himself,--who had atoned for his submission
to Henry's restoration by such signal activity on behalf of the young
king, whom he associated with the interests of his class, and the weal
of the great commercial city, which some years afterwards rewarded his
affection by electing him to her chief magistracy. [Nicholas Alwyn,
the representative of that generation which aided the commercial and
anti-feudal policy of Edward IV. and Richard III., and welcomed its
consummation under their Tudor successor, rose to be Lord Mayor of
London in the fifteenth year of the reign of Henry VII.--FABYAN.]

It was on that very day, the 13th of April, some hours before the
departure of the York army, that Lord Hastings entered the Tower, to
give orders relative to the removal of the unhappy Henry, whom Edward
had resolved to take with him on his march.

And as he had so ordered and was about to return, Alwyn, emerging from
one of the interior courts, approached him in much agitation, and
said thus: "Pardon me, my lord, if in so grave an hour I recall your
attention to one you may haply have forgotten."

"Ah, the poor maiden; but you told me, in the hurried words that we have
already interchanged, that she was safe and well."

"Safe, my lord,--not well. Oh, hear me. I depart to battle for your
cause and your king's. A gentleman in your train has advised me that you
are married to a noble dame in the foreign land. If so, this girl whom
I have loved so long and truly may yet forget you, may yet be mine. Oh,
give me that hope to make me a braver soldier."

"But," said Hastings, embarrassed, and with a changing countenance, "but
time presses, and I know not where the demoiselle--"

"She is here," interrupted Alwyn; "here, within these walls, in yonder
courtyard. I have just left her. You, whom she loves, forgot her! I,
whom she disdains, remembered. I went to see to her safety, to counsel
her to rest here for the present, whatever betides; and at every word I
said, she broke in upon me with but one name,--that name was thine! And
when stung, and in the impulse of the moment, I exclaimed, 'He deserves
not this devotion. They tell me, Sibyll, that Lord Hastings has found a
wife in exile.' Oh, that look! that cry! they haunt me still. 'Prove it,
prove it, Alwyn,' she cried. 'And--' I interrupted, 'and thou couldst
yet, for thy father's sake, be true wife to me?'"

"Her answer, Alwyn?"

"It was this, 'For my father's sake only, then, could