bosoms,--and there is the only throne armies cannot shake, nor
cozeners undermine."

With these words he gently waved his hand, motioned to his squire, who
stood out of hearing with the steeds, to approach, and mounting, gravely
rode on. Ere he had got many paces, he called to Marmaduke, who was
on foot, and bade him follow him to London that night. "I have strange
tidings to tell the French envoys, and for England's sake I must soothe
their anger, if I can,--then to Middleham."

The nobles returned slowly to the pavilions. And as they gained the open
space, where the gaudy tents still shone against the setting sun, they
beheld the mob of that day, whom Shakspeare hath painted with such
contempt, gathering, laughing and loud, around the mountebank and the
conjurer, who had already replaced in their thoughts (as Gloucester had
foreseen) the hero-idol of their worship.

BOOK V.

CHAPTER I. RURAL ENGLAND IN THE MIDDLE AGES--NOBLE VISITORS SEEK THE
CASTLE OF MIDDLEHAM.

Autumn had succeeded to summer, winter to autumn, and the spring of 1468
was green in England, when a gallant cavalcade was seen slowly winding
the ascent of a long and gradual hill, towards the decline of day.
Different, indeed, from the aspect which that part of the country now
presents was the landscape that lay around them, bathed in the smiles
of the westering sun. In a valley to the left, a full view of which
the steep road commanded (where now roars the din of trade through a
thousand factories), lay a long, secluded village. The houses, if so
they might be called, were constructed entirely of wood, and that of the
more perishable kind,--willow, sallow, elm, and plum-tree. Not one could
boast a chimney; but the smoke from the single fire in each, after duly
darkening the atmosphere within, sent its surplusage lazily and fitfully
through a circular aperture in the roof. In fact, there was long in the
provinces a prejudice against chimneys! The smoke was considered good
both for house and owner; the first it was supposed to season, and the
last to guard "from rheums, catarrhs, and poses." [So worthy Hollinshed,
Book II. c. 22.--"Then had we none but reredosses, and our heads did
never ache. For as the smoke, in those days, was supposed to be a
sufficient hardening for the timber of the house, so it was reputed a
far better medicine to keep the goodman and his familie from the quacke,
or pose, wherewith as then very few were oft acquainted."