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diff --git a/7725.txt b/7725.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eee6c75 --- /dev/null +++ b/7725.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1816 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook Last Of The Barons, by Lytton, Volume 11. +#152 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 11. + +Author: Edward Bulwer-Lytton + +Release Date: March 2005 [EBook #7725] +[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, V11 *** + + +This eBook was produced by Tapio Riikonen +and David Widger + + + + + +BOOK XI. + +THE NEW POSITION OF THE KING-MAKER + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +WHEREIN MASTER ADAM WARNER IS NOTABLY COMMENDED AND ADVANCED--AND +GREATNESS SAYS TO WISDOM, "THY DESTINY BE MINE, AMEN." + +The Chronicles inform us, that two or three days after the entrance of +Warwick and Clarence,--namely, on the 6th of October,--those two +leaders, accompanied by the Lords Shrewsbury, Stanley, and a numerous +and noble train, visited the Tower in formal state, and escorted the +king, robed in blue velvet, the crown on his head, to public +thanksgivings at St. Paul's, and thence to the Bishop's Palace, [not +to the Palace at Westminster, as some historians, preferring the +French to the English authorities, have asserted,--that palace was out +of repair] where he continued chiefly to reside. + +The proclamation that announced the change of dynasty was received +with apparent acquiescence through the length and breadth of the +kingdom, and the restoration of the Lancastrian line seemed yet the +more firm and solid by the magnanimous forbearance of Warwick and his +councils. Not one execution that could be termed the act of a private +revenge stained with blood the second reign of the peaceful Henry. +One only head fell on the scaffold,--that of the Earl of Worcester. +[Lord Warwick himself did not sit in judgment on Worcester. He was +tried and condemned by Lord Oxford. Though some old offences in his +Irish government were alleged against him, the cruelties which +rendered him so odious were of recent date. He had (as we before took +occasion to relate) impaled twenty persons after Warwick's flight into +France. The "Warkworth Chronicle" says, "He was ever afterwardes +greatly behated among the people for this disordynate dethe that he +used, contrary to the laws of the lande."] This solitary execution, +which was regarded by all classes as a due concession to justice, only +yet more illustrated the general mildness of the new rule. + +It was in the earliest days of this sudden restoration that Alwyn +found the occasion to serve his friends in the Tower. Warwick was +eager to conciliate all the citizens, who, whether frankly or +grudgingly, had supported his cause; and, amongst these, he was soon +informed of the part taken in the Guildhall by the rising goldsmith. +He sent for Alwyn to his house in Warwick-lane, and after +complimenting him on his advance in life and repute, since Nicholas +had waited on him with baubles for his embassy to France, he offered +him the special rank of goldsmith to the king. + +The wary, yet honest, trader paused a moment in some embarrassment +before he answered,-- + +"My good lord, you are noble and gracious eno' to understand and +forgive me when I say that I have had, in the upstart of my fortunes, +the countenance of the late King Edward and his queen; and though the +public weal made me advise my fellow-citizens not to resist your +entry, I would not, at least, have it said that my desertion had +benefited my private fortunes." + +Warwick coloured, and his lip curled. "Tush, man, assume not virtues +which do not exist amongst the sons of trade, nor, much I trow, +amongst the sons of Adam. I read thy mind. Thou thinkest it unsafe +openly to commit thyself to the new state. Fear not,--we are firm." + +"Nay, my lord," returned Alwyn, "it is not so. But there are many +better citizens than I, who remember that the Yorkists were ever +friends to commerce. And you will find that only by great tenderness +to our crafts you can win the heart of London, though you have passed +its gates." + +"I shall be just to all men," answered the earl, dryly; "but if the +flat-caps are false, there are eno' of bonnets of steel to watch over +the Red Rose!" + +"You are said, my lord," returned Alwyn, bluntly, "to love the barons, +the knights, the gentry, the yeomen, and the peasants, but to despise +the traders,--I fear me that report in this is true." + +"I love not the trader spirit, man,--the spirit that cheats, and +cringes, and haggles, and splits straws for pence, and roasts eggs by +other men's blazing rafters. Edward of York, forsooth, was a great +trader! It was a sorry hour for England when such as ye, Nick Alwyn, +left your green villages for loom and booth. But thus far have I +spoken to you as a brave fellow, and of the north countree. I have no +time to waste on words. Wilt thou accept mine offer, or name another +boon in my power? The man who hath served me wrongs me,--till I have +served him again!" + +"My lord, yes; I will name such a boon,--safety, and, if you will, +some grace and honour, to a learned scholar now in the Tower, one Adam +Warner, whom--" + +"Now in the Tower! Adam Warner! And wanting a friend, I no more an +exile! That is my affair, not thine. Grace, honour,--ay, to his +heart's content. And his noble daughter? Mort Dieu! she shall choose +her bridegroom among the best of England. Is she, too, in the +fortress?" + +"Yes," said Alwyn, briefly, not liking the last part of the earl's +speech. + +The earl rang the bell on his table. "Send hither Sir Marmaduke +Nevile." + +Alwyn saw his former rival enter, and heard the earl commission him to +accompany, with a fitting train, his own litter to the Tower. "And +you, Alwyn, go with your foster-brother, and pray Master Warner and +his daughter to be my guests for their own pleasure. Come hither, my +rude Northman,--come. I see I shall have many secret foes in this +city: wilt not thou at least be Warwick's open friend?" + +Alwyn found it hard to resist the charm of the earl's manner and +voice; but, convinced in his own mind that the age was against +Warwick, and that commerce and London would be little advantaged by +the earl's rule, the trading spirit prevailed in his breast. + +"Gracious my lord," he said, bending his knee in no servile homage, +"he who befriends my order, commands me." + +The proud noble bit his lip, and with a silent wave of his hand +dismissed the foster-brothers. + +"Thou art but a churl at best, Nick," said Marmaduke, as the door +closed on the young men. "Many a baron would have sold his father's +hall for such words from the earl's lip." + +"Let barons sell their free conduct for fair words. I keep myself +unshackled to join that cause which best fills the market and reforms +the law. But tell me, I pray thee, Sir Knight, what makes Warner and +his daughter so dear to your lord?" + +"What! know you not?--and has she not told you?--Ah, what was I about +to say?" + +"Can there be a secret between the earl and the scholar?" asked Alwyn, +in wonder. + +"If there be, it is our place to respect it," returned the Nevile, +adjusting his manteline; "and now we must command the litter." + +In spite of all the more urgent and harassing affairs that pressed +upon him, the earl found an early time to attend to his guests. His +welcome to Sibyll was more than courteous,--it was paternal. As she +approached him, timidly and with a downcast eye, he advanced, placed +his hand upon her head,-- + +"The Holy Mother ever have thee in her charge, child!--This is a +father's kiss, young mistress," added the earl, pressing his lips to +her forehead; "and in this kiss, remember that I pledge to thee care +for thy fortunes, honour for thy name, my heart to do thee service, my +arm to shield from wrong! Brave scholar, thy lot has become +interwoven with my own. Prosperous is now my destiny,--my destiny be +thine! Amen!" + +He turned then to Warner, and without further reference to a past +which so galled his proud spirit, he made the scholar explain to him +the nature of his labours. In the mind of every man who has passed +much of his life in successful action, there is a certain, if we may +so say, untaught mathesis,--but especially among those who have been +bred to the art of war. A great soldier is a great mechanic, a great +mathematician, though he may know it not; and Warwick, therefore, +better than many a scholar comprehended the principle upon which Adam +founded his experiments. But though he caught also a glimpse of the +vast results which such experiments in themselves were calculated to +effect, his strong common-sense perceived yet more clearly that the +time was not ripe for such startling inventions. + +"My friend," he said, "I comprehend thee passably. It is clear to me, +that if thou canst succeed in making the elements do the work of man +with equal precision, but with far greater force and rapidity, thou +must multiply eventually, and, by multiplying, cheapen, all the +products of industry; that thou must give to this country the market +of the world; and that thine would be the true alchemy that turneth +all to gold." + +"Mighty intellect, thou graspest the truth!" exclaimed Adam. + +"But," pursued the earl, with a mixture of prejudice and judgment, +"grant thee success to the full, and thou wouldst turn this bold land +of yeomanry and manhood into one community of griping traders and +sickly artisans. Mort Dieu! we are over-commerced as it is,--the bow +is already deserted for the ell-measure. The town populations are +ever the most worthless in war. England is begirt with mailed foes; +and if by one process she were to accumulate treasure and lose +soldiers, she would but tempt invasion and emasculate defenders. +Verily, I avise and implore thee to turn thy wit and scholarship to a +manlier occupation!" + +"My life knows no other object; kill my labour and thou destroyest +me," said Adam, in a voice of gloomy despair. Alas, it seemed that, +whatever the changes of power, no change could better the hopes of +science in an age of iron! Warwick was moved. "Well," he said, after +a pause, "be happy in thine own way. I will do my best at least to +protect thee. To-morrow