ause which seems to
offer a fair prospect of success, but they can hardly be blamed for
holding back when they see that the chances are all against them.
Moreover, as a Frenchwoman, it cannot be denied that Margaret has never
been popular in England, and her arrival here, aided by French gold and
surrounded by Frenchmen, will tell against her with the country people.
I went as far as I could on the day before I left Amboise, urging her on
no account to come hither until matters were settled. It would have been
infinitely better had the young prince come alone, and landed in the
West without a single follower. The people would have admired his trust
in them, and would, I am sure, have gathered strongly round his banner.
However, we must still hope for the best. Fortune was against us today:
it may be with us next time we give battle. And with parties so equally
divided throughout the country a signal victory would bring such vast
numbers to our banners that Edward would again find it necessary to
cross the seas."

CHAPTER II THE BATTLE OF TEWKESBURY

Riding fast, Sir Thomas Tresham crossed the Thames at Reading before any
news of the battle of Barnet had arrived there. On the third day after
leaving St. Albans he reached Westbury, and there heard that the news
had been received of the queen's landing at Plymouth on the very day on
which her friends had been defeated at Barnet, and that she had already
been joined by the Duke of Somerset, the Earl of Devon, and others, and
that Exeter had been named as the point of rendezvous for her friends.
As the Lancastrians were in the majority in Wiltshire and Somerset,
there was no longer any fear of arrest by partisans of York, and after
resting for a day Sir Thomas Tresham rode quietly on to Exeter, where
the queen had already arrived.

The battle of Barnet had not, in reality, greatly weakened the
Lancastrian cause. The Earl of Warwick was so detested by the adherents
of the Red Rose that comparatively few of them had joined him, and the
fight was rather between the two sections of Yorkists than between York
and Lancaster. The Earl's death had broken up his party, and York and
Lancaster were now face to face with each other, without his disturbing
influence on either side. Among those who had joined the queen was
Tresham's great friend, the Grand Prior of St. John's. Sir Thomas took
up his lodgings in the house where he had established himself. The queen
was greatly ple