how fares the grand secret, Master Warner? Sweet mistress! thou
seemest lovelier to me in this dark chamber than outshining all in the
galliard. Ha! Master Alwyn, I owe thee many thanks for making me know
first the rare arts of this fair emblazoner. Move me yon stool, good
Alwyn."

As the goldsmith obeyed, he glanced from Hastings to the blushing face
and heaving bosom of Sibyll, and a deep and exquisite pang shot through
his heart. It was not jealousy alone; it was anxiety, compassion,
terror. The powerful Hastings, the ambitious lord, the accomplished
libertine--what a fate for poor Sibyll, if for such a man the cheek
blushed and the bosom heaved!

"Well, Master Warner," resumed Hastings, "thou art still silent as to
thy progress."

The philosopher uttered an impatient groan. "Ah, I comprehend. The
goldmaker must not speak of his craft before the goldsmith. Good Alwyn,
thou mayest retire. All arts have their mysteries."

Alwyn, with a sombre brow, moved to the door.

"In sooth," he said, "I have overtarried, good my lord. The Lady
Bonville will chide me; for she is of no patient temper."

"Bridle thy tongue, artisan, and begone!" said Hastings, with unusual
haughtiness and petulance.

"I stung him there," muttered Alwyn, as he withdrew. "Oh, fool that
I was to--nay, I thought it never, I did but dream it. What wonder we
traders hate these silken lords! They reap, we sow; they trifle, we
toil; they steal with soft words into the hearts which--Oh, Marmaduke,
thou art right-right!--Stout men sit not down to weep beneath the
willow. But she--the poor maiden--she looked so haughty and so happy.
This is early May; will she wear that look when the autumn leaves are
strewn?"

CHAPTER V. THE WOODVILLE INTRIGUE PROSPERS.--MONTAGU CONFERS WITH
HASTINGS, VISITS THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK, AND IS MET ON THE ROAD BY A
STRANGE PERSONAGE.

And now the one topic at the court of King Edward IV. was the expected
arrival of Anthony of Burgundy, Count de la Roche, bastard brother of
Charolois, afterwards, as Duke of Burgundy, so famous as Charles
the Bold. Few, indeed, out of the immediate circle of the Duchess of
Bedford's confidants regarded the visit of this illustrious foreigner as
connected with any object beyond the avowed one of chivalrous encounter
with Anthony Woodville, the fulfilment of a challenge given by the
latter two years before, at the time of the queen's coronation. The
origin of this challenge, Anthony W