"What the merits were, I weet not," answered the earl,--"unless,
peradventure, their wives were comely and young."

"Thou wrongest me, Warwick," said the king, carelessly; "Dame Cook was
awry, Dame Philips a grandmother, Dame Jocelyn had lost her front teeth,
and Dame Waer saw seven ways at once! But thou forgettest, man, the
occasion of those honours,--the eve before Elizabeth was crowned,--and
it was policy to make the city of London have a share in her honours.
As to the rest," pursued the king, earnestly and with dignity, "I and my
House have owed much to London. When the peers of England, save thee and
thy friends, stood aloof from my cause, London was ever loyal and true.
Thou seest not, my poor Warwick, that these burgesses are growing up
into power by the decline of the orders above them. And if the sword
is the monarch's appeal for his right, he must look to contented and
honoured industry for his buckler in peace. This is policy,--policy,
Warwick; and Louis XI. will tell thee the same truths, harsh though they
grate in a warrior's ear."

The earl bowed his haughty head, and answered shortly, but with a
touching grace, "Be it ever thine, noble king, to rule as it likes thee,
and mine to defend with my blood even what I approve not with my brain!
But if thou doubtest the wisdom of this alliance, it is not too late
yet. Let me dismiss my following, and cross not the seas. Unless thy
heart is with the marriage, the ties I would form are threads and
cobwebs."

"Nay," returned Edward, irresolutely: "in these great state matters
thy wit is elder than mine; but men do say the Count of Charolois is a
mighty lord; and the alliance with Burgundy will be more profitable to
staple and mart."

"Then, in God's name, so conclude it!" said the earl, hastily, but with
so dark a fire in his eyes that Edward, who was observing him, changed
countenance; "only ask me not, my liege, to advance such a marriage. The
Count of Charolois knows me as his foe--shame were mine did I shun to
say where I love, where I hate. That proud dullard once slighted me when
we met at his father's court, and the wish next to my heart is to pay
back my affront with my battle-axe. Give thy sister to the heir of
Burgundy, and forgive me if I depart to my castle of Middleham."

Edward, stung by the sharpness of this reply, was about to answer as
became his majesty of king, when Warwick more deliberately resumed: "Yet
think well; Henry of Windsor is thy