entry,--this be my task. Come hither, I pray thee, good
sir," and the nobleman graciously beckoned to the mercer; "be these five
nobles the prize of whatever Londoner shall acquit himself best in the
bold English combat of quarter-staff, and the prize be given in this
young archer's name. Thy name, youth?"

"Marmaduke Nevile, good my lord."

Montagu smiled, and the umpire withdrew to make the announcement to the
bystanders. The proclamation was received with a shout that traversed
from group to group and line to line, more hearty from the love and
honour attached to the name of Nevile than even from a sense of the
gracious generosity of Earl Warwick's brother. One man alone, a sturdy,
well-knit fellow, in a franklin's Lincoln broadcloth, and with a hood
half-drawn over his features, did not join the popular applause. "These
Yorkists," he muttered, "know well how to fool the people."

Meanwhile the young Nevile still stood by the gilded stirrup of the
great noble who had thus honoured him, and contemplated him with that
respect and interest which a youth's ambition ever feels for those who
have won a name.

The Lord Montagu bore a very different character from his puissant
brother. Though so skilful a captain that he had never been known to
lose a battle, his fame as a warrior was, strange to say, below that
of the great earl, whose prodigious strength had accomplished those
personal feats that dazzled the populace, and revived the legendary
renown of the earlier Norman knighthood. The caution and wariness,
indeed, which Montagu displayed in battle probably caused his success as
a general, and the injustice done to him (at least by the vulgar) as a
soldier. Rarely had Lord Montagu, though his courage was indisputable,
been known to mix personally in the affray. Like the captains of modern
times, he contented himself with directing the manoeuvres of his
men, and hence preserved that inestimable advantage of coolness and
calculation, which was not always characteristic of the eager hardihood
of his brother. The character of Montagu differed yet more from that
of the earl in peace than in war. He was supposed to excel in all those
supple arts of the courtier which Warwick neglected or despised; and if
the last was on great occasions the adviser, the other in ordinary life
was the companion of his sovereign. Warwick owed his popularity to his
own large, open, daring, and lavish nature. The subtler Montagu sought
to win,