by care and pains, what the other obtained without an effort. He
attended the various holiday meetings of the citizens, where Warwick
was rarely seen. He was smooth-spoken and courteous to his equals, and
generally affable, though with constraint, to his inferiors. He was a
close observer, and not without that genius for intrigue, which in rude
ages passes for the talent of a statesman. And yet in that thorough
knowledge of the habits and tastes of the great mass, which gives wisdom
to a ruler, he was far inferior to the earl. In common with his brother,
he was gifted with the majesty of mien which imposes on the eye; and his
port and countenance were such as became the prodigal expense of velvet,
minever, gold, and jewels, by which the gorgeous magnates of the day
communicated to their appearance the arrogant splendour of their power.

"Young gentleman," said the earl, after eying with some attention the
comely archer, "I am pleased that you bear the name of Nevile. Vouchsafe
to inform me to what scion of our House we are this day indebted for the
credit with which you have upborne its cognizance?"

"I fear," answered the youth, with a slight but not ungraceful
hesitation, "that my lord of Montagu and Northumberland will hardly
forgive the presumption with which I have intruded upon this assembly
a name borne by nobles so illustrious, especially if it belong to those
less fortunate branches of his family which have taken a different
side from himself in the late unhappy commotions. My father was Sir Guy
Nevile, of Arsdale, in Westmoreland."

Lord Montagu's lip lost its gracious smile; he glanced quickly at the
courtiers round him, and said gravely, "I grieve to hear it. Had I
known this, certes my gipsire had still been five nobles the richer.
It becomes not one fresh from the favour of King Edward IV. to show
countenance to the son of a man, kinsman though he was, who bore arms
for the usurpers of Lancaster. I pray thee, sir, to doff, henceforth, a
badge dedicated only to the service of Royal York. No more, young man;
we may not listen to the son of Sir Guy Nevile.--Sirs, shall we ride to
see how the Londoners thrive at quarter-staff?"

With that, Montagu, deigning no further regard at Nevile, wheeled his,
palfrey towards a distant part of the ground, to which the multitude was
already pressing its turbulent and noisy way.

"Thou art hard on thy namesake, fair my lord," said a young noble, in
whose dark-auburn hai