ir Anthony Woodville's
wife! At whose orders, sir?"

"Her highness the queen's; pardon me, my lord," and the gentleman,
looking round, and sinking his voice, continued, "pardon me, her
highness added, 'If my Lord Chamberlain returns not ere the week ends,
he may find not only the apartment, but the office, no longer free.' My
lord, we all love you--forgive my zeal, and look well if you would guard
your own."

"Thanks, sir. Is my lord of Gloucester in the palace?"

"He is,--and in his chamber. He sits not long at the feast."

"Oblige me by craving his grace's permission to wait on him at leisure;
I attend his answer here."

Leaning against the wall of the corridor, Hastings gave himself up
to other thoughts than those of love. So strong is habit, so powerful
vanity or ambition, once indulged, that this puny slight made a sudden
revulsion in the mind of the royal favourite; once more the agitated and
brilliant court life stirred and fevered him,--that life, so wearisome
when secure, became sweeter when imperilled. To counteract his foes, to
humble his rivals, to regain the king's countenance, to baffle, with the
easy art of his skilful intellect, every hostile stratagem,--such were
the ideas that crossed and hurtled themselves, and Sibyll was forgotten.

The gentleman reappeared. "Prince Richard besought my lord's presence
with loving welcome;" and to the duke's apartment went Lord Hastings.
Richard, clad in a loose chamber robe, which concealed the defects of
his shape, rose from before a table covered with papers, and embraced
Hastings with cordial affection.

"Never more gladly hail to thee, dear William. I need thy wise counsels
with the king, and I have glad tidings for thine own ear."

"Pardieu, my prince; the king, methinks, will scarce heed the counsels
of a dead man."

"Dead?"

"Ay. At court it seems men are dead,--their rooms filled, their places
promised or bestowed,--if they come not, morn and night, to convince
the king that they are alive." And Hastings, with constrained gayety,
repeated the information he had received.

"What would you, Hastings?" said the duke, shrugging his shoulders,
but with some latent meaning in his tone. "Lord Rivers were nought in
himself; but his lady is a mighty heiress, [Elizabeth secured to her
brother, Sir Anthony, the greatest heiress in the kingdom, in the
daughter of Lord Scales,--a wife, by the way, who is said to have been
a mere child at the time of the marr