yal family and their more distinguished guests (namely,
the palace, properly speaking, as distinct from the fortress), and
communicated with the regal lodge by a long corridor, raised above
cloisters and open to a courtyard. At one end of this corridor a door
opened upon the passage, in which was situated the chamber of the Lady
Anne; the other extremity communicated with a rugged stair of stone,
conducting to the rooms tenanted by Warner. Leaving Sibyll to present
her learned father to the gentle Anne, we follow the king into the
garden, which he entered on dismounting. He found here the Archbishop
of York, who had come to the palace in his barge, and with but a slight
retinue, and who was now conversing with Hastings in earnest whispers.

The king, who seemed thoughtful and fatigued, approached the two, and
said, with a forced smile, "What learned sententiary engages you two
scholars?"

"Your Grace," said the archbishop, "Minerva was not precisely the
goddess most potent over our thoughts at that moment. I received a
letter last evening from the Duke of Gloucester, and as I know the love
borne by the prince to the Lord Hastings, I inquired of your chamberlain
how far he would have foreguessed the news it announced."

"And what may the tidings be?" asked Edward, absently.

The prelate hesitated.

"Sire," he said gravely, "the familiar confidence with which both your
Highness and the Duke of Gloucester distinguish the chamberlain, permits
me to communicate the purport of the letter in his presence. The young
duke informs me that he hath long conceived an affection which he would
improve into marriage, but before he address either the demoiselle or
her father, he prays me to confer with your Grace, whose pleasure in
this, as in all things, will be his sovereign law."

"Ah, Richard loves me with a truer love than George of Clarence! But who
can he have seen on the Borders worthy to be a prince's bride?"

"It is no sudden passion, sire, as I before hinted; nay, it has been for
some time sufficiently notorious to his friends and many of the court;
it is an affection for a maiden known to him in childhood, connected to
him by blood,--my niece, Anne Nevile."

As if stung by a scorpion, Edward threw off the prelate's arm, on which
he had been leaning with his usual caressing courtesy.

"This is too much!" said he, quickly, and his face, before somewhat
pale, grew highly flushed. "Is the whole royalty of England to be