasons in favour of connection with Burgundy, he could not but +reluctantly allow that Warwick urged those of a still larger and wiser +policy, when showing that the infant dynasty of York could only be +made secure by effectually depriving Margaret of the sole ally that +could venture to assist her cause,--yet no sooner had Warwick fairly +departed than he inly chafed at the concession he had made, and his +mind was open to all the impressions which the earl's enemies sought +to stamp upon it. As the wisdom of every man, however able, can but +run through those channels which are formed by the soil of the +character, so Edward with all his talents never possessed the prudence +which fear of consequences inspires. He was so eminently fearless, so +scornful of danger, that he absolutely forgot the arguments on which +the affectionate zeal of Warwick had based the alliance with Louis,-- +arguments as to the unceasing peril, whether to his person or his +throne, so long as the unprincipled and plotting genius of the French +king had an interest against both; and thus he became only alive to +the representations of his passions, his pride, and his mercantile +interests. The Duchess of Bedford, the queen, and all the family of +Woodville, who had but one object at heart,--the downfall of Warwick +and his House,--knew enough of the earl's haughty nature to be aware +that he would throw up the reins of government the moment he knew that +Edward had discredited and dishonoured his embassy; and, despite the +suspicions they sought to instil into their king's mind, they +calculated upon the earl's love and near relationship to Edward, upon +his utter and seemingly irreconcilable breach with the House of +Lancaster, to render his wrath impotent, and to leave him only the +fallen minister, not the mighty rebel. + +Edward had been thus easily induced to permit the visit of the Count +de la Roche, although he had by no means then resolved upon the course +he should pursue. At all events, even if the alliance with Louis was +to take place, the friendship of Burgundy was worth much to maintain. +But De la Roche soon made aware by the Duchess of Bedford of the +ground on which he stood, and instructed by his brother to spare no +pains and to scruple no promise that might serve to alienate Edward +from Louis and win the hand and dower of Margaret, found it a more +facile matter than his most sanguine hopes had deemed to work upon the +passions and the motives which inclined the king to the pretensions of +the heir of Burgundy. And what more than all else favoured the +envoy's mission was the very circumstance that should most have +defeated it,--namely, the recollection of the Earl of Warwick; for in +the absence of that powerful baron and master-minister, the king had +seemed to breathe more freely. In his absence, he forgot his power. +The machine of government, to his own surprise, seemed to go on as +well; the Commons were as submissive, the mobs as noisy in their +shouts, as if the earl were by. There was no longer any one to share +with Edward the joys of popularity, the sweets of power. + +Though Edward was not Diogenes, he loved the popular sunshine, and no +Alexander now stood between him and its beams. Deceived by the +representations of his courtiers, hearing nothing but abuse of Warwick +and sneers at his greatness, he began to think the hour had come when +he might reign alone, and he entered, though tacitly, and not +acknowledging it even to himself, into the very object of the +womankind about him,--namely, the dismissal of his minister. + +The natural carelessness and luxurious indolence of Edward's temper +did not however permit him to see all the ingratitude of the course he +was about to adopt. The egotism a king too often acquires, and no +king so easily as one like Edward IV., not born to a throne, made him +consider that he alone was entitled to the prerogatives of pride. As +sovereign and as brother, might he not give the hand of Margaret as he +listed? If Warwick was offended, pest on his disloyalty and +presumption! And so saying to himself, he dismissed the very thought +of the absent earl, and glided unconsciously down the current of the +hour. And yet, notwithstanding all these prepossessions and +dispositions, Edward might no doubt have deferred at least the +meditated breach with his great minister until the return of the +latter, and then have acted with the delicacy and precaution that +became a king bound by ties of gratitude and blood to the statesman he +desired to discard, but for a habit,--which, while history mentions, +it seems to forget, in the consequences it ever engenders,--the habit +of intemperance. Unquestionably to that habit many of the imprudences +and levities of a king possessed of so much ability are to be +ascribed; and over his cups with the wary and watchful De la Roche +Edward had contrived to entangle himself far more than in his cooler +moments he would have been disposed to do. + +Having thus admitted our readers into those recesses of that cor +inscrutabile,--the heart of kings,--we summon them to a scene peculiar +to the pastimes of the magnificent Edward. Amidst the shades of the +vast park, or chase, which then