resume thy labours; but this day, at least, +thou must feast with me." + +And at his banquet that day, among the knights and barons, and the +abbots and the warriors, Adam sat on the dais near the earl, and +Sibyll at "the mess" of the ladies of the Duchess of Clarence. And +ere the feast broke up, Warwick thus addressed his company:-- + +"My friends, though I, and most of us reared in the lap of war, have +little other clerkship than sufficed our bold fathers before us, yet +in the free towns of Italy and the Rhine,--yea, and in France, under +her politic king,--we may see that a day is dawning wherein new +knowledge will teach many marvels to our wiser sons. Wherefore it is +good that a State should foster men who devote laborious nights and +weary days to the advancement of arts and letters, for the glory of +our common land. A worthy gentleman, now at this board, hath deeply +meditated contrivances which may make our English artisans excel the +Flemish loons, who now fatten upon our industry to the impoverishment +of the realm. And, above all, he also purposes to complete an +invention which may render our ship-craft the most notable in Europe. +Of this I say no more at present; but I commend our guest, Master Adam +Warner, to your good service, and pray you especially, worshipful sirs +of the Church now present, to shield his good name from that charge +which most paineth and endangereth honest men. For ye wot well that +the commons, from ignorance, would impute all to witchcraft that +passeth their understanding. Not," added the earl, crossing himself, +"that witchcraft does not horribly infect the land, and hath been +largely practised by Jacquetta of Bedford, and her confederates, +Bungey and others. But our cause needeth no such aid; and all that +Master Warner purposes is in behalf of the people, and in conformity +with Holy Church. So this wassail to his health and House." + +This characteristic address being received with respect, though with +less applause than usually greeted the speeches of the great earl, +Warwick added, in a softer and more earnest tone, "And in the fair +demoiselle, his daughter, I pray you to acknowledge the dear friend of +my beloved lady and child, Anne, Princess of Wales; and for the sake +of her highness and in her name, I arrogate to myself a share with +Master Warner in this young donzell's guardianship and charge. Know +ye, my gallant gentles and fair squires, that he who can succeed in +achieving, either by leal love or by bold deeds, as best befit a +wooer, the grace of my young ward, shall claim from my hands a +knight's fee, with as much of my best land as a bull's hide can cover; +and when heaven shall grant safe passage to the Princess Anne and her +noble spouse, we will hold at Smithfield a tourney in honor of Saint +George and our ladies, wherein, pardie, I myself would be sorely +tempted to provoke my jealous countess, and break a lance for the fame +of the demoiselle whose fair face is married to a noble heart." + +That evening, in the galliard, many an admiring eye turned to Sibyll, +and many a young gallant, recalling the earl's words, sighed to win +her grace. There had been a time when such honour and such homage +would have, indeed, been welcome; but now ONE saw them not, and they +were valueless. All that, in her earlier girlhood, Sibyll's ambition +had coveted, when musing on the brilliant world, seemed now well-nigh +fulfilled,--her father protected by the first noble of the land, and +that not with the degrading condescension of the Duchess of Bedford, +but as Power alone should protect Genius, honoured while it honours; +her gentle birth recognized; her position elevated; fair fortunes +smiling after such rude trials; and all won without servility or +abasement. But her ambition having once exhausted itself in a diviner +passion, all excitement seemed poor and spiritless compared to the +lonely waiting at the humble farm for the voice and step of Hastings. +Nay, but for her father's sake, she could almost have loathed the +pleasure and the pomp, and the admiration and the homage, which seemed +to insult the reverses of the wandering exile. + +The earl had designed to place Sibyll among Isabel's ladies, but the +haughty air of the duchess chilled the poor girl; and pleading the +excuse that her father's health required her constant attendance, she +prayed permission to rest with Warner wherever he might be lodged. +Adam himself, now that the Duchess of Bedford and Friar Bungey were no +longer in the Tower, entreated permission to return to the place where +he had worked the most successfully upon the beloved Eureka; and, as +the Tower seemed a safer residence than any private home could be, +from popular prejudice and assault, Warwick kindly offered apartments, +far more commodious than they had yet occupied, to be appropriated to +the father and daughter. Several attendants were assigned to them, +and never was man of letters or science more honoured now than the +poor scholar who, till then, had been so persecuted and despised. + +Who shall tell Adam's serene delight? Alchemy and astrology at rest, +no imperious duchess, no hateful Bungey, his free mind left to its +congenial labours! And Sibyll, when they met, strove to wear a +cheerful brow, praying him only never to speak to her of Hastings. +The good old man, relapsing into his wonted mechanical existence, +hoped she had forgotten a girl's evanescent fancy. + +But the peculiar distinction showed by the earl to Warner confirmed +the reports circulated by Bungey,--"that he was, indeed, a fearful +nigromancer, who had much helped the earl in his emprise." The earl's +address to his guests in behalf both of Warner and Sibyll, the high +state accorded to the student, reached even the Sanctuary; for the +fugitives there easily contrived to learn all the gossip of the city. +Judge of the effect the tale produced upon the envious Bungey! judge +of the representations it enabled him to make to the credulous +duchess! It was clear now to Jacquetta as the sun in noonday that +Warwick rewarded the evil-predicting astrologer for much dark and +secret service, which Bungey, had she listened to him, might have +frustrated; and she promised the friar that, if ever again she had the +power, Warner and the Eureka should be placed at his sole mercy and +discretion. + +The friar himself, however, growing very weary of the dulness of the +Sanctuary, and covetous of the advantages enjoyed by Adam, began to +meditate acquiescence in the fashion of the day, and a transfer of his +allegiance to the party in power. Emboldened by the clemency of the +victors, learning that no rewards for his own apprehension had been +offered, hoping that the stout earl would forget or forgive the old +offence of the waxen effigies, and aware of the comparative security +his friar's gown and cowl afforded him, he resolved one day to venture +forth from his retreat. He even flattered himself that he could +cajole Adam--whom he really believed the possessor of some high and +weird secrets, but whom otherwise he despised as a very weak creature +--into forgiving his past brutalities, and soliciting the earl to take +him into favour. + +At dusk, then, and by the aid of one of the subalterns of the Tower, +whom he had formerly made his friend, the friar got admittance into +Warner's chamber. Now it so chanced that Adam, having his own +superstitions, had lately taken it into his head that all the various +disasters which had befallen the Eureka, together with all the little +blemishes and defects that yet marred its construction, were owing to +the want of the diamond bathed in the mystic moonbeams, which his +German authority had long so emphatically prescribed; and now that a +monthly stipend far exceeding his wants was at his disposal, and that +it became him to do all possible honour to the earl's patronage, he +resolved that the diamond should be no longer absent from the +operations it was to influence. He obtained one of passable size and +sparkle, exposed it the due number of nights to the new moon, and had +already prepared its place in the Eureka, and was contemplating it +with solemn joy, when Bungey entered. + +"Mighty brother," said the friar, bowing to the ground, "be merciful +as thou art strong! Verily thou hast proved thyself the magician, and +I but a poor wretch in comparison,--for lo! thou art rich and +honoured, and I poor and proscribed. Deign to forgive thine enemy, +and take him as thy slave by right of conquest. Oh, Cogsbones! oh, +Gemini! what a jewel thou hast got!" + +"Depart! thou disturbest me," said Adam, oblivious, in his absorption, +of the exact reasons for his repugnance, but feeling indistinctly that +something very loathsome and hateful was at his elbow; and, as he +spoke, he fitted the diamond into its socket. + +"What! a jewel, a diamond--in the--in the--in the--MECHANICAL!" +faltered the friar, in profound astonishment, his mouth watering at +the sight. If the Eureka were to be envied before, how much more +enviable now. "If ever I get thee again, O ugly talisman," he +muttered to himself, "I shall know where to look for something better +than a pot to boil eggs." + +"Depart, I say!" repeated Adam, turning round at last, and shuddering +as he now clearly recognized the friar, and recalled his malignity. +"Darest thou molest me still?" + +The friar abjectly fell on his knees, and, after a long exordium of +penitent excuses, entreated the scholar to intercede in his favour +with the earl. + +"I want not all thy honours and advancement, great Adam, I want only +to serve thee, trim thy furnace, and hand thee thy tools, and work out +my apprenticeship under thee, master. As for the earl, he will listen +to thee, I know, if thou tellest him that I had the trust of his foe, +the duchess; that I can give him all her closest secrets; that I--" + +"Avaunt! Thou art worse than I deemed thee, wretch! Cruel and +ignorant I knew thee,--and now mean and perfidious! I work with thee! +I commend to the earl a living disgrace to the name of scholar! +Never! If thou wantest bread and alms, those I can give, as a +Christian gives to want; but trust and honour, and learned repute and +noble toils, those are not for the impostor and the traitor. There, +there, there!" And he ran to the closet, took