licating letter to Warwick to come to his aid.
["Paston Letters," cxcviii. vol. ii., Knight's ed. See Lingard, c. 24,
for the true date of Edward's letters to Warwick, Clarence, and
the Archbishop of York.] The earl again forgets former causes for
resentment, hastens from Calais, rescues the king, and quells the
rebellion by the influence of his popular name.

We next find Edward at Warwick's castle of Middleham, where, according
to some historians, he is forcibly detained,--an assertion treated by
others as a contemptible invention. This question will be examined
in the course of this work; [See Note II.] but whatever the true
construction of the story, we find that Warwick and the king are still
on such friendly terms, that the earl marches in person against a
rebellion on the borders, obtains a signal victory, and that the rebel
leader (the earl's own kinsman) is beheaded by Edward at York. We
find that, immediately after this supposed detention, Edward speaks of
Warwick and his brothers "as his best friends;" ["Paston Letters," cciv.
vol. ii., Knight's ed. The date of this letter, which puzzled the worthy
annotator, is clearly to be referred to Edward's return from York,
after his visit to Middleham in 1469. No mention is therein made by
the gossiping contemporary of any rumour that Edward had suffered
imprisonment. He enters the city in state, as having returned safe and
victorious from a formidable rebellion. The letter goes on to say: "The
king himself hath (that is, holds) good language of the Lords Clarence,
of Warwick, etc., saying 'they be his best friends.'" Would he say
this if just escaped from a prison? Sir John Paston, the writer of
the letter, adds, it is true, "But his household men have (hold) other
language." very probably, for the household men were the court creatures
always at variance with Warwick, and held, no doubt, the same language
they had been in the habit of holding before.] that he betroths his
eldest daughter to Warwick's nephew, the male heir of the family. And
then suddenly, only three months afterwards (in February, 1470), and
without any clear and apparent cause, we find Warwick in open rebellion,
animated by a deadly hatred to the king, refusing, from first to last,
all overtures of conciliation; and so determined is his vengeance,
that he bows a pride, hitherto morbidly susceptible, to the vehement
insolence of Margaret of Anjou, and forms the closest alliance with
the Lancastrian