he nominal command to
those whose military skill and high birth raised a riot into the dignity
of rebellion, had given that consistency and method to the rising which
popular movements never attain without aristocratic aid.

In the principal tent of the encampment the leaders of the insurrection
were assembled.

There was Sir John Coniers, who had married one of the Neviles, the
daughter of Fauconberg, Lord High Admiral, but who had profited little
by this remote connection with Warwick; for, with all his merit, he was
a greedy, grasping man, and he had angered the hot earl in pressing
his claims too imperiously. This renowned knight was a tall, gaunt man,
whose iron frame sixty winters had not bowed. There were the young heirs
of Latimer and Fitzhugh, in gay gilded armour and scarlet mantelines;
and there, in a plain cuirass, trebly welded, and of immense weight, but
the lower limbs left free and unincumbered in thick leathern hose, stood
Robin of Redesdale. Other captains there were, whom different motives
had led to the common confederacy. There might be seen the secret
Lollard, hating either Rose, stern and sour, and acknowledging no leader
but Hilyard, whom he knew as a Lollard's son; there might be seen the
ruined spendthrift, discontented with fortune, and regarding civil war
as the cast of a die,--death for the forfeiture, lordships for the gain;
there, the sturdy Saxon squire, oppressed by the little baron of his
province, and rather hopeful to abase a neighbour than dethrone a king
of whom he knew little, and for whom he cared still less; and there,
chiefly distinguished from the rest by grizzled beard, upturned
mustache, erect mien, and grave, not thoughtful aspect, were the men
of a former period,--the soldiers who had fought against the Maid of
Are,--now without place, station, or hope in peaceful times, already
half robbers by profession, and decoyed to any standard that promised
action, pay, or plunder.

The conclave were in high and warm debate.

"If this be true," said Coniers, who stood at the head of the table,
his helmet, axe, truncheon, and a rough map of the walls of Olney before
him--"if this be true, if our scouts are not deceived, if the Earl
of Warwick is in the village, and if his banner float beside King
Edward's,--I say, bluntly, as soldiers should speak, that I have been
deceived and juggled!"

"And by whom, Sir Knight and cousin?" said the heir of Fitzhugh,
reddening.

"By you, you