e moment the two ladies caught sight of Rivers, all
the charm was dissolved; the child was hastily put on the floor; the
queen, half ashamed of being natural, even before her father, smoothed
back the rebel lock, and the duchess, breaking off in the midst of her
grandam song, exclaimed,--

"Well, well! how thrives our policy?"

"The king," answered Rivers, "is in the very mood we could desire. At
the words, 'He durst not!' the Plantagenet sprung up in his breast; and
now, lest he ask to see the rest of the letter, thus I destroy it;" and
flinging the scroll in the blazing hearth, he watched it consume.

"Why this, sir?" said the queen.

"Because, my Elizabeth, the bold words glided off into a decent
gloss,--'He durst not,' said Warwick, 'because what a noble heart dares
least is to belie the plighted word, and what the kind heart shuns most
is to wrong the confiding friend."

"It was fortunate," said the duchess, "that Edward took heat at the
first words, nor stopped, it seems, for the rest!"

"I was prepared, Jacquetta; had he asked to see the rest, I should have
dropped the scroll into the brazier, as containing what I would not
presume to read. Courage! Edward has seen the merchants; he has flouted
Hastings,--who would gainsay us. For the rest, Elizabeth, be it yours
to speak of affronts paid by the earl to your highness; be it yours,
Jacquetta, to rouse Edward's pride by dwelling on Warwick's overweening
power; be it mine to enlist his interest on behalf of his merchandise;
be it Margaret's to move his heart by soft tears for the bold Charolois;
and ere a month be told, Warwick shall find his embassy a thriftless
laughing-stock, and no shade pass between the House of Woodville and the
sun of England."

"I am scarce queen while Warwick is minister," said Elizabeth,
vindictively. "How he taunted me in the garden, when we met last!"

"But hark you, daughter and lady liege, hark you! Edward is not prepared
for the decisive stroke. I have arranged with Anthony, whose chivalrous
follies fit him not for full comprehension of our objects, how upon
fair excuse the heir of Burgundy's brother--the Count de la Roche--shall
visit London; and the count once here, all is ours! Hush! take up the
little one,--Edward comes!"

CHAPTER III. WHEREIN MASTER NICHOLAS ALWYN VISITS THE COURT, AND THERE
LEARNS MATTER OF WHICH THE ACUTE READER WILL JUDGE FOR HIMSELF.

It was a morning towards the end of May (some little time