appertained to the Palace of Shene, +the noonday sun shone upon such a spot as Armida might have dressed +for the subdued Rinaldo. A space had been cleared of trees and +underwood, and made level as a bowling-green. Around this space the +huge oak and the broad beech were hung with trellis-work, wreathed +with jasmine, honeysuckle, and the white rose, trained in arches. +Ever and anon through these arches extended long alleys, or vistas, +gradually lost in the cool depth of foliage; amidst these alleys and +around this space numberless arbours, quaint with all the flowers then +known in England, were constructed. In the centre of the sward was a +small artificial lake, long since dried up, and adorned then with a +profusion of fountains, that seemed to scatter coolness around the +glowing air. Pitched in various and appropriate sites were tents of +silk and the white cloth of Rennes, each tent so placed as to command +one of the alleys; and at the opening of each stood cavalier or dame, +with the bow or crossbow, as it pleased the fancy or suited best the +skill, looking for the quarry, which horn and hound drove fast and +frequent across the alleys. Such was the luxurious "summer-chase" of +the Sardanapalus of the North. Nor could any spectacle more +thoroughly represent that poetical yet effeminate taste, which, +borrowed from the Italians, made a short interval between the +chivalric and the modern age. The exceeding beauty of the day, the +richness of the foliage in the first suns of bright July, the bay of +the dogs, the sound of the mellow horn, the fragrance of the air, +heavy with noontide flowers, the gay tents, the rich dresses and fair +faces and merry laughter of dame and donzell,--combined to take +captive every sense, and to reconcile ambition itself, that eternal +traveller through the future, to the enjoyment of the voluptuous hour. +But there were illustrious exceptions to the contentment of the +general company. + +A courier had arrived that morning to apprise Edward of the unexpected +debarkation of the Earl of Warwick, with the Archbishop of Narbonne +and the Bastard of Bourbon,--the ambassadors commissioned by Louis to +settle the preliminaries of the marriage between Margaret and his +brother. This unwelcome intelligence reached Edward at the very +moment he was sallying from his palace gates to his pleasant pastime. +He took aside Lord Hastings, and communicated the news to his able +favourite. "Put spurs to thy horse, Hastings, and hie thee fast to +Baynard's Castle. Bring back Gloucester. In these difficult matters +that boy's head is better than a council." + +"Your Highness," said Hastings, tightening his girdle with one hand, +while with the other he shortened his stirrups, "shall be obeyed. I +foresaw, sire, that this coming would occasion much that my Lords +Rivers and Worcester have overlooked. I rejoice that you summon the +Prince Richard, who hath wisely forborne all countenance to the +Burgundian envoy. But is this all, sire? Is it not well to assemble +also your trustiest lords and most learned prelates, if not to overawe +Lord Warwick's anger, at least to confer on the fitting excuses to be +made to King Louis's ambassadors?" + +"And so lose the fairest day this summer hath bestowed upon us? +Tush!--the more need for pleasaunce to-day since business must come +to-morrow. Away with you, dear Will!" + +Hastings looked grave; but he saw all further remonstrance would be in +vain, and hoping much from the intercession of Gloucester, put spurs +to his steed and vanished. Edward mused a moment; and Elizabeth, who +knew every expression and change of his countenance, rode from the +circle of her ladies, and approached him timidly. Casting down her +eyes, which she always affected in speaking to her lord, the queen +said softly,-- + +"Something hath disturbed my liege and my life's life." + +"Marry, yes, sweet Bessee. Last night, to pleasure thee and thy kin +(and sooth to say, small gratitude ye owe me, for it also pleased +myself), I promised Margaret's hand, through De la Roche, to the heir +of Burgundy." + +"O princely heart!" exclaimed Elizabeth, her whole face lighted up +with triumph, "ever seeking to make happy those it cherishes. But is +it that which disturbs thee, that which thou repentest?" + +"No, sweetheart,--no. Yet had it not been for the strength of the +clary, I should have kept the Bastard longer in suspense. But what is +done is done. Let not thy roses wither when thou hearest Warwick is +in England,--nay, nay, child, look not so appalled; thine Edward is no +infant, whom ogre and goblin scare; and"--glancing his eye proudly +round as he spoke, and saw the goodly cavalcade of his peers and +knights, with his body-guard, tall and chosen veterans, filling up the +palace-yard, with the show of casque and pike--"and if the struggle is +to come between Edward of England and his subject, never an hour more +ripe than this; my throne assured, the new nobility I have raised +around it, London true, marrow and heart true, the provinces at peace, +the ships and the steel of Burgundy mine allies! Let the white Bear +growl as he list, the Lion of March is lord of the forest. And now, my +Bessee," added the king, changing