tely eye that silenced and
awed retort, the long-descended Montagu passed the courtiers, and
rode slowly on till out of sight of the palace; he then pushed into a
hand-gallop, and halted not till he had reached London, and gained the
house in which then dwelt the Earl of Oxford, the most powerful of all
the Lancastrian nobles not in exile, and who had hitherto temporized
with the reigning House.

Two days afterwards the news reached Edward that Lord Oxford and Jasper
of Pembroke--uncle to the boy afterwards Henry VII.--had sailed from
England.

The tidings reached the king in his chamber, where he was closeted with
Gloucester. The conference between them seemed to have been warm and
earnest, for Edward's face was flushed, and Gloucester's brow was
perturbed and sullen.

"Now Heaven be praised!" cried the king, extending to Richard the letter
which communicated the flight of the disaffected lords. "We have
two enemies the less in our roiaulme, and many a barony the more to
confiscate to our kingly wants. Ha, ha! these Lancastrians only serve to
enrich us. Frowning still, Richard? smile, boy!"

"Foi de mon ame, Edward," said Richard, with a bitter energy, strangely
at variance with his usual unctious deference to the king, "your
Highness's gayety is ill-seasoned; you reject all the means to assure
your throne, you rejoice in all the events that imperil it. I prayed you
to lose not a moment in conciliating, if possible, the great lord whom
you own you have wronged, and you replied that you would rather lose
your crown than win back the arm that gave it you."

"Gave it me! an error, Richard! that crown was at once the heritage of
my own birth and the achievement of my own sword. But were it as you
say, it is not in a king's nature to bear the presence of a power more
formidable than his own, to submit to a voice that commands rather than
counsels; and the happiest chance that ever befell me is the exile of
this earl. How, after what hath chanced, can I ever see his face again
without humiliation, or he mine without resentment?"

"So you told me anon, and I answered, if that be so, and your Highness
shrinks from the man you have injured, beware at least that Warwick, if
he may not return as a friend, come not back as an irresistible foe. If
you will not conciliate, crush! Hasten by all arts to separate Clarence
from Warwick. Hasten to prevent the union of the earl's popularity and
Henry's rights. Keep eye upon all the