d men spring up
from pasture and glebe, dyke and hedge. Join what troops you can collect
in three days with mine at Coventry, and, ere the sickle is in the
harvest, England shall be at peace. God speed you! Ho! there, gentlemen,
away!--a franc etrier!"

Without pausing for reply,--for he wished to avoid all questioning,
lest Warwick might discover that it was to a Woodville that he was
bound,--the king put spurs to his horse, and, while his men were yet
hurrying to and fro, rode on almost alone, and was a good mile out
of the town before the force led by St. John and Raoul de Fulke, and
followed by Hastings, who held no command, overtook him.

"I misthink the king," said Warwick, gloomily; "but my word is pledged
to the people, and it shall be kept."

"A man's word is best kept when his arm is the strongest," said the
sententious archbishop; "yesterday, you dispersed an army; to-day, raise
one!"

Warwick answered not, but, after a moment's thought, beckoned to
Marmaduke.

"Kinsman," said he, "spur on, with ten of my little company, to join
the king. Report to me if any of the Woodvilles be in his camp near
Coventry."

"Whither shall I send the report?"

"To my castle of Warwick."

Marmaduke bowed his head, and, accustomed to the brevity of the earl's
speech, proceeded to the task enjoined him. Warwick next summoned his
second squire.

"My lady and her children," said he, "are on their way to Middleham.
This paper will instruct you of their progress. Join them with all the
rest of my troop, except my heralds and trumpeters; and say that I shall
meet them ere long at Middleham."

"It is a strange way to raise an army," said the archbishop, dryly, "to
begin by getting rid of all the force one possesses!"

"Brother," answered the earl, "I would fain show my son-in-law, who may
be the father of a line of kings, that a general may be helpless at the
head of thousands, but that a man may stand alone who has the love of a
nation."

"May Clarence profit by the lesson! Where is he all this while?"

"Abed," said the stout earl, with a slight accent of disdain; and then,
in a softer voice, he added, "youth is ever luxurious. Better the slow
man than the false one."

Leaving Warwick to discharge the duty enjoined him, we follow the
dissimulating king.

CHAPTER VI. WHAT BEFALLS KING EDWARD ON HIS ESCAPE FROM OLNEY.

As soon as Edward was out of sight of the spire of Olney, he slackened
his speed, and beck