rs struggled on with as
desperate a bravery as in their days of triumph. Lord Talbot, the most
daring of their leaders, forded the Somme with the water up to his chin to
relieve Crotoy, and threw his men across the Oise in the face of a French
army to relieve Pontoise.

[Sidenote: Richard of York]

Bedford found for the moment an able and vigorous successor in the Duke of
York. Richard of York was the son of the Earl of Cambridge who had been
beheaded by Henry the Fifth; his mother was Anne, the heiress of the
Mortimers and of their claim to the English crown as representatives of
the third son of Edward the Third, Lionel of Clarence. It was to assert
this claim on his son's behalf that the Earl embarked in the fatal plot
which cost him his head. But his death left Richard a mere boy in the
wardship of the Crown, and for years to come all danger from his
pretensions was at an end. Nor did the young Duke give any sign of a
desire to assert them as he grew to manhood. He appeared content with a
lineage and wealth which placed him at the head of the English baronage;
for he had inherited from his uncle the Dukedom of York, his wide
possessions embraced the estates of the families which united in him, the
houses of York, of Clarence, and of Mortimer, and his double descent from
Edward the Third, if it did no more, set him near to the Crown. The nobles
looked up to him as the head of their order, and his political position
recalled that of the Lancastrian Earls at an earlier time. But the
position of Richard was as yet that of a faithful servant of the Crown;
and as Regent of France he displayed the abilities both of a statesman and
of a general. During the brief space of his regency the tide of ill
fortune was stemmed; and towns and castles were recovered along the
border.

[Sidenote: Eleanor Cobham]

His recall after a twelvemonth's success is the first indication of the
jealousy which the ruling house felt of triumphs gained by one who might
some day assert his claim to the throne. Two years later, in 1440, the
Duke was restored to his post, but it was now too late to do more than
stand on the defensive, and all York's ability was required to preserve
Normandy and Maine. Men and money alike came scantily from England--where
the Duke of Gloucester, freed from the check which Bedford had laid on him
while he lived, was again stirring against Beaufort and the Council. But
his influence had been weakened by a marriage