out a handful of small +coins, thrust them into the friar's hands, and, pushing him to the +door, called to the servants to see his visitor to the gates. The +friar turned round with a scowl. He did not dare to utter a threat, +but he vowed a vow in his soul, and went his way. + +It chanced, some days after this, that Adam, in one of his musing +rambles about the precincts of the Tower, which (since it was not then +inhabited as a palace) was all free to his rare and desultory +wanderings, came by some workmen employed in repairing a bombard; and +as whatever was of mechanical art always woke his interest, he paused, +and pointed out to them a very simple improvement which would +necessarily tend to make the balls go farther and more direct to their +object. The principal workman, struck with his remarks, ran to one of +the officers of the Tower; the officer came to listen to the learned +man, and then went to the earl of Warwick to declare that Master +Warner had the most wonderful comprehension of military mechanism. +The earl sent for Warner, seized at once upon the very simple truth he +suggested as to the proper width of the bore, and holding him in +higher esteem than he had ever done before, placed some new cannon he +was constructing under his superintendence. As this care occupied but +little of his time, Warner was glad to show gratitude to the earl, +looking upon the destructive engines as mechanical contrivances, and +wholly unconscious of the new terror he gave to his name. + +Soon did the indignant and conscience-stricken Duchess of Bedford +hear, in the Sanctuary, that the fell wizard she had saved from the +clutches of Bungey was preparing the most dreadful, infallible, and +murtherous instruments of war against the possible return of her son- +in-law! + +Leaving Adam to his dreams, and his toils, and his horrible +reputation, we return to the world upon the surface,--the Life of +Action. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE PROSPERITY OF THE OUTER SHOW--THE CARES OF THE INNER MAN. + +The position of the king-maker was, to a superficial observer, such as +might gratify to the utmost the ambition and the pride of man. He had +driven from the land one of the most gorgeous princes and one of the +boldest warriors that ever sat upon a throne. He had changed a +dynasty without a blow. In the alliances of his daughters, whatever +chanced, it seemed certain that by one or the other his posterity +would be the kings of England. + +The easiness of his victory appeared to prove of itself that the +hearts of the people were with him; and the parliament that he +hastened to summon confirmed by law the revolution achieved by a +bloodless sword. [Lingard, Hume, etc.] + +Nor was there aught abroad which menaced disturbance to the peace at +home. Letters from the Countess of Warwick and Lady Anne announced +their triumphant entry at Paris, where Margaret of Anjou was received +with honours never before rendered but to a queen of France. + +A solemn embassy, meanwhile, was preparing to proceed from Paris to +London to congratulate Henry, and establish a permanent treaty of +peace and commerce, [Rymer, xi., 682-690] while Charles of Burgundy +himself (the only ally left to Edward) supplicated for the continuance +of amicable relations with England, stating that they were formed with +the country, not with any special person who might wear the crown; +[Hume, Comines] and forbade his subjects by proclamation to join any +enterprise for the recovery of his throne which Edward might attempt. + +The conduct of Warwick, whom the parliament had declared, conjointly +with Clarence, protector of the realm during the minority of the +Prince of Wales, was worthy of the triumph he had obtained. He +exhibited now a greater genius for government than he had yet +displayed; for all his passions were nerved to the utmost, to +consummate his victory and sharpen his faculties. He united mildness +towards the defeated faction with a firmness which repelled all +attempt at insurrection. [Habington.] + +In contrast to the splendour that surrounded his daughter Anne, all +accounts spoke of the humiliation to which Charles subjected the +exiled king; and in the Sanctuary, amidst homicides and felons, the +wife of the earl's defeated foe gave birth to a male child, baptized +and christened (says the chronicler) "as the son of a common man." +For the Avenger and his children were regal authority and gorgeous +pomp, for the fugitive and his offspring were the bread of the exile, +or the refuge of the outlaw. + +But still the earl's prosperity was hollow, the statue of brass stood +on limbs of clay. The position of a man with the name of subject, but +the authority of king, was an unpopular anomaly in England. In the +principal trading-towns had been long growing up that animosity +towards the aristocracy of which Henry VII. availed himself to raise a +despotism (and which, even in our day, causes the main disputes of +faction); but the recent revolution was one in which the towns had had +no share. It was a revolution made by the representative of the +barons and his followers. It was connected with no advancement of the +middle class; it seemed to the men of commerce but the violence of a +turbulent and disappointed nobility. The very name given to Warwick's +supporters was unpopular in the towns. They were not called the +Lancastrians, or the friends of King Henry,--they were styled then, +and still are so, by the old chronicler, "The Lord's Party." Most of +whatever was still feudal--the haughtiest of the magnates, the rudest +of the yeomanry, the most warlike of the knights--gave to Warwick the +sanction of their allegiance; and this sanction was displeasing to the +intelligence of the towns. + +Classes in all times have a keen instinct of their own class- +interests. The revolution which the earl had effected was the triumph +of aristocracy; its natural results would tend to strengthen certainly +the moral, and probably the constitutional, power already possessed by +that martial order. The new parliament was their creature, Henry VI. +was a cipher, his son a boy with unknown character, and according to +vulgar scandal, of doubtful legitimacy, seemingly bound hand and foot +in the trammels of the archbaron's mighty House; the earl himself had +never scrupled to evince a distaste to the change in society which was +slowly converting an agricultural into a trading population. + +It may be observed, too, that a middle class as rarely unites itself +with the idols of the populace as with the chiefs of a seignorie. +The brute attachment of the peasants and the mobs to the gorgeous and +lavish earl seemed to the burgesses the sign of a barbaric clanship, +opposed to that advance in civilization towards which they half +unconsciously struggled. + +And here we must rapidly glance at what, as far as a statesman may +foresee, would have been the probable result of Warwick's ascendancy, +if durable and effectual. If attached, by prejudice and birth, to the +aristocracy, he was yet by reputation and habit attached also to the +popular party,--that party more popular than the middle class,--the +majority, the masses. His whole life had been one struggle against +despotism in the crown. Though far from entertaining such schemes as +in similar circumstances might have occurred to the deep sagacity of +an Italian patrician for the interest of his order, no doubt his +policy would have tended to this one aim,--the limitation of the +monarchy by the strength of an aristocracy endeared to the +agricultural population, owing to that population its own powers of +defence, with the wants and grievances of that population thoroughly +familiar, and willing to satisfy the one and redress the other: in +short, the great baron would have secured and promoted liberty +according to the notions of a seigneur and a Norman, by making the +king but the first nobleman of the realm. Had the policy lasted long +enough to succeed, the subsequent despotism, which changed a limited +into an absolute monarchy under the Tudors, would have been prevented, +with all the sanguinary reaction in which the Stuarts were the +sufferers. The earl's family, and his own "large father-like heart," +had ever been opposed to religious persecution; and timely toleration +to the Lollards might have prevented the long-delayed revenge of their +posterity, the Puritans. Gradually, perhaps, might the system he +represented (of the whole consequences of which he was unconscious) +have changed monarchic into aristocratic government, resting, however, +upon broad and popular institutions; but no doubt, also, the middle, +or rather the commercial class, with all the blessings that attend +their power, would have risen much more slowly than when made as they +were already, partially under Edward IV., and more systematically +under Henry VIL, the instrument for destroying feudal aristocracy, and +thereby establishing for a long and fearful interval the arbitrary +rule of the single tyrant. Warwick's dislike to the commercial biases +of Edward was, in fact, not a patrician prejudice alone. It required +no great sagacity to perceive that Edward had designed to raise up a +class that, though powerful when employed against the barons, would +long be impotent against the encroachments of the crown; and the earl +viewed that class not only as foes to his own order, but as tools for +the destruction of the ancient liberties. + +Without presuming to decide which policy, upon the whole, would have +been the happier for England,--the one that based a despotism on the +middle class, or the one that founded an aristocracy upon popular +affection,--it was clear to the more enlightened burgesses of the +great towns, that between Edward of York and the Earl of Warwick a +vast principle was at stake, and the commercial king seemed to them a +more natural ally than the feudal baron; and equally clear it is to +us, now, that the true spirit of the age fought for the false Edward, +and against the honest earl. + +Warwick did not, however, apprehend any serious results from the +passive distaste of the trading towns. His martial spirit led him to +despise the least martial part of the population. He knew that the +towns would not rise in arms so long as their charters were