the past rushed over me, and all wrath was gone.
Sonless myself, why would he not be my son?" The earl's voice trembled,
and the tears stood in his dark eyes.

"Speak thus, dear lord, to Isabel, for I fear her overvaulting spirit--"

"Ah, had Isabel been his wife!" he paused and moved away. Then, as
if impatient to escape the thoughts that tended to an ungracious
recollection, he added, "And now, sweetheart, these slight fingers have
ofttimes buckled on my mail; let them place on my breast this badge of
St. George's chivalry; and, if angry thoughts return, it shall remind me
that the day on which I wore it first, Richard of York said to his young
Edward, 'Look to that star, boy, if ever, in cloud and trouble, thou
wouldst learn what safety dwells in the heart which never knew deceit.'"

During the banquet, the king, at whose table sat only the Duke of
Clarence and the earl's family, was gracious as day to all, but
especially to the Lady Anne, attributing her sudden illness to some
cause not unflattering to himself; her beauty, which somewhat resembled
that of the queen, save that it had more advantage of expression and
of youth, was precisely of the character he most admired. Even her
timidity, and the reserve with which she answered him, had their charms;
for, like many men, themselves of imperious nature and fiery will,
he preferred even imbecility in a woman to whatever was energetic or
determined; and hence perhaps his indifference to the more dazzling
beauty of Isabel. After the feast, the numerous demoiselles, high-born
and fair, who swelled the more than regal train of the countess, were
assembled in the long gallery, which was placed in the third story
of the castle and served for the principal state apartment. The dance
began; but Isabel excused herself from the pavon, and the king led
out the reluctant and melancholy Anne. The proud Isabel, who had
never forgiven Edward's slight to herself, resented deeply his evident
admiration of her sister, and conversed apart with the archbishop, whose
subtle craft easily drew from her lips confessions of an ambition higher
even than his own. He neither encouraged nor dissuaded; he thought
there were things more impossible than the accession of Clarence to the
throne, but he was one who never plotted,--save for himself and for the
Church.

As the revel waned, the prelate approached the earl, who, with that
remarkable courtesy which charmed those below his rank and cont