in the northern parts, to dispute the policy which ordains my absence
from your armies. Till these feuds are over, I crave your royal leave
to quit England, and perform my pilgrimage to the sainted shrine of
Compostella."

A burning flush passed over the king's face as he raised his brother-
in-law, and clasped him to his bosom.

"Go or stay, as you will, Anthony!" said he; "but let these proud men
know that neither time nor absence can tear you from your king's
heart. But envy must have its hour Lord Warwick, I attend you; but it
seems rather as your prisoner than your liege."

Warwick made no answer: the king mounted, and waved his hand to
Anthony. The torches tossed to and fro, the horns sounded, and in a
silence moody and resentful on either part Edward and his terrible
subject rode on to the towers of Warwick.

The next day the king beheld with astonishment the immense force that,
in a time so brief, the earl had collected round his standard.

From his casement, which commanded that lovely slope on which so many
a tourist now gazes with an eye that seeks to call back the stormy and
chivalric past, Edward beheld the earl on his renowned black charger,
reviewing the thousands that, file on file and rank on rank, lifted
pike and lance in the cloudless sun.

"After all," muttered the king, "I can never make a new noble a great
baron! And if in peace a great baron overshadows the throne, in time
of war a great baron is a throne's bulwark! Gramercy, I had been mad