berless arbours, quaint with all the flowers then known in England,
were constructed. In the centre of the sward was a small artificial
lake, long since dried up, and adorned then with a profusion of
fountains, that seemed to scatter coolness around the glowing air.
Pitched in various and appropriate sites were tents of silk and the
white cloth of Rennes, each tent so placed as to command one of the
alleys; and at the opening of each stood cavalier or dame, with the bow
or crossbow, as it pleased the fancy or suited best the skill, looking
for the quarry, which horn and hound drove fast and frequent across the
alleys. Such was the luxurious "summer-chase" of the Sardanapalus of the
North. Nor could any spectacle more thoroughly represent that poetical
yet effeminate taste, which, borrowed from the Italians, made a short
interval between the chivalric and the modern age. The exceeding beauty
of the day, the richness of the foliage in the first suns of bright
July, the bay of the dogs, the sound of the mellow horn, the fragrance
of the air, heavy with noontide flowers, the gay tents, the rich dresses
and fair faces and merry laughter of dame and donzell,--combined to
take captive every sense, and to reconcile ambition itself, that eternal
traveller through the future, to the enjoyment of the voluptuous hour.
But there were illustrious exceptions to the contentment of the general
company.

A courier had arrived that morning to apprise Edward of the unexpected
debarkation of the Earl of Warwick, with the Archbishop of Narbonne and
the Bastard of Bourbon,--the ambassadors commissioned by Louis to settle
the preliminaries of the marriage between Margaret and his brother. This
unwelcome intelligence reached Edward at the very moment he was sallying
from his palace gates to his pleasant pastime. He took aside Lord
Hastings, and communicated the news to his able favourite. "Put spurs to
thy horse, Hastings, and hie thee fast to Baynard's Castle. Bring back
Gloucester. In these difficult matters that boy's head is better than a
council."

"Your Highness," said Hastings, tightening his girdle with one hand,
while with the other he shortened his stirrups, "shall be obeyed. I
foresaw, sire, that this coming would occasion much that my Lords Rivers
and Worcester have overlooked. I rejoice that you summon the Prince
Richard, who hath wisely forborne all countenance to the Burgundian
envoy. But is this all, sire? Is it not well to ass