e for a king's brother; but the safety of the
throne imperatively demands that my brothers should strengthen my
rule by connections with foreign potentates. I, it is true, married
a subject, and see all the troubles that have sprung from my boyish
passion! No, no! Go to Bretagne. The duke hath a fair daughter, and we
will make up for any scantiness in the dower. Weary me no more, George.
Fiat voluntas mea!"

But the motives assigned were not those which influenced the king's
refusal. Reasonably enough, he dreaded that the next male heir to his
crown should wed the daughter of the subject who had given that crown,
and might at any time take it away. He knew Clarence to be giddy,
unprincipled, and vain. Edward's faith in Warwick was shaken by the
continual and artful representations of the queen and her family. He
felt that the alliance between Clarence and the earl would be the union
of two interests almost irresistible if once arrayed against his own.

But Warwick, who penetrated into the true reason for Edward's obstinacy,
was yet more resentful against the reasons than the obstinacy itself.
The one galled him through his affections, the other through his pride;
and the first were as keen as the last was morbid. He was the more
chafed, inasmuch as his anxiety of father became aroused. Isabel was
really attached to Clarence, who, with all his errors, possessed every
superficial attraction that graced his House,--gallant and handsome, gay
and joyous, and with manners that made him no less popular than Edward
himself.

And if Isabel's affections were not deep, disinterested, and tender,
like those of Anne, they were strengthened by a pride which she
inherited from her father, and a vanity which she took from her sex.
It was galling in the extreme to feel that the loves between her and
Clarence were the court gossip, and the king's refusal the court jest.
Her health gave way, and pride and love both gnawed at her heart.

It happened, unfortunately for the king and for Warwick, that
Gloucester, whose premature acuteness and sagacity would have the more
served both, inasmuch as the views he had formed in regard to Anne
would have blended his interest in some degree with that of the Duke of
Clarence, and certainly with the object of conciliation between Edward
and his minister,--it happened, we say, unfortunately, that Gloucester
was still absent with the forces employed on the Scottish frontier,
whither he had repaired o