isper, and
griped the prince's arm almost fiercely as he spoke.

"Could Edward so dishonour my embassy, so palter and juggle with my
faith, so flout me in the eyes of Christendom, I would--I would--" he
paused, and relaxed his hold of the duke, and added, with an altered
voice--"I would leave his wife and his lemans, and yon things of silk,
whom he makes peers (that is easy) but cannot make men, to guard his
throne from the grandson of Henry V. But thy fears, thy zeal, thy love
for me, dearest prince and cousin, make thee misthink Edward's kingly
honour and knightly faith. I go with the sure knowledge that by
alliance with France I shut the House of Lancaster from all hope of this
roiaulme."

"Hadst thou not better, at least, see my sister Margaret? She has a high
spirit, and she thinks thou mightest, at least, woo her assent, and tell
her of the good gifts of her lord to be!"

"Are the daughters of York spoiled to this by the manners and guise of
a court, in which beshrew me if I well know which the woman and whom
the man? Is it not enough to give peace to broad England, root to
her brother's stem? Is it not enough to wed the son of a king, the
descendant of Charlemagne and Saint Louis? Must I go bonnet in hand and
simper forth the sleek personals of the choice of her kith and House;
swear the bridegroom's side-locks are as long as King Edward's, and
that he bows with the grace of Master Anthony Woodville? Tell her this
thyself, gentle Clarence, if thou wilt: all Warwick could say would but
anger her ear, if she be the maid thou bespeakest her."

The Duke of Clarence hesitated a moment, and then, colouring slightly,
said, "If, then, the daughter's hand be the gift of her kith alone,
shall I have thy favour when the Lady Isabel--"

"George," interrupted Warwick, with a fond and paternal smile, "when we
have made England safe, there is nothing the son of Richard of York can
ask of Warwick in vain. Alas!" he added mournfully, "thy father and mine
were united in the same murtherous death, and I think they will smile
down on us from their seats in heaven when a happier generation cements
that bloody union with a marriage bond!"

Without waiting for further parlance, the earl turned suddenly away,
threw his cap on his towering head, and strode right through the centre
of the whispering courtiers, who shrunk, louting low, from his haughty
path, to break into a hubbub of angry exclamations or sarcastic jests
at his unma