eno' between
truth and a king!"

"By Saint George and my father's head!" cried Edward, with a rage no
less fierce than Warwick's,--"thou abusest, false lord, my mercy and
our kindred blood. Another word, and thou leavest this pavilion for the
Tower!"

"King," replied Warwick, scornfully, and folding his arms on his broad
breast, "there is not a hair on this head which thy whole house, thy
guards, and thine armies could dare to touch. ME to the Tower! Send
me,--and when the third sun reddens the roof of prison-house and palace,
look round broad England, and miss a throne!"

"What, ho there!" exclaimed Edward, stamping his foot; and at that
instant the curtain of the pavilion was hastily torn aside, and Richard
of Gloucester entered, followed by Lord Hastings, the Duke of Clarence,
and Anthony Woodville.

"Ah," continued the king, "ye come in time. George of Clarence, Lord
High Constable of England, arrest yon haughty man, who dares to menace
his liege and suzerain!"

Gliding between Clarence, who stood dumb and thunder-stricken, and the
Earl of Warwick, Prince Richard said, in a voice which, though even
softer than usual, had in it more command over those who heard than when
it rolled in thunder along the ranks of Barnet or of Bosworth, "Edward,
my brother, remember Towton, and forbear! Warwick, my cousin, forget not
thy king nor his dead father!"

At these last words the earl's face fell, for to that father he had
sworn to succour and defend the sons; his sense, recovering from his
pride, showed him how much his intemperate anger had thrown away his
advantages in the foul wrong he had sustained from Edward. Meanwhile the
king himself, with flashing eyes and a crest as high as Warwick's, was
about perhaps to overthrow his throne by the attempt to enforce his
threat, when Anthony Woodville, who followed Clarence, whispered to him,
"Beware, sire! a countless crowd that seem to have followed the earl's
steps have already pierced the chase, and can scarcely be kept from the
spot, so great is their desire to behold him. Beware!"--and Richard's
quick ear catching these whispered words, the duke suddenly backed them
by again drawing aside the curtain of the tent. Along the sward, the
guard of the king, summoned from their unseen but neighbouring
post within the wood, were drawn up as if to keep back an immense
multitude,--men, women, children, who swayed and rustled and murmured
in the rear. But no sooner was the curtai