ies, who now began
to close up round them, showed that others had realized that the
battle was already won by the Yorkist faction.

"King Edward, King Edward!" shouted the fierce soldiers as they
grasped their weapons anew. "Down with the Red Rose! Down with all
false princes! Down with the traitors who would disturb the peace
of the land! King Edward, King Edward!"

The prince looked at Paul, and Paul looked at the prince. The same
thought was in the minds of both.

"We will at least sell our lives dear," said young Edward in low
tones. "My trusty comrade, your loyalty to the Red Rose has been
but a sorry thing for you. I would I could have rewarded you with
such honours as a prince has to give; but--"

"It is honour enough for me, my liege, to die at your side--to die,
if it may be, in saving your life," said Paul. "Talk not so, I
beseech you. The happiness of my life has been in calling myself
your servant. It will be a happy death that is died at your side."

"Not servant--comrade, friend, brother," said Ed ward, holding out
his hand once again, with a look that Paul never forgot. "No more,
Paul. I must play the man; and such words go deep, and bring the
tears to mine eyes. Paul, there are strange chances in battle, and
it may be that you will live through it, and that I may be slain:
If such be so, tell my mother and my wife (for she is that to me,
as I am her husband in love) that I died as a prince of the House
of Plantagenet should do--sword in hand and face to the foe. Tell
my mother that such a death is better than an inglorious life of
exile, and bid her not weep for me. There is yet another world than
this in which we shall meet, where the strife of war is not heard
and the malice of foes pursues us not. Let her look forward to our
meeting there. It were a better prospect, in all truth, than an
earthly crown, which methinks sits heavy on the head of him that
wears it."

Paul said nothing, for he could not trust himself to speak, and
indeed the brief respite was at an end. With loud and threatening
cries the foe was closing round the devoted little band, and from
the other side of the field he could see that a knot of horsemen
were galloping in their direction, as though they had got some news
of the presence of the prince.

Wounded as he was, and spent from having borne the brunt of that
first gallant charge, Paul yet set his teeth and nerved himself for
a last desperate rally. If they could cut th