damozel surely is."

"Notest thou yon gaudy popinjay?" whispered the Lord of St. John to one
of his Towton comrades, as, leaning against the wall, they overheard the
sarcasms of Anthony, and the laugh of the courtiers, who glassed their
faces and moods to his. "Is the time so out of joint that Master Anthony
Woodville can vent his scurrile japes on the heiress of Salisbury and
Warwick in the king's chamber?"

"And prate of spelling and reading as if they were the cardinal
virtues?" returned his sullen companion. "By my halidame, I have two
fair daughters at home who will lack husbands, I trow, for they can
only spin and be chaste,--two maidenly gifts out of bloom with the White
Rose."

In the mean while, unwitting, or contemptuous, of the attention they
excited, Warwick and Clarence continued yet more earnestly to confer.

"No, George, no," said the earl, who, as the descendant of John of
Gaunt, and of kin to the king's blood, maintained, in private,
a father's familiarity with the princes of York, though on state
occasions, and when in the hearing of others, he sedulously marked his
deference for their rank--"no, George, calm and steady thy hot mettle,
for thy brother's and England's sake. I grieve as much as thou to hear
that the queen does not spare even thee in her froward and unwomanly
peevishness. But there is a glamour in this, believe me, that must melt
away soon or late, and our kingly Edward recover his senses."

"Glamour!" said Clarence; "thinkest thou, indeed, that her mother,
Jacquetta, has bewitched the king? One word of thy belief in such
spells, spread abroad amongst the people, would soon raise the same
storm that blew Eleanor Cobham from Duke Humphrey's bed, along London
streets in her penance-shift."

"Troth," said the earl, indifferently, "I leave such grave questions as
these to prelate and priest; the glamour I spoke of is that of a fair
face over a wanton heart; and Edward is not so steady a lover that this
should never wear out."

"It amates me much, noble cousin, that thou leavest the court in this
juncture. The queen's heart is with Burgundy, the city's hate is with
France; and when once thou art gone, I fear that the king will be teased
into mating my sister with the Count of Charolois."

"Ho!" exclaimed Warwick, with an oath so loud that it rung through the
chamber, and startled every ear that heard it. Then, perceiving his
indiscretion, he lowered his tone into a deep and hollow wh