The Last Of The Barons, Volume 4.

, 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

d 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 ad

of Warwick's enemy and the French prince's rival, Charles of Burgundy; and Anthony Woodville, too gentle and knightly a person to have a

ed. 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 att

kinsma

please you

ot so numerous in court as they were. Business and state matters have made me see too seldom those whom I wo

uld graciously

irs not out to-day! He hath with him a score of tailors and armourers in high council on the c

apartments occupied by the alchemist of the Duchess of Bedford-"wilt thou be pleased, in thy capacity

o so deserving a youth. I

fully, and he drew aside his fellow courtier: "wha

peacock's strut to

dvi

wick is negotiating with Louis of France, this interchange of courtesi

ot so gravely,-

etter. But thou art no fr

, 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

fortunate noble as he thus spoke, and his ho

all fated, in our early years, to love in vain?-even I married not the maiden I thought the f

lood as ever rolled its fiery e

Houses, when impoveri

thou wert then no ma

erent; now a Nevile

gs bro

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

o 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,'

ted Hastings, and passed on, leaning

thy choice among these steeds, for we shall ride alone. There is no Nevile amongst these gentlemen." Marmaduke obeyed. The earl dismissed his reti

s lips, and then, slackening his pace, he said abruptly, "How dost th

us master and a most

s 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

d that, though I covet honours, and love pleasure, and would be loth to lift finger or speak word against King Edward, yet we

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 variega

brow as he gazed around, and he said to

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 an

ldierly 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 o

ined in his steed, and said in a clear, full voice, "Good evening to you, my

under the White Rose increase the number of all tra

ace 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

illegal act,"

why should it? Unjust, if it punish the kn

w,

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.

that these words

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 t

ntagu, aghast, and laying his glove

fight, side by side, in that cause with Warwick; for Warwick, wh

franklin's bridle; and the latter waved his hand, and spurring his s

. "One of the exiled Lancastrian lords, perchance. Strange how th

my dagger. But as thou madest no sign, I thought his gr

rtune has ever a

to me that he holds much power over the rascal rabble." And here Marmaduke narrated the att

the same man, for h

not faces,-as in truth we ought, seeing that it is the sinews and bulk,

ly simplicity. "And heard you

ried out 'Robin,' as if

'Warw

Cade the rebel, and they say Margaret trusts him as much as she does an Exeter or Somerset. I marvel that he should

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

ew 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

table before him bearing fruits, confectionery, and spiced wines (for the prelate was a celebrated ep

on the prelate's shoulder, "first let me present to thy favour

cently glancing at his palace, splendidly gleaming through the trellis-work. 'Puer i

said Marmaduke, disconcerted, and deeply blushing, "and only of late have

how to manoeuvre, the husbandman how to sow; and if we churchmen are more cunning, as the profane cal

hrew me, Montagu, thou lookest worn and weary. Surely thou lackest food, and supper shall be

George,-I would spe

nt

fectioneries,-"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 a

ut

drous improver of tender youth,"-and the prelate forced his grammar into the reluctan

conference, and at one time

s 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 d

and gravely remonstrate with the king on the impropriety of receiving the brother of a ri

l, 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 hi

return to England to hear that he hath been cajoled and fooled; that the Margaret he had crossed the seas to affiance t

th, 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 d

ter their ablutions they sat down to the evening meal, the archbishop remembered poor Marmaduke, and despatched to