view of making one
more effort to recover her husband's throne. She knew, of course, that
there was a large body of nobles, and of the people of the country,
who were still faithful to her husband's cause, and who would be ready
to rally round his standard whenever and wherever it should appear.
All that she required was the nucleus of an army at the outset, and a
tolerably successful beginning in entering the country. There were
knights and nobles, and great numbers of men, every where ready to
join her as soon as she should appear, but they were nowhere strong
enough to commence a movement on their own responsibility.

[Sidenote: The prince.]

One of the measures which she adopted for strengthening her interest
with the royal family of Scotland was to negotiate a marriage between
the young prince, who was now seven years old, and a Scotch princess.
She succeeded in conditionally arranging this marriage, but she found
that she could not raise troops for a second invasion of England.

[Sidenote: Messengers sent to France.]

In the mean time, she had sent three noblemen as her messengers into
France, to see what could be done in that country. France was her
native land, and the king at that time, Charles VII., was her uncle.
She had strong reason to hope, therefore, that she might find aid and
sympathy there. Toward the close of the summer, however, she received
a letter from two of her messengers at Dieppe which was not at all
encouraging.

[Sidenote: Their letter.]

The letter began by saying, on the part of the messengers, that they
had already written to Margaret three times before; once by the return
of the vessel, called the _Carvel_, in which they went to France, and
twice from Dieppe, where they then were, but all the letters were
substantially to communicate the same evil tidings, namely, that the
king, her uncle, was dead, and that her cousin had succeeded to the
throne, but that the new king seemed not at all disposed to regard her
cause favorably. His officers at Dieppe had caused all their papers to
be seized and taken to the king, and he had shut up one of their
number in the castle of Arques, which is situated at a short distance
from Dieppe. He had been apparently prevented from imprisoning the
other two by their having been provided with a safe-conduct, which
protected them.

[Sidenote: The messengers' advice to the queen.]

Furthermore, the writers of the letter bade the queen keep up good
c