"I have none of these save the horsemanship, gracious my lord; and if
thou wilt not receive me thyself, I will not burden my Lord of Montagu
and Northumberland."

"Hot and quick! No! John of Montagu would not suit thee, nor thou him.
But how to provide for thee till my return I know not."

"Dare I not hope, then, to make one of your embassage, noble earl?"

Warwick bent his brows, and looked at him in surprise. "Of our
embassage! Why, thou art haughty, indeed! Nay, and so a soldier's son
and a Nevile should be! I blame thee not; but I could not make thee
one of my train, without creating a hundred enemies--to me (but that's
nothing) and to thee, which were much. Knowest thou not that there is
scarce a gentleman of my train below the state of a peer's son, and that
I have made, by refusals, malcontents eno', as it is?--Yet, bold! there
is my learned brother, the Archbishop of York. Knowest thou Latin and
the schools?"

"'Fore Heaven, my lord," said the Nevile, bluntly, "I see already I had
best go back to green Westmoreland, for I am as unfit for his grace the
archbishop as I am for my Lord Montagu."

"Well, then," said the earl, dryly, "since thou hast not yet station
enough for my train, nor glosing for Northumberland, nor wit and lere
for the archbishop, I suppose, my poor youth, I must e'en make you only
a gentleman about the king! It is not a post so sure of quick rising and
full gipsires as one about myself or my brethren, but it will be less
envied, and is good for thy first essay. How goes the clock? Oh, here is
Nick Alwyn's new horologe. He tells me that the English will soon rival
the Dutch in these baubles. [Clockwork appears to have been introduced
into England in the reign of Edward III., when three Dutch horologers
were invited over from Delft. They must soon have passed into common
use, for Chaucer thus familiarly speaks of them:--

"Full sickerer was his crowing in his loge
Than is a clock or any abbey orloge."]

The more the pity!--our red-faced yeomen, alas, are fast sinking into
lank-jawed mechanics! We shall find the king in his garden within the
next half-hour. Thou shalt attend me."

Marmaduke expressed, with more feeling than eloquence, the thanks he
owed for an offer that, he was about to say, exceeded his hopes; but he
had already, since his departure from Westmoreland, acquired sufficient
wit to think twice of his words. And so eagerly, at that time, did the
youth of the