promised to command the respect and love of
the people) sole regent of all the realm, upon attaining his majority.
For the Duke of Clarence were reserved all the lands and dignities of
the duchy of York, the right to the succession of the throne to him
and his posterity,--failing male heirs to the Prince of Wales,--with a
private pledge of the viceroyalty of Ireland.

Margaret had attached to her consent one condition highly obnoxious
to her high-spirited son, and to which he was only reconciled by the
arguments of Warwick: she stipulated that he should not accompany the
earl to England, nor appear there till his father was proclaimed
king. In this, no doubt, she was guided by maternal fears, and by some
undeclared suspicion, either of the good faith of Warwick, or of his
means to raise a sufficient army to fulfil his promise. The brave prince
wished to be himself foremost in the battles fought in his right and for
his cause. But the earl contended, to the surprise and joy of Margaret,
that it best behooved the prince's interests to enter England without
one enemy in the field, leaving others to clear his path, free himself
from all the personal hate of hostile factions, and without a drop of
blood upon the sword of one heralded and announced as the peace-maker
and impartial reconciles of all feuds. So then (these high conditions
settled), in the presence of the Kings Rene and Louis, of the Earl
and Countess of Warwick, and in solemn state, at Amboise, Edward of
Lancaster plighted his marriage-troth to his beloved and loving Anne.

It was deep night, and high revel in the Palace of Amboise crowned the
ceremonies of that memorable day. The Earl of Warwick stood alone in the
same chamber in which he had first discovered the secret of the young
Lancastrian. From the brilliant company, assembled in the halls of
state, he had stolen unperceived away, for his great heart was full to
overflowing. The part he had played for many days was over, and with
it the excitement and the fever. His schemes were crowned,--the
Lancastrians were won to his revenge; the king's heir was the betrothed
of his favourite child; and the hour was visible in the distance, when,
by the retribution most to be desired, the father's hand should lead
that child to the throne of him who would have degraded her to the dust.
If victory awaited his sanguine hopes, as father to his future queen,
the dignity and power of the earl became greater in the court o