BOOK VIII.

IN WHICH THE LAST LINK BETWEEN KING-MAKER AND KING SNAPS ASUNDER.




CHAPTER I.

THE LADY ANNE VISITS THE COURT.

It was some weeks after the date of the events last recorded. The
storm that hung over the destinies of King Edward was dispersed for
the hour, though the scattered clouds still darkened the horizon: the
Earl of Warwick had defeated the Lancastrians on the frontier, [Croyl.
552] and their leader had perished on the scaffold; but Edward's
mighty sword had not shone in the battle. Chained by an attraction
yet more powerful than slaughter, he had lingered at Middleham, while
Warwick led his army to York; and when the earl arrived at the capital
of Edward's ancestral duchy, he found that the able and active
Hastings--having heard, even before he reached the Duke of
Gloucester's camp, of Edward's apparent seizure by the earl and the
march to Middleham--had deemed it best to halt at York, and to summon
in all haste a council of such of the knights and barons as either
love to the king or envy to Warwick could collect. The report was
general that Edward was retained against his will at Middleham; and
this rumour Hastings gravely demanded Warwick, on the arrival of the
latter at York, to disprove. The earl, to clear himself from a
suspicion that impeded all his military movements, despatched Lord
Montagu to Middleham, who returned not only with the king, but the