The Last Of The Barons, Volume 4.

e fairly merged in the great common sea, will rarely reappear before us individualized and distinct. The type of the provincial cadet of the day

e 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 dee

nted 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,

ield, 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

erated greatly, besides other motives shortly to be made clear, in favour of the plot laid by the enemies

ntering the royal chamber, he found already assembled Lord Rivers,

approach, and placed in his hand a letter, dated f

g account of the honours accorded to the earl by Louis XI., greater

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 b

ption, "that this letter is addressed to my Lord Rive

d Rivers; "it is a gen

should question the truth of a man who can thus c

connected to Warwick, eyed his power with the jealous scorn which the man of book-lore often feels

n English knight that we should be beholden for courtesies to the

s of Paris, than sending my cousin the earl to beg the French king's brother to accept my sister as a

ouis 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 fr

rwick, for reasons hereafter to be explained, produced a strong effect upon the intellect of Edward, always vig

e Lord Hastings, sire,

hose allegiance to the

ance somewhat moves him

War

with suppressed anger; "these reference

all things: board or council, bed or battle,-wherever there is mischief asti

went so home; there is another letter I have not yet laid before the

que Dieu, my Lord Warwick, our couriers bring us word that Count Charolois declares he shall yet wed the Lady Margaret, and t

s feet, and striking the table with his clench

ead in assent. "Is t

methinks

ing dares, when a subject threatens. Admit the worshipful the deputies from our

ods and gold chains, marshalled into the king's presence a go

cate 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 sho

hen withdrew from

whispered Master Heyford to one of his bre

e said, 'Ye are the pillars of the public weal!' But because Master Heyf

uggesting this deputation, worthy sirs," said he, smiling significantly; "you have timed it

yme. 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

how thrives

t!' the Plantagenet sprung up in his breast; and now, lest he ask to see the rest of the lett

sir?" sai

not,' said Warwick, 'because what a noble heart dares least is to belie the pli

that Edward took heat at the first word

s. 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 me

r," said Elizabeth, vindictively. "How he t

, whose chivalrous follies fit him not for full comprehension of our objects, how upon fair excuse the heir of Burgundy's brot