BOOK IX.

THE WANDERERS AND THE EXILES.




CHAPTER I.

HOW THE GREAT BARON BECOMES AS GREAT A REBEL.

Hilyard was yet asleep in the chamber assigned to him as his prison,
when a rough grasp shook off his slumbers, and he saw the earl before
him, with a countenance so changed from its usual open majesty, so
dark and sombre, that he said involuntarily, "You send me to the
doomsman,--I am ready!"

"Hist, man! Thou hatest Edward of York?"

"An it were my last word, yes!"

"Give me thy hand--we are friends! Stare not at me with those eyes of
wonder, ask not the why nor wherefore! This last night gave Edward a
rebel more in Richard Nevile! A steed waits thee at my gates; ride
fast to young Sir Robert Welles with this letter. Bid him not be
dismayed; bid him hold out, for ere many days are past, Lord Warwick,
and it may be also the Duke of Clarence, will join their force with
his. Mark, I say not that I am for Henry of Lancaster,--I say only
that I am against Edward of York. Farewell, and when we meet again,
blessed be the arm that first cuts its way to a tyrant's heart!"