reign he was eminently popular, and his government, though stern,
suited to the times; for then the presiding influence was that of Lord
Warwick. As the queen's counsels prevailed over the consummate
experience and masculine vigour of the earl, the king's government
lost both popularity and respect, except only in the metropolis; and
if, at the close of his reign, it regained all its earlier favour with
the people, it must be principally ascribed to the genius of Hastings,
then England's most powerful subject, and whose intellect calmly moved
all the springs of action. But now everywhere the royal authority was
weakened; and while Edward was feasting at Shene and Warwick absent at
Calais, the provinces were exposed to all the abuses which most gall a
population. The poor complained that undue exactions were made on
them by the hospitals, abbeys, and barons; the Church complained that
the queen's relations had seized and spent Church moneys; the men of
birth and merit complained of the advancement of new men who had done
no service: and all these several discontents fastened themselves upon
the odious Woodvilles, as the cause of all. The second breach, now
notorious, between the king and the all-beloved Warwick, was a new
aggravation of the popular hatred to the queen's family, and seemed to
give occasion for the malcontents to appear with impunity, at least so
far as the earl was concerned: it was, then, at this critical time
that the circumstances we are about to relate occurred.




CHAPTER II.

THE WOULD-BE IMPROVERS OF JOVE'S FOOTBALL, EARTH.--THE SAD FATHER AND
THE SAD CHILD.--THE FAIR RIVALS.