mboise, there to plan his revenge, hampered in
doing so by his daughter Isabel's devotion to Clarence, who followed him
to France, and by the fact that, in regard to his own honour, he could
communicate to none save his own kin the secret cause of his open
disaffection.

_IV.--The Return of the King-Maker_

There was no love between Warwick and Margaret of Anjou. But his one
means of exacting penance from Edward was alliance with the unlucky
cause of Lancaster. And this alliance was brought about by the suave
diplomacy of Louis, and the discovery of the long-existing attachment
between the Lady Anne and her old play-fellow, Edward, the only son of
Henry and Margaret, and the hope of the Red Rose.

Coincidently with the marriage of Clarence and Isabel on French soil,
the young Edward and Isabel's sister were betrothed. Richard of
Gloucester was thus definitely estranged from Warwick's cause. And
secret agencies were set afoot to undermine the loyalty of the weak
Clarence to the cause which he had espoused.

At first, however, Warwick's plans prospered. He returned to England,
forced Edward to fly the country in his turn, and restored Henry VI. to
the throne. So far, Clarence and Isabel accompanied him; while Margaret
and her son, with Lady Warwick and the Lady Anne, remained at Amboise.

Then the very elements seemed to war against the Lancastrians. The
restoration came about in October 1470. Margaret was due in London in
November, but for nearly six months the state of the Channel was such
that she was unable to cross it.

Warwick sickened of his self-imposed task. The whole burden of
government rested upon the shoulders of the great earl, great where
deeds of valour were to be done, but weak in the niceties of
administration.

The nobles, no less than the people, had expected miracles. The
king-maker, on his return, gave them but justice. Such was the earl's
position when Edward, with a small following, landed at Ravenspur. A
treacherous message, sent to Warwick's brother Montagu by Clarence,
caused Montagu to allow the invader to march southwards unmolested. This
had so great an effect on public feeling that when Edward reached the
Midlands, he had not a mere handful of supporters at his back, but an
army of large dimensions. Then the wavering Clarence went over to his
brother, and it fell to the lot of the earl sorrowfully to dispatch
Isabel to the camp of his enemy.

But Warwick's cup of bitterness was