arl had "too
much magnanimity to put them to death immediately, according to the
common practice of the times, and only imprisoned them in the castle
of Wardour, from whence they were soon rescued by John Thornhill,
a gentleman of Dorsetshire." The whole of this story is, however,
absolutely contradicted by the "Warkworth Chronicle" (p. 9, edited by
Mr. Halliwell), according to which authority Anthony Woodville was at
that time commanding a fleet upon the Channel, which waylaid Warwick on
his voyage; but the success therein attributed to the gallant Anthony,
in dispersing or seizing all the earl's ships, save the one that bore
the earl himself and his family, is proved to be purely fabulous, by the
earl's well-attested capture of the Flemish vessels, as he passed
from Calais to the coasts of Normandy, an exploit he could never have
performed with a single vessel of his own. It is very probable that the
story of Anthony Woodville's capture and peril at this time originates
in a misadventure many years before, and recorded in the "Paston
Letters," as well as in the "Chronicles."--In the year 1459, Anthony
Woodville and his father, Lord Rivers (then zealous Lancastrians),
really did fall into the hands of the Earl of March (Edward IV.),
Warwick and Salisbury, and got off with a sound "rating" upon the rude
language which such "knaves' sons" and "little squires" had held to
those "who were of king's blood."]

CHAPTER III. THE PLOT OF THE HOSTELRY--THE MAID AND THE SCHOLAR IN THEIR
HOME.

The country was still disturbed, and the adherents, whether of Henry or
the earl, still rose in many an outbreak, though prevented from swelling
into one common army by the extraordinary vigour not only of Edward,
but of Gloucester and Hastings,--when one morning, just after the events
thus rapidly related, the hostelry of Master Sancroft, in the suburban
parish of Marybone, rejoiced in a motley crowd of customers and topers.

Some half-score soldiers, returned in triumph from the royal camp, sat
round a table placed agreeably enough in the deep recess made by the
large jutting lattice; with them were mingled about as many women,
strangely and gaudily clad. These last were all young; one or two,
indeed, little advanced from childhood. But there was no expression of
youth in their hard, sinister features: coarse paint supplied the place
of bloom; the very youngest had a wrinkle on her brow; their forms
wanted the round and supple gr