English will soon rival the Dutch in these baubles. [Clockwork
appears to have been introduced into England in the reign of Edward
III., when three Dutch horologers were invited over from Delft. They
must soon have passed into common use, for Chaucer thus familiarly
speaks of them:--"Full sickerer was his crowing in his loge
Than is a clock or any abbey orloge."]
The more the pity!--our red-faced yeomen, alas, are fast sinking into
lank-jawed mechanics! We shall find the king in his garden within the
next half-hour. Thou shalt attend me."

Marmaduke expressed, with more feeling than eloquence, the thanks he
owed for an offer that, he was about to say, exceeded his hopes; but
he had already, since his departure from Westmoreland, acquired
sufficient wit to think twice of his words. And so eagerly, at that
time, did the youth of the nobility contend for the honour of posts
about the person of Warwick, and even of his brothers, and so strong
was the belief that the earl's power to make or to mar fortune was
all-paramount in England, that even a place in the king's household
was considered an inferior appointment to that which made Warwick the
immediate patron and protector. This was more especially the case
amongst the more haughty and ancient gentry since the favour shown by
Edward to the relations of his wife, and his own indifference to the
rank and birth of his associates. Warwick had therefore spoken with
truth when he expressed a comparative pity for the youth, whom he
could not better provide for than by a place about the court of his
sovereign!

The earl then drew from Marmaduke some account of his early training,
his dependence on his brother, his adventures at the archery-ground,
his misadventure with the robbers, and even his sojourn with Warner,--