verily he hath bound
men by a charm to love him. Stay thou and share my hasty repast, and
over the wine we will talk of thy views. Spare me now for a moment;
I have to prepare work eno' for a sleepless night. This Lincolnshire
rebellion promises much trouble. Lord Willoughby has joined it; more
than twenty thousand men are in arms. I have already sent to convene the
knights and barons on whom the king can best depend, and must urge their
instant departure for their halls, to raise men and meet the foe. While
Edward feasts, his minister must toil. Tarry a while till I return." The
earl re-entered the hall, and beckoned to Marmaduke, who stood amongst a
group of squires.

"Follow me; I may have work for thee." Warwick took a taper from one of
the servitors, and led the way to his own more private apartment. On the
landing of the staircase, by a small door, stood his body-squire--"Is
the prisoner within?"

"Yes, my lord."

"Good!"--The earl opened the door by which the squire had mounted guard,
and bade Marmaduke wait without.

The inmate of the chamber, whose dress bore the stains of fresh travel
and hard riding, lifted his face hastily as the earl entered.

"Robin Hilyard," said Warwick, "I have mused much how to reconcile my
service to the king with the gratitude I owe to a man who saved me from
great danger. In the midst of thy unhappy and rebellious designs thou
wert captured and brought to me; the papers found on thee attest a
Lancastrian revolt, so ripening towards a mighty gathering, and so
formidable from the adherents whom the gold and intrigues of King Louis
have persuaded to risk land and life for the Red Rose, that all the
king's friends can do to save his throne is now needed. In this revolt
thou hast been the scheming brain, the master hand, the match to the
bombard, the fire brand to the flax. Thou smilest, man! Alas! seest thou
not that it is my stern duty to send thee bound hand and foot before the
king's council, for the brake to wring from thee thy guilty secrets, and
the gibbet to close thy days?"

"I am prepared," said Hilyard; "when the bombard explodes, the match
has become useless; when the flame smites the welkin, the firebrand is
consumed!"

"Bold man! what seest thou in this rebellion that can profit thee?"

"I see, looming through the chasms and rents made in the feudal order by
civil war, the giant image of a free people."

"And thou wouldst be a martyr for the multitude, who desert