e should be permitted
to join the duchess with secret messages to Isabel and the duke, warning
them both that Warwick and Margaret would forget their past feud in
present sympathy, and that the rebellion against King Edward, instead
of placing them on the throne, would humble them to be subordinates and
aliens to the real profiters, the Lancastrians. [Comines, 3, c. 5; Hall;
Hollinshed] He foresaw what effect these warnings would have upon the
vain duke and the ambitious Isabel, whose character was known to him
from childhood. He startled the king by insisting upon sending, at the
same time, a trusty diplomatist to Margaret of Anjou, proffering to give
the princess Elizabeth (betrothed to Lord Montagu's son) to the young
Prince Edward. ["Original Letters from Harleian Manuscripts." Edited by
Sir H. Ellis (second series).] Thus, if the king, who had, as yet, no
son, were to die, Margaret's son, in right of his wife, as well as in
that of his own descent, would peaceably ascend the throne. "Need I
say that I mean not this in sad and serious earnest?" observed Richard,
interrupting the astonished king. "I mean it but to amuse the Anjouite,
and to deafen her ears to any overtures from Warwick. If she listen,
we gain time; that time will inevitably renew irreconcilable quarrel
between herself and the earl. His hot temper and desire of revenge
will not brook delay. He will land, unsupported by Margaret and
her partisans, and without any fixed principle of action which can
strengthen force by opinion."

"You are right, Richard," said Edward, whose faithless cunning
comprehended the more sagacious policy it could not originate. "All be
it as you will."

"And in the mean while," added Richard, "watch well, but anger not,
Montagu and the archbishop. It were dangerous to seem to distrust them
till proof be clear; it were dull to believe them true. I go at once to
fulfil my task."

CHAPTER VII. WARWICK AND HIS FAMILY IN EXILE.

We now summon the reader on a longer if less classic journey than from
Thebes to Athens, and waft him on a rapid wing from Shene to Amboise. We
must suppose that the two emissaries of Gloucester have already arrived
at their several destinations,--the lady has reached Isabel, the envoy
Margaret.

In one of the apartments appropriated to the earl in the royal palace,
within the embrasure of a vast Gothic casement, sat Anne of Warwick; the
small wicket in the window was open, and gave a view of a w