heart of our cousin Warwick to preach
sententiaries of sternness to his king than to enforce the same by his
own practice!"

"You misthink me, sire. I ask not that Marmaduke Nevile should supplant
his superiors and elders; I ask not that he should be made baron and
peer; I ask only that, as a young gentleman who hath taken no part
himself in the wars, and whose father repented his error, your Grace
should strengthen your following by an ancient name and a faithful
servant. But I should have remembered me that his name of Nevile would
have procured him a taunt in the place of advancement."

"Saw man ever so froward a temper?" cried Edward, not without reason.
"Why, Warwick, thou art as shrewish to a jest as a woman to advice. Thy
kinsman's fortunes shall be my care. Thou sayest thou hast enemies,--I
weet not who they be. But to show what I think of them, I make thy
namesake and client a gentleman of my chamber. When Warwick is false to
Edward, let him think that Warwick's kinsman wears a dagger within reach
of the king's heart day and night."

This speech was made with so noble and touching a kindness of voice and
manner, that the earl, thoroughly subdued, looked at his sovereign with
moistened eyes, and only trusting himself to say,--"Edward, thou art
king, knight, gentleman, and soldier; and I verily trow that I love thee
best when my petulant zeal makes me anger thee most,"--turned away with
evident emotion, and passing the queen and her ladies with a lowlier
homage than that with which he had before greeted them, left the garden.
Edward's eye followed him musingly. The frank expression of his face
vanished, and with the deep breath of a man who is throwing a weight
from his heart, he muttered,--

"He loves me,--yes; but will suffer no one else to love me! This must
end some day. I am weary of the bondage." And sauntering towards the
ladies, he listened in silence, but not apparently in displeasure, to
his queen's sharp sayings on the imperious mood and irritable temper of
the iron-handed builder of his throne.

CHAPTER III. THE ANTECHAMBER.

As Warwick passed the door that led from the garden, he brushed by a
young man, the baudekin stripes of whose vest announced his relationship
to the king, and who, though far less majestic than Edward, possessed
sufficient of family likeness to pass for a very handsome and comely
person; but his countenance wanted the open and fearless expression
which gave that of t