respected; +and that slow, undermining hostility which exists only in opinion, his +intellect, so vigorous in immediate dangers, was not far-sighted +enough to comprehend. More direct cause for apprehension would there +have been to a suspicious mind in the demeanour of the earl's +colleague in the Protectorate,--the Duke of Clarence. It was +obviously Warwick's policy to satisfy this weak but ambitious person. +The duke was, as before agreed, declared heir to the vast possessions +of the House of York. He was invested with the Lieutenancy of +Ireland, but delayed his departure to his government till the arrival +of the Prince of Wales. The personal honours accorded him in the mean +while were those due to a sovereign; but still the duke's brow was +moody, though, if the earl noticed it, Clarence rallied into seeming +cheerfulness, and reiterated pledges of faith and friendship. + +The manner of Isabel to her father was varying and uncertain: at one +time hard and cold; at another, as if in the reaction of secret +remorse, she would throw herself into his arms, and pray him, +weepingly, to forgive her wayward humours. But the curse of the +earl's position was that which he had foreseen before quitting +Amboise, and which, more or less, attends upon those who from whatever +cause suddenly desert the party with which all their associations, +whether of fame or friendship, have been interwoven. His vengeance +against one had comprehended many still dear to him. He was not only +separated from his old companions in arms, but he had driven their +most eminent into exile. He stood alone amongst men whom the habits +of an active life had indissolubly connected, in his mind, with +recollections of wrath and wrong. Amidst that princely company which +begirt him, he hailed no familiar face. Even many of those who most +detested Edward (or rather the Woodvilles) recoiled from so startling +a desertion to the Lancastrian foe. It was a heavy blow to a heart +already bruised and sore, when the fiery Raoul de Fulke, who had so +idolized Warwick, that, despite his own high lineage, he had worn his +badge upon his breast, sought him at the dead of night, and thus +said,-- + +"Lord of Salisbury and Warwick, I once offered to serve thee as a +vassal, if thou wouldst wrestle with lewd Edward for the crown which +only a manly brow should wear; and hadst thou now returned, as Henry +of Lancaster returned of old, to gripe the sceptre of the Norman with +a conqueror's hand, I had been the first to cry, 'Long live King +Richard, namesake and emulator of Coeur de Lion!' But to place upon +the throne yon monk-puppet, and to call on brave hearts to worship a +patterer of aves and a counter of beads; to fix the succession of +England in the adulterous offspring of Margaret, the butcher-harlot +[One of the greatest obstacles to the cause of the Red Rose was the +popular belief that the young prince was not Henry's son. Had that +belief not been widely spread and firmly maintained, the lords who +arbitrated between Henry VI. and Richard Duke of York, in October, +1460, could scarcely have come to the resolution to set aside the +Prince of Wales altogether, to accord Henry the crown for his life, +and declare the Duke of York his heir. Ten years previously (in +November, 1450), before the young prince was born or thought of, and +the proposition was really just and reasonable, it was moved in the +House of Commons to declare Richard Duke of York next heir to Henry; +which, at least, by birthright, he certainly was; but the motion met +with little favour and the mover was sent to the Tower.]; to give the +power of the realm to the men against whom thou thyself hast often led +me to strive with lance and battle-axe, is to open a path which leads +but to dishonour, and thither Raoul de Fulke follows not even the +steps of the Lord of Warwick. Interrupt me not! speak not! As thou +to Edward, so I now to thee, forswear allegiance, and I bid thee +farewell forever!" + +"I pardon thee," answered Warwick; "and if ever thou art wronged as I +have been, thy heart will avenge me. Go!" But when this haughty +visitor was gone, the earl covered his face with his hands, and +groaned aloud. A defection perhaps even more severely felt came next. +Katherine de Bonville had been the earl's favourite sister; he wrote +to her at the convent to which she had retired, praying her +affectionately to come to London, "and cheer his vexed spirit, and +learn the true cause, not to be told by letter, which had moved him to +things once farthest from his thought." The messenger came back, the +letter unopened; for Katherine had left the convent, and fled into +Burgundy, distrustful, as it seemed to Warwick, of her own brother. +The nature of this lion-hearted man was, as we have seen, singularly +kindly, frank, and affectionate; and now in the most critical, the +most anxious, the most tortured period of his life, confidence and +affection were forbidden to him. What had he not given for one hour +of the soothing company of his wife, the only being in the world to +whom his pride could have communicated the grief of his heart, or the +doubts of his conscience! Alas! never on earth should he hear that +soft voice again! Anne, too, the gentle, childlike Anne, was afar; +but she was happy,--a basker in the brief sunshine, and blind to the +darkening clouds. His elder child, with her changeful moods, added +but to his disquiet and unhappiness. Next to Edward, Warwick of all +the House of York had loved Clarence, though a closer and more +domestic intimacy had weakened the affection by lessening the esteem. +But looking further into the future, he now saw in this alliance the +seeds of many a rankling sorrow. The nearer Anne and her spouse to +power and fame, the more bitter the jealousy of Clarence and his wife. +Thus, in the very connections which seemed most to strengthen his +House, lay all which must destroy the hallowed unity and peace of +family and home. + +The Archbishop of York had prudently taken no part whatever in the +measures that had changed the dynasty. He came now to reap the +fruits; did homage to Henry VI., received the Chancellor's seals, and +recommenced intrigues for the Cardinal's hat. But between the bold +warrior and the wily priest there could be but little of the +endearment of brotherly confidence and love. With Montagu alone could +the earl confer in cordiality and unreserve; and their similar +position, and certain points of agreement in their characters, now +more clearly brought out and manifest, served to make their friendship +for each other firmer and more tender, in the estrangement of all +other ties, than ever it had been before. But the marquis was soon +compelled to depart from London, to his post as warden of the northern +marches; for Warwick had not the rash presumption of Edward, and +neglected no precaution against the return of the dethroned king. + +So there, alone, in pomp and in power, vengeance consummated, ambition +gratified, but love denied; with an aching heart and a fearless front; +amidst old foes made prosperous, and old friends alienated and ruined, +stood the king-maker! and, day by day, the untimely streaks of gray +showed more and more amidst the raven curls of the strong man. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +FURTHER VIEWS INTO THE HEART OF MAN, AND THE CONDITIONS OF POWER. + +But woe to any man who is called to power with exaggerated +expectations of his ability to do good! Woe to the man whom the +populace have esteemed a popular champion, and who is suddenly made +the guardian of law! The Commons of England had not bewailed the +exile of the good earl simply for love of his groaning table and +admiration of his huge battle-axe,--it was not merely either in pity, +or from fame, that his "name had sounded in every song," and that, to +use the strong expression of the chronicler, the people "judged that +the sun was clearly taken from the world when he was absent." + +They knew him as one who had ever sought to correct the abuses of +power, to repair the wrongs of the poor; who even in war had forbidden +his knights to slay the common men. He was regarded, therefore, as a +reformer; and wonderful indeed were the things, proportioned to his +fame and his popularity, which he was expected to accomplish; and his +thorough knowledge of the English character, and experience of every +class,--especially the lowest as the highest,--conjoined with the +vigour of his robust understanding, unquestionably enabled him from +the very first to put a stop to the lawless violences which had +disgraced the rule of Edward. The infamous spoliations of the royal +purveyors ceased; the robber-like excesses of the ruder barons and +gentry were severely punished; the country felt that a strong hand +held the reins of power. But what is justice when men ask miracles? +The peasant and mechanic were astonished that wages were not doubled, +that bread was not to be had for asking, that the disparities of life +remained the same,--the rich still rich, the poor still poor. In the +first days of the revolution, Sir Geoffrey Gates, the freebooter, +little comprehending the earl's merciful policy, and anxious naturally +to turn a victory into its accustomed fruit of rapine and pillage, +placed himself at the head of an armed mob, marched from Kent to the +suburbs of London, and, joined by some of the miscreants from the +different Sanctuaries, burned and pillaged, ravished and slew. The +earl quelled this insurrection with spirit and ease; [Hall, Habington] +and great was the praise he received thereby. But all-pervading is +the sympathy the poor feel for the poor. And when even the refuse of +the populace once felt the sword of Warwick, some portion of the +popular enthusiasm must have silently deserted him. + +Robert Hilyard, who had borne so large a share in the restoration of +the Lancastrians, now fixed his home in the metropolis; and anxious as +ever to turn the current to the popular profit, he saw with rage and +disappointment that as yet no party but the nobles had really +triumphed. He had longed to achieve a revolution that might be called +the People's; and he had abetted one that was called "the Lord's +doing." The affection he had felt for Warwick arose principally from +his regarding him as an