on a glass), that when, high
lady, thy colder sense returns to thee, thou wilt see that the league
between us must be made!--that thine ire as woman must fade before thy
duties as a another, thy affection as a wife, and thy paramount and
solemn obligations to the people thou hast ruled as queen! In the
dead of night thou shalt hear the voice of Henry in his prison asking
Margaret to set him free; the vision of thy son shall rise before thee
in his bloom and promise, to demand why his mother deprives him of a
crown; and crowds of pale peasants, grinded beneath tyrannous exaction,
and despairing fathers mourning for dishonoured children, shall ask the
Christian queen if God will sanction the unreasoning wrath which rejects
the only instrument that can redress her people."

This said, the earl bowed his head and turned; but, at the first sign of
his departure, there was a general movement among the noble bystanders.
Impressed by the dignity of his bearing, by the greatness of his power,
and by the unquestionable truth that in rejecting him Margaret cast
away the heritage of her son, the exiles, with a common impulse, threw
themselves at the queen's feet, and exclaimed, almost in the same
words,--

"Grace! noble queen!--Grace for the great Lord Warwick!"

"My sister," whispered John of Calabria, "thou art thy son's ruin if the
earl depart!"

"Pasque Dieu! Vex not my kinswoman,--if she prefer a convent to a
throne, cross not the holy choice!" said the wily Louis, with a mocking
irony on his pinched lips.

The prince alone spoke not, but stood proudly on the same spot, gazing
on the earl, as he slowly moved to the door.

"Oh, Edward! Edward, my son!" exclaimed the unhappy Margaret, "if for
thy sake--for thine--I must make the past a blank, speak thou for me!"

"I have spoken," said the prince, gently, "and thou didst chide me,
noble mother; yet I spoke, methinks, as Henry V. had done, if of a
mighty enemy he had had the power to make a noble friend."

A short, convulsive sob was heard from the throne chair; and as suddenly
as it burst, it ceased. Queen Margaret rose, not a trace of that
stormy emotion upon the grand and marble beauty of her face. Her voice,
unnaturally calm, arrested the steps of the departing earl.

"Lord Warwick, defend this boy, restore his rights, release his sainted
father, and for years of anguish and of exile, Margaret of Anjou
forgives the champion of her son!"

In an instant Prince Edwar