be smoothed
and laid at rest without provoking new ones. Nay, pardon me, prince, let
this matter cease--at least, till thy return from the Borders."

"May I take with me hope?"

"Nay," said Warwick, "thou knowest that I am a plain man; to bid thee
hope were to plight my word. And," he added seriously, "there be reasons
grave and well to be considered why both the daughters of a subject
should not wed with their king's brothers. Let this cease now, I pray
thee, sweet lord."

Here the demoiselles joined their father, and the conference was over;
but when Richard, an hour after, stood musing alone on the battlements,
he muttered to himself, "Thou art a fool, stout earl, not to have
welcomed the union between thy power and my wit. Thou goest to a court
where without wit power is nought. Who may foresee the future? Marry,
that was a wise ancient fable, that he who seized and bound Proteus
could extract from the changeful god the prophecy of the days to come.
Yea! the man who can seize Fate can hear its voice predict to him. And
by my own heart and brain, which never yet relinquished what affection
yearned for, or thought aspired to, I read, as in a book, Anne, that
thou shalt be mine; and that where wave on yon battlements the ensigns
of Beauchamp, Monthermer, and Nevile, the Boar of Gloucester shall liege
it over their broad baronies and hardy vassals."

BOOK VI

WHEREIN ARE OPENED SOME GLIMPSES OF THE FATE BELOW THAT ATTENDS THOSE
WHO ARE BETTER THAN OTHERS, AND THOSE WHO DESIRE TO MAKE OTHERS BETTER.
LOVE, DEMAGOGY, AND SCIENCE ALL EQUALLY OFF-SPRING OF THE SAME PROLIFIC
DELUSION,--NAMELY, THAT MEAN SOULS (THE EARTH'S MAJORITY) ARE WORTH
THE HOPE AND THE AGONY OF NOBLE SOULS, THE EVERLASTING SUFFERING AND
ASPIRING FEW.

CHAPTER I. NEW DISSENSIONS.

We must pass over some months. Warwick and his family had returned to
London, and the meeting between Edward and the earl had been cordial
and affectionate. Warwick was reinstated in the offices which gave him
apparently the supreme rule in England. The Princess Margaret had left
England as the bride of Charles the Bold; and the earl had attended
the procession in honour of her nuptials. The king, agreeably with the
martial objects he had had long at heart, had then declared war on
Louis XI., and parliament was addressed and troops were raised for that
impolitic purpose. [Parliamentary Rolls, 623. The fact in the text has
been neglected by most historians.