his haughty tone into a gay, +careless laugh, "now let the lion enjoy his chase." + +He kissed the gloved hand of his queen, gallantly bending over his +saddle-bow, and the next moment he was by the side of a younger if not +a fairer lady, to whom he was devoting the momentary worship of his +inconstant heart. Elizabeth's eyes shot an angry gleam as she beheld +her faithless lord thus engaged; but so accustomed to conceal and +control the natural jealousy that it never betrayed itself to the +court or to her husband, she soon composed her countenance to its +ordinary smooth and artificial smile, and rejoining her mother she +revealed what had passed. The proud and masculine spirit of the +duchess felt only joy at the intelligence. In the anticipated +humiliation of Warwick, she forgot all cause for fear. Not so her +husband and son, the Lords Rivers and Scales, to whom the news soon +travelled. + +"Anthony," whispered the father, "in this game we have staked our +heads." + +"But our right hands can guard them well, sir," answered Anthony; "and +so God and the ladies for our rights!" + +Yet this bold reply did not satisfy the more thoughtful judgment of +the lord treasurer, and even the brave Anthony's arrows that day +wandered wide of their quarry. + +Amidst this gay scene, then, there were anxious and thoughtful bosoms. +Lord Rivers was silent and abstracted; his son's laugh was hollow and +constrained; the queen, from her pavilion, cast, ever and anon, down +the green alleys more restless and prying looks than the hare or the +deer could call forth; her mother's brow was knit and flushed. And +keenly were those illustrious persons watched by one deeply interested +in the coming events. Affecting to discharge the pleasant duty +assigned him by the king, the Lord Montagu glided from tent to tent, +inquiring courteously into the accommodation of each group, lingering, +smiling, complimenting, watching, heeding, studying, those whom he +addressed. For the first time since the Bastard's visit he had joined +in the diversions in its honour; and yet so well had Montagu played +his part at the court that he did not excite amongst the queen's +relatives any of the hostile feelings entertained towards his brother. +No man, except Hastings, was so "entirely loved" by Edward; and +Montagu, worldly as he was, and indignant against the king as he could +not fail to be, so far repaid the affection, that his chief fear at +that moment sincerely was not for Warwick but Edward. He alone of +those present was aware of the cause of Warwick's hasty return, for he +had privately despatched to him the news of the Bastard's visit, its +real object, and the inevitable success of the intrigues afloat, +unless the earl could return at once, his mission accomplished, and +the ambassadors of France in his train; and even before the courier +despatched to the king had arrived at Shene, a private hand had +conveyed to Montagu the information that Warwick, justly roused and +alarmed, had left the state procession behind at Dover, and was +hurrying, fast as relays of steeds and his own fiery spirit could bear +him, to the presence of the ungrateful king. + +Meanwhile the noon had now declined, the sport relaxed, and the sound +of the trumpet from the king's pavilion proclaimed that the lazy +pastime was to give place to the luxurious banquet. + +At this moment, Montagu approached a tent remote from the royal +pavilions, and, as his noiseless footstep crushed the grass, he heard +the sound of voices in which there was little in unison with the +worldly thoughts that filled his breast. + +"Nay, sweet mistress, nay," said a young man's voice, earnest with +emotion, "do not misthink me, do not deem me bold and overweening. I +have sought to smother my love, and to rate it, and bring pride to my +aid, but in vain; and, now, whether you will scorn my suit or not, I +remember, Sibyll--O Sibyll! I remember the days when we conversed +together; and as a brother, if nothing else--nothing dearer--I pray +you to pause well, and consider what manner of man this Lord Hastings +is said to be!" + +"Master Nevile, is this generous? Why afflict me thus; why couple my +name with so great a lord's?" + +"Because--beware--the young gallants already so couple it, and their +prophecies are not to thine honour, Sibyll. Nay, do not frown on me. +I know thou art fair and winsome, and deftly gifted, and thy father +may, for aught I know, be able to coin thee a queen's dower out of his +awsome engines. But Hastings will not wed thee, and his wooing, +therefore, but stains thy fair repute; while I--" + +"You!" said Montagu, entering suddenly--"you, kinsman, may look to +higher fortunes than the Duchess of Bedford's waiting-damsel can bring +to thy honest love. How now, mistress, say, wilt thou take this young +gentleman for loving fere and plighted spouse? If so, he shall give +thee a manor for jointure, and thou shalt wear velvet robe and gold +chain, as a knight's wife." + +This unexpected interference, which was perfectly in character with +the great lords, who frequently wooed in very peremptory tones for +their clients and kinsmen, [See, in Miss Strickland's "Life of +Elizabeth Woodville," the curious