army or shake a
throne."

"But by what spell?"

"By men's wrongs, lord," answered Robin, in a deep voice; "and now, ere
this moon wanes, Redesdale is a camp!"

"What the immediate cause of complaint?"

"The hospital of St. Leonard's has compelled us unjustly to render them
a thrave of corn."

"Thou art a cunning knave! Pinch the belly if you would make Englishmen
rise."

"True," said Robin, smiling grimly; "and now--what say you--will you
head us?"

"Head you! No!"

"Will you betray us?"

"It is not easy to betray twenty thousand men; if ye rise merely to free
yourselves from a corn-tax and England from the Woodvilles, I see no
treason in your revolt."

"I understand you, Lord Montagu," said Robin, with a stern and
half-scornful smile,--"you are not above thriving by our danger; but we
need now no lord and baron,--we will suffice for ourselves. And the hour
will come, believe me, when Lord Warwick, pursued by the king, must fly
to the Commons. Think well of these things and this prophecy, when the
news from the North startles Edward of March in the lap of his harlots."

Without saying another word, he turned and quitted the chamber as
abruptly as he had entered.

Lord Montagu was not, for his age, a bad man; though worldly, subtle,
and designing, with some of the craft of his prelate brother he united
something of the high soul of his brother soldier. But that age had
not the virtue of later times, and cannot be judged by its standard.
He heard this bold dare-devil menace his country with civil war upon
grounds not plainly stated nor clearly understood,--he aided not, but he
connived: "Twenty thousand men in arms," he muttered to himself,--"say
half-well, ten thousand--not against Edward, but the Woodvilles! It must
bring the king to his senses; must prove to him how odious the mushroom
race of the Woodvilles, and drive him for safety and for refuge to
Montagu and Warwick. If the knaves presume too far," (and Montagu
smiled), "what are undisciplined multitudes to the eye of a skilful
captain? Let the storm blow, we will guide the blast. In this world man
must make use of man."

CHAPTER IV. SIBYLL.

While Montagu in anxious forethought awaited the revolt that Robin of
Redesdale had predicted; while Edward feasted and laughed, merry-made
with his courtiers, and aided the conjugal duties of his good citizens
in London; while the queen and her father, Lord Rivers, more and more
in the absence of W