gle, admitted to the apartments used by the family; and, heading the mighty train that, line after lin

anced around the strong walls of the fortress, and up to the battlements that bristled with the p

her, "what are women worth in the strife of men? Would that our smile

the man who ruled on the throne of the prince she loved, came nearer and more in front; and su

donzell, cousin of

ughter

have not seen her si

unt. But he did so with a haughty and unsmiling visage. "I would be the first, sire," said he, with a slight

, lady," he said, raising the countess, who knelt at the porch, "and you too, fair demoiselle. Pardieu, we envy the knee that hath knelt to you." So saying, w

d close to Warwick and the king

ward address

now

elf familiar with

ue better becomes a king than

he seduce from the Whi

call the stars from thei

wo seats of state, and, from the dais, at the same time, advanced the Duke and Duchess of Clarence. The king prevented their kneeling, and kiss

ng's the countess and Anne placed themselves on seats less raised, but still upon the dais. But now as Edward sat, the hall grew gradually full of lords and knights who commande

reater splendour of their noble names, contrasted painfully with the little mutinous camp of Olney, and the surly, untried recruits of Anthony Woodville. But Edward, whose step, whose form, whose aspect, proclaimed the man conscious of his

wards our foe upon the frontier we have marched, without a sword drawn or an arrow launched from an archer's bow. We believe that a blessing settles on the head of a true king, and that the trumpet of a good angel goes before his path, announcing the victory which awaits him. Here, in the hall of the Earl of Warwick, our captain-general, we thank you for your cheerful countenance and your loyal service; and here, as befits a king, we promise to you those honours a king alone worthily can bestow." He paused, and his keen eye glanced from chief to chief as he resumed: "We are informed that certain misguided and traitor lo

d. Vowed, as those warriors were, to the ear

glory. Three days will we halt at M

repeated Warwick, in

and rush to the war. Not even, gentlemen, not even to the great Earl of Warwick will Edward IV. be so beholden for roiaulme and renown, as to march but a companion to the conquest. If ye were raised in Warwick's name, not mine,-why, be it so! I envy him such friends; but I will have an army of mine own, to show mine English soldiery how a Plantagenet battles for his crown. Gentlemen, ye are dismissed to your repose. In three d

rson, and whom Warwick's influence alone could have roused to arms; but at the close of an address spirited and loyal in itself, and borrowing thousand-fold

ittered in the air; and the dusty banners in the hall waved, as to a mighty blast, when, amidst

sque, though the visor was raised, revealed nothing of his mind. Her daughters were more powerfully affected; for Isabel's intellect was not so blinded b

d and beloved prince had to struggle for his throne. In contrast beside that form, in the prime of manly youth-a giant in its strength, a god in its beauty-rose the delicate shape of the melancholy boy who, afar in exile, coupled in his dreams, the sceptre and the bride! By one of those mysteries which magnetism seeks to explain, in the strong intensity of her emotions, in the tremor of her shaken nerves, fear seemed to grow prophetic. A stream as of blood rose up from the diz

who was said to have singular influence over her lord, but principally because in such a presence he trusted to avoid all discussion and all questioning, and to leave the effect of his eloquence, in which he excelled all his contemporaries, Gloucester

he lifeless form in his stalwart arms; and Anne, as he bent over her, looked so strangely lovely in her marble stillness,

nd let me hope that interest which my fair kinswoman may take in

tting resentment and ceremony alike, he held out his mailed hand. The king, as he resigned Anne to her mother's arms, grasped with soldierly frankness, and with the ready wit of the cold intellect which reigned beneath the warm manner, the ha

when the clarions sounded the charge at Towton! and that li

exultingly beheld that what before had been alleg