letters which the Duke of York and +the Earl of Warwick addressed to her, then a simple maiden, in favour +of their protege, Sir R. Johnes.] completed the displeasure which the +blunt Marmaduke had already called forth in Sibyll's gentle but proud +nature. "Speak, maiden,--ay or no?" continued Montagu, surprised and +angered at the haughty silence of one whom he just knew by sight and +name, though he had never before addressed her. + +"No, my lord," answered Sibyll, keeping down her indignation at this +tone, though it burned in her cheek, flashed in her eye, and swelled +in the heave of her breast. "No! and your kinsman might have spared +this affront to one whom--but it matters not." She swept from the +tent as she said this, and passed up the alley into that of the +queen's mother. + +"Best so; thou art too young for marriage, Marmaduke," said Montagu, +coldly. "We will find thee a richer bride ere long. There is Mary of +Winstown, the archbishop's ward, with two castles and seven knight's +fees." + +"But so marvellously ill-featured, my lord," said poor Marmaduke, +sighing. + +Montagu looked at him in surprise. "Wives, sir," he said, "are not +made to look at,--unless, indeed, they be the wives of other men. But +dismiss these follies for the nonce. Back to thy post by the king's +pavilion; and by the way ask Lord Fauconberg and Aymer Nevile, whom +thou wilt pass by yonder arbour, ask them, in my name, to be near the +pavilion while the king banquets. A word in thine ear,--ere yon sun +gilds the top of those green oaks, the Earl of Warwick will be with +Edward IV.; and come what may, some brave hearts should be by to +welcome him. Go!" + +Without tarrying for an answer, Montagu turned into one of the tents, +wherein Raoul de Fulke and the Lord St. John, heedless of hind and +hart, conferred; and Marmaduke, much bewildered, and bitterly wroth +with Sibyll, went his way. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +THE GREAT ACTOR RETURNS TO FILL THE STAGE. + +And now in various groups these summer foresters were at rest in their +afternoon banquet,--some lying on the smooth sward around the lake, +some in the tents, some again in the arbours; here and there the forms +of dame and cavalier might be seen, stealing apart from the rest, and +gliding down the alleys till lost in the shade, for under that reign +gallantry was universal. Before the king's pavilion a band of those +merry jongleurs, into whom the ancient and honoured minstrels were +fast degenerating, stood waiting for the signal to commence their +sports, and listening to the laughter that came in frequent peals from +the royal tent. Within feasted Edward, the Count de la Roche, the +Lord Rivers; while in a larger and more splendid pavilion at some +little distance, the queen, her mother, and the great dames of the +court held their own slighter and less noisy repast. + +"And here, then," said Edward, as he put his lips to a gold goblet, +wrought with gems, and passed it to Anthony the Bastard,--"here, +count, we take the first wassail to the loves of Charolois and +Margaret!" + +The count drained the goblet, and the wine gave him new fire. + +"And with those loves, king," said he, "we bind forever Burgundy and +England. Woe to France!" + +"Ay, woe to France!" exclaimed Edward, his face lighting up with that +martial joy which it ever took at the thoughts of war,--"for we will +wrench her lands from this huckster Louis. By Heaven! I shall not +rest in peace till York hath regained what Lancaster hath lost! and +out of the parings of the realm which I will add to England thy +brother of Burgundy shall have eno' to change his duke's diadem for a +king's. How now, Rivers? Thou gloomest, father mine." + +"My liege," said Rivers, wakening himself, "I did but think that if +the Earl of Warwick--" + +"Ah, I had forgotten," interrupted Edward; "and, sooth to say, Count +Anthony, I think if the earl were by, he would not much mend our boon- +fellowship!" + +"Yet a good subject," said De la Roche, sneeringly, "usually dresses +his face by that of his king." + +"A subject! Ay, but Warwick is much such a subject to England as +William of Normandy or Duke Rollo was to France. Howbeit, let him +come,--our realm is at peace, we want no more his battle-axe; and in +our new designs on France, thy brother, bold count, is an ally that +might compensate for a greater loss than a sullen minister. Let him +come!" + +As the king spoke, there was heard gently upon the smooth turf the +sound of the hoofs of steeds. A moment more, and from the outskirts +of the scene of revel, where the king's guards were stationed, there +arose a long, loud shout. Nearer and nearer came the hoofs of the +steeds; they paused. Doubtless Richard of Gloucester by that shout! +"The soldiers love that brave boy," said the king. + +Marmaduke Nevile, as gentleman in waiting, drew aside the curtain of +the pavilion; and as he uttered a name that paled the cheeks of all +who heard, the Earl of Warwick entered the royal presence. + +The earl's dress was disordered and soiled by travel; the black plume +on his cap was broken, and hung darkly over his face; his horseman's +boots, coming half way up the thigh, were sullied with the dust of