instrument to prepare society for the more +democratic changes he panted to effect; and, lo! he himself had been +the instrument to strengthen the aristocracy. Society resettled after +the storm, the noble retained his armies, the demagogue had lost his +mobs! Although through England were scattered the principles which +were ultimately to destroy feudalism, to humble the fierce barons into +silken lords, to reform the Church, to ripen into a commonwealth +through the representative system,--the principles were but in the +germ; and when Hilyard mingled with the traders or the artisans of +London, and sought to form a party which might comprehend something of +steady policy and definite object, he found himself regarded as a +visionary fanatic by some, as a dangerous dare-devil by the rest. +Strange to say, Warwick was the only man who listened to him with +attention; the man behind the age and the man before the age ever have +some inch of ground in common both desired to increase liberty; both +honestly and ardently loved the masses; but each in the spirit of his +order,--Warwick defended freedom as against the throne, Hilyard as +against the barons. Still, notwithstanding their differences, each +was so convinced of the integrity of the other,--that it wanted only +a foe in the field to unite them as before. The natural ally of the +popular baron was the leader of the populace. + +Some minor, but still serious, griefs added to the embarrassment of +the earl's position. Margaret's jealousy had bound him to defer all +rewards to lords and others, and encumbered with a provisional council +all great acts of government, all grants of offices, lands, or +benefits. [Sharon Turner] And who knows not the expectations of men +after a successful revolution? The royal exchequer was so empty that +even the ordinary household was suspended; [See Ellis: Original +Letters from Harleian Manuscripts, second series, vol. i., letter 42.] +and as ready money was then prodigiously scarce, the mighty revenues +of Warwick barely sufficed to pay the expenses of the expedition +which, at his own cost, had restored the Lancastrian line. Hard +position, both to generosity and to prudence, to put off and apologize +to just claims and valiant service! + +With intense, wearying, tortured anxiety, did the earl await the +coming of Margaret and her son. The conditions imposed on him in +their absence crippled all his resources. Several even of the +Lancastrian nobles held aloof, while they saw no authority but +Warwick's. Above all, he relied upon the effect that the young Prince +of Wales's presence, his beauty, his graciousness, his frank spirit-- +mild as his fathers, bold as his grandsire's--would create upon all +that inert and neutral mass of the public, the affection of which, +once gained, makes the solid strength of a government. The very +appearance of that prince would at once dispel the slander on his +birth. His resemblance to his heroic grandfather would suffice to win +him all the hearts by which, in absence, he was regarded as a +stranger, a dubious alien. How often did the earl groan forth, "If +the prince were but here, all were won!" Henry was worse than a +cipher,--he was an eternal embarrassment. His good intentions, his +scrupulous piety, made him ever ready to interfere. The Church had +got hold of him already, and prompted him to issue proclamations +against the disguised Lollards, which would have lost him at one +stroke half his subjects. This Warwick prevented, to the great +discontent of the honest prince. The moment required all the prestige +that an imposing presence and a splendid court could bestow. And +Henry, glad of the poverty of his exchequer, deemed it a sin to make a +parade of earthly glory. "Heaven will punish me again," said he, +meekly, "if, just delivered from a dungeon, I gild my unworthy self +with all the vanities of perishable power." + +There was not a department which the chill of this poor king's virtue +did not somewhat benumb. The gay youths, who had revelled in the +alluring court of Edward IV., heard, with disdainful mockery, the +grave lectures of Henry on the length of their lovelocks and the +beakers of their shoes. The brave warriors presented to him for +praise were entertained with homilies on the guilt of war. Even poor +Adam was molested and invaded by Henry's pious apprehensions that he +was seeking, by vain knowledge, to be superior to the will of +Providence. + +Yet, albeit perpetually irritating and chafing the impetuous spirit of +the earl, the earl, strange to say, loved the king more and more. +This perfect innocence, this absence from guile and self-seeking, in +the midst of an age never excelled for fraud, falsehood, and selfish +simulation, moved Warwick's admiration as well as pity. Whatever +contrasted Edward IV. had a charm for him. He schooled his hot +temper, and softened his deep voice, in that holy presence; and the +intimate persuasion of the hollowness of all worldly greatness, which +worldly greatness itself had forced upon the earl's mind, made +something congenial between the meek saint and the fiery warrior. For +the hundredth time groaned Warwick, as he quitted Henry's presence,-- + +"Would that my gallant son-in-law were come! His spirit will soon +learn how to govern; then Warwick may be needed no more! I am weary, +sore weary of the task of ruling men!" + +"Holy Saint Thomas!" bluntly exclaimed Marmaduke, to whom these sad +words were said,--"whenever you visit the king you come back--pardon +me, my lord--half unmanned. He would make a monk of you!" + +"Ah," said Warwick, thoughtfully, "there have been greater marvels +than that. Our boldest fathers often died the meekest shavelings. +An' I had ruled this realm as long as Henry,--nay, an' this same life +I lead now were to continue two years, with its broil and fever,--I +could well conceive the sweetness of the cloister and repose. How +sets the wind? Against them still! against them still! I cannot bear +this suspense!" + +The winds had ever seemed malignant to Margaret of Anjou, but never +more than now. So long a continuance of stormy and adverse weather +was never known in the memory of man; and we believe that it has +scarcely its parallel in history. + +The earl's promise to restore King Henry was fulfilled in October. +From November to the following April, Margaret, with the young and +royal pair, and the Countess of Warwick, lay at the seaside, waiting +for a wind. [Fabyan, 502.] Thrice, in defiance of all warnings from +the mariners of Harfleur, did she put to sea, and thrice was she +driven back on the coast of Normandy, her ships much damaged. Her +friends protested that this malice of the elements was caused by +sorcery, [Hall, Warkworth Chronicle]--a belief which gained ground in +England, exhilarated the Duchess of Bedford, and gave new fame to +Bungey, who arrogated all the merit, and whose weather wisdom, indeed, +had here borne out his predictions. Many besought Margaret not to +tempt Providence, not to trust the sea; but the queen was firm to her +purpose, and her son laughed at omens,--yet still the vessels could +only leave the harbour to be driven back upon the land. + +Day after day the first question of Warwick, when the sun rose, was, +"How sets the wind?" Night after night, ere he retired to rest, "Ill +sets the wind!" sighed the earl. The gales that forbade the coming of +the royal party sped to the unwilling lingerers courier after courier, +envoy after envoy; and at length Warwick, unable to bear the sickening +suspense at distance, went himself to Dover [Hall], and from its white +cliffs looked, hour by hour, for the sails which were to bear +"Lancaster and its fortunes." The actual watch grew more intolerable +than the distant expectation, and the earl sorrowfully departed to his +castle of Warwick, at which Isabel and Clarence then were. Alas! +where the old smile of home? + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE RETURN OF EDWARD OF YORK. + +And the winds still blew, and the storm was on the tide, and Margaret +came not when, in the gusty month of March, the fishermen of the +Humber beheld a single ship, without flag or pennon, and sorely +stripped and rivelled by adverse blasts, gallantly struggling towards +the shore. The vessel was not of English build, and resembled in its +bulk and fashion those employed by the Easterlings in their trade, +half merchantman, half war-ship. + +The villagers of Ravenspur,--the creek of which the vessel now rapidly +made to,--imagining that it was some trading craft in distress, +grouped round the banks, and some put out their boats: But the vessel +held on its way, and, as the water was swelled by the tide, and +unusually deep, silently cast anchor close ashore, a quarter of a mile +from the crowd. + +The first who leaped on land was a knight of lofty stature, and in +complete armour richly inlaid with gold arabesques. To him succeeded +another, also in mail, and, though well guilt and fair proportioned, +of less imposing presence. And then, one by one, the womb of the dark +ship gave forth a number of armed soldiers, infinitely larger than it +could have been supposed to contain, till the knight who first landed +stood the centre of a group of five hundred men. Then were lowered +from the vessel, barbed and caparisoned, some five score horses; and, +finally, the sailors and rowers, armed but with steel caps and short +swords, came on shore, till not a man was left on board. + +"Now praise," said the chief knight, "to God and Saint George that we +have escaped the water! and not with invisible winds but with bodily +foes must our war be waged." + +"Beau sire," cried one knight, who had debarked immediately after the +speaker, and who seemed, from his bearing and equipment, of higher +rank than those that followed, "beau sire, this is a slight army to +reconquer a king's realm! Pray Heaven that our bold companions have +also escaped the deep!" + +"Why, verily, we are not eno' at the best, to spare one man," said the +chief knight, gayly, "but, lo! we are not without welcomers." And he +pointed to the crowd of villagers who now slowly neared the warlike +group, but halting at a little distance, continued to gaze at them in +some anxiety and alarm. + +"Ho there! good fellows!" cried the leader, striding towards the +throng, "what name give you to this village?" + +"Ravenspur, please your worship," answered one of the peasants. + +"Ravenspur, hear you that, lords and friends? Accept the omen! On +this spot landed from exile Henry of Bolingbroke, known afterwards in +our annals as King Henry IV.! Bare is the soil of corn and of trees, +--it disdains meaner fruit; it grows kings! Hark!" The sound of a +bugle was heard at a little distance, and in a few moments a troop of +about a hundred men were seen rising above an undulation in the +ground, and as the two bands recognized each other, a shout of joy was +given and returned. + +As this new reinforcement advanced, the peasantry and fishermen, +attracted by curiosity and encouraged by the peaceable demeanour of +the debarkers, drew nearer, and mingled with the first comers. + +"What manner of men be ye, and what want ye?" asked one of the +bystanders, who seemed of better nurturing than the rest, and who, +indeed, was a small franklin. + +No answer was returned by those he more immediately addressed; but the +chief knight heard the question, and suddenly unbuckling his helmet, +and giving it to one of those beside him, he turned to the crowd a +countenance of singular beauty at once animated and majestic, and said +in a loud voice, "We are Englishmen, like you, and we come here to +claim our rights. Ye seem tall fellows and honest.