orth, engaged in
suppressing an insurrection which had been raised by Lord Fitz-Hugh,
brother-in-law to Warwick. The scene which ensues resembles more
the fiction of a poem or romance than an event in true history. The
prodigious popularity of Warwick, the zeal of the Lancastrian party,
the spirit of discontent with which many were infected, and the general
instability of the English nation occasioned by the late frequent
revolutions drew such multitudes to his standard that in a very few days
his army amounted to sixty thousand men and was continually increasing.
Edward hastened southward to encounter him; and the two armies approached
each other near Nottingham, where a decisive action was every hour
expected.

The rapidity of Warwick's progress had incapacitated the Duke of Clarence
from executing his plan of treachery; and the Marquis of Montagu had here
the opportunity of striking the first blow. He communicated the design to
his adherents, who promised him their concurrence; they took to arms in
the night-time, and hastened with loud acclamations to Edward's quarters;
the King was alarmed at the noise, and, starting from bed, heard the cry
of war usually employed by the Lancastrian party. Lord Hastings, his
chamberlain, informed him of the danger, and urged him to make his escape
by speedy flight from an army where he had so many concealed enemies and
where few seemed zealously attached to his service. He had just time to
get on horseback and to hurry with a small retinue to Lynne, in Norfolk,
where he luckily found some ships ready, on board of which he instantly
embarked. The Earl of Warwick, in eleven days after his first landing,
was left entire master of the kingdom. But Edward's danger did not end
with his embarkation. The Easterlings or Hanse Towns were then at war
both with France and England; and some ships of these people, hovering on
the English coast, espied the King's vessels and gave chase to them; nor
was it without extreme difficulty that he made his escape into the port
of Alkmaar in Holland.

Immediately after Edward's flight had left the kingdom at Warwick's
disposal, that nobleman hastened to London; and taking Henry from his
confinement in the Tower, into which he himself had been the chief
cause of throwing him, he proclaimed him King with great solemnity.
A parliament was summoned, in the name of that Prince, to meet at
Westminster. The treaty with Margaret was here fully executed; Henry
w