o shake off an uneasy, ominous gloom. He was not satisfied with
Edward's avoidance of discussion upon the grave matters involved in the
earl's promise to the insurgents, and his masculine spirit regarded with
some disdain, and more suspicion, a levity that he considered ill-suited
to the emergence.

The banquet was over, and Edward, having dismissed his other attendants,
was in his chamber with Lord Hastings, whose office always admitted him
to the wardrobe of the king.

Edward's smile had now left his lip; he paced the room with a hasty
stride, and then suddenly opening the casement, pointed to the landscape
without, which lay calm and suffused in moonlight.

"Hastings," said he, abruptly, "a few hours since and the earth grew
spears! Behold the landscape now!"

"So vanish all the king's enemies!"

"Ay, man, ay,--if at the king's word, or before the king's battle-axe;
but at a subject's command--No, I am not a king while another scatters
armies in my realm at his bare will. 'Fore Heaven, this shall not last!"

Hastings regarded the countenance of Edward, changed from affable beauty
into terrible fierceness, with reflections suggested by his profound and
mournful wisdom. "How little a man's virtues profit him in the eyes of
men!" thought he. "The subject saves the crown, and the crown's wearer
never pardons the presumption!"

"You do not speak, sir!" exclaimed Edward, irritated and impatient. "Why
gaze you thus on me?"

"Beau sire," returned the favourite, calmly, "I was seeking to discover
if your pride spoke, or your nobler nature."

"Tush!" said the king, petulantly, "the noblest part of a king's nature
is his pride as king!" Again he strode the chamber, and again halted.
"But the earl hath fallen into his own snare,--he hath promised in my
name what I will not perform. Let the people learn that their idol hath
deceived them. He asks me to dismiss from the court the queen's mother
and kindred!"

Hastings, who in this went thoroughly with the earl and the popular
feeling, and whose only enemies in England were the Woodvilles, replied
simply,--

"These are cheap terms, sire, for a king's life and the crown of
England."

Edward started, and his eyes flashed that cold, cruel fire, which makes
eyes of a light colouring so far more expressive of terrible passions
than the quicker and warmer heat of dark orbs. "Think you so, sir? By
God's blood, he who proffered them shall repent it in every vein of his
body