the +journey; and yet as he entered, before the majesty of his mien, the +grandeur of his stature, suddenly De Roche, Rivers, even the gorgeous +Edward himself, seemed dwarfed into common men! About the man--his +air, his eye, his form, his attitude--there was THAT which, in the +earlier times, made kings by the acclamation of the crowd,--an +unmistakable sovereignty, as of one whom Nature herself had shaped and +stamped for power and for rule. All three had risen as he entered; +and to a deep silence succeeded an exclamation from Edward, and then +again all was still. + +The earl stood a second or two calmly gazing on the effect he had +produced; and turning his dark eye from one to the other, till it +rested full upon De la Roche, who, after vainly striving not to quail +beneath the gaze, finally smiled with affected disdain, and, resting +his hand on his dagger, sank back into his seat. + +"My liege," then said Warwick, doffing his cap, and approaching the +king with slow and grave respect, "I crave pardon for presenting +myself to your Highness thus travel-worn and disordered; but I +announce that news which insures my welcome. The solemn embassy of +trust committed to me by your Grace has prospered with God's blessing; +and the Fils de Bourbon and the Archbishop of Narbonne are on their +way to your metropolis. Alliance between the two great monarchies of +Europe is concluded on terms that insure the weal of England and +augment the lustre of your crown. Your claims on Normandy and Guienne +King Louis consents to submit to the arbitrement of the Roman Pontiff, +[The Pope, moreover, was to be engaged to decide the question within +four years. A more brilliant treaty for England, Edward's ambassador +could not have effected.] and to pay to your treasury annual tribute; +these advantages, greater than your Highness even empowered me to +demand, thus obtained, the royal brother of your new ally joyfully +awaits the hand of the Lady Margaret." + +"Cousin," said Edward, who had thoroughly recovered himself, motioning +the earl to a seat, "you are ever welcome, no matter what your news; +but I marvel much that so deft a statesman should broach these matters +of council in the unseasonable hour and before the gay comrades of a +revel." + +"I speak, sire," said Warwick, calmly, though the veins in his +forehead swelled, and his dark countenance was much flushed--"I speak +openly of that which hath been done nobly; and this truth has ceased +to be matter of council, since the meanest citizen who has ears and +eyes ere this must know for what purpose the ambassadors of King Louis +arrive in England with your Highness's representative." + +Edward, more embarrassed at this tone than he could have foreseen, +remained silent; but De la Roche, impatient to humble his brother's +foe, and judging it also discreet to arouse the king, said +carelessly,-- + +"It were a pity, Sir Earl, that the citizens, whom you thus deem privy +to the thoughts of kings, had not prevised the Archbishop of Narbonne +that if he desire to see a fairer show than even the palaces of +Westminster and the Tower, he will hasten back to behold the banners +of Burgundy and England waving from the spires of Notre Dame." + +Ere the Bastard had concluded, Rivers, leaning back, whispered the +king, "For Christ's sake, sire, select some fitter scene for what must +follow! Silence your guest!" + +But Edward, on the contrary, pleased to think that De la Roche was +breaking the ice, and hopeful that some burst from Warwick would give +him more excuse than he felt at present for a rupture, said sternly, +"Hush, my lord, and meddle not!" + +"Unless I mistake," said Warwick, coldly, "he who now accosts me is +the Count de la Roche,--a foreigner." + +"And the brother of the heir of Burgundy," interrupted De la Roche,-- +"brother to the betrothed and princely spouse of Margaret of England." + +"Doth this man lie, sire?" said Warwick, who had seated himself a +moment, and who now rose again. + +The Bastard sprung also to his feet; but Edward, waving him back, and +reassuming the external dignity which rarely forsook him, replied, +"Cousin, thy question lacketh courtesy to our noble guest: since thy +departure, reasons of state, which we will impart to thee at a meeter +season, have changed our purpose, and we will now that our sister +Margaret shall wed with the Count of Charolois." + +"And this to me, king!" exclaimed the earl; all his passions at once +released--"this to me! Nay, frown not, Edward,--I am of the race of +those who, greater than kings, have built thrones and toppled them! I +tell thee, thou hast misused mine honour, and belied thine own; thou +hast debased thyself in juggling me, delegated as the representative +of thy royalty!