he
inner side of the broad quadrangle, admitted to the apartments used by
the family; and, heading the mighty train that, line after line, emerged
through the grim jaws of the arch, came the earl on his black destrier,
and the young king.

Even where she stood, the anxious chatelaine beheld the moody and gloomy
air with which Edward glanced around the strong walls of the fortress,
and up to the battlements that bristled with the pikes and sallets of
armed men, who looked on the pomp below, in the silence of military
discipline.

"Oh, Anne!" she whispered to her youngest daughter, who stood beside
her, "what are women worth in the strife of men? Would that our smiles
could heal the wounds which a taunt can make in a proud man's heart!"

Anne, affected and interested by her mother's words, and with a secret
curiosity to gaze upon the man who ruled on the throne of the prince
she loved, came nearer and more in front; and suddenly, as he turned his
head, the king's regard rested upon her intent eyes and blooming face.

"Who is that fair donzell, cousin of Warwick?" he asked.

"My daughter, sire."

"Ah, your youngest!--I have not seen her since she was a child."

Edward reined in his charger, and the earl threw himself from his selle,
and held the king's stirrup to dismount. But he did so with a haughty
and unsmiling visage. "I would be the first, sire," said he, with a
slight emphasis, and as if excusing to himself his condescension, "to
welcome to Middleham the son of Duke Richard."

"And your suzerain, my lord earl," added Edward, with no less proud
a meaning, and leaning his hand lightly on Warwick's shoulder, he
dismounted slowly. "Rise, lady," he said, raising the countess, who
knelt at the porch, "and you too, fair demoiselle. Pardieu, we envy the
knee that hath knelt to you." So saying, with royal graciousness, he
took the countess's hand, and they entered the hall as the musicians, in
the gallery raised above, rolled forth their stormy welcome.

The archbishop, who had followed close to Warwick and the king,
whispered now to his brother,

"Why would Edward address the captains?"

"I know not."

"He hath made himself familiar with many in the march."

"Familiarity with a steel casque better becomes a king than waisall with
a greasy flat-cap."

"You do not fear lest he seduce from the White Bear its retainers?"

"As well fear that he can call the stars from their courses around the
sun."

While th