dward false, can believe Louis true?"

"Cease, Isabel, cease!" said the countess. "Is it thus my child can
address my lord and husband? Forgive her, beloved Richard."

"Such heat in Clarence's wife misbeseems her not," answered Warwick.
"And I can comprehend and pardon in my haughty Isabel a resentment
which her reason must at last subdue; for think not, Isabel, that it is
without dread struggle and fierce agony that I can contemplate peace and
league with mine ancient foe; but here two duties speak to me in voices
not to be denied: my honour and my hearth, as noble and as man, demand
redress, and the weal and glory of my country demand a ruler who does
not degrade a warrior, nor assail a virgin, nor corrupt a people by lewd
pleasures, nor exhaust a land by grinding imposts; and that honour shall
be vindicated, and that country shall be righted, no matter at what
sacrifice of private grief and pride."

The words and the tone of the earl for a moment awed even Isabel; but
after a pause, she said suddenly, "And for this, then, Clarence hath
joined your quarrel and shared your exile?--for this,--that he may place
the eternal barrier of the Lancastrian line between himself and the
English throne?"

"I would fain hope," answered the earl, calmly, "that Clarence will view
our hard position more charitably than thou. If he gain not all that
I could desire, should success crown our arms, he will, at least, gain
much; for often and ever did thy husband, Isabel, urge me to stern
measures against Edward, when I soothed him and restrained. Mort Dieu!
how often did he complain of slight and insult from Elizabeth and her
minions, of open affront from Edward, of parsimony to his wants as
prince,--of a life, in short, humbled and made bitter by all the
indignity and the gall which scornful power can inflict on dependent
pride. If he gain not the throne, he will gain, at least, the succession
in thy right to the baronies of Beauchamp, the mighty duchy, and the
vast heritage of York, the vice-royalty of Ireland. Never prince of the
blood had wealth and honours equal to those that shall await thy lord.
For the rest, I drew him not into my quarrel; long before would he have
drawn me into his; nor doth it become thee, Isabel, as child and as
sister, to repent, if the husband of my daughter felt as brave men feel,
without calculation of gain and profit, the insult offered to his lady's
House. But if here I overgauge his chivalry and love