had conquered {xlix} that province he would
certainly fall upon Calais and Guines, which are not far off. The
ambassadors from the duke and duchess of Austria, as also those from the
duke of Bretagne, who were continually in England at that time, represented
the same thing to him; but to no purpose, for he would believe nothing of
it, and he suffered greatly for his incredulity. Yet I am entirely of
opinion that his conduct proceeded not so much from ignorance as avarice;
for he was afraid to lose his pension of fifty thousand crowns, which our
master paid him very punctually, and besides he was unwilling to leave his
ease and pleasures, to which he was extremely devoted."

The enervated temper of Edward's latter years is faithfully depicted in the
opening lines of one of the best-known works of our great Dramatic Poet:

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths,
Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;
Our stern alarums chang'd to merry meetings,
Our dreadful marches to delightful measures.
Grim-visaged War hath smooth'd his wrinkled front,
And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds,
To fright the souls of fearful adversaries,
He capers nimbly in a lady's chamber,
To the lascivious pleasing of a lute.
_Shakspeare's Richard the Third, act i. sc. 1._

In another place Commines attributes the death of Edward the Fourth to the
vexation he conceived at the great reverse in his political prospects,
which disclosed itself on his loss of the French alliance. This conclusion
is probably imaginary, though Edward's death certainly occurred whilst the
Dauphin's new betrothal was in progress. The treaty of Arras, by which the
arrangement was made, was signed on the 23d Dec. 1482, and the lady
Margaret was delivered to the French, and met the Dauphin at Amboise, on
the 22d of June following. King Edward died on the intervening 9th of
April, a victim, as is generally thought, to his long course of intemperate
living. It is obvious, however, that the failure of the French alliance
must have been a very serious loss to Edward's family, who were left
defenceless on his death, although he had previously contracted his
daughters to the heirs of France, Scotland, Spain, and Burgundy.

Altogether, the ruin of the house of York, if we may credit Commines, was
the eventual result of the fatal compromise made in the campaign of 1475,
and of {l} the enervating and corrupting influences exercised