the Duke of Clarence had sided with Warwick against his brother,
and had passed over with him to France, believing, no doubt, that
if the Earl should succeed in dethroning Edward, he intended to
place him, his son-in-law, upon the throne. He was rudely awakened
from this delusion by Charles of Burgundy, who, being in all but
open rebellion against his suzerain, the King of France, kept himself
intimately acquainted with all that was going on. He despatched a
female emissary to Clarence to inform him of the league Warwick had
made with the Lancastrians, and the intended marriage between his
daughter Anne and the young prince; imploring him to be reconciled
with his brother and to break off his alliance with the Earl, who
was on the point of waging war against the House of York.

Clarence took the advice, and went over to England, where he made
his peace with Edward, the more easily because the king, who was
entirely given up to pleasure, treated with contempt the warnings
the Duke of Burgundy sent him of the intended invasion by Warwick. And
yet a moment's serious reflection should have shown him that his
position was precarious. The crushing exactions of the tax gatherers,
in order to provide the means for Edward's lavish expenditure,
had already caused very serious insurrections in various parts of
the country, and his unpopularity was deep and general. In one of
these risings the royal troops had suffered a crushing defeat.
The Earl Rivers, the father, and Sir John Woodville, one of the
brothers, of the queen had, with the Earl of Devon, been captured
by the rebels, and the three had been beheaded, and the throne
had only been saved by the intervention of Warwick.

Thus, then, Edward had every reason for fearing the result should
the Earl appear in arms against him. He took, however, no measures