busy packing up
clothing and other necessaries in trunks and boxes, and securing
jewels and valuables of various kinds, and removing them to places of
safety. In the midst of this scene, the queen herself sat upon the
rushes which covered the floor, half dressed, and her long and
beautiful locks of hair streaming over her shoulders, the picture of
despair.

There was a certain nobleman, named Lord Hastings, who had been a very
prominent and devoted friend to Edward the Fourth during his life, and
had consequently been upon very intimate and friendly terms with the
queen. It was he, however, that had objected in the council to the
employment of a large force to conduct the young king to London, and,
by so doing, had displeased the queen. Toward morning, while the queen
was in the depths of her distress and terror, making her preparations
for flight, a cheering message from Hastings was brought to her,
telling her not to be alarmed. The message was brought to her by a
certain archbishop who had been chancellor, that is, had had the
custody of the great seal, an impression from which was necessary to
the validity of any royal decree. He came to deliver up the seal to
the queen, and also to bring Lord Hastings's message.

"Ah, woe worth him!" said the queen, when the archbishop informed her
that Lord Hastings bid her not fear. "It is he that is the cause of
all my sorrows; he goeth about to destroy me and my blood."

"Madam," said the archbishop, "be of good comfort. I assure you that,
if they crown any other king than your eldest son, whom they have
with them, we will, on the morrow, crown his brother, whom you have
with you here. And here is the great seal, which, in like wise as your
noble husband gave it to me, so I deliver it to you for the use of
your son." So the archbishop delivered the great seal into the queen's
hands, and went away. This was just before the dawn.

The words which the archbishop spoke to the queen did not give her
much comfort. Indeed, her fears were not so much for her children, or
for the right of the eldest to succeed to the throne, as for herself
and her own personal and family ascendency under the reign of her son.
She had contrived, during the lifetime of her husband, to keep pretty
nearly all the influence and patronage of the government in her own
hands and in that of her family connections, the Woodvilles. You will
recollect how much difficulty that had made, and how strong a party
h