uld have
escaped from the boat. He supposed that he had effected the complete
destruction of all on board of it. Somerset's men, who had been
stationed at some distance from the landing to receive Lady Neville
and convey her home, waited until long past the appointed hour, but no
one came. The inquiries which Somerset made secretly the next day
showed that the boat had sailed from the village, but no tidings of
her arrival in London could be obtained, and he supposed that she must
have been lost, with all on board, by some accident on the river. As
for the Earl of Salisbury, Lady Neville's father, Gloucester went to
him at once, and informed him what he had done. He had detected his
daughter, he said, in a guilty intrigue, which, if it had been made
public, would have brought not only herself, but all her family, to
shame. The earl, who was a man of great sternness and severity of
character, said that Gloucester had done perfectly right, and they
agreed together to keep the whole transaction secret from the world,
and to circulate a report that Lady Neville had died from some natural
cause.

[Sidenote: Arrival in London.]

Such was the state of things when Margaret and Lady Neville arrived in
London. As soon as the queen became somewhat established in her new
home, she began to revolve in her mind the means of deposing
Gloucester. Her plan was first to endeavor to arouse her husband from
his lethargy, and to awaken in his mind something like a spirit of
independence and a feeling of ambition.

[Sidenote: The queen and Henry.]

"You have in your hands," she used to say to him, "what may be easily
made the foundation of the noblest realm in Europe. Besides Great
Britain, you have the whole of Normandy, and other valuable
possessions in France, which together form a vast kingdom, in the
government of which you might acquire great glory, if you would take
the government of it into your own hands."

[Sidenote: Margaret's arguments.]

She went on to represent to him how unworthy it was of him to allow
all the power of such a realm to be wielded by his uncle, instead of
assuming the command at once himself, as every consideration of
prudence and policy urged him to do. A great many instances had
occurred in English history, she said, in which a favorite minister
had been allowed to hold power so long, and to strengthen himself in
the possession of it so completely, that he could not be divested of
it, so that the king