oned Hastings to his side.

"Dear Will," said the king, "I have thought over thy counsel, and will
find the occasion to make experiment thereof. But, methinks, thou wilt
agree with me that concessions come best from a king who has an army of
his own. 'Fore Heaven, in the camp of a Warwick I have less power than a
lieutenant! Now mark me. I go to head some recruits raised in haste near
Coventry. The scene of contest must be in the northern counties. Wilt
thou, for love of me, ride night and day, thorough brake, thorough
briar, to Gloucester on the Borders? Bid him march, if the Scot will let
him, back to York; and if he cannot himself quit the Borders, let
him send what men can be spared under thy banner. Failing this, raise
through Yorkshire all the men-at-arms thou canst collect. But, above
all, see Montagu. Him and his army secure at all hazards. If he demur,
tell him his son shall marry his king's daughter, and wear the coronal
of a duke. Ha, ha! a large bait for so large a fish! I see this is no
casual outbreak, but a general convulsion of the realm; and the Earl
of Warwick must not be the only man to smile or to frown back the angry
elements."

"In this, beau sire," answered Hastings, "you speak as a king and
a warrior should, and I will do my best to assert your royal
motto,--'Modus et ordo.' If I can but promise that your Highness has for
a while dismissed the Woodville lords, rely upon it that ere two months
I will place under your truncheon an army worthy of the liege lord of
hardy England."

"Go, dear Hastings, I trust all to thee!" answered the king. The
nobleman kissed his sovereign's extended hand, closed his visor, and,
motioning to his body-squire to follow him, disappeared down a green
lane, avoiding such broader thoroughfares as might bring him in contact
with the officers left at Olney.

In a small village near Coventry Sir Anthony Woodville had collected
about two thousand men, chiefly composed of the tenants and vassals of
the new nobility, who regarded the brilliant Anthony as their head.
The leaders were gallant and ambitious gentlemen, as they who arrive at
fortunes above their birth mostly are; but their vassals were little
to be trusted. For in that day clanship was still strong, and these
followers had been bred in allegiance to Lancastrian lords, whose
confiscated estates were granted to the Yorkist favourites. The shout
that welcomed the arrival of the king was therefore feeble and lukewa