ul
into the opposite error, so fatal to the affairs of life,--the error
that deadens and benumbs the energy of free will and the noble alertness
of active duty. Why strain and strive for the things of this world? God
would order all for the best. Alas! God hath placed us in this world,
each, from king to peasant, with nerves and hearts and blood and
passions to struggle with our kind; and, no matter how heavenly the
goal, to labour with the million in the race!

"Forsooth," murmured the king, as, his hands clasped behind him,
he paced slowly to and fro the floor, "this ill world seemeth but
a feather, blown about by the winds, and never to be at rest. Hark!
Warwick and King Henry,--the lion and the lamb! Alack, and we are fallen
on no Paradise, where such union were not a miracle! Foolish bird!"--and
with a pitying smile upon that face whose holy sweetness might have
disarmed a fiend, he paused before the cage and contemplated his
fellow-captive--"foolish bird, the uneasiness and turmoil without have
reached even to thee. Thou beatest thy wings against the wires, thou
turnest thy bright eyes to mine restlessly. Why? Pantest thou to be
free, silly one, that the hawk may swoop on its defenceless prey?
Better, perhaps, the cage for thee, and the prison for thy master. Well,
out if thou wilt! Here at least thou art safe!" and opening the cage,
the starling flew to his bosom, and nestled there, with its small clear
voice mimicking the human sound,--

"Poor Henry, poor Henry! Wicked men, poor Henry!"

The king bowed his meek head over his favourite, and the fat spaniel,
jealous of the monopolized caress, came waddling towards its master,
with a fond whine, and looked up at him with eyes that expressed more of
faith and love than Edward of York, the ever wooing and ever wooed, had
read in the gaze of woman.

With those companions, and with thoughts growing more and more composed
and rapt from all that had roused and vexed his interest in the
forenoon, Henry remained till the hour had long passed for his evening
meal. Surprised at last by a negligence which (to do his jailers
justice) had never before occurred, and finding no response to his
hand-bell, no attendant in the anteroom, the outer doors locked as
usual, but the sentinel's tread in the court below hushed and still,
a cold thrill for a moment shot through his blood.--"Was he left for
hunger to do its silent work?" Slowly he bent his way from the outer
rooms back t