As Warwick passed the door that led from the garden, he brushed by a
young man, the baudekin stripes of whose vest announced his
relationship to the king, and who, though far less majestic than
Edward, possessed sufficient of family likeness to pass for a very
handsome and comely person; but his countenance wanted the open and
fearless expression which gave that of the king so masculine and
heroic a character. The features were smaller, and less clearly cut,
and to a physiognomical observer there was much that was weak and
irresolute in the light blue eyes and the smiling lips which never
closed firmly over the teeth. He did not wear the long gown then so
much in vogue, but his light figure was displayed to advantage by a
vest, fitting it exactly, descending half-way down the thigh, and
trimmed at the border and the collar with ermine. The sleeves of the
doublet were slit, so as to show the white lawn beneath, and adorned
with aiglets and knots of gold.

Over the left arm hung a rich jacket of furs and velvet, something
like that adopted by the modern hussar. His hat, or cap, was high and
tiara-like, with a single white plume, and the ribbon of the Garter
bound his knee. Though the dress of this personage was thus far less
effeminate than Edward's, the effect of his appearance was infinitely
more so,--partly, perhaps, from a less muscular frame, and partly from
his extreme youth; for George Duke of Clarence was then, though
initiated not only in the gayeties, but all the intrigues of the
court, only in his eighteenth year. Laying his hand, every finger of
which sparkled with jewels, on the earl's shoulder--"Hold!" said the
young prince, in a whisper, "a word in thy ear, noble Warwick!"

The earl, who, next to Edward, loved Clarence the most of his princely
House, and who always found the latter as docile as the other (when