--Lord Rivers, stand back,--there are barriers eno' +between truth and a king!" + +"By Saint George and my father's head!" cried Edward, with a rage no +less fierce than Warwick's,--"thou abusest, false lord, my mercy and +our kindred blood. Another word, and thou leavest this pavilion for +the Tower!" + +"King," replied Warwick, scornfully, and folding his arms on his broad +breast, "there is not a hair on this head which thy whole house, thy +guards, and thine armies could dare to touch. ME to the Tower! Send +me,--and when the third sun reddens the roof of prison-house and +palace, look round broad England, and miss a throne!" + +"What, ho there!" exclaimed Edward, stamping his foot; and at that +instant the curtain of the pavilion was hastily torn aside, and +Richard of Gloucester entered, followed by Lord Hastings, the Duke of +Clarence, and Anthony Woodville. + +"Ah," continued the king, "ye come in time. George of Clarence, Lord +High Constable of England, arrest yon haughty man, who dares to menace +his liege and suzerain!" + +Gliding between Clarence, who stood dumb and thunder-stricken, and the +Earl of Warwick, Prince Richard said, in a voice which, though even +softer than usual, had in it more command over those who heard than +when it rolled in thunder along the ranks of Barnet or of Bosworth, +"Edward, my brother, remember Towton, and forbear! Warwick, my +cousin, forget not thy king nor his dead father!" + +At these last words the earl's face fell, for to that father he had +sworn to succour and defend the sons; his sense, recovering from his +pride, showed him how much his intemperate anger had thrown away his +advantages in the foul wrong he had sustained from Edward. Meanwhile +the king himself, with flashing eyes and a crest as high as Warwick's, +was about perhaps to overthrow his throne by the attempt to enforce +his threat, when Anthony Woodville, who followed Clarence, whispered +to him, "Beware, sire! a countless crowd that seem to have followed +the earl's steps have already pierced the chase, and can scarcely be +kept from the spot, so great is their desire to behold him. Beware!"-- +and Richard's quick ear catching these whispered words, the duke +suddenly backed them by again drawing aside the curtain of the tent. +Along the sward, the guard of the king, summoned from their unseen but +neighbouring post within the wood, were drawn up as if to keep back an +immense multitude,--men, women, children, who swayed and rustled and +murmured in the rear. But no sooner was the curtain drawn aside, and +the guards themselves caught sight of the royal princes and the great +earl towering amidst them, than supposing in their ignorance the scene +thus given to them was intended for their gratification, from that old +soldiery or Towton rose a loud and long "Hurrah! Warwick and the +king!"--"The king and the stout earl!" The multitude behind caught +the cry; they rushed forward, mingling with the soldiery, who no +longer sought to keep them back. + +"A Warwick! a Warwick!" they shouted. "God bless the people's +friend!" + +Edward, startled and aghast, drew sullenly into the rear of the tent. + +De la Roche grew pale; but with the promptness of a practised +statesman, he hastily advanced, and drew the curtain. "Shall +varlets," he said to Richard, in French, "gloat over the quarrels of +their lords?" + +"You are right, Sir Count," murmured Richard, meekly; his purpose was +effected, and leaning on his riding staff, he awaited what was to +ensue. + +A softer shade had fallen over the earl's face, at the proof of the +love in which his name was held; it almost seemed to his noble though +haughty and impatient nature, as if the affection of the people had +reconciled him to the ingratitude of the king. A tear started to his +proud eye; but he twinkled it away, and approaching Edward (who +remained erect, and with all a sovereign's wrath, though silent on his +lip, lowering on his brow), he said, in a tone of suppressed emotion,-- + +"Sire, it is not for me to crave pardon of living man, but the +grievous affront put upon my state and mine honour hath led my words +to an excess which my heart repents. I grieve that your Grace's +highness hath chosen this alliance; hereafter you may find at need +what faith is to be placed in Burgundy." + +"Darest thou gainsay it?" exclaimed De la Roche. + +"Interrupt me not, sir!" continued Warwick, with a disdainful gesture. +"My liege, I lay down mine offices, and I leave it to your Grace to +account as it lists you to the ambassadors of France,--I shall +vindicate myself to their king. And now, ere I depart for my hall of +Middleham, I alone here, unarmed and unattended, save at least by a +single squire, I, Richard Nevile, say, that if any man, peer or +knight, can be found to execute your Grace's threat, and arrest me, I +will obey your royal pleasure, and attend him to the Tower." +Haughtily he bowed his head as he spoke, and raising it again, gazed +around--"I await your Grace's pleasure." + +"Begone where thou wilt, earl. From this day Edward IV. reigns +alone," said the king. Warwick turned. + +"My Lord Scales," said he. "lift the curtain; nay, sir, it misdemeans +you not. You are still the son of the Woodville, I still the +descendant of John of Gaunt." + +"Not for the dead ancestor, but for the living warrior," said the Lord +Scales, lifting the curtain, and bowing with knightly grace as the +earl passed. And scarcely was Warwick in the open space than the +crowd fairly broke through all restraint, and the clamour of their joy +filled with its hateful thunders the royal tent. + +"Edward," said Richard, whisperingly, and laying his finger on his +brother's arm, "forgive me if I offended; but had you at such a time +resolved on violence--" + +"I see it all,--you were right. But is this to be endured forever?" + +"Sire," returned Richard, with his dark smile, "rest calm; for the age +is your best ally, and the age is outgrowing the steel and hauberk. A +little while, and--" + +"And what--" + +"And--ah, sire, I will answer that question when our brother George +(mark him!) either refrains from listening, or is married to Isabel +Nevile, and hath quarrel with her father about the dowry. What, he, +there!