WHAT FAITH EDWARD IV. PURPOSETH TO KEEP WITH EARL AND PEOPLE.

Edward received his triumphant envoy with open arms and profuse
expressions of gratitude. He exerted himself to the utmost in the
banquet that crowned the day, not only to conciliate the illustrious
new comers, but to remove from the minds of Raoul de Fulke and his
officers all memory of their past disaffection. No gift is rarer or
more successful in the intrigues of life than that which Edward
eminently possessed,--namely, the hypocrisy of frankness.
Dissimulation is often humble, often polished, often grave, sleek,
smooth, decorous; but it is rarely gay and jovial, a hearty laughter,
a merry, cordial, boon companion. Such, however, was the felicitous
craft of Edward IV.; and, indeed, his spirits were naturally so high,
his good humour so flowing, that this joyous hypocrisy cost him no
effort. Elated at the dispersion of his foes, at the prospect of his
return to his ordinary life of pleasure, there was something so kindly
and so winning in his mirth, that he subjugated entirely the fiery
temper of Raoul de Fulke and the steadier suspicions of the more
thoughtful St. John. Clarence, wholly reconciled to Edward, gazed on
him with eyes swimming with affection, and soon drank himself into
uproarious joviality. The archbishop, more reserved, still animated
the society by the dry and epigrammatic wit not uncommon to his
learned and subtle mind. But Warwick in vain endeavoured to shake off
an uneasy, ominous gloom. He was not satisfied with Edward's
avoidance of discussion upon the grave matters involved in the earl's
promise to the insurgents, and his masculine spirit regarded with some
disdain, and more suspicion, a levity that he considered ill-suited to
the emergence.