the Conditions
of Power
IV The Return of Edward of York
V The Progress of the Plantagenet
VI Lord Warwick, with the Foe in the field and the Traitor at
The Hearth

BOOK XII

THE BATTLE OF BARNET

CHAPTER

I A King in his City hopes to recover his Realm--A Woman in
her Chamber fears to forfeit her own
II Sharp is the Kiss of the Falcon's Bear
III A Pause
IV-VI The Battle
VII The last Pilgrims in the long Procession to the Common Bourne

BOOK I. THE ADVENTURES OF MASTER MARMADUKE NEVILE.

CHAPTER I. THE PASTIME-GROUND OF OLD COCKAIGNE.

Westward, beyond the still pleasant, but even then no longer solitary,
hamlet of Charing, a broad space, broken here and there by scattered
houses and venerable pollards, in the early spring of 1467, presented
the rural scene for the sports and pastimes of the inhabitants of
Westminster and London. Scarcely need we say that open spaces for the
popular games and diversions were then numerous in the suburbs of the
metropolis,--grateful to some the fresh pools of Islington; to others,
the grass-bare fields of Finsbury; to all, the hedgeless plains of vast
Mile-end. But the site to which we are now summoned was a new and maiden
holiday-ground, lately bestowed upon the townsfolk of Westminster by the
powerful Earl of Warwick.

Raised by a verdant slope above the low, marsh-grown soil of
Westminster, the ground communicated to the left with the Brook-fields,
through which stole the peaceful Ty-bourne, and commanded prospects,
on all sides fair, and on each side varied. Behind, rose the twin green
hills of Hampstead and Highgate, with the upland park and chase of
Marybone,--its stately manor-house half hid in woods. In front might be
seen the Convent of the Lepers, dedicated to Saint James, now a palace;
then to the left, York House, [The residence of the Archbishops of
York] now Whitehall; farther on, the spires of Westminster Abbey and the
gloomy tower of the Sanctuary; next, the Palace, with its bulwark and
vawmure, soaring from the river; while eastward, and nearer to
the scene, stretched the long, bush-grown passage of the Strand,
picturesquely varied with bridges, and flanked to the right by the
embattled halls of feudal nobles, or the inns of the no less powerful
prelates; while sombre and huge amidst hall and inn, loomed the gigantic
ruins of the Savoy, demolished in the insurrectio