Woodvilles were the cause of a second breach between us. Certes, the
Lancastrians are making strong head! Certes, the times must be played
with and appeased! And yet these poor gentlemen love me after my own
fashion, and not with the bear's hug of that intolerable earl. How
came the grim man by so fair a daughter? Sweet Anne! I caught her
eye often fixed on me, and with a soft fear which my heart beat loud
to read aright. Verily, this is the fourth week I have passed without
hearing a woman's sigh! What marvel that so fair a face enamours me!
Would that Warwick made her his ambassador; and yet it were all over
with the Woodvilles if he did! These men know not how to manage me,
and well-a-day, that task is easy eno' to women!" He laughed gayly to
himself as he thus concluded his soliloquy, and extinguished the
tapers. But rest did not come to his pillow; and after tossing to and
fro for some time in vain search for sleep, he rose and opened his
casement to cool the air which the tapers had overheated. In a single
casement, in a broad turret, projecting from an angle in the building,
below the tower in which his chamber was placed, the king saw a
solitary light burning steadily. A sight so unusual at such an hour
surprised him. "Peradventure, the wily prelate," thought he.
"Cunning never sleeps." But a second look showed him the very form
that chased his slumbers. Beside the casement, which was partially
open, he saw the soft profile of the Lady Anne; it was bent downwards;
and what with the clear moonlight, and the lamp within her chamber, he
could see distinctly that she was weeping. "Ah, Anne," muttered the
amorous king, "would that I were by to kiss away those tears!" While
yet the unholy wish murmured on his lips, the lady rose. The fair
hand, that seemed almost transparent in the moonlight, closed the
casement; and though the light lingered for some minutes ere it left
the dark walls of the castle without other sign of life than the step
of the sentry, Anne was visible no more.