the principal officers had
crowded, and cried aloud,--

"Behold! Warwick and Edward thus hand in hand, as they stood when the
clarions sounded the charge at Towton! and that link what swords forged
on a mortal's anvil can rend or sever?"

In an instant every knee there knelt; and Edward exultingly beheld that
what before had been allegiance to the earl was now only homage to the
king.

CHAPTER IX. WEDDED CONFIDENCE AND LOVE--THE EARL AND THE PRELATE--THE
PRELATE AND THE KING--SCHEMES--WILES--AND THE BIRTH OF A DARK THOUGHT
DESTINED TO ECLIPSE A SUN.

While, preparatory to the banquet, Edward, as was then the daily classic
custom, relaxed his fatigues, mental or bodily, in the hospitable bath,
the archbishop sought the closet of the earl.

"Brother," said he, throwing himself with some petulance into the only
chair the room, otherwise splendid, contained, "when you left me to
seek Edward in the camp of Anthony Woodville, what was the understanding
between us?"

"I know of none," answered the earl, who having doffed his armour, and
dismissed his squires, leaned thoughtfully against the wall, dressed
for the banquet, with the exception of the short surcoat, which lay
glittering on the tabouret.

"You know of none? Reflect! Have you brought hither Edward as a guest or
as a prisoner?"

The earl knit his brows--"A prisoner, archbishop?"

The prelate regarded him with a cold smile.

"Warwick, you, who would deceive no other man, now seek to deceive
yourself." The earl drew back, and his hardy countenance grew a shade
paler. The prelate resumed: "You have carried Edward from his camp, and
severed him from his troops; you have placed him in the midst of your
own followers; you have led him, chafing and resentful all the way, to
this impregnable keep; and you now pause, amazed by the grandeur of
your captive,--a man who leads to his home a tiger, a spider who has
entangled a hornet in its web!"

"Nay, reverend brother," said the earl, calmly, "ye churchmen never know
what passes in the hearts of those who feel and do not scheme. When I
learned that the king had fled to the Woodvilles, that he was bent upon
violating the pledge given in his name to the insurgent commons, I vowed
that he should redeem my honour and his own, or that forever I would
quit his service. And here, within these walls which sheltered his
childhood, I trusted, and trust still, to make one last appeal to his
better reason."

"For all