--let the jongleurs perform." + +"The jongleurs!" exclaimed the king; "why, Richard, thou hast more +levity than myself!" + +"Pardon me! Let the jongleurs perform, and bid the crowd stay. It is +by laughing at the mountebanks that your Grace can best lead the +people to forget their Warwick!" + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +HOW THE GREAT LORDS COME TO THE KING-MAKER, AND WITH WHAT PROFFERS. + +Mastering the emotions that swelled within him, Lord Warwick returned +with his wonted cheerful courtesy the welcome of the crowd and the +enthusiastic salutation of the king's guard; but as, at length, he +mounted his steed, and attended but by the squire who had followed him +from Dover, penetrated into the solitudes of the chase, the +recollection of the indignity he had suffered smote his proud heart so +sorely that he groaned aloud. His squire, fearing the fatigue he had +undergone might have affected even that iron health, rode up at the +sound of the groan, and Warwick's face was hueless as he said, with a +forced smile, "It is nothing, Walter. But these heats are oppressive, +and we have forgotten our morning draught, friend. Hark! I hear the +brawl of a rivulet, and a drink of fresh water were more grateful now +than the daintiest hippocras." So saying, he flung himself from his +steed; following the sound of the rivulet, he gained its banks, and +after quenching his thirst in the hollow of his hand, laid himself +down upon the long grass, waving coolly over the margin, and fell into +profound thought. From this revery he was aroused by a quick +footstep, and as he lifted his gloomy gaze, he beheld Marmaduke Nevile +by his side. + +"Well, young man," said he, sternly, "with what messages art thou +charged?" + +"With none, my lord earl. I await now no commands but thine." + +"Thou knowest not, poor youth, that I can serve thee no more. Go back +to the court." + +"Oh, Warwick," said Marmaduke, with simple eloquence, "send me not +from thy side! This day I have been rejected by the maid I loved. I +loved her well, and my heart chafed sorely, and bled within! but now, +methinks, it consoles me to have been so cast off,--to have no faith, +no love, but that which is best of all, to a brave man,--love and +faith for a hero-chief! Where thy fortunes, there be my humble fate, +--to rise or fall with thee!" + +Warwick looked intently upon his young kinsman's face, and said, as to +himself, "Why, this is strange! I gave no throne to this man, and he +deserts me not! My friend," he added aloud, "have they told thee +already that I am disgraced?" + +"I heard the Lord Scales say to the young Lovell that thou wert +dismissed from all thine offices; and I came hither; for I will serve +no more the king who forgets the arm and heart to which he owes a +kingdom." + +"Man, I accept thy loyalty!" exclaimed Warwick, starting to his feet; +"and know that thou hast done more to melt and yet to nerve my spirit +than--But complaints in one are idle, and praise were no reward to +thee." + +"But see, my lord, if the first to join thee, I am not the sole one. +See, brave Raoul de Fulke, the Lords of St. John, Bergavenny, and +Fitzhugh, ay, and fifty others of the best blood of England, are on +thy track." + +And as he spoke, plumes and tunics were seen gleaming up the forest +path, and in another moment a troop of knights and gentlemen, +comprising the flower of such of the ancient nobility as yet lingered +round the court, came up to Warwick, bareheaded. + +"Is it possible," cried Raoul de Fulke, "that we have heard aright, +noble earl? And has Edward IV. suffered the base Woodvilles to +triumph over the bulwark of his realm?" + +"Knights and gentles!" said Warwick, with a bitter smile, "is it so +uncommon a thing that men in peace should leave the battle-axe and +brand to rust? I am but a useless weapon, to be suspended at rest +amongst the trophies of Towton in my hall of Middleham." + +"Return with us," said the Lord of St. John, "and we will make Edward +do thee justice, or, one and all, we will abandon a court where knaves +and varlets have become mightier than English valour and nobler than +Norman birth." + +"My friends," said the earl, laying his hand on St. John's shoulder, +"not even in my just wrath will I wrong my king. He is punished eno' +in the choice he hath made. Poor Edward and poor England! What woes +and wars await ye both, from the gold and the craft and the unsparing +hate of Louis XI! No; if I leave Edward, he hath more need of you. +Of mine own free will I have resigned mine offices." + +"Warwick," interrupted Raoul de Fulke, "this deceives us not; and in +disgrace to you the ancient barons of England