--Standard bearer, +unfurl our flag!" And as the ensign suddenly displayed the device of +a sun in a field azure, the chief continued, "March under this banner, +and for every day ye serve, ye shall have a month's hire." + +"Marry!" quoth the franklin, with a suspicious, sinister look, "these +be big words. And who are you, Sir Knight, who would levy men in King +Henry's kingdom?" + +"Your knees, fellows!" cried the second knight. "Behold your true +liege and suzerain, Edward IV.! Long live King Edward!" + +The soldiers caught up the cry, and it was re-echoed lustily by the +smaller detachment that now reached the spot; but no answer came from +the crowd. They looked at each other in dismay, and retreated rapidly +from their place amongst the troops. In fact, the whole of the +neighbouring district was devoted to Warwick, and many of the +peasantry about had joined the former rising under Sir John Coniers. +The franklin alone retreated not with the rest; he was a bluff, plain, +bold fellow, with good English blood in his veins. And when the shout +ceased, he said shortly, "We hereabouts know no king but King Henry. +We fear you would impose upon us. We cannot believe that a great lord +like him you call Edward IV. would land with a handful of men to +encounter the armies of Lord Warwick. We forewarn you to get into +your ship and go back as fast as ye came, for the stomach of England +is sick of brawls and blows; and what ye devise is treason!" + +Forth from the new detachment stepped a youth of small stature, not in +armour, and with many a weather-stain on his gorgeous dress. He laid +his hand upon the franklin's shoulder. "Honest and plain-dealing +fellow," said he, "you are right: pardon the foolish outburst of these +brave men, who cannot forget as yet that their chief has worn the +crown. We come back not to disturb this realm, nor to effect aught +against King Henry, whom the saints have favoured. No, by Saint Paul, +we come but back to claim our lands unjustly forfeit. My noble +brother here is not king of England, since the people will it not, but +he is Duke of York, and he will be contented if assured of the style +and lands our father left him. For me, called Richard of Gloucester, +I ask nothing but leave to spend my manhood where I have spent my +youth, under the eyes of my renowned godfather, Richard Nevile, Earl +of Warwick. So report of us. Whither leads yon road?" + +"To York," said the franklin, softened, despite his judgment, by the +irresistible suavity of the voice that addressed him. + +"Thither will we go, my lord duke and brother, with your leave," said +Prince Richard, "peaceably and as petitioners. God save ye, friends +and countrymen, pray for us, that King Henry and the parliament may do +us justice. We are not over rich now, but better times may come. +Largess!" and filling both hands with coins from his gipsire, he +tossed the bounty among the peasants. + +"Mille tonnere! What means he with this humble talk of King Henry and +the parliament?" whispered Edward to the Lord Say, while the crowd +scrambled for the largess, and Richard smilingly mingled amongst them, +and conferred with the franklin. + +"Let him alone, I pray you, my liege; I guess his wise design. And +now for our ships. What orders for the master?" + +"For the other vessels, let them sail or anchor as they list. But for +the bark that has borne Edward king of England to the land of his +ancestors there is no return!" + +The royal adventurer then beckoned the Flemish master of the ship, +who, with every sailor aboard, had debarked, and the loose dresses of +the mariners made a strong contrast to the mail of the warriors with +whom they mingled. + +"Friend," said Edward, in French, "thou hast said that thou wilt share +my fortunes, and that thy good fellows are no less free of courage and +leal in trust." + +"It is so, sire. Not a man who has gazed on thy face, and heard thy +voice, but longs to serve one on whose brow Nature has written king." + +"And trust me," said Edward, "no prince of my blood shall be dearer to +me than you and yours, my friends in danger and in need. And sith it +be so, the ship that hath borne such hearts and such hopes should, in +sooth, know no meaner freight. Is all prepared?" + +"Yes, sire, as you ordered. The train is laid for the brennen." + +"Up, then, with the fiery signal, and let it tell, from cliff to +cliff, from town to town, that Edward the Plantagenet, once returned +to England, leaves it but for the grave!" + +The master bowed, and smiled grimly. The sailors, who had been +prepared for the burning, arranged before between the master and the +prince, and whose careless hearts Edward had thoroughly won to his +person and his cause, followed the former towards the ship, and stood +silently grouped around the shore. The soldiers, less informed, gazed +idly on, and Richard now regained Edward's side. + +"Reflect," he said, as he drew him apart, "that, when on this spot +landed Henry of Bolingbroke, he gave not out that he was marching to +the throne of Richard II. He professed but to claim his duchy,--and +men were influenced by justice, till they became agents of ambition. +This be your policy; with two thousand men you are but Duke of York; +with ten thousand men you are King of England! In passing hither, I +met with many, and sounding the temper of the district, I find it not +ripe to share your hazard. The world soon ripens when it hath to hail +success!" + +"O young boy's smooth face! O old man's deep brain!" said Edward, +admiringly, "what a king hadst thou made!" A sudden flush passed over +the prince's pale cheek, and, ere it died away, a flaming torch was +hurled aloft in the air; it fell whirling into the ship--a moment, and +a loud crash; a moment, and a mighty blaze! Up sprung from the deck, +along the sails, the sheeted fire,-- + + "A giant beard of flame." [Aeschylus: Agamemnon, 314] + +It reddened the coast, the skies, from far and near; it glowed on the +faces and the steel of the scanty army; it was seen, miles away, by +the warders of many a castle manned with the troops of Lancaster; it +brought the steed from the stall, the courier to the selle; it sped, +as of old the beacon fire that announced to Clytemnestra the return of +the Argive king. From post to post rode the fiery news, till it +reached Lord Warwick in his hall, King Henry in his palace, Elizabeth +in her sanctuary. The iron step of the dauntless Edward was once more +pressed upon the soil of England. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE PROGRESS OF THE PLANTAGENET. + +A few words suffice to explain the formidable arrival we have just +announced. Though the Duke of Burgundy had by public proclamation +forbidden his subjects to aid the exiled Edward, yet, whether moved by +the entreaties of his wife, or wearied by the remonstrances of his +brother-in-law, he at length privately gave the dethroned monarch +fifty thousand florins to find troops for himself, and secretly hired +Flemish and Dutch vessels to convey him to England. [Comines, Hall, +Lingard, S. Turner] But so small was the force to which the bold +Edward trusted his fortunes, that it almost seemed as if Burgundy sent +him forth to his destruction. He sailed from the coast of Zealand; +the winds, if less unmanageable than those that blew off the seaport +where Margaret and her armament awaited a favouring breeze, were still +adverse. Scared from the coast of Norfolk by the vigilance of Warwick +and Oxford, who had filled that district with armed men, storm and +tempest drove him at last to Humber Head, where we have seen him land, +and whence we pursue his steps. + +The little band set out upon its march, and halted for the night at a +small village two miles inland. Some of the men were then sent out on +horseback for news of the other vessels, that bore the remnant of the +invading force. These had, fortunately, effected a landing in various +places; and, before daybreak, Anthony Woodville, and the rest of the +troops, had joined the leader of an enterprise that seemed but the +rashness of despair, for its utmost force, including the few sailors +allured to the adventurer's standard, was about two thousand men. +[Fifteen hundred, according to the Croyland historian.] Close and +anxious was the consultation then held. Each of the several +detachments reported alike of the sullen indifference of the +population, which each had sought to excite in favour of Edward. +Light riders [Hall] were despatched in various directions, still +further to sound the neighbourhood. All returned ere noon, some +bruised and maltreated by the stones and staves of the rustics, and +not a voice had been heard to echo the cry, "Long live King Edward!" +The profound sagacity of Gloucester's guileful counsel was then +unanimously recognized. Richard despatched a secret letter to +Clarence; and it was resolved immediately to proceed to York, and to +publish