s, when the air is filled with the irritating, peevish
sounds of chattering gossips, which tell of naught but the scandals of
a court, where Queens are as faithless as are their lives brief,
methinks it will not be amiss for me to tell a story of more martial
days, when gossips told of armies marching and great battles fought,
with pointed lance, and with the bright swords' flash, and with the
lusty ring of shield.

Now, my friend Harleston doth contend, that peace and quiet, without
the disturbing clamour of war's dread alarms, do help to improve the
mind, and thus the power of thought is added unto. This, I doubt not,
is correct in the cases of some men; but there are others, to whom
peace and quiet do but bring a lack of their appreciation. I grant
that to such a mind as Harleston's, peaceful and undisturbed meditation
are the fields in which they love to stroll, and pluck, with tender
hand, and thought-bowed head, the most beautiful and most rare of
flowers: but then, such even-balanced brains as his are few and far
between; and even he, so fond of thought and study, did love to dash,
with levelled lance and waving plumes, against the best opponent, and
hurl him from his saddle.

And there is Michael, which ever thinks the same as do myself, and
longs for fresh obstacles to lay his mighty hand upon and crush, as he
would a reed.

It is of those bygone days of struggle and deep intrigue that I now
shall write. I do hope that some of ye--my sons and grandsons--may,
after I am laid to rest, have some worthy obstacles to overcome, in
order that ye may the better enjoy your happiness when it is allotted
unto you. Still do I pray, with my old heart's truest earnestness,
that no one of my blood may have as great trials as I went through; but
in which I had the noble assistance and sympathy of the best friends
ever man was blest with. I shall now tell of my meeting with the first
of these, and later in the tale I shall tell ye of the other.

I, Walter Bradley, then a faithful servant of his Majesty King Edward
IV, was sitting one evening in my room at the palace of the aforesaid
King, at Windsor, engaged in the examination of some of mine arms, to
make sure that my servants had put them all in proper order for our
expedition into Scotland, with the King's brother, the Duke of
Gloucester. A knock came at my door and, upon opening, I beheld Lord
Hastings, then the Chancellor of the Kingdom, and at his side a
gentle