o ye suffer me, who have placed swords
in your hands, to go forth in bonds, and to the death?"

"The stout earl wrongs no man," said a single voice, and the populace
echoed the word.

"Sir, then, I care not for life, since liberty is gone. I yield myself
your prisoner."

"A horse for my captive!" said Warwick, laughing; "and hear me promise
you, that he shall go unscathed in goods and in limbs. God wot, when
Warwick and the people meet, no victim should be sacrificed! Hurrah for
King Edward and fair England!"

He waved his plumed cap as he spoke, and within the walls of Olney was
heard the shout that answered.

Slowly the earl and his scanty troop turned the rein; as he receded,
the multitude broke up rapidly, and when the moon rose, that camp was a
solitude. [The dispersion of the rebels at Olney is forcibly narrated by
a few sentences, graphic from their brief simplicity, in the "Pictorial
History of England," Book V, p. 104. "They (Warwick, etc.) repaired in a
very friendly manner to Olney, where they found Edward in a most unhappy
condition; his friends were dead or scattered, flying for their lives,
or hiding themselves in remote places: the insurgents were almost
upon him. A word from Warwick sent the insurgents quietly back to the
North."]

Such--for our nature is ever grander in the individual than the
mass--such is the power of man above mankind!

CHAPTER IV. THE NORMAN EARL AND THE SAXON DEMAGOGUE CONFER.

On leaving the camp, Warwick rode in advance of his train, and his
countenance was serious and full of thought. At length, as a turn in the
road hid the little band from the view of the rebels, the earl motioned
to Marmaduke to advance with his prisoner. The young Nevile then fell
back, and Robin and Warwick rode breast to breast out of hearing of the
rest.

"Master Hilyard, I am well content that my brother, when you fell into
his hands, spared your life out of gratitude for the favour you once
showed to mine."

"Your noble brother, my lord," answered Robin, dryly, "is, perhaps, not
aware of the service I once rendered you. Methinks he spared me rather,
because, without me, an enterprise which has shaken the Woodvilles from
their roots around the throne, and given back England to the Neviles,
had been nipped in the bud!--Your brother is a deep thinker!"

"I grieve to hear thee speak thus of the Lord Montagu. I know that he
hath wilier devices than become, in my eyes, a well-born knight a