behold the first blow at +their own state. We have wrongs we endured in silence while thou wert +the shield and sword of yon merchant-king. We have seen the ancient +peers of England set aside for men of yesterday; we have seen our +daughters, sisters,--nay, our very mothers, if widowed and dowered,-- +forced into disreputable and base wedlock with creatures dressed in +titles, and gilded with wealth stolen from ourselves. Merchants and +artificers tread upon our knightly heels, and the avarice of trade +eats up our chivalry as a rust. We nobles, in our greater day, have +had the crown at our disposal, and William the Norman dared not think +what Edward Earl of March hath been permitted with impunity to do. +We, Sir Earl--we knights and barons--would a king simple in his +manhood and princely in his truth. Richard Earl of Warwick, thou art +of royal blood, the descendant of old John of Gaunt. In thee we +behold the true, the living likeness of the Third Edward, and the +Hero-Prince of Cressy. Speak but the word, and we make thee king!" + +The descendant of the Norman, the representative of the mighty faction +that no English monarch had ever braved in vain, looked round as he +said these last words, and a choral murmur was heard through the whole +of that august nobility, "We make thee king!" + +"Richard, descendant of the Plantagenet, [By the female side, through +Joan Beaufort, or Plantagenet, Warwick was third in descent from John +of Gaunt, as Henry VII., through the male line, was fourth in +descent.] speak the word," repeated Raoul de Fulke. + +"I speak it not," interrupted Warwick; "nor shalt thou continue, brave +Raoul de Fulke. What, my lords and gentlemen," he added, drawing +himself up, and with his countenance animated with feelings it is +scarcely possible in our times to sympathize with or make clear-- +"what! think you that Ambition limits itself to the narrow circlet of +a crown Greater, and more in the spirit of our mighty fathers, is the +condition of men like us, THE BARONS who make and unmake kings. What! +who of us would not rather descend from the chiefs of Runnymede than +from the royal craven whom they controlled and chid? By Heaven, my +lords, Richard Nevile has too proud a soul to be a king! A king--a +puppet of state and form; a king--a holiday show for the crowd, to +hiss or hurrah, as the humour seizes; a king--a beggar to the nation, +wrangling with his parliament for gold! A king!--Richard II. was a +king, and Lancaster dethroned him. Ye would debase me to a Henry of +Lancaster. Mort Dieu! I thank ye. The Commons and the Lords raised +him, forsooth,--for what? To hold him as the creature they had made, +to rate him, to chafe him, to pry into his very household, and quarrel +with his wife's chamberlains and lavourers. [Laundresses. The +parliamentary rolls, in the reign of Henry IV., abound in curious +specimens of the interference of the Commons with the household of +Henry's wife, Queen Joan.] What! dear Raoul de Fulke, is thy friend +fallen now so low, that he--Earl of Salisbury and of Warwick, chief of +the threefold race of Montagu, Monthermer, and Nevile, lord of a +hundred baronies, leader of sixty thousand followers--is not greater +than Edward of March, to whom we will deign still, with your +permission, to vouchsafe the name and pageant of a king?" + +This extraordinary address, strange to say, so thoroughly expressed +the peculiar pride of the old barons, that when it ceased a sound of +admiration and applause circled through that haughty audience, and +Raoul de Fulke, kneeling suddenly, kissed the earl's hand. "Oh, noble +earl," he said, "ever live as one of us, to maintain our order, and +teach kings and nations what WE are." + +"Fear it not, Raoul! fear it not,--we will have our rights yet. +Return, I beseech ye. Let me feel I have such friends about the king. +Even at Middleham my eye shall watch over our common cause; and till +seven feet of earth suffice him, your brother baron, Richard Nevile, +is not a man whom kings and courts can forget, much less dishonour. +Sirs, our honour is in our bosoms,--and there is the only throne +armies cannot shake, nor cozeners undermine." + +With these words he gently waved his hand, motioned to his squire, who +stood out of hearing with the steeds, to approach, and mounting, +gravely rode on. Ere he had got many paces, he called to Marmaduke, +who was on foot, and bade him follow him to London that night. "I +have strange tidings to tell the French envoys, and for England's sake +I must soothe their anger, if I can,--then to Middleham." + +The nobles returned slowly to the pavilions. And as they gained the +open space, where the gaudy tents still shone against the setting sun, +they beheld the mob of that day, whom Shakspeare hath painted with +such contempt, gathering, laughing and loud, around the mountebank and +the conjurer, who had already replaced in their thoughts (as +Gloucester had foreseen) the hero-idol of their worship. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST OF THE BARONS, V4 *** + +***** This file should be named 7718.txt or 7718.zip ****** + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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