have caught the king and queen, he would have cut off
_their_ heads, and put them on the poles in the place of his father's
and his brother's; but he could not catch them. They fled to the
north, toward the frontiers of Scotland, and so escaped from his
hands.
Edward determined not to pursue the fugitives any farther at that
time, as there were many important affairs to be attended to in
London, and so he concluded to be satisfied at present with the
victory which he had obtained, and with the dispersion of his enemies,
and to return to the capital. He first, however, gathered together
the remains of his father and brother, and caused them to be buried
with solemn funeral ceremonies in one of his castles near York. This
was, however, only a temporary arrangement, for, as soon as his
affairs were fully settled, the remains were disinterred, and
conveyed, with great funeral pomp and parade, to their final
resting-place in the southern part of the kingdom.
As soon as Edward reached London, one of the first things that he did
was to send for his two brothers, George and Richard, who, as will be
recollected, had been removed by their mother to Holland, and were now
in Utrecht pursuing their education. These two boys were all the
brothers of Edward that remained now alive. They came back to London.
Their widowed mother's heart was filled with a melancholy sort of joy
in seeing her children once more together, safe in their native land;
but her spirit, after reviving for a moment, sank again, overwhelmed
with the bitter and irreparable loss which she had sustained in the
death of her husband. His death was, of course, a fatal blow to all
those ambitious plans and aspirations which she had cherished for
herself. Though the mother of a king, she could now never become
herself a queen; and, disappointed and unhappy, she retired to one of
the family castles in the neighborhood of London, and lived there
comparatively alone and in great seclusion.
The boys, on the other hand, were brought forward very conspicuously
into public life. In the autumn of the same year in which Edward took
possession of the crown, they were made royal dukes, with great parade
and ceremony, and were endowed with immense estates to enable them to
support the dignity of their rank and position. George was made Duke
of Clarence; Richard, Duke of Gloucester; and from this time the two
boys were almost always designated by these names.
Suitable perso
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