pected from London,
strengthened the fortifications as well as the time would permit, and
awaited the assault of the insurgents.

It was at this crisis, and while throughout all England reigned terror
and commotion, that one day, towards the end of July, a small troop of
horsemen were seen riding rapidly towards the neighbourhood of Olney. As
the village came in view of the cavalcade, with the spire of its church
and its gray stone gateway, so also they beheld, on the pastures that
stretched around wide and far, a moving forest of pikes and plumes.

"Holy Mother!" said one of the foremost riders, "good the knight and
strong man though Edward be, it were sharp work to cut his way from
that hamlet through yonder fields! Brother, we were more welcome, had we
brought more bills and bows at our backs!"

"Archbishop," answered the stately personage thus addressed, "we bring
what alone raises armies and disbands them,--a NAME that a People
honours! From the moment the White Bear is seen on yonder archway side
by side with the king's banner, that army will vanish as smoke before
the wind."

"Heaven grant it, Warwick!" said the Duke of Clarence; "for though
Edward hath used us sorely, it chafes me as Plantagenet and as prince to
see how peasants and varlets can hem round a king."

"Peasants and varlets are pawns in the chessboard, cousin George," said
the prelate; "and knight and bishop find them mighty useful when pushing
forward to an attack. Now knight and bishop appear themselves and take
up the game. Warwick," added the prelate, in a whisper, unheard by
Clarence, "forget not, while appeasing rebellion, that the king is in
your power."

"For shame, George! I think not now of the unkind king; I think only
of the brave boy I dandled on my knee, and whose sword I girded on at
Towton. How his lion heart must chafe, condemned to see a foe whom his
skill as captain tells him it were madness to confront!"

"Ay, Richard Nevile, ay," said the prelate, with a slight sneer, "play
the Paladin, and become the dupe; release the prince, and betray the
people!"

"No! I can be true to both. Tush! brother, your craft is slight to the
plain wisdom of bold honesty. You slacken your steeds, sirs; on! on! see
the march of the rebels! On, for an Edward and a Warwick!" and, spurring
to full speed, the little company arrived at the gates. The loud bugle
of the new comers was answered by the cheerful note of the joyous
warder, while dark, s