can
wait, and now it seems that our great hope is likely to be fulfilled.
After that, the rest will be easy. There are other nobles, well nigh as
powerful as he, who look with jealousy upon the way in which he lords
it, and be assured that they will look with a still less friendly eye
upon him when he stands, as you say, beside the throne, once your father
is again seated there. We can afford to bide our time, and assuredly it
will not be long before a party is formed against Warwick. Until then
we must bear everything. Our interests are the same. If he is content
to remain a prop to the throne, and not to eclipse it, the memory of
the past will not stand between us, and I shall regard him as the weapon
that has beaten down the House of York and restored us to our own, and
shall give him my confidence and friendship. If, on the other hand,
he assumes too much, and tries to lord it over us, I shall seek other
support and gather a party which even he will be unable successfully to
withstand. I should have thought, Edward, that you would be even more
glad than I that this long time of weary waiting for action is over, and
that once again the banner of Lancaster will be spread to the winds."

"I shall be that, mother. Rather would I meet death in the field than
live cooped up here, a pensioner of France. But I own that I should feel
more joy at the prospect if the people of England had declared in our
favour, instead of its being Warwick--whom you have always taught me to
fear and hate--who thus comes to offer to place my father again on the
throne, and whose goodwill towards us is simply the result of pique and
displeasure because he is no longer first in the favour of Edward. It
does not seem to me that a throne won by the aid of a traitor can be a
stable one."

"You are a foolish boy," the queen said angrily. "Do you not see that by
marrying Warwick's daughter you will attach him firmly to us?"

"Marriages do not count for much, mother. Another of Warwick's daughters
married Clarence, Edward's brother, and yet he purposes to dethrone
Edward."

The queen gave an angry gesture and said, "You have my permission to
retire, Edward. I am in no mood to listen to auguries of evil at the
present moment."

The prince hesitated for a moment as if about to speak, but with an
effort controlled himself, and bowing deeply to his mother, left the
room.

"Edward is in a perverse humour," the queen said in a tone of much
vexation