everywhere along the road that the fugitive had returned but +to claim his private heritage, and remonstrate with the parliament +which had awarded the duchy of York to Clarence, his younger brother. + +"Such a power," saith the Chronicle, "hath justice ever among men, +that all, moved by mercy or compassion, began either to favour or not +to resist him." And so, wearing the Lancastrian Prince of Wales's +cognizance of the ostrich feather, crying out as they marched, "Long +live King Henry!" the hardy liars, four days after their debarkation, +arrived at the gates of York. + +Here, not till after much delay and negotiation, Edward was admitted +only as Duke of York, and upon condition that he would swear to be a +faithful and loyal servant to King Henry; and at the gate by which he +was to enter, Edward actually took that oath, "a priest being by to +say Mass in the Mass tyme, receiving the body of our blessed Saviour!" +[Hall.] + +Edward tarried not long in York; be pushed forward. Two great nobles +guarded those districts,--Montagu and the Earl of Northumberland, to +whom Edward had restored his lands and titles, and who, on condition +of retaining them, had re-entered the service of Lancaster. This +last, a true server of the times, who had sided with all parties, now +judged it discreet to remain neutral. [This is the most favourable +interpretation of his conduct: according to some he was in +correspondence with Edward, who showed his letters.] But Edward must +pass within a few miles of Pontefract castle, where Montagu lay with a +force that could destroy him at a blow. Edward was prepared for the +assault, but trusted to deceive the marquis, as he had deceived the +citizens of York,--the more for the strong personal love Montagu had +ever shown him. If not, he was prepared equally to die in the field +rather than eat again the bitter bread of the exile. But to his +inconceivable joy and astonishment, Montagu, like Northumberland, lay +idle and supine. Edward and his little troop threaded safely the +formidable pass. Alas! Montagu had that day received a formal order +from the Duke of Clarence, as co-protector of the realm, [Our +historians have puzzled their brains in ingenious conjectures of the +cause of Montagu's fatal supineness at this juncture, and have passed +over the only probable solution of the mystery, which is to be found +simply enough stated thus in Stowe's Chronicle: "The Marquess +Montacute would have fought with King Edward, but that he had received +letters from the Duke of Clarence that he should not fight till hee +came." This explanation is borne out by the Warkworth Chronicler and +others, who, in an evident mistake of the person addressed, state that +Clarence wrote word to Warwick not to fight till he came. Clarence +could not have written so to Warwick, who, according to all +authorities, was mustering his troops near London, and not in the way +to fight Edward; nor could Clarence have had authority to issue such +commands to his colleague, nor would his colleague have attended to +them, since we have the amplest testimony that Warwick was urging all +his captains to attack Edward at once. The duke's order was, +therefore, clearly addressed to Montagu.] to suffer Edward to march +on, provided his force was small, and he had taken the oaths to Henry, +and assumed but the title of Duke of York,--"for your brother the earl +hath had compunctious visitings, and would fain forgive what hath +passed, for my father's sake, and unite all factions by Edward's +voluntary abdication of the throne; at all hazards, I am on my way +northward, and you will not fight till I come." The marquis,--who +knew the conscientious doubts which Warwick had entertained in his +darker hours, who had no right to disobey the co-protector, who knew +no reason to suspect Lord Warwick's son-in-law, and who, moreover, was +by no means anxious to be, himself, the executioner of Edward, whom he +had once so truly loved,--though a little marvelling at Warwick's +softness, yet did not discredit the letter, and the less regarded the +free passage he left to the returned exiles, from contempt for the +smallness of their numbers, and his persuasion that if the earl saw +fit to alter his counsels, Edward was still more in his power the +farther he advanced amidst a hostile population, and towards the +armies which the Lords Exeter and Oxford were already mustering. + +But that free passage was everything to Edward! It made men think +that Montagu, as well as Northumberland, favoured his enterprise; that +the hazard was less rash and hopeless than it had seemed; that Edward +counted upon finding his most powerful allies among those falsely +supposed to be his enemies. The popularity Edward had artfully +acquired amongst the captains of Warwick's own troops, on the march to +Middleham, now bestead him. Many of them were knights and gentlemen +residing in the very districts through which he passed. They did not +join him, but they did not oppose. Then rapidly flocked to "the Sun +of York," first the adventurers and condottieri who in civil war adopt +any side for pay; next came the disappointed, the ambitious, and the +needy. The hesitating began to resolve, the neutral to take a part. +From the state of petitioners supplicating a pardon, every league the +Yorkists marched advanced them to the dignity of assertors of a cause. +Doncaster first, then Nottingham, then Leicester,--true to the town +spirit we have before described,--opened their gates to the trader +prince. + +Oxford and Exeter reached Newark with their force. Edward marched on +them at once. Deceived as to his numbers, they took panic and fled. +When once the foe flies, friends ever start up from the very earth! +Hereditary partisans--gentlemen, knights, and nobles--now flocked fast +round the adventurer. Then came Lovell and Cromwell and D'Eyncourt, +ever true to York; and Stanley, never true to any cause. Then came +the brave knights Parr and Norris and De Burgh; and no less than three +thousand retainers belonging to Lord Hastings--the new man--obeyed the +summons of his couriers and joined their chief at Leicester. + +Edward of March, who had landed at Ravenspur with a handful of +brigands, now saw a king's army under his banner. [The perplexity and +confusion which involve the annals of this period may be guessed by +this,--that two historians, eminent for research (Lingard and Sharon +Turner), differ so widely as to the numbers who had now joined Edward, +that Lingard asserts that at Nottingham he was at the head of fifty or +sixty thousand men; and Turner gives him, at the most, between six and +seven thousand. The latter seems nearer to the truth. We must here +regret that Turner's partiality to the House of York induces him to +slur over Edward's detestable perjury at York, and to accumulate all +rhetorical arts to command admiration for his progress,--to the +prejudice of the salutary moral horror we ought to feel for the +atrocious perfidy and violation of oath to which he owed the first +impunity that secured the after triumph.] Then the audacious perjurer +threw away the mask; then, forth went--not the prayer of the attainted +Duke of York--but the proclamation of the indignant king. England now +beheld two sovereigns, equal in their armies. It was no longer a +rebellion to be crushed; it was a dynasty to be decided. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +LORD WARWICK, WITH THE FOE IN THE FIELD AND THE TRAITOR AT THE HEARTH. + +Every precaution which human wisdom could foresee had Lord Warwick +taken to guard against invasion, or to crush it at the onset. [Hall.] +All the coasts on which it was most probable Edward would land had +been strongly guarded. And if the Humber had been left without +regular troops, it was because prudence might calculate that the very +spot where Edward did land was the very last he would have selected,-- +unless guided by fate to his destruction,--in the midst of an +unfriendly population, and in face of the armies of Northumberland and +of Montagu. The moment the earl heard of Edward's reception at York, +--far from the weakness which the false Clarence (already in +correspondence with Gloucester) imputed to him,--he despatched to +Montagu, by Marmaduke Nevile, peremptory orders to intercept Edward's +path, and give him battle before he could advance farther towards the +centre of the island. We shall explain presently why this messenger +did not reach the marquis. But Clarence was some hours before him in +his intelligence and his measures. + +When the earl next heard that Edward had passed Pontefract with +impunity, and had reached Doncaster, he flew first to London, to +arrange for its defence; consigned the care of Henry to the Archbishop +of York, mustered a force already quartered in the neighbourhood of +the metropolis, and then marched rapidly back towards Coventry, where +he had left Clarence with seven thousand men; while he despatched new +messengers to Montagu and Northumberland, severely rebuking the former +for his supineness, and ordering him to march in all haste to attack +Edward in the rear. The earl's activity, promptitude, all-provident +generalship, form a mournful contrast to the errors, the +pusillanimity, and the treachery of others, which hitherto, as we have +seen, made all his wisest schemes abortive. Despite Clarence's +sullenness, Warwick had discovered no reason, as yet, to doubt his +good faith. The oath he had taken--not only to Henry in London, but +to Warwick at Amboise--had been the strongest which can bind man to +man. If the duke had not gained all he had hoped, he had still much +to lose and much to dread by desertion to Edward. He had been the +loudest in bold assertions when he heard of the invasion; and above +all, Isabel, whose influence over Clarence at that time the earl +overrated, had, at the tidings of so imminent a danger to her father, +forgot all her displeasure and recovered all her tenderness. + +During Warwick's brief absence, Isabel had indeed exerted her utmost +power to repair her former wrongs, and induce Clarence to be faithful +to his oath. Although her inconsistency and irresolution had much +weakened her influence with the duke, for natures like his are +governed but by the ascendancy of a steady and tranquil will, yet +still she so far prevailed, that the duke had despatched to Richard a +secret courier, informing him that he had finally resolved not to +desert his father-in-law. + +This letter reached Gloucester as the invaders were on their march to +Coventry, before the strong walls of which the Duke of Clarence lay +encamped. Richard, after some intent and silent reflection, beckoned +to him his familiar Catesby. + +"Marmaduke Nevile, whom our scouts seized on his way to Pontefract, is +safe, and in the rear?" + +"Yes, my lord; prisoners but encumber us; shall I give orders to the +provost to end his captivity?" + +"Ever ready, Catesby!" said the duke, with a fell smile. "No; hark +ye, Clarence vacillates. If he hold firm to Warwick, and the two +forces fight honestly against us, we are lost; on the other hand, if +Clarence join us, his defection will bring not only the men he +commands, all of whom are the retainers of the York lands and duchy, +and therefore free from peculiar bias to the earl, and easily lured +back to their proper chief; but it will set an example that will +create such distrust and panic amongst the enemy, and give such hope +of fresh desertions to our own men, as will open to us the keys of the +metropolis. But Clarence, I say, vacillates; look you, here is his +letter from Amboise to King Edward; see, his duchess, Warwick's very +daughter, approves the promise it contains! If this letter reach +Warwick, and Clarence knows it is in his hand, George will have no +option but to join us. He will never dare to face the earl, his +pledge to Edward once revealed--" + +"Most true; a very legal subtlety, my lord," said the lawyer Catesby, +admiringly. + +"You can serve us in this. Fall back; join Sir Marmaduke; affect to +sympathize with him; affect to side with the earl; affect to make +terms for Warwick's amity and favour; affect to betray us; affect to +have stolen this letter. Give it to young Nevile, artfully effect his +escape, as if against our knowledge, and commend him to lose not an +hour--a moment--in gaining the earl, and giving him so important a +forewarning of the meditated treason of his son-in-law." + +"I will do all,--I comprehend; but how will the duke learn in time +that the letter is on its way to Warwick?" + +"I will seek the duke in his own tent." + +"And how shall I effect Sir Marmaduke's escape?" + +"Send hither the officer who guards the prisoner; I will give him +orders to obey thee in all things." + +The invaders marched on. The earl, meanwhile, had reached Warwick, +hastened thence to throw himself into the stronger fortifications of +the neighbouring Coventry, without the walls of which Clarence was +still encamped; Edward advanced on the town of Warwick thus vacated; +and Richard, at night, rode along to the camp of Clarence. [Hall, and +others.] + +The next day, the earl was employed in giving orders to his +lieutenants to march forth, join the troops of his son-in-law, who +were a mile from the walls, and advance upon Edward, who had that +morning quitted Warwick town, when suddenly Sir Marmaduke Nevile +rushed into his presence, and, faltering out, "Beware, beware!" placed +in his hands the fatal letter which Clarence had despatched from +Amboise. + +Never did blow more ruthless fall upon man's heart! Clarence's +perfidy--that might be disdained; but the closing lines, which +revealed a daughter's treachery--words cannot express the father's +anguish. + +The letter dropped from his hand, a stupor seized his senses, and, ere +yet recovered, pale men hurried into his presence to relate how, +amidst joyous trumpets and streaming banners, Richard of Gloucester +had led the Duke of Clarence to the brotherly embrace of Edward. +[Hall. The chronicler adds: "It was no marvell that the Duke of +Clarence with so small persuasion and less exhorting turned from the +Earl of Warwick's party, for, as you have heard before, this +marchandise was laboured, conducted, and concluded by a damsell, when +the duke was in the French court, to the earl's utter confusion." +Hume makes a notable mistake in deferring the date of Clarence's +desertion to the battle of Barnet.] + +Breaking from these messengers of evil news, that could not now +surprise, the earl strode on, alone, to his daughter's chamber. + +He placed the letter in her hands, and folding his arms said, "What +sayest thou of this, Isabel of Clarence?" The terror, the shame, the +remorse, that seized upon the wretched lady, the death-like lips, the +suppressed shriek, the momentary torpor, succeeded by the impulse +which made her fall at her father's feet and clasp his knees,--told +the earl, if he had before doubted, that the letter lied not; that +Isabel had known and sanctioned its contents. + +He gazed on her (as she grovelled at his feet) with a look that her +eyes did well to shun. + +"Curse me not! curse me not!" cried Isabel, awed by his very silence. +"It was but a brief frenzy. Evil counsel, evil passion! I was +maddened that my boy had lost a crown. I repented, I repented! +Clarence shall yet be true. He hath promised it, vowed it to me; hath +written to Gloucester to retract all,--to--" + +"Woman! Clarence is in Edward's camp!" + +Isabel started to her feet, and uttered a shriek so wild and +despairing, that at least it gave to her father's lacerated heart the +miserable solace of believing the last treason had not been shared. A +softer expression--one of pity, if not of pardon--stole over his dark +face. + +"I curse thee not," he said; "I rebuke thee not. Thy sin hath its own +penance. Ill omen broods on the hearth of the household traitor! +Never more shalt thou see holy love in a husband's smile. His kiss +shall have the taint of Judas. From his arms thou shalt start with +horror, as from those of thy wronged father's betrayer,--perchance his +deathsman! Ill omen broods on the cradle of the child for whom a +mother's ambition was but a daughter's perfidy. Woe to thee, wife and +mother! Even my forgiveness cannot avert thy doom!" + +"Kill me! kill me!" exclaimed Isabel, springing towards him; but +seeing his face averted, his arms folded on his breast,--that noble +breast, never again her shelter,--she fell lifeless on the floor. [As +our narrative does not embrace the future fate of the Duchess of +Clarence, the reader will pardon us if we remind him that her first- +born (who bore his illustrious grandfather's title of Earl of Warwick) +was cast into prison on the accession of Henry VII., and afterwards +beheaded by that king. By birth, he was the rightful heir to the +throne. The ill-fated Isabel died young (five years after the date at +which our tale has arrived). One of her female attendants was tried +and executed on the charge of having poisoned her. Clarence lost no +time in seeking to supply her place. He solicited the hand of Mary of +Burgundy, sole daughter and heir of Charles the Bold. Edward's +jealousy and fear forbade him to listen to an alliance that might, as +Lingard observes, enable Clarence "to employ the power of Burgundy to +win the crown of England;" and hence arose those dissensions which +ended in the secret murder of the perjured duke.] + +The earl looked round, to see that none were by to witness his +weakness, took her gently in his arms, laid her on her couch, and, +bending over her a moment, prayed to God to pardon her. + +He then hastily left the room, ordered her handmaids and her litter, +and while she was yet unconscious, the gates of the town opened, and +forth through the arch went the closed and curtained vehicle which +bore the ill-fated duchess to the new home her husband had made with +her father's foe! The earl watched it from the casement of his tower, +and said to himself,-- + +"I had been unmanned, had I known her within the same walls. Now +forever I dismiss her memory and her crime. Treachery hath done its +worst, and my soul is proof against all storms!" + +At night came messengers from Clarence and Edward, who had returned to +Warwick town, with offers of pardon to the earl, with promises of +favour, power, and grace. To Edward the earl deigned no answer; to +the messenger of Clarence he gave this: "Tell thy master I had liefer +be always like myself than like a false and a perjured duke, and that +I am determined never to leave the war till I have lost mine own life, +or utterly extinguished and put down my foes." [Hall.] + +After this terrible defection, neither his remaining forces, nor the +panic amongst them which the duke's desertion had occasioned, nor the +mighty interests involved in the success of his arms, nor the +irretrievable advantage which even an engagement of equivocal result +with the earl in person would give to Edward, justified Warwick in +gratifying the anticipations of the enemy,--that his valour and wrath +would urge him into immediate and imprudent battle. + +Edward, after the vain bravado of marching up to the walls of +Coventry, moved on towards London. Thither the earl sent Marmaduke, +enjoining the Archbishop of York and the lord mayor but to hold out +the city for three days, and he would come to their aid with such a +force as would insure lasting triumph. For, indeed, already were +hurrying to his banner Montagu, burning to retrieve his error, Oxford +and Exeter, recovered from, and chafing at, their past alarm. Thither +his nephew, Fitzhugh, led the earl's own clansmen of Middleham; +thither were spurring Somerset from the west, [Most historians state +that Somerset was then in London; but Sharon Turner quotes "Harleian +Manuscripts," 38, to show that he had left the metropolis "to raise an +army from the western counties," and ranks him amongst the generals at +the battle of Barnet.] and Sir Thomas Dymoke from Lincolnshire, and +the Knight of Lytton, with his hardy retainers, from the Peak. Bold +Hilyard waited not far from London, with a host of mingled yeomen and +bravos, reduced, as before, to discipline under his own sturdy +energies and the military craft of Sir John Coniers. If London would +but hold out till these forces could unite, Edward's destruction was +still inevitable. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LAST OF THE BARONS, V11 *** + +***** This file should be named